Last night, LL and I went to the Greater Worcester Humanists holiday pot luck and yankee swap. There was a big announcement to start things off. Our chapter's president, David Niose, has been named president of the American Humanist Association. He'll begin serving his two-year term in January, moving up from his current position as treasurer of the organization.
It was also reported that due to the ongoing growth and success of we Greater Worcester Humanists, Cambridge-based Humanist Association of Massachusetts will be changing its name to Greater Boston Humanists to better convey their geographic extent. Big news; GWH is on the map all over the country.
The present I brought was an assortment of three books: Gould's The Panda's Thumb, Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things, and The Good Spell Book: Love Charms, Magical Cures, and Other Practical Sorcery. What good is Shermer's book without some weird beliefs as a companion volume, after all? As luck would have it, the person who wound up with the books was a woman whom I think was at least in her early 80's. I told her that I hoped the love spells would work for her. If she shows up at the next meeting with a 20 year-old boy toy, we'll all know why.
Since the Evolving Darwin Play Set seems to be the hot Humanist toy this year, I thought it would be only fair to "teach the controversy." I've thus intelligently designed an analogous toy for Creationists, the Creationist Darwin Play Set. Here's my prototype:
There's another Wal-Mart going up on what used to be the site of a US Steel plant between Route 146 and the Blackstone River here in Worcester. Construction ran into a little snag yesterday, though, when three unexploded 8" shells were found buried there:
Explosives experts and local fire and police personnel spent several hours yesterday trying to figure out what to do with old artillery shells found by construction workers on the site of the former U.S. Steel complex on Tobias Boland Way.
A state police bomb squad spent most of the afternoon and early evening on the vast construction site, which is slated to become a Wal-Mart retail store...
"It appears to be old ordnance," District Fire Chief Ronald Fritz said. "There were a couple of eight-inch shells, about 16 inches tall. They've been there for years."
He said the state bomb squad was called in, and said they were trying to determine what to do with the ordnance — take it somewhere, or detonate it on site...
Here's my suggestion: leave the shells where they are. Wal-Mart's effects on a community are often worse than a couple of small explosive devices going off and we've already got several superstores in the area. Besides, wouldn't it be just a little bit more exciting to shop at Wal-Mart if you knew that doing so could result in grievous bodily harm at any moment? I haven't heard that the Valley Stream, NY superstore is closing down just because of a few tramplings. Why should a couple of old artillery shells be bad for business in Worcester?
United Health Foundation has just released its 2008 America's Health Rankings. The report considers a number of components the UHF considers important to public health, analyzes their availability compared to a national mean on a state-by-state basis, and then ranks each state according to its overall score.
The overall result is shown in the following chart, listing the states from healthiest to least healthy according to the study's metrics:
I won't get into the minutia of everything that went into these calculations. If you're interested in them, all the information you could possibly need is available via the UHF.
It's also interesting to check out the Nation at a Glance clickable map. There, you can click a state to get a brief list of strengths and challenges as well as a snapshot that gives considerably more detail of trends in the state.
A few particulars leap right out, though. With the exception of Nevada (#42), the bottom 10 states in terms of overall health are all southern states. Five of the top ten (Vermont #1, New Hampshire #3, Massachusetts #6, Connecticut #7 and Maine #9) are in New England. In fact, the only New England state not in the top 10 is Rhode Island, which comes in at #11. No southern state made the top 10; the highest ranked among those is Virginia at #20. In fact, it's the only state in the southeast that comes in above the national average, to which Arizona comes closest.
According to the report, Massachusett's biggest overall public health challenge is binge drinking. Louisiana, at the bottom of the list, has low binge drinking as one of its strengths. This reveals a personal bias of mine; because of Mardi Gras, I always connect Louisiana with drinking, so it's a surprise to learn that its more of a problem here than there.
I also can't help thinking back to the Pew Religious Landscape Survey (I blogged about it here). It's interesting to note that the most religious states are also the ones that come in at the bottom of the UHF's health ranking and the least religious come out near the top. Mississippi, for instance, was the most religious state of all according to Pew's metrics and according to UHF ranks #49 out of 50 in terms of public health (it ranked dead last in 2007, but Louisiana has now surpassed it). This is correlation and doesn't demonstrate that poor public health increases religious sentiments, nor vice versa, but the correlation is unmistakable overall (Utah in particular bucks the trend, however). I suspect that there may well be a factor common to both religious fervor (e.g. fundamentalist tendencies) and poor health when it comes to the bigger public health picture. Perhaps poverty, for instance, and/or lack of access to good education might be a contributing factor in the correlated results of both studies.
In any case, the Health Rankings report is interesting to poke about in. Enjoy.
Framingham State College kicks off its Year of Darwin series next week with Judge John Jones, who will be speaking at the Dwight Performing Arts Center at 7:00 PM. Jones, you will recall, presided over the Dover, PA case (Kitzmiller v. Dover) in which the advocates of Intelligent Design Creationism were slapped upside their pointy little heads by the conservative Reagan appointee. Remember that one? The one where the Discovery Institute slinked away with its tail between its legs at the last minute and Michael Behe came off the witness stand smelling like a septic tank? Yeah, I thought you did.
Jones will, of course, be discussing the Dover case and why Intelligent Design isn't science. That's a week from today — November 30, 7:00 PM. Admission is a measly $5.
As much as the last US elections might have been about change, one thing hasn't changed at all. We are still a nation with only two viable political parties, Republicans and Democrats, and one of those two parties was essentially ground up into something that looks like red sausage. It's now eating itself and, at the same time, trying to figure out what it's going to do next. Personally, I didn't vote for anything or anyone Republican in the last election, nor in the one before that, nor even in the one before that one. The Republicans don't represent anything in which I believe, so I don't have any motivation to vote for them. In fact, they've long since turned themselves into the antithesis of anything for which I would personally stand. They've become the party of social cruelty and culture war. The last election pointed out to them, I think, that there are a lot of people like me out there.
In looking forward, one of the memes that keeps bubbling to the surface is "Palin 2012." Really? This is a good idea? Palin, after all, was brought into the campaign for two reasons. The first was in an attempt to attract support from supposedly disenfranchised Hillary Clinton backers, and all evidence points to her failing miserably in this mission. The second reason was to "energize" the base — the gaggle of socially arch-conservative, religiously motivated and anti-intellectual voters that would normally vote Republican no matter what but for whom McCain himself held little to no appeal. These aren't people who were going to vote for Obama on election day; the danger was that they wouldn't vote at all. Palin's run at vice president was a success on this count, but as we saw, success in this case doesn't look much like victory. Assuming no dramatic swing back to the far right — and the evidence seems to suggest a generational change is at work against such an event — Palin isn't likely to win a nomination in 2012, let alone a general election. This has less to do with her portrayal as a bit of Alaskan fluff by the media. What has become the Republican base is simply shrinking. People are fed up with the fostering of a divided society whose leaders are terrified by progress and insistent upon moral absolutes in all things, that demands absolute freedom for markets even as it erodes the liberty of individuals.
What, then, might be the future of this party? If it doesn't lie with Sarah Palin and her "you betcha, gosh darn golly Joe Sixpack drill baby drill and buy your own damned rape kit" ideologies, then who might carry the torch forward?
We're beginning to see some clues, particularly from the coasts — places in which Republicans haven't been doing very well at carrying national elections for the past couple of cycles and which are generally written off and derided by their base. The fact is, though, that these are also places with the weight of population in their favor, ignored at the peril of ever having influence in politics. The rigidly dogmatic social stances of the GOP as it has been — the GOP of the base — is likely going to have to change if they're going to play in such places as a national party. For instance, even though Proposition 8 passed in California and gay marriage got banned, the fact is that a margin of about 20 points in a 2000 attempt at banning it has shrunk to one of only 5 points this time around. The trend there is clearly, powerfully, away from unreasoning traditionalism and toward increasing tolerance of diversity.
