Cheney's office tried to alter greenhouse gas testimony, former official says
[LA Times 07-09-08] Vice President Dick Cheney's office worked to alter sworn congressional testimony provided by a federal official in order to play down the threat of global warming and head off regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, a former government official said in a new accusation Tuesday.
Report: Science teacher mixed religion, class
Mount Vernon school board to meet Friday to discuss case
[Columbus Ohio Dispatch 06-19-08] A Mount Vernon teacher undermined science instruction in the public school district by discrediting evolution in his classroom and focusing on creationism and intelligent design, a probe has found.
Eighth-graders who were taught by John Freshwater frequently had to be re-taught in high school what they were supposed to have learned in Freshwater's class, according to outside investigators hired by the district.
Continue reading "'You cannot separate your value system from your teaching'" »
White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail
[NY Times 06-25-08] The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.
[Am Assoc for the Advancement of Science 06-18-08] It was reported last week that President Bush has signed an executive order requiring all federal contractors or subcontractors, including colleges and universities, to use DHS’s E-Verify system to establish the immigration status of newly hired employees and all workers on such contracts. A spokesperson for the American Council on Education said that education officials were concerned about ongoing problems with E-Verify, including high error rates and the absence of checks against workers’ using stolen identity information (documented by the Government Accountability Office). Aug. 11 is the deadline for public comments on the proposed rule published in the June 12 Federal Register.
[Am Assoc for the Advancement of Science 06-18-08] The Louisiana House of Representatives, by a vote of 94-3, last week passed an "academic freedom" bill that singles out evolution and other theories or fields of science and implies that they are controversial. Because of an amendment, the bill must now go back to the Senate, which previously passed it unanimously. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is expected to sign it. AAAS had sent a letter to all House members last Tuesday, June 10, opposing the bill. Meanwhile, Gov. Jindal defended discussion of intelligent design in schools during a June 15 interview on CBS’s "Face the Nation."
[Am Assoc for the Advancement of Science 06-12-08] Anti-Evolution Bills in the States.
Last week Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry (D) vetoed the Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act, which purported to protect the expression of religious viewpoints in classrooms but could have negatively impacted science education by allowing creationism and intelligent design (ID) into science classes. AAAS had written a letter to the governor encouraging his veto. Anti-evolution legislation also died in South Carolina, where state Sen. Michael Fair, a longtime ID supporter, had hoped to move his "academic freedom" bill before the end of the session on June 5.
But academic freedom bills-bills that single out evolution as a controversial topic-are alive in Louisiana and Michigan. In Louisiana, the bill has already passed the Senate and is expected on the House floor Wednesday, June 11. Should the bill pass the House, the Senate would likely approve it, as would Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), making it state law. Meanwhile, in Michigan, the Senate now has a companion bill to the House academic freedom bill, which has not progressed since it was introduced in late April.
In other evolution news, the now Texas-based Institute for Creation Research (which moved from California last year) is appealing a Texas higher education board’s rejection of its bid to offer master’s degrees in science education, reportedly in preparation for a court battle.
At One University, Tobacco Money Is a Secret
[NY Times 05-22-08] On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va.
That is largely because hardly any faculty members or students there know that there is something to debate -- a contract with extremely restrictive terms that the university signed in 2006 to do research for Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest tobacco company and a unit of Altria Group.
Delay Of Report Is Blamed On Politics
Document Suggests Public Health Risks Near Great Lakes
[Washington Post 02-18-08] CHICAGO -- The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.
Continue reading ""very senior people not typically in the review process got a copy..."" »
Pope wades back into debate on "seductive" science
[Reuters 01-28-08] VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict warned on Monday of the "seductive" powers of science that relegate man's spirituality, reviving the science-versus-religion debate which recently forced him to cancel a speech after student protests.
"In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it's more important than ever to educate our contemporaries' consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness," he told scientists.
Report finds school killings not on the rise
[Reuters 01-17-08] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Killings at U.S. schools have not risen in recent years, despite some highly publicized crimes, and are far lower than in the early 1990s, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap
[NY Times 1-4-08] In 1984 and again in 1999, the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most eminent scientific organization, produced books on the evidence supporting the theory of evolution and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science classes.
On Thursday, it produced a third. But this volume is unusual, people who worked on it say, because it is intended specifically for the lay public and because it devotes much of its space to explaining the differences between science and religion, and asserting that acceptance of evolution does not require abandoning belief in God.
Vatican blasts "Golden Compass" as Godless and hopeless
[Reuters 12-19-07] VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Wednesday condemned the film "The Golden Compass," which some have called anti-Christian, saying it promotes a cold and hopeless world without God.
Continue reading "film promotes 'capacity to control the situation and dominate events'" »
Creationists plan British theme park
A business trust is looking at sites for a Christian showplace to challenge the theory of evolution
[Observer 12-16-07] The latest salvo in creationism's increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.
Continue reading "Holy Land: 'a halfway house for youngsters'" »
Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards
[NY Times 12-03-07] HOUSTON, Dec. 2 — After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the Texas Education Agency's director of science, Christine Castillo Comer said she did not think she had to remain "neutral" about teaching the theory of evolution.
"It's not just a good idea; it's the law," said Ms. Comer, citing the state's science curriculum.
But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism — "a subject on which the agency must remain neutral," according to a dismissal letter last month that accused her of various instances of "misconduct and insubordination" and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the product of "intelligent design."
Continue reading "Evolution: "an offense that calls for termination."" »
Giuliani’s Prostate Cancer Figure Is Disputed
[NY Times 10-31-07] In a radio advertisement playing in New Hampshire and in speeches along the campaign trail, Rudolph W. Giuliani has cited statistics to cut at the heart of his Democratic rivals’ health care proposals, which he has derided as European-style “socialist” plans that will lower the standard of care in the United States.
Continue reading "Q: Will Guliani contiinue to lie? A: "Yes. We will.”" »
U.S. Says No to Next Global Test of Advanced Math, Science Students
[Science 28 September 2007] After U.S. high school students did poorly on TIMSS in 1995, the government has decided not to participate in another version to be given next year. In 1995, the United States lagged behind most of the world on a test of advanced mathematics and physics taken by graduating high school students from 16 countries. That won't happen again, if the Bush Administration has its way: It has decided not to participate in the next version of the test.
