This web page tells the things I like and really dislike, and thereby a little about me.
| Where I am: | Endorsements |
| Where I shall not go: | Disapprovals |
| Where I have been: | Conditional Endorsements |
Endorsements
The following is a list of people, organizations, books and software that I endorse. Earlier drafts of this page referred to this group as "Unconditional Endorsements," but I suppose that only the first entry in the list is unconditional.
Jesus
It is pretty cool that following this guy gives us freedom to be good and frees us from terror about being bad. Eternal benefits, too! Knowing him also causes things like human suffering and even science to make more sense!VRPO Internet radio
This is the coolest internet radio station. I think it's in the Netherlands but it plays English music. Kind of like new wave stuff, maybe "mellow punk". If you think that Bjork has an alluring voice, you'll enjoy the ability to hear her at least once an hour! Better than any commercial radio station I've ever heard! And I've never heard an ad on it! While I don't mind ads, many other internet radio services offer ads first and foremost, with a little music sprinkled in. Furthermore, this station is low bandwidth: other commercial-intensive stations often refuse me service due to my low bandwidth. Again, it's high quality music that you won't hear anywhere else, but you cannot listen to it every day, as the play lists are not updated that often. Click here if you want to try a link that might launch your RealAudio Player.Environmental Defense Fund
This environmental group has an unflinchingly radical agenda, but is willing to walk hand in hand with an occasionally cooperative big corporation [1] [2] [3] to bring about projects that help people who have to live on this earth in the next century. See their web page. This is in stark contrast to groups like Greenpeace, who have put the most environmentally responsible oil companies on their enemies list.Reasons to Believe
This organization is a cheerleader for Old Earth Creationism, the crazy idea that both the Genesis account in Scripture and modern scientific observations are correct. For example, they believe that God created (He said and "poof" they existed) an increasingly complex array of life forms over the past few hundred million years, culmunating in the creation of men. Read more about them here. The best exposition of the Old Earth Creationist position can be found in the book,I suppose my one gripe with this organization is that they often speak of "proofs" for God's existence. They prove nothing of the sort. They are quite skilled, however, at making scientific disproofs of cheezy objections to the bible's reliability.
Amnesty International
AI gives people the opportunity to write letters on behalf of people who are imprisoned or tortured for the sake of their nonviolent political or religious beliefs. You can sign up to be part of their Urgent Action Network.Evangelicals for Social Action
ESA has a number of interesting positions. For example, they hold that homosexual sexual relations are a sin contrary to God's will, yet they opposed the routing of gays from the military on the basis that it was an unbiblical emphasis on this one sin. They support legal protections for the unborn, yet they were most vocal in opposing many aspects of the Republican "jihad" on welfare reform. In short, they take positions on "family values" and "social justice" not because of any political agenda, but because they believe it to be called for in God's word. The book,The Catholic Worker
This is a radical Catholic group steeped in a theologically conservative belief in Christian faith. They work against the death penalty, abortion, war, nuclear weapons, and the harsh treatment of aliens and the poor. They prefer "economic personalism" over the welfare state and operate "hospitality houses" all over the country. A national web page may be found here. A book which contains some of the most moving articles from their newspaper over the past fifty years isPovray
The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a freeware program that makes stunning 3D images. It can outperform many expensive software packages. The existence of such cool freeware is one small thing that increases my faith in the goodness of people! This software is also entirely ASCII text based, in that could enable someone who "cannot draw" or even Stephen Hawkings to become a great artist!
The Nation
Are you afraid of giving up your "conservative" loyalties because you fear that would make you a cheerleader for Lenin, Sharpton, and OJ?Do pro-Clinton Democrats make you nauseous? The Nation has probably called for Clinton's impeachment more than any other group, but on serious moral issues like the bombing of factories in Sudan moreso than bedroom scandals. I think you'll hear more ravings against government meddling in peoples lives, like the abuses of the WTO, than you will from Rush Limbaugh.
The Nation is a great weekly magazine for information on the environment, race, law, poverty, and war, from a "morally consistent" or "logicaly consistent leftist viewpoint that you won't hear from Dick Gephardt. I certainly don't agree with everything that the Nation is about, particularly abortion and sexual morality. But if you have ever used the word "left" or "liberal" in a sentence, especially if you ever did so with disdain, your arguments are probably false, straw man arguments unless you are familiar with the writings of the Nation.
Disapprovals
If I have offended you or if you reject my values based on my comments here, then perhaps I can do you a favor and direct you to organizations that I find offensive. I suppose that I cannot call this list "Unconditional Condemnations," as I probably agree with each of the following groups that the sky is blue.The Cato Institute
The Cato Institute publishes reports on the environment and economics with a purpose of opposing government regulation. There is nothing wrong with opposing regulation or being a libertarian, but there is something very wrong with distorting science on behalf of polluters.Metaphorically speaking, we should not loose too much sleep over those who oppose taxpayer funding of volunteer fire departments. We should not suffer, however, those who campaign against a fireman tax by saying, "Most citizens are not that badly burned."
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Specifically, Cato has said that ozone depletion is a myth because
"it is quite a mystery" as to how CFC's can diffuse to the stratosphere. CFC's, a water-insoluble gas have been measured thousands of times up there.
- Likewise, they have published papers which were critical of the EPA report on secondhand tobacco smoke. The internal documents of tobacco companies show they understood it to be carcinogenic. Their landmark paper, "Smoke and Mirrors: the EPA's Flawed Study of Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer," was published in Regulation in 1993. One of the coauthors was Dr. Gary Huber, who later admitted in a deposition to "the role he had played for the industry over the years and saying that it was a dishonest role." Huber had taken "millions in research dollars" from the tobacco industry." Huber had also annoyed students during his tenure at Harvard Medical school who complained about him "pasting up a big tobacco leaf in his office... and said that cigs are not harmful" while "taking millions from the tobacco industry."
- Cato has the gall to claim that smoking "poses little danger to young adults or family members" and " no proven relationship between
parental smoking and pediatric disease." Medical research, however, tells us that exposure to smoke is a major risk factor for babies dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and having bronchitis, ear infections, and asthma attacks.
- Cato has written many editorial pieces in favor of whatever the tobacco industry was arguing at the time. Here is a document from Phillip Morris that suggests that Cato agreed to a PM suggestion to write a paper critical of a Centers for Disease Control report before they'd even studied it! Here is another, suggesting that Cato was writing articles about teen smoking at the direct bidding of the industry.