We'll take our first clue from the Governator, California's own Arnold Schwarzenegger. In today's LA Times, Schwarzenegger had this to say about Proposition 8's passage:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage...
Schwarzenegger publicly opposed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
On Sunday, he urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. "I learned that you should never ever give up. . . . They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done."
This is the same Ahnold who had Republicans so excited not long ago that there was talk of amending the US Constitution to allow for citizens not born in the United States to become President for the first time in our history. Has the confluence of these messages sunk in yet, one wonders, with whatever passes for GOP leadership? Touting Palin and similar far-right candidates might play well in particular congressional districts and maybe in population-poor places like Oklahoma and Wyoming, but on the national level it's a sure path to failure.
A second clue comes from the East Coast, particularly from New England. In the Boston Globe, Republican columnist James Peyser talks about "How New England's Republicans Can Hit Restart":
...The number of Massachusetts Republicans in the US Congress remains stuck at zero. The party's US Senate candidate polled less than a third of the votes, winning only one town in the entire state. Come January, there will be not a single New England Republican in the US House of Representatives...
The underlying problem for Republicans is the absence of a compelling conservative vision for the future that is aligned with New England's more tolerant and civic-minded political sensibilities...
Today's conservative agenda includes a censorious social policy that panders to the Christian right, a guns and butter fiscal policy that would make Lyndon Johnson blush, and a Wilsonian foreign policy that is increasingly untethered from the national interest...
A new Republican vision should focus squarely on the future, with a sense of hope for what lies ahead. Any conservatism worthy of the name honors tradition. But there is all the difference in the world between careful stewardship of our heritage and rigid traditionalism... Unfortunately, the loudest voices of conservatism on the national stage today are more likely to bemoan America's decline than to praise its potential. They are also increasingly known for their resistance to science, technology, and change. This rejection of hope and progress runs against the grain of the American spirit and is a formula for even more electoral defeats...
In short, the religious moral absolutists, the Luddites and Creationists, the culture warriors, the Palin/Limbaugh/Coulter far-right wing of the GOP needs to be jettisoned if there's going to be a nationally viable GOP at all. What makes America great, and what excites the electorate, isn't feverish clinging to 18th century absolutism, it's the looking forward to the future, the change, the advancement. It's optimism, not fear. It's opening up the culture to the next leap in its evolution, not huddling in our caves and hoping that the thunder god doesn't hurl lightning bolts down upon our miserable heads. The base is not enough anymore, and good riddance to its dominance.
I've never been one to be in favor of a political system that provides a realistic choice between only two parties. When push comes to shove, I would like very much to see a more parliamentarian system in which there are numerous parties spanning the political spectrum that must forge compromises and alliances in order for government to function. In my ideal world, America would have at least a dozen parties from which voters could choose and complete dominance by any one party would be a vanishingly rare event. Such a system, I think, would better insure that all voices were heard and create better representation for all of us, wherever we might fall across the spectrum. But that's an ideal world that seems incredibly unlikely to come into existence within the lifetime of anyone reading this. It would seem that, for the foreseeable future, we will continue to have only one more party than a one-party state. If Republicans want to preserve even that much diversity, though, it's incumbent upon them to start becoming less ideological and more representative.
The dinosaurs of the extreme right wing aren't going to be much of a part of this sort of outcome, unfortunately for them but much to the joy of those of us who are sick and tired of seeing the populace turned against itself. The purveyors of fear and ignorance are due for a return back to the fringe of political discourse which, in truth, is where they've always belonged. It is in our own best national interest as Americans that the GOP does this in the course of expanding its appeal and becoming a national party. It will help insure that we all do better, that our country does better, that we move forward into something like a hopeful future — even if we as individuals still disagree with some of the party's new platform enough not to vote for them.
Can the GOP run Palin in 2012? Absolutely. It's their prerogative to do so if they wish. Anyone can go to the dance and choose to be a wallflower if they so desire. If they want to move forward and so move the nation forward, though, they'd be well-advised to listen attentively to other voices within their own party. The message coming from the coasts, delivered by people like Schwarzenegger and Peyser, is loud and clear. If the national GOP doesn't want to hear it, if they prefer to stick their fingers in their ears and keep doing the same things that have resulted in the results of the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, then the electorate is also free to shake its collective head and hope that the GOP enjoys its exile in Oklahoma.
In case you haven't seen this video already, this redolent summation of the depths of ignorance and paranoia, watch it now. There will be a quiz.
As much as I find the video itself appalling insofar as what it reveals about just how much the stupid can burn, the recent passage of California's Proposition 8 and similar referenda in places like Florida, Arizona and Arkansas leave me asking the same question the benighted woman narrating it asked. What the hell is oozing out of our ground?
There is a meanness in these new laws, a cruelty that is most loudly voiced by the fact that California will not only put a halt to future same-sex marriages but there are those who are now attempting to void those which have already taken place. Surprise, surprise... they're based in Florida:
Mathew Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based conservative legal group, said last week that if Prop. 8 passes, Liberty Counsel would seek to invalidate all same-sex marriages already performed in California. Randy Thomasson, president of the Sacramento-based SaveCalifornia.com, said his group would support any lawsuit.
"One of the main reasons for passing Prop. 8 was to have real marriage be a role model for the next generation," he said. "Since these are a bunch of false marriages and false marriage licenses, they are bad examples for little children."
Anyone who still harbors doubt that much of Florida is a percolating, roiling bowl of fundamentalist mythological contagion need look no further than the anthropoid vector of pestilence that is Matthew Staver and his Orwellianly-monikered Liberty Council to put those doubts to rest. Staver, by the way, is a dean at ignorance-factory Liberty University.
That there is no hope that someone like Staver will ever attain to a degree of empathy reminiscent of the better parts of the human race is without question. There are poisonous things in this world and there will always be poisonous things in this world. The question is not whether fundamentally sociopathic, inherently divisive and morally bankrupt people like Staver and Falwell and Don Wildmon can ever be reformed. I would submit that they cannot. Such people will always remain self-made enemies of the culture upon which they have declared war. This is the point of their existence. They thrive on pain and seek the increase of human suffering as a sign of upcoming divine intervention that will usher in a time when the better part of humanity will be tortured for all eternity by their invisible and vindictive father-figure in the sky. They feed on the decay, the hate, the division and the ignorance produced by their activities as surely as any leech slithering from a festering fen seeks to cling to and suck from the femoral artery of some victim. They are beyond all reproach in the perfection of their destructiveness.
In short, they are what is "oozing out of our ground." Still, they and those like them could not alone have passed the barbarisms that are these new laws, including Proposition 8. They must have had complicity in their efforts to corrupt the notion of human rights and the role of government intervention in the lives of others. I do not think that everyone who voted for new laws like Proposition 8 is a leech like Staver, but I do think that many of these people have been deceived, and deception is possible only in the presence of ignorance. The notion that people who prefer sexual interaction with members of their own gender would be in favor of pederasty, bestiality or any number of other outrageous perversions is precisely a product of that ignorance.
These warriors against rational and inclusive culture exploit this ignorance in several ways, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that they exploit several varieties of ignorance. Let's face it — most Americans don't know many gay people, or at least aren't aware that they know any. To the bulk of the populace, gay people are an unknown. They're something that doesn't exist as a portion of their community as integral to its proper functioning as any heterosexual individual. They're something that one sees in the media, frequently as a caricature. They're an abstraction; gay people aren't human beings so much as a phantasm that is somebody else's "problem." By keeping them in the abstract, anything can be laid upon them. Gay people can be made out to be abnormal, villainous, scheming... in short, hobgoblins coming from some other reality, some other universe, with malicious intent, like some shadowy horde poised at the border and ready to sack the little villages in which far too many Americans fancy themselves to live. The American Family Association is particularly adept at exploiting this strain of ignorance, peddling videos like They're Coming to Your Town. The probability is that "they" are already in your town, have been there all along, and that your town — and any town — is all the better for it.
