12.27.2012
'The Face of Creation' - Higgs Remix
Celebrate 2012's greatest scientific discovery with a remix by melodysheep:
12.19.2012
Thoughts On The Sandy Hook Shootings
This was vomited out in a ranty, knee-jerky fashion without edits or revisions. Please forgive my sloppiness and lack of references.
I'm getting pretty tired of hearing the following comments regarding the Sandy Hook shootings:
1. Things like this didn't used to happen.
Yes. Things like this have always happened. People have killed other human beings for little or no reason for as long as humans have existed.
2. People might have killed other people in the past, but they wouldn't take out groups of innocent children and then kill themselves.
Yes. They have. Do some research.
3. This was an act of hatred.
No. This was not an act of hatred. It was the act of a mentally ill man with access to large quantities of ammunition and assault weapons.
4. This was due to the decline of morality in our society.
No. Mental illness doesn't care about morals. An individual with a normal and healthy brain with the capacity for empathy will not commit an act like the one in Sandy Hook.
5. If we had more religion in our societies and in our schools, we wouldn't see things like this happen. Mental illness does not discriminate. No amount of religion (or lack thereof) will keep a mentally ill individual from acting on violent ideation.
6. In the past, if someone was crazy, they'd maybe kill a few people at most -- they'd never enter a school and kill 27 people.
In the past, schools were smaller, our cities and towns were not as densely populated, and assault rifles (and associated rounds of ammunition) were not available on the internet. The internet is only a recent phenomenon. One room school-houses existed just a generation ago. Do the math. If a psychopath had walked into a schoolhouse with an ax or a musket in centuries past, they might get away with killing or maiming a handful of children. And you better believe that psychopaths did kill women and children in the past. We are often blinded by our own lack of appreciation of time and history.
7. This person was pure evil.
We love to exculpate ourselves from culpability. Evil is a human construct. There is nothing at all supernatural about a school shooting.
Let's be honest and admit that what makes these horrible recent events seem so unimaginable is the fact that in all of history, the recipe for such events has not been possible. Mental illness + easy access to assault weapons + densely populated cities, towns, schools, malls = unprecedented fatalities caused by lone actors.
This wasn't an act of evil. It is not a sign of a decaying morality. It cannot be attributed to a lack of religion. These kinds of incidents have always happened -- Americans simply live in a time characterized by a) easy access to assault weapons online 24/7 and in neighborhood stores in every town in America, b) a widespread lack of understanding about mental illness, the stigma associated with it, and the failure of parents, families, co-workers, and neighbors to identify the signs of serious mental illness, c) densely populated cities, towns, and buildings.
It's time we stopped making excuses, accept the realities of our time and place in history, and work to improve the contributing factors that we actually can control.
I'm getting pretty tired of hearing the following comments regarding the Sandy Hook shootings:
1. Things like this didn't used to happen.
2. People might have killed other people in the past, but they wouldn't take out groups of innocent children and then kill themselves.
Yes. They have. Do some research.
3. This was an act of hatred.
No. This was not an act of hatred. It was the act of a mentally ill man with access to large quantities of ammunition and assault weapons.
4. This was due to the decline of morality in our society.
No. Mental illness doesn't care about morals. An individual with a normal and healthy brain with the capacity for empathy will not commit an act like the one in Sandy Hook.
5. If we had more religion in our societies and in our schools, we wouldn't see things like this happen. Mental illness does not discriminate. No amount of religion (or lack thereof) will keep a mentally ill individual from acting on violent ideation.
6. In the past, if someone was crazy, they'd maybe kill a few people at most -- they'd never enter a school and kill 27 people.
In the past, schools were smaller, our cities and towns were not as densely populated, and assault rifles (and associated rounds of ammunition) were not available on the internet. The internet is only a recent phenomenon. One room school-houses existed just a generation ago. Do the math. If a psychopath had walked into a schoolhouse with an ax or a musket in centuries past, they might get away with killing or maiming a handful of children. And you better believe that psychopaths did kill women and children in the past. We are often blinded by our own lack of appreciation of time and history.
7. This person was pure evil.
We love to exculpate ourselves from culpability. Evil is a human construct. There is nothing at all supernatural about a school shooting.
