Author: rakemag

As dangerous as an allegory on the banks of the Nile

Yesterday this from the NY Times about the Biblical literalists’ invasion of natural history museums and how they are accosting and interrupting guides while they are explaining the scientific view of how we got here.

The article explains how members of B.C. groups (B.C. stands for Biblically Correct, which has to be one of the greatest oxymorons of all times,) have started showing up at museums to challenge Darwin, Newton, or anyone else who ever had a coherent thought.

But, they have their backers. According to recent polls, 54 percent of Americans do not believe in evolution. I suggested earlier that those who don’t believe in evolution shouldn’t get to partake in the benefits science has provided us. If you don’t believe in survival of the fittest, you shouldn’t get the benefits our evolved brains’ study of viral and bacterial evolution have provided us, e.g. vaccines.

Now some thought that was too harsh, so I’m going to suggest another tactic. Let’s form groups called FART (Fundamentalists Are Really Thick) and start going to churches and challenging their ministers to debates on whether their beliefs aren’t prima facie evidence that they are closely related to chimpanzees who can be trained to do tricks on command–such as pulling the Republican voting lever and getting a banana.

Brownback–isn’t that a species of great ape?

Today, I take back everything I’ve said about David Brooks of the NY Times.

This is a howler. If you’ve spent any time at all listening to the confirmation hearings for John Roberts, you’ll like this. The only thing funnier is listening to Kansas Senator Sam Brownback’s performance in the original and imagining yourself as being represented by that moron.

Or is that tragic?

n.b. If you like reading the NY Times editorial columnists, as of Monday on it’s gonna cost you. They are going to start charging for access on the web. I think it’s a bad idea, but, what can you do? At least it’s better to pay for the NY Times than get that sorriest of op-ed pages that the Strib offers up for free.

If you vote for monkeys, you’re going to get bananas

I had an interesting dinner with one of my Republican friends last night. (Yes, I do have them.) Of course, the conversation eventually turned to New Orleans and Bush and his comment “Nobody could have forseen the levees would fail.”

Since it’s been clear for many years that the levees were going to fail if a hurricane hit, and that the Bush administration had cut funding that Congress had in their legislation to provide for levee reinforcement, I asked her, “How can we appropriate $230 million for a highway to nowhere Alaska, and can’t do $60 million to shore up the levees.”

Her answer: the people of Louisiana are stupid for electing incompetent congress members who can’t bring home the bacon.

I hate to admit it, but she’s right.

If there’s one thing that’s become abundantly clear in the past five years (OK, I’ll also admit it’s been pretty obvious for long before that) it’s that government is no different from the private sector in the way it operates. It’s every man for himself. If you are weak, and the people of New Orleans certainly were, your congressional delegation will be weak as well. A representative from a poor district is probably going to be a poor representative.

Don Young of Alaska can get whatever he wants for his district, whether it needs it or not. Multiply that by over 6,000 pet projects in a transportation bill, and you can see the power of many congressmen. Seems like everyone but Louisiana got theirs.

The NY Times noted yesterday that perhaps it’s now time to look at the pork that’s been brought home by various legislators, including our own James Oberstar, and redirect some of that to New Orleans.

But, what are the chances that we’d give up a recreational bike trail in Minnesota to save lives in Louisiana, do you think? I’m betting on the bikers.

It’s economic and political Darwinism pure and simple–the survival of the fittest. QED.

Isn’t it odd that that’s clearly the reality of our life in the United States…especially when contrasted with what so many Republican leaning voters believe about Darwin’s other theories of evolution?

Well, Bush has declared next Friday a National Day of Prayer. While you are on your knees praying to the creationists’ God, be sure to ask him if he’d please send some better congressmen to New Orleans than the monkeys they have representing them now.

If there were any dead in New Orleans, they’d be in a tourist attraction.

Reuters is reporting that FEMA will not let journalists on the rescue boats looking for survivors in New Orleans. It seems the journalists might take pictures of dead bodies.

Let’s see now…no pictures of dead bodies in New Orleans equals no dead people in New Orleans?

Remind you of anywhere else? No pictures of flag-draped coffins from Iraq equals no dead soldiers in Irag.

Do they really think we’re that stupid? Answer: If we let them get away with this, we are that stupid.

One more thing, while we’re talking about stupid. Just read Bush’s own words here.

Where W gets it

Well, I thought I’d heard it all when Bush said “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” to Michael Brown, head of FEMA.

Then I thought I’d heard it all when Brown said “Everyone in the Convention Center is getting one or two meals a day from us.”

But now I know I’ve heard it all when Matriarch Barbara Bush said this yesterday about the refugees in Houston, “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”

Is it too early to call for the guillotine for the ruling family?