By now you’ve probably heard of the tragic events in Huntsville Alabama, where Biology professor Amy Bishop allegedly shot and killed three fellow faculty members of the University of Alabama.   I use the word “Allegedly” as a technicality, because although she has not been convicted or confessed, it’s pretty clear that she did do it.     Of course, all killings and killers are unique, although this one seems to fit the pattern of a “workplace rampage” – the kind of killing which is usually the result of an extreme amount of anger and frustration and often involves a feeling of being treated unfairly.  These usually (but not always) result in the death of the perpetrator, either by suicide or because they refuse to surrender and are shot by police after trying to continue to kill.  At this point it’s not clear whether or not Bishop attempted suicide, but had run out of amunition or had the gun jam.   It’s also not clear whether she had made any attempt to flea the scene.

Not surprisingly, discussion quickly moved to the topic of religion and politics.   There’s thus far no evidence that Bishop was in any way an “Intelligent Design” or creationism advocate.   However, according to some in the community, she was a regular church goer – although to a church that was decidedly “liberal” in social additude.   She was also a member of the Clergy Letter Project, a project which seeks professors and scientists to give advice to clergy on issues of science.   Other than that, she does not appear to have been especially active in religion.   A number of reports (especially local) have pointed out that she was a “liberal from New England” or used similar language.   A number of outlets have also stated that she was a “Socialist.” These reports seem to based their conclusion on some comments by her students, in which they state that she was not openly political in class but that she was “a socialist.”  Despite the headlines, it’s not really clear from these comments that she was actually a “socialist” in the sense of being for overthrowing the entire capitalist system and creating a Workers’ Paradise – it may simply be that she was a bit left wing.   (Not that this is unusual in professors in general)

The bottom line is that, despite grasping for straws on both sides, there’s really no evidence that Bishop had any extreme beliefs or was all that active politically or religiously.   Even if she was, that really doesn’t count for much.   There are millions of Christians, Atheists, left-wingers, progressives, socialists, conservatives and libertarians who have never killed anyone and never would.

There is, however, some information which indicates a troubled past.   In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18 year old brother in Braintree, MA. The bizzare incident happened when she shot her brother in the chest with a shot gun and was found in the street holding the gun.   Police investigated the incident, but were unable to find any conclusive evidence to refute Bishop’s claims that it had been an accident.   Although some suspected it was not, no charges were ever filed.

Possible trigger was a tenure dispute?
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By now, we all know that Haiti is badly in need of aid and there are many groups out there which are working to try to get it there.    Due to the enormous scale of the disaster, there’s almost no limit to the need for everything from food to water to search and rescue equipment.    Military air and sea-lift divisions from several countries are working to get the complex logistics in place and organizations ranging from the Red Cross to the United Nations are doing what they can to get food, water and other supplies to the people of Haiti.

As a general rule, organizations are asking for individuals and small groups to donate money, as opposed to directly donating the supplies.   There are some exceptions to this, such as for specialized equipment, or in cases where an organization can supply large quantities of an important aid supply, but in general, the logistical issues with sorting and shipping many individually donated canned food, water bottles or first aid kits makes these kind of donations less useful and slower to get to those who need them most.

However, if you are going to donate something to the effort and it’s not money, it should at least be something with some kind of usefulness to it.   There are many things that would fit the bill here.   Water purifiers, sanitary supplies, basic clothing like undergarments and even items like eyeglasses could help those who lost everything.  It’s been said that “nobody wants your old sneakers,” and that is certainly true, but if you happen to have several truck loads of brand new sneakers, that might actually help.

Yet one group has decided to send something even more useless than a pair of old smelly sneakers.  What is it they’re sending?  Solar powered bibles.   Yes, you read right.   Apparently they felt that the people of Haiti need faith right now and that faith comes from the “good book.”   However, the “good book” is apparently not good enough – or maybe it’s just too inexpensive and doesn’t have that whiz-bang novelty of a new gadget, so they’re instead sending a solar-powered device which is preloaded with an electronic audio-book version of the bible.   They already are planning on sending 600 of them and would like to raise money for 3000.

If it’s not a frivolous enough expense to send portable self-reading electronic bibles to Haiti, these ones also have a solar panel on them, thus assuring that the quake refugees will be able to charge them with the same sun that beats down on them as they search for clean water and food.    That way, they will at least not have to worry about finding more batteries to listen to the bible.

