What Would Durkheim Do?

Let us hope that this is the end of the cracker saga, though I know well that it isn't. Religion makes people powerfully stupid, and there are certainly enough opportunists around (like that gasbag who started all this) to keep egging on the stupid ones. Oh well.

Beyond the spectacle of offending the easily offended (and those who never pass up an opportunity to let everyone else know that they are offended), what is the important idea here? Let me quote from Dr Evil (no, not that Dr Evil, I mean PZ, the new Dr Evil):

I think if I were truly evil, I would have to demand that all of my acolytes be celibate, but would turn a blind eye to any sexual depravities they might commit. If I wanted to be an evil hypocrite, I'd drape myself in expensive jeweled robes and live in an ornate palace while telling all my followers that poverty is a virtue. If I wanted to commit world-class evil, I'd undermine efforts at family planning by the poor, especially if I could simultaneously enable the spread of deadly diseases. And if I wanted to be so evil that I would commit a devastating crime against the whole of the human race, twisting the minds of children into ignorance and hatred, I would be promoting the indoctrination of religion in children's upbringing, and fomenting hatred against anyone who dared speak out in defiance.

Making fun of a cracker is the express ticket to hell, apparently, but conspiring to cover up a major child sex abuse ring is nothing to lose sleep over. And who is the crazy, evil one? Like I said, religion makes people powerfully stupid.

If you haven't already seen it, I expand on this idea myself.

Congratulations, PZ, on becoming a truly dangerous professor!

Let's cut right to the point:

Could I make one more suggestion? Maybe you could knock off trying to convince people that choosing a new label for your snake oil is an epistemological dilemma. Maybe then you could own up to the fact that the Bush administration "policy trajectory" differs from the Reagan policy trajectory only in that the latter had already licked all the icing off the cake. We ended the Reagan administration with a national debt nearly four times what we started with. This is not a bit of political esoterica, or a matter of interpretation. Or that you were happy to claim it all back when it was working electorally. Deficit spending hit town the same time Ari Fleischer did, and the fact that we were refusing to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan was, somewhat surprisingly, in all the papers, so it's a little strange to hear now that the administration still managed to hide the truth from AEI for so long. As for the rest of it, well, I made a vow during the ascension of St. Ronnie that I would never discuss federal spending with someone who imagines Social Security is an "entitlement" while a new aircraft carrier every two years is not, or who uses "government regulation" as a pejorative, while failing to disclose that he, like Reagan, would include food inspection, airline safety, and the requirement of driving on the right side of the room on his list of invidious nanny-statism.

The problem is not that conservatives have lost their way in their quest for The Perfect Reactionary Brand, it is that their ideas have always been bankrupt but for a while many voters were too distracted to notice. Not so now.

I see that PZ has captured the attention of that gasbag over at the Catholic People's Liberation Front. Once again we see that believers insist that everyone respect their delusions. Sorry, but I don't play that game. I call crazy where I see it, and I am pleased that PZ does too.

I got named one of the Most Dangerous Professors in the Universe for suggesting that believers might not be as moral as they think they are. (I believe the phrase I used was "moral retards.") I think it is safe to say that Professor Myers will make the list in the second edition. Good work, PZ! Welcome to the club!

Whenever the gasbag sends out his flying monkeys you can be sure that the hate mail will start piling up. More evidence of their moral superiority, I guess.

I've written to the U of M president in defense of Prof. Myers, and I encourage everyone to do the same. Let's not let a professional hysteric and his noisy troops determine what can and cannot be said publicly.

BONUS: I get a kick out of all those who write to say "I'm a taxpayer and since you work for a public institution, I should have the right to determine what you can say." I got a lot of those letters too. Sorry, assholes, let me explain how this works. When I'm off the clock, my speech is my own. You can go fuck yourselves. Take your silly crackers with you.

It has been agonizing to read the news from Zimbabwe recently. What can be done? The U.S., thanks to an ugly colonial history topped off by the arrogant and incompetent Bush regime, cannot intervene directly. We have to hope that others can find the wisdom to change the course of events there.

It was encouraging to read William Gumede's column in the Post today:

If Mugabe and his junta still refuse to cooperate and stand down, then they should be forced out through the United Nations. This should include initially applying smart sanctions against the regime. South Africa, for example, must freeze all properties, financial and business assets of Mugabe and his cronies — who have unsurprisingly invested most of their money in South Africa. The US, Europe, Middle East and Asian countries where Mugabe and his cronies have also sizeable assets must also do the same. Companies doing business with the regime should stop doing so. There must be international travel bans on all the key Zanu-PF officials. A case must be prepared to prosecute Mugabe for crimes against humanity at the International Court in The Hague.

