Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Fucktard China
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China fucked up every country on this planet with their stupidity, and now they're being dishonest about it.
Wall Street Journal
OPINION
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The Wuhan Whitewash
A WHO report on Covid’s origin echoes Chinese propaganda.
By the Editorial Board
March 30, 2021
The World Health Organization on Tuesday finally released its report on the origins of the coronavirus, and the result wasn’t worth the wait. The document is best understood as a whitewash heavily influenced by the Chinese Communist Party and Westerners with conflicts of interest.
The report—based primarily on an international team’s visit this year to the city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first detected—has little new information. But the team analyzes four origin scenarios.
The report says the most likely origin was a transfer to humans through bats with an intermediary host. The second most probable, according to the report, is that bats directly transmitted Covid-19 to humans. The report also takes too seriously a third theory, pushed by Beijing, that the virus arrived in China in frozen food, which the WHO claims is “possible” and merits more study.
Most telling is that the team concludes it is “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The report simply asserts that WIV facilities “were well-managed, with a staff health monitoring programme.” The report suggests “regular administrative and internal review of high-level biosafety laboratories worldwide” and following up on new evidence.
Yet enough already is known about the WIV to suggest this lacks credibility. In 2018 U.S. officials warned in diplomatic cables about safety and management issues at the WIV that could lead to a pandemic. This is especially troubling because the WIV conducted “gain of function” research on coronaviruses that theoretically can enable them to infect a new species.
The U.S. State Department warned in a January fact sheet that WIV researchers had developed “symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses” in autumn 2019. The WHO report nonetheless takes the Chinese government at its word when it says there was “no reporting of COVID-19 compatible respiratory illness during the weeks/months prior to December 2019.”
Shi Zhengli of the WIV said last week that the lab has no ties to the Chinese military. But the State Department said in January that “the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military” for years. The U.S. claims were based on extensive intelligence, and the Biden Administration hasn’t disputed the findings. Did the WHO team even examine U.S. evidence?
The WHO’s tissue-thin analysis isn’t surprising. Chinese government scientists provided most of the data and worked with the international team to craft the report. Beijing has limited independent access to information on Covid-19’s origin, much as it silenced scientists and journalists who raised doubts about the official story last year. The report’s publication was repeatedly delayed, as both sides negotiated a report that is more political than scientific.
The WHO team is also compromised by conflicts of interest. Zoologist Peter Daszak, the American on the team, has collaborated with the WIV for years and supported gain-of-function research. As early as February 2020 he helped coordinate a statement in the Lancet condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.” Another team member, virologist Marion Koopmans, oversees an outfit in the Netherlands that has conducted gain-of-function research and could face serious repercussions if the pandemic started in a lab.
The Biden Administration hasn’t taken a definitive position on the lab-leak theory, but Covid-19 spokesman Anthony Fauci played down the idea last week. Dr. Fauci’s institute financed work at the WIV and has backed gain-of-function research. He’s the wrong man to reassure the public about lab research on coronaviruses.
Dr. Fauci was trying to rebut Robert Redfield, the former chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said last week that “I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory.” Dr. Redfield added that virus transfer to a lab worker is not unusual in such research.
***
Even the WHO recognizes the implausibility of the report. “I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions,” WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said Tuesday. “Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation.” He’s ready to deploy more specialists, but don’t expect Beijing to welcome them.
The U.S. and 13 other governments released a statement Tuesday expressing “shared concerns” that the WHO study “was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples.” That’s nice, but it sounds like they’re prepared to conclude that Covid’s origin story is unknowable and move on.
That shouldn’t be the end of it. The Biden Administration knows the underlying intelligence and should release it to the public. Unless it does, China’s propaganda backed by the WHO’s failure will prevail in much of world opinion. The Biden Administration says it wants to revitalize multilateral institutions, and that should start with refusing to accept the WHO’s Wuhan whitewash.
Appeared in the March 31, 2021, print edition.
OPINION
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The Wuhan Whitewash
A WHO report on Covid’s origin echoes Chinese propaganda.
