draggonlaady

You've all probably seen this by now, but a judge has declared an immediately effective injunction against the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. The Justice Department is, as standard protocol, challenging the ruling; Obama has stated he's opposed to DADT, but the Justice Department does this every time a judge overturns a congressional decision.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-dont-ask-20101013,0,2167337.story

Supreme court has heard testimony. Apparently no actual in-court insanity from any of the Phelps', but they felt it necessary to picket their own trial, whatever that's supposed to prove.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl3827

http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2010/10/fred_phelps_daughters_sing_crazy_train.php

Pretty heavy-handed bias in the second article there... way to uphold journalistic objectivity! Not that I disagree, I mean the Phelps'/WBC are nutjobs extraordinaire, but I make no pretense of objectivity here.

Be interesting to see what the judges come back with, though one article said they don't expect a final decision for several months.

So funranium gets to write lots of rants about media ignorance and the ever terrifying "radiation." I get to rant about ignorance about "genetic modification" and "mutation". For whatever reason, all of the above send people into totally unwarranted tizzy fits.

The FDA is preparing to consider whether to allow Atlantic Salmon modified to grow faster into the US food chain. On the pro side: the only thing changed is growth rate; faster growing fish lead to more fish available to stores and restaurants, and since those fish would be farmed, it would decrease pressure on wild populations currently being heavily fished. On the con side: concerns about effects on ecology should these fish escape into the wild, and OHMYGOD!!!!!! if I eat a genetically modified fish, won't that screw up MY DNA too?

Now, the concerns about escape I think are valid. Historically, humans have not been terribly great about keeping animals in captivity with no escapes (feral cats and horses in the US, transport of squirrels from east coast to west in US, feral cats and rabbits in Australia...I'll stop here, but you get the point that it's a long list).
However, abject terror and horror-movie visions of ingestion of modified DNA causing mutations all up the food chain are unfounded bullshit.
When you eat it, the modified DNA, along with all the other DNA of everything you have ever eaten is digested, broken down to component parts, and re-used in bit pieces. It is not miraculously absorbed whole and inserted into your own DNA. Do you begin to grow feathers after eating chicken? Instantly acquire a double-muscling mutation after eating beef? Didn't think so.

Opponents like to throw out comments such as "side effects from eating such fish are also unknown, with little data to show it is safe." Never mind that they cannot produce a whit of evidence that it is UNsafe, and that while there is little tested evidence of safety in salmon, that's in large part because there haven't been a lot of opportunities for testing. We have, however, been in large part eating GM plant crops (GM soybeans, corn, and tomatoes have been widely sold in US markets for years) with no food safety issues resulting. All theoretical evidence and comparative analysis of the GM salmon points to no difference in the meat from non-GM salmon.

Also keep in mind that every single thing you buy from the store or grow at home IS genetically modified. But that's okay, because it was done the old fashioned way, by repeatedly breeding a desirable mutation, which somehow is less scary than engineering and inducing the desired mutation. Or something.

How did I not know about this?!?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Tango_Makes_Three

This is probably the most entertaining essay ever on the "ground zero mosque" issue. Read it, I loved it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/23/charlie-brooker-ground-zero-mosque

Perhaps spatial reality functions differently on the other side of the Atlantic, but here in London, something that is "two minutes' walk and round a corner" from something else isn't actually "in" the same place at all. I once had a poo in a pub about two minutes' walk from Buckingham Palace. I was not subsequently arrested and charged with crapping directly onto the Queen's pillow. That's how "distance" works in Britain. It's also how distance works in America, of course, but some people are currently pretending it doesn't, for daft political ends.

A few days bac, I got bored, and prompted by a comic, looked some stuff up. Thought I posted it, but apparently didn't. So I'll tack it on here:

The proposed mosque site is 2 1/2 blocks from "ground zero", not at the actual site of destruction.

It also is not actually a mosque. The proposed Cordoba House is an Islamic Community Center, similar to a Jewish Community Center. It will contain a mosque/prayer area, just like a Christian Life Center would be expected to contain a chapel, or a Jewish Community Center to hold a synagogue. Besides the prayer space, the Initiative's plan includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare services, art exhibitions, bookstore, culinary school, and a food court.

There is already a mosque 3 blocks away, which has been there since the 70's. So far, nobody's burned it, or demanded it be moved.

There is also a strip club within 2 blocks of GZ, and nobody's up in arms about THAT.

There is a Catholic St. Peter's Church about a block away from GZ, the priest there is in favor of building this center.

Tangentially, did you know that Christian groups came in and put up a couple hundred crosses at Auschwitz? (most have since been removed.) I had no idea until I started following links from some of these articles. Seems rather ... hypocritical ... to me, to put a Catholic chapel actually inside the SS admin building at Birkenau, despite the protestations of hundreds of Jewish survivors and relatives of the massacred, and then turn around and have a fit about a community center 2 blocks away from a terrorist attack site.
(http://www.scrapbookpages.com/poland/Crosses/Crosses.html)

Well, I guess it's...comforting(?)... that other places apparently have crazier politicians than we do here. Tennessee gets a family 2-for-1 deal!

http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxforgovernor/

http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxjr/

Because I love them so much, I'm actually on a couple of newsletter/mailing lists. This is from Cathy McMorris Rodgers' latest email.

Learn proper grammar, please.

First, I want to thank the thousands of people in the 5th Congressional District who wrote to my office and traveled to Washington, D.C., and voiced their opposition to this expensive and bureaucratic health care bill from becoming law.

Last I heard, you don't voice opposition "from" something, you voice opposition "to" something.

And whether you are for or against the bill she's ranting against here, you have to admit that it's a bit silly to have one "talking point" mentioning how horrible it is that unemployment is so high, and a subsequent point about hiring 16,500 new positions as a BAD thing.

New Taxes and Regulations for Business: At a time when 15 million Americans are out of work, new taxes and even more regulation will add additional burdens on small businesses and increase unemployment.*

...

More I.R.S. Agents: More than 16,500 new IRS agents will be hired to verify your finances and ensure every American has ‘acceptable’ health coverage, according to Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

(If the link is an issue, endotoxin, let me know and I'll re-host it.)

( Gay Marriage Flow Chart )