A new Dawkins interview

June 21, 2016 • 1:00 pm

Hot off the press, with almost no YouTube views, we have a six-minute interview that Richard gave yesterday to the BBC’s “Sunday Morning Live” (the interviewer isn’t named). This is his first real appearance, beyond his videotaped Reason Rally speech, on a televised interview. Considering his stroke, he seems to be doing very well despite, as he admits, a slight tiredness in his voice (he’s also lost his ability to sing).

I doubt there is much that those who follow Richard will learn from this, but it’s still worth watching for as least one thing. At 5 minutes in, the interviewer seems to become a bit insensitive, not only asking him about his mortality and what he thinks lies beyond the grave (the answer should be clear), but then asking him if he’s changed his mind about that (the answer is equally clear). She seems to be probing, à la Larry Alex Taunton, whether Richard might be flirting with God after his stroke.

I doubt that an interviewer would ask the same question to, say, the Archbishop of Canterbury. “So, Archbishop Welby, have you considered the possibility that you’re dead wrong about your faith, and that when you die, well, that’s all, folks?”

Note Richard’s different-colored socks. I’m trying to find out what’s up with that.

A tw**t

June 21, 2016 • 12:30 pm

Alexandra Petri writes for The Washington Post, and this morning emitted the following tw**t. I don’t know Petri, but she seems to have a good sense of humor, and I issued one of my very rare responses to a tw**t. (You’ll have to go to the post below to see it.)

This was followed, of course, by other tw**ts:

https://twitter.com/geoffb/status/745260194389590016

and then this:

Readers are, of course, welcome to join the fun. I’m sure Ms. Petri would love it.

“Bacon and God’s Wrath” for international viewers

June 21, 2016 • 10:00 am

It seems that several viewers outside the U.S. were unable to see the lovely short film “Bacon & God’s Wrath” that I mentioned yesterday. Reader Heather Hastie found a link that worked–at least in New Zealand. Click on the screenshot below, and then go to the right, where it says “watch the short film,” click on that link, and then enter the password BACON, making sure it’s in all caps.

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Justice Department finally releases full, unredacted version of Omar Mateen’s 911 call. Nothing to see here, folks; move along

June 21, 2016 • 9:45 am

Yesterday I mentioned how the U.S. Attorney General said that when the transcripts of Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen’s calls to police were released, they would be censored to avoid “furthering his propaganda.” I and others objected strenuously, as it wouldn’t tell us much we didn’t know already, and was just another bit of the government’s patronizing and unsuccesful attempt to avoid implicating religion in the deed. (This avoidance of naming religious inspiration for terrorists was called “The Voldemort Effect” by Maajid Nawaz.)

Well, now Mateen’s initial 911 call, in which he mentioned religion, has been released, uncensored, by the FBI, and of course the source is Fox News, though the transcripts themselves come from Heavy.com.  And those of who you said the government had a valid excuse to protect national security will learn that you were wrong.

Others justified the redaction on the grounds that releasing the “allegiance” would cause a backlash of violence against American Muslims. Now that the full transcript has been released, let us see if that will happen. I predict not, for, after all, what Omar said has been widely known for some time (it was overheard by some of the nightclub patrons), and there’s no sign of a backlash yet. If you predicted one and it didn’t materialize, please admit below that you were wrong!

On to the report. Fox notes that the FBI’s decision to not censor the call was because the censored bits constituted an “unnecessary” distraction. The real reason was that Senators—sadly, mostly Republicans—objected strenuously.

The FBI and DOJ reversed the morning decision and released the full transcript in an afternoon news release.

“Unfortunately, the unreleased portions of the transcript that named the terrorist organizations and leaders have caused an unnecessary distraction from the hard work that the FBI and our law enforcement partners have been doing to investigate this heinous crime,” the organizations said in a statement.

The only complete transcript released was of the 911 calls. Several calls made later to crisis negotiators were only released in summarized form with few direct quotes provided.

Heavy gives the transcripts, such as they are, after a brief introduction (my emphasis):

Under pressure from Republican leaders, the Justice Department on Monday afternoon reversed itself and released a full, uncensored transcript of the Orlando terrorist’s 911 call on the night of the massacre, calling the morning’s furor over omissions in the document “an unnecessary distraction.”

An earlier version of the transcript had deleted the word “Islamic State” and the name of ISIS leader “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” Omar Mateen made the 50-second 911 call in which he claimed responsibility for the terror attack and pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s leader at 2:35 a.m. The call came just over a half hour into the June 12 slaughter at gay nightclub Pulse.

“I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State,” Mateen says on the new transcript.

The old version had several words scrubbed and read: “I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted].”

Here’s the transcript of the 911 call; the communications after that with police are not given verbatim, but summarized by the FBI and reproduced at the site. I’ve put the part the government didn’t want us to see in bold.