By the Editorial Board
March 30, 2021
The World Health Organization on Tuesday finally released its report on the origins of the coronavirus, and the result wasn’t worth the wait. The document is best understood as a whitewash heavily influenced by the Chinese Communist Party and Westerners with conflicts of interest.
The report—based primarily on an international team’s visit this year to the city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first detected—has little new information. But the team analyzes four origin scenarios.
The report says the most likely origin was a transfer to humans through bats with an intermediary host. The second most probable, according to the report, is that bats directly transmitted Covid-19 to humans. The report also takes too seriously a third theory, pushed by Beijing, that the virus arrived in China in frozen food, which the WHO claims is “possible” and merits more study.
Most telling is that the team concludes it is “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The report simply asserts that WIV facilities “were well-managed, with a staff health monitoring programme.” The report suggests “regular administrative and internal review of high-level biosafety laboratories worldwide” and following up on new evidence.
Yet enough already is known about the WIV to suggest this lacks credibility. In 2018 U.S. officials warned in diplomatic cables about safety and management issues at the WIV that could lead to a pandemic. This is especially troubling because the WIV conducted “gain of function” research on coronaviruses that theoretically can enable them to infect a new species.
The U.S. State Department warned in a January fact sheet that WIV researchers had developed “symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses” in autumn 2019. The WHO report nonetheless takes the Chinese government at its word when it says there was “no reporting of COVID-19 compatible respiratory illness during the weeks/months prior to December 2019.”
Shi Zhengli of the WIV said last week that the lab has no ties to the Chinese military. But the State Department said in January that “the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military” for years. The U.S. claims were based on extensive intelligence, and the Biden Administration hasn’t disputed the findings. Did the WHO team even examine U.S. evidence?
The WHO’s tissue-thin analysis isn’t surprising. Chinese government scientists provided most of the data and worked with the international team to craft the report. Beijing has limited independent access to information on Covid-19’s origin, much as it silenced scientists and journalists who raised doubts about the official story last year. The report’s publication was repeatedly delayed, as both sides negotiated a report that is more political than scientific.
The WHO team is also compromised by conflicts of interest. Zoologist Peter Daszak, the American on the team, has collaborated with the WIV for years and supported gain-of-function research. As early as February 2020 he helped coordinate a statement in the Lancet condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.” Another team member, virologist Marion Koopmans, oversees an outfit in the Netherlands that has conducted gain-of-function research and could face serious repercussions if the pandemic started in a lab.
The Biden Administration hasn’t taken a definitive position on the lab-leak theory, but Covid-19 spokesman Anthony Fauci played down the idea last week. Dr. Fauci’s institute financed work at the WIV and has backed gain-of-function research. He’s the wrong man to reassure the public about lab research on coronaviruses.
Dr. Fauci was trying to rebut Robert Redfield, the former chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said last week that “I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory.” Dr. Redfield added that virus transfer to a lab worker is not unusual in such research.
***
Even the WHO recognizes the implausibility of the report. “I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions,” WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said Tuesday. “Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation.” He’s ready to deploy more specialists, but don’t expect Beijing to welcome them.
The U.S. and 13 other governments released a statement Tuesday expressing “shared concerns” that the WHO study “was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples.” That’s nice, but it sounds like they’re prepared to conclude that Covid’s origin story is unknowable and move on.
That shouldn’t be the end of it. The Biden Administration knows the underlying intelligence and should release it to the public. Unless it does, China’s propaganda backed by the WHO’s failure will prevail in much of world opinion. The Biden Administration says it wants to revitalize multilateral institutions, and that should start with refusing to accept the WHO’s Wuhan whitewash.
Appeared in the March 31, 2021, print edition.
I answered a question about god bullshit.
Why did God create Hell?
The god thing doesn't exist. The ancient people who were making things up about the imaginary god decided to make stuff up about a magical 2nd life, including both hell and heaven. The whole thing is ridiculous.
The god thing doesn't exist. The ancient people who were making things up about the imaginary god decided to make stuff up about a magical 2nd life, including both hell and heaven. The whole thing is ridiculous.
