Why US students are 29th in the world...

The "crazy Christians" are after us!!!

Re: Origin Theories Clash: Pinellas School Board would teach Intelligent Design...

The reason the US is 29th in the world in science instead of 1st is because our leaders and educators are being duped by the "Wedge Document" campaigns. These school board leaders need to go back to school, as they have not had a proper science education: These leaders are apparently easily duped by a PR campaign promoting an idea that in no way reflects critical thinking skills, the scientific method, or qualifies as a scientific theory. This ignorance would be laughable if it weren't so pathetically damaging to America's future.

The Wedge Document represents the strategy of the Discovery Institute, a think tank that advocates intelligent design and its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which aims to teach creationist beliefs in public high school science courses. The Discovery Institute put forth its planned public relations, public opinion, media, and political lobbying campaigns in the Wedge Document, which states that the aim of this creationist campaign is to drive a "wedge" into popular discussions about the origin of life by manufacturing a false controversy that does not actually exist within the scientific community. The Wedge Document states the Institute's manifesto is to "defeat evolution" and "replace it with Christian and theistic convictions" to "affirm the reality of God."

In a public school, to have any patience at all with creationist/intelligent design notions is to do a severe disservice to your students. Those ideas in no way qualify as a theory, in any science, by any scientist anywhere. I hope various leaders on the School Board will thank the private company, the Discovery Institute, for doing such a good job in their advertising campaign! Their duping campaign has worked on them!

Nel mezzo del cammin

Part 1

I've had this dream
a million nights
and now I'm living.
Living the running free down the street
out, away, flying away.
Breathing cool, stretching
as wide as the earth.
Fancy footing over pavement, over grass.
Away and away - all flowy-haired and shining.
And in this moment,
I'm me
and it's about me.
There's so much time.
Like the earth is holding it's breath until I step.
Like balancing on a barrel sticky and hot.

How did I get out here?
Days and weeks and years of counting to 10 and then 100
and swallowing tears and fears...


Part 2

"Mother" I branded into my skin myself.
Now I know why all mothers are a little bit crazy.

Thought when we met and kissed I'd never be alone.
Now, I'm more alone than ever.
"It's all on you, babe."
My shoulders broke from the weight of my babies
and the story of all my days is a child's story.
My 10-year plan is a kid's paradise.

Did I lose my mind, my soul
or do I not have a right to one?
Do the rich keep theirs?

Do I look without longing for relief? Can I glance without resentment?

It's all on me: This is my blessed trap. My job.

I am woman:
hear me in the wind a butterfly's wing makes.
It is the wind that turns the world.

Poem: GodStuff

In the Multiverse
in the humming strings
is the being
of you and me.

Perfect Me Ann Coulter

Again, this is great...very funny, and in my Happy Hanukkah video theme...

Satirist/singer/guitar player Leah Kauffman sings and asks Ann Coulter to perfect her. I think she (Leah) really puts things in the right perspective.

Rock On!

Happy Hanukkah!

We were laughing out loud watching this. I thought it was appropriate being Hanukkah and all.

Crank That Kosha Boy

Holy Crap!

6,000 soldiers claim persecution by "Christian" evangelicals

This is so frightening...

"They are proselytizing not on behalf of the Constitution of the United States and the national security interests of our country but rather on behalf of some sort of fanatical view of end times. And they are using our army to affect that."
-- Ambassador Joe Wilson

And follow the link to read on, it gets better, I mean worse.

Links from the article:

• The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism
• Theocracy Watch: The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party - a public information project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy
  at Cornell University
• ideological insanity behind Erik Prince and Blackwater Inc.
• Military Religious Freedom Foundation
  

Heaven help us!

-Harry

Who should I vote for?

Who should I vote for? I'll vote for the person who understands that the checks and balances on the three separate branches of government are crucial to keep our democracy functioning. The founding fathers knew that power makes even the best people turn absolutely corrupt. They cleverly devised the only way to stop inevitable corruption through healthy checks and balances with real teeth.

I'll vote for someone who will give the people back their constitutional rights, rights such as freedom from being spied on and thrown in jail without due process. I'll vote for someone who upholds the constitution regarding torture. I'll support the person who understands that our country was founded on the basis of the separation of church and state. I'll vote for the person strong enough to stop lobbyists from buying laws and lawmakers.

Who is this hero? Who is the person, when tempted with the now increased powers in the executive branch to make his/her decisions law, who would give up these imperial prerogatives in favor of rule as the founding fathers intended? i.e., no more kings!