911 call:

2:02 a.m.: OPD call transmitted multiple shots fired at Pulse nightclub.
2:04a.m.: Additional OPD officers arrived on scene.
2:08 a.m.: Officers from various law enforcement agencies made entrance to Pulse and engaged the shooter.
2:18 a.m.: OPD S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons & Tactics) initiated a full call-out.
2:35 a.m.: Shooter contacted a 911 operator from inside Pulse. The call lasted approximately 50 seconds, the details of which are set out below:

Orlando Police Dispatcher (OD)
Shooter (OM)

OD: Emergency 911, this is being recorded.

OM: In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficial [said in Arabic]

OD: What?

OM: Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [said in Arabic]. I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.

OD: What’s your name?

OM:My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.

OD: Ok, What’s your name?

OM:I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [said in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State.

OD: Alright, where are you at?

OM: In Orlando.

OD: Where in Orlando?

[End of call.]

The further information released by the FBI is along these lines:

In these calls, the shooter, who identified himself as an Islamic soldier, told the crisis negotiator that he was the person who pledged his allegiance to [omitted], and told the negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that is why he was “out here right now.” When the crisis negotiator asked the shooter what he had done, the shooter stated, “No, you already know what I did.” The shooter continued, stating, “There is some vehicle outside that has some bombs, just to let you know. You people are gonna get it, and I’m gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid.” Later in the call with the crisis negotiator, the shooter stated that he had a vest, and further described it as the kind they “used in France.” The shooter later stated, “In the next few days, you’re going to see more of this type of action going on.” The shooter hung up and multiple attempts to get in touch with him were unsuccessful.

So, folks, you now see what the government didn’t want us to see. The attempted redaction is ridiculous, and there’s simply no valid excuse to remove those words.

I predict no outbreak of violence against Muslims after the names of al-Baghdadi and Islamic State were released. Obama and the Justice Department were simply being patronizing and clueless.

As for whether or not you believe Mateen was motivated at least in part by his faith, well, you can judge for yourself. It’s possible that Mateen simply cited ISIS and its leader as false reasons, and the real motivation was, as some surmise, homophobia. It’s now seems likely that both religion and homophobia were involved in this, for as a British gay Muslim who almost committed terrorism said on the Rachel Maddow show, that’s an explosive mix. For those who claim that only homophobia was involved, and that religion had nothing to do with it, one then must postulate why Mateen still mentioned Islam. After all, when Christians kill abortion doctors in the name of their faith, there’s no rush to deny that. 

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 21, 2016 • 9:00 am
Today have our first contribution from Official Website Artist™ Kelly Houle, who, after six years of waiting, was finally able to see a night-blooming cereus, a sporadically-blooming flower on a cactus native to northern Mexico and the American Southwest. There are noms in the report, too. Kelly’s words are indented:
Here are some photos I took last night in Tucson during “Bloom Night“. It’s an event centered around the collective blooming of the largest public collection of night- blooming cereus (Peniocereus greggii), put on by Tohono Chul Botanical Gardens, a hidden gem of Tucson.
You can sign up on the Tohono Chul website to get updates each year leading up to the event. The park takes great pains to have food, drinks, and luminarias lighting the path on the special night with only a few hours notice. Yesterday at 11am the announcement was made that “The Queen of the Night” would be making her appearance, so I packed a bag and hustled down to Tucson to be there for the mass flowering.
First, a lovely dinner in the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro—the cool salmon chop salad sounded good on a 111-degree afternoon!
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Here is a bad photo of the Peniocereus greggii for sale in the Tohono Chul Botanical Garden greenhouse. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but if you’ve seen one of these you know that it’s best described as a clump of thin, spiky cactus sticks in a pot. The cost was $100 for these mature, ready-to-bloom plants, with smaller, even less attractive spiky sticks going for $20. I may go back for one of these. How have they even survived?
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JAC: The Tucson Gardner website shows a picture of this species from the Tucson Botanical Gardens:
Peniocereus greggii
A full moon (hiding behind a tree) and lots of bats and nighthawks (not pictured, don’t strain your eyes) set the scene for a presentation on the science of predicting such an event and an oral reading of the Papago Tohono O’odham legend of the night-blooming cereus.
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Mourning dove [Zenaida macroura] on a Seussian desert century plant (A. americana, possibly?):
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Luminarias border the winding desert paths for the very long line of visitors. At sunset it was probably  just starting to dip below 100 degrees.
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The spectacular blooms open on only one night a year. Nobody knows what triggers almost all of them to do this on the same night. Temperature does not seem to be the cause. It’s a scientific mystery yet to be solved.
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There’s a book about such flowers called The Evening Garden, Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk till Dawn by Peter Loewer. It has a nice chapter on night-blooming cactuses. Maybe it will inspire people to plant “moon gardens” with night-blooming plants that attract moths and bats!
I’ll add that Kelly has put some new paintings, prints, miniature art books, and “Darwin cards” up for sale on her eBay site, so go have a look. For many of the items, a part of the proceeds goes to the Official Website Charity™, Doctors Without Borders, and most of the other art items benefit other good charities.