I hope that enough African governments have the courage to stand against the Mugabe dictatorship and that Western countries can, for once, put humanity before profits.

Mr Alicublog is on the top of his game today:

My suggestion to Wehner: try comparing Iraq to Terry Schiavo instead. It's a more appropriate metaphor (or would be, if Schiavo had been beaten into a coma during a home invasion). And it'll energize the base!

I am too much the pessimist to believe that by continuing to poke holes in the insane justifications for the endless occupation of Iraq the neocons and the fighting keyboardists who love them will shut up and go home. Or that their arguments won't be treated as serious by the pundit class. Still, it helps one's sanity to be reminded that their justifications really are full of shit.

I sincerely hope that the McCain campaign listens to the whispers of these same neocons and makes Iraq the center of their platform in the general election. I understand well that many Americans will be fooled by the politics of fear and pseudo-patriotism. But I do think that there are enough sane voters who can see the occupation for the catastrophic blunder that it is, and who will be roused to action by the ongoing attempt to bullshit them. The neocons won't go home by choice, but we can send them away with a landslide rejection.

I'm all for evolutionary psychology. After all, evolution is one of the great achievements of science. Psychology (and sociology and anthropology) should be informed by biology, just as they should obey the laws of chemistry and physics. I'm all for evolutionary psychology. I just wish someone would develop one.

What passes for evo-psych now is just discredited sociobiology is a cheap tuxedo. Evolution is a biological process, not a metaphor. I don't think it is too much to ask that proponents of a scientific evolutionary psychology understand evolution. Nor do I think it is too much to ask that any scientific theory be based on empirical data and not elaborations of stereotypes and just-so stories that appeal to those stereotypes.

Like I said, evolutionary psychology — it would be a great idea.

I've just finished reading the chapter on evo-psych in Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography. It is a thorough and amusing fisking of the testosterone-fueled musings of Evolutionary Psychology. Angier, a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, splendidly reduces this pseudo-science to its essence:

In the Darwin-o-gram reckoning of human nature, a stereotype is not an intellectual pitfall to guard against; it's an opportunity! What is a stereotype if not an expression of a potentially universal truth, which means it could be the signpost of an adaptation, a trait that might have conferred selective advantage on those who bore it? All of which merits further exploration by the distribution of a questionnaire to a couple of hundred willing college students to see whether or not they believe the stereotype to be true.

My friend Karla called my attention to this:

As always, the cat speaks truth.

Last week, the BCAW, co-sponsored by the PSC, held our end-of-the-year event, Rock Against the War!. It was a great event, with lots of energy. The music was good and the speeches were righteous.

There was even a brief appearance by one of the nation's Most Dangerous Professors.

The students were really the stars of the show. I feel a great deal of pride every time I watch them in action. Their efforts will change this nation, and the world.

It isn't difficult to see why the capitalist class likes the status quo so much (and the BushCo that ensures that it does). They get to make private bets with public money. They profit; we suffer.

As usual, Paul Krugman explains it neatly:

But while our out-of-control financial system has been bad for the country, it has been very good for wheeler-dealers, who collect huge fees when things seem to be going well, then get to walk away unscathed — indeed, often with large severance packages — when things go wrong. They don’t want regulations that would stabilize the economy but cramp their style.

We don't people vote for their interests? *sigh*

We are doomed to live before the revolution, and so must ask these questions. What is wrong with us?

This isn't about simple incompetence, though there is plenty of that in the Iraq Debacle; it is a glimpse into the true purpose of the invasion and occupation: it is an opportunity for Republicans to transfer massive public wealth into their pals' pockets.

The war profiteers don't care how many people — Iraqi or American — die or are injured. The "war zone" is an excuse to take the money and run. Republicans are notorious for encouraging corruption in governance, so they had a ready-made plan. Privatize as much of the war as possible and make sure there aren't enough trained personnel to oversee the contractors.

What is killing our troops now? Shoddy electrical work.

Is there any doubt that the Republicans love "the troops" but not the actual men and women serving? Senator McSame's plan for a 100 year occupation is simply the most efficient way for the war profiteering to continue.

