Using or Abusing Science

The political Left has been laying claim to science as the basis for much of their agenda, but I've been doing some reading over the holidays that suggests otherwise. In fact, the science they're so openly promoting is mostly in the realm of "junk science" rather than the actual scientific method.

Darwinian evolution is one example. In an interesting case of projection, there's a zeal that seems almost religious by those most intent on imposing the idea of evolution providing the unquestioned proof that all life evolved from single-celled organisms. The problems remain that there is no clear evidence of any interspecies evolution in an extensive fossil record, and the fundamental question of the origins of all things remains a scientific mystery.

Not that I would make an argument for teaching "Intelligent Design" in schools. Religion doesn't belong in a science classroom. What I would argue, however, is that evolution be taught honestly, including the areas of the theory that are observable as well as those areas that remain questionable and unproven.

The coordinated silence and misinformation on the actual science of abortion is troubling. Abortion has been clearly established as a strong cause of breast cancer among women, but that information has been suppressed by abortion-rights advocates with the willing assistance of media and the government. Demonstrable impact on the mental health of women who have exercised their "choice" is also swept under the rug.

With advanced technologies, we now know much about the development of the fetus in the womb. The fetus can no longer be honestly characterized as just some tissue that can simply be removed before an actual human infant is formed.

An amazing program of propaganda has successfully obfuscated all science on the causes of homosexuality. Most people believe in a "gay gene" that doesn't exist, but has been successfully spread by dishonest, agenda-driven advocacy organizations that set out to "prove" something that doesn't exist.

The simple facts of serious and unbiased studies on the subject universally show that homosexuality is a result of a number of environmental factors. There is no "gay gene". Studies that make the gay advocacy community most angry have found that those who receive proper treatment can actually change their attractions and successfully form strong heterosexual relationships.

Also swept under the rug are the important facts that homosexual behavior includes extremely high risks of a wide range of diseases, above and beyond the most prevalent and well-known HIV/AIDS.

Then there's the overall epidemic of STD's. How many Americans actually know there's an epidemic of STD's? Not many, I imagine. The numbers are staggering. The infection rates for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) alone are so high that an entire generation may find themselves dealing with the consequences over the next 20-30 years.

What made me angry were the recent commercials touting a treatment for HPV to prevent cervical cancer for women that never once mentioned what HPV is, or how it is contracted. Even when the government tries to act on the public health issue, they can't bring themselves to be honest about what causes the disease.

Finally, of course, there's Global Warming, which has now been renamed Global Climate Change. The political juggernaut led by Al Gore is unstoppable, as serious scientists who dare to refute any part of the religion of Global Climate Change are censured, denied tenure by their universities, and in some cases, fired.

Want a reason to be skeptical about Global Climate Change? Just look at the facts:

Those who lead the movement actually leave a "carbon footprint" hundreds of times bigger than those of use who will suffer under their heavy-handed "solutions".

The "solutions" Al and his friends at the UN are proposing have little or nothing to do with reducing emissions, but a great deal to do with taking money and sovereignty away from Americans and giving it to the rest of the world.

All I ask is honesty. For all of us, a healthy skepticism is not just advisable - it' a requirement. Otherwise, those who would force us all into submission for totalitarianism will use their pseudoscience to fool us into accepting their grab for power over our lives.

Huckeby Saga Draws to a Close

The Barry Huckeby story is ending quietly, with the recent news that he's reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. Basically, he's pled guilty to a lesser charge, something along the lines of mishandling of public funds. The theft charge is being dropped, and his sentencing will be in February.

This isn't particularly surprising, given the facts of the investigation by the State. The findings of the investigation, as I detailed in my previous post (See December 4th), seem to indict the school administration for gross mismanagement as much as it did Huckeby.

So I suspect the school administration want the whole thing to just go away. I sent a letter to the School Board President, Ms. Pia O'Connor, expressing my concerns about the mismanagement and unforgivably poor controls by the Columbus North Athletic Department. She responded in general terms that she is now satisfied that proper controls have been implemented there. Lacking any specifics or independent confirmation, I must admit to being more than a little skeptical.

Either way, the story is coming to an end very quietly. Barry Huckeby will move on with a small blemish on his record, and although he could do a month in jail, I doubt that will happen. Perhaps he'll get a new chance to coach basketball at another high school; that might even work out fine, as long as the new school keeps him far away from any money-handling responsibility.

It remains regrettable that the people who created the environment that led to this mess will escape the scrutiny they deserve.

Merry Christmas

My best wishes to everyone for a Merry Christmas!

