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 99percenter |
Atheist sues Army for religious discrimination |
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Posts: 22 04/30/08 15:48:17 |
The New York Times is carrying a story about a soldier in Iraq who organized an atheist and freethought meeting and was berated by a superior for doing so. The
soldier was eventually sent home due to threats against him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html |
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99percenter |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 22 04/30/08 20:10:37 |
This also got about ten minutes of coverage on CBS's Sunday Morning TV show.
The show took a slightly different approach to the story, suggesting that the military was becoming a Christian evangelical force. During the story, they showed brief clips of Constantine's Sword. FYI. Ben Stein (yes, the same one from Expelled) often contributes a commentary to the show. His commentary is quite good. |
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AnalogKid9 |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 37 04/30/08 22:58:24 |
The commentary in which Ben encourages the State of TX to NOT follow standard procedure in child abuse cases is good? Not sure I follow that logic.
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AndysCatHouse |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 139 05/01/08 19:13:05 |
What commentary are we talking about? Commentary for Constantine's Sword or in general? Ben has gone stone cold and bat shit crazy with expelled. I have
said in other post I used to really like him....
Is he holding it together elsewhere? |
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agnohumanist |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 88 05/01/08 20:35:05 |
Yeah, and batshit crazy Ben was in Florida to help push for the Florida House's bill that would require science teachers to present "alternatives to
evolution." What's next, alternatives to the the theory of gravity?
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99percenter |
#5 | |||
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Posts: 22 05/01/08 21:07:37 |
agnohumanist wrote: Actually, yes. The Onion coined a brilliant term for it: Intelligent Falling |
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agnohumanist |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 88 05/01/08 21:52:53 |
Thanks for the link, 99--that was good for a few laughs. And with the daily absurdities in the news, I need some good laughs to stay sane.
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99percenter |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 22 05/01/08 23:02:37 |
AndysCatHouse wrote: We are talking about commentary "in general". The commentary given by Ben Stein was not about Constantine's Sword. (Has anyone seen it? Opinions?) It was his thoughts on the removal of children from the Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. When you say that you "used to really like him", I assume that you don't actually know him and that you are, instead, referring to ideas of
his. You, obviously, can make up your own mind about how you feel about him, but his appearance in, and promotion of, Expelled do not necessarily invalidate
positions he holds in other areas. If, for example, you thought his ideas about economics were sound before Expelled, then I would hope that you find those
ideas just as worthy of defending now. In other words, I hope that you still "like him", except now you know that his ideas about Nazis and evolution
are incorrect and can be dismissed.
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AndysCatHouse |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 139 05/02/08 10:33:37 |
I agree 99percenter. I have said elsewhere, I will reevaluate his other topics and keep it separate from his recent mumblings. Most of it is probably fine.
I think anything he says in the future might be suspect because he has to be wrestling with this and losing his sanity....
I still cannot believe an economists would do this. What is the total economic price of hurting every science class in the country? Think of the opportunity costs and our country losing competitiveness.... Economists can be pretty cold and try to use pure reason. Ben would throw out all the information we have on behavioral economics from biological anthropology. How could Stein reconcile studies of how chimps work together to get rewards? (He wouldn't like that one, but I am fascinated by it.) There are new fields opening up such as neuro-economics based on the study of the brain and how we make buying decisions. The brain of course evolved from reptile like brain stem and then added the upper cortex. Economics is bottom up organization, like evolution. They both deal with scare resources. BTW: I want to see Constantine's sword. Is it coming here?
Last Edited By: AndysCatHouse 05/02/08 22:25:03.
Edited 1 time.
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99percenter |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 22 05/02/08 21:55:50 |
AndysCatHouse wrote:I guess it depends on how you look at the situation. Controversy = $$$. |
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