Ken Miller on Intelligent Design

This is a very long video (almost 2 hours) but quite worthwhile for anyone interested in understanding why intelligent design creationism is bad science. Especially interesting to me were the bits where Miller discusses evidence against irreducible complexity.

Miller is a Roman Catholic biology professor at Brown University, and he believes that faith and science are compatible. I disagree with him on this one point, but not in a strict sense. Miller's beliefs certainly don't make him any less a scientist.

fun to shoot 'em

I heard a rumor today that FOX purchased Al Jazeera. My first reaction was to laugh, but it is not a joke. That is to say, it was not told to me as a joke. Whether it is true is another matter. I don't know what to make of it if it is true.

In other news (got this from Reuters):

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, made the [following] comments at a conference Tuesday in San Diego. "Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," said Mattis. "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said during a panel discussion. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Well, Mr. Mattis, this is a relief. So many women in abusive relationships will be thrilled to be informed of your ethical insights. I suppose now any good red-blooded blue-clad inner city cop is perfectly justified in walking down the street and shooting down anyone who looks like they might just possibly be a wife-beater. It will be easier for the police, of course, if the recipients of the bullets are different-looking, or immigrants from a foreign culture.

Jack Johnson

Saw a fabulous documentary on PBS last night about a boxing match that took place on July 4, 1910 between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries. (I think I got the names right - I remember they're all J's.) I didn't catch the whole story - only the last twenty minutes or so. Johnson was black and Jeffries was white. The whole nation was waiting to see who would win. Johnson won. Jeffries had been undefeated until then, but he was in really bad shape at the end. The crowd, which was all white, started yelling, "Don't let the nigger knock him out," so they ended the match before that could happen and declared Johnson the winner. Afterwards there were riots and killings and everything over it, all over the country. They showed some newspaper clippings from various towns that said things like, "12 blacks ran amuck, until police rescued them". On a train a black man was talking about the fight and a white man slit his throat, killing him. There were stabbings and beatings. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times warned the black community that the fight had not changed their complexion and nothing had changed. You are not any better just because of a boxing match.

I hate the fact that we are always looking for some way to subjugate one another.

I am proud of Johnson. I am not black, but I am proud of him as one human being can be of another human being. He conducted himself well and he fought for a cause that was larger than himself. After the fight Jeffries admitted that even in his prime he had never been as good as Johnson. With his prize winnings Johnson bought a house and moved in on July 7. That night, a white man with a rifle attempted to break in and kill him, but the police stopped him. That was only the beginning of Johnson's troubles. That's about all I remember of the documentary.