I was tortured by Americans says Saddam. See, this is where our world credibility would come in handy. I don't believe Saddam for a second. I think he has heard about this and is playing us for the fool. Saddam is a liar and a murderer. Wouldn't it be nice if we could stand proud and say, "We are Americans--we don't torture" and know that we don't?
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As I noted this morning, Bush excuse for wiretapping makes no sense. FISA allows for retroactive warrants, so the speed issue is moot. Several are suspecting that the reason he went around FISA is that they are spying on people that they shouldn't be. People like environmentalists, peace activists, animal rights people, etc.--people that even FISA (who I am reading has turned down less than 10 requests out of some 19,000) would not allow warrants for.
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The judge in the PA Intelligent Design case ruled strongly against ID. The judge--now marked as an activist judge by right wing fundies--said that since ID was clearly not science, it was religion and the school had no place mandating it in class. The bigger issue for me is that it isn't science. We can (and should) debate the role that religious faith should play in education, but we do a disservice to the kids when we confuse belief with science.
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We are at war, evidently, to save Christmas from the heathens. People, can we just relax a little? This is supposed to be a time of peace and good will. Enough with the battles over the creches and "winter" parties. I don't care. Both sides should chill a little. Christians should recognize that their celebration of Christ's birth coincides and has always had elements of pagan and cultural rituals. Despite the myths of the Christmas tree being a hidden cross, or the 12 Days of Christmas song representing Catholic catechism (we received a card with that little gem on it), Christmas has always been contested. Puritans tried to ban it, and other Christians have objected to everything from the commercialism, to the use of trees, to the fact that Jesus was not born on December 25th!
Merry Christmas, everybody. This year, I hope that everyone turns Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson off or on mute for a while.
13 comments:
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
I enjoy reading your blog, but usually just hit and run without writing a comment.
Of course Saddam is not the only liar and torturer. I love going back to the 'old faithful' of torture politics...
South America...aaah, the school of the Americas/WHINSEC...where we teach murder, and other 'trustworthy' counter-insurgency tactics...
Clearly Bush is more of a Tyrant than Saddam. He's just so damn passive-aggresive about it.
anyway, keep writing!
Your point that ID as non-science is more important than ID as religion is a critically important one. This debate has been framed so strongly as "another" attack on religion or at least as a debate over religion's role in public life, but it is at least as much a struggle to define what is and what is not science.
On the matter of the role of religious thought in our thinking, Warren Nord wrote an interesting book a few years back entitled Religion and American Education. His overall point is that religious thought is a valid way of coming to know the world, yet it is not taken seriously in our schools.
I think it's possible to make room for taking religious thought seriously without the need to reach and call that which is unscientific "science."
Good quotes from J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. [Sorry they are so long, but I thought they were very good.]
"As a Baptist minister, I believe in an intelligent designer whom I unabashedly call God. But this is a religious affirmation, not a scientific proposition suitable for inclusion in a science classroom."
~ snip ~
"Finally, some have tried to use intelligent design to drive a wedge between religion and science. This is a false dichotomy. Evolution and religion are not mutually exclusive. As former President Jimmy Carter, both a scientist and devout Baptist, wrote in his recent book, Our Endangered Values, people of faith who take the Bible seriously and appreciate good science can comfortably embrace both. Both seek truth, but in different ways. One tries to answer the "who" and "why" questions through faith; the other addresses the "how" through scientific inquiry.
But, the idea of intelligent design need not be ignored in the public schools. It can be discussed and debated in the appropriate context — such as in a comparative religion course examining theories of origin or in a social studies class that teaches the controversy itself. Nor does it mean that evolution cannot be critiqued in science classes. But such challenges must be based on science and launched by scientists, not theologians."
* * *
Good stuff!
Jimmy Carter was a scientist?
How is it that I knew he was a peanut farmer, but didn't know he was a nuclear physicist?
These Internets is so informative.
Merry Christmas, Streak.
Zalm, don't you mean "nukular" physicist?
You have Anon mixed up with either Hammer, DR BRUCE, or Zalm, or some other, but he an't me.
Go read the chapter on the Bible where Jesus kicks the money changers out of the temple.
Maybe then you will be able to read the meaning as current events unfold.
But, you don't need to be engaged in comments right---YOU OWN THE FAITH, if one were to read you pandering to GOP power.(the big Kahunas who traffic in the most influence pdeedling)
Oh, great, pass the offerings to the next guy, down the row.
As God is my witness, I have no idea what you are talking about.
Your next comment gets deleted. Move on.
If you knew God, you would know how to read my posts. Instead you reject both, out of hand.
Streak, THAT'S IT!!!
See, the problem is not the anonymous troll, its YOU!!! Good grief, you're so deluded. Get with the, er, program. Or something.
Streak: You are confusing your preconceived
biased belief with science, and thus are like
a blind man in the desert, seeing a burning
bush off the vapors, and negate all others.
To that you claim no understanding & you
are a mere lost child wandering in your
urban wilderness.You even confused my
ID, as Anon, when that is not so
Yeah, "Anon" is not a shortened version of Anonymous. Not at all.
Please go away. I don't understand you at all. Go away.
Uggh, stop feeding the trolls! Maybe they will go away.
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