I'm adding this to my list of favorite quotes. Someone explained why religions are bullshit.
Holy religious fairytale myth books don’t even make for good toilet paper. That makes religion 100% useless. Garbage religions should be thrown in the trash can with all the other rotten, worthless junk. There was no excuse for religion to continue being part of our society after Darwin explained how biology works - without a magical fairy.
-- Llaberif
-- Llaberif
This is more evidence for the idea that Trump is a stupid fucking asshole. Thank goodness the moron was thrown out.
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A teacher in the UK showed his students a picture of Fucktard Muhammad. Muslim crybabies complained because they're stupid fucking assholes. I never met a Muslim who wasn't a fucking retard.
BBC News
Batley school protests: Probe into Prophet Muhammad row
A school where a teacher showed pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad is to be the subject of an independent probe, the trust which runs it has announced.
Protests were held at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire after the image was used in a lesson on 22 March.
A staff member was later suspended after complaints were made.
In a statement, Batley Multi Academy Trust said the investigation would review how "the materials [which caused offense] were used".
The issue of depicting the Prophet Muhammad
Batley school protests: Probe into Prophet Muhammad row
A school where a teacher showed pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad is to be the subject of an independent probe, the trust which runs it has announced.
Protests were held at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire after the image was used in a lesson on 22 March.
A staff member was later suspended after complaints were made.
In a statement, Batley Multi Academy Trust said the investigation would review how "the materials [which caused offense] were used".
The issue of depicting the Prophet Muhammad
More stories from Yorkshire
The statement from the trust also said the investigation into the use of the image depicting the founder of Islam "would make recommendations in relation to the Religious Studies curriculum".
An independent panel would be appointed to start work on 12 April, with any outcomes expected by the end of May, it added.
The trust runs five schools in West Yorkshire.
The school's head teacher Gary Kibble previously apologised "unequivocally" for the caricature being shown, adding that the member of staff had "given their most sincere apologies" and been suspended pending an investigation.
Demonstrators gathered outside the school on Thursday and Friday.
Some had demanded the teacher's sacking and accused the school of failing to take the issue seriously.
One of the protesters, a local resident who gave his name as Abdullah and who said he was not a parent but had relatives at the school, said the cartoon had offended "the whole Muslim community".
A petition has been set up calling for the school to reinstate the teacher.
Related Topics
I answered a dumb question.
What is God?
"God" also known as "The Magic Man" is a childish fantasy for people who are not too bright. It's about a magical creature who magically makes things happen while it hides somewhere in the universe.
"God" also known as "The Magic Man" is a childish fantasy for people who are not too bright. It's about a magical creature who magically makes things happen while it hides somewhere in the universe.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Some progress.
Played 1 Rapid game20976
Played 21 Rapid games209116
Played 2 Rapid games207512
Played 19 Rapid games20638
Played 15 Rapid games205513
Played 15 Rapid games20426
Played 20 Rapid games203627
Someone else wrote this and I agree with the whole thing. It's about religious brainwashing, also known as child abuse.
"Children should be taught how to think and not what to think. Childhood indoctrination is what causes people to become religious scumbags, which is the last thing we need more of. Religion is brain cancer and destructive to society. They try to influence politics with their crap and try to ban science to replace it with their magic such as creation. There is no integrity to religion whatsoever, it is just made up magic stories which has no evidence to support it. Credible fields use evidence to come to the truth, physicists, chemists and biologists perform experiments, mathematicians devise mathematical proofs, historians analyze historical documents. In religion they just make up things and say that it is true and force you to believe it with no reason to. This is why religitards don’t want their children to know how to think, for if they do they will be too smart to fall for their religious crap, so instead they indoctrinate them (which is serious child abuse)."
-- Oddreidar
-- Oddreidar
In the United States young people are throwing out the god bullshit, and that's a good thing.
The Washington Post
Religion
Church membership in the U.S. has fallen below the majority for the first time in nearly a century
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
March 29, 2021
The proportion of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a poll from Gallup released Monday. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73 percent.
