Institutional racism is not hard to find

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Michael

This case speaks for itself.

“California may be about to execute an innocent man.”

That’s the view of five federal judges in a case involving Kevin Cooper, a black man in California who faces lethal injection next year for supposedly murdering a white family. The judges argue compellingly that he was framed by police.

…

Judge Fletcher laid out countless anomalies in the case. Mr. Cooper’s blood showed up on a beige T-shirt apparently left by a murderer near the scene, but that blood turned out to have a preservative in it — the kind of preservative used by police when they keep blood in test tubes.

Then a forensic scientist found that a sample from the test tube of Mr. Cooper’s blood held by police actually contained blood from more than one person. That leads Mr. Cooper’s defense team and Judge Fletcher to believe that someone removed blood and then filled the tube back to the top with someone else’s blood.

The police also ignored other suspects. A woman and her sister told police that a housemate, a convicted murderer who had completed his sentence, had shown up with several other people late on the night of the murders, wearing blood-spattered overalls and driving a station wagon similar to the one stolen from the murdered family.

They said that the man was no longer wearing the beige T-shirt he had on earlier in the evening — the same kind as the one found near the scene. And his hatchet, which resembled the one found near the bodies, was missing from his tool area. The account was supported by a prison confession and by witnesses who said they saw a similar group in blood-spattered clothes in a nearby bar that night. The women gave the bloody overalls to the police for testing, but the police, by now focused on Mr. Cooper, threw the overalls in the trash.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

Imagine

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Michael

30 years.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Pearl Harbor and chance

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Michael

It’s impossible to live in America and not be aware of being a non-Christian. The culture is one where belief in God is assumed and even expected. When athletes thank God for whatever success they just had, no one bats an eye (except insofar as it’s a cliche). Just the same, when some major travesty occurs, people will always be quoted as saying they had God with them or that their prayers had some impact. It even happened in an article about friend and me. So with all this overwhelming Christianity and god-belief, I found it rather refreshing to read this article about two Pearl Harbor survivors who ended up living next door to each other by chance.

“It was just luck — where you happened to be and how the Japanese planned to bomb,” Perrault said. “People say, ‘God was with you,’ but I think, ‘How about the 3,000 that died?’ How come God wasn’t with them?”

There’s no mention if Perrault is an atheist or not. He may just recognize that the Problem of Evil has no solution in Christianity, so he has turned to another god or just the broad idea of a deity.

At any rate, I am very happy to see someone in a media report recognizing one of the facts of life: it isn’t God – it’s chance.

Filed under: Atheism/Humanism | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Atheists at a Christmas parade

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Michael

PZ has a post about how 18 atheists upset an entire town in Texas by having the audacity to march in a Christmas parade. PZ covers most everything, but I want to really emphasize a quote from the article.

The decision to parade though didn’t sit well with many of those in attendance.

“Wasn’t exactly happy about the Christmas Parade this year, I spent many years teaching my children to love and respect other people and to love the fact that they were children of God and I don’t feel that they should be influenced in any other way especially not at a Christmas parade,” said Tina Corgey, who is a lifelong Bryan resident.

I guess when Corgey talks about all that “love” and “respect”, she didn’t mean for other people. She just meant for other Christians. And she doesn’t want her children to be influenced by knowing that atheists even exist? That isn’t shielding her kids from something she thinks is bad; it’s keeping her children ignorant of a basic fact of the world. She ought to be ashamed.

But I’m sure she isn’t.

Filed under: Atheism/Humanism | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

I’m a man of my word

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Michael

After co-hosting trivia, I came to find that my beer had gone missing. So I did the most natural thing and start drinking someone else’s. I promised I would thank that person in a blog post, and I’m a man of my word, so:

Thank you, Nate.

Also, here are all the questions. One or two are different here because of last minute changes, but most are the same. Also, I’ve excluded number 30 because it was an audio question. The answers will be in the comment section.

1. Maine question: According to the Maine Geological Survey, how tall is Mount Katahdin in feet? Plus or minus 200 feet, 1 point. Right on gets bonus half point.

2. What does the E, m, and c squared stand for in the famous equation e=mc2?

3. What president authorized the construction of the U.S. Interstate System? Bonus half point, in what year?

4. What TV show had the characters Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot, and Tom Servo?

5. Plus or minus two years, when was Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo released? Right on gets one point. Half point for margin.

6. How many U.S. aircraft carries were destroyed at the attack on Pearl Harbor?

7. Who wrote the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”?

8. What is a group of turkeys called?

9. What is the largest living species of fish?

10. What Major League Baseball pitcher has the most losses ever? Bonus half, how many?

11. The last Civil War soldier to die of his wounds was a native Mainer. Name him.

12. Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. How old was he when he died?

13. According to Guinness company, about how many times does a person lift their pint glass before the beer is gone?

14. Who was our 21st President?

15. 12. In what year was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published?

