The Evolution of Religion

Creationists sometimes suggest that evolution is just another religion (and a false one, at that). This very cool video, found on Effect Measure this morning, shows how creationist beliefs are actually the product of evolution, and challenges theists to explain that paradox:

HB 353 Vetoed!

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman vetoed HB 353 today! This is a great victory for gamers, retailers, and developers alike.

Huntsman is really on a roll. He’s made significant progress on normalizing Utah’s backwards liquor laws, recently spoke out against the unproductive partisanship of Congressional Republicans (Huntsman is a Republican governor), and now has once again solved a problem with reason and critical thinking, bucking huge supporting majorities in both the House and the Senate in so doing.

There are a lot of things I dislike about Utah, but Governor Huntsman certainly ain’t one of ‘em. Thanks, Gov!

Geithner Releases Plan, Dow Rebounds

Remember a while back when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave that embarrassing press conference in which he was supposed to reveal the details of his plan to rescue the economy, and instead revealed that a plan was being worked on and would be forthcoming at some indeterminate time in the future?

Well, today he delivered. And at this moment, the Dow is up over 497 points.

The in-depth details of the plan can be found here. I’m still trying to digest exactly how it works, so I’m reserving judgment for now on whether or not it’s a good plan. But the short-term response appears to be pretty positive so far, which is very encouraging.

It’s good to have the adults back in charge.

Arrogance, Incompetence, and Greed

New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes (D) quipped the other day that what AIG really stands for is “Arrogance, Incompetence, and Greed”.

AIG apparently really wants to live up to their new name, according to the New York Times today:

A.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Payments

While the American International Group comes under fire from Congress over executive bonuses, it is quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax havens.

So let me get this straight:

• They dramatically overleveraged themselves on incredibly risky and incomprehensible credit derivatives, using other people’s money in a grossly irresponsible way
• When their house of cards started to collapse, they accepted almost $200 billion worth of bailout money from taxpayers, on faith that that money would be used to rectify the situation
• Using that money, they paid out multiple rounds of exhorbitant “performance” and “retention” bonuses, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth, to largely the same executives that dug this hole in the first place
• Furthermore, said executives and other employees were treated to multiple high-class junkets on the taxpayer’s dime, even as the company circled the drain
• When called out on their grossly irresponsible and unethical use of the bailout money, they rushed to defend their behavior, claiming that it is necessary to retain their top talent
• They remain willfully ignorant of the fact that their “top talent” are among the least effective executives in the history of United States corporate enterprise, and that 80% of their company is owned by the United States government
• And finally, because wasting taxpayers’ bailout funds wasn’t enough, they are suing their benefactors to, in effect, retroactively immunize themselves from taxation

I hereby nominate “Arrogance, Incompetence, and Greed” as the Understatement of the Century.

FUD Over HB353

Utah’s HB 353, which would impose penalties for retailers who advertise that they do not sell M-rated games to minors, but then proceed to do so anyway, carries on its tortured journey. Next stop: the Utah Senate, where it will be voted upon by midnight tomorrow.

I got an URGENT! email from the Video Game Voters’ Network this morning, which read in part:

Why is this bill bad? No video game retailer wants to be exposed to these kinds of lawsuits. If this bill becomes law, retailers could be forced to take drastic and counter-productive steps to avoid possible lawsuits by no longer using the ESRB ratings to protect children, and they may even have to stop selling video games!

While I do oppose HB 353, this characterization is a bit extreme and, in my view, inaccurate. I made a related post before about opposing misinformation, and it cuts both ways: just because VGVN is on “our side” doesn’t grant them a free pass to spread FUD, even if it is from a pro-game point of view.

Specifically, there appears to be nothing in the current version of the bill — the full text of which is available here — that suggests that retailers would “have to stop selling video games”. The problem is not a video game prohibition; it is the unintended incentive in the bill for retailers to abandon their age-verification policies, which I recently outlined in The Unintended Consequences of Utah HB 353.

I am by no means suggesting that we ignore the VGVN’s call to action; in fact, it would be well worth your time to visit their action center and write to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Morley. But make sure that you’re arguing the right point, and not just shouting FUD at our legislators.

If we expect to hold our critics to a higher standard, we must first start with ourselves.