Annual Grifters Conference Held in Shangri-La

Grifters from around the world are gathering in Shangri-La for their annual conference.

This years attendees seem to be particularly numerous especially from the “dictatorship” category, as many now deposed autocrats are looking for a refresher course in “how to dupe all the people all the time.”

We scurried in and grabbed a program of seminars that are hot this conference:

• Dissembling: The Art of the Dodge
• Slight of Hand: as in Where are the Jobs?
• Perfecting the Non-Answer and Redirecting the Discussion to Banalities
• How to Spot the Lazy Mark
• Methodology in Fear Tactics and Creation of the Other to Blame
• Developing and Massaging the Greedy Publisher: Lies Sell!
• Staying on Message: The Art of Lying

Prominent speakers at this conference are listed as:

• Sarah Palin “How I Turned My Lack of Knowledge into Big Bucks”
• Newt Gingrich: “Creating Nice Sounding Organizations that Pay YOUR Bills!”
• David Barton: “You Too Can Re-Create Your Country’s History with These Easy Steps” CD’s and books available!
• Muammar Qadaffi: “Secreting Billions for That Future Retirement”.
• Brian Fischer: “Finding the Target: Who to Hate?”
• Panel Discussion by perennial favorites: Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh–”How to be Svengali At the Workplace or Any Where You Want Control”

Yes folks, and a time will be had by all.

♦

I suppose it was inevitable. That little report from CERN that perhaps a certain type of neutrino might, (possible) go faster than the speed of light, long believed to be as fast as anything could go, has brought out the usual crazies.

Climate change deniers ponder, if Einstein might be wrong about relativity, then perhaps plug in your favorite scientists might be wrong about plug in your favorite “wrong” science.

This has led to the Twitter hash tweet: #WSJscience, where in, the WSJ stands for Wall Street Journal and the idiot Robert Bryce. Apparently all manner of funny tweets have been produced, so head over to Twitter and look it up and enjoy the fun.

Samples include:

“If serious scientists think that Einstein might be wrong about relativity, then we might have to rethink whether the sun revolves around the earth.”

Enjoy.

Which all suggested to me that it might be fun to visit the antithesis of rational thought, Conservapedia and see some of these items of misinformation.

• The scientific evidence points to a young age of the earth and the universe. The biblical creation organization Creation Ministries International published an article entitled 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe, that provides much of the scientific evidence in support of a young Earth. (prominently cited as proofs are St. Irenaeus and Arthur C. Clark, the science FICTION writer.)
• Creationist research is having a global effect that is worrying the atheists and secularists of this world. They have had it all their own way for over a century but things are slowly changing. For almost twenty-five years now, Journal of Creation has been publishing cutting-edge creationist research that has been fueling the war against evolution, creating little fires all around the world, including Great Britain. (This from Creation Ministries Int’n, and references to “Evolutionists Stumped Confused and Dumbfounded by 15 questions!” a YouTube entry)

• Creation science shows that dinosaurs lived in harmony with other animals, (probably including in the Garden of Eden) eating only plants^[4]; that pairs of each dinosaur kind were taken onto Noah’s Ark during the Great Flood and were preserved from drowning^[5]; that many of the fossilized dinosaur bones originated during the mass killing of the Flood^[6]; and that possibly some descendants of those dinosaurs taken aboard the Ark are still around today. (Yep, you just turn left at Albuquerque, and head to Middle Earth. Watch for Hobbits crossing!)

