1151. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129615 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 11:31 am

Did you see the look on Daniel's face when he was talking about breaking his favorite toy and then saying praise to Jeebus? It was the look of a kid desperately seeking after the support and approval of his parents.
Ridiculous odin damned people.

1152. Hitchens and Boteach Debate on God

Comment #129612 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 11:26 am

Steve,
I'm not sure how you can hold the position about prayer that you do. All you have are a few comprehensive studies, STEP for instance, that conclusively falsify the idea that prayer helps sick people.

Oh I know you are going to say now that all the studies that purport to support the idea are synthesis works, and that the actual research that gives mediocre positive statistical results are the product of data mining. Hmmmm.

You will maybe even have the temerity to bring up the STEP study's most counter-intuitive finding, that people who know they are being prayed for actually tend to do a little worse than those not prayed for, or those that simply don't know they are getting prayed for.

You have obviously not paid attention to the trenchant critique of scientific thought uttered by the wise Homer Simpson who said, "FACTS! you can prove anything with FACTS!"

1153. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129606 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 11:15 am

Marjoe Gortner right was the one of these kids who grew up and said what the hell? Did a documentary himself where he showed all the tricks of the trade. Well these tricks, even exposed as not so very clever keep coming back.
Ugh.

1154. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129602 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 11:10 am

Mitchell Gilks,
This is off topic, you should trundle on over to imdb.com and type in James Cameron. He is adapting two anime projects into huge CGI affairs. I was breathing a sigh of relief. I think he has gotten over the titanic thing. And realizes his greatness is not in the one time huge runaway success of a so-so movie, but in action/adventure/sci-fi.
Anyway, thought I'd give you a heads up if have one you already did not.

1155. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129596 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 11:03 am

I am with you notsobad.
I recently withdrew from a masters program in education (K-12). The program itself was a vapid exercise that did very little to prepare students for teaching. This of course is a problem with all education programs. It was long on post modernist thinking, and slim with research. We had to read trite vaguery like the odious "The Courage to Teach." From the title you can probably imagine the new age feel-goodery that effervesced from its pages.

The few text books we had were no better. They would cite studies and I was one of the few people who went and looked them up. On the idea of inclusion teaching (the idea that kids of all skill levels should be put in the same class, regardless of mental ability, regardless of almost any problem) the papers the text book cited were either synthesis papers, or they had comforting sample sizes of 4. The largest sample size I found was in the 30s.
The discipline of Education is a huge part of the problem. So yeah I withdrew. I couldn't stand it.

1156. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129591 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 10:54 am

kriskring,
May i ask what science book you are reading? I'm sure it has been done before but let me recommend a few for you.
The Blind Watchmaker is a wonderful introduction to the ideas of evolution. After that you might...
The Selfish Gene which will introduce you to the nuts and bolts what is being maximized by the word fitness.
Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould is an excellent book even if Gould does go a bit far with some of his conclusions
The Triumph of Sociobiology By John Alcock. This book will demonstrate how evolutionary theory can and is applied to studies animal behavior.
That is probably a good start.

1157. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129584 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 10:49 am

LorienRyan thoughtlessly spake unto the ether,
"and a standing ovation from the cartesian theatre!"
I almost spit my coffee out because of that line. Please do be more considerate. I've got only one computer and you almost got it covered in my Columbian Supreme.

1158. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #129577 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 10:35 am

Al-rawandi,
I know we sometimes don't agree on things but I salute you for your last comment. Hopefully you liked my comments that responded to the theme "Osama thanks you!"

1159. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129336 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 1:44 am

I think I might go further than MPhil here and say that while folk religion may have increased group solidarity and aided in enforcing reciprocity arrangements it probably also succeeded in igniting that most pernicous aspect of our psychology the in group/out group demonizing kit. And if folk religions did passably well at helping us invoke that dread aspect of ourselves, it seems that modern religions have learned a trick or two at its deployment that might shock their shaman predecessors.

