Sunday, July 31, 2005
Left out by Housing Boom
W
ith 200 billion taxpayer dollars spent on the war in Iraq and no end in sight, it is a national disgrace that almost 20 homeless people have died from excessive heat on the streets of Phoenix this summer. I guess the homeless are not part of the "culture of life" that the president was so concerned about when he pushed the Terri Schiavo special legislation through Congress.
Posted by fm on July 31, 2005 at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Saturday, July 30, 2005
London Bombings No Surprise
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hy should we be surprised with the bombings in Egypt or Britain? Before the invasion of Iraq the president of France warned that the only thing we would accomplish would be the creation of little Osama bin Ladens all over the map.
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e now see all sorts of splinter groups popping up. Countless extremists are ready to sting us anywhere, anytime and by any means. The surge in terrorist offsprings is a failure of George W. Bush's presidency.
Posted by fm on July 30, 2005 at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, July 29, 2005
Severe Famine in Niger
T
he Western world is not interested in the fate of hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in Niger. Nor were they interested (except where they could make money by selling weapons or devilish expertise) in all the other massacres, genocides, lootings, savagery, psychopathic dictatorships, child slavery and slaughters, tortures, famines or even cannibalism of the recent past in African countries.
T
he reason is that Western governments are interested in power. And that's all. They want to stay elected. And their voters are interested in their oil supplies, travel, pleasures, taxes, and not much else. They are not interested in a country that they see as completely separate from their existence.
T
he West has sat happily by the side of the road, sunning itself in the breeze, as children, villages, and entire societies are wiped out, not centuries ago, but today, this morning, and this afternoon.
T
hey will continue to sit and do nothing because they feel the Africans' problems are isolated. They have not yet reached a state of evolution where they share all humanity's suffering.
T
o those individuals who understand that the failure or pain of one of us is the failure or pain of us all, even hearing of the unspeakable acts committed in these countries is spiritually unbearable.
T
he West can wring its hands all it wants, but if pushed, it will have to say it couldn't care less, and will continue to be disinterested until the problems arrive on their doorstep, at which point they will spark off the usual cycle of military destruction followed by humble "time-to-move-on" speeches.
No oil = no interest.
Posted by fm on July 29, 2005 at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Back to the Future/Dark Ages?
P
resident Bush has waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design", saying schools should teach both on the origins and complexity of life. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with evolution in the nation's schools. Proponents of intelligent design suggest that the complexity of life forms cannot be explained by evolutionary theory alone but rather points to intentional creation, presumably divine.
T
he theory of evolution, first articulated by British naturalist Charles Darwin in 1859, is based on the idea that living organisms developed over time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain traits that helped species survive. Scientists acknowledge that evolution doesn't answer every question about the origins of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses.
B
ush, compared the current debate to earlier disputes over "creationism," a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution. The president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about."
T
he Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts across the country. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas; the answer is yes."
T
he National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there is no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes. "The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted," the academy said in a 1999 assessment. "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science."
S
ome scientists have declined to join the debate, fearing that amplifying the discussion only gives intelligent design more legitimacy. But advocates of intelligent design also claim support from scientists. The Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank in Seattle that is the leading proponent of intelligent design, said it has compiled a list of more than 400 scientists, including 70 biologists, who are skeptical about evolution. "The fact is that a significant number of scientists are extremely skeptical that Darwinian evolution can explain the origins of life," John West, associate director of the organization's Center for Science and Culture, said in a statement.
Posted by fm on July 28, 2005 at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)