The Uncanny Bobby Jindal

I watched the Republican response to Obama's speech the other day.  I was impressed with how they expressed, "We know we sold you a lemon before, but you can trust us to sell you a reliable used car THIS time!"

But I was also impressed by Bobby Jindal's almost-but-not-quite lifelike resemblance.  In fact, I think there's a graph of this somewhere... Oh, right:

(Learn more about the Uncanny Valley)

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Silencing Christians

Pam's House Blend reported on the launching of the new AFA website called, "Silencing Christians". Apparently it's run by Don Wildmon's son Tim, who's following in his father's footsteps.

From Pam's website:

The premise is that Christians are under assault by homosexualists, enabled by state and local governments and schools, to force them to accept LGBTs as -- gasp -- human beings deserving of civil rights! They are careful to mention "former homosexuals" and those struggling with "unwanted same-sex attraction" in order to soothe and absolve the target audience of "Christians" that their motivations are rooted in compassion, not bigotry.

Don Wildmon got this thing rolling back in February 2008 when he announced a 13 week half-hour television series called "Speechless... Silencing Christians" on the Inspiration cable network INSP. (Not available from any cable provider in my area.) After its run, he made it available as a streaming video online.

When he first announced this project, Wildmon had this to say:

For years, I have had a dream that AFA would find a way to produce and distribute TV programs addressing major moral issues, programs that explain how great the anti-Christian bias is in our society and that give viewers ways to respond.

On the "Silencing Christians" website, there is a survey. The survey asks thirteen questions, and gives "Yes, No, Maybe" multiple choice answers. However it would be better to answer these questions essay style.

For a site that is supposed to expose bias, these questions reveal a surprising amount of bias! I'll answer these questions here:

1. Do you believe the Bible condemns homosexuality as sin?


• Yes. Both in the New Testament and Old Testament. Jesus also condemns all women who divorce their husbands (for any offense) as adulterers. And Paul says Christians shouldn't sue each other in front of a secular judge. Perhaps we shouldn't be getting moral advice from a bunch of stories about amateur philosophers who lived a couple of thousand years ago?
  


2. Can homosexuals change their sexual orientation?


• No one really knows for sure, but in many cases the answer seems to be "no".


3. Should homosexuals be allowed to adopt children?


• Yes.
  


4. Should homosexuals be given the same special rights extended to African-Americans and other minorities?


• What "special rights" have been given to blacks? The right to not be treated as chattel? The right to be treated equally? The right to an interracial marriage? The right to the same rights as other American citizens? The language you use here exposes more than a little racism.


5. Should hate crimes legislation be passed that would call for more severe penalties for crimes against homosexuals?


• No. Hate crime legislation should be passed that gives equally severe penalties for a hate crime. In some states the penalty for a hate crime against a gay person is less than for a similar crime against an ethnic or religious minority. How is that fair?


6. Do you believe that churches and religious organizations should be forced to hire homosexuals?


• No. They are private organizations. Just like the Boy Scouts. They should be allowed to ban anyone they want from their clubs. However, if they do so they should be denied government funding of any sort so that the State may remain neutral toward religion. If the State gives money to a group who bans some of the State's citizens, then endorsement of this practice is implied. How could citizens be equal in these conditions?


7. Would you support a boycott of a major U.S. corporation that contributes money to support homosexual activist organizations?


• No. And judging from your results, neither should you. That boycott against Disney really brought them to their knees didn't it?


8. Should judges be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court who support extending special rights to homosexuals?


• No. Judges should be appointed who support equal rights to all citizens, and who uphold the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Special rights - such as the special right that some non-profit organizations must pay taxes while others don't, should be closely examined for fairness.


9. Should employers be forced to extend special consideration in the hiring of homosexuals?


• No. Employers should be forced to treat employees and potential employees equally in compliance with basic human rights and the rights that any American citizen has. In other words, no glass ceilings, no quid pro quo, no hiring minorities just because you need a "token", no firing employees because they refuse to believe in E-meters and Thetans, and no shuffling resumes to the bottom of the pile just because someone seems effeminate or butch.


10. Is the secular media demonstrating a bias in favor of the homosexual agenda?


• I don't know. Which secular media do you mean? Fox News? Is the secular media less biased about the "homosexual agenda" than the religious media? I don't think so.


