Atheists are finally starting to see the light...

"One sees, even without God, how this Darwinian story could turn out to be radically wrong." ~Jerry Fodor (atheist)

The next book on my reading list is What Darwin Got Wrong.

An interview with Fodor can be found at Salon.com.

Are there any grown ups in Washington?

Both the Republicans and the Democrats suck. We need to clean out congress and start over.

Trig bashers

It would seem that the Palins will have to grow accustomed to the Trig bashing that seems to occur on a regular basis anymore. It's pretty apparent that this tactic is used by comedians, talk show hosts, etc. just for the spotlight. As we all know, nothing is off limits to Bill Maher, and he tore open the fresh wound right after the South Park incident.

Sigh.

Amazing what people will do to get attention. Anyway, I thought I'd post some adorable pictures of Trig, and thank the good Lord that Sarah didn't abort this precious little guy. He's a blessing in more ways than one.



HT





What a little sweetie. It brings out the mama bear in me...I'd like to take a few swats at 'ol Maher myself.

Weatherization Program

As long time readers know, Mr. FtK owned his own business designing, renovating and building homes for about 11 years. When the housing market crashed, we closed shop. He worked for a landscaping company for about a year and a half, but he was just recently laid off from that job because of lack of work. So, for the past couple months he's been out looking for jobs again. He has a degree in architecture, but there are virtually no architecture firms hiring in our city or the surrounding cities. One owner of a firm from Kansas City actually took the time to respond to him personally rather than through an agency. He told him that this is the worst job market he's seen in 30 years, and he's trying his best just to keep the limited staff he has. He was very kind and even wished Mr. FtK God's blessings with his job search.

Anyway, several months ago, a friend approached us about Obama's weatherization program. He had heard that there was a lot of money being put into this program and wondered if Mr. FtK would be interested in working with him on weatherizing homes. We gave it some thought and looked at the application to get started. He would have to pay for some training and then apparently he'd be working on weatherizing homes here in Topeka. After some thought, we decided that we weren't ready to take a chance on this stimulus supported endeavour. There were just too many questions as to exactly how it worked or how many homes he'd be able to weatherize, etc. Long term, it didn't seem the way to go.

Well, I'm glad we passed up on the program. We've already been burned once due to the poorly managed political decisions that caused the housing market crash. Now it seems the weatherization program is turning into a fiasco as well.

Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?

Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.

Based on the initial Obama-Biden program promise that it would create 87,000 new jobs its first year, that would be about 10 jobs for each home weatherized so far. Makes for pretty crowded doorways.

ABC News reports that the General Accountability Office will declare today that the Energy Department has fallen woefully behind -- about 98.5% behind -- the 593,000 homes it initially predicted would be weatherized in the Recovery Act's very first, very chilly year.

...

The Energy folks did tell ABC they've so far spent $522 million Recovery Act dollars on the program. Which works out to, let's see, about $57,362 worth of very expensive weatherstripping for each home fixed up so far.

Seems about right for a federal program.

I do have some good news though. Mr. FtK did find a job last week with a company out of Kansas City that renovates apartment complexes in KC and surrounding cities. The travel is kind of a bugger atm, but that should change in a few months as they will be working on a project here in Topeka for about a year.

I had hopes that maybe the economy was taking a turn as he was finally able to find a job after sending out many, many applications and resumes. But, it seems this company has down sized tremendously as well, and the only reason the opening came up was because a random drug test had been given. Apparently several people were given their pink slips after the results of those tests came back. Oops. Well, Mr. FtK is glad to be working again, but my thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost their jobs due to that testing. Hopefully, they will find new employment soon.

Toooooo funny

Via The Gateway Pundit

Remember this one?



Sarah fires back at the media...hehe.



Seems the hand is quite a bit less obvious than those damn teleprompters...

A Philosophical Declaration of War

Okay, this is interesting...

(CNSNews.com) - The nation's top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va.—a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm—to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

I like it. A revolution of sorts has already begun with the tea party movement. War is the last thing I want unless it's an intellectual one. Let the fight begin.

