September 12, 2008

Drill Baby Drill!!!

A Picture is worth a thousand words and although I've previously covered why offshore drilling is a pander with no real substance I think this graph does a much better job of getting the message across.
Props to Ezra for the graph and check out his article accompanying it, energy expert indeed!

More After the Fold...

0 comments:

September 7, 2008

Evolution and Indoctrination...From a Christian Studies Scholar

The "teaching the controversy" canard that many anti-evolutionists roll out concerning fairness is something that irks me to no end. I always fall back on the point that disagreeing with a viewpoint is not a controversy, and now a Christian and religious scholar from Butler University has brilliantly put my thoughts in his own words.
Is it "indoctrination" if we teach the history of the Holocaust and do not give equal time to the deniers of the Holocaust?

Is it indoctrination if we teach astronomy and make no mention of astrology?

Is it indoctrination if we teach the heliocentric view of the solar system without giving equal time to geocentrists?

Asking for equal time for "alternatives" to evolution is in exactly the same category. It is asking that a point of view with nothing but questions and complaints to offer be treated as the equal of a scientific field of research that has been remarkably productive and consistently confirmed by all sorts of evidence not available when the theory was first formulated. The media makes much of being "fair" in trying to always hear another side of the story, and there is something indeed laudable about checking to see if there is an opposing viewpoint. Too many of us forget to do that, and forget too often. But not every opposing viewpoint has merit, and the reason we have education standards is to ensure that educators do not waste time on nonsense to the detriment of things that are truly important, valuable, and (ultimately) true.

More After the Fold...

0 comments:

Political Training Wheels

The McCain campaign has decided Sarah Palin is off limits for interviews at this time until she can be fully brought up to speed on the issues at hand. Of course the news media is up in arms over this decision but let's face it, it is McCain's campaign and it is fully within his right to run it this way.

My concern is over someone who is 57 days away from possibly assuming a vice-presidency needing secret meetings to make sure she can fully communicate her (supposed) own ideas concerning the platform.

For all I know about Sarah Palin she is a very well-spoken woman who has little experience outside of firing museum directors, librarians, teaching creationism, banning books, denying human caused global warming, and asking for $27M in federal earmarks for the "bridge to nowhere".

She also lives really close to Russia which the Republicans would like you to believe means she has great international relations experience even though she only recieved her passport in 2006 and has visited a total of 4 countries.

All of this makes me believe she doesn't know a whole lot about what she's talking about or what her job would be as vice-president, I think she says it best:




For me this all adds up to one thing, it was a highly political decision by John McCain, who has touted his campaign as getting away from the Washington influence and doing what is best for our nation.  It seems like this decision is better for him personally in his quest for the presidency, a stance that politicians in Washington have held forever.  The reformed maverick showing his true intentions again.

More After the Fold...

0 comments: