would the fact i am a man a faith color or cloud my theories and conclusions in your eyes?
could you still be objective about my work knowing i had a belief system entirely different from your own?
or would you villify my work as false and unreasonable due to the fact i was a man of faith?
make it your mission to help me see reason,see the light of logic and abandon my silly,childish ways?

I think I'll let Sam Harris speak for himself, and link you this massive humiliation of Francis Collins, which he wrote a few weeks ago: http://www.reasonproject.org/archive/item/the_strange_case_of_francis_collins2/

I don't have a problem with Collins (or Miller, or any other religious scientists) being religious, or Christians, the problem only comes when the religion so clearly clouds peoples judgments on scientific or political issues. You could be the best scientist in the world AND wear magic Mormon underpants and a tinfoil hat while using all your money on dianetics counseling for all I care, as long as you somehow manage to maintain full scientific rigor and attitude in lectures, books and papers you do in your science. Its just that when you get down to it, neither this clownish behaviour or just regular christianity is REALLY compatible with a scientific approach. As much as I admire Miller and his butchering of creationism, he gets really dizzy when he actually tries to defend his god. In short: Yes, you can be both a great scientist and religious, but its sort of like being a great husband and occasionally cheat on your wife.

Liberal Lies About National Health Care: First in a Series

by ANN COULTER


(1) National health care will punish the insurance companies.

You want to punish insurance companies? Make them compete.

As Adam Smith observed, whenever two businessmen meet, "the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." That's why we need a third, fourth and 45th competing insurance company that will undercut them by offering better service at a lower price.

Tiny little France and Germany have more competition among health insurers than the U.S. does right now. Amazingly, both of these socialist countries have less state regulation of health insurance than we do, and you can buy health insurance across regional lines -- unlike in the U.S., where a federal law allows states to ban interstate commerce in health insurance.

U.S. health insurance companies are often imperious, unresponsive consumer hellholes because they're a partial monopoly, protected from competition by government regulation. In some states, one big insurer will control 80 percent of the market. (Guess which party these big insurance companies favor? Big companies love big government.)

Liberals think they can improve the problem of a partial monopoly by turning it into a total monopoly. That's what single-payer health care is: "Single payer" means "single provider."

It's the famous liberal two-step: First screw something up, then claim that it's screwed up because there's not enough government oversight (it's the free market run wild!), and then step in and really screw it up in the name of "reform."

You could fix 90 percent of the problems with health insurance by ending the federal law allowing states to ban health insurance sales across state lines. But when John McCain called for ending the ban during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was attacked by Joe Biden -- another illustration of the ironclad Ann Coulter rule that the worst Republicans are still better than allegedly "conservative" Democrats.

(2) National health care will "increase competition and keep insurance companies honest" -- as President Barack Obama has said.

Government-provided health care isn't a competitor; it's a monopoly product paid for by the taxpayer. Consumers may be able to "choose" whether they take the service -- at least at first -- but every single one of us will be forced to buy it, under penalty of prison for tax evasion. It's like a new cable plan with a "yes" box, but no "no" box.

Obama himself compared national health care to the post office -- immediately conjuring images of a highly efficient and consumer-friendly work force -- which, like so many consumer-friendly shops, is closed by 2 p.m. on Saturdays, all Sundays and every conceivable holiday.

But what most people don't know -- including the president, apparently -- with certain narrow exceptions, competing with the post office is prohibited by law.

Expect the same with national health care. Liberals won't stop until they have total control. How else will they get you to pay for their sex-change operations?

(3) Insurance companies are denying legitimate claims because they are "villains."

Obama denounced the insurance companies in last Sunday's New York Times, saying: "A man lost his health coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because the insurance company discovered that he had gallstones, which he hadn't known about when he applied for his policy. Because his treatment was delayed, he died."

Well, yeah. That and the cancer.

Assuming this is true -- which would distinguish it from every other story told by Democrats pushing national health care -- in a free market, such an insurance company couldn't stay in business. Other insurance companies would scream from the rooftops about their competitor's shoddy business practices, and customers would leave in droves.

If only customers had a choice! But we don't because of government regulation of health insurance.

Speaking of which, maybe if Mr. Gallstone's insurance company weren't required by law to cover early childhood development programs and sex-change operations, it wouldn't be forced to cut corners in the few areas not regulated by the government, such as cancer treatments for patients with gallstones.

(4) National health care will give Americans "basic consumer protections that will finally hold insurance companies accountable" -- as Barack Obama claimed in his op/ed in the Times.

You want to protect consumers? Do it the same way we protect consumers of dry cleaning, hamburgers and electricians: Give them the power to tell their insurance companies, "I'm taking my business elsewhere."

(5) Government intervention is the only way to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The only reason most "pre-existing" conditions aren't already covered is because of government regulations that shrink the insurance market to a microscopic size, which leads to fewer options in health insurance and a lot more uninsured people than would exist in a free market.

The free market has produced a dizzying array of insurance products in areas other than health. (Ironically, array-associated dizziness is not covered by most health plans.) Even insurance companies have "reinsurance" policies to cover catastrophic events occurring on the properties they insure, such as nuclear accidents, earthquakes and Michael Moore dropping in for a visit and breaking the couch.

If we had a free market in health insurance, it would be inexpensive and easy to buy insurance for "pre-existing" conditions before they exist, for example, insurance on unborn -- unconceived -- children and health insurance even when you don't have a job. The vast majority of "pre-existing" conditions that currently exist in a cramped, limited, heavily regulated insurance market would be "covered" conditions under a free market in health insurance.

I've hit my word limit on liberal lies about national health care without breaking a sweat. See this space next week for more lies in our continuing series.

I tend to agree that inkjet printers are pretty frustrating. I have an old HP inkjet and the cartridges are pretty hard to find unless I go to a big office store like OfficeMax. And even then they are hidden in a dizzying array of about FORTY different HP inkjet cartridges. HP invents some new printer once every 2 or 3 years, and creates an entirely different cartridge for each one. That's pretty lousy company policy.

I haven't had the test page print issue the AVGN ran into here, but I sure do hate HP's DRIVERS. HP drivers are the most ungodly, bulky, massive, unwieldy, invasive drivers I think I've ever seen for ANYTHING - let alone for printers. Even the notoriously bulky 3d video card drivers aren't as nasty. And the download times from HP's website are the pits.

So you have to download 200+ MB drivers (when 2KB would be plenty) on a 1KBPS server. And 99.9999999% of the download is just a crappy, clunky, badly designed user interface. HP printers are nice engineering, but their software is about the worst on the planet.

Ah I'm dizzy...

Wikipedia says:

"Psychonauts, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box, Painkiller, Saints Row 2, No More Heroes, H.A.W.X, Prince of Persia, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3 are some of the few games that have actually received a favorable review (He also gave Grand Theft Auto IV a rather favourable review, but then later nulled the review, citing a lack of good games to compare to at the time). The Valve Corporation game Portal is the only game he has ever reviewed in a completely positive manner and is rated as one of his top 5 favorite games of all time (the other four being Silent Hill 2, Spider-Man 2, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Fantasy World Dizzy..."

*dizzy

>> ^burdturgler:
Sarah Palin is stupid. There. I hope that clears everything up now and we never have to hear about this wretched festering puss bag again.


You're telling me she's dumb?

*gets dizzy*

You shoulda told me to sit down before you said that!

I want a Duduk now! Is that Dizzy Gillespie playing, by the way?

Dizzy Gillespie

I went to SERE school but they phased out water-boarding before I got there. We got smoke inhalation instead and all it did was make you dizzy.

woah... That made me dizzy.

