News is now out that the Bush administration, in 2002, authorized the National Security Agency to conduct eavesdropping (on international email or phone calls) against U.S. citizens without court oversight. The NSA’s domestic surveillance is supposed to be limited to foreign embassies and missions, and to require court approval. This is not a power granted to the president by the U.S. Constitution. This abuse of power has apparently been exercised against as many as 500 people in the U.S. at any given time. The NY Times reports that some NSA officials, to their credit, refused to participate due to their concerns about the legality of the program. Note that the standards which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court uses to approve wiretaps are already incredibly low (their decision algorithm is pretty close to “say yes to everything”), but apparently that was considered too great a barrier and it had to be bypassed. Approval of torture, secret CIA prisons in Europe, kidnapping citizens of other countries and taking them to Afghanistan… apparently the Bush administration has no respect for the U.S. Constitution on the principles behind it. ...

On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution was approved. Happy birthday, Bill of Rights! Wishing you were still here in full force…

Paranormal.about.com had a photo contest for fake paranormal photos. Some of them are pretty good, like the winning photo of a “wasp thing.” Most are at least as good as the ones in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition on “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult.”

The December 2005 issue of Communications of the ACM contains an “Inside Risks” column raising concerns about some of the risks of Wikipedia: relying on Wikipedia presents numerous risks: * Accuracy: You cannot be sure which information is accurate and which is not. Misinformation has a negative value; even if you get it for free, you’ve paid too much. * Motives: You cannot know the motives of the contributors to an article. They may be altruists, political or commercial opportunists, practical jokers, or even vandals (WP: Wikipedia:Most_vandalized_pages'').</p><p> * Uncertain Expertise: Some contributors exceed their expertise and supply speculations, rumors, hearsay, or incorrect information. It is difficult to determine how qualified an article's contributors are; the revision histories often identify them by pseudonyms, making it hard to check credentials and sources.</p><p> * Volatility: Contributions and corrections may be negated by future contributors. One of the co-authors of this column found it disconcerting that he had the power to independently alter the Wikipedia article about himself and negate the others' opinions. Volatility creates a conundrum for citations: Should you cite the version of the article that you read (meaning that those who follow your link may miss corrections and other improvements), or the latest version (which may differ significantly from the article you saw)?</p><p> * Coverage: Voluntary contributions largely represent the interests and knowledge of a self-selected set of contributors. They are not part of a careful plan to organize human knowledge. Topics that interest the young and Internet-savvy are well-covered, while events that happened before the Web’’ may be covered inadequately or inaccurately, if at all. More is written about current news than about historical knowledge. ...

There was some recent press about Land Rover and Jaguar not advertising in gay publications due to pressure from Donald Wildmon’s American Family Affiliation. While those specific units have decided not to advertise in gay publications, Ford itself will continue to run advertising there for all of its brands including Land Rover and Jaguar. Ford has released a letter describing its commitment to support diversity within its workplace as well as to continue marketing to the gay community (which has about half a trillion dollars in annual consumer spending–gay couples have, on average, greater discretionary income than straight families). (Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars.) It’s always nice to see a corporation not giving in to boycott threats from crackpots like Wildmon.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars reports on a number of Bill O’Reilly fabrications in part of his campaign about a bogus “War on Christmas”: 1. He claims that Saginaw, Michigan opposes people wearing red and green clothing. This is a complete fabrication. 2. He says the Plano, Texas school system tells children they can’t wear green and red clothing. This is a complete fabrication. 3. He says the U.S. Postal Service no longer issues Christmas stamps with a religious theme. This is a misinterpretation of their decision not to issue new 37-cent stamps this Christmas because the price is going up to 39 cents on January 8 and they still have a huge inventory of 37-cent Madonna and Child stamps to sell this year. 4. Jerry Falwell’s “Friend or Foe” campaign sent a demand letter to a Wisconsin school that was putting on a play called “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift” insisting that the song in that play (put together and copyrighted back in 1988) which is sung to the tune of “Silent Night” be changed back to the original words. O’Reilly claimed that “In Wisconsin, an elementary school changed the name of ‘Silent Night’ to ‘Cold In the Night.’” The school has buckled under the pressure and removed that song from the program. This case is completely absurd–the play tells a story about a little Christmas tree, and the song in question was a song that the little tree sings, to the tune of “Silent Night.” Who’s really anti-Christmas here?

Daniel Morgan has put together a good summary of the facts and myths of the Richard Sternberg saga. Sternberg was the editor of The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, the journal which published Stephen Meyer’s paper on intelligent design (“The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories”). Historical Comments nsfl (2006-12-09): I appreciate the promo. I am going to be trying to find out just who those three reviewers of Meyer's paper were from the PBWS. I think with some smart reporting, I can pull it off. I hope to break the story. I have read some of your Biblical criticism and appreciate your scholarship. ...

Radley Balko has put together a post with the most up-to-date summary of known facts and controversies regarding the Cory Maye case.

Greg Hogan, 19, the sophomore class president at Lehigh University (where Michael Behe is a professor), was arrested for robbing a Wachovia Bank branch of $2,871 on December 9. The getaway driver was the student Senate president, Kip Wallen, who was apparently in the dark about Hogan’s plans. Hogan is the son of a Baptist minister, Rev. Gregory J. Hogan of First Baptist Church of Barberton, Ohio. Is this an example of “preacher’s kid” syndrome? ...

What are “indigo children”? Indigo Children are the current generation being born today and most of those who are 8 years old or younger. They are different. They have very unique characteristics that set them apart from previous generations of children. The name itself indicates the Life Color they carry in their auras and is indicative of the Third Eye Chakra, which represents intuition and psychic ability. These are the children who are often rebellious to authority, nonconformist, extremely emotionally and sometimes physically sensitive or fragile, highly talented or academically gifted and often metaphysically gifted as well, usually intuitive, very often labeled ADD, either very empathic and compassionate OR very cold and callous, and are wise beyond their years. Does this sound like yourself or your child? Here’s a story originally from the Orange County Register about some “indigo children.” How hard would it be for an undisciplined, rebellious child to set up the “orange incident” to impress some gullible parents? (Thanks to several people on the SKEPTIC mailing list for the references.) ...