An open letter to Ms. Schlafly and family:

Dear Family Schlafly,

Yes, it’s true that we live in a universe of infinite mystery, wonder, terror, possibility and what should probably be terminal silliness.

Deal with it.

Unfortunately, attacking the people who describe said universe will not change the nature of the universe itself.

Controlling the study of art and literature that describes the variety of the human condition within that universe will not change the fact that sometimes people break, and can’t be fixed.

Blaming the victim only works in a situation where most of the society is made up of perpetrators.

You can create your own authoritative references.  You can try to force God into a 6,000-year-creation schedule.  You can even edit your own controversies.

But it won’t make you one iota safer, give you one minute bit more control over God or the universe…won’t even  shed a single lumen of truth on the nature of existence.  Nor, in the fullness of time will it even grant you more than a place as a useless name in the bone-pile of history.

Just thought you should know, so you can quit wasting your time and ours, and get on about the business of living constructively in the world as it is.

Sincerely,

Teresa

Not all that glitters is gold...

Not all who wander are lost...

And not all that is "gay" is homosexual.

(Hat Tip:  Pharyngula)

At Denialism.com I got a link to this map.

It shows the links to all the major players in evolution denialism.  Fun for all.

For those of you who worry that someday Phyllis Schlaffly will eventually die (hopefully at a ripe old age surrounded by a loving family, and at peace with her time and efforts on Earth) and leave us without entertainment...

...fear not!  Her son Andrew is apparently taking on Evolution much as his mother spent her life batteling feminism.

His tactic appears to be to repeatedly demand raw data from researchers:  Data he is not qualified to understand, is demanding through the wrong channels, and ultimatly, data that is largely already public.

A bold tactic, one must admit.  Not as bold as making the statement that women are to blame for their own sexual harassment...but often the next generation fails to live up to the audacity of their elders.

Dobson freaks out at Obama's remarks regarding separation of Church and State...and proves Obama's point.

If Biblical priciples are going to be running America...whose priciples do you want them to be?

Dobsons?

RJ Rushdoony's?

Obama?

The infamous Phelps clan?

And don't give me that BS about "Sound Doctrine".  People were arguing about "Sound Doctrine" before Jesus came along (Pharasees and Sadducees anyone?)

And Jesus came along and tried to "clear it all up" and people have been killing each other over it ever since.

Luthers "Sound Doctrine" wound up with him recommending that Jews be stripped of their rights and property, condemned to forced labor, and/or expelled from the country...and he declared that all the trouble German people suffered because of them was because they should have killed the Jews and didn't.

I also love how Dobson comes right out and says that faith-based public policy should not have to be amenable to reason.  Ya know, come to think of it, Luther said the same thing.

I actually sort of admire Dobson's honesty.

Crazy, rambling, nut-bag book award contestants:

1.  John Coleman (leading AGW denier, weatherman, and founder of The Weather Channel) is nominated for his book: One World Order:Socialist Dictatorship.

2. Rev. Scott Lively is nominated for his book:  The Pink Swatika

I nominate these two books to compete against each other, because of their flamboyant style of historical revisionism, their bold cherry-picking of facts, the virtuosity of the authors in re-interpreting both the significance and meaning of the events they cite...and their nearly identical stylistic choice of running through a dizzying number of unrelated or tenuously related names and unsupported assertions in the first chapter. (ie:  Beatix Potter was in on it!  She was married to that dude, who knew the other one, who went to school with this guy who once said something that sounded communist!  and she wrote books for CHILDREN!  the children!  Oh dear God, won't someone think of the children?) - Sorry...couldn't resist.  Beatrice Potter - Webb... not Beatrix Potter. 

The catagories are

 1. Crazy (unfounded in rational order and scholarship)

 2. Rambling (unfocused in argument and approach)

 3. Nut-bag (dependant upon conspiracy).

You can vote for one or the other in each catagory.

