Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Rachel Maddow - The War on Brains


August 10, 2010 on MSNBC
See also: Conservapedia vs. Theory of Relativity

30 comments:

  1. Add to that the germ theory of disease http://www.lousycanuck.ca/?p=4078

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  2. it's quite likely that these politicians are doing what politicians have always done to relate to their consitituents; lie through their teeth.
    there are so many brain-dead believers in the states that how could anyone get into any office if they admitted to being agnostic or even...*shudder* a godless atheist!!??

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  3. Schlafly was memorably sliced and diced by Lenski, if you are not familiar with the case Lenski's responses are well worth reading in full.

    http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2008/06/creationist-critics-get-their.html?DCMP=ILC-rhts&nsref=ts11_bar

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  4. I'll just copy the post here that I made on the YouTube comments for this video:

    You can look up if separation of church and state is in the constitution and no it isn't.  Look it up, it's not!  (Just a note, I'm an Atheist.)  Also if one bothers to become informed about the evidence and theories involved in economics they might then think to apply the concept of emergence (which is the foundation of evolution) and realize why capitalism is superior to socialism.  Of course you can't expect people from Air America to understand supply and demand, that's why it went bankrupt.

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  5. True, the actual words "seperation of church and state" is not a direct quote from the Constitution. It is, however, stated in the first amendment.

    "<span>Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."</span>

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  6. Oh it's true that it's been interpretted to mean generally a complete seperation of church and state (even though that's very different from simply stating that "congress shall make no laws", and we could go into the differences forever.)  It's just so backhanded of Rachel Maddow to imply that those words are in the constitution and then dismiss people who say they aren't with, "You can go look it up!" even though she knows that most people won't and anyone who does would see that she's a liar.

    There are some people who really are trying to raise people's awareness and make us all mor einformed, then there are those who are trying to confort people and reassure them that they already are informed so that they can then manipulate them.  Glenn Beck is second kind, and so is Rachel Maddow.

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  7. Or maybe implying the First ammendment doesn't say that is being disingenous.

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  8. Maddow may be technically lying by saying that the separation of church and state is directly in the Constitution, but I don't think she meant to. She probably knows the first amendment has been interpreted to mean (by the Supreme Court, who has the power to interpret the Constitution with judicial review), among other things, that there is a nice wall of separation between church and state. Court cases like Lemon v Kurtzman and the Constitution show us the US government's attitude towards religion; tolerance, yet separation. For example, Sundays are not counted as working days in the Constitution, which shows toleration, yet government money can't go to a religious school unless it has a secular purpose, suggesting seperation. This is what maddow means when she says "seperation of church and state".

    Now, which is faster? Saying "Separation of Church and state", or going through the process of showing that, although not directly stated, separation of church and state is implied by the first amendment, and the legal institution for making the call, the Supreme Court, agrees with this interpretation. I think you know the answer.

    For reference, I'm an atheist, but I'm not a liberal or a conservative.

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  9. Actually (when the clip is getting cut off) she is starting to talk about Thomas Jefferson who;s communications outside of the constitution (private letters) were used as justification to interpret the seperation of church and state as the implication of what <span>"<span>Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." </span></span>was meant to mean.  She knew what she was talkign about, but liek so many other clips in this video, the editting was done to present straw man arguments to make anyone who disagreed with Maddow look like an idiot.

    Why can't you people take of the liberal propaganda blinders for two f**king seconds!

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  10. Don't think so. Radio is simply right wing dominated and has been for a long time.

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  11. Your giving her quite the benefit of the doubt considering how complex the underlying explaination is and how dismissive she was was the woman even though she was clearly did understand what she was talkigng about (as shown by her referencing Thomas Jefferson right before the editted clip ended and Maddow chimed in with "Me and Tommy.")

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  12. <p>And the confusion, mislead and ignorance rules the country! Hey, I think even the world! Or maybe, I'm misleading...
    </p>

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  13. Glen Beck and David Barton are teaming up on Fox. The Barton & Beck combo is really bad news for separation. Chris Rodda is fighting back by debunking the shows. I'll put the links in a reply.

