Conservapedia Now Slightly Less Fun
Readers of talk.origins may remember Ray Martinez, a particularly dense and combative young-earth creationist. I’d been having fun this past week or so reading his antics at Conservapedia.
Highest-Ranking Elected Atheist Announced
You may recall that a while back, the Secular Coalition for America ran a contest to find the highest-ranking elected
atheist
[1]
in the U.S. Government. Now the contest has ended and
the results have been announced.
Freedom Of Religion and Freedom From Religion
This particularly hateful letter,
published in the Kenai, AK Peninsula Clarion (registration required; see also here), promulgates a popular misconception:
The United States is based on having freedom of religion, speech, etc., which means you can believe in God any way you want (Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, etc.), but you must believe.
Let’s consider a scenario: the government in your state allocates X million dollars to buy rosaries to be handed out in public schools, to hire priests to lead the school in reciting “Hail Mary, full of grace” over the PA system each morning, to bus students to mass on Sunday mornings, and so forth.
Most Americans, I suspect, will think, “Wait a sec! How come the school is pushing Catholicism on my kids? That can’t be right!” Then they’ll look up the bit in the first amendment that says, “Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion” and see that no indeed, that can’t be right.
So what the first amendment says is that the government can’t push Catholicism on you. You have freedom from Catholicism.
Except that the constitution doesn’t explicitly mention Catholicism. It covers all religions. So the first amendment says that the government can’t push any religion. You have freedom from religion.
Yeah, it really is that simple. Why don’t people get it?
(HT My Confined Space, via Pharyngula.)
Hovind Figures Out the Whole “Defense” Thing
Kent and Jo Hovind were back in the news last week:
Kent and Jo Hovind were back in federal court this week seeking acquittal on charges of bank structuring.
The couple’s attorneys argued there was no intent to defraud the government by making large deposits just under the $10,000 threshold that triggers bank-reporting requirements.
I can’t help wondering why they didn’t make these arguments the last time they were in court. It could have saved everyone a world of bother.
Frankly, Hovind comes across as a child who’s finally learned out that mommy really means it this time.
The article also notes:
He remains in the Escambia County Jail awaiting transfer.
Hurm. I’d’ve thought the state of Florida would’ve managed to transfer him by now.
A date for Jo Hovind’s sentencing has been delayed pending a ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers on the request for acquittal on the bank structuring conviction.
No date has been set for her ruling.
This was originally set for this coming Thursday, but I guess it’s been postponed.
Switzerland Invades Neighbor
The Associated Press reports:
What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.
TSR confirms.
Software Enzymes for Musical Composition
When
I last wrote about using evo-devo to compose music,
I had gotten stuck on the problem of implementation. In particular, I couldn’t figure out how to write a seed organism that would develop into a simple composition that I could then use to evolve other tunes. I also wasn’t sure how to get the various genes to actually work together, not at a level at which I could start coding.
After some thought, it occurred to me that enzymes and proteins act sort of like functions in software: they bind to molecules (take arguments), which they can then modify, and sometimes release another molecule into the surrounding medium (return a value). So I just needed to come up with the software equivalent of an enzyme.
Shortage of Wingnut Presidential Candidates?
The NYT
reports
that the religious right is unhappy with the current set of Republican presidential candidates. McCain once called fundies “agents of intolerance”, Mitt Romney is too liberal, and Giuliani has — gasp! — been married three times.
Call me an optimist, but maybe this marks the beginning of an overhaul of the Republican party: perhaps even Republican candidates have to distance themselves from the fundie wingnuts in order to be electable.
(HT Renew America, of all places.)
Doctors Don’t Like the Word “Evolution”
I’m guessing that some researcher wondered aloud in the cafeteria, “How come medical researchers don’t talk about the evolution of antibiotic resistance? I mean sure, they talk about it, but they don’t call it evolution.”
This article
in PLoS Biology attempts to measure this observation.
In a nutshell, they found that biology journals say that antibiotic resistance “evolves”, whereas medical journals say that it “emerges” or “arises”.
One of These Things Is Just Like the Other
This story
(from Captain’s Quarters)
was posted at Free Republic last month:
Muslim Taxi Showdown In The Twin Cities (Muslim cabbies to transport people with alcohol in luggage)
The refusal of a large number of Islamic cabbies to transport passengers with alcohol in their luggage or service dogs for the blind and handicapped, and the local fatwa on which they rely for their position, has led to a showdown with the Metropolitan Airport Commission
Even excluding the “All Muslims are terrorists” lunatic fringe, the general consensus in the comments seems to be, “Tough. Taxis are a public service, and if a customer is doing something legal but repugnant to you, suck it up, that’s too bad. Deal with it.”
Next, there’s this story from last year:
Pharmacists Don’t Want to Sell Morning After Pill Despite FDA Approval
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Food and Drug Administration may have approved sales of the morning after pill over the counter, but some pharmacists are reluctant to sell the drug. The agency’s move to sell Plan B without a prescription may expand the nationwide debate about a conscience clause for pharmacists to allow them to opt out of dispensing the drug.
Here, the reaction is a bit more mixed: there are those complaining about government interfering with private business, the ones confusing Plan B with RU-486 and spreading misinformation about both, and the ones imagining the ACLU, NARAL, and NOW having a cow over this. But the majority opinion seems to be that pharmacists shouldn’t have to sell a pill that personally offends them.
So which is it, Freepers? Is it okay for someone to refuse service to customers who offend their moral or cultural values, or isn’t it? Is it okay for an atheist cabbie to refuse to drive people to church? Is it okay for a vegan cashier to refuse to ring up your steak? Is it okay for a nurse to refuse to take care of a woman who’s having her period?
Happy 20th Anniversary, SN1987A!
On this day in 1987,
SN1987A,
my favoritest supernova ever, blew up. According to
this diagram at the
University of Virginia,
the star started burning neon in 1971, oxygen in 1983, silicon in 1987, and blew up ten days after that. Let that be a lesson to you, young stars: neon is a gateway drug that leads to inevitable self-destruction.