Things are winding down quickly, as today I've seen my email and voicemail and telephone messages trickle to a near dead stop. Everyone is in the holiday mode, some taking off early for their Christmas celebration and others spending time in office parties or just goofing off as the week winds down.

Naturally, the whole thing stems from the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ something over 2,000 years ago. Today we have a large and vocal group of atheists who may like having the time off, but rail against the remembrance of the birth of this founder of the Christian faith.

Unfortunately, today we also have a large and growing number of church leaders who seem to be joining the atheists in equivocating or denying the fundamental stories so important to that faith in the divine who became human to teach us humanity and thus save us from darkness.

Ours is a faith of simplicity and poetry on the surface, but to those who choose to study in greater detail, an amazing continuity can be found with the ancient monotheistic God worshipped by Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike.

Back to the simple: Jesus was miraculously conceived by the virgin Mary or he was not. He performed hundreds of miracles during his roughly three and a half decades on earth, or he did not. He gave a number of inspirational sermons to thousands of people, mostly on the themes of loving and caring for each other, or he did not. Finally, and most importantly, he was viciously tortured and killed in a most barbaric practice known as crucifixion, was buried in a garden tomb near Jerusalem, and physically returned to life three days later. After which he was seen and preached to hundreds of people until he was whisked away on a cloud. Or none of that happened.

Nobody's ever observed a virgin birth. Nobody's ever seen a person that was dead and buried for 3 days return to life (unless you count the biblical story of Lazarus in addition to Jesus, of course). Most have never seen a miraculous healing without the use of science, whether sight or hearing or deformity or leprosy. Therefore, many simply refuse to believe any of that actually happened.

Sure, it is very hard to believe all that based simply on someone else's word. But Christians don't believe all this because of some sort of brainwashing or coercion. Most believe because of their own life experiences, in which they found that faith in the story of Jesus Christ with the study and commitment to following his example leads to inner peace and contentment and the belief it will all lead someday to a joyful reunification with Christ and the loved ones who passed on before. Many also believe because of the example of Christ's apostles and members of the early Church. If His story wasn't true, would it not seem logical that at least one of his disciples would have renounced it, rather than suffer abuse, imprisonment, exile, torture, and death? The disciple called John was the only surviving member of Christ's inner circle who was not killed for spreading the story to everyone who would listen.

If the story of Christ is not true, then all those disciples died for nothing. All the Christians that have been jailed and killed for nothing more than their faith over the years, even today in the Middle East, died for nothing. All the priests and religious who voluntarily chose to abandon normal lives for poverty and chastity to help the faith wasted them. Anyone who shows charity and kindness to others and tries to share their faith is wasting their time. Because, if the story of Christ is not true, then there is no reason for people to love each other, be compassionate for the needs of others, or help each other. Because if there is no God, and Jesus was just an ordinary man, then our lives are meaningless. Therefore, if our lives are meaningless, then we should get everything we can while we live so we can at least enjoy ourselves.

Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly where most people are these days.

To those who want to outlaw Christmas and stop people from this annual celebration of the faith, I'd like to offer my humble request: Go ahead and regard us as a bunch of ignorant superstitious fools if you like, but do we not have just as much right to believe as we choose as you have to believe in your own gods? (because as far as I can tell, you're not really an atheist, but worship things like animals and the environment, and ideas like Darwinian evolution and Socialism and the Big Bang.)

Once again, Merry Christmas to All! May your Christmas be everything you hope it will be.

Mounting Evidence of a Broken Government

Things continue to get worse in Washington. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that next year's elections will make any difference.

After wasting most of the past year in endless investigations of the President and continuous attempts to de-fund and undermine the Iraq war, the Democrats have finally gotten something done. It's hard to decide which is more discouraging - the fact they've passed some of their socialist legislation, or the fact that Republicans and the President have helped them do so.

All you folks out there who voted the bums out in 2006, handing control of congress to the Dems: What were you upset about? Sure, many thought the Iraq war was a mess. But most of you were frustrated at the lack of action to stop illegal immigration. Angry about irresponsible pork-barrel spending. Frustrated by the failure of elected representatives to care even minimally about the true needs of their constituents.

So how did that go?

Well, despite all the efforts of the Democrat congress, Iraq's turned around and is winding down on its own. But that's the only good news.

What has our government done about illegal immigration? Nada. In fact, they just slipped into their latest spending bill a significant backtrack on the famous border fence that still isn't being built.

