(Image: © Paul Natkin\/WireImage) I must admit that the strongest memory I had of the “heavy metal” rock band Twisted Sister was not actually of the band, but a National Lampoon magazine I once owned. The cover bore the picture of an adorable but pitiful-looking dog with a .38 revolver pressed to its head. The cover threatened, “If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog!” It's a well known fact that I'm a sucker for dogs, so I bought a copy. Even years prior to my involvement with animal rescue, I couldn’t resist the idea of saving that poor dog’s life. In retrospect, it may have been the best investment under five bucks I've ever made. That issue wasn't just funny; virtually every word was hilarious. There were spoofs of arcade games like Space Invaders but called “Sperm from Space”, longer articles such as “The Death of Ed McMahon”...even the fake "Letters to the Editor" were priceless. When I read that issue of National Lampoon, I laughed so hard I cried, some of the jokes were so funny. Then my friends passed it around the room and read it in turn, shedding tears of laughter as well. Only our friend Jarvis read the whole magazine from cover to cover and never even cracked a smile, but he was the exception. There was a point to be made here, and it's about Twisted Sister. One of the fake letters to the editor went something along these lines (from memory, so this is not a verbatim quote): Dear Sir: I would like to completely disavow myself from any association with the bands AC/DC, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Motley Crue…after a long … [Read more...]
Common descent versus common design
My latest "Eureka!" moment while arguing that Charles Darwin's famous theory of common descent with modification is actually a rather pathetic explanation for the modern diversity of life came when I realized that the work of Gregor Mendel had been purloined by evolutionary biologists and made the centerpiece of their argument. Clearly, Mendel's research into genetic recombination demonstrated how descent with modification produced variety in plants, and it stood to reason to assume that the same sort of variety was produced by sexual reproduction by animals. Indeed, anyone brave (or foolish) enough to express skepticism at the idea that Charles Darwin's theory explains the origin of new species had better be prepared for an unprecedented degree of anger, scorn, ridicule, and frequent suggestions to consider remedial biology classes. The question remains: does Mendel's work truly explain the origin of new species, or is that explanation flawed? The idea sounds preposterous on the surface, sort of like the plot of a bad science fiction movie titled Planet of the Furless Apes. Darwin famously scribbled "Monkeys make men" in one of his notebooks to capture the idea that modern evolutionary biologists might call "changes of accumulations in allele frequency changes", which is a fancy way of saying that humans evolved from apes when certain DNA patterns become dominant while others become recessive. Humans lost their fur, grew physically smaller but developed bigger brains, simply because we could. It is theoretically possible, and the only other potential explanation in … [Read more...]
When will MoveOn.org take their own advice?
When Bill Clinton's presidency was threatened by talk of impeachment way back in 1998, the nonprofit organization MoveOn.org was founded by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd in order to urge Congress to simply censure President Clinton for his sexual improprieties in the Oval Office and "move on" with the functions of government rather than removing Clinton from office. I'm not with him. That was twenty years ago. So why hasn't MoveOn.org moved on? Logically, the reason for their existence should have ended when Bill Clinton's impeachment concluded in the Senate without his conviction, even though he was clearly guilty beyond any reasonable doubt of sexual misconduct while in office and of committing perjury about his adultery, but the American people were told those were insufficient reasons to remove a sitting President from office. MoveOn.org lost the battle to stop impeachment, but they won the war. Bill Clinton served both terms in full. Follow the money, as they say. The reason MoveOn.org won't move on is because they can't. They are mired in the past, driving a powerful fund-raising machine using well-known liberal political figures such as Robert Reich (former Clinton Secretary of Labor) helping them raise money for "progressive" causes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=170&v=oyjm_Bnncms And boy, do liberals ever get their money's worth! Just take a look at this high quality, mature and thought-provoking commercial they made about Obamacare--but don't let any children wander within earshot while you do. [WARNING: "STRONG" (MEANING … [Read more...]
Why CNN is fake news
CNN had a brazen headline on an article written by Chris Cillizza recently that declared, "Donald Trump warns people to beware of non-existent voter fraud", leaving little or no doubt about the position the alleged news network would be taking on the subject of voter fraud in the coming election. And what might be the problem with this headline, you ask? Well, claiming that voter fraud doesn't exist ought to mean that no matter how hard I try, I shouldn't be able to search the internet and find an article listing ten examples of voter fraud, should I? Perhaps the question I should be asking is this: why doesn't Chris Cillizza appear to know how to use a search engine? Why can a woefully underpaid professional writer like me find pertinent information that completely escaped the attention of an overpaid media personality like Cillizza so easily? photo by CNN When I read the news from legitimate news sources not named CNN, I can find articles claiming that Habersham County here in Georgia had a whopping 243 percent voter turnout. In Detroit, 37 percent of the reporting precincts had more votes than registered voters in a recent election, so the problem isn't isolated. I shouldn't be able to type "voter fraud convictions" and find stories about a voter fraud scandal for profit orchestrated by Democrats in Texas, should I? Yet I can find numerous examples of voter fraud by searching online rather easily. Maybe Chris Cillizza only uses Google, which appears to censor content by manipulating search results. For example, when I typed "voter fraud" in Google's search … [Read more...]
A black life that mattered
On Saturday, October 20, 2018 in broad daylight, Gwinnett County police officer Antwan Toney was murdered in cold blood. He was investigating the report of a suspicious vehicle at the intersection of Bethany Church Road and Shiloh Road, not too far from metropolitan Atlanta. Officer Toney never had a chance--on his approach toward the stopped vehicle, one or more of the occupants inside opened fire, fatally wounding him. The California native recently celebrated his 30th birthday and was only six days shy of celebrating his third anniversary of service with the Gwinnett County Police Department. My question is pretty simple--did his life matter? If not, why not? It certainly matters to me. I happen to live in Gwinnett County. This man died helping keep people like me safe from violent criminals. But you know who probably doesn't care about this man's murder? The people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. They only seem to care about criminals and the rare innocent victim, and only then according to the color of their skin. They only see Officer Toney's uniform and ignore the smiling, handsome young man wearing it. Officer Antwan Toney However, if suspected gunman Tafarhee Maynard is killed resisting arrest by police who know he's already murdered one of their brothers in blue, you can bet your bottom dollar that the BLM will be protesting his death. Obviously, the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement doesn't care about every black life. They only care when deadly force is used by the police, not by criminals. That's why I loathe the BLM … [Read more...]