But as for being good for human groups I think this could be argued forcefully against. I am not a historian but maybe Epeeist could correct me where I go wrong. It seems that leaps and bounds are made in a society both ethically and technologically in more or less direct proportion to its secularity. We see this in aspects of Greek Culture, Islamic Culture had its scientific period and when secularism really takes off in the west the curve uppward becomes much steeper.

1160. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129329 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 1:34 am

Yes krisking, but the survival it is promoting is its own and not necessarily that of its adherents.

1161. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129314 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 1:27 am

Krisking,
It seems strang to assume that if one believes in evolution that one has to also believe some deity was also involved. It is an unnecessary step and we all know what Occam said about that....

1162. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129306 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 1:22 am

Krisking,
I suspect you are. Hopefully you have read my explanations and examples concerning birds and dogs. Specifically you ought to think about what would happen if we just happened upon the diversity of Canis domesticus in the wild. Clearly the groups would aquire new species epithets, and some might find themselves in new genera, but becuase it has actually happened more or less within recorded history we see the ultimate problem of Taxonomy, namely that it errantly divides what are more or less smooth gradients of change because we are typically seeing the effects of history on current distributions. The current distributions are a combination of natural selection and stochasitc events. God I hate to sound all Gouldian.

Again think of the thought experiment where we just happen upon these dogs, the intermediates between wolves and rottweilers are long gone but the history was recent enough that the evidence of their descent with modification is almost without doubt. But looking at the imagined distribution of this thought experiment we could see how the mistake in classifying them along hard lines is made. We aren't seeing special creation as the illustration of the dogs makes clear we are seeing evolutionary and ecological history stamped into current species distributions.

One more thought experiment concerning the wrap-around, or ring distribution species of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) and its counter point on the other end the Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fucus). They are found in the same places and cannot interbreed. Between the two in the nothern hemisphere sit about eight other species. The differences a small from neighbor to neighbor as you circumnavigate the Northern Hemisphere examining them. Neighboring groups can interbreed. But by the time you get back to the representitves on the end you have two obviously different species of strikign behavioral and morphological difference that do not interbreed and yet have a chain of interbreeding populations between them, some of whom they can interbreed with. Imagine some random event, not hard to do on rough and unpredicable seas, that wiped out the species between the The Lesser Black-backed Gull and the Herring Gull. The intermediates between the two would be gone and the evidence that one had given rise to the other, or that they were both derived from a common anscestor would be gone.

1163. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129288 by MaxD on February 19, 2008 at 12:41 am

I think we answered the Mind vs Brain question rather thoroughly.

1164. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129232 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 10:10 pm

Ha!
I'm not sure what makes people think duality is a workable theory. It seems to have been pretty well falsified. I'm anxious to hear how qster gets around the obvious problems of the idea.

1165. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129229 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Hey,
I thought I did an okay job too!

1166. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129216 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 9:41 pm

Actually qster it isn't simplyfying the issue. The reason that we think that the mind is the brain at work is because the vast majority of the evidence points to this fact. Look at the literature on head trauma, severe brain injury. Or look at the literature on neuro-imagining or in the psych lit. Various chemical concentrations result in predicable patterns of personality traits. Head injuries change people's ability to function, and can dramaticaly change their personality, I mean core aspects of who we are. Look at the effects of various nervous disorders of old age. Dementia, Alzhiemer's to name just two will change the "mind" of the afflicted so much you will find yourself wondering who they are and asking questions very lik who the hell is this person because it isn't the person I knew. The striking correlation with these types of degenerative pathologies will be with deterioration in the cerebral cortex.
Having a large brains needn't mean much for one's intelligence. Human cognition and personality has a great deal to do with the cortex of which we do have the most in proportion to our body size. Brains don't need to be large to be capable of amazing things. Look at your lap top and look at the size of computers that could do as much processing as it can 10-15 years ago.

No experiment has yet made a compelling case, or indeed any case for the dualism hypothesis and the weight of the evidence has the ball firmly in the "mind is a material pheneomnon" court.