Let's be honest and admit that what makes these horrible recent events seem so unimaginable is the fact that in all of history, the recipe for such events has not been possible. Mental illness + easy access to assault weapons + densely populated cities, towns, schools, malls = unprecedented fatalities caused by lone actors.
This wasn't an act of evil. It is not a sign of a decaying morality. It cannot be attributed to a lack of religion. These kinds of incidents have always happened -- Americans simply live in a time characterized by a) easy access to assault weapons online 24/7 and in neighborhood stores in every town in America, b) a widespread lack of understanding about mental illness, the stigma associated with it, and the failure of parents, families, co-workers, and neighbors to identify the signs of serious mental illness, c) densely populated cities, towns, and buildings.
It's time we stopped making excuses, accept the realities of our time and place in history, and work to improve the contributing factors that we actually can control.
11.05.2012
Our Story In One Minute
A tapestry of footage tracing the cosmic and biological origins of our species, set to original music. Another great mash-up from Melodysheep.
Watch:
Watch:
10.24.2012
The Bible As A Voting Guide
Over at Christian Post, there's an interesting opinion piece entitled Why the Bible Is the Best Voters Guide.
Here are a few of the key takeaways from the piece, along with quotes from the op-ed:
Don't Vote For The Kenyan
Don't Vote For The Black Guy Who Supports Equal Pay, Women's Rights, And Equality
Don't Vote For Women
Don't Vote For the Guy Who Endorsed Gay Marriage -- But The Mormon Still Makes Us Nervous
Never mind The Establishment Clause
Here are a few of the key takeaways from the piece, along with quotes from the op-ed:
Don't Vote For The KenyanCivil leaders should be selected from among their own people. People must know the candidate. This is why the Constitution of the United States requires the president must be naturally born in the U.S.
Don't Vote For The Black Guy Who Supports Equal Pay, Women's Rights, And Equality
He must execute justice without respect to race, gender, and national origin, or any other categorical distinction made in society.
Don't Vote For Women
The Scriptures require that we "choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men." The word men used here is not the generic term for "mankind" but rather the word for "male." Everywhere the qualifications for civil leaders are mentioned in the Bible, males – not females – are identified.
Don't Vote For the Guy Who Endorsed Gay Marriage -- But The Mormon Still Makes Us Nervous
The Bible is clear that marriage is between one man and one woman, since "the two shall become one flesh"...This definition excludes multiple wives.
Never mind The Establishment Clause
So before you consult all the other voting guides, make sure you have rightly prioritized the words of Scripture above all the other voices for how you analyze the candidates.
10.23.2012
AFA's Bryan Fischer: I Am A "Prophetic Voice" Warning Against The Gay Agenda
On yesterday's program, Bryan Fischer claimed to be a "prophetic voice," stating that America is "going to have to choose between the homosexual agenda and liberty, because we cannot have both."
Watch:
10.19.2012
Racism Is Alive And Well: 35 Incredibly Racist Anti-Obama Images
This post is part of PBS's Race 2012 Blogging Project. Race 2012: A Conversation About Race and Politics in America, a PBS election special, uses the current presidential election as a lens through which to explore America’s rapidly changing racial landscape. The film re-airs on PBS Friday October, 19th. (Check local listings) The film can also be viewed at the PBS Race 2012 website.
WARNING: This post contains inflammatory racist imagery and language collected from various online news sites, blogs, forums, and social networks.
If Obama's 2008 inauguration was supposed to signal some kind of 'post-racial' America, someone forgot to send a memo.
We've all seen or heard our share of racist anti-Obama sentiment. Some of us may be insulated enough that we rarely come in contact with those who would find this stuff amusing. Others, however, are less fortunate, and are reminded regularly that although we have made great strides over the past few hundred years, a deep undercurrent of racism continues in our culture.
Although racism rears its ugly head in many areas of American life from time to time -- in the workplace, in the classroom, in the media, etc. -- nothing brings out racism quite like politics.
Racism has always been a staple in American politics (the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Republicans' "Southern Strategy," Reagan's "welfare queen," Jesse Helms' "Hands" ad, to cite a few examples). We cringe when we recall these (and other) events. We are relieved to have these times behind us.
