U.S. Presidents and the National Debt

It drives me crazy that fiscal conservatives still believe that the Republicans are their party. If any of my readers still believes this, please study the following graph:



(Apologies, I can't remember where I originally found this.)

Evolution of the Horse

[E]volutionary stages of the horse (family Equidae) serve as an excellent illustration of the evolutionary process because it allows us to observe a step-by-step change in the shape of the bodies, the build of the limbs, and the structure of the teeth. In accordance with the changes in the environment, development continued from a five-toed mammal the size of a fox, to the single-hoofed, modern-sized horse we see today. --Wikipedia, Evolution of the Horse.

Bush Attorney General's Top* Priority: Pornography

Because we've won the War on Terror, the FBI has decided to form a "new anti-obscenity squad." FBI headquarters describes "the initiative as 'one of the top priorities' of [Bush's] Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales."

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults. (link)

Thank God for that poor, persecuted Christian Right which is running our country. They always have their priorities in order.

* Edit: To be fair, it's only "one of the top priorities."

God: A Career Retrospective

God: A Career Retrospective, a cartoon about Intelligent Design.

via MonkeyFilter.

Is Absolute Morality Superior?

Not The Godol Hador makes another tiresome post ridiculing skeptics for not believing in absolute morality. He seems to believe that believing in one is superior because otherwise you can just make up your own morality.

Here's the big flaw:

When you claim to believe in absolute morality, you don't need to justify your moral beliefs in any way except to claim that God or some old book says so. This reasoning leads to religious wars and terrorism as well as the legal and practical enforcement of all sorts of hatred and discrimination. How does the Godol criticise a woman who kills her babies because she believes God told her to? Doesn't he believe that God commanded Abraham the same thing?

Moral relatavists, on the other hand, can make no claims of absolute morality, so their moral beliefs are open to debate. Contrary to what the Godol believes, this is a good thing, since morals can evolve and be improved by criticism and consensus.