Fact Check.org

The next time you hear a politician say something pretty outlandish, and let's face it, that will be very soon, and it most likely will spew forth from a Republican, mosey on over to  FactCheck.org and they have probably already dissected it and submitted the spew to a ... uh ... fact check.

Sure sometimes Democrats say and do stupid shit too.  At this point in history, the ratio is about 100 GOP gaffes to each Dem gaffe.  The GOP is literally overflowing with loonies!  

For instance, Steve King (R-IA)...

Rep. Steve King attracted attention — and criticism from Republican leaders — for saying of immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children: “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” King later told CNN that he had data to back up his claim, saying, “This isn’t something made up in thin air.” But, so far, he hasn’t produced any such information.

At FactCheck.org, we put the burden of proof on the politician making the claim. We contacted King’s office about his assertion but haven’t received a response yet.

Or the fast-rising idiot from my own home state, Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Sen. Ted Cruz says there will be “20 or 30 million” people living in the U.S. illegally “in another 10, 20 years” if the Senate immigration bill becomes law. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill, if enacted, will reduce future illegal immigration by 33 percent to 50 percent compared with current law.

The Republican freshman senator from Texas offered his estimate on ABC’s “This Week,” while discussing the impact of the bill on the political future of one of its sponsors, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

Cruz, July 21: If the Gang of Eight bill became the law, in another 10, 20 years, we wouldn’t have 11 million people here illegally, we’d have 20 or 30 million.

We asked the senator’s office to support that statement. His spokesman, Sean Rushton, said that “it was not a factual statement — it was an opinion.”

And of course, very recently, likely the looniest House member of the current day, a man from the House district where I was born, Louie "Gomer" "Gohmert (R-TX):

Rep. Louie Gohmert went on Fox News and accused President Obama of a pattern of discrimination against Christians, particularly in the military, but many of his examples were false, distorted or incomplete.

Here are just a few of the claims Gohmert made about the Obama administration:

It's appalling what the Republicans are getting away with these days.  Never have I seen such vitriol and breathless insanity.

For the stories above and more, oh, so much more, go to FactCheck.org.

Dynamo Hum?

There are many strange and mysterious things about life here on Earth, but that's no reason to run to your preachers for explanations.  They don't know shit.

In many cases, science cannot solve the mysteries either.  

A fundamental difference, however:  

• the scientist, puzzled by something, starts to research it and perform experiments.  
• The preacher just says "God did it."

I wonder why God would make the Windsor Hum?  

Classic cop-out:  "God works in mysterious ways."

Yeah, how conveeeeenient.

Hum Heard Around the World

It creeps in slowly in the dark of night, and once inside, it almost never goes away.

It's known as the Hum, a steady, droning sound that's heard in places as disparate as Taos, N.M.; Bristol, England; and Largs, Scotland.

But what causes the Hum, and why it only affects a small percentage of the population in certain areas, remain a mystery, despite a number of scientific investigations. [The Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena]

Reports started trickling in during the 1950s from people who had never heard anything unusual before; suddenly, they were bedeviled by an annoying, low-frequency humming, throbbing or rumbling sound.

The cases seem to have several factors in common: Generally, the Hum is only heard indoors, and it's louder at night than during the day. It's also more common in rural or suburban environments; reports of a hum are rare in urban areas, probably because of the steady background noise in crowded cities.

Only about 2 percent of the people living in any given Hum-prone area can hear the sound, and most of them are ages 55 to 70, according to a 2003 study by acoustical consultant Geoff Leventhall of Surrey, England.

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"It's a kind of torture; sometimes, you just want to scream," retiree Katie Jacques of Leeds, England, told the BBC. Leeds is one of several places in Great Britain where the Hum has recently appeared.

"It's worst at night," Jacques said. "It's hard to get off to sleep because I hear this throbbing sound in the background … You're tossing and turning, and you get more and more agitated about it."

Being dismissed as crackpots or whiners only exacerbates the distress for these complainants, most of whom have perfectly normal hearing. Sufferers complain of headaches, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and sleep disturbances. At least one suicide in the United Kingdom has been blamed on the Hum, the BBC reports. [The Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

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There's some speculation that the Hum could be the result of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, audible only to some people. And there are verified cases in which individuals have particular sensitivities to signals outside the normal range of human hearing.

Medical experts are quick to point out that tinnitus (the perception of sound when no external noise is present) is a likely cause, but repeated testing has found that many hearers have normal hearing and no occurrences of tinnitus.

Environmental factors have also been blamed, including seismic activity such as microseisms — very faint, low-frequency earth tremors that can be generated by the action of ocean waves.

Other hypotheses, including military experiments and submarine communications, have yet to bear any fruit. For now, hearers of the Hum have to resort to white-noise machines and other devices to reduce or eliminate the annoying noise.

Leventhall, who recommends that some hearers turn to cognitive-behavioral therapy to relieve the symptoms caused by the Hum, isn't confident that the puzzle will be solved anytime soon.

"It's been a mystery for 40 years, so it may well remain one for a lot longer," Leventhall told the BBC.

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venus flytrap

I love stuff like this.  The British accent just lends it more gravity and authority.

More incredible "God-ness" I suppose.

evolution

I've been reading Susan Jacoby's latest book, "The Great Agnostic" about Robert Ingersoll, America's greatest freethinker and orator to date, and something struck me about evolution and made me see it in a different light.

Think of the Bible.  Allegedly, mankind is a descendant of Adam and Eve, two rather perfect beings in the Garden of Eden.  Perfect, at least, until they tasted the fruit of knowledge, and they were cast out of the Garden.  