Depleted uranium in the museum context
[Museum Management and Curatorship March 2001] In naturally occurring Uranium the isotope Uranium-235 accounts for less than 1% of the metal present and Depleted Uranium (DU) is a bi-product of the nuclear industry which separates out some 40% of the available Uranium-235. The remaining metal is almost entirely composed of the much more stable Uranium-238 form. This constitutes some 98% of the Uranium which is very widespread in nature. Huge quantities of Depleted Uranium are consequently available cheaply for other, non-nuclear uses, and the United States Government is not surprisingly very keen to be rid of vast quantities of the material, for either non-nuclear military or civil purposes. Depleted Uranium has approximately double the density of lead and at ordinary temperatures it is relatively inert, while its radioactivity is often barely detectable against the background radiation levels. Nonetheless, the dangers of inhaling Uranium dust have long been known in the United States Department of Defence and in its report The Effect of Nuclear Weapons published by the United States Atomic Energy Commission as long ago as 1962 it was stated that “Although there is negligible danger from Uranium and Plutonium outside the body, it is possible for dangerous amounts of these elements to enter the body through the lungs, the digestive system or breaks in the skin”.
Biofuels may harm more than help
[Reuters 09-11-07] PARIS (Reuters) - Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the environment and push up food prices, a study suggested on Tuesday.
In a report on the impact of biofuels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said biofuels may "offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal".
Those Nazis and their family values
[Reuters 09-10-07] BERLIN (Reuters) - A German public television network Sunday sacked a popular talk show host and former news presenter after she had praised the Nazi's family policies at a news conference for her new book on child-rearing.
Vatican says other Christian churches "wounded"
[Reuters 07-10-07] VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Tuesday Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism were not full churches of Jesus Christ.
Protestant leaders said this was offensive and would hurt inter-denominational dialogue.
Senator on escort service list admits "sin"
[Reuters 07-10-07] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican U.S. senator whose telephone number was discovered in the phone records of a woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring has apologized publicly for committing "serious sin" in his past.
Continue reading "Senator talks to god, clears the air..." »
Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled
[Reuters 07-10-07] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.
Guantanamo prison poems to be published in U.S.
[Reuters 06-21-07] MIAMI (Reuters) - Poems written by Guantanamo prisoners about their lives as captives of the United States have been compiled in a book that will be published this summer with an endorsement from a former U.S. poet laureate.
"Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak" is being published by the University of Iowa Press and will hit the shelves by August, the publisher said. The 84-page volume was assembled by lawyers representing captives held as suspected terrorists at the much-criticized U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
Continue reading "Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak" »
Holy Land’s New Lure: Bikini Babes
[NY Times 06-19-07] During the conflict with Lebanon last year, Israeli tourism industry didn’t disappear; it just went south, away from the fighting. Now, with a new set of life-or-death concerns emerging, the nation’s tourism industry again soldiers on.
This time, with bikini babes. Hold on - It’s actually perfectly logical:
Continue reading "“This pornographic campaign" is “an act of Zionism.”" »
On Abortion, Hollywood Is No-Choice
[NY Times 06-11-07] IN the hit indie movie "Waitress," the lead character, Jenna, finds out she's pregnant at a time when she's plotting to run away from her abusive husband. In last week's No. 2 film, "Knocked Up," Alison becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with Ben, an ungainly suitor.
In some ways, both movies mirror reality. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy says unwanted pregnancies have actually increased among some adult women, even as they have decreased among teenage girls. More than half of all unwanted pregnancies occur to women in their 20s.
Continue reading "'not big box office material' or the ideology of big culture?" »
Outspoken Political Scientist Denied Tenure at DePaul
[NY Times 06-11-07] Norman Finkelstein, the political scientist whose bid for a permanent position at DePaul University stirred up charges of anti-Semitism, personal vendettas and outside interference in the hiring process, was informed Friday that he had been denied tenure by the university.
Mr. Finkelstein said he clearly "met the publishing standards and the teaching standards required for tenure" and that DePaul's decision was based on "transparently political grounds" and an "egregious violation" of academic freedom.
Continue reading "Another example of academic freedom vs the neo-fascist Dershorwitz Inc." »
Controversial Islamist author slams Darwin
[Reuters 06-08-07] ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The controversial author of books advocating an Islamic version of creationism claimed on Friday modern science had no monopoly on truth and insisted that his views were gaining ground.
In a bizarre news conference held aboard a luxury yacht off Istanbul's northern Bosphorus shores near the mouth of the Black Sea, Adnan Oktar, also known by his pen-name Harun Yahya, said the evils of the world were a direct result of Darwinism.
New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark
[Reuters 05-26-07] PETERSBURG, Ky (Reuters) - Like many modern museums, the newest U.S. tourist attraction includes some awesome exhibits -- roaring dinosaurs and a life-sized ship.
But only at the Creation Museum in Kentucky do the dinosaurs sail on the ship -- Noah's Ark, to be precise.
US government trying to seize new Michael Moore film, says producer
[Guardian 05-19-07] Cannes is smacking its lips in anticipation of filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore's latest jeremiad against the US administration, which receives its premiere at the film festival today. Sicko, a documentary tackling the state of American healthcare, focuses on the pharmaceutical giants, and particularly on health insurers.
Continue reading "US treasury department investigating Moore for filmmaking" »
Pope acknowledges colonial injustice in Americas
[Reuters 05-23-07] VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, under fire in Latin America for saying the Catholic Church had purified Indians, acknowledged on Wednesday that "unjustifiable crimes" were committed during the colonization of the Americas.
Continue reading "'silently longing' to be 'purified' by dispossession and genocide" »
Evolution Opponent Is in Line for Schools Post
[NY Times 05-19-07] The National Association of State Boards of Education will elect officers in July, and for one office, president-elect, there is only one candidate: a member of the Kansas school board who supported its efforts against the teaching of evolution.
Continue reading "The kind of thought-policing we are getting used to, indeed." »
A point-and-shoot exhibit: Display's creator lives under the gun controlled by Web viewers
[Chicago Tribune 05-10-07] The artist can't see the shooter, just the gun, which -- BLAM! -- keeps getting fired in his direction.
"Ow!" he exclaims as he gets nicked on the elbow. "You make a mistake, and you get hit."
The mistake in this case was letting his elbow peek out, exposed, from his protective vest. At least once he has wondered whether the larger mistake was putting himself in harm's way in the first place.
"The first shot and the first hit I got, I said, 'Why am I doing this?'"
American Indian Genocide Is Not a Fabrication
Defend Ward Churchill, Defend Ethnic Studies
Defend Academic Freedom Against Rightwing Onslaught
July 31, 2006
Dear Colleagues and Comrades,
We are faculty of color and progressive anti-racist white faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder who are deeply concerned about the future of Ethnic Studies here in Colorado and at every campus across the country. As we write, our Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano has set in motion the process to fire Ward Churchill. While freedom of speech, dissent and academic freedom in general continue to be endangered in the witch-hunt against Ward Churchill, we believe that the most recent developments in Wards case now also threaten the very integrity of our African American, American Indian, Asian American, Latina/o and Chicana/o histories and fields of study. We are writing to update you, and to call on you to join us in mobilizing and organizing nationally. Because of the racialized dynamics we have seen emerging in our organizing on this campus, we believe that the leadership of conscious faculty of color and anti-racist white faculty will be crucial.
