May 16, 2008
Government teachers, can you find this in the textbooks you use in your classes?
Nat Hentoff reports:
The Bush administration believes, he said, “that the president could ignore or modify existing executive orders that he and other presidents have issued without disclosing the new interpretation.”
I noted before, these are exciting times to be teaching, with all these examples of Constitutional law, and Constitution abuses, and President Bush’s War on the Constitution in the headlines, or buried on page 14, every day.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Nat Hentoff’s original column is at WorldNet Daily (!!!). The Constitution with comments, and also here.
Other resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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9/11, Bill of Rights, Capturing history, Checks and Balances, Democracy in action, Ethics, Freedom - Political, Freedom of Information, Freedom of the Press, Government, History, Law, Patriotism, Politics, Presidents, Totalitarianism, U.S. Constitution, War on Terrorism, War on the Constitution | Tagged: Dictatorship, Government Secrecy, Homeland Security, Politics, Totalitarian Regimes, War on the Constitution | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
May 16, 2008
Well developed thoughts from an atheist on morality, especially the morality of creationism, in a review of Ken Ham’s book, The Lie: Evolution, from a blogger, In Case You’re Interested. Ham is the guy who raised nearly $30 million for the Creation Museum, a monument to denial of reality.
Coincidence? Ham’s book repeats all of the shoddy arguments that show up in Ben Stein’s mockumentary film.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Books, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Rampant stupidity, Religion, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Tagged: Books, Creationism, Religion, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 16, 2008
Adnan Oktar ‘s conviction on charges of profiting from what amounts to a sex slave operation was a set up, he said.
Who would do such a dastardly thing? The communists and the Freemasons!
This interview is from last September, but so far it’s perfectly in line with what his PR flacks are saying since the sentencing: Video, selected transcripts.
I’m sure that’s what he tells his wife, Morgan Fairchild.
How can you keep from thinking this stuff is parody? It looks and sounds like slightly amateurish “David Letterman” or “Saturday Night Live” routines.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Politics, Religion, Scandals, Science, Uncomposted Organic Fertilizer | Tagged: Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Politics, Religion, scandal, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 15, 2008
Adnan Oktar? The Turkish creationist recently sentenced to three years in prison for using his creationist organization for personal gain?
The Reuters story in English didn’t note that part of the personal gain was a lot of sex with young girls and boys. That’s what the Spanish version says in elPeriodico.com.
The official spokesman for the many faces of Harun Yahya (Oktar’s pen name) says that the charges are unrelated to the creationism shtick. The Spanish version says Oktar was running a cult that involved recruiting young men by enticing them with young women.
How will the Discovery Institute spin this one?
With Turkey’s odd laws on press freedom and libel and slander, how can we really figure out what’s going on?
Raw Google translation of the Spanish version below the fold
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
9 Comments | Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Education, History, Scandals, Science | Tagged: Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Harun Yahya, Religion, Sex Scandal, Voodoo Publishing, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 15, 2008
For the past half century at least one of the greatest exports from the U.S. has been education. The benefits to the U.S. flow from having trained many of the best scientists, business executives, international leaders and others worldwide. Friends in high places help a lot.
Beginning with the Reagan administration as I count it, there has been a concerted war on education. Without openly stating the case, officials in government have systematically hammered away at America’s leadership in science research, technology applications and defense readiness. In 1993 Newt Gingrich led the effort to stab America’s nuclear research in the back, successfully, killing the Superconducting Supercollider, in a move that simultaneously took revenge on the education establishment, science and scientists, and Texas politicians like LBJ and former Speaker of the House Jim Wright, of Fort Worth.
The War on Education continues. Notice that in fighting against scientists and educators, officials also must sabotage America’s readiness to defend against natural disasters, and chemical and terrorist attacks.
Where is David Pierpont Gardner to write the report when you need him?
Tip of the old scrub brush to the Liberal Doomsayer.
Other resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | 9/11, Civil Rights, Education, Government, Graduate study, Higher education, Research, War on Education, War on Science, War on Terrorism | Tagged: Civil Rights, Education, Science, Terrorism, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 14, 2008
Franklin Pierce and Millard Fillmore to sell Japanese cars.
Ulysses S Grant has gotten in on the trend to former presidents making ad pitches.
What do you think?
Ad from the Pew Charitable Trust’s campaign for mine law reform.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Campaigns, Environmental protection, History, Natural resources, Politics | Tagged: advertising, Environmental protection, Media, Mining Law Reform, Politics, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 14, 2008
I miss Headrush. Here’s why — and if there’s not a graph or other good idea here you can steal, you’re not thinking. Get another couple of cups of coffee.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Brain learning, Business, Business Ethics, Leadership, Learning, Presentations, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Brains, Business, Ethics, Management, Presentations | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 13, 2008
New article in Prospect praises Rachel Carson — the authors post the longer version at Crooked Timber.
It’s spring. It’s not a silent spring here in Dallas, thanks to the efforts of Ms. Carson and others more than 40 years ago.
