Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Jehovah’s Witnesses are evolution deniers, aka uneducated morons. To defend their stupidity they invoke Galileo and Isaac Newton who died before Charles Darwin was born. I have been reading about this cult. It's a bit different from the rest of Christianity but equally stupid.

JW.ORG

1. If you believe in creation, people will think you’re against science.

“My teacher said that believing in creation is something people do when they’re too lazy to come up with an explanation for how the world works.”—Maria.
What you should know: Those who make such claims are not aware of the facts. Famous scientists such as Galileo and Isaac Newton believed in a Creator. Their belief did not conflict with their love for science. Likewise, some scientists today find no conflict between science and belief in creation.
Try this: Type the expression (including quotation marks) “explains her faith” or “explains his faith” in the search box of Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY for examples of those in the field of medicine and science who accept creation. Note what helped them to reach that conclusion.
The bottom line: Belief in creation doesn’t make you antiscience. In fact, learning more about the natural world can strengthen your belief in creation.Romans 1:20.

NRA: National Rifle Association. Trump told the Senators "You're afraid of the NRA". President Fucktard Trump is actually doing the right thing.

President Donald Trump met with bipartisan members of Congress on school safety at the White House on Wednesday.



Trump Urges Congress to Take Action on Guns. At meeting with lawmakers, president says Florida school killings had shifted the debate.

By Louise Radnofsky and Kristina Peterson

Updated Feb. 28, 2018 4:00 p.m. ET 155 COMMENTS

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump urged Congress to take action on gun policy and school safety, arguing the deadly shooting at a Florida high school in February had pushed the gun violence debate into a “very different period.”

In a White House meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, the president said, “We can’t wait and play games and nothing gets done.” He said gun violence “can be ended, and it will be ended.”

Mr. Trump, sitting among Democratic and Republican lawmakers, invited proposals from them, interjecting with promises of support and questions.

In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead, student survivors have started a movement for greater gun control. Two students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School explain how social media, crowdfunding and political activism have helped spread their message.

Mr. Trump appeared supportive of a bill from Sens. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) that would expand background checks to all sales online and at gun shows, with some carve-outs.

Currently, federal law requires the checks only for sales by federally licensed dealers, though some states have added their own requirements. The Manchin-Toomey bill narrowly failed in the Senate in 2013, falling six votes short of the 60 needed to advance.

Mr. Trump also batted away a suggestion from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) to include a conservative measure that would enable gun owners who legally carry concealed firearms in one state to carry them in the other 49 states. The House passed that bill in combination with a far narrower bill strengthening the background-check system in December, but Democrats are broadly opposed to the concealed-carry bill.

“You’re not going to get concealed carry approved,” Mr. Trump said in the meeting.

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Among other proposals, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) talked up the bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) that would provide incentives for states to upload criminal-conviction records into the national criminal background-check system. Mr. Murphy also was at the meeting.

Federal law requires agencies to submit to the background-check system records relevant to whether someone should be allowed to buy a firearm, such as criminal convictions. But at the state level, compliance is voluntary unless mandated by state law or federal funding requirements.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) called on the president to consider her objections to certain types of particularly powerful weapons and handed him a letter that he promised to consider.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) said she wanted perpetrators of domestic violence to be addressed, too.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) said law enforcement, school and social-services agencies in Florida had been warned about the teenager accused of killing 17 at a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, but hadn’t communicated the information among one another.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com

An interesting question written by some nutjob who thinks the Magic Man is real but he has enough common sense to not want a magical 2nd life.

"If I ask God enough, will he let me stop existing forever when I die?"

Not to worry sir. Everyone stops existing when they drop dead. This is a basic fact of reality.

Another obvious fact of reality: The magic god fairy is not real. If you pray to it nobody cares and nobody knows about it.

Reality is a wonderful thing.

One more thing: The people who believe a magical 2nd life is real are batshit crazy not to mention gullible, cowardly, and just plain fucking stupid.

I recommend what I wrote on December 4, 2010.

darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com - Human chromosome 2 and chimpanzee chromosomes 2p & 2q

I wrote this for a theocratic asshole.

The Establishment Clause of our Bill of Rights must be respected.

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and our 3rd president, said the Establishment Clause is our wall of separation between church and state.

This means you stupid fucking Christian assholes have to keep your moronic ridiculous fantasies out of our government. If you theocratic assholes have a problem with our Bill of Rights then get out of my country.

I asked a question at Yahoo Answers about the Christian death cult. So far there have been 124 answers. Most of it is moronic.

If you are interested in Idiot America stupidity I suggest the click the link:

Which branch of Christianity do you think is the one true religion?

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

There is another question I asked that has 39 answers. If you're interested here is the link:

Which of these two branches of theism is more likely to be correct, Christianity or Islam?