Remember the sad, sad story of the poor "persecuted teacher" that the World Net Daily reported on?

I was outraged when I first heard about it too!  A teacher was being fired for not removing his personal copy of the Bible from his desk!  His students were rallying around him!  It was anarchy!

And I was outraged.  I thought "What? the school district and the legal system have nothing better to do than harass a teacher about his choice of personal reading material?"

But, like most cases of "persecution" of Christians in America I've bothered to scratch the surface of...it all turned out to be a farce.

Here's the highlights:

In December 2007, the complaint continues, Freshwater burned an easily identifiable cross into the arm of at least two eighth-grade students with an electric device manufactured by Electro-Technic Products Inc. The complaint states, “Mr. Freshwater knew that the electric device, model BD-10A, could cause harm if placed in contact with human skin. As the eighth-grade science teacher it is Mr. Freshwater’s duty to understand and follow the manufacturer’s advice regarding the proper use of science equipment.”

Also at FCA meetings, the suit alleges that Freshwater distributed Bibles for the students present to give to other students at the school who were not present, and that an invited speaker told students “they should disobey the law to further their own religion, even if it means going to jail.” (FCA = Fellowship of Christian Athletes:  a non-school sponsored, student-run club.  Freshwater was a monitor for the club, but as a school official, he was not supposed to participate.)

White also, according to the court documents, disclosed the identity of the plaintiffs to Freshwater, although Short had promised them anonymity. After the parents raised concerns of retaliation against their son, a field trip was scheduled, with their son assigned to a certain group and chaperone. The suit claims that once the child’s identity was revealed, his group assignment was changed to the one led by Freshwater. As a result, the parents “were forced to prohibit their son from attending the school field trip.” That caused injury by depriving the son of a valuable educational experience and discouraging the plaintiffs from continuing to exercise their right to free speech.

There's a whole laundry list of complaints beyond these, putting up the ten commandments, using "code words" to inform the class which scientific priciples they were supposed to believe, and which ones were untrue according to the Bible....etc.

Those are somewhat annoying, because they either are not part of his job as a science teacher, or are actively part of him being an incompetent science teacher...but there are all sorts of teachers out there who fail to do their jobs, or who violate the boundaries of their jobs somehow.  It is usually small harm that children can recover from, and I don't see how we can get upset over it more or less because it is "christian" inappropriate behavior.

But the three items listed above are damaging, threatening, and frankly:  just plain creepy.  A teacher should be fired for deliberatly burning his religious symbol into students (plural!), teaching them to be anti-social and break the law for his religion, and...whatever he was going to do to that student after he got him reassigned to his group for the field trip.

Anyone want to take bets on what was going to happen to that student on the field trip?  Think Freshwater was going to give him cookies?

All I know, is that if I were that kid, I would not take my life for granted in an uncontrolled environment stuck in the middle of a pack of rabid student devotees, and the man I had complained about burning a religious symbol into my arm.

I might add, student devotees who have been encouraged to even break the law and go to jail in defense of their religion, who have a history of harassing and assaulting other students who just fail to support the teacher.

Quote from above link about what happens to students for just not wearing a tee-shirt supporting Freshwater:

Murdoch said one of Arie’s friends wore a T-shirt to school that read, “I don’t need to wear a special T-shirt to be a Christian.” That individual was reportedly pushed into the lockers and called a “stupid atheist b****.” That is not acceptable in Murdoch’s mind.

Every time I hear more about this case, I get more and more creeped out.

He-who-must-not-be-linked-to (unless you want to either kow-tow to his views or be accused of stalking) referenced this article about Galileo.

Of course, the "REAL" story is that the church loved Galileo and encouraged him and nurtured him, but he was such an ass that he gave them no choice but to persecute prosecute him after they tried; time-and-time again to avoid it.

The poor church just could not get a break from the relentless assault of Galileo's powerful ego, which obviously threatened to bring down the tottering, frail, underdog of the One True World Church (TM).