Further more no one has ever observed a parallel universe.

1167. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129206 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 9:25 pm

Goldy,
It seems like ring species are macroevolution and kind of the drop kick that is required when people of the creationist persuasion who make the following demand. "Show me any example macro-evolution, JUST ONE!" Of course when you illustrate it with ring species they will not be swayed. But it is nice to know you have won, as they sputter incoherently.

1168. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129176 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 8:20 pm

I think reading is generally more challenging than most television. Most TV is cravenly lowest common denominator kind of stuff. Especially kid shows, my goodness.
But to all of you who think books are some cornucopia pouring out greatness I have two words for you.
Dean Fucking Koontz

1169. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129150 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 5:21 pm

I had an argument like this where I utilized the example of domestic dogs. Listen if we suddenly released all the domestic varieties of dog into the wild wiped all knowledge away we would consider almost all seperate species. Clearly cannids, clearly descended from wolves as the evidence of their DNA, and morphology attests, but not wolves. If I remember correctly most cannids are genetically more closely related to wolves than we are to chimps, but only a moron would say the taco bell dog and a wolf were the same thing.
Even looking at the carnivora in general we can see forms that represent good analogues for what their intermediate forms may have looked like.

The creationist/ID "Theorist" will always be hamstrung by the far more knowledgeable and sophisticated understanding of the species concept. If you don't like my dog example take one from the birds. Here in the States, every spring and summer we can marvel at the diversity of wood warblers and a smaller number of tanangers. Here the groups are quite easy to tell apart. A scarlet tanger on its worst day (from its point of view I suppose) looks nothing like any of our Warbler migrants. The Banaquit looks like it might be able to fit in either camp. However if you go to South America you will have trouble telling where the warblers end and the tanangers begin. This is interesting because once you see that blending you see a neat linkage to larger taxa in the Passeriformes (the perching birds). This kind of thing can be seen all throughout the Aves. Titmice and and Chickadees seem fairly distinct (here in the states anyway!) yet we can see what a plausible series of intermediates between the two morphological extremes we have by looking the group as a whole. I am not saying Tanangers gave way to Warblers or Chickadees gave way to Titmice or vice versa. I am simply saying that we are fortunate to see examples of what a an intermediate series would look like.
This to me seems telling as it seems to so nicely replicate our dog scenario. Because I would argue we have already created new species in dog breeding and certainly in our horticultural endeavors.

1170. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129143 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:55 pm

I don't mind pointing it out (typing errors and of word usage) if it is problematic but I think this happens because we use these boards like conversations and we often type really fast. I'm not sure why it is the case but I will be typing quite quickly and a word like No comes up. And invariably as I am typing I have used the wrong spelling. I will convert no to know, and he said "know way." And when I review it I will say to myself, why the hell did I do that? I am getting better at catching myself in that error of...speed? The speaking part of my brain moving faster than the writing part can match? I don't know. Anyway I am annoyed when I do that. Typos I don't mind so much. I try to avoid them myself but some of my fingers have been disproportioanlly mangled by years of Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu leaving some of them faster than others. So I am constantly going back and correcting. However if you get most of the word correctly spelled, specifically the beginning and the end-that is the parts of words people pay especially close attention to-your meaning will be conveyed quite handily.

1171. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129135 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Who the hell wants to talk to cattle?

1172. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129134 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I was worried it was the "looking at anime lesbians gene." Whew. But I don't know what the symptoms are of Straight Male syndrome.

1173. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129128 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:34 pm

Goldy,
You are going to make tea of some bromine compound? I don't think that sounds terribly healthy. But maybe with Earl Grey or some such dark variety....I'm sure you will figure it out.

