Another review of "Mind Wide Open"

Since I previously mentioned that abominable review of Steven Berlin Johnson's book, I'll point out that there is another review of Mind Wide Open, in the New York Times, by Jonathan Weiner. Believe me, Weiner's opinion is worth much, much more than Appleyard's.

Tapeworm tale

Read this. It's a heartwarming story of a man and his tapeworm.

With immense dread, I reached over and got some more toilet paper. Folded it over. Then, cautiously, like descending into a dangerous lair, I reached down, went under, found me, wiped me, grabbed the dangling entity, and pulled. Something long slithered out, giving a distinctly zigzagging back and forth sensation within my intestines.

I dropped everything and held my breath. This could not be happening. This was not my life. I began panting, all alone in a locked cubicle in a half-decent restaurant with a dead tapeworm hanging out my ass.

(via Eclecticism)

Moral clarity

From Baghdad Burning:

And through all this, Bush gives his repulsive speeches. He makes an appearance on Arabic tv channels looking sheepish and attempting to look sincere, babbling on about how this 'incident' wasn't representative of the American people or even the army, regardless of the fact that it's been going on for so long. He asks Iraqis to not let these pictures reflect on their attitude towards the American people and yet when the bodies were dragged through the streets of Falloojeh, the American troops took it upon themselves to punish the whole city.

He's claiming it's a "stain on our country's honor"... I think not. The stain on your country's honor, Bush dear, was the one on the infamous blue dress that made headlines while Clinton was in the White House... this isn't a 'stain' this is a catastrophe. Your credibility was gone the moment you stepped into Iraq and couldn't find the WMD... your reputation never existed.

So are the atrocities being committed in Abu Ghraib really not characteristic of the American army? What about the atrocities committed by Americans in Guantanamo? And Afghanistan? I won't bother bringing up the sordid past, let's just focus on the present. It seems that torture and humiliation are common techniques used in countries blessed with the American presence. The most pathetic excuse I heard so far was that the American troops weren't taught the fundamentals of human rights mentioned in the Geneva Convention Right- morals, values and compassion have to be taught.

There's nothing I can say to any of that. The shame is ours to bear, even by those of us who opposed this war from the first whisper out of Bush's lying throat. I'm angry. And if any slimy moron tries again to excuse this, tries to claim it was the work of a few, or that it was just 'abuse', or that these things happen in war, or whines that they did it to us first...christ. I am choking with fury at this. I don't know what I'd do.

And then there's Rumsfeld. Blind, stupid Rumsfeld.

"If there's a failure, it's me. It's my failure for not understanding and knowing that there were hundreds -- or however many there are of these things—that could eventually end up in the public and do the damage they've done," Rumsfeld said, talking about photographs of the abuse.

Oh, man. He's sorry he got caught. He didn't understand that photos of the crimes at Abu Ghraib might not go over well with the people of Iraq or the US. What kind of moral blindness infects these vermin running the country?

As for Gen. Richard Myers (I hate to even share a name with that man):

And Myers insisted the military justice system was working and that the reports of the abuse were acted on promptly after they were first reported by a solider on January 13, 2004.

"Our commanders did exactly the right thing in a timely manner," Myers said.

"The right thing."

"The right thing."

How can anyone use that phrase in reference to this atrocity? This was a screw up from the start—the wrong thing was done at every step of the way.

Rumsfeld can't shut up. He digs his hole even deeper.

"I failed to recognize how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including the president and the members of Congress," Rumsfeld said.

What the hell is wrong with these people? How can they fail to recognize the importance of US troops engaging in torture of prisoners?

I do not understand how anyone, let alone these people who possess so much responsibility, could be incapable of seeing what the right thing is.

But back to Baghdad Burning:

I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions or make suggestions. Fine. Today's lesson: don't rape, don't torture, don't kill and get out while you can- while it still looks like you have a choice... Chaos? Civil war? Bloodshed? We'll take our chances—just take your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your rapists, your sadistic torturers and go.

I agree. It is time to go. There is nothing we can accomplish in Iraq—the corrupt regime running our country has thrown away any pretense of authority.

People are saying Rumsfeld needs to resign. That isn't enough. He needs to be fired, and Bush, Cheney, and the whole rotten crew at the top must be impeached. And then the war trials must begin. This is not something that can be dealt with by shrugging our shoulders, turning our backs, and pretending this little embarrassment is over.

