Saturated Fat May Be Good For You

British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra writes in a stinging “Observations” column in the British Medical Journal):

Virtually all the truths about preventing heart attacks that physicians and patients have held dear for more than a generation are wrong and need to be abandoned, Malhotra writes. He musters a passel of recent research that suggests that the “obsession” with lowering a patients’ total cholesterol with statins, and a public health message that has made all sources of saturated fat verboten to the health-conscious, have failed to reduce heart disease.

Read full article: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-saturated-fat-20131022,0,2193813.story#axzz2ih8cPDPA

What is one to believe nowadays?  What I take away from this is to take medical advice with a small dose of skepticism.

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Electronic Surveillance is Everywhere

We live in the golden era of surveillance; every phone is designed to be tapped, the Internet passes through snooping equipment of agencies that are so vast and unaccountable that we hardly know their bounds. Corporations are forced (though some are willing enough!) to hand over our data and data of those whom we love. Our lives are ruled by networks and yet those networks are not ruled by our consent. These networks keep us hooked up but it is not without costs that they keep us hooked together. The businesses, the governments, and the individuals that power those networks are incentivized to spy, to betray and to do it silently. The architecture of the very systems produces these outcomes.—This is tyranny.

http://craphound.com/homeland/Cory_Doctorow_-_Homeland.pdf

Are They Prophets ?

Why Christianity is still dangerous to humanity

The long term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise.  Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to his Church’s public marks of the covenant-baptism and holy communion-must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel.  Gary North

I hope to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools.  The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them.  What a happy day that will be.   Jerry Falwell

There will never be world peace until Gods house and Gods people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world.  Pat Robertson

IS THE OLD TESTAMENT INSPIRED ?

IS THE OLD TESTAMENT INSPIRED?

If it is, it should be a book that no man — no number of men — could produce.

It should contain the perfection of philosophy.

It should perfectly accord with every fact in nature.

There should be no mistakes in astronomy, geology, or as to any subject or science.

Its morality should be the highest, the purest.

Its laws and regulations for the control of conduct should be just, wise, perfect, and perfectly adapted to the accomplishment of the ends desired.

It should contain nothing calculated to make man cruel, revengeful, vindictive or infamous.

It should be filled with intelligence, justice, purity, honesty, mercy and the spirit of liberty.

It should be opposed to strife and war, to slavery and lust, to ignorance, credulity and superstition.

It should develop the brain and civilize the heart.

It should satisfy the heart and brain of the best and wisest.

It should be true.

Does the Old Testament satisfy this standard?

Robert G. Ingersoll, 1894

There Is NO Controversy

Dr. Joshua Swamidass, “a Christian and career scientist,” wrote in the Wall Street Journal  last week:

“First, the age of the Earth and the rejection of evolution aren’t core Christian beliefs. Neither appears in the Nicene or Apostle’s Creed. Nor did Jesus teach them. Historical Christianity has not focused on how God created the universe, but on how God saves humanity through Jesus’ death and resurrection. . . .

…there is simply NO controversy in the scientific world about the age of the Earth or evolution. Evidence points to a 4.5 billion-year-old planet.

The evidence for evolution is just as strong. In the past, evolution rested on ambiguous fossil evidence, but now it rests on much clearer DNA evidence that increases exponentially every month. Fully appreciating this evidence takes a lot of time, reading and patience. And it is not appropriate to “teach the controversy” in science class because there is NO ongoing debate in the scientific community comparable to the theological debate.

The evolution debate is NOT a scientific controversy, but a theological controversy about a non-central Christian doctrine.”

(My emphasis throughout)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324469304578141673721798486.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

YEC’s just need to get their logic and good-sense on.  Think…we (science) have actual real evidence…you are fighting a loosing battle

There Is NO Conspiracy Going On

Excerpt from Rachel Maddow on her show Wednesday after the election:

“”Ohio really did go to President Obama last night, he really did win. He really was born in Hawaii, and he really is, legitimately, president of the United States again. And The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.

And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing! And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us. And nobody is taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.””
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/rachel-maddow-republicans-shellacked-election-night_n_2092290.html

In other words…Republicans wake the f_ck up.  There is no Democratic conspiracy going on to turn the US into a communist or socialist state.  President Obama is NOT a closet Muslim trying to get rid of the US constitution.

The anti-Obama anti-Democratic Party rhetoric that Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and others have been making up and spewing the last four years is just insulting.  Insulting to blacks, Hispanics, other minorities, people with intelligence, women in general and those of us who live in a world of reality, good sense, and good will towards ALL men/women.

Thank You America

Below is a quote from “The Atheist Camel” weblog.  The man has a very keen wit and writes wonderfully…check him out

 “THANK YOU women, moderate/liberal Christians, gays, freethinkers, Latinos, and Americans of intellect, reason, modernity, equality, civility and humanity for once again reminding me that this nation is better than I had given it credit for.”

I couldn’t say it any better.  See the whole post:

http://atheistcamel.blogspot.com/2012/11/just-few-post-election-thank-you-notes.html

Baylor University and Evolution

Baylor University in Waco, Texas is the largest Baptist University in the world, and has a pretty good science department.  I always thought the Baptists were creationists/fundamentalists…

From the Biology Department at Baylor University:

Statement on Evolution
“Evolution, a foundational principle of modern biology, is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence and is accepted by the vast majority of scientists. Because it is fundamental to the understanding of modern biology, the faculty in the Biology Department at Baylor University, Waco, TX, teaches evolution throughout the biology curriculum. We are in accordance with the American Association for Advancement of Science’s statement on evolution. We are a science department, so we do not teach alternative hypotheses or philosophically deduced theories that cannot be tested rigorously.”  http://www.baylor.edu/biology/index.php…

From the Baylor University Geology Department:

“Whether biological evolution occurs has NOT been a matter of scientific debate for more than a century. It is considered a PROVEN fact. The specific mechanisms of biological change over time continue to be a topic of active research, and include mechanisms proposed by Charles Darwin as well as more recently developed ideas based on our growing knowledge of genetics and molecular biology. Using the methods of modern science, our knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of life has grown enormously since the initial characterization of the role of DNA in reproduction, inheritance and evolution in the mid-1950s.”   My emphasis http://www.baylor.edu/geology/index.php…

DOWNLOAD the 1 MB PDF file Evolution and the Fossil Record by Pojeta and Springer.
http://www.agiweb.org/news/evolution.pdf

The Jesus Myth

.Christopher Hitchens on Jesus and the Exodus
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Cactus Flowers Are Blooming

The Hedgehog Cactus are blooming

In the next week or so I’ll be out in the desert around here with camera in hand

In the next few days I think the Prickly Pears cacti will be blooming
The ones in my front yard have about a thousand  pods ready to bloom

The neighbors did already
Sony A300 with Minolta 50mm f2.8 Macro