Ask any evolutionist today and he would claim that the evolution of birds from dinosaurs was a virtually proven indisputable fact.

Well, from ScienceDaily.com, they're wrong. Again.

The OSU professors should be commended for going against a strong current of dogma in their field. Notice how many non-evidential factors producing that dogma were pointed out in the article: careers on the line, museum politics, romanticized notions, and old die-hard theories presented as fact. Commentary.

Just another campaign promise ignored.

When they presented him for nominee, they sure did know what to make him say.

The promise of a "leader for the people" has been broken.

Presenting the Random Mutation Generator.

You don't have to take anyone else's word for it - you can use the Random Mutation Generator to find out for yourself how Darwinian evolution really works.

This is eerily similar to one of my RM+NS simulations.

Time is reporting on controversial research that suggests maybe an asteroid did not kill the dinosaurs. I guess it was a global flood after all.

(For you Choctaw out there, and you know who you are, check out the legends on the latter page!)

This should generate some controversy. Fox News is more popular than CNN and MSNBC combined.

No doubt it is because of its unbiased, fair and accurate reporting.

We definitely have some conflicting opinions here as to whether life is a qualitative measure or a quantitative one. While classification is an arbitrary measuring stick, I was thinking perhaps we could reach a consensus as to a working definition of "alive". If not, we could at least decide what features we each deem most important.

Off the top of my head, some questions I would ask and some grey area examples for discussion follow:

Does it fit the definition of "alive"?

Viruses/Prions
Adaptive computer programs/AI

Is it "alive" yet?

Seeds
Zygotes
Sperm/eggs

Is it still "alive"?

Frozen organisms which no longer have a metabolism, but can regain one upon thawing
A human with heart stopped
A comatose human with no brain activity but otherwise normal
A comatose human with no brain activity as above, but that has displayed sporadic brain activity in the past and may or may not again.

Feel free to add questions or examples as you deem necessary to further discussion.

So how do these examples fare? Are they alive or not?

This hit my inbox the other day and I'd never seen it. Maybe you haven't either.

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My old grandpa said to me, "son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin’ knuckles and starts bustin’ caps, and usually it’s when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin’."

I don’t carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don’t carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry. I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don’t carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I’m too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin’.

Author Unknown

Obama obtaining right to invade privacy and shut down internet?

Department of Homeland Security labeling Americans as terrorists. The very men and women who defend our country are being labeled as terrorists?!?!

Introducting the New Boss... [s]same as[/s] worse than the Old Boss.

Can anybody explain these things so that they seem reasonable?

I say once the Captain is safely away from the pirates, we bomb the *censored* out of them. Destroy them. They are like a cancer on this world. They harm others for their own benefit. They take from others what is not theirs.

-OR-

Pay all the ransoms for all the hostages and get them freed. Then, authorize merchant ships to carry weapons. Missiles. Automatic rifles. Rocket launchers. Grenades. Then authorize merchant ships to use any means necessary to repel pirate attacks.

I read somewhere that the U.N. currently disallows this kind of defensive measure. So I guess we need to destroy the U.N. first so that we may exercise our God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... on the high seas.

You know I'm right.

What's with the recent spate of gun-related multiple-victim homicides?

The beating was caught on video.

Several questions remain:

1. How do people like this become cops? Isn't there a filtering system that weeds out the undesirables?
2. Aren't cops supposed to exhibit some level of self control, even under the horrendous duress of a tennis shoe hitting them in the shin bone?
3. Aren't cops supposed to exhibit some level of self control, even under the horrendous duress of being called vicious names by 15 year old teenagers?
4. Can anything really justify this assault?
5. There was another deputy with Deputy Paul Schene in the room at the time of the assault. That makes him an accessory, doesn't it?

YouTube has a local news report video (linked primarily because YouTube user comments are always... interesting).

Here's a viewpoint.

Bravo to the detective who turned this in.

The police must also police their own if they expect to gain back any level of trust or respect from the general public.

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Gun Lock: The original point and 'click' interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don't know your rights you don't have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights reserved.
11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies: rust and liberals.
15. Know guns, know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control - it makes their jobs safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control
them.
22. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the "Gun Control Laws" we have; don't make more.
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create
slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun
control.
26. ".. A government of the people, by the people, for the people..."

The Law, original French title La Loi, was written in 1850 by Frédéric Bastiat. This short yet strikingly eloquent piece was written in response to Marx's The Communist Manifesto.

Read it here.

If you've read it, what do you think? What are the pros and cons of his position? Does it apply to today's societies? Do people even care anymore?

So, now the state of California is laying off 20,000 workers due to falling tax revenue created by the recession. Why? Republicans in the senate are afraid that they'll have to give up too much of their money to help people who are earning an honest living keep their jobs.

It's good to know that the myopic "I'm keeping mine, screw you" ideology not only includes welfare babies, but 10% of the California state workforce as well.

From the You've Gotta Be Kidding Me Department, 16 illegal aliens are suing an American citizen for "violating their civil rights."

Seems they were illegally in the country and trespassing on his property when he decided to capture them and turn them in to authorities.

Am I missing something here?

If not, I say put the judge out to pasture and disbar all the attorneys representing the illegal aliens (a.k.a., criminals). If possible, put them on trial for their crimes against an American citizen.

Property is a civil right. It is the illegal aliens who are violating the American citizen's civil rights.

Right?