Michael Vick and the Amish: If we don’t forgive?

The news that Michael Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles left me feeling bemused and more than a bit conflicted.  Clearly, Vick was punished for his crime, that can’t be debate. Michael Vick lost millions, his reputation, a chunk of his pro football career and served 18 months in prison.  So in terms of payback to society one could argue Michael Vick paid his debt and I was close to forgiveness.

But then one of the ESPN commentators on the radio flamed the fires of revenge for me.  We were reminded that this wasn’t just a matter of fighting dogs that were tortured and killed, as though somehow they deserved that horrific fate but we were reminded of the cruelties to everyday family pets.  You know pets, those trusted loyal companions that functions as friend, family and companion.  We were reminded that small fuzzy, defenseless dogs were thrown into the pits to be killed as a sort of sick warm up for the main dog fighting event.  In fact, Vick had no qualms about sacrificing and killing his own family pets. As a dog and animal lover I find the behavior reprehensible and a form of betrayal belonging to a lower form of life, definitely bordering on the sub-human.  How could any sentient creature be so cruel?  Then I remembered, oh right, we’re talking human beings were acts of cruelty occur every day as if it was an integral part of our DNA. As we race to 7 billion being served, it’s not surprising to find that the deviants and sadists, even if they are the decided minority, are stilling teeming in absolute numbers. That’s the other cruel joke, that is when we assume global warming can be divorced from population control but I’ll save that commentary for another blog.

I remember some of the Michael Vick excuses.  It was the warrior culture Vick came from that engendered his behavior but hell after a losing game I don’t recall the fans stringing and hanging up the losing quarterback by his feet like they did to inferior fighting dogs?  Vick commented that this was the culture the adults in his childhood exposed him to but I’m sorry if Nazi Germany taught us anything it’s that as citizens we have a responsibility to know and do the right thing.  Torturing any creature is verboten in my book as it is for most of us despite what any given authority figure might say.

So, now I am agitated and upset regarding Vick and the other cruel sadists bastards that I have to share this once pretty little planet with.  Then I remember a transcendental moment a couple of years ago.  I think most of us vaguely remember the sad school massacre of five Amish children back in 2006, unfortunately these horrific incidents tend to blur into one another as the public become inured to the horror. The media was all over the story talking to the Amish parents who were trying to console the family of the man who performed the hideous crime.  One of the grieving mothers quoted a familiar Amish phrase, “If we don’t forgive, how can we be forgiven?”  Say it quickly and it almost sounds like a trite aphorism, light and somewhat soothing when you are dealing with some small slight from another person.  Say it when you daughter was just massacred because some deficient creature couldn’t get over the loss of his own daughter and it borders on sainthood.  And that’s was just what the Amish were saying as they embraced the grieving family of the mass murderer.

So should we forgive Michael Vick and his transgressions? Frankly, I think Michael Vick’s remorse is as ephemeral as Don Cheney’s Vietnam war record. And then I think of those words, “If we don’t forgive, how can we be forgiven?”

Cheers,

Erik John Bertel

Vick Media Update:  I listened to a few sound bites from the 60 Minutes interview and the Michael Vick mea culpa.  I could not force myself to watch the whole spectacle because I knew Vick was being handled and coached.  I wasn’t wrong because this morning ESPN reported that Vick has hired a media consultant team that has assembled a 42 page media crisis guide that will address the rehabilitation of Vick’s tarnished public persona. Listening to a few sound bites and reading between the scripted words he sounded more like he was sorry that he was caught rather than being truly repentant for his hideous actions in torturing dogs. When you realize that dog fighting is tied to gambling and organized crime well lets just say I’m rooting for the Giants anyway.On the plus side I don’t believe he will become a serial killer.

Try these sites for the free Flores Girl novel download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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The Ebu Gogo Legend and Flores Girl Novel

The Ebu Gogo (pronounced abu, rhymes with Paula Abdul) are the main characters in a traditional folk story told by the Flores Islanders. As the main characters in the island legends the Ebu Gogo are described as a small, nasty people with a voracious appetite that sometimes included the devouring of the occasional human baby. The Ebu Gogo were said to walk awkwardly and could be heard to murmuring in their own language and were said to be capable of parroting human speech. When they could tolerate the Ebu Gogo no more the Flores islanders drove the small people in the direction of the caves, perhaps near Liang Bau or perhaps they burned the survivors alive. In any case, these stories were probably told to keep truculent Flores children in line in much the same fashion as some western fairy tales are told.

Some scientists believe that the folk lore maybe a shared cultural memory of Homo floresiensis but there is no solid evidence to support that theory. However, legends have the Ebu Gogo disappearing about 400 years ago at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese explorers. Scientists working on the Homo floresiensis find have also referred to the Ebu Gogo as “Hobbits”. Followers of cryptozoology, the pseudoscience that studies legendary animals such as Bigfoot and Sasquatch, are also enamored of the Ebu Gogo legend. The Ebu Gogo are also the main characters in Flores Girl.   Their discovery by two American scientists begins a series of unfortunate events that has unforeseen consequences for all involved. For more information and images of the Ebu Gogo go to www.FloresGirl.com.

Try these sites for the free Flores Girl novel download:

WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI

WWW.iPhone-Novel.com

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Shimkus: More Global Warming and Fundamentalist Folly

Fundamentalists are not just a threat to the study of evolution and biology but their special brand of ignorance can lead us to extinction. A congressman named Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) shows us how science and Fundamental ignorance can combine for some bad science and unintentional entertainment.   Here’s a quote:

“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a flood… God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”

Reminds me of the  ignorance in Afghanistan where President Hamid Karzai on Thursday signed into law legislation that okayed the husband’s raping of  their wives.  These are the guys Obama wants us to protect?  Ignorance like this you can’t make up and to think everybody blames the atheists for the sorry state of mankind.

Okay,  so here’s the Shimkus performance:

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/04/worst_persons_in_the_world.php

Last week at a House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Shimkus tried to argue that the United States doesn’t need a cap-and-trade system to limit CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. I’m not a fan of cap-and-trade system either but  I do think it was folly years ago to rig the CAFE standards to the benefit of trucks and SUVs. That bit of forward looking thinking worked out so well for our overall energy independence and our auto industry, didn’t it?  Still this particular argument borders on the brain dead and here is Shimkus’s newest take on rapid rise of CO2 in our atmosphere:

SHIMKUS: It’s plant food. … So if we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere? … So all our good intentions could be for naught. In fact, we could be doing just the opposite of what the people who want to save the world are saying.

Plant food? Even a child knows too much of anything can be bad for you and this is from a member of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.  Want to know how screwed we really are? Take a gander at this satellite photo showing a chunk of the ice shelf the size of Jamaica separating from the Antarctic and heading out to sea:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45636000

But don’t worry it’s part of God’s plan! Why?  Shimkus said so!

For those that care my first novel in the Trilogy, Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot, is now available on Amazon for the Kindle Reader at a very reasonable price:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UE6MDY

Or you can read the novel for free on your Blackberry RIM on Wattpad just go Wattcode 125445!

