House Republicans: Wankers of the Decade?

House denounces media for terrorist financing report - The Boston Globe:
"The nonbinding ``Sense of the Congress' resolution states that media organizations ``may have placed the lives of Americans in danger' by revealing details of the classified program. It goes on to say that Congress "expects the cooperation of all news media organizations' in keeping classified programs secret."

Ve exschpect your total cooperation, ja?

Oppressed around here, much?

Krooked Kerik Kops a Plea

Kerik Described as Close to Deal on a Guilty Plea - New York Times

Giuliani should choose him as his VP running mate.

"Kerik for Vice President. It's not like he was actually convicted.®"

What a Way To Go!

A horse schlong overdose:
Seattle man dies after sex with horse - Peculiar Postings - MSNBC.com As my friend said, "A test case for duct tape?"
The article included these priceless paragraphs:

"Although sex with animals is not illegal in Washington state, Urquhart said that investigators were looking into whether the farm, located in Enumclaw, 40 miles southeast of Seattle, allowed sex with smaller animals that resulted in animal cruelty, which is a crime.

“If you’re talking about sheep or goats, there could be some issues,” Urquhart said. "

You can fuck 'em, just be gentle!

Flag Burners Rejoice!

Flag Amendment Apparently Stalls in Senate - Forbes.com
Lost by one vote? Bullshit. They have to be staging this crap in a bipartisan manner. No rational, thinking person would want to change the Constitution to limit free expression, even flag burning; it's offensive, but ultimately harmless and trivial. They're just pandering to the irrational folks who've sworn off thinking. Seriously, how many incidents of flag burning have you heard about in the past twenty-five years? It's not exactly in vogue. For this we need to amend the Constitution? Just handle it with local 'no burning' ordinances.

The recent management of our nation is a long-running, painfully bad joke, like a Saturday Night Live sketch from the Dark Years, running interminably past where any decent, merciful comedy writer would have stopped. CongressVantzes! Let's dispense with the Red, White and Blue Theater and focus on the issues!

And It's Fun, Too!

Let no one say that those folks at Medical Hypotheses have no sense of fun:
ScienceDirect - Medical Hypotheses : Intestinal gases and flatulence: Possible causes of occurrence:

"All gases entrapped in closed body cavities are destined to be partially or completely absorbed. Intestinal gases often accumulate and cause flatulence. This paper proposes a simple concept of intestinal gas occurrence based on our knowledge on gas resorption in other body cavities.

Compliance of intestinal and abdominal walls makes pressure in the liquid chyme bubbles near 760 mmHg. Intestinal gases are from three sources. Air can be swallowed, CO2 come from the gastric acid neutralisation and from intestinal bacterial colonies that also produce hydrogen and methane. In continuously mixed liquid chyme, the total pressure of blood gases is similar or lower than in the venous blood (less-than-or-equals, slant706), well below the bubble forming pressure (greater-or-equal, slanted760 mmHg). Some local production of bacterial gases with partial pressure of more than 90 mmHg is required, so the resulting small bowel bubbles would contain less than 20% of bacterial gases. If peristaltic mixing of chyme is prevented by an obstacle, local pressures of bacterial gases build up, form bubbles that fuse and finally make X-ray visible aeroliquid levels.

Bacterial gases make almost 3/4 of the flatulence. Formation of bubbles destined to become flatulence might depend on altered rheological condition of the large bowel content, with local abundant production of bacterial gases near bacterial colonies. Gases are unable to diffuse rapidly through the dense liquid content and local accumulation allows formation of bubbles mainly of bacterial gases. Their pressure can be higher 760 mmHg, since they are stretching the thick content. Poor diffusion of gases keeps them almost free of blood gases and their entrance makes them bigger. As the content moves along the colon, the content is becoming more solid and gases are becoming entrapped in large bubbles. Some blood and bacterial gases are absorbed and exhaled, but the remaining quantity has no other escape except flatulence. Flatulence rich in bacterial gases might be the price for the large bowel water reabsorption. It seems that beside the peroral use of antibiotics active in the colon, little can be done to reduce flatulence."

