I posted a few links to the coverage of the Dover intelligent design judicial proceedings a few days ago.

It was a poor post. Other than raising Brian’s hackles, it didn’t really have enough ooomph to grab anybody.

Ally’s post on Dover inspired me to elaborate.

When I first read about the Dover statement about intelligent design, I shrugged.

The Dover folks were wrongheaded - there is nothing scientific about intelligent design (witness the Kansas’ school board’s need to redefine the word “science” in their curriculum). But the statement that people disagree about evolution is factual. So big deal.

In fact, good science teachers might use the issue to inspire their students. Students who actually look at the evidence will reject intelligent design. I have been following the “debate” for a while now, and every single time the ID folks show a “problem” with evolution - like irreducible complexity - it turns out that it isn’t really a problem. But understanding why the problem isn’t really a problem takes a bit of reading and some complex, hard thought. The ID folks know this, but also know that most people won’t take the time to read the complex studies. The ID proponents are fundementally dishonest. (The best example can be seen here with ID adocate Micheal Behe denying that scientists had answered the irreducibly complex problem of the immune system, whilst surrounded by over 50 papers that do just that. Great courtroom theatrics.) You also consistently see claims that the Dariwinians are fundamentalists who won’t tolerate challenges to their “dogma,” which ignores the very lively debate going on about mechanisms, as well as ignoring the awesome battles that took place at the turn of the century (See the book: Reef Madness). Scientists, aren’t dogmatic: they want proof. Their rejection of ID isn’t a evidence of a faith-based scientific community, it is evidence that ID doesn’t have any proof.

But more troubling than the bad science is the consequence of the dishonesty. Despite their “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” disclaimers, ID is being promoted only by creationists. Unfortunately, with our human tendency to generalize, many people will generalize the lying ID folks to the larger Christian community.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount lays out the most fundamental duty of Christians: bring people to Christ. Good people disagree about the best tactics to use in this mission. I would submit to you, my friends, that eggregious dishonesty will not convince many people.

And the Dover people are being eggregiously dishonest. Click through to my previous post and read those news articles. This isn’t an example of liberal MSM slandering the poor noble school board members. At least two school board members committed perjury to cover-up their fundamentalist Christian motivations in imposing ID. Lest you think I am cherry-picking evidence, here is a link to an index of all of the local paper’s trial coverage.

Ally: After reading those courtroom accounts, do you still feel that there was no religious motivation behind the school board’s “ID” platform?

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, in a vain attempt to make up for quality of posting by just putting up some crap, would like to provide you with two links.

The first link shows that American engineered and built aircraft are the finest in the world. A new Boeing 777 just flew 12,586 miles with out refueling. In case you are wondering kids… That flight was from Hong Kong to London via North America. A new world record. Breaking a record previously held by another Boeing aircraft…

Hey Airbus Industries! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

But alas, while US aircraft are superior to all others… It seems that the US is lagging far behind the Japanese when it comes to microwavable lingere. Your Maximum Leader demands that US companies start working to close the microwavable lingere gap! We can’t have hot Japanese chicks going around warming their boobs during the winter while hot American chicks go around with cold boobs! We all know what happens when boobs get cold… Oh yeah… Humm…

On second thought… We can afford a microwavable lingere gap after all.

Carry on.

I’ve said before that ID is bad for Christians.

Not only does it ask us to give up the rational minds God gave us, it now also apparantly makes liars out of us:

Bad liars.

Stupid liars.

Drug-addled liars.

Funny little editorial here.

Found indirectly through Rite Wing TechnoPagan.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has returned from his trip to Canada. He’s actually been back for a few days. But over that time he’s been taking care of family business. He’ll write a more lengthy post in a bit. But for the moment he will direct your attention to this bit off the Reuters news wire:

Dead British Parrot had deadly bird flu.

If the content of the article weren’t so grave one would be tempted to start making dead parrot jokes.

And if your Maximum Leader has to explain dead parrot jokes to you… Well… That is just sad.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader just isn’t feeling much like blogging today. Although that will not keep him from trotting out a few links and comments for your reading enjoyment…

First off, a follow-up to the piece from last week about researchers “rediscovering” the Spanish Flu, which was the cause of the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. Here is a great piece from the Washington Post about the quest to find the genome of that famous flu. Your Maximum Leader should also respond here to Loyal Minion Bill’s comment about reinventing the flu as a trigger for a “Stand” moment. (Bill’s comment can be read here - in the trail following your Maximum Leader’s last flu post.) Your Maximum Leader remembers reading in one of these articles that the Spanish Flu of 1918 is reasonably harmless now. As with most flu variations, if you survive it once you build up immunity to it in the future. So, most humans alive today have some natural-born resistance to that variation of the flu. Of course, we have no natural-born resistance to the newest version of the bird flu that appears to be spreading around Asia right now. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to fear the Spanish Flu escaping the lab and wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting population.