By the way I don't advertise my blog. I'm hoping somebody else does that for me.

Mr. Seib is the most competent person at the Wall Street Journal. He wrote this article about the violence problem in Idiot America. The article is about President Fucktard Trump who has an opportunity to do the right thing this week to fix the problem. I'm betting Trump will accomplish nothing. We will see what happens. By the way I live 8 miles from the recent atrocity in Florida.

The Florida school shooting has revealed not so much a national disagreement over guns or school violence, but rather an enormous cultural divide, of which guns are only the most obvious part.





Trump’s Task: Bridge Cultural Divide on Guns. A president known more for dividing than uniting has an opening this week.

By Gerald F. Seib Updated Feb. 26, 2018 12:32 p.m. ET

The Florida school shooting has revealed not so much a national disagreement over guns or school violence, but rather an enormous cultural divide, of which guns are only the most obvious part.

And who is in position to bridge that divide? President Donald Trump. He has been known more for dividing than uniting, so whether he’ll play this role or not remains to be seen.

But the opportunity is there. It’s an opportunity available more to a national leader trusted by gun owners and their organization, the National Rifle Association, than to one mistrusted by them. Perhaps this isn’t exactly a Nixon-to-China moment, but it’s close. The president will have his opening this week, when he is expected to meet with governors and lawmakers on gun issues.

The searing national debate since a suspect gunned down 17 students with an AR-15-style rifle is notable not because people on different sides disagree. That’s normal in American democracy. What’s striking is that people on opposing sides of this broader cultural chasm often can’t even conceive of how people on the other side can hold their positions.

Rarely has that been more clear than in aftermath of the disturbing speech delivered last week by Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s chief executive, at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It was a speech framed almost entirely around the idea that gun owners are opposed by “them”—loosely defined as intellectuals, Democrats and the news media.

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These elites “don’t care, not one whit, about America’s school system and schoolchildren,” Mr. LaPierre declared. Instead, he charged, they want to take advantage of the Florida school tragedy to take away the right to bear arms.

Taking away guns, he said, is simply the opening of a campaign to take away all individual freedoms: “Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.” This threat is real, he argued, in part because the Democratic Party—whose presidential candidate won the votes of nearly 66 million Americans in 2016—now is “infested with saboteurs” who “don’t believe in our freedom.”

Mr. LaPierre’s outlandish rhetoric distracts from an important underlying reality: His basic argument—that the right to own guns is fundamental to other American freedoms—is one with which many gun owners agree. Indeed, a Pew Research Center poll last year found that three-quarters of gun owners considered the right to own a gun an “essential” right.

In contrast, many Americans on the other side of the gun debate can’t comprehend how fellow citizens could see it that way. To them, the right that is at stake is something more fundamental, the right to life, also enshrined in the Constitution.

This is a considerable gap, but hardly the only one in an America increasingly split between rural and urban, red states and blue states, North and South. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last year explored this cultural gap, and found it both pervasive and growing.

The splits happen to be most visible along party lines. Asked whether they were concerned the government might go too far in restricting gun ownership or, conversely, that government wouldn’t do enough to regulate firearms, 77% of Republicans said they worried the government would go too far. By contrast, in a mirror-image share, 71%, of Democrats said they worried the government wouldn’t go far enough.

But it isn’t just guns. Democrats are eight times as likely as Republicans to favor action on climate change, for example. Nor is it just a partisan divide. Two-thirds of urban dwellers said they felt comfortable overall with societal changes that have made the U.S. more diverse. Meanwhile, just 38% of rural Americans felt that way.

One task of political leaders is to try to bridge such divides. But there hasn’t been much of that lately—and it’s hard in the aftermath of a 2016 election in which many Americans don’t merely disagree with those who voted for the candidate they opposed for president, but can’t even imagine how they could cast such a vote.

This is the problem, but also the opportunity, for Mr. Trump. In the current environment, it’s easier for a leader with credibility with NRA supporters to move the system toward action on guns—stiffer background checks, age restrictions on sales, bans on equipment that effectively turns rifles into machine guns.

In a White House meeting with families of gun victims, Mr. Trump ably directed the conversation toward broadly acceptable items on registration and age limits. Then, the next day, he delivered a red-meat speech to CPAC that focused more on arming teachers and seemed designed to move away from consensus. Was he reassuring gun owners before making moves they won’t like, or simply reassuring them? We’ll know more this week.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com

Appeared in the February 27, 2018, print edition.

A 2005 poll of Idiot America found that two-thirds of American morons say supernatural magic should be given equal time with evolution in public schools. Imagine living in a country where virtually everybody is a fucking retard.

I can read 5 New York Times articles for free every month. Today is the last day of February and this is my 5th free article. One of these days I should get a subscription.