They state that the audio bibles are necessary to send “hope” to Haiti.    It justifies this by providing a sample of a bible reading in both French and Haitian Creole (the primary language in Haiti) to show that the passionate and dramatic reading of the bible versus is so much more hopeful than words on paper.  These bibles can also be listened to by a large number of people, even if they’re not literate and thus could not read it themselves.   Apparently it never occurred to them, that a single person could read the bible to a large group gathered around them – a person who might be called something like a “priest” or “minister.”

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2010 has barely started, and I thought this would be a great time for me to prove once and for all that I am a psychic, a seer, a prophet or whatever else you care to call it. I am issuing some of my psychic predictions for the remainder of the year. I stand behind all of these, as they were given to me through a gift from god. That said, I do not claim 100% accuracy.

It is possible that a couple of these may be wrong, but the overwhelming majority will be right. If not the majority, than, well, uh, at least some, but we will focus on the ones that I got right, and that’s all the proof you should need!

I anticipate my success rate will meet or exceed that of the best and most famous psychics and seers!

(note:  for those not directly familiar with this page, this is posted in a sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek manner.  I don’t actually believe I’m psychic or even that psychics exist, however I do stand by my claim that many of these will prove uncanny in their accuracy.)

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Best Wishes that for a very very high energy holiday season and a bountiful new year.

This holiday season, may you and all your friends and family enjoy relief from the bitter cold through artificial heating and may your nights be happy, secure and brought by the glow of incandescence, fluorescence or whatever lighting you may have.   Of course, for those who are in Australia or South America, may your days be cooled by air conditioning.   Here’s hoping all your travels are safe, comfortable and rapid, and may all your pantries overflow with a surplus of safe and pathogen-free food.   And may your health be maintained by the best medicine that science can produce.

However you may celebrate your holidays and whether it is Christmas, the Yuletide, Solstice, Chaunaka or otherwise, here’s hoping that the power of many many kilowatts will serve for your comfort and protection.  Terajoules of comfort and joy, for all of mankind.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Policy recently came out with the results of a series of public opinion studies on religion and paranormal beliefs in American society.   There were some interesting trends observed, some of which might not have been expected.   Unfortunately, there’s no sign of any general reduction in mystical or religious beliefs.  (I’m sure some readers will disagree on whether that’s unfortunate or not.)   There has been a slight decline in the attendance of traditional religious services in recent years, but general beliefs, including beliefs in less traditional religious and spiritual concepts remain strong, and in some cases are growing.  Indeed, since the 1960’s, there has been an upward trend in those who claim to have personally had a religious or mystical experience.

One of the biggest trends that has appeared is the inclusion of more new-age, mystical and Eastern beliefs in American religion.   While Christianity (in one form or another) remains the largest religious sect in the US, many also indicate that they believe in things like astrology, fortune telling or the idea of  spiritual energy or karma.   More surprisingly, a significant number of Americans (16%) believe that people can cast a negative influence by giving the “evil eye” or casting spells or curses.   Even those who identify themselves with traditional western religions are now more receptive than ever to other forms of bullshit.

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In the US, teaching a religious scripture class in a public school (government sanctioned, tax payer funded) would simply not happen.  We have black latter law against that, and even in the deepest backward bible-belt backwaters, something as blatant as a scripture class is just not going to happen.  Sure, teachers may try to throw in some religious messages (which they shouldn’t) but even that could lead to a lawsuit in federal court.

Not so in Australia.   Despite being a country well known for its skepticism and generally secular, it seems that a vestige of the religious days still exists in some public schools in New South Whales.   On the bright side, while these classes are actually being mandated by the government (seriously), they are optional for students to take and more than half of families elect to have their children opt out of these classes.   Still, by law non-scripture students can’t be taught another subject during scripture class sessions.  Apparently this came about because it would give them the benefit of having time for additional education and thus encourage more to not take scripture class (or that was the justification anyway).   This amounts to a kind of no-compete clause that assures that schools all have dedicated time for religious indoctrination that cannot be used by any other subject.

This law goes all the way back to the late 1800’s and still applies today in New South Whales.   Many other parts of Australia continue to have mandated scripture classes in public schools, but now allow students to take other classes in place of the religious classes.  Only New South Whales still has a law directly preventing other classes from using the time and forcing students to choose between doing nothing and being taught religious beliefs.