Excursus 1: Your Maximum Leader does, in fact, have some lingering fears that biological weapons manufactured and improperly stored in the former Soviet Union. Those biological agents do pose a real threat to cause a chain reaction of plague as described in the early chapters of Stephen King’s novel, The Stand.

Excursus 2: Your Maximum Leader believes that 100 years from now when people are studying late 20th Century literature (f in fact they do study literature in the future) the only book of Stephen King’s that will be read will be The Stand. Of all of his novels it is the only one that is truly epic in scope.

Secondly… Your Maximum Leader predicted an upset victory of the Atlanta Braves over the Houston Astros in the National League Division Series. Well that didn’t happen. Neither did the Red Sox over the White Sox. St Louis prevailed. And we’ll see who wins in the Yankees/Angels series. At this point your Maximum Leader would like to see a St Louis/White Sox World Series. Frankly he wouldn’t mind a Houston/White Sox World Series either. He doesn’t want either the Angels or the Yankees fighting for the American League. Your Maximum Leader, in honour of the Astros, doffs his bejeweled floppy hat towards the fair Minion Molly (of Houston). Your boys won a great series. You should be proud.

Thirdly, while talking baseball. Your Maximum Leader, now that the regular season is over, will officially announce he is switching sides… Sides in baseball that is. You may remember your Maximum Leader’s struggles with Washington DC getting the Nationals. Well… Your Maximum Leader went to a Nats game a few weeks ago and at that game got himself a authentic fitted Nationals cap. On the way home from the stadium, he drove through downtown DC and gave his Atlanta Braves cap (purchased at Turner Field during a great Braves/Mets series by the way) to a homeless guy. Thus was your Maximum Leader’s conversion from a Braves to a Nationals fan complete. He is sure he’ll always have a soft spot for the Braves in his heart, but he’s fallen for his hometown Nats.

Fourthly… Your Maximum Leader promises that in the Mike World Order Sadie and Annika will both be on the Supreme Court of the MWO. Frankly, if you are a loyal minions and swear fealty to your Maximum Leader early on (like now) you will be picked for some great patronage job. Your Maximum Leader makes no secret of his support of cronyism in the MWO. To be a Friend Of Mike is everything.

Fifthly… Speaking of Friends of Mike and the Mike World Order… It has been a while since he posted it… So if you read below the fold you’ll have the newly revised list of the 40 Signs of the Mike World Order (in no particular order). Otherwise…

Carry on.
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Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, or all together different reasons from yesterday, has little time for posting today. Mrs Villain appears to have come down with a particularly nasty flu bug. Allow him to say that it hasn’t been pretty at the Villainschloss.

And speaking of flu bugs… Did you see this neat article off the Washington Post? Researchers have recreated the deadly 1918 Influenza virus in a laboratory for study. They had most of the genetic makeup of the “Spanish Flu” but had to get the last bit of the genetic code of the virus from the remains of a victim of the epidemic. (They found one buried in the permafrost of Alaska.)

Fascinating article about the similarities of the 1918 Flu and the modern “Bird Flu.” You should click through and check it out.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has, like so many others, been fascinated by giant squid. He’s always thought it interesting that such a creature had never been filmed in the sea.

Never caught on film until now. A Japanese crew used a remote vehicle with a baited lure and got film of the 26 foot long squid attacking the bait. Your Maximum Leader hopes to find some video to watch of this encounter. Up to now he’s only seen stills.

Very cool.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that (once again) science and scientifically testable processes have shown that humans are decended from apes. You can go and read the Washington Post article that has a synopsis of the findings of study that compared the human genome to the chimpanzee genome.

It seems that evolution scientists had predicted the number of genes that would need to be dissimilar to account for the differences between humans and chimps. The comparison of the two genomes confirmed that the prediction was spot on.