It’s spring, and the efforts to smear Carson and all people who work for clean air and water and good wildlife habitat ramp up again. Articles accusing Carson of genocide are on the upswing. Iain Murray has a book out on the disreputable Regnery label, so desperate to smear that he names this author, and so morally vacuous he includes a chapter complaining about “endocrine disruptors” without acknowledging that one of the chief endocrine disruptors is DDT and its byproducts.
Take a deep breath. If your air is clean, you’re lucky. Now let’s go to work to make sure others can safely take a deep breath, too.
Tip of the old scrub brush to reader Bernarda.
More about Rachel Carson at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
Update: Why do we need to post links to the truth about Rachel Carson? Blogs like Tarpon’s Swamp carry on the slanderous campaign of calumny against the truth. Astoundingly crass, don’t you think?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Biology, DDT, Environmental protection, History, Rachel Carson, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science, War on Science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, Rachel Carson, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 12, 2008
You’re a good student of history. You know that when someone says, “a house divided,” they’re talking about Lincoln’s famous, troubling speech from June 1858. Right?
Look below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | 1787, Cartoons, DBQ sources, Famous quotes, History, Lesson plans, Quotes, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: 1787, A House Divided, Cartoon, Constitution, History, Lesson plan ideas, Library of Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 12, 2008
Last time we seriously checked in with Jim Gibbon it was for the haiku contest on research papers.
Comes this missive from Gibbon now, which suggests that the Adnan Oktar ban on WordPress blogs in Turkey was lifted as of May 3. True? Mr. Gibbon is in Turkey, I gather, which would put him in a position to know.
Was this a predictor of Oktar’s sentencing on May 9?
Hey, Turkey! Welcome back!
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Free press, Free speech, Weblogs | Tagged: Adnan Oktar, Censorship, Free Blogging, Free press, Turkey | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 12, 2008
Flag etiquette reminder: Armed Forces Day is the third Saturday in May, this year on May 17. This is one of the days Congress suggests we should fly our flags. There may be events near your home.
Resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
10 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, veterans | Tagged: Armed Forces Day, flag, veterans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 12, 2008
I think it was Euripides who said, “Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad.” Evidence of the madness sometimes is small compensation for bearing the burden of having to deal with the madness of others.
Iaian Murray’s book is getting accolades from some of the odd sources you’d expect to rave over the book without ever having seen it or giving it a moment’s analysis as to accuracy, relevancy, or morality. I stumbled into a bunch of such sites looking to see why Murray took after me, and what I had said that he quoted, to earn me a place in his index.
One would not expect to run into a censorship buzzsaw at a site that proclaims itself to be free enterprise. But Bloodhoundblog has frustrated all my attempts to correct their errors on DDT, in a post “Cleaned by Capitalism: Our professed love of nature is an artifact of our enormous prosperity.” Perhaps I shouldn’t complain — the offending language on DDT was removed eventually. The extolling of Murray’s book remains, however, in an odd screed against public roads and compact fluorescent lightbulbs (go read the site — can you tell what the guy thinks about CFLs?)
Can the irony get much deeper?
Humorously, there is an ill-informed discussion of fascism vs. socialism as communism in the thread — the discussants blithely unaware that totalitarian censorship is a sin under any fair government scheme.
Was it just that they don’t want to discuss the science of DDT? I’ve corrected a minor error in history, too, in a later comment; will that comment hold up? You might want to check out the comments. Do you think the existence of public lands encourages their abuse? It seemed to me the discussants didn’t understand at all that much of our environmental trouble has occurred on private land, often problems of toxic pollution created by the owners of the land.
Ardent and loud “capitalists” often are the first to sell out. They fall for censorship, they fall for hucksterism — just so long as they still get to wave their flag, insult the academy, and a promise they can make some money doing it. Businesses didn’t stand up to fascism in the early 20th century — nor much of any other time business was promised a license to continue operations.
The issues are not simple. If we insist FedEx not do business in China, do we miss a great opportunity to insinuate a capitalist enterprise as a wedge into a crumbling structure of oppressive politics? If we allow China to host Olympic games, do we strengthen their oppressive structure, or weaken it?
Should we stand idly by while the Chinese government censors the internet (and this blog) to its own people? Should I not kick a little when Bloodhoundblog censors my comments?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Books, Capitalism, Censorship, Environmental protection, Freedom of the Press, History, Point of personal privilege, Socialism | Tagged: Books, Business, Capitalism, Censorship, Socialism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 11, 2008
Ed Brayton found it.
Do you think the sign maker was jesting? Or do you think the sign maker genuinely didn’t know? (See: 1936 Olympics in Berlin)
While we wait to see whether someone will confess to PhotoShopping this picture, we teachers might consider using this photo as a hook for a lesson on the differences between the rising totalitarian state of Nazi Germany in 1936, and the rising, increasingly economically free state of the People’s Democratic Republic of China today.
One more lesson plan for this year — it’s reusable next fall, with the added bonus then that by then you’ll have the headlines of the actual Olympics to add to the discussion.
Update: The photo is said to have been was taken by Rowan Benum at a California site (see Mr. Benum’s comment). Since it’s all the rage on conservative sites, where the history ignorance is condemned but the conservative bloggers can’t quite bring themselves to endorse the Communist Chinese, I strongly suspect wondered about a PhotoShop origin. The torch was run through San Francisco; there are few palms in San Francisco (Californians: Can you identify the location?).