Continue reading "Defend Ward Churchill, Defend Academic Freedom Against Rightwing Onslaught" »
Bill Proposes Climate Study Focused on U.S. Defense
[NY Times 05-04-07] WASHINGTON, May 3 — Given the jobs of hunting Al Qaeda, tracking nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, and monitoring the civil strife in Iraq, American spy agencies are not lacking for work these days. Should they also take on the task of analyzing global warming?
Interior Official Steps Down Over Rules Violation
[NY Times 05-02-07] WASHINGTON, May 1 — A deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department resigned Monday, a month after the department's inspector general issued a stinging report that said she violated federal rules by giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents and rode roughshod over agency scientists.
Continue reading "'administration's attack dog, not its general' resigns" »
Cuomo: School Loan Corruption Widespread
[NY Times 04-10-07] ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Cozy arrangements between colleges and the companies that lend their students billions of dollars are far more widespread than anticipated, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told The Associated Press Tuesday, even as another college financial aid officer was suspended amid a probe into the $85 billion industry.
Continue reading "University Inc. (I got yer MBA right here ...)" »
Pope says science too narrow to explain creation
[Reuters 04-11-07] PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, elaborating his views on evolution for the first time as Pontiff, says science has narrowed the way life's origins are understood and Christians should take a broader approach to the question.
The Pope also says the Darwinist theory of evolution is not completely provable because mutations over hundreds of thousands of years cannot be reproduced in a laboratory.
Embattled Smithsonian Official Resigns
[NY Times 03-27-07] WASHINGTON, March 26 -- The governing board of the Smithsonian Institution announced Monday that it had accepted the resignation of its top official, Lawrence M. Small, after an internal audit showing that the museum complex had paid for his routine use of lavish perks like chauffeured cars, private jets, top-rated hotels and catered meals.
Continue reading "The unique benefits of 'private sector' management ..." »
"Don't discuss polar bears": memo to scientists
[Reuters 03-08-07] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polar bears, sea ice and global warming are taboo subjects, at least in public, for some U.S. scientists attending meetings abroad, environmental groups and a top federal wildlife official said on Thursday.
Environmental activists called this scientific censorship, which they said was in line with the Bush administration's history of muzzling dissent over global climate change.
Ambassador recalled for conduct unbecoming
[Reuters 03-12-07] JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has recalled its ambassador in El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked with sex toys lying nearby in the yard of his official residence, Israeli media reports said on Monday.
Violent scripture may increase aggression: study
[Reuters 03-07-07] DALLAS, March 6 (Reuters Life!) - Violent passages in religious texts can increase aggressive behavior in people, especially if they are true believers and the violence is sanctioned by God, according to a new U.S. and Dutch study.
The study was based on research at the Brigham Young University in Utah and Vrije University in the Netherlands which conducted experiments to see if such scriptures raised aggression levels among the faithful.
Continue reading "'the insidious power of exposure to literary scriptural violence'" »
U.S. hip-hop film sparks debate on masculinity
[Reuters 02-21-07] ATLANTA, Feb 20 (Reuters Life!) - A hard-hitting documentary on hip-hop that asks why it often shows black men as violent sex-addicts who abuse woman is sparking debate among a generation of young people raised on rap videos.
In "Beyond Beats and Rhymes" film maker Byron Hurt, a former college football star, goes on a journey of discovery around the United States, challenging hip-hop artists and record producers in the multibillion dollar industry.
Continue reading "Hip-hop, misogyny and 'understanding what's going on'" »
Cross Removal Stirs Va. College Campus
[NY Times 02-03-07] WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) -- As a Catholic, Vince Haley often went to Mass at the College of William and Mary's historic Wren Chapel when he was an undergraduate in the 1980s. Also a Catholic, school President Gene R. Nichol often goes to the 120-seat chapel alone at night to think in the quiet.
Both agree the chapel is a sacred space meaningful to students, alumni, faculty and staff of the public school who use it for religious services and secular events.
They clash, though, over what to do with an unadorned, 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar since about 1940.
Continue reading "In Murka, 'Christians have more rights than other people'" »
Two men charged after Boston security scare
[Reuters 02-01-07] BOSTON (Reuters) - Authorities charged two men on Thursday with planting battery-powered signs promoting an animated cartoon that were mistaken for bombs and caused Boston's biggest security scare since the September 11 attacks.
Investigators were also probing the role of U.S. media group Turner Broadcasting, which has apologized for Wednesday's day-long security scare triggered by a "guerrilla" marketing campaign for one of its cartoon shows.
Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
[Guardian 02-02-07] Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.
Continue reading "An 'intellectual Cosa Nostra', all expenses paid" »
Man kicked off flight for Bush-bashing T-shirt
[Reuters 01-22-07] CANBERRA, Jan 22 (Reuters Life!) - An airline passenger barred from a flight for wearing a T-shirt labeling President Bush a terrorist has threatened legal action against Australia's flag carrier Qantas.
Allen Jasson, 55, an Australian IT expert who lives in Britain, was stopped from boarding a London-bound Qantas flight at Melbourne Airport last Friday for wearing what the airline said was an offensive T-shirt.
'Bomb plotter' studied chemistry
[BBC News - 01-18-07] One of the alleged 21 July bombers would have learned about rates of reaction in substances when he studied chemistry at college, a court heard.
Woolwich Crown Court heard from Yassin Omar's former teacher how the course he took in 1998-99 covered how different factors can affect reaction rates.
Polish MPs bid to make Jesus king
[BBC 12-21-06] A group of Polish members of parliament have submitted a bill seeking to proclaim Jesus Christ king of their overwhelmingly Catholic country.
Forty-six deputies - 10% of the lower house - signed the bill, which was tabled earlier this week, reports say.
CUNY Chief Orders Names Stripped From Student Center
[NY Times 12-13-06] The chancellor of the City University of New York yesterday directed the president of City College to remove the names of two fugitives linked to violent crimes from the entrance to a student clubroom.
Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor, called the designation of the room as the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center "unauthorized and inappropriate."
Continue reading "'But the students were not ready to acquiesce'" »
Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Expected
[NY Times 12-11-06] New studies project that the Arctic Ocean could be mostly open water in summer by 2040 -- several decades earlier than previously expected -- partly as a result of global warming caused by emissions of greenhouse gases.
The projections come from computer simulations of climate and ice and from direct measurements showing that the amount of ice coverage has been declining for 30 years.
U.S. looks to Disney for welcome for visitors
[Reuters 12-06-06] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faced with a decline in the number of overseas visitors and unpopular entry requirements, the U.S. government is turning to the Walt Disney Co. and other theme park operators to brighten the country's battered image.
With security much tightened since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the visa and entry processes are so unpopular that the country was ranked as the world's most unfriendly to visitors in a survey last month of travelers from 16 nations.