Besides, Galileo wasn't treated as badly as some of the other heretics brought before the Inquisition, and really, having to renounce the theory of Heliocentrism and live quietly in obscurity wasn't that terrible of a punishment for having an ego.  That proves the church was a bunch of good guys!

I mean, it's not like the church was supressing knowledge or anything, they were just telling him to say that what he believed to be true (and eventually turned out to be true) wasn't true and to stop talking about it.

I mean, the scientists act as though that is censorship.

What a bunch of babies.  Why are they still whining about it?  How come they won't just admit that the church is a benevolant institution that should once again be allowed to be the final arbiter of all knowledge?

Sheesh.

Now, if you want to see REAL censorship in action, go here and read about how the rules of science requiring that your results reflect/predict reality, and the system that diverts funding to those who produce accurate, peer-reviewed research is censoring those who don't believe Global Warming is happening.

Did you know that if your results don't line up with reality, you have to modify your approach until you get results that line up with reality?  God, those heavy-handed bastard scientists.

You know what I bet?  I bet those eleitist scientists think that if you do a math problem, and you get the wrong answer, that it must be because you did the problem wrong!  They'd probably tell you that math works, and the problem is you and your flawed approach!

Like Galileo, they probably think that you have to take a correct approach to get correct answers:

Philosophy is written in this grand book - the universe - which stands continuously open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.
                                 

                                                                                              --Galileo Galilei

(Hat tip: He Who Must Not Be Named)

Can you believe this article?

Actually, you don't even have to read the whole thing, if you don't want to.  I recommend against it.  It’s depressing.

Just read this bit here:

Church lobbyists are now asking that the state allow insurance plans to reimburse prayer practitioners, who can charge $20 to $50 for a day's worth of prayer, says Wanda Jane Warmack, the church's legislative manager.

Should they be successful, I propose that we all convert to Christian Science...become "Certified Prayer Practitioners" and then, when called to the bedside of an ailing child, begin babbling randomly over the child for a period of time, then eventually fall into an imitation of an epileptic seizure, and then "Come out of it" and proclaim:

"God told me to take this child to a hospital immediately.  That'll be $50 please."

We can then take the $50 and donate it to an organization that promotes science education.

Sheesh.

In a few years, we could have people looking up the Procedure Code for "casting out the Spinal Meningitis Deamon".

Medical reimbursement rates:

Diagnosing a demonic possession:  100% compensation

Casting out of deamon:                90%  compensation

dispersion of a demonic miasma:  (elective procedure) 40% compensation.

The comfort of knowing that your insurance company will pay the cost of having an all-loving all-powerful being protect you in a hostile, corrupt, and incomprehensible universe filled with demons and goblins who are relentlessly stalking your immortal soul:           Priceless.

(Hat Tip: Denialism.com)

OK...so let me get this straight...

Dunkin' Doughnuts pulls an ad because one of the actors appearing in it is wearing a scarf, and some shreiking harpie has a fever dream that it looks like a Kaffeiya...even though it looks nothing like a Kaffieya...

But Ford Motor company can openly and outright say in their ad that free speech should be denied to 14% of the population because of their beliefs and it is hailed as a victory for free speech?

huh?

Folks, you can say whatever you want to but don't cry and complain when people recognise it as cynically manipulative bullshit.

A woman wearing a scarf and drinking iced coffe is hate speech, but calling for 86% of the population to use their superior numbers to deny the other 14% their right to free speech is "free speech"...

...I call Bullshit!  (I can still do that, right?)

grumble.

(Hat Tips: to Bad Astronomy and Denialism)

Discalimer:  This entry will make no sense unless you are a fan of Torchwood, and up-to-date on the Dr. Who universe.  The video will only be funny if you have a warped sense of humor...and even then, you will feel guilty for laughing.  Sorry.  I can't be alone in my Schadenfreude.  The Scott Lively connection is just one of those random association firings that my brain subjects me too...but if you can't mock the Rev. Scott Lively, who CAN you mock?