Creationists Fail Science 101 and so goes America

Here is a recent exchange with another ID fan in response to my blog yesterday. This type of thinking really scares the hell out of me for the future of this country as a global technology leader:

“So do the math and by multiplying by millions of years, and use a calculator if you must, to see how the earth is constantly changing over time.”(From my blog-EJB)

“but you are assuming that the area the mountain is in now was once flat. If God created the mountain at a certain height 6,000 years ago then it growing today does not tell us how old the earth is.”  – McCoville, Intelligent Design advocate.

My Response – You’re right if you assume god had a certain sensibility regarding landscaping but the presence of marine fossils on the top of certain mountains indicates that they were once at sea level and with their present rate of accretion that had to be more than 6,000 years ago.

And lets take this out of the realm of the earth for a moment. Look at the lunar landscape with its myriad craters that you can see with your naked eye. Now if you follow the Bible the moon was also created six thousand years ago, actually after the earth on the fourth day according to Genesis and all of those meteorite and asteroid collisions had to occur in that tiny time frame. Why isn’t the earth pockmarked to the degree the moon is? Why? Because those impacts occurred billions of year ago and the forces of atmospheric erosion, which are lacking on the moon, eroded most of their presence on the earth over that time.

If you don’t believe in an old earth you now have to account for the moon being created at a different time before the earth and I don’t believe that is the normal reading of scripture. Or you have to create a scenario in which god bombarded the moon but chose to spare the earth, you know one of “his” miracles. Not to be blasphemous but god was pretty liberal with his miracles during biblical times but you have to admit “his” modern day miracles have kind of paled in comparison. Or just maybe god likes craters and he created the moon that way just to mess with us. Funny, we just witnessed a comet collision with Jupiter during our lifetime though so that thinking is a bit suspect. Kind of convoluted thinking in any case wouldn’t you say? Sorry, you have to face it, the Bible makes for a very poor science book.

My last comment said it all.  Where do these Creationists learn science? Did they just fall asleep during the geology lectures in school or were they never taught any critical thinking because they were home schooled? How do they selectively turn on and off  what they consider true science or do they care?  Do they just listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio?  I don’t get it but almost half of Americans reject evolution. That means half of all Americans are not capable of critical scientific thinking.

Now their comment to me is that I am the one who has been spoon fed and accepted the humanist belief system including Darwinism without my own critical review or personal introspection.  Not true, I spent some time in Catholic School and immediately began discounting everything they taught me the minute I escaped their clutches, including the concepts of heaven and hell.  I did so as I slowly began to find my way in the real world. First, the natural world just did not make sense to me as taught by the priests and nuns.  Furthermore, their shocking abuse of parochial school students as personally observed did not jive with me either.  And while I did not experience the sexual abuse that was inherent in the Catholic School system, I can tell you that nobody, including myself, was exempt from the numerous forms of physical punishment that was perpetuated upon the student body by the clergy.  I can also tell you that celibacy gives you a lot of pent up energy and a certain zeal that needs to be vented upon unwary sinners. In my case, being left-handed I was subjected to regular physical beatings because I had the temerity to use my left-hand to write and draw.  You know, the old school superstition regarding the left-hand being sinistral or evil thinking from the middle ages.

So did I reject god? No, I rejected the men who claim to speak for god.  Every major religion has the stink of man about it and not the rarefied air of  god.  To me, nature speaks more of god than any holy book as interpreted and manipulated by mortal man. So again, I ask what of science in America?

Here was McCovilles response:

“Marine fossils at the top of the mountains…. Noah’s flood. Again, the moon has the marks because that is how God made them, have you seen the meteorites hit the moon or are you taking the words of men by faith that it happened? God’s miracles continue to happen today, you fail to recognize them as such. I never said the Bible was a science book, I only stand by the claim that it is infallible and science continues to agree.”

Should have seen the proverbial flood coming but you can see my response in the blog.   In any case, if 50% of Americans are thinking like this then we are so screwed as a nation.

For those that care my first novel in the Trilogy, Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot, is now available on Amazon for the Kindle Reader at a very reasonable price:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UE6MDY

Enjoy!

Erik John Bertel

There is No Darkness Like Hovind’s Creationist Ignorance

This is a recent exchange that was initiated by a creationist chap, named Andrew Sandstrom, who took exception to an old Blog posting I wrote about Sarah Palin and the Republican Expelled Creationist gang. If you have followed my writings you know I wasn’t particularly receptive to the Republican’s fundamentalist religious preoccupation as cynically perpetrated by Karl Rove.  Here is Andrew’s reply to me:

Intelligent Design is very limited when it comes to a creationist point of view. It’s assuming that the earth is billions of years old, when it really isn’t. (Here we go again! -EJB)

The Geological column and several key theories brought it about. And assumptions that places like the Grand Canyon take many many years to form. (And this is an interpretation, not fact. It’s never been proven.)

Our dating methods have been proven wrong a long time ago. Although, once evolution started leaking into mainstream media and everyone had started to accept that the earth is billions of years old, nobody dared question our modern-day methods except darwinists. (Not sure what the point was with this comment- EJB)

And now we’ve been repeatedly fed this bull crap about how the earth is billions of years old. We’re now looking upon every other theory as immediately dismissable.

Watch Kent Hovind’s creation series. You’ll find that the modern-day creationist views are ‘very’ different than ID. ID is still a way for humanists who don’t believe in a God but also don’t find evolution a very reliable theory to explain life. Ex: There was a designer, but it’s never showed itself to us. (This guy is hard-core so of course you can’t trust humanists -EJB)

You can believe whatever you want, all I’m saying is that evolution is an interpretation of the FACTS. Grand Canyon existing is a FACT. That it was created over millions or billions of years is THEORY. It cannot be observed so it cannot be proven.

In short: Show a little more respect to another person’s beliefs. Just because you believe in evolution doesn’t mean you’ve come along more intellectually.

Oh, and Kent Hovind’s website: http://www.drdino.com

(One of Hovind’s articles is titled “The Grand Canyon, Things That Make Evolutionists Look Stupid,”  see name calling is not relegated solely to intellectuals -EJB)

My Response:

“There is no darkness but ignorance” and this is especially evident when religious zealots talk about scientific observation. You realize that with the advent of laser and computer technology and now through GPS, we can actually measure mountains rising and tectonic plates spreading apart, right? Or don’t they teach these scientific facts in your religious compound? (Okay, I was being bitchy but these denials are so hard to take early in the morning!)

For example, the massive Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm or for you metric phobes, about 3 inches a year. That very same plate is still pushing up the Himalaya Mountains. So do the math and by multiplying by millions of years, and use a calculator if you must, to see how the earth is constantly changing over time. So don’t give me that crap we haven’t seen it. You might as well argue that the GPS in your car doesn’t work while you are it. Speaking of which, I didn’t see my car being built but it’s a pretty safe assumption it was built by Americans in a U.S. factory (?) and not by angels in heaven (hopefully not by devils but that could explain a lot!) And yes, I do buy American!

Religious zealots chose to conveniently ignore the facts and look for weakness along the fringes of science hoping beyond hope to see some personal glimpse of God. Albert Einstein tried to do the same and he failed miserably by the way so I don’t think you’re going to fare much better. That’s why we call it faith by the way. And faith is fine but don’t tell me you have the right to teach this ignorance in a public school. It’s important to separate the teaching of science from the preaching of faith and you just have to look to the Taliban to see where religious ignorance will lead you.