• Modern feminists:
  • never wanted gender equality; they want power for the female left^[4]
  • in movies, falsely portray the men as inherently evil, dumb or incompetent, and the women as inherently good, smart or competent (note that this conflicts with gender equality)
  • pretend that there are no meaningful differences between men and women when that advances liberal causes (e.g., women and men equally in military combat, to weaken the U.S. military), but reject equality when that results in more money to women (e.g., VAWA funding of women’s groups)
  • oppose chivalry and even feign insult at harmless displays of it (see battle between the sexes)
  • view traditional marriage as unacceptably patriarchal
  • belittle and mock other women who desire to have children or raise a family^[5][6]
  • shirk traditional gender activities, like baking^[7]
  • support affirmative action for women
  • prefer that women wear pants rather than dresses, presumably because men do^[8][9]
  • seek women in combat in the military just like men, and coed submarines
  • refuse to take her husband’s last name when marrying^[10]
  • believe marriage implies female servitude when it is in fact a mutual bond
  • distort historical focus onto female figures, often overshadowing important events (Eg: Henry VIII’s wives take precedence in common knowledge to his actual reign.)
  • often condemn the God-Given order of gender roles, as laid out in the Holy Bible
  • object to being addressed as “ma’am,” or feminine nicknames such as “sweetheart” or “honey”;^[11] object to other female-only names, such as “temptress”
  • take offense at grammatical rules of the English language, like using the pronoun “he” when referring to a hypothetical/anonymous person, or phrases like ‘fireman’ and ‘stewardess.’
  • support of the homosexual agenda (why I’m sending in my KitchenAid mixer this very moment. The stuff about men being inherently dumb is mostly true, but I will change my name back to my maiden name. What WAS I thinking. Dusting off my Feminist membership card even as we speak.)
• Liberal creep is liberal biasthat gradually creeps or distorts an entry, definition, explanation, description, or historical account.Former Utah state Sen. Bill Wright may have been the first to coin this term in spring 2008 when he “warned of liberal creep — the ‘education of indoctrination‘ — in which the media peddle “socialism and programs. We have been so dumbed-down, so indoctrinated with all this information we’re in a haze; we can’t see through it. We must find out for ourselves.”^[1]Examples of liberal creep include:

• Ronald Reagan left the White House with the best approval ratings of any president, up to that time, at the end of his term, yet the media and history books have since relentlessly tried to downplay and distort his political achievements.
• Reverse to the above example, Bill Clinton ^[2] left office after a failed impeachment attempt on perjury charges, yet liberal creep ensures that this is downplayed and distorted.
• Many early scientists such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei were heavily influenced by Christianity and would never have made their important discoveries without their faith in the Lord Almighty, yet that faith has since been downplayed in liberal atheistic public school textbooks and Wikipedia.^{[3] [4]}
• The ferocity and savageness of the Native Americans towards American settlers has gradually been downplayed, while the relocation of the Cherokee has been gradually inflated to the point that some liberal textbooks treat it as an atrocity comparable to the Holocaust. Similarly, there has been an increase in denial of the many technological and spiritual improvements the settlers brought to previous inhabitants. (gosh I feel all creepy now. The antithesis of Liberal Creep: Conservative Hate)

New Conservative Terms:

• Drive-by media: liberal MSM assault on Conservative and GOP values and principles, deceitful attacks
• fleebaggers: deceitful Democrats who deny their sworn duties for political gain.
• Hoax and Chains: Keynesian economics (as opposed to trickle down)
• manufactured outrage: fake Democratic anger used to pursue an agenda
• schlockumentary: documentaries based on half-truths and lies
• refudiate: combination of refute and repudiate as “coined” by Sarah in 2010

Oh gosh, one could go on, but my sides are splitting. Is it any wonder the right-wing TeaNutz® are ignorant? Enjoy your Saturday.

 

We’re Gonna Make A Dinosaur, We’re Gonna Make a Dinosaur

You remember the theory behind Jurassic Park dontcha? Mosquito bites dinosaur, falls into tree-sap, and after a kazillion years becomes amber. Break open the amber, get the mosquito, extract the dinosaur DNA from the blood sucked in?

 Well, no, that actually probably won’t work.

Turns out DNA breaks down too fast, and we could probably not get enough “pure” DNA to clone the T-Rex of our dreams.

But Jack Horner, who has been more right about more things dinosaurish than just about anyone, thinks you might be able to de-evolve a chicken back to what it used to be. And some biologists think he could be right, and some are actually working on it with him.

It’s a fun read, and it’s Friday, so go on and read the fun story about how having a dinosaur pet can still be your dream.

♦

I thought this was sweet. It’s from LOLGod.

♦

Question of the day:

What do you have when you put Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Louis Gohmert,  and Steve King in a locked room?

An all-out knock-down dragged-out fight for the only brain cell in the room.

Who will referee? Ann Coulter, Glenn (what happened to you?) Beck, and Rushed Limpy, all looking under a toilet seat for where the brain cell is hiding.