This 2005 article shows that the vast majority of Americans are uneducated morons. Every day I see the stupidity with my own eyes. Americans are obese because they stuff their fat faces with cake, they have no brain, and most Americans are stupid fucking assholes. Science makes American fucktards cry.

Typical American: "Duh, duh, the Magic Man did it, duh."


Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points.

John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Mr. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism."

"It's like they're saying, 'Some people see it this way, some see it that way, so just teach it all and let the kids figure it out.' It seems like a nice compromise, but it infuriates both the creationists and the scientists," said Mr. Green, who is also a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

Eugenie C. Scott, the director of the National Center for Science Education and a prominent defender of evolution, said the findings were not surprising because "Americans react very positively to the fairness or equal time kind of argument."

"In fact, it's the strongest thing that creationists have got going for them because their science is dismal," Ms. Scott said. "But they do have American culture on their side."

This year, the National Center for Science Education has tracked 70 new controversies over evolution in 26 states, some in school districts, others in the state legislatures.

President Bush joined the debate on Aug. 2, telling reporters that both evolution and the theory of intelligent design should be taught in schools "so people can understand what the debate is about."

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, took the same position a few weeks later.

Intelligent design, a descendant of creationism, is the belief that life is so intricate that only a supreme being could have designed it.

The poll showed 41 percent of respondents wanted parents to have the primary say over how evolution is taught, compared with 28 percent who said teachers and scientists should decide and 21 percent who said school boards should. Asked whether they believed creationism should be taught instead of evolution, 38 percent were in favor, and 49 percent were opposed.

More of those who believe in creationism said they were "very certain" of their views (63 percent), compared with those who believe in evolution (32 percent).

New York Times article about the breathtaking stupidity of Christian assholes who attack science education in Idiot America.

Questioning Evolution: The Push to Change Science Class

By CLYDE HABERMAN NOV. 19, 2017

A growing skepticism of science has seeped into the classroom, and it’s revived attacks on one of the most established principles of biology – evolution.

“Evolution Mama” is a sassy song dating back many decades, probably best played on a banjo, maybe with a kazoo in the background. “Evolution mama,” it goes, “don’t you make a monkey out of me.” That certainly captures the sentiments of religious groups and like-minded politicians who believe Charles Darwin was talking through his hat and there is no way that humans are descended from lower animals.

Darwinism has long been under siege in parts of the United States, even if its critics have practiced their own form of evolution, adapting their arguments to accommodate altered legal circumstances. This installment of Retro Report shows the enduring strength of the forces that embrace the biblical account of Creation or reasonable facsimiles of it. For some of them, the rejection of broad scientific consensus extends to issues like climate change and stem-cell research.

If anything, science skeptics, like the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, may feel emboldened in the era of President Trump, who shares their doubts on some matters and has acted on them. Last month, for instance, Mr. Trump nominated a coal lobbyist as deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. To be his senior White House adviser on environmental policy, he chose a Texas official who has described global warming as “exaggerated nonsense.”

Retro Report, a series of video documentaries examining major news stories of the past and their continuing relevance, looks at the granddaddy of anti-evolution cases: the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial, held in 1925 in the buckle of the Bible Belt. John T. Scopes, a high school substitute teacher, was charged in Dayton, Tenn., with violating a state law that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in state-funded schools. The trial was epic, with two titans going against each other: William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. For all the courtroom fireworks, the outcome was never in doubt. Mr. Scopes was swiftly found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to about $1,400 today).

His conviction was overturned on a technicality. And, in time, the law that he broke was struck down, with courts casting it as religious in nature and thus a violation of the First Amendment’s proscription against “an establishment of religion.”

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The anti-evolution spirit, however, never died. Creationism — a belief that God brought about the universe pretty much along the lines set forth in the Book of Genesis — thrived in school curriculums in some states. But that idea also failed to pass judicial muster. The Supreme Court concluded in 1987 that requiring it to be taught in public schools as if it were a science ran afoul of the establishment clause.

A similar fate befell a creationist stepchild, intelligent design, which holds that the universe is so intricate, so complex, that it has to be the handiwork of a master architect. While God is not explicitly identified as the designer, the implication is hard to miss. In a pivotal case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled in 2005 that introducing intelligent design in biology classes as an alternative to evolution unconstitutionally advanced “a particular version of Christianity.” At heart, the judge said, intelligent design was “creationism relabeled.”

And so, once more, the anti-Darwinists were forced to evolve. What emerged were state laws with descriptions like the “science education act” and the “academic freedom act.” One of the earliest and most successful of these endeavors, the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008, carried echoes of a “wedge strategy” advocated by the Discovery Institute — a step-by-step program to “reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.”

