Return of the Phoenix Lights

The Phoenix Lights have returned, appearing on February 6 and 22. Oddly enough, both times happened to coincide with Air Force training with flares.

UPDATE (February 25, 2007):
The Arizona Republic continues to present the Phoenix lights as something mysterious, with extraterrestrial visitors being given equal weight to the flare explanation. Commenters on this news story are touting "image expert" Jim Dilettoso in an attempt to discount flares.

The Phoenix New Times, by contrast, has been more skeptical, and exposed Dilettoso's lack of qualifications.

2006 AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

Congratulations to Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, and to eight teachers from Dover, Pennsylvania who refused to read the anti-evolution disclaimer mandated by the Dover Area School Board that was the subject of last year's Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board trial: Brian Bahn, Vickie Davis, Robert Eshbach, Bertha Spahr, Robert Linker, Jennifer Miller, Leslie Prall, and David Taylor.

They are the 2006 recipients of the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Conservapedia

The blogosphere has been making fun of absurdities at Conservapedia, Andrew Schlafly's attempt to create a conservative-oriented version of Wikipedia. Orac points out that Conservapeia promotes the anti-vaccination Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (Schlafly is their legal counsel). Mark Chu-Carroll points out that even math has a liberal bias, according to Conservapedia. P.Z. Myers looks at some of Conservapedia's coverage of evolution.

Perhaps most entertaining is Jon Swift's coverage of Conservapedia, which contains links to many of the Science Bloggers' commentaries.

Matthew LaClair on Anderson Cooper tonight

Matthew LaClair will appear tonight on Anderson Cooper's show on CNN, 10 p.m. EST.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Matthew was bumped from the show.

The Jesselyn Radack Case

Ed Brayton points out Jesselyn Radack's account of the Bush administration's dishonest and sleazy retaliation against her whistleblowing about the Justice Department's deception in the so-called "American Taliban" case of John Walker Lindh. Radack was an ethics advisor for the Department of Justice who was called about whether Lindh could be interrogated without an attorney present. She pointed out that Lindh's father had already retained counsel, and that counsel needed to be present. The FBI interrogated him without counsel anyway, so she advised that that interview would need to be sealed and used only for national security purposes, not for criminal prosecution. She was ignored, Attorney General John Ashcroft lied about Lindh's rights being respected, and the DOJ tried to destroy evidence of Radack's correspondence. She recovered her emails and submitted them in a memo with her resignation. As the DOJ continued to lie, Radack went public.

The DOJ responded by applying pressure on Radack's law firm to fire her; they put her on an unpaid leave which turned into a constructive discharge, which the DOJ assisted her law firm in contesting. The government placed her under a bogus criminal investigation (later dropped with no charges), brought multiple state bar complaints against her (one of which she's still fighting), and put her on the no-fly list (she's still on it). She finally managed to find a law firm willing to hire her, after three years.

Her story is a horrifying tale of an out-of-control government. Now that the Democratic Party runs Congress, will they take some action with respect to this case?

TSA continues to demonstrate incompetence

A web page on the TSA's website for travelers "who were told you are on a Federal Government Watch List" displays evidence of being a phishing site--it's probably not, it's just so badly done that it looks like a hacked web site that's submitting its details to an unrelated third party.

TSA responded that "We are aware there was an issue and replaced the site. The issue has been fully addressed. We take IT responsibilities seriously. There never a vulnerability; just a small glitch."

The full story may be found at Wired Blogs, which points out fifteen features that make the TSA form submission site look dangerous.

Also check out this comment at Christopher Soghoian's blog:

This may be surprising to hear: I am an employee at a major airline and I just recieved an e-mail that said we now have access to the TSA no-fly list, selectee list, and cleared list. I just accessed it and found it to contain thousands of names, DOB, SSN#s, drivers licesense #'s, military ID #'s, addresses, and even home phone #'s. The TSA just made this list and all of this information readily available to thousands of employees at my airline (and probably others). I think that previously this list was only available to ticket agents, but now it is available to every employee.
I find it quite disturbing that any airline employee has access to this information, and that many of the ppl on the cleared list have to give up there SSN# and other information.

Nice.

(Hat tip to Bruce Schneier's blog.)

DEA training: everyone shoots the dog

Radley Balko points out a passage from an article about DEA training for raids on drug labs:

The instructor knocks on the front door, shouting, "DEA! Police! We have a search warrant!"

The next thing you know you're inside, clearing rooms like a SWAT team on COPS, firing only at targets with odd numbers. The even-numbered targets could be the good guys, even children. Everyone shoots at the dog. It's covered with paint-ball splatters.

Balko quotes his basketball coach: "You play the way you practice."

And provides this link that proves it.

Having sex is like throwing rocks at windows?

In a candidate for worst analogy ever, Washington Post lifestyle reporter Laura Sessions Step writes in her new book that

"Your body is your property," she warns girls, "Think about the first home you hope to own. You wouldn't want someone to throw a rock through the front window, would you?"

The blogosphere is generating lots of handy corrolaries:

We all know it is the husband who is supposed to throw rocks through the windows of your home. This should be done frequently, and ONLY through the same window - never through the back door or other windows.
* * *
Your body is your property. Think about the first home you hope to own. You want to have a big party and invite all your friends over.
* * *
Your body is your property ... Think about the first home you hope to own. If you ever get in trouble with money, you can always rent it out for use by strangers.
* * *
Your body is your property ... Think about the first home you hope to own. You want the carpet to match the drapes.
* * *
Your body is your property. Think about the first home you hope to own. Odds are it's going to be a fixer-upper and will need some major improvements to make it attractive. A larger front porch, for example.

(Via Framed: Discourse and Democracy and Matthew Yglesias.)

Mitt Romney defends Mormons, slams atheists

A heckler took on Mitt Romney for not "stand[ing] for the Lord Jesus Christ" because he's a Mormon (video clip). This resulted in boos from the audience. Romney replied by saying that "one of the great things about this great land is that we have people of different faiths and different persuasions, and I'm convinced that the nation does need to have people of different faiths, but we need to have a person of faith lead the country." This led to audience applause and a standing ovation.

Radley Balko observes: "Romney and his supporters have already deflected as religious bigotry (correctly, in my view) the idea (supported by polls) that America isn't ready for a Mormon in the White House. But Romney has no problem declaring that America isn't ready for an atheist or agnostic in the White House. Frankly, that's offensive."

I agree, but also note this comment from the above video link:

As a Mormon, here are some more of Mitt's specific covenants:

1. God was once a man. He is currently living on a planet near the star Kolob with his wives. 2. Jesus and Lucifer were once spirit brothers. 3. In the afterlife Mormon men will live as kings their own planets and rule over all their heirs. 4. The Book of Mormon was written on gold tablets revealed to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni. These tablets are now lost. Joseph Smith translated the tablets by putting a magic rock in his hat and sticking in face in it. 5. American Indians are the lost tribe of Israel. Jesus ministered to them in his trips to America. 6. Donny and Marie Osmond were great musicians.

But seriously folks, all you people who are trying to pretend Mormonism is just another branch of Christianity, like being a Presbyterian or a Baptist, are fooling yourselves. Someday maybe Republicans will be making excuses for a Scientologist candidate - they're even more nuts than Mormons, but only slightly.

Hail Xenu!

It's not religious bigotry to point out the facts about religions.

ACLU, PFAW give notice of possible lawsuit against Kearny public schools district

The ACLU and People for the American Way held a press conference today regarding the David Paszkiewicz situation at Kearny High School.

On Tuesday, February 13, a tort claims notice was filed with the federal court to preserve the LaClair's right to file a civil suit should the district not resolve their complaints.

Predictably, Kearny education board president Bernadette McDonald was quoted as saying, "It is unfortunate that public dollars will be spent in defending our school district when this matter is already being addressed through dialogue and action." Those actions included banning taping in the classroom without the teacher's permission (which would have prevented Paszkiewicz from being caught lying about what he said in the classroom) and switching Paszkiewicz's U.S. History class with another (so that he no longer has Matthew LaClair in his classroom).

More information at the Jersey Journal and 1010 WINS web pages. The Jersey Journal story emphasizes the education board's position, while the 1010 WINS story emphasizes Matthew LaClair's.

UPDATE (February 20, 2007): The audio of the ACLU/PFAW/LaClair press conference and the text of the Kearny education board's response may be found at Kevin Canessa's Corner at The Observer blog.

UPDATE (February 21, 2007): Looks like CNN picked up the story yesterday.