Commuter rail gains support by Bob Golfen, The
Arizona Republic
A commuter rail system that uses existing freight-train routes throughout the Phoenix area is being touted as the
future backbone of public transportation in the Valley. …
A lot of the current discussion about commuter rail is fueled by the
success of new systems throughout the West, Dickey said, including New Mexico and Utah, which are building passenger systems on former
freight track beds.
I don’t read Winthrop Quigley every week, but I have found a
couple of his columns informative and worth reading. He’s not just an AmeriCog stoking the Capitalist Machine. That’s why it’s too bad
his column today is effectively buried in Business Outlook (it’s standard location). Though he includes a business reference, his topic
transcends it.
Quigley offers his own decent take on the fallacy of equating Intelligent Design with science. I consider it anti-
science new-speak — “dumbing down” taken to a new aggressiveness. Still, I’m happy to see Quigley weigh in on the side of light in the
struggle against the New American Dark Ages (NADA).
ABQjournal: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong in Science Class By Winthrop Quigley, Journal Staff Writer
Intelligent
design has no long-run future in America’s science curricula because the dominant philosophy of the United States is not evangelical
Christianity, it is capitalism.
American business simply will not tolerate the further dumbing down of its future workforce’s
science education with metaphysical speculation masquerading as biology. It cannot afford to. …
Regardless of any spiritual
angst one might feel, the fact remains that ID is bad for business.
Corporate America, especially its technology companies, is
very worried about losing its competitive advantage over India, China and other Asian countries because of a poorly educated workforce.
…
And here is Quigley’s logical flaw, made worse by ignoring the true meaning of the quote he then
takes from Friedman.
Thomas L. Friedman in his book “The World Is Flat” said every major company he interviewed for
the book “is investing significantly in research and development abroad. It is not ‘follow the money.’ It is ‘follow the brains.’
”
In our current global economy, it is cheaper to go to the PhD’s than hire them here. Heartless and
soulless, corporations build their headquarters where the tax structure benefits them (which is also where their executives and boards
live) and they build their offices and factories where they find the optimal combination of cheap but just-adequately skilled
labor.
While Rio Rancho schools are working to put non-science into their science program, a kid in India is
preparing to take our kids’ technology jobs. I promise you, the Indian kid is not wasting his time studying ID. …
[Intel] will
build its new plants where the workforce is properly trained.
When that happens in enough communities, watch ID quietly leave
the science classroom
Though I enjoyed and respect the piece and encourage you to read the whole
thing, I think Quigley makes an important mistake. He believes Capitalism will save the day (perhaps he is an AmeriCog, after all).
Yes, business will realize that slack-jawed workers aren’t good for the company. Unfortunately, Quigley overlooks the value of slack-
jawed consumers (isn’t that why we have Channel One in schools?). It may be that it is in business’s interest to employ cheaper and
smarter Chinese PhD’s to come up with new products for rich and ignorant American buyers.
Or, perhaps we should look to Evangelical
Colorado Springs for the model of business in the NADA. Super-zealot
employees and consumers must yield the highest profits.
Get your authentic replica of Jesus on a
dinosaur now! mjh
See BugMeNot.com if you are not a Journal subscriber.
Judge Rudd will seek her second four-year term in 2006.
She needs your support. During her first term, she has increased the court’s caseload 60%, started a major computer automation of the
court’s docket system, proved her commitment to public awareness and outreach through her “Judge is In” TV show, Albuquerque Journal
column, and numerous speaking engagements. She has served our community with integrity, dedication, and hard work.
Note: I
developed the campaign website and MRudd is my long-time companion of 24 years (as of this week).
Most Americans do not accept the theory of
evolution. Instead, 51 percent of Americans say God created humans in their present form, and another three in 10 say that while humans
evolved, God guided the process. Just 15 percent say humans evolved, and that God was not involved.
For
the record, I am with that 15 percent. And, though I sincerely believe in a diversity of views and mutual tolerance, I see that 51
percent as part of a New American Dark Ages (NADA). I know they aren’t all bible-thumping literalists who believe there were dinosaurs
in Eden and on the Ark; but a frightening number of them are and this ignorance is clearly contagious and
spreading.
This poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 808 adults, interviewed by
telephone October 3-5, 2005. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage
points.
