Flag Burning Kills Puppies!

I just read Dianne Feinstein’s editorial in USA Today (http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/USATODAY/2006/06/20/1646484?ba=a&bi=2&bp=64) and I think I can safely say that she is absolutely right . . . about nothing. 

By the second sentence you know that whatever she is about to argue is going to be bull because of her use of the logical fallacy ignoratio elenchi (Red Herring – appeal to emotion, etc.)  Obviously Ms. Feinstein ditched class the day they went over things like logic and reason. 

But this is only the first in a line of many fallacies that she will make throughout the editorial.

As Leonard Pitts Jr. points out however, perhaps this was meant to be a study of how not to make an argument.  See: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.pitts25jun25,0,2658495.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

I am desperate to hear someone make a valid argument for why we should outlaw desecration of the flag.  Ms. Feinstein’s final thought is that, “There is no idea or thought expressed by the burning of the American flag that cannot be expressed equally well in another manner.” 

Why is it I am consistently stunned by the justifications politicians make for their actions?  Not that I don’t consult Ms. Feinstein before I express my opinions, but arn’t we supposedly living in the land of the free?  Isn’t freedom of expression what this country was founded on? 

Writing censorship into the constitution takes the power away from the people and puts it in the hands of the Congress – something I hope never happens.

Christian Statistics

 Here are some great statistics published by the World Evangelization Research Center – they sent out 10 million questionnaires in 3000 languages  –

The 5 most dangerous of all Christian vocations (over 3% murder rates) are:bishops,evangelists,catechists,colporteurs,foreign missionaries.

Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.

 78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year.

Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide.

http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/gd/findings.htm

 

It’s not looking good . . .

The ACLU’s National Freedom Scorecard — http://scorecard.aclu.org/ — provides you with a quick summary of important civil liberties measures and how your elected officials have voted. By looking at their actual voting record, you can go beyond the soundbites that characterize much of today’s campaigns to better understand your elected officials’ positions (the ACLU scorecard only has information for current members of Congress and does not include ratings for challengers).

I’m Watching You

Here’s a BBC article about a study done on honesty.  A coffee club was set up with an honor system payment scheme.  In one place, the sign explaining how it works was posted and at the top it had a picture of flowers.  In another place there was the exact same thing except instead of flowers there was a pair of eyes staring out at you.  People gave three times the amount of money to the box under the eyes than the flowers. 

Are we naturally dishonest?  Do we need a watchful eye to keep us honest?  Interesting . . .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5120662.stm

Know Your Rights

Here’s a link to a pdf file.  it’s a printable card you can keep in your wallet or glove-box about what you’re rights are when you get stopped by the cops.  Police use intimidation to get you to waive your rights.  But if you know exactly what your rights are, that is less likely to happen.  If only I had this when I was 17 . . .

http://action.aclu.org/site/DocServer/know_your_rights.pdf?docID=161

Supreme Court: Master of the Bleedin’ Obvious

The Supreme Court ruled that Bush overstepped his authority by setting up military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The tribunals, which often exclude the accused from the trial or from even knowing what the evidence against them is, apparently violate both US law and international Geneva Conventions.

Thank god we have a supreme court. But I just wish we didn’t have to waste their time with such obvious cases as this. I think a good rule of thumb for any government is: if there’s any doubt about how legal it is under the Geneva Conventions, DON’T DO IT.

Now that that is settled, let’s send Bush to the ICC and try him for crimes against humanity.

Internet TV

The Democracy Player is "the free and open source internet TV platform."

It uses bittorrent esque tech to download video podcasts of internet tv shows.  My favorite so far is the "Ricky Gervais Show".

It's free and incredibly user friendly, so try it out:

http://www.getdemocracy.com/ 

Warren Buffett – Uber Philanthropist

In an article in Fortune magazine, Warren Buffett, the world's second richest man, says he is going to start giving away 85% of his net worth in July. Most of it will go to the charity started by the first richest man in the world – The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

What an amazing choice to make. If you had $45 Billion dollars to give away, who would you give it to? And what would you say to the people you didn't choose?

Link to Fortune article: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

The US Government is Working for Terrorists

WASHINGTON, June 26—President Bush today condemned as “disgraceful” the disclosure last week of a secret program to investigate and track terrorists that relied on a vast international database containing Americans’ banking transactions.

From the New York Times. I had to read this sentence a couple of times. Note that Bush calls the disclosure disgraceful, not the program.