In recent years, research data has shown a seismic shift in the U.S. population away from religious institutions and toward general disaffiliation, a trend that analysts say could have major implications for politics, business and how Americans group themselves. In 2020, 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48 percent, a new low point in the polling since 2000.
For some Americans, religious membership is seen as a relic of an older generation, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a pastor in the American Baptist Church. Gallup’s data finds that church membership is strongly correlated with age: 66 percent of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58 percent of baby boomers, 50 percent of Generation X and 36 percent of millennials.
Burge said many Christians still attend church but do not consider membership to be important, especially those who attend nondenominational churches. But no matter how researchers measure people’s faith — such as attendance, giving, self-identification — Americans’ attachment to institutional religion is on the decline.
Burge, who recently published a book about disaffiliating Americans called “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going,” predicts that in the next 30 years, the United States will not have one dominant religion.
“We have to start thinking about what the world looks like in terms of politics, policy, social service,” Burge said. “How do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked when Christians are half of what it was. Who picks up the slack, especially if the government isn’t going to?”
Christianity is declining at a rapid pace, but Americans still hold positive views about religion’s role in society
The coronavirus pandemic, which forced most churches to close in March 2020, has caused a major disruption to American religious life, with most people unable to join weekly mass gatherings. But polls have not found a dramatic impact on Americans’ religiosity in the past year. Americans are more likely than people in other countries to say that their religious faith has become stronger during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Tara Isabella Burton, author of “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World,” attributes the national decline in religious affiliation to two major trends among younger Americans. First, she points to broader shifts suggesting a larger distrust of institutions, including police and pharmaceutical companies. Some Americans are disillusioned by the behavior of religious leaders, including the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal and the strong White evangelical alignment with former president Donald Trump.
Southern Baptists see historic drop in membership
The other major trend Burton describes is how people are mixing and matching from various religious traditions to create their own. Many people who don’t identify with a particular religious institution still say they believe in God, pray or do things that tend to be associated with faith.
“Why shouldn’t I pray or meditate or attend a liturgy, or perhaps I feel closer to the divine when I can do something privately rather than something that’s prescribed for me,” she said. “It’s my own spin on it.”
Younger generations that grew up with the Internet have a different kind of relationship with information, texts and hierarchy, Burton said.
“Existing trends in American religious life were exacerbated by generations that grew up in Internet culture that celebrates ownership — the idea that you can re-create a meme or narrative,” she said. “You have ownership over curating your own experience.”
Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued in a recent essay for the Atlantic that what was once religious belief has been replaced by political belief in many communities.
On the political right, he said in an interview, conservative Christians focused on Trump as a political savior rather than focusing on their traditional questions of morality. Christians in the Republican Party, he said, are being less defined by their faith than by a set of more narrow concerns.
And on the political left, Hamid said, strains of “wokeism” have taken up religious notions like sin and excommunication and repurposed them for secular ends. Hamid said that because there aren’t clear leaders, such as priests or imams, or a transcendent source that defines belief, the standards for what is considered “woke” continues to change.
“The vacuum [of religion] can’t just remain a vacuum,” Hamid said. “Americans are believers in some sense, and there has to be structures of belief and belonging. The question is, what takes the place of that religious affiliation?”
Scott Clement contributed to this report.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a religion reporter, covering how faith intersects with politics and culture. She runs The Washington Post's religion vertical. Before joining The Post, she was a national correspondent for Religion News Service. Follow
Religion
Church membership in the U.S. has fallen below the majority for the first time in nearly a century
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
March 29, 2021
The proportion of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a poll from Gallup released Monday. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73 percent.
In recent years, research data has shown a seismic shift in the U.S. population away from religious institutions and toward general disaffiliation, a trend that analysts say could have major implications for politics, business and how Americans group themselves. In 2020, 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48 percent, a new low point in the polling since 2000.
For some Americans, religious membership is seen as a relic of an older generation, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a pastor in the American Baptist Church. Gallup’s data finds that church membership is strongly correlated with age: 66 percent of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58 percent of baby boomers, 50 percent of Generation X and 36 percent of millennials.
