To quote Michael Shermer, I “investigate paranormal claims, pseudoscience and fringe groups, and cults and claims of all kinds between science and pseudoscience, and non-science, and junk science, voodoo science, pathological science, bad science, non-science, and plain old nonsense.”
1. Religion kills another one – Texas executed Khristian Oliver for a murder committed during a burglary:
While deciding whether he should live or die, jurors at his trial consulted copies of the Bible in a highly selective manner by using texts supporting the death penalty, thus calling their impartiality into serious question.Though Christians, they apparently ignored the teaching of Jesus on mercy, forgiveness and rejection of the eye-for-an-eye mentality.
Isn’t it so good knowing that life and death decisions are being made in courtrooms by a ancient Bronze Age mythology book?
“The undisputed record shows that the prayers delivered at the outset of Board meetings from May 29, 2007 through December 15, 2008 referred to Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, or Savior with overwhelming frequency… No non- Christian deities are invoked… These prayers as a whole cannot be considered non- sectarian or civil prayer. They display a preference for Christianity over other religions by the government.”
Their goal is to show that all these evil, godless, liberal stores are just out to steal Christmas and therefore, they should be punished. Of course the reality of it is that the true meaning of Christmas is Capitalism and its patron saint, Santa Claus. So smart stores evolve and embrace inclusive multiculturalism over exclusiveness because they want everyone’s business. So I’ve got a tip for the “Liberty” Counsel: Find a successful business model for selling products (not religions) that involves alienating non-Christian customers, and stores will happily follow that model.
Me, on the other hand–I’m shopping at the stores they marked “Naughty.”
4. China hosting Robot Olympics in 2010 – Automated humanoids (two arms, two legs, no wheels) will compete in traditional athletic events like track and field, javelin throwing, and possibly synchronized swimming, as well as robot-specific events like cleaning things.
1. Cancer Boy is now cancer-free – As Carl Sagan once wrote, science delivers the goods. Many months ago, I blogged about the continuing saga of Daniel Hauser, the boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma whose crazy anti-medical mother kidnapped to keep him from being poisoned by his court-ordered chemotherapy, but who later returned home with him. Unfortunately, while the boy was receiving real medical care, he was also being given bogus “alternative” medicine” products, which pretty much guarantees that the medicine denialists won’t give science the credit its due. But what’s most important is that Daniel Hauser is cancer-free and the chemotherapy didn’t poison him to death like the medicine deniers predicted.
2. An economic collapse didn’t occur today, so the world won’t end on Wednesday! – Cause I know you were all worried that it would. Ever since September, I’d been blogging about the constantly moving doomsday goalpost of one really delusional website. First, it predicted the world would end on September 21st. Then that turned into October 21st. Then October 23rd. But now whoever’s running it is wising up and adding conditions. Yesterday, the prediction was that if an economic collapse occured on November 9th, The Rapture would come on November 11th. Well, the Dow Jones went up over 200 points today, so I guess we’re all safe. Phew! That was a close one.
Habibollah Latifi, Ehsan (Esma’il) Fattahian and Sherko Moarefi have all been sentenced to death for “enmity against God” in unconnected cases over the last two years. They are believed to be on death row in a prison in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kordestan.
4. Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry definitively and demonstrably defeat the Catholic Church in debate – At the start of the debate, 678 people in the audience thought that the Catholic Church was a force for good in the world while 1102 disagreed and 346 were undecided. But by the end, only 268 thought the Catholic Church was a force for good in the world while 1876 disagreed with only 34 left undecided.
Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless.
The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” — the power of suggestion — said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.
Hal Bidlack is a well-known member of the skeptical community. Unfortunately, the Iraqi officials are not convinced:
Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.
It doesn’t seem to bother them at all that these dowsing rods have already proven to be a complete failure at detecting bombs:
The suicide bombers who managed to get two tons of explosives into downtown Baghdad on Oct. 25, killing 155 people and destroying three ministries, had to pass at least one checkpoint where the ADE 651 is typically deployed, judging from surveillance videos released by Baghdad’s provincial governor. The American military does not use the devices. “I don’t believe there’s a magic wand that can detect explosives,” said Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr., who oversees Iraqi police training for the American military. “If there was, we would all be using it. I have no confidence that these work.”
The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,” said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Explosives.