Beauty queen puts down arms to save legs
[Reuters 11-17-06] JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Miss Israel has been given permission not to carry her assault rifle during service in the Israeli army because she says it bruises her legs.
Reigning beauty queen Yael Nezri, a private who recently completed basic training, said the bruises were making it difficult for her to model in photo shoots.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Nezri, 18, had been granted an exemption by her commanders during her two-year army stint.
UTEP, 8 universities form border security group
[El Paso Times 11-13-06] The University of Texas at El Paso has joined eight other research universities to form the Southwest Border Security Consortium, which will develop solutions to issues affecting the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Continue reading "Universities pledge leadership for border security and defense" »
Students at Calif. College ban Pledge of Allegiance
[Reuters 11-10-06] LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.
Continue reading "That 'under God' part is sort of offensive" »
Against Psychologists' Participation in Interrogation of 'Enemy Combatants'
The June 7, 2006 New York Times brings news that the United States Department of Defense has decided to give preference to using psychologists over psychiatrists as advisers to its interrogation teams at Guantánamo and other unnamed locations based on “a recognition of differing positions taken by their respective professional groups.” More specifically, The American Psychiatric Association unequivocally has adopted a policy stating that its members should not be part of these interrogation teams. The American Psychological Association has adopted a far weaker policy that, in practice, puts no constraints upon its members participating in interrogation, stating only that members consulting on national security interrogations should be "mindful of factors unique to these roles and contexts that require special ethical consideration." This position is taken in spite of considerable pressure from many members desiring the Association to state unequivocally that members should not participate in these interrogation teams in any capacity.
[MacInTouch Reader 11-03-06] Regarding Apple's "success" with the Red iPod, I have it from local resellers that Apple charges resellers $10 MORE for each Red Nano. Therefore, Apple is not donating a cent to AIDS research, at least through the VAR's. Apple is taking the VAR's $10 in profit and then claiming they are donating money. I find this terribly disconcerting.
Evolution debate hits renovated Kenyan museum
[Mail & Guardian, South Africa - 09-04-06] (Agence France-Presse) The global debate between scientists and conservative Christians over evolution has hit Kenya, where an exhibit of one of the world's finest collections of early hominid fossils is under threat.
As the famed National Museum of Kenya (NMK) prepares to reopen next year after massive, European Union-funded renovations, evangelicals are demanding the display be removed or at least shunted to a less prominent location.
Continue reading ""a big weapon ... that's killing our faith"" »
Asbestos kept off global list of toxic substances
[Reuters 10-13-06] GENEVA (Reuters) - Chrysotile asbestos, a known human carcinogen, will remain off a global "watch list" of toxic substances for at least two more years after countries led by Canada blocked consensus in United Nations talks on Friday.
While it is now rarely used in Western nations because of health concerns, asbestos remains common in developing world construction, mostly as an additive to cement.
Continue reading "Banning asbestos 'threatens jobs' - what about lives?" »
[Science 09-22-06] MINORITY REPORT. A physics professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, was placed on paid leave this month in connection with controversial statements and writings he has made on the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City. Steven E. Jones is among a small group of scientists who cite photos, material evidence, and lab experiments to advance the hypothesis that explosive devices planted inside the towers--perhaps by the U.S. government--are what caused their destruction.
Continue reading "Yet another 'egregious violation of academic freedom'" »
Audit Finds Education Department Missteps
[NY Times 09-22-06] WASHINGTON (AP) -- A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.
The government audit is unsparing in its review of how Reading First, a billion-dollar program each year, that it says has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.
Continue reading "Programming to "beat the (expletive deleted) out of them"" »
Fox Unveils a Division for Religious-Oriented Films
[NY Times 09-19-06] LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19 — Hollywood took another step toward America’s vast and apparently growing Christian audience on Tuesday, as 20th Century Fox unveiled a new division, FoxFaith, that will release up to a dozen religious-oriented films each year.
Continue reading "Movies that won’t violate their core beliefs ..." »
Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design
[Guardian 08-28-06] Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of evolution.
There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism.
Continue reading "Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design" »
Book says Rove ordered office exorcism
[CHICAGO TRIBUNE 09-07-06] WASHINGTON -- Karl Rove says he's not The Exorcist.
Rove, the Bush political shaman Democrats love to demonize, enlisted a trio of clergymen to exorcise Hillary Rodham Clinton's left-wing spirit when he moved into her West Wing office in 2001, according to an unflattering new biography.
"I talked to Karl; he said it's not true and, beyond that, he will have no comment," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Clinton smiled and shook her head in disbelief Wednesday when asked about the tale, which appears in "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power," by James Moore and Wayne Slater.
(...)
Deal Hudson, a former Fordham University professor Rove enlisted to woo Catholic voters, told Moore and Slater that he witnessed the exorcism, which he described as "an actual liturgical ceremony."
Hudson did not return a message seeking his comment.
Iran’s President Calls for Purge of Professors
[NY Times 09-05-06] TEHRAN, Iran (AP)-- Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, urging students to return to 1980s-style radicalism.
''Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities,'' the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a meeting with a group of students.
Continue reading "Another 'educational system affected by secularism'" »
Broadcast Chief Misused Office, Inquiry Reports
[NY Times - 08-30-06] WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -- State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a "horse racing operation" and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.
The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.
Continue reading "Balancing 'ethics' and government broadcasting" »
Lifting Troops' Morale in Iraq With a Bit of Flesh
[NY Times - 08-27-06] HADITHA DAM, Iraq -- One by one, the marines took the stage for one of the most coveted photo opportunities of the war. Tanea sat on one knee of each eager marine while Laurie rested on the other.
Hands on their miniskirted hips, Amber and Renee posed at each side. Dani stood behind and held the marine's rifle as the camera snapped the photo. Some of the young marines who lined up for the memento were so mesmerized by the experience that they had to be reminded not to leave their weapons behind.
Continue reading "In the shadow of massacres, 'sampling of American culture'" »
New York Man Charged With Enabling Hezbollah Television Broadcasts
[NY Times - 08-25-06] For several years, Javed Iqbal has operated a small company from a Brooklyn storefront and out of the garage at his Staten Island home that provides satellite programming for households, including sermons from Christian evangelists seeking worldwide exposure.
Mr. Iqbal’s home, a modest two-story stone and brick house on Van Name Avenue in Mariners Harbor, stands out because among the children’s toys in the backyard were eight satellite dishes.
But this week, the budding entrepreneur’s house and storefront were raided by federal agents, and Mr. Iqbal was charged with providing customers services that included satellite broadcasts of a television station controlled by Hezbollah — a violation of federal law.
Continue reading "When television is 'material suppport for terrorism'" »
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List
[NY Times - 08-24-06] Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.
The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”
Continue reading ""making sure science [education] doesn’t offend"" »
Church Fires Teacher for Being Woman
[NY Times - 08-21-06] WATERTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job -- outside of the church.
