Republican Gov. Bob Riley wants to raise taxes by $1.2 billion dollars (about $1,200 per family) in Alabama. Why? “According to our Christian ethics, we’re supposed to love God, love each other and help take care of the poor.” [USA Today] [ABC News] [Salon] [etc.] As Doug Bandow asked, “Should government tax everyone to establish a special religious order dedicated to loving God?” I’d like to also tell the State of Alabama (which is apparently unaware of the fact) that in the United States there is to be a division between church and state.
Archive > August 2003
Jesus said ‘suffer the little children to come unto me.’ Oklahoma News Channel 8 reports on some Christians who may have misunderstood the concept. “A pair of Tulsa County pastors and another person are charged with assault and battery after being accused in the ritualistic beating of a church member. It allegedly happened at Harmony Worship Center Church, where Pastor Janice Turner and parishioner Tammy Britton each face two charges of assault and battery. Pastor William Kelman faces one count. They also are accused, along with Pastors Robert Turner and Karla Kelman, of failing to report the sexual abuse of a two-year-old child.” Praise the Lord! Isn’t God good? Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world!
Bush administration promotes AIDS as alternative to birth control.
The Casper Star Tribune reports ‘It shall be the policy of [Wyoming] Washakie County School District No. 1 when teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution that it is only a theory and not a fact. Teachers shall be allowed in a neutral and objective manner to introduce all scientific theories of origin and the students may be allowed to discuss all aspects of controversy surrounding the lack of scientific evidence in support of the theory of evolution.” Board member Tom Ball, who opened the discussion on the proposed changes, said he thought the evolution recommendation should use the word ”required,” rather than ”allowed.” Pastor Mike Brush, quoted scholars he said ”understand the misconception of evolution” and are more inclined to accept the ”intelligent shaping of matter.” ”Intelligent design is not religious-based. I would not want you to teach religion in any way, shape or form,” he said.
I suggest that these people are unfit to correctly use the words ‘theory,’ ‘fact,’ ‘neutral,’ ‘objective,’ ‘scientific,’ ‘controversy,’ ‘evidence,’ ‘religious’ and ‘religion.’ If you agree and would like to drop them a line, here are some reference works to consult first.
Sally Baron, age 71, died Monday, Aug. 18, 2003, after struggling to recuperate from heart surgery. Please read her obituary.
October 24th occurs nine weeks before the end of the year. And it so happens that people in the USA work nine more weeks every year than people in Europe. Thus, Take Back Your Time Day occurs on October 24th.
Back in the day I published zines, and so did many of my friends. One of them even published a zine that had pictures of me and stories about me in it. She went on to become a ‘real’ author and her zines were published in book form. Now you can get that book for less than two bucks. So it’s back to the underground and obscurity for me, I guess.
Hats off to Unknown News for compiling the following…
President George W Bush chaired two National Security Council (NSC) meetings in December 2002 [link, link] where “the lead item on the agenda was to settle on an official response” to Iraq’s UN-mandated inventory of weapons.
These meetings took place on the mornings of Dec. 18th and 19th. On the afternoon of the 19th, the US released its response to Iraq’s report. Under the heading “Nuclear Weapons,” a State Department “fact sheet” stated: “The [Iraqi] Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger. — Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?” This State Department fact sheet was the only official US response to Iraq’s weapons report.
The obvious, unavoidable conclusion is that the “facts” on this fact sheet were discussed at these NSC meetings — where the President holds the gavel. If so, then the fact sheet’s statement about uranium from Niger was either tacitly or explicitly approved by the President and the National Security Council. The larger question, then, is not about “sixteen words in a speech.” The smoking gun is that Bush was there, present and chairing NSC meetings where these matters must have been discussed. The question to be asked is: Was President Bush asleep? How else could Bush and the entire National Security Council not have known that the Niger claim “had been checked out — and debunked — by U.S. intelligence a year before“?
“My fellow citizens have been imprisoned without due process since 05 Apr 2002 and 08 May 2002 and all I did about it is get this lousy t-shirt.”
The following remarkable passage is taken whole and without authorization from http://nowscape.com/mormon/irwin.htm…
The Prophet Brigham Young, in a vision, saw a day when men would travel to the Moon. Young wrote that “…the Moon-Men dress like [Earth's] Quakers and must have the true gospel revealed to them by missionaries from the Earth, in the fullness of time”. Documents locked up in the vaults of the Mormon church show that the Prophet, Seer and Revelator David O. McKay knew in 1969 that the time was nigh to fulfill the prophesy from a hundred years before. McKay sought out the non-Mormon space man James B. Irwin.