Not only does she draw the wrong conclusion, but she starts with the wrong information. Carbon Dioxide makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere... that's 1/75th of what she states. At 1% it causes drowsiness. At 2-3% blood pressure increases, hearing is effected and narcosis sets in. At 5% we have trouble breathing, becoming confused and dizzy. At 8% eyesight degrades, muscles tremor and, after a few minutes, we pass out. OSHA recommends that average exposure during an 8-hour work day for a healthy adult should not exceed 0.5%.

But that's not what really bothers me about her speech. What really annoyed me was phrases such as

"...a natural byproduct of nature."

"...so if you take a pie chart, carbon dioxide is perhaps 3%..."
         - And if you don't take a pie chart, how much is it then?

"human activity contributes, perhaps, 3% of the 3%. In other words human activity is maybe 3% contributing to the 3%"
         - Funny, those don't sound like other words; they sound like the same words in a different order.

You mean I finally get to do my first *quality? Woohoo! Drinks are on me.


Ok, so this was years ago, and I was at a friend's birthday party. I had lost a significant amount of weight because I would bicycle everywhere, and I hadn't been out drinking. So I decide, damnit man, ahm Scah-ish, and I'm goun ta drink meh ancestor's drink! So I get a fifth of Cutty Sark and start doing shots. Now, not having ever tried Scotch but once prior to that night, I have to tell ya. It's liquid peat moss. Or maybe just Cutty Sark is. I don't know. But as with any liquor, once you get the first few shots down, you don't even taste or care anymore. So I proceed to drink about more than 1/2 the bottle, as well as a few beers...

So let me lay the scene for you here. We've got a small 1 bedroom apartment crowded with about 30 people. The stereo is up high, and after about 3 hours, I've made it to a chair at the dining room table. I start to get dizzy, so I put my elbows on the table, interlock my fingers and rest my chin in my hands, as I'm looking out into the room. And EVERYTHING is going up and down, in and out, and swirly. You know, like a merry-go-round? I can also hear every word at each of the conversations which were taking place around the room, as well as in whatever song was playing at the time. I don't even remember who eventually was around me but people were saying stuff like "Oh man, look how white he is!" "Dude, you need to go to the bathroom..." And I'm going "No, it's ok. I'm not gonna puke...I'm not gonna"

The last thing I saw was vomit shooting through my interlaced fingers.

So what do you do? Just put yourself there for a minute. Your that fucked up and you just start throwing up. Yup, I cupped my hands together to lean forward and make a bowl with my hands.

Now, physics was the LAST thing on my mind at this point. I forgot a critical variable: volume. Needless to say, I got. it. everywhere. All over the cake, in the ashtrays, people's cigarettes, in people's drinks, on people. Someone told me later I looked like a fire hydrant with an obstruction in the way. Luckily almost everyone there was a friend, so I survived a potential beating. (But at the cost of the ribbing I still take to this day )

So they throw me in the bathroom. Now, I'm conscious enough to know that I don't want someone pissing next to my face as I bow before the Porcelain God, so I lock the door. And promptly pass out. Eventually I finally wake up enough to open the door, and am promptly hauled out passed the line that formed, and am unceremoniously dumped on the bed. The only recollection I have of the rest of the night, is waking up several times lying face down, my hands and arms in the "goalpost" formation, and my head to pointing to the left. Have you ever gotten tired of lying in one position? I lifted my head, just to turn it to the right and got the whole Ferris Wheel action from before. So I kept passing out unable to turn my head.

Next morning, incredibly, I had no hangover. However, that is the only night in my life where I have no recollection of events. You could say I blew the dog and I'd have to take your word on it.

Ah well...it's good for a laugh.

*british

"Im fuukin dizzy ya"

Excellent - I hope you plan to post a full review of the dizzying highs & creamy middles of this sure-fire hit.

In reply to this comment by lavoll:
it has arrived.

behold, proof: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hW-AsdqJTd4/SdJwr7mkSiI/AAAAAAAAAG8/D58aP3DWCFU/s320/image-upload-16-775097.jpg