The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.
Continue reading "First epistle to Timothy: "she must be silent."" »
Public Acceptance of Evolution
Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, Shinji Okamoto
Science 11 August 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5788, pp. 765 - 766
DOI: 10.1126/science.1126746
The concept of the evolution of humans from earlier forms of life is unacceptable to biblical literalists and causes concern even among some holders of less conservative religious views. Catholics and mainstream Protestants generally accept variations of a theological view known as theistic evolution, which views evolution as the means by which God brought about humans, as well as other organisms. Evolution is nonetheless problematic to some of these nonliteralist Christians, because it implies a more distant or less personal God (1-3). Efforts to insert "intelligent design" into school science curricula seek to retain the divine design of humans while remaining agnostic on earlier creationist beliefs in a young Earth and the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs (2, 4).
Panel Suggests Using Inmates in Drug Trials
[NY Times - 08-13-06] PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 -- An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse.
by Zillah Eisenstein
Professor of Politics
Feminist Author
Ithaca New York
Condoleezza Rice refers to the unrelenting bombing in Lebanon as "the birth pangs" of a new democratic middle east. But these bombs create lasting damage and devastation, and are not fleeting pangs of any sort. And they birth nothing but rather kill, maim and destroy everything in their path. The only thing birthed here are new hatreds and horror. The war in Lebanon is a miscarriage of justice, a still-birth. Do not use the language of female bodies to camouflage this atrocious war.
Continue reading "U.S. Warrior Princesses Condi and Hillary" »
A Skeptic on 9/11 Prompts Questions on Academic Freedom
[NY Times - 08-01-06] MADISON, Wis., July 26 — Sipping on a bottle of water and holding a book about the history and future of Islam, Kevin Barrett ticked off a few examples of what he saw as evidence that the Sept. 11 attacks had been an "inside job."
As children zoomed by on tricycles and shot basketballs at a community center near his home, Mr. Barrett, 47, described how some news orgainzations (the French daily newspaper Figaro and Radio France International, in fact) had reported that an agent from the Central Intelligence Agency visited with Osama bin Laden two months before the attacks. He also said fires could not have caused the collapse of the World Trade Center towers at free-fall speed, as reported by the special Sept. 11 commission. "The 9/11 report will be universally reviled as a sham and a cover-up very soon," said Mr. Barrett, who has been a teacher’s assistant or lecturer on Islam, African literature and other subjects at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, since 1996. "The 9/11 commission has its conspiracy theory, and we have ours."
Continue reading "Fresh Attacks on University Instructors" »
NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet
[NY Times - 07-22-06] From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.”
In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”
Continue reading "Declarative reality and problematic science at NASA" »
In Leak Cases, New Pressure on Journalists
[NY Times -04-30-06] Earlier administrations have fired and prosecuted government officials who provided classified information to the press. They have also tried to force reporters to identify their sources.
But the Bush administration is exploring a more radical measure to protect information it says is vital to national security: the criminal prosecution of reporters under the espionage laws.
Continue reading "US plans prosecution of journalists as spies?" »
U.S. Urged to Stop Paying Iraqi Reporters
[NY Times - 05-24-06] WASHINGTON, May 23 — A Defense Department investigation of Pentagon-financed propaganda efforts in Iraq warns that paying Iraqi journalists to produce positive stories could damage American credibility and calls for an end to military payments to a group of Iraqi journalists in Baghdad, according to a summary of the investigation.
Continue reading "What is US 'truth and credibility' in Iraq?" »
Films on Guantánamo and Iraq face war of cuts
[Guardian - 05-18-06] Two new films which expose unpleasant truths about Guantanamo and the battle for Iraq are coming under pressure from censors in the United States.
Continue reading "Guantanamo image deemed 'over the edge' by MPAA" »
19 Months More in Prison for Professor in Terror Case
[NY Times - 05-02-06] TAMPA, Fla., May 1 — Although the United States government lost most of its case last year against Sami Al-Arian, the former computer science professor it once identified as the linchpin in a terrorist organization, a federal judge sentenced him on Monday to an additional 19 months in prison before he is deported.
Continue reading "Judge Carries Out Persecution in Spite of the Evidence" »
Ex-Head of F.D.A. Faces Criminal Inquiry
[NY Times - 04-29-06] WASHINGTON, April 28 — Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food and drugs, is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury over accusations of financial improprieties and false statements to Congress, his lawyer said Friday.
U.S. admits military damaged Babylon ruins
Officer offers apology, but says having no troops would have been worse
[AP - 04-14-06] LONDON - A senior U.S. military officer has said he is willing to apologize for damage his troops caused to one of Iraq’s most famous ancient sites.
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. Marines had built a helicopter pad on the ruins of Babylon and filled their sandbags with archaeological fragments from the ancient city. It said vibrations from U.S. helicopters caused the roof of one building to collapse.
Continue reading "US military used Babylon fragments to fill sandbags" »
F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana
[NY Times - 04-21-06] WASHINGTON, April 20 — The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists.
The announcement inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight.
Continue reading "Medicinal marijuana - ideology trumps research at FDA yet again" »
Oil Spill Raises Concerns on Pipeline Maintenance
[NY Times - 03-18-06] WASHINGTON, March 18 — An oil spill this month in Alaska, the largest ever on the North Slope, has raised new concerns among state and federal regulators about whether BP has been properly maintaining its aging network of wells, pumps and pipelines that crisscross the tundra.
Continue reading "Alaska's Faith-Based Evironmental Monitoring Methodology" »
Utilities Offer Energy Dept. Site for Waste
[NY Times - 03-20-06] WASHINGTON, March 19 — A group of nuclear utilities that is planning to build a private nuclear waste dump on an Indian reservation in Utah has offered to sell space there to the federal government. The move could help the government avoid billions of dollars in potential legal damages over its failure to build its own repository.
Continue reading "In keeping with a long history of 'fair exchanges' ..." »
Video Shows Bush Was Warned Before Katrina
[NY Times - 03-01-06] WASHINGTON (AP) -- In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.
Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."
Continue reading "'fatally slow to realize' or criminally culpable?" »
Row over Israeli tolerance museum
[BBC - 02-17-06] For the last 40 years Mohammed Hamdi Bader has left his tailor's shop in the Old City once a month and taken a short walk to the heart of west Jerusalem where he prayed close to his grandfather's grave.
But the 49-year-old Palestinian father-of-five can no longer reach the grave and he's furious about it.
The Maamam Allah cemetery, which is at least 1,000 years old, has become a building site.