I'm old enough to remember My Lai, and Watergate, and Iran-Contra, and yeah, that seedy, cheap affair with a president and an intern. This is worse. This is an international disgrace. And it's not just Iraq; I want to know what's going on in Guantanomo and Afghanistan, and I want those responsible tossed into prison themselves.

A brief primer on the nature of Planet PZ

I've been getting a lot of angry e-mail lately. Much of it has been incoherent, some of it has been stupid (telling an atheist that you'll pray for him, and sending him lots of bible verses, is a sign that you don't get it), and a lot of it has been spluttering protestations from right-wingers. I've tried to respond to the more reasonable comments in e-mail, but a lot of them just went straight into the trash. So I'm going to take a moment to make a general comment to address some of this rather surprising bitterness.

First, though, I'm curious—have any of the other liberal webloggers seen this surge of anger recently? Maybe it's just because my main focus here isn't politics, so when I do get loud about politics, it stands out more. I suspect, though, that it's more a matter of the recent subject: Abu Ghraib. The Right is clearly embarrassed by this, and are trying hard to blanket it with excuses. I think any mention of this subject is prodding a sore spot, and it's going to encourage resentment, especially since while these individuals are themselves horrified and appalled at the events there, they find themselves on the same side of the fence as the facilitators and perpetrators. Can you say, "cognitive dissonance," everyone?

Mainly what I want to do here, though, is spell out exactly what my point of view on the world is, so noone can claim any surprises. I'm opinionated and know fairly well where I stand on the spectrum of various issues, and I don't hesitate to shout out those opinions. Some people may come here for the squid-lovin' and the snarling diatribes against creationism and the occasional cool bit of science, and get shocked by the occasional diatribe against religion or unholy Corporate Republicanism. So let's clear the air, and here is where I stand:

• I'm a scientist and a biologist. I read scientific journals for fun, and I'm viciously dismissive of astrology, homeopathy, 'scientific' racism, corporate junk science, and other forms of snake-oil for the credulous. I guess sometimes what I write can be a little bit incomprehensible, but I'm working on that.
• I'm pro-evolution. The growing popularity of creationism and the craven surrender of politicians and journalists to the anti-evolutionary superstition of the Intelligent Design creationists is a particular peeve. That opinion, at least, I'm confident everyone gets as soon as they read anything here.
• I'm an atheist. I find religion and god-belief to be silly and irrelevant, but mostly harmless. I generally leave theists to do their own thing, but when I see pathological examples of religious thinking, when people do evil in the name of their non-existent deities, I will speak out fiercely against it.
• I'm a liberal. And proud of it. To me, that means standing up for individual freedoms over abstract authoritarian social mores: the role of society isn't to dictate what people should do, but to give everyone the liberty to do as they will, while making sure that their will does not compromise others' abilities to do likewise. I'm pro-choice, pro-immigration, pro-union, pro-gay marriage, pro-education.
• I'm left-wing. I think government can be a good thing, and believe that one of the important roles of government is to maintain the social safety net and to promote economic and social equality. I strongly oppose the Libertarian party, and would favor a Republican over a Libertarian just about any time. (Given the makeup of the active net population, too, that comment may have just driven off a good chunk of my readership.)
• I'm, ummm, blunt. I don't believe there is any advantage to cloaking disagreement in circumlocutions and mannered courtesies. It's better to go straight to the heart of the matter and tear at it—and I don't mind if others do the same.

Outside of those first two, I'm relatively tolerant. I don't have anything against Christian conservatives, for instance; good and intelligent people can and do take positions directly contrary to mine on those kinds of issues. I seem to have fathered at least one Libertarian, and we have no problem discussing politics and I can even appreciate that he knows more about economics than I do. People who disagree with me are wrong, of course, but that doesn't mean we can't get along, or that I assume they're moral lepers.

Except for creationists, of course. And even they have hope of education.

Some progress in Minnesota

Our state senate voted down an attempt to modify the science education standards with an amendment authored by the Intelligent Design creationist wing of the Republican party. The amendment was the same as the one approved by the House a while back.

This is good news, but we’re not done yet. The House and Senate versions of the science standards still need to be reconciled, and now everything moves into backroom conference committees. Let’s hope Senator Steve Kelley can keep doing his good work on this matter.

How the wingnuts won Kansas

How do you persuade a state with decent, populist tradition to hitch its star to the single-minded greed of Corporate Republicanism? Thomas Frank, author of a new book on Kansas politics, explains:

"The trick never ages, the illusion never wears off," Frank wrote. "Vote to stop abortion, receive a rollback in capital-gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation. Vote to get government off our backs; receive conglomeration and monopoly everywhere from media to meatpacking. Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization efforts. Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, in which workers have been stripped of power and CEOs rewarded in a manner beyond imagining."