Oh, as to the link to that Creationist site look if you must for a needed laugh but it’s more of the usual Creationist denial and crapfest material. I like the negative article about the chickenosaurus, which is an attempt by biologists to turn genes on and off to recreate a ancestral dinosaur from it’s descendant: a common everyday chicken. For example, they have been able to grow teeth in chicken embryos which is pretty impressive by playing around with a few genes. As to the ethics of doing this, well that is another matter. Here’s a better link:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/03/10/will-jurassic-park-ever-really-come-true/

Finally, as to the state of my intellectual development, well I am reminded of an old Archie Bunk quip when Meathead commented to Archie about how Archie should be wanting more for his children. To paraphrase Archie’s comment he said “didn’t the gorilla parent want more for his children but there they are, still a gorilla.” I have accepted that there is so much we don’t know and more importantly, in our present physical manifestations as human beings, so much we will never know.  In short, I have embraced uncertainty unlike my creationist fundamentalist friends and any supposed intellectual superiority on my part melts away upon personal introspection and a simple gaze at the night skies.

Erik John Bertel

Do Americans really want our Presidents breastfeeding?

I hesitate to release this particular blog because I know this small essay is going to be taken the wrong way by so many different people. In short, this blog is not going to appear to be very politically correct and, for that matter, will probably piss off people of all political persuasions. That’s one of the dangers to be associated with independent thought. One thing I do recognize about Americans is that we are not big on nuance. Take for instance the McCain supporter who claimed a black Obama supporter carved on the letter “B” on her face the other day. McCain’s Karl Rove operatives were all over the story leaking it to the press only to find out the dumb ass actually carved the letter herself backwards in a mirror. Oh, did she mention it was a dyslexic black Obama supporter? Again, we are not big on nuance and, hence, my somewhat offensive blog article title.

I’m not even staking a position on this issue and this is neither an anti-feminist diatribe nor is it necessarily a knock against Sarah Palin, heaven knows I have done enough of that in my past blogs. Frankly, I don’t know or care if Sarah is nursing her youngest son but do Americans realize that for the first time in American history there is a remote chance that we could have an American President that is actually breastfeeding? Besides the prurient aspects of this possibility, this is obviously another nail in the coffin of the stuffy old, white guys who have been running and running down our country for the past two hundred plus years. Much has been made of Obama possibly being the first black president, second if you count Bill Clinton, but we never had a mother running this country and being the “Commander in Chief” before.

Other nations have already had female leaders typically Prime Ministers. These women tended to be older, mature types that had withstood the political winds of their respective countries. Some were maternal, perhaps loving partners to their respective mates but the essence that made them most feminine was long in the past by the time they took office. Face it, Palin is a younger, untried personality much like Obama. Plus, we know scientifically that women are genetically and hormonally different than their males counterparts. Accordingly, women have been treated very differently by Western culture and to some degree negatively. That has changed with the advent of total war and while we have had a prohibition against woman serving in combat units that does not mean they have been in harm’s way, particularly in Iraq, so the political sands have been slowly shifting in favor of women expanding their role in society.

Biden recently made a comment about Obama being tested during his first six months in office. A lot of people have been thinking that about an Obama presidency but Biden said this as a stupid off-the cuff remark that engendered all sort of comebacks from the McCain-Palin camp. But what if McCain wins and one morning several months into his presidency McCain never gets up. Come on, you know he is old enough to peacefully go in the middle of the night, right? Consequently, we would have the untried Palin as President and Commander in Chief of this country. Once she gets in office, terrorists decide to test her because hell that is what they do to any American President. They hold hostage a number of Americans and among the hostages are a number of children. Being a mother does this color her judgment and subsequently alter her tactical response to the situation?

Most people will say what the hell does her gender have to do with any of this? These are the same people who say race has nothing to do with this campaign. Nice brave, politically correct words but we all know differently. For the average African-American you don’t think Obama’s color makes a difference? Did Kennedy make a difference to voting Catholics in 1960? Kennedy’s Catholicism did not make a difference to some Protestants at that time? For the young, first-time voter you don’t think age makes a difference? You’re telling me they don’t think McCain is a fossil who can’t even boot a computer never mind download an MP3? You don’t think Hispanics don’t care that Obama is black? Or for that matter some white Americans don’t think he is a black Arab? Yes, brave politically correct words but not really grounded in the reality of the American electorate and the behavior of people in general. Nuance Alert: I didn’t say all Americans are rednecks but I did say they are human.

This type of fossil, conservative thinking about the ramifications of Palin being President is, of course, negated by the black man’s presence. After all, she is not running as President and Obama is and, for many Palin is clearly the lesser of two possible evils. If she ever got into the Oval office images of her kids playing would abound as she commanders the office of Chief Executive. Think of Kennedy and John John and you’ll scare the hell out of lot of people. Plus she could be breast feeding one of her brood at that time! Really, this is not an issue for the American people? How about America’s enemies? Think about Kennedy playing poker with Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile? Would a mother behave or negotiate differently with a powerful enemy knowing that her child could ultimately be killed by her decisions? What about your enemies who may not be so politically correct? If you’re Putin, do you reconsider annexing Georgia if a nursing mother is running the United States?

On second thought, maybe we need more of that type of maternal thinking in this world? Think about all the wars and stupid bloodshed we have seen started and waged by tired, old white men who were more concerned about their egos and place in history than they were concerned about the fates of their children. And, face it, nobody does total war like tired, old white men. Maybe a mother would be a refreshing change of pace and perhaps their perspective is one that is long overdue in our government? But isn’t Palin’s son serving in Iraq and isn’t she in favor of the war, claiming Iraq is a mission from God? Being a woman hasn’t stopped female suicide bombers, right?

Let’s face it, bringing this breastfeeding issue up is another variation on the old double standard, right and I am being little more than a sexist pig, correct? Nobody mainstream touches this topic but if you Google “Palin breastfeeding” there are over a million hits so Americans are talking about this topic. As to the double standard, hey guys can’t breastfeed and secondly, as I said before, men are very genetically and hormonally different from women despite what political correctness may say about the topic. Nuance Alert: I didn’t say men are better, I just said different. (As a matter of fact, woman are genetically superior to men because of their double-X chromosomes which can make them less susceptible to a variety of sex linked genetic diseases.)

And hello, Americans are still big on double standards. Hillary is allowed to squirt a few crocodile tears when she is being picked on and she didn’t get dinged too bad for her blatant display of womanly emotion. However, if a man was to do that during a campaign, well can you say sayonara to him in the polls? Moreover, we can make all sorts of aspersions about the young black guy being tested early on if he gets elected but we can’t question the nursing mother being tested? I don’t know, I just can’t figure this one out and I guess we’ll just let history take place in the weeks ahead.

