Last night, I watched a great NOVA episode, entitled Judgment Day: Intelligent Design On Trial. It’s an excellent program chronicling the six week federal trial concerning the Dover, PA school board’s attempt to interject intelligent design into the science curriculum. I was prepared to blog about this, and to recommend it (which I still do), when I learned that I’d be a little late with this. You see, I live in Memphis, and our PBS station was one of two in the country (Louisville, KY being the other) to refuse to broadcast the program when it originally aired back in November of 2007. According to the local paper, WKNO (our PBS affiliate) was “concerned about the controversial nature of the program.”
It continues to boggle my mind that I live in a country so backward and ignorant that a large percentage of the population refuses to believe something as basic as evolution. And worse, I live in a part of that nation that’s apparently even more backward and ignorant, if our PBS station views a documentary about a well-known trial to be “too controversial.” Remind me again why this is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth.
January 23rd, 2008
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Church & State, Religion, Science |
31 comments
So says Scott Lemieux, and not only is he an assistant poli-sci professor, his argument is detailed and compelling. Part one here, part two here and part three here. They are a bit long, but they are essential reading, especially for anyone who has either been told or who actually believes that Roe was somehow badly decided.
January 23rd, 2008
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General, Legal Issues |
one comment
This seems fairly definitive:
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
Hundreds of false statements. Hundreds. They were so desperate for their war that they made hundreds of false statements. 935 in a two year period, according the study. That is 1.28 lies per day in the service of the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in American history. None of them were about a blow job, though, so I guess that makes it all right. They are the kind of people that the Villagers admire, so what’s a lie and a quarter a day for two years leading to thousands upon thousands of deaths?
And why, pray tell, should we listen to a thing this Administration says about foreign policy? If they lied almost a thousand times to get their war with Iraq, why would they not lie two thousand times to get their war with Iran? Why would they not lie three thousand times to get their unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping and telecom immunity?
January 23rd, 2008
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Politics, Iraq |
12 comments