OK, a while ago I heard about the Rev. Scott Lively, and his book The Pink Swastika and I thought "Who the hell would buy this?  It's ridiculous.  It's completely craven, ahistorical re-imagining at it's most cynically manipulative.  I've seen sand-choked engines run more smoothly than this guy's logic."

But then I see this, and I realize the horrible truth!

NSFW  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!   (seriously, the ways in which this is not safe for work defy numbering gravity description)

Also, my understanding of the German langauge is even worse than I thought!

And just so we're clear, this is an example of who I AM talking about when I referr to "Wacky Fundies".

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/breaking_news/285609

<shudder>

(Hat tip:  Pharyngula)

This begs the question:  Do I think religion MAKES people crazy?  No, not necessarily.  But I think, in too many cases, people allow their religion to make an end run around a little custom of the human race called "the reality check".  And this allows the crazy to grow.

Religion is given a free pass in our society, and there's nothing we can really do about that because laws compelling the concience should be kept to the essential minimum, and that includes religion.

But my God people, when denial of reality becomes an article of faith, things can get downright dangerous.

And when you combine that with a political agenda, it's monstrous.

It makes people capable of things that they later have to work really hard to ammend history and try to blame on atheists, because they can't accept that religion had any part in it.

For the team I'd like to call "consensual reality".

Robert Beal has been sentanced to ten years in prison.

My next question is:  What do we call someone who self-identifies as a "Christian Libertarian"?

YOU tell 'em Daniel!

Now, if they could just spend that ten years getting him the help he so richly needs, rather than merely punishing him for it.

(Hat Tip: Pharyngula)

Jason Bock put this on his blog, and then I saw it, and now I am powerless before the stupid.

Mandrake roots look just like the human form, so eating them must be good for the whole body, right?

blah.

Remember how the Mayor of Birmingham (Larry Langford; D)was praying in sackcloth and ashes for God to reduce the crime rate of his fair city?

Well, it looks like Birmingham might soon be less one alleged criminal already...the Mayor of Birmingham! (don't forget, innocent until proven guilty)

(Hat tip and link:  Pharyngula)

Speaking of “Bat-shit insane” – someone left this bit of creo-spam-droppings on my “Expelled Exposed” post.  It is far too scattered, unfocused, and densely populated with historical misrepresentations, logical fallacies, and downright random batshit for one mere human to address it in her spare time.

I could delete it as spam…, but that’s no fun, and would only be called “censorship”.

  So.

We’re going to have another “play-along at home”

Here is the format:  pick a paragraph, any paragraph, and pick it apart.  Show the lack of knowledge, the errors, and the lunacy in every possible way you can imagine.  Being funny is a plus.  Then, post it (saying which paragraph you are responding to).  I will then go through and sort them out, and re-post it with your rebuttals on a point-by-point basis.

If we don’t get enough participation, this won’t work.  So if you don’t have a lot of time, just pick an easy one, and leave the heavy lifting to those with more ready specialized knowledge, who type faster, or who have more free time.

1.              Ben(jamin) Stein is under heavy artillery for 'exaggerating' or 'going easy' on the influence of evolutionism behind Nazism and Stalinism (super evolution of Lysenkoism in the Soviet Russia). But the monstrous Haeckelian type of vulgar evolutionism drove not only the 'Politics-is-applied-biology' Nazi takeover in the continental Europe, but even the nationalistic collision at the World War I. It was Charles Darwin himself, who praised and raised the monstrous German Ernst Haeckel with his still recycled embryo drawing frauds etc. in the spotlight as the greatest authority in the field of human evolution, even in the preface to his Descent of man in 1871. If Thomas Henry Huxley with his concept of 'agnostism' was Darwins bulldog in England, Haeckel was his Rotweiler in Germany.

2.             'Kampf' was a direct translation of 'struggle' from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). Seinen Kampf. His application.

