Senator Brownback has been blocking the confirmation of Janet Neff to the Federal Bench because she attended a lesbian committment ceremony. Well, I guess because he doesn't want to be seen as bigoted, he wants to strike a bargin, according to the Lawrence Journal World. He will let the nomination go through if she recuses herself from any cases involving same sex unions.
Brownback is concerned that her attendence of this ceremony will bias her in cases involving same sex marriages. Why should this be any more of an impediment than Justice Scalia being a Roman Catholic? Is there something about her experience that is likely to make her less able to render fair judgements than any other judge might?
This is a real poison pill, something Senators know a lot about. If she accepts the deal she maybe seen as unprincipled-just interested in the job. If she rejects the deal she will be perhaps painted as some as biased in just the way that Brownback claims, plus she is party to setting up even more absurd litmus tests for judges.
Neff was, by the way, nominated as part of a compromise between Senate Democrats and the Administration. The Washington Post notes that Brownback's hold on Neff has led to retaliation on the part of Democrats who have put holds on the other two more conservative nominees in the compromise.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/dec/09/brownback_judge_should_avoid_gay_marriage_cases/
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Is this the new approach to ministry for LGBT people
A couple of articles via the Dignity Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dignity-l/
First up we have this article on the American Bishop's recent letter (document) on the pastoral care of LGBT folks:
http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=99563
The article has an interview with a Father John Harvey from Courage, one of the ministries mentioned favorably in the Bishop's letter.
Father Harvey makes the following interesting statements:
"From all the psychological studies of homosexuality, there is no scientific evidence that you are born with the homosexual tendency. There is no evidence. In the future it might be that someone proves scientifically that some people are born as homosexuals, I doubt such would happen, but it might happen.
In the present state of scientific knowledge, however, this is no evidence that homosexuality is a condition, that it is passed down through a particular homosexual gene or is caused by a certain hormone. From what we know today, the main factors leading to a homosexual tendency all have to do with environment: family environment, school environment, adolescent environment.
"
This is only partly correct in the sense that there is no gene "for homosexuality". But homosexuality is clearly tied both to genetics and environment. The most recent literature on this complex topic is here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=306995
Next what we gays supposed to make of this statement:
" Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), in Encino, California, says it best when he says that there are no homosexuals, just heterosexuals with a homosexual tendency. "
Ah so if there is a problem...just define it away. Sounds like a great strategy but lets see how well it works here:
"There are no religious people just atheists with a religious tendency."
"There are no Protestants, just Catholics with a Protestant tendency"
Why is this logic correct for gays but wrong in my other two examples?
By the way here is more on Dr. Nicolosi and his travails:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=77223
Note that one of the therapies suggested by a NARTH associate for transgendered children presented by a NARTH associate is:
"that gender variant children should be sent to school in opposite-sex clothing so they can be "ridiculed" into conforming."
To be fair it doesn't look like this is a position of NARTH as a whole, for instance:
http://www.narth.com/docs/hope.html.
"Educators also have a duty to stop teasing and ridicule of children who do not conform to gender norms. Resources to educate teachers, lesson plans, and strategies for dealing with teasing need to be created and provided to teachers in Catholic schools, CCD programs, and other institutions."
More details on Berger's alleged advocacy of teasing and ridicule is at:
http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/08/narth_scientifi.html
Ex gay watch noes that Berger's comments have been quietly removed from the NARTH website.
Unfortunately the rest of this document, which I have blogged on before, is full of errors and half truths about the nature of homosexuality and transgenderism, couched as such documents often are, with innocent sounding rhetoric.
Technorati Tags:
Catholicism
Gay
therapy
transgender
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dignity-l/
First up we have this article on the American Bishop's recent letter (document) on the pastoral care of LGBT folks:
http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=99563
The article has an interview with a Father John Harvey from Courage, one of the ministries mentioned favorably in the Bishop's letter.
Father Harvey makes the following interesting statements:
"From all the psychological studies of homosexuality, there is no scientific evidence that you are born with the homosexual tendency. There is no evidence. In the future it might be that someone proves scientifically that some people are born as homosexuals, I doubt such would happen, but it might happen.
In the present state of scientific knowledge, however, this is no evidence that homosexuality is a condition, that it is passed down through a particular homosexual gene or is caused by a certain hormone. From what we know today, the main factors leading to a homosexual tendency all have to do with environment: family environment, school environment, adolescent environment.
"
This is only partly correct in the sense that there is no gene "for homosexuality". But homosexuality is clearly tied both to genetics and environment. The most recent literature on this complex topic is here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=306995
Next what we gays supposed to make of this statement:
" Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), in Encino, California, says it best when he says that there are no homosexuals, just heterosexuals with a homosexual tendency. "
Ah so if there is a problem...just define it away. Sounds like a great strategy but lets see how well it works here:
"There are no religious people just atheists with a religious tendency."