They exploit, too, an ignorance that puts forth the idea that the highest purpose of human existence is procreation. It's an assertion I see made time and time again — that homosexuality is a perversion because it doesn't result in reproduction, and that reproduction is the goal which gives purpose to all living things, thus making homosexuality itself a force that runs counter to life. What could be worse than that? What reasonable person could be opposed to the continuation of life itself!
The thing is, when one actually looks at life, that's not what we actually see, particularly as biological individualism gives way to social organization. In any number of truly social insects, for example, the vast bulk of the members of the society do not reproduce, yet they contribute essentially to the continuation of their society. When cognition enters the picture, sex often becomes less bound to reproduction and more a means of enforcing social bonds, too. Even among humans, we do not remember the important figures throughout our history because of the number of offspring they had. Indeed, most Americans would be hard-pressed to rattle off the names of the children of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington or John Adams. We don't remember how many children Einstein had. Would it make any difference to us how we view such people if they'd never reproduced at all? We humans are not bound to our biology in the way that animals are bound to theirs. We can think, we can create, and we can go far beyond the limitations of our bodies. To say that the greatest achievement to which any one of us may attain is mere reproduction is to reduce all of mankind to animals in a menagerie. It robs all of us, even those who promulgate this nonsense, of the basic dignity of what it is to be human. We are more than molecular machines who eat and shit and fuck, and if we are not then we may as well tear down all the churches and all the laboratories and all the museums and stop distracting ourselves from this allegedly greatest good that any of us can spew forth from our various orifices. I, for one, think that we can be more than mere gamete factories. I think more of humanity, and I have a crazy notion that even those who have fallen under the contrary viewpoint would as well if they stopped and considered the sum total of civilization instead of having fallen prey to those who have declared war upon the better angels of human nature.
The questions that Proposition 8 and these similar referenda raise for me, and perhaps now for you, too, is whether we Americans will choose to see ourselves as something debased. Are we the product of a history that has finally cut us loose from the muck of basic biology, that allows us to aspire, to achieve, to no longer be identified in terms of merely what we contribute to some gene pool... or are we the product of some long-ago fall from grace that leaves every individual stained with sin? Will we use our powers of imagination and abstraction to cast one another as enemies, as "outsider" and "insider," to divide ourselves into camps that deserve to dwell either in sunlight or shadow based upon some accident of biology or — perish the thought — even some personal choice that involves no lives apart from our own, or will we use these boons to go beyond these superficial differences to find out that we are all essentially the same, that we all want the same things, and that we are all deserving of the same rights to associate with whom we will, to love whom we will, and to find in each of us that which we have to offer to the rest of us and so to allow every other member of our society the right to do the same?
We know what the Stavers and Wildmons of this country have to say on the matter. They are believers in the essentially impurity or each of us, a blood libel that began in a garden at the confluence of rivers. I suppose we know equally well (especially if you've read through all of this!) what those of us who don't believe in any such "fall from grace" and "original sin" think about it. But there is a great mass of American flesh and blood and mind between these two extremes that live their lives without ever seeing the effect that their decisions about "sanctity" have upon those who now must bear the weight of the stigma that they attach to them. Would they reach the same conclusions if they knew these people? If they saw what a same-sex marriage actually looked like in the light of day? If they came to know, on a personal basis, that the hearts and minds of the people who have entered into them were no different from their own save for the gender of the object of affection?
It is easy enough to be cruel toward an abstraction. Despite our fallibility, though, I think that most of us could not be so callous when called to look into the eyes of fellow human beings. Doing this will be a first great stride in doing away with not only one of the final malingering divisions in American social philosophy, but also in ridding ourselves of a pernicious war that allows a few men to exploit the shortcoming of many. America can be better than this. Just as some little bit of knowledge about the principles of refraction would remove the paranoid fears of the silly woman who made the video that began this entry, so would a little knowledge about what a same-sex marriage really is would remove the paranoia that the possibility "they're coming to your town" portends something terrible.
I am privileged to live in a place, one of only two states in this country, that allows same-sex marriage. I'm thinking of a way in which I might be able to use that happy coincidence in such a way as to lend some aid to those who do not enjoy it. I'll write more about that soon. It is enough to say, at this moment, that I feel like I have to do more about this than I have done until this moment.
As today is Labor Day, a big holiday here in the USA, I thought I'd do something a little different today.
I haven't posted many photos of Worcester since I moved here a year ago. That's an oversight on my part, because Worcester is one of America's most exotic and unusual cities. LL has been going on walks through Worcester every morning for the past few weeks, so today I thought I'd accompany her on a walk from Webster Square to Tatnuck Square and bring along the camera to shoot a few photos of some of the unusual things one would see along the way.
Prepare to be amazed. As you'll see, Worcester is one of America's — nay, the Western Hemisphere's — hidden treasures.
LL's butt at the beginning of our walk.
LL's butt a few minutes later.
Perhaps no radio station in Worcester has a more targeted marketing plan than WXLO, 104.5 FM. For instance, they've figured out that the people who live in this house are their target demographic, so rather than scattering advertising all over town and hoping that they see it, they've simply parked a billboard right on their lawn. The crack marketing team at WXLO has reportedly compiled a list of hardcore Bon Jovi fans in the Worcester metro area and all of them get a similar treatment. Rumor has it that the station's market share is way up because of this campaign. Only in Worcester!
LL's butt a few more minutes later. Notice the change between shots.
You're probably wondering about this shot. Every city has a few McDonald's... but this McDonald's can be found only in Worcester, near the intersection of Chandler and Mill. You can get 12 McNuggets for only $3 here! Where else are McNuggets being practically given away? Nowhere! Only in Worcester, the home of discount meat-like blobs! How about that for a marketing slogan, city council?
Of course, there are more and better dining opportunities in Worcester than just McDonald's. Here, we see LL outside of one of our city's finest Friendly's. I eat at Friendly's restaurants fairly frequently. Sure, there's better food at a few places in town, but with the free happy endings, it's not the food that keeps bringing me back.
LL's butt even later on the walk. Observant readers will note that it has swung significantly to the right at this point.
Many people believe that places like New York and Hollywood set fashion trends in America, but they're really only following fads that start out here in Worcester. In this shot, LL models one of the hottest new styles that's catching on like wildfire around town lately — the functional yet sexy knee brace. For those of you who don't reside here in New England's fashion Mecca, this may look a bit odd right now. Wait a few months, though, until all the big actresses and rock stars are wearing these. I've heard a rumor (can't confirm it, though) that Gwen Stefani loves the things and Renee Zelwegger owns at least a dozen. Once again, Worcester leads the way!
I bet you non-Worcesterites are looking at this photo and thinking, "Meh. Another bland, utilitarian high-density housing development. Ah, but look more closely! Many of these are yellow. Quel magnifique!
This is the largest "Slow Children" sign in all of New England. It's hard to appreciate it's scale; LL is in the shot to give you some idea of the size of the thing. The sign is a triumph of local technology, requiring nearly two years of research and development followed by over 500 man hours in construction time. The project, funded by several bond initiatives, was undertaken at a cost of nearly $5.3 billion. That may seem excessive, but here in Worcester we like to remember that today's slow children grow up to be the slow leaders of tomorrow.
About ten years ago, the first killer sunflower seeds arrived in Worcester mixed into a shipment of pink plastic flamingos returned by dissatisfied Danish customers. Today, the deadly carnivorous flowers can be found in many of the outlying parts of town. It took LL more than twenty minutes of wrestling with this flower before she exhausted it enough for me to snap this photo. Her hair tells the story. Moments after this picture was taken, the flower messily devoured a passing Jehovah's Witness. Moral: meat-eating plants do not take kindly to proselytizing.