1174. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129120 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:23 pm

In defense of Steve, not that he needs it, Saddam had possessed chemical stockpiles, not large ones, as late as 1998 and manufacturing capablity as late as the same year. After which HUMINT (human intellegence sources) becomes extremely thin on the ground.
So poor intellegience on the ground coupled with Saddam Hussein's ridiculous brinksmanship united to make for nervous people outside the Bush admin. It is just one fact among many that led up to the war. Not exculpating the current admin for its fear--mongering, best casing and its total disregard for the worst case scenarios, just saying its more complicated than you might think. Most of the weapon's inspectors had said, right up to the end, that serious inspections were going to be imposssible within the limits placed on them by the Saddam regime.

1175. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129107 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Why do I like looking at Mitchell Gilks avatar? Is there something wrong with me?

1176. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #129049 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 2:55 pm

And here I have to agree with eXcommunicate. The six million dollar a year figure doesn't make much sense to me either. I imagine it would buy you close to secret service level style security but it just isn't necessary. The Secret Service isn't just defense it is positively proactive. It works to actively thwart attacks in their early stages, it has vast resources to collect intellegence on attacks and networks within other law enforcement bodies. As it happens this is necessary. Our commander in chief and other politicians do not have the luxury of picking their own battles as it were.
Ayaan could get by on much less by acting like picking her location, and where she would appear based on sound security advice for a lot less.

1177. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #129044 by MaxD on February 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Teratornis,
I actually agree with most of what you are saying.
I just think that movements need faces, and people to argue the points of those movements. To that extent I think supporting a fund for the security of such people is fine. I'm not saying she should be jet setting hither and yon. I agree with you that she could drasitcally reduce the cost of such security by wisely living in the US, keeping her location secret. However the "travel junkie" politicians do actually need to get out and connect with people. Look at what happened to the Giulani campaign. He choose not to campaign in several key states and lost every one. He is just one example in a campaign season full of them. Humans tend to need more from their leaders than just TV ads and print materials. Now you've moralized travel so I am unconvinced that you will see the validity of what I just said but I had to try. This point about people and leaders is germaine to my rationale for keeping Ayaan a public face. I think you are right about her being able to write books into perpetuity, but she would cease being as effective a role model for the emmacipation of muslim women as she will now look like a marginalized citizen in both worlds. The more that the west seems willing to protect such dissendents the more people will have the courage to escape the ideologies and regimes that hold them captive.

Also in my favor is the following, Most intelligence analysis seems to agree that the manner in which Osama Bin Laden is forced to live (i.e. in hiding to protect his life) has effectively neutered him as a leader in the Al Qeade organization. He is a minimal figure many Muslims no longer take too seriously. You like to bring Osama up so here what most people think of his current effectiveness.

On to the point about book tours etc, I think here you are dead wrong. Publishing companies, like most industries are notorious about calculating the cost of their advertising and even more notorious about researching the success of their techniques. If there was no benefit for the book sales this practice would be limited to TV show appearances. The purpose of their talks aren't to get people to remember the details of their ideas but to get audiences to buy the book for the big picture. This produces word of mouth advertising. People will go to a free book signing and hear a free talk and not even realize they've just been coaxed into buying a book or that they have just become sales people for it. Word of mouth boosts sales. Books don't get advertised like other products so this is key component of book sales. I don't know if you've noticed this but authors are not exactly at the top of most people's guests lists on TV and Radio.

Quit calling people travel junkies. People travel. Only very recently, I'm talking about 30 or 40 years has the Jihadis problem become a problem. I drive an utterly fuel efficient car, I don't drive when I can walk and most of my oil, I'm a US citizen remember comes from Canada. I support the production of Maple Syrup. A great deal of Al Quieda's funding- especially when it was an Afghan based operation comes from the selling of opium. While it is true that Saudi Arabia has been responsible for the spread of Wahabisim, terrorsim draws its funding from a variety of sources oil money being only one of them. The EU states tend to let fronts operate freely, and the UN seems to have little quarrel with funding Palestian and other varieties of terrorist organizations. Drugs, corportations, front groups, and oil are all contributors to our terrorist ills.
Well that is all I have for now. Hopefully robotahloic will spell check this for me so I can correct any errors.

