The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This is a general category for items about science, scientists or scientific discoveries.
The Family was no different. This bothered me a bit, so I went to the Tivo website, got a number for their corporate headquarters and called. A very nice person named Alyson called me back, and we had a nice discussion about the situation. i followed up my conversation with the following letter.
Read moreAccording to an article on the Scientific American website, Colorado State University and the National Weather Service are in pretty close agreement on their predictions for this year’s hurricane season. The season starts this Sunday and ends on November 30. They are calling for a very active season again this year.
Read moreHere are a couple of things to give the krazy kristian kook wing of the Republican Party pause.
Read moreA while back John Stemberger, leader of the Anti-Gay Amendment 2 group here in Florida, was quoted in an Orlando Sentinal article discussing those opposed to Amendment 2 saying, “We’re going to confront deception and we’re going to expose them wherever they are.” Strong words, until one has to eat them.
Read moreThis is the final in the series analyzing the debate between John Stemberger and Nadine Smith at the Orlando Tiger Bay club luncheon. This debate was held on March 27, 2008. This will analyze the Question and Answer section, and the closing comments by Smith and Stemberger.
Read moreThis will be the first in what I expect will evolve into a series of articles related to the upcoming election and the vote on Constitutional Amendment #2. This is the krazy kristian kooks attempt to have a large conservative turnout in Florida, so instead of fielding a worthy candidate, they go for the devisive issue. Amendment #2 is, of course, a “marriage protection” amendment for the Florida Constitution.
Read moreAll these religious right wingnuts think they absolve themselves of any responsibility for the violence purpetrated against gay people when they say, “Oh we don’t hate gays, we just hate the sin.” Bullshit. This is what you have wrought, and you will stand in judgement for it. These wingnuts love to invoke the Old Testament wrath of God when it comes to homosexuality. I’d remind them the prophets of the Old Testament were usually warning of God’s wrath in the context of how corrupt the religious leaders’ of that time had become. Micah summed it well: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Read moreI had planned on a slow work week leading up to the holiday, and had attempted to be somewhat ahead of the game when it came to preparing for the holidays, but it didn’t work out that way. For that reason, I never got around to really writing anything about the holiday, but I could not let pass without comment this whole “war on Christmas bullshit” that seems to crank up every year. An example is a commentary on CNN by some guy named Roland Martin. Obviously, he perceives this concerted attack on Christmas by…well, he’s never clear about that other than categorizing the enemies of Christmas as “politically correct idiots”.
Read moreWinter may be making a brief appearance in Tampa next week. It’s 77 degrees as I write this on Friday afternoon, but according to a report in the Tribune, by next Thursday, we could have temperatures close to freezing, with a wind chill of near 25.
Read moreHere’s our last installment of the weekly tid bits for 2007. We’ve got a guy stuck in his septic tank on Christmas Eve. And leave it to Fred Phelps to end the year on some wing-nuttery as he blames the tiger attack in San Francisco on gay people. A wyoming woman stabbed her husband for opening presents early, and a bluetooth headset and cell phone foiled a robbery in Columbus, Ohio. We also have some Spanish scientists postulating that time might be slowing down.
Read moreI came across an article at the Christian Science Monitor on-line today about hunger in America. I spent some evenings working in the homeless shelter in Winston-Salem some years ago, and have, as a result of that experience, developed some perspective on the problems of poverty and homelessness in America. I wish I had some solutions, but I don’t…just a sense of what the world is really like.
Read more