1. One of the recurring themes of anti-science religionists like Al Mohler and Ken Ham is that learning about evolution somehow cheapens our appreciation for life. That’s just … weird. I just don’t get it.
I get the basic “logic” at the slogan-level at which they employ it — that specific creation by un-natural divine intervention seems more meaningful than natural processes occurring over billions of years. But dismissing the marvels of those natural processes and the wonder of it all makes one less reverent, less grateful, less appreciative — not more so. The idea that studying evolution “devalues life” only makes sense as an unexamined slogan. What we value, we study, and what we study, we value.
These are stromatolites. If you have to ignore them, dismiss them, or deny them in order to cling to your clumsy construct of human value, then at some essential level, you’re doing it wrong. You’re diminishing human worth and diminishing the glory of God while pretending you’re defending both.
2. My oldest daughter is starting classes at Temple University this week. I see Temple is ranked No. 195 among national universities on The Washington Monthly’s 2013 College Guide and Rankings. It ranks much higher though — No. 61 — in the Monthly’s “Bang for the Buck” list. Kind of disappointed to see my alma mater only coming in at No. 253 on the list of master’s universities, but it’s nice to see it ranked at No. 118 on the Bang for the Buck list — especially since Cabrini, our cross-the-street rivals on the other side of Eagle Road, is further down at No. 133.
The Monthly rates schools according to criteria that other such rankings tend to ignore or minimize: social mobility, research and service. It’s an attempt, roughly, to gauge which colleges are serving the common good. And that, in a sense, is a way to try to measure which colleges understand what education is and what it is for.
3. I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I will make sure not to drink any beer manufactured by an anti-worker oligarch who loves Tom Corbett. Stay thirsty, my friends, thirsty for justice.
4. Next time anyone tries to tell you that Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” has been fulfilled, point out that the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom presented a list of 10 tangible demands. One of those demands was for a national minimum wage of at least $2/hour. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $15.27 today. America is still defaulting on its promissory note.
5. Speaking of the minimum wage, Mike Duke, CEO of Walmart, continues to flat-out lie about his company. “Duke told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, ‘The vast majority of our associates are paid more than [the minimum wage],’ estimating that ‘less than one percent’ are paid at that level.” Duke is lying. If Walmart were paying more than minimum wage, then it would be at a competitive disadvantage to other companies paying only the minimum — and would therefore be trying to erase that disadvantage by lobbying for a higher minimum wage. Instead, Walmart opposes any increase in the minimum wage — a position that would make no sense at all if Duke were not lying.
6. The moral legacy of St. Ronald Reagan:
The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq’s favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration’s long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn’t disclose.
This is the legacy of the man who defined “pro-life” for a generation of American evangelicals, and in whose political image their church was remade. Yay.
7. Scary fact No. 1: “59 Percent of the ‘Tuna’ Americans Eat Is Not Tuna.” Scary fact No. 2 is far, far worse: In sushi restaurants, “84 percent of fish samples labeled “white tuna” were actually escolar, a fish that can cause prolonged, uncontrollable, oily anal leakage.” Escolar, a.k.a. “butterfish,” should not be legally sold for human consumption. Giving escolar to humans as food is just plain evil. Seems to me some lawsuits are in order here. Sushi restaurants may be able to trick customers into eating “white tuna,” but for the next three-four days, they’ll have all the proof anyone could ever need that it wasn’t.
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