Religious leaders for ages now have bemoaned the relative degeneration of mankind.  We used to be one step below the angels, but all of the modern technology and knowledge has somehow "debased" humanity.  Things appear to be getting worse and worse from a religious standpoint (most likely because more and more people are leaving the church).

Every new technological advance is sadly seen by the church as another level of decay and debauchery, and mankind must be "saved."

Now, contrast this attitude with the idea that, under evolution, humanity has been steadily advancing since growing up out of the muck and slime.  Mankind how reached a relative pinnacle of evolution and development that can produce wondrous works of art and beauty.  We are steadily evolving into the future, advancing, adapting, and improving.  It's amazing how far we have come, and the future is bright with possibility.

Perhaps I didn't say that very well.  I don't have the rhetorical flourishes that Ingersoll or Charles Darwin himself possessed, so perhaps it is best to transfer here the rather famous concluding statement from Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" in Darwin's own words.  I don't think I ever actually read this passage before:

There is a grandeur in this (evolutionary) view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone on cycling along according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

I dare say that mankind's only and best hope is to finally shed the intellectual straightjacket that is religious thought and superstition so that all people can come into the true light of knowledge and love.  There is plenty of room here for former believers

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Exodus apologizes

Uh, not me, but Alan Chambers, who headed up Exodus International.  This 30-year-old group was trying to convert gay people to straight people, and they recently disbanded.  They finally realized they were wrong, so they disbanded, and they APOLOGIZED to gay people for all the pain and bullshit they've caused.

Amazing, huh?

It's not often we see something like this.  Now if Michelle Bachman's husband could get the message and stop doing the same thing.  Is that asking too much?

I Am Sorry
by Alan Chambers

To Members of the LGBTQ Community:

In 1993 I caused a four-car pileup.  In a hurry to get to a friend’s house, I was driving when a bee started buzzing around the inside of my windshield. I hit the bee and it fell on the dashboard. A minute later it started buzzing again with a fury. Trying to swat it again I completely missed the fact that a city bus had stopped three cars in front of me.  I also missed that those three cars were stopping, as well.  Going 40 miles an hour I slammed into the car in front of me causing a chain reaction. I was injured and so were several others.  I never intended for the accident to happen. I would never have knowingly hurt anyone. But I did. And it was my fault. In my rush to get to my destination, fear of being stung by a silly bee, and selfish distraction, I injured others.

I have no idea if any of the people injured in that accident have suffered long term effects. While I did not mean to hurt them, I did. The fact that my heart wasn’t malicious did not lessen their pain or their suffering. I am very sorry that I chose to be distracted that fall afternoon, and that I caused so much damage to people and property.  If I could take it all back I absolutely would. But I cannot. I pray that everyone involved in the crash has been restored to health.

Recently, I have begun thinking again about how to apologize to the people that have been hurt by Exodus International through an experience or by a message. I have heard many firsthand stories from people called ex-gay survivors. Stories of people who went to Exodus affiliated ministries or ministers for help only to experience more trauma. I have heard stories of shame, sexual misconduct, and false hope. In every case that has been brought to my attention, there has been swift action resulting in the removal of these leaders and/or their organizations. But rarely was there an apology or a public acknowledgement by me. 

And then there is the trauma that I have caused. There were several years that I conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex attractions. I was afraid to share them as readily and easily as I do today. They brought me tremendous shame and I hid them in the hopes they would go away. Looking back, it seems so odd that I thought I could do something to make them stop. Today, however, I accept these feelings as parts of my life that will likely always be there. The days of feeling shame over being human in that way are long over, and I feel free simply accepting myself as my wife and family does. As my friends do. As God does.

Never in a million years would I intentionally hurt another person. Yet, here I sit having hurt so many by failing to acknowledge the pain some affiliated with Exodus International caused, and by failing to share the whole truth about my own story. My good intentions matter very little and fail to diminish the pain and hurt others have experienced on my watch. The good that we have done at Exodus is overshadowed by all of this.

Friends and critics alike have said it’s not enough to simply change our message or website. I agree. I cannot simply move on and pretend that I have always been the friend that I long to be today. I understand why I am distrusted and why Exodus is hated. 

Please know that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents. I am sorry that there were times I didn’t stand up to people publicly “on my side” who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality to Him that I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke your heart. I am sorry that I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine. 

More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God’s rejection.  I am profoundly sorry that many have walked away from their faith and that some have chosen to end their lives. For the rest of my life I will proclaim nothing but the whole truth of the Gospel, one of grace, mercy and open invitation to all to enter into an inseverable relationship with almighty God.

I cannot apologize for my deeply held biblical beliefs about the boundaries I see in scripture surrounding sex, but I will exercise my beliefs with great care and respect for those who do not share them.  I cannot apologize for my beliefs about marriage. But I do not have any desire to fight you on your beliefs or the rights that you seek. My beliefs about these things will never again interfere with God’s command to love my neighbor as I love myself.   

You have never been my enemy. I am very sorry that I have been yours. I hope the changes in my own life, as well as the ones we announce tonight regarding Exodus International, will bring resolution, and show that I am serious in both my regret and my offer of friendship. I pledge that future endeavors will be focused on peace and common good.

Moving forward, we will serve in our pluralistic culture by hosting thoughtful and safe conversations about gender and sexuality, while partnering with others to reduce fear, inspire hope, and cultivate human flourishing.

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