EPA Scientist Says East Coast Beaches Threatened by Sea Level, But Nobody’s Listening
Wired Science
by Josh Harkinson
April 27, 2010
For most of the 20th century, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, was known for its boardwalk, amusement park and wide, sandy beaches, popular with daytrippers from Washington, D.C. “The bathing beach has a frontage of three miles,” boasted a tourist brochure from about 1900, “and is equal, if not superior, to any beach on the Atlantic Coast.”
Today, on a cloudless spring afternoon, the resort town’s sweeping view of Chesapeake Bay is no less stunning. But there’s no longer any beach in Chesapeake Beach. Where there once was sand, water now laps against a seven-foot-high wall of boulders protecting a strip of pricey homes marked with “No Trespassing” signs.
Surveying the armored shoreline, Jim Titus explains how the natural sinking of the shoreline and slow but steady sea-level rise, mostly due to climate change, have driven the bay’s water more than a foot higher over the past century. Reinforcing the eroding shore with a sea wall held the water back, but it also choked off the natural supply of sand that had replenished the beach. What sand remained gradually sank beneath the rising water.
Titus, the Environmental Protection Agency’s resident expert on sea-level rise, first happened upon Maryland’s disappearing beaches 15 years ago while looking for a place to windsurf. “Having the name beach,” he discovered, “is not a very good predictor of having a beach.” Since then, he’s kept an eye out for other beach towns that have lost their namesakes—Maryland’s Masons Beach and Tolchester Beach, North Carolina’s Pamlico Beach, and many more. (See a map of Maryland’s phantom beach towns here.)
A 54-year old with a thick shock of hair and sturdy build, Titus could pass for a vacationer in his Panama hat, khakis and polo shirt. But as he picks his way over the rocky shore, he’s anything but relaxed.
For nearly 30 years, Titus has been sounding the alarm about our rising oceans. Global warming is melting polar ice, adding to the volume of the oceans, as well as warming up seawater, causing it to expand. Most climatologists expect oceans around the world to rise between 1.5 and 5 feet this century.
Some of the hardest-hit areas could be in our own backyard: Erosion and a shift in ocean currents could cause water to rise 4 feet or more along much of the East Coast. Titus, who contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Nobel Prize-winning 2007 report, has done more than anyone to determine how those rising seas will affect us and what can be done about them.
Like his occasional collaborator, NASA climatologist James Hansen, Titus has decided to speak out. He’s crisscrossed the country to meet with state and local officials in coastal areas, urging them to start planning now for the slow-motion flood. Yet his warnings have mostly fallen on deaf ears. “We were often told by midlevel officials that their bosses did not want to plan for anything past the next election,” he says...
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Happy 4/20? Stoners don’t trust reporters in skinny jeans
Peña: Stoners don’t trust reporters in skinny jeans
By Joseph Peña, SDNN
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Considering the Republican District Attorney will prosecute a chimney, I didn’t think it’d be easy to find smoke shop workers or stoners to talk with me Tuesday (4/20), a day marijuana enthusiasts worldwide celebrate. I sure as hell didn’t think it’d be as hard as it was, though.
San Diego:
Happy 4-20! Or not, depending who you talk with; smoke shop workers and stoners were not eager to shoot the breeze with me Tuesday. The whole day totally cashed me out.
I only wanted to know whether the pot smoker’s holiday is a boon to local smoke shops; or — the way dedicated drinkers regard New Year’s Eve as a junior varsity scrimmage — pot users leave 4/20 to college freshmen, thus having no significant economic impact on businesses...
By Joseph Peña, SDNN
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Considering the Republican District Attorney will prosecute a chimney, I didn’t think it’d be easy to find smoke shop workers or stoners to talk with me Tuesday (4/20), a day marijuana enthusiasts worldwide celebrate. I sure as hell didn’t think it’d be as hard as it was, though.
San Diego:
Happy 4-20! Or not, depending who you talk with; smoke shop workers and stoners were not eager to shoot the breeze with me Tuesday. The whole day totally cashed me out.
I only wanted to know whether the pot smoker’s holiday is a boon to local smoke shops; or — the way dedicated drinkers regard New Year’s Eve as a junior varsity scrimmage — pot users leave 4/20 to college freshmen, thus having no significant economic impact on businesses...
It doesn't matter what you do, just so you believe
Earning Hope
Chalice Notes
by Kent Doss
April 19, 2010
...In our world view, it’s your actions that make the difference, not just what you believe. We have forsaken original sin and salvation by faith alone...
Most of us have some notion of original sin in the Christian church. That’s the fallen or sinful state of human beings that is passed down generation to generation because of the “Fall” in the Garden of Eden when Eve ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. Just be being descendents, all of humanity is likewise sinful. It’s a pretty core piece of Christian theology, but it wasn’t so until the early 400s. Augustine of Hippo was the champion of this doctrine and he was one of the most powerful and influential theologians of Christian history.
But at the same time, one of our very important theological predecessors was arguing the opposite. He argued that salvation can be earned and humanity’s natural state is not original sin. Rather than the sin of a mythical predecessor, he focused on free will, and the importance of right action, not just having the right theological faith. His ideas quickly spread, which is one reason the opponents acted so promptly and firmly. In fact they acted so forcefully and so completely that nearly all of his written works have been destroyed. Most of what is known about Pelagius today is recorded in the letters and books of Orthodox theologians who argue against him...
Chalice Notes
by Kent Doss
April 19, 2010
...In our world view, it’s your actions that make the difference, not just what you believe. We have forsaken original sin and salvation by faith alone...
Most of us have some notion of original sin in the Christian church. That’s the fallen or sinful state of human beings that is passed down generation to generation because of the “Fall” in the Garden of Eden when Eve ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. Just be being descendents, all of humanity is likewise sinful. It’s a pretty core piece of Christian theology, but it wasn’t so until the early 400s. Augustine of Hippo was the champion of this doctrine and he was one of the most powerful and influential theologians of Christian history.
But at the same time, one of our very important theological predecessors was arguing the opposite. He argued that salvation can be earned and humanity’s natural state is not original sin. Rather than the sin of a mythical predecessor, he focused on free will, and the importance of right action, not just having the right theological faith. His ideas quickly spread, which is one reason the opponents acted so promptly and firmly. In fact they acted so forcefully and so completely that nearly all of his written works have been destroyed. Most of what is known about Pelagius today is recorded in the letters and books of Orthodox theologians who argue against him...
Friday, April 16, 2010
How I learned to stop being a lazy American and pay my part for what matters
Apr 15, 2010 06:01 EDT
Suck it, Tea Party: I love Tax Day
How I learned to stop being a lazy American and pay my part for what matters
By Steve Almond
Salon
Like a lot of Americans, I've spent a small but deeply unfortunate fraction of my recent life puzzling over the Tea Party's Tax Day Extravaganza of Irrational Grievance, or whatever they're calling it.
As a longtime resident of the Boston area, it's especially galling to see a bunch of angry old white people -- many of whom, we learned recently, are on the federal dole -- behave as if their democratically elected officials are foreign despots. It would probably behoove the Fourth Estate to draw a thick line between genuine victims of colonialism and sore losers.
Suck it, Tea Party: I love Tax Day
How I learned to stop being a lazy American and pay my part for what matters
By Steve Almond
Salon
Like a lot of Americans, I've spent a small but deeply unfortunate fraction of my recent life puzzling over the Tea Party's Tax Day Extravaganza of Irrational Grievance, or whatever they're calling it.
As a longtime resident of the Boston area, it's especially galling to see a bunch of angry old white people -- many of whom, we learned recently, are on the federal dole -- behave as if their democratically elected officials are foreign despots. It would probably behoove the Fourth Estate to draw a thick line between genuine victims of colonialism and sore losers.
Is the Star of David being misused by Jewish extremists?
I recently was surprised to learn (even though it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?) that Palestinians are descended from Jewish farmers and herders of the biblical era. So the story below is not just about religion. It's about that pesky brother versus brother problem that humans everywhere seem to be burdened by.
Apr 15, 2010
Is the Star of David the new swastika?
In a disturbing reversal of symbolism, Israeli extremists are defacing Palestinian property with the Jewish symbol
By Judy Mandelbaum
Time was when Nazis used to slather swastikas on synagogues and Jewish businesses to prepare the local population for expulsion or much worse. It's sad that this sort of behavior persists around the world, as a new study by Tel Aviv University shows. But it's even sadder to see Israelis regularly defacing Palestinian property with Stars of David with equal glee and with what appears to be the same brain-dead mindset.
Your local paper might not have covered it, but in the wee hours of Wednesday morning a gang of Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village of Hawara. "Palestinians reported two torched cars on the village’s central road early yesterday," Haaretz writes. "A small village mosque, used only on the weekend, had the word 'Muhammad' sprayed in Hebrew and a Star of David. Haaretz also found graffiti with the Jewish prayer 'Praise be onto him for not making me a gentile.'" The attackers also took the opportunity to destroy some three hundred olive trees, a major source of local income...
Apr 15, 2010
Is the Star of David the new swastika?
In a disturbing reversal of symbolism, Israeli extremists are defacing Palestinian property with the Jewish symbol
By Judy Mandelbaum
Time was when Nazis used to slather swastikas on synagogues and Jewish businesses to prepare the local population for expulsion or much worse. It's sad that this sort of behavior persists around the world, as a new study by Tel Aviv University shows. But it's even sadder to see Israelis regularly defacing Palestinian property with Stars of David with equal glee and with what appears to be the same brain-dead mindset.
Your local paper might not have covered it, but in the wee hours of Wednesday morning a gang of Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village of Hawara. "Palestinians reported two torched cars on the village’s central road early yesterday," Haaretz writes. "A small village mosque, used only on the weekend, had the word 'Muhammad' sprayed in Hebrew and a Star of David. Haaretz also found graffiti with the Jewish prayer 'Praise be onto him for not making me a gentile.'" The attackers also took the opportunity to destroy some three hundred olive trees, a major source of local income...
Monday, April 12, 2010
Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District (1994): Is Evolution a Religion?
Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District (1994)
About.com
Evolution & Creationism: Is Evolution a Religion?
Exploring: Church & State > Court Decisions > Evolution & Creationism
Some of those who object to evolution for religious reasons also argue that evolution itself is a religion or, sometimes, that it is a part of secular humanism which itself is a religion. Therefore, they conclude, teaching evolution in public schools violates the Establishment Clause (because it imposes a religion on students) and the Free Exercise Clause (in particular, of the teachers who are forced to teach it). But are such arguments valid? Is evolution a religion?
Background Information
High school biology teacher John E. Peloza brought action against the Capistrano School District, claiming that the school district's requirement that he teach "evolutionism," as well as a school district order barring him from discussing his religious beliefs with students, were infringements both on his rights to free speech and his rights to free exercise of religion.
According to Peloza, "evolutionism" is a religion and therefore being forced to teach it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In Peloza's view, Evolutionism is an historical, philosophical and religious belief system, but not a valid scientific theory. Evolutionism is one of "two world views on the subject of the origins of life and of the universe." The other is "creationism" which also is a "religious belief system."
The belief system of evolutionism is based on the assumption that life and the universe evolved randomly and by chance and with no Creator involved in the process. The world view and belief system of creationism is based on the assumption that a Creator created all life and the entire universe.
Peloza also claimed that the district conspired to destroy and damage his professional reputation, career and position as a public school teacher. He had been reprimanded in writing for proselytizing to students and teaching religion in the classroom - according to him, they did this because they were hostile towards practicing Christians.
A District Court had dismissed the suit and awarded attorney fees to the school district, but Peloza appealed.
Court Decision
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals completely rejected all of Peloza's arguments. First, they noted that his claims were not entirely consistent - in some places he claimed that it is unconstitutional for the school district to require him to teach, as a valid scientific theory, that higher life forms evolved from lower ones, but at other times he claimed the district was forcing him to teach evolution as fact.
The Court also noted what just about every creationist seems to miss: the fact that evolution is about how life has developed and has nothing to do with the origins or development of the universe itself...
About.com
Evolution & Creationism: Is Evolution a Religion?
Exploring: Church & State > Court Decisions > Evolution & Creationism
Some of those who object to evolution for religious reasons also argue that evolution itself is a religion or, sometimes, that it is a part of secular humanism which itself is a religion. Therefore, they conclude, teaching evolution in public schools violates the Establishment Clause (because it imposes a religion on students) and the Free Exercise Clause (in particular, of the teachers who are forced to teach it). But are such arguments valid? Is evolution a religion?
Background Information
High school biology teacher John E. Peloza brought action against the Capistrano School District, claiming that the school district's requirement that he teach "evolutionism," as well as a school district order barring him from discussing his religious beliefs with students, were infringements both on his rights to free speech and his rights to free exercise of religion.
According to Peloza, "evolutionism" is a religion and therefore being forced to teach it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In Peloza's view, Evolutionism is an historical, philosophical and religious belief system, but not a valid scientific theory. Evolutionism is one of "two world views on the subject of the origins of life and of the universe." The other is "creationism" which also is a "religious belief system."
The belief system of evolutionism is based on the assumption that life and the universe evolved randomly and by chance and with no Creator involved in the process. The world view and belief system of creationism is based on the assumption that a Creator created all life and the entire universe.
Peloza also claimed that the district conspired to destroy and damage his professional reputation, career and position as a public school teacher. He had been reprimanded in writing for proselytizing to students and teaching religion in the classroom - according to him, they did this because they were hostile towards practicing Christians.
A District Court had dismissed the suit and awarded attorney fees to the school district, but Peloza appealed.
Court Decision
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals completely rejected all of Peloza's arguments. First, they noted that his claims were not entirely consistent - in some places he claimed that it is unconstitutional for the school district to require him to teach, as a valid scientific theory, that higher life forms evolved from lower ones, but at other times he claimed the district was forcing him to teach evolution as fact.
The Court also noted what just about every creationist seems to miss: the fact that evolution is about how life has developed and has nothing to do with the origins or development of the universe itself...
The Case for God
All quiet on the God front
Simon Blackburn discusses the argument that religious experience can't be discussed
Simon Blackburn
The Guardian
4 July 2009
This is an eloquent and interesting book, although you do not quite get what it says on the tin. Karen Armstrong takes the reader through a history of religious practice in many different cultures, arguing that in the good old days and purest forms they all come to much the same thing. They use devices of ritual, mystery, drama, dance and meditation in order to enable us better to cope with the vale of tears in which we find ourselves. Religion is therefore properly a matter of a practice, and may be compared with art or music. These are similarly difficult to create, and even to appreciate. But nobody who has managed either would doubt that something valuable has happened in the process. We come out of the art gallery or concert hall enriched and braced, elevated and tranquil, and may even fancy ourselves better people, though the change may or may not be noticed by those around us.
