Nonono ... I said DON'T panic. [presses don't panic button again]

A friend at a message board pointed this out to me:
Egypt orders all pigs summarily executed

WTF? No... seriously. What The Fuck?!?

Scientists have established that this disease is passing from person to person. What is the government of Egypt thinking by slaughtering all swine in the country? They can't possibly stop the encroachment of Swine Flu by killing pigs. The name Swine Flu is a descriptor of the type of influenza - not meaning that people get it from pigs. It was probably originally a disease restricted to swine that somehow mutated and jumped to humans, but that most likely happened with patient zero who was in Mexico. Killing pigs now won't change the fact that people are passing the virus amongst eachother. If they wanted to take extreme action, they would have done a better job of protecting their people by shutting down borders and airports. There hasn't been a case of swine flu in their borders yet. Note that I'm not endorsing extreme action - I'm just saying that killing the pigs will have ZERO effect on the health of their population. They could kill all their birds, goats, cats, dogs, elephants and toads and have the same effect cumulatively as slaughtering all of their pigs.

I can only figure 3 possibilities for this insane move:
1) Egyptian government is a bunch of knee-jerk morons who thought that they could protect themselves by declaring genocide on pigs. Which has NO groundwork in truth whatsoever. What are they going to do when somebody tells them that it passes from human to human? Kill all the humans? Idiots.

2) Egyptian government is trying to get back at the evil pigs who brought this disease upon mankind. Vengeful Idiots.

3) Egyptian government is listening to Extremist Islamic Militants who are declaring the swine flu as Allahs revenge on the infidels of the west. Evil Vengeful Idiots.

Each option is more sick and disgusting than the one before it. First, they are euthenizing every swine in the country. No more pigs for Egypt. That's it - last generation. If they had their way, they would execute the extinction of the species. Second, what about the citizens whose livelihood depends on their flock of swine? They already shooed out the chicken-keepers with a similar move last year or the year before with the wave of Avian Flu that made an appearance. Now they're taking out the pig farmers too.

Fuckin pig killers. This is what happens when leaders don't listen to simple rational reason. Mindless slaughter. Disgusting.

Don't Panic (in big bold letters on the front)

SWINE FLU!!! RUN!!!!
If you watch/listen to/read the news at all, you know about the swine flu pandemic and how it's pretty much the end of the world. It's hit Mexico, then skipped the border into Texas & California and from there has raced like wildfire through Kansas, Ohio & New York. People are dying, and the world may never be the same.

Here's some headlines from the big news sites:

MSNBC:



















CNN:


















FOXNEWS:













2 Headlines with photo & an in the case of Fox, an entire special alert section with 8 or 9 links for information. If it's this bad - deadly and from sea to shining sea - it's time to lock the doors, skip work & school and prepare for the end, right? Well ... let's take a step back.

All of these news agencies aren't exactly Fair and Balanced ®. They're sensationalist news - meaning that they make their money through publicity. More people watching means more revenue. Scaring more people means more people watching. More people staying at home are more people watching TV. They're not going to lie outright, that would be criminal, but they're going to exaggerate by putting out the large n mighty pictures of people at military checkpoints or airports wearing facemasks and of military personnel in biohazard suits - and they're going to grab your attention with death counts and news of the spread of this deadly disease. They want your eyes glued to their screen, and they'll spin the information however they need to get it. When push comes to shove, you can't always trust the news outlets.

All of this is not to say to ignore the threat. This outbreak is dangerous, it is scary, people have died, and it has popped up in some large population areas. You probably already know that the worst thing to do in an emergency is panic - but it seems like that's exactly what the Big News want you to do.

You may ask - "I want to know what's going on, but if I can't trust the big news networks to relay the unbiased news, who can I trust?" I say "Go to the government agencies." The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is at the front lines of this thing in the U.S. The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring it on both sides of the US/Mexico border. Both organizations are staffed by top scientists and researchers who are watching and fighting this thing ... and both organizations have very nice web sites.

