tolerance
dr. dolittle | December 9, 2016 Image by Botaurus - Wikimedia commons
A changing climate has the potential to greatly impact ectotherms, which depend on the environment to regulate their own body temperatures. In a new study published in the American Journal of Physiology- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, researchers were curious how exposure to varying temperatures would affect developing ectotherms. They answered this question using Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as fruit flies. They exposed freshly laid eggs to ten different temperatures ranging from 12 to 32°C, the upper and lower limit of…
mikethemadbiologist | January 12, 2011I would ask if movement conservatives have any decency or shame, but that has an obvious question. By way of Jamison Foer, we find that Erick Erickson, CNN contributor and rightwing conservative, has definitely discovered what ails this nation:
Through it all though, well meaning people on both sides of the ideological and partisan divide are not talking about the one thing that should be talked about -- a saving faith in Jesus Christ....
The topic of faith in Christ makes people cringe. But whether you believe it or not, here is the reality: beyond us is a world we cannot see with our eyes…
mikethemadbiologist | January 18, 2010Image by Bettmann/CORBIS
With ten percent unemployment, and nearly eighteen percent underemployment--and much of the political establishment unconcerned about this--Martin Luther King's passion for economic justice sadly is still relevant. What is forgotten about Kings--often willfully--is that he was an advocate for racial and economic justice. From a speech he gave to striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18, 1968 (italics mine):
My dear friends, my dear friend James Lawson, and all of these dedicated and distinguished ministers of the Gospel assembled here tonight, to all of…
mikethemadbiologist | January 21, 2009This is the kind of story that makes me sick to my stomach--soldiers stateside were expected by their base commander to applaud for Pastor of Evil Rick Warren:
The following is an email from one decorated combat officer, a man with the courage to repeatedly put his life on the line on the battlefield, being wounded twice, but who could not muster the courage to resist the pressure of his "serious and committed born again Christian" commanding officer to applaud Rick Warren. The author of this email is typical of the majority of servicemen and servicewomen who contact MRFF for assistance. Like…
mikethemadbiologist | December 18, 2008It's truly odd to hear a creationist make a population genetics argument--an idiotic one no less. Rick Warren, evangelist and who will be leading the invocation at Obama's inauguration, says the following about homosexuality:
Warren, a creationist, believes that homosexuality disproves evolution; he told CNN's Larry King in 2005, "If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then homosexuality would be a recessive gene because it doesn't reproduce and you would think that over thousands of years that homosexuality would work itself out of the gene pool."
The stupidity permeates…
mikethemadbiologist | December 18, 2008I really wasn't going to say much about the decision to have Rick Warren, civil rights opponent and evolution denialist, until Pam Spaulding bravely put on her slime guard and went to see what the rightwing denizens of Free Republic had to say. Warning--not safe for workdecent human beings:
LOL the homo's are taking a right beating lately. This is just great, what is it ah yes change we can believe in have you got that homo's? change you never thought LOL
Since his election to the position of President Elect, Obama has shown increasingly that he may be (emphasis on "may be") a pure old…
mikethemadbiologist | December 17, 2008By way of Scienceblogling PZ, I stumbled across a very interesting article by Max Blumenthal about the origins of the 'War on Christmas.' This passage stood out (italics mine):
Following the invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush's re-election, and the Republican sweep of Congress, Brimelow said conservative movement elites could no longer ignore the right-wing populism sweeping the nation. Suddenly the War on Christmas was gaining traction. "This issue became very popular in the conservative grassroots, so conservative media had to pay concession to it," he said.
By 2005, Fox News personalities…
mikethemadbiologist | November 30, 2008While this letter I found at AmericaBlog.com deals with religiously-motivated intolerance towards gays and lesbians, I think it's going to be germane (at least tangentially so) to the current stem cell discussion over at What's New in Life Science:
We as a group have become tolerant of intolerance.
Whenever anyone justifies their bigotry with what I call DHRB (deeply held religious beliefs) we roll over as if that were the end of the discussion.
We have confused respecting a persons right to hold whatever religious beliefs they chose with respecting those beliefs. The truth is there are…
mikethemadbiologist | November 8, 2008Soon it will be the War on Christmas season wherein a bunch of assholes shriek hither and yon complaining that someone somewhere tried to remove a Christmas tree, and that said removal will lead to the Destruction of Judeo-Christian Civilization As We Know It.
As far as I'm concerned, it's the last gasp of conservative white Protestants who have suddenly realized that now they are those people. So my question is, given the political shift this country has undergone, how do you think John Gibson's attempt to use religious tribalism to sell really bad books the War on Christmas will play out?…
mikethemadbiologist | November 2, 2008If you're trying to convince black voters to vote Republican, this probably isn't the best way to do it:
Interesting anecdote and probably a testament to ground organization. I have no idea what this means. Friday night (which happens to be the start of our Sabbath) my wife answered the phone to hear a man stating he was from the McCain-Palin campaign. He asked who she was supporting. She replied that we will vote for Obama. He replied with "but he's a f-----g n---er!". Before I get to my wife's response I'll first have to say that I understand desperation and I also understand that this…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2008If you thought Obama's minister was a piece of work, get a load of Palin's church (italics mine):
An illustration of that gap came just two weeks ago, when Palin's church, the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus.
