never underestimate the power of makeup

Bacon time?

the White House quits the battle on Davis-Bacon. aw, Shucks, did fighting a stupid ass war, nominating a toady to the Supreme Court and undermining national security for partisan purposes take too much energy for you boys? Well, we may be stuck with the war, for now, but you're losing your toady, and your puppetmaster, Chimpy. Enjoy.

Intelligent Design, a debate

The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject
Moderator: We're here today to debate the hot new topic, evolution versus Intelligent Des---

(Scientist pulls out baseball bat.)

Moderator: Hey, what are you doing?

(Scientist breaks Intelligent Design advocate's kneecap.)

Intelligent Design advocate: YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH! YOU BROKE MY KNEECAP!

Scientist: Perhaps it only appears that I broke your kneecap. Certainly, all the evidence points to the hypothesis I broke your kneecap. For example, your kneecap is broken; it appears to be a fresh wound; and I am holding a baseball bat, which is spattered with your blood. However, a mere preponderance of evidence doesn't mean anything. Perhaps your kneecap was designed that way. Certainly, there are some features of the current situation that are inexplicable according to the "naturalistic" explanation you have just advanced, such as the exact contours of the excruciating pain that you are experiencing right now.

Intelligent Design advocate: AAAAH! THE PAIN!

Scientist: Frankly, I personally find it completely implausible that the random actions of a scientist such as myself could cause pain of this particular kind. I have no precise explanation for why I find this hypothesis implausible --- it just is. Your knee must have been designed that way!

Intelligent Design advocate: YOU BASTARD! YOU KNOW YOU DID IT!

Scientist: I surely do not. How can we know anything for certain? Frankly, I think we should expose people to all points of view. Furthermore, you should really re-examine whether your hypothesis is scientific at all: the breaking of your kneecap happened in the past, so we can't rewind and run it over again, like a laboratory experiment. Even if we could, it wouldn't prove that I broke your kneecap the previous time. Plus, let's not even get into the fact that the entire universe might have just popped into existence right before I said this sentence, with all the evidence of my alleged kneecap-breaking already pre-formed.

Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullshit sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!

Scientist (turning to audience): And so we see, ladies and gentlemen, when push comes to shove, advocates of Intelligent Design do not actually believe any of the arguments that they profess to believe. When it comes to matters that hit home, they prefer evidence, the scientific method, testable hypotheses, and naturalistic explanations. In fact, they strongly privilege naturalistic explanations over supernatural hocus-pocus or metaphysical wankery. It is only within the reality-distortion field of their ideological crusade that they give credence to the flimsy, ridiculous arguments which we so commonly see on display. I must confess, it kind of felt good, for once, to be the one spouting free-form bullshit; it's so terribly easy and relaxing, compared to marshaling rigorous arguments backed up by empirical evidence. But I fear that if I were to continue, then it would be habit-forming, and bad for my soul. Therefore, I bid you adieu.

Hands Down: The best commercial playing now

http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=634

really. Guinness rocks.

David-Bacon strikes again

Taken 10/15 at a dormitory for LVI, inc. laborers on the Gulf Coast (Santa Rosa, LA). Ahh, look at all those grateful poor people!

happy birthday

Sir Christopher Wren:















The Lovely Miss Anna

Is this the best the VRWC can do?

Jeanne Pirro, running against Senator Clinton, "That's a difference between Democrats and Republicans _ we don't want them next door molesting children and murdering women," said the Westchester County prosecutor, according to Wednesday's Elmira Star-Gazette newspaper.

Good thing here spokesman clarified that this was 'taken out of context' not sure, even from reading the article, what sort of context this could ever make sense in. whatever. It's nice to have one republican sacrificial lamb for 06, no?

you know, for the most hated woman in America, Hillary sure gets lucky in the people who oppose her, doesn't she? I mean, if she's so bad, there's gotta be someone interested in running against her. I love wingnuts.

John Brown's body lies a molderin' in his grave

Dateline Harper's Ferry. Today a wacky fundamentalist preacher and his followers stormed a US government armory seeking to spur a violent insurrection against the US Government by workers. he failed.