The world-famous Ken Chin's Restaurant needs no introduction. If you haven't already heard of it, there's no point in trying to explain it to you now, you poor lost soul.
LL's butt quite near the end of our walk.
Considered by many to be one of the triumphs of modern athletic architecture, Colonial Bowling Center offers its clientele alleys with up to ten pins each and the latest in ball return technology. Around here, we simply refer to it as the Eighth Wonder of Worcester.
Located within walking distance of Worcester Regional Airport, this supermarket with no groceries serves New England's largest air traffic-free airline hub. On the left side of the photo, two conjugating police vehicles can be seen. This area is a breeding ground for police vehicles, which begin their lives as meter maid buggies soon after hatching. They don't reach maturity for several years, so we Worcesterians are very careful to preserve their mating grounds in pristine condition. Note that it is very dangerous to approach police vehicles while they are mating; the males have been known to become very aggressive and injure gawkers who wander too close. Keep a safe distance and avoid any sudden movements that might enrage them.
I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into Worcester, America's home of discount meat-like blobs. Remember, everything you've seen here was located on just one street among the many that wend their way through this town. If you're considering taking a vacation this year, why not take it in Worcester, Massachusetts? They don't want you to know about the exotic adventures and hedonistic pleasures that this city offers the intrepid traveler... but now you know.
The date has at last been set for local biologists and naturalists to begin the surveying of Moreland Woods in an effort to catalog species on behalf of the Greater Worcester Land Trust. Everyone involved in the effort can't make it there the same day, so &e and I will be taking a look at fungi and Coleoptera on Tuesday in the company of perhaps one or two other investigators. Others will be at the site on Wednesday and Thursday while I'm in Florida.
The site is in the northern part of the city (map), bounded by Moreland Street to the north and west and by Old Brook Drive to the east. I have only a vague notion of what might be in there and whether any of it will justify use of a grant to protect the place, but we'll find out soon.
The proliferation of fungal fruiting bodies in Massachusetts this summer is making the news here. While that in itself is a good thing, the press always has to come up with an interesting angle that makes a story one of human interest. In the case of mushrooms, that usually winds up as warnings about mushroom poisonings. In fact, it's often about children being poisoned, even when it hasn't actually happened.
Still, I'm glad when my favorite kingdom gets some press, and in this case that press includes a television interview by WBZ with my PhD advisor:
The story is a bit alarmist, of course, because that makes it interesting to people who normally don't care about mushrooms. The "won't somebody think of the children!" angle always sells. What the story also doesn't mention is that even most poisonous mushrooms aren't lethal mushrooms. They'll make you sick, but you won't die — although you might feel like you're going to. Of all the mushroom species found in North America, only a small fraction ever prove lethal, although I can certainly understand why the parent of some kid who eats a bit of an unidentified mushroom would be concerned. A good rule of thumb for reducing the risk if you happen to be a Massachusetts parent worried about your kid eating something nasty in your garden is to keep an eye out for any mushroom that has what looks like warts on its cap, a ring on its stem and a cup or collar at the base. Those are likely to be members of genus Amanita, and thus the most likely to be lethally poisonous. Go through the yard and remove them. They're generally among the more conspicuous fungi you'll see. You can remove every mushroom you see, but you're likely to spend a lot of time at it. Of course, you can also just keep a close watch on the kids, but it only takes a second of one's back being turned for a toddler to pop a bad fungus into his or her mouth. If you would like to see some of the various forms that Amanita can take, click here. Judging from what I've seen around town, the most common species right now is Amanita brunnescens, which has a cap colored various shades of brown and white to very light brown warts. It can get quite large and, while toxic, probably isn't going to cause death.
The Boston Globe is also running a story today on the prolific mushroom fruitings being seen in the area. It talks a bit more about amateur mycologists and not quite so much about the poisonings that haven't happened:
No one loves the rewards of a rainy summer quite like a mycologist does.
"It's just, I'm telling you, cloud nine," said Elinoar Shavit of Concord.
Even on short walks, Shavit has easily spotted Boletus edulis (porcini), Craterellus fallax (black trumpet), Laetiporus sulphureus (chicken mushroom), and "chanterelles galore!"
After July brought twice the average rainfall to the region, prompting mycelium to fruit in abundance, mushroom maniacs - whether serious scientists or curious cooks - are reveling in a bounty seldom seen...
There are thousands of species of mushrooms that burst forth when conditions are right with bulbs and caps in craggy shelves and huddled clusters, and more. The mushrooms survive for a few hours or weeks, depending on species; some prefer spring, others summer or fall...
Shapes, colors, and composition also fascinate scientists and others who want to know exactly how things work. Experimenters of another sort favor certain mushrooms, which grow in New England only very occasionally but can cause hallucinations.
This year, though, even the usually disinterested among us are captivated by more kinds of mushrooms, in larger quantity - whether clumps of black trumpets or giant puffballs - popping up in the yard more or less overnight...
Local hospitals have seen a spike in calls, mostly from parents of toddlers who had popped mushrooms in their mouths. Most tastings have turned out to be harmless, and there have been no fatalities this year, according to Alfred Aleguas, clinical manager with the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention Serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island...
One close call came before a neighbor contacted Shavit, a contributing editor to Fungi magazine known for her ability to identify different species. The neighbor told Shavit she had picked 30 pounds of chanterelles, an elegant, edible specimen that is tasty when sauteed in oil with shallots and salt. On closer inspection, Shavit determined the suspected chanterelles were Omphalotus illudens, or Jack O' Lantern mushrooms, known to spur vomiting and diarrhea.
Norman "Dugie" Russell, who helps Children's Hospital Boston and Beverly Hospital with emergency mushroom identifications, warns casual pickers to study guidebooks and seek expert advice...
Again, the moral of the story here is pretty simple, aside from the fact that we mycologists and enthusiasts are having a wonderful year. If you don't know the difference between an Omphalotus and a Cantharellus on site, don't eat any mushrooms without having them identified by someone who has a grasp of diversity, because, frankly, it's very easy to tell those two genera apart. Omphalotus always grows on wood and has blade-like gills; Cantharellus grows on the ground and has vein-like "gills." If you think you've found some chanterelles (Cantharellus) and want to know for certain, please let me know. I'll be happy to take a look and tell you whether you've got the right mushrooms... for a small cut of your find, of course, if they do turn out to be chanterelles. I love the things. In fact, LL and I had some Craterellus cornucopioides for dinner just last night. They're my favorite.
