World News Korner

Courtesy of the Patriot News:

"The only solution is an all-white revolution," said one of 10 Ku Klux Klan members during a klan protest rally held Saturday at the Gettysburg National Military Park.

But, Marguerethe Jaede, of Columbus, Ohio, who was in the area for a lacrosse tournament and happened upon the rally while in the park, didn't agree. They're "preaching hate and ignorance," Jaede said.

Held by the Traditional Rebel Knights of Braddock Heights, Md., the rally was organized to protest against black on white violence, illegal immigration and gay rights, among other subjects.

The group also expressed opinions about President Obama, Jews and white supremacy. "We are taking back this land," one klan protester said. "Anyone stands in our way, they're going in the ground."

Seriously with the rise of the rabid Right Wing in the form of the Tea Party, the disrespect directed toward the President by members of Congress, and an undercurrent of racism running through just about everything in politics these days, who did not see this type of thing coming?

I think it is only going to become more blatant as time goes on.

These may be relatively small groups willing to go public right now, but there are undoubtedly hundreds more waiting in the wings to see what the reception is for their vitriol, and if it appears that there are those sympathetic to their message I think seeing larger groups is a given.

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Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that business owners can object on religious grounds to a provision of President Barack Obama's healthcare law that requires closely held companies to provide health insurance that covers birth control.

The court held on a 5-4 vote on ideological lines that such companies can seek an exemption from the so-called birth control mandate of the healthcare law. The decision means employees of those companies will have to obtain certain forms of birth control from other sources.

In a majority opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, the court said the ruling applies only to the birth control mandate and does not mean companies would necessarily succeed if they made similar claims to other insurance requirements, such as vaccinations and drug transfusions.

This is a very unfortunate decision by the Supreme Court, and very discriminatory toward women.

I can assure that Hobby Lobby has no such objection to offering health insurance that covers Viagra for men. It is only preventing the potential pregnancies that might result from those medication induced boners that gives them the vapors.

And the argument against providing this coverage due to religious beliefs is itself completely indefensible. It is essentially some mutation of the pro-life argument against providing abortion, however the majority of the medications restricted by this decision are for the prevention of conception, not the termination of conception.

The Bible says NOTHING about birth control and even if it did there should NEVER be an instance where an employer's religious beliefs superseded the family planning or health concerns of their female employees.

Update: Here are the five top takeaways from Justice Ginsberg's dissent.

5. The ruling is too broad: “In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

4. For-profit corporations are not religious organizations: “Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community.”

3. The ruling violates separation of church and state: “The exemption sought by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga would…deny legions of women who do not hold their employers’ beliefs access to contraceptive coverage”

2. The ruling favors an extreme form of “Christianity” over other religions: “Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be ‘perceived as favoring one religion over another,’ the very ‘risk the [Constitution's] Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.”

1. Where does it end?: “Would the exemption…extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]…Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today’s decision.

[...] The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield.”

You can read her entire dissent at the link at the top.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Louisiana State Representative, seeking her district’s U.S. House seat, has posted a campaign video calling climate change “the greatest deception in the history of mankind,” and stating that it can be disproved using a simple thermometer.

In the video Lenar Whitney, who is running for the seat representing Louisiana’s sixth congressional district being vacated by Republican Bill Cassidy, claims climate change is being pushed by liberals, including former Vice President Al Gore, as a way to gain more power for government and raise taxes.

Using terminology usually associated with former half-term Governor Sarah Palin, Whitney claims that her pronouncement that climate change is a fraud, “caused liberals in the lamestream media to become unglued,” before equating herself with George Orwell, who once said: “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

“Any ten-year-old can invalidate their thesis with one of the simplest scientific devices known to man. A thermometer.”

“The Earth has done nothing but get colder each year since the films release,” Whitney adds. “God certainly has a wonderful sense of irony.”

“The conspiracy of global warming has had a devastating effect on the American Dream,” she continues before lauding the work of America’s oil companies.

I love how Sarah Palin is used as the barometer for determining degrees of stupidity.

It seems to me that Louisiana is currently being overrun by a whole passel of Sarah Palin clones these days. Including it's Governor.

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Courtesy of Breitbart:

According to Google Support's "Dangerous Products or Services" page, the company "[wants] to keep people safe both online and offline, so [they] won't allow the promotion of some products or services that cause damage, harm, or injury."

Included in the dangerous products for which ads will be blocked are "Guns & Parts." This covers "functional devices that appear to discharge a projectile at high velocity, whether for sport, self-defense, or combat."

Also included is a ban on ads for "any part or component that's necessary to the function of a gun or intended for attachment to a gun." This covers "gun scopes, ammunition, ammunition clips or belts."

The ban will also halt ads for "dangerous knives... throwing stars, brass knuckles, [and] crossbows," among other things.

Just another reason to love Google.

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Larger image.

So essentially the argument used here is that since there have been advances in science which disagree with some of Darwin's hypothesis that the entire discipline should be rejected and a return to biblical explanations for life embraced.

And since when is the "true calling" of scientists to master nature for the benefit of mankind?

I thought their calling was to examine and explore facts in order to better understand the reality in which we live.

As for scientists rejecting Darwin, according to the Smithsonian magazine nothing could be farther from the truth:

Perhaps because of that remarkable success, "evolution," or "Darwinism," can sometimes seem like a done deal, and the man himself something of an alabaster monument to wisdom and the dispassionate pursuit of scientific truth. But Darwin recognized that his work was just the beginning. "In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches," he wrote in Origin.

Since then, even the most unanticipated discoveries in the life sciences have supported or extended Darwin's central ideas—all life is related, species change over time in response to natural selection, and new forms replace those that came before. "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution," the pioneering geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky titled a famous essay in 1973. He could not have been more right—evolution is quite simply the way biology works, the central organizing principle of life on earth.

In the 150 years since Darwin published Origin, those "important researches" have produced results he could never have anticipated. Three fields in particular—geology, genetics and paleoanthropology—illustrate both the gaps in Darwin's own knowledge and the power of his ideas to make sense of what came after him. Darwin would have been amazed, for example, to learn that the continents are in constant, crawling motion. The term "genetics" wasn't even coined until 1905, long after Darwin's death in 1882. And though the first fossil recognized as an ancient human—dubbed Neanderthal Man—was discovered in Germany just before Origin was published, he could not have known about the broad and varied family tree of ancestral humans. Yet his original theory has encompassed all these surprises and more.

Darwin never claimed to have provided all of the answers but the template that he did provide has helped just about every scientific discipline imaginable make incredible discoveries that benefit mankind in incalculable ways.

We owe Charles Darwin a huge debt of gratitude for his invaluable assistance with breakthroughs in anthropology, biology, zoology, ichthyology, ornithology, genealogy, medical advancements, you name it and it was probably benefited in some way by the work of Charles Robert Darwin.

And EVERY science class in America should make it a priority to teach that to their students.

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