While the days of lynchings and fire-hoses are behind us, racism is alive and well in 2012. The election of our first African-American president unleashed an incessant stream of racism that continues, and there is no sign of it letting up.
Many on the right think liberals are quick to cry "racism," that we are too sensitive, or that we are misinterpreting the message. "It's okay to hang an effigy of Bush," they say, "but we're not allowed to hang an effigy of Obama?" Or, "It's okay to make George Bush look like a monkey, but when we make Obama look like a monkey, it's racism?"
Yes. It is.
What many fail to understand is that there is not a history of whites being lynched in America. There is not a history of whites being depicted as monkeys. Our words, our statements, and our imagery, carry the baggage of history. To fail to recognize the difference between hanging a white man's effigy and hanging a black man's effigy is to fail to recognize this.
There's a world of difference between a depiction of Hansel and Gretel being put in an oven and a depiction of Elie Wiesel being put in an oven. If you don't appreciate that difference, you are either willfully ignorant or woefully uneducated.
Yes, there are instances where the term 'racism' is thrown around a bit loosely. Yes, some are guilty of being a little too sensitive and crying racism when it is not merited. But the sensitivity would not exist if there were not already a torrent of legitimately racist remarks, depictions, and displays to reference.
I wrestled with the idea of compiling these highly offensive images. Arguably, the perpetuation of these images, even in the context of condemnation, does more damage than good. But the sad truth is that a simple Google search will return each and every one of these images (and then some) -- duplicated countless times in various locations across the web.
This compilation of disturbing and inflammatory images is a stark reminder of the level of hatred that continues nearly a half-century after the civil rights movement. It is to remind us that although we have come a long way, we are still very far from a widespread acceptance of racial equality.
Here are 21 news-making examples (and 14 additional images) of overt racism directed at the President:
1. A San Bernadino Republican group distributed Obama Bucks:
2. A bar owner sells Curious George Obama T-shirts:
3. Manhattan boutique sells "Obama Is My Slave" T-shirts:
4. A man was photographed by Getty Images at a Romney-Ryan rally in Lancaster, Ohio, wearing a "Put The White Back In the White House" T-shirt:
5. A California Tea Party activist e-mailed an image of Barack Obama depicted as a chimpanzee:
6. Online business sells "Don't Re-Nig in 2012" bumper stickers:
7. A N.J. clothing store's window display shows President Barack Obama as a witch doctor:
8. A billboard in Missouri depicts Barack Obama in a turban:
9. Anti-Obama yard signs in Massachusetts:
10. Anti-Obama signs in Pennsylvania:
11. Georgia Bar owner calls Obama "Nigger" on business sign and claims he isn't racist:
12. Racist anti-Obama slogan appears on a $5 bill:
13. Racist sign erected in Wisconsin by guy who claims he's a "big fan" of the President:
14. Billboard appears in Colorado depicting Obama as a suicide bomber, a gangster, a Mexican revolutionary and a homosexual:
15. Sign from a Tea Party rally:
16. The below image featuring Obama in drag eating fried chicken was featured on a John Locke Foundation website:
17. Texas resident lynched an empty chair following Clint Eastwood's empty chair bit at the RNC:
18. Altered Obama yard signs in Texas:
19. Florida pastor Terry Jones hangs Obama effigy outside church (flanked by gay pride flag and Muhammad cartoon):
20. A pair of racist images posted on the Mecklenburg County VA Republican Party Facebook page:
What's truly sad is that this is only the tip of the iceberg. One need only to do a Google search to unearth all kinds of ugliness.
And while the above examples received press from multiple sources, we can't catalog the incessant posting, emailing, and sharing of racist political imagery.
The below are all legitimate images circulating on the Internet, via social networks, online forums, emails, and blogs:
WARNING: This post contains inflammatory racist imagery and language collected from various online news sites, blogs, forums, and social networks. If Obama's 2008 inauguration was supposed to signal some kind of 'post-racial' America, someone forgot to send a memo.
We've all seen or heard our share of racist anti-Obama sentiment. Some of us may be insulated enough that we rarely come in contact with those who would find this stuff amusing. Others, however, are less fortunate, and are reminded regularly that although we have made great strides over the past few hundred years, a deep undercurrent of racism continues in our culture.