Tuesday: Hili dialogue (and Leon lagnaippe)

June 21, 2016 • 8:06 am

The real summer began yesterday afternoon in the U.S., so it’s the first full day of summer, and also World Humanist Day. Yes, it’s June 21, 2016, and I’ll be flying back to Chicago this morning. On this day in 1764, the town of Halifax was founded in Nova Scotia. In 1964, the three civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan, a killing I remember well. Finally, on June 21, 2009, Greenland began self rule. If you’re a Greenlander (is that the right name for the residents), give us a shout-out.

Notables born on this day include Jean-Paul Sartre (1905), Ray Davies of the Kinks (1944) and writer Ian McEwan (1948). Those who died on this day include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1908) and Carroll “Archie Bunker” O’Connor (2001). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is unusually concerned with existential matters, which means that she was recently fed:

Hili: How strange it all is…
A: What’s so strange?
Hili. The world. We are trying to comprehend it and it’s still incomprehensible.
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In Polish:
Hili: Jakie to wszystko dziwne…
Ja: Co jest takie dziwne?
Hili: Świat, próbujemy go zrozumieć, a on dalej jest niezrozumiały.

And in nearby Wroclawek, Leon is Nap-Shamed!: (Cats sleep on average about 16 hours a day.)

Leon: I just take a nap and they are saying immediately that I’m a sybarite.

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Finally,vwe have a squirrel from reader Diana MacPherson:

I have had migraine issues since Friday with this stupid weather front coming through (it’s in the mid 30s C). I worked from home today, which meant I got to see all the squirrels at the feeder. Here is a cute Eastern Grey Squirrel laying in the grass under the shade of a tree. He looks snake/weasel with his long tail.

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It’s summer, and there’s a very rare full moon tonight

June 20, 2016 • 7:55 pm

Summer began about two hours ago (6:34 pm on the east coast). Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the “strawberry moon”, which is not really a red moon, but a full moon that occurs about the time the strawberries are ripening. But the Doodle does have strawberries and—a squirrel:

summer-solstice-strawberry-moon-5156509353771008.2-hp

As Snopes.com notes:

The summer solstice, the official start of summer (according to the calendar, if not necessarily the weather), is the longest day of the year, and this year it is accompanied by a fairly rare event: it coincides with a so-called “strawberry moon,” the folkloric name given to June’s full moon.

What does tonight’s moon have to do with fruit? It’s not because the moon will look reddish, as many people think. Rather, according to “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” the strawberry moon was given that name by the Algonquin tribes because it occurs right at the height of the season when strawberries are harvested. Other names for this month’s full moon are the “hot moon” and the “rose moon.”

Starwatchers will have the first chance to see a full moon on the summer solstice in nearly fifty years. The last time these two phenomena occurred together was at the beginning of 1967’s Summer of Love, and it won’t happen again until 2062.

Well, I’d be well over 110 then, and odds are I won’t be around, so I’ll be sure to look at the moon—if you can see it from Beverly Hills!

Beginning at 8 pm EST, or NOW, you can see a livestream of the full moon at the YouTube site below:

 

Maajid Nawaz on terrorism, American hypocrisy, and “the Voldemort effect”

June 20, 2016 • 4:00 pm

Curiously, Maajid Nawaz, a liberal Muslim who constantly presses for a reformation of radical Islam, has been demonized by many on the left, even though, unlike Ayaan Hirsi Ali, he’s apparently not an atheist. He’s been called a “porch monkey” as well as Sam Harris’s “lapdog” and “Muslim validator,” and was even criticized by the odious Nathan Lean for dressing too nicely! It’s almost as if a liberal Muslim has no credibility with the Left at all, and negative credibility if he’s Westernized! Nawaz is the cofounder and chair of the Qulliam Foundation, dedicated to taming Islamic extremism.

Why, then, is he so demonized? It’s a mystery to me, and maybe readers can explain. At any rate, here’s a video just released by Nawaz showing his appearance on Fox News. Why a right-wing news channel? We all know the answer to that: what Nawaz says is inimical to the mainstream liberal press, marinated in Regressive Leftism. He actually calls out religious ideology, and that’s a no-no.

The part I like best is this, starting at 3:25:

“I am entirely exhausted by the obfuscation, the denialism, the double standards in this debate. President Obama is playing politics with evil. He’s so scared of offending people that he would rather assassinate people without any accountability, so he has a kill list. Everyone knows he has a kill list. He’d rather send drones illegally into countries, he’d rather arbitrarily detain than actually offend a Muslim. That’s the situation that liberals find themselves in today. And frankly, as a liberal, I’d rather offend someone than send out people to assassinate them without due process. I’d rather have that civil society debate, and the only way I can have that, by the way, is naming exactly what I’m challenging.”

Now listen to Maajid Nawaz on this video, and, if you’re a Leftist, tell me what you find objectionable. For the life of me, I can’t find anything.