The Louisiana law permits public schoolteachers to use materials critical of established scientific thought, with “evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning” singled out as targets. No blatant advocacy of creationism or intelligent design is authorized. But those concepts make their way into classrooms all the same, as a means of fostering “critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.”

Idiot America: "I should add that I never had such questions raised when teaching abroad. The perception of a conflict between science and religion seems to be a peculiarly American concern."

James Peri Colorado November 20, 2017

Much of this echoes my experience teaching evolutionary biology at a state university for 30 years, mostly in a second semester introductory biology course for mixed majors. Periodically, a student in one of the large lecture classes (200+ students) would ask why I didn't include creation in the course. Invariably, the student would be referring to the biblical account. My first response was that my educational background was in science not religion and so I did not have the professional background to do justice to the teaching of creation, which would be best taught in a department of religious studies. I would also add that I would be hard pressed to choose among the thousands of creation stories from cultures around the world. Teaching in the Southwest, there were invariably Native American students in my classes from several tribes, each with their own account of creation, as well as students from many other traditions. I would conclude that as a professor in the Biology Department, my mandate was to teach provide a up to date introduction to evolutionary biology, emphasizing the material evidence on which the field of study is based. This explanation, respectfully offered, always seemed to satisfy concerned students.

I should add that I never had such questions raised when teaching abroad. The perception of a conflict between science and religion seems to be a peculiarly American concern.

This comment at the New York Times explains why Idiot America is infested with know-nothing anti-science idiots.

"I taught scientific archaeology at Berkeley for 21 years from 1990-2011. In my scientific method course, that generally had about 90% California K-12 educated students, I would ask my students how many discussed evolution in their biology classes in high school. In California, one would expect 90% of the students to raise their hands, but each year it was less than 50%. My mother-in-law was a high school English teacher, and her experience in a Bay Area high school was that it takes only one noisy anti-science parent to get a principal to curtail the discussion of evolution in a biology class. And this was in California. As science and the scientific method is eliminated from the minds of Americans, so goes life on earth. Not surprising Trump won, elected by an increasingly ignorant electorate."

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

"Why do the religious deny scientific evidence?"

"Why do the religious deny scientific evidence?"

Evolution makes bible thumpers and terrorists cry because this branch of science kills their cowardly belief in a magical 2nd life.

Somebody asked Christian fucktards a good question: "Creationists, can you correctly define the word theory?"

"Creationists, can you correctly define the word theory?"

I looked at the answers. These morons obviously don't know what a scientific theory is. Creationist scum know nothing because they go out of their way to know nothing.

This is the best definition of a scientific theory I have seen:

In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. The contention that evolution should be taught as a "theory, not as a fact" confuses the common use of these words with the scientific use. In science, theories do not turn into facts through the accumulation of evidence. Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection. They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have."
-- National Academy of Sciences

I showed this to creationist fucktards and they say the National Academy of Sciences is wrong. These are the best scientists in the world and the science deniers say these brilliant people are wrong.

I never met a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.

In the Western world, including Idiot America, every time a religious fucktard drops dead religion declines. The younger generations are not buying the supernatural bullshit.


"Religion is in decline across the Western world. Whether measured by belonging, believing, participation in services, or how important it is felt to be, religion is losing ground. Society is being transformed, and the momentum appears to be unstoppable."

"You might be asking yourself two questions. Is it actually true? And even if religion is currently losing ground, could things change in the future?"

Wikipedia - Southern carmine bee-eater - This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, striking bird, predominantly carmine in colouration, but with the crown and undertail coverts blue.



Wikipedia - Southern carmine bee-eater

The southern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) (formerly carmine bee-eater) occurs across sub-equatorial Africa, ranging from KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia to Gabon, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.

This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, striking bird, predominantly carmine in colouration, but with the crown and undertail coverts blue.

Its usual habitat included low-altitude river valleys and floodplains, preferring vertical banks suitable for tunneling when breeding, but readily digging vertical burrows in the level surface of small salt islands. This is a highly sociable species, gathering in large flocks, in or out of breeding season. They roost communally in trees or reedbeds, and disperse widely during the day. Nesting is at the end of a 1-2m long burrow in an earthen bank, where they lay from 2-5 eggs.

This is a migratory species, spending the breeding season, between August and November, in Zimbabwe, before moving south to South Africa for the summer months, and then migrating to equatorial Africa from March to August.

Their diet is made up primarily of bees and other flying insects, and their major hunting strategy involves hawking flying insects from perch. Perches may include branches of vegetation or even the backs of large animals, such as the kori bustard. They are attracted to wildfires because of the flushed insects, and are often seen circling high in the air.

They circle larger animals and even cars to catch the insects that try to escape.

8 miles from where I live in Florida 17 students and teachers were murdered. The weapon used is called the AR-15. It's still legal to buy this thing. Idiot America is an idiot country.