It truly is an amazing year for mushrooms, whether they're edible or just beautiful. If you live in New England and have been curious to learn about fungi, this is the time to do it. Contact your local mycological society and get out on a few forays. A better year for sheer numbers and diversity is unlikely to come your way for another decade or two. You can find contact information for amateur mycological societies throughout the United States courtesy of the North American Mycological Association. Here are the ones in New England:
Connecticut: Berkshire Mycological Society c/o Jim Berlstein PO Box 247 Norfolk, CT 06058-0247 web: www.bms.iwarp.com email: berkshiremycology [at] lycos.com
Connecticut Valley Mycological Society 129 Stockburger Rd Moodus, CT 06469-1042 email: janblanchard [at] comcast.net
Maine: Maine Mycological Society 216 Huff's Mill Rd. Bowdoin, ME 04287-7138 web: www.mushroomthejournal.com/mma/index.html email: mjpmm955i [at] gwi.net
Massachusetts: Boston Mycological Club 20 Shirley St Ayer, MA 01432-1208 web: www.bostonmycologicalclub.org email: georgeriner [at] mycogeo.com
New Hampshire: Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited PO Box 1796 Keene, NH 03431-1796 email: beewing [at] cheshire.net
Yesterday's trip to my Wachusett Mountain field site was not only productive, it was perfect. There are few days in the years that I've been foraying that compare to it. It was a clear, cool day, an ideal 60°F when I arrived on site. Mosquitoes and biting flies were nearly absent and I barely broke a sweat. The recent rain and cool temperatures for August have produced a variety and quantity of fungal fruiting bodies that I haven't seen in years; there was such a diversity that I collected perhaps one species out of twenty that I actually saw. Lactarius spp. were particularly prolific, and much of that was the choice edible Lactarius hygrophoroides, although I didn't collect any of that. One would have needed a dump truck to haul off a fraction of that mushroom's bulk. The various Russula species of a couple of weeks ago have nearly vanished now. In their wake, thanks to the unusual weather, have come a number of species that are not often collected on the East Coast if they ever have been before. The coral fungus you'll see below, for example, is normally known only from Idaho westward, but there's nothing else it could be according to every characteristic I observed in the specimen collected. Next to Lactarius spp., the bulk of the fruiting bodies I observed in the field were boletes of various sorts, many of them quite robust and colorful. Tylopilus was particularly profuse.
I also brought back a few polypore specimens that look to have become home to beetles. I'll be opening up the fruiting bodies today to see what lives inside of them. That's interesting in terms of my research, but the photos that follow are of the most interesting and colorful mushrooms I collected, not the comparatively drab polypores.
Special thanks to Manfred Binder for his help with the identification of the boletes. Without his assistance, I'd still be in the lab trying to figure out what collections I was adding to the herbarium. It takes me a half hour to an hour to identify a single bolete; Manfred can do it in about 15 seconds most of the time. I hope he enjoys the Strobilomyces.
This mushroom isn't from Wachusett. Several Tricholomopsis rutilans popped up right in my yard. Commonly known as the plum and custard mushroom, it's distinctive mauve scales on the cap and stip and egg yolk yellow gills (when fresh; this specimen was already a bit dry) make it quite easy to identify. I last collected it in California in 2002; this photo of one of the California specimens better illustrates the color of the gills of a fresh specimen. While it's technically edible, I don't care for it. As I recall, the flavor is bland verging on bitter. Still, finding this growing literally in my own backyard was a nice surprise.
Coprinus micaceus is a common species, usually found fruiting in large clusters around decaying wood, as shown in these photos. The surface of the cap is usually covered in metallic gray flecks; you can just make them out in the second image. Rain will tend to wash those off, though. Some references list this as edible, others say its edibility is unknown. I've never tried it myself. While few Coprinus species are poisonous, some contain a chemical that can react with ethyl alcohol in the digestive system to cause very nasty illness, bad enough that in the past they were used as a sort of medicine to dissuade alcoholics from drinking. It's thus a good idea to avoid mixing Coprinus with alcohol.
One of the most distinguishing traits of Coprinus spp. is their tendency to digest their own fruiting bodies. In this image, you can see that process beginning. The gills, which are already black with spores, are the first to go. The cap margin soon turns black and gooey as well, and before long the whole mushroom decays into a mass of black goop. The ink used to write the US Constitution was made from that unpleasant-looking mess.
Again, this Coprinus micaceus specimen was found in my backyard; I didn't see any at Wachusett.
One last mushroom from my backyard. This is Inocybe lacera, and despite its rather nondescript appearance it's easy to distinguish from the seemingly endless parade of little brown Inocybes. Most of them have angular or nodulose spores; it's practically a signature of the genus. I. lacera, on the other hand, has spores shaped somewhere between a sausage and an egg. It also doesn't have a particularly strong scent, whereas many of its kin have quite distinct and often disagreeable odors. This makes I. lacera arguably the drabbest among the drab when it comes to little brown mushrooms. I suppose that's a sort of distinction. Most likely toxic, I doubt most people would even notice the thing growing among the pine needles in which it is typically found, let alone try eating the thing.
While the unusual-looking Orisalum mikeum has previously been collected from Florida, California, Pennsylvania and New York in past years, it has most recently been sited only in Massachusetts and briefly near the Penn State campus as well. As far as is known, it is a saprobe despite it's misleading name. While rare, it can be found in nearly any habitat and is as common under hardwoods as it is under conifers. It definitely appreciates cool, sunny days, beer and lobster.
The spore dispersal mechanism employed by Orisalum mikeum has been the subject of much speculation in the past, but authorities have since agreed that some things are better left unexamined. This species renders itself inedible by sequestering nicotine from its substrate. Do not attempt to eat.
My first collection at Wachusett was Tylopilus indecisus, and it also turned out to be one of the more run-of-the-mill Tylopilus species present, though it certainly was widespread enough. There are a number of similar looking species and it takes a bit of investigation to narrow it down to this one. The stipe lacks reticulation and turns dark brown in age, while the pores turn pink and bruise light brown. When cut open, the staining reaction is very slow and culminated eventually in a pink tone after about ten minutes. Applying FeSO4 to the cap context also results in a slow staining reaction that starts off a light gray and eventually turns blue after several minutes. Otherwise, T. indecisus is readily confused with any number of brown members of the genus, which is probably the reason it's called the indecisiveTylopilus in the first place.
Hydnum repandum is sometimes known as the sweet tooth, and that should tell you all you need to know about its edibility. It's quite tasty and safe to try; there are no truly toxic fungi that are likely to be confused with this one, just some bitter ones. I've collected it several times in the past. At Wachusett, I've only found pure white specimens of var. album; I've found ones with the characteristic dark scales in the past, particularly in the spring in California. If you look carefully, you can see that there are orange stains on the fruiting body in the second photo that weren't there in the first. That's a characteristic bruising reaction for this species; the slightest touch of human skin causes that discoloration. I've also noticed that the local variety has shorter teeth than those found on the West Coast. The latter have teeth that can sometimes be as long as 4 mm, but those around Wachusett have teeth that don't exceed 2 mm.
The appearance of the beautifully colored, slimy to sticky Cortinarius iodes is a sure sign that autumn is on its way to the northeast. I collected this species many times in Florida where it is the most prevalent winter mushroom at least as far south as Tampa. Definitely not edible and likely toxic. Most purple things aren't good to eat.
Speaking of things that aren't edible, here's Entoloma griseum. This is one that can kill you. When cut or crushed, these specimens gave off an almost eye watering bleach aroma, and that ought to be a warning sign for anybody with the IQ of a sand flea that it shouldn't go into one's mouth. The flesh of this fungus is crisp and somewhat fragile and the stipe is filled with stringy pith but has a hollow pocket running up the center.
Much more colorful than the above Entoloma but probably just as toxic, this cheerful-hued mushroom is Nolanea salmoneum. I've never seen it before, but it was prolific under hemlock at Wachusett yesterday. Normally, this mushroom is found in marshy areas such as cedar swamps, but I guess all the rain we've had this month has allowed it to explore some new terrain lately. Nolanea is a genus recently split from Entoloma; one of the distinguishing traits of the genus is the production of cubical spores, which makes them very easy to measure. Those from specimens of N. salmoneum I collected yesterday measured a neat 9 microns per side. This image shows a very mature specimen; younger ones are even more acutely conical and often have a little pointy bit sticking up from the apex. It might well be confused with a Conocybe or Lepoiota at first, but a quick look at the spores under a microscope soon reveal its true identity.
When I first noticed this specimen of Tylopilus felleus better known as the bitter bolete, I was surprised to see it growing high on an old hemlock stump. Tylopilus is an entirely mycorrhizal genus, not a wood rotter. Manfred tells me, however, that this species has learned the trick of growing on conifer stumps that have already decomposed enough to permit young roots from other plants to penetrate them; the fungus then forms an association with those rootlets. You can see some of these in the photo if you look careful at the left side. T. felleus looks a good bit like T. indecisus, above, but the brown reticulation over the top quarter of the stipe is distinctive. As its common name implies, T. felleus is far too bitter to be edible.
