Framed

Stupidity

Having just blogged about the intelligence of the general public, I should note that sometimes the general public is profoundly stupid.  A Barrie, Ontario mother dropped her 11 year old autistic daughter off at school, went home, and later received an alarming phone call:

The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS had been notified.

How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

*  *  *

But things got worse when school officials used the "evidence" and accepted the completely unsubstantiated word of the seer by reporting the case to Children's Aid, which promptly opened a file on the family.

"They reported me to Children's Aid," Leduc declares, still disbelieving. "Based on a psychic!"

Whoa.  Do you suppose that if charges were filed in this matter that they would be resolved in trial where the accused is bound and thrown into a river to see if he sinks or swims?  Or would it be more appropriate for a more senior psychic to simply render a verdict without actually examining the evidence?  PZ Meyers is furious:

That educational assistant who made such a ghastly accusation on the basis of no evidence at all should have been immediately warned that she would be fired for spreading false rumors like that. The administrators at that school who took such idiocy seriously ought to be removed from their position of trust — they are clearly unreliable. The government officials should not be harrassing Ms Leduc — rather, they ought to hunt down and fine the creepy scammer with the pathetic letter-guessing psychic fraud scheme.

*  *  *

This is what happens when a culture tells people that reason and evidence are optional, and faith is touted as a virtue. I'm sure that educational assistant thought she was doing a good thing and was trying to protect Victoria…but the filters had been stripped from her brain, she had no tools to make rational assessments of the evidence, and so she charged in to do something vile and destructive, instead.

Boobs

Is it because he's from Texas, because he's a Republican, because he's an evangelical, or because he's just begging to be lampooned?  Hard to tell with this guy:

Washington is a town filled with boobs.

"Overflowing," I might have said.  Assholes, too.

They're everywhere, from the bare-breasted ladies who decorate the fountain at Dupont Circle to the peekaboo statue in the Justice Department's Great Hall to the countless nudes in our museums.

They're also on the chests of the prostitutes who attend certain Republican lawmakers.

But while those of us who live here hardly blink at the public nudity, it can shock some of our visitors.

Especially those from places where there's more oil than enlightenment, like Saudi Arabia and Texas.

Such was the case for Robert Hurt, who last week tried to add the issue of artistic indecency in the nation's capital to the platform of the Texas GOP.

Do you get the impression that the Texas GOP has too much time on its hands?

"You don't have nude art on your front porch," the Dallas Morning News quoted the delegate as telling the platform committee at the state party convention.

Some front porches should definitely be nude.  But anyway, my mother's neighbors have a fountain with sculpted nude women in their front yard--does that count?

"So why is it important to have that in the common places of Washington, D.C.?

Umm, maybe because the human form has been the subject of some of the greatest art Western civilization has produced in the last 5,000 years?  That's just a guess.  Apparently, though, western civilization is not a big hit back in Texas.

Hurt, 54, a Kerrville, Tex., rancher and father of 14, told us in a phone interview he first came to Washington a decade ago for a gathering of the evangelical Promise Keepers on the Mall.

Wait a minute--father of 14?  That explains everything.  Poor guy is probably so terrified of reminders of female fecundity he can't bear it.

"It was probably not much different than 'The Beverly Hillbillies' going to Beverly Hills," he joked.

Ya think?

At the National Gallery, he was appalled to see statues of unclothed people. "I found it very inappropriate," he said.

Right, who would ever expect to find nude statues in a museum?  Shocking.

Returning a few years later, he discovered Arlington Memorial Bridge, flanked by the bare-chested figures of Valor and Sacrifice.

Nice use of the verb "discovered," as if Hurt were starring in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Naked Knockers.

"The Lady Godiva thing -- that's what it conjured up, and that's not what our country's about," he said.

He's right about that.  Lady Godiva was a liberal activist who rode naked through the streets of Coventry, England in order to protest the excessive rents her own husband was charging his tenants.  Indeed, that's not what our country's about; here, we'd just evict the damned tenants and refer them to faith-based organizations for help.