♦

What the pseudo-journalists at Blaze are trying to brainwash the trailer-trash with today:

• Glenn Beck’s roll call of “marxists” who are trying to re-distribute the wealth. Hint: Obama is one of them of course.
• Shocking video that Francis Pivens and other profs are busy teaching the WS Occupiers how to do street violence.
• That this whole Occupy Wall Street is all organized by left-wing organizations and the Obama Administration. Oh and never forget George Soros is in the middle of it.
• Lawrence O’Donnell (from hated MSNBC) was unfair to Herman Cain when he interviewed him.
• Rush Limbaugh says Obama is organizing riots in the streets in New York. And of course George Soros is in the middle of it.
• Majority leader Reid uses obscure rule to kill minority rights in the Senate. (The forgot to tell you that Trent Lott used it first, years ago against the Dems.) Blaze deems the usage by Reid “shocking.”

♦

Increasingly they call it ABR: anybody but Romney. I always feel bad when I’ve learned that “somebody doesn’t like me.” Wonder what it must be like to know that millions don’t like you?

I don’t have any personal reason to dislike Romney. What I dislike is that he has proven himself over the years to be obsessed about becoming president. That’s troubling enough, for you wonder just what kind of demons are thrashing it out in his head.

But what is disturbing, and an obvious deal-breaker for me, and I’m certainly not a Republican, is that I have no idea what if any principles he actually has. He has changed them so often and so violently, that I frankly think they are non-existent.

Romney seems to order his handlers to poll on every issue, and then he adopts that position. At least to the degree that he needs that segment of voters to add to his election winning strategy. That’s why Republicans are nervous. What he says ain’t necessarily what he will do. He seems frankly up for sale to the highest bidder.

And if you don’t agree, well even the National Review seems to agree with me. So far the GOP in various configurations,  has begged Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, Eric Cantor, Sarah Palin, and Paul Ryan to save them from eating their vegetables. It is a bit pathetic isn’t it?

♦

Speaking of which, people dislike Romney so much that some of them have gone to the extraordinary length of actually forgetting they ever knew him. A new poll suggests that only 27% of the electorate knows who he is. This is down from 30% in 2007. Or it could just be that knowing who he was, was so traumatic that 3% of those who knew just died from the agony.

♦

Jon Stewart pointed out something last night that, well it’s actually what we would expect from the Great Grifter, aka Sarah Palin.  Stewart suggested that Sarah had kept on shilling for money for her own SuperPac right up to the moment she announced that she wouldn’t run.

Stewart remarked that while not illegal, it might be termed unethical (since Palin can and does use the money for her own personal self-promoting purposes) if indeed Ms. Moosesilla knew she was not opting in for some time.

Stewart went on to smile, and say, “well, we can’t conclude that can we?” But then there was this pesky little piece of tape with Daughter #1 BristleBrush, saying like in JUNE, “oh she knows what she’s gonna do, but it stays with the family for now.”

Best Grifter of the Year: Sarah, although Newt is a close second.

Related articles

• How To: Make a pet dinosaur (boingboing.net)
• Amber Finds Indicate Feathered, Fluffy and Colorful Dinosaurs (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Bringing dinosaurs back in the form of chickens (news.bioscholar.com)

What a Difference a Day, errr, Month? Makes?

Well, slap me with a wet noodle. You remember me? Mad woman. Not literally mad, as in certifiable, but angry mad, ready to dump a sitting president and turn the page? Yes, you do remember.

Well, it’s hard to admit that at 60 years old, I’m still an idiot a lot of the time. Moreover, I spent some under grad years studying the fine art of politics as well as living through lots of political times. You’d think I would know better.

It appears that the brilliance of Barack Obama once more is most apparent to most of the people. This has not happened over night, and certainly isn’t a result only of the speech of a life-time in Tucson. The polls were edging upward before then.

But, things have changed, and one can but cast a bemused look upon Republicans who are looking at empty hands and wondering, “has it indeed slipped from our grasp once again?” Riding high in November, the GOP is beginning to mutter. To be sure, nothing is set in concrete yet, and given the fickleness of the public, it would be unwise to assume that “it’s in the bag” for 2012. Not at all.

Still, one has to be amazed at the resilience of the President. Today, he beats Romney and Huckabee in mock match-ups and slaughters the grifter, Palin. The big switch is the Independents who have moved to the Obama column. This poll straddled the Tucson tragedy, and has some impact but doesn’t include the speech given by Obama. There is only a 6 point differential between those who think we are on the right track-wrong track, down from a 24 point differential a couple of months ago. Obama’s approval rating has moved up to 53%.

