1. Sincerity no substitute for evidence

Comment #233683 by jonnymac27 on August 20, 2008 at 9:11 am

It's important to remember that the Pharmaceutical industry and the homeopathic's and herbal industries have a lot in common... They're both there to make money. The companies are interested in money first, your well-being second. (You're well-being is the benefit you're paying them for, so they have some interest in actually getting results.). Same with herbal supplement companies. The only difference, it the US anyway, is the FDA.

The FDA requires "peer reviewed" testing of drugs (manufactured molecules), but is currently understaffed, underfunded, and is ideologically skewed in the direction of corporate profit over the health of the public. Due to this, I wouldn't assume that my pharmaceutical treatment is all it's cracked up to be. But at least they've shown some sort of proof of efficacy.

2. Islam subway ads cause stir in New York

Comment #216803 by jonnymac27 on July 23, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Mayor Bloomberg is right, their right to express their opinion is protected by the 1st amendment, provided the message is not threatening or hate speech... which it doesn't seem to be.

I don't agree with their message, but I'd fight for their right to express it. The irony is, how many people in the Muslim world would fight for my right to express my views?

3. We Urgently Need Your Help Now!!

Comment #195532 by jonnymac27 on June 18, 2008 at 12:16 pm

at this point, let them be stupid

4. Louisiana's latest creationism bill moves to House floor

Comment #185953 by jonnymac27 on May 29, 2008 at 8:10 am

I think ID science should be taught in schools, but only science the validates ID.

...Oh wait, there isn't any.

"Debunking" Evolution (and for that matter, Geology) does nothing to "prove" ID. To this day, I have not seen a rational, testable, argument for ID. All they've got going for them is "well, you can't prove that we're wrong"

Given that, as Catskill in comment #15 points out, the Navajo Creation Story would be equally valid a thing to teach.

5. Expelled Overview

Comment #150219 by jonnymac27 on March 26, 2008 at 3:25 pm

If I'm not mistaken, The Killers are a very religious band, Mormon actually:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1925872,00.html

It wouldn't surprise me at all if they allowed this song to be used in this movie.

6. How Many Scientists?

Comment #28731 by jonnymac27 on March 30, 2007 at 2:25 pm

I generally don't get into these debates, but, thought I'd throw my 2 cents in:

There's little downside in worrying about GW.

* Putting money into understanding GW means we end up understanding the climate of our planet, regardless of whether or not climate change is really happening... is that so bad?

* We develop cleaner and more efficient energy producing/usage technologies... is that a bad thing? (do you enjoy car exhaust and coal smoke?)

* We become less dependent on foreign oil, hence, less dependent on governments that support Islamic Extremists

...yes, it sucks that pension funds and 401K's are tied up in oil money, but then, why not re-invest that money into a different energy market? How about Jobs? Again, you're opening up a new oppurtunity for every one that is lost.

So, if we're wrong about GW, we end up with those (and more) benefits... If we're right, well, we can be prepared for GW.

Sounds like a winner.

But what happens if all the GW nay-sayers are wrong?

7. If only gay sex caused global warming

Comment #27474 by jonnymac27 on March 24, 2007 at 7:42 pm

I think a point made in this article has been missed by many:

NO ONE seems to care about the upcoming attack on the World Trade Center site. Why? Because it won't involve villains with box cutters. Instead, it will involve melting ice sheets that swell the oceans and turn that particular block of lower Manhattan into an aquarium.

The odds of this happening in the next few decades are better than the odds that a disgruntled Saudi will sneak onto an airplane and detonate a shoe bomb. And yet our government will spend billions of dollars this year to prevent global terrorism and … well, essentially nothing to prevent global warming.

Why are we less worried about the more likely disaster? Because the human brain evolved to respond to threats that have four features — features that terrorism has and that global warming lacks.

...This has been my problem with this bullshit waste of money we call the "War On Terror". Some economists have put together some numbers on the monetary costs of the war on terror over the next decade, and put the figure at 1.2 - 2 trillion USD, and for what reason? What are we supposed to be so afraid of?

(btw... don't bring this up to a TSA agent while going through security at the airport with your shoes off, they don't appreciate it, as I found out the hard way)

It can't be loss of life. Can it? I mean, it's terrible that so many people were killed on 9/11, but how many people that same day died in a car accident, or from cancer, alzheimers, etc? 9/11 was one day, one tragic lost of life, the other killers kill many more people, day after day after day, and we don't commit that much funding into cancer research, or lining our highways with impact foam, or, as this author points out, climate change research and solutions...

I don't deny that there are religious extremists out there that hate modernity, and have nothing to lose, and figure it'd be cool to blow up themselves to take out a few "infadels", and get some serious heaven poon, or whatever the delusion d'jour is, and I do think that we need to commit some resources to make sure they don't get their hands on nuclear weapons materials and technology, but for all intents and purposes, it's a waste of money if what we are really trying to do is save lives.

I could go on about this, and probably make a more thought out case, and I'm not even sure what my point is... I'll just go back and finish this glass of wine.