Since PZ’s on vacation, I might actually get a chance to scoop
Pharyngula with the
news
that a panel at the University of Central Florida voted unanimously to
dismiss all charges against Webster Cook and his friend Ben Collard in
the Crackergate matter. Good.
HT
Bill Donohue.
The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.
[…] Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that this is as stupid as
letting the defendant at a trial decide whether he’s guilty or not, so
I won’t belabor that point.
But even with the best intentions on everyone’s part, this is still a
stupid idea.
There’s a joke about an old engineer called out of retirement to help
fix a machine at the factory where he used to work. After poking
around, he puts a chalk mark on the part to be replaced, and submits a
bill for $30,000, itemized as follows: “Chalk mark: $0.50. Knowing
where to put the chalk mark: $29,999.50”.
The EPA is in the best position to tell where environmental chalk marks should
go. It’s what they do. That’s why they have environmental experts. The
department of transportation may be great at planning and building
roads, but they can’t be expected to accurately predict how their work
affects the environment, any more than the EPA can be expected to
design and build an efficient highway system.
The Skeptic Society (Michael
Shermer’s organization) is conducting a
survey
to test the general public’s understanding of evolution.
It appears to be legitimate (see
here
and
here).
Yes, it’s an online survey, so insert disclaimers about selection
bias, etc., but presumably they know that. So whether you think
evolution is true or not, whether you think you understand it or not,
consider
completing it.
One of the cooler, and more counter-intuitive, bits of statistics I
know of concerns the question: “If your doctor performs a 95% reliable
test on you, and it says you have a disease, how worried should you
be?” (Spoiler alert: not as much as you think.)
From the Post:
China announced late last month that it would permit protests during the Olympics in specially designated zones, as long as demonstrators first secured permits. […]
[Human rights groups] say the “protest pens” being set in Beijing parks are part of China’s Potemkin-village-like display for the Summer Games, which open Friday.
Gee, I wonder where the Chinese might’ve come up with that idea.
Crackergate (yes, if you’re tired of hearing about it, you can stop
reading now) seems to have exposed an unbelievable amount of
wackaloonery.
Last month, the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy wrote a press release urging Catholics to do nothing in order to ensure that no one ever stick a nail through baby Jesus again.
This was scheduled for Aug. 1. And since PZ seems be his usual cheerful godless self, I was going to chalk another mark in the “prayer doesn’t work” column.
But then I noticed the NB at the bottom of the announcement:
Read More
In case you woke up this morning thinking, “Gee, I wonder what Bill
Donohue is waxing wroth over today?”, there are a couple more items at
the
Catholic League website:
First of all, he’s
predictably pissed
that the
University of Minnesota Morris
code of employee conduct can’t be used to fire PZ Myers for being rude
to a piece of bread on his own time.
Apparently in Billy’s world, if you have a beer after work, you can be
fired because your employer has a rule against drinking on the job.
I was more intrigued by the other headline,
Eucharist Mocked in R.I. Play,
about the play
You’re Eating God
that just completed its run in Providence, RI.
According to
one review,
The title of the piece by Rachel Caris comes from one
of its lines, which one character delivers after seeing another
character ravenously eat a pile of Eucharistic hosts. People do
strange things when they’re hungry. And that’s inevitable after living
four months in a 1960s backyard bomb shelter.Caris’ play mocks the mentality of the Cold War, and
satirically questions the conventions of Catholicism. And while there
is social, political and religious commentary, at heart Eating serves
up a character study, where the characters — mother, father, son,
daughter, grandmother and grandfather — are all quirky from the start.
And they get quirkier with every passing captive and stir-crazy day in
the bomb shelter.
Sounds like fun. I wonder if Caris will be touring within play-going
distance of here.
But according to BillDo,
Catholic schoolboy traditions are fair game for a play
that pokes gentle fun at Catholicism. But that is not what this play
is about: There is nothing gentle about mocking the Eucharist. This
should be known even to those who are not Catholic.
So now it’s not even okay to eat prop hosts to make fun of catholic
superstitions? I can’t express my feelings properly because I can’t
find the Unicode code point for “world’s smallest violin”.
I’ll leave the last word to Christopher Hitchens, from his
introduction to
The Portable Atheist:
A terrible thing has now happened to religion. Except in the places
where it can still enforce itself by fear superimposed on ignorance,
it has become one opinion among many. It is forced to compete in the
free market of ideas and, even when it strives to retain the old
advantage of inculcating its teachings into children (for reasons that
are too obvious to need underlining), it has to stand up in open
debate and submit to free inquiry.
Miraculous apparitions are all the rage these days, and I finally got one of my own. Some people get Jesus, others the Virgin Mary or the name of Allah. Phil Plait got Vladimir Lenin. I got…
BillD has recovered from the vapors, and posted the expected press release about PZ being mean to a piece of bread and a couple of books.
Of course, being a devout follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ, Donohue turned the other cheek and blessed PZ.
Ha! Whom am I kidding? Apparently the worst he could do, since it’s no longer legal to burn people alive for stabbing bits of bread, was to contact the University of Minnesota and demand that they investigate “a bias incident” that he committed on his own time, and not while on university business.
Ecce douchebag.