“Traditionally in this country in a time of war, members of the press have acknowledged that the commander in chief, in the exercise of his powers, sometimes has to do things secretly in order to protect the public,” Mr. Snow said. “This is a highly unusual departure.”

That may be true, Mr. Snow. But if said secret things are illegal, isn’t it true that the press has an obligation to report on them?

Despite the fact that ‘terror’ isn’t really something you can fight a war against (at least not with an army) the administration somewhere along the line got the impression that war justifies gross abuse of power in violating civil liberties.

During his briefing today, Mr. Snow also called for stepping back from the “passions” ignited by the articles and called on journalists, the government and “consumers of news” to engage in a thoughtful debate about the role of the press in the struggle against terrorism.

This is not about the role of the press in the struggle against terrorism – it is about the role of the press to serve as a watchdog of the government – the role of the press to report when the government crosses the line. It seems to me that the government is getting very uppity about getting called out on their bull.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote that, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

The invasion of civil liberties is perhaps the biggest hurt terrorists can impose upon us. And they’re using our own government to do it.

Here’s a link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/washington/26cnd-prexy.html?hp&ex=1151380800&en=f041c93d1f1731c4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

And here’s a link to the Daily Show’s coverage, courtesy of http://www.onegoodmove.org:  http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/06/fooled_ya_once.html

The good news is that the government has arrested seven people on terrorist charges.  The bad news is that they have no connections to any known terrorist organization, no capability for carrying out a terrorist plot, and no plot to carry out.

Intellectual Scrutiny of Faith

http://www.onegoodmove.org has a post of an interview with Sam Harris, author of: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, about the dangers of faith.  The interview does a good job of covering both fundamentalists and moderates.  There’s both an audio link and a pdf transcript, so get reading!

 I don’t believe we should pass laws against religious belief. I don’t think there’s really any intolerance necessary beyond the intolerance we show to irrationality in every other area of our lives. We haven’t passed laws against believing that Elvis is still alive, or believing that aliens are abducting ranchers and molesting them. But when someone claims to be sure that Elvis is still alive for instance, that claim is met with chuckles and derision and the whole omimatarium of conversational pressure that really excludes a person making that claim from holding positions of responsibility in our society. That’s a good thing, that’s the way it should be and yet there’s no formal mechanism for this it’s just what I call conversational intolerance.

Jesus is one tough principal. . .

The founding charge of BYU is to teach every subject with the Spirit. It is not intended “that all of the faculty should be categorically teaching religion constantly in their classes, but…that every…teacher in this institution would keep his subject matter bathed in the light and colour of the restored gospel.”

 Brigham Young University raises some interesting questions about education.  Should a school with the above charter be an accredited institution?  How important is fact, reason, and truth in the pursuit of education?

Religion, outside the doors of a theology class, should have no place in an educational landscape.  I remember going to a Catholic middle school and learning Math, Science, and how condoms are evil.  The school’s responsibility (as they saw it) to teach us their doctrine on contraceptives took priority over the teaching of statistics that over 50% of teenagers are sexually active or that the number one killer in the world is a disease that can be avoided by simply using a condom.

Education is a fundamental institution of a society.  We should not allow the pure pursuit of knowledge to be tainted by anything; we need to not be afraid to let reason guide our learning instead of the hand of god.

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=199

and again, thanks to http://www.onegoodmove.org for pointing out this article. 

Taking on the world, one step at a time.

Woo!  When you type in "fear of ignorance" in Google, this site is the first that comes up!  Let's get some traffic and comments up in here.

Newsflash: 15 Feared Dead in Pong Inspired Massacre

Excellent site, http://www.onegoodmove.org has a video clip of the daily show's coverage of the House of Reps taking on the tough issue of the war in Iraq, the cost of health care, video games. That's right. Video games.

Apperently, kids are learning violence from video games. I mean, I have no idea where else they might see violence. Video games must be the culprit. Right? Right?

Sigh . . .

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/06/pong.html

Wine by Woot

http://www.woot.com is a website that offers one random (usually electronic) item for sale per day. The thing that makes it great is that that item is usually heavily discounted. Popular items sell out within minutes of being posted.

Now in beta is http://wine.woot.com/ – same concept except change the day into a week and have every item be wine.

Cheap wine by mail – if that isn't American then I don't know what is.

Human Rights Campaign

http://www.hrc.org

Today is Denver's Gay Pride Parade – happy pride!