Yeah Major, you care so much about detecting bombs that you’ll happily keep using a bomb-detecting device that you now know doesn’t really work to detect bombs. Genius! Fuckin’ genius!
“I don’t care about Sandia or the Department of Justice or any of them,” General Jabiri said. “I know more about this issue than the Americans do. In fact, I know more about bombs than anyone in the world.”
Didn’t Oedipus say the same thing before leading Thebes to ruin? Don’t be so proud of this technological wonder you’ve purchased; it’s insignificant compared to the power of science:
During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view in his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons when used by the reporter but did so each time it was used by a policeman.
“You need more training,” the general said.
Iraqi people, send letters to your government to have Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri test these devices out personally while walking through a mine field. the safety and security of your nation may depend on it.
Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.
2. New online game for radical right-wingnuts – The game takes place in 2011 after “Obama’s coup fails.” The game invokes the “New World Order” conspiracy and rewrites history, establishing Lou Dobbs as the “one brave newscaster” who first sounded the alarm bells of the evil Obama/NWO conspiracy and defining the Obama administration as engaging in “Marxist experiments.” Really, guys? On the plus side though, in this hypothetical future history, all the really annoying right-wingnut propagandists like Glenn Beck, Neil Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity have all either been killed or have disappeared. So the future is looking brighter. . .
Well this time they’re totally serious! It turns out I guess that they didn’t carry the one or something because now the world’s going to end on October 21, 2009. And you know this time they’ve got it right because they’ve got such a great track record for predicting these apocalypes.
Like before, I recommend screen capturing this page again, so that you can compare it to what it says on October 22, 2009.
CRIMINAL charges are possible against The Secret author James Arthur Ray after two people died in a “sweat lodge” that was meant to provide spiritual cleansing for the 64 people crowded inside.
The regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited, the BBC has found.
Chris Jackson, presenter of Inside Out in the North East and Cumbria, registered pet George with three industry bodies. Each one accepted a certificate from the non-existent Society of Certified Advanced Mind Therapists as proof of George’s credentials... In the UK, George was registered with the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming (BBNLP), the United Fellowship of Hypnotherapists (UFH) and the Professional Hypnotherapy Practitioner Association (PHPA).
1. Supreme Court Justices attending ‘Red Mass’ - Six of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices, John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito all attended Red Mass — a special service for law professionals that has been held since 1953. Stephen Breye, who is Jewish, has attended this service before and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also a Jew, attended once but will never attend again:
… Ginsberg said she grew tired of being lectured to by Catholic officials.
“I went one year, and I will never go again, because this sermon was outrageously anti-abortion,” Ginsburg said in the book “Stars of David: Prominent Jews talk About Being Jewish” by author Abigail Pogrebin.
Clarence Thomas, the sixth Roman Catholic on the court, also didn’t attend.
“Mothers and their newborns in an Oregon City church that practices faith healing routinely died during or shortly after birth because medical help was not sought…”
Benny Hinn, from Texas, who draws large crowds to his Pentecostal revival rallies, was turned back at Stansted airport under new rules on visiting ministers of religion.
Many thousands of Pentecostal Christians travelled from across Britain and Europe and booked long weekend breaks in the capital’s hotels for his mission at the ExCeL exhibition centre in Docklands, East London, which had been due to begin on Thursday night.
They were left disappointed after Border Agency officials turned him back when he landed with his private jet because he had failed to obtain a “letter of sponsorship” from a church.
Instead, Mr Hinn flew on to Paris and tried to enter Britain at Luton airport but was again turned back. He was on his way back to France last night.
Maybe now would be the appropriate time for the U.S. to adopt the same policy to keep him out of our country too.
1. Sam Noble Museum of Natural History apologizes for hosting creationist film premiere. . .sorta – Actually, it’s more like an excuse. . .and they’re still going ahead with the premiere. . .because of free speech. Funny, but I don’t remember anything in the First Amendment saying museums can’t discriminate regarding who they rent out their space too. Maybe David Irving should try and book a Holocaust denial lecture there. After all, they don’t discriminate.
2. What’s the harm in believing in reincarnation? – It turns out that some Hindus believe that if your organs are removed, you may be reincarnated with them missing. So lots of them are deciding not to donate organs!! Ugh!
3. The atheists of Liberal, Missouri – It seems that there was once a town in Missouri that was founded as an atheist-only community. For countless reasons, the experiment failed, not least of which being that it wasn’t a very good idea in the first place.
