Unfettered stupidity

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Michael

Connecticut authorities are prosecuting a homeless woman for using a false address to send her son to the “wrong” district:

McDowell is a homeless single mother from Bridgeport who used to work in food services, is now at the center of one of the very few false address cases in the Norwalk, CT, school district that is being handled in criminal court–rather than between the parent and school. Authorities are accusing McDowell of enrolling her 5-year-old son in nearby Norwalk schools by using the address of a friend. (Her friend has also been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.)

McDowell says she stayed in a Norwalk homeless shelter sometimes–but she didn’t register there, which would have made her son eligible to attend the school.

This whole case is inane. First, this isn’t even the way this sort of issue is typically handled. It’s a school-to-parent concern. Second, it all seems to be fucking resolved anyway – the kid is out of the district. Third, let’s get down to the real issue here. This is about separating the poor from the wealthy. And by those code words I really mean this is about separating minorities from whites:

The blog DropOut Nation notes that the Norwalk schools are better than those in Bridgeport, where McDowell’s last address was; the case thereby raises larger questions about why poorer families often must send their kids to poorly performing schools, in part because local tax revenues make up so much of school funding.

The only difference between this racist horseshit and the racist horseshit in North Carolina recently is that the Tea Party finally isn’t involved. The woman is being viciously prosecuted, threatened with huge fines and prison time, and none of it makes any sense. Aside from not even having an address in the first place, she actually did live in a shelter within the school district. Does an incorrect address really justify all this bluster and bullshit?

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More deaths because of anti-vax crowd

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Michael

Good job, assholes:

Europe, especially France, has been hit by a major outbreak of measles, which the U.N. health agency is blaming on the failure to vaccinate all children.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that France had 4,937 reported cases of measles between January and March — compared with 5,090 cases during all of 2010. In all, more than 6,500 cases have been reported in 33 European nations…

WHO has found that young people between 10 and 19 have not been getting immunized as they should, she said.

To prevent measles outbreaks, officials need to vaccinate about 90 percent of the population. But vaccination rates across Europe have been patchy in recent years and have never fully recovered from a discredited 1998 British study linking the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella to autism. Parents abandoned the vaccine in droves and vaccination rates for parts of the U.K. dropped to about 50 percent.

That discredited 1998 study comes from fraud Andrew Wakefield. His honesty in science is at about the level of a global warming denier and creationists. Yet despite that – and despite all the deaths he has caused – he is still viewed as some great savior.

Of course, we can’t blame him 100%. Maybe 97.4%, but not 100%. The media has a hand in all this, too. Whenever any outlet talks about vaccines, they almost always allow kooks to have a place at the table. It’s outrageous. These kooks present highly selective statistics, distort tiny, inconclusive studies, and scaremonger. I’ve seen it locally and nationally. In fact, the only news organization of note that I ever see take these liars to task is CNN, and even then not always. Anderson Cooper seems to be the only person around who has any balls on the matter.

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Maine: Most peaceful state

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Michael

In a recent ranking by the Institute for Economics and Peace – an organization that inanely thinks a nearly all-flash website is a good idea – has placed Maine as the number one most peaceful state:

The United States Peace Index defines “peace” as the “absence of violence.”

To determine the rankings, the index looked at factors including homicide rates, violent crimes, percentage of the population in jail, number of police officers and availability of small arms.

The Index also estimates the “total cost of violence” for each state which reflects the cost of correctional and policing services, judicial system and medical costs associated with violent crime and homicide, and lost productivity and wages. In Maine, that total cost per person is $656; in Louisiana it is $2,458.

Not surprisingly, 5 out of 6 New England states rank in the top 10, with the 6th (Connecticut) coming in at number 15. For the full list, and to avoid that terrible flash crap, check out this .pdf.

Top 10 most peaceful states:

1. Maine
2. New Hampshire
3. Vermont
4. Minnesota
5. North Dakota
6. Utah
7. Massachusetts
8. Rhode Island
9. Iowa
10. Washington

Top 10 least peaceful states:

1, Louisiana
2. Tennessee
3. Nevada
4. Florida
5. Alabama
6. Texas
7. Arkansas
8. Oklahoma
8. South Carolina
10. Maryland

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Maine bill to legalize it

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Michael

You know what “it” is:

A bill unveiled Wednesday would legalize the personal use and private and commercial cultivation of marijuana and tax consumer purchases at 7 percent. Democratic Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, who is sponsoring the bill, said it’s time to stop turning otherwise law-abiding citizens who use marijuana into criminals…

Russell’s bill would allow Mainers 21 and older to possess up to 1 pound of marijuana and legally smoke or ingest it in nonpublic places, including private residences. People could grow pot within 75 square feet of space for personal consumption and within 2,000 square feet of space for commercial cultivation.

I say do it. Telling people they can’t do something only makes them want to do it more. Besides, the war on drugs is a dismal failure. Time to move on.