Although racism rears its ugly head in many areas of American life from time to time -- in the workplace, in the classroom, in the media, etc. -- nothing brings out racism quite like politics.
Racism has always been a staple in American politics (the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Republicans' "Southern Strategy," Reagan's "welfare queen," Jesse Helms' "Hands" ad, to cite a few examples). We cringe when we recall these (and other) events. We are relieved to have these times behind us.
While the days of lynchings and fire-hoses are behind us, racism is alive and well in 2012. The election of our first African-American president unleashed an incessant stream of racism that continues, and there is no sign of it letting up.
Many on the right think liberals are quick to cry "racism," that we are too sensitive, or that we are misinterpreting the message. "It's okay to hang an effigy of Bush," they say, "but we're not allowed to hang an effigy of Obama?" Or, "It's okay to make George Bush look like a monkey, but when we make Obama look like a monkey, it's racism?"
Yes. It is.
What many fail to understand is that there is not a history of whites being lynched in America. There is not a history of whites being depicted as monkeys. Our words, our statements, and our imagery, carry the baggage of history. To fail to recognize the difference between hanging a white man's effigy and hanging a black man's effigy is to fail to recognize this.
There's a world of difference between a depiction of Hansel and Gretel being put in an oven and a depiction of Elie Wiesel being put in an oven. If you don't appreciate that difference, you are either willfully ignorant or woefully uneducated.
Yes, there are instances where the term 'racism' is thrown around a bit loosely. Yes, some are guilty of being a little too sensitive and crying racism when it is not merited. But the sensitivity would not exist if there were not already a torrent of legitimately racist remarks, depictions, and displays to reference.
I wrestled with the idea of compiling these highly offensive images. Arguably, the perpetuation of these images, even in the context of condemnation, does more damage than good. But the sad truth is that a simple Google search will return each and every one of these images (and then some) -- duplicated countless times in various locations across the web.
This compilation of disturbing and inflammatory images is a stark reminder of the level of hatred that continues nearly a half-century after the civil rights movement. It is to remind us that although we have come a long way, we are still very far from a widespread acceptance of racial equality.
Here are 21 news-making examples (and 14 additional images) of overt racism directed at the President:
1. A San Bernadino Republican group distributed Obama Bucks:
2. A bar owner sells Curious George Obama T-shirts:
3. Manhattan boutique sells "Obama Is My Slave" T-shirts:
4. A man was photographed by Getty Images at a Romney-Ryan rally in Lancaster, Ohio, wearing a "Put The White Back In the White House" T-shirt:
5. A California Tea Party activist e-mailed an image of Barack Obama depicted as a chimpanzee:
6. Online business sells "Don't Re-Nig in 2012" bumper stickers:
7. A N.J. clothing store's window display shows President Barack Obama as a witch doctor:
8. A billboard in Missouri depicts Barack Obama in a turban:
9. Anti-Obama yard signs in Massachusetts:
10. Anti-Obama signs in Pennsylvania:
11. Georgia Bar owner calls Obama "Nigger" on business sign and claims he isn't racist:
12. Racist anti-Obama slogan appears on a $5 bill:
13. Racist sign erected in Wisconsin by guy who claims he's a "big fan" of the President:
14. Billboard appears in Colorado depicting Obama as a suicide bomber, a gangster, a Mexican revolutionary and a homosexual:
15. Sign from a Tea Party rally:
16. The below image featuring Obama in drag eating fried chicken was featured on a John Locke Foundation website:
17. Texas resident lynched an empty chair following Clint Eastwood's empty chair bit at the RNC:
18. Altered Obama yard signs in Texas:
19. Florida pastor Terry Jones hangs Obama effigy outside church (flanked by gay pride flag and Muhammad cartoon):
20. A pair of racist images posted on the Mecklenburg County VA Republican Party Facebook page:
What's truly sad is that this is only the tip of the iceberg. One need only to do a Google search to unearth all kinds of ugliness.
And while the above examples received press from multiple sources, we can't catalog the incessant posting, emailing, and sharing of racist political imagery.
The below are all legitimate images circulating on the Internet, via social networks, online forums, emails, and blogs:
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