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stcynic | February 16, 2005Nicholas Kristof has a column about the Bush administration's focus on abstinence-only sex education that says the same things I've been saying for months:
For that reason, almost all sex-ed classes in America already encourage abstinence. But abstinence-only education isn't primarily about promoting abstinence - it's about blindly refusing to teach contraception.
To get federal funds, for example, abstinence-only programs are typically barred by law from discussing condoms or other forms of contraception - except to describe how they can fail. So kids in these programs go all through high…
stcynic | February 15, 2005A few weeks ago, Christopher Hitchens delivered a lecture on the subject of Thomas Paine, the "unacknowledged founding father" who was "the greatest Englishman and the greatest American", as he put it. It is well worth reading. There is no more fascinating man than Thomas Paine, in my view. He was an integral part of two of the three most famous revolutions in the history of the world (American and French, with the Russian revolution being the third), and in many ways was the conscience of both. It was Paine who agitated most strongly for a revolution against the British King George III, even…
stcynic | February 14, 2005I completely forgot to post a Happy Darwin Day message on Saturday. Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. That was also the same day that Abraham Lincoln was born (though there is some dispute over that, I guess). More importantly, February 12th is also the birthday of Brent Rasmussen's wife. Brent said he was going to celebrate her birthday by "performing dramatic interpretations of excerpts from Origin Of Species", which is both unorthodox and likely to land him in the doghouse. Brent, I suggest flowers are more appropriate, and if you want a Darwin connection to them, just make…
stcynic | February 13, 2005As a follow up on the recent articles on ID advocates making offensive comparisons between evolution advocates and various bad guys, try this one on for size. Commenting on the Klinghoffer article and the claims of persecution by Sternberg (which he accepted uncritically as gospel truth, of course), Russel Husted offered up this breathless and ridiculous comparison:
And then ... ah yes, the open-minded, fair-minded, always-willing-to-hear-a theory-out, always-searching-for-truth community of "Evolutionist Theocrats in Science" realized their most feared heresy had gotten a respectable…
stcynic | February 10, 2005I am very pleased to announce that Howard Van Till has agreed to join the board of Michigan Citizens for Science, on whose board I also sit. Dr. Van Till is professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is also on the board of advisers for the Templeton Foundation. As a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, Howard has been active in encouraging members of the scientific community and the faith community to engage each other seriously and in positive ways. Despite being a devout Christian, he has written extensively…
stcynic | February 10, 2005So I'm flipping channels and I come across a report that Prince Charles is going to marry Camilla Parker Bowles. This report came complete with its own poll, wherein 44% of viewers who responded said he should marry her, 52% said he should not, and 4% said they don't know. And it left me with one obvious question - who fucking cares? Seriously, if you're not the happy couple or a member of their family, what possible justification could you have for having an opinion about it at all? And what kind of person actually calls up a TV station to express an opinion about whether two people they don…
stcynic | February 8, 2005Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost has replied to my post that pointed out that none of the bloggers who jumped so eagerly on the Sternberg situation as proof of his martyrdom have bothered to mention the other side of the story, Coddington's denial of the accusations. He says:
While there are at least two different views to this controversy - Sternberg's claims and Coddington's rebuttal -- Ed appears to be claiming that both are to be considered equally credible. While there is no way for us to know exactly who is telling the truth, let's look at how each side's point of view was presented:…
stcynic | February 5, 2005This you just have to find funny. Jonathan Witt has written a post on the DI blog about the Sternberg/Smithsonian situation. In the process, he has made clear the utter hypocrisy of the DI in handling criticism. The DI blog, you see, steadfastly refuses to link to the Panda's Thumb, which is the primary weblog that presents criticism of their ideas. This refusal is so obvious that even when writing a post addressing Jonathan Coddington's response to Sternberg's accusations against him, they don't link to the place where Coddington posted his response, which was in a comment at the Panda's…
stcynic | February 4, 2005On the heels of finding out that Ernst Mayr died, I also just read that Ossie Davis has died. Ossie Davis, husband of actress Ruby Dee, was a brilliant actor, playwright, writer and civil rights activist. If you don't recognize his name, you almost surely would recognize his face and his deep, booming voice. I especially recall the performances of he and his wife in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, which I consider to be one of the finest movies ever made. In addition to delivering so many great performances on screen, he also delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. Davis and Ruby…
stcynic | February 4, 2005Harvard announced today that Ernst Mayr, the venerable and legendary evolutionary biologist who made his home there for so long, died yesterday at the age of 100. Science magazine published a retrospective, written by Mayr himself, on his 80 years as a scientist last July after his 100th birthday that is certainly worth reviewing upon his death. There was no more important figure in 20th century science or in evolutionary biology, where his influence is surpassed only by Charles Darwin himself. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to argue that modern evolutionary theory owes as much to Mayr as to…
stcynic | February 4, 2005Some of you are aware, I'm sure, of the controversy that has been raging throughout the right side of the blogosphere concerning Richard von Sternberg and the Smithsonian. Based solely on an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, everyone from the Discovery Institute to the Worldnutdaily and a thousand blogs have picked up on the story to scream "PERSECUTION" at the top of their lungs in the fervant hope that their martyr complex had been proven true. Well, not so fast. I didn't bother to write about it a week ago because there was simply no information to go on other than the accusations…
stcynic | February 3, 2005In Texas, local school districts are in the process of choosing which textbooks to use in their health and sex ed classes. They can choose from 4 books approved by the state board of education, a highly politicized group that is largely controlled by the religious right. Here's their latest genius move - approving textbooks that don't even mention condoms:
Only one of the four new textbooks approved by the State Board of Education in November mentions condoms.