***By the way I recently heard that almost two to three million Chinese factory workers have been laid off thanks to the latest economic downturn. With the Olympics over expect the Chinese authorities to clamp down on dissension within the general populace and note the recent headlines regarding the death sentence for the mayor found taking bribes for Olympic contracts. If this is a relatively short recession the Chinese will recover but a long, drawn out recession will test the mettle of both the Chinese people and their government. This is going to get interesting and scary at the same time.***

Link:

No VP Debate: Sarah Palin Exudes Soccer Mom Values

Watching the latest debate was like déjà vu all over again.  Once again, Sarah Palin was lighter than a feather, all fluff, no substance and not an original thought in her pretty little head.  Not to worry though, Sarah’s got values say her fans.  Sort of like the latest NFL thug who after getting arrested has the fans saying you can’t suspend him, he’s got skills!

And, Joe doesn’t get off the hook either for this snore fest.  As I stated before, Joe has lost a bit on his fastball, witness how he tried to “characterized” John McCain.  Thought for a moment he was having a stroke but Joe Biden soon recovered to “bore again”.

So what’s the final scorecard on Sarah?

Round 3:  The VP  Debate

Here are my running comments as this debate bores on:

Some sample Sarah comments: “They don’t like America!” she said of foreign oil producers.  Well, they like our money.  About global warming, “Climate change is occurring but there are cyclical changes.” (paraphrase)  She doesn’t want to argue about it , but we got to “clean up the problem”. Huh?

Sarah’s answers are a long, rambling, run-on sentences, I mean does this woman ever take a breathe? Please, get some oxygen to your brain, Sarah! Take a  breath will you?

Same sex couples?  She’ll be tolerant and, get this, she digs diversity! She doesn’t support anything but one man and one woman. But then again Joe and Obama weaseled out on the gay issue.

As to Iraq, remember that Bush money pit? “We got to win in Iraq” and then it’s off to Afghanistan, she said. Who’s Talibbany by the way?  Iran, guess what, no nukes says Sarah. Why?  They hate America! Okay but where’s the beef?  And don’t bother looking Joe’s way.  He and Obama look like they are content to run the clock out thinking they have a lead. Hey, there are 30 plus day left in the election!

So far, no major faux pas from Sarah but I think I fell asleep at one point.  Boring!  But nuclear weaponry sounds so annoying coming from her.  Still, better that Bush’s pronunciation of nu-cu-ler.

I think the audience either passed out or left the debate out of indifference it was so quiet. I’m not into the moderator, Gwen either.  I understand she is a black conservative but hey she’s boring.  Think there’s a common thread here?  Where’s Tina Fey when you need her or for that matter Hillary?

Oh no, Sarah’s pushing that Washington outsider crap.  Please you’re a politician, that’s the very definition of an insider. Opps, did she just make a comment about changing the VP role?  Who does she think she is? Dick Cheney?

Oh no, Joe just had another senior moment, he seems to skip every so often like an old warped record! Ah, he just restarted and is attacking McCain’s maverick credentials! Good for him, I thought we would have to ge the paddles out to resuscitate him.  Then at one point Joe gets verklemptwhen talking about raising his family.  Way to show your softer side Joe!

Final comments:

Sarah is going to fight for the middle class! We are blessed and she is proud to be an American. Yikes, what a cliche fest!

As for Joe…zzzzzzzz

That’s it?  No knock out but are Sarah’s scoccer Mom values enough as we near a financial meltdown?

Round 2: Katie Couric Interview

I sat down sat again with my wife to watch the Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric. As Sarah mumbled a bizarre answer, my wife turned to me and said “What the hell? What a dope!”

I had to agree, it was another embarrassing train wreck of an interview. The woman can’t put two thoughts together, never mind express them in a coherent fashion. As Sarah was talking or should I say stumbling, I was saying to myself, okay this is how you should respond. Instead she gave a long rambling, incoherent commentary about Alaska, national security and her Russian neighbor. Then I had my epiphany: Sarah’s like Dan Quayle, only not as pretty. Really, it was Dan Quayle and losing one’s mind speech all over again. Doesn’t matter though, neo-cons like Silly little Freak still love Sarah because she has “values”. I just guess that intelligence is not one of those shared values. No wonder why this country is sinking so fast!

I am not saying Sarah is stupid like George Bush stupid, really somebody please do a brain scan on him, but she was clearly coached and if I was Vladimir Putin I would definitely want to invite her to my next poker party. If Bush got all weepy looking into Putin’s eyes you can only imagine what Palin’s response will be to the Russian dictator.

So what of Sarah Palin and her religious beliefs? Well, five to six years ago she was a member of a Pentecostal church, the Assembly of God to be exact. Now these rocket scientists believe in a literal bible, talking in tongues, faith healing and, how can we forget, the ever popular end-of-times. We have had so many end of times I don’t were to begin. This type of inspired lunacy leads to such clear thinking as “it’s God’s will that is being done in Iraq.” Funny, I thought that was the work of a mediocre son looking to clear his daddy’s historical record but, hey, what the hell do I know? I mean we went in there to separate those heathens from the WMD’s right? Eh, okay the weapons weren’t there but we did bring freedom to the Iraqis, right? You know freedom from boredom as the local militia executes the men in your family but hey that’s God’s plan and you can’t argue about the big picture, right?

The good news is that God’s plans are not just relegated to simple matters of war. No way! Did you know that a new pipe line is a task from God? Me, I was thinking Exxon-Mobil but I guess I think way too small. Really, Palin said this. God’s will is to be done developing our natural resources, never mind all we are doing is feeding a nasty oil habit and that the sooner we can move to something alternative the sooner we can tell the idiots in the Middle East what they can do with their oil.  Ask Sarah about Creationism and she’ll reply sure Creationism should be taught in school!  We don’t have a lick of proof that it can’t stand up to rigorous scientific review but hell proof didn’t stop us from invading Iraq.

Round 1: Charlie Gibson Interview

Being independently minded, I sat with my wife and we watched the first interview on ABC first hand before anybody had an opportunity to tell us how to think about the interview. I’m sorry but as I sat there I found it be both embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. I replayed it several times on the DVR watching their facial expressions and their body language and it reeked of pure train wreck! Charlie looked like a pained, almost constipated school teacher and Sarah Palin resembled the proverbial moose caught in the headlights.

I’m sorry but the look on her face was priceless. It’s amazing how the Ben Stein fundamentalist creationist crowd regurgitates everything that is thrown at it by the cynical Republican conservatives, by the way the very same conservative wing that was all but ready to throw McCain under the bus. Then McCain goes out and drafts the fundamentalist Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential trophy candidate and she say goes around saying “god tasked us to do this and god speaks to us” and the next thing you know McCain is called “McBrilliant” by the vicodin-laden gas bag named Rush Limbaugh.

The Sarah Palin Files:

More: Palin and the Charlie Gibson Interview: She’s No Hillary!

More on Hillary: No Political Catfight with Palin

More on Palin “Governor Palin You’re No Hillary Clinton!”

More on Palin with this story,“Apparently-Bristol-Palin-is-no-Chelsea-Clinton-Either”

Sorry about spamming my own blog but the entire first Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot novel is available as a free download at WWW.FREE-SCI-FI.COM. Also Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot is now available as a free ebook novel on the iPhone!

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Imagine Sarah Palin and Putin Playing Poker Together

One of the great enjoyments of writing a blog is that you get to interact with people, people you wouldn’t otherwise talk to, never mind notice. Anyway I received another bon mot regarding my comments on the Sarah Palin interview and I found this one very illuminating:

If you knew that “Bush Doctrine” implies more than one policy then Sarah Palin’s reaction to the question (Which is to ask for more clarification) was to be expected and to the point —apparently you don’t so quit sounding so smart D–b-ss!”