I'm saving this thing here. It was written by a bible-thumping fucktard. It's about why Christianity is true and why Islam is wrong.

Bible Versus Koran

My loving god will torture you forever.

A long time ago I was talking to a friend about the hell bullshit.

He said "I want to go to hell. That's where all my friends are."

The artist for this one was not Leonardo da Vinci.

An obvious fact: The world would be a much better place without the dictators of North Korea, Syria, and Iran.

A Syrian boy holding an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital following a reported gas attack last month on the rebel-held town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus.


"The shipments are part of a steady stream of weapons-related sales by Pyongyang to Syria and to Mr. Assad’s patron, Iran, estimated by some experts to be worth several billion dollars a year."

Wall Street Journal - U.N. Report Links North Korea to Syrian Chemical Weapons. Syrian conflict proves to be a boon for North Korea, undercutting U.S. pressure campaign.

WASHINGTON—North Korea shipped 50 tons of supplies to Syria for use in building what is suspected to be an industrial-scale chemical weapons factory, according to intelligence information cited in a confidential United Nations report.
A Chinese trading firm working on behalf of Pyongyang made five shipments in late 2016 and early 2017 of high-heat, acid-resistant tiles, stainless-steel pipes and valves to Damascus, the report said, citing them as evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is paying North Korea to help it produce chemical arms.
The shipments are part of a steady stream of weapons-related sales by Pyongyang to Syria and to Mr. Assad’s patron, Iran, estimated by some experts to be worth several billion dollars a year. 
A U.N. chemical-weapons expert holding a plastic bag containing samples from the site of an alleged chemical-weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus in August 2013.
A U.N. chemical-weapons expert holding a plastic bag containing samples from the site of an alleged chemical-weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus in August 2013. PHOTO: STRINGER/REUTERS
U.S. officials recently warned Syria of a possible military response to the regime’s increased use of chemical weapons against civilians. The Syrian American Medical Society, a relief organization, says the regime has launched at least three such attacks so far this year. Damascus denies using chemical weapons. 
Even as an international-sanctions noose tightens around North Korea, Syria’s conflict has been a windfall for its leader, Kim Jong Un. Such illicit revenues undercut Washington’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against North Korea with the aim of thwarting its nuclear-weapons program.
Trump administration officials say if sanctions don’t get Mr. Kim to denuclearize, the U.S. may resort to military action.
The U.N. report, which hasn’t been publicly released, detailed evidence and intelligence from several member states. Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, or SSRC, the Assad-backed group responsible for developing chemical and other weapons of mass destruction, paid Pyongyang’s primary arms dealer, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, for the materials through a series of front companies, according to the confidential report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
One of those firms works for an SSRC-controlled entity that the U.S. Treasury says has been used in the past to buy missile and rocket propellants and parts for Syria’s SCUD missile program.
China told the U.N. investigators it had no evidence that one of its companies was doing business with North Korea’s primary arms dealer. It didn’t deny the sales to Syria in the U.N. report, however, and said it was open to investigating those alleged connections to North Korea if investigators provided more evidence.
A Syrian boy holding an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital following a reported gas attack last month on the rebel-held town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus.
A Syrian boy holding an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital following a reported gas attack last month on the rebel-held town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus. PHOTO: HASAN MOHAMED/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Pyongyang, which has resorted to a range of sanctions-evasion strategies, likely makes the largest chunk of its illicit money from proliferation, according to Bruce Bechtol, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency officer specializing in northeast Asia. Sales have long been concentrated in the Middle East, especially Iran and Syria, and Africa, he said.
While Washington has secured more stringent policing of North Korea’s sanctions evasion in many areas of the world, including China, it has struggled to shut down North Korea’s proliferation of weapons.
Larry Niksch, a former U.S. Congressional Research Service expert on Asia, estimates North Korea’s revenue from cooperation with Tehran on nuclear and missile technology, arms sales and provisions to Iran-backed terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah totaled $2 billion to $3 billion a year in the last decade.
The Syrian war has been a particular boon for North Korea, said Mr. Bechtol and others. Some analysts question, however, whether its possible to put a dollar figure on North Korean arms sales, saying so little is known about production costs and the terms of illicit contracts.
Iran isn’t only a primary buyer of North Korean arms and weapons technology, analysts say, but is also bankrolling Syria’s purchases.
Steady oil prices and a wind-down in sanctions against Iran since the 2015 nuclear deal have given the country’s clerical government a fresh influx of revenue—cash that U.S. officials say Tehran is funneling toward its allies throughout the region.
Besides Syria, Mr. Bechtol cites evidence of North Korean arms sales to the insurgent Houthi militia in Yemen, as well as interdicted shipments destined for Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Pyongyang also sells to a host of other countries, including sub-Saharan dictatorships, and to Myanmar’s ballistic-missile program, according to U.S. and U.N. reports.
The latest details of the North Korean-Syrian military venture reflect decadeslong ties between Pyongyang and Damascus, dating to their shared Cold-War patronage under the Soviet Union. Pyongyang helped build the Syrian nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israeli midnight strikes in September 2007. That facility was thought to be a near duplicate of North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor.
In their confidential report, U.N. investigators identified more than 40 shipments of material for use in arms production and other banned weapon programs from North Korea to Syria’s unconventional weapons group. The last one was sent just a few weeks ago, the investigators wrote.
North Korean technicians with specialized knowledge of chemical and ballistic-missile technology have repeatedly visited Syria over the last two years, according to intelligence reports provided to the U.N. In August 2016, a North Korean technical delegation to Syria discussed the procurement of special valves and thermometers known to be used in chemical-weapons programs, according to those reports. A range of technicians with expertise in long-range radar, missiles, tanks and other military equipment also have been found operating over the last two years in Sudan, Mozambique, Uganda, and Myanmar.
“DPRK technicians continue to operate at chemical weapons and missile facilities at Barzeh Adra and Hama” in Syria, the U.N. investigators say, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name. 
Syria told U.N. investigators there were no North Korea technicians in the country, adding that the only North Koreans present were working in the fields of gymnastics and athletics.
Mr. Niksch says North Korea is likely also selling Iran the technical data from its recent missile tests. Such consulting services—including weapons training, extending the lifespan of its missiles and improving guidance systems—“indicates that North Korea continues to earn huge sums of money from its proliferation activities in the Middle East,” Mr. Niksch said.
While it earns billions from the Middle East, North Korea’s estimated costs for intercontinental-ballistic missile tests are much lower. Vipin Narang, a top nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says each launch likely costs less than the $30 million India pays for each of its launches, says Vipin Narang, a top nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“There‘s no question that broad sanctions are not going to reduce their liquidity to fund this program,” Mr. Narang said. “They are sitting on a pile of cash, where each missile is a drop in the bucket.” 
Given North Korea’s advances in weapons technology, many question whether the Trump administration’s pressure campaign can succeed.
“The bar is now so much higher to convince North Korea to roll things back,” said Anthony Ruggiero, a former U.S. Treasury official now at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 
Mr. Ruggiero has long advocated a stronger sanctions regime against Pyongyang. “Now I don’t know if it will work,” he said.
Write to Ian Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com