We shall see what the future holds. But clearly most of us who were ready to move on were simply wrong. Obama has played his poor hand extremely well, and has accomplished much in the lame duck session.

The GOP will have a tough time selling a “NO” or repeal everything scenario I suspect with voters. The polls, dang ‘em, just keep getting in the way of the agenda.

***

Speaking of agenda, the Extremist Right didn’t take civility on as a mantra for long. Once they realized that nobody except them viewed the President’s speech as a chastisement of the Left, they went back to their usual ranting. One, I”m told, said, “but the President must have been pointing to the Left, there is nobody on the Right who needs such a chastisement!”  Delusion lives on it seems in the rock heads of the Extremist Right.

***

Proof that nothing changes, Tim Pawlenty, who on Jon Stewart, the other night, refused to agree that there is something new in the vilification of Obama that has not been present in American politics before. Stewart suggested that painting the President as  Hitler, as a Socialist, as not an American, and as not a Christian didn’t reflect true beliefs but were being used as political ploys by certain GOP members and sympathizers. Pawlenty continually feigned ignorance of Stewart’s true meaning and kept pointing out that there was vitriol on both sides.

Now Pawlenty has appeared with Bryan Fischer, of American Family Association fame, and claimed that he would re-institute DADT if president. It’s not so much that he said this, bad and deluded as that is, but that he appeared with hate-monger Fischer at all. Fischer is a virulent homophobe, one who decries giving the Medal of Honor to a “defensive” action instead of a killing hero. As to DADT, Fischer has vowed to over turn it and has claimed that McCain would lead their forces. McCain has repudiated any such notion.

Pawlenty, who for a moment, suggested he would not have acted as Palin, seems unwilling to stand up for any real principles, but again, simply plays to the lowest common denominator of the Republican base. His chances of being the nominee are nil.

***

Efforts are underway to induce Fox Noise to fire Glenn Beck. Jewish Funds for Justice submitted a 10,000 name petition to the News Corp, calling on them to end their association with the hate-mongering extremist. I admit that we try to watch Beck from time to time, just to see, but frankly, after ten minutes, it’s so awful you just can’t. He parades a slew of pseudo-scientists, historians, economists, etc., to “prove” his wacky mean and dangerous conclusions, all to a live audience of nodding automatons. It’s surreal.

The petition included some of the more egregious accusations of Beck, which makes references to Hitler some 400 times in eighteen months. His comments are widely regarded as anti-semitic and a distorter of the Gospel. For instance he claims that social justice issues are a perversion of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

***

Don’t know if you heard this, but the darn earth moves. Okay, so you probably knew that. But it moves in relations to the stars, and THAT is a damnable thing. If you are into astrology. Which I’m not, but still. I’m an Aries, and so is the Contrarian. At least we were. I don’t know what he is, being an April 8. But me? I’m a April 15, and that now makes me a Taurus. I don’t like it. I am trying to figure out who to complain to. Is nothing sacred?

***
Warning: the following may be hazardous to the mental health of closed minds. Others read on. A new dinosaur has been found! A small guy, but pretty darn mean. Read all about Dawn Runner, who hails from Argentina, at PBS’s Rundown Blog. He’s most primitive.

Related Articles

• Pawlenty, Stewart spar over rhetoric (politico.com)
• Whatever It Takes (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Tim Pawlenty Wants To Return To The Days Of DADT (lezgetreal.com)
• Jon Stewart To Tim Pawlenty: ‘Why Is The Right So Fearful Of Tyranny?’ (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• From Palin to Pawlenty, GOP Presidential Prospects Grapple With Arizona Massacre (politicsdaily.com)

Wiping the Lint From My Brow

I keep turning around and looking behind and below. Surely my stuffing is coming out as I move about my day. So it seems at least, as I’ve suddenly become prone to losing stuff.

I’m a fairly organized person, as you know. I usually know where things are, in general. “It’s somewhere in the house!”  Actually, I’m a bit better than that.

But lately my life has gotten increasingly complicated or scheduled, and I’ve not put in place the filing, organizing plans to insure that all the papers I collect are properly divided and located with others of their kind. Thus today, I find myself unable to locate the minutes of last month’s library committee meeting, and have had to issue a call for someone to bring a copy with them to the meeting today.