Your Maximum Leader’s favourite aggrevation in the piece… The Intelligent Design spokesman saying that science had to disprove ID. Ack!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been thinking. Thinking about New Orleans and the Mississippi delta of Louisiana. Given the horrible news we continue to hear from New Orleans and from the Gulf Coasts of Mississippi and Alabama it is only natural that he should think about New Orleans and its future.

Interestingly enough, the WaPo has an article concerning Louisiana’s shrinking coastline and disappearance of tidal marshes. You’ve got to love the opening lines. It will cost billions of federal dollars to repair and expand the levees around New Orleans. Thanks to the Hurricane and global warming the problems of New Orleans are made worse.

Excursus: Have you noticed that just about everything is blamed on global warming? Pacific gets hotter - global warming. Pacific gets colder - global warming. More tornados in mid-west - global warming. Teenagers reporting more pimples - global warming. Teen pregnancy on decline - global warming. Male pattern baldness - global warming. Smallholder not blogging for months - global waring. Is there any observable phenomenon that is not attributable to global warming? Just wondering…

Anyho…

Not elaborated on in great detail in the article is how the system of levees and dykes are preventing the flooding that is required to keep the tidal marshes healthy and alive. Without the periodic flooding to deposit sediment in the marshes they die. (And with them the natural habitat of so much of the wildlife that makes Louisiana a “sportsman’s paradise.”) We see the same problems along the Nile in Egypt and near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq. When the Three Gorges Dam is finished in China, one suspects that we will see the slow death of the Yang-tze river delta as well.

So your Maximum Leader will go ahead and say what many are likely thinking. We should relocate New Orleans. Let the river, the lake, and the marshes reclaim the basin. Now is the best time to discuss it. Once we start rebuilding we aren’t going to stop.

Allow your Maximum Leader to say that he loves New Orleans. LOVES it. His sainted parents even own a condo in the city (the condition of which is unknown to us now). But if there is one thing that all of history can teach you it is that if you battle the forces of nature you will lose. You might gain a temporary victory. But in the end nature will have her way with you.

Why not just let nature do what she wants to do (and has gravity on the assist) and take New Orleans? Move the city up the river. It may cost billions… But keeping it will cost just as much and potentially more over the long run. The city continues to sink and the waters to rise. At what point does it just become illogical to continue?

Think of this as, perhaps, a chance to build a new and better New Orleans. Chicago and San Francisco both rebuilt and were better than before due to natural disaster. New Orleans could be the same. Surely moving the city is a huge undertaking, but so is saving it. Herculean resources will be involved either way. Look to the future. Is it better to move the city to higher ground and then rebuild; or just rebuild and wait for the next killer storm. (Which we know is coming because of global warming.)

Environmentally it would be a boon for the Mississippi Delta. Every year many square miles of marsh dry up and fall into the sea. The loss of which makes New Orleans in it’s current location all the more vunerable to a killer storm.

Long-time readers will know that your Maximum Leader loves history and wants to preserve as much of it as we can. But sometimes there are things you can’t preserve forever. You have to decide when to cut your losses. Think about it. We’re all paying for whatever decision is taken. (It is your federal tax dollar at work on those levees afterall.) Why not try to take a good one for the future of all New Orleans residents?

Carry on.

Hell,

I can’t wait until tomorrow.

Here is a snippit to hold you over.

I saw this in yesterday’s Washington Post and busted my ample gut.

We have been discussing intelligent design both within this blog and with some of our blogosphere friends.

Here is an example of another place where we ought to “teach the controversy.”

I know the Foreign Minister, our resident Piratophile, will be pleased to learn that pirates have been scientifically demonstrated to be the root of global warming.
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Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is happy to (tenatively) report that his computer’s BIOS problem appears to be resolved. He started up the computer in safe mode and tried to make some changes to the ACPI settings. It didn’t seem as though the changes took, but the computer is now acting fine. Humm… That is why he says that his BIOS problems appear to be resolved… Who knows what exactly happened? Your Maximum Leader sure doesn’t.

Anyho… Light to no other blogging from your Maximum Leader today. Lots of other stuff to do.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees so many items on which he wants to opine. He tries to make note of them and follow-up as possible. Alas, it is not always possible to do so.

Just the other day he saw a piece on the news wire that described how some scientists want to transplant wild African animals onto the prarie of the US. Indeed you may have read on Phoenix’s blog that she declares this to be the stupidest idea ever. Far be it for your Maximum Leader to disagree with pregant woman, but this is not the stupidest idea EVER. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t been around as long as some; but in his time he’s heard of some pretty damned stupid ideas.