1. The Case for God
2. : What Religion Really Means
3. by Karen Armstrong
4. 384pp,
5. Bodley Head,
6. £20
7.
1. Buy The Case for God at the Observer bookshop
This is religion as it should be, and, according to Armstrong, as it once was in all the world's best traditions. However, there is a serpent in this paradise, as in others. Or rather, several serpents, but the worst is the folly of intellectualising the practice. This makes it into a matter of belief, argument, and ultimately dogma. It debases religion into a matter of belief in a certain number of propositions, so that if you can recite those sincerely you are an adept, and if you can't you fail. This is Armstrong's principal target. With the scientific triumphs of the 17th century, religion stopped being a practice and started to become a theory - in particular the theory of the divine architect. This is a perversion of anything valuable in religious practice, Armstrong writes, and it is only this perverted view that arouses the scorn of modern "militant" atheists. So Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris have chosen a straw man as a target. Real religion is serenely immune to their discovery that it is silly to talk of a divine architect.
So what should the religious adept actually say by way of expressing his or her faith? Nothing. This is the "apophatic" tradition, in which nothing about God can be put into words. Armstrong firmly recommends silence, having written at least 15 books on the topic. Words such as "God" have to be seen as symbols, not names, but any word falls short of describing what it symbolises, and will always be inadequate, contradictory, metaphorical or allegorical. The mystery at the heart of religious practice is ineffable, unapproachable by reason and by language. Silence is its truest expression. The right kind of silence, of course, not that of the pothead or inebriate. The religious state is exactly that of Alice after hearing the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky": "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are." If Alice puts on a dog collar, she will be at one with the tradition.
Armstrong is not presenting a case for God in the sense most people in our idolatrous world would think of it. The ordinary man or woman in the pew or on the prayer mat probably thinks of God as a kind of large version of themselves with mysterious powers and a rather nasty temper...
Monday, March 29, 2010
9 Tied to Christian Militia Charged in Plot to Murder Officers
9 Tied to Militia Charged in Plot to Murder Officers
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
March 29, 2010
WASHINGTON — Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been indicted on sedition and weapons charges in connection with an alleged plot to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an anti-government uprising.
In court filings unsealed Monday, the Justice Department accused the nine people of planning to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer, then plant improvised explosive devices of a type used by insurgents in Iraq to attack the funeral procession.
Eight of the defendants were arrested over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. A ninth remained at large, the Justice Department said. The indictments against them were returned last Tuesday. The defendants were identified as members of Hutaree, described by federal prosecutors as an anti-government extremist organization based in Lenawee County, Michigan, and which advocates violence against local, state and federal law enforcement. The group saw local and state police as “foot soldiers” for the federal government, which it viewed as its enemy, along with participants in what they deemed to be a “New World Order,” according to the indictment...
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
March 29, 2010
WASHINGTON — Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been indicted on sedition and weapons charges in connection with an alleged plot to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an anti-government uprising.
In court filings unsealed Monday, the Justice Department accused the nine people of planning to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer, then plant improvised explosive devices of a type used by insurgents in Iraq to attack the funeral procession.
Eight of the defendants were arrested over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. A ninth remained at large, the Justice Department said. The indictments against them were returned last Tuesday. The defendants were identified as members of Hutaree, described by federal prosecutors as an anti-government extremist organization based in Lenawee County, Michigan, and which advocates violence against local, state and federal law enforcement. The group saw local and state police as “foot soldiers” for the federal government, which it viewed as its enemy, along with participants in what they deemed to be a “New World Order,” according to the indictment...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Anger in schools and beyond: Are some of these people actually motivated by other problems?
Sometimes people are actually angry about something different from what they're yelling about
A lot of kids have been given less-than-stellar educations by our local school districts, and many of their parents are angry. I agree entirely with these parents' demands for better treatment for students. I also agree that many parents who complain have been bullied shamefully by school lawyers. Some of these lawyers have violated professional codes of conduct and state law to the extent that they deserve severe reprimands, even disbarment or jail time. Of course, these lawyers are unlikely to be called to account for their unethical and illegal actions.
But some of these parents are too angry, in my opinion.
I suspect that some parents are angry about situations that have nothing to do with schools, but they unleash this anger on a handy, accessible target: their kids' school. Sometimes it's really hard to keep track of exactly what these people are furious about.
Recently one of these parents sent me, for no apparent reason, an email claiming that President Obama was "first born"* in Kenya. Apparently the theory is that he was first born in Kenya, then born for a second time in Honolulu. (Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what these "Birthers" are trying to say.) The email I received included a photo of Obama's elementary school application to an Indonesian Catholic school. Very clearly on the application, right after his name, Obama's place of birth was listed as Honolulu. The person who filled out the form, Obama's Indonesian stepfather, was in no way trying to make his stepson sound more American.
Obama's birthplace was a matter of record, and no one had yet cooked up a plan to pretend otherwise. Yet this email was sent to me, as the sender indicated in the subject line, "to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications." How does the human brain malfunction so spectacularly?
If anything, this San Diego parent should be angry at her own teachers for not training her adequately as a critical thinker.
But I must say that many teachers and administrators were not taught how to be critical thinkers, either. During my years of teaching I saw plenty of teachers and adminstrators spewing anger (at kids, parents and each other). Many of them made no more sense than the confused parent who emailed me. To top it off, I heard teachers make disparaging remarks about high intelligence itself. Smart people were not considered cool by the most popular and powerful teachers at my schools.
My suggestion? Critical thinking classes for school professionals.
Everyone involved would benefit from better decision-making by school personnel, and students would benefit from the improved thinking skills of their teachers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Quote from the email:
"This document provides the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking - that he is NOT a natural-born citizen of the United States - necessary to be President of these United States . Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya , here we see that there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship...Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation..."
Next installment: Muslims versus Mormons: whom do Americans trust less?
__________________________________________________________________________
Here's a story about another nasty email. The woman who sent the racially offensive email in the first place was angry that a recipient forwarded it to the NAACP, and caused that recipient to be fired. This is just the sort of thing that happens in schools, in my experience. School officials want bad behavior covered up, and they take action NOT against the bad actors, but against those they fear might reveal the truth about the bad actions to the public. That's what Chula Vista Elementary School District and its lawyers did to cover up the crimes of Robin Donlan and Linda Watson. In the end, the district committed felonies like perjury and alteration of documents to cover misdemeanors. Things really get out of control once the cover-up starts. What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
NAACP: SunTrust Mortgage worker fired over e-mail
CHRIS I. YOUNG TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2010
The NAACP says a 14-year employee was fired from SunTrust Mortgage Inc. in Richmond after she was accused of sending a chain e-mail she received at work that ultimately was forwarded to the NAACP.
The fired African-American employee said she found the e-mail offensive.
The e-mail contains pictures of 40 bumper stickers such as, "Clinton ruined a dress, Obama ruined a nation," "So I guess we're even on that slavery thing eh?" and, "Diversity -- It killed 13 at Fort Hood."...
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released a copy of what it said was the e-mail sent by a SunTrust official to 13 office employees and one outside recipient under the subject line "FW: Bumper Stickers that Make Sense."...
Russ, an accountant, said SunTrust conducted an internal investigation and then brought her into a meeting. There, she was told she was being terminated because her supervisor had "trust issues" with her and because of the e-mail, she said in a telephone interview.
She said SunTrust accused her of trying to go public with the e-mail by forwarding it to someone who would give it to the NAACP.
The official who sent the e-mail collected Russ' belongings and escorted Russ out of the building immediately after the Feb. 18 meeting, Russ said. She said she was paid through March 4...
A lot of kids have been given less-than-stellar educations by our local school districts, and many of their parents are angry. I agree entirely with these parents' demands for better treatment for students. I also agree that many parents who complain have been bullied shamefully by school lawyers. Some of these lawyers have violated professional codes of conduct and state law to the extent that they deserve severe reprimands, even disbarment or jail time. Of course, these lawyers are unlikely to be called to account for their unethical and illegal actions.
But some of these parents are too angry, in my opinion.
I suspect that some parents are angry about situations that have nothing to do with schools, but they unleash this anger on a handy, accessible target: their kids' school. Sometimes it's really hard to keep track of exactly what these people are furious about.
Recently one of these parents sent me, for no apparent reason, an email claiming that President Obama was "first born"* in Kenya. Apparently the theory is that he was first born in Kenya, then born for a second time in Honolulu. (Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what these "Birthers" are trying to say.) The email I received included a photo of Obama's elementary school application to an Indonesian Catholic school. Very clearly on the application, right after his name, Obama's place of birth was listed as Honolulu. The person who filled out the form, Obama's Indonesian stepfather, was in no way trying to make his stepson sound more American.
Obama's birthplace was a matter of record, and no one had yet cooked up a plan to pretend otherwise. Yet this email was sent to me, as the sender indicated in the subject line, "to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications." How does the human brain malfunction so spectacularly?
If anything, this San Diego parent should be angry at her own teachers for not training her adequately as a critical thinker.
But I must say that many teachers and administrators were not taught how to be critical thinkers, either. During my years of teaching I saw plenty of teachers and adminstrators spewing anger (at kids, parents and each other). Many of them made no more sense than the confused parent who emailed me. To top it off, I heard teachers make disparaging remarks about high intelligence itself. Smart people were not considered cool by the most popular and powerful teachers at my schools.
My suggestion? Critical thinking classes for school professionals.
Everyone involved would benefit from better decision-making by school personnel, and students would benefit from the improved thinking skills of their teachers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Quote from the email:
"This document provides the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking - that he is NOT a natural-born citizen of the United States - necessary to be President of these United States . Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya , here we see that there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship...Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation..."
Next installment: Muslims versus Mormons: whom do Americans trust less?
__________________________________________________________________________
Here's a story about another nasty email. The woman who sent the racially offensive email in the first place was angry that a recipient forwarded it to the NAACP, and caused that recipient to be fired. This is just the sort of thing that happens in schools, in my experience. School officials want bad behavior covered up, and they take action NOT against the bad actors, but against those they fear might reveal the truth about the bad actions to the public. That's what Chula Vista Elementary School District and its lawyers did to cover up the crimes of Robin Donlan and Linda Watson. In the end, the district committed felonies like perjury and alteration of documents to cover misdemeanors. Things really get out of control once the cover-up starts. What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
NAACP: SunTrust Mortgage worker fired over e-mail
CHRIS I. YOUNG TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2010
The NAACP says a 14-year employee was fired from SunTrust Mortgage Inc. in Richmond after she was accused of sending a chain e-mail she received at work that ultimately was forwarded to the NAACP.
The fired African-American employee said she found the e-mail offensive.
The e-mail contains pictures of 40 bumper stickers such as, "Clinton ruined a dress, Obama ruined a nation," "So I guess we're even on that slavery thing eh?" and, "Diversity -- It killed 13 at Fort Hood."...
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released a copy of what it said was the e-mail sent by a SunTrust official to 13 office employees and one outside recipient under the subject line "FW: Bumper Stickers that Make Sense."...
Russ, an accountant, said SunTrust conducted an internal investigation and then brought her into a meeting. There, she was told she was being terminated because her supervisor had "trust issues" with her and because of the e-mail, she said in a telephone interview.
She said SunTrust accused her of trying to go public with the e-mail by forwarding it to someone who would give it to the NAACP.
The official who sent the e-mail collected Russ' belongings and escorted Russ out of the building immediately after the Feb. 18 meeting, Russ said. She said she was paid through March 4...
Saturday, March 27, 2010
CNN debunks false report about Obama
CNN debunks false report about Obama
January 23, 2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate, according to CNN reporting.
Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam.
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa. (Watch video of Obama's school Video)
Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.
He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."
Insight stood by its story in a response posted on its Web site Monday afternoon.
The Insight article was cited several times Friday on Fox News and was also referenced by the New York Post, The Glenn Beck program on CNN Headline News and a number of political blogs. (Watch how the Obama "gossip" spread Video)
School not a madrassa
But reporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.
"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."
Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."
"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."
The Obama aide described Fox News' broadcasting of the Insight story "appallingly irresponsible."
Fox News executive Bill Shine told CNN "Reliable Sources" anchor Howard Kurtz that some of the network's hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited Insight as the source of the allegations.
Obama has noted in his two books, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," that he spent two years in a Muslim school and another two years in a Catholic school while living in Indonesia from age 6 to 10.
Obama's Catholic School Ready for Possible Visit
Voice of Indonesia
Monday, 15 March 2010 21:31
Jakarta, VOI News - The Catholic school Barack Obama attended as a child in Jakarta is getting ready to receive a possible visit when the US president comes to Indonesia later this month.
“We do not know for sure if President Obama will visit this school, but we are prepared for the visit,” Maria Yohana of Santo Fransiskus Asisi Elementary School told Union of Catholic Asian News. “We will serve fried rice and rambutan, his favorite food."
She said students had also prepared a number of performances, including a traditional Jakarta Betawi dance, the Balinese pendet, and Sundanese angklung music. Yohana said the school would also like to show Obama its new leadership laboratory, "whose vision is to produce future leaders based on love".
Obama attended Santo Fransiskus Asisi from 1968 to 1970, before transferring to Menteng 01 elementary school. While the latter has a statue of the child then known as "Barry", Santo Fransiskus has set aside the desk and chair he used. “I want to shake hands and get his signature," said current student Stefanus Febrian, 10. "I also want to ask him about his favorite subject."
Meanwhile, the latest Indonesian book about Barack Obama was launched in Jakarta on Monday, the week before the US President is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia. The book titled "Obama Anak Menteng" ("Obama The Menteng Kid") was written by Damien Dematra. During a launching at Obama's former elementary school in Menteng, Damien said he hoped the book would inspire Indonesian children to dare to dream.
Obama was successful “because of the power of dreams," he told Trijaya Radio. Damien wrote the 206 page book in five days after spending two weeks interviewing Obama's childhood friends and relatives in Indonesia. He said the book would be made into a movie in June. Several books have been written about Obama in Indonesia. The US leader spent part of his childhood in Menteng after his mother married an Indonesian. jg
Obama's Early Days in Jakarta
Former Teacher Remembers 'Barry' as a Good Student, Leader
...Fermina Katarina Sinaga Suhanda, Obama's third-grade teacher, remembered him distinctly because he looked different.