On the other hand, I’ll believe in god before I put too much stock in divining the views of 300
million people from the responses of 808. Those who trust polls and statistics are welcome to explain their validity in comments. You’ll
find me as hard to move as Jesus on a dinosaur. mjh
Compare
the following stories and note that wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone 10 years ago. In that whole region, they number around 900.
Wolves were released in New Mexico about 5 years ago. We’re supposed to believe that 6 pairs will sustain the population. Nonsense.
mjh
Feds study gray wolf delisting – billingsgazette.com
By
MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff
Federal officials on Monday said it may be time to remove gray wolves in the northern Rocky
Mountains from the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will begin an in-depth look at the wolf
population and decide whether to propose delisting the wolf. …
In order for wolves to be delisted, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
need approved plans to manage wolves once responsibility is passed to the states from the federal government. …
Wolves
were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and portions of Idaho in 1995 and 1996.
Today, the population is
estimated to be around 900. Numbers have declined recently in Yellowstone, Wyoming and portions of Montana, according to some of the
latest numbers. The population appears to be still growing in Idaho, Bangs said.
ABQjournal: Mexican Gray Wolf Treated for Injuries After Being Hurt by
Trap By Tania Soussan Journal Staff Writer
An endangered Mexican gray wolf was being treated by a veterinarian
Tuesday after she was spotted running around in the wild with a steel leg-hold trap stuck on a front leg. A researcher
working with the wolf reintroduction program saw the alpha female of the Luna Pack with her mate and two 6-month-old pups feeding on an
elk carcass in a large meadow southeast of Reserve on Saturday. He tried unsuccessfully to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart.
On
Monday, a helicopter with a professional gunner aboard was able to catch her in a net gun, said wolf recovery coordinator John Morgart of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque.
"She was very mobile," he said. "She was running around and
dragging this trap." The wolf was tranquilized and the trap removed, but there was extensive damage just above her
paw. She is being evaluated by a vet in Arizona and likely will be returned to the wild soon. Even if her paw or leg has to be
amputated, she could go back to her pack, Morgart said.
"Canines in general do adapt very quickly to life on three
legs," he said. The trap could have been set legally to capture a coyote or other animal, but Fish and Wildlife Service law
enforcement officers are conducting a routine investigation to make sure there was no foul play involved, Morgart said.
ABQjournal: Wolf Releases May Be Restricted Next Year
By Tania
Soussan Journal Staff Writer
Releases of endangered Mexican gray wolves likely will be severely
restricted next year under a policy approved recently by the multiagency group overseeing wolf reintroduction in the
Southwest. The Adaptive Management Oversight Committee adopted a moratorium on releases and several program
rules during a meeting Thursday in Arizona, said wolf recovery coordinator John Morgart of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in
Albuquerque.
If there are at least six pairs of successfully breeding wolves in the wild at the end of
this year, no new wolf packs without experience in the wild will be released in 2006 In addition, a controversial new
rule says wolves that have killed livestock three times must be permanently removed from the wild, either by trapping or shooting.
on Family leader’s influence quietly spreading
By STEPHANIE SIMON, Los Angeles Times
A recent poll for PBS
found that 77 percent of white evangelicals view Dobson favorably. Other Christian leaders were far less widely trusted; Pat
Robertson’s approval rating stood at 55 percent and Jerry Falwell’s at 46 percent. …
A campaign against Sen. Ken Salazar last
spring, on the issue of judicial filibusters, provoked such a barrage of calls and e-mails that the Colorado Democrat called Focus on the
Family "the Antichrist of the world." (Salazar later apologized, saying he meant only that the ministry’s approach was
"unchristian.")
Dobson devoted just 7 percent of his $142 million budget last year to explicitly political activities,
such as the Salazar campaign. This year, 5 percent of the budget has been set aside for politics. …
Some references are subtle; a
pamphlet called "When a Loved One Says ‘I’m Gay’" attributes same-sex at tractions to unhealthy family dynamics, but also
lays some blame on "today’s ‘gay-affirmative culture."’
Other political references are overt: A recent
edition of the ministry’s flagship Focus on the Family magazine defined conservatives as championing democracy, human rights and
"the cause of freedom around the world" while "liberals defend civil rights, abortion, pornography and
homosexuality." …
Don’t you love it when the Radical Right calls themselves
everything good and the left everything wrong. mjh
The calls reinforce the ministry’s
view that America’s moral foundation is crumbling — and must be shored up with political action to curb pornography, end abortion,
revoke no-fault divorce laws and stop recognizing gay relationships as legitimate.