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  14. Yeah yeah, separation of church and state aren't in the Constitution. Whoopee. Luckily for flawed documents like the American Constitution, amendments can be made. This is one of those instances.

    I'm sorry, but just because an economic method falls in line with evolution does not make it suitable for civilization. Air America understood supply and demand very well and that is WHY they aren't operating anymore. There was no demand for their channel and it's completely understandable knowing the vapid zombies that scream socialism at purely welfare capitalist policies. Unfortunately, for capitalism to work, businessmen must create an arbitrary demand - mostly of things that people don't need and usually of things that are to the people's detriment - all for the almighty dollar. What capitalism can provide is not necessarily good for the species. It's wasteful, oppressing, and is a simple answer for simple people who don't understand complicated problems.

    It's always mind-boggling to me how people can see America's current situation and not recognize capitalism has raped its own creators. The free market only creates competition at a monetary level. It is entirely complicit in the devaluing of the pride in doing well for the common good. It's just sad that you are unable to give the benefit of the doubt to Maddow because of your piety to your free market gibberish. She was, in essence, correct. It's just unfortunate that she didn't have the time to spell it out and repudiate your prejudice.

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  15. Andrew, spurred on by curiosity generated by your comments, I went to check out the video again. Your quibble with Rachel is a semantic one, so I don't care. But I was concerned about the re-editing of Angle's interview, and then through her interview of Jefferson's comments. 

    Going to the source, it seems fairly clear that Angle is the one imposing her propaganda on Jefferson. 

    I read a couple of conservative blogs to get an picture, and while most agree that "wall of separation between church & state" is not in the constitution per se, Jefferson's quote is ambiguous at best. The idea that he imagined some kind of unidirectional permeable wall is wishful thinking.

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  16. Sorry for turning 1 post into 6--things weren't posting. 

    Chris Rodda is author of the book Liars For Jesus. I expect that she'll continue with this series as the Beck & Barton circus keeps going. Barton, having access now to Beck's TV audience, is really serious. As you can see from Rodda's videos, the fake history is extremely slippery stuff. It's jaw-dropping to see how it works.

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  17. <span>Sorry for turning 1 post into 6--things weren't posting.  
     
    Chris Rodda is author of the book <span>Liars For Jesus</span>. I expect that she'll continue with this series as the Beck & Barton circus keeps going. Barton, having access now to Beck's TV audience, is really serious. As you can see from Rodda's videos, the fake history is extremely slippery stuff. It's jaw-dropping to see how it works.</span>

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  18. I deleted this post so that I could put it in the correct place, but it obviously didn't delete. ???

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  19. You have to admit, saying "Thomas Jefferson has been misquoted like I’ve been misquoted out of context" is drawing an analogy between Jefferson and herself that is unnecessary and silly.  In what way was Jefferson misquoted that was analogous to the way she was misquoted?  Let's be clear: quoting Jefferson is significant because he was a Signer. 

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  20. Pie in the sky dream....the establishment of a new nation where science/logic/reason is "king" - Unreasonable dissent results in banishment to...let's say the region currently known as the "southern US".  We can watch as the luddites self-implode as everyone they hate leates and they have to find something else to fight, as they'll no longer have the collective intelligence to read a map, never mind build weapons to fight people with...

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  21. Do you have a link to the extended interview?  That would really help me to see what you're talking about.

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  22. Like I said above, I'd really like a link to the full interview if you have it.

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  23. Aren't amendments part of the constitution?  What's the point of saying it's not in the original document if the omission is corrected by one of the amendments?

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  24. The argument is that "separation of church and state", in the broad sense we understand it today, is not strictly speaking in the constitution.  The Establishment clause is cryptic.

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  25. First of all, "separation of church and state" isn't included in the Constitution at all, amendments included. The closest thing we have is the first amendment. The Supreme Court, who has the Constitution right, interprets this to mean there is a separation of church and state. Anyone who denies this is doing just that.

    For Christians that think there isn't a separation of church and state; the New Testament doesn't directly refer to the relationship between the father, son, and holy ghost as "the holy trinity". Just as the holy trinity is implied in the New Testament, separation of church and state is implied in the Constitution.

    QED

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