Google plans to hire about 600 people in the Phoenix area, and they’ve chosen Tempe for a temporary facility of about 100,000 square feet. It looks like their permanent facility will either be in Tempe or South Scottsdale (at ASU’s “SkySong” business park, which used to be the site of Los Arcos mall). Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): I just might apply!
That’s a picture of me on September 9, 1995 in front of the Church of Scientology in Mesa, Arizona, picketing about the “Cancel poodle” (better known as the “Cancel Bunny”). This was about two years into Scientology’s war on the Internet, which, despite a few Pyrrhic victories in court, was characterized by huge losses on the part of Scientology in the court of public opinion. ...
The Phoenix New Times, one of the country’s oldest free “alternative” weekly newspapers which has won numerous awards for its investigative reporting, has published the Mohammed cartoons that have stirred up so many protests. The cartoons appear in conjunction with an article titled “The Chosen One,” about local feminist Muslim Deedra Abboud, the director of the Arizona chapter of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, a civil rights group headquartered in D.C., and former director of the Arizona chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). She left CAIR after growing tired of responding to Ann Coulter, whom she feels doesn’t deserve the attention. (I agree.) Abboud is a recent Muslim convert, a former Southern Baptist business major at the University of Arkansas. She converted after a period of arguing against Muslims, then reading the Koran. Apparently she found Islam more sensible than Christianity, as she questioned the Trinity and how the notion of Jesus dying for the sins of mankind could possibly make any sense. It’s too bad she jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, dropping one bogus religion only to adopt another. Regarding the cartoon controversy, she is quoted saying “I don’t think Americans have been given the full context of those cartoons,” Abboud tells Uncle Nasty, her voice becoming louder as she tries to speak over the one on the other end of the phone. “I’m not defending the violence. But the editor of the Danish paper wasn’t trying to make a point; he was clearly trying to offend people."Actually, the editor of the Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten, solicited the cartoons because Danish author Kare Bluitgen had written a children’s book about Mohammed and was unable to find an illustrator. The editor wanted to see if there was really such a chilling effect against artists that they were afraid to illustrate the book, and solicited artists’ renditions of Mohammed, without specifying that they take any particular position. The instruction was to “draw the Prophet as they saw him." That children’s book, The Koran and the Life of Mohammed, is now a best-seller in Denmark, by the way–though its illustrator remains anonymous. The controversy arose four months after the Danish paper published the cartoons, and was heightened by Muslim imams who circulated the cartoons along with other, more offensive cartoons which were not published by the paper. Abboud claims she has been following the controversy since the original publication, and is aware of these other cartoons not being published by the Danish paper. Zuhdi Jasser, another prominent local Muslim (a politically conservative doctor who previously worked as a doctor at the U.S. Capitol and often writes op-ed pieces in the Arizona Republic) is described in the New Times piece as not trusting Abboud or the organizations she represents. Jasser organized a “Muslims Against Terrorism” rally at which CAIR representatives were not permitted to speak, because of what Jasser describes as their promotion of victimhood within the Muslim-American community.
Now that Howard Stern has gone to Sirius Satellite Radio and been replaced in the Phoenix market by Adam Carolla, the station has changed its name from “The Zone” to “Free FM” (apparently intended to distinguish itself from pay satellite radio–the result is that it makes me think of Howard Stern every time I hear the name). I don’t have satellite radio in my car, so I occasionally listen to “Free FM,” though I believe I’ll discontinue that habit. Today on the way to lunch I heard an incredibly obnoxious and offensive commercial–the most blatant Christian evangelizing I have ever heard on a non-Christian radio station. The spot began by saying something like “Have you ever seen a dead animal in the road and wondered what it was thinking?” (No, as a matter of fact, I haven’t.) It went on to say that being in the “middle of the road” is not where God wants you to be, and you need to choose to be on one side or the other, that God has a plan for you, etc. Listeners were directed to Groundwire.net for more information. The spot I heard was apparently a 30-second variant of this spot called “The Squirrel.” It was offensive on multiple levels–the evangelizing, the horrible attempt at being cool, and the implication that animals get hit by cars out of their own stupidity (as opposed to ignorance) or inability to make decisions. Groundwire.net is an apparently new ministry of Sean Dunn of Champion Ministries, based in Castle Rock, CO. I don’t know anything about his theology, but his marketing is apparently supposed to be hip and edgy. His website has a bogus story about Albert Einstein which falsely portrays him as a theist (and suggests with its close, “IT IS TIME FOR THE CHRISTIANS TO BE HEARD,” that he was an advocate of Christianity). This story is a piece of nonsense that has been circulating the Internet–so Dunn’s not only incapable of discerning truth from falsehood, he’s presenting an email legend as though it’s his own material. Einstein, by the way, was an atheist or agnostic. UPDATE (May 12, 2008): A 1954 letter from Einstein to philosopher Eric Gutkind says: The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. … For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them. ...