Just a thought. In 1859, I hope I would have sympathized with the religious nutcases (and yes, John Brown was a religious nutcase in any sense of the word) if not with his methods, then with his ideology. Brown was a violent man, in a violent time, and used the tools of slavery against the slavers. He certainly didn't start the violence that led to the civil war, but he (sorry) kicked it up a notch. A reminder that people can do wrong things in the pursuit of good, and that people we all consider nuts may have some good points. No, not you, James Dobson, you're just an asshole.

I hate to link to the Times

so I won't. If you have TimesSelect (I don't) go over and read John Tierney's latest diatribe on the paucity of conservatives in higher education. I wonder, is there any connection between the 20 year crusade by conservatives against higher education and the claimed declining numbers of conservatives in that same profession? Do they somehow think that demonizing professors will convert them to their cause? really? honestly? or that by calling the instutitions corrupt and biased will somehow convince conservatives to become professors?

come on, people, get over it. The more you complain, the less likely it is that people who actually respect you will enter the profession. or is that maybe the whole idea? it can't be that cynical, can it?

Is it winter already?

what do carrier catapaults, snowmobiles, helicopters and people with more testosterone than common sense have in common? oh yes, it must be time for a new Warren Miller film. A childhood tradition in my family. If you've never seen one, you really should try it, the production values and the absurd mountain tricks are well worth the price of admission. My favourite line of all time was the instruction on how to get into his movies. "start with a ten foot drop. Keep adding ten feet until the height equals your IQ. then give me a call."

Joke of the Day`

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are flying on Air Force One. The President looks at the Vice President, chuckles, and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."

The Vice President shrugs and says, "Well, I could throw 10 $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy."

Not to be outdone, the Secretary of Defense says, "Of course, then, I could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses back there. Hell, I could throw the three of them out the window and make 56 million people really happy."

Back to the future?

Just when you thought nostalgia for the 'good old days' of the 40s and 50s and a nice easy, homogenous society was taking over, two things come along to remind us of the not-so-good. First, Good Night and Good Luck (watch the trailer) to remind us of McArthyist witchhunting, and the cruel reality of polio making an appearance in the US for the first time since 1979.

Not so much fun any more, is it? Quick, name the two countries that have had polio cases in 2005. If you guessed the US and Nigeria, you win the gold ring. Take the bloody vaccine, huh people? Strange that people will ignore the extinction of mammalian, amphibian and reptilian species, but won't lift a finger to actively pursue the extinction of something as onerous as Poliovirus. take the shot, and let's get rid of the damn thing, once and for all, shall we?

By the way, to remind us of some of the good old stuff, Studs Terkel was on Nightline tonight. Go out, buy one of his books and think of what the Left is supposed to be about: people.

looking at the world

from the bottom of a well...Mike Doughty.

Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well

just cause it sounds good today. why not?

What's the most important date in Western History?

many are arguable, but in Western Europe, October 14, 1066 is pretty high up on the list. Yes, that'd be the Battle of Hastings, of course. also known as the last successful foreign invasion of England. That's a 961 year successful record, not too shabby.

I should be doing homework

just how much of an easterly variation will the Coriolis Effect have on a missile fired due north, from 10 degrees N at 1000m/s after 1000 s? if you know, can you give me an idea? thanks. anyway, for some strange reason, I can't get work done, Flashdance is on Telemundo. They dubbed the songs. why? I'm not sure, but I can't take my eyes away from the really, really bad dubbing and sound mixing. If there is a prize for dubbing a movie en espanol, this one didn't win it, although I guess you don't really watch the movie for Jennifer Beal's catchy dialogue, right?

more intelligence on design

Over at TPMCafe Dr. Jeremy Gunn (that ain't a degree in Theology, I bet) of the ACLU talks about the new National Academies report on Science education and the importance for future economic growth. Got some time? download the whole shebang here Somewhat suprisingly, it points out that ID is total and complete bunk, and belongs in science classrooms about as much as alchemy (speaking of alchemy, even Sir Isaac Newton, a not too shabby mathmetician, was a crypto-alchemist, although he was wise enough to keep it a secret his entire life. it may have been his private passion, but he knew what other scientists thought of it and that it wasn't ready for Prime Time, if only the IDers had the same sense)

