Monday, July 31, 2006

Violent Peacenik Watch

From the Australian:

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered. ...


It's disturbing that hundreds of schoolchildren would be clapping and cheering this ... isn't it? Maybe I'm just not "peacenik" enough.

Is the Nobel Peace Prize just a Piece of Crap?

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

So why does NAS endorse evolutionism?

Maybe for its wondrous benefits to mankind, such as Nazism and Marxism. As we've seen, it's certainly not for any love of science or inquiry.

Derbyshire, Unhinged Again

Poor John Derbyshire can't seem to understand the difference between Intelligent Design and Creationism (in this case Muslim creationism, whatever that means):

"Teaching the Controversy"... [John Derbyshire]
...in Tehran. The current (7/21/06) issue of Science has an article on science in Iran. From which:

A glance at the evolution exhibit at Tehran's museum of natural history reveals the tension below the surface. Wave after wave of schoolgirls in matching headscarves file past a row of glass cases containing meticulously arranged fossils. A label next to a trilobite, for example, says that the specimen, discovered in the nearby Alborz mountains, came from the Devonian, a period 400 million years ago when those sediments were submerged in a shallow sea. Along the opposite wall, a diorama chronicles the evolution of life on earth. Painted scenes of ancient life look as if they've been copied directly from the latest biology textbooks. But the exhibit takes a sharp detour from science in the final display case where evolution is summed up. In an open tome representing the Koran, phrases in calligraphy proclaim that 'God willed an atmosphere created from gases' and 'God created man from water.' Above that is a poster—published by the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas—describing how Earth was created in a few days by an omnipotent being.
For the benefit of other mathematicians who feel compelled to comment on matters in which they have decided to remain poorly read, let me recap: creationism is when you try to interpret the data through the lens of Scripture. ID, on the other hand, draws conclusions from scientific observations only, not from sacred texts. It's not a terribly subtle or complicated difference. I cannot explain Derb's continued obtuseness on this issue, except to surmise that his condition is purposefully self-inflicted.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Betty Williams, an Inspiration to Idiots Everywhere

Yes, even if you're a violent-tendency nutcake, you too could win a Nobel Prize:

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish [I think "Idiot" was meant? - Ed.] spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

Note how clueless she is about how Saddam kept medical supplies and food from his people, not to mention the UN-led scheme to profit from their misery. So, yes, you too can win the Nobel Prize, as long as you're full of clueless hate but can get a petition signed. And get this:

"There can be no sustainable peace while military spending takes precedence over human development."
Well, I suppose there's peace - sort of - when all us infidels have been suicide-bombed to smithereens, but I'm not sure there'll be any "human development."

Happily for her, though, there'll be plenty of "idiot development."

Doesn't speak well for her young audience either ... clapping at such a demented statement.

Science vs. Evolution - Again

What happens when science meets Darwinian fantasy:
As a long-time devotee of science fiction, I have always been excited by the possibility that mankind might encounter extraterrestrial life. But I have always tried to apply the rules of logic and reason to those prospects. And it is becoming increasingly clear to me, and others, that merely wanting to believe is not enough.
Now don't get me wrong. It's touching, maybe cute, like how children want to believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. But it's time for any scientist with an inquiring - and open - mind to grow up and start questioning why Darwinism always seems to lead them wrong:

"The final results of all my investigation and study, namely that the idea of evolution, tested by experiments in speciation and allied sciences, always leads to incredible contradictions and confusing conseqeuences, on account of which the evolution theory ought to be entirely abandoned, will no doubt enrage many; and even more so my conclusion that the evolution theory can by no means be regarded as an innocuous natural philosophy, but that it is a serious obstruction to biological research. It obstructs -- as has been repeatedly shown -- the attainment of consistent results, even from uniform experimental material. For everything must ultimately be forced to fit this speculative theory." -
Dr. Heribert Lars-Nilsson, "after 40 years of scientific research" attempting to validate evolutionary theory, Synthetische Artbildung Lund Sweden (1953), 11. As cited by Ankerberg.



DNA Design

From Creation Safaris.

Here's a cool factoid to impress your friends with this weekend.  On the DVD version of Unlocking the Mystery of Life, molecular biologist Dr. Dean Kenyon claims that a cubic millimeter of tightly packed DNA can store 1.9 x 1018bits of information (nearly two quintillion, or two billion billion).  Put your thumb and forefinger as close together as you can without touching, and visualize a cube that height filled with DNA.  We wondered, how many DVDs would it take to store that many bits?  So we ran the numbers.

A standard DVD stores 4.7 gigabytes, which is a little over 40 billion bits.  A DVD is about 1/20" thick.  If you transcribed the information in one cubic millimeter of DNA onto DVDs and started stacking them up, by the time you were finished you would have a stack over 37 miles high.  If you placed six Mt. Everests on top of each other, then three Empire State Buildings on top of that, the stack of DVDs would be taller by more than 200 feet.  That's the information storage capacity in just one cubic millimeter of DNA.