To continue from just before where we left off last time… there were 10,748 homes for sale on July 20, 2005, and it had increased by 79% to 19,254 by October 2. Yesterday, it was up a further 69% to 32,512–a 202% increase over the July 20 number. I’ve seen estimates that about a third are being sold by “investors." 10/1/2005 19333 10/2/2005 19316 10/3/2005 19362 10/4/2005 19463 10/5/2005 19562 10/6/2005 19670 10/7/2005 20052 10/8/2005 20219 10/9/2005 20153 10/10/2005 20324 10/11/2005 20470 10/12/2005 20668 10/13/2005 20850 10/14/2005 21238 10/15/2005 21446 10/16/2005 21463 10/17/2005 21527 10/18/2005 21588 10/19/2005 21795 10/20/2005 21806 10/21/2005 22302 10/22/2005 22719 10/23/2005 22769 10/24/2005 22806 10/25/2005 22976 10/26/2005 23132 10/27/2005 23293 10/28/2005 23681 10/29/2005 23805 10/30/2005 23816 10/31/2005 23790 11/1/2005 23601 11/2/2005 23665 11/3/2005 24193 11/4/2005 24579 11/5/2005 24786 11/6/2005 24717 11/7/2005 24937 11/8/2005 25244 11/9/2005 25333 11/10/2005 25387 11/11/2005 25700 11/12/2005 25685 11/13/2005 25773 11/14/2005 25945 11/15/2005 25913 11/16/2005 25884 11/17/2005 26261 11/18/2005 26098 11/19/2005 26662 11/20/2005 26688 11/21/2005 26684 11/22/2005 26488 11/23/2005 26776 11/24/2005 26819 11/25/2005 26855 11/26/2005 26871 11/27/2005 26890 11/28/2005 26979 11/29/2005 26811 11/30/2005 26797 12/1/2005 26792 12/2/2005 26915 12/3/2005 27238 12/4/2005 27295 12/5/2005 27356 12/6/2005 27387 12/7/2005 27403 12/8/2005 27367 12/9/2005 27649 12/10/2005 27706 12/11/2005 27664 12/12/2005 27512 12/13/2005 27411 12/14/2005 27566 12/15/2005 27517 12/16/2005 27603 12/17/2005 27791 12/18/2005 27776 12/19/2005 27722 12/20/2005 27604 12/21/2005 27554 12/22/2005 27516 12/23/2005 27486 12/24/2005 27311 12/25/2005 27014 12/26/2005 26810 12/27/2005 26822 12/28/2005 26687 12/29/2005 26649 12/30/2005 26547 12/31/2005 26497 1/1/2006 26462 1/2/2006 26401 1/3/2006 26751 1/4/2006 27403 1/5/2006 27564 1/6/2006 28224 1/7/2006 28337 1/8/2006 28542 1/9/2006 28595 1/10/2006 28786 1/11/2006 29222 1/12/2006 29507 1/13/2006 29689 1/14/2006 29899 1/15/2006 30415 1/16/2006 30391 1/17/2006 30707 1/18/2006 30817 1/19/2006 31085 1/20/2006 31457 1/21/2006 31463 1/22/2006 31497 1/23/2006 31607 1/24/2006 31766 1/25/2006 31830 1/26/2006 32142 1/27/2006 32002 1/28/2006 32477 1/29/2006 32458 1/30/2006 32512 ...
The Federal Trade Commission today unsealed and announced its action in the U.S. District Court in Arizona against William Dugger (a/k/a Billy Johnson, d/b/a Net Everyone) of Hawaii (with a business address in Phoenix), Angelina Johnson (d/b/a Net Everyone) of Hawaii and/or Phoenix, and John Vitale (d/b/a Net Everyone) of Phoenix for sending CAN-SPAM-violating porn spam using compromised systems of uninvolved third parties. The Temporary Restraining Order announced today freezes their assets and requires their ISPs to disconnect all of their equipment from the Internet and deny them any access to it.
Sam Coppersmith complains that legislators seeking restrictions on eminent domain abuse are wasting their time (and apparently that they are trying to create a diversion from other more important issues). Sure, Arizona has better protections in place than most states (as demonstrated by the decisions in Bailey v. Myers (link is a PDF) and City of Tempe v. Valentine) , but why is it any surprise that there is extensive support for expanding such protections in the aftermath of the Kelo decision? The failure of his column to even mention that decision strikes me as disingenuous. The Castle Coalition and the Institute for Justice have very strong grassroots support on this issue, and it’s not a partisan issue.