3.             Catch 22: Haeckel's 140 years old fake embryo drawings have been mindlessly recycled for the 'public understanding of science' (PUS) in most biology text books until this millennium. Despite factum est that Haeckel's crackpot raging Recapitulation/Biogenetic Law and functioning gill slits of human embryos have been at the ethical tangent race hygiene/eugenics/genocide, infanticide, and Freudian psychoanalysis (subconscious atavisms). Dawkins is the Oxford professor for PUS - and should gather the courage of Stephen Jay Gould who could feel ashamed about it.

4.             Some edited quotes from my conference posters and articles defended and published in the field of bioethics and history of biology (and underline/edit them a 'bit'):
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Asian_Bioethics.pdf
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Haeckelianlegacy_ABC5.pdf

5.             The marriage laws were once erected not only in the Nazi Germany but also in the multicultural states of America upon the speculation that the mulatto was a relatively sterile and shortlived hybrid. The absence of blood transfusion between "white" and "colored races" was self evident (Hailer 1963, p. 52).

6.             The first law on sterilization in US had been established in 1907 in Indiana, and 23 similar laws had been passed in 15 States and sterilization was practiced in 124 institutions in 1921 (Mattila 1996; Hietala 1985 p. 133; these were the times of IQ-tests under Gould's scrutiny in his Mismeasure of Man 1981). By 1931 thirty states had passed sterization laws in the US (Reilly 1991, p. 87). Typically, the operations hit blacks the most in the US, poor women in the Europe, and often the victims were never even told they had been sterilized.

7.             Mendelism outweighed recapitulation (embryos climbing up their evolutionary tree through fish-, amphibian- and reptilian stages), but that merely smoothened the way for the brutal 1930’s biolegislation - that quickly penetrated practically all Western countries. The laws were copied from country to country. The A-B-O blood groups, haemophilia, eye colours etc. were found to be inherited in a Mendelian fashion by 1910. So also the complex traits and social (mis)behaviour such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, manic depression, criminality, rebelliousness, artistic sense, pauperism, racial differences, inherited scholarship (and its converse, feeble-mindedness) were all thought to be determined by one or two genes. Mendelism was "experimental" and quantitative, and its exaggeration outweighed the more cautious biometry operating on smaller variations, not discontinuous leaps. Its advocates boldly claimed that these problems could be done away within a few generations through selection, persisted (although most biologists must have known that defective genes could not be eliminated, even with the most intense forced sterilizations and marriage restrictions due to recessive genes and synergism. Nevertheless, these laws were held until 1970's and were typically changed only when the abortion legislation were released (1973).

8.             So the American laws were pioneering endeavours. In Europe Denmark passed the first sterilization legislation in Europe (1929). Denmark was followed by Switzerland, Germany that had felt to the hands of Hitler and Gobineu, and other Nordic countries: Norway (1934), Sweden (1935), Finland (1935), and Iceland (1938 ) (Haller 1963, pp 21-57; 135-9; Proctor 1988, p. 97; Reilly 1991, p. 109). Seldom is it mentioned in the popular media, that the first outright race biological institution in the world was not established in Germany but in 1921 in Uppsala, Sweden (Hietala 1985, pp. 109). (I am not aware of the ethymology of the 'Up' of the ancient city from Plinius' Ultima Thule, however.) In 1907 the Society for Racial Hygiene in Germany had changed its name to the Internationale Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene, and in 1910 Swedish Society for Eugenics (Sällskap för Rashygien) had become its first foreign affiliate (Proctor 1988, p. 17). Today, Swedish state church is definitely the most liberal in the face of the world.

9.             Hitler's formulation of the differences between the human races was affected by the brilliant sky-blue eyed Ernst Haeckel (Gasman 1971, p. xxii), praised and raised by Darwin. At the top of the unilinear progression were usually the "Nordics", a tall race of blue-eyed blonds. Haeckel's position on the 'Judenfrage' was assimilation and Expelled-command from their university chairs, not yet an open elimination. But was it different only in degree, rather than kind?