Nice try, I know this is the latest conservative spin on Palin’s interview but I’m sorry the look on her face was priceless. It’s amazing how the Ben Stein fundamentalist creationist crowd regurgitates everything that is thrown at it by the cynical Republican conservatives, by the way the very same conservative wing that was all but ready to throw McCain under the bus. Then McCain goes out and drafts the fundamentalist Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential trophy candidate and she say goes around saying “god tasked us to do this and god speaks to us” and the next thing you know McCain is called “McBrilliant” by the vicodin-laden gas bag named Rush Limbaugh.

Anyway, being independently minded, I sat with my wife and we watched the interview on ABC first hand before anybody had an opportunity to tell us how to think about the interview. I’m sorry but as I sat there I found it be both embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. I replayed it several times on the DVR watching their facial expressions and their body language and it reeked of pure train wreck! Charlie looked like a pained, almost constipated school teacher and Sarah resembled the proverbial moose caught in the headlights.

After the Palin interview reviews were in the conservatives immediately starting sounding like Bill Clinton when Bill went through his bizarre, convoluted explanation of what the word “sex” meant. Frankly, if Sarah knew of an alternative meaning to the “Bush Doctrine” (she didn’t boys and girls), she should have said so forcefully to Charlie instead of looking like a goofy high school kid trying to bluff her way through an essay test. And why didn’t she do that? Because she got caught cramming for her exam, it was so obvious. I am not saying she is stupid like George Bush stupid, really somebody please do a brain scan on him, but she was clearly coached and if I was Vladimir Putin I would definitely want to invite her to my next poker party. If Bush got all weepy looking into Putin’s eyes you can only imagine what Palin’s response will be.

So having seen the interview for myself and being quite capable of thinking for myself, I tell my conservative-fundamentalist friends to go ahead and spin, spin, spin, baby! I saw this lame rebuttal on the internet a day ago before my new friend forwarded it to me. Go ahead and keep regurgitating your tired neo-con world view among yourselves but this crap is not going to work with this independent-minded pundit. You would think after 8 years of Bush people would begin to think for themselves but guess again folks.

Oh, and by the way I’m still leaning toward McCain because I know he is not the right wing ideologue you conservative fundamentalist bozos are so enamored with. Actually I liked the old McCain in 2000 who had no allegiance to the Republican party bosses. Of course, he got swift boated in the Carolina primaries by the present clown in the White House and Bush’s political operatives and sadly, this country has been on downward spiral ever since. Back then, McCain was such a formidable and creditable force for change that even some Democrats were hoping he would switch parties after his defeat in the Republican primaries. This guy in 2008 I barley recognize, especially with all of the lobbyists running his campaign but I have the slim hope if he does get in he is just ornery enough to bite the asses of liberals and conservatives alike. Obama I just don’t have a feel for and frankly I am hesitant to support him but Sarah’s selection as VP now causes me to pause and re-evaluate my thinking.

Why am I concerned? Because McCain is old and Sarah is an all too eager over-achiever who says she is ready but is not. I’m sorry we just had eight years of an intellectually challenged president that said he didn’t read the papers and who went entirely with his gut reaction and just look at the body of work: a five year old war in Iraq with no end in sight and the Muslim fundamentalists threatening to take over both Afghanistan and Pakistan while Bin Laden is still resumed to be alive and well in a cave somewhere. Am I asking too much to have a president that is at least as smart as the bad guys?

So just watch the interview again, Sarah’s facial response to the questioning is very enlightening. She’s as light as a feather, lighter than Obama. That’s great for a Buddhist but that’s lousy for a political leader in these troubled times.

The Sarah Palin Files:

More: Palin and the Charlie Gibson Interview: She’s No Hillary!

More on Hillary: No Political Catfight with Palin

More on Palin “Governor Palin You’re No Hillary Clinton!”

More on Palin with this story,“Apparently-Bristol-Palin-is-no-Chelsea-Clinton-Either”

Sarah Palin: I’m Ready, Then Again Maybe Not

One thing about Sarah she has certainly been a polarizer: you may love her or hate her but you just can’t ignore her.  I had over 700 hits on review of the Gibson-Plain interview the other day and apparently everybody wants to know more about Sarah.  Frankly, I don’t love her or hate her, to me she’s just another mediocrity in the grand political scheme of life.  Furthermore, and despite what her detractors say, she’s is neither a hypocrite or a phony but frankly that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for somebody with presidential aspirations either.

What has been amusing is to watch the Limbaugh conservatives and the fundamentalist fringe of the Republican party fawn over her and rushing to her defense anytime somebody in the liberal media says anything aobut her.  As a politician all you have to do is utter the word “God” and you got this gang melting in the palm of your hand. They are like groupies around a pop star. I really do believe these people are more accepting of, and definitely more comfortable with, a murderous, lecherous but self-professed Christian than they are with a peaceful, law abiding atheist.  They love Sarah for saying Iraq is a task that is from God and if she spoke in tongues in the past so much the better for this crowd.  The fact that we are also fighting religious extremists who also believe they are on a mission from God or Allah seems to escape this simplistic fundamentalist gang but you know it’s never too late to put together an old-fashioned crusade. Oh, yeah, we kind of did that in Iraq, didn’t we?

During the interview Sarah told Charlie “I’m ready.” However, if you are going to look like the proverbial moose in the headlights because of a tough (?) Charlie Gibson question what the hell are you going to do when planes smash into the twin towers?  Why, you’ll look dumbfounded like George Bush did in front of those pre-school kids, of course.  Alright, that’s a bad example but you get my drift. I have to say that at least Sarah Palin is more articulate than George Bush but that’s not saying much when you realize his most common utterance is “um, duh” (I started counted these anytime the president speaks, it helps me to stay awake).  Nor has Sarah shown that she has done much yet. Okay, Obama hasn’t done much either other than a few good speeches but at least he has two years of campaigning and all of that public scrutiny under his belt.

By the way Hillary Clinton continues to actively campaign for Obama in some key battleground states. Not surprisingly, she has drawn a line against making personal attacks on Palin and the Clinton insiders insist she doesn’t want a political cat fight with Sarah. Sarah, of course, when she is not complaining about Hillary’s whining, is nothing but complimentary about Hillary, all the better to steal Hillary’s voters.  So Hillary will attack the Republicans on policy, but nothing personal about Palin. Hillary did defend Obama who has been under attack his “lipstick on a pig” utterance to describe McCain’s tired Bush policies. In case you were retiring in a cave with Bin Laden this past week, the Republicans have accused him of personally insulting Palin.

“Barack has made this clear,” Hillary said. “It was in no way meant as an affront.”  Hmmm, I don’t know, she is doing just enough campaigning to avoid party criticism but not enough to make much of a difference.  Let’s face it, Hillary’s political clock continues to tick and all she can do is hope for a McCain win in November.

The Sarah Palin Files:

Imagine Sarah Palin and Putin Playing Poker Together

More: Palin and the Charlie Gibson Interview:  She’s No Hillary!