"He's the only black, he's the only one with curly hair," she said, adding that he was also bigger than the other children.
She also remembered a telling essay from the Illinois senator.
"He wrote like this," Suhanda said in Bahasa, the local language. "I am Barry Soetoro. I am in third grade [at] Fransiskus Asisi Elementary School."
He wrote about his friends, parents, Indonesia and ended the essay with "I want to be the president."
The president of what, the third-grader did not specify.
"To be President Taxi or where I don't know," Suhanda said.
Related
McCain Verbal Mistakes: Message Killer?
Dem Candidates' Wives on Abortion Rights
Race Tightens, Focus Shifts to Just 14 States
Obama's teachers said he was already showing signs of leadership at a young age. They described him as a "number-two teacher," sharing how he used to lead his classmates to line up after recess and volunteer to erase the chalkboard.
They remembered how his mother walked Obama to school in the mornings and occasionally exchanged words with them in Bahasa.
His best subject, in a school taught in the local language, was math. Referring to teachers as "ma'am," he dressed neatly with his shirt tucked in and wore shoes and socks, while some of the other children wore sandals or flip-flops, his teachers remembered.
Friends said that Obama is left-handed, a noticeable trait in a predominately Muslim country, where the left hand is reserved for bodily hygiene.
He was fast and agile, good at playing ball, and hide and seek. In many ways, he was just like his energetic classmates.
"Some boys [were] always running around and teas[ing] the girls, and Barry was one of them," Kisjanto said, recalling how Obama sometimes pulled their long, braided hair.
Over time, Obama's mother's Indonesian husband landed a better job, and the family moved into another home in a better neighborhood. With a long side hallway connecting them, the rooms of their house were lined up back-to-back like a train. A bench the family of four sat in for a family portrait still sits in the front room.
In third grade, Obama transferred to Besuki Elementary School, a school political opponents would later proclaim was a "madrassas." Classmates who attended the school know otherwise and said the mosque that is there now wasn't there before.
"Everybody is exposed to both religion[s] -- both Muslim and Christian. So it was a very open, very tolerant school," said Kisjanto, who is Christian.
"Because our class[rooms] are open, we don't have air conditioning at that time, so we can hear [when] the Muslims are reciting the Koran, and I can still remember it, and I can recite it because I hear[d] it," she said. "It's lovely that we are exposed to both religion[s]."
Obama detailed in his book his recollection of living in a world with his mother so distant from America.
January 23, 2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate, according to CNN reporting.
Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam.
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa. (Watch video of Obama's school Video)
Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.
He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."
Insight stood by its story in a response posted on its Web site Monday afternoon.
The Insight article was cited several times Friday on Fox News and was also referenced by the New York Post, The Glenn Beck program on CNN Headline News and a number of political blogs. (Watch how the Obama "gossip" spread Video)
School not a madrassa
But reporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.
"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."
Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."
"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."
The Obama aide described Fox News' broadcasting of the Insight story "appallingly irresponsible."
Fox News executive Bill Shine told CNN "Reliable Sources" anchor Howard Kurtz that some of the network's hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited Insight as the source of the allegations.
Obama has noted in his two books, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," that he spent two years in a Muslim school and another two years in a Catholic school while living in Indonesia from age 6 to 10.
Obama's Catholic School Ready for Possible Visit
Voice of Indonesia
Monday, 15 March 2010 21:31
Jakarta, VOI News - The Catholic school Barack Obama attended as a child in Jakarta is getting ready to receive a possible visit when the US president comes to Indonesia later this month.
“We do not know for sure if President Obama will visit this school, but we are prepared for the visit,” Maria Yohana of Santo Fransiskus Asisi Elementary School told Union of Catholic Asian News. “We will serve fried rice and rambutan, his favorite food."
She said students had also prepared a number of performances, including a traditional Jakarta Betawi dance, the Balinese pendet, and Sundanese angklung music. Yohana said the school would also like to show Obama its new leadership laboratory, "whose vision is to produce future leaders based on love".
Obama attended Santo Fransiskus Asisi from 1968 to 1970, before transferring to Menteng 01 elementary school. While the latter has a statue of the child then known as "Barry", Santo Fransiskus has set aside the desk and chair he used. “I want to shake hands and get his signature," said current student Stefanus Febrian, 10. "I also want to ask him about his favorite subject."
Meanwhile, the latest Indonesian book about Barack Obama was launched in Jakarta on Monday, the week before the US President is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia. The book titled "Obama Anak Menteng" ("Obama The Menteng Kid") was written by Damien Dematra. During a launching at Obama's former elementary school in Menteng, Damien said he hoped the book would inspire Indonesian children to dare to dream.
Obama was successful “because of the power of dreams," he told Trijaya Radio. Damien wrote the 206 page book in five days after spending two weeks interviewing Obama's childhood friends and relatives in Indonesia. He said the book would be made into a movie in June. Several books have been written about Obama in Indonesia. The US leader spent part of his childhood in Menteng after his mother married an Indonesian. jg
Obama's Early Days in Jakarta
Former Teacher Remembers 'Barry' as a Good Student, Leader
...Fermina Katarina Sinaga Suhanda, Obama's third-grade teacher, remembered him distinctly because he looked different.
"He's the only black, he's the only one with curly hair," she said, adding that he was also bigger than the other children.
She also remembered a telling essay from the Illinois senator.
"He wrote like this," Suhanda said in Bahasa, the local language. "I am Barry Soetoro. I am in third grade [at] Fransiskus Asisi Elementary School."
He wrote about his friends, parents, Indonesia and ended the essay with "I want to be the president."
The president of what, the third-grader did not specify.
"To be President Taxi or where I don't know," Suhanda said.
Related
McCain Verbal Mistakes: Message Killer?
Dem Candidates' Wives on Abortion Rights
Race Tightens, Focus Shifts to Just 14 States
Obama's teachers said he was already showing signs of leadership at a young age. They described him as a "number-two teacher," sharing how he used to lead his classmates to line up after recess and volunteer to erase the chalkboard.
They remembered how his mother walked Obama to school in the mornings and occasionally exchanged words with them in Bahasa.
His best subject, in a school taught in the local language, was math. Referring to teachers as "ma'am," he dressed neatly with his shirt tucked in and wore shoes and socks, while some of the other children wore sandals or flip-flops, his teachers remembered.
Friends said that Obama is left-handed, a noticeable trait in a predominately Muslim country, where the left hand is reserved for bodily hygiene.
He was fast and agile, good at playing ball, and hide and seek. In many ways, he was just like his energetic classmates.
"Some boys [were] always running around and teas[ing] the girls, and Barry was one of them," Kisjanto said, recalling how Obama sometimes pulled their long, braided hair.
Over time, Obama's mother's Indonesian husband landed a better job, and the family moved into another home in a better neighborhood. With a long side hallway connecting them, the rooms of their house were lined up back-to-back like a train. A bench the family of four sat in for a family portrait still sits in the front room.
In third grade, Obama transferred to Besuki Elementary School, a school political opponents would later proclaim was a "madrassas." Classmates who attended the school know otherwise and said the mosque that is there now wasn't there before.
"Everybody is exposed to both religion[s] -- both Muslim and Christian. So it was a very open, very tolerant school," said Kisjanto, who is Christian.
"Because our class[rooms] are open, we don't have air conditioning at that time, so we can hear [when] the Muslims are reciting the Koran, and I can still remember it, and I can recite it because I hear[d] it," she said. "It's lovely that we are exposed to both religion[s]."
Obama detailed in his book his recollection of living in a world with his mother so distant from America.
Harmless Creature Killed Because of Superstition
Harmless Creature Killed Because of Superstition
Updated: 9 hours 4 minutes ago
David Knowles
AOL News
(March 27) -- For some residents of the African island nation of Madagascar, encountering the tiny mammal called the aye-aye is as bad as meeting death itself.
The 4- to 6-pound animal is believed to creep into the houses of villagers and use its peculiarly long middle finger to lance the hearts of sleeping victims, according to Discovery News.
aye-aye
Rob Cousins, Bristol Zoo via Getty Images
Natives of Madagascar often kill harmless aye-ayes over fears of what the animal represents.
For that reason, locals often kill the harmless animals on sight. Along with the loss of habitat caused by deforestation, superstition is a major reason the aye-aye is now considered to be at risk. Aye-aye population estimates range from 1,000 to 10,000.
Found only on Madagascar, aye-ayes are nocturnal primates that tend to live high in the trees of the rain forest, where they build nests of leaves and twigs. They use their long middle fingers to extract insect larvae from tree bark, according to National Geographic.
Some locals believe the legend that the appearance of an aye-aye -- which does not seem to fear the presence of human beings -- is a sign that a villager will soon die.
The animal, the largest nocturnal primate in the world, is now officially protected by law, but that often does not protect the aye-aye from residents convinced of its evil nature...
Updated: 9 hours 4 minutes ago
David Knowles
AOL News
(March 27) -- For some residents of the African island nation of Madagascar, encountering the tiny mammal called the aye-aye is as bad as meeting death itself.
The 4- to 6-pound animal is believed to creep into the houses of villagers and use its peculiarly long middle finger to lance the hearts of sleeping victims, according to Discovery News.
aye-aye
Rob Cousins, Bristol Zoo via Getty Images
Natives of Madagascar often kill harmless aye-ayes over fears of what the animal represents.
For that reason, locals often kill the harmless animals on sight. Along with the loss of habitat caused by deforestation, superstition is a major reason the aye-aye is now considered to be at risk. Aye-aye population estimates range from 1,000 to 10,000.
Found only on Madagascar, aye-ayes are nocturnal primates that tend to live high in the trees of the rain forest, where they build nests of leaves and twigs. They use their long middle fingers to extract insect larvae from tree bark, according to National Geographic.
Some locals believe the legend that the appearance of an aye-aye -- which does not seem to fear the presence of human beings -- is a sign that a villager will soon die.
The animal, the largest nocturnal primate in the world, is now officially protected by law, but that often does not protect the aye-aye from residents convinced of its evil nature...
Ex-Scientology Lawsuits Reveal Elite Sea Org Group
Ex-Scientology Lawsuits Reveal Elite Sea Org Group
Mar 27, 2010 10:31 am US/Pacific
Ex-Scientology Lawsuits Reveal Elite Sea Org Group
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
SAN JACINTO, Calif. (AP) ― At the edge of arid foothills far outside Los Angeles, hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L. Ron Hubbard and creating the church's teaching and promotional materials.
The church says its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by two former Sea Org members, as they are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers, forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual labor if they cause trouble.
Marc Headley and his wife, Claire, are seeking back pay and overtime that could add up to $1 million each, according to their attorney, Barry Van Sickle.
Experts say the plaintiffs face an uphill battle; one similar lawsuit in state court has already been dismissed, although the plaintiff plans to appeal.
But the dispute has nonetheless focused unwelcome attention on the Sea Org, which operates as a nerve center for the church's most important business. While Sea Org members hold positions of authority within the international church, from the public relations team to the top leadership, lower-ranking members make up much of the work force.
The members are Scientology's most devoted followers: they sign a billion-year pledge, vow not to have children and live and work communally.
Scientology has been sued by disgruntled members before, but experts believe these suits are the first to use labor law to challenge the premise that the Sea Organization is akin to a fraternal religious order.
A victory for plaintiffs would "certainly go to the heart of Scientology's self-identification as a religion," said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and author of a scholarly book on Scientology.
Mar 27, 2010 10:31 am US/Pacific
Ex-Scientology Lawsuits Reveal Elite Sea Org Group
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
SAN JACINTO, Calif. (AP) ― At the edge of arid foothills far outside Los Angeles, hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L. Ron Hubbard and creating the church's teaching and promotional materials.
The church says its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by two former Sea Org members, as they are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers, forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual labor if they cause trouble.
Marc Headley and his wife, Claire, are seeking back pay and overtime that could add up to $1 million each, according to their attorney, Barry Van Sickle.
Experts say the plaintiffs face an uphill battle; one similar lawsuit in state court has already been dismissed, although the plaintiff plans to appeal.
But the dispute has nonetheless focused unwelcome attention on the Sea Org, which operates as a nerve center for the church's most important business. While Sea Org members hold positions of authority within the international church, from the public relations team to the top leadership, lower-ranking members make up much of the work force.
The members are Scientology's most devoted followers: they sign a billion-year pledge, vow not to have children and live and work communally.
Scientology has been sued by disgruntled members before, but experts believe these suits are the first to use labor law to challenge the premise that the Sea Organization is akin to a fraternal religious order.
A victory for plaintiffs would "certainly go to the heart of Scientology's self-identification as a religion," said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and author of a scholarly book on Scientology.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
US geneticist wins $1.5 million religion prize
US geneticist wins $1.5 million religion prize
By BRETT ZONGKER (AP)
March 25, 2010
WASHINGTON — A one-time priest who later became an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist and helped scientifically refute creationism with his research was honored Thursday with one of the world's top religion prizes.
Francisco J. Ayala, 76, a U.S. citizen originally from Spain, will receive the 2010 Templeton Prize, valued at $1.53 million, the John Templeton Foundation announced at the National Academy of Sciences.
It is the largest monetary award given each year to an individual and honors someone who made exceptional contributions to affirm spirituality. Officials increase the value each year to exceed the Nobel Prize.
"I see religion and science as two of the pillars on which American society rests," Ayala told The Associated Press, saying the United States is one of the world's most religious countries. "We have these two pillars not talking, not seeing they can reinforce each other."
Ayala is a notable choice because he opposes the entanglement of science and religion. The former Dominican priest is adamant that science and religion do not contradict each other.
"If they are properly understood, they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters, and each is essential to human understanding," he said in remarks prepared for the acceptance ceremony.
Ayala is a top professor of biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His pioneering genetic research led to revelations that could help develop cures for malaria and other diseases.
In January, he co-authored a paper that established gorillas and chimps may serve as reservoirs for parasites that cause human malaria, showing that even if a vaccine is developed, humans will be vulnerable to re-infection.
Ayala has long worked to foster dialogue between religion and science and said tension between the fields has subsided over time.
In 1981, Ayala was an expert witness in a U.S. federal court challenge that helped overturn an Arkansas law mandating the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Three years later, the National Academy of Sciences asked Ayala to serve as principal author of "Science, Evolution and Creationism," which categorically refuted creationism and intelligent design.