So - good places to watch for information:
CDC Swine Flu investigation page - lots of good info about what's going on, real counts of infections and links for information on what you can/should be doing as a citizen as well as info that's been sent to doctors and labs who are actively looking for signs of swine flu. It has information on what they've found with this specific strain of flu- i.e. what drugs it is resistant to and what drugs affects it. It also has a link to the WHO who is monitoring spread & casualties worldwide.
Pandemicflu.gov A web site that devotes itself full-time to relaying factual information about flu outbreaks from government agencies. If you want the most reliable information from the best sources, but broken down a little to make it more "digestible", this is the place to go.

Unbiased. Factual. Non-sensationalistic. Ten times more trustworthy than Fox, CNN & MSNBC combined.

I'd like a large State meal, hold the Church.

This is the 'straw that broke the camels back' for me in starting this blog. I've tossed the idea around for a while, but this is what spurred me into action. 3/25/09 - one month ago - at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, John Simkus (R) Illinois Representative speaks to the committee:

You may be shaking your head after this. It is kind of dizzying. In case you didn't catch it - or in case somebody pulls the youtube video - here's some highlights:

He quotes from the bible: Genesis 8:21-22:

I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

And Matthew 24:

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

He says:

the earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood

and

Today we have about 388 parts per million in the atmosphere. I think in the age of dinosaurs, when we had the most flora and fauna, we were probably at 4,000 parts per million. There is a theological debate that this is a carbon-starved planet — not too much carbon

and

I believe that god's word is infallible. Unchanging. Perfect.

Let's examine this. First off, he's reciting from a bible - in Congress - as a purpose for making decisions in legislation. He begins by praising the first amendment which grants him free speech, but promptly steps on the piece of the same amendment that provides the separation between church and state. Ironically, the separation of church and state is stated in the first amendment BEFORE the freedom of speech ... but that's neither here nor there.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

OK. So he's reciting from the bible in a more relaxed discussion in congress. He's not proposing a law or anything, so we'll let it fly and not call him "unconstitutional" (though I'd be more confortable with a Representative who believed more in the inerrancy of the constitution than the bible). He's not exactly being very tolerant of his non-christian constituents, but he has every right to express his religious convictions.

In doing so, he basically establishes himself as a breed of fundamentalist: he believes in the inerrancy of the bible. That the words from Genesis to Revelations are infallible and perfect. That the words are directly from god and should be obeyed to the letter. I won't get into the whole "dashing baby's heads into walls" or "killing your children for talking back to you" parts of the bible ... but I find his religious beliefs very disturbing in the context of him being an American Legislator doing Legislation Legislatively. With his statement of beliefs, along with the scripture that he quotes, he is basically saying that we should just sit back and not do anything about the environment. The world is going to end when God chooses, and there's nothing we can do about it. Global warming is a myth, because God promised that he wouldn't flood us out again. If a flood were to occur, the eyes of billions of people would be lying to them because the Bible says it can't happen.

Now here is where it gets really really good. In the same breath - he goes on to talk about scientific terms of PPM (parts per million - most likely a measure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - though he never specifies) - saying that In "dinosaur times", the measure of was closer to 4000 PPM. I don't want to get on the topic of what a measurement of 4000 PPM would mean for our everyday lives, though I think we'd like it a lot less than the dinosaurs. I want to talk about the dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Times.

Where in the bible does it talk about dinosaurs? This man is taking bits and pieces of science, and merging it into his literalist theological world view... which is a recipe for disaster. And ridicule. Let's make fun of the ignorant ass.

If the bible is inerrant, then man existed in the first week of the existence of Earth, and therefore at the same time as dinosaurs. Scientists today agree that man and dinosaurs never walked the earth together. Apparently, Mr. Simkus' view of the world is less of the bible, and less of real science, and more like Hanna Barbara. (If you're too young to catch the reference, google "yabba dabba doo"). Now ... somewhere between trips to the Buffalo Lodge, taking the foot-car to the drive-in for bronto-ribs, and using bronto's for cranes at the coal mine (which Mr. Simkus has a vested interest in), the great caveman of 6000 years ago was able to piece together the highly specialized and delicate equipment to measure Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere to be 4000 parts per million. Bravo, Fred. Bravo. Have a burger on me.



