Putting to rest all those rumours about Barack Obama's supposed "real name" or his religion at birth (paging Richard Dawkins!), National Review (insert Scooby "Huh?" sound here) tells us that his name is Barack Hussein Obama II, and nothing interesting about his religion. Well, good for NRO.
Hit and Run is no fan of federal grants in general, but this article shows how Bush's presence on a low-rated youth violence prevent program helped the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program get ahead of programs to counsel inner city youths or train guards in juvenile detention centers on how to deal with troubled kids.
Louisiana is set to pass a bill "protecting" teachers from lawsuits if they teach "controversial" matters in science classes. You know, the world isn't round, we aren't evolved from earlier life forms, and germs don't cause disease.
Tony Blankley insanely writes that after five months of constant hammering by the Clintons, the McCain campaign, and the right-wing machine, Tony Blankley still insists that we don't know who Obama is.
In what has to be the most surreal article I've yet read, Bryan Fischer cites Christian Nationalist "historian" David Barton and claims that the Founding Fathers knew about evolution and chose intelligent design instead. Weird.
Well, I'm not even going to address his argument that the founders had rejected evolution. But let us grant him for just a moment that the founding fathers of this country had rejected the theory of evolution as then proposed by the scientists of their day. The founders of this country, to a man, used that then state of the art medical treatment, bleeding to balance the humors. To a man, I am sure they would argue that it was the best treatment for a number of ills. That does not make that theory correct, nor is it any reason for us to insist on that practice today.
As for the golf one, that makes perfect sense to me. It is perfectly in keeping with the Republican campaign for a permanent majority. You want your non-profit to get some federal support, you need to make sure you have the right people in charge. The right people, of course, being party insiders.
I have to admit I find it utterly fascinating that the author brought up the existence of the idea of evolution before Darwin's famous work on the subject, while remaining utterly oblivious to the concept that Darwin was the one who actually collected scientific data to support the idea, rather than just postulating about it.
Every time I talk evolution with people who don't believe in it, it seems to boil down to a preference for either the scientific method or the faith method. Usually with each of us failing to understand why the other clings to that method so strongly.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-13 04:21 am (UTC)As for the golf one, that makes perfect sense to me. It is perfectly in keeping with the Republican campaign for a permanent majority. You want your non-profit to get some federal support, you need to make sure you have the right people in charge. The right people, of course, being party insiders.
That last one...
Date: 2008-06-13 04:30 am (UTC)Every time I talk evolution with people who don't believe in it, it seems to boil down to a preference for either the scientific method or the faith method. Usually with each of us failing to understand why the other clings to that method so strongly.
How many licks does it take to get to the fentanyl center of an Actiq pop? The orld may never know.
Date: 2008-06-13 03:47 pm (UTC)