Christianity has a long history of genocide. For example virtually all Christians in Germany and Poland had no problem with the Holocaust. These days Muslim scum are trying to catch up with the Christian assholes.

Wikipedia - Christianity and antisemitism

Martin Luther at first made overtures towards the Jews, believing that the "evils" of Catholicism had prevented their conversion to Christianity. When his call to convert to his version of Christianity was unsuccessful, he became hostile to them.[26]

In his book On the Jews and their Lies, Luther excoriates them as "venomous beasts, vipers, disgusting scum, canders, devils incarnate." He provided detailed recommendations for a pogrom against them, calling for their permanent oppression and expulsion, writing "Their private houses must be destroyed and devastated, they could be lodged in stables. Let the magistrates burn their synagogues and let whatever escapes be covered with sand and mud. Let them be forced to work, and if this avails nothing, we will be compelled to expel them like dogs in order not to expose ourselves to incurring divine wrath and eternal damnation from the Jews and their lies." At one point he wrote: "...we are at fault in not slaying them..." a passage that "may be termed the first work of modern antisemitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the Holocaust."[27]

Luther's harsh comments about the Jews are seen by many as a continuation of medieval Christian antisemitism. In his final sermon shortly before his death, however, Luther preached: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord."[28]

Then of course there were the heretic burnings.



Florida was a mistake. I want to move back to Chicago.

Staying alive is a wonderful thing.



Wikipedia - Staying Alive - 1977

Not that anyone cares but I accidentally learned something today.

I have a Apple desktop computer and a Logitech keyboard. I accidentally found out I could press the OPTION key and the letter V to get this √√√√√√

I then figured out I could use the OPTION key and all the other keys to get lots of stuff. For example if I press OPTION + 8 I get •••••••••

Back in the primitive 20th century I never imagined things like Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, and the internet would exist. I never imagined I could play chess from my American living room against somebody in Australia and then get a free computer analysis of my game (at https://lichess.org).

The 21st century is a wonderful thing.


At the end of every post there are labels. I suggest click the label "Australia" to see lots of interesting creatures and other stuff.

Religious stupidity is much worse in Idiot America but apparently the UK also has a religious fucktard problem. I found this at Wales Online. A Letter to the Editor written by a normal person and another letter written by a god-soaked anti-science idiot.