Can't we please just say that Congress is no place for thelogical debates? Shimkus seems to think that the state of the environment in 2009 is a thelogicial issue, but I really don't see where in the bible it mentions anything about Carbon Dioxide being 388 PPM vs 4000 PPM in the literalist interpretation of the beginning of the world ... let alone the passage that explains what miracle Fred Flintstone made to drop the volume of Carbon Dioxide by an astounding 3600 PPM in a short 6000 years. Why don't we leave the science up to the scientists? From there, can we please forbid thelogical debates that are mixed with faulty, hand-picked pseudoscience? It makes for a fun time of ridiculing people, but I really feel sorry for the Illinois taxpayers who paid this schmuck to give this presentation.

Oh yeah - at the end, this joker brings up the Clean Air Act of 1990 and 4 mines in Illinois that have closed down since then. I do feel bad for the coal miners who lost their jobs, but keep in mind that the Clean Air Act didn't directly put these men out of work. The Clean Air Act put regulations on power plants, who had to limit their Sulfur Dioxide (think acid rain) emissions. Doing so meant using their energy sources more efficiently, which dropped demand and increased selectiveness for coal fuel. Thus the coal market got more selective, and those mines that couldn't provide the best goods at the lowest price got shut down. Directly, it was the free capitalist market that put these guys on the breadline.

Also keep in mind that during the 70's and 80's, acid rain was starting to become a serious problem. Acid rain doesn't eat the flesh off your bones like the term might make you think, but it is quite poisonous and it falls into lakes and streams and fields and forests - killing the wildlife, fauna and poisoning the groundwater. A few unemployed miners ... or a few unemployed lumberjacks (trees really didn't like sulfur dioxide poisoning) ... and thousands of dead fish and animals and people.

So after all this ... one has to wonder: how does a man with deep fundamentalist views, who easily confuses himself by merging literal bible interpretation with pseudoscience and is obviously pro "acid rain" get into Congress? Oh ... ok. He bought it.

Introductions

Hi.

My name's BJ Shaffer, I commonly go by Vasagi on the internet. I'm 32, married, father of two. I work full time at a small company writing & supporting computer software; focusing mainly on web applications, SQL, and data presentation... so yeah, I'm a nerd.

Now that the handshake is out of the way, on to why I'm firing up this blog: I'm tired of the level of ignorance that I see around me every day. I need a place to come rant and rave and bitch and moan about the closed-minded people, ideas and concepts that I run into. Now ... keep in mind that I'm purposely not saying 'stupid' people. I believe that there are very few genuinely stupid people. Stupidity is the incapability of learning. A stupid person cannot pick up a concept no matter how it is presented to them, or how many ways. In politically correct terms, a stupid person is mentally challenged. An ignorant person is one who refuses to learn. They have the capacity for learning, but for whatever reason refuse.

Ignorance is a dangerous thing. In today's modern world, people will use your ignorance to their own ends. You will be misled, lied to, manipulated and taken advantage of. Technology driven mass-media just makes it that much easier. The only defense that we have against these manipulative forces is to educate ourselves. To learn who is trying to do harm, and who is truly benevolent. The quote at the top of this blog struck a major chord with me - if we are ignorant and fail to question authority, we are in the control of people above us. If we know and understand, and look at new information skeptically, then the people in power work for us. Absolutely.

There is no excuse for ignorance. You are reading my words. Just by opening a browser and getting to this blog, you've demonstrated the ability to use the internet, which is most likely the single largest body of knowledge in your grasp. If you don't know a term, google it. If you want to know how a nuclear power plant works, you can find out with 3 clicks or less. Information that was imagined by the world's greatest minds 30 years ago is at your fingertips if you have so much as a library card. You don't need a college education to be "smart" - a degree is not a measure of your IQ. It just proves that you've spent a lot of money to take the intelligence directly from an expert. The only thing that it's good for is a line on a resume.

Just because the information's freely available doesn't mean that it's any good, though. In your search for enlightenment, you're going to run into mistakes, contradictions, deception; you need to look at everything with a skeptical eye - or a gain of salt as my mother likes to say. You need to be selective about what pieces of information you accept into your personal world view. You need to challenge ideas, question authority - never take 'because I said so' as an acceptable answer. Check the citations, research the sources - was the man who did the study qualified, or did he go straight from clown college to the lab?

All of this junk I just wrote can be summarized in 4 words: Educate Yourself. Question Everything. And that's the reason I'm here. To rant and rave about ignorance and lies in one hand ... and to try to find my own truth with the other.