Continue reading "'How can a museum carrying the name of tolerance be built on a graveyard?'" »
Editorial: The anti-Islam Cartoons Controversy—Not About "Freedom of Speech"
[A World to Win News Service - 02-06-06] Last September the editor of a rightwing Danish newspaper, the Jyllands-Posten, commissioned cartoonists to draw pictures of Muhammad, and published a dozen of them. As he has explained in interviews, he deliberately set out to affront observant Muslims, many of whom believe that it is wrong to depict the face of those they consider prophets. But more than that, some of these drawings are very deliberately insulting to Islam as a religion and to those who believe in it, depicting it as the faith of mad bombers and bloodthirsty barbarians. Taken as a whole, they are meant to humiliate and demean a large part of the earth’s population.
Continue reading "directed not so much at Muhammad as against those with children named Muhammad" »
This is the real outrage
Amid the cartoon furore, Danish imams ignore the tragedies suffered by Muslims across the world
by Tariq Ali
[The Guardian - 02-13-06] The latest round of culture wars does neither side any good. The western civilisational fundamentalists insist on seeing Muslims as the other - different, alien and morally evil. Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons in bad faith. Their aim was not to engage in debate but to provoke, and they succeeded. The same newspaper declined to print caricatures of Jesus. I am an atheist and do not know the meaning of the "religious pain" that is felt by believers of every cast when what they believe in is insulted. I am not insulted by billions of Christians, Muslims and Jews believing there is a God and praying to this nonexistent deity on a regular basis.
Continue reading "'the European media has been busy fertilising widespread ignorance'" »
Ohio Board Undoes Stand on Evolution
[NY Times - 02-15-06] COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 — The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months.
Continue reading "'another round in the culture war, not a knockout'" »
Dominionism: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid
The future we must stop!
[Revolution #33 - 05-02-06 - revcom.us] Are you one of millions of people in this country and around the world who are alarmed about the rise of extreme reactionary religious fundamentalism in America? Angry at the growing attacks on the separation of church and state? Or weirded out when you see one of your relatives reading yet another one of the "Left Behind" novels, which have sold 60 million copies? You may get chills when you hear Bush's supporters say he was "sent by God." You hear some right-wing pastors talking about "reclaiming America for Jesus Christ" or bringing "the rule and reign of the cross to America," and it makes your skin crawl. (1) You have a creeping sense that the society these reactionary leaders would bring about would be horrible. But what you probably don't know is just how bad it would be - and what this has to do with Dominionism.
Continue reading "Where 'reclaiming America for Jesus Christ' is headed" »
Democrats in 2 Southern States Push Bills on Bible Study
[NY Times - 01-27-06] WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — Democrats in Georgia and Alabama, borrowing an idea usually advanced by conservative Republicans, are promoting Bible classes in the public schools. Their Republican opponents are in turn denouncing them as "pharisees," a favorite term of liberals for politicians who exploit religion.
Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
[NY Times - 01-29-06] The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Continue reading "Researchers directed to 'make the president look good'" »
United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says
[NY Times - 01-23-06] WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - A pilot nation-by-nation study of environmental performance shows that just six nations - led by New Zealand, followed by five from Northern Europe - have achieved 85 percent or better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.
Television Cul-de-Sac Mystery: Why Was Reality Show Killed?
[NY Times - 01-21-06] AUSTIN, Tex. - A year ago, Stephen Wright and his partner, John Wright, embarked on a sociology experiment that only a reality show producer could concoct: theirs was one of seven families competing to persuade the residents of a cul-de-sac here to award them a red-brick McMansion purchased on their behalf by the ABC television network.
Continue reading "A Glimspe Behind the 'Narnia' Enterprise" »
Intelligent design" debate goes to kids' TV
[Reuters - 01-20-06] NEW YORK - The debate over whether children should be taught "intelligent design" in U.S. public schools as an alternative to evolution is moving to children's television.
Continue reading "Giving the kids a better understanding..." »
Where is the new Godard?
A New Wave film from the Vietnam era reveals how muted opposition to the Iraq war has been
by Richard Williams
[The Guardian - 01-14-06] Forty years ago this week some 8,000 US soldiers laid siege to the "iron triangle", a Vietcong sanctuary in the jungle 20 miles outside Saigon. Clearly contravening the US government's pledge that its troops would enter combat only in support of the armed forces of South Vietnam, the attack was one of a series of events that brought the term "escalation" out of the military vocabulary and into general usage.
Continue reading "America's wars do not happen just to Americans" »
U.S. Reverses Accord and Opens 389,000 Acres in Alaska to Explore for Oil
[NY Times - 01-13-06] WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - The Interior Department has decided to open 389,000 acres of Alaskan lakes, tundra and shoreline to oil exploration, reversing an eight-year-old compromise intended to protect the habitat of hundreds of thousands of migratory birds and the hunting grounds of Inupiat natives who live near the Beaufort Sea.
Continue reading "New Devastation Begun in Alaskan Tundra" »
California Parents File Suit Over Origins of Life Course
[NY Times - 1-11-06] A group of parents are suing their small California school district to force it to cancel a four-week high school elective on intelligent design, creationism and evolution that it is offering as a philosophy course.
The course at Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec, which serves a rural area north of Los Angeles, was proposed by a special education teacher last month and approved by the board of trustees in an emergency meeting on New Year's Day. The 11 parents are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the course, which is being held during the session that ends on Feb. 3.
Continue reading "Next wave of creationism washes up in So. California" »
Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda
[NY Times - 1-2-06] WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.
Continue reading "How the US targets its propaganda in Iraq" »
Senator to Cut Ties Over Evolution Lawsuit
[NY Times - 12-23-05] PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 22 (AP) - Senator Rick Santorum said Wednesday that he would withdraw his affiliation with the Thomas More Law Center, which had defended the Dover Area School District's policy mandating the teaching of intelligent design in science classes dealing with evolution.
Continue reading "Santorum cuts and runs after Dover ruling" »
Parents Group Raps FCC for Inaction on Decency
[Reuters - 12-29-05] WASHINGTON - A leading television watchdog group expressed disappointment on Thursday that U.S. regulators were poised to end the year without issuing any fines for on-the-air indecency after record citations in 2004.
Continue reading "Right-wing zealots year-end review of FCC asks: FTF?" »
On Opinion Page, a Lobby's Hand Is Often Unseen
[NY Times - 12-23-05] WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Susan Finston of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative research group based in Texas, is just the sort of opinion maker coveted by the drug industry.
In an opinion article in The Financial Times on Oct. 25, she called for patent protection in poor countries for drugs and biotechnology products. In an article last month in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, she called for efforts to block developing nations from violating patents on AIDS medicines and other drugs.
Continue reading "How Op-Ed Writers, Lobbyists, Congressmen and Wall Street Work Together" »
Intelligent design ruling gives science's defenders a weapon
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 12-22-05] Days after the six-week intelligent design trial ended last month, U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III, relaxing in his chambers, promised to weigh the evidence and "rule as I see fit."
