Hot-Button Issues Update #1

• Evolution
  Some Christians apparently see The March of the Penguins as good scientific support for Intelligent Design.

  Because obviously, the most contrived, mythical, unscientific explanation for something must be the correct one.
  

  “To think that natural selection or even the penguins themselves could come up with the idea to migrate miles and miles multiple times each year without their partner or their offspring is a bit insulting to my intellect. How great is our God!”

  Ignoring the ripped-straight-from-The-Onion flavor of that last interjection, pretending that natural selection is an entity that can “come up” with things sounds like a third grade science paper at best. It’s like saying “To think that gravity or even a rock could come up with the idea to fall to earth at a rate of 9.8m/s² is insulting to my intellect. Praise Jesus!”

  Oh, and I loved this bit earlier in the article:
  

  Due to harsh conditions, most of the young chicks do not survive.

  Hmm, yeah, I guess only the ‘fittest’ survive. I think I’ve heard of that before.

  So… Baby birds freezing to death in hellish antartic conditions over and over throughout the seasons is something you consider well-designed? And you wrote a press release to trumpet the fact that this icy death props up your pseudoscience so well? Now you’re insulting my intelligence.

• Abstinence:
  Hey, kids, you should try abstinence! In fact, let’s spend a billion dollars on teaching abstinence. Oh, we already did?
  

  “There’s a group of people who are using abstinence as a vehicle, pretending to be concerned about public health,” says Bearman. “But it’s really a vehicle to advance a program, a cultural program that doesn’t help public health.”

  This is a very good point. It’s similar to using Leviticus 18:22 to push an anti-gay agenda. None of the crusaders –who use this verse to condemn homosexuals– care the least bit about the other prohibitions in this chapter, which is rife with restrictions on all kinds of behavior. That same set of laws prohibits eating birds of prey, eating shellfish, cross breeding livestock, picking up sticks on a Saturday, planting a mixture of seeds in a field, and wearing clothing that is a blend of two textiles, but imagine that– nobody protests these activities whatsoever. Could it be that they are using the bible verse as a cover to try to restrict activities that might make them uncomfortable, conveniently choosing one restriction from the bible among literally hundreds that they ignore?

  Of course, it gets better. Later in the story, the good minister promoting these programs has the balls to throw his own daughter under the bus with this one:
  

  “A kid’s part of your program, and he comes to you and says, ‘You know, I’m going to have sex. I’ve reached a point and I’m going to do this. Should I use a condom?’ What do you say?” asks Bradley.

  “My own daughter, my 16-year-old daughter, tells me she’s going to be sexually active. I would not tell her to use a condom,” says Pattyn. “I don’t think it’ll protect her. It won’t protect her heart. It won’t protect her emotional life. And it’s not going to protect her. I don’t want her to get out there and think that she’s going to be protected using a condom.”

  But wouldn’t his daughter be more protected with a condom than without? “Not long term,” says Pattyn.

  Wow. CBS didn’t even bring up his daughter, but this minister wants you to know that he’s so committed to keeping kids ignorant about sex that he’d tell his own daughter, even if she’s going to have sex, not to use a condom. He’s an awesome dad, isn’t he? Combine that with the other statistics* on abstinence-only education that you can find in the article and I think he’s a good candidate for father of the year.

  [*Summary: Kids who try abstinence are A) one-third less likely to use condoms, B) more likely to try anal or oral sex, C) much less likely to get tested for STDs, and D) 88 percent likely to have sex before marriage anyway.]

• Eminent Domain
  I really can’t think of anything sadder than a private Catholic high school being allowed to annex a perfectly good bar through eminent domain.
  

  In Tan’s situation, Cotter said he would argue that the need for St. Peter’s Preparatory School to complete its athletic field outweighs the current use of the building as a tavern.

  And I think the need for me to have a ranch in Montana outweighs the current use of the land as Ted Turner’s playground. Damn, if only I were more politically connected, I could just steal whatever I wanted from its rightful owner!

UGA Football

Heather and I went to see UGA vs Louisiana-Monroe yesterday in Athens. It was fantastic to be back on campus, amidst the fun of the game day atmosphere.

We bought our tickets online on GeorgiaDogs.com last week when a few became available. This was somewhat of a mistake. We were seated in the 600 section, the huge addition that was completed in 2003 (login).

The Teeming Masses

These truly are the nosebleed seats, reaching up to the sky higher than I’ve ever been in a football stadium. The scalpers were probably selling seats closer than ours, for a better price, but I guess that’s the price we pay for wanting to have tickets ahead of time.

The experience was exactly how I remembered it… Sitting around in the sun drinking beer out of a can, people dropping food on the ground and just laughing and eating it…. The long trek to the stadium and the absolute herds of people trying to get in the gates.

There were some Christian protesters out on Sanford Drive trying to get me to put down the Miller Lite and pick up a bible.

The game was a great rout, as expected, and today my legs are a little sore from all the walking, standing, etc.

[Flickr Photoset]

Katrina and Kelo

I wonder if any of the governments in New Orleans will take it upon themselves to sieze the flooded homes, since the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Kelo v. New London gives them every legal justification to do so. They could bulldoze everyone’s homes and sell them to condo developers! Thanks, Supreme Court!

Gas Gouging

With some retailers advertising gasoline prices as high as $6 per gallon, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed an executive order authorizing state sanctions against gas stations that gouge consumers.

“I do not believe there is an energy emergency in this state but we will not tolerate our citizens perceiving the fact there is by exorbitant price-gouging prices,” he said.

Perdue’s order allows the Gov.’s Office of Consumer Affairs to seek civil sanctions against retailers who can’t justify their prices based on the price they paid at the terminal for the product, adjusted for their normal markup.

I can see it now… Retailer! Justify your price immediately! The State only allows a certain amount of markup! Have you no concern for your Motherland?

I mean, honestly, anyone who pays six bucks a gallon when the average price in Atlanta is still about three bucks deserves to be ripped off.

I paid $3.159 for Premium (it was all they had) yesterday, officially the most I’ve ever spent on gas. That price stands in stark contrast to the lowest I’ve ever paid, 69 cents a gallon in 1998. The $3.15 gas was only found after driving to three other stations, all of them like this:

Yes, I shot it with my new camera phone.