By BRETT ZONGKER (AP)
March 25, 2010
WASHINGTON — A one-time priest who later became an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist and helped scientifically refute creationism with his research was honored Thursday with one of the world's top religion prizes.
Francisco J. Ayala, 76, a U.S. citizen originally from Spain, will receive the 2010 Templeton Prize, valued at $1.53 million, the John Templeton Foundation announced at the National Academy of Sciences.
It is the largest monetary award given each year to an individual and honors someone who made exceptional contributions to affirm spirituality. Officials increase the value each year to exceed the Nobel Prize.
"I see religion and science as two of the pillars on which American society rests," Ayala told The Associated Press, saying the United States is one of the world's most religious countries. "We have these two pillars not talking, not seeing they can reinforce each other."
Ayala is a notable choice because he opposes the entanglement of science and religion. The former Dominican priest is adamant that science and religion do not contradict each other.
"If they are properly understood, they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters, and each is essential to human understanding," he said in remarks prepared for the acceptance ceremony.
Ayala is a top professor of biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His pioneering genetic research led to revelations that could help develop cures for malaria and other diseases.
In January, he co-authored a paper that established gorillas and chimps may serve as reservoirs for parasites that cause human malaria, showing that even if a vaccine is developed, humans will be vulnerable to re-infection.
Ayala has long worked to foster dialogue between religion and science and said tension between the fields has subsided over time.
In 1981, Ayala was an expert witness in a U.S. federal court challenge that helped overturn an Arkansas law mandating the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Three years later, the National Academy of Sciences asked Ayala to serve as principal author of "Science, Evolution and Creationism," which categorically refuted creationism and intelligent design.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
How God created light
Light
George Musser
Scientific American 301, 96 (2009)
In the book of Genesis, all God had to do was say the word. In modern cosmology, the creation of light took rather more effort.
George Musser
Scientific American 301, 96 (2009)
In the book of Genesis, all God had to do was say the word. In modern cosmology, the creation of light took rather more effort.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Killing for a Higher Cause: Political Violence in a World in Crisis
Merari notes that many suicide bombers are not mentally ill, in fact, they're well adjusted to the society they live in. It's normal to be influenced by people around us. All I can say is, nature clearly knows what it's doing when it creates people who go against the grain. But perhaps nature does not consider going-against-the-grain people to be abnormal. Maybe it's our beliefs about normalcy that are off.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Expert Shares Suicide Bomber Research March 4
The lecture is part of a semester-long lecture series on political conflict.
Event Details
* 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 4
* Nasitir Hall 100
* Free and open to the public
Ariel Merari will present his research of suicide bombers during his presentation, "In their own voice: Interviews with, and psychological tests of suicide bombers, their commanders and families." Merari speaks at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, March 4, in Nasatir Hall, room 100. The event is free and open to the public.
About Merari
Ariel Merari is professor emeritus, Department of Psychology, at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He has studied every suicide bombing in the Middle East since the U.S. Marine barracks attack in Beirut 25 years ago.
About the lecture series
SDSU’s spring lecture series, “Killing for a Higher Cause: Political Violence in a World in Crisis,” takes an in-depth look at political violence and conflict around the world.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Judge Judith Hayes made a mistake of law on Feb. 19, 2010
Judge Judith Hayes made a mistake of law in San Diego Superior Courton February 18, 2010
http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2009/11/in-taping-a-reporter-ag-browns-spokesman-showed-bad-judgment-but-didnt-break-the-law/
California law prohibits the recording–without consent of all parties–of a “confidential communication.” (CA Penal Code Sec. 632(a)(emphasis supplied)).
The judge was concerned that I remembered what her clerk had said to me, and asked if I had recorded the conversation. I hadn't. But I did grab a scrap of paper and started taking notes when the clerk began to say repeatedly, "There is no injunction." I have received no apology from the clerk for misleading me, but I have received a $3000 contempt sanction for violating the injunction that supposedly didn't exist.
The judge had no problem with the clerk's misleading statements, although she acknowledged the accuracy of my report about the statements by saying that it seemed like I had recorded the conversation.
Then the judge made her mistake of law. She told me it would be illegal for me to record my conversation with her clerk when I called and asked for a hearing date. It seems Judge Hayes needs some law school refresher courses. There's nothing confidential about a request to a court for a hearing date.
http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2009/11/in-taping-a-reporter-ag-browns-spokesman-showed-bad-judgment-but-didnt-break-the-law/
California law prohibits the recording–without consent of all parties–of a “confidential communication.” (CA Penal Code Sec. 632(a)(emphasis supplied)).
The judge was concerned that I remembered what her clerk had said to me, and asked if I had recorded the conversation. I hadn't. But I did grab a scrap of paper and started taking notes when the clerk began to say repeatedly, "There is no injunction." I have received no apology from the clerk for misleading me, but I have received a $3000 contempt sanction for violating the injunction that supposedly didn't exist.
The judge had no problem with the clerk's misleading statements, although she acknowledged the accuracy of my report about the statements by saying that it seemed like I had recorded the conversation.
Then the judge made her mistake of law. She told me it would be illegal for me to record my conversation with her clerk when I called and asked for a hearing date. It seems Judge Hayes needs some law school refresher courses. There's nothing confidential about a request to a court for a hearing date.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Is money a sign of God's approval?
Lee Jenkins Financial Ministries
Money Myths and Old Sayings
Gospel Today Magazine
January / February 2008
...Myth #2: “Financial Prosperity is a sign of God’s approval.”
Truth: Financial prosperity is not always a sign of God’s approval. You and I both know people who go against God’s will (thieves, drug dealers, adulterers) and still make plenty of money. It’s a mistake to measure God’s approval by the amount of “stuff” you or your neighbor has. If God “blessed” you with a BMW or a big house, be thankful, but don’t get full of yourself and think it means you’re more special than the brother or sister cruisin’ in a Pinto.
Yes, there are instances when God rewards obedience. It’s been happening since biblical times when God gave material wealth to Abraham (Genesis 13:1-7), Isaac (Genesis 26:12-14), Jacob (Genesis 30:43), Joseph (Genesis 39:2-6), Solomon (1 Kings 3:13), and Job (Job 42:10-17). However, if you are struggling financially, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing something wrong, and it certainly doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. Remember Job’s “comforters” thought there must be hidden sin in his life to account for his loss of prosperity, but they were wrong. God approved of Job (Job 1:8; 42:7), yet he permitted Satan to destroy everything of earthly value that Job possessed...
SERMONWRITER
Resources for Lectionary Preaching
SCRIPTURE: Mark 10:17-31
They have been taught that wealth is a sign of God's approval, so how can it be difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?
That Which God Hath Lent Thee
The Puritans and Money
by LELAND RYKEN
...The Puritans had no guilt about making money; to make money was a form of stewardship. The Weber thesis made mileage out of Baxter’s statement:
If God shows you a way in which you lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul, or to any other), if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God’s steward...
What About Poverty?
If riches are a blessing from God, then poverty must be a curse and a sign of God’s disfavor—right? Wrong, said the Puritans, who disagreed with a whole tissue of assumptions often attributed to them in the twentieth century.
In the first place, the Puritans disagreed that godliness is a guarantee of success. Thomas Watson went so far as to say that “true godliness is usually attended with persecution .… The saints have no charter of exemption from trials.… Their piety will not shield them from sufferings.”
If godliness is not a guarantee of success, then the converse is also true: success is not a sign of godliness. This is how the Puritans understood the matter. John Cotton stated that a Christian “equally bears good and evil successes as God shall dispense them to him.” Samuel Willard wrote, “As riches are not evidences of God’s love, so neither is poverty of his anger or hatred.”...
Money--A Sign of God's Love: God's Abundant Supply for Every Need--Explained
About the Author
Jeff Wilburn has worked in the financial securities industry for the last twenty-two years, building wealth for his clientele by using divine principles. He lives in Katy, TX, with his wife of twenty-seven years and daughter. Jeff enjoys exercising, reading, and serves on various local church committees.
What does God's compassion for creation mean for you? Jeff Wilburn explains a revolutionary new view of money that can be proved in our everyday experience. Unseen divine laws have now been summarized, bringing supply in new and exciting forms.
Money Myths and Old Sayings
Gospel Today Magazine
January / February 2008
...Myth #2: “Financial Prosperity is a sign of God’s approval.”
Truth: Financial prosperity is not always a sign of God’s approval. You and I both know people who go against God’s will (thieves, drug dealers, adulterers) and still make plenty of money. It’s a mistake to measure God’s approval by the amount of “stuff” you or your neighbor has. If God “blessed” you with a BMW or a big house, be thankful, but don’t get full of yourself and think it means you’re more special than the brother or sister cruisin’ in a Pinto.
Yes, there are instances when God rewards obedience. It’s been happening since biblical times when God gave material wealth to Abraham (Genesis 13:1-7), Isaac (Genesis 26:12-14), Jacob (Genesis 30:43), Joseph (Genesis 39:2-6), Solomon (1 Kings 3:13), and Job (Job 42:10-17). However, if you are struggling financially, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing something wrong, and it certainly doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. Remember Job’s “comforters” thought there must be hidden sin in his life to account for his loss of prosperity, but they were wrong. God approved of Job (Job 1:8; 42:7), yet he permitted Satan to destroy everything of earthly value that Job possessed...
SERMONWRITER
Resources for Lectionary Preaching
SCRIPTURE: Mark 10:17-31
They have been taught that wealth is a sign of God's approval, so how can it be difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?
That Which God Hath Lent Thee
The Puritans and Money
by LELAND RYKEN
...The Puritans had no guilt about making money; to make money was a form of stewardship. The Weber thesis made mileage out of Baxter’s statement:
If God shows you a way in which you lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul, or to any other), if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God’s steward...
What About Poverty?
If riches are a blessing from God, then poverty must be a curse and a sign of God’s disfavor—right? Wrong, said the Puritans, who disagreed with a whole tissue of assumptions often attributed to them in the twentieth century.
In the first place, the Puritans disagreed that godliness is a guarantee of success. Thomas Watson went so far as to say that “true godliness is usually attended with persecution .… The saints have no charter of exemption from trials.… Their piety will not shield them from sufferings.”
If godliness is not a guarantee of success, then the converse is also true: success is not a sign of godliness. This is how the Puritans understood the matter. John Cotton stated that a Christian “equally bears good and evil successes as God shall dispense them to him.” Samuel Willard wrote, “As riches are not evidences of God’s love, so neither is poverty of his anger or hatred.”...
Money--A Sign of God's Love: God's Abundant Supply for Every Need--Explained
About the Author
Jeff Wilburn has worked in the financial securities industry for the last twenty-two years, building wealth for his clientele by using divine principles. He lives in Katy, TX, with his wife of twenty-seven years and daughter. Jeff enjoys exercising, reading, and serves on various local church committees.
What does God's compassion for creation mean for you? Jeff Wilburn explains a revolutionary new view of money that can be proved in our everyday experience. Unseen divine laws have now been summarized, bringing supply in new and exciting forms.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Are Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives?
Study: Are Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives?
By John Cloud
Feb. 26, 2010
The notion that liberals are smarter than conservatives is familiar to anyone who has spent time on a college campus. The College Democrats are said to be ugly, smug and intellectual; the College Republicans, pretty, belligerent and dumb. There's enough truth in both stereotypes that the vast majority of college students opt not to join either club.
But are liberals actually smarter? A libertarian (and, as such, nonpartisan) researcher, Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science, has just written a paper that is set to be published in March by the journal Social Psychology Quarterly. The paper investigates not only whether conservatives are dumber than liberals but also why that might be so. (See the top 10 political gaffes of 2009.)
The short answer: Kanazawa's paper shows that more-intelligent people are more likely to say they are liberal. They are also less likely to say they go to religious services. These aren't entirely new findings; last year, for example, a British team found that kids with higher intelligence scores were more likely to grow into adults who vote for Liberal Democrats, even after the researchers controlled for socioeconomics. What's new in Kanazawa's paper is a provocative theory about why intelligence might correlate with liberalism. He argues that smarter people are more willing to espouse "evolutionarily novel" values — that is, values that did not exist in our ancestral environment, including weird ideas about, say, helping genetically unrelated strangers (liberalism, as Kanazawa defines it), which never would have occurred to us back when we had to hunt to feed our own clan
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968042,00.html#ixzz0giCHiKMB
By John Cloud
Feb. 26, 2010
The notion that liberals are smarter than conservatives is familiar to anyone who has spent time on a college campus. The College Democrats are said to be ugly, smug and intellectual; the College Republicans, pretty, belligerent and dumb. There's enough truth in both stereotypes that the vast majority of college students opt not to join either club.
But are liberals actually smarter? A libertarian (and, as such, nonpartisan) researcher, Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science, has just written a paper that is set to be published in March by the journal Social Psychology Quarterly. The paper investigates not only whether conservatives are dumber than liberals but also why that might be so. (See the top 10 political gaffes of 2009.)
The short answer: Kanazawa's paper shows that more-intelligent people are more likely to say they are liberal. They are also less likely to say they go to religious services. These aren't entirely new findings; last year, for example, a British team found that kids with higher intelligence scores were more likely to grow into adults who vote for Liberal Democrats, even after the researchers controlled for socioeconomics. What's new in Kanazawa's paper is a provocative theory about why intelligence might correlate with liberalism. He argues that smarter people are more willing to espouse "evolutionarily novel" values — that is, values that did not exist in our ancestral environment, including weird ideas about, say, helping genetically unrelated strangers (liberalism, as Kanazawa defines it), which never would have occurred to us back when we had to hunt to feed our own clan
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968042,00.html#ixzz0giCHiKMB
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
See the continents drift, collide, and separate
Geology: Plate Tectonics
Thanks to UC Berkeley, you can see the continents collide and separate for 510 million years.
Click the arrows on the right to see the timeline in slow motion, one picture at a time.
ANOTHER COOL SITE
The Geological Evolution of the Earth
This document presents in a vertical time line images of the Earth's geologic evolution from 510 million years ago to the present -- roughly the last 10% of the Earth's existence. The crust has already solidified and the atmosphere has accumulated oxygen from 300 million years of algal growth in the Earth's vast oceans.
African gene trawl may provide secrets to long life
African gene trawl may provide secrets to long life
Maggie Fox
Feb 17, 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
A genetic peek deep into the heart of Africa confirms that Africans have more genetic diversity than Europeans or Asians and provides insights into how to live a long life despite disease and famine.
Researchers sequenced the complete genomes of five southern Africans over the age of 80 -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa and four Bushmen from Namibia.
"On average we found as many genetic differences between two Bushmen than between a European and an Asian," said Dr. Vanessa Hayes of the University of New South Wales in Australia, who worked on the study reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature...
Geneticists have long known that, on the level of DNA, there is no such thing as race.
They have also known that Africa, the source of all modern humans, also has more genetic diversity. This is probably because so many different peoples stayed and evolved there, while Europeans, Asians and other groups arose from smaller populations that migrated from the continent.
"To know how genes affect health we need to see the full range of human genetic variation, and Southern Africa is the place to look," said Webb Miller of Pennsylvania State University.
The team looked at some of the oldest Africans, both in terms of age and genetic roots. Tutu is an ethnic Bantu, while the four Bushmen all come from hunter-gatherer societies in the Kalahari desert of Namibia.
"The Bushmen participants have reached their advanced age despite living under harsh conditions due to periodical famine and untreated illness," the researchers wrote.
There were surprises. For instance, Tutu and one Bushman had many more different mutations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (pronounced "snips") than have been seen in sequencing other individuals.
They found differences in the genes that allow adults to digest cow milk, one related to having light-colored skin and SNPs that made all five men susceptible to malaria...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
American Exceptionalism
How Christian Were the Founders?
By RUSSELL SHORTO
February 11, 2010
New York Times
...IN 1801, A GROUP of Baptist ministers in Danbury, Conn., wrote a letter to the new president, Thomas Jefferson, congratulating him on his victory. They also had a favor to ask. Baptists were a minority group, and they felt insecure. In the colonial period, there were two major Christian factions, both of which derived from England. The Congregationalists, in New England, had evolved from the Puritan settlers, and in the South and middle colonies, the Anglicans came from the Church of England. Nine colonies developed state churches, which were supported financially by the colonial governments and whose power was woven in with that of the governments. Other Christians — Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers — and, of course, those of other faiths were made unwelcome, if not persecuted outright.
...Their answer is rather specific. Merely weaving important religious trends and events into the narrative of American history is not what the Christian bloc on the Texas board has pushed for in revising its guidelines. Many of the points that have been incorporated into the guidelines or that have been advanced by board members and their expert advisers slant toward portraying America as having a divinely preordained mission. In the guidelines — which will be subjected to further amendments in March and then in May — eighth-grade history students are asked to “analyze the importance of the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the Virginia House of Burgesses to the growth of representative government.” Such early colonial texts have long been included in survey courses, but why focus on these in particular? The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut declare that the state was founded “to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” The language in the Mayflower Compact — a document that McLeroy and several others involved in the Texas process are especially fond of — describes the Pilgrims’ journey as being “for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith” and thus instills the idea that America was founded as a project for the spread of Christianity. In a book she wrote two years ago, Cynthia Dunbar, a board member, could not have been more explicit about this being the reason for the Mayflower Compact’s inclusion in textbooks; she quoted the document and then said, “This is undeniably our past, and it clearly delineates us as a nation intended to be emphatically Christian.”
...One recurring theme during the process of revising the social-studies guidelines was the desire of the board to stress the concept of American exceptionalism, and the Christian bloc has repeatedly emphasized that Christianity should be portrayed as the driving force behind what makes America great. Peter Marshall is himself the author of a series of books that recount American history with a strong Christian focus and that have been staples in Christian schools since the first one was published in 1977. (He told me that they have sold more than a million copies.) In these history books, he employs a decidedly unhistorical tone in which the guiding hand of Providence shapes America’s story, starting with the voyage of Christopher Columbus. “Columbus’s heart belonged to God,” he assures his readers, and he notes that a particular event in the explorer’s life “marked the turning point of God’s plan to use Columbus to raise the curtain on His new Promised Land.”
...The other nonacademic expert, David Barton, is the nationally known leader of WallBuilders, which describes itself as dedicated to “presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious and constitutional heritage.” Barton has written and lectured on the First Amendment and against separation of church and state. He is a controversial figure who has argued that the U.S. income tax and the capital-gains tax should be abolished because they violate Scripture (for the Bible says, in Barton’s reading, “the more profit you make the more you are rewarded”) and who pushes a Christianity-first rhetoric. When the U.S. Senate invited a Hindu leader to open a 2007 session with a prayer, he objected, saying: “In Hindu [sic], you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods. And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration when they talked about Creator.”
In his recommendations to the Texas school board, Barton wrote that students should be taught the following principles which, in his reading, derive directly from the Declaration of Independence: “1. There is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature. 2. There is a Creator. 3. The Creator gives to man certain unalienable rights. 4. Government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual. 5. Below God-given rights and moral laws, government is directed by the consent of the governed.”
A third expert, Daniel L. Dreisbach, a professor of justice, law and society at American University who has written extensively on First Amendment issues, stressed, in his recommendations to the guideline writers about how to frame the revolutionary period for students, that the founders were overwhelmingly Christian; that the deistic tendencies of a few — like Jefferson — were an anomaly; and that most Americans in the era were not just Christians but that “98 percent or more of Americans of European descent identified with Protestantism.”
If the fight between the “Christian nation” advocates and mainstream thinkers could be focused onto a single element, it would be the “wall of separation” phrase. Christian thinkers like to point out that it does not appear in the Constitution, nor in any other legal document — letters that presidents write to their supporters are not legal decrees. Besides which, after the phrase left Jefferson’s pen it more or less disappeared for a century and a half — until Justice Hugo Black of the Supreme Court dug it out of history’s dustbin in 1947. It then slowly worked its way into the American lexicon and American life, helping to subtly mold the way we think about religion in society. To conservative Christians, there is no separation of church and state, and there never was. The concept, they say, is a modern secular fiction. There is no legal justification, therefore, for disallowing crucifixes in government buildings or school prayer...
In fact, the founders were rooted in Christianity — they were inheritors of the entire European Christian tradition — and at the same time they were steeped in an Enlightenment rationalism that was, if not opposed to religion, determined to establish separate spheres for faith and reason. “I don’t think the founders would have said they were applying Christian principles to government,” says Richard Brookhiser, the conservative columnist and author of books on Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington. “What they said was ‘the laws of nature and nature’s God.’ They didn’t say, ‘We put our faith in Jesus Christ.’ ” Martin Marty says: “They had to invent a new, broad way. Washington, in his writings, makes scores of different references to God, but not one is biblical. He talks instead about a ‘Grand Architect,’ deliberately avoiding the Christian terms, because it had to be a religious language that was accessible to all people.”
Or, as Brookhiser rather succinctly summarizes the point: “The founders were not as Christian as those people would like them to be, though they weren’t as secularist as Christopher Hitchens would like them to be.”...
“BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, What Do You See?” It’s not an especially subversive-sounding title, but the author of this 1967 children’s picture book, Bill Martin Jr., lost his place in the Texas social-studies guidelines at last month’s board meeting due to what was thought to be un-American activity — to be precise, “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.” Martin, the creator of 300 children’s books, was removed from the list of cultural figures approved for study by third graders in the blizzard of amendments offered by board members.
Over all, the TEKS guidelines make for impressive reading. They are thoughtful and deep; you can almost feel the effort at achieving balance. Poring down the long columns and knowing that the 1998 version of these guidelines served as the basis for textbooks in most U.S. states, you even begin to feel some hope for the future.
What is wrong with the Texas process, according to many observers, is illustrated by the fate of Bill Martin Jr. The board has the power to accept, reject or rewrite the TEKS, and over the past few years, in language arts, science and now social studies, the members have done all of the above. Yet few of these elected overseers are trained in the fields they are reviewing. “In general, the board members don’t know anything at all about content,” Tom Barber, the textbook executive, says. Kathy Miller, the watchdog, who has been monitoring the board for 15 years, says, referring to Don McLeroy and another board member: “It is the most crazy-making thing to sit there and watch a dentist and an insurance salesman rewrite curriculum standards in science and history. Last year, Don McLeroy believed he was smarter than the National Academy of Sciences, and he now believes he’s smarter than professors of American history.” In this case, one board member sent an e-mail message with a reference to “Ethical Marxism,” by Bill Martin, to another board member, who suggested that anyone who wrote a book with such a title did not belong in the TEKS. As it turned out, Bill Martin and Bill Martin Jr. are two different people. But by that time, the author of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” was out. “That’s a perfect example of these people’s lack of knowledge,” Miller says. “They’re coming forward with hundreds of amendments at the last minute. Don McLeroy had a four-inch stack of amendments, and they all just voted on them, whether or not they actually knew the content. What we witnessed in January was a textbook example of how not to develop textbook standards.”
Before the January board meeting, one of the social-studies curriculum writers, Judy Brodigan, told me that she was very pleased with the guidelines her team produced. After the meeting, with its 10-hour marathon of amendments by board members, she spoke very differently. “I think they took a very, very good document and weakened it,” she said. “The teachers take their work seriously. I do believe there are board members on the ultraright who have an agenda. They want to make our standards very conservative and fit their viewpoint. Our job is not to take a viewpoint. It’s to present sides fairly. I thought we had done that.” ...
By RUSSELL SHORTO
February 11, 2010
New York Times
...IN 1801, A GROUP of Baptist ministers in Danbury, Conn., wrote a letter to the new president, Thomas Jefferson, congratulating him on his victory. They also had a favor to ask. Baptists were a minority group, and they felt insecure. In the colonial period, there were two major Christian factions, both of which derived from England. The Congregationalists, in New England, had evolved from the Puritan settlers, and in the South and middle colonies, the Anglicans came from the Church of England. Nine colonies developed state churches, which were supported financially by the colonial governments and whose power was woven in with that of the governments. Other Christians — Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers — and, of course, those of other faiths were made unwelcome, if not persecuted outright.
...Their answer is rather specific. Merely weaving important religious trends and events into the narrative of American history is not what the Christian bloc on the Texas board has pushed for in revising its guidelines. Many of the points that have been incorporated into the guidelines or that have been advanced by board members and their expert advisers slant toward portraying America as having a divinely preordained mission. In the guidelines — which will be subjected to further amendments in March and then in May — eighth-grade history students are asked to “analyze the importance of the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the Virginia House of Burgesses to the growth of representative government.” Such early colonial texts have long been included in survey courses, but why focus on these in particular? The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut declare that the state was founded “to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” The language in the Mayflower Compact — a document that McLeroy and several others involved in the Texas process are especially fond of — describes the Pilgrims’ journey as being “for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith” and thus instills the idea that America was founded as a project for the spread of Christianity. In a book she wrote two years ago, Cynthia Dunbar, a board member, could not have been more explicit about this being the reason for the Mayflower Compact’s inclusion in textbooks; she quoted the document and then said, “This is undeniably our past, and it clearly delineates us as a nation intended to be emphatically Christian.”
...One recurring theme during the process of revising the social-studies guidelines was the desire of the board to stress the concept of American exceptionalism, and the Christian bloc has repeatedly emphasized that Christianity should be portrayed as the driving force behind what makes America great. Peter Marshall is himself the author of a series of books that recount American history with a strong Christian focus and that have been staples in Christian schools since the first one was published in 1977. (He told me that they have sold more than a million copies.) In these history books, he employs a decidedly unhistorical tone in which the guiding hand of Providence shapes America’s story, starting with the voyage of Christopher Columbus. “Columbus’s heart belonged to God,” he assures his readers, and he notes that a particular event in the explorer’s life “marked the turning point of God’s plan to use Columbus to raise the curtain on His new Promised Land.”
...The other nonacademic expert, David Barton, is the nationally known leader of WallBuilders, which describes itself as dedicated to “presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious and constitutional heritage.” Barton has written and lectured on the First Amendment and against separation of church and state. He is a controversial figure who has argued that the U.S. income tax and the capital-gains tax should be abolished because they violate Scripture (for the Bible says, in Barton’s reading, “the more profit you make the more you are rewarded”) and who pushes a Christianity-first rhetoric. When the U.S. Senate invited a Hindu leader to open a 2007 session with a prayer, he objected, saying: “In Hindu [sic], you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods. And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration when they talked about Creator.”
In his recommendations to the Texas school board, Barton wrote that students should be taught the following principles which, in his reading, derive directly from the Declaration of Independence: “1. There is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature. 2. There is a Creator. 3. The Creator gives to man certain unalienable rights. 4. Government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual. 5. Below God-given rights and moral laws, government is directed by the consent of the governed.”
A third expert, Daniel L. Dreisbach, a professor of justice, law and society at American University who has written extensively on First Amendment issues, stressed, in his recommendations to the guideline writers about how to frame the revolutionary period for students, that the founders were overwhelmingly Christian; that the deistic tendencies of a few — like Jefferson — were an anomaly; and that most Americans in the era were not just Christians but that “98 percent or more of Americans of European descent identified with Protestantism.”
If the fight between the “Christian nation” advocates and mainstream thinkers could be focused onto a single element, it would be the “wall of separation” phrase. Christian thinkers like to point out that it does not appear in the Constitution, nor in any other legal document — letters that presidents write to their supporters are not legal decrees. Besides which, after the phrase left Jefferson’s pen it more or less disappeared for a century and a half — until Justice Hugo Black of the Supreme Court dug it out of history’s dustbin in 1947. It then slowly worked its way into the American lexicon and American life, helping to subtly mold the way we think about religion in society. To conservative Christians, there is no separation of church and state, and there never was. The concept, they say, is a modern secular fiction. There is no legal justification, therefore, for disallowing crucifixes in government buildings or school prayer...
In fact, the founders were rooted in Christianity — they were inheritors of the entire European Christian tradition — and at the same time they were steeped in an Enlightenment rationalism that was, if not opposed to religion, determined to establish separate spheres for faith and reason. “I don’t think the founders would have said they were applying Christian principles to government,” says Richard Brookhiser, the conservative columnist and author of books on Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington. “What they said was ‘the laws of nature and nature’s God.’ They didn’t say, ‘We put our faith in Jesus Christ.’ ” Martin Marty says: “They had to invent a new, broad way. Washington, in his writings, makes scores of different references to God, but not one is biblical. He talks instead about a ‘Grand Architect,’ deliberately avoiding the Christian terms, because it had to be a religious language that was accessible to all people.”
Or, as Brookhiser rather succinctly summarizes the point: “The founders were not as Christian as those people would like them to be, though they weren’t as secularist as Christopher Hitchens would like them to be.”...
“BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, What Do You See?” It’s not an especially subversive-sounding title, but the author of this 1967 children’s picture book, Bill Martin Jr., lost his place in the Texas social-studies guidelines at last month’s board meeting due to what was thought to be un-American activity — to be precise, “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.” Martin, the creator of 300 children’s books, was removed from the list of cultural figures approved for study by third graders in the blizzard of amendments offered by board members.
Over all, the TEKS guidelines make for impressive reading. They are thoughtful and deep; you can almost feel the effort at achieving balance. Poring down the long columns and knowing that the 1998 version of these guidelines served as the basis for textbooks in most U.S. states, you even begin to feel some hope for the future.
What is wrong with the Texas process, according to many observers, is illustrated by the fate of Bill Martin Jr. The board has the power to accept, reject or rewrite the TEKS, and over the past few years, in language arts, science and now social studies, the members have done all of the above. Yet few of these elected overseers are trained in the fields they are reviewing. “In general, the board members don’t know anything at all about content,” Tom Barber, the textbook executive, says. Kathy Miller, the watchdog, who has been monitoring the board for 15 years, says, referring to Don McLeroy and another board member: “It is the most crazy-making thing to sit there and watch a dentist and an insurance salesman rewrite curriculum standards in science and history. Last year, Don McLeroy believed he was smarter than the National Academy of Sciences, and he now believes he’s smarter than professors of American history.” In this case, one board member sent an e-mail message with a reference to “Ethical Marxism,” by Bill Martin, to another board member, who suggested that anyone who wrote a book with such a title did not belong in the TEKS. As it turned out, Bill Martin and Bill Martin Jr. are two different people. But by that time, the author of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” was out. “That’s a perfect example of these people’s lack of knowledge,” Miller says. “They’re coming forward with hundreds of amendments at the last minute. Don McLeroy had a four-inch stack of amendments, and they all just voted on them, whether or not they actually knew the content. What we witnessed in January was a textbook example of how not to develop textbook standards.”
Before the January board meeting, one of the social-studies curriculum writers, Judy Brodigan, told me that she was very pleased with the guidelines her team produced. After the meeting, with its 10-hour marathon of amendments by board members, she spoke very differently. “I think they took a very, very good document and weakened it,” she said. “The teachers take their work seriously. I do believe there are board members on the ultraright who have an agenda. They want to make our standards very conservative and fit their viewpoint. Our job is not to take a viewpoint. It’s to present sides fairly. I thought we had done that.” ...
Friday, February 12, 2010
Reid's Jobs Bill Includes Tax-Evasion Provisions
FEBRUARY 12, 2010
Reid's Jobs Bill Includes Tax-Evasion Provisions
Wall Street Journal
By MARTIN VAUGHAN And HENRY J. PULIZZI
WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to use measures cracking down on offshore-tax evasion to pay for the cost of a $15 billion stimulus bill he wants to push through the Senate this month...
Reid's Jobs Bill Includes Tax-Evasion Provisions
Wall Street Journal
By MARTIN VAUGHAN And HENRY J. PULIZZI
WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to use measures cracking down on offshore-tax evasion to pay for the cost of a $15 billion stimulus bill he wants to push through the Senate this month...
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Ancient Tribe, the Bo, Goes Extinct as Last Member Dies
From what I understand, the Bo belonged to the same group as the people who eventually populated Europe (and lost some skin pigment in the process). Boa Sr has dark skin, but she is among the people on earth most DISTANTLY related to today's black Africans. (The Australian aborigines are the most distantly related to black Africans.) Boa Sr is more closely related to white Europeans. Boa Sr looks like Europeans would look if they had gone south instead of north when they left Africa. Skin color has little to do with our distant origins, clearly, and everything to do with WHERE our ancestors lived in the more recent past. I understand that the human Y-chromosome evolved in southern Africa, probably among individuals with lighter skin. The human mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, which is passed from mothers to each human being on earth, evolved in equatorial Africa. It would seem that Eve was probably very dark skinned. When southern and northern populations of human ancestors got together, a hybrid that was stronger than either parent group was produced: us. Among the eventual offspring were blacks, whites and Asians. I'm guessing that Asians left Africa with a trait they are famous for today: very little body hair. Quite possibly the extra fold in the eyelids of today's Asians evolved in the far north during the ice age.
Ancient Tribe Goes Extinct as Last Member Dies
David Knowles
Feb. 5, 2010
Marking the end of a language and an entire people, the last member of the Bo, an ancient tribe that lived in the Andaman Islands, has died.
When Boa Sr, as she was known, died last week, she was believed to be about 85 years old. Her husband had died years beforehand, and Boa, whose name means "land" or "earth" in the Bo language, had no children...
"She was the only person who spoke Bo," Anvita Abbi, a professor of linguistics at India's Jawaharlal National University, told The Times of London...
The Bo are believed to have first come to the Andaman Islands – located roughly 850 miles off India's east coast in the Bay of Bengal – 65,000 years ago. Bo was one of at least 10 pre-colonial languages spoken on the islands.
According to Survival International, an advocacy group for native peoples throughout the world, the Bo were one of the oldest surviving human cultures on earth.
Of the thousands of Great Andamanese who once inhabited the islands, only 52 people are still alive today...
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Americans don't know squat about their Revolutionary War
The American Revolution Center found that Americans overestimate their knowledge of the Revolution. For example, 89% of adults predicted they would pass a test on the American Revolution, but only 17% actually passed.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A film about euthanasia: I've Loved You So Long
I've Loved You So Long
After more than a decade apart, estranged sisters Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) try to rebuild their fractured relationship. But the task is hardly easy, considering Juliette's past: She's been in jail for 15 years -- for killing someone. As she settles into small-town life with Lea's family, the locals can't help but talk.
Awards:
2009 BAFTA®: Best Foreign Language Film
2009 BAFTA®: Best Actress nominee: Kristin Scott Thomas
2009 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) nominee: Kristin Scott Thomas
2009 Golden Globe Awards: Best Foreign Language Film nominee
Original Release Date:
2008
After more than a decade apart, estranged sisters Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) try to rebuild their fractured relationship. But the task is hardly easy, considering Juliette's past: She's been in jail for 15 years -- for killing someone. As she settles into small-town life with Lea's family, the locals can't help but talk.
Awards:
2009 BAFTA®: Best Foreign Language Film
2009 BAFTA®: Best Actress nominee: Kristin Scott Thomas
2009 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) nominee: Kristin Scott Thomas
2009 Golden Globe Awards: Best Foreign Language Film nominee
Original Release Date:
2008
Social separation breeds contempt
Garrison Keillor
Jan 12, 2010
Salon.com
Social separation breeds contempt
There is no better place to learn the delicate ballet of social skill than in a big city
...When I hear long tales of woe -- Poor Me, my benighted life -- my inner Republican thinks, "That was you who poured all that alcohol down your gullet. You. Nobody else. And why didn't you work a little harder in school? Duh. Your mama tried to tell you and you sneered at her. You did it to yourself, pal. You got on the train to Nowheresville and guess what? You arrived."...
Jan 12, 2010
Salon.com
Social separation breeds contempt
There is no better place to learn the delicate ballet of social skill than in a big city
...When I hear long tales of woe -- Poor Me, my benighted life -- my inner Republican thinks, "That was you who poured all that alcohol down your gullet. You. Nobody else. And why didn't you work a little harder in school? Duh. Your mama tried to tell you and you sneered at her. You did it to yourself, pal. You got on the train to Nowheresville and guess what? You arrived."...
Pat Robertson: Haiti had "pact with devil"; Televangelist believes momentous earthquake is epic revenge
Jan 13, 2010
Robertson: Haiti had "pact with devil"
Televangelist believes momentous earthquake is epic revenge
By Kerry Lauerman
CBN
On his Christian Broadcasting Network today, televangelist Pat Robertson told viewers:
And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . . the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come, but right now we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.
Robertson: Haiti had "pact with devil"
Televangelist believes momentous earthquake is epic revenge
By Kerry Lauerman
CBN
On his Christian Broadcasting Network today, televangelist Pat Robertson told viewers:
And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . . the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come, but right now we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
max-cleland-i-cried-uncontrollably-for-2-1-2-years
Max Cleland: 'I Cried Uncontrollably for 2 1/2 Years'
Politics Daily
10/6/09
In a phone interview on Monday, former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland was upbeat – "What's goin' on, kid?'' – and quick to laugh. But after losing his U.S. Senate seat to an opponent who ran post-9/11 TV ads that showed the decorated Vietnam vet alongside Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Cleland fell into a depression he was afraid he might not pull out of. It was public service, he says, that had given his life shape and meaning after he left three limbs on a battlefield in Khe Sanh. But without that role, the old darkness came back. Along with his job and his bearings, he lost his relationship with his fiancée. "That's emotionally and physically over,'' he told me. "That's gone.'' And for a time, he was once again a patient at Walter Reed, where he'd first been put back together nearly four decades earlier – and was now surrounded by vets from Iraq and Afghanistan: "I cried uncontrollably for 2 ½ years.''
In his new memoir, "Heart of a Patriot: How I found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove," written with Ben Raines, Cleland describes his journey to hell and back, twice, this last time because "Karl Rove managed to take away our service,'' he says, referring to himself and his friend and fellow veteran John Kerry. Visually, the 2002 ad for his Republican opponent, Saxby Chambliss, suggested that Cleland was in league with terrorists, while the voice-over announced that he'd voted against the Homeland Security legislation he had actually co-sponsored...
Solve the budget crisis by legalizing marijuana?
We tax alcohol and cigarettes. But for marijuana, we let the sellers keep all the profit.
When I read that San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had arrested (at taxpayer expense) some people who were making $100,000 a week from their marijuana dispensary, I thought, why is the government paying instead of profiting from this?
Much marijuana ado about nothing
By Arthur Salm, SDNN
October 5, 2009
The marijuana is distributed to members of a cooperative of medical patients who have received doctor's authorization to use the drug to treat their illnesses, such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Unlike several other states which permit marijuana sales to patients, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them.
...Some of the local establishments that have been authorized to dispense marijuana for medical reasons may have been dispensing marijuana to individuals who may have partaken of the substance for non-medical reasons. Worse, the establishments may have dispensed the aforementioned substance with full knowledge, or at least, a pretty damn good idea that their customers intended to go straight home and crank up “Dark Side of the Moon,” and don’t even pretend that you don’t know what I mean.
In response, more than a dozen clinics in San Diego County were shut down last month. San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declared that “These so-called businesses are not legal. They appear to be run by drug dealers who see an opening in the market and a way to make a fast buck.”
She could well be right about that, because that’s pretty much what drug dealers, whether standing on the street corner or paying rent on a storefront, do: see an opening in the market as a way to make a fast buck...
Now the San Diego City Council has decided to — you’ll never guess — actually, you probably will — create a task force to study the medical marijuana problem; appointments to the 11-member task force recommended by Council President Ben Hueso is listed as ITEM-125 on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting. And, to be fair, the medical marijuana problem is, in fact, complicated. The city has no real guidelines, for example, so the joints can open just about anywhere that’s zoned commercial. Nobody even seems to be quite sure of how many there are in the county. And - can just about anybody run them? Can just about anybody get a prescription? Is it better to use one rolling paper, or two? Is the scene with the apes at the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey” supposed to have really happened, or is it allegory?
But the real problem lies in the premise: that what we are dealing with is some kind of special, deadly serious issue, when it most certainly is not. Marijuana is simply not very harmful, and everyone with a lick of sense knows it. Of course it can be abused, but so can dark-chocolate nonpareils, which is why my mother makes sure there’s only a small handful of them in her apothecary jar when I come to visit.
All of the complications, headaches and frustration we’re grappling with right now spring from nearly a century of American society’s ground-level, fundamental bungling . Cannabis was demonized for a goulash of reasons we won’t rehash here, but not one of them passes the Martian test: Could you explain this to a Martian and not sound like an idiot?
Human: “Okay, well, we allow people to ingest liquids that alter consciousness. The negative short-term effects can be disorientation, nausea, and, if too much is ingested, death. Long-term effects can include chemical dependence, organ damage, and death. Adults are allowed to drink it, but its sale is regulated; special licenses must be obtained, one for selling it in sealed bottles and cans, another for ingestion on the premises. It is heavily taxed. Leaders of countries traditionally drink a nominal amount in each other’s presence, for broadcast around the world.”
Martian: “Is the same true for inhaling marijuana smoke that likewise, if in a different fashion, alters human consciousness, but to which not a single death has ever been attributed, and to which some medical benefit has been ascertained?”...
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-05/news/arthur-salm-much-marijuana-ado-about-nothing#ixzz0TB44xi8o
When I read that San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had arrested (at taxpayer expense) some people who were making $100,000 a week from their marijuana dispensary, I thought, why is the government paying instead of profiting from this?
Much marijuana ado about nothing
By Arthur Salm, SDNN
October 5, 2009
The marijuana is distributed to members of a cooperative of medical patients who have received doctor's authorization to use the drug to treat their illnesses, such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Unlike several other states which permit marijuana sales to patients, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them.
...Some of the local establishments that have been authorized to dispense marijuana for medical reasons may have been dispensing marijuana to individuals who may have partaken of the substance for non-medical reasons. Worse, the establishments may have dispensed the aforementioned substance with full knowledge, or at least, a pretty damn good idea that their customers intended to go straight home and crank up “Dark Side of the Moon,” and don’t even pretend that you don’t know what I mean.
In response, more than a dozen clinics in San Diego County were shut down last month. San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declared that “These so-called businesses are not legal. They appear to be run by drug dealers who see an opening in the market and a way to make a fast buck.”
She could well be right about that, because that’s pretty much what drug dealers, whether standing on the street corner or paying rent on a storefront, do: see an opening in the market as a way to make a fast buck...
Now the San Diego City Council has decided to — you’ll never guess — actually, you probably will — create a task force to study the medical marijuana problem; appointments to the 11-member task force recommended by Council President Ben Hueso is listed as ITEM-125 on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting. And, to be fair, the medical marijuana problem is, in fact, complicated. The city has no real guidelines, for example, so the joints can open just about anywhere that’s zoned commercial. Nobody even seems to be quite sure of how many there are in the county. And - can just about anybody run them? Can just about anybody get a prescription? Is it better to use one rolling paper, or two? Is the scene with the apes at the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey” supposed to have really happened, or is it allegory?
