The Nature of Science

Showing posts with label Society. Show all posts

This Is Why Christians Want Guns

I'm sure you've heard that Americans need guns so they can overthrow the government whenever it infringes on their personal beliefs. Many Americans believe they have a "right" to commit treason whenever they feel like it and, furthermore, that "right" must be protected by allowing them to bear arms, including assault weapons.

Here's what could happen. This is an interview by Janet Parshall of Mathew Staver. Believe it or not, Mathew Staver is Dean of the School of Law at Liberty University. He is also the Chair and Founder of a right-wing extremest group called Liberty Counsel. Mat is worried that the Supreme Court of the United States—the ultimate source of what's legal and what's not—could actually allow same-sex couples to get married!!!!

The consequences would be devastating, according to the Dean of Law. He says,

This is the thing that revolutions literally are made of. This would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and to Christians around the country, then anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing. This would be the thing that revolutions are made of. This could split the country right in two. This could cause another civil war. I’m not talking about just people protesting in the streets, this could be that level because what would ultimately happen is a direct collision would immediately happen with pastors, with churches, with Christians, with Christian ministries, with other businesses, it would be an avalanche that would go across the country.

I'm sure it's a great comfort to most Americans that these people have the weapons they need to start another civil war over legalizing gay marriage.

[Hat Tip: Hermant Mehta: Christian Right Leader: Legalizing Gay Marriage Will Result in Another Civil War.]

The National Rifle Association: Part of the Problem

According the Toronto's Globe & Mail [NRA's call for armed guards in U.S. schools a warning for politicians].

The NRA is offering to help with the effort to put guns in schools. Mr. LaPierre named former Arkansas Republican congressman Asa Hutchinson to lead a National School Shield Program to help design security plans for every school in the country.

Because, as Mr. LaPierre put it: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

If there is a one statement that sums up the political divide in America, that may be it.

Here's the video of the NRA press conference.

And here's part of the transcript ...

With all the foreign aid, with all the money in the federal budget, we can’t afford to put a police officer in every school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business — and no authority — denying us the right, the ability, or the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm.

Now, the National Rifle Association knows that there are millions of qualified active and retired police; active, reserve and retired military; security professionals; certified firefighters and rescue personnel; and an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained qualified citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every school. We can deploy them to protect our kids now. We can immediately make America's schools safer — relying on the brave men and women of America’s police force.

The budget of our local police departments are strained and resources are limited, but their dedication and courage are second to none and they can be deployed right now.

I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school — and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January.

There are about 130,000 schools in America. Let's say we find 130,000 people who are willing and able to use a gun to kill anyone who tries to get into the school. Imagine that many of them are "patriots" who belong to the National Rifle Association. They'll probably be working for close to minimum wage. A bored, underpaid, cowboy with a loaded gun in every school.

What could possibly go wrong?

This Is What a Culture of Guns and Violence Looks Like

The man who is advocating gun culture is Louie Gohmert, a Republican member of the United States Congress representing the 1st Congressional District of Texas. Gun control will never be successful as long as a substantial number of Americans think like this. Gohmert won the last election (Nov. 2012) with 72% of the vote.

Change the culture. Violence is never the answer and more violence will never fix the problem. Change the culture and gun control automatically follows, as in most other countries. It's unlikely that tweaking a few gun laws will make much of a difference as long as everyone thinks it's okay to act like a gun-toting vigilante.

America Is Headed Toward Socialism or Something Much Worse

I thought that people like Chuck Norris were big fans of the idea that America is the greatest country in the world. Apparently I was wrong.

This is an appeal to evangelicals to prevent the triumph of evil and 1,000 years of darkness.

[Hat Tip: Friendly Atheist]

America Is Not the Greatest Country in the World

I been watching proceedings at the Republican National Convention in Florida. If you think it's annoying for most liberal Americans, imagine what it's like for us furriners!

Coincidentally, we watched the last episode of The Newsroom a few days ago then decided to re-watch all ten episodes. It's one of the best shows on television. Makes me sad that The West Wing was cancelled. It's not a show that Republicans will enjoy.

Here's the clip from the first episode that sets the tone for a new kind of TV news show. The hero, Will McAvoy, is a cable news anchor who wants to tell it like it is instead of chasing ratings. The excerpt is from a town hall meeting at Northwestern University. A student has just asked why America is the greatest country in the world. (The student shows up again in Episode #10 when she wants to become a "greater fool.")

The Trouble with TED

An awful of of people seem to waking up to the idea that TED talks are not what they're supposed to be. They attract a lot of kooks who can speak well and exude enthusiasm. How many times have you listened to a TED talk in your area of expertise and wondered how the heck that person got on the stage?

TED talks are just big soundbites and soundbites are not good ways to explain complicated, and potentially revolutionary, ideas.

Read more »

Stephen Fry and the Two Cultures Problem (Brits vs Americans)

I can't believe it was almost five years ago that I posted a quotation from Stephen Fry on the differences between dinner conversations in Britain and America [Two Cultures].

Here it is again because it's relevant to our discussion about IDiots. It's from: Getting Overheated (Nov. 19, 2007).

We must begin with a few round truths about myself: when I get into a debate I can get very, very hot under the collar, very impassioned, and I dare say, very maddening, for once the light of battle is in my eye I find it almost impossible to let go and calm down. I like to think I’m never vituperative or too ad hominem but I do know that I fall on ideas as hungry wolves fall on strayed lambs and the result isn’t always pretty. This is especially dangerous in America. I was warned many, many years ago by the great Jonathan Lynn, co-creator of Yes Minister and director of the comic masterpiece My Cousin Vinnie, that Americans are not raised in a tradition of debate and that the adversarial ferocity common around a dinner table in Britain is more or less unheard of in America. When Jonathan first went to live in LA he couldn’t understand the terrible silences that would fall when he trashed an statement he disagreed with and said something like “yes, but that’s just arrant nonsense, isn’t it? It doesn’t make sense. It’s self-contradictory.” To a Briton pointing out that something is nonsense, rubbish, tosh or logically impossible in its own terms is not an attack on the person saying it – it’s often no more than a salvo in what one hopes might become an enjoyable intellectual tussle. Jonathan soon found that most Americans responded with offence, hurt or anger to this order of cut and thrust. Yes, one hesitates ever to make generalizations, but let’s be honest the cultures are different, if they weren’t how much poorer the world would be and Americans really don’t seem to be very good at or very used to the idea of a good no-holds barred verbal scrap. I’m not talking about inter-family ‘discussions’ here, I don’t doubt that within American families and amongst close friends, all kinds of liveliness and hoo-hah is possible, I’m talking about what for good or ill one might as well call dinner-party conversation. Disagreement and energetic debate appears to leave a loud smell in the air.

Gunfights Cause Collateral Damage

I heard on CNN that applications for gun permits are on the rise in Colorado. Apparently there are people who think that arming everyone will cut down on crime. They seriously believe that if more people in the Aurora Theater shooting were packing then there would have been fewer deaths and injuries. The idea is that a gunfight between the psychotic killer and an average citizen would have resulted in the killer's death.

Here's a bit of news from Toronto that might help put this in perspective. On June 2, 2012 a gang member opened fire on another gang member in the food court of the Toronto Eaton Centre. The intended target was killed but so was a nearby shopper. Three others were wounded. On July 15, 2012 two or three rival gang members decided to have a gunfight at a barbecue in a Toronto suburb. One of them was wounded. Two innocent bystanders were killed and 22 others were wounded [Scarborough shootings: What really happened on Danzig?].

Turns out that the average citizen isn't a very good shooter. More often than not, they miss their intended target and hit someone else. Lots of people die in gunfights, not just the bad guys—it's called collateral damage.

Imagine what the death toll in Aurora might have been with more than one person blasting away with an automatic weapon.

All civilized nations have strict gun control laws. Their citizens have this strange notion that killing other people is never a viable option and they can't imagine why anyone would deliberately buy guns with the intention of shooting a fellow citizen, even in self defense or prevention of a presumed crime.

I guess some nations have a long history of solving problem with gun violence and it's difficult to abandon that option.