It’s disconcerting to be so scatterbrained. I’m not familiar with it. I feel uncomfortable. Kind of like that dream where I’m walking down the school corridor and wearing only my undies. How did I leave without my clothes?

It isn’t like I’ve never been busy before. I used to be really busy, often visiting multiple courts, with twenty or more clients and court appearances a day. Sometime in multiple cities. Often with shopping trips interspersed or after. I seldom screwed up, and lawyers are great at having networks of “stand-ins” for just those scheduling nightmares.

I wouldn’t change things. The Contrarian continues to be highly supportive. I was at my EFM meeting last night. They are different than previous educational experiences I’ve had. Fascinating in its conception, and I’ve already learned things about the Hebrew Testament and canon that I had not known, and so far I’m just at the introduction.

In a couple of weeks I start a month long Adult Formation class that I’m facilitating. We don’t like to use the word “teach.” I’m just  the one who will read the background material and push the conversation. I’m doing the lectionary section on Job, one of my more favorite books of the Old Testament. (I know, I know, that definitely says something weird about me.)  There are concurrent readings I think from Mark. I’ll be interested in how they interplay. The second year EFM students are doing Mark, so perhaps I’ll glean a few insights from them.

I got creative with dinner. Sauteed some chicken breasts, then sauteed onions and fresh tomatoes, garlic and some jalapeno, a bit of wine, salt and pepper. Chopped the chicken roughly and let it sit until a warm up, then add capers and olives. Serve it over spaghetti. My favorite kind of cooking is Italian. I love garlic and onions.

I’ve got the agenda set for the library meeting. Not so easy with no minutes from last month. We are having our re-opening at the end of the month, and we are pretty well set. It’s been an amazingly satisfying job. So many people worked hard. We fairly drooled over the new books added, more than 200, and all top notch biblical and theological works. I could read for years non-stop there now.

I missed the President’s speech last night because of the EFM class, but the Contrarian taped it for me, and we watched it when I got home. Powerful, competent, intelligent. The polls suggest the president hit a home run. Who would have doubted that? Put to rest are all the utter cow dung idiot arguments. Perhaps now we can have an adult discussion now that the hair-brain flights of fancy of the Palin/Gingrich et al contingent have been put to rest. Let us hope we can shush the children with their personal agendas of destruction. We deserve it.

Best moment: Joe Wilson (you lie) resulted in his opponent raising something like $200,000 to date. It was exactly what we hoped would happen. The rational people in America react with disgust, and the Rethug agenda of politics before reform takes a hit.

I find it humorous that because Obama is an inspirational speaker, he is disdainfully referred to as the Messiah, and we are his followers. Interesting, because most of these brain dead opposers claim to be born again Christians, and shouldn’t the Messiah be followed? But what can you expect from confused thinkers who have long since given up remembering what that thing between their ears is for.

Ellen DeGeneres has been named as the new judge on American Idol. I think it’s probably a good thing. She’s brightly funny. We don’t watch it that much, but Paula was always painful to watch. Ellen just came over to ABC and her daytime show is now at 9 am here. Gone are Regis and Kelly. I don’t know where they went. I liked Kelly but Regis was never my cup of tea.

Back to Wilson, ya see, I’m not all shocked and stuff. I don’t think the dude should resign. It is just symbolic of the general wingnuttery of the Republicans these days. Party of the certifiable. There is a pretty good analysis of this at HuffPo. Read it if you enjoy beating dead horses. I do from time to time. Just ask me about fundamentalists!

I’ve been hooting for a day or more at my re-meeting with creationists and the wacky world of dinosaurs and man kumbaya’ing through the amazon forest. Brings back memories of the Flintstones. Come to think of it, perhaps the creationists took that literally too. Anyhoo, I realized I had another A number 1 reason why evolution must be true:

SAND BURRS, SAND BURRS, SAND BURRS, SAND BURRS, SAND BURRS, SAND BURRS

I mean seriously, no loving God would create such a torture device.  Having no, and I  mean no use whatsoever, except to cripple and maim the unwary, it can only be the product of evolution. I repeat, NO loving God would deliberately dream this up.

My poor pups are limping every day. Fully a block long of the lane has these Inquisition worthy plants scattered around, dropping these lethal barbs in the sand.

