Episode 184a Jabs At Anti-Vaxers

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00:00 Intro
08:41 Vaccines, Vaccines, Vaccines
52:52 Episode Split Outro

Harpo has had all her shots and gets to play with all the humans!

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Episode 140 abounds with received wisdom of Oklahoman Religious Freedom via a questionable Sign Language Translation

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2:15 Greg talks homeopathy at work
7:30 Donna's 48 Film Experience
http://vimeo.com/80225163
15:30 Black Friday Cards Against Humanity's Sale
19:30 Birthday but no gifts
26:00 Oklahoma has a new religious freedom law
which  is being tested by non-Christian religions
40:00 Time Magazine Person of the Year and Mandela and politics stuff
1:20:00 What did we learn


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And here is a picture of a balloon animal being made for President Obama

Episode 108 leaves its Lagrangian point and begins intelligently falling away from earth

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00:00 Credits, intro
04:41 Skeptical Birthday
13:09 Death Of The Herschel Space Observatory
18:23 WOT Do You Say / @SkepticAction
21:19 Lamar Smith Versus The National Science Foundation
38:18 Various Autism Science News Bits

Girl with autism uses computers...yeaah yeah its Medical Mysteries
http://youtu.be/_xsfNrG5Bnw

57:59 Closing and Outtakes

Harpo forgets what the Web Of Trust browser tool does

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And here is a picture of one of the favoritest Herschel Observatory pics from
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/Herschel_images:

Episode 103 Has a Nice Long Chat with Shelley Segal

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00:00 00:05:00 A wide ranging conversation with Shelley Segal, atheist musician on a three month tour of the U.S.
http://www.shelleysegal.com/
00:10:42 Birthday
Leonard Nimoys Bilbo Baggins Song
http://youtu.be/AGF5ROpjRAU
00:14:00 Interview with Shelley Segal Song Writing
00:28:55 Politics AUS vs US
00:33:30 On atheism, music, and family
00:56:30 Lightning Round

No dogs allowed, but occassionaly the sound of a camera.

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Episode 078 prevaricates and pivots and ponders and pontificates and prints

...not really different from any other episode really, except for some slightly different words in slightly different order with slightly different meanings and inflections.

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00:04:30 Birthday Christian Sorensen Longomontanus
and Geo Helio Centricism yes I know that is spelled wrong

00:15:30 How do politicians avoid the question and do we care
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162103368/how-politicians-get-away-with-dodging-the-question

00:37:10 New York Times on Retracted papers and fraud
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/science/study-finds-fraud-is-widespread-in-retracted-scientific-papers.html

00:57:00 Lightning Round

And Harpo gets her digs in on Greg for ignoring her for a couple of hours.

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No big board so here is a picture of a selectively bred goldfish.
(found on http://www.thisblogrules.com/2011/01/bubble-eye-goldfish-the-funniest-fish-in-the-aquarium.html)

The Texas GOP Position paper

As mentioned in the podcast (wait did we mention it...oh yes..yes we did), the Republican Party if Texas released their 2012 platform paper to rave reviews. I would embed it here, but even though it is a public document, I don't necessarily have the rights to upload it to Scribd, but here is a link: http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf
(if you can't find it and really want it, just give us a line and we'll email it to you)

Many pundits, bloggers, and what-have-you's have made good note and fun of this gem from the  statement that somehow "mistakenly" got through the editorial process. From page 12 of the document "Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

The Communications Director for the RPoT, Chris Elam, told Talking Points Memo at the end of June that the use of "critical thinking skill" was a mistake bu that they would have to wait until 2014 to fix it. Really? It's a helluva important document, they might  think about fixing it now. Or are there some in the party that would be against, I don't know, accurate language? Or perhaps they feel that making a correction shows some kind of flaw? Sort of like the whole "flip flop" language of campaigns past: don't make a mistake or we will slam you for it, and then don't change your mind because that means you don't have a real position.

I looked, but I could not find that they backed off from any of the other statements in the report, so I feel safe in saying that the Texas GOP is pretty much a radical, anti-* organization, now, who stand against a lot but not for anything. But that isn't going to stop people from voting for them, because often candidates say radical things simply to make themselves stand out and many voters don't think they really believe their own rhetoric. Which is why the only non ultra-Conservative Presidential candidate, Jon Hunstman, quickly dropped out. Possibly because the radical candidates were more fun to watch.

Regardless, it appears that Texas Republicans must adhere to a policy statement that may sound good from a financial point of view but from a social and societal standpoint  are misguided, selfish, bigoted, and short-sighted at their core.

As always, however, I could be wrong. What do you think?

Gary

Question about the TSA funding and current politics

As PZ Myers pointed out on his blog Pharyngula, there is a debate going on at "The Economist" on whetehr the TSA and airport security.

My question is this: given the current obsession with privatizing everything under the sun, shouldn't airport security be privatized? After all, why should I, who fly very little, have my tax dollars go to something which I hardly ever use. I am being only a little bit facetious here, but the argument can be made that airlines should pass on the cost of the TSA screenings to those people using their service, and not to the great majority of citizens who do not. Sounds a little bit like the health care debate except that everybody at some point will use health care, but not everybody will use an airplane.

With friends like these....