As readers of this blog know, I’m no supporter of George W. Bush. I’ve never contributed funds or worked to support the campaign of a Republican. Yet I received this spam email from Jon Kyl, who is apparently concerned about competition from Arizona Democratic Party chairman Jim Pederson in the next election. It’s also interesting that Kyl’s jonkyl.com website is hosted in Canada, and his campaign webservers are hosted in New Jersey. Way to support your home state, Senator. From: “Senator Jon Kyl” [email protected] Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:57:14 -0500 Subject: I invite you to join my team… Today I am writing you for two reasons. One is to say thank you for your past support of President Bush and a second is to ask for your help. I am not asking for money. I am simply asking for your time and energy in helping my reelection campaign. First, thank you for your help in the 2004 election. Because of your hard work, we had a huge victory in Arizona. One of the key elements of victory was the organized force of Bush Volunteers who registered voters, made phone calls, walked neighborhoods, placed signs and bumper stickers, and helped get out the vote. It was a record setting year, and you were part of that team. Second, I want to ask for your help. As you may know, I am running for reelection to the U.S. Senate. My opponent is the former Chairman of the Arizona Democrat Party, Jim Pederson. He has personally bankrolled the Democrats’ efforts, including against President Bush, to date he has spent over $5 million on Democrats and their causes. He is a supporter of Howard Dean and Ted Kennedy and was a leader in John Kerry’s failed presidential campaign. Not surprisingly, John Kerry now is Pederson’s biggest contributor. That is why I need your help. Television and radio alone will not win this election. In order to be successful, we will need to replicate the Bush Volunteer program to run our grass roots campaign. We are currently recruiting volunteers from across Arizona to join our campaign as Kyl Captains. As a Kyl Captain you will be integral in our network of individuals who are willing to help on the campaign. Whether you prefer registering voters, working the phones, or just talking with your friends and neighbors, you will be a critical component of my campaign. Because Jim Pederson will spend what it takes on television, it is very important to have a strong and active Arizona Team on the ground, registering and getting voters to the polls. I am convinced it is the key to victory in November 2006. Please take a moment and visit www.jonkyl.com and sign up as a Kyl Captain. Your personal commitment to this campaign will make all the difference. It has been the greatest honor of my life to represent the people of Arizona in the United States Senate. With your help I hope to continue that public service. Again, thank you for your past work on behalf of the President and I look forward to working together in the future. Sincerely, Jon Kyl U.S. Senator P.S. If you have any questions, please feel free to call my office at (602) 840-0306 or visit: www.jonkyl.com P.O. Box 10246 :: Phoenix, AZ 85064 :: [email protected] Paid for by Jon Kyl for U.S. Senate/[email protected] ...
Tonight is the premiere of Animal Planet Heroes Phoenix, a fifteen-episode series which filmed animal-related emergencies last year which were handled by the Arizona Humane Society’s Emergency Animal Medical Technicians (EAMTs), a program launched in September 2002. The show airs at 8 p.m. MST in the Phoenix market on the Animal Planet channel. UPDATE: Kat and I attended the Arizona Humane Society’s premiere event last night at Harkins Cine Capri. Many of the production crew (from Anglia Television), all of the EAMTs, and many AHS staff and volunteers were present, and available to chat after the show. The show (an episode titled “Trapped Underground”) was alternately heartwarming and saddening. A 14-year-old Spaniel was trapped 20 feet underground in a sinkhole in the owner’s yard, a kitten was trapped in the piping of an apartment sprinkler system, a dog and her puppies were stung repeatedly by bees, and a large number of Brussels griffons were being kept in horrific conditions by a hoarder. The upcoming schedule is a new episode each night this week: “Wandering Beagle” tonight (Jan. 17), “The Dog House” (Jan. 18), “Promise to Mother” (Jan. 19), and “Desert Rescue” (Jan. 20). Information on air dates and times may be found at Animal Planet’s site.
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, will be giving the Robert S. Dietz memorial lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 2, 2006, at ASU’s main campus (Physical Sciences building, room F 166). Genie will be speaking on “Creationism and Evolution: Historical, Scientific, Political, Legal and Educational Perspectives.” I plan to be there. Bob Dietz was an early advocate of plate tectonics and one of the primary developers of the concept of seafloor spreading, a major factor in its scientific acceptance. He was the faculty advisor for the Phoenix Skeptics, which I originally started as an ASU student group with Mike Norton and Jamie Busch. Dietz was also on the board of the Phoenix Skeptics after it became a non-campus group, and gave a few talks to the group. He had a great sense of humor, which showed in his book, co-authored with illustrator John C. Holden, Creation/Evolution Satiricon: Creationism Bashed (1987), which included some quotations from a pamphlet I wrote a year earlier, Fundamentalism is Nonsense. He died in 1995. UPDATE: I described Genie Scott’s ASU talk here.