Via Homepage Daily:

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Found this on a fundy “creation science” site, apparently questions that will tell whether you’re an “Evolutionist” or not. The alternative, being a creationist.

Evolution can become so ingrained in our thinking that we don’t even notice it. Our government schools and universities are entrenched in evolution, from biology to philosophy and even English class. There is no escaping evolution after we graduate, either. We encounter it in the newspaper, on the radio, on television, and in blockbuster movies. So, how do you know if you’ve been evolutionized? Here are a few questions to find out:

1. Are tribes in the South American rain forest more primitive forms of humans than we are?
2. Did dinosaurs live before humans?
3. Were the people who lived in caves and used simple tools not very intelligent?
4. Did Noah lack special tools or equipment to build the Ark?
5. Are the stars older than the earth?
6. Is there more than one race?
7. Does it take millions of years to form fossils, oil, coal, or diamonds?
8. Did Adam have to learn how to speak, read, and write after he was created?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’ve been evolutionized to some degree, and the more times you responded “yes,” the more evolution impacts your thinking. Evolutionary teaching so permeates our culture that it can affect every area of our thinking, including what we believe about the Bible. This sort of evolutionized thinking has even permeated our churches.

That is why it is more important than ever for Christians to be discerning and weigh every thought against the truths revealed in God’s Word. If you examine each question more closely, you will see how your answers must be different from evolutionists’ if you start with God’s Word.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t answer any of the questions with an unequivocal “yes.”   Here are my answers:

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Story Via the JREF…

I’m not always the biggest fan of Glenn Beck, and on occasion I’ve actually found his show to be reporting some very bad science, but he does at least a mediocre when it comes to John Edward – at least better than most interviews.  That’s not saying much though. The fact the Glenn Beck brought up anything critical at all is unusual, but I really would have liked to see him actually take on John Edward’s claims. Frauds like John Edward tend to be very selective about who they let interview them, as uncontrolled interviews have proven disastrous in the past.

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The discovery of Jaycee Dugard, alive and having been held captive for eighteen years, since her 1991 abduction has been big news recently.   The discovery of the abducted 29 year old (who was 11 at the time of the abduction) was a relatively simple matter of alter police officers noticing that something was amiss.    When Jaycee’s alleged captor, Phillip Garrido, went to UC Berkley and asked permission to hold a special Christian event, officials noticed he was acting suspiciously and alerted campus police officers.

After running a background check, it was discovered that Garrido was on parole for rape.  It also was noted that he was listed as not having children, despite having two young girls with him, who he had claimed were his daughters.   The two girls who accompanied Garrido, 11 and 15 years of age, were also noted as behaving erratically, and given the background of Garrido, police became understandably concerned.   Further investigation lead to the discovery of Jaycee Dugard and the establishment of her true identity as well as the conditions she had been living under for the past eighteen yearpsyts.

This would seem like a prime example of alert cops doing their job and checking out something that just didn’t seem right.   This opportunity could easily have been missed, if police had not taken the step of running a background check on the suspicious man with the two wide-eyed young girls.   In general, this is how most long standing crimes and disappearances are solved:   either by a chance discovery, police investigation or a combination of both.    Clearly there’s no psychic involved here.   That shouldn’t surprise anyone, since despite many trumped up claims, there is not a single documented example of a psychic providing information that lead to any case being solved.

Yet that does not stop them from claiming otherwise.   With the media attention that Jaycee Dugard has gotten, it’s not surprising that a psychic or two would try to cash in on this event.
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The last time I was flying, I didn’t really enjoy the experience. For one thing I was overtired and jet lagged. The narrow seats that barely recline at all didn’t help nor did the fact that the flight was delayed by more than an hour. On top of this, there was a baby of the plane crying. I’ve been on worse flights, however. At least the baby was not crying the entire time and at least it was on the other side of the aircraft.

However, what makes me realize just how much worse I could have really had it is this video. As a follow up to a previous post about a number of Israeli rabbis who flew over the country blowing horns and praying to try to prevent a bad flu season, we now have a video of the event.

Original video from the BBC

At least they chartered the aircraft and didn’t all just book the same commercial flight. Now that would be the flight from hell for the other passengers!