Sometimes the federal government does something so laughably moronic, that one has to stop and ask the question “Are they really that dumb or is something else going on?”

Here is the setup.  Recently a number of universities around the country decided to take a look at using some modern technology in the classroom in an effort to save money.  These universities took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks.  As you know, many people now use e-readers like the Kindle or the Nook as a replacement for traditional printed books.  There are many reasons for this including cost, environmental impact, and convenience.  Further, anyone who has gone...READ MORE

Paraphrasing Edward Longshanks from the movie Braveheart “The problem with science, is all the scientists.”

I am amused by a piece in the New York Times Magazine by Virginia Heffernan.  I am amused by Heffernan’s piece not because I disagree with her, but because she seems surprised.  Note to Heffernan—It has always been thus.

Heffernan writes about the meltdown over at Science Blogs.  “Science Blogs”, as you may well remember is the home of blogger PZ Myers who is famous for advancing science by desecrating the Eucharist.  While Myers is the most read of the cynics at Science Blogs, his penchant for the unpleasant is rather standard fare.

“Science Blogs” has recently seen many of its...READ MORE

You know that expression “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

In the culture wars, it is the truism of truisms.

From the beginning of the culture wars (I don’t wish to debate when they started, perhaps all the way back to Adam & Eve) education has been the front lines.  Sure, weapons and tactics change, but the end game remains the same.  Control education, control the culture.

The age old and continuing battle has been over curriculum.  You know the battles over Creation, Evolution, sex education, and trans-gendered lesbianic social inclusion studies.

But there are other battles waging of which you should be aware.

Professional McCarthyism.

The has recently been a...READ MORE

Many good people from the Garden State do not care for the show “The Jersey Shore” because it makes people from Jersey look like, well, idiots.

Governor Christie even went so far as to complain this weekend about the show saying to Jake Tapper on ABC’s This Week that “reality series doesn’t represent ‘the real New Jersey.’”

If I were from NJ (I dodged that bullet when my NYC born parents chose Long Island over Jersey in the early ‘60s) I would be embarrassed too.  But not just from “The Jersey Shore.” There is someone making Jersey look even worse than JWoww and Snooki.  It is “The Jersey Sharia.”

A judge in New Jersey excused the rape of a woman by her husband because Sharia law says...READ MORE

Banning religious garb is all the rage these days. The secular order must be maintained at all times.

The banning of Burqas and full face veils has become so popular, in fact, that even some countries you wouldn’t expect are getting in to the act. Recently, another country has banned the niqab, the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman’s eyes, at all universities. Has Islamophobia taken over? Not quite.

The country that is doing the banning? Syria.

Let the outrage commence! Oh yeah… Nevermind.

Let me go on record stating that while I do not care for the niqab, I do not support any government action to ban any kind of religious garb. Whether it is in France or Syria. That said, I...READ MORE

I have long been an advocate of Bishops taking a harder line with leaders receiving communion who openly oppose Church teaching and advocate immoral policies.

Bishops have understandably been reticent to withhold communion, but now one Bishop has said enough is enough and has threatened to ban a local leader from communion unless he stops his advocacy of immoral and un-Catholic policies.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that the immoral practice invoked in this case is rounding up potential witches and wizards and locking them in his basement.

Paramount Chief Chitimukulu of the Bemba speaking people in Northern Province has allegedly established an illegal prison at his palace to...READ MORE

Over the weekend, the protestants of the Anglican communion acted like protestants.  Good.

This past weekend the General Synod of the Church of England rejected a compromise over women’s ordination aimed at maintaining the unity of the Church of England.  The compromise would have allowed for male Bishop’s only for those who reject female ordination and female bishops for the rest.  A two-tiered episcopacy intended to maintain some semblance of unity.

The acceptance of women Bishops in the Church of England is now a foregone conclusion.  Believe it or not, this is a good thing.

This closes for the good the escape hatch for those in the Church of England who maintain they are orthodox in...READ MORE

Some Jews walks down the street of a European city.  Yarmulkes sit atop their heads.  Recognizable as a Jews, they don’t make it very far before they attract unwanted attention.  At first they were mocked, then they were spit upon, while their attackers make Nazi salutes.

Nazi Germany 1939?  No.  Amsterdam, 2010.

Last week, a television broadcast showed how three Jews with skullcaps, two adolescents and an adult, were harassed within thirty minutes of being out in the streets of Amsterdam. Young Muslims spat at them, mocked them, shouted insults and made Nazi salutes. “Dirty Jew, go back to your own country,” a group of Moroccan youths shouted at a young indigenous Dutch Jew.

But this is...READ MORE