Image Credits: Charlton Heston (top), Tombstone (bottom)

What Does a Secular Society Look Like?

Lots of people don't understand what we mean by a secular society. If you're one of them, watch this video by QualiaSoup. He uses a very good example—the saying of prayers at city council meetings.

Most of you have been to business and/or organization meetings of various sorts. You don't normally start those meetings with a Christian prayer in spite of the fact that you might be making some very big decisions. At the recent evolution conference in Ottawa, for example, there were five society meetings of boards of directors and (I'm told) not one of them began with a prayer!

People believe in many different gods. Evey person on the planet thinks that the vast majority are false gods that do not exist. Some of us think that applies to all gods. You have no right to promote the existence of some gods over others at public meetings in a secular society, especially a multicultural society like those that exist in most modern, industrialized nations.

Whether or not you believe in god(s), the only reasonable approach in a modern society is the secular one where religions is a private matter, not a public one.

A link to this video was sent to Katie Mahoney, city councillor for Ward 8 (my ward) in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Hat Tip: Friendly Atheist

Dancing

Ms. Sandwalk sent me the link to this video. She knows that I love this sort of thing. It makes me happy.

Ravel's Bolero at the Copenhagen Central Train Station

I love these things!

Is WiFi Harmful to Children?

There are many things that are harmful to children—poverty and war come to mind. There's also superstition and ignorance.

Believe it or not, there are many parents who think that electromagnetic radiation from WiFi transmitters is harming their children. They want it removed from schools because their children are becoming sick when they are at school.

Steve Thoms at Skeptic North has a post on this issue [Why, Wifi? Why?]. He explains why some people believe stupid things and how they go about defending those beliefs in a scientific society. He also raises questions about the "evidence" of illness caused by WiFi.

Worth reading—especially for the students in my course.

Montreal Police: Take "Mabus" death threats seriously

Go to this website, Montreal Police: Take "Mabus" death threats seriously, and sign the petition. We need to convince the Montreal police to take action against Dennis Markuze before he harms someone.

Read what PZ Myers has to put up with every day: Time to institutionalize Dennis Markuze. This is not right. It's an embarrassment that Canada can't deal with this problem.

For several years Dennis Markuze has harassed and threatened scientists, writers, public figures, atheists, and their friends under the pseudonym "David Mabus". While this was previously a minor annoyance, the intensity and frequency of his communications have increased.

"Mabus" attacks now include hundreds of Twitter accounts (used and discarded as they are reported). He has threatened young boys and girls as well as adults (including Rys Morgan, 16, who was acknowledged by some in the science community for exposing a dangerous quack medical treatment). In fact, anyone who associates with scientifically and skeptically minded people like PZ Myers, Phil Plait, James Randi, Brian Dunning or Michael Shermer is likely to become a target for unsettling rants and threats to their life and well-being.

Markuze has even gone so far as to attend meetings of such people, including attending the American Atheist Convention in October 2010, held Montreal.

It is time for the police to take his threats seriously. The problem must be addressed before it escalates beyond Internet bullying and veiled threats to become something worse.

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

New York Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Same-sex marriage is legal in ten countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Sweden). In Canada it has been legal for gays and lesbians to marry since July 20, 2005.

In the United States same-sex is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia). A few hours ago it became legal in New York. I wonder if this will cause other states to make same-sex marriage legal?

The map shows where gays and lesbians have the same rights as other citizens and where those rights are restricted. I think it reflects a deep cultural divide in America and I wonder where this is going to end up? Is it possible that some of the red colored states will eventually change their minds on this issue?

[Image Credit: modified from Wikipedia]

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. The holiday was proclaimed by Parliament in 1957.

A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

The modern holiday dates from about one hundred years ago and it is heavily influenced by the American tradition that was beginning to become well known at that time.

However, the original celebration clearly descends from harvest festivals celebrated in Europe hundreds of years ago. The first Europeans to come to North America brought this celebration with them and it likely became more popular because several East coast aboriginal tribes celebrated a harvest festival.