Is there no hope!?!

Transcendental Meditation and Epilepsy

The medical journal Medical Hypotheses (noted in the post below) shows its colors with a scholarly article on the relationship between neurological disorders and the Maharishi's Folly. From the summary:
ScienceDirect - Medical Hypotheses : Evidence that the Transcendental Meditation program prevents or decreases diseases of the nervous system and is specifically beneficial for epilepsy:

"Although meditation has been practiced worldwide for centuries, there are no reports that it causes epilepsy or increases the predisposition to it. Medical care utilization statistics and clinical studies indicate that individuals who regularly practice the Transcendental Meditation technique have fewer problems of the nervous system and specifically show decreased symptoms of epilepsy. The frequency, amplitude, areas of activation, and effects of the EEG during the Transcendental Meditation technique are completely different from those of epilepsy. There is no evidence that the Transcendental Meditation technique increases glutamate, which has been associated with epilepsy. With regard to serotonin, the relationship of serotonin to epilepsy has to be viewed in the context of the abnormal brain tissue that causes epilepsy. The serotonin increases that may occur through meditation have been associated with only beneficial effects. "

Now that's how to boost your scientific credibility.

Are Immaturity Levels Rising?

Discovery Channel - Immaturity Levels Rising:

"The theory’s creator is Bruce Charlton, a professor in the School of Biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of Medical Hypotheses, which will feature a paper outlining his theory in an upcoming issue."

Several things in this article made me suspicious. First, Professor Charlton is billed as, "leading expert on evolutionary psychiatry", a field which, in my opinion, has yet to earn much credibility.

Second, he seems to have presented his case to the media before proper peer review (Grad Student: "Professor, I've proven that perpetual motion is viable!" Prof: "Great, I'll call my agent!"). This is a classic warning sign of bad science.

Third, he seems to be Editor-in-Chief of his own oddly-named scientific journal, "Medical Hypotheses," in which his article will be published. Conflict of interest, anyone?

None of these things disprove the Professor's hypothesis, but they sure make ya' wonder. Now, on to the Professor's hypothesis.

No research methodology is described in the article. It quotes Professor Charlton describing the purported phenomenon:

A “child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge” is probably adaptive to the increased instability of the modern world, Charlton believes. Formal education now extends well past physical maturity, leaving students with minds that are, he said, “unfinished.”

“The psychological neoteny effect of formal education is an accidental by-product — the main role of education is to increase general, abstract intelligence and prepare for economic activity,” he explained.

“But formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity to new learning, and cognitive flexibility."

"When formal education continues into the early twenties," he continued, "it probably, to an extent, counteracts the attainment of psychological maturity, which would otherwise occur at about this age.”

Charlton pointed out that past cultures often marked the advent of adulthood with initiation ceremonies.

While the human mind responds to new information over the course of any individual’s lifetime, Charlton argues that past physical environments were more stable and allowed for a state of psychological maturity. In hunter-gatherer societies, that maturity was probably achieved during a person’s late teens or early twenties, he said.

“By contrast, many modern adults fail to attain this maturity, and such failure is common and indeed characteristic of highly educated and, on the whole, effective and socially valuable people," he said.

"People such as academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature outside of their strictly specialist competence in the sense of being unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.”

It makes one wonder how he determined his baseline: Do today's institutions appear less stable to individuals, or is this just a prejudicial view through rose-tinted glasses at 'the good old days'? To me, it sounds like a stodgy stick-in-the-mud griping about 'kids these days', as this type of person has done since the dawn of human society. Who defined his characteristics 'maturity', and are they really opposed to characteristics of 'wisdom'? Are they failures or just a set of behavioral characteristics that this guy doesn't like?

