Truth is no defense, I guess

The Guardian reports on this California lawsuit against a teacher by a student who stalked the teacher for 18 months to catch him saying that creationism is "superstitious nonsense".
Well, it is, of course.
But teachers apparently can't say so anymore because it might hurt someone's poor widdle feelings.

The devil made me do it

In the Comments section to this great Matt Taibbi post about religion, sportsblogger Graham Kates says:

The existence of this eternal bickering between God-people and no-God-people is proof that the Devil exists and is trying to bore everyone to death.

Meditations on Free

Some interesting and interconnected meditations on "free" and on "value" here, here, here and here. Music blogger Kate writes:

. . . in a world where singles are incessantly everywhere and also free (thereby, inherently valueless) true, artful albums are RARE (thereby, somewhat priceless). And I don’t know about you but I don’t want what everyone else has for free… kind of the same way I feel about extra large, logo-emblazoned T-shirts. Keep ‘em.
But a compendium of great, interesting songs… dead-ringer singles, sleeper hits, introspective soundscapes, covers turned inside-out, indulgent guitar solos (please, bring those back)… that’s what I want. I want to actually hold it in my hand, open up the liner notes and rub my nose in them, inhaling that new-ink-on-paper-smell.
Limited copies. Frame-worthy artwork.
Raise the standard.
Charge me double the price.

What its like to have swine flu

What I like about the Effect Measure blog is that it is so well written that I, a completely non-medical non-statistical person, can actually understand the articles. Here's one about the swine flu cases that describes some of the most recent research about this new kind of flu very clearly:

60% of the cases reported in this paper were under 18 years of age. 18% had recently traveled to Mexico, although in yesterday's CDC briefing it was said that the travel associated cases are now only 10% of the US total as sustained person to person transmission begins to take hold on US soil. The most common presenting symptom was fever (94%) followed by cough (92%) and sore throat (66%). Unusually for respiratory influenza, 25% had diarrhea and 25% vomiting.
Hospitalization status was known for 399 of the cases and amounted to 36 in the series (it has since increased). . . . Sufficient information on 22 hospitalized patients showed that 12, or about half, had underlying medical conditions that might have increased risk, but half did not, that is, they were previously healthy individuals, many of them young. There were 11 cases of pneumonia among the hospitalized. 8 wound up in intensive care, 4 had respiratory failure and 2 died.
All of these things happen with seasonal influenza, too, so it doesn't mean this is an especially virulent version of flu. It may well qualify for the much used term, "mild," in that regard, because real seasonal influenza is an inherently nasty illness.
But for these patients, half of them previously healthy and on average quite young, "mild" won't cut it as a description of what they went through. Something to keep in mind.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

According to Chuck Jones' memoir, the boss of the Warner Bros studio, Leon Schlesinger (after whom Sylvester's voice was modelled) once said that if there was one thing that simply WAS NOT FUNNY it was bullfights.
Taking this as a challenge, the cartoon studio produced Bully for bugs:

Great line of the day

From Roy talking about the humourless, obsessive right-wing bloggers who think it matters what kind of mustard Obama likes:

It's like they all grew up thinking Frank Burns was the hero of "M*A*S*H."

Thanks, Chet, for the link.

By the pricking of my thumbs, something evil this way comes

This is getting creepy.
I think Blatchford is beginning to think so, too.

That left-wing liberal media everybody hates so much

A few days ago, Digby wrote this:

These wingnuts truly seem to believe that the reason people voted for a left leaning Democratic government across the board was because they actually wanted a far right government. If that makes sense to you, then you must be a conservative too.

Then today I'm listening on the radio to Charles Adler and I didn't catch it all, but the 24/7 anti-Ignatieff hysteria had apparently been put on hold for a few moments in order to hash over how US newspapers are dying because so many Americans are annoyed about left-wing liberal bias in the media. And I thought, excuse me? This tired cliche is being put forward, about a country where 65 million Americans voted for Obama and the Democrats? So why would anyone still think that Americans actually prefer Fox and the Washington Times? Well, I guess if that makes sense to you...

Creativity

Speaking of disablism, here's a perfect example of how its just too easy to sell disabled people short.
Google SketchUp has developed a project to allow autistic people to express themselves creatively. This is an eye-opening video:

May 4, 1970

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Ohio

BADD day

Shakesville points out that May 1 was Blogging Against Disablism Day --and here's another roundup of posts on the topic.
I was brought up short about my own "disablism" when a women in a wheelchair once said to me "You feel sorry for me because I am in this chair. But for me, this chair is freedom -- without it, I would be spending my life lying in bed."
She was, of course, right -- I was looking at it from the wrong perspective and I have always been grateful to her for pointing this out.
Then years later, I spent several weeks using a wheelchair at work when I had a severely broken leg -- I found it too exhausting to manage at work with crutches, so a chair was ideal for me.
It gave me a new perspective, however -- what I found most noticeable was the number of people who simply could not look at me anymore, my boss included. I never knew whether this was because I was below their sight line or they just didn't like looking at the external fixator on my leg, or they didn't like the chair, or whatever. I couldn't really criticize them, however -- maybe I would have acted the same way before I knew how useful a wheelchair could be.
Also, I found that just because somebody has slapped a "handicapped-accessible" sticker on something, like a washroom door, doesn't make it true.

Kentucky Derby

I love watching horse races like this. Down the backstretch, Mine That Bird is running last, but he makes his move at precisely the right time and threads his way through the crowd just as he comes around the clubhouse turn. All of a sudden, there he is, running next to the rail where the track isn't so soupy, all by himself as he charges for the tape.

Shorter

Shorter Obama administration "unnamed officials":

"Maybe we still need a phoney justice system for the Guantanamo prisoners. Because if we let the actual American justice system deal with them, they might get actual justice! Can't have that..."

Saturday Morning Cartoon

In honour of the hockey playoffs -- Goofy in Hockey Homicide:

WWJD

What would Jesus do?
Torture people, I guess.