4. Ten Commandments tablet goes up in Louisiana park – It’s right across the street from a public high school and allegedly the tablet and its installation was paid for by a former city councilman, A.T. Furr:
Mayor Harold Rideau supports it, adding “We’re a Christian-based community.”
1. Phillip Garrido: kidnapper, child rapist, Heaven-bound-Jesus-lover – So Garrido and his wife kidnapped this 11-year-old girl in 1991, they imprisoned her in the backyard, he raped her repeatedly, he had 2 children with her (now 11 and 15 years old) who were also imprisoned for their whole lives, and of course he loves Jesus. In fact, some thought he was even going to start a church. Lovely. Oh, and he has–err, had a blog where he discussed Jesus.
Washington’s law specifies that a person treated through faith healing “by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner in lieu of medical care is not considered deprived of medically necessary health care or abandoned.” Other religions are not mentioned.
4. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s solution to healthcare – I’ve talked about this fucktard before. Just about every word out of her mouth seems to make Sarah Palin look smarter by comparison. Case in point, her solution to the healthcare crisis:
“That’s really where this battle will be won — on our knees in prayer and fasting,” she told the listeners. “Remember: faith without works is dead. So we’re asking you to do all of it: pray, fast, believe, trust the Lord, but also act.”
Seriously, can’t we throw her out of office at this point?
Humans just salty meat for robot - When a wine-tasting robot’s infrared spectrometer scanned the skin of a human, it identified it as prosciutto. And they wonder why Sci-fi writers depict robots so often as destroyers of mankind?
About 2 months ago, I blogged numerous times about Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy dying of Hodgkin’s lymphoma who after much drama, was eventually saved by court-ordered chemotherapy neither he nor his brainwashing parents wanted. Of course, he and his parents would rather continue to give credit for his recovery to the “alternative” “medicine” products they’ve been giving him in addition to the real medicine. But for those who understand how science work and actually have a grasp on reality, there’s no question that had Daniel not received the chemo, he’d have died.
Unfortunately, Jeremy LaBrie wasn’t so lucky. Jeremy, an 8 year old autistic child with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, died because his mother Kristen. . .
. . .withheld his medications and failed to take him to appointments with his oncologist. As a result of his failing to undergo his complete course of chemotherapy, his cancer returned with a vengeance. As of one year ago, his odds of survival were estimated to be no more than 10-20%, after having had a good prognosis when initially diagnosed.
Now Kristen LaBrie is being prosecuted for manslaughter. And sickingly, despite all the evidence of her negligence, she’s denying the charges, especially given that she was EVEN MORE NEGLIGENT than Daniel Hauser’s parents up until they eventually surrendered their son to the will of the court:
This case is different than the usual ones that I examine here in that Kristen did not refuse chemotherapy for her son because she wanted to pursue woo. Indeed, there is no evidence that she sought “alternative” therapy or other quackery for her son.
As much as I despise the “alternative” “medicine” industry, or as I like to call it, “The Industry of Death,” I can at least understand how a parent could be so suckered by quacks as to turn to them over real doctors. Kristen LaBrie doesn’t seem to have even done that. So for once, I can’t even blame the quacks for selling bogus medicine. I can’t even blame religious fanaticism for this one as she didn’t use prayer as a substitute for medicine. Really, this is a pretty clear-cut case of the blame falling squarely on bad parenting.
1. Religion kills another one – Texas executed Khristian Oliver for a murder committed during a burglary:
2. Judge may fine Forsyth County in North Carolina $100,000 for violating separation of church and state – Magistrate Judge P. Trevor Sharp has argued that prayers citing Jesus and other deities before Forsyth County Commissioners meetings are unconstitutional:
3. The religious nuts at the Liberty Counsel are telling people where they should and shouldn’t shop this year – They’ve released their seventh annual “Naughty & Nice list” (PDF).
4. China hosting Robot Olympics in 2010 – Automated humanoids (two arms, two legs, no wheels) will compete in traditional athletic events like track and field, javelin throwing, and possibly synchronized swimming, as well as robot-specific events like cleaning things.
Posted by mjr256 
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During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view in his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons when used by the reporter but did so each time it was used by a policeman.
Posted by mjr256 
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More critics take swings at Chris Mooney and Francis Collins – First, in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, 
