All Connected

After volleyball last night my brother and I stopped at a bar for some food and drink.  The Blackhawks game was just into the 2nd period at that time.  There were a handful of people there watching.  Early on my brother and one of the guys were talking about sports.  In reference to basketball and the NBA specifically, one of the guys said, "I can't stand that African monkey ball."

I guess the on positive side he didn't just go ahead and call it "nigger ball."  Anyway, I've got my measure of these guys at this point.  I just flat out refuse to engage them for the rest of the night.  Over the course of the night I hear the three guys make the following comments

• Obama got "owned" by a local Dallas reporter.  (Um, no. The reporter asked some challenging questions and Obama answered and asked not to be interrupted.  Both men did their jobs.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.)
• It's cold outside.  "But we know global warming is real because Al Gore told us so."  
• "The same people that believe in global warming voted for Obama."

I think it is both amazing and sad how the majority of people in this country have come to hold one of two sets of beliefs and there is no thinking outside the box.

A River In Egypt

Every Repug member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee went on the record denying the very existence of global climate change. This vote wasn't about confirming that the change's major cause is human activity. This vote wasn't about deciding to do something. This vote was just to go on the record to acknowledge the fact that global temperatures are rising.

The Repug members are:
Fred Upton (MI)
Joe Barton (TX)
Cliff Stearns (FL)
Ed Whitfield (KY)
John Shimkus (IL)
Joseph R. Pitts (PA)
Mary Bono Mack (CA)
Greg Walden (OR)
Lee Terry (NE)
Mike Rogers (MI)
Sue Myrick (NC)
John Sullivan (OK)
Tim Murphy (PA)
Michael Burgess (TX)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)
Brian P. Bilbray (CA)
Charles F. Bass (NH)
Phil Gingrey (GA)
Steve Scalise (LA)
Bob Latta (OH)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA)
Gregg Harper (MS)
Leonard Lance (NJ)
Bill Cassidy (LA)
Brett Guthrie (KY)
Pete Olson (TX)
David McKinley (WV)
Cory Gardner (CO)
Mike Pompeo (KS)
Adam Kinzinger (IL)
Morgan Griffith (VA)

Today's Stat

0.4%
Is the amount of the federal budget the GOP has proposed cutting.
For reference, the deficit is about 33% of the budget.  The amount of the cut doesn't even amount to a hill of beans.

And what are they looking to cut?  Job training programs, the EPA, the Office of Science are three of the items on their list.

Gin and Tacos does the yeoman work to break this down in easy to understand graphs and concludes

You could almost respect their misguided zeal – rhetorically, if not in practice – for "cutting spending" if it was not such an obvious smokescreen for partisan hackery.

Yep.

WoS: The Dishwasher Detergent Battle.

My confidence in the good guys winning is limited at best.  The good news:  dish washer detergent makers have changed their formula.  Phosphates have been removed from the detergents.

The bad news...

Sue Wright from Austin, Texas, says for months her cups and glasses have been coming out of her year-old dishwasher covered with black specks. She called three repairmen to her kitchen, but her dishes were still dirty.

"I looked at a plumber's rear end for about two months this summer sticking out from under my sink," Wright says. "I was just totally frustrated. I couldn't figure out what was going wrong."

Finally, after months of aggravation and expense, Wright found out the real reason for her speckled cups. This summer, detergent makers took phosphates out of their detergents.

. . .

"I'm angry at the people who decided that phosphate was growing algae. I'm not sure that I believe that," Wright adds.

and

Sandra Young was so mad that she called Procter and Gamble, which makes Cascade, to complain. But when she did, a company representative told her to be more careful about what pans she puts into her dishwasher.

. . .

But not everyone is willing to adjust. Sandra Young figured out a way to undo the phosphate ban — at least in her own kitchen.
She bought some trisodium phosphate at a hardware store and started mixing her own formula.

News Article About a News Article

Next time you read an article about scientific research read this.

Elections Have Consequences

U.S. Farmers are preparing for new limits on use of antibiotics.

Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes.

Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to human health. They would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians.

Which party is in charge of the White House and Congress right now? Oh, that's right, I recall now.

Of course, the major farmers, including the National Pork Producers Council, are pushing back against the new rules and proposed legislation that would implement even stricter limits. They claim there is not sufficient evidence that the antibiotics injected into the animals cause or contribute to human health problems. The American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America are pushing for the tougher legislation.

I don't have the competing studies in hand to compare them. If I did, I'm certainly not qualified to do the comparison. I am reminded though that tobacco industry for years claimed smoking didn't harm people, that the evidence it caused cancer was insufficient and flawed. They had an economic interest in selling cigarettes. The National Pork Producers have a similar economic interest in producing the most pork possible and the lowest costs possible.