Wales Online - Letters to the Editor - Thursday, February 22, 2018

Self-righteous, elitist and undemocratic

Vicar’s daughter, Theresa May, and her new Education Minister Damian Hinds, a Catholic, intend to expand faith schools and remove the 50% quota cap in England. This is despite the fact that only 9% of the population of the UK practice a religion, an increasing majority have no faith, rising to over 70% for those aged below 30. This decision from on high is self-righteous, elitist and undemocratic.

Not only would I advise Kirsty Williams to resist such a change in policy I would encourage her to pursue a secular agenda that creates integration and not segregation strongly resisting the powerful faith school lobby. In The Sunday Times (February 18) it stated that ultra-Orthodox Jews are locked in a bitter row with education officials demanding the right the teach creationism in their schools. They also stated that the government were “infiltrating” the schools with the lie that the world was ancient and not 6,000 years old as claimed in the bible.

Amanda Spielman, head of Ofsted, highlighted the secret Islamic schools that are “poisoning the minds of young Muslims and narrowing young people’s horizons that isolate and segregate them under the pretext of religious belief.” In pursuit of maintaining their power and influence it’s crucial for these various faiths to isolate then indoctrinate young minds often, and scandalously, at the taxpayer expense.

It has to be said that many aspirational parents send their offspring to nice Church in Wales schools with low numbers of free school meals; the terms “on your knees to avoid the fees” I believe explains this phenomenon, which is exploiting the system of state funded faith schools.

Dennis Coughlin

Llandaff

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

This one was written by a Christian fucktard. Evolution makes this know-nothing asshole cry. There is a lot of fucking stupid here. This dipshit would love Idiot America. The stupid fucking asshole calls the strongest fact of science (evolution) a "f
aith position". 

Wales Online - Letters to the Editor - Thursday, February 27, 2018

Man’s origins cannot be proven

Reader Dennis Coughlin (Letters, February 22) makes a case against the expansion of faith schools and encourages the pursuit of a secular agenda.

On the pros and cons of faith schools, suffice it to say that there are probably some good and others decidedly not so.

But I would like to pick up on Mr Coughlin’s point about schools which teach creationism. I take it that the gentleman holds to a long-age evolutionary world view.

It needs to be emphasised that man’s origins cannot be scientifically proven one way or the other, so a belief in evolution or in creation are both faith positions.

So why is the theory of evolution taught as fact in many of our schools and colleges? These should be places not to indoctrinate people , but rather to encourage questioning about the wonders and mysteries of life, and where honest answers should be given if possible.

Our pupils should learn that a molecules-to-man evolutionary belief demands that one believe in spontaneous generation - something proven to be impossible. Yes, it takes great faith to be an evolutionist.

A belief in creation on the other hand, points to a Creator and accountability to that Creator, leading to the desire to be guided by Biblical principles.

It cannot be any coincidence that the the drastic drop in the nation’s moral standards and the rise of secular humanism has coincided with the demise of Christianity.

In a week which has just seen the passing of the evangelist Billy Graham, I find myself somewhat in agreement with our letter writer. Yes, it’s high time we ditched religion - and welcomed again the preaching of the Gospel.

RH Ashton

Blackwood

The Constitution of the United States makes Louisiana cry. These stupid fucking assholes for Jeebus have been repeatedly sticking the Magic Jeebus Man into their public schools. The Establishment Clause of our Bill of Rights can't be thrown out. The stupid fucking Christian assholes will lose in court. My contempt for Christian scum grows every day.

Another Lawsuit Against Another Parish to Eradicate Christianity from Public Schools

February 26th, 2018 Bethany Blankley

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) recently filed a federal lawsuit against Bossier Parish, Louisiana, to stop the “widespread unconstitutional promotion of Christianity throughout” its school system.

The lawsuit comes one month after the state issued guidance on religious freedom in public schools. On January 2, 2018, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson released guidelines about religion in public schools, called the Louisiana Student Rights Review, which includes answers to 26 “frequently asked questions” about religious freedom and public school education.

AU and four Bossier Parish parents who are plaintiffs in the suit, obviously didn’t read the state’s report. Instead, they argue that the school board, school administrators, teachers and coaches all violated their children’s religious freedom.

In a press release, AU’s Richard Katskee, said,

Parents of all backgrounds should be able to put their trust in public schools to teach children reading and math – and to let families make their own decisions about faith. Unfortunately, that is not the atmosphere that Bossier Parish Schools provide. … Bossier Parish school officials make one religion – Christianity – pervade all aspects of school life.

Americans United claims the school district has violated the students’ rights in school classrooms and offices, school-sponsored events, football games, graduations, and school-sponsored extracurricular clubs and athletic programs. It lists a long litany of places and events where Christianity has been promoted, including church meals, team devotionals, “Bring your Bible to School Day”, student-led prayers, the promotion of creationism, and the list goes on.

Americans United first contacted Bossier School District last year after Benton High School’s 2017 graduation ceremony included student-led prayers. AU argued that prayers were unconstitutional because “they communicated the School District’s endorsement of a particular religion and coerced students to participate in a religious exercise.”

But the Bossier School District has not ended the graduation prayer practice.

BULLSHIT: Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel, said of the state’s report, “Students may exercise their constitutional rights to religious free speech while on public school campuses during non-instructional times. They do not give up those rights just because they are in a public school.”

The Magical Master of the Entire Fucking Universe. The stupid, it burns.

God: (esp. in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim belief) the being that created and rules the universe, the earth, and its people.

Magical salvation. The stupid, it burns.

Salvation: In some religions, salvation is the state of complete belief in God that will save those who believe from the punishment of God for evil or immoral acts.

Monday, February 26, 2018

President Fucktard Trump is a dishonest fucking idiot. I found this Trump bullshit at BBC News.

US President Donald Trump has said he would have run in to the Florida high school where 17 people were shot dead this month even if he was not armed.

"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon," Mr Trump told a group of state governors gathered at the White House.

Orquesta Filarmonica Requena - Pavane, Opus 50 Gabriel Fauré

32 minutes video about the Christian assholes who lie about Charles Darwin to defend their ridiculous magical creationism fantasy. I never met a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.


"On February 22, 2018, I gave a talk at the Atheist Society of Calgary's annual Darwin Day event. Given that I'm neither a biologist nor a historian, I chose to speak on some unfounded attacks on Charles Darwin himself in relation to his theory of evolution... like racism, not being a scientist, being mad at god, that he called eye evolution absurd, that he admitted to a lack of transitional fossils, and his supposed deathbed conversion."

I predict this will be the future in weapon-soaked America. Nobody has to risk their life with this thing.

The Magic Jeebus Man was a wino.

Gentoo penguin colony

Gentoo penguin colony



Wikipedia - Gentoo penguin

They call in a variety of ways, but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting which is emitted with its head thrown back.[2]

Gentoo penguin

The Gentoo penguin colony is one of the most interesting photos at Jerry Coyne's website today. I suggest see the rest of it at Jerry Coyne's website - Readers’ wildlife photos.

I also suggest don't waste your time here. Jerry Coyne's website is many times better than this place.

Deists are idiots.

"Am I a Christian? First off, I believe in evolution. Secondly, I believe Jesus existed but I doubt he performed miracles. Maybe he was just a popular guy and his feats became exaggerated over time. I do believe (Or try to believe) that there is a God, but not that he created Adam and Eve but he created the first 'particles' that led to the creation of the universe."

You're a deist. Much better than Christian retard but still ridiculous. You invoke your magic god fairy's magic wand to explain something you don't understand. Scientists call these things "research opportunities". You call it a hiding place for your fairy of the gaps. It's just plain childish.

By the way it's wrong to say "I believe in evolution" because basic facts of science are not beliefs. This is correct: I accept the overwhelming evidence for evolution.

I'm a hardcore atheist, aka normal person. I'm 100% certain magic god fairies and magic Easter Bunnies are not real. There is no magic in the universe.

I wrote this for a Christian fucktard who said my acceptance of reality is a belief. Christian scum are Christians because they're just plain fucking stupid.

This is what you people don't understand. If something requires belief I throw it out. For you if something requires belief you accept it anyway. No evidence required. This is the difference between science and religion. Science requires evidence. Religion only requires wishful thinking.

If a scientific idea does not have evidence or the evidence is weak the idea is considered wrong until more research shows it's correct. If a religious idea has zero evidence it is accepted as fact, especially if it makes people feel good.

If you want to believe in a magical being who hides who knows where, that's fine with me. It's your wasted life.

I repeat what I said: Religion is brain damage. There is no cure unless the victims realize how sick they are.

You will disagree with everything I wrote. Nobody cares. Everyone knows you people are hard of thinking.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

I answered a dumb question.

"Do you find religion to be over the top but atheism to be far too down and depressing?"

I'm a hardcore atheist, 100% certain gods are not real, and I am very glad I'm not anything else, for example theist retard or agnostic retard. I accept reality. I like reality because it's interesting and because it's real.

A chimpanzee ape (our closest cousin) uses tools to extract honey from a tree. This fantastic video is at BBC - Attenborough's Story of Life.

This video is amazing. Everyone should see this. Our chimpanzee ape cousins are very intelligent.

BBC - The bees that have to deal with a cunning honey thief

In this video a young woman sings about wanting to have her way with the President of the United States.

An interesting quote from the President of the United States: "If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."

Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on Friday.















"If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."