10.           In 1917 the immigration of "defective" groups was forbidden even in the United States by a law. In 1921 the European immigration was diminished to 3% based on the 1910 census. Eventually, in the strategical year of 1924 the finest hour of eugenics had come and the fatal law was passed by Congress. It diminished immigration to 2% of the foreign-born from each country based on the 1890 census in order to preserve the "nordic" balance in population, and was hold through World War II until 1965 (Hietala 1985, p. 132).

11.            Richard Lewontin writes:“The leading American idealogue of the innate mental inferiority of the working class was, however, H.H. Goddard, a pioneer of the mental testing movement, the discoverer of the Kallikak family,
and the administrant of IQ-tests to immigrants that found 83 % of the Jews, 80% of the Hungarians, 79% of the Italians, and 87% of the the Russians to be feebleminded.” (1977, p. 13.) Regarding us Finns, Finnish emmigrants put the cross on the box reserved for the "yellow" group (Kemiläinen 1993, p. 1930), until 1965.

12.           Germany was the most scientifically and culturally advanced nation of the world upon opening the riddles at the close of the nineteenth century. And she went Full Monty.

13.           Today, developmental biologists are anticipating legislation of laws that would define the do’s and dont’s. In England, they are fertilizing human embryos for research purposes and pipetting chimera embryos of humans and monkeys, 'legally'. The legislation should not distract individual researchers from their personal awareness of responsibility. A permissive law merely defines the ethical minimum. The lesson is that a law is no substitute for morals and that dissidents should not be intimidated.

14.           I am suspicious over the burial of the Kampf (Struggle). The idea of competition is innate in the modern society. It is the the opposite view in a 180 degree angle to the Judaeo-Christian ideal of agapee (contra epithumia, eros, filia & storge) (ahava in Hebrew), that I personally cheriss. The latter sees free giving, altruism, benevolence and self sacrificing love as the beginning, motivation, and sustainer of the reality.

pauli.ojala@gmail.com
Biochemist, drop-out (Master of Sciing)
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-ID.htm

http://www.commonlawvenue.net/

Have fun kiddies!

Here's some more reading on the "Common Law Court" movement and related stuff.

http://www.patriotnetwork.info/anti-gov-guidebook.htm

http://www.adl.org/Learn/ext_us/SCM.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=4&item=sov

http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/militias.asp

http://rfexposed.tripod.com/clcusa2.html  (Hubert H. Humphry III opinion characterizes “common Law courts” as bogus)

http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws74.htm

http://www.westom.com/coolsite/pat_claw.htm

People from this movement recently in the news:

http://www.startribune.com/local/17984759.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Ray_Kahn (this is the guy who “advised” Wesley Snipes)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E6DB1539F93BA15750C0A960958260

Welcome to Sunday morning prostration.

(which, as Vala observed, is not nearly as much fun as it sounds)

Hallowed are the Ori!

Hallowed are the Ori!

Hallowed are the Ori (Bemidji is still an Ori strong-hold)

Hallowed are the Ori! (Jesus still hates taxes)

And speaking of the Ori...go take a look at this guy, and tell me he isn't one of their priors.  AllI can say is, we're in trouble when a man named Kahn allignes hiself with enemies of earth. 

Kah-h-h-hn!!!!!!  LOL

[Update:  I think Ben Stein is angling for a priorship]

(Hat tips:  Pharyngula and Denialism)

Ever have the experience of knowing several things, and finding them all interesting, but then suddenly realizing that they are all connected?

Just happened to me right now.

See, a while ago GeekGoddess posted in her blog about her experiences working for Robert Beal, a Minnesota-based Libertarian who hates taxes and loves Jesus.