I just had a brainstorm. Maybe, just maybe, this is all a plan to stop immigration! There seems to be a strong correlation between the anti-immigration folks and the IDers, maybe the plan is to run ourselves down to such an extent that the flow of immigrants dries up. After all, it's not like people were flooding into Rome around 600, right? Actually, it's a perfect defense mechanism as well, even better than Star Wars! I notice the Goths and Visigoths stopped sacking Rome roughly the same time the lead in the waterkicked in. hmm...

my weekend: the blog list

total miles driven: 1147.3
estimated hours: 23 driving, 8 loading/unloading
songs played on my ipod: 387
states travelled: 6, plus DC.
cups of coffee drunk: 21
cereal bars consumed: 9
victories by my fantasy football teams while I was away: 1
losses:1
chicken wings consumed: 7
liters of diet coke drunk: 3
minutes on my cell phone: 256
visits to dunkin donuts: 4
washer/dryers illegally rewired: 1
chandeliers uninstalled: 1
Chandeliers installed: 1
hours of sleep since wednesday morning: 26
traffic citations received: shockingly, 0
family members seen: 7
number of people in Pennsylvania rest area wearing Steelers t-shirts: all of them.
number of squished pennies purchased:1
number of times the aformentioned squished penny machine failed to deliver: 2
commercially non-valuable family heirlooms delivered: priceless.

line.

This is way cool

After decades of searching, and two centuries of legend, a team of scientists from Japan has captured, on film, a Giant Squid, previously known only from anecdotes and dead specimens. Here's the story from the Times (non-subscription.)

It was only a small one, apparently, at 26 feet, but an aggresive little guy: On Sept. 30, 2004, a squid attacked the lowest bait on a rig that was positioned about 1,000 feet above the seafloor. Giant squid have eight short arms and two long tentacles. During the attack, the squid wrapped its two long tentacles like a ball around the bait, the researchers report.

One of the squid's tentacles was caught, and the creature moved violently in the next four hours to break free. It was often out of camera range, suggesting, the scientists say, that it was attempting to swim free.

After 4 hours 13 minutes of struggle, the animal tore away, leaving a tentacle behind.

That is a big and nasty fellow, no?

(photo from: http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1501&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050928%2F0148133060.htm&sc=1501&floc=isp-14&related=off&from=news)

What am I missing?

So the good people of Pennsylvania are dealing with Intelligent Design now. (article from the Post) here's what I don't get about this whole thing. Who really wants ID taught? it doesn't make sense from either a scientific or a religious standpoint. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but here's what I get out of this:

Teaching ID in schools will do more to undermine Christianity in the US than teaching 'evolution' ever did or will.

ID is poor, cowardly theology, easily shattered by those with faith as well as those with reason. It simply doesn't make sense, from either standpoint, and to teach it is a tacit acknowledgement, by the biblical-literalist community, that they cannot handle a direct challenge to their faith. It is a card dealt from a position of weakness and fear, without the strength of faith and conviction one would expect from a believer.

ID is a direct challenge to Genesis, not from a scientific standpoint, but a religious one. With 'evolution' (I use it in quotes because it is really too complex of a theory to be espoused in one word, and that word has been challenged too much) one can still see Genesis as a metaphor for the evolution of man within God's system. You can still believe, as many do, that God created everything, created a system to fufill a master plan, as stated in Genesis, and let the system run through to the conclusion. This does not preclude any interaction of God and Man, as detailed in the remainder of the bible. Evolution does not deny the existance of a creator who laid the ground-work for everything, in fact it doesn't address it at all. What happened the instant before the Big Bang is a matter of faith, not biology (ok, there are some physicists on the job as well)

With ID, Genesis is a fable, completely at odds with the stories as laid out in the Bible. It specifically states that Genesis is a false story, that while we are reading stories about God doing something, He was really doing something else. It calls Genesis a parlour trick, a diversion from what God was really doing (intervening in the natural processes he designed) God cannot have created a perfect system, since it requires intervention, on a regular basis, to get things how they look now. Instead of the agnosticism of evolution, ID directly claims that a creator is involved, which means that Genesis, instead of being a parable, is an outright lie. you cannot reconcile Biblical Creationism, as a matter of faith, with such a muddled theory. they directly contradict each other in the same realm.