Otidea leporina, the rabbit ear fungus, is an ascomycete among the Pezizamycota, related to things like tree ears and elf saddles. These specimens were blowing off visible clouds of spores at the slightest provocation. Identifying things like this can be tricky and absolutely requires microscopic examination. While its edibility is not known, O. leporina very likely contains the nasty toxin N-methyl-N-formylhydrazone. Kinda cute, though.
There's little chance of mistaking Boletus frostii for anything else. This is one of the most colorful of the boletes, and the combination of crimson pores and a red stipe with yellow reticulation make it stand out from its peers. The pores readily bruise black when handled. B. frostii is edible though not particularly good and some people have trouble digesting it; it's probably best avoided unless one is certain of one's stomach's cast iron composition. Still, you can't beat this mushroom for sheer color and overall esthetics. On that front, I'll give it a 10.
B. frostii is all about red. This mushroom, Retiboletus ornatipes, is all about yellow. It's not quite as pretty as B. frostii in my opinion, but it is reputed to be a very good edible and it was fruiting by the hundreds in a particular area of Wachusett dominated by beech with a little birch as well. I soon gathered a paper bag full of these for the herbarium and there are enough that I don't think anyone will miss them when I pilfer a few to try eating as I have never done so before. I'm generally a bit circumspect about eating boletes (the only time I've ever poisoned myself was with a small bolete), but Manfred identified this one, so I'm willing to give it a go.
I have no idea what this fungus is doing in Massachusetts, but every single morphological character it possesses indicates that it's Ramaria magnipes, a species normally found from Idaho to the Pacific Northwest under trees like vine maple that aren't even present at Wachusett. This one was collected under mixed beech and maple. It's quite distinctive in many ways; the number of terminal branches is highly variable and each branch ends with what looks like the surface of a molar. The arms are quite short and the base is deeply rooting and tapers to a sharp point. From the clamps on its basidia to its chemical reactions, no other species fills the bill. Ironically, "magnipes" means "big feet," a reference to its unusually bulky base. I assure you, however, that this particular bigfoot is not a rubber Halloween costume.
We've had red and yellow, so I'll end with purple. This beautiful specimen is Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus, the purple bitter bolete. Like most purple things, it's as distasteful as its name implies. It may be hard to judge the scale of this mushroom from the photos; the larger specimen is over a foot tall and has a cap about six inches wide. This is the first time I've collected it and by the time I found it I had no room for anymore specimens. Polypores can take up a lot of space in one's backpack. Like all of the other collections made yesterday, this one will be deposited into the university herbarium for future study.
I should note that even with Manfred's help on the boletes, I spent over seven hours identifying the fungi whose photos you've just seen in addition to the five or six hours spent collecting them and the two hours spent composing this update. I hope the effort proves enjoyable and useful to my readers.
A final note: I saw absolutely no evidence of the presence of any Asian longhorned beetles at my study site yesterday. If you're in Massachusetts, particularly within 50 miles of Worcester, please keep your eyes open and report evidence of the invasive insect's presence in your area. You can learn more about how to spot the Asian longhorned beetle at the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Blog. If you see the beetle or damage you suspect was caused by it, please take pictures and file a report at this link or call the MIPO hotline at 617-626-1779.
An entry I wrote recently about my inclination to shake my fist and scream at the Asian longhorned beetle has been blog-logged by Worcester Magazine. It's becoming something of a hot topic around town, I guess. Fellow Worcester blogger Jeff of Wormtown Taxi has written several bits on it, including this newest one.
I've also just learned this morning of the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Blog. There's useful information there about how to recognize the damage done by the beetles even if you don't see the beetle itself. I suggest that any locals take a look at MIPO Blog and learn how they can help their state keep track of this infestation. It's always possible that the extra bit of information you provide could be the one that tips the scales against the big bad bug.
A rather unusual local incident is making national headlines and apparently garnering a good deal of attention from the science community. Victor Deeb, a man who has worked in polymer chemistry for 45 years, had set up a lab in his home to continue his work after his retirement. His home is in a residential neighborhood in Marlboro, MA. Recently, a fire broke out there and when the fire department entered the house, they found more than 1500 unlabeled and improperly stored containers of chemicals there. There are specific zoning ordinances on the books that prohibit siting a research laboratory, particularly one that doesn't include standard safety equipment and procedures, in a residential area. As a result, Deeb's chemicals were seized and his lab shut down.
According to a story in today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette:
Since Mr. Deeb's situation was revealed in news reports last week, sympathizers and fellow scientists have been voicing support for Mr. Deeb on the Internet. Ms. Wilderman [Marlboro code enforcement officer] said she has received calls from people around the country criticizing the city for putting an end to Mr. Deeb's work.
It's quite possible that the T&G isn't being clear on what kind of support Deeb is receiving from fellow scientists. Perhaps they're saying that the authorities should go easy on him in terms of any charges, but I have a hard time believing that any scientist worth their lab coat would be in support of what Deeb was doing. Personally, I find it to be a significant lapse in his ethical judgment.
As stated, there were zoning ordinances that Deeb violated. These kinds of ordinances are at least in part measures to protect public safety. Deeb's being a scientist, even if he were a Nobel Prize recipient in his field, doesn't give him any more license to disregard them than would a very good businessman deciding would have in deciding to put a small factory in a neighborhood without telling anyone. In fact, an even better analogy would be for someone to decide to open an outdoor firing range in their backyard and claim that it didn't pose a potential hazard to the public because of their excellent marksmanship. People who live in a residential neighborhood also have rights, and among these are the right to expect that ordinary precautions are being observed to keep their homes safe from unnecessary hazards to their health. A stray bullet or a chemical release can have the same net effect on the health of one's neighbors and part of the proper role of laws and government is to strike a proper balance of the rights of one person with those of others.
Deeb also disregarded the safety of others by not following chemical safety standards. According to Pamela Wilderman, "Boxes of stuff was just thrown on the floor... It was a mess. It was a hazardous materials incident just waiting to happen. … He was keeping flammable chemicals right next to his furnace." Deeb counters this by stating that
The materials he was using were all approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Deeb says, and were no more toxic than bleach, acetone and common household products stored under most kitchen sinks. He lives with his wife and their 18-year-old son, and he says he would never bring anything into the house that could harm them.
Whether or not Deeb thought that his informal laboratory could pose a threat to his family is immaterial, but I find his statement that the chemicals were no more dangerous than acetone to be rather telling. Acetone is far from harmless. In fact, it's a rather dangerous chemical flammable chemical, resulting in its having been removed from most household products. According to a Material Safety Data Sheet for acetone:
DANGER! EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE LIQUID AND VAPOR. VAPOR MAY CAUSE FLASH FIRE. HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED OR INHALED. CAUSES IRRITATION TO SKIN, EYES AND RESPIRATORY TRACT. AFFECTS CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM...
Inhalation of vapors irritates the respiratory tract. May cause coughing, dizziness, dullness, and headache. Higher concentrations can produce central nervous system depression, narcosis, and unconsciousness...
Above flash point [-20°C], vapor-air mixtures are explosive within flammable limits noted above. Vapors can flow along surfaces to distant ignition source and flash back. Contact with strong oxidizers may cause fire. Sealed containers may rupture when heated. This material may produce a floating fire hazard. Sensitive to static discharge...
If Deeb thinks that acetone is safe and harmless, one must question his judgment. Moreover, to state that the uncombined chemicals he had lying about his home are themselves harmless is a disingenuous assertion at best. The question still remains as to what is produced when those chemicals combined and whether or not he was taking the proper precautions to prevent spontaneous combinations that could have resulted in fire, explosion, or the release of toxins. Any fool can tell you that household bleach and ammonia aren't particularly dangerous when properly stored and separated but that combining the two can result in severe and permanent injury due to the release of potentially deadly vapors.