“In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics,” says an excerpt from the statement. “The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Speaking of our universities and redefining culture, let's certainly hope there are few professors as vulgar and motivated by hate as PZ Myers who teaches at the University of Minnesota. His daily rants regarding anything that resembles religion are downright scary at times. After reading the post I linked to from his blog (which is full of his own twisted conclusions about how the incident might have gone down), think about the fact that for years before, during and after the signing of the Constitution, the Bible was a mainstay in education. Today, many of our liberal universities and professors would like it banned from the classroom unless it's referred to as mythical insanity.

It's time for a revolution...I agree. We need to get back to our roots and take heed to the plans that the Founding Fathers laid out for us.

PS: We should let Palin loose on PZ and his choice of descriptions for those he disagrees with..."retrograde retard", "dumb-ass", "bible-thumper", "red-necked ignorant parents", "idiots", etc., etc.. This coming from a supposed professional tenured college professor.

Ut Oh...

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

and...

PRUDEN: The red-hot scam unravels

Birds did ~NOT~ descend from dinosaurs

The latest....

"We're finally breaking out of the conventional wisdom of the last 20 years, which insisted that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that the debate is all over and done with," Ruben said. "This issue isn't resolved at all. There are just too many inconsistencies with the idea that birds had dinosaur ancestors, and this newest study adds to that."

Mmmhmmm...you don't say.

Related posts:

The Dinosaur/Bird Connection
More Dino to Bird BS
Another Strike Against Dino to Bird Evolution
Another Interesting Dino Find

Ken Miller Lecture Guide

For years I've wondered how Ken Miller is able to live with himself as he spreads misinformation about Intelligent Design all over the country. I've been to one of his lectures that was scheduled here in Kansas a few years ago. The rhetoric was laughable, but very persuasive for those who haven't done their homework. For a time, I had hope that Miller wasn't deliberately spreading misinformation...perhaps he just wasn't listening when ID supporters rightly corrected him? But, I've keep up with his performances since the lecture I attended, and he never changes his tune even though there is no doubt whatsoever that he is aware of the truth.

Casey Luskin has written a series of posts at EN&V that address Miller's vast array of deceit. The articles can be found here: Truth or Dare: A Lecture Guide to the Anti-Intelligent Design Claims by Dr. Kenneth Miller.

If you ever have the chance to attend one of Miller's lectures, be sure to take this lecture guide along with you, and share the link with those around you so they are better equipped to be objective about design rather than completely disregard it due to Miller's rhetoric.

Snowmageddon = Global Warming

Yeah, you've all heard it for the past couple weeks. All of the snow that much of the nation is experiencing is, of course, due to global warming. Mmhmmm....whatever the inclement weather is, it's blamed on global warming.

HT

Climate change runs in cycles...always has, always will. While I do believe we need to take care of our planet, I don't believe we should allow the government to hold us over the fire to establish the extreme measures they want to enforce over a controversial issue that is so poorly supported by scientific evidence.

The New York Times article I linked to above claims that...

But Dr. Masters also said that government and academic studies had consistently predicted an increasing frequency of just these kinds of record-setting storms, because warmer air carries more moisture.

But, as NewsBusters reminds us...

By now, we're all familiar with the global warmists' attempt to explain away the record-breaking mid-Atlantic blizzards. Take this, for example, from the New York Times [emphasis added]:

"government and academic studies had consistently predicted an increasing frequency of just these kinds of record-setting storms, because warmer air carries more moisture."

So more snow fell from Philly to DC because the temperatures were warmer than normal during the blizzards? That got me wondering: just what were the temperatures in DC on the snow days, and how do they compare to the norm? And guess what?

DC has been hit by three major snowstorms this winter: 16.4 inches on December 18–19, 18.0 inches on February 5–6, and about 12 inches on February 10.

Let's compare DC's actual temps with normal temps for those days...Read more here.

Sen. Jim DeMint twittered the other day that D.C. snow will continue 'until Al Gore cries uncle'. Hee Hee. And, Senator Inhofe's family built an igloo for Gore. He ought to move in asap because his personal use of energy is off the charts comparatively speaking. Practice what you preach Al, and move into that igloo the Senator so kindly built for you.