Hurt notified his elected officials of his concerns but believes nothing was done.

What a surprise

While he said he respects free speech, "I believe art affects a country indirectly. I have been studying the decline of morals in this country. It's sending the wrong message to children that nudity is fine, that nakedness is fine. . . . There are degrees of vulgarity, and it opens up the door for the other stuff."

Yeah, one look at a Giambologna and the next thing you know your kids will be surfing the net for bukkake and scat.  How awful that kids might grow up to think that "nakedness is fine."

The platform committee did not adopt Hurt's recommendation on Washington nudity (nor his proposal to extend the 22nd Amendment -- presidential term limits -- to spouses). But Hurt said he'll pursue the issue, possibly with another trip here to videotape the evidence. "I'm not going to stop until I succeed. I'm prepared for a long fight.

Yeah, him and Plato.

(h/t to Atrios)

Geese

Tristero, today:

Once again, I am amazed by the Republican propensity for elevating genuine weirdos into high office. Ashcroft, whose father anointed him with Crisco when he was made Attorney General. Frist, who tortured cats, and despite a medical education, refused to say that AIDS could not be spread by kissing. Santorum, and so many other GOPers who have an obsession with man-dog sex. Evolution deniers. Racists. Homophobic homosexuals. Scalia, who simply can't read the very clear Declaration of Independence without serious misunderstandings. Twisted New Age flakes like Newt Gingrich, now an elder statesman. Boykin, a general who's lost his mind, sees Satan hovering over battlefields, in charge of the hunt for bin Laden. A serious contender for the GOP nomination who once released a serial rapist just to get back at Bill Clinton. The current GOP nominee who thought it was funny - ah, ha ha ha! - to sing "Bomb Iran!" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann."

In my America - which includes Greil Marcus's Old Weird America AND the modern art scene in New York City - it just isn't that easy to find people as bizarre - and as tawdry - as these. The Republican party is one very, very strange gaggle of geese.

Fired

If her writing is any indication of her thought processes, it's clear that University of Toledo administrator Crystal Dixon is a bigot, a kook, and an intellectually deficient human being.  However, I have worked at two other northwest Ohio institutions of higher education, and I can say pretty confidently that if being a bigot, a kook and an intellectually deficient human being were grounds for termination, the faculties and staffs of both would be decimated.

Dixon, however, was recently fired from her post as an "interim associate vice president of human resources" at UT for writing a letter to the editor of the Toledo Free Press in which she laid her bigotry, kookiness and intellectual deficiency out for all to see:

As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are "civil rights victims." Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few. Frequently, the individuals report that the impetus to their change of heart and lifestyle was a transformative experience with God; a realization that their choice of same-sex practices wreaked havoc in their psychological and physical lives.

Following publication of her letter, she was fired--for doing nothing more than writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper and expressing her views. 

If Dixon can be fired from a public university for expressing her anti-gay opinion,  then any other employee could be sacked for expressing pro-gay sentiments--or for that matter, for expressing anything at all.  Things would be different, perhaps, if Dixon was an employee at will at a private institution.  However, if the First Amendment means anything, it means that agents of the state (such as the University of Toledo) are not allowed to punish employees for holding and expressing unpopular views.

It's uncomfortable for me to be on the same side of this matter as Rush Limbaugh, but this is not a liberal or conservative issue--it's a civil liberties issue.  Dixon plans to file suit against UT; I hope she succeeds.

Religion Leads to Abstinence and Dog Tossing

I couldn't make up this kind of stuff if I tried:

Highly intoxicated and dissatisfied with her sex life, a 28-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday for stealing her husband's wallet and later assaulting the deputy who booked her into jail.

The meltdown, which deputies witnessed along with the couple's 3- and 4-year-old children, started when the husband, 24, had told his wife they had three hours to quit smoking, drinking, swearing and engaging in some sex acts because "they were going to be good Christians now," the woman said.

The man said she had woken him up to have relations, but then became disappointed and angry.