It is unsafe to walk indoors without shoes, since both cats and dogs lay down and patiently pull the needle sharp orbs from their feet and hair. You have not lived until you have driven one of these babies into the ball of your foot at full deliberate step. The screams and curses can echo for miles.

Let me get organized, I have a dinner to finish, a meeting to conduct, and more things to lose before day is done.

Oh, Here Comes Satan to the Rescue

Some days ago, I stopped by the couch to chat with the Contrarian. On the tube was Jim Baker. You remember him? Fallen TV evangelist, went to prison, stole a lot of money from his flock.

Well, I’d heard and seen that he was back in ministry. He started small again, but is now back on the TV, running telethons and asking for $1000 donations. All for the “children” of course.

The Contrarian asked, “How in the world can people be so gullible?” “Easy enough,” I replied, “Remember the documentary we saw last night on cults? That pretty much explained it.” And indeed, it did.

It seems that the key to leading a cult is to remind your followers that Satan is ever present, always attempting to upset “truth.” The cult leader drums into the follower that any deviation from his/her teaching is the work of Satan, trying to prevent the soul from following God. So, when your instincts or reasoning tell you that this guy is nuts, you are told that that is Satan planting those doubts.

The person gets caught in a loop and cannot escape easily. Every rational thought might be the devil. One of the ex-cult followers was having a terrible time in the documentary with figuring out reality from temptation. She kinda knew it was wrong that the pastor was beating her kids to drive the devil from them, but then again, she was afraid to trust her belief, and on and on it went.

I first learned of this watching a documentary on Ted Haggard and his fall from grace. Remember him? Homosexual, hiring  gay prostitutes, doing drugs? One would have thought that his followers would have left his church in droves. A man who had committed such falsehood, why, he cannot be trusted to have told me the truth about the bible or God either right?

Wrong. It is precisely because Haggard got caught in such an egregious circumstance,that he can be trusted to be telling God’s word correctly. How else would Satan have to go to such lengths to silence him? Rational people drop their teeth, but the fundamentalist smiles and nods in agreement.

It has now been put to me directly that I too am the victim of Satan’s work. Some weeks ago, I mentioned that I was in contact with old high school mates. I was thoroughly excited to find out what turns their lives had taken. Only a couple maintain ongoing Facebook conversations, and I soon came to learn that two of them were pretty much full blown fundies.

I was willing to remain largely silent at that realization until I started getting either e-mails or saw posting about death panels, and links to WorldDailyNews, a evangelical fundie online rag whose only other exposure is through Jack van Impe and the end timers brigade. I tried to correct this misinformation but was met with resistance, and I slowly began to glean that these were not only fundamentalists but hard cord right wing politicos as well.

I soon came to see that one of them at least was a birther, and I can say that I actually now know one “birther.” As the days and weeks went on, there was an unending amount of evidence of insanity afoot. Sarah “the quitter” Palin’s Facebook entries were met with “I agree!” and there were diatribes about the godlessness of Obama appointees. Jesus was not for the poor, only the “right kind of poor.” Gingrich was lauded as “always” telling it right.

When I realized that said classmates were actually creationists, well, the end was in sight. To deny the efficacy of evolution is sheer insanity. It is the product of a mind that no longer trusts itself to think. Is is afraid that anything that upsets the worldview so painstakingly created must be the work of Satan. If it is not, then belief collapses. I can understand the dilemma.

Straight up fundamentalism is bad enough. I would be the first to say that only a tiny fraction of fundamentalists of whatever faith go the violence route. However fundies in the Christian sense are starting to create untold havoc with our national conversation by diverting it toward nonsensical discussions that have no basis in fact.

Rational Republicans are embarrassed by the birthers and deathers. They make the Republicans look more foolish that they already are. They are embarrassed by the “parenters” those who find fault with the President’s message to school children, although both Reagan and Bush I did the same thing. Rational people see these types of fundamentalists as merely masking a deep seeded racism that  they cannot acknowledge.

But even most fundamentalists don’t go the extra mile to deny science. How do you function with the hypocrisy of using science when it benefits you, but denying the reality of a certain type because it, in your twisted mindset cuts against your personal vision of God? Science is fine as long as it makes the lights go on, runs the car, operates the computer and presents a life giving drug. It’s bad when it tries to explain how life evolved on this planet.