But the real problem lies in the premise: that what we are dealing with is some kind of special, deadly serious issue, when it most certainly is not. Marijuana is simply not very harmful, and everyone with a lick of sense knows it. Of course it can be abused, but so can dark-chocolate nonpareils, which is why my mother makes sure there’s only a small handful of them in her apothecary jar when I come to visit.
All of the complications, headaches and frustration we’re grappling with right now spring from nearly a century of American society’s ground-level, fundamental bungling . Cannabis was demonized for a goulash of reasons we won’t rehash here, but not one of them passes the Martian test: Could you explain this to a Martian and not sound like an idiot?
Human: “Okay, well, we allow people to ingest liquids that alter consciousness. The negative short-term effects can be disorientation, nausea, and, if too much is ingested, death. Long-term effects can include chemical dependence, organ damage, and death. Adults are allowed to drink it, but its sale is regulated; special licenses must be obtained, one for selling it in sealed bottles and cans, another for ingestion on the premises. It is heavily taxed. Leaders of countries traditionally drink a nominal amount in each other’s presence, for broadcast around the world.”
Martian: “Is the same true for inhaling marijuana smoke that likewise, if in a different fashion, alters human consciousness, but to which not a single death has ever been attributed, and to which some medical benefit has been ascertained?”...
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-05/news/arthur-salm-much-marijuana-ado-about-nothing#ixzz0TB44xi8o
Thursday, October 01, 2009
It seems that Scientologists take themselves very seriously
Social Movements, The Case of Scientology and It's Internet ...
The Church of Scientology holds that a fraction of its scriptures are only to be viewed .... I feel obliged to point out that critics have accused Scientology of cynically ..... Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. ..... In 1953, Hubbard instituted the religion of Scientology, possibly for financial reasons ...
lermanet.com/reference/socialmovement.htm
CONNECTION BETWEEN SAGE PUBLICATIONS AND SCIENTOLOGY
http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm
[This site is related to the Scientology-supported campaign against "religious intolerance".]
A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects.
Chris Bader Alfred Demaris
09/01/96
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Since the 1960s every decade has experienced a great cult scare. From the Manson family to the Moonies, the Waco sect to the Jonestown massacre, the activities of cults prompt great public concern. Interest groups such as the American Family Foundation and the Cult Awareness Network devote their resources to monitoring the activities of deviant religious groups. The media continually warn of the dangers of cultic brainwashing strategies and the FBI continues to monitor closely religious groups they perceive to be potential dangers. Despite the great public and governmental attention afforded to cults and sects, however, researchers still know relatively little about why individuals join such groups.
This lack of cumulative knowledge about cults and sect affiliation stems from the absence of a testable theory of religious membership. Psychiatrists have tended to examine cult and sect affiliation from a victimization perspective, assuming that cult leaders somehow overcame an individual's free will. Sociological studies have rejected the brainwashing model, focusing instead on the interactions between potential and established cult members. Nevertheless, the absence of a coherent frame work and confusion about terms has hampered such studies.
A potential answer to the lack of a theoretical framework lies with the Stark-Bainbridge theory of religion. In what is certainly the most ambitious attempt at religious theorizing to date, Stark and Bainbridge attempt to explain everything from the nature of God to the process of secularization, using clearly defined terms and carefully outlined propositions. Given the potential importance of the Stark-Bainbridge theory, sociologists need to meet Stark and Bainbridge's challenge to test it (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 13). In this paper we will test Stark and Bainbridge's propositions about one area of particular interest to sociologists, psychiatrists, and the general public - conversion to sects and cults.
Aldrich, J. H. and F. D. Nelson. 1984. Linear probability, logit, and probit models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Damrell, J. 1977. Seeking spiritual meaning: The world of Vedanta. Sociological Observations, no. 2. Beverly Hills: Sage.
DeMaris, A. 1992. Logit modeling: Practical applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Two More Scientology Front Groups:
CBAA & SAGE, Pimping "The Way to Happiness"
The Set A Good Example (S.A.G.E) Contest is an annual competition running between August of the current year and May of the following year. EXAMPLE: August 1, this year through May 31 next year.
CBAA = Concerned Businessmen's [sic] Association of America -- yet another front group used as a foot-in-the-door to pimp LRH's "The Way to Happiness" to school kids...Welcome to CBAA: Concerned Businessmen's Association of America
SAGE = Set A Good Example (campaign) -- appears to be most active out of Reno, NV. A front group to get TWTH happiness materials into schools with $5000 "contests".
Definitely targeting kids: Old SAGE Club website
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
http://www.lermanet.com/frontgroups.html
SAGE - Set A Good Example contest was crafted specifically to target children, sponsored by scientology's CONCERNED BUSINESSMEN OF AMERICAN -
CONCERNED BUSINESSMENS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA - "CBAA" - sponsors writing
contests and other programs in schools, and try to get students
involved in LRH beliefs. Hands out Way To Happiness (By LRH) to
community groups, police, prisons and other groups. Purpose, to
promote LRH and CoS and get name recognition for LRH
Runs "Children's "Set A Good Example" Campaign AKA SAGE to lure children into considering L Ron Hubbard as a reliable source
� 2001 Concerned Businessmen's Association of America. All rights reserved. ABLE�, Aplied Scholastics�, Narconon� and Criminon� are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark and service mark owned by The Way To Happiness International and is used with its permission.
COMPUTER ETHICS INSTITUTE - (CEI) - Used by the church of sci in
their attempt to gain control over what can and cannot be put over
the Internet. Freedom
Is there a connection here?
ACT! Leadership at Sage
Scottsdale Office
8800 N. Gainey Center Drive
Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Office: 480-368-3700
ACT! by Sage Solutions System Requirements
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
aCt! by Sage Solutions. ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2009 (11.0) Minimum System Requirements. 25 “Core Server Installation” of Server 2008 is not supported. ...
www.sagesoftware.co
The SAGE Collections is a web-based service that will offer ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
Education and Psychology SAGE Full-Text Collections now available. Thousand Oaks, California, and London, United Kingdom, June 16, 2004 – SAGE ...
www.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/.../EducPsychPressRelease.pdf - Similar -
Sage Salon, Thousand Oaks CA 91362 -- MerchantCircle.com
MerchantCircle.com -- Sage Salon of 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand ... the 138 members in the Thousand Oaks area, who are controling their web presence ...
www.merchantcircle.com/business/Sage.Salon.805-497-1393 - Cached - Similar -
#
SAGE Reference Online
SAGE Publications Contact Information: 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 ... For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically ...
www.sage-ereference.com/public/privacy.php - Cached - Similar -
#
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Neuendorf, K. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sage Periodicals Press | Thousand Oaks, CA | Company Profile ...
Goliath's Sage Periodicals Press Company Profile provides detailed company information on Sage Periodicals Press located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
goliath.ecnext.com/.../product-compint-0000710044-page.html - Cached - Similar -
#
Charisma and the Iron Cage: Rationalization, Science and ...
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press . Sundby-Sorenson, M. (1998) "Danish Members' Perceptions of the Founder of the Church of Scientology", in E. Barker and ...
scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/1/111 - Similar -
WSB CV
2000 "Religious Ethnography on the World Wide Web, " In Religion and the Internet, ..... 2003 Encyclopedia of Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage: "Family, ... Witnesses": "Kwanzaa": "Scientology": "Seventh Day Adventist Church" ...
mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/data/wsbcv.htm - Cached - Similar -
#
View International Cultic Studies Association's e-Library Member ...
The Church of Scientology is the subject of the largest number of such assaults. ...... London and Thousand Oaks (California): Sage Publications. ...
www.icsahome.com/logon/elibdocview.asp?
Sage Salon in Thousand Oaks, CA - Best of the Web Local
BOTW Local provides details for Sage Salon at 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. Find information including: phone number (805) 497-1393, ...
local.botw.org/California/Thousand_Oaks/Sage.../13056017.html - Similar -
#
Clear Body Clear Mind :: Locations :: Mode - scn :: State - california
Church of Scientology of Thousand Oaks C/O 21010 Devonshire St. Chatsworth, CA 91311. Tel: 888-288-8559. Fax: 818-772-7943. CHICO Church of Scientology of ...
www.clearbodyclearmind.com/locations.php?mode=scn... - Cached - Similar -
#
Sherman Oaks Mission, Church of Scientology
The web log of the Scientology Mission in Sherman Oaks, California (USA) Includes updated schedule of events, testimonials and brief descriptions of ...
www.missionofshermanoaks.blogspot.com/ - Cached - Similar -
#
San Antonio Public Library /All Locations
What is scientology? / compiled by staff of the church of Scientology International ; based on the w Central Library, Thousand Oaks, PRINTED MATL, 1998 ...
sapl.sat.lib.tx.us:90/kids/0/search/c299...1.../browse - Cached - Similar -
#
Advertisement
Welcome to the official site for the Church of Scientology Mission of Sherman Oaks. Today we are speaking to Shiri Lonstein about Scientology and its ...
www.scientology-shermanoaks.org/ - Cached - Similar -
# [PDF]
o
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
authority to compromise claims against the Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service ..... Thousand Oaks, CA 91361. RSN-Attvs for Ansel Slome ...
www.lermanet.com/fraud/Scn_Slatkin_CoS_Et-Al_Settlement.pdf -
#
Editorial Assistant, Books job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Editorial Assistant, Books at Sage in Thousand Oaks ... efficiency and cost targets Joe Rosen Sage Solutions 805 3rd Ave 28th Floor . ...
www.simplyhired.com/job-id/.../editorial-assistant-jobs/ - Cached - Similar -
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Online Publishing Manager job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Online Publishing Manager at Sage in Thousand Oaks, ... Who do I Know at Sage Solutions Group - by LinkedIn; Research Salary - at ...
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Sage solutions jobs - HTML Jobs
Sep 11, Senior Financial Analyst, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. effectively deal with ambiguity and derive solutions. . High level of initiative and ...
htmljobs.jobamatic.com/a/jobs/find-jobs/q-Sage+Solutions - Cached - Similar -
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Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA | Indeed.com
Job search for Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA at indeed.com. one ... Senior Microsoft Consultant / Engineer. CPI Solutions - Camarillo, CA ...
www.indeed.com/q-Sage-Publications-l-Thousand-Oaks,-CA-jobs.html -
NETSCAPE TARGETS INTRANET MARKET
Edupage, 8 September 1996. Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0208.html
...Netscape's new AppFoundry offers a collection of canned applications
developed by other companies for Netscape's intranet software suite.
"We see AppFoundry being the first jumpstart kit for intranet
development," says Netscape's director of server product marketing.
AppFoundry software includes a job-listing program from Austin Hayne
Corp., and software for managing sales and marketing data from Sage
Solutions, Inc., as well as basic development tools from Next Inc. and
Borland International Inc. "Most of these applications would be
considered examples to work from," says a Gartner Group analyst. "No
one gives away the store." Still, "This helps solve the chicken-and-egg
problem cropping up as companies build intranets -- that they need
applications and tools to make them useful," notes a Yankee Group
analyst. (Investor's Business Daily 9 Sep 96 A6)...
US History Encyclopedia: Scientology
...As noted, there are elements of Eastern religions evident in Scientology,[127] in particular the concepts of karma, as present in Hinduism and in Jainism, and dharma.[130][131] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Hubbard tried to connect Scientology with Taoism and Buddhism.[132] Scientology has been said to share features with Gnosticism as well.[133]
[134] Karen Christensen, David Levinson (2003): Encyclopedia of Community, SAGE, p. 1210: "Scientology shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism."
Shade, Leslie Regan
1996 “Is there free speech on the net? Censorship in the global information infrastructure.” In Rob Shields, ed., Cultures of Internet, pp. 11–32. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Anonymous hacks Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account
Veep candidate's email bared by Wikileaks
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Members of Anonymous - that sprawling group of online rabble-rousers best known for taking on the Church of Scientology - have apparently hacked into a Yahoo! email account belonging to Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
According to the bulletproof truth seekers at Wikileaks, "activists loosely affiliated" with Anonymous somehow gained access to the account at around midnight Eastern on Tuesday. Screenshots of emails purportedly lifted from this account - which carries the address "gov.palin@yahoo.com" - were then passed to Wikileaks, and Wikileaks shared the stash with world+dog.
One of the screens shows an email from Amy McCorkell, a member of Governor Palin's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and according to Wired.com, McCorkell has confirmed the note's authenticity. Other screens show the account's inbox and contact list as well as an email from Palin to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell...
Just three days ago, the Anchorage Daily News questioned whether Palin should be conducting state business from a personal online email account. Earlier this year, Palin's office refused to release hundreds of emails as part of a public records request, citing "exemptions for deliberative process, executive privilege, attorney/client privilege, privacy, and personnel," and some suspect that Palin is using her Yahoo! account to hide info she doesn't want exposed. According to documents that were made public, Palin does indeed use the account for state business...
I can't find any connection to:
SagePoint Financial
Company Description
Hoover's coverage by Ryan Caione
SagePoint Financial was formed as AIG Financial Advisors in 2005 from the combination of three of the broker-dealer subsidiaries of insurance...
Headquarters:
2800 N. Central Ave., Ste. 2100
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1072
The Church of Scientology holds that a fraction of its scriptures are only to be viewed .... I feel obliged to point out that critics have accused Scientology of cynically ..... Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. ..... In 1953, Hubbard instituted the religion of Scientology, possibly for financial reasons ...
lermanet.com/reference/socialmovement.htm
CONNECTION BETWEEN SAGE PUBLICATIONS AND SCIENTOLOGY
http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm
[This site is related to the Scientology-supported campaign against "religious intolerance".]
A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects.
Chris Bader Alfred Demaris
09/01/96
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Since the 1960s every decade has experienced a great cult scare. From the Manson family to the Moonies, the Waco sect to the Jonestown massacre, the activities of cults prompt great public concern. Interest groups such as the American Family Foundation and the Cult Awareness Network devote their resources to monitoring the activities of deviant religious groups. The media continually warn of the dangers of cultic brainwashing strategies and the FBI continues to monitor closely religious groups they perceive to be potential dangers. Despite the great public and governmental attention afforded to cults and sects, however, researchers still know relatively little about why individuals join such groups.
This lack of cumulative knowledge about cults and sect affiliation stems from the absence of a testable theory of religious membership. Psychiatrists have tended to examine cult and sect affiliation from a victimization perspective, assuming that cult leaders somehow overcame an individual's free will. Sociological studies have rejected the brainwashing model, focusing instead on the interactions between potential and established cult members. Nevertheless, the absence of a coherent frame work and confusion about terms has hampered such studies.