Gazette.comGod’s BUSINESS By PAUL ASAY, THE GAZETTE
Religion is big
business in Colorado Springs, and business is booming. More than 80 national Christian nonprofit organizations with combined
revenue of nearly $1 billion make their headquarters in El Paso County [Colorado]. …
Other cities — including
Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta — have more Christian nonprofits than Colorado Springs. But this city is unusual because of its smaller
population, and because of the size, profile and influence of some of the ministries located here.
These ministries are more than
big fish swimming in a midsized pond: They’re leviathans.
Of the more than 80 Christian nonprofit headquarters in the region,
four (Compassion International, Young Life, Focus on the Family and The Navigators) have revenues of $100 million or more.
Their
influence is far-reaching….
Fourteen Springs-based ministries each have revenue above $10 million; 32 earn more than $1 million.
All the 80-some groups The Gazette studied have a national or worldwide focus, and many are household names — at least in
evangelical households.
“In my book, I would put it (Colorado Springs) as the (nation’s) most influential Christian
city,” said Rusty Leonard, founder of the charity watchdog MinistryWatch, based in Charlotte, N.C. …
BUT WHAT DOES
THAT MEAN TO COLORADO SPRINGS? Very little of that nearly $1 billion finds its way into the local economy. …
But all that
activism has its negative side. Many residents bemoan Colorado Springs’ evangelical reputation.
“We’re so known as a
community that’s dominated by a certain socially conservative philosophy,” Skorman said. Those who don’t share that philosophy,
he added, feel unwelcome. A few companies have shied away from locating here because of its evangelical presence.
That evangelical
unease extends to more secular charities, too, who believe that many of the city’s Christian organizations only support like-minded
charities.
“I think there’s a lot of backlash against the cause of Christ because Christians don’t seem to care
about anything but proselytization or evangelism,” said Yonker, of Elevation Group.
These Christian nonprofits
often like to do business with Christian-oriented companies, too.
Some people will read the following and dismiss it as small town politics. I see it as a tale of
using police to intimidate citizens. Note the mayor took this police tape and gave a transcript to the paper’s major advertizer — he
could only have wanted them to stop advertizing, in hopes of damaging the paper financially. So much for a free press.
Sure, this
mayor is a pissant and the cop a willing stooge, but this is a story being played out all across the New and Improved AmeriCo, where the
police are merely the security guards for those with power. mjh
ABQjournal: Publisher: Taping, Report Payback
By Martin Salazar
Journal Northern Bureau
Wood was never brought in for questioning over the comments that she says
were made in jest. And the Colfax County District Attorney’s Office in Raton declined to pursue any charges against Wood after reviewing
the information, said Bill Kitts, chief of the Angel Fire Police Department.
"I think they were taping me to harass
me," Wood said in an interview Thursday.
Kitts denies the taping was politically motivated.
This
isn’t the first time the village government has been accused of retaliation.
Earlier this year, the village severed
ties with the local Chamber of Commerce in part because the chamber refused to sign a contract that would have banned it and
anyone associated with it from criticizing the village or its officials.
The latest incident occurred Sept. 22.
Marcia Wood had gone to Village Hall that afternoon in hopes of getting information for a story the paper was working on. Wood claims
Village Administrator John Pape told her he would never talk to her. Wood then went to see Mayor A.L. "Bubba" Clanton. She said
she complained that the village had been stonewalling the paper for months, and at some point told the mayor, "Bull(expletive),
Bubba." The mayor called for an officer, and officer Christina Roth showed up. The Sept. 23 report, which describes
the office visit and the recording later that night, says Wood called the mayor a liar and was escorted out. …
The report does not say why the conversation was being recorded. … Kitts said the two weren’t told they
were being recorded, and under state law, there was no obligation to do so. …
Wood said a few
days later she got a call from a friend telling her about rumors concerning the conversation. She said she later learned
that the mayor had given the report to an Angel Fire Resort employee and had instructed the employee to give it to the company’s
chief executive officer. The resort is the paper’s major advertiser, she added.
Wood said she
got a copy of the report from the resort CEO.