Kitsap County deputies were called to the apartment on the 11800 block of Majestic Lane NW at 2:38 a.m. after a neighbor overheard yelling, crying and slamming doors, the report said.

When deputies arrived, the woman denied any assault had taken place, and repeatedly, without sparing a vulgar euphemism, told the deputies about how unsatisfied she was with her sex life — some of the time carrying around a half-gallon of whiskey while doing so.

During an argument with one of the deputies, the woman picked up the family's 20-pound dog and threw it at the deputy, who caught it, the report said.

I mean, I can see being pretty disappointed if my wife came home one day and told me that since she'd found Jesus, she didn't need nookie anymore.  Would I be mad enough to toss my dog?  Only if I found out Jesus was our neighbor's gardener.  But Sophie's downed so many Ho-Ho's recently that I doubt I could do so without injuring myself.

(h/t to PZ Myers)

Epistemologically Weird

The most disturbing thing about the Bush administration for me is the degree to which it is shot through with people who believe truly bizarre things.  I can understand conservative ideology on the economy, foreign relations, taxes, the environment, privatization, etc.  I disagree with conservatives on these issues, but at least when I discuss them with my Republican friends, I don't get the sense I'm talking to someone from fantasy land. 

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, however, appears to be one of those epistemologically weird people that are attracted to Bush--people who don't just differ from me in terms of politically philosophy, but whose fundamental frames of reference are totally alien.  At least this is the conclusion I draw after considering the book Gutierrez has laid out in his waiting room for people to peruse before coming to see him:

The Atlas of Creation is prominently displayed in the waiting room to his office. Written by the Turkish writer Adnan Oktar (under the pen name of Harun Yahya), the Atlas offers an Islamic version of creationism and blames Charles Darwin for modern terrorism–including the 9/11 attacks. A recent visitor to the office tells me that the Atlas is impossible to miss, both because of its huge size–it weighs in at 12 pounds and has nearly 800 pages–and because it is prominently displayed on a stand at the entrance to the room.

*  *  *

A caption from the book, below a photograph of one of the planes striking the World Trade Center, reports: “No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on–and thus encourages–conflict.”

Darwinism is also to blame for fascism and communism. As the Atlas explains, it “is the root of various ideologies of violence that have spelled disaster to mankind in the 20th century.

Whoa.

(h/t to PZ Myers)

Classic Crackpot Drops Frivolous Lawsuit

A lot of hits on Framed have come recently from people Googling "classic crackpot," presumably a reference to the frivolous lawsuit brought by a kook named Stuart Pivar against Pharyngula publisher PZ Myers over Myers' hilariously skeptical review of Pivar's kooky book.

There are now dozens of links to stories about Pivar that are revealed whenever one Googles "classic crackpot."  People like me who had never heard of Pivar before sure know who (and what) he is now.

And now there's some good news: according to PZ himself, Pivar has told a reporter that his lawyer is withdrawing the suit.

Classic Crackpot

PZ Myers and his blog Pharyngula have long been essential reads for me.  So I was distressed to hear that PZ is being sued by some litigous kook named Stuart Pivar who has his knickers in a twist over some bad reviews PZ wrote (which may be read here and here) about his silly little book

Anyone who would file a lawsuit over a bad review of a biology book has no understanding of the scientific method, no respect for public discourse, and (in Pivar's case) no understanding of the law of defamation.  Ironically, one of the things that stuck in Mr. Pivar's craw was the fact that PZ called him a "classic crackpot."  By filing his lawsuit, Mr. Pivar has inadvertently validated this description.

Bias

There's been so much written about the Creation Museum that there is little need to write more.