Evolution and Christianity can coexist because of the fire wall built between them, they explain the same thing using completely different languages and systems, they do not contradict because they do not overlap. One addresses the role of a creator, the other addresses the behaviour of a natural system. But Christianity and ID cannot coexist, since both posit the active role of a creator, but a creator who does different things.

imagine three witnesses to a crime scene. Jane says that Bob shot Steve. Sarah says that Bob shot Steve and Joe, who told Bob to shoot Steve was there. These can be reconciled, since Bob still shot Steve it doesn't matter, one way or the other, if Joe told him to do it, or was watching, the action remains. Jill says that Joe shot Steve and then put the gun into Bob's hands. This cannot be reconciled with either Jane or Sarah's stories, in fact it directly challenges both stories.

obviously, the bilbical fundamentalists will never agree with the scientists about evolution, which is fine, they are in different spheres. but I can't understand why they'd want something that is a direct challenge to their sphere as well.

what am I missing? I know I'm not the world's best theologist, but can someone point it out?

Update on praying nationals

turns out that someone in the Nats PR office finally saw the Post article from Sunday (linked below) Jon Moeller has been 'suspended' from his volunteer job with a week left in the season, and, of course, Ryan Church was 'misunderstood' in his quotations. Nice start guys, let's see if you really follow up, shall we? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092002093.html

There's no praying in baseball!

or was that crying in baseball. Whatever, I can't recall, but since, according to today's Post, there is plenty of praying in baseball, it must be the crying. Anyway, I'm happy to know that there is plenty of faith and good behavior in the old game (the two go together, right?) as long as it's optional, of course, and stays off the field. One thing though, made me flinch...here's the aptly named Ryan Church discussion the finer points of theology with Tom Moeller, the Nat's captain:

Church was concerned because his former girlfriend was Jewish. He turned to Moeller, "I said, like, Jewish people, they don't believe in Jesus. Does that mean they're doomed? Jon nodded, like, that's what it meant. My ex-girlfriend! I was like, man, if they only knew. Other religions don't know any better. It's up to us to spread the word."

Seriously, is this for real? The Nats allow this level of pure unadulterated intolerance in their clubhouse? In fact they encourage it? Is there nothing remotely resembling a sense of history? Would Sandy Koufax have been welcome in this clubhouse, you know, since it's apparently up to Church to save him from going to hell? Can't we all just agree that maybe, just maybe, there've been enough ill conceived efforts to 'save' Jews over the past few millennia?

Look, Church, Moeller and their ilk are free to practice their small-minded bigotry all they want, in private. RFK is building owned and operated by the government of the District of Columbia, Church and co get their fat salaries partially due to a nice subsidy from the people of DC, this proselytizing has no business in a public building. But I'm willing to make an exception, I want Mr. Church, if he really believes this, to stand up in front of the entire crowd at RFK for the next home game. I want him to say "Attention all Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus and all others belonging to lesser religions, thank you for giving us your money, unfortunately, you are all going to hell. Thank you." I wonder what the attendance of the Nats would be if before every game the team told all the Catholics they are going to hell? Maybe this is a good promo? "going to hell night" all heathens get in for half price?

Yes, Mr. Church, I am mocking you. You aren't a kid anymore, your faith shouldn't be about exclusion anymore, grow up, will ya?

On the same note, shame on the Packers for celebrating the bigotry of Reggie White today, he was a great player, no doubt, but when your team continues to issue press releases apologizing to the community for your words, you should forfeit your celebration. Fine, retire the number, but enough of the hagiography, alright?

Since I'm reminiscing, Evans Outpost Section E. 1999. Thanks for the photo, Carp. 

ok trying again... 

And just when you thought it was safe to go to the movies...