Bush is expected to nominate former Texas Lottery Commission head and current White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. She has no experience as a judge, and was head of the Texas Lottery Commission during Bush’s term as governor of Texas, when Ben Barnes, the guy who got Bush into the Texas Air National Guard, received a gigantic severance payment from Gtech, the company with the contract to run the Texas Lottery, followed by Gtech getting it’s contract extended without having to bid for it. Miers was in charge of the commission when it chose to extend Gtech’s contract despite the fact that the company was involved in a bribery scandal. I’m sure there will be some interesting questions at the confirmation hearings if Miers is really the nominee. BTW, Gtech has quite a history… in 1993, Virgin billionaire Richard Branson accused its founder, Guy Snowden, of trying to bribe him in relation to the UK national lottery. Gtech also runs the state lottery in Jeb “Chang” Bush’s state, Florida, as well. (Note added 8:29 a.m.: Bush has announced the nomination.) ...

Speaking of Bush speeches, get ready for a “significant” one, according to this article. Yeah, I’m sure it’s going to be erudite, persuasive, and chock full of talking points we’ve never heard before. It seems that Condoleeza “Guru” Rice and “a senior Bush administration official” have even given us a little preview. Condoleeza: “If we abandon future generations in the Middle East to despair and terror, we also condemn future generations in the United States to insecurity and fear."I see. So, continuing to shoot at, blow up, torture, and intimidate Iraqis will avoid “abandoning [them] to terror”? Building permanent military bases over there will ensure future security here? Cowardly “official”: “If you think by going home, you buy peace, it is wrong-headed."But it’s not wrong-headed to think that keeping the military there and continuing to shoot at, blow up, torture, and intimidate Iraqis–um, dare I say, continuing the “war”?–will “buy” peace? Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. - George Orwell

I’ve been listening to the podcasts of 2600 magazine (“The Hacker Quarterly”), which are quite good. Emmanuel Goldstein (real name Eric Corley) has been traveling the world by land and sea, and reporting back on the state of freedom and technology via satellite phone, cell phone, or land line, as available. The August 30, 2005 podcast of “Off the Wall” was recorded in Tiananmen Square. Among observations about Chinese kite flying at busy intersections, their appreciation for ice and the sale of bottles of frozen mineral water, Chinese throat clearing noises, and the surprising modernity of Beijing, they reported on the wide availability of books in English. One bookstore of 6 or 7 floors was reported to have an entire floor on books for learning English. One of the books, which Emmanuel’s companion Sasja purchased for its humor value, was a book to learn English through reading the speeches of George W. Bush. Quite amusing, given his poor ability to speak the language. (This topic occurs about 26:30 into the August 30 “Off the Wall” podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple’s iTunes.) ...

Radley Balko at The Agitator points out that as pornography has become more and more widely available in the U.S. with the rise of the Internet, sex crimes against children, abortions, teen pregnancy, divorce, crimes against women, and rape have dropped. Of course, the U.S. is still worse than many countries on several of those attributes, as the earlier study about rates of religiosity showed. This would be interesting to compare across countries with different levels of Internet connectivity. This item via Ed Brayton’s Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where you can find further commentary.

The Catholic Diocese of Austin, Texas, is investigating after a priest called about 15 children to come forward during evening Mass so he could prick them with an unsterilised pin to demonstrate the pain Jesus suffered during crucifixion. "What I was trying to teach them is that suffering is a part of life," said the Reverend Arthur Michalka, 78, Associated Press reports. No one reacted strongly during the incident at Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Wednesday, a diocese spokeswoman said. But one mother said later: "Apparently our father has lost his mind." Haven't enough Catholic priests taught enough children that "suffering is a part of life"? From the Sydney Morning Herald via Jack Kolb on the SKEPTIC list as part of a nice series of absurdities from Texas which also included this piece on a judge ordering a girl not to have sex.

I’m sure this is a tired argument - but then again, what argument isn’t tired when you’re dealing with creationists? Take a look at these optical illusions. On the one hand, they’re fun and kinda neat, but on the other hand, they’re profoundly disturbing. Most importantly, however, they are persuasive evidence against any sort of “intelligent” designer. For me, the second one (the one with the blue and yellow boxes) is particularly compelling. What kind of intelligent, all-powerful, loving God would make motion detection color-blind? In thinking about this, the problem extends well beyond visual perception. Why would an intelligent designer make our memories so imperfect? For example, I can recall absolutely nothing about second grade–and much of what I recall about first grade is probably wildly inaccurate (hell, much of what I recall about last week is probably wrong). Why is that (assuming a loving God, I mean)? I bet I know the answer already: we “fell from grace” and we’re being punished because of it. Right? (Hat tip: Steve’s No Direction Home)

Panda’s Thumb has some more evidence showing that the book Of Pandas and People, the subject of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, was originally explicitly creationist. Parts of the book by Nancy Pearcey were originally published in the Bible-Science Newsletter, which was one of the worst young-earth creationist publications in terms of poor quality of arguments and evidence. For example, it published Tom Willis’ “Lucy Goes to College,” which originated the bogus creationist claim that Lucy’s knee joint was found 2 km from the rest of the skeleton. This is a bogus claim I’ve been trying to get creationists to stop making for the last ten years, with few successes.

After an offended student, Christopher Stone, walked out of an Intro to Neuroscience lecture when the professor stated that the Bible is not a science textbook, he sent an email to his classmates explaining his actions. Another student, Cody Cobb, sent out a parody email, which led to a visit from the Baylor police. The latter student has blogged the details. Via Pharyngula. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): You have to be seriously humor-impaired to not know that the guy's email was a joke, and that's even without having received the original. The people who complained must be insufferably dull to be around.I'm also amused by the alleged claim by the cops that "we have Columbines and 9/11s all over the place." Oh really? School shootings and collapsing buildings are "all over the place"? I can only hope that this was Mr. Cobb adding color to the dialog. Can there really be cops who believe that large-scale, headline-grabbing terrorist acts in the U.S. are ongoing and commonplace? ...

A number of companies have recently come under fire for using religious themes in advertising. Sony and Ikea both ran ads in Italy which have been criticized. Sony’s ad for the Playstation showed a boy wearing a crown of thorns with the slogan “Ten Years of Passion.” The crown of thorns was made of the geometric shapes that make up the Playstation logo. Ikea ran an ad saying “There’s no religion anymore” to advertise that their stores are open on Sundays. In Ireland, bookmaker Paddy Power ran a billboard depicting the Last Supper, with poker chips and cards, featuring the slogan “There’s a place for fun and games.”

Apparently several members of the Bush family (including Florida Gov. Jeb and former President George Sr.) are advocates of a mystical conservative warrior named Chang. Here’s Jeb, in a speech naming Marco Rubio as Florida Speaker, after which he gave Marco a golden sword: Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society. I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down.The Guardian article linked above also quotes Bush Sr. periodically asking during tennis matches, “Should I unleash Chang?” (Thanks to Jack Kolb on the SKEPTIC list for this item.) Add this to the accumulating evidence for dispensationalist Christians that George W. Bush is the Antichrist, along with his former Health and Human Services director’s support for RFID tags in humans. (Tommy Thompson, like Bush, is a born-again Christian who supports “faith-based” organizations getting government money.) ...