"There are no Protestants, just Catholics with a Protestant tendency"
Why is this logic correct for gays but wrong in my other two examples?
By the way here is more on Dr. Nicolosi and his travails:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=77223
Note that one of the therapies suggested by a NARTH associate for transgendered children presented by a NARTH associate is:
"that gender variant children should be sent to school in opposite-sex clothing so they can be "ridiculed" into conforming."
To be fair it doesn't look like this is a position of NARTH as a whole, for instance:
http://www.narth.com/docs/hope.html.
"Educators also have a duty to stop teasing and ridicule of children who do not conform to gender norms. Resources to educate teachers, lesson plans, and strategies for dealing with teasing need to be created and provided to teachers in Catholic schools, CCD programs, and other institutions."
More details on Berger's alleged advocacy of teasing and ridicule is at:
http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/08/narth_scientifi.html
Ex gay watch noes that Berger's comments have been quietly removed from the NARTH website.
Unfortunately the rest of this document, which I have blogged on before, is full of errors and half truths about the nature of homosexuality and transgenderism, couched as such documents often are, with innocent sounding rhetoric.
Technorati Tags:
Catholicism
Gay
therapy
transgender
Some Mornings the World is Great
...even without caffeine. Consider these interesting articles:
Here is a news report from 2004
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/041111_giant_virus.html
about an organism(?) that has some of the characteristics of viruses and cells. It's hard enough sometimes to distinguish between something that is alive and not alive, but now comes an organism called mimivirus that really gums things up because like regular viruses it seems to not carry out metabolism, and yet it has a number of the universal genes characteristic of cells. Also it has both DNA and RNA, along with some of the machinery for protein synthesis.
I found that report while reading this article about a computer simulation of a real virus called the tobacco mosaic virus.
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060327_computer_virus.html
The simulation is designed to test our understanding of how virus particles interact with their environment and attach to cells.
And in turn I got to that story from reading about llama antibodies which actually are missing some parts common to most other organisms:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/061205_llama_blood.html
These simpler antibodies are useful because they can easily be manipulated to produce molecules that can serve as biosensors to detect chemical and biological attacks. What I like about this story is that it is a good reminder of the serendipity of science. The scientists who first studied llama antibodies certainly did not study them with an eye to making biosensors, but rather from a basic science point of view-just curiosity. A lot of science is like that-scientists asking basic questions about how something works. Often these discoveries are accidental and only later does someone make the connection to a possible application.
In other science I am really interested that Russia wants to join the United States in its effort to return to the moon even if it is mainly by providing technology to us:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_sc/russia_moon
You might think, technology? Are we not the world's technology leaders? In many areas yes, but the Soviets produced a very reliable system of space transport without the complexity of the shuttle and I think we can learn a lot from their engineering approach.
People often think that nature is all about competition, but scientists know that nature has stunning examples of cooperation such as the one reported here
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/061207_fish_cooperation.html
involving two species of fish the moray eel and the grouper that cooperate when hunting. The actual cooperation appears to be learned according to the article, but the issue is not so clear cut.
Not all the science news this morning is great. It is sobering to realize that the Ebola virus is killing many of the the world's remaining wild Gorillas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061207/sc_nm/ebola_gorillas_dc.
The authors note that the virus combined with poaching may be enough to cause Gorillas to go extinct. It would be sad if this important link to our evolutionary past and a wonderful creature would be lost, another victim of the current mass extinction event triggered by human activity.
Finally another article on the relationship between HIV and malaria points out that these two diseases reinforce each other in Africa.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061207/sc_nm/aids_malaria_dc
HIV renders people more susceptible to malaria and malaria infection increases the load, or number of virus particles, in the bloodstream of persons with both diseases. This increases the potential for spread of the HIV virus. Plus, HIV infection makes people more likely to get infected by the malaria parasite.
Bad news in the short run, but good news because now we really understand that we need a broad scale attack on both these killers if Africa is going to develop economically.
Here is a news report from 2004
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/041111_giant_virus.html
about an organism(?) that has some of the characteristics of viruses and cells. It's hard enough sometimes to distinguish between something that is alive and not alive, but now comes an organism called mimivirus that really gums things up because like regular viruses it seems to not carry out metabolism, and yet it has a number of the universal genes characteristic of cells. Also it has both DNA and RNA, along with some of the machinery for protein synthesis.
I found that report while reading this article about a computer simulation of a real virus called the tobacco mosaic virus.
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060327_computer_virus.html
The simulation is designed to test our understanding of how virus particles interact with their environment and attach to cells.