A potential answer to the lack of a theoretical framework lies with the Stark-Bainbridge theory of religion. In what is certainly the most ambitious attempt at religious theorizing to date, Stark and Bainbridge attempt to explain everything from the nature of God to the process of secularization, using clearly defined terms and carefully outlined propositions. Given the potential importance of the Stark-Bainbridge theory, sociologists need to meet Stark and Bainbridge's challenge to test it (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 13). In this paper we will test Stark and Bainbridge's propositions about one area of particular interest to sociologists, psychiatrists, and the general public - conversion to sects and cults.
Aldrich, J. H. and F. D. Nelson. 1984. Linear probability, logit, and probit models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Damrell, J. 1977. Seeking spiritual meaning: The world of Vedanta. Sociological Observations, no. 2. Beverly Hills: Sage.
DeMaris, A. 1992. Logit modeling: Practical applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Two More Scientology Front Groups:
CBAA & SAGE, Pimping "The Way to Happiness"
The Set A Good Example (S.A.G.E) Contest is an annual competition running between August of the current year and May of the following year. EXAMPLE: August 1, this year through May 31 next year.
CBAA = Concerned Businessmen's [sic] Association of America -- yet another front group used as a foot-in-the-door to pimp LRH's "The Way to Happiness" to school kids...Welcome to CBAA: Concerned Businessmen's Association of America
SAGE = Set A Good Example (campaign) -- appears to be most active out of Reno, NV. A front group to get TWTH happiness materials into schools with $5000 "contests".
Definitely targeting kids: Old SAGE Club website
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
http://www.lermanet.com/frontgroups.html
SAGE - Set A Good Example contest was crafted specifically to target children, sponsored by scientology's CONCERNED BUSINESSMEN OF AMERICAN -
CONCERNED BUSINESSMENS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA - "CBAA" - sponsors writing
contests and other programs in schools, and try to get students
involved in LRH beliefs. Hands out Way To Happiness (By LRH) to
community groups, police, prisons and other groups. Purpose, to
promote LRH and CoS and get name recognition for LRH
Runs "Children's "Set A Good Example" Campaign AKA SAGE to lure children into considering L Ron Hubbard as a reliable source
� 2001 Concerned Businessmen's Association of America. All rights reserved. ABLE�, Aplied Scholastics�, Narconon� and Criminon� are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark and service mark owned by The Way To Happiness International and is used with its permission.
COMPUTER ETHICS INSTITUTE - (CEI) - Used by the church of sci in
their attempt to gain control over what can and cannot be put over
the Internet. Freedom
Is there a connection here?
ACT! Leadership at Sage
Scottsdale Office
8800 N. Gainey Center Drive
Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Office: 480-368-3700
ACT! by Sage Solutions System Requirements
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
aCt! by Sage Solutions. ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2009 (11.0) Minimum System Requirements. 25 “Core Server Installation” of Server 2008 is not supported. ...
www.sagesoftware.co
The SAGE Collections is a web-based service that will offer ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
Education and Psychology SAGE Full-Text Collections now available. Thousand Oaks, California, and London, United Kingdom, June 16, 2004 – SAGE ...
www.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/.../EducPsychPressRelease.pdf - Similar -
Sage Salon, Thousand Oaks CA 91362 -- MerchantCircle.com
MerchantCircle.com -- Sage Salon of 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand ... the 138 members in the Thousand Oaks area, who are controling their web presence ...
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SAGE Reference Online
SAGE Publications Contact Information: 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 ... For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically ...
www.sage-ereference.com/public/privacy.php - Cached - Similar -
#
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Neuendorf, K. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sage Periodicals Press | Thousand Oaks, CA | Company Profile ...
Goliath's Sage Periodicals Press Company Profile provides detailed company information on Sage Periodicals Press located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
goliath.ecnext.com/.../product-compint-0000710044-page.html - Cached - Similar -
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Charisma and the Iron Cage: Rationalization, Science and ...
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press . Sundby-Sorenson, M. (1998) "Danish Members' Perceptions of the Founder of the Church of Scientology", in E. Barker and ...
scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/1/111 - Similar -
WSB CV
2000 "Religious Ethnography on the World Wide Web, " In Religion and the Internet, ..... 2003 Encyclopedia of Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage: "Family, ... Witnesses": "Kwanzaa": "Scientology": "Seventh Day Adventist Church" ...
mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/data/wsbcv.htm - Cached - Similar -
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View International Cultic Studies Association's e-Library Member ...
The Church of Scientology is the subject of the largest number of such assaults. ...... London and Thousand Oaks (California): Sage Publications. ...
www.icsahome.com/logon/elibdocview.asp?
Sage Salon in Thousand Oaks, CA - Best of the Web Local
BOTW Local provides details for Sage Salon at 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. Find information including: phone number (805) 497-1393, ...
local.botw.org/California/Thousand_Oaks/Sage.../13056017.html - Similar -
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Clear Body Clear Mind :: Locations :: Mode - scn :: State - california
Church of Scientology of Thousand Oaks C/O 21010 Devonshire St. Chatsworth, CA 91311. Tel: 888-288-8559. Fax: 818-772-7943. CHICO Church of Scientology of ...
www.clearbodyclearmind.com/locations.php?mode=scn... - Cached - Similar -
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Sherman Oaks Mission, Church of Scientology
The web log of the Scientology Mission in Sherman Oaks, California (USA) Includes updated schedule of events, testimonials and brief descriptions of ...
www.missionofshermanoaks.blogspot.com/ - Cached - Similar -
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San Antonio Public Library /All Locations
What is scientology? / compiled by staff of the church of Scientology International ; based on the w Central Library, Thousand Oaks, PRINTED MATL, 1998 ...
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Welcome to the official site for the Church of Scientology Mission of Sherman Oaks. Today we are speaking to Shiri Lonstein about Scientology and its ...
www.scientology-shermanoaks.org/ - Cached - Similar -
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o
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
authority to compromise claims against the Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service ..... Thousand Oaks, CA 91361. RSN-Attvs for Ansel Slome ...
www.lermanet.com/fraud/Scn_Slatkin_CoS_Et-Al_Settlement.pdf -
#
Editorial Assistant, Books job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Editorial Assistant, Books at Sage in Thousand Oaks ... efficiency and cost targets Joe Rosen Sage Solutions 805 3rd Ave 28th Floor . ...
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Online Publishing Manager job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Online Publishing Manager at Sage in Thousand Oaks, ... Who do I Know at Sage Solutions Group - by LinkedIn; Research Salary - at ...
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Sage solutions jobs - HTML Jobs
Sep 11, Senior Financial Analyst, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. effectively deal with ambiguity and derive solutions. . High level of initiative and ...
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Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA | Indeed.com
Job search for Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA at indeed.com. one ... Senior Microsoft Consultant / Engineer. CPI Solutions - Camarillo, CA ...
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NETSCAPE TARGETS INTRANET MARKET
Edupage, 8 September 1996. Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0208.html
...Netscape's new AppFoundry offers a collection of canned applications
developed by other companies for Netscape's intranet software suite.
"We see AppFoundry being the first jumpstart kit for intranet
development," says Netscape's director of server product marketing.
AppFoundry software includes a job-listing program from Austin Hayne
Corp., and software for managing sales and marketing data from Sage
Solutions, Inc., as well as basic development tools from Next Inc. and
Borland International Inc. "Most of these applications would be
considered examples to work from," says a Gartner Group analyst. "No
one gives away the store." Still, "This helps solve the chicken-and-egg
problem cropping up as companies build intranets -- that they need
applications and tools to make them useful," notes a Yankee Group
analyst. (Investor's Business Daily 9 Sep 96 A6)...
US History Encyclopedia: Scientology
...As noted, there are elements of Eastern religions evident in Scientology,[127] in particular the concepts of karma, as present in Hinduism and in Jainism, and dharma.[130][131] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Hubbard tried to connect Scientology with Taoism and Buddhism.[132] Scientology has been said to share features with Gnosticism as well.[133]
[134] Karen Christensen, David Levinson (2003): Encyclopedia of Community, SAGE, p. 1210: "Scientology shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism."
Shade, Leslie Regan
1996 “Is there free speech on the net? Censorship in the global information infrastructure.” In Rob Shields, ed., Cultures of Internet, pp. 11–32. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Anonymous hacks Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account
Veep candidate's email bared by Wikileaks
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Members of Anonymous - that sprawling group of online rabble-rousers best known for taking on the Church of Scientology - have apparently hacked into a Yahoo! email account belonging to Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
According to the bulletproof truth seekers at Wikileaks, "activists loosely affiliated" with Anonymous somehow gained access to the account at around midnight Eastern on Tuesday. Screenshots of emails purportedly lifted from this account - which carries the address "gov.palin@yahoo.com" - were then passed to Wikileaks, and Wikileaks shared the stash with world+dog.
One of the screens shows an email from Amy McCorkell, a member of Governor Palin's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and according to Wired.com, McCorkell has confirmed the note's authenticity. Other screens show the account's inbox and contact list as well as an email from Palin to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell...
Just three days ago, the Anchorage Daily News questioned whether Palin should be conducting state business from a personal online email account. Earlier this year, Palin's office refused to release hundreds of emails as part of a public records request, citing "exemptions for deliberative process, executive privilege, attorney/client privilege, privacy, and personnel," and some suspect that Palin is using her Yahoo! account to hide info she doesn't want exposed. According to documents that were made public, Palin does indeed use the account for state business...
I can't find any connection to:
SagePoint Financial
Company Description
Hoover's coverage by Ryan Caione
SagePoint Financial was formed as AIG Financial Advisors in 2005 from the combination of three of the broker-dealer subsidiaries of insurance...
Headquarters:
2800 N. Central Ave., Ste. 2100
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1072
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Pundit Robert Novak, outer of Valerie Plame, dies
Robert D. Novak, 1931-2009
Combative Writer Broke High-Stakes Scoops
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
...David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union lobbying organization, said Mr. Novak helped transform supply-side economics from a fringe idea into a tenet of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy. Keene called Mr. Novak "a giant of the profession" who "gave respectability and visibility to conservative ideas and positions in the 1970s, when they were mostly dismissed." ...
Combative Writer Broke High-Stakes Scoops
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
...David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union lobbying organization, said Mr. Novak helped transform supply-side economics from a fringe idea into a tenet of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy. Keene called Mr. Novak "a giant of the profession" who "gave respectability and visibility to conservative ideas and positions in the 1970s, when they were mostly dismissed." ...
CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation
CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation
IG Report Describes Tactics Against Alleged Cole Mastermind
By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 22, 2009
CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to try to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information, according to a long-concealed agency report due to be made public next week, former and current U.S. officials who have read the document said Friday.
The tactics -- which one official described Friday as a threatened execution -- were used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the CIA's inspector general's report on the agency's interrogation program. Nashiri, who was captured in November 2002 and held for four years in one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, ultimately became one of three al-Qaeda chieftains subjected to a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
The report also says that a mock execution was staged in a room next to one terrorism suspect, according to Newsweek magazine, citing two sources for its information. The magazine was the first to publish details from the report, which it did on its Web site late Friday.
A federal judge in New York has ordered a redacted version of the classified IG report to be publicly released Monday, in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Since June, lawyers for the Justice Department and the CIA have been scrutinizing the document to determine how much of it can be made public. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been weighing the report's findings as part of a broader probe into the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods...
IG Report Describes Tactics Against Alleged Cole Mastermind
By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 22, 2009
CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to try to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information, according to a long-concealed agency report due to be made public next week, former and current U.S. officials who have read the document said Friday.
The tactics -- which one official described Friday as a threatened execution -- were used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the CIA's inspector general's report on the agency's interrogation program. Nashiri, who was captured in November 2002 and held for four years in one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, ultimately became one of three al-Qaeda chieftains subjected to a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
The report also says that a mock execution was staged in a room next to one terrorism suspect, according to Newsweek magazine, citing two sources for its information. The magazine was the first to publish details from the report, which it did on its Web site late Friday.
A federal judge in New York has ordered a redacted version of the classified IG report to be publicly released Monday, in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Since June, lawyers for the Justice Department and the CIA have been scrutinizing the document to determine how much of it can be made public. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been weighing the report's findings as part of a broader probe into the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods...
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Free speech: journalists in Viet Nam arrested for criticising China
Vietnam to Its Journalists: Don't Tread on China
By Martha Ann Overland
Sep. 05, 2009
Hanoi is stepping up pressure on its critics, detaining one Vietnamese journalist and two Vietnamese bloggers this past week after they wrote provocative reports...
The latest arrest took place early morning on Sept. 3 when police detained blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, at her home in the coastal city of Nha Trang. Quynh's mother said that plainclothes police had been watching the house for several months, ever since her daughter had started criticizing Vietnam for giving China the green light to mine its vast stores of bauxite...
"The warrant said my daughter was arrested under Article 258 of the Criminal Code for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the state's interests," said an emotional Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, Quynh's mother.
"They searched her house until 3:30 that morning and then put her in a van that disappeared into the quiet of the night." The family has not heard from her since...
CHINA ARRESTS BLOGGER DURING OLYMPICS
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested
by John Kennedy
Apr 24, 2008
Global Voices Advocacy--Defending Free Speech Online
...Nguyen Van Hai, a prominent citizen reporter there who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, was arrested this past week as he led efforts to organize local bloggers to follow the torch's passing.
By Martha Ann Overland
Sep. 05, 2009
Hanoi is stepping up pressure on its critics, detaining one Vietnamese journalist and two Vietnamese bloggers this past week after they wrote provocative reports...
The latest arrest took place early morning on Sept. 3 when police detained blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, at her home in the coastal city of Nha Trang. Quynh's mother said that plainclothes police had been watching the house for several months, ever since her daughter had started criticizing Vietnam for giving China the green light to mine its vast stores of bauxite...
"The warrant said my daughter was arrested under Article 258 of the Criminal Code for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the state's interests," said an emotional Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, Quynh's mother.
"They searched her house until 3:30 that morning and then put her in a van that disappeared into the quiet of the night." The family has not heard from her since...
CHINA ARRESTS BLOGGER DURING OLYMPICS
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested
by John Kennedy
Apr 24, 2008
Global Voices Advocacy--Defending Free Speech Online
...Nguyen Van Hai, a prominent citizen reporter there who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, was arrested this past week as he led efforts to organize local bloggers to follow the torch's passing.
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