More on Hillary: No Political Catifght with Palin

More on Palin “Governor Palin You’re No Hillary Clinton!”

More on Palin with this story,“Apparently-Bristol-Palin-is-no-Chelsea-Clinton-Either”

Sarah Palin and the Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Creationists

It’s funny how life comes full circle to anybody who is paying attention. I started out writing this blog hoping to discuss some of the issues writers face trying in their efforts to get published. Frankly, writing can be a lonely and sometimes unrewarding task and book publishers don’t make the task any easier. A process that is inherently tied to communication can cause the individual to drown in their isolation and consequently I felt talking about such a task could at least ameliorate some of the pain. As I worked with my Flores Girl novel I found that the subject matter of my book was getting some unwarranted attention from a number of cranky creationists. Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot is a cautionary tale about the discovery of a prehistoric dwarf tribe by a pair of scientists and, of course, is a complete work of fiction. Well, that wasn’t good enough for some of my creationist detractors because the title contained the word “god” and made some implicit assumptions about mankind’s evolution and that was enough to illicit some seriously cranky email. And you know how the fundamentalists are all about the written word!

So, seeking revenge and some personal amusement, I decided to go off on that craptacular movie called “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” from Ben Stein. After a while, I became less amused with the blog and tired of the pointless arguments with people who read exactly two books in their lives: the bible and the instruction manual to their trailer home. So after failing to find an Expelled bootleg, I boldly pointed out that nobody cared about ID and creationism since there was a presidential election going on and that a crappy Bush-inspired war economy had everybody more worried about foreclosure. Furthermore, the creationist creeps were going to have a tough time choosing between Obama or McCain since neither one was particularly accommodating to their simplistic world bible views.

Boy, was I wrong on that prognostication! Nostradamus I am not! No sooner did I make that stupid forecast McCain goes out and adds some Alaskan Creationist- Secessionist- Pro-Life-Pro-Gun-MILF to his ticket as his VP, all after an incredibly long vetting process that must have transpired during the duration of a single bowel movement. And I should add that I am a McCain supporter!

So what of Sarah Palin and her religious beliefs? Well, five to six years ago she was a member of a Pentecostal church, the Assembly of God to be exact. Now these rocket scientists believe in a literal bible, talking in tongues, faith healing and, how can we forget, the ever popular end-of-times. We have had so many end of times I don’t were to begin. This type of inspired lunacy leads to such clear thinking as “it’s God’s will that is being done in Iraq.” Funny, I thought that was the work of a mediocre son looking to clear his daddy’s historical record but, hey, what the hell do I know? I mean we went in there to separate those heathens from the WMD’s right? Eh, okay the weapons weren’t there but we did bring freedom to the Iraqis, right? You know freedom from boredom as the local militia executes the men in your family but hey that’s God’s plan and you can’t argue about the big picture, right?

The good news is that God’s plans are not just relegated to simple matters of war. No way! Did you know that a new pipe line is a task from God? Me, I was thinking Exxon-Mobil but I guess I think way too small. Really, Palin said this. God’s will is to be done developing our natural resources, never mind all we are doing is feeding a nasty oil habit and that the sooner we can move to something alternative the sooner we can tell the idiots in the Middle East what they can do with their oil.  Ask Sarah about Creationism and she’ll reply sure Creationism should be taught in school!  We don’t have a lick of proof that it can’t stand up to rigorous scientific review but hell proof didn’t stop us from invading Iraq.

That said, Sarah Palin is not stupid. Unlike Obama, she had the good sense to realize that once she became a mainstream Republican she had to leave behind the small town church that inspired a thousand tongues. In fact, she does not does not consider herself Pentecostal anymore but I do wonder if she feels that God can still be accessed? And what about the view that Alaska is the preferred shelter for Christians in the end-of-times? There has been some talk that she is also anti-Israel but really has she ever met a Jew? Ben Stein for example? I mean really, has she?

All I know is the Expelled crowd is really charged up again and we have McCain to thank for this madness. Soon we’ll get all sorts of new home school and ID initiatives coursing through the mediocre halls of Congress. I’m thinking of voting for Obama now just for spite but damn I don’t want my taxes to go up again! What’s a thinking evolutionist to do? And where is Hillary in all this mess? Can’t she remind women not to cast their vote based on their chromosomes but to vote instead on the issues? After all, who do they think they are? Men? Someday, perhaps after the election, I hope to get back to writing about writing rather than about politics and fundamentalists. And to think, if they had just left me alone this all could have been avoided!

More on Hillary: No Political Catifght with Palin

More on Palin “Governor Palin You’re No Hillary Clinton!”

More on Palin with this story,“Apparently-Bristol-Palin-is-no-Chelsea-Clinton-Either”

Sarah Palin the Secessionist Creationist and Hillary

Sarah Palin has made an otherwise dull and dry election a bit more fun for myself and a lot of other people. That’s not necessarily good for the country but is has been amusing and just maybe, I said maybe, more people are turning into the election because of her. Unfortunately what they are going to find is not too savory.

Let’s face it, Sarah Palin has a bit of the redneck trailer park streak within her and that has even inspired the fake photo of her holding a rifle while attired in only a flag inspired bikini. Let’s face it, the very real images of her pregnant daughter holding her momma’s baby is just a little too trailer park for me. If Obama’s kids were like that you could only imagine the verbal backlash from the likes of political thugs such as Rush Limbaugh.

The problem is that McCain’s choice of her as his running mate has put me into a bit of a quandary. I was a supporter of the maverick McCain in 2000 and his move to the right, particularly towards the religious creeps, while leaving me queasy could be shrugged off with the understanding he was just being pragmatic about getting his party’s nomination. Voting for Obama was out of the question because of the whole cult of personality that has gathered about him and his fervent followers. The last time we had such a buzz about a candidate was JFK and frankly other than being killed so tragically young, I am at a loss to understand what the hell he did for this country. I mean for Pete’s sake he almost blundered his way into a nuclear war with the USSR.

In general, I prefer mediocrity in my politicians because mediocrity is less likely to inspire the followers to do such heinous things like purges and gulags. One bad charismatic leader can do much more damage to a people than a string of successive mediocrities. Plus, rightly or wrongly, if Obama should be elected he will be challenged immediately by the likes of Al Qaeda. They are far less likely to immediately challenge McCain, after all this is the guy who sings “Bomb Iran” to the old Beach Boys tune. That doesn’t mean they won’t continue to attack the US, they will just bide their time accordingly and concentrate on Afghanistan and Pakistan first.  And if they put Pakistan into play watch out for India and a real escalation in the old dooms-day clock.

So besides the redneck trailer park thing what is it that I dislike about Palin? Well, she’s another religious fundamentalist and a creationist tool to boot (see, I came full circle in my blog after going on a tangent). Haven’t we had enough years of ignorance in the White House? When Bush was asked about evolution he basically said “I dunno”. This type of uninspired stupidity eventually seeps into our domestic and foreign policy as well. Upon hearing of the 9/11 attacks the administration immediately said we have to counter by attacking Iraq. When reminded by their own people that we were attacked by Al Qaeda elements that were based in Afghanistan, the response was “okay, we attack Afghanistan first, then Iraq second”. I can’t tell you how long it took for the nitwits to realize that were both Sunnis and Shia in Iraq.