What about pork-barrel spending? Think Dems are more responsible than the GOP? If you thought they would be, the joke's on you! The latest spending bill has as much or more pork in it than the worst of the GOP's bills. It's just that the earmarks in this one are designed to help their newest Democrats bring enough bacon back to their districts to entrench them for next year's re-election. Our's is included: Baron Hill won his seat back from Republican Mike Sodrel, and has been rewarded by millions in special funding for his district awarded by his party to help him keep his seat next year.

Then there's the Energy Bill. What an obscene, patently obvious sop to Democrat special interests that travesty represents! How does mandating 35 miles per gallon from the auto industry help energy or the environment? NOT AT ALL! It simply creates artificial shortages in the market for trucks, vans, and suv's. What gives any government the right to tell anyone what they can drive? This government does so by telling the auto makers what they can sell.

Add to that the Bali conference on "Climate Change". Notice they aren't calling it "Global Warming" anymore, because the science on that isn't as settled as Al Gore would have us believe. Is anything the conference is doing going to improve the climate of earth, give us more clean air or clean water, eliminate droughts and blizzards and hurricanes and tornadoes? There's another big joke being played on the ignorant populace. NOT AT ALL!

What Bali's really all about is globalism, socialism, and taking the USA down a notch or two. These guys want us to give them the right to tax us! That's right, they want to tax American Citizens for our wicked and unfair consumption of much more than our share of the earth's resources, and give the money to, well, them! Just forget about the earth and climate and the environment - the whole thing is a scheme by people in the UN to get rich off taxing Americans for their use of energy.

It's so frustrating, all the more so that there's so little I can do about it. Common sense has been co-opted by special interests, whose main special interest is in getting rich. And in return for making them rich, they offer our politicians the kick-backs they need to keep their misleading campaign ad machines running so they can stay in office and continue serving their wealthy minders.

Want a good energy policy? Lease ANWR to the highest bidder to extract the oil there. Open the continental shelf to exploration. Build nuclear power plants. Encourage an increase in refinery capacity. Stop the madness on ethanol - an inefficient fuel made from food is about the dumbest thing I think we can do. Go ahead and continue development of alternative energy technologies - sponsor contests, give tax incentives, and all that to encourage inventors to find ways to power cars with hydrogen and generate electricity with wind and solar. But stop acting as if those alternatives are already fully viable, because they are far from that!

I want them all gone. Senators Lugar and Bayh need to go. Congressman Hill needs to go. But they need to be replaced with sensible people who cannot be bought, and that's the hard part.

More Football

The Colts and Patriots have wrapped up the top two spots in the playoffs. As of this weekend, nothing can change the fact that the Patriots are seeded first and the Colts second. Which means both teams get to await the winner of the first round of AFC playoff games in the semifinal.

Most expect the "real" Super Bowl this year will be played in Massachusetts in the dead of winter between the Colts and Pats. Yes, the Jags and Chargers have been playing pretty well lately, and the Steelers are always a threat despite their recent stumble. But the Colts and Pats still look like the two best teams in the entire league.

It seems the Colts may have learned a hard lesson two years ago, when they wrapped up the first seed early in their exceptional season. They pulled the starters and let backups get knocked around at the end of the season, which meant the starters didn't play in a real game for about a month.

That showed, with a rusty Colts offense taking a bit too long to get things untracked against the Steelers, who of course went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

This year it could be tempting to sit Peyton and Joseph and Dallas and Reggie. The idea would be to make sure they don't get injured, and keep them fresh and well-rested for the playoffs. Maybe it would be OK to pull them in the fourth quarter of their last two games, but hopefully Tony and the coaching staff learned their lesson. It's important to keep them playing and keep them sharp going into the playoffs.

One could wonder about the Patriots, and whether they will take the opportunity to protect their starters in their last two games, which also are meaningless except for the chance to go undefeated. The reputation of the Patriots would seem to dispel any thoughts of resting starters. They've been known for running up the score on weaker teams throughout the season, leaving Brady and his cast on the field even after building insurmountable leads.

It's playing out as the good guys (Colts) against the bad guys (Patriots) for the Super Bowl. If the Colts are able to get everyone back from injury, it should be a great game. The winner is expected to get the Cowboys or Packers in the Super Bowl. Everyone who's not a Cowboys fan is rooting for Brett Favre to make it back to the big game.

I'm just a fan coming along for the ride.

Christmas Thoughts

Here we live in a time that has unnecessarily complicated Christmas. It has become a stressful holiday for many, who become obsessed with making the right impressions with their gifts to family, friends, and co-workers. Who dread the obligatory family gatherings where they must interact with those family members they have come to detest for some reason or other. Who may or may not make the once-a-year trip to church for Christmas Eve services out of grudging honor of an old tradition.