I'm thinking we need a stronger wall for church-state separation. Unless Perry makes it clear their advise will go directly into the "what absolutely is the wrong thing to do" file. Well maybe not directly: even a broken clock is right twice a day. Unless it's a broken clock that is, in fact, losing time, in which case there is probably a nice equation that will tell you how often the clock is correct. I'm thinking these guys are the latter type of clock.

Good luck on praying and getting an answer on how to fix the problems you helped create, Mr. Perry; as you have admitted you don't have any ideas or answers at all- and in fact you have stated the problems cannot be solved by mere humans- I'm thinking you probably shouldn't be leading us anymore. And thanks for the rain, too. No wait: that prayer didn't work, either. Shame.

Podcast Episode 4 is a GO! GO! GO!

Get it here
Or subscribe on iTunes.

This Week:
-  New member of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce
- Update on the Young Conservatives and Wayne Christian
- Texas Political Redistricting
- Ear Candle lawsuit
- Power Bands changes it's tune
- Osama Bin Laden is killed or not, says Alex Jones
- Interview with Berry Lynn from the 1st Amendment Rally in San Antonio
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Rick Santorum: Sharia Compliant Banking

Today, while speaking with National Press Club, Chris Moody from the Daily Caller asked Rick Santorum this question:

You mentioned that Sharia law is an existential threat to the United States and there seems to be some general confusion among the general public on how to define Sharia law. How do define Sharia law and can you point to some instances with the United States that its taking over in a way or...

**Transcript follows below. Give it just a second. C-Span's embedder didn't like me very much!**




Here is what Rick Santorum had to say:

Well, if you're looking at instances where it has taken over, we have in the financial sector, sharia compliant finance where funds and people who are doing investments are deferring to people put by groups some of which, lets put it this way, suspect as to authority of what these funds can be invested in a sharia compliant way. Investment houses and others and banks are paying less than reputable people a lot of money to give their blessing for their types of investments. That's a problem. Its a way of, depending on what their investing in and who they are paying to give their blessing could be ways in which resources go to places that I'm not too sure are necessarily in our national security interests. You also have situations where you have movements in this country where you try to cordon off and create family courts or other types of laws where Muslims are only held account to religious law as opposed to the civil laws in this country. That has gone on extensively in Europe but its coming here and its being advocated for in this country. There are concrete examples of how that is occuring in America today and I would argue clearly, I'm not making the argument that America is by any way in the lead on this. The bigger problems and the more notable cases are clearly in places where the higher concentration of Muslims exist and thats primarily in Western Europe and not here.

Sharia is a code of, a civil code of both how the government is to operate, to things as mundane as personal hygeine. Religious practices, it is made up of all various texts, not just the Qu'ran but of various texts that is a code by which Muslims have to live.

The Newest Campaigner

Kimberly Daniels is running for City Council in Jacksonville FL. If this name sounds familiar, you are probably remembering these gems:

I do not buy candy during the Halloween season, curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door-to-door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons can’t tell the difference
Daniels to Charisma magazine on October 27, 2009.


We have experienced much success in one-session deliverances, however, there have been times when I have personally walked homosexuals, ex-witches, and drug addicts through sessions that took place over a couple of years
Daniels from her own book, Clean House, Strong House


I thank God for slavery. Mmm. I thank God for the crack house. If it wasn't for the crack house, come on somebody, God wouldn't a never been able to use me how he can use me know. And if it wasn't for slavery I might be somewhere in Africa worshiping a tree!
Kimberly Daniels, October 2008, Solid Rock Church, Monroe, Ohio


And to think that laws are still on the books outlawing atheists from running for public office. If you want to read more of Ms. Daniels' quotes, please go here

Skeptic Wire Episode #2 is here!

Click here and get it!

It's better than that other "Episode 2" with the exceptions that THIS Episode 2 has 99.9% fewer light sabers and Jedi, and no score by John Williams. Plus, it doesn't cost you $8 and an afternoon of standing in line, in the heat, next to some six foot high 40 year old dressed as Yoda who is muttering "See it, I will...yeeesssss. Munchies will I have: movies lead to popcorn, popcorn needs soda, soda leads to baaaaaathrooom." While the 4 foot 8 Wookie next to him keeps gurgling loudly due to an unrepentant run-in with Taco Bell.

This week:
Charles Manson on Global Warming;
Kate Hudson is a WITCH!;
Non-Fiction books lie;
Psychic gets a hit;
Technology hurts our BRAAAINNSSS!;
Sex phone lines get 800 numbers;
Exorcism gone bad;
Atheists die first?;
Birthers;
Anti-religion (Sharia) Law in Texas;
Holistic Chamber of Commerce;
and, of course, dogs barking in the background

But why aren't we on iTunes yet?!

Apparently, I have to write an XML RSS feed file for iTunes, so that should happen next week.

Enjoy!

"Not a factual statement"

Senator Jon Kyl made a small misrepresentation about how much of Planned Parenthood's business is related to abortion...well 90% versus the closer-to-actual 3%. We must remember that 87% of statistics are made up, and 44% of those don't even make sense in the context in which they are used. Don't just accept the assertions of people, especially who are in positions of authority. In fact, make sure you check what they say. As we have seen, some are depending on the implicit trust of their position to carry their argument forward.