There are so many discoveries listed at this site that have scientists surprised or befuddled because expectations and predictions based on evolutionism were rudely contradicted by facts, it's hilarious. But it's also tragic you love science, and hate to see astronomy, cosmology, biology, geology, etc. - not to mention so many otherwise fine, inquiring minds - hijacked by this "useless theory." But evolution muddles on, unfalsified, because ... well, it's a religion of the worst kind, complete with high priests, harassment, intimidation, and censorship.

People Who Thank George Bush/America

http://www.theotheriraq.com/

Saturday, July 22, 2006

A Hard Truth?

We've all been wincing at the civilian casualties in Lebanon. It seems nasty of Israel to be willing to risk civilian casualties.

Even though they've been warned to evacuate Hezbollah strongholds.

But is this a case of reaping what they sow? I know it sounds harsh, but they did elect Hezbollah to their goverment, knowing that they're cowardly, deluded, civilian-bombing, conscienceless piggies bent on destroying Israel. I mean, isn't what's happening to them exactly the same thing they tacitly approved of, except they're given advance notice? They obviously approve of the concept of explosions in civilian areas; they just don't like it when it happens to them.

Of course, not every casualty voted for Hezpiggy, you say. But what unjustified violence did the Israeli casualties ever vote for?

Israel-Lebanon Media Watch

For those who doubt the anti-Israel bias in the media, take note of how casualties are reported.
  • Why do reports of casualties in Lebanon usually mention women and children, while casualties in Israel are simply "people"?
  • Why are Lebanese casualties called civilians, even though it's been acknowledged that Hezbollah operatives ... look like civilians?

No More Mr. Nice IDer, Please

Dear IDers,

As someone with a longtime interest in ID, it seems to me that ID is always too much on the defensive. Ironically, since ID is scientific to the core and Darwinism is metaphysical naturalism with some assorted science-like talk tacked on, you should bring a lawsuit against the teaching of the religion of Darwinism in schools. So IDers should call for a "Return to Science" - to real science, not evolutionary fairy tales. There's a reason they don't want any debate to be allowed; Darwinism should be laughed out of court.

It's child's play to show
  • how after one Darwinistic prediction after another has failed, Darwinists (not "scientists") still consider it unfalsified; (http://creationsafaris.com has a great running review of how this keeps happening - not that you need the help)
  • how Darwinism is unfalsifiable;
  • how Darwinists "win" arguments by dubious tactics, including censorship and harrassment;
  • how some atheists (Berlinski, Stove, Flew, etc.) have come to agree that Darwinism is not scientific (and how some even accept ID in a nonreligious context);
  • and so on.
We need to get people talking about Darwinism's religious undertones. It's time to expose Darwinism for what it really is.

Derbyshire Dementia?

I see John Derbyshire is getting all bent out of shape about Intelligent Design again - "they don't do any science", etc. etc. I suppose if he says it often enough, people like Michael Behe might actually begin to think it's true.

It's sad that a mathematician can be so ignorant of the conclusions of his colleagues at the Wistar conference, where the chance beginning of life (and the current state of living things) was shown to be mathematically, statistically, and logically ... well, silly. And it's sad that his anti-ID fanaticism - probably stemming from a fear of ridicule - has prevented him from actually daring to read enough ID literature to discover his meme is entirely without basis.

Pro-Terrorist Arrogance

So we've been hearing about how terrorism will stop if only we listen to their grievances, improve their economic situation, etc. On the other hand, the terrorists tell us clearly what their grievance is - we're infidels, and we're alive.

Now it seems to me the height of cultural arrogance to keep saying that this is in fact NOT their real complaint - that, like most Americans, all the terrorists need is a little attention and more than a little money thrown at them. Here they are telling us plainly that their goal is our destruction (or conversion - same thing), and here we hear pro-terrorists tell us no, these terrorists don't know what they're talking about. Underlying this claim is the belief that these terrorists are just Americans (whatever that means to them) under the skin; that it's not possible for any culture to be otherwise; that they just have to be as reasonable as we are, and want the same things that we want. And all the while they keep telling us otherwise.

If that's not cultural imperialism - not to mention a lamentable inability to parse statements of intent or to understand the world - I don't know what is.

CSI

So I've been watching CSI whenever it turns up during my channel surf. Of course it's interesting, but sometimes very annoying.
What's annoying? When they insert little bits of backstory or character development - who's dating who, who collects stamps, and other totally irrelevant trivia to try to humanize the CSI characters.
Why is it annoying? Because I don't care about them at all, except as empty vessels that propel me through the story.
And why is that? Assuming I'm not a sociopath, it's because most of them come across as extremely arrogant and smug. They're just not likeable human beings. So we don't care for them. So, writers, please don't waste your time and especially ours by telling us how this one collects catalogs, that one just broke up with someone, and so on. We don't care about these "people." The characters on "King of the Hill" are more human and likeable.