I'd heard about Robert Beal, and was interested to know that Geekgoddess had worked for him.  It's one of the many remarkable facts about her.  Remarkable sort of follows Geekgoddess around and tries to bask in her overwhelming coolness.

Anyhoo, a while ago I posted a bit of snide sniping about one Vox Day, and I was aware that he's this guy on teh interwebtubenets who hates taxes and loves Jesus too.  Now, I knew that Vox Day's real name was Theodore Beal, and I knew that he bore all of the signs of an honest-to-God case of invasive God delusion...

Turns, out, the man whose hair-cut screams "vagina envy" is Robert Beal's son.

The punchline is:  Read this article.  No kidding.  This guy is an honest-to-goodness threat to civil society.  Now I know why Cassie Banning looks so convincingly cool staring down all those vampires...the lady playing her has already dealt with much more dangerous blood-suckers.

The money-shot quote:

Beale is a "member/leader" of what's known among certain groups as an extra-judicial "Common Law Court" in Ramsey County. The lengthy title of this specific "court" indicates a religious undercurrent, including a reference to "a superior court for the People, original jurisdiction under Almighty Yahweh exclusive jurisdiction in and for confederation-government United States of America."

Apparently, they were going to "take out" the judge hearing his case.  Wow.

(Hat Tip:  Geekgoddess)

P.S. Robert Beal is apparently on the Board of Directors of the WorldNet Daily...where Theodore Beal is published under thename of Vox Day. 

Some other familiar names show up in this link as well.

I can just see it now!  Ben Stien should RUN (not walk) to get this science teacher's story to use in the next Expelled movie.

There is an atheist plot to Expell him for his sincerely held beliefs that he should be allowed to burn the sign of the cross into his student's skin.

The fax stated, "We are religious people, but we were offended when Mr. Freshwater burned a cross onto the arm of our child. This was done in science class in December 2007, where an electric shock machine was used to burn our child. The burn was severe enough that our child awoke that night with severe pain, and the cross remained there for several weeks. ... We have tried to keep this a private matter and hesitate to tell the whole story to the media for fear that we will be retaliated against." (quote taken fom second link.)

Christian (TM) Students are rallying to support the teacher and his right to "express himself"

Some Christian parents would rather he not teach his religion (in other words Christianity (TM)) to their children.

The schools position is that it is because of a larger pattern of disturbing behavior.

(Hat Tip: pharyngula)

Someone actually referred to the "Day of Silence" as the "Day of violence"?

I mean, with their outside voice and everything?

Apparently NOT SAYING ANYTHING is now a violent act, of persecution against Christians.

So, let me get this straight (so to speak)...if a school does not break up a student-lead protest that consists of simply SITTING QUIETLY in the classroom to express their beliefs, it is an act of violence against Christians...

...but if Christians finally got their wish and passed a law MANDATING that children sit quietly in the classroom and pray, why, that's just "Traditional American values".  And anyone who doesn't like it is just complaining over nothing.

No wonder some Christians want to boycott it...they're insane.  Instead of keeping your good Christian boy or girl out of school on one day so they don't have to listen to people NOT talking about GBLT...why don't you just take them out of school and homeschool them so that they can't beat the crap out of GLBT kids on the other days?  Oh right, it would be taking away their right to free expression.

The one of the messages of Hitler (if you've read what he actually wrote) that resonated with the people was that their real-life problems and concerns went unaddressed and unanswered by a dithering and ineffectual liberal elite so wrapped up in holding onto some slip of power, and pandaring to all comers that they neglected the needs of the people.

They were, in other words, bitter about the  lack of responsible leadership from a government which exsisted to serve the desires of the corporate interests.  So when Hitler came along and offered them guns, religion and a hatred of outsiders as solutions they...uh...clung to them...so-to-speak.

Those darned intellectual elite...