1178. Archbishop's 8 March centennial message: Let Sharia Law govern women's lives, Amen!

Comment #128784 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Sarah,
I had this fight myself at my college. It was in a sociology class, Identities and Social Movements. It was a lot of vapid headed, wooly non-sense. And the post-modernist perspective was like a notochord of evil running through the whole thing.

My advice is, relax when you oppose. Our arguments are better than the postmodernist's. They say alot of stupid frustrating things, and have a pesky tendency to ignore logic, facts and common sense. And you need to know that you won't win over, or even cause your prof to question a bit of the Foucalt name dropping nonsense they spew. But maybe you will get your class mates to think a little more about multiculturalism, post-modernism etc. Even if you don't succeed in that, at least you will know you didn't just let it slide.

1179. Archbishop's 8 March centennial message: Let Sharia Law govern women's lives, Amen!

Comment #128778 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Lucas,
I think you have missed the point. It isn't that Islam is the only force for inhuman treatment of people (though clearly it is one of the larger and more insidious forces). No one is trying to get the backwards non-ideologically driven evil into English common law. Or give such communities a forum in which to practice their ancient bigotries in our countries. This is what the article was about.

While poverty may have something to do with flare-ups of ethnic strife I am afraid to say the treatment of people within tribes is very much driven by the beliefs they hold. Beliefs are levers that drive people to act in certain ways. You want to say that poverty drives men to beat women, perform honor killings, mangle their genitalia, and make folk walk around in dark bed clothes but I think that is quite wrong.

I do agree with you that secular government and rule of law are the ways to combat it. Education, and free expression must be part of the equation too.

1180. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128768 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 11:08 pm

eXcommunicate,
My mistake.
Your points are well taken.
-Max

1181. Archbishop's 8 March centennial message: Let Sharia Law govern women's lives, Amen!

Comment #128685 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Well done!
You can almost hear the slap across the Archbishop of Cant's face. This must sting.

1182. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128658 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Robotaholic said:
Max your comment regarding how you're sorry some guy is small was amazingly mature.

Thanks dude! I certainly thought so.
I was simply trying to point out how it sounded. As an athlete I have hear these stereotypes all the time. Most of the time it is a characterization tossed out by someone who is not athletic, and for whom physical activity has never ever appealed. I don't particularly care, but since I had read this kind of thing a couple of times on this thread I thought I'd toss out my own little epithet WHILE also making my case. That last bit has been a task quite beyond you.

Now do run your spell check on my post and get back to me.

1183. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128523 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 9:40 am

To voice my own perspective on the Diacanu Quill debate....
Diacanu you crazy!
I would actually love to be kept within the physical potential of my 34 yearold self. Holy shit, I would love it. I am going to despise getting older. I like being competitive, I spend much of my free time doing Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and I am going to hate it when I start getting beat by guys because I am a beat slower, or not as strong (though that tends to be the last thing to go). That is going to suck.
So yeah, sign me up for the constant 34 year old capacity. I'll deal with the boredom of immortality when that bridge requires a crossing.
I would also be fine with simple normal life expectancy, but without that business of senesence. So 80 or so years of 34 and then natural death.

1184. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128515 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 9:19 am

Wow.
Not only are your arguments wholly without merit robotaholic but you show how juvenile you are by constantly pointing to simple typos even when the meaning of other people's statements is quite clear. That is kinda pricky. I'm sure you get a little gleam in your eye when you spot one, and you think "ah my coup de gras!" Its fun sometimes, I've done it once or twice to some redneck moron on the huffingtonpost but it doesn't really constitute an argument in any way.
It seems that other than to whine about your own victimhood or complain about the biased treatment of the US on this site, you don't have all that much to say.