And in turn I got to that story from reading about llama antibodies which actually are missing some parts common to most other organisms:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/061205_llama_blood.html
These simpler antibodies are useful because they can easily be manipulated to produce molecules that can serve as biosensors to detect chemical and biological attacks. What I like about this story is that it is a good reminder of the serendipity of science. The scientists who first studied llama antibodies certainly did not study them with an eye to making biosensors, but rather from a basic science point of view-just curiosity. A lot of science is like that-scientists asking basic questions about how something works. Often these discoveries are accidental and only later does someone make the connection to a possible application.
In other science I am really interested that Russia wants to join the United States in its effort to return to the moon even if it is mainly by providing technology to us:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_sc/russia_moon
You might think, technology? Are we not the world's technology leaders? In many areas yes, but the Soviets produced a very reliable system of space transport without the complexity of the shuttle and I think we can learn a lot from their engineering approach.
People often think that nature is all about competition, but scientists know that nature has stunning examples of cooperation such as the one reported here
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/061207_fish_cooperation.html
involving two species of fish the moray eel and the grouper that cooperate when hunting. The actual cooperation appears to be learned according to the article, but the issue is not so clear cut.
Not all the science news this morning is great. It is sobering to realize that the Ebola virus is killing many of the the world's remaining wild Gorillas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061207/sc_nm/ebola_gorillas_dc.
The authors note that the virus combined with poaching may be enough to cause Gorillas to go extinct. It would be sad if this important link to our evolutionary past and a wonderful creature would be lost, another victim of the current mass extinction event triggered by human activity.
Finally another article on the relationship between HIV and malaria points out that these two diseases reinforce each other in Africa.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061207/sc_nm/aids_malaria_dc
HIV renders people more susceptible to malaria and malaria infection increases the load, or number of virus particles, in the bloodstream of persons with both diseases. This increases the potential for spread of the HIV virus. Plus, HIV infection makes people more likely to get infected by the malaria parasite.
Bad news in the short run, but good news because now we really understand that we need a broad scale attack on both these killers if Africa is going to develop economically.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Circus of the Spineless #15
..is up at Words and Pictures, so fly or swim or creep on over and take a look. Spineless #16 will he here at the end of the month.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Kicking an 82 year old Evangelical Ex President?
I have always felt that Jimmy Carter was a much better president than we deserved. He was a straight shooter who was not afraid to take an unpopular stand. Yet his gentle manner and an unfortunate tendency to micromanage got him into trouble. Dave Johnson over at Smirking Chimp takes a look at the Carter legacy and asks if at least some of Carter's poor reputation doesn't come from the Right's, what is now being called the Denial Industry.
I don't think he makes a good case for this, but the article is worth a look for what it says about Carter.
I don't think he makes a good case for this, but the article is worth a look for what it says about Carter.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Call for Submissions-Circus of the Spineless #16
December's Circus of the Spineless (#16)will be here at the force, so if you blog on various sorts of invertebrates from insects to slugs to Tardigrades, and yes sea urchins and Acanthocephelans, creep on over to the Circus's submission page and send in your spineless blogging! If you want, you can also send submssions to me ( pdecell 'at' sunflower 'dot' com) Make sure you read the submission rules first.The most recent Circus is at the Neurophilosopher's Web Log and it is going to be a hard act to follow. Spineless #15 should shortly be up at the Circus of the Spineless homepage.
Technorati Tags:
Carnival
Biology
Animals
Science
Mendel's Garden #9 Gene-gle Bells Edition
Take your sleigh on over to Salamander Candy and check out the finest in Genetics Blogging in the Gene-gle Bells Edition of Mendel's Garden! (Image courtesy of the Hive over at Salamander Candy)
Technorati Tags:
Carnival
Biology
Genetics
Science
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Brrrrrr.....welcome to Kansas and the kgb!
I love the changing seasons and only in Kansas can we go from butterflies
to ice
in one week. The first picture is from November 24 at Clinton Lake. Yes that is a butterfly-the ragged wings indicate that it is old, not a recently emerged. The second picture is actually from the ice storm we had in early 2001, since I did not get any good snow shots during this weekend's storm.
Carolyn over at A Prairie View played hooky on Friday but did manage to get some nice pictures of the snow. At BitterSweetLife, Ariel shows that the urban landscape gets transformed by the snow. Happy in Bag has a really shot just as the snow is starting to fall on the plaza. KS cowboy down in South Central Kansas has a bit of misguided longing for the old days.
John over at Argghhhh! blogs on the proposed test for new citizens and wonders how many high school graduates would pass...hmmmm.