It is wrong although millions of scientists have used this model successfully for more than two hundred years and it has been independently verified by multiple disciplines. Geology, anthropology, paleontology, archaeology, astronomy, biology, medicine, dinosaurs, all are condemned in some part if evolution isn’t true. Moreover, the fundie must admit that some several millions of scientists past and present are part of a worldwide conspiracy to put forth a theory they know is false.

Tomorrow: How I’m being assaulted by Satan.

Evolving Evolution

I frankly thought I had come to the conclusion that I was done with the evolution debate. Done with it because those that espouse it are largely unmoveable and reject every proof offered them.

They do this not out of stupidity ( though undoubtedly some are just that intellectually compromised) or blatant contrariness, but out of a deep psychological need.

I was over at Fran I Am‘s blog today, and found she had written about the Dover trial on intelligent design.

Oddly enough, I had been thinking about the entire subject the evening before. And well, it’s that serendipity kind of thing. You figure, God is perhaps nudging you to get back into the subject again.

I used to spend hours debating this on forums. And as I said, it falls on deaf ears for the most part, because I’m arguing facts and logic and they are arguing faith and psychopathology. Unknowingly on the last aspect of course. It gets beyond frustrating to be sure. You present hard solid evidence backed by the best scientific minds and organizations in the world, only to be met by somebody’s website/blog, written by some electrical engineer, who knows from his “scientific” training that it’s all bunk.

I finally got thoroughly tired of the entire business. Yet, somehow I found myself back in the subject once more, thinking. Odd isn’t it that something suddenly becomes obvious after leaving it alone for a few months. Let me explain.

I got to thinking, well, exactly how do these folks come to this weird conclusion? I just didn’t buy that people start from “The bible must be taken literally” and then search for anti-evolution websites. Most people aren’t that interested first of all. No I’m convinced that they accept evolution, without much thought at all, from what they got in high school, and then a conversation with a anti-evolutionist friend or pastor occurs.

They make some inane remark, and the anti-evolutionist (AE) recoils in horror, and sets about the business of setting them straight. Straight includes the false claim that either evolution is true, or the bible, not both. The AE suggests a website, or a book, and well, that’s the ball game. To the average person unskilled in science, the anti-science sounds perfectly correct and rational. Once there, they stay. After all, they are on God’s side of this, and that side has now been determined.

As I have said repeatedly here, the mind that requires evolution to be false because the bible must be true, and very literally so, is the mind that is in deep fear. It is a mind that has recoiled from the precipice of uncertainty in the world and has found sanctuary in believing that a book provides all the answers and more importantly, perfect salvation if adhered to in all its particulars. Of course, the big chink in this armor is INTERPRETATION, but we won’t go there today.

No, today I am interested in another phenomenon, related to this whole screwy mind set. Now a goodly number of AE’s are also YEC (Young Earth Creationists). That means they also hold as true that the earth was literally created in six days, and is some six thousand and some odd years old. That I would content is a logical coupling. What is not logical, I have come to realize is to hold that the earth is not young, but rather more likely what geologists and other scientists say, something to the tune of 4 billions of years old, but that evolution is a lie. That doesn’t compute.

Many of the AE’s like to proudly tell you that they don’t believe in YEC. They want to prove their intellectual balls by telling you that, the evidence is compelling for an old earth. This works okay with literalism because “for God a thousand years is as a day.” Get it? Well that sounds okay, but hey, think a bit more about that.

If God created the earth 4 billion years ago, what’s been going on here all these years? We have fossil records showing layers of ever more complicated life. Okay, so God created all those simple animals and such, and then let them go extinct? Then he did it again, and again, and again. Then he created dinosaurs. Got bored? Let them go extinct? Let that comet hit? Finally got around to humans? Perhaps he was busy elsewhere, creating you know. Perhaps God can’t multitask.

I mean, this means that God has played around with this planet for most of its existence before deciding to create human beings. What was the delay for? The YEC’ers don’t have this problem. God created it all at once, dinosaurs walked with man. Some go the distance and posit that God is a tricky son of a gun. He deliberately saturated the planet with evidence of old earth and old fossils. Those who can’t keep the faith in the book and believe what their working brains suggest, well, damned they are.

I like the second explanation better, its way more dramatic. It works as well as that old adage we have heard from the fundie right for years: “God works in mysterious ways” and “we’ll understand it all when we reach heaven.”