1185. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128405 by MaxD on February 17, 2008 at 12:20 am

That tendency is thick in Sphere, Prey and even as far back as Andromeda Strain. His newest book was a castigation about global climate change. His books are typically pretty shitty toward scientists. Sphere is his answer in many ways to Carl Sagan. By which he said look you don't want it to be scientists who first deal with aliens they will fuck it up and get people extra dead.
You are absolutely dead on about Ian Malcolm being the luddite in the room.

1186. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128403 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 11:57 pm

eXcommunicate:
I'm not sure why you and others continually reduce professional security personnel to beefcakes with sunglasses, or Rambos, or pick your stupid stereo-typical jock slam and insert here. Nor do I get why you think such measures don't at least significantly reduce your chances of being popped. Such a presense does deter many attackers. Then you are left with only the serious folks who can and often do tip their hand by the surveilance they engage in etc. Of course that kind security costs big bucks.

Though if she stayed stateside I would suspect any security costs would be much less than in a country chalk full of Muslims of a fundamentalist bent. I think she should stay in the US where the cost will be low, and the threat level vastsly less.

What bothers me about various callous posts here is the disregard for her obvious danger. robotaholic seems distressed that she just wants to be famous. This is not really a danger because most people who are not muslim don't know her at all. And then eXcommunicate and ricey droning on about beefcakes and sunglasses as if they know something about the efficacy of security. I presume the threats to her life are serious. You may not, but you should maybe ask Theo Van Gogh about it. Oh that's right he's dead. You could ask some of the people who were friends with Rushdie who were attacked and whose murders were attempted. "I've had it rough and I don't have a FUND" sounds like a great huge whine. How many of your friends are dead? How many death threats do you recieve? How many are credible? (I don't know how many she gets, but it is established that at least one of her friends has gone to the clearing at the end of the path over this business).
robotaholic, it may be a scam and that is a good reason to be skeptical of it. But your other characterizations just don't make much sense. Your main argument is go and hide, and quit your begging. It is okay if she talks but not too much.

I don't mind that she and Harris are trying to start this fund. No one here has demanded that you pay into it as a condition of your continued presense. I myself want to know more about how the funds are allocated (she says its for various things and not just her own protection) before I contribute. I want to know more. I have a little confidence that it isn't a scam since Dawkins, Dennet and Hitchens seem behind the move. It isn't they are men incapable of being taken for a ride it is just that they seem quite deliberate in their review of such decisions. It adds a bit to the crediblity.

1187. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128373 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 9:25 pm

Did anyone read Michael Crichton's book Prey? It relates to this very subject. It was that book that made me realize he was something of a Luddite and that trend runs in American thought more than I would like. Certainly the sentiment is a constant in Crichton's work (sometimes done well, sometimes done poorly). It is the NIMBY mindset writ small. I mean to say that my countrymen tend to not think rationally about technology. Much of our science fiction literature is some form of this worry. I'm not sure it is peculiar to the US but it is a sentiment we harbor in great quantities.

1188. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128367 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 9:04 pm

uh Robotaholic I notice you are getting a bit upset by stories about our fair country. I think you might do an analysis on the number of stories, and the countries highlighted and see if there is a statistical difference in the coverage.
I've not noticed this yank bias. But there is a lot of sillyness here. Look the crop of republican candidates we just had.

1189. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128361 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 8:44 pm

teraornis,
yes thanks for the stop buying oil lecture. I loved it and find my self thoroughly edified.

I agree with you that she shouldn't take unnecessary risks, like visiting Saudi Arabia say, or Pakistan, or Syria, but when she is in a western country I don't have any problem seeing funds go to her protection. You or some other wit brought up witness protection programs and yet you would deny her protection for essentially doing the same thing. I assume you don't mind police being stationed outside abortion clinics? If you want to call giving yourself an edge against your enemies hiding and fear that is okay I guess. I just don't see it.

Nor am I some travle junkie positing silly normative arguments. I was refering -and it is my fault for not making myself clear- to her traveling, and living in places like the US, UK, Germany, France you know western democracies.

