If Anyone Ask's We're from Kentucky

That is my commonly used joke and jab at Kentucky. Someone else can use it now too, but with a different meaning:

THEY SAID IT: "I am from Kentucky. Have you heard of Kentucky?"

Elaine Chao, labor secretary and Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife, to a group of Iraqi schoolchildren in Baghdad last week. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the question was met with "blank stares and some shaking of heads to indicate no."

What I was most ignorant of was that Elaine Chao was married to Mitch McConnell.

I don't mean to bash KY, but hey, when it works, it works. Ohioans are snobs and we know it. I am just glad I am from New York.

Outlet Mall Sniper?

There has been another shooting on Ohio Highways. This time it was in Jeffersonville. Yes for those who have traveled from Cincinnati to Columbus this was near the outlet malls. I am skeptical this was the same shooter. This guy reportedly used a handgun, not a rifle. I had assumed the first guy was using some type of rifle. That assumed that the shooter was not riding along side the cars or locations shot. I really hope this guy is not from or moving his way towards Cincinnati.

Jellybeans for Jesus

Why kind of parent pushing religion on kindergarteners? Also, why would you give a 6 year old kid a prayer to read and expect them to be able to read it? I support the school's policy. Feeding upon the gullibility of children in a controlled setting is shameful. A child should not be subject to a ploy to get them to accept exposure to religion via a Pavlovian trick.

Headline?

This article makes good points, but the headline seems oddly bad: "Gay-lifestyle laws could backfire." I don?t' see homosexuality as a lifestyle. I see it as a reality for some people. A minority of humanity is homosexual. Most of them live their lives just like everyone else. They mostly I think would just like to do the same things others do, like not be discriminated against, and get "married." The latter I say in quotes because of my openness to compromising on the gay marriage issue with by using civil unions. The issue of Gay Marriage is one I still don't grasp. I still have not heard anyone give a rational way in which heterosexual marriage is endangered or threatened by homosexual marriage.

Bush on Meet the Press

The latest spin:

President Bush: Well, because he had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon. We thought he had weapons. The international community thought he had weapons. But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network.

As I have said before, the University of Cincinnati has the "capacity" to make weapons of mass destruction. When does the Delta Force jump into Coryville?

Bronson's ID: Intellectually Deficient

I swear I am not the one bringing up the issue of Evolution this often, so I hope no one blames me for being obsessive. Bronson might deserve a bit of flack for pushing this issue a bit too much. I really don't grasp the meaning of Peter's column. Is he trying to promote ID (Intelligent Design) as a biological concept? He has supported that kind of thing in the past, and his ignornce on Evolution speaks for itself.

Let us recap the spin of Peter today. He claims this

Roadruck collects examples of "evidence" of evolution. Many have been exposed as frauds - but they are still in textbooks, which evolve slower than flatworms.

OK Peter, show me some of the frauds of evolution. You claim to know of them, where are they?

More from Roadruck:

He argues that DNA and the incredible complexity of life - especially humans - contradict Darwin. "They're teaching evolution as truth - microbes to man. But this is not true. If they were stockbrokers, they'd be in jail" for fraud, he said.

OK Peter, I am sure this guy said this, but it misstates what evolution is. There is the process of evolution, which is fact. No scientist worth anything disagrees with that concept. The other element of evolutions involves the origin of species and then the origin of organic life. Those types are not "fact," or rather are no more "fact" then the concept of gravity.

Bronson's worst in the column is his spew that ID is science. ID is a philosophical argument. ID is one of classic arguments for the existence of a "God." There is no science to back this up, other than playing with mathematical probabilities.

This section I found laughable void of support, just conjecture:

"If you support this, you are labeled a Pat Robertson, fundamentalist wacko,'' said Owens-Fink, who has taught scientific research methods at University of Akron. "What's so bizarre is that they never attack the science part, they just attack the people.''

Ok, first off, where is the "science" that no one will attack? The only theories are to say that evolution is wrong and ID must be true because of the "complexity" of everything. So, they can't support their theory, they can only try and negative other concepts.

Second: Well, look who is supporting your movement and then try and guess why you might be considered a "Pat Robertson, fundamentalist wacko." Religion is at the core of the argument. Specific religious sects fear a society where people don't submit to the will of their religion. They fear that individuality and freedom from Christian will cause chaos, or at least a decline in collection plate receipts. The Roman Catholic Church does not fear science, why do Evangelical/Fundamentalist churches fear it?


Roadruck gives away his motives with Bronson's final quotes,

Roadruck says evolution is the cornerstone of a worldview.

"We've been indoctrinated,'' Roadruck said. "If you teach a generation that we all evolved from pond scum, then everything is relative. There is no truth.''

The worldview they fear is secular humanism. One where religion is not law, but instead a personal choice. Roadruck is in my view the one who has been indoctrinated with religious dogma so much that he fears anything that contradicts it. He blames other for fearing contradiction, while not really saying what is wrong with Evolution. If he had more than a philosophical answer, then maybe it might be worthy of debate, but he has none. Roadruck's problem is that he thinks "truth" is divine. Truth is a philosophical concept, one filled with opinion and perception. Fact is what science deals in. It tries to stick to logic and reason, and leave hunches, emotional dogma, and most of all religion out of mix.

Calpundit: On Iraq War Justification

Kevin Drum has a point that I don't think many war supporters have come to grips with:

"War supporters need to face up to this squarely and provide an honest answer to this question: In order to gain public approval, is it OK for the president of the United States to massively misrepresent a foreign threat merely because he believes that we ought to fight a war?"

I wonder if Tim Russert will ask Bush that question himself this weekend on "Meet the Press?"