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Atheists, who see prayers in Congress as unconstitutional superstitious appeals to a fictional deity, have fought against them with arguments and lawsuits, observing that the First Amendment prohibits government establishment of religion. Some Christians, on the other hand, when they see unconstitutional superstitious appeals to a fictional deity that they don’t believe in, attempt to disrupt and silence the invited speaker doing the praying. These individuals apparently think that there already is an established governmental religion of Christianity. It does seem like we’ve moved a long way in that direction under the Bush administration. And whatever happened to Matthew 6:5-6? Has it been removed from some Christians’ Bibles? “And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (NASB) (Also see Pharyngula’s take.) ...

Yesterday’s New York Times reports that two or three guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad successfully engineered the theft of $282 million in U.S. dollars from the bank. It’s not been explained why the bank had that much money in U.S. dollars. Historical Comments Trott (2007-07-14): Looks like it wasn't actually anywhere near the amount initially reported. News reports are now saying that the value was in dinars and not dollars as originally reported. If true, it was actually less than a million dollars stolen, which seems a more plausible figure. ...

For over a year, an individual has been harassing several evolutionary biologists at the Colorado University at Boulder about their “devilutionism,” and has now crossed the line into threats. The Discovery Institute claims that whoever is doing this is clearly not a Christian, a creationist, or religious (of course, only atheists are capable of doing anything unethical or crazy, right?), but the identity of this individual is known to the people being harassed. The Panda’s Thumb, Pharyngula, and Dispatches from the Culture Wars have more. UPDATE (July 13, 2007): The specific kook responsible has been identified as Michael Korn: Menacher “Michael” Korn is a 49-year-old Israeli national and former Messianic Jew who says he was baptized into Christianity in the Sea of Galilee seven years ago and is now on a mission to convert Jews and Muslims. His blog, JesusOverIsrael. blogspot.com, references CU-Boulder specifically and says he lives in Denver, although he has a North Carolina area code.See Pharyngula for links to Korn’s website and other information. ...

Originally, he said that he would take action if he found that someone on his staff was responsible for leaking the fact that Valerie Plame was a CIA covert agent to the press. Then, he said he couldn’t comment because an investigation was underway, then, that he couldn’t comment because a trial was underway. Now that the trial is over and he can comment, he pretty much comes right out and says he doesn’t give a damn.

From WSVN-TV (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale): Miami-Dade Air Rescue transported Hailu Kidane Marian, 40, to Jackson Memorial Hospital Sunday after he was struck by dry lightning while selling religious books. According to one customer, a lightning bolt struck as he walked door-to-door selling books along Northwest 199 Street and 78 Avenue Sunday afternoon. “I was buying a book from one of these guys, and there was one thunderstorm and thunder and then the second thunder, which was the lightning,” explained Maria Martinez. “It was like a gunshot, and, when I turned around, I saw like a cloud of smoke and this one guy jumping, like basically being slammed on his feet. I guess he just fell back."The man, a Seventh-Day Adventist on a summer missionary trip, went into cardiac arrest but was revived by Miami Dade Fire Rescue. The lightning strike was a case of “dry lightning,” when lightning strikes when it is not raining. The leader of the missionary group is described in the cited news article as saying “the group trusts God to provide a miracle” for Hailu Kidane Marian’s recovery. (Why do they assume the lightning strike wasn’t the miracle? As usual, God is given the credit for anything good, even if it’s mere recovery from something bad that he’s unaccountably not given any blame for.)

Blogger Jon Swift observes how a number of conservatives have stated that if only we have another successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil, George W. Bush will regain popularity, public support for the war in Iraq will be restored, and all will be right with the world. Rick Santorum, Michael Fumento, Alexander Cornswalled, Jonah Goldberg, Rudy Giuliani, and Arkansas Republican Party chairman Dennis Milligan are quoted. Milligan’s quote: “At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ],” said the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan, last month, “and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."The 29% of Americans who support Bush should apparently pray for terrorist death to be rained down upon us. Perhaps they can all join Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, whose members also believe that God hates America and that terrorist attacks are in support of his will. (Via Radley Balko at the Reason Blog.)

Department of Justice civil appellate attorney John S. Koppel has written a scathing editorial in The Denver Post: As a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, I can honestly say that I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time. The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse. ...

The Kentucky Creation Museum is built upon a foundation (literally) that disproves its contents–alternating layers of limestone and shale filled with fossils of ancient marine creatures. This video gives you a tutorial (and is a demonstration of what Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis don’t want people to learn).

Peter Leeson, an economist at West Virginia University, is writing a three-part series on the economics of pirate behavior and institutions. The first two parts are available online. Part 1, “An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization," describes how pirates solved the problem of predation by captains that was common among naval and merchant ships by a system of checks and balances involving written constitutions and democratically elected captains and quarter-masters–in the 1670s, before England and a century before the United States introduced similar political developments. Part 2, “Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices," looks at the reasons for the use of the “Jolly Roger” as a pirate flag and the practices of pirate torture and pirate conscription. Part 3 has been promised for the fall of 2007… These papers are an addition to the literature about non-governmental institutions of law and order that arise within criminal organizations, in the fringes between government jurisdictions, and in areas of governmental neglect. Some other works addressing these topics include Diego Gambetta’s excellent book The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection, Robert Neuwirth’s book Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World, Ian Lambot and Greg Girard’s City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, and the HBO series Deadwood and The Wire.

Nathan Zamprogno has put together a nice list of the craziness that Kent Hovind purports to believe. (Via Pharyngula.) Historical Comments Nathan Zamprogno (2007-07-06): Thanks. Although I am sure that Hovind could be nailed on a lot of these kooky beliefs himself, I should point out that my analysis is confined largely to what Hovind's entourage believes. Hovind himself was a veritable fountain of nuttiness, as is extensively detailed at sites like http://www.kent-hovind.com/If I had to go into all the woo-woo Hovind spouted over the years, the article would be three times as long. ...