Emawkc, over at Three O'Clock in the Morning (the REAL one) has been decorating his house and also has a fine meditation on free will and the meaning of life. He also sends this clever though some might say, irreverent, picture. Somehow this very short poem by j.d (not to be confused with h.d.) seems appropriate here.
John B. has an interesting series of posts on collage students(no that's not a typo) and I am struck by how similar the problems he faces in the humanities are to the ones I face in the sciences with college students. He writes:
"What my students appear to lack, more than intelligence, are two things: a) a sense of curiosity: the desire to seek out information about what they bump into in their reading, their listening, their looking around them; and b) excellence borne of caring--that is, the sense that what interests them will interest someone else and thus is worth the trouble of expressing clearly and with attention to detail in writing."
Reminds me of the comment I made to a student to goad him in to a modicum of interest in an online search exercise that if he didn't change his attitude he was going to end up as road kill on the information superhighway.
Some political blogging did happen this week: Josh over at Thoughts from Kansas and yours truly both note Justice Scalia's jaw dropping comments about Global warming. I also supply some supporting links to global warming related issues. Cold weather in Kansas gets us thinking a bit more about saving energy and there is an interesting thread at Thoughts from Kansas on using compact fluorescent bulbs.
Brings up a point. We have been experimenting with LED Christmas lights. They are cool to the touch and seem to last a long time. The color is very nice, but more intense and pure compared to regular Christmas bulbs. In fact I have a strand up over my fire place that has been going since last Christmas. They are much more expensive than regular bulbs so I wouldn't plan on replacing all your lights at once-plus new ones are coming out all the time.
Next Monday the kgb will be at Blog Meridian unless we hear otherwise.
You blog about Kansas and don't belong???? Well simply go to: http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/2005/12/Kansas-guild-of-bloggers.html
Put yourself on the kgb's Frapper map while you are there and send your submissions to kgb via the kgb's submission page. Don't make us come and find you!
Technorati tags:
Blogs,
Kansas,
Blog carnivals,
Kansas blogs
to ice
in one week. The first picture is from November 24 at Clinton Lake. Yes that is a butterfly-the ragged wings indicate that it is old, not a recently emerged. The second picture is actually from the ice storm we had in early 2001, since I did not get any good snow shots during this weekend's storm.
Carolyn over at A Prairie View played hooky on Friday but did manage to get some nice pictures of the snow. At BitterSweetLife, Ariel shows that the urban landscape gets transformed by the snow. Happy in Bag has a really shot just as the snow is starting to fall on the plaza. KS cowboy down in South Central Kansas has a bit of misguided longing for the old days.
John over at Argghhhh! blogs on the proposed test for new citizens and wonders how many high school graduates would pass...hmmmm.
Emawkc, over at Three O'Clock in the Morning (the REAL one) has been decorating his house and also has a fine meditation on free will and the meaning of life. He also sends this clever though some might say, irreverent, picture. Somehow this very short poem by j.d (not to be confused with h.d.) seems appropriate here.
John B. has an interesting series of posts on collage students(no that's not a typo) and I am struck by how similar the problems he faces in the humanities are to the ones I face in the sciences with college students. He writes:
"What my students appear to lack, more than intelligence, are two things: a) a sense of curiosity: the desire to seek out information about what they bump into in their reading, their listening, their looking around them; and b) excellence borne of caring--that is, the sense that what interests them will interest someone else and thus is worth the trouble of expressing clearly and with attention to detail in writing."
Reminds me of the comment I made to a student to goad him in to a modicum of interest in an online search exercise that if he didn't change his attitude he was going to end up as road kill on the information superhighway.
Some political blogging did happen this week: Josh over at Thoughts from Kansas and yours truly both note Justice Scalia's jaw dropping comments about Global warming. I also supply some supporting links to global warming related issues. Cold weather in Kansas gets us thinking a bit more about saving energy and there is an interesting thread at Thoughts from Kansas on using compact fluorescent bulbs.
Brings up a point. We have been experimenting with LED Christmas lights. They are cool to the touch and seem to last a long time. The color is very nice, but more intense and pure compared to regular Christmas bulbs. In fact I have a strand up over my fire place that has been going since last Christmas. They are much more expensive than regular bulbs so I wouldn't plan on replacing all your lights at once-plus new ones are coming out all the time.
Next Monday the kgb will be at Blog Meridian unless we hear otherwise.
You blog about Kansas and don't belong???? Well simply go to: http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/2005/12/Kansas-guild-of-bloggers.html
Put yourself on the kgb's Frapper map while you are there and send your submissions to kgb via the kgb's submission page. Don't make us come and find you!
Technorati tags:
Blogs,
Kansas,
Blog carnivals,
Kansas blogs
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