Canada claims that the first thanksgiving in North America was in 1578 when Martin Frobisher organized an autumn celebration in Newfoundland.¹ Samuel de Champlain frequently celebrated thanksgiving feasts in the early French colonies in Nova Scotia and Quebec beginning in 1604. The local natives joined in these celebrations [see L’Ordre de Bon Temps (Order of Good Cheer)].

Further south, the English settlers in New England began to celebrate a harvest festival in 1621. A tradition that they brought with them from Europe. It's this version of the English festival that has come down to us as the prototypical thanksgiving day. That part of the tradition was imported to Canada in the late 1700s when thousands of settlers fled north from the new United Sates of America to take up residence in the British Colony of Canada.

1. The other contender is a festival on September 8, 1565 in Saint Augustine, Florida. Is Florida part of North America? :-)

[Photo Credit: Actors recreating the Order of Good Cheer in 1970 (The Members of the Order)]

Swine Flu and "The Canadian Problem"

TV, radio, and newspapers in Canada are abuzz with the lastest studies on swine flu. According to "preliminary reports" your chances of getting swine flu are increased if you get/got? the regular flu shot. This is prompting Canadian public health officials to recommend holding off on the regular flu shot until after you get the swine flu shot ... which won't be available until November.

The so-called "preliminary data" doesn't make any sense as public health experts on Effect measure point out: Once more on the vaccine question.

The confusion isn't helped by ambiguous reporting such as this from Canadian Press: Study linking flu shots, swine flu raises concern abroad, prompt changes at home.

The data, referred to as "the Canadian problem" by some scientists outside this country, are reported to link getting a flu shot last year with double the risk of contracting swine flu this year.

The link, if real, is to mild disease. One person who has seen the study says it seems to suggest that those who got a seasonal flu shot were less likely to develop severe disease if they became infected than those who hadn't received the shot.

Say what?

Nobody else is reporting a connection between this year's swine flu and whether or not you got a flu shot last year. Part of the problem is that Canadian health officials might be basing decisions on a flawed study. That's unacceptable.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this situation is that the actual study may not be available for some time. According to Canadian Press ...

Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the work is led by Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres of Laval University.

They have submitted the paper to an unnamed scientific journal and are therefore constrained about what they can say about the work. Journals bar would-be authors from discussing their results before they are published.

"For me, it's very important that we respect the peer-review process as good scientists. Because the implications ... are important," Skowronski said in an interview Wednesday.

"And if there are methodologic flaws, we need to be assured that every stone was turned over to make sure what we're reporting is valid."

This is unethical behavior at many levels. First, journals have no right to block access to essential information that's needed to make public health decisions in the middle of a pandemic. That journal should be identified and forced to defend it's policy. Second, no reputable scientists should agree to such an embargo in the first place. Third, if the journal and the scientists enter into a deal to remain silent then how come we know about this study? It sounds like the authors may want to have their cake and eat it too.

A Good Example of Framing?

This video is making the rounds on all the ~~commie~~ liberal blogs. It deserves to be seen by everyone—that's why I'm piling on. I wonder if our "framer" friends think it's the right way to promote social change?

Will a message like this ever be seen on television in the other countries that need to hear it?

The Most Expensive Health Care System in the World

The USA has the most expensive health care system in the world. They're number 1 by a long shot.

But does the USA have the "best" health care system in the world? Is it going to change?

Change doesn't look promising. Apparently it's a lot easier to make up campaign slogans about change than it is to actually deliver.

[Hat Tip: Genomicron]

Capitalism

I think I'll be going to see this movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Michael Moore but that doesn't mean I agree with everything he says or does. It's just that he's mostly good for America ... and the world.

More people need to watch Sicko, and while you're at it, re-watch Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11. Anyone looking for "real change" could remind themselves about what those movies were saying.

Free Health Care Clinic in a Country that Needs It

Remote Area Medical (RAM) is a group of doctors, optometrists, dentists, nurses etc. who donate their time to setting up free temporary clinics in primitive places where the natives don't have access to affordable heath care.

Here's a video of this year's annual clinic in Wise County, Virginia. Isn't it strange that such an event is held in a country with the best health care in the entire world?

I got this from Jennifer Smith at Runesmith's Canadian Content: This was Wendell Potter's Epiphany. Read her blog.