Friday Orchid Blogging

Phragmipedium Lynn Evans-Goldner

This little guy is one of my plants, currently in bloom. The flower is less than 2 inches from tip to tip, and it may be slightly fragrant (hard to tell). I love this plant. It grows relatively small, and for me at least, it seems to stay alive (which for orchids, is a big deal). It likes a good deal of light, likes to stay relatively moist, and blooms about once or twice a year. This bloom is being followed by a second bud as well on the same spike (stem). All in all, this is a nice one.

For the geeks among you, this plant is a schlimii crossed with a Barbara LeAnn. And Barbara LeAnn is besseae x fischeri. You can see that this got a lot of the besseae in it, and the fischeri color and size.

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And the religious right is worried about stem cells

Sci-Fi Friday freak out over at Daily Kos (quoting NPR):

One day (far off, no doubt), it may be possible to go into a laboratory on Earth, create a "seed" -- a device that could grow into a universe -- and then there would have to be a way to get that seed, on command, to safely expand into a separate, infinite, unexplorable but very real alternate universe....

The seed, he suggests, could be a black hole. Not the big black holes that sit near the centers of so many galaxies, but what he calls a "mini black hole." Black holes, he says, don't have to be big. They can, in theory, be very small.

I asked him how small, and together we conducted an imaginary (very imaginary) experiment. If you listen to my interview, you will hear us build a mini black hole from an ordinary watermelon.

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Is the Motion Picture Association of America secretly spying on your phone records?

Sure sounds like they just admitted it in this article. How creepy is that. I'd like to know which Americans' private phone records the Motion Picture Association of America is buying, and why? Do they include the records of journalists, elected officials, you, me? And why does the MPAA seem to feel the need to pretend they're you when they call the phone company in order to get those records fraudulently? Can't the Motion Picture Association follow the law and go to court just like everybody else (well, like everybody else but George Bush)?

Sounds like another issue for a congressional hearing. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's world

It's an absolute mess in Lebanon and Iraq. This is the price you pay for electing an idiot as president. The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. Read the rest of this post...

Today is World AIDS Day

Remember. Read the rest of this post...

And we wonder why they hate us

According to the extremists running the Republican party, the greatest threat to America today is posed by the newest member of Congress from Minnesota, Keith Ellison. Ellison is a pious American who believes in God and regularly prays. He also is Muslim.

Keith Ellison must be destroyed.

The religious right Republicans are apoplectic and the Republican hate-radio shock jocks are beside themselves. But because, even for them, attacking Ellison for simply being a Muslim-American would be a tad too hateful for post-Salem America, Republicans are attacking this American person of faith for something far more sinister.

You see, Ellison prays with a Koran.

Stone him.

And what's worse, he wants a Koran with him when he's sworn in to Congress next month.

Now, first off, to correct a small fact that everyone on the right has gotten wrong to date, no one in the House is sworn in with any religious book at all. It's not a part of the swearing in process, it's not in the Constitution, it's not in any rule or law or procedure anywhere. And it is most certainly not a Bible. There is NO REQUIREMENT WHATSOEVER THAT A BIBLE BE USED TO SWEAR IN MEMBERS OF THE US HOUSE. The only time a Bible, or any other religious book pops up, is when a prospective House member brings it with them - but it simply isn't a part of the swearing in ceremony, period.

Let us repeat this one. The entire controversy is based on one big fat lie. (Sounds like some wars I know.)

But don't let that stop Republican radio shock-jock Dennis Praeger. Praeger has been ranting of late, and started quite the firestorm among Republicans, that the Bible is always a part of the swearing in process for public officials in America.

Praeger is either a liar or an idiot (and I've listened to his show - I'd give him a bit of both - the jackass even compared to the Koran to Mein Kampf (which is ironic, considering the position he's arguing), he shouldn't even be on the radio after that remark). But either way, he's simply wrong. And the link above already proves that fact.

But let's get back to what's motivating Praeger and the religious right and all these Republicans who are so upset that a Muslim-American might want to pray on a Koran instead of a Bible.

First off, I'd like to ask all those holier-than-thou Christians one thing: What part of the Ten Commandments don't you understand:

Deut. 5.11 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain....

Lev. 19.12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Tell me how a Muslim swearing to a Christian God, or at the very least to a Christian tome, isn't bearing false witness AND taking the name of the lord in vain? You want to force him to swear a false oath to your God. The very super-Christians (and super other-faith-practitioners who really want to be Christians) demanding that this guy swear on a Bible are co-conspirators in violating at least one, if not, two of the Ten Commandments.