Still, Deeb is said to now be considering a lawsuit:
"I strongly believe they have violated my civil rights," he said. "I was not doing anything immoral down there … They can't all of a sudden tear my experiments apart."
Perhaps the fire department should simply have let Deeb's house burn down? Once he requested the assistance of the fire department, no search warrant is needed. Deeb gave his consent to having the authorities enter his home and they found a major potential hazard there. Whether or not he was doing anything "immoral" is a red herring that stinks from here to San Diego and back. What he was doing was certainly illegal and, I think, highly unethical. The authorities had every right to come in "all of a sudden" and "tear his experiments apart." In fact, once they entered the premises they not only had the right to do so, they had a responsibility to do so because the place was on fire and they were confronted with large quantities of unknown chemicals. This is no different than if a fire department were called to a warehouse and found barrels of flammable chemicals stored there improperly. What was done here is what fire departments and environmental protection offices are supposed to do. It's why we have them in civilized society in the first place.
Something else that Deeb said leads me to question his ethics.
The work he was doing was well-intentioned, Mr. Deeb says. His projects include developing sealants and coating for the inside of lids for food containers, such as jelly and baby food. When melted at recycling plants, the metal lids of many food containers release dioxin — a harmful carcinogen — into the air. Mr. Deeb says he was trying to develop a safer lid. If he were to find a successful recipe, Mr. Deeb said, he would market his product to chemical companies.
What Deeb was trying to do is, at base, noble enough. I would be hard pressed to come up with an argument against decreasing the release of dioxin into the environment. Nonetheless, Deeb certainly had remuneration in mind here. If so, why not do what any other researcher does and find grants or backers to fund his research so that he can work in proper facilities? That he didn't do so raises my suspicion that he was seeking to maximize his profits and keep his overhead low so that he could reap the greatest possible rewrds if his work was successful. Despite his protestations that the chemicals with which he was working were as safe as household products, an assertion already countered, the fact is that polymer chemistry demands the use of any number of solvents and polymerization catalysts that are not safe at all. While I can't say what specific chemicals he may have had on his premises — at this point it seems that only Deeb himself knows for sure — I do know enough organic chemistry to know that anything from concentrated hydrochloric acid to benzenes and aldehydes might have been part of Deeb's chemical morass.
As part of the dismantling of his laboratory, the authorities seized Deeb's research notes. According to the article:
Mr. Deeb protests that authorities seized even the notes and observations he has recorded over the past 20 years, but Ms. Wilderman said he was given more than one opportunity to retrieve those notes, and that he declined...
Why is this the case? Deeb himself tells us more:
...he doesn't have any immediate plans to continue his work.
"How can I?" he said. "I am a creative guy who needs to have an outlet. That was my outlet. That was my domain."
In light of his consideration of suing over this, I call shenanigans on Deeb. If he really needs this "creative outlet," why not get his notes back and continue his work in a proper laboratory where safety measures are followed and accountability maintained? Nobody is stopping Deeb from pursuing his creativity in an appropriate environment, and so far he hasn't been arrested or charged with the commission of any offense that would prevent him from doing so. On the other hand, I think that the discovery of his recklessness may well have deservedly ruined his reputation at this point. As someone who works in a laboratory, I would turn around and walk right back out the door if I walked into an environment like that described by the firefighters and hazardous materials team at Deeb's home/lab. Frankly, I would question the judgment and even the sanity of the individuals responsible for running a lab like Deeb's and would do the prudent thing by not risking my own well-being by working in such an environment. Indeed, a lab subject to regulation and responsibility that was in such a state would likely be shut down and ordered to conform to standards in short order, and well it should be. The first word that comes to my mind in picturing a lab like Deeb's is appalling. I can't imagine that anyone who knew what they were doing would subject themselves to such a situation.
The closure of Deeb's residential polymer chemistry lab is being viewed by many people as a violation of his civil rights. In the commentary to an article on the situation that ran in yesterday's edition of the paper, it's easy enough to find statements like this one:
...This is a symptom of a broader current of the abridgment of fundamental rights in this country which is sincerely frightening. One wonders how these same 'officials' might have shot Benjamin Franklin for flying a key laden kite, or George Washington Carver for being so suspiciously interested in peanuts...
Of course, the work of Franklin and Carver didn't involve the illegal and improper storage of potentially hazardous chemicals in a residential area and occurred at a time when people were also routinely poisoned by unregulated and tainted agricultural products in large numbers and we didn't have a pretty good handle on the potential health risks associated with chemical exposure. The point is that while it's healthy to be skeptical, even suspicious, of any government, paranoia doesn't help anyone. Deeb's neighbors have more right to live in a safe neighborhood than Deeb himself has to have his secret laboratory in their midst. Deeb could have, and still could, do the right thing and secure proper facilities to continue his research. He is still a free man and likely to remain so. He still has the right to vote, to own property, and to be free from unreasonable search and seizure (the search and seizure that took place was entirely reasonable, for the reasons already stated). There is no civil right that allows one to pose a hazard to others and there is no particular guarantee of the freedom to locate a research facility anywhere one has the whim to do so.
Ultimately, in fact, what Deeb has done is to violate the civil rights of others. People have the right to know of hazards which exist in their homes. Deeb withheld that information until his own well-being was in peril and a fire broke out. It is a good thing for the sake of his neighbors that the fire started in an air conditioner and not among the boxes, vials and jars of chemicals or the situation might have been much more unfortunate. That Deeb actively skirted the law for his own benefit and thereby put others in danger speaks to some combination of a lack of judgment and an ethical compass.
If there are any scientists out there who really do believe that what Deeb was doing was ethically correct, I'd like to know how you come to that conclusion. Personally, I don't see a path leading from Deeb's actions to anything justifiable or even particularly wholesome.
A story in the Madison, WI Isthmus recounts the case of Madeline Neumann, a child unfortunate enough to have been born to a couple of very, very stupid and deluded parents who refused to get her medical treatment as she died a slow and excruciating death from an easily treated condition. They instead decided to go with witchcraft, seeking to invoke supernatural spooks and fairy tales to heal her. 40 out of 50 US states have laws that allow parents to do this because it protects the faith that they then proceed to inflict upon the innocent.
...In the days, perhaps weeks, before their daughter died of diabetic ketoacidosis — an illness authorities contend could have been readily treated — Dale and Leilani Neumann refused to seek medical care. They did so despite the girl's worsening condition and despite the urging of family members and friends. Instead, they insisted her body was a battleground in a spiritual war between Jesus Christ and the forces of Hell. Only by resisting worldly medicine, they believed, could she be saved...
Wisconsin law, like that of as many as 40 other states, carries an explicit exemption from prosecution for child abuse or neglect for parents who forgo medical treatment for their children on religious grounds and instead seek "treatment...through prayer..."
The Neumanns were readers of and occasional contributors to a website called Unleavened Bread Ministries (www.unleavenedbreadministries.org). The banner across its top proclaims, "Warning: These are America's Last Days."
Unleavened Bread Ministries is operated by David Eells, a self-appointed preacher in Pensacola, Fla. It's filled with predictions of impending apocalypse and assertions that people can be healed of illness through faith and prayer. One page features 63 separate testimonials to miraculous cures ranging from cancer and birth defects to hay fever and "uneven tire wear" on a car..."
Det. Sgt. Dennis Halkoski asked if the family ever thought about taking their daughter to the doctor. "No," Leilani replied. "We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her." When her husband suggested getting medical care, "I said, the Lord's going to heal her, and we continued to pray."
