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lots of links and notes
Mar. 24th, 2009 02:01 pmFirst off, people with babies (or, hell, kids) should read this very well-considered and well-written explanation of why those expensive "Teach Your Baby to Read Before It's Two!" videos are pretty much a waste of money, not to mention pointless and pretty much counterproductive. People love the idea of a quick fix, especially when it comes to something important like helping their kids to be more successful, and Elyse does a great job of pointing out how you can accomplish those goals a lot more effectively without paying $200 to a pseudo-scientific scam artist. ;)
Secondly, I'd like to direct everyone's attention to this - the state of Texas is up to it's old tricks again, trying to challenge evolution in public schools. I'm not sure what can be done by any of us who don't live there, but I hope any Texans that happen to see this will immediately write to their legislature and let them know they won't stand for people forcing religion into their state's science curriculum.
Another note on the "aww, hell, why are people stupid?" topic - if you've seen this article or any of the articles that borrow from it floating around, please use a little common sense. The short version is that a pilot "who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane" has been sentenced to jail. Of course, there are people waving there hands and shouting that this is OMG RELIGIOUS OPPRESHUN! Hang on a second, though. This guy is a pilot. He stopped to pray instead of taking the proper emergency measures. He's not being jailed for praying, people - he's being jailed because he endangered the lives of everyone on his plane and killing sixteen of them, by praying instead of doing his flipping job and following correct procedures. Like the ruling indicates, that's manslaughter. As far as I'm concerned, ten years is pretty light.
Okay. That's enough from me for the moment. :)
Secondly, I'd like to direct everyone's attention to this - the state of Texas is up to it's old tricks again, trying to challenge evolution in public schools. I'm not sure what can be done by any of us who don't live there, but I hope any Texans that happen to see this will immediately write to their legislature and let them know they won't stand for people forcing religion into their state's science curriculum.
Another note on the "aww, hell, why are people stupid?" topic - if you've seen this article or any of the articles that borrow from it floating around, please use a little common sense. The short version is that a pilot "who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane" has been sentenced to jail. Of course, there are people waving there hands and shouting that this is OMG RELIGIOUS OPPRESHUN! Hang on a second, though. This guy is a pilot. He stopped to pray instead of taking the proper emergency measures. He's not being jailed for praying, people - he's being jailed because he endangered the lives of everyone on his plane and killing sixteen of them, by praying instead of doing his flipping job and following correct procedures. Like the ruling indicates, that's manslaughter. As far as I'm concerned, ten years is pretty light.
Okay. That's enough from me for the moment. :)