Ah. Bait-and-switch politics.

Nowhere has this scenario run more amok, Frank writes, than former Westar executive David Wittig's use of the forces of deregulation to "pull down millions of dollars in compensation even while the company's share price plummeted and employees were laid off to reduce costs."

For much of the state's history and especially during White's tenure, Kansas was perceived to be a place ruled by decency, common sense and hard work. It symbolized all that was right with America.

But in the aftermath of the state Board of Education questioning the need to teach evolution, of Olathe Republican Sen. Kay O'Connor doubting the merits of women's suffrage, and Topeka's homophobic minister Fred Phelps finding a national stage, Frank argues Kansas has lost its once-precious normalcy.

He compares the state to "staring into the eyes of a lunatic."

Kansas is just one of the early targets. I'm seeing this trend in other parts of the Midwest, too—this is the Republican vision for all of America.

The book is called What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Looks like another addition to my long and fun-filled summer reading list.

(via Bookslut)

Ms. Henn and Sanctimonious Susy are back!

A new Chick tract is out, Birds and the Bees:

So don't be gay, or the God of Love will fire-bomb you, and will toss you into a lake of fire for eternal torment once you are dead. That's a message that'll sway me over to the side of Christ, sure.

Canada. The New Atlantis.

Hercolubus is coming. We're in big trouble now—unless we all rush out and buy V.M Rabolu's book, which will tell us how to save ourselves.

We are going to talk about Hercolubus or Red Planet, which is approaching Earth. According to some accounts, scientists have even weighted it, and they said it weighs so many tonnes and has a certain diameter, as if it were a child's toy. But this is not the case. Hercolubus or Red Planet is five or six times larger that Jupiter; a huge giant that nothing can stop or divert.

Nothing can stop or divert it? Oh. Well. I guess there's no point in buying the book after all.

The moment of tragedy and darkness will come: tremors, earthquakes and tidal waves. Human beings will become mentally unbalanced, because they will not be able to eat or sleep.

More sensitive members of the human race will already be experiencing these symptoms.

As the cracks form, tidal waves, earthquakes and horrifying occurrences on land and water will take place. Every single coastal town will swept away. Our planet will begin sinking into the ocean because the Earth's axis has already shifted due to all the test that are being conducted.

"Our planet will begin sinking into the ocean..." There's something just a little bit off in that idea. I can't quite put my finger on it.

According to this site, Hercolubus has done this to us before. Last time, it sunk Atlantis.

A very important cosmic event takes place each time the Earth enters the zodiacal constellation of Aquarius. This event causes great natural disasters to occur, and has been responsible for the end of every root race that existed upon the Earth. At the end of every sidereal year, after moving from Pisces to Aquarius, the orbit of the Earth approaches the orbit of a planet found in the Tyler Solar System. In Gnosis this planet is known as "Hercolubus". In the Bible this planet is referred to as "Wormwood", while modern astronomers have named it "Barnard I". Hercolubus is about 600 times the size of the Earth, and so as the orbits of the two planets get closer their gravitational and magnetic fields exert forces on one another.

Barnard is Barnard's Star, about 6 light years away from us. 6 light years. That does kinda take the edge off the threat, I think.

The encounter of the Earth with Hercolubus takes place every sidereal year, and is thus a natural cosmic event. The first few races were not afraid of the disasters since they had not degenerated. They still had extraordinary powers, and used them to escape the catastrophes. The Protoplasmatic and Hyperborean races, for example, simply submerged themselves into the 4th dimension when the catastrophes began multiplying. The portion of the Lemurian civilization that had not degenerated did the same, while the rest perished. The vast majority of the Atlanteans died during the submersion of Atlantis, but a small minority was able to escape. Unfortunately, due to the extreme degeneration of the Arian race, there will be few who will survive the upcoming cataclysms.

Maybe that's how we're supposed to save ourselves, by joining the Protoplasmatics in the 4th dimension. I'm up for that. And wasn't Conan a Hyperborean or something like that?

But wait! I'm safe! Look at the cover:

See? It's only going to smack into Canada, where they can use their Giant Glowing Maple Leaf of Power to stop the threat. And if they fail, well, it is just Canada.