A search of the Neumann home that evening showed the couple had sought emergency help — just not from a doctor. The day before the girl died, Dale Neumann had emailed David Eells' website seeking the preacher's direct number: "We need agreement in prayer over our youngest daughter, who is very weak and pale at the moment with hardly any strength," the message pleaded.
The reply, though not from Eells, was in the form of a prayer, which read in part: "We thank You Father for giving Dale and Leilani the faith to hold fast to the confession of their hope that it waver not, for it is Your will Father that Kara was already healed, I Peter 2:24. We add faith to Dale's and Leilani's and command Kara to be healed. We command that spirit of infirmity to loose Kara now, leave her body, leave her home, and go back from where it came and stay there...."
So these primitivists murmured to an ancient Near Eastern sky-god who — surprise, surprise — didn't show up, and their kid died. She died over the course of days, perhaps weeks. She died slowly, terribly and unnecessarily. It would have been kinder of the oh-so-pious Neumanns if they had simply put a pillow over her face and had done with it. They could have prayed for DA LAWD to obviate Madeline's need for oxygen as she struggled and thrashed beneath the weight of this self-created test of their faith. The outcome would have been exactly the same.
Laws in many states that effectively shift the responsibility for acts such as that perpetrated by homicidal child-abusers like the Neumanns to the deity that never materializes, however. It protects delusional belief over the very real well-being of very real people who go through very real suffering and die very real deaths.
...In 1998, Swan and University of California-San Diego pediatrician Seth Asser published an article in the medical journal Pediatrics based on their review of 172 deaths of children between 1975 and 1995 whose parents had withheld medical care on religious grounds. They concluded that 140 of those children — 80% — would have had a 90% chance of survival had they received conventional medical care; another 18 would have had a 50% survival rate.
"They died of very simple things," says Swan. "Lots of diabetes deaths. Lots of infectious diseases that are readily treated with antibiotics."
And in virtually every state, prosecutors were prevented from bringing neglect charges, because the parents had relied on spiritual healing. Swan traces those laws to a mid-1970s federal mandate, which she says was lobbied for by the Christian Science Church and Christian Scientists...
...only a handful of states have repealed or narrowed the exemptions. Wisconsin has not. State statute 948.03(6) still says a person is not guilty of failing to protect children from harm "solely because he or she provides a child with treatment by spiritual means through prayer alone for healing in accordance with the religious method for healing...in lieu of medical or surgical treatment."
This statute drew some attention in 2003, when a 4-year-old autistic child, Terrence Cottrell, was crushed to death in Milwaukee during an attempted exorcism by a self-taught preacher...
..."It is time for that law to be repealed," says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. "The law is a green light for parents to think they don't have any responsibility to society [regarding how] they treat their children. The state should be stepping in here to do everything it can to discourage faith healing in place of medical care."
Any such attempt, however, will face opposition from the Christian Science Church, which is among the most established religious groups that promote the use of prayer to treat physical ailments.
"We deplore the abuse and neglect of children under any circumstances," says Farkas, the church's Wisconsin lobbyist. He says Christian Scientists "don't claim that all cases of religious objections to medical care should be free from legal limitations." And it would be "willing to work with legislators" on any efforts to redraft the law.
But the church would not want the law changed in a way that would expose its members to prosecution for practicing spiritual healing.
"The Christian Science Church has documented 125 years of healings that have occurred through prayer" since it was founded in 1879, says Farkas. "Spiritual healing through prayer definitely has a place in society..."
I think part of Farkas' statement must have been left out of the article. It should read in full, "We deplore the abuse and neglect of children under any circumstances in which it has not been given sanction by a bunch of bizarre mumbo-jumbo propounded by people like me."
The proper place for spiritual healing in society is right alongside shaking knucklebones over a dead cat to ward off the evil eye and burning incense and pubic hairs in a campfire to win love, because they are exactly the same thing. There is no difference between praying over someone to heal their sickness and any other sort of occult nonsense. None, zero, zip. Whether the people who engage in unacceptable, harmful behavior like the Neumanns believe that aid will come from an invisible superfriend or that by taking poison they'll be taken aboard flying saucers as was the case with Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate, personal belief should not be an excuse to commit homicide. If it is, why shouldn't it be perfectly legal to drive through the streets of a large city shooting prostitutes if one's religious belief is that prostitution violates the will of Jehovah? Why shouldn't Fred Phelps be allowed to blow up gay bars? After all, he and his incestuous little tribe firmly believe that "God hates fags." Shall we as a society excuse murder in cases wherein the perpetrator deeply and sincerely believes in his mission from God?
Indeed, the state of Massachusetts, which repealed its own exemption law, is now considering reinstating a narrower form. Boston lawyer Stephen Lyons, who helped defend Christian Scientists convicted — and later acquitted — of homicide in the death of their child 13 years ago, says the new bill would let parents charged in such cases cite belief in spiritual healing as a defense.
Lyons equates families who act on their beliefs about spiritual healing with a long line of pioneers seeking religious liberty. He contends that cases like the one he handled and the one involving the Neumanns are often distorted in a swirl of publicity and prejudice.
"Ketoacidosis is something that kills children in hospitals every day," he says. "But we never second-guess the doctors because we assume that they do their best. But the parents of children who died of these illnesses never get the benefit of the same assumption. What gets lost is what they were seeing, what they were experiencing. No one seems to want to find out about the reasonableness of their conduct....
First off, HELL NO. This is the first I've heard of Massachusetts considering allowing even a few instances of death-by-Jesus to children and I doubt that it will pass. Lyons statement is a bunch of ridiculous gibberish. Who cares what the parents are experiencing? Do we make a special exemption under the law for this? "The one thing that gets lost here is that the crackhead who shot the clerk in the course of the robbery really believed that the clerk would rise from the dead in a few hours" isn't admissible, is it?
And what is this nonsense about nobody second-guessing doctors? Those silly physicians are paying exorbitant premiums for malpractice insurance for no reason, because nobody ever thinks for a moment that they could possibly have been negligent! I mean, when was the last time a physician was sued by the family of a child who died while under her care? That simply doesn't happen.
What is "getting lost" to Lyons' well-funded but apparently very small intellect is that he's full of crap. Doctors get sued all the time when something goes wrong under their charge; they are held accountable and investigated, a situation that becomes even more likely when a child dies from a relatively easily-treated condition like that which killed Madeline Neumann. In her case, she wasn't under the care of a physician or hospital, she was under the care of her parents. Just as would be a doctor who refused to provide treatment and thereby caused someone's death, Dan and Leilani Neumann should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for facilitating the death of their daughter. Who wouldn't agree with the idea of charging a doctor who eschewed medicine or surgery in favor of mumbling incantations by the bedside with at least negligent homicide? Doctors are second-guessed every day; the Neumanns did it themselves. Every faith healer does it, ever New Age shaman who swallows herbal concotions does it, every homeopath who foists off water on their "patients" does it, and every patient and family member who takes the time to learn about the treatment that they or a loved one are receiving does it. That one or more of these people might believe deeply that angels and aliens are a better hope for healing than is modern medicine is immaterial.
People like Dale and Leilani Neumann don't need a special exemption under the law. We already have a plea that can be entered by those who believe that supernatural entities are commanding them to undertake a criminal course of action to the extent that they disregard reality. IT's called not guilty by reason of insanity. If homicidal faith-healers, the Leilani Neumanns and Joe Farkases of this country, can't tell on their own that what they're doing is wrong, that's the correct plea for them. Then they can be given proper therapy until the voices in their heads commanding them to kill have ceased and they stop being a danger to others.
This blog is about whatever I'm pondering at the moment that I write in it. That may include anything at all. Mundane bits from my personal life, politics, science, fungi, genetics, media, dirty jokes, you name it. You're looking at the inside of my head when you're looking at this blog. Please don't litter and wipe your feet before entering. Thank you.
