No, this is not a spoof

If you still think that members of the Republican Party have grasp on reality or ethics, read on.

Former House Speaker and 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday during a speech at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that child labor laws are “truly stupid” and should be repealed. Yes, that’s right. Child labor laws, you know, so 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds can’t be forced or compelled to waste their childhood toiling away instead of learning, playing and doing things children should be doing with their time.

Here’s what Gingrich had to say:

Credit: CNN

It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid. Saying to people you shouldn’t go to work before you’re 14, 16. You’re totally poor, you’re in a school that’s failing with a teacher that’s failing. …

I tried for years to have a very simple model. These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work; they’d have cash; they’d have pride in the schools. They’d begin the process of rising. …

Go out and talk to people who are really successful in one generation. They all started their first job at 9 to 14 years of age. They are selling newspapers, going door to door, washing cars. They were all making money at a very young age. What do we say to poor kids in poor neighborhoods? Don’t do it. Remember all the stuff about not getting a hamburger-flipping job? Worst possible advice to give the poor children.

The only job that I can think of that “children” performed in the mid-1900s was delivering papers, and those were mostly teenagers, not 9- and 10-year-olds, as Gingrich is suggesting. Before that, children were employed in the lucrative professions of chimney sweeping, factory workers and courtiers, with very foul implications in each case. Children taking on jobs before the coming of age has rarely ended well for them.

Gingrich has always been an establishment type of politician and not really one given to toeing the fringe line in the same way as modern intellectual giants like Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann. Now, he appears to be solidly in the Tea Party camp. He was described by The New York Times as one of the GOPs most creative thinkers. Perhaps, but I don’t think calling for the repeal of child labor laws quite qualifies as “creative,” rather anachronistic and immoral, not to mention a bad idea from an educational and economic standpoint.

I can only come up with two explanations for why Gingrich would offer such a ridiculous proposal. First, he has never come off as an evangelical candidate, so he probably can’t win over the most ardent believers in this race. Thus, he might as well strike a sentimental tone and hearken back to the way things used to be four or five decades ago. The older among the electorate surely remember the days when teenagers, perhaps younger than 16-years-old, did deliver papers. Second, this can only be another of many strategies to move the political center so far to the right that what we mean by “center” in 2012 is vastly different than what we meant by “center” in 1994 when Gingrich led the notorious GOP takeover.

Has the electorate mindset shifted so much that a former establishment politician like Gingrich has to change is tone and amplify his speech to have a chance in 2012? I hope not, but that may well be the case. One would think that with the preponderance of fringe candidates on the GOP roster this year, an establishment guy might be able to cut a different niche for himself. But, of course, that road may only be wide enough one person: Mitt Romney.

So much for that

POLL: Tea Party, Occupy Movements Fail to Capture Americans’ Hearts:

WASHINGTON (RNS) In a war between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement to capture the hearts of Americans, who wins? According to a new poll, it’s a draw.

Less than a third of Americans say either movement represents their values, according to a poll released Wednesday (Nov. 16) by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.

One thing, however, is clear: neither movement can make a strong claim to speak for Americans. Near identical majorities say neither movement represents their values — 57 percent for the Tea Party, and 56 percent for Occupy Wall Street.

What’s more, one in five Americans say each of the movements has a negative impact on society, and about four in 10 Americans see both as largely irrelevant.

“They’re mirror images of each other, but the symmetry at the national level hides a very different distribution,” said Robert Jones, the research firm’s CEO. “Support for the Tea Party is more intensely concentrated among Republicans, but support for the OWS movement is less intense among Democrats and more evenly spread among other groups.”

Differing views from neighboring border mayors

In a news item related to the previous post, two Texas city mayors have presented differing opinions on a proposal to bring war equipment from concluded Middle Eastern operations to the border.

The Send Equipment for National Defense Act (creative title, huh?) says that 10 percent of certain equipment, from Humvees to night vision equipment, be sent to the border with Mexico for border enforcement. The mayors from El Paso and Laredo apparently are not of the same mind on the plan. As per this Texas Tribune article:

The proposal has drawn criticism from Mayor John Cook of El Paso, who has vigorously disputed assertions that his city, which sits across the border from Ciudad Juárez, is affected by the same violence that has plagued northern Mexico.

“I would invite them to come to El Paso, and we can look at the inventory of equipment that’s coming back from Iraq and they can tell me where they’d want to locate this,” Mr. Cook said. “To me, it’s just showing a whole lot of ignorance.”

The mayor said moving war zone equipment to the border would send the wrong signal to Mexico and potentially damage the robust symbiotic economic relationship between the two countries. El Paso and Ciudad Juárez trade more than $70 billion annually, Mr. Cook said.

But Mayor Raul Salinas of Laredo, which has the nation’s largest inland port, said he welcomed the equipment and did not view it as an unnecessary militarization of the border.

“I would welcome any resources and equipment that would help us to be more vigilant along the border,” Mr. Salinas said. “And if it’s equipment that would provide support, I would welcome it with open arms.”

Mr. Salinas has also had to fend off accusations that his city is as violent as its Mexican counterpart, Nuevo Laredo. In fact, data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that El Paso and Laredo are among the safest cities of their respective sizes in the country.