(via Jeffrey Shallit. Jeff is Canadian, which is probably why he was warned and I wasn't.)

The wrong Christians

Michael Bérubé asks a good question: where is the Christian Right on Abu Ghraib? They have been loud and strident on 'important' issues like breasts on television, gay marriage, the ten commandments in the courtroom, school prayer, the pledge of allegiance, yadda yadda yadda, but when the troops of Their Boy in the White House fighting in Their Righteous War in the Middle East engage in a little torture and perversion, Pat Robertson is more concerned about little babies being killed for therapeutic cloning (and selling Pat's Age-Defying Antioxidants), while Jerry Falwell sneers at atheists who want to take away his National Day of Prayer (and his Liberty University Annuity now has an 11.3% rate!)

At least the Christian Left have their priorities straight.

Zombie blogging

A brilliant idea: why bother weblogging when you can just rip out the content of other sites and scramble them together? That's the premise of ZOG, a weblog assembled from scraps taken off the web.

Dadaism was an art movement all about creating things from chaos, or random objects. That is indeed what ZOG does. It's kind of like Mad Libs. Remember Mad Libs?! Instead of supplying his own words, ZOG grabs random sentences from Donor Blogs and mashes them all together. To keep in the spirit of him being a zombie, ZOG will sometimes replace donor words with his own words that are more fitting to the undead afterlife-style. He also interjects with his own phrases.

Some of it is weirdly topical, but it's all sprinkled with a peculiar garnish.

If there is a god, he's an evil pervert

If you have a strong stomach, try reading WinAce's Argument from Irreducible Grotesqueness. It's a collection of short descriptions of parasites, diseases, and predators that, if we accept the Intelligent Design claim that they had to be designed, show that the designer has to be one sick bastard.

It's interesting stuff, but you might want to wait until after you've had breakfast to read it, OK?

Strange growths

Odd things have crawled up out of the muck in my front yard. They are frighteningly vivid in color, and they just sit there outside my front window, staring in, and every once in a while bobbing their bloody, gaping jaws gently. The cats stand at the window yowling at them, in fear, no doubt. I suspect that they are young triffids.

Some Californian might know what they are. They seem to have all kinds of weird things growing out there.

Oh, to live in a land so rich it be bedecked with cephalopods

Modulator links to a list of uses for coathangers, but I just liked the picture.

Bluto? Otter? Flounder? At least I know which one is Dean Wormer.

Kip Manley is right. If you're squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble. I followed his awful link to PABAAH, and there was this:

Sadly, this war is fast becoming a "politically-correct" war.  Thanks to the anti-American efforts of CBS, they have helped to fuel the fires of anti-Americanism around the globe.  So now we are having to apologize for a few soldiers who chose to ham it up and take pictures of themselves with Iraqi prisoners.  I've seen nothing which leads me to believe these Iraqis were subjected to anything worse than being forced to perform sophomoric hazing rituals a la the Omega fraternity in the movie "Animal House".

Now I feel so unclean. I had naïvely assumed that all conservatives would deplore the Abu Ghraib horrors as much as I do. I was wrong, it seems.

A new Tangled Bank

The second edition of The Tangled Bank is online. Check it out!

I've got to stop this...I hate politics. It makes me want to puke.

Perhaps you are wondering what a solid conservative icon like Rush Limbaugh would have to say about the Abu Ghraib disgrace. Wonder no more.

This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

Maybe I'm just weird, but the end of the semester also involves a fair amount of tension (not anything comparable to what a soldier in Iraq experiences, of course), and when I want to unwind I might join one of our social groups here and have a beer, or stretch out and read a good book, or go to a movie. Is it true that if stress were to rise a bit more, I'd want to force naked men at gunpoint to assume sexual poses, or anally rape them with light bulbs? I don't quite see how that would help anyone relax.

Of course, poor Rush would know. I imagine the stress in his life has been extremely high lately, what with the criminal charges and the detox and all. Makes a fellow wonder what he does to blow off steam.

Or perhaps you wondered who is going to be blamed for all this "emotional release"? The defense department has the answer.

Speaking on the Imus in the Morning radio/MSNBC program Tuesday , Mr. Miklaszewski said he asked a Pentagon contact about the soldiers alleged to be involved, to which the Pentagon official replied, "You mean the six morons who lost the war?"

Isn't it charming how this administration is scrambling to push the guilt as far down the totem pole as they can? This is a gang that never met a responsibility they were willing to accept, or an ethical duty that they could even recognize.

(via pandagon)