The book, published by Thomson/Delmar Learning, states that "using an American-made latex condom or female condom creates a barrier…
stcynic | February 2, 2005I'm hitting the road for the day, going to Detroit to have a little reunion dinner with an old student of mine. It's a 3 hour drive, but since I haven't seen him in 15 years, during which time he has graduated from Harvard Law School, joined a firm, gotten married and is now on the verge of fatherhood, I think it's well worth the drive to have a chance to get caught up with him. A couple other old friends are joining us for dinner as well, so it's gonna be a great day all the way around. Hope yours is too.
stcynic | February 1, 2005It always amuses me that the Worldnutdaily wants to be taken seriously as a news source while constantly blaring huge headlines, complete with flashing red "Breaking News" or "Exclusive" icons, saying things like UFOs: Space Travelers or Demonic Deceivers? It probably goes without saying that most such headlines are little more than advertisements for books that they are selling and hence profit from. The latest such article declares that "Biblical Giants" - the Nephilim - built the pyramids after having sex with human females. And no, I'm not making that up. Perhaps they should change their…
stcynic | January 31, 2005A new study from Texas A&M researchers on abstinence-only programs in Texas concludes that they have had no effect on teen sexual activity for those enrolled in the programs:
The first evaluation of programs used throughout the state has found that students in almost all high school grades were more sexually active after abstinence education. Researchers don't believe the programs encouraged teenagers to have sex, only that the abstinence messages did not interfere with the usual trends among adolescents growing up.
"We didn't find what many would like for us to find," said researcher…
stcynic | January 26, 2005I've not commented on the brouhaha that has surrounded Harvard President Lawrence Summers' comment at a conference last week that innate differences might have some role to play in explaining the relative underrepresentation of women in math and science (and relative overrepresentation of women in English and the humanities). Let me do so now. Bottom line: *shrug*. This is controversial? I think the whole situation is one giant overreaction based more on emotional response than on rational thinking. For evidence of that, I submit the statements of MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins upon hearing…
stcynic | January 25, 2005I've not commented on the brouhaha that has surrounded Harvard President Lawrence Summers' comment at a conference last week that the relative lack of women in math and science might reflect innate differences rather than the effects of socialization. Let me do so now. Bottom line: *shrug*. I think the whole situation is one giant overreaction based more on kneejerk reactions than on rational thinking. Like it or not, there are some traits that tend to be more common in one gender than the other. Is that true in this particular case? I don't know. I haven't seen the research on it. But I don'…
stcynic | January 25, 2005The Worldnutdaily continues its campaign of outright dishonesty toward the ACLU with this ridiculous screed by William Simon. The lies begin in the very first sentence:
Believe it or not, there was a time when the American Civil Liberties Union was a respected organization that fought to protect civil liberties for all Americans. But that time is long past.
Nonsense, Mr. Simon. Your ideological predecessors were railing about the "godless and communist" ACLU at least as far back as the 1925 Scopes trial, and the ACLU was only formed in 1922. So please don't expect us to buy into this "I used…
stcynic | January 25, 2005Fritz Stern, a distinguished historian from Columbia University whose family fled Nazi Germany in 1938, was recently awarded the Leo Baeck Medal from the Leo Baeck Institute. The LBI is devoted to studying the history and culture of German-speaking Jews and is named for the leader of Germany's Jewish community, sent by the Nazis first to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. Stern, who barely managed to escape the concentration camps himself and had many family members die in them, was an ideal choice for such an award. His work as a scholar of European history has done much to provide the…
stcynic | January 24, 2005Two new studies are showing the dangers of abstinence-only sex education. Both are reported here. Because abstinence-only programs are forbidden to even mention that condoms can help prevent pregnancy and STDs - it is literally illegal for them to mention anything about condoms other than failure rates - teens who take abstinence-only classes tend to use condoms far less when they become sexually active. Surprise, surprise. Here's the result:
Teenagers' risks of pregnancy and disease are also affected by what they think about sex, contraception and pregnancy, researchers reported. According…