Locke and Ki

Rumsfeld calls for Rumsfeld to Resign

2006-04-19T20:21:00.000-04:00

I found the site www.TheSpoof.com, yesterday. It's a fake news site like The Onion that lets people contribute stories. I found it accidentally from google news which gave me a link to this article from a search on intelligent design:

Scientists Confirm Australopithecus Believed in Intelligent Design

Here's my first attempt at an article:
Rumsfeld calls for Rumsfeld's Resignation

This actually, currently comes up third in google news if you search for Rumsfeld's Resignation!

New New School Prayer

2006-04-14T15:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a poem from an email I got. Since I feel it misses the point fairly drastically, I've written another which will follow

NEW School Prayer.

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

Here's mine:

The New (New) School Prayer

In school may seem the perfect place
To lead the kids to praise God’s grace
But you should know, and this is true,
That not all people think like you

If pray’rs are forced on all in sight
We violate the Bill of Rights
But never has this meant, nor now,
That you can't fold your hands or bow

In school we don't lead kids in prayer
But really, this is not unfair
The government should not decide
By which religion kids abide

Kids can pray, aloud and do
In school, in groups, it’s not taboo
If it’s not forced, there’s no disgrace
Curriculum’s just not the place

Not having "Prayer in the school"
Is not some kind of "no-pray rule"
It just forbids one kind of prayer
Be forced on all the kids in there

To say you’re being silenced, though
Now this is hardly apropos
What of the Hindus, Muslims too?
Why should they have to bow with you?

What if their numbers quickly grew
And your child had to pray on cue
With the Koran, or some Karmic rule
Recited in your children’s school?

When you KNOW your religion’s true
You feel you’ve got a job to do
To spread the word and save all men
You’re proud of every last Amen.

It’s true that faith is unsurpassed
Belief is something deep and vast
And this is good, but separate
Your fine belief, from our fine state

Our founding fathers in their season
Set us up, informed by reason
Breaking from the past tradition
Where High Priest was the Politician

For nothing’s caused more pain or grief
In hist’ry than enforced belief
At worst there’s violence and oppression
At best, a pointless “I’m Right!” session

The arguments we’ve heard before
Of misremembered days of yore
Complain the Christians in frustration
“Majority discrimination!”

But let’s not cheapen real unfairness
For tolerance is just awareness
That others holding different views
Should be allowed the right to choose

There is no cause for fear or hate
When it comes to church and state
Their separation’s not a threat
And we CAN live together, yet!

William Dembski

2006-01-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Regarding the legal failure of the (replaced) Dover School Board to insert Intelligent design into the science classroom.

‘‘This galvanizes the Christian community. People I’m talking to say we’re going to be raising a whole lot more funds now.’’
-William Dembski

"If Intelligent Design is scientific rather than religious, why should anything about it galvanize Christians?"
-Anyone who thinks about this for more than one minute

Intelligent Design is not Science

2005-12-20T19:07:00.000-05:00

In Dover, PA, the court ruled that Intelligent Design was nothing more that a renaming of Creationism and it was therefore unconstitutional to mandate teaching it in public school. The Dover school board proponents of intelligent design, eight out of nine whom were recently voted off the board, never hid their religious agenda. Even now one member is not saying that the decision was wrong, but that there is not and should not be a separation of church and state.

Thankfully, the evidence was weighed appropriately and intelligent design was barred from the science classroom, since it in no way, other than superficially, resembles science. This is an extremely important victory for our society and our pursuit of truth. It is equally important that this ruling comes from a republican judge who is religious himself. I don’t know why more people of faith are not outraged by the deceitful tactics of those who promote things like intelligent design as science.

So today, I am happy. Now, hopefully someone will stop that other school from putting stickers on their biology books with that ever-popular, but grossly misleading phrase “evolution is only a theory.”

Bush not Living in a Bubble

2005-12-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

Bush not living in a bubble

...it's a myth to think I don't know what's going on," Bush said. "And it's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there (are) opinions that don't agree with mine. Because I'm fully aware of that.

President Bush has cleared the air on at least one issue today, that issue being whether he is simply unaware that his policies and practices are unpopular and that the American people trust his past, present, and future actions less and less each day, or if he knows this, but simply does not care. Just in case there were any doubt, Bush has let us know in no uncertain terms that he is absolutely and completely aware of all of these things and not to worry, he has it all under control.

Thank you, Mr. President.

American Torture

2005-12-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

I was listening this morning to some discussion of the possible large-scale use of torture by the United States in its campaign to stop global terrorism, the so-called war on terror.

As I listened to the carefully worded denials, to the arguments and couter-arguments, one question kept occurring to me, over and over, and that was this:

Do we want to be the good guys?

It sounds like a simple question and it is. Of course we do! We're Americans! We ARE the good guys, right?

Right...?

Well, maybe this isn’t the right question. Maybe the right question is a bit more specific. How's this:

Do we want to conduct ourselves, in all ways, so that we are always on the side of what is right?

Now that question's a bit trickier. It's one thing to want to be the good guy. It's something else entirely to actually do the hard work of BEING the good guy.

Let's face it. If doing what was right were easy, there would be no issue. We'd all be doing it, all the time. But the temptation to act selfishly is strong, and selfish actions are often rewarded handsomely. This can seems awfully unfair to the person, or the society who has made the commitment to do what is right and acted on it. Being the good guy means that you have the burden of honor and the obligation of truth. But you can shout all you want about ideals and values, but if you don’t live by them, they’re less than no good. They’re a sham, covering up what is true.

Being on the side of what is right is difficult, but with nations, as with individuals, it’s easier when you ally yourself with those who act on the same ideals. The US, by engaging in and condoning torture, both directly and indirectly, threatens not only our chances for understanding between ourselves and those people in this world who hate us, but also threatens our relationships with our friends, and the integrity of a moral global community. After all, our friends are trying to do what is right, too and the temptations to do otherwise are as strong for them as they are for us. A group of strong allies fighting to protect what is right is strengthened by their trust in each other. Our actions have weakened that trust.

You might say that our motivation is not selfishness in this case, and you’re right. In this case, our motivation is fear. It takes great courage to stand up to someone who wants to hurt you those you protect. It takes even greater courage to do so while rejecting those tactics which promise to make us safer at the cost of what is honorable and right. This would be true even if such a tactic were 100% effective, which, in the case of torture, is very much up for debate.

So do the ends justify the means? I don’t think so. Even if torture was an effective means of gathering crucial and reliable information, which is far from clearly the case, we lose the moral right to use our power when we forget that what we represent is not just an ideal, but who we are, and that we MUST live by it.