 

Washington Times short-term memory loss

I don’t really read the paper’s website on a regular basis, and while I know The Washington Times editorial board — and the newspaper in general — has a rightist bent, it has apparently jumped on the bandwagon like much of the anti-immigration crowd, recently calling Obama’s leadership, particularly on immigration, a throwback to “19th century Marxism:”

Far from progressive, Mr. Obama’s leadership is a throwback to 19th century Marxism, characterized by the politics of resentment that pits groups against each other – in this case, illegal occupiers against legal Americans. By challenging states attempting to observe immigration laws, the Obama administration hastens the fundamental change that is unmooring the nation from its founding principles. That’s not the change voters wanted when they sent Barack to the White House.

The editorial also had this to say about Obama’s stance on immigration:

This isn’t your father’s America. As promised, President Obama is “fundamentally transforming” the nation with a plan to flood the United States with individuals whose hearts belong to other lands.

First, I missed the connection of Marxism to immigration. If the GOP wasn’t so wild-eyed against immigration — in which many immigrants attempt to get into the nation to provide for their families back home — the Republican Party would probably garner more support from the Hispanic vote. After all, on almost every other issue that matters, Hispanics are actually rather conservative. They enjoy their luxuries (the ones who are lucky enough to “make it,” anyway), and they are, nearly without exception, quite religious. They would certainly, again if the GOP wasn’t so out of touch on the immigration issue, vote for conservative candidates en masse. So, this issue is not about some Marxist class struggle. That would be what we call hyperbole, and it makes The Washington Times editorial board scantly different than any of the other crazed commentators on radio or FOX News who will say anything at all to get Obama out of office. I will admit this much: it takes balls to so vehemently and falsely criticize the policies of the first African American president in American history and at the same time, insult millions of Hispanics, some of whom risk their lives, and the lives of their families, to get here. Do their hearts really belong to other lands? I don’t think so. Their hearts belong to this land, and they prove it in the desert every day. The Times board must have also forgotten that Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in 1986. Ah, but I forget: that was at a time when Democrats and Republicans actually worked together to get things accomplished.  Those were the days.

Discovering some new music

I just found a channel on YouTube called Watch Listen Tell that features up and coming artists and established acts singing their tunes acoustically in apparently random places in the greater London area.

Here are some songs (new to me) that I particularly enjoyed:

Lissie, “Everywhere I Go”

Villagers, “Becoming a Jackal”

Stornoway, “I Saw You Blink”

Guillemots, “I Don’t Feel Amazing Now”

OK, this last one isn’t new to me, but he is new in general. A year ago, one could barely find Ben Howard on Amazon at all, just a couple mp3s. He just released his first album, “Every Kingdom,” in October. Here is

Ben Howard with “Old Pine” and some good acoustic work:

Our daily universe: ice on Europa

Scientists have discovered evidence of pockets of ice on the Jupiter moon, [[Europa]], which is further acknowledgment that life most likely exists, in some form, elsewhere in the universe, since, as we know, the presence of water is a basic necessity for the development of biological life. And I have pointed out numerous instances on this blog in which water or ice particles have been found elsewhere in the cosmos. Presumably, it’s only a matter of time before life is found somewhere other than earth, even if that life consists of only simple microorganisms.

In this photo is pictured the Conamara Chaos region of Europa:

Credit: NASA, JPL, UNIV. OF ARIZONA/Jumbled icy patches on Jupiter’s moon Europa, like the Conamara Chaos region pictured here, may indicate the presence of large liquid reservoirs a few kilometers beneath the surface.

Biblical deconstruction IV: canopy theory

All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. … And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. — Genesis 5:5, 5:27

***

When I was younger, pastors would explain the near 1,000 year life spans of some humans in the book of Genesis in this way: the atmosphere prior to the flood was much different and more friendly to life than our environment today. This still doesn’t explain why people after the flood episode still lived 100s of years. Nonetheless, believers said that the “firmament” mentioned in the early verses of Genesis actually meant a type of dome or fluid structure that enclosed the earth and largely sealed us from the sun’s rays and radiation from space. I did not know until I looked it up, but apparently this is called the canopy theory in creationist circles. Of course, unlike evolution, which is a [[scientific theory]], canopy “theory” must take the much more speculative definition.

The argument goes that this “firmament” eventually dissipated, presumably because of man and God’s ongoing tense relationship. Others believers, like Augustine, have argued for a solid firmament, whatever that might mean. In any case, fluid or solid, presumably light from the sun was still getting down to earth, otherwise man could have not survived and nor could plants or life in general. Therefore, if light was still making it to earth, so were UV rays. If water was present in the atmosphere, it would have had to be a very thin layer indeed because UV rays still penetrate water, they just don’t penetrate very deeply. If this water “firmament” was thick, the earth would have not had enough light to support life. As we know, light only penetrates the ocean 200 meters deep. This “firmament” around the earth, then, would have had to be a mere 656 feet thick to still let enough light through to support life.

These creationist websites also tend to explain that the “firmament” was eventually the source of rain during the flood, thus accounting for the drastic decrease in man’s lifespan since we no longer had the extra protective layer. But, as I mentioned, people still are claimed to have lived hundreds of years after the flood. Here’s a handy chart (I’m assuming it’s more or less accurate since it’s in Answers in Genesis’ best interest to at least portray the Bible accurately, if not reality):

Credit: Answers in Genesis

Answers in Genesis claims that “genetic bottlenecks” had something to do with the long lifespans in Genesis:

All known mutations cause a loss of information. The rate at which all types of mutations occur per generation has been suggested to be greater than 1,000.6 We inherit mutations from our parents and also develop mutations of our own; subsequently, we pass a proportion of those on to our children. So it is conceivable in the many generations between Adam and Moses that a large number of mutations would have been present in any given individual.

Genetic bottlenecks (or population bottlenecks) occur when significant proportions of the population dies or proportions become isolated. Such a bottleneck occurred at the time of Noah’s flood when the human population was reduced to eight people (Genesis 6–9). Other smaller bottlenecks occurred following the Tower of Babel dispersion (Genesis 11). These events would have resulted in a major reduction of genetic variety. …

Although Noah lived 950 years, his father, Lamech, lived only 777 years (granted we do not know if he died from old age). In addition, we do not know how long Noah’s wife lived, but Noah’s son Shem only lived 600 years. Considering that the longest recorded life span of someone born after the Flood was Eber at 464 years, it would appear that both mutations and genetic bottlenecks had severe effects on aging and life span.

By this logic, it is also conceivable that in the many generations between, say, 1040 B.C. (the possible birth year of David) and now, which number about four times as many generations as between Adam and Moses (26 generations compared to 66. For the latter period of time, I used a modern, 30-year generation), that we could have again undergone a dramatic “mutation” back to living extremely long periods of time.

Answers in Genesis also shoots its own foot off on this explanation because as it explains later in the article:

Our critically important heart muscle cells, for example, fail to multiply, repair, or replace themselves after birth (although, like all muscle cells, they can increase in size). This is why any disruption in the blood supply to the heart muscle during a heart attack leads to permanent death of that part of the heart. The nerve cells of our brain—including those of our eye and inner ear—also fail to multiply or repair themselves. From the time of our birth to the end of our life, we lose thousands of nerve cells a minute from our central nervous system, and we can never replace them. …

The important point is that science offers no hope for eternal life, or even for the significant lengthening of life. It has been estimated that if complete cures, or preventions, were found for the three major killers (cancer, stroke, and coronary artery disease), the maximum life span of man would still not increase (although more people would approach this maximum). And such long-lived people would still become progressively weaker with age, as critical components of their body continue to deteriorate.

We may conclude that God’s Word, not science, has the complete solution to the problem of aging and death. …

It’s not all that mysterious how Adam and Methuselah eventually died: like every other mortal, they had heart and brain cells, which don’t repair themselves, and never have. Aging has something to do with the deterioration of humans’ major organs, sure, but the organs themselves will do us in every time, and there is no evidence to suggest that people in primitive Palestine lived any longer than man does today. To the contrary, they probably lived much, much shorter lives because of various environmental and social factors, wars, and well, the lack of medicine, etc. Contrary to that last sentence from Answers in Genesis, science and medicine have extended people’s lives dramatically and continue to show huge potential in assuaging people’s symptoms and eradicating incurable diseases like Parkinson’s, cancer and diabetes. Science is actually the only hope, while prayer, while it may make a sick person feel more comforted in the midst of whatever malady they be facing, will do only that.

American Censorship Day

I am kind of behind the curve on this, but today is American Censorship Day, hence the modified banner at the top of the site. I’ll keep it up through tomorrow since I have should have technically posted this at midnight Nov. 16.

In any case, the Protect IP Act sets a dangerous precedent in Internet policing and threatens free speech. I don’t think President Obama would sign it into law, but since it has such wide support from Congress, I suppose it’s possible.

Learn more about it here:

And click here to sign a petition against the bill.

The full text can be found here.

Our daily universe: close encounter with asteroid

According to a report from The Associated Press, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier came quite close to Earth on Tuesday of this week. It was the closest encounter of that large of an object in more than 30 years.

Credit: NASA/A radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 taken on Monday.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Its closest approach to Earth was pegged at a distance of 202,000 miles at 6:28 p.m. EST. That’s just inside the moon‘s orbit; the average distance between Earth and the moon is 239,000 miles.

The last time a large cosmic interloper is thought to have come that close to Earth was in 1976, and experts say it is not likely to happen again until 2028.

Scientists at NASA‘s Deep Space Network in the California desert have tracked the quarter-mile-wide asteroid since last week as it approached from the direction of the sun at 29,000 mph. …

If an asteroid that size would hit the planet, Purdue University professor Jay Melosh calculated the consequences. The impact would carve a crater four miles across and 1,700 feet deep. And if it slammed into the ocean, it would trigger 70-foot-high tsunami waves.

Since its discovery six years ago, scientists have been monitoring the spherical, coal-colored asteroid as it slowly spins through space and were confident it posed no danger.