Don Wise, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation's foremost proponent of ID. No, Wise isn't getting ready to testify on behalf of the school board in Dover, PA. Rather, he advocates for a different version of the acronym: "incompetent design."

Wise cites serious flaws in the systems of the human body as evidence that design in the universe exhibits not an obvious source of, but a sore lack of, intelligence [...]

The thing that perhaps is closest to all of us is our own skeleton, and there are certainly all kinds of stupidity in our design. No self-respecting engineering student would make the kinds of dumb mistakes that are built into us.

All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student.

Look at the teeth in your mouth. Basically, most of us have too many teeth for the size of our mouth. Well, is this evolution flattening a mammalian muzzle and jamming it into a face or is it a design that couldn't count accurately above 20?

Look at the bones in your face. They're the same as the other mammals' but they're just squashed and contorted by jamming the jaw into a face with your brain expanding over it, so the potential drainage system in there is so convoluted that no plumber would admit to having done it!
So is this evolution or is this plain stupid design?

from daily kos

William S Borroughs said about God "that asshole doesn't know what buttons to press or what happens when you push em."

# posted by Jon Easton : 8:23 AM  3 comments

Ever since Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) amendment outlawing torture passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin, the Bush administration has been pulling out all the stops to prevent it from becoming law. Dick Cheney has repeatedly visited Capitol Hill trying to water it down, insisting that at least some government agents should be authorized to torture people. Now the struggle is coming to a head.

More than 23,000 TrueMajority members sent messages opposing U.S. torture, noted military leaders spoke out against it, and a majority of Americans say they disapprove of torturing enemy combatants and terror detainees.¹ With all that against them, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and other leaders have decided that the only way to kill the torture ban is to smother it quietly, out of sight in a conference committee. DON'T LET THEM.

TELL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TO DEMAND THAT THE TORTURE BAN BE INCLUDED IN THE HOUSE BILL.

Click here to take action: http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/torturemotion

# posted by Jon Easton : 3:45 PM  0 comments

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is under serious attack and needs your help. A bill that would severely weaken the act was approved by the U.S. House in September. You can help prevent a similar measure from passing in the Senate. The bald eagle, California sea otter, American alligator, gray wolf, black-footed ferret, gray whale, and international species such as the African elephant are on their way back in large part due to the ESA.

The House-passed bill, H.R. 3824, would undermine protections that these and other imperiled species have been afforded under the law for more than 30 years. The bill would reduce the prospects for restoring healthy populations of threatened and endangered plants and animals, repeal current provisions that protect species from the harmful impact of pesticides, weaken the scientific foundation for decision-making, and divert scarce resources away from effective conservation.

»» TAKE ACTION: Learn more and urge your senators to oppose the House-passed bill that would undermine the ESA.

# posted by Jon Easton : 3:33 PM  0 comments

Gov. SEARCH
Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he was "honored" Cuban President SEARCH
Fidel Castro had referred to him as SEARCH
President Bush's "fat little brother in Florida."

"Forgive me for using the term `fat little brother,'" the Cuban leader said, according to a transcript obtained by The Miami Herald. "It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health."

# posted by Jon Easton : 7:38 AM  1 comments

Check out this Great Post from georgia10 on pre-fascist Hilary.

# posted by Jon Easton : 6:39 AM  3 comments

Lieberman, whom the Bush administration has praised repeatedly for his war stance, defended the president. "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more years," the senator said. "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."

Funny thing is that he thinks he's helping Israel out by supporting this "transformation" in the Middle East, when all this war did was replace a secular dictator with an Iran-style Islamic regime and Iranian ally.

from daily kos

# posted by Jon Easton : 6:25 AM  1 comments

Flag Burning is one of those unsavory rights. Most Americans don't support it, but it is a right that should be protected. It is the HEIGHT of cynical politicking to use this issue this way. Clinton is showing that she is enough of a whore to be president.

And by that I meant no offense to sex workers. A much more honorable trade than that practiced by many politicians in Washington.

# posted by Jon Easton : 8:18 AM  1 comments

I guess the folks who run the new Hotline blog just have bawdier minds than I do. Or, really, that can't be it. So I guess I was just too focused on the CIA material in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune piece on the relationship between Duke Cunningham and uber-contracts-grifter Brent Wilkes to notice this brief passage ...

Wilkes befriended other legislators, too. He ran a hospitality suite, with several bedrooms, in Washington – first in the Watergate Hotel and then in the Westin Grand near Capitol Hill.

Boy, that's good stuff. After all, what possible need could congressmen and senators and their staffers have for access to private hotel suites near the Capitol registered in someone else's name? What was this, the private dancer annex of Signatures?

from Talking Points Memo

This will actually be covered [recovered and over covered] in the mainstream media, unlike all the other scandals, because it is about sex.

My question is. If they had these free suites to us, how come Jeff Gannon-Guckard was spending the night at the white house? I guess some "services" take longer than others.

# posted by Jon Easton : 7:14 AM  0 comments