His argument seems to be that an open mind (something that is prevalent in childhood, but recedes as we age), which is beneficial to absorbing education, is being retained longer because of our new need for continuaing education, so that we can deal with a rapidly changing environment. But isn't that image of a stable life largely a fiction? It was true for segments of society for particular periods, but has the perceived stability of peoples lives really decreased on the whole? I would assume the opposite if I had to guess. How would you measure this? Do we have surveys from the past? Or is the Professor just pulling that impression of attiudes past from his butt?

Here's a little of that prejudice shining through:

"The faults of youth are retained along with the virtues, he believes. These include short attention span, sensation and novelty-seeking, short cycles of arbitrary fashion and a sense of cultural shallowness."

Also, does he think that this is an evolutionary response to a changing environment? Consider the very short time frame here, and the lack of a mechanism for evolutionary pressure. Now it could be that a Professor billed as a 'leading evolutionary psychologist' would be pounding a hypothesis that had nothing to do with evolutionary psychology, but how likely is that? Here it comes:

"Charlton added that since modern cultures now favor cognitive flexibility, “immature” people tend to thrive and succeed, and have set the tone not only for contemporary life, but also for the future, when it is possible our genes may even change as a result of the psychological shift."

I'm no evolutionary psychologist myself, but does thriving and success in society in this way translate to more offspring and a statistical shift in the gene pool? Again, you might be led to believe the opposite is true, where success in modern society leads to fewer offspring and a decrease in frequency in the gene pool of those genes.

An then the article delivers the death blow: It compares his hypothesis to one of David Brooks, the fatuous New York Times columnist, a man capable of foisting the most vacuous and fact-free opinions about society on the public. If Brooks is your role model for Scientific Method, you're in trouble.

A little google action revealed a couple of interesting things. First an article by Professor Charlton in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice titled, "Restoring the balance: evidence-based medicine put in its place." Ouch, not a very promising title (I didn't feel like paying $40 for a month's access to one article). Exactly on who's territory is 'Evidence-based medicine' supposed to be encroaching, anyway? Second, this, from the Aims and Goals statement of the good Professor's journal, Medical Hypothesis, which says all that needs to be said:

Medical Hypotheses takes a deliberately different approach to peer review. Most contemporary practice tends to discriminate against radical ideas that conflict with current theory and practice. Medical Hypotheses will publish radical ideas, so long as they are coherent and clearly expressed. Furthermore, traditional peer review can oblige authors to distort their true views to satisfy referees, and so diminish authorial responsibility and accountability. In Medical Hypotheses, the authors' responsibility for the integrity, precision and accuracy of their work is paramount. The editor sees his role as a 'chooser', not a 'changer': choosing to publish what are judged to be the best papers from those submitted.

Papers in Medical Hypotheses take a standard scientific form in terms of style, structure and referencing. The journal therefore constitutes a bridge between cutting-edge theory and the mainstream of medical and scientific communication, which ideas must eventually enter if they are to be critiqued and tested against observations.

I suspect that the actual study will be disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, weak on facts and methodology, but strong on assumtion and opinion. I will attempt to follow up and will hopefully be proved wrong.

Journalists to Whistleblowers: You're Dirt

Evidently, the message journalists want to send to potential whistleblowers is, "You're worth no more to use as a source than someone who just feeds us bullshit."
The Plank
(h/t Atrios)

Bullshit Alert!

Discovery Channel :: News - Human :: Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

This set off my Bullshit Detector. More later.

NYT Reporters For Bush

Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror - New York Times:

"Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.
...
Data provided by the program helped identify Uzair Paracha, a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges in 2005, officials said.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database."

The Times once again shelves any skepticism in reporting the latest Fourth Amendment Atrocity. Note the article title, which ensures us that the program was only to 'Block Terror'. Gosh, if only we could trust The New G-Men and their handlers to limit themselves to anti-terror investigation. But you can't, you know. Could Karl Rove keep his grubby paw out of a cookie jar so well-stuffed with potential opposition research? I think we all know the answer.