He will concede however that the idea of transplanting wild animals from the savanah of Africa to the great plains of the US does rank among the most stupid ideas he’s heard recently. Especially when you consider what tigers accostumed to humans do from time to time.

Of course why stop at African animals. Your Maximum Leader is sure that some Indians he saw on TV would love us to take their tigers from them.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is not the type of person who sees a doctor for every little ache, pain, or sniffle he gets. Frankly, none of his immediate family are that type. In a way, people who do see a doctor for every single little ache, pain, or sniffle they get annoy your Maximum Leader. They annoy him for a number of reasons.

Allow him to ennumerate them.

First, if you happen to have health insurance through some group (like your employer) those are the people that drive up the group rates. If you’ve never thought of it your Maximum Leader is here to make you think of it. Organizations are charged their premiums based, in part, on usage. More usage means higher premiums. Many organizations do a 60/40 split of health care premiums. (Meaning the organization pays 60% of the premium, the insured person(s) pay 40%.) That added chunk of your income that goes to health insurance every year if you are part of a group plan is dramatically affected by others in your group going to the doctor. Your Maximum Leader was once very familiar with an organization that had one health plan for the whole organizatin - except one branch office. That one branch office had a separate plan. Why? Because the one branch office, before it was split off, accounted for 25% of annual spending on healthcare across the whole company. Crazy…

Anyhow…

The second reason is that many people who visit the doctor for every single ache, pain, and sniffle they get are ignorant of basic medical facts and thus insist on receiving a precription for SOMETHING before they go. Now most Doctors are sensible and will refuse silly requests. But there are plenty of doctors who are, in some ways, just as ignorant as their patients and thus WILL prescribe SOMETHING to someone who needs NOTHING.

You see, much of what ails us is viral. Viral things, as they are not bacterial things, are not treated by antibiotics. But when people suffering from viral things are given antibiotics the result is often times bateria growing stronger and resisting antibiotics. Frankly, when you are suffering from some bacterial ailment and do not complete the prescribed regimen of antibiotics you are likely contributing to the problem of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Thus we come to the issue of streptococcus suis. Streptococcus suis is a pig-borne bacteria. Under normal conditions it can be killed by penicillin. Of course, under normal conditions you would only find this strep strain in pigs.

That is unless you happen to find the streptococcus suis in Asia. In which case you now find streptococcus suis has mutated, jumped over to people; and now rather than being treatable by penicillin, it laughs at your puny antibiotics and kills you.

Of all the things in this world that your Maximum Leader thinks have the potential to do in most (if not all) of humanity the killer bacteria is the one that both scares and annoys him most.

It scares him because with every stupidly prescribed antibiotic given to a complete waste of DNA is a little baby step towards the mutated bacteria that will one day kill the masses of humanity that don’t have near-perfect immune systems.

Your Maximum Leader had a great-Aunt who died in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. He knows this because his grandmother told him that her sister died of influenza on Christmas Day 1918. (And thereafter, Christmas Day was never celebrated by her family.) The potential for a pandemic many times worse than the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 grows greater with each passing day. In 1918 the mortality rate from influenza was 2.5%. Check out that mortality rate from the pig article. You read that correctly 20%.

Let’s see. The population of the world is roughly what? 6 billion people. 20% of 6 billion is roughly 1.2 billion people. The population of the United States is roughly 300 million people. Humm.. That is an unsettling prospect.

(Excursus: Your Maximum Leader started adding the populations of all of the countries in North America together to see how close he would come to 1.2 billion. Let us just say he started working on South America to get his number…)

The fact that this pandemic could be coming annoys your Maximum Leader because in so many ways it is completely avoidable.

But hey… If the pandemic comes and kills at least 20% of humanity think of how it will help the environment…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been following the story of Susan Torres in the Washington Post.

Ms. Torres was the brain-dead woman who was being kept alive in the hopes that her unborn child might be able to live. The 26 year old Ms. Torres had a stroke when 15 weeks pregnant. The stroke was related to the terminal cancer from which she suffered.

Her baby girl was born via ceasarian section yesterday. Healthy but very premature.

Your Maximum Leader cannot imagine the joy and suffering that Jason Torres, Susan’s husband, must be experiencing. According to news reports he will request that the life support machines keeping Susan’s vitals going will be removed today. What a horrible thing to have to do. He will be in your Maximum Leader’s prayers.

Carry on.