Burge said many Christians still attend church but do not consider membership to be important, especially those who attend nondenominational churches. But no matter how researchers measure people’s faith — such as attendance, giving, self-identification — Americans’ attachment to institutional religion is on the decline.
Burge, who recently published a book about disaffiliating Americans called “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going,” predicts that in the next 30 years, the United States will not have one dominant religion.
“We have to start thinking about what the world looks like in terms of politics, policy, social service,” Burge said. “How do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked when Christians are half of what it was. Who picks up the slack, especially if the government isn’t going to?”
Christianity is declining at a rapid pace, but Americans still hold positive views about religion’s role in society
The coronavirus pandemic, which forced most churches to close in March 2020, has caused a major disruption to American religious life, with most people unable to join weekly mass gatherings. But polls have not found a dramatic impact on Americans’ religiosity in the past year. Americans are more likely than people in other countries to say that their religious faith has become stronger during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Tara Isabella Burton, author of “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World,” attributes the national decline in religious affiliation to two major trends among younger Americans. First, she points to broader shifts suggesting a larger distrust of institutions, including police and pharmaceutical companies. Some Americans are disillusioned by the behavior of religious leaders, including the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal and the strong White evangelical alignment with former president Donald Trump.
Southern Baptists see historic drop in membership
The other major trend Burton describes is how people are mixing and matching from various religious traditions to create their own. Many people who don’t identify with a particular religious institution still say they believe in God, pray or do things that tend to be associated with faith.
“Why shouldn’t I pray or meditate or attend a liturgy, or perhaps I feel closer to the divine when I can do something privately rather than something that’s prescribed for me,” she said. “It’s my own spin on it.”
Younger generations that grew up with the Internet have a different kind of relationship with information, texts and hierarchy, Burton said.
“Existing trends in American religious life were exacerbated by generations that grew up in Internet culture that celebrates ownership — the idea that you can re-create a meme or narrative,” she said. “You have ownership over curating your own experience.”
Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued in a recent essay for the Atlantic that what was once religious belief has been replaced by political belief in many communities.
On the political right, he said in an interview, conservative Christians focused on Trump as a political savior rather than focusing on their traditional questions of morality. Christians in the Republican Party, he said, are being less defined by their faith than by a set of more narrow concerns.
And on the political left, Hamid said, strains of “wokeism” have taken up religious notions like sin and excommunication and repurposed them for secular ends. Hamid said that because there aren’t clear leaders, such as priests or imams, or a transcendent source that defines belief, the standards for what is considered “woke” continues to change.
“The vacuum [of religion] can’t just remain a vacuum,” Hamid said. “Americans are believers in some sense, and there has to be structures of belief and belonging. The question is, what takes the place of that religious affiliation?”
Scott Clement contributed to this report.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a religion reporter, covering how faith intersects with politics and culture. She runs The Washington Post's religion vertical. Before joining The Post, she was a national correspondent for Religion News Service. Follow
Some stuff from the Washington Post. It's too early to throw out your mask.
“I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” Walensky said at a White House news briefing Monday. “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now, I’m scared.”
Troubling signals abounded Monday. Daily case counts continued their trend in the wrong direction. The seven-day rolling average of infections, which is considered the most reliable measure of daily case counts, rose for the seventh consecutive day, finishing just below 64,000, according to reports from state health departments analyzed by The Washington Post.
Troubling signals abounded Monday. Daily case counts continued their trend in the wrong direction. The seven-day rolling average of infections, which is considered the most reliable measure of daily case counts, rose for the seventh consecutive day, finishing just below 64,000, according to reports from state health departments analyzed by The Washington Post.
Monday, March 29, 2021
Canada has a problem. Some of the Canadians are almost a stupid as the Americans. Christian assholes want to stick god-did-it in science classrooms.
Support rising for adding creationism to public school curriculum
Mario Canseco / Glacier News
MARCH 29, 2021
More than a decade has passed since the issue of creationism played a prominent role in a political campaign in Canada.
A few weeks before Ontarians cast their ballots in the 2007 provincial election, then-Progressive Conservative leader John Tory suggested that creationism could be taught alongside evolution in the province’s schools. The controversy created by his comments lasted a few days, and Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario Liberal Party ended up winning the contest.