Now the good news is that McCain is not a religious ideologue and frankly he has no interest in pursuing their interests. And I do believe if he does get elected there is a good chance he will return to his old maverick ways of embracing the middle road and bipartisan support for his agenda. I don’t think Obama can do that because upon his election I feel a lot of the right will just dig their heels in opposition to anything he does. But what if McCain dies? Do I really want Sarah Palin the Secessionist Creationist as my President? Did you even know she was once a member of a Secessionist party?

What about Sarah Palin the Secessionist Creationist and how come the mainstream media is such a pack of wusses when it comes to discussing this issue? For those uninitiated to the conversation, in Alaska there is a third party called the Alaska Independence Party which has advocated and drafted both a call for a revote on statehood and the establishment of Alaska as an independent republic. Damn, all of these years and I thought the civil war had addressed this statehood issue for once and for all but hey I am not a redneck and  I guess, I think a little differently.  My guess is that some Alaskans want full control over the oil and gas in their state and hate abiding to those damn conservationists in the EPA.  Anyway, Sarah’s good old boy husband joined the party during the nineties and she attended their conference in 1994.  It’s unclear if she was ever a member of the party but in 2006 as Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin spoke to their conference and said “Good luck on a successful and inspiring convention,” she said. “Keep up the good work, and God bless you.”

Sarah’s people will argue that Alaska First movement is more about state rights, you know along the lines of the KKK.  As for me and to quote that great political intellect, “I dunno” and recommend you formulate your own opinions by visited their site at akip.org.  Maybe I have a libertarian bent but I sure in hell don’t harbor secessionist attitudes as a solution to our problems in the United States. Frankly, when does the word traitor come into play in regards to a state that is in such close proximity to Russia? Is that only reserved for Obama when he talks to old radical political activists from the sixties? 

On the plus,  Sarah Palin, for the most part, is clearly not a phony.  What you see is what you get.  She’s got a grown son in the military heading to Iraq and you know that family is not into birth control of any type!  And speaking of phonies… where the hell is Hillary Clinton in all of this? Why hasn’t she gone on the attack of Palin and galvinized her supporters to back Obama?  Does Lady Macbeth waits in the wings hoping for a McCain win in November as her political clock continues to wind down?  Funny, Dick Morris, who knows more than a little about the Clintons, feels the same way about her plans for this fall election. (Update: Hillary is scheduled to campaign for Obama in Florida.  Let’s see what she has to say about Palin!)   

More on Palin “Governor Palin You’re No Hillary Clinton!”

More on Palin with this story,“Apparently-Bristol-Palin-is-no-Chelsea-Clinton-Either”

Defending Rush Limbaugh and ID: Why?

A few weeks ago I wrote the following:

Here are some more pearls of wisdom from Rush Limbaugh about Darwinists and apparently most biologists:

“These people fear God. These scientists, they fear God because God has the answers, God’s smarter than they are. God’s judgmental. That’s one of the things that liberals and atheists hate about religion anyway is that it’s judgmental.”

Obviously, Rush thinks he is going to fare well during judgment day. I guess he will get a pass on his vicodin law breaking spree with the big guy based on the body of his prior work. Yet, you know the freak is also into something else that is equally perverse. That’s how it is with these chicken-hawk conservative types, in real life they tend to be the biggest freaks. What cracks me up is that these creationist horses asses like Rush love to play the card that most biologist and Darwinists are atheist when in fact quite the opposite is true. But hey, never let the facts get in the way, you know those atheists-agnostic-humanist-communists are holding back free speech in our schools.

Below is my original rant regarding Expelled and the Mighty Wind:

Okay, I just can’t let go of this one. The other problem with this silly pseudo-science is that Intelligent Design purports to have some great interfaith universality when in fact teaching Intelligent Design would be contrarian to many other religious beliefs as well. Many Buddhists have little need or no need for a creator/personal god guiding the direction of the universe and for a fundamentalist the god of Intelligent design would weaken the power of their personal god or their fundamental belief in a 6,000 year old earth. Intelligent design, as advocated by Expelled, is not only bad science but bad religious dogma for many people as well and is specifically a tired, rehashed Judaic/Christian fundamentalist dogma.

Furthermore, Intelligent Design is a belief structure that is reduced to disingenuous nitpicking at the edges of scientific theory called evolution, looking for a foothold where none is forthcoming or where the ground is forever shifting. And does anyone care the least bit that Intelligent Design actually destroys any illusion of free will? I mean when does god’s hand comes down and beginning squeezing the jaws of the chosen people so that the next generation can have one less molar? I am of course referring to the observation that our wisdom teeth have become superfluous in modern man as our jaws continued to be downsized. And if god is removing teeth as part of his great evolutionary plan what else is god mucking with? If all of this sounds rather silly as an argument well that’s because it is. Rather than being liberating like religion, Intelligent Design is a bastard child of Creationist’s convenience and is not terribly convincing even as a pseudo-science.

The loss of ‘free will’ is of no concern to Rush Limbaugh, after all he believes life should be scripted as per his own neo-conservative credo and no dissenter need apply. Rush skewers the scientific community with such dismissive comments as “the condescension and the arrogance these people have, they will readily admit that Darwinism and evolution do not explain how life began.” Hey, lard ass, it’s the theory of evolution and not the theory of creation! Jeez, can’t you follow any discriminating, structured argument?

So now the great vicodin-fueled gas bag himself has added his own personal endorsement to the movie Expelled. And why not? Minimal critical thinking is required to embrace Intelligent Design and with Intelligent Design god’s chosen species is once again returned to the top of the proverbial spiritual food chain. I should point out since man made god in his own image it comes as no surprise that most fundamentalist religions make it a point to exclude women from their own theocracy. When does the madness and stupidity stop?

Alright, I know I said that insults have to stop but really isn’t Rush Limbaugh just an escaped caricature from some perverse adult theme park? Al I can say is just be careful Rush or scientists will stop inventing new pain killers for you to buy from your housekeeper. And that cheesy photo of him with a cigar! Doesn’t he know cigars go best with a tacky Hawaiian shirt!

Well, I got a few comments pro and con but here are some of the more acerbic posts from Kain:

“Wow! Reading your shallow rant just refreshes my memory of why people like Rush have traction with the mainstream crouds. With all due respect, the ID people have a point (even if people like Rush mistakenly lump evolution and ambiogenesis together). If the public school system was just teaching evolution then there wouldn’t be a problem, but they are endoctrinating kids with ambiogenesis or just about any other atheistic possiblity for the start of life except a 3rd party whether that be alien or “god” and then hiding under the “seperation of church and state” nonsense. I’m perfectly content with my kid being taught that we freaking have no idea where we came from and then lay out a number of 3rd party and non-3rd party theories and associated merits, but when my kid comes home and tells me we all came from a soup-a-la-the-Miller-experiment then it’s obvious our public school system is horribly broken. ID doesn’t have to satisfy every fundamentalist religion on the planet and it isn’t meant to. It is not meant to replace evolution. It is meant to be a counter theory to ambiogenesis. It simply points out that life on our world reeks of design from a 3rd party and try to identify the parts that could not have evolved by accident and maybe find clues as to where we came from (alien, god, or otherwise). Heck, just look at the error correction system of DNA with all of it’s redundancy and forward error correction. It has a shocking number of simularities to what we use in datacenters to protect computer data and screams design. I’ve seen a lot of attempts at natural explanations for how those error correction schemes could have evolved on their own and they are about as believable as saying my hard drive evolved on it’s own so I obviously lean towards the ID side. There are obviously people who don’t share my viewpoint, but I don’t petition my lawmakers to ban those viewpoints from the school system. It’s numbskulls like you who would banish ID (in a pure form) from the classrooms and who try to equate it to fundamentalist religions that give people like Rush a voice and if you keep it up you may just find yourself bringing a big religious backlash against you (they do outnumber you) and end up with theology in the public school systems instead of a truce between 3rd party and non-3rd party theories. If you get down to it, atheism IS a religion and one of the oldest ones (called materialism). How would you like it if we petitioned the courts to have ambiogenesis banned under the seperation of church and state because we don’t want the religion of materialism taught in schools? Don’t even try to say science and materialism are one and the same because then I’ll say all science must be banned from schools and that children can voluntarily learn it from their place of worship (materialist) of choice. It’s the same flawed logic you guys apply to ID.” – Kain

Now mind you, he felt the need to defend Rush, the old gas bag who makes crap up like their is a half million polar bears in Arctic when he wants to discredit global warming.

My repsonse:

Where to begin? Okay I decided, let’s go with the religious backlash comment. Since Kain sounds so old school and is such a true believer maybe we could go with some old, school Taliban style backlash? You know, we out number you so we can round up the heretics and burn them at the stake because they dare question what we the true believers know? That’s what “retarded” fundamentalist religion does to you, it keeps locked you safely in a box until the real world comes knocking at your door, like the wackos in Texas.

What you don’t get with all your huffing and puffing is that science will let you teach ID in a school the day ID becomes a verifiable and working hypothesis, until then it is a matter of faith and conjecture not fitting for scientific study. Do we ask you to teach evolution during your bible studies? You are so damn afraid your kids might think for themselves one day that you will do anything to repress the facts including the existence of the fossil record. If you win on this issue what’s next? Are you going to go back to the earth being at the center of the universe?

So for now let’s address this Christian fundamentalist religious intolerance you are so enamored with. I know Ben Stein and the gang want to blame Darwin and science for the holocaust but that doesn’t address centuries of pogroms against the Jews prior to the existence of Darwin now does it? No, but you know what does? Religious intolerance, in fact, intolerant religions have killed more people than any other cause in the history of mankind and science only helps the wackos to kill more efficiently.

Finally, explain for me how ID doesn’t interfere with the concept of free will if you can? I have yet to hear a plausible explanation for how god directs the evolutionary direction of all living creatures even to this day but doesn’t see fit to get involved with saving the Jews during the Holocaust or the flood victims in Burma. Mighty strange priorities for the almighty if you ask me and one can only conclude that that thread of fundamentalist thinking is both simplistic and hopelessly erroneous.

Erik John Bertel

Kain wasn’t done:

“Wow. Are you seriously this misinformed? 1st off, my comment about the backlash was simply that Rush’s audience outnumbers you at least 2-1 and in a democratic society it’s not good to piss off the majority so yes the best way to educate people to your side of the argument is by true debate in the classroom and not Nazi style exclusion because the latter may end up biting you in the ass when the majority decides to use the same against you and believe me we don’t want our school system to be systems of theocracy. Also, comparing every religious person to the “wackos” in TX is the equivalent of me saying all atheists are the equavalent of Stalin or Mao.

2nd, ambiogenesis isn’t a “verifiable working” anything. It is a hypothesis to the origin of life and nothing more AS IS ID and ambiogenesis is a matter of FAITH for those who have none in a 3rd party (including a god). Also you are making the same ignorant assumptions that we all have a problem with evolution or the fossil record. We all don’t. Evolution describes a natural process that goes on all the time around us. It does not describe the origin of life.

I think your rant pretty much tips your hand on why you are angry with ID. You are intolerant to religions and broadbrush everyone as fundamentalist Christians (which I am not thank you) and see anything that MIGHT challenge your religion of materialism as a threat and you are too closed minded to admit it. Not that it matters, but materialism definitely ranks up there on the “killed more people” list and I would argue that anyone who killed en masse in the name of Christianity was actually following materialism and greed as the Christian religion does NOT advocate violence (i.e. you can’t be a true Christian if you’re acting contrary to the teachings so the Christianity killed more people argument is a logical fallacy).

As for free will, that’s easy. DNA is a source code and was deposited here by a 3rd party to evolve on it’s own. The 3rd party does not interfere in “free will” of the creation. It would be no different than a programmer creating a highly resilient program and depositing it in a hostile environment to see if it could “survive.” Maybe that doesn’t jive with the fundamentalist notion of a Christian God you seem to have but it works quite well for a number of theists. Your questions about god and suffering can easily be answered in any theology 101 course. Regardless, ID supporters are not actively promoting a fundamentalist Christian God but rather the possibility of a 3rd party as being the genesis of life rather than dumb luck even IF that life was started somewhere else in the universe and arrived here by accident and the creator doesn’t know of our existence. ID does not equal the “almighty”. -Kain

My final retort:

Sorry, I’m not buying that there is no tie between the ID faction and religious fundamentalism, the facts speak otherwise. You may not want to be part of the fundamentalist agenda but that is like the brown shirts saying they had nothing to do with the rise of the Nazis. The ID movement is basically a Trojan horse for a whole line of discredited religious thinking. And, I remind you that this entire Nazi thread and all of the attendant outlandish commentary was started first by Ben Stein and the Expelled crowd in the movie.

Also, how and why you attach materialism or the origin of life to Darwinism and the theory evolution of life is beyond me as well. The theory of evolution and Darwinism does not address the origins of life. Moreover, this entire argument reminds me of the fourteen questions the Gautama Siddartha refused to answer and for evolutionists the creation of life is one of those unanswerable questions. Could that change? Of course, as our knowledge base grows I fully expect it to. Maybe we are of Martian origins as the idiot Dawkins was alluding to but that doesn’t mean all life in the universe has to originate in such a mystical or extraterrestrial manner.

The facts remains there is no proof for the ID credo and puh-lease don’t give me that tired old irreducible complexity negative argument. Finally, if a third party did all of the seeding and coding, what was that source code programmed to do, to live and evolve into devout followers? When I write code I usually have an agenda in mind, at least I try to, so what was the goal of the Intelligent creator? How far could such a creative force foresee into the future, I mean RNA and DNA coding takes you in a very specific direction and once again how does a preprogrammed agenda square with free will? I agree with you on one fact, this is theology 101 and consequently it and ID has no place in a science class. And by the way, I am Christian that recognizes when science ends and when my faith begins.

As to the will of the majority, I could give you the old Henrik Ibsen quote about the majority always being wrong, you know the old chestnut about Hitler being voted into office but frankly I am not even going to concede that point. After all, Expelled wasn’t exactly Ironman or Indiana Jones at the box office this spring and going forward Americans are going to have their hands full with other urgent matters after eight years of benign neglect by the Bush administration.

Erik John Bertel