Continue reading " Considering the Legal Influence of Dover Ruling" »
Judge bans teaching intelligent design
[Reuters - 12-20-05] PHILADELPHIA - A judge on Tuesday barred the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution at a Pennsylvania school, saying in a scathing rebuke to the school board that it violated a constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools.
Continue reading "Teaching ID as science is ruled a 'breathtaking inanity'" »
Newspapers to drop columnist who took cash
[Reuters - 12-19-05] WASHINGTON - Two U.S. newspapers said on Monday that they would no longer publish opinion pieces by a conservative commentator who has admitted taking payments from lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write op-ed pieces favorable to Abramoff's clients.
Continue reading "More right-wing media flacks scurry about" »
Q & A on Evolution and Intelligent Design
by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
What is evolution?
Evolution is a broad, well-tested description of how Earth's present-day life forms arose from common ancestors reaching back to the simplest one-celled organisms almost four billion years ago. It helps explain both the similarities and the differences in the enormous number of living organisms we see around us.
Continue reading "Q & A on Evolution and Intelligent Design" »
Professor blasts KU, sheriff’s investigation
[Lawrence Journal World - 12-10-05] Kansas University professor Paul Mirecki said he’s hired an attorney and is ready to go to the mat with KU and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
“If I have to sue, I will,” he said.
Mirecki said he’s angry because KU didn’t back him after religious conservatives attacked him for his plan to teach a course dealing with intelligent design.
Continue reading "The Assault and Censorship of Paul Mirecki" »
Embattled KU professor has long history with religion
[Lawrence Journal World - 12-10-05] His background is utterly incongruous with his bruised arm and two blackened eyes.
Kansas University professor Paul Mirecki’s disparaging comments about conservative Christians and Catholics put him in a political hot seat, propelled him into national headlines and made him the victim of a reported roadside beating.
Report Says States Aim Low in Science Classes
[NY Times - 12-08-05] WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 - Nearly half the states are doing a poor job of setting high academic standards for science in public schools, according to a new report that examined science in anticipation of 2007, when states will be required to administer tests in the subject under President Bush's signature education law.
Continue reading "Which 'larger cutural problem' might that be?" »
Military's Information War Is Vast and Often Secretive
[NY Times - 12-11-05] The media center in Fayetteville, N.C., would be the envy of any global communications company.
In state of the art studios, producers prepare the daily mix of music and news for the group's radio stations or spots for friendly television outlets. Writers putting out newspapers and magazines in Baghdad and Kabul converse via teleconferences. Mobile trailers with high-tech gear are parked outside, ready for the next crisis.
Continue reading "A glimpse behind the government propaganda curtain" »
Professor acquitted of funding Islamist group
[Reuters - 12-06-05] TAMPA, Florida - A federal jury on Tuesday found a former Florida professor not guilty of funding a banned Islamist group in a verdict likely to be seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government in its attempts to prosecute terror suspects.
Continue reading "Important victory in Sami al-Arian trial" »
Terri Schiavo's widower takes aim at politicians
[Reuters - 12-07-05] MIAMI - Terri Schiavo's widower launched a political action committee on Wednesday aimed at defeating elected officials he accused of exploiting a tragedy for political gain by trying to block court orders that allowed his brain-damaged wife to die.
Continue reading "TerriPAC - 'it is not so simple to forget'" »
Pinter attacks US policies in Nobel lecture
[Reuters - 12-07-05] STOCKHOLM - Ailing British playwright Harold Pinter used his Nobel prize lecture on Wednesday to deliver a fierce attack on U.S. foreign policy and urge the unflinching pursuit of truth to restore "the dignity of man."
Continue reading "The importance of 'fierce intellectual determination'" »
New US textbook aims to teach Bible as knowledge
[Reuters - 11-30-05] WASHINGTON - Since the U.S. Supreme Court banned the promotion of religion in public schools in 1963, the Bible has virtually disappeared from most American classrooms.
But in recent years, as evangelical Christians have grown in numbers and gained political clout in the United States, Bible studies have been creeping back into schools.
Now, a new textbook for high school students aims to fill a gap by teaching the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, in a nonsectarian, nonreligious way as a central document of Western civilization with a vast influence on its literature, art, culture and politics.
Continue reading "And lo, religious studies are become 'biblical literacy'" »
Pentagon pays Iraqi papers to print its 'good news' stories
[The Guardian - 12-01-05] Faced with suicide bombings, claims of Iraqi death squads, and kidnappings, the Pentagon has come up with an innovative solution to solving the problems in Iraq: buying good news. Using defence contractors or intermediaries posing as freelance reporters, the military has been paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by a military propaganda unit lauding the US mission.
Continue reading "Maybe not a free press, but reasonably priced ..." »
U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers
[NY Times - 12-01-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq," an article written this week for publication in the Iraqi press was scornful of outsiders' pessimism about the country's future.
"Western press and frequently those self-styled 'objective' observers of Iraq are often critics of how we, the people of Iraq, are proceeding down the path in determining what is best for our nation," the article began. Quoting the Prophet Muhammad, it pleaded for unity and nonviolence.
But far from being the heartfelt opinion of an Iraqi writer, as its language implied, the article was prepared by the United States military as part of a multimillion-dollar covert campaign to plant paid propaganda in the Iraqi news media and pay friendly Iraqi journalists monthly stipends, military contractors and officials said.
Hughes Launches US Image Makeover Among Muslims
[NY Times - 09-24-05] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karen Hughes, a powerful confidante of President George W. Bush who has long helped shape his words and message, heads to the Middle East on Saturday as part of a new campaign to make over the U.S. image in the Muslim world.
On the eve of her first trip abroad as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Hughes said she did not expect quick results and considered the job a long-term challenge. Some skeptics call it mission impossible.
Continue reading "After all, propaganda doesn't just happen..." »
The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera
[The Observer - 11-27-05] The US president planned to bomb the Qatar-based channel - that was the remarkable claim made in a top-secret memo. Why is the world's most powerful man so worried about a TV station?
EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY
Madness of war memo
[Daily Mirror - London - 11-22-05] PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.
But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.
Continue reading "U.S. war reporting is 'deadly serious' indeed" »
Press warned over Jazeera bombing report
[Daily Mirror - 11-23-05] LONDON (Reuters) - The government has warned media organisations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.
Continue reading "The 'inconceivable' details are deemed illegal" »
'Made in Mexico' Uniforms Miff Border Cops
[The Guardian - 11-27-05] WASHINGTON (AP) - The labels inside the U.S. Border Patrol uniforms have been making many federal agents feel uneasy. It's not the fit or feel of the olive-green shirts and pants, but what their labels read: "Made in Mexico."
Embattled PBS Chief Will Step Down in 2006
[NY Times - 02-16-05] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pat Mitchell, the Public Broadcasting Service chief under fire for spending public money on a cartoon show that also featured a real-life lesbian couple, will step down when her contract expires in June 2006.
Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law
[NY Times - 11-15-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.
Continue reading "The Real Politics of Public Broadcasting" »
Yellowstone Grizzlies to Lose Endangered Status
[NY Times - 11-15-05] The Department of Interior said today that the grizzly bear population that lives in the Yellowstone area has recovered and no longer needs protection under the Endangered Species Act, but four other grizzly populations in the United States are still at risk and will continue to be listed as threatened species.
Interior Secretary Says U.S. Will Push Search for Energy
[NY Times - 09-29-05] WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said Tuesday that after the two destructive gulf hurricanes that battered the nation's energy heartland, the Bush administration would intensify its push to expand energy development on public lands including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the nation's coastal waters.
Unwavering Bush Ally Acts Quickly on Court Choices
[NY Times - 11-14-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - When President Bush named Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as his Supreme Court pick, it took Progress for America just 39 minutes to introduce a slick Web site and begin lobbying for his confirmation. And that was slow.
Continue reading "Far Right Media 'using all the tools in the toolbox'" »
Report Details F.D.A. Rejection of Next-Day Pill
[NY Times - 11-15-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 - Top federal drug officials decided to reject an application to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill months before a government scientific review of the application was completed, according to accounts given to Congressional investigators.
Continue reading "FDA: 'ignoring science in the service of politics'" »
Guantánamo Tour Focuses on Medical Ethics
[NY Times - 11-13-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 - Troubled by news accounts of medical participation in coercive interrogations at Guantánamo Bay and the resulting unease in the professional medical community, the Pentagon led an intense one-day tour of the detention camp last month, several participants said in recent days.
Continue reading "The 'special ethical considerations' of torture" »
The Pope on Creation
[NY Times - 11-12-05] VATICAN CITY, Nov. 11 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the evolution debate in the United States, saying the universe was made as an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who say its creation was without direction.
Televangelist Robertson warns town of God's wrath
[Reuters - 11-10-05] WASHINGTON - Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.
Continue reading "Robertson: Elections Can Cause Biblical Disasters" »
In Intelligent Design Case, a Cause in Search of a Lawsuit
[NY Times - 11-04-05] HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 3 - For years, a lawyer for the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan visited school boards around the country searching for one willing to challenge evolution by teaching intelligent design, and to face a risky, high-profile trial.
Continue reading "The Intelligent Design of a Broad Agenda" »
Kansas educators clear way for evolution criticism
[Reuters - 11-08-05]TOPEKA, Kansas - Kansas on Tuesday became the latest U.S. state to introduce criticism of evolution into teaching standards, a move that critics charge was driven by religious zealotry.
Continue reading "Kansas State Board of Ed Champions Obscurantism" »
Dover voters reject 'intelligent design' board
Voters dump incumbents over intelligent design
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 11-09-05] DOVER - While a federal judge weighs the evidence in Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School District, voters in the district chose their sides yesterday in a debate about the teaching of intelligent design in their high school.
Continue reading "Dover, PA: Close Election Removes ID Board" »
Spending Inquiry for Top Official on Broadcasting
[NY Times - 11-05-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign countries, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, is the subject of an inquiry into accusations of misuse of federal money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees, officials involved in that examination said on Friday.
Continue reading "More Government Broadcast Media Breakdown" »
Educator warned of expanded Dover policy
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 11-04-05] The day after the Dover Area School District board of directors voted to change the science curriculum to include a statement on intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, a teacher sarcastically asked an administrator if the social studies department would be next.
Continue reading "Here's a lesson: Attacks from far-right are not limited to science curriculum" »
Broadcasting Ex-Chairman Is Removed From Board
[NY Times - 11-4-05] WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was forced to step down as a member of its board on Thursday evening.
Continue reading "Why is 'Public Broadcasting' so 'Confidential' at the CPB?" »
Judge grills Dover witness who 'misspoke' on money
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 11-01-05] The federal judge presiding over the landmark intelligent-design trial took over the questioning from the lawyers yesterday, intently asking a key witness why he did not say at a deposition how money was raised to buy a book promoting intelligent design.
Continue reading "Dover: Evangelical Perjury and Money Laundering?" »
Institute didn't favor policy, transcript says
District enacted policy despite legal warnings
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 10-30-05] The Discovery Institute, one of the nation's leading organized proponents of intelligent design, said it warned the Dover Area School District not to institute a policy on the concept because of the risk it would be found "somehow unconstitutional."
Continue reading "'intellectual dishonesty' by Obscurantists - Say It Ain't True!" »
Plan B: A Collision of Science and Politics
[Science - 7 October 2005] - Studies of the emergency contraceptive in thousands of women have failed to assuage the concerns of abortion opponents and top drug regulators in the United States. Researchers see ideology trumping sound science
Continue reading "What Does the 'F' in FDA Really Stand For?" »
Ex-Dover board member 'misspoke' on creationism
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 10-28-05] William Buckingham, a member of the Dover Area school board when it adopted a policy on intelligent design, yesterday testified that neither he nor his fellow board members spoke of the need to teach creationism in the classroom -- despite assertions to the contrary by witnesses, newspaper accounts and a television clip in which he said that evolution ought to be balanced "with something else, such as creationism."
Continue reading "Dover Board Member Pleads Drug-Addled Haze" »
Board member recalls 'intelligent design' used at meeting
Witnesses disagree on when board discussed 'creationism'
[Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News - 10-29-05] A Dover Area school board member testified yesterday that she believes the words "intelligent design" were first mentioned at a school board meeting in June 2004, and that the word "creationism" wasn't used at meetings around that time.
But two freelance reporters who wrote about the Dover school district testified yesterday that the board members made repeated references to creationism at two meetings in June 2004, though neither reporter quoted board members using the word.
Continue reading "Dover Board Members Accused of Bait & Switch" »
Cornell President Condemns Teaching Intelligent Design as Science
[NY Times - 10-22-05] - ITHACA, N.Y., Oct. 21 - A national movement to have intelligent design taught in science classrooms is "very dangerous," Cornell University's interim president, Hunter R. Rawlings III, said after taking up the issue Friday in a speech. But Mr. Rawlings charged that colleges were not engaging enough in the debate.
Continue reading "Cornell President Speaks Out vs Intelligent Design" »
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
[NY Times - 10-23-05] The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
Continue reading "FCC Issues New Orders for Online Spying" »
POLITICAL SCREENING FOR ALL PARK SERVICE MANAGERS
Mid-Level Managers Picked for Fealty to "the President's Management Agenda"
[Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility - Washington, DC]
The National Park Service has started using a political loyalty test
for picking all its top civil service positions, according
to an agency directive released today by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under the new order, all mid-level
managers and above must also be approved by a Bush administration
political appointee.
Continue reading "Loyalty Test for the National Park Service?" »