Nor am I trying to get muslims to imagine life without Islam. I don't give a fuck about such delusions. What I do care about is preventing them from acting on murderous impulses. There are numerous ways to stand against the bullying. One way is to reduce our oil consumption certainly. One way is to try to ensure that apostates and refugees have mechanisms to escape. Another way is to protect our speakers and philosophers from their harrassment. And still another component is to kill the bullies. No I don't have any misconceptions about how the world is. But in this country, the US, I think it is imperative that we show our committment to freedom and our willingness to do many of the things you say but also by putting trained bodies between the leaders of our side and foot soldiers, terrorists, and garden variety psychos of theirs.

Security details do actually prevent most attacks if done right. Can you stop every attack? Probably not. But the presence of professional security does deter most attacks. From what I have heard Benzair Bhutto ignored her security protocols. And boom.

Now I've got to go plan my vacation on the other side of the country

1190. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128282 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 4:56 pm

ricey,
You said,
Certainly pay for refuge, but if Ayaan wants to stay in the public eye (and I think she wants to), she has to accept a level of personal risk - like the Queen or the Pope or Osama bin Laden ...

All of the people you mentioned have protection of some kind. While it is true that no number of "beefy guards" (I'm sorry you are small) can protect anyone from a determined assassin, a few can make the effort much more difficult. More than that if she listened to her guards they could do quite alot more than you think in keeping her safe.

1191. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128226 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Yes she could do that. But then when you have to go into hiding, and cannot show your face, be seen or act as who you are... well it seems at that point as if the other side has won.

She is simply critiquing a body of ideas and that is not any reason to be threatened with death. Listen to Salmon Rushdie on his experience of this kind of hounding, which he has desrcibed as grueling, and extremely limiting of his expression, life and livelihood.

No Tetrornis we cannot really stand for this kind of bullying. Movements need faces as much as they need ideas. SHe is an important personality. Appearing on TV and doing book tours gives her a platform to reach more people than just like minded folks such as we. Beyond that though it is a simple matter of not impinging on another person's free expression.
If you do not like a person's ideas either come up with better ones or walk away.

1192. A match made on RichardDawkins.net?

Comment #128218 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Congratulations!
I tried to get my wife to go along with having the Emperial March (Darth Vader's tune) be our walk down the ailse music, I don't want to make any unwanted suggestions but....

1193. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #128182 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 12:24 pm

I'm also not sure why you would say steer clear of Ali. Why not say read her with a grain of salt if you think she is too "emotional" about these issues.
It seems that the experience of women in devotely Muslim countries is worth discussing harshly. Go to you tube and listen to the pious imams discuss how you should beat your women. That is enlightening. Is every male Muslim in Saudi Arabia a pig? I'm sure that would be false. But the that the laws permit the lashing of a woman who has already been punished (by that most civilized practice of the forced gang bang) impugn the character of those silent nice folk.
Again we may seem like bigots when slamming Islam but lets have the moderates start pumping out masses of literature saying, "You know what, lets just ignore all these verses that call for the miss-treatment of women. And of dimmis and of our apostates and jews and of hindus. Instead of constantly saying Islam is a religion of peace they could start working to make that an eventuality.

1194. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #128174 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Al Rawandi said:
9/11 3,000 dead.


How many die each day in Africa from Starvation and preventible and treatable diseases?


Let's keep priorities straight. Religion sucks, but other things are bigger killers right now.

Uh this seems like a remarkably shallow interpretation of the available data. One could make the strong case that most of the dead in Iraq are at the hands of religious zealots. And you are leaving out all the ways in which religion inhibits the application of good humanitarian efforts. Think of AIDs education in africa. Bush said he would give x amount of dollars to the cause but placed in caveats about abstinence only education. There is only one reason for this kind of sillyness and it isn't secular.