The idea of Christmas is very simple, and it can be a joyful occasion if simply approached in the right spirit. What I've learned is this:

Christmas is about giving, not getting.

Gifts don't have to be expensive. They're an expression of love, which requires only a bit of thought. They also don't have to be restricted to family and friends; Christmas is a great time to give to anyone needing help.

Maybe instead of dreading the family gathering, how about going with the objective of burying the hatchet and ending the feud? You may never become close with that relative, but you could certainly become civil for a few hours a year.

Christmas is about the children. There's nothing better than watching the sheer joy and excitement of the children as they enjoy every aspect of Christmastime.

So while it may be true that our society has taken the celebration of Christmas far beyond its original intent. Yes, Christ's birth probably didn't occur on December 25th, and the early church probably didn't make a big deal of celebrating it.

But it remains a very special event in the year, and if celebrated in the right spirit, can be a wonderful experience.

Agenda Films

These are the times rife with agendas, and this year has seen the release of a number of agenda-driven films. I find it somewhat encouraging that such films to this point have had rather dismal ratings. It seems that recent anti-war films, such as recent flops as 'Lions for Lambs' and 'Rendition', have flopped because they hold little entertainment value.

What movie-goer wants to go see a film that is preachy, shallow, and possibly even insulting to their intelligence. The message to Hollywood is, "You guys have been beating the drum for over six years now; Bush sucks, war is bad, Iraq war is bad, blah, blah, blah. You don't need to bludgeon us with the same message in your contrived on-screen fiction."

Now there's a release of the 'Golden Compass', a movie made based on the first book in a series called 'His Dark Materials' by crusading atheist author Philip Pullman. The movie has been watered down to obfuscate the most obvious of Mr. Pullman's agenda, but the core purpose of the film is to create demand for the books, which from all accounts depict vicious attacks on Christianity, especially aimed at the Catholic Church. Excerpts I've seen suggest not only an atheistic, but even a Satanic message.

Contrary to popular stereotype, Christians and Catholics aren't petitioning the government to censor the movie or the books. They're simply exercising their rights to shine the light on this movie's agenda, which in turn encourages parents to skip this film, which ironically has been released in the Christmas season.

Fortunately, the reviews I've seen of this agenda film have been pretty tepid. Reviewers who don't seem to care about the agenda or controversy are simply saying it's not a very good movie. Which of course remains consistent with the theory that agenda-driven films appeal to a narrow audience and won't do well commercially. Hopfully the trend holds with this film.

Some Interesting Information on the Huckeby Issue

I've written a couple of posts in the past about the Barry Huckeby case of misappropriation of funds at Columbus North High School. The stories I had access to raised a number of questions, some of which have been answered in the report released by the State Board of Accounts dealing with both the Football issue and a question also raised about accounting for a Golf Outing run by Mr. Huckeby.

My reading of the report seems to clear up several of my questions.

Barry Huckeby is astoundingly inept at recordkeeping.

He's also not very smart. How could he not have known that all his handling of funds would be scrutinized? Whether he is truthful or not in his response to the findings of the Board of Accounts, he shows a puzzling lack of judgement when it comes to minimally responsible recordkeeping. Ironically, he's a math teacher! For a math teacher, he seems incapable of basic addition and subtraction.

The Columbus North Athletic Department is not without culpability here, at least in terms of enforcing policies and procedures for handling of receipts from sporting events. It's unconscionable that the department had not even the most basic of controls in place to account for the ticket sales.

My reading of the report is that Barry's handling of the funds from the golf fundraiser could reasonably be attributed to sloppy recordkeeping. Did he siphon some funds from the golf outing? Since he's the only one with the checking account and can't produce several receipts to back up his claims, there's ultimately no way to prove it one way or the other. There can be no argument that his outrageously poor management alone builds a pretty strong case for his dismissal - at least from any position that involves handling money.

The case is pretty solid against him for the missing $3,436 in football receipts. He admitted pocketing a couple of $50's, and there isn't a reasonable explanation for the difference in receipts from the playoff game against Terre Haute North, which totaled $2,080. Barry's defense is that the whole system at Columbus North was in disarray, with season pass funds mixed with game receipts and moneys deposited into different accounts.

However, the playoff game against Terre Haute North was by IHSAA rules not covered by any season passes. Everyone had to purchase a ticket, either in advance or at the game itself. The receipts from the playoff game simply can be estimated based on the number of tickets collected at the gate. So there are only two explanations for the difference of over $2,000:

1) That's the amount collected prior to the game in ticket pre-sales that didn't get counted for the game, or
2) That's the amount Barry put in his pocket after the game.