Also, note the highlighed phrases in the quote. The program 'examines the records of thousands of Americans', yet only those Americans 'who are thought to be linked to Al Qaeda'! Who knew so many Americans were 'connected'?

The NEW G-Men®
Keeping America Safe From Americans!
© 2006-2007, Bushco-America

There Goes "The Democrat"

Transportation Secretary Mineta Resigning

God, it brings you back to those heady days before 9/11. Remember Bush's pledge to be bipartisan and include Democrats in his cabinet? I guess the need for whatever flimsy bipartisan kredz Mineta provided is now gone (like, who remembered he was Transportation Secretary? The guy's almost invisible.)

A Prison Shootout...

...between the prison guards and Federal agents!
Two Killed in Florida Detention Center Shooting - New York Times

The priosoners must have highly amused. I've always thought that the difference between the guards and prisoners was only a matter of luck and circumstance.

Microsoft Admits Responsibility for Cylons

Found here: Newest Favorite Site-Specific Ad Ever - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog

His Resume Was Posted on Monster.com

U.S. Identifies al-Zarqawi's Successor

So the Zarqawi Show can enter its second season! Boogeyman 2.0! Why not kill Zarqawi when there's an endless string of replacements available for our most successful psy-op. Americans can't tell one of those Arab names from another, anyhoo.

Banner Image

A modest suggestion for the AmericaBlog 2.0! banner.

No Spanking for Karl

Rove Won't Be Charged in C.I.A. Leak Case - New York Times
Oh, well. There's always the lawsuit!

Old Hubbard Film Restored

Scientology DVDs give rare views of founder:
"Hubbard, who was born in 1911 and died at age 74 in 1986, was filmed presenting six lectures July 4-6, 1958 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington.

Those lectures have been meticulously restored and ornately packaged in a set of six DVDs, three CDs, and several books containing the lecture transcripts."

This was the event where Hubbard supposedly 'Cleared' 250 people in the audience. According to Scientology, a person who is clear has great powers. Some of these are summarized in an essay by Jeff Jacobsen as:
* never has colds or accidents,
* has a soaring IQ,
* total recall of his entire life from conception on,
* has cancer (possibly) and other physical deficiencies repaired,
* can compute in seconds what the average person needs 30 or more minutes for, and
* is the first case of a truly rational person.
Should be easy to spot in the general population, yes? He quotes Hubbard, "We are dealing here with an entirely new and hitherto nonexistent object of inspection, the Clear."
The essay also details the extremely muddled history of Cleared persons which resulted from Hubbard's pathological propensity for lying.

Kidman reverts to Catholicism

IOL: Kidman reverts to Catholicism, leaving a wacky, L. Ron Hubbard-worshipping cult to return to a more traditional, mainstream cult of superstition.

Is it me?

Or does the Army Generals brandishing a gilt-framed portrait of a dead Zarqaui like a bloody scalp seem really, really sick. That's some twisted fetishism to be confronted with on the NYT home page.

The Story of the 9/11 Widows and the Ugly Troll

Ann Coulter chose to cut loose on the 9/11 Widows to generate the mandatory controversy to sell her new POS book, 'Godless'. She may just have gone too far this time, but I won't be surprised if that doesn't turn out to be the case. Here's the quote I wanted to focus on:

COULTER: To speak out using the fact they are widows. This is the left's doctrine of infallibility. If they have a point to make about the 9-11 commission, about how to fight the war on terrorism, how about sending in somebody we are allowed to respond to> No-No-No. We always have to respond to someone who just had a family member die--

Her contention is that the Widows are 'ringers', sent out by someone (the Left??), to push what amounts liberal agenda (because any national security opinions that don't align with Bush's are liberal treason) and that their arguments would be unassailable because no one is allowed to publically disagree with a greiving widow. Right.

