Oh Crap - Now I am really worried.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation:

Sarah Palin: Dominionist Stalking Horse
by dogemperor
Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 03:21:50 PM PDT
The big news, obviously, in the blogosphere today is John McCain's surprise pick for the Republican veep nominee--a relative unknown by the name of Sarah Palin, whom--at least in the more conventional political circles--would appear to be a complete cypher.
Unfortunately, if one digs just a bit deeper, Palin is found to have some very interesting--and very disturbing--connections...among them, being potentially the first Assemblies-linked VP candidate and having a number of links to dominionist groups targeting kids via 'bait and switch' evangelism.


Uh oh, big reason to keep McCain/Palin out of office. This is right out of a bad novel, nut case religious nut gets VP job, old fart President kicks the bucket (naturally?), now nut case is in charge and her secret religious army rises to try to take over the country, killing and imprisoning the "intellectuals" and "elite".

Bad novel? How about recent history. Iran. Afghanistan. 1930's Germany. Many African countries? I'm sure there are more...

There must be separation between Church and State.

McCain / Palin must not win.

More on Joel's Army

National Debt Graph

Again... next time someone says your going to vote for those "tax and spend" democrats... point to this.  Republicans are "borrow and spend".

Pharyngula: Matthew Cobb and Jerry Coyne write a letter

Pharyngula: Matthew Cobb and Jerry Coyne write a letter:

"In reality, the only contribution that science can make to the ideas of religion is atheism."

Pissed Off

Ranting...

1. I am pissed at Harry Reid for being a limp noodle. Where is his spine? Republicans are filibustering all over the place and he says nothing. Americans don't know what the GOP is doing, hiding, trying to protect, what they are screwing up before they lose the White House. STEP UP and LEAD! Or get out of the WAY!
   
2. I am pissed off at Pelosi for doing nothing about impeaching Bush/Cheney. McCain wouldn't be anywhere close to Obama in the polls... impeachment would have shown Americans what they have lost in rights, how corrupt the Bush administration has been, how un-American they have been. Too late now!
3. Fucking Coulter and Limbaugh... lying about Obama's position on abortion in a way to stir up emotion, saying he is for third term abortion, to even "chase the doctor down the hall to ensure the aborted baby is dead". They are lower than low. They are dog shit.
4. DNC's "Big Tent" event on Faith prior to the convention. What a bunch of crap. Especially since they decided to not invite 40% of the Democratic voters. Those without religion, secularists, atheists. Can't have a "Big Tent" without everyone. Pandering obviously to the Christians and "moral majority". I better not hear any crap about god talking to anyone.
5. Obama. He better STEP IT UP! There better be some FIRE in the convention and campaign now. I am tired of the Lying Liars in the GOP getting away with their LIES. I better not hear too much faith babble from him.

Update:  Pretty happy with the convention.  Obama stepped it up!  Yay!  The network coverage I saw always cut away to commercial whenever the prayers were happening!  Excellent!

Richard Dawkins at Berkley, March '08

I liked this lecture as it touched on morality, and the treatment of children.

Vacation 2008 pictures

Optimism in Evolution - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Guest Columnist - Optimism in Evolution - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "When the dog days of summer come to an end, one thing we can be sure of is that the school year that follows will see more fights over the teaching of evolution and whether intelligent design, or even Biblical accounts of creation, have a place in America’s science classrooms.
In these arguments, evolution is treated as an abstract subject that deals with the age of the earth or how fish first flopped onto land. It’s discussed as though it were an optional, quaint and largely irrelevant part of biology. And a common consequence of the arguments is that evolution gets dropped from the curriculum entirely.
This is a travesty.
It is also dangerous."

Evolution Survey

To the best of your understanding, and in your own words, please explain what “evolution” means.

Evolution is the change in biological life over time to adapt to changing environments and competition. The pressures of competition and environment result in changes in a life form that are improvements and eventually results in new species. The changes themselves are very small and randomly generated in DNA coding errors, but natural selection ensures that only the beneficial changes generally get passed on into future generations. Branching can produce parallel paths that result in different species in the same families. Many branches die out. Evolution applies to all life, plant, microbial, mammals, birds, reptiles...

If you accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why; or if you do not accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why not.

I do accept the theory of evolution. I accept it because it explains to me the diversity of life currently and throughout history. It explains the dangers we face with disease and antibiotics, it explains where we are in biology and is beginning to help explain how and why we think, where our morals come from and give us a clue on how to coexist.

Young Eagles August 08

My Young Eagles for August. Couldn't get the little girl to fly but the others did fine. I asked Laura to ride again with the last boys so that I wasn't alone with them. Tim and Brent did fine anyway. I asked Laura to keep us informed how she does at E-R in Arizona. She is going to the Engineering school there.