16. This line is from what movie?

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”

17. 69 years after the explosion that destroyed Arizona, oil still leaks from the hull still and rises to the surface of the water. How much oil still leaks per day?

18. What is the name of Nirvana’s breakthrough album?

19. This former Prime Minister of the U.K. made headlines yesterday by predicting the decline of the West. What is his name? For an extra half point, who is the current Prime Minister of Great Britain?

20. Which T.V. show included characters named Patti Mayonnaise, Skeeter Valentine, Bebee Bluff?

21. What does the “L.L.” stand for in L.L. Bean? Half point for each initial.

22. One of my favorite movies from when I was a child was Labyrinth starring David Bowie. Who Directed it? Extra Half point: What year did the film debut?

23. According to the billboard 100, who has the number one song in America?

24. In 1964, congress recognized what alcoholic beverage as the “distinctive spirit” of the U.S.?

25. I am going to read a famous quote from a very popular novel. You tell me the name of the Book for a point and the name of the author for another half point: “Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”

26. Who was the first U.S. President to ride in a train?

27. Which New England Patriot was honored at yesterday’s game against the Jets?

28. According to a survey taken by AT&T, the average American changes residence how many times during a lifetime? Plus or minus one.

29. Chanukah celebrates the Hebrew reclamation of what famous city in 165 BCE?

Filed under: Local | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

Maloney to Myers: Cease and desist

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Michael

I only have a moment since I am co-hosting trivia at The Liberal Cup in Hallowell tonight, so this post will be brief. It looks like Christopher Maloney has sent PZ Myers a cease and desist notice.

What I find really interesting about this is that the board that oversees Maloney actually said this about him:

The Board cautions you to take care to clearly identify yourself as a “naturopathic doctor” at all times as required pursuant to 32 M.R.S.A. 12521 of the enabling statute which governs your licensure. The unqualified reference to yourself as a “doctor” at points in your website might cause confusion on the part of prospective patients as to the nature of services which you are authorized to perform even though other references therein specify naturopathic services.

Emphasis mine.

Again, I have to unfortunately cut this post short. To date I have not received any letter like the one above.

Update: It struck me today in a discussion about language I was having that the way I am portraying the word “unqualified” could be misinterpreted. The use here is as in qualifier. At times on his website – many times, and still, in fact – Maloney has not used a qualifier like “naturopathic” in front of the word doctor.

Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Thought of the day

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Michael

Malcolm X was a tremendous figure and remains tremendously interesting – and surprisingly relevant.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

You Christians don’t get to do whatever you want

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Michael

Is it really that hard to understand? Is it really that hard to understand that one group does not get to impose its religious beliefs on everyone else? Church and state are separate; freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. I suspect if anti-theist atheists or Muslims or Scientologists started reciting their beliefs through a government entity, you Christians would start to actually understand all this.

The Hawaii state Senate, as Christian-dominated as anywhere in the U.S., is, however, with you in their intentional ignorance.

When Senate President Colleen Hanabusa introduced a reverend to say the invocation, Mitch Kahle stood from his seat in the gallery of the Senate chambers and said, “I object. My name is Mitch Kahle and I object to this prayer on the grounds that it’s a violation of the first amendment of the constitution of the United States. I object.”

Kahle’s protest lasted about seven seconds. Then he stopped talking and sat down. The Senate’s Sergeant at Arms was determined to remove Kahle. When Kahle resisted he was forcefully removed and roughed up. The incident was caught by several video cameras including a camera belonging to Hawaii News Now.

“Then what they did to add insult to injury was, they arrested him for disorderly conduct,” said William Harrison, Kahle’s attorney.

Fortunately, the courts are more and more frequently getting it.

District Court judge Leslie Hayashi needed less than an hour to find Kahle not guilty.

“Number one, there was no disorderly conduct. Number two, he has a first amendment right to speak in a public forum such as he did. And number three, the legislature was violating our U.S. Constitution as well as the Hawaii constitution by having these invocations,” [Kahle’s lawyer] Harrison said.

Fortunately, Kahle and his photographer, Kevin Hughes, are suing.

via Pharyngula

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

Trivia

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Michael

This is a reminder to all Augusta area natives: Go down to The Liberal Cup in Hallowell tomorrow for trivia. It starts around 8, but get there a little early, order some food, some beer – I recommend the For Richer or For Poorter.

Be there.

Update: Here is one question that got the chop. No cheating.

There is a famous boundary in the Earth that marks the abrupt end of the dinosaurs. That boundary is called the K-T boundary. What does K-T stand for?

Filed under: Local | Tagged: , , , | 8 Comments »

Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Michael

I recently realized the picture I’ve traditionally used for the Hubble Deep Field image isn’t so great. But rather than just get a better version of that image and stick with the old, I’ve uploaded the more recent and higher resolution Hubble Ultra Deep Field to my media library on WordPress. Enjoy the eye candy.

Recall, those are all galaxies. Only arrogance could say that all this exists and it’s really just for us.

Filed under: Administrative, Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

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