I have three things to say about that:
1 - Waaaaaaah!!!! What a WATB!
2 - The strategy didn't seem to work, as Coulter is busy roundly criticizing them in public.
3 - The 9/11 Widows hope to prevent the next terrorist attack by criticizing our admittedly pathetic attempts are securing the country. Ann Coulter, already a millionaire, is selling her book. She is pandering to a ready audience of sweaty meatbeaters who will fantasize about hatred and violence as they masturbate. Who is the whore in this situation? Coulter loses.

A Beastly Book

(A redux: orinally posted a coupla' months ago, dragged back out for the actual release of her 'book').

A Beastly Day

Look, it's 6/6/2006. Even for lame numerological nonsense, it's lame nonsense. A '6/6/06' date occurrs once every 100 years; it's not even rare. Wake me up in the year 6666.

(from a comment of mine on Pharyngula)

The Universal Receiver

Ettus Research LLC is selling a radio reception USB 2 peripheral which can tune (with the right daughterboard) the radio spectrum from DC to 2.6 GHz. With the right software, you can accomplish any radio (reception) related task. For that software, it relies on GNU Radio, an open source software radio framework. Pretty damn slick for $550! Think of it as a broadband RF-to-digital converter. Runs on Mac OS/Linux/*BSD/windoze, too!

Scientology and NASCAR?

Never ones to pass up glomming on to a trend, Scientology sets its dollar-sign-occluded eyes on NASCAR. Maybe we should turn the Scientologists loose on the rednecks. I think it would go something like this:

(at an auditing session near you)
Auditor: Please hold these tomato soup cans firmly, please, and try to relax.
Travis: These thangs ain't gonna gimme no 'lectric shock, now, are they?
Auditor: No, no, they're just reading your reactions. We're looking for engrams, little problems buried in your psyche that keep you from reaching your true potential.
Travis: Who you callin' a psycho!
Auditor: No, psyche, Travis. Your subconscious mind.
Travis: Oh. Well, that's OK, ah guess.
Auditor: Engrams can be left behind by traumatic events in your childhood, from when you were in the womb, or even from a past life.
Travis: Well, my ma kept real quiet and peaceful when she wuz carryin' me on accounta' she was always passed out from all that Pabst Blue Ribbon she drank. Mah childhood was normal. Shore, mah daddy raped me some, but who's daddy didn't, y'know. I don't know nuthin 'bout no pas t lives, though. I did see some crazy lady on Sally Jesse or Oprah say she wuz re-in-cremated a few times. Say, ah heard y'all got some real space-aliens in this here religion. Is 'at true?
(and so on...)


Scientology revs up to join NASCAR circuit - Gossip: The Scoop - MSNBC.com

Texas Politics and the Religious Right

A seemingly well-researched PDF detailing the influence of the religious right in Texas politics by a group called Texas Freedom Network, a "501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation. Created in 1996, the TFNEF researches the agenda, activities and funding of the religious right. It also educates mainstream people of faith in how to formulate and to advocate a faith-based
response to the religious right’s policy agenda."

Texas Freedom Network: State of the Religious Right 2006

via The Wall of Separation

Friday Random 10

Decision Of The Skies	Blues Traveler
Gentlemans Agreement	The Fall
Darling Alalee	The Country Gentlemen
Wait Till The Medicine Show	The Radiators
Only The Lonely	The Heads with Gordon Gano
Razones	Juan Luis Guerra Y 440
Party Party	Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Burning Down the House	Talking Heads
Country Darkness	Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Scratch My Back	The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Abu Gonzalez Jams Himself Further Up Your Ass

U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records - New York Times


"Bend over, please!"


"My turn next!"


"Got room for one more?"


"Now what was I supposed to do with this?"

New York? Nah, Nothin' to see there!

No Icons, No Monuments Worth Protecting

Why would terrorists hit NYC? It's just a little-known backwater.

I'd bet New York's entire anti-terror budget that New York's entire anti-terror budget (whatever's left after teh slashin') is being spent on protecting Wall St. and other financial infestations institutions, and the creation of cushy bullshit-anti-terror sinecures.