11. Do you support amending the U.S. Constitution to limit marriage to a union between one man and one woman?


• No.


12. Should children in public schools be taught homosexuality is normal, acceptable, and equal to the traditional marriage of a man and a woman?


• It depends on the age of the children. Should we teach drivers education to kindergarteners? Or maybe have woodshop for first graders? Sex education is important, and some subjects are important enough to be taught before puberty, while other subjects can wait for later. By the time puberty happens, some kids are going to realize they are not like their friends. They shouldn't have to feel like outcasts because of this - so it would be immoral to allow kids to think that it is right to treat homosexuals differently, unequally.


13. Do you agree that Christians should be arrested for speaking against homosexuality in public places?


• No. I will gladly, vehemently defend a Christian's right to say whatever he feels is appropriate in a public place, as long as he or she doesn't break any law in doing so. (No yelling "Fire" in the theater.) However, I've noticed that preaching hate only gets a certain class of people to join your congregation. Is that who you really want as your membership?

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Steorn introduces salable product. Still no "Free Energy"

I just received a press release from Steorn. You might remember this company from my previous blog posts.

To summarize, Steorn dramatically advertised that they would demonstrate a mechanical "over unity" or perpetual motion machine back in July of 2007. Steorn announced that they would demonstrate this machine at the Kinetica Museum in London England, but the demonstration failed when it experienced "technical difficulties" due to the machine having an unforeseen sensitivity to light which caused it to fail. That was the last we heard about a public demonstration of their equipment.

Personally, I think their machine had an allergy to skeptical observation - but perhaps I'm too cynical? Seriously, I thought they were hyping impossible vaporware in order to attract gullible investors. I believed that they had no intention of creating any sort of real product.

Well, I was wrong, and I'm not afraid to admit it!

The press release from Steorn today has announced the foundation of a new laboratory. But better yet, it announced the availability of test equipment designed to support those "organisations developing rotary and magnetic systems." Here are Steorn's first two products in this lineup:

• A Hall-effect based sensor to measure the amount of magnetism of an object.
• A torque sensor - designed to measure the magnetic force component of torque.
  

These products seem to be geared for inventors who are experimenting with over-unity systems. These could be anyone from garage inventors to small firms.

On the Steonlab website, the products look sleek and beautiful. They are easily of Tektronix quality in visual appeal. They also come with software packages that create reams of data and graphs automatically.

You have to be a specially accepted member of the Steorn website before you are allowed to view product pricing, so I don't know how much this equipment costs. However, I read the Steornlabs legal Terms and Conditions with interest:

Every order placed via our Website will be subject to acceptance by Steorn. We reserve the right to decline any order without providing a reason for doing so, regardless of whether payment has been received by us. Should we decline an order where payment has been received, the payment will be refunded in full.

Wow, that's not creepy or paranoid at all is it? You don't see Tektronix doing something as silly as this.


I think Steorn has found a way to make a product that they can actually sell, without coming out and admitting that perpetual motion or energy machines don't actually work. I think that their product will be geared to those individuals who fervently believe in "over unity", but who don't have the foundational knowledge to realize that they can duplicate these sensors in their own labs using off-the-shelf parts. (Hint - buy a Hall Effect sensor, and hook it up to a Tektronix digital storage oscilloscope. Learn to use the basic skills you would learn in a freshman Physics lab to subtract environmental forces from the forces you intend to measure. Learn to use Excel to make your own graphs.)

If you don't have the training or ability of a competent electronics technician, I guess the Steorn equipment would be pretty valuable to you.


In this press release, Steorn also mentions the release of "ZeroF passive magnetic bearings" due out sometime this summer. But I'm not sure what that could be. The name seems to suggest that these bearings will be free of magnetic flux, which would be useful if your perpetual motion machine is allergic to unforeseen electromagnetic energy. (Light, for example.)

Steorn also announced that it's over unity machine, the "Orbo" is due out by the end of this year. Finally! I can't wait to get one. I plan on feeding the output energy from my Orbo into the input and create my own mult-megaton explosion!

But I guess I'll have to do that in a dark room.

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