I'll have a side of hashish with my enchilada, thank you

One would think that a company that manufactures drug tests for law enforcement would put a warning label on their test that said something like "This test cannot tell the difference between heroin and cheese" or "This test doesn't work that well, might want to use something else- this is what you get for going with the lowest bidder"...

But no! That isn't what the test manufacturer did. And so a man had to spend 4 days in jail because apparently the enzymes in cheese set a field test off.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43034161/ns/us_news-weird_news/

That sound you hear.... yeah, thats me banging my head against my desk.

Episode 005 goes live in 3...2...[silent count]

Get it from iTunes (Skeptic Wire) or right-click and download directly from here.

This Week:
- National Day of Prayer
- San Antonio has ghosts and ghost hunters!
- The coming apocalypse(s)/ Rapture(s)
- Mike Adams' The Gullible Mind Explained
- The unpronounceable Koch brothers hire some faculty in Florida
- Unskeptical local paper pushes ghost kids, bigfoot, nostril breathing
And a lesser- but not unentertaining- shadow show by The Resident Canines.
Follow the blog at: http://skepticwire.blogspot.com
Follow on twitter: @theskepticwire
Write us at: skepticwire@gmail.com
Friend us on Facebook
Subscribe on iTunes...leave a review, if you are so inclined!

An Afternoon at the National Day of Prayer

A few days ago I joined hundreds of worshipers at the courthouse in San Antonio who were observing the National Day of Prayer. From the courthouse door, fervent prayers and holy praise filled the air of the the lawn below where hundreds shouted, sang, waved their arms in the air and wept. I stood below and to side of the entrance holding my handmade sign where it could not be missed by anyone watching the observance. It read "Keep Government and Religion Separate".

The sign is one that I made last year for the same event. At the time I considered whether I should keep it. After all, the National Day of Prayer had just been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. The Mayor could go ahead and read his 2010 proclamation, but that would be the last. I decided to keep it, so it was still tucked away in my closet when I found out a few weeks ago that a federal court had overturned the ruling and that this year's National Day of Prayer was a go.

To be clear, I had no intent to protest the scene I've just described. Preaching and expressions of faith, even on the courthouse steps, is protected by the same amendment that protects the public from religious laws. (Other protesters take note!) I was there to remind people, and city officials that government proclamations of a religious nature are unconstitutional and otherwise generally a bad idea.

After reading both decisions, [Judge Barbara Crabb's here, Seventh Circuit's here] a couple of things are clear to me. One, the law requiring the proclamation is unconstitutional. And two, the seventh circuit made a cowardly decision to sidestep the issue.

It's a curious situation that the government can, in principle and in fact, carry out unconstitutional actions without conequence under a system that requires that personal harm to the plaintifs be demonstrated. It doesn't seem to offer remedies for the more 'big picture' societal harm that mixing religion and government can cause.

The Seventh Circuit said they can't understand why anyone would be offended by the proclamation. It reminded me of an interview I gave atlast year's National Day of Prayer event. The Christion radio announcer asked me, mockingly "Oh, are you buuurrdened by this? Do you feel buuurrdened?". "No." I told him. "I'm just here to remind people that we have separation of church and state in this country." So my sign sits in my closet, waiting for another day.

David Harcourt

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
Follow the blog at: http://skepticwire.blogspot.com
Follow on twitter: @theskepticwire
Write us at: skepticwire@gmail.com
Friend us on Facebook
Subscribe on iTunes

Today in First Amendment News

I actually have a lot to say today but unfortunately, I have no time to say it. I'll just leave you with this that is making its way around the intertubes this morning. ACLU-TN has filed a suit against Sumner County Board of Education for violations of the Establishment clause. The ACLU has filed on behalf of four families who allege the following:

Teachers displaying crosses in classrooms

The dissemination of Gideon bibles during the school day

Prayers being broadcast over the loudspeaker

Allowing youth ministers to come in during lunch hours to eat with students and discuss his church's activities.

Student musical programs where the majority of music sung by children were hymnal/gospel in nature

The Sumner county school board has said that "We are aware of the allegations and we are prepared to defend the allegations,” said attorney Wesley Southerland with the American Center for Law and Justice, hired by the school district last week. We are taking all precautions to make sure the school system is solely proceeding in a manner consistent with the Constitution.”

If these allegations are true, I hope that the Sumner County Schools gets their asses handed to them and are writing a rather large check at the end of the day. More importantly, I hope that these allegations are not true. Somehow, I don't think that I will get my wish in that regards.

The Power Balance website is so boring nowadays

A visit to the Power Balance website isn't as fun as it used to be. You used to be able to find such creative pseudo-sciency gems as this...

"Unlike many other ionic electro-magnetic devices, the Power Balance™ Holographic disks begin to work almost instantly, restoring optimal electro-magnetic balance and promoting free flowing energy pathways...NO PROMISES, JUST RESULTS"

"The high density Disk acts much like a switch, resonating within your system and turning on your energy field while it clears the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange function like the well tuned generator it was designed to be."

"When the static Power Balance™ Hologram comes in contact with your body's energy field, it begins to resonate in accordance with each individual's biological[sic], creating harmonic loop that optimizes your energy field and maintains maximum energy flow while clearing the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well tuned generator it was designed to be."

That's hard to beat for creative woo energy speak. We here at the Skeptic Wire love this kind of thing. What can you find on their website today? The claims aren’t what they used to be. Their new neoprene wristbands have "extra softness"; their pendants are "built to last", and the flagship silicon bands are "sporty" and "fun". Nothing about balance, faster synaptic responses, increased stamina, electro-chemical exchanges or harmonic loops. In fact, I can't find the words "energy" or "harmonics" anywhere. How do these things work then? Well, go to the FAQ and you can see that

"The thin polyester film hologram is programmed through a proprietary process, which is designed to mimic Eastern philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years."

Wow, hundreds of years. That's impressive. And what does it do?

"Power Balance™ contains a thin polyester film hologram, which reacts differently for each person. Give it a try and see what it does for you."

I get it. It's like those video game mystery power-ups. Will it make me invisible? Will it make me able to shoot laser beams out my eyes? Who knows? Try it and see!

Of course, this comes after a series of legal losses in Australia, Italy and, most recently a class action lawsuit in California, that targeted their bogus claims forcing them to pay fines, provide rebates, and make their websites really boring for skeptics.

But can Power Balance survive as a mystery power-up company? Probably. There's one thing they can't make them take down from the web site, Shaquille O’Neal’s smiling mug.


David

A new conspiracy theory!

Is Obama bin Laden dead or not? Was he killed in December 2001 or May 2011? Is the picture being released a fake (well...yes it is: see below).

There was a picture released by a Pakistani newspaper that definitely is a fake, but it was picked up by many of the more fantastical and uncritical news outlets, and so has legs, but it appears it may quickly be quashed. However, there will be those people who will consider the picture to be an official document and create an entire straw man conspiracy around it.

The other thing is that they "buried" the body at sea almost immediately. [sigh] There is no getting around this one. Apparently the powers that be did get rid of the body. The thinking behind the action makes sense: they don't want a shrine being built, not that it will stop people from making the entire stinking body of water a shrine, if they find it necessary to perpetuate their dogmas. But to rid themselves of the evidence so quickly will always be construed as suspicious. On the other hand, it is very doubtful that anything could be done that wouldn't result in a conspiracy popping up.

On the plus side if bin Laden is still alive, considered dead: he can finally have that bacon cheese burger he's been craving for so long. Maybe he, Elvis, and Big Foot can finally release an album.