This post, though, is about the news media, and specifically Northwest Ohio's paper of record, the Pulitzer Prizewinning Toledo Blade.  To that paper's everlasting shame, this is THE page-one  headline that appeared last Sunday:

Creation Museum's Era Dawns: Facility Offers 'Dinosaurs" and Biblical Perspective
 

For those readers who aren't familiar with Ohio geography, let me take a moment. The Creation Museum is located in Petersburg, Kentucky, which is just over the border from Ohio's southwest corner.  The Blade is published in Toledo, in the state's northwest corner, 225 miles away.  If the museum were anywhere nearby, it might be reasonable for the Toledo paper to cover its opening.  But giving the premier headline real estate to the opening of a facility some three and a half hours away is already suspect.  The Blade doesn't generally report on events and openings in Columbus, Cleveland, or Dayton--all cities closer than Petersburg, Kentucky--and yet it reported on this.

In the entire article, written by religion editor Dave Yonke, the one reference to the utterly fraudulent and fictitious nature of the museum's purpose and presentation may be found in this sentence:

While prevailing scientific theory is that the Earth is 4 billion years old and that humanity evolved from ape-like creatures, Mr. Ham and his Creationist colleagues contend that scientific evidence supports the biblical account of the origin of the universe, and that evolution theory hinges on certain scientific presuppositions, or biases.

That's it--half a sentence to reason, science and Darwin in a 32 paragraph article that occupies the prime headline slot in the news section of the paper.

But it gets worse.

A day later, The Blade did publish a much shorter, unsigned op-ed from the Los Angeles Times labeled "Another Opinion," which briefly pointed out the factual and scientific absurdities of the Creation Museum's exhibits:

The museum, a 60,000-square-foot menace to 21st century scientific advancement, is the handiwork of Answers in Genesis, a leader in the "young Earth" movement. Young Earthers believe the world is about 6,000 years old, as opposed to the 4.5 billion years estimated by the world's credible scientific community. This would be risible if anti-evolution forces were confined to a lunatic fringe, but they are not. Witness the recent revelation that three of the Republican candidates for president do not believe in evolution. Three men seeking to lead the last superpower on Earth reject the scientific consensus on cosmology, thermonuclear dynamics, geology and biology, believing instead that Bamm-Bamm and Dino played together.

Get that?  The notion that human beings and dinosaurs walked the earth together just 6,000 years ago is news, i.e., fact.  But the rational, scientific explanation as to why that notion is impossible is opinion, i.e., just some crazy random thought that popped into someone's head.

And it gets worse still.

In today's paper, there is a letter to the editor by one Terry Hubert of Holland, Ohio, which reads as follows:

Evolution not science, rather a sacred cow

A May 28 article reprinted from the [Los Angeles] Times is a lie promoted by an obviously atheistic author. Evolution parades behind a mask of "science," but is really a sacred cow that is as factual as Greek mythology. It contradicts even the most basic laws of thermodynamics.

Only a fool who is trying to escape accountability before the Creator would believe such far-fetched jargon. Creationism welcomes and encourages investigation. However, how the universe began is a matter of history, not science.

The Bible is a book of history that factually records the historical events of creation. Unless you are willfully blind, the fact that the universe operates by design is a simple deduction from everything you see in the cosmos. It is evolution that is an assault on science.

To be sure, the same edition of the paper also carried a letter sharply critical of creationism and The Blade's adoring coverage of The Creation Museum.  Such editorial and publication decisions are presumably made by those who swallow the "teach the controversy" line, the notion that schools (and newspapers) should give equal time to science and mythology and let the readers decide which is accurate.  This is particularly ironic given The Blade's concern about "brain drain," the loss of Toledo's best and brightest to cities whose papers of record don't provide a forum for Flintstones zoology.  I wouldn't blame any recent college graduate for wanting to get the hell out of a city whose preeminent news outlet denigrated science, reason and fact the way The Blade has on this issue.

Outraged

Does Bill Donohue travel around the country looking for things to be outraged about, or does he have a staff to do that for him?  And is he more outraged 1) that Jesus is depicted with chocolate-brown flesh, 2) that chocolate is, in fact, the sculptural medium, or 3) that Jesus has a penis?

Hey Bill, since you're calling for a boycott of the gallery where brown chocolate penis'd Jesus is hanging, maybe you should boycott Tom Waits while you're at it.