Canadians have rarely been exposed to politicians discussing their religious beliefs in a public setting. The situation is different in the United States, where courting large groups of churchgoers can be essential to secure victory in congressional races. Simply put, there is little benefit for Canadian politicians who participate in photo-ops outside temples and churches, and plenty of risk in alienating those who hold different beliefs or none at all.
It might come as a surprise to see that, in a country that appears to appreciate the separation between church and state, there is some momentum to the idea of allowing Canadian students to learn about creationism inside their classrooms.
I have had the opportunity to ask questions about this topic since 2007. When Research Co. and Glacier Media revisited the issue again this year, more than half of Canadians (57%) believe that human beings evolved from less advanced forms of life over millions of years, while 26% think that God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years.
While 57% may seem to be an impressive statistic, it is the lowest level of belief in evolution observed in six different surveys over 14 years, and down nine points from the previous high recorded in 2018. In contrast, this is the first time that more than one in four Canadians have described themselves as creationists, a five-point increase in three years.
We find roughly the same proportion of creationists among Canadians aged 18 to 34 (29%) and Canadians aged 55 and over (28%). When it comes to Canadians aged 35 to 54, the proportion falls to 21%.
Regionally, Alberta leads the way with more than a third of residents (36%) believing that God created human beings. The numbers are lower in Atlantic Canada (33%), Manitoba and Saskatchewan (26%), Quebec (25%), Ontario (24%) and British Columbia (22%).
The uptick in the proportion of Canadians who appear to eschew evolution is accompanied by an increase on another metric. Across the country, 44% of Canadians think creationism – the belief that the universe and life originated from specific acts of divine creation – should be part of the school curriculum in their province, while 34% disagree and 23% are undecided.
While the proponents of creationism at schools do not yet represent a majority of Canadians, their ranks have grown by six points since 2018. Conversely, the proportion of respondents who openly oppose this idea have dropped by 12 points.
We could expect to see some drastic political differences on this issue, but the fluctuations are not particularly meaningful. We found that 49% of Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party of Canada in 2019 are in favour of teaching creationism in schools. The numbers are slightly lower among those who cast ballots for the Liberal Party of Canada (47%) and the New Democratic Party (NDP) (44%) in the last federal election.
The big disparities are at the regional level, with 53% of Albertans and 50% of Quebecers saying they would consent to schools teaching creationism. Fewer respondents concur with this point of view in Ontario (43%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (41%), Atlantic Canada (35%) and British Columbia (also 35%).
Most Canadians now are focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and the expected economic recovery. There also has not been a heated debate related to religion and education over the past few years. Still, the changes we are seeing nationally on these two questions since 2018 are noteworthy. We will have to wait longer to see if the trend continues, and whether politicians – particularly at the provincial level – decide to do something. •
Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.
Results are based on an online study conducted from March 17 to March 19 among 1,000 adults in Canada. The margin of error, which measures sample variability, is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Imagine the worst-case scenario then bet on it.
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
President Biden urged states to restore mask mandates, hours after the C.D.C. director said she felt “impending doom” about a new possible virus surge. |
Monday, March 29, 2021 3:10 PM EST |
Mr. Biden asked the nation to hold on longer, saying that he had directed his coronavirus team to ensure that there was a vaccination site within five miles of 90 percent of Americans within three weeks. He spoke a few hours after Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued perhaps her most impassioned warning to date about a possible fourth surge of the coronavirus, saying she felt a sense of “impending doom.” |
I wrote this somewhere else. It's about children being brainwashed to believe the moronic religious fantasy ever invented.
Students who were brainwashed to believe the most childish ridiculous fantasy ever invented, magical creationism, are unable to learn anything else. Science makes them cry. So they waste their lives believing "The Magic Man did it", instead of evolution which is the strongest fact of science.
I asked a question about religions. I'm adding the best answer to my list of favorite quotes.
People say they belong to the one true religion. Could all religions be wrong?
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
All religions are mental illnesses that plague the pea-brained.