The BCAW and campus PSC chapter collaborated in a solidarity event at BC today. We handed out literature about the war and announced our upcoming events. We also gathered signatures for the ongoing union campaign against tuition increases.

We also joined with the campus LGBT coalition for their Day of Silence vigil.

I've posted some pictures in the gallery.

May Day Message

From: The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq

To: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States

Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California:

The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.

We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration's barbarism is achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.

I'm inclined to think religion is little more than an elaborate excuse to abuse the powerless, but hey, that's just my opinion.

In the news today:

A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. He didn't specify how many are pregnant.

"It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive," he said.

State officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teen girls forced into underage "spiritual" marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect's children.

So, go ahead and try to convince me that fundamentalist men don't treat women as property.

This was a week to be reminded vividly of the extent to which the U.S. is a thoroughly racist nation. As much as we want to hide the problem, to deny it with "color-blind" rhetoric, there are moments like these that reveal just how little progress we've made on the issue of racial justice, and just how much farther we must go.

The Sean Bell verdict reminds us that the American criminal justice system gives police a license to kill black men. As long as there are no consequences for those involved in police brutality, racial justice will be beyond our reach. Whites take for granted the right to security in our persons, which is why it is so difficult for many whites to understand what it means to always be a potential target for a cop's bullet. If the state can kill you with impunity, how can you consider yourself to be an equal citizen? How can whites not understand this?

The case isn't over, and it may be that some justice will be found at the federal level. Given the extent to which BushCo has polluted the federal agencies, though, I am not holding my breath.

As if we needed another reminder of our racist society: an Indiana Congressional candidate appears at a neo-Nazi celebration of Hitler's birthday. Asked whether or not he supports neo-Nazism, he replied that he "doesn't know enough about the organization" to form an opinion. No, he isn't just too stupid for the job. He was speaking beneath a portrait of Hitler about how Jews use porn to harm white women. Let's be clear: he's a racist. And he has not been chased off the political stage as a result. That speaks volumes.

When you combine nerds and cats, hilarity ensues.

Hey YouTube czars! Feature this video!

(via.)

I was at Shea last night for the Mets-Nationals game. It was a bit cold for baseball, but a good game, good company, and lots of fun. Thanks to Ken for the ticket.

The Amazin's won 6-0. José Reyes had four hits — a single, double, and triple in his first three at bats — and David Wright* had a homer and five RBIs. The biggest surprise of the night was seven strong innings pitched by Mike Pelfrey. Perhaps he is beginning to live up to his potential.

It was Jackie Robinson Day at MLB parks. I wore my Brooklyn Dodgers cap to the game to honor him.

Following a directive of the CCOTEA*, I offer the following:

Expelled

The Occupation of Iraq is so utterly depressing in human terms that, I admit, I have to take days of from reading the news about the war every now and then.

So it was returning from one of my mini-vacations from the news that I read this by Juan Cole:

Bush happened to Iraq just as he happened to New Orleans. He cannot do the hard work of patiently addressing disasters and ameliorating them. He just wants to set people to fighting. Crush the Sadr Movement, perhaps the most popular political movement in Iraq? He's all for it. Risk provoking a wider conflagration in the Middle East by worsening relations with Iran? Sounds like a great idea to him. Bush campaigned on being a 'uniter not a divider' in 2000. In fact, he is the ultimate Divider, and leaves burning buildings, millions of refugees, and hundreds of thousands of cadavers in his wake. He is not Iraq's Brownie. He is Iraq's Katrina itself.

Professor Cole captures both sources of the moral depravity of the current U.S. regime. It is completely callous of the human costs of its ideology and utterly incompetent.

Bush is Iraq's Katrina. And his administration is filled with Brownies. That is a historically ugly combination, to say the least.

It is hard to believe that I have let the start of baseball season pass without a post. But, in my defense, I've been swamped at work. I'm grading exams now (or, rather, should be). I've got to finish a couple of book reviews too.

The Mets had a nice opening day. Hooray for Johan! Pedro's first start was not such a happy occasion, but it is difficult not to be optimistic. It may just be the intoxicating promise of spring talking, but I think the team with the best pitcher (Santana) and the best position player (Wright) in the NL is the team to beat.

Over on the other coast, the Mariners started with a win and then a loss too. Their future doesn't look as bright to me. I have my doubts about their ability to score. The M's have had a chronic inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Lots of wasted base runners makes for agonizing losses. They overachieved last year; let's hope it continues this year also.