Alway putting down the plucky dissenters who challenge the academic "consensus":

"The so called 'intelligentsia' always looks down with a really limitless condescension on anyone who has not been dragged through the obligatory schools and had the necessary knowledge pumped into him. The question has never been: What are the man's abilities? but: What has he learned? To these 'educated' people the biggest empty-head, if he is wrapped in enough diplomas,is worth more than the brightest boy who happens to lack these costly envelopes.And so it was easy for me to imagine how this ' educated ' world would confront me, and in this I erred only in so far as even then I still regarded people as better than in cold reality they for the most part unfortunately are.  As they are, to be sure, the exceptions, as everywhere else, shine all themore brightly. Thereby, however, I learned always to distinguish between the eternal students and the men of real ability."

                                                                       --Adolph Hilter:  Mein Kampf (all quotes from Mein Kampf taken from this link)

"Not the smallest blame for the none too delectable religiousconditions must be borne by those who encumber the religious idea with toomany things of a purely earthly nature and thus often bring it into a totallyunnecessary conflict with so-called exact science. In this victory willalmost always fall to the latter, though perhaps after a hard struggle,and religion will suffer serious damage in the eyes of all those who areunable to raise themselves above a purely superficial knowledge."

                                                                     --Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

And as for the materialists with the economic solutions based on facts and knowledge...don't even get him started!  That leads to atheism, and even Hitler knows that's not good!

"In proportion as economic life grew to be the dominant mistress of the state, money became the god whom all had to serve and to whom eachman had to bow down. More and more, the gods of heaven were put into the corner as obsolete and outmoded, and in their stead incense was burned tothe idol Mammon. A truly malignant degeneration set in; what made it most malignant was that it began at a time when the nation, in a presumably menacing and critical hour, needed the highest heroic attitude. Germany had to accustom herself to the idea that some day her attempt to secure her daily bread by means of 'peaceful economic labor' would have to be defended by the sword."

(also Adolph Hitler, also Mein Kampf)

And I'd love to hear a conservative debate Hitler on the traitorous nature of the liberal press in war-time:

"The so-called liberal press was actively engaged in digging the grave of the German people and the German Reich."

                                      (also Adolph Hitler, also mein Kampf)

I'm sure they would have a very nice counter-argument for how opposition to ill-concieved millitarism is a primary function of the press, a national duty, really to preserve a nation's honor and treasure.  THEY'D give old Hitler what-for!

But they'd probably agree with him about the horrors of "safe sex". (link about the inventor of the latex condom)

"Particularly with regard to syphilis, the attitude of the leadership of the nation and the state can only be designated as total capitulation.To fight it seriously, they would have had to take somewhat broader measures than was actually the case. The invention of a remedy of questionable characterand its commercial exploitation can no longer help much against this plague.Here again it was only the fight against causes that mattered and not the elimination of the symptoms. The cause lies, primarily, in our prostitution of love. Even if its result were not this frightful plague, it would nevertheless be profoundly injurious to man, since the moral devastations which accompany this degeneracy suffice to destroy a people slowly but surely. This Jewification of our spiritual life and mammonization of our mating instinct will sooner or later destroy our entire offspring, for the powerful children of a natural emotion will be replaced by the miserable creatures of financial expediency which is becoming more and more the basis and sole prerequisite of our marriages.Love finds its outlet elsewhere."

(Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf)

They say music inspires...and whadda ya know?  They're right! 

Win Ben Stein's Ethics:  The Musical Gameshow!

And Bensteinian Rhapsody:  A rock opera in one movement.

I think there should be a movie!

Ya know, this has given me an idea about how Expelled can get out of copywrite accusasions...claim tha ttheir premise was so obviously rediculous that their Frankenstein version of "Inner Life of a cell" was parody!  >;->

(Hat Tip:  Pharyngula)

So, for those who don’t know about the “Expelled” movie, it’s a movie created by proponents of Intelligent Design intended to do two things.

1)      Promote the idea that God is a fuss-budget failed inventor who has to keep tweaking his creations to get them to work right rather than an all-powerful, all-knowing deity who should be able to get creation right the first time.