But there's another issue here as well. If it were required to have our members of Congress swear an oath to God (and it's not), why would we want to let some members of Congress off the hook by letting them swear to someone who isn't their God - i.e., letting them do the religious equivalent of crossing their fingers behind their back? The Christian members of Congress who swear to the Bible are bound to their God to do what they swore to do, but the Muslim members would have sworn allegiance to a book and a God who isn't their Supreme Giver of Justice, so, in addition to bearing false witness, such Muslim members would owe our God no allegiance and would be bound to no supreme being, pretty much letting them off the hook.

It's a bit like you and me both getting married (to other people). You swear to be faithful to your wife, and then you want me to swear to be faithful as well. But rather than ask me to swear to be faithful to my new bride, you ask me to swear to be faithful to yours. Even though it sounds at face value like you're making the two of us face the same requirement, you're not.

So, the religious right, and intolerant Christian Republicans, want to, in essence, give Muslim members of Congress special rights. We Christians would have to swear to our God, but those Muslims wouldn't have to swear to their God. That's rather counterproductive, if you're going to argue that such an oath means anything at all. And if it doesn't, then why have this debate?

But let's get our heads out of the minutiae for a second and talk about the more glaring problem here.

In what possible world does any American think forcing a Muslim to swear an oath to a Christian God is in any way constitutional, American, or even human? What are you people, Pontius Pilate? Have you learned nothing from history, the history of the world let alone American history? We did not come to this country to have other religions jammed down our throats. Unlike Israel, many Arab and Muslim countries, and countries in Europe like Greece, America was not set up as a nation under a particular faith. Our elected officials do not need to be of any particular faith, and our head of state most certainly does not. We were established, intentionally, as a nation of many faiths, welcoming of many faiths, and even welcoming of those with no faith at all.

And this notion of America being established as a Christian country is simply bizarre. Yes, the Bible guided many of America's founders when deciding what to make of America. The Bible influenced their decision in how to craft America. But that's a far cry from claiming that the Framers intended the Bible to be the guiding document and ultimate law of America. They most certainly did not, otherwise they would not have written the Constitution, let alone that little clause about a separation of church and state. Seriously, why write about any separation of church and state is church is state? And in any case, why write a Constitution at all if the Bible is our constitution? Do any religious right Republicans out there really think the Framers wrote the Constitution in order to improve upon the Bible? Heresey much?

And then there's a second problem. If America was founded on the Bible, then fine - America was also founded on slavery and the right to keep women as chattel (that means property, like cows or Chevrolets). Let's stop playing this cute, ignorant game of lusting after the good old days when most have no concept of what the good old days actually were.

For the love of God, if we don't want to go down the road of Europe - finding ourselves with a growing minority that doesn't even feel a part of our country, doesn't feel ownership in the American dream (and some would say we already have such an underclass) - then wouldn't it be wiser to embrace America's Muslims (and blacks, and Latinos, and gays, and everyone else who isn't white and male) and weave them into the fabric of our country, make them belong and feel as if they belong, rather than alienate them and create the very animus so many fear?

I still can't get beyond the concept that there are Americans who honestly think we should force a Muslim to swear an oath on a Christian Bible - in America. Putting aside the fact that this kind of down-your-throat, in-your-face view of religion is the walking definition of radical Islam, talk about ironic, does anyone remember where we live and why our forefathers (and some of our current fathers) came here in the first place? Read the rest of this post...

Well-known GOP activist held in sex-predator sting

I'm biting my tongue.

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Pope now says Vatican doesn't "impose nothing on anyone"

In what appears to be a major, unprecedented change in policy, the Pope now says that the Catholic Church doesn't want to impose anything on anyone:

"You know well that the church wishes to impose nothing on anyone, and that she merely asks to live in freedom," the pope said at Istanbul's Holy Spirit Cathedral, where he was joined by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

Given this new standard, the Catholic hierachy needs to stop its hate-filled anti-gay lobbying as well as opposition to birth control and choice. It's welcome news on World AIDS day, if the pope isn't just spinning.

The Catholic Church in the U.S. puts an enormous amount of time and resources in to fighting any legislative proposal seeking to end discrimination against gays and lesbians. The Church has also worked to prevent the distribution of condoms despite their proven life-saving capacity in the fight against AIDS. Now that the pope says the church doesn't impose its will on anyone, they have to back off.