Palin's pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church's website.
"He's a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,"…
mikethemadbiologist | August 1, 2008More fallout from Bushist apparatchik Monica Goodling. Her political hackery weakened our ability to prosecute terrorists:
In one disgraceful example, Goodling refused to hire "one of the leading terrorism prosecutors in the country" because his wife was a Democrat:
He was an experienced terrorism prosecutor and had successfully prosecuted a high-profile terrorism case for which he received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service. ... The candidate's wife was a prominent local Democrat elected official and vice-chairman of a local Democratic Party. [...]
[Executive Office for…
mikethemadbiologist | July 1, 2008Who woulda thunk it? It's already well-established that the good souls of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives had a 'No Jews need apply' policy*. Now it turns out that, like so many bigots, they're also corrupt (italics mine):
A former top official in the White House's faith-based office was awarded a lucrative Department of Justice grant under pressure from two senior Bush administration appointees, according to current and former DOJ staff members and a review of internal DOJ documents and emails.
The $1.2 million grant was jointly awarded to a consulting firm run by Lisa Trevino…
mikethemadbiologist | February 28, 2008I believe I did. And on cue, a bigot steps right up (italics mine):
An evangelical chaplain who leads Bible studies for California lawmakers says God is disgusted with a rival fellowship group that includes people of all faiths.
"Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior," Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries' Web site.
The comments drew immediate fire from others in the capital, including the Republican lawmaker who sponsors Drollinger's Bible study group.
Drollinger said "progressive religious tolerance" is…
mikethemadbiologist | February 26, 2008I think Amanda's take on Amy Sullivan's denigration of the term pro-choice is pretty dead on. But something else about that interview bothered me, and it was Sullivan's need for religious validation from political figures and parties. In the interview, Sullivan says:
When you write off Catholics and evangelicals as not your voters, you're stereotyping. When you make fun of John Ashcroft or George W. Bush for praying, you are giving off a sense that there's something wrong with that. That there's something ridiculous about people who spend their mornings with prayer. And we've seen this in…
mikethemadbiologist | February 11, 2008I really wasn't going to bash Kristof over his recent apologia for evangelicals. I've done so before, and I didn't really see the point in doing so again. But, by way of ScienceBlogling James Hrynyshyn, I came across Kristof's response to some of the criticism he has received (in bold is his synopsis of a particular criticism; italics mine):
It's okay to deride evangelicals because they're Neanderthals on science and other issues. If people don't believe in evolution, they invite mockery. If we call them nuts, it's because we have good evidence that they are nuts.
I agree that the…
mikethemadbiologist | February 10, 2008Because what's a little intolerance among 'friends':
The revision of a contentious Good Friday prayer approved this week by Pope Benedict XVI could set back Jewish-Catholic relations, Conservative Judaism's international assembly of rabbis says in a resolution to be voted on next week.
The prayer calls for God to enlighten the hearts of Jews "so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."
The draft resolution states the prayer would "cast a harsh shadow over the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration that has marked these past four decades, making it more difficult for…
mikethemadbiologist | January 31, 2008...and conservatives still don't like him. Boo fucking hoo. Here's how Straight-Talking, honest McCain is sliming the Mittster:
"I'm calling with an urgent Mitt Romney [unintelligible]"
"We care deeply about traditional values and protecting families. And we need someone who will not waver in the White House: Ending abortion, preserving the sanctity of marriage, stopping the trash on the airwaves and attempts to ban God from every corner of society. These issues are core to our being.
"Mitt Romney thinks he can fool us. He supported abortion on demand, even allowed a law mandating taxpayer-…
mikethemadbiologist | January 19, 2008I happy to see that others are coming around to the idea that the abortion debate is ultimately about the establishment of religion (italics mine):
She [Keenan] was saying more that the people in the mushy middle feel like they're in a moral quandary about abortion, because it's all mixed up with various other issues about sex, commitment, self-image, family, ickiness, and other touchy subjects and thus most people refuse to really think the issue through and come to the correct conclusion: Anything so complex and personal should be a matter of personal conscience. The term "moral complexity…
mikethemadbiologist | January 14, 2008Certain political acts are beyond the pale, such as cutting a teen suicide hotline. Unless they're gay, then it's called positioning. In light of the Great Orange Satan's and others' calls for Michigan Democrats to muck up the Republican race by voting for Romney, I thought revisiting his cuts for a gay suicide teen hotline would be in order (be very, very careful, he just might win...). About the cuts, I wrote:
Let's leave aside decency and morality and try to forget that Romney eliminated funding for a gay teen suicide hotline to curry favor with the theopolitical Right. Let's not plumb…