Then there is the missionary position taken by the catholic church and SOuthern Baptists in the same area saying shit like condoms cause AIDs/HIV. And that is just the tip of the icey berg that is relgious stupidity. It is impossible to tell how much religious ideas are maxiimizing human suffering on the medical science front considering the depressingly irrationale way in which we discuss things like stem cell research.
Religioun kills and it prolongs, maximizes and encourages suffering of all kinds. It is a terrible problem and snide little comparissons to 9/11 won't help you make your case that it is small potatoes compared something else.

1195. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128135 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 9:39 am

I do think it is in the best interest of the US to support people like Ayaan for the simple fact that they bring reason to places lacking it and are critics from the inside the culture of Islam. If we really cherish our freedoms we will see that refugees utilizing those freedoms will be protected for the time they are within our borders. She is actively combating militant Islam, fundamentalist, woman hating islam. This is as important a mission as, the fight against global warming.

1196. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #128128 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 9:18 am

Al rawandi said:
I would say, violence is a poor way to deal with our problems. So I would have to accept shooting people as a solution before I could even begin to look at your argument. I don't really accept that, so your entire point is moot.

Specifically I would like to high-light the phrase:
So I would have to accept shooting people as a solution before I could even begin to look at your argument. I don't really accept that, so your entire point is moot.

Do you really believe that? I've long suspected that was your position. I myself don't think it is the first solution to be instituted off the shelf but sometimes it becomes a solution. But if you are really just saying you don't believe that violence is sometimes the solution, or at the very least the begining of a solution in some cases then I think you have embarked on a rather irrational voyage.

Please elaborate on your position because I'd rather not mis-understand you.

1197. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #128124 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 9:03 am

When Jack Baurer does it, I'm all for it. But every situation he does it in seems extreme in the extreme along a range of extremely unlikely situations.
The other prime example of the extremes being used to justify torture come from the following scenario. A child, spouse, victim will die because she/he has been placed somewhere-we don't know where-by some killer of such people from the above demographics. We know the guy has the kid, spouse victim he just won't tell us where unless certain of his demands are met. This is a classic thriller, action movie chestnut. You will remember it from movies like the first Dirty Harry, Copycat (an appropriately named movie that copied other more ingagine serial killer movies), Hostage to name just a few. Some times the heroes in these movies, notably Callahan from Dirty Harry tortured a suspect to find out where the victim was.
I've never been too offended by these movies, or shows. I don't think I would be terribly offended by acting on this impulse if these unlikely situations occured and I had anythign to do with them. And of course no (honest) person has any trouble imagining themselves in Harry Callahan's shoes when we envision our own child, or loved one in one of these awful scenarios.
It is this sentiment that people on this site who sometimes support torture are thinking with. And it makes sense from the stand point of human psychology that people would hold that position.

If you think that our conflict with jihadis can affect you and more importantly your loved ones and friends the situation seems terribly urgent and you want to end that threat authoritatively. I understand the impulse but most of the research shows that torture doesn't often yield much actionable intelligence.

1198. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128118 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 8:29 am

I think she would be more of less safe living here in the states. Especially in the mid-west, live rurally, or in some small mid-western city, where influxes of strangers will tend to get noticed and she is good to go. I think there some houses in my neighborhood for sale.

1199. US military accused of harboring fundamentalism

Comment #128108 by MaxD on February 16, 2008 at 7:45 am

I'm not telling them I'm a Quaker! I signed up. I will just not be prosyletized to while I am there. I'm going to make sure I know how to get people in trouble for hassling me about their imaginary friends.

1200. Earliest bats did not 'see' with sound

Comment #128035 by MaxD on February 15, 2008 at 10:29 pm

The evolution of flight and echolocation in the bats is a fascinating chapter in evolutionary history, that raises all sorts of questions (why isn't the sky abuzz with flying mammals? And why do the mammals that do take to the air tend to be nocturnal?) It seems like many of these questions are largely worked out but they are an excellent example of the way the ecology of a system supplies selective pressures on organisms, while at the same time providing excellent examples of the limitations on the process. That is species aren't free to evolve willy-nilly. Anyway, I think bats are just a keen example of evolutionary processes.