Now, of course, Benedict, the Prada-wearing Pope, will come up with some clarification allowing the church to impose its will on sex issues. But for now, taken at his word, this is welcome news. The world should hold Benedict and his church to this pronouncement.

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George W. Bush - a disaster of epic proporitions

Today's NY Times editorial captures the very scary and dangerous essence of George Bush:

But the president’s performance this week — his refusal to impose any deadlines on Mr. Maliki to start reconciliation talks and break with the militias, and his refusal to give the Pentagon a deadline to stand up an effective Iraqi Army — tells us once again that Mr. Bush does not listen.

That does not bode well for James Baker and the Iraq Study Group, which, according to reports, is likely to call for some pullback of American combat troops along with more aggressive regional diplomacy. Yesterday, Mr. Bush seemed eager to preempt that advice, brushing off suggestions that he talk directly to Iran and insisting that there would be no “graceful exit” from Iraq.

Mr. Bush’s lack of curiosity was well known even before he became president, but as time has gone on and bad news has mounted, that disinterested quality has turned into a stubborn refusal to hear bad news. The country simply cannot afford it any longer. Three years of having Mr. Bush trust only his gut has plunged Iraq into bloody chaos and done untold damage to America. There needs to be an urgent change in policy.

Not only an urgent change in policy, we need an intervention. Bush's problems extend way beyond lack of curiosity. We're in serious trouble as a country because of his failed presidency:

The president’s advisers need to tell him all the harsh truths about Iraq in the vivid terms they require; they need to tell him how little time he has left to act. This administration has been orchestrating a foreign policy disaster of epic proportions, and history will remember both that the president failed to hear the warning bells and that many others failed to ring them loudly enough.

Disaster of epic proportions is right. Bush clearly doesn't listen to his advisers. Who can make the man pay attention before he truly destroys our country? George Bush is America's disaster of epic proportions.


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Iraq Study group: Combat troops out of Iraq by early '08

Here's another proposal from the Iraq Study Group that Bush is sure to dismiss. They're even calling it a "conditional goal" not a timetable to make it more palatable to the Prez. It's Bush's war and he's going to run it the way he wants:

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces, sources familiar with the proposal said yesterday.

The commission plan would shift the U.S. mission in Iraq to a secondary role as the fragile Baghdad government and its security forces take the lead in fighting a Sunni insurgency and trying to halt sectarian violence. As part of major changes in the U.S. presence, sources said, the plan recommends embedding U.S. soldiers directly in Iraqi security units starting as early as next month to improve leadership and effectiveness.

The pressure is building for a change in Iraq. The American people made that clear in the elections -- they want to change the course. But, Bush wants to stay on his course to finish his mission. No one really knows what that course is or what his mission is.

This past week demonstrated what a weak leader we have. Bush took us to war -- invaded a country -- without a plan. There is something extremely disturbing about his inability to let others help get us out of this mess. We may need an intervention.

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Friday Morning Open Thread

It's World AIDS Day. It's not over -- far from it. Read the rest of this post...

"Russian rogue agents" involved in poisoning?

The Guardian is reporting that British intelligence is now looking into this theory for the death of Litvinenko. Having access to polonium-210 limits the possibilities to those with government access but there is still much more to be researched.

While ruling out any official involvement by Vladimir Putin's government, investigators believe that only those with access to state nuclear laboratories could have mounted such a sophisticated plot.

Police were last night closing in on a group of men who entered the UK among a large crowd of Muscovite football fans. The group of five or more arrived shortly before Mr Litvinenko fell ill and attended the CSK Moscow match against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on November 1. They flew back shortly afterwards. While describing them only as witnesses, police believe their presence could hold the key to the former spy's death.

Last night, the Irish government said it was launching a separate investigation focussing on the former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, who fell ill during a visit to Ireland a week ago. At first Mr Gaidar's entourage thought he was suffering from something he had eaten. But yesterday one of his aides said doctors suspected he had been poisoned.

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950 dead every day

A stunning number from South Africa on daily deaths from AIDS. Add to that over 500,000 new cases of HIV every year just in South Africa. The RSA government has made some recent changes to combat the problem which appear to be moving in the right direction. It's already a tragedy lose working generations but this goes so far beyond that, often leaving children without parents which makes life that much more difficult.

The American extremist religious right/Bush administration thinks that this problem is easily solved by just promoting abstinence, but as with most of their bizarre theories (such as invading Iraq to bring democracy to the region) they are sadly wrong, again. Why do they always want to gamble with the lives of Africans and people who are not white?
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