I feel confident saying if the GOP was in charge of the White House and the FDA these rules would not be moving forward. If the GOP gains control of the House and/or the Senate in November then we can look forward to government shut downs and as many investigations as they can muster against Obama and his administration. This kind of work good will come to an end. Just what the GOP wants.

via

Trash Can Fire Becomes Krakatoa

Out of the blue, a reverend from Florida has succeeded in finding his 15 minutes. He's accomplished this despite being a nobody. News reports say his church has a whopping 50 members. He pulled it off by planning a Bible Quran burning on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in NYC and D.C.

The man is an obvious bigot. His followers, presumably, are also bigots. They hate an entire group of people that share a slightly different version of their own superstitions.

But what is really going on here?

I'm confident he hasn't procured every last copy of the Bible Quran in existence. He won't be destroying every last vestige of the book in his town, let alone the world. If I burned every book on my book shelves I would not have removed that knowledge from the world. I'd just have wasted a bunch of my money. Just as this bigot is wasting his congregation's money.

I assume he hasn't laid his hands a book 100s of years old that is a historical relic. I'm guessing he put on a trench coat and dark glasses and picked up a couple of copies of the Bible Quran from the local book store.

Getting smoke and ash into his eyes and those of his lowly, hate-filled followers is only REAL damage his planned Bible Quran burning should be able to do.

The real problem here is that so many people around the world are so upset because a complete nobody is going to light some paper on fire. These are the same people that get there fee fees hurt because somebody drew a picture of a man and labeled it with the name Mohammad. It is superstition and it has no place in the modern world. I'm not even commenting on Islam in general here. I mean the small mindedness that leads these people to become so upset about a planned trashcan fire. The problem is compounded by a 24-hour news cycle that has decided this piss ant of a human being deserves continuous attention.

He isn't doing anything illegal. He is expressing his small minded, hateful, and ignorant point of view. No one should care. This little man doesn't merit the attention he has been given by the media or the Islamic world. I would say the media should be ashamed of themselves but I long ago realized they have none.

And those in the Islamic world, how will this Bible Quran burning hurt you? Has the man taken food off your table? Has he injured your family? Has he taken your freedom from you? No, he'll have set fire to some paper and ink that could have just as likely been used to produce a Bible, a Torah, or the November issues of Playboy.

There is the bigger issue of Islamiphobia in the U.S. That should be addressed. Education and exposure are the best medicine. Condemn this reverend in Florida. I do. Then turn your back and ignore the maggot. He's not worth your effort.

Did You Need More Proof?

OK, do the following:

* Step 1: Point your browser to www.google.com.
* Step 2: Enter the search phrase ‘can you’.
* Step 3: Look at the drop down list.


Abstinence Only Education is a failure.

This Week in The War On Science

I give you John Boehner:


[quote]STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That’s my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?

BOEHNER: George, the idea that [b]carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment[/b] is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.[/quote]

As far as it goes, Boehner is right. CO2 is not a carcinogen and carcinogens are not harmful to the environment. And, or course, the real problem with cow farts is methane, not CO2. Boehner is one of the top leaders in the GOP, the major stumbling block to any progress.

Do They Even Begin To Understand?

This is what happens when you elect cretins.

On NPR just a few minutes ago there was a story about the state of Georgia considering legalization of beer and liquor sales on Sunday. One GOP state legislator opposed to the idea compared legalizing Sunday beer sales to legalizing prostitution.

In Colorado, you have state Sen. Dave Schultheis (R) opposing legislation requiring HIV testing for pregnant women because he wants the babies of women infected to bare the cost of their "mother's promiscuity."

Then there was Utah. I know, no surprises there, right? A week or two ago Utah State Senator Chris Buttars said that homosexuals were "greatest threat to America." He continued, "Oh, it's worse than that. Sure. Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide."

What's sad is that 25% - 28% of the populace still support these scared little men.

Stimulus Stripping

Centrists are taking money from science research.

Among the initiatives that could be cut are $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $14 million for cyber security research by the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for the National Science Foundation, $400 million for research and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $850 million for Amtrak and $400 million for climate change research. But so far, none of the suggestions come close to being enough to shrink the package on the scale proposed.

I don't like it.

Flight 1549

"Miracle on the Hudson," my ass!