Irwin, aged 39, could not remember a time when he did not have a burning interest in outer space. He was chosen in 1970 to become the eighth man to walk on the Moon (Apollo 15). As Prophet, McKay, of course knew this would happen. So it came to pass that McKay sent seven missionaries to the home of Irwin in 1970 to pray with the Irwin family. The missionaries’ task was to convert Irwin to Mormonism so that Irwin, the astronaut, could contact the Quaker Moon-Men in 1971, for the purpose of restoring to them the gospel of Jesus Christ of Earth. But Irwin could not understand the basics of Mormonism completely and he did not trust these young missionaries. He rejected the truth, but this episode started him thinking about spiritual matters.
Being scientifically inclined (M.S. in aeronautical and instrumentation engineering, University of Michigan, 1957) his mind pondered if it would be possible to communicate telepathically across the vast distances of space — from the moon to the earth. Double blind experiments were set up, but the results turned out ambiguous.
Irwin died in August of 1991. But his experience with the missionaries made a lasting impression on his spirit. He never fully accepted Mormonism, but he also did not reject it.
Irwin resigned from NASA and from the Air Force in 1972 to form and lead a religious organization, High Flight Foundation, in Colorado, USA. He led several expeditions to Mt. Ararat to photograph Noah’s Ark. He has even retrieved some six thousand year old timbers from it, which his wife and four children donated to the Mormon Church in 1993.
… more Mormons in Space stories at http://nowscape.com/mormon/mormons5.htm
Mel Gibson is making a movie called The Passion about the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus Christ. Some Jewish individuals and groups are upset about the movie, claiming it will foster anti-semitism. I sure am glad they are attacking this movie, since we all know that the Bible (which the movie is based on) doesn’t contain any anti-semetic passages.
The Blog Twinning Project says pleasant is like boingboing.
Residents of New York City are fortunate to have not one but two exhibitions by Kenneth Snelson in September; sculptures to be shown at Marlborough Gallery, photographs to be shown at Laurence Miller Gallery.
Take children, add religion, get murderers. Take children, add religion, get sex abuse victims. Take children, add religion, get murderers. Take children, add religion, get sex abuse victims. I know, I know, it looks like a pattern is developing. But be careful making those kinds of evaluations because these four articles are just from one source and only over a two day period. You have to look at what religion does to children over long periods of time and in many places before you can say there is a pattern.
Neural: a daily updated site on new media art, electronic music and hacktivism, quarterly printed as magazine with daily updated link and regular new articles and reviews. It’s where I got hip to Micromusic and Swappingtons. And the more I look, the more links of keen interest I find. Recommended.
Micromusic.net – low tech music for high tech people.
Swappingtons is a www site that’s all about swapping books, music and movies between people who love books, music and movies. If you have a book, CD or DVD, etc., that you don’t want anymore, you can list it on Swappingtons, and when someone else wants it, they can give you swap points for it. At that point, you mail the item to them, the points are transferred to your account, and now it’s your turn to find items that other members have listed and trade them your swap points for them. The best part is that once you get an item from someone and you finish reading, listening or viewing it, you can just list it on the site again and get something else once you swap it out!
Off and on for the past few months, and usually after a spirited conversation with a good friend, I have gathered online educational material related to mathematics. I hereby stop doing that forever, because MIT is now offering their complete ciriculum online for free.
What are the differences between science and religion? Here’s an example. Science says that fecal coliform bacteria, which comes from human and animal waste, can make you sick. If you drink water containing coliform bacteria then maybe nothing will happen and maybe you will experience kidney failure. Fecal coliform bacteria is an indcator that water is contaminated, and may also contain typhoid fever, viral and bacterial gastroenteritis and hepatitis A. Science makes these claim based on repeated observation, using independent confirmation and subject to improved understanding in the future. Religion (represented by evangelist Leroy Jenkins of the Healing Waters Cathedral in Delaware, Ohio) claims that the hand-pumped water he sells containing fecal coliform bacteria is “miracle water.” If you drink “miracle water” then God will give you good things. Religion makes this claim based on no observation whatsoever, without independent confirmation and with finality (the information having been revealed by an infaliable, eternal and all knowing God). So the next time someone talks to you about ‘sciencism’ and how science is ‘just another belief, just like religion,’ keep the differences between science and religion in mind.