-- Verulam
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
All religions are mental illnesses that plague the pea-brained.
-- Verulam
"Electric vehicle charging stations" and "offshore wind projects" are good things. President Biden is getting stuff done.
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
The Biden administration is moving to designate a swath of ocean between New York and New Jersey to be a priority zone for offshore wind projects. |
Monday, March 29, 2021 1:02 PM EST |
The move, which affects an area known as the New York Bight, comes as President Biden prepares an approximately $3 trillion economic recovery package that rests heavily on the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, improved power grids and other infrastructure key to cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Officials also announced $3 billion in loan guarantees available to offshore wind projects. |
The moon helped fix a problem here on Earth.
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
After five days, the mammoth cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal was finally wrenched free, clearing the way for global trade to resume. |
Monday, March 29, 2021 9:32 AM EST |
Salvage teams, working on land and water for five days and nights, were ultimately assisted by forces more powerful than any machine rushed to the scene: the moon and the tides. The ship was ultimately set free at around 3 p.m., according to shipping officials. Horns blared in celebration as images emerged on social media of the once stuck ship on the move. |
Russia
 March 29, 2021 |
 | By Claire Moses |
Good morning. Our Moscow bureau chief, Anton Troianovski, talks to us about Aleksei Navalny’s political machine in Russia. |
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Navalny vs. Putin |
Aleksei Navalny, the fiercest political opponent of Vladimir Putin, is in prison. He returned to Russia in January after recovering from a near-deadly poisoning in Siberia. After the police arrested him on charges that were widely seen as politically motivated, a wave of pro-Navalny protests swept the country. |
For today’s newsletter, Anton Troianovski, The Times’s Moscow bureau chief, catches us up on what’s going on in Russia. Our exchange has been edited for length. |
Claire: Let’s start with the basics. Who is Aleksei Navalny, and why were there protests in Russia recently? |
Anton: Navalny is Putin’s most prominent and best organized domestic critic. When Navalny tried to run for president in 2018, the Kremlin didn’t let him. But he opened offices nationwide and campaigned for people to boycott the election. And it’s that kind of organizing that really matters. He and his team produce YouTube videos that get millions of views. He can mobilize people. The question, now that Navalny is in prison, is whether he can continue to do that. |
What’s the basis of Navalny’s opposition? |
He says that Putin is a thief, that his party is corrupt and that regular Russians are suffering every day because of that: bad roads, crumbling hospitals. For Navalny, it’s all about fighting corruption and about creating a more fair and free society. |
What’s the current situation? |
Navalny is in prison, and his lawyers are saying his health is in decline. This past year also saw the advent of a new phase: The arrests and repression surrounding the Navalny protests were the most severe that Russia has seen under Putin. |
When Putin took power in 2000, Russia was essentially a democracy. Putin has been trying to stifle dissent more and more aggressively, but he is far from stamping it out. Young people, for instance, now tend to get their news from the internet, rather than from state TV. They are opposing Putin in extraordinary numbers — only 31 percent want to see him remain president, according to one recent poll. |
This month the Russian government said it was slowing access to Twitter. Why does that matter? |
Putin built his image and his power by controlling TV — that has always been his biggest weapon — but the internet remains essentially free in Russia. This is an experiment to see what Putin can do to squash those remaining freedoms that Russians have. |
Tell us about elections in Russia. |
Elections are not free and fair in Russia. For example, the ruling party gets almost infinite access to TV airwaves, and the opposition gets almost none. But they’re not 100 percent rigged, either. And that’s the loophole that the Navalny people — and other Putin opponents — are trying to use. There have been opposition candidates on the ballot, because this illusion of democracy matters to Putin. The whole concept that Putin presents is that he is the president because the majority of Russians want him to be. |
What’s next? |
Navalny’s team has promised to organize another nationwide protest once 500,000 people sign up for it; they haven’t given a date. After that, the next big moment could be around the parliamentary elections in September. That’s when Putin opponents of all stripes will really try to organize opposition to the Kremlin. The opposition is going to find ways to keep the pressure on, and the Kremlin will find means of fighting back even harder. |
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