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Elrac (314784)

Elrac
  carl@@@smotricz...com
http://www.smotricz.com/

I'm an aging, mediocre, listless, grumpy old programmer, but at least I know where I stand.

Journal of Elrac (314784)

Nobel Prize Winner Harold Pinter on US Foreign Policy

Wednesday December 07 2005, @08:51PM
User Journal

It's a bit lengthy but a powerful reminder of what the USA is about.
Here is the text of his speech.
Read it, take note!

The Insidiousness of ID

Tuesday November 22 2005, @08:21PM
User Journal

Scientific American said it better than I ever could:

Intelligent Design is part of a calculated strategy that [founder Phillip] Johnson calls the "Wedge," referring to the tool used to split a solid object--in this case, the cornerstone of biological science. According to a document that appeared on the Discovery Institute's Web site in 1999, the goal of this plan is "nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies." The document also makes sweeping, inaccurate claims such as "new developments in biology, physics and cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of nature." This statement is pure propaganda. (The document can still be found on the Discovery Institute's Web site by searching for "wedge," although it is now prefaced by 12 pages of insistent justification.)

Must not let ID win. Must not let ID win!

Luther on: Religion vs. Reason

Tuesday November 22 2005, @08:09PM
User Journal

Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the Divine Word ... Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason.

- Martin Luther

My conclusion: Any person of reason must oppose religion.

The USA lies on the equator?

Monday November 21 2005, @04:09AM
User Journal

I Just read Is this the equator? in the Orlando Sentinel. Apparently there's a school textbook out claiming that the equator runs through the US.

OK, accidents happen. This wouldn't be so bad if this were a case in isolation. What makes this a tragedy is the combination of these circumstances:

  • A large number of texts contain a lot of factual errors like this;
  • Publishers point to errata pages on their Web sites;
  • Corrections mailed in are frequently not applied;
  • The number of errors is increasing;
  • More emphasis is placed on political correctness than factual correctness;
  • Hack writers are employed to write textbooks, the authors on the cover have sometimes never heard of the books;
  • State school boards make texts mandatory for public schools throughout the state;
  • Local schools are not allowed to make their own choice of (perhaps) better texts;
  • The school boards' review panels often don't have members qualified to judge the subject matter of texts, especially science texts;
  • Texts are published by a very small group of quasi-monopolists;
  • Textbook publishers spend 30% of their budgets on marketing, which doesn't leave that much for content and quality; and
  • Teachers often don't have solid knowledge of topics, especially science, and so can't spot and correct errors in the books.

I'd like to quote the most glaring example of where this all leads:

...Marie and Pierre Curie, the French couple who shared a Nobel Prize for their research on radiation. Before the advent of political correctness, textbooks pictured the husband-wife team together. Soon, however, Pierre's picture was excised. And then, some textbooks -- for example, Chemical Building Blocks, one of 15 books in Prentice Hall's Science Explorer series -- darkened the skin of the Polish-born Marie, presumably to suggest she was a woman of color.

What does this tell us? Corporatism and Political Correctness, combined with a lack of diversity and most likely corruption, result in school kids being taught incorrect data about science and other topics.

The USA is a high-tech country, and one of its mainstays is technical innovation. Shoddy school policy is dumbing down the US population, to the detriment of the whole nation.

White House hijacks Patriot Reform

Thursday November 17 2005, @07:34PM
User Journal

This week the Bush administration has strong-armed lawmakers into re-drafting a final Patriot Act reauthorization bill that actually makes the Patriot Act even worse, reversing months of careful and substantive bipartisan negotiations that attempted to deliver real reform.

The rights of everyday Americans will be the losers as Administration officials strong arm Congress into an egregious Patriot Act reauthorization bill that expands government powers beyond even the scope of the original legislation.

More to be read here.