Update 5-13-2008: The photographer kindly dropped by comments to note the authenticity of the photo. I agree, the Tibetan prayer flags suggest authenticity; would a hoaxer think of such details?
Discussion questions for the classroom:
Students should look at the photo, and read coverage of the torch relay, such as CNN’s story about the San Francisco relay where Mr. Benum took the photo. Students should have access to information about the International Olympic Committee and its organization, especially the tradition of Olympic Truce. The Charter of the Olympics is probably too long for practical classroom use, but Paragraph 2 can be copied for the students, or perhaps the full page of the “Fundamental Principles of Olympism”:
“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
Olympic Charter, Fundamental principles, paragraph 2
There is a wealth of information for classroom use at the website of the IOC. If you’re particularly adventurous, or deep into this topic, check out the podcasts of Olympic history from amateur historian Eli Hunt.
Students should also have some information about Tibet, and the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s government in exile, about the history of Tibet and China’s actions since World War II. Students should have some history of the 1936 Olympics, and they should be familiar with the stories of Jesse Owens’ accomplishments there and his return to a segregated U.S. You may want to provide an article about the U.S. protest of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the Soviet protest of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and other Cold War moments of Olympic tension.
- Since the International Olympics Committee (IOC) is an avowedly non-political international agency, is it fair or rational to protest the siting of an Olympics on political grounds?
- What do the protesters ask the IOC to do? What do the protesters ask others to do?
- Under international law, what are the rights and duties of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)?
- Did the IOC ask anything of the government of the Peoples Republic of China of a political nature? Would such requests be fair, or rational?
- Other international organizations function in other nations where governments do not have good records on human rights, such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent, Scouting, UNICEF, and others (can you add to this list?). What considerations must such organizations give to local politics where human rights are at issue?
- Compare and contrast the issues surrounding the Beijing Olympics with issues surrounding the Myanmar relief efforts after Cyclone Nargis (2008).
- Look at other protests involving the Olympics, especially in 1980 and 1984. Did those protests achieve what the protesters had hoped? Does the success or failure of past protests augur well for current protests?
- The creator of the protest sign in the photograph appears to have not known about the 1936 Olympics, which were hosted in Berlin, then under the control of the Nazi government of Germany. The Olympics were sited in Berlin prior to the rise of the Nazi government. Does the protester’s ignorance of history affect the message of the sign? Does it reflect well on the cause the protester advocates?
- What other famous or notorious examples of ignorance of history can you find?
- Do you ever get embarrassed for the people captured in Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segments?
- Georges Santayana (1863-1952) famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Do you find that statement to be true? Does this affect the course of history? (Students may want to explore the history of invasions of Russia by Napoleon and Hitler, or the history of invasions of Afghanistan by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.)
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | China, Dissent, Education, Free press, Free speech, Freedom - Political, History, Lesson plans, Politics, Santayana's ghost, World history | Tagged: History, Lesson plans, Olympics, Politics, protest, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 11, 2008
“Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.”
Ashley Montagu (full citation needed!)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Aunt Betsy.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Creationism, Evolution, Quotes, Religion, Science | Tagged: Ashley Montagu, Creationism, Quotes, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 10, 2008
Tape up your face to keep from smiling too broadly, schadenfreude being a sin or close to it.
Turkish creationist, bully and general gluteal carbuncle Adnan Oktar got sentenced to three years in prison yesterday, for the crime of creating an illegal organization for personal gain.
You remember Oktar: He’s the guy who publishes all those nasty anti-evolution and anti-science books, steals photos for his high-cost, low-information “atlas” of creationism, and successfully sued to shut down this blog’s availability in Turkey (Well, this blog and two million others on WordPress).
Reuters has a story on the affair:
A spokeswoman for his Science Research Foundation (BAV) confirmed to Reuters that Oktar had been sentenced but said the judge was influenced by political and religious pressure groups.
Oktar had been tried with 17 other defendants in an Istanbul court. The verdict and sentence came after a previous trial that began in 2000 after Oktar, along with 50 members of his foundation, was arrested in 1999.
In that court case, Oktar had been charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime. The charges were dropped but another court picked them up resulting in the latest case.
Oktar planned to appeal the sentence, a BAV spokeswoman said. No further details were immediately available.
Oh, yeah — those political and religious pressure groups. And Oktar’s high dollar bullying of government authorities — what is that?
European, and Turkey, laws against political views may trouble one, justly. In a perfect world, there would be no need for such things, with good and true ideas having a good shot at winning in a fair fight. Oktar specializes in the sort of thuggery that makes a fight for ideas unfair. We might hope this latest action will simply help keep the playing field even, level and fair.
Resources:
The news is oddly silent about this otherwise.
Tip of the old scrub brush to The Sensuous Curmudgeon.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Academic freedom, Adnan Oktar, Biology, Bogus history, Books, Censorship, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Justice, Law, Science | Tagged: Adnan Oktar, Creationism, Freedom of Speech, Islam, Politics, Religion, Science, Turkey | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 