US Airways flight 1549's crash landing on the Hudson River yesterday was no such thing. It was the result of 10's - no, probably 100's - of thousands of man-hours. The Air Bus 320 has a ditch switch that seals off the plane for just such an emergency. That was the result of engineers applying scientific research to the design of the plane. More to the point, the entire plane is designed to survive a water landing.

Add to the facts that the plane was in the hands of a pilot with 40+ years of experience. Captain Chesley Sullenberger not only has decades of flight experience but is also an experienced accident investigator and instructor. He stayed cool, calm, and collected and made a very difficult landing safely. After putting the plane down in the water he walked the aisle of the plane twice to make sure eveyone got off safely. Let's say that again, after the plane was in the water Cpt. Chesley Sullenberger walked the aisle TWICE to ensure his passengers were safe.

With the plane in the water and people safely deplaning rescuers responded immediately. If there was any major amount of luck here it was that the crash was in a heavily traveled water way. NPR this morning mentioned a police rescue diver who dropped from a police helicopter to pull one struggling passenger out of the water.

That 155 people survived the plane crash with no reports of serious injury was not a miracle. It is the result of science, engineering, experience, and fast responding rescuers. Calling it a miracle disrespects the people that did all the work.

Teen Hormones > Teen Pledges

So about the umpteen millionth study shows that abstinence pledges don't reduce teen sex rates. It also shows some correlation (not necessarily causation) between an abstinence pledge and increased teen pregnancy. Clearly - CLEARLY - the take away here is that we need more abstinence pledges and abstinence only education.

Today's Stat

1 person / 10 seconds
The number of people who die from diabetes related illness.

My brother is diabetic so this kind of thing always attracts my attention. What I'm truly looking forward to is Obama taking over the White House in January and reversing Shrubs executive order that prevents funding of stem cell research.

Fairly often I see articles referencing advancements in diabetes research using stem cell therapy. Like this one in Brazil. Think how much farther along we could be if the richest country with some of the best research facilities was participating.

Bush Gives The Finger To Endangered Species

No surprise here. Just down right depressing.

The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming.

If Obama wins, as I hope and predict, it is going to take him years just to undo all the bad executive orders issued by the current ass sitting in the Oval Office. What he may never be able to do is to eliminate all ideological hacks that have been given civil service jobs that will continue to push rules like this.

Via Balloon Juice

Rainbows Are Sexy

At least according to some jackass in Florida. But they promote "deviant" sexual thoughts.

During the trial, which was held in Panama City yesterday and today, Ponce de Leon High School’s principal David Davis admitted under oath that he had banned students from wearing any clothing or symbols supporting equal rights for gay people. Davis also testified that he believed rainbows were “sexually suggestive” and would make students unable to study because they’d be picturing gay sex acts in their mind.

John Cole correctly asks, "How do you argue with these people?"

Commenter gets it exactly right:

Well here we are again with Jerry Falwell and the Teletubbies promoting the Gay Agenda.

Look, we have to face facts. A certain percentage of people in this country are ignorant morons. We can’t make them go away, and we can’t shut them up.

So our calling is to out perform them. Outpersuade them, out politic them, outvote them, outgovern them.

We’ve seen how they govern, and they have given us a great opportunity to capitalize on their failures, this year.

Let’s seize that opportunity and take the country away from them, and then work to earn the right to keep it away from them.

Disappointing

This is all over the intertubes. All three candidates have supported the idea that childhood vaccines cause autism.

There's no proof. In fact, all evidence suggests that there is no connection whatsoever.

• The effective removal of thimerosal from vaccines brought no observable impact on autism rates.
• Unvaccinated autistic children show the same age of onset as do vaccinated autistic children.
• Major studies and several expert panel reports in the United States and around the world have investigated this issue exhaustively, and found no reason for worry.

As disappointing as it is, I've grown used to goppers getting science wrong. When the Democrats are screwing the same pooch it just makes me sad.

Fictitious Bearded Men In The Sky Are Not Doctors

"We are remaining strong for our children," she said. "Only our faith in God is giving us strength at this time."

Didn't work so well for 11 year old Kara, did it?

Stupid, superstitious, ignorant, assholes!

Yea! More Ron Paul!

Ron Paul: Evolution? "Just a theory and I don't accept it."

His arm must have been tired when asked to raise his hand about evolution in the debate.

You know, maybe I just ask too much of candidates but the acceptance of science is one of them. And if you are going to hold any kind of office above Assistant Dog Catcher in Training, you should understand that a "theory" doesn't mean that the idea is disputed.

Once again...

About the 1 billionth study shows abstinence education does not prevent teen sex.

"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.
...
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

When called for comments all Bush administration officials had their fingers in their ears singing, "LALALALALALALALAL"