To believe that over $2,000 in pre-sales was mishandled by the Athletic Director and the Department Secretary, one would also have to believe that both conspired to either steal the money themselves or destroy Barry for some sinister personal reason. I'm not prepared believe such a theory.

At trial, I'm thinking a good defense attorney can raise enough reasonable doubt in the case to get Barry a Not Guilty verdict or a hung jury. Unless compelling evidence is presented at trial of someone seeing Barry pocket the money or talk about pocketing the money, I think it will be hard to convict him. Reasonable doubt can certainly be raised based on the department's overall lax recordkeeping procedures.

On the other hand, I firmly believe his firing was proper. His extremely poor management and failure to follow even the most basic of controls is inexcusable. Discrepancies under $100 you can chalk up to human error; discrepancies over $3,000 point to something far more serious. Clearly, Barry cannot be trusted with handling money.

That doesn't mean the blame stops with Barry, however. I'd also recommend termination of the CNHS Athletic Director, who is culpable in her failure to implement such basic controls and procedures in the Athletic Department. It would not seem out of line to take a serious look at the culpability of the Principal as well.

With proper controls and oversight in place, the incident clearly would never have happened. And that begs an immediate termination of the Athletic Director and anyone else directly responsible for such obvious mismanagement.

Another Football Post

As a fan, I've got to slip in a bit of football now and then.

At the high school level, it was disappointing to see our local team, the Columbus North Bulldogs, drop a winnable state semifinal. They played exceptional defense and scored two touchdowns in the first half to seem well in control of the game that could qualify them for the state 5A championship in the RCA Dome.

Unfortunately, things unraveled late in the third quarter, when quarterback Mike Hladik threw an interception that led to a quick touchdown by Indianapolis Pike. That touchdown was followed by two more very quick touchdowns by Pike, which found its offense and rattled the North defense with some big plays. A missed extra point on their third touchdown left Pike ahead 20-14.

But North wasn't done yet. They managed a good kickoff return and had a solid drive going, finding themselves well within Pike territory with about 2 minutes remaining in the game. But their quest for a championship ended with two dropped first-down passes in their last four plays.

I could only imagine how difficult that was for the players and coaches, to see the victory within reach and lose because of a couple of dropped passes. Ouch.

In college, it's nice to see Indiana qualified for a Bowl game for the first time in many years. It was a great tribute to Coach Hef, who passed away before the season.

In the NFL, the hated Patriots have shown some chinks in their armor the last couple of weeks. They've begun to look beatable, and for once I sort of hope the Steelers take them down next week.

The Colts have struggled since their own loss to the Patriots, which left them physically and mentally crushed. The Colts lost some key players to injury, and the physically able played liked whipped dogs the following week in San Diego. Even so, they had the Chargers beaten except for a missed chip-shot field goal by Vinatieri. Since then, they've been gradually regaining their injured players and improving. But they're still not the same Colts we saw prior to the Pats game.

It will be fascinating to see what happens in the playoffs, where a rematch between the Colts and Patriots is very likely. The Steelers have a chance to play a role, but there doesn't seem to be any other team in the AFC able to compete with those powerhouse teams.

The sports commentators are sort of comical, as they root for the Cowboys and Packers and openly hope one of those teams can beat the AFC champ. Sorry guys, not going to happen. Whether the Patriots, Colts, or Steelers win through to the Super Bowl, I've got to predict the NFC team will lose again.

All that's left are the college bowls, then the NFL playoffs. After that, I'll have to catch some Indiana basketball to feed my sports addictions until the sports desert of spring and summer arrive.

Irony

The irony of two of the big stories this morning is fascinating. The British teacher who allowed her students to name a teddy bear "Mohammed" was released from jail, and Don Imus returned to the airwaves.

Although there's a big difference between spending a few days in what must have been a hellish jail in Sudan and getting what amounts to a paid vacation, both stories were about punishment for the most egregious sins in today's world; the sin of giving offense.

Both cases were, I believe, unintentional acts that caused a firestorm among the offended. The teacher had no idea she would be jailed and have her very life threatened when her students named a teddy bear after the founder of Islam. Imus thought he was being hip or relevant by making a statement about the women's basketball team that would have passed without notice if uttered by, say, Chris Rock.

It is a strange world where offending someone, even without realizing you were being offensive, is the most unforgivable sin. It's a strange world where people can get away with almost anything, up to and including murder, if they have a good enough rationalization. But get away with giving offense to an aggrieved group? You are forever painted with the scarlet letter, not "A", but "R"(racist) or "B"(bigot).

Be careful what you say, especially in public. The thought police are everywhere.