Sarah Palin is of the first version. She talks of  folks finding human footprints next to the dinosaur footprints. They were buds you know, like the Flintstones and their pet Dino. Come to think of it, that may be where Sarah learned it in the first place.

I’m still not very sure I want to re-engage in the debate. It still won’t get very far I’m convinced. The same people, confronted with the illogic of not being a YEC and yet being a AE, will blink, unable to fathom the distinction, and will ignore what you say anyway.

Meanwhile 50% of America professes that evolution is questionable or dead wrong. The rest of the world scratches it head and wonders, “do they have actual schools in America any more?,” and I continue to want to throttle smarmy and arrogant fools who tell me “there are no transitional fossils.” I suspect it’s better to rant here and stick around people who have common sense, and the ability to follow a simple series of posits to a rational conclusion.

Ingesting too much insanity can lead to, well insanity.

Short Takes on the Day 10/30/08

The Obama campaign has been astounding in its breath. By that I mean, it’s desire to redraw the lines in America, and draw from groups long thought to be in the Republican column, never to budge. This is not so, as a report from AlterNet suggests today. In fact, Evangelicals, rurals, and Jewish voters are breaking for Obama this year in numbers that have made red states start to look more blue. This may indeed forecast a total restructuring and realignment of the parties, leaving the Republicans will little more than the deep South and the far West. Read this fascinating article that talks about the changing landscape in America. This may have a huge impact on the ability of Obama to govern from a position of extraordinary strength across the country.

We’ve been talking a bit about the economy and what makes a successful country, one that makes it citizens happy and prosperous. Slip by DistributorCap NY today and read an excellent post on the social fabric of our country versus that of others, and how we far on the success index.

If you are a Garrison Keillor fan, then your fix is right here. As might be obvious, the issue is the election, and Mr. Keillor true to form, pulls no punches with his smart sparkling talk. Enjoy.

Digby over at Hullabaloo has a nice report on feminism and Sarah Palin. Of course you haven’t missed, I’m sure, the new/old tack being used to defend Sarah. She’s just the victim of a misogynistic media after all. Nobody else would be treated this way. She’s a feminist so she says, or doesn’t. Role model and all that jazz right? Read the article and decide.

It will soon be Thanksgiving and you know that is the time to be thankful for all our blessings, both real and surmised. In These Times takes a break and thanks all those wonderful folks who have lead us to this point in time, when (hold your breath and cross your fingers) we are about to elect Barack Obama to be president of the US of A, and return this land to the column of sanity. The list is predictable, but it’s nice to reminisce about the “bad old days.” Wouldn’t you like to personally thank some of these bozos yourself? I sure would.

And if you want pure unadulterated fun, don’t miss Maureen Dowd’s column today. It is a blame hoot, a screen play entitled “And the Maverick wears Prada.” Don’t miss it if you need a laugh. This is one of the more telling events of the campaign season. When your running mate becomes the fodder for serious journalists’ foray into dramatic writing, you know you are in deep doo-doo.

Only five more days to go! Keep up the good work everyone, vote and never stop campaigning until the very end. We are almost there!

A nice fall dessert recipe from Simply Recipes. It’s called, Mrs. Paxton’s Raw Apple Cake. Be sure to look at the comments, since there are alternations that people tried and they worked out, so enjoy.

Uncommon Artistic Endeavors has a neat project for making candle holders from corn husks. She bought her husks at Walmart, but us farm folks find that slightly laughable since husks are strewn everywhere from the wind. Take a look and make a cute cheap decoration for the fall and Thanksgiving. Plenty of pics to help you see how to construct them.

If you spend time every day wondering how planets form, then Live Science has some new information for you. The study of old meteorites help scientists flesh out the actions of all that primordial soup that ended up in our solar system. Knowing where we came from is about the only way to know where you are, so dutifully trot over there and find out this stuff!

A significant fossil discovery has been made in Utah. Utahnians must be thrilled to say the least. The rocks there show evidence of the earliest Jurassic flora known in the western US. This takes us back 200 million years folks, when I at least was still unborn. No doubt the news is very exciting all over the state, where hoards of brainiacs and other nerdish types have descended with pens and pen protectors in tow. (I made that last part up). But hey, presumably, local business does an up tick when all those science types show up!