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To kill a mocking…bat

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Michael

I would say I have at least a cursory interest in every animal I’ve ever read about or seen in a documentary. Life is life. It’s all interesting. (Read Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor Tale.) But for the past 3 years (as of this July), I’ve had a special interest in bats. You see, I deal with an invasion in my ceiling of the little things every summer. I’m not sure if it’s really beautiful or just creepy hearing them scamper about, but I do enjoy laying awake listening to them. At least, I enjoy them until they manage to get inside. At that point it’s a matter of catching them with a blanket before the cats catch them with a set of claws and teeth. It wouldn’t be so bad if 1) I didn’t have to get my indoor cats preventative shots I otherwise wouldn’t have bought and 2) there wasn’t the ongoing white nose syndrome epidemic going on with bats. The disease so far appears to be limited to bats – decimating huge colonies – but since it isn’t very well understood at all yet, I don’t like the idea of exposing my animals to it (or myself).

But even with limited understanding, an interesting question is raised. Can we help to prevent its spread? One line of thinking says we can by destroying infected bats. But others are calling on the power of evolution:

Kentucky wildlife officials acted quickly when a confirmed case of the disease was found in a bat in Trigg County recently. They euthanized 60 “highly suspect” bats that were “not expected to survive,” they said Wednesday…

Local and national experts, however, believe euthanizing infected bats may not prevent the spread of the disease and could be “counterproductive” to the effort.

Dr. Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International, said white nose syndrome has reached epidemic levels, killing more than 1 million bats since 2006. He said in cases, like this one, where a disease has a very high mortality rate, it is important to see if some infected bats are able to fight off the disease. That way, those with immunities to a disease are able to pass on that ability to their offspring, eventually re-populating the species with bats that can withstand the disease.

“If you kill every bat that gets (the disease), it’s pretty hard to see who survives,” said Tuttle, who has studied bats for more than 50 years. “Just because you get sick, it doesn’t mean you die.”

It isn’t an easy call. Bats are dying in record numbers. Something clearly must be done. Evolution may provide the doing – after all, bats have been around for 50-55 million years – but if humans can successfully intervene, then we should. The problem is that we just don’t really know how to go about it.

Filed under: Evolution, News | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Read all about it!

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Michael

I have put out another copy of my publication Without Apology. I have yet to put the articles up on my other blog because, well, I don’t wanna right now. But if you head on over to UMA, especially in Jewett Hall, there are a number of copies that can be found.

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Arizona redeems itself. Slightly.

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Michael

In one of its few intelligent moves, the state of Arizona has not passed a stupendously stupid bill into law:

Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed two controversial bills, one mandating proof of U.S. citizenship to run for president, the other allowing guns on college campuses, in a clear setback for conservatives who control the state legislature.

Brewer, who grabbed headlines a year ago when she signed a get-tough state law cracking down on illegal immigrants, vetoed the bills in an announcement late on Monday.

The so-called “birther bill,” would have made Arizona the first state in the nation to require presidential candidates prove U.S. citizenship by providing a long form birth certificate, and other forms of proof including baptismal or circumcision certificates, to be placed on the state ballot.

“I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their ‘early baptism or circumcision certificates’ … This is a bridge too far,” she said..

This is a watershed moment: Republicans are finally realizing that they ought to be embarrassed about the crack-pottery they keep promoting.

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Fastest Boston Marathon

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Michael

Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon with the fastest time ever:

Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon Monday in two hours three minutes and two seconds, the fastest time ever recorded over the grueling distance.

Mutai slashed almost a minute off the official world record of 2:03.59, set by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie at Berlin in 2008, but his time was not ratified as a new record because he was aided by a tailwind on a hilly course with too much downhill from start to finish.

“Boston marathon performances cannot be ratified as world records as the course does not satisfy two of the criteria for world records,” USA Track and Field told Reuters.

Whatevs. It’s still effin’ fast. And certainly faster than the 400lbs guy who completed the L.A. Marathon (which was still impressive).

Forget about the time. I’ll be happy to just run half the distance of a marathon without stopping.

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Arizona: Now more embarrassing than the deep south!

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Michael

America has a new laughing stock:

The state of Arizona has moved onto contentious political territory once again with the legislative passage of a bill requiring President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names can appear on the state’s ballot.

With states like Arizona maybe Maine can avoid appearing on Comedy Central quite so often.

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National Day of Prayer challenge tossed

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Michael

In an incorrect decision, an appeals court has tossed out a previous ruling on the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation did not have standing to sue because while they disagree with the president’s proclamation, it has not caused them any harm.

When I read the headlines about an overturned ruling, I expected some BS premise about the day being private and/or not government endorsed. But no, instead there’s this flimsy reason about standing. Apparently the government can actually endorse any religion now because no American citizen has any sort of standing to make a legal challenge.

Bizarrely, though, despite the piss-poor reason given, the justices decided to go ahead and attempt to make an argument for the constitutionality of the law. This makes no legal sense. By ruling on standing, it is only personal – not legal – interest that is motivating a continued response:

The appeals court said in an opinion written by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook that while the National Day of Prayer proclamation speaks to all citizens, no one is obliged to pray “any more than a person would be obliged to hand over his money if the President asked all citizens to support the Red Cross or other charities.”

Except the First Amendment doesn’t establish a wall of separation between charity and state. Analogy fail, jackass.

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