No, Rabbi Levin doesn’t let empiricism stop him; he just keeps right on going. Lately, he’s decided not only that he can start rainstorms, but also that he can read the will of God in… earthquakes:

Then there is the spiritual aspect of this, and the spiritual aspect is, some eleven years ago I appeared at a press conference approximately, eleven, uh, twelve or thirteen months before September 11, on the very day that New York City and Rudolph Guiliani were passing domestic partnership legislation on a city level, which is de facto homosexual marriage. And at that time, 30 rabbis stood on the steps of city hall and performed a ceremony, pleading with God not to visit his response on all the entire city of New York. We knew, based on our tradition, there would be a problem, and sure enough 13 months later we experienced 9-11.

Then there was the situation of the Days of Decadence followed in New Orleans by the tremendous flooding. We saw the underground earthquakes, otherwise known as the tsunami, and the damage that did half a world away, where there was much immorality and licentiousness.

And then recently we saw Haiti, which is certainly a hotbed of this type of licentiousness behavior of many types, and in particular AIDS, homosexuality. And once again, we’ve seen the problems.

And the way this works is very simple: God warns us. God warns in the Bible as early as Noah that this kind of misbehavior can lead to floods. It can lead to disasters. It can lead to buildings falling and earthquakes.

So that is our tradition. It is written in our Talmud, two thousand years ago, that because of the sin of homosexuality and the, er, um, uh, organized homosexuality, societal homosexuality, is, cause, brings about earthquakes.

Innocent people then get destroyed with the guilty people, just like when a bus driver drives a bus and goes over a ravine, innocent people are killed. We don’t hold this against God. These are the regulations.

You read that right: the New Orleans hurricane was the fault of the gays. The great Asian tsunami was the fault of the gays. And the massive earthquake in Haiti? Again, it’s the gays’ fault. Not God’s fault. No, no, God’s just following the regulations, see. For Yehuda Levin, earthquakes are God’s warning for men and women to stop dingling their dongles with other people who have the same kind of dongles.

If this is true, then it just stands to reason that the presence of earthquakes is an indicator of behavior meriting God’s warning. Where are all those immoral and licentious gays getting it on? Ask the U.S. Geological Survey!

Apparently, there’s a banger that’s been going on in Binger, Oklahoma. Enid, on the other hand, appears to be completely straight.

“About 25 percent of respondents were primary care physicians (defined as internal medicine and family medicine in this case), and of those, 46 percent indicated that they would leave medicine — or try to leave medicine — as a result of health reform.”

“Try to leave medicine”? What is this “try to leave”? Is the the medical profession an organized crime family? If physicians truly want to abandon the practice of medicine and try take up another profession instead, they’ll do it… in the middle of a severe economic slump when huge numbers are looking for work and unable to find it. Does trying to leave medicine mean looking at the job market and deciding that staying put looks like a good idea after all?

These survey results remind me of something my 4 year-old daughter said this week when I took her to the bathtub. She didn’t want to be clean. She looked up at me from under a furrowed brow and declared, “I am never, ever going to take a bath again.”

“Yes, dear,” I said to her, “I know, but now it’s time to get into the tub. There, there.”

My daughter took a bath, even though she said she was never going to do it. She was throwing a tantrum just to let me know how upset she was. Now, 46 percent primary care physicians responding to this survey may well have said that they’ll quit (or “try”) medicine if health care reform legislation is passed. So…

What’s that, doctors? You’re going to run away from home? Yes, dears. I know, but now it’s time to pass health care reform. There, there.

With a little updating, it’ll be as good as new:

Think about it.

Maybe if the pontiff started wearing tights it would be OK. Some nice lederhosen…

Barack Obama will require his appointees who lead the Executive Branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet as the agencies debate and deliberate the issues that affect American society. Videos of meetings will be archived on the web, and the transcript will be available to the public. Obama will also require his appointees to commit to employ all the technological tools available to allow average citizens not just to observe, but to participate and be heard on the issues that affect their daily lives. Obama will require Cabinet officials to have periodic 21st Century Fireside Chats, restore meaning to the Freedom of Information Act, and conduct regulatory agency business in public.

–Obama Campaign position paper, September 22, 2008

Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.

–Obama for America Blueprint for Change: Ethics (current)

We learned earlier this week that Barack Obama’s campaign commitment regarding the Freedom of Information Act has not been met — he’s denied Freedom of Information requests in greater numbers than George W. Bush. But there was more to Obama’s campaign commitment than Freedom of Information requests. What about his other measurable commitments for the heads of his departments in the executive branch? Are videos of executive branch meetings being archived on the web? Are transcripts being posted? Are the various branch heads holding “21st Century Fireside Chats”?

Over the next few days, we’ll assess the performance of various departments in the Obama administration in meeting these campaign pledges. Today, we’ll look at the Department of Justice.

21st Century Fireside Chats at the Department of Justice
On January 27, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder (the cabinet-level head of the Department of Justice) posted a video to DOJ web page entitled “The Attorney General’s Report to the American People.” Tested on multiple computers, the video does not play in the Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google. In any case, this video does not satisfy the Obama administration’s definition of a “21st Century Fireside Chat” as a “national broadband townhall meeting to discuss issues before their agencies,” since in a townhall meeting discussion citizens have the opportunity to ask questions.

DOJ department meeting videos and transcripts
The Department of Justice “videos” page features 8 videos, none of which is of a department meeting in which agency officials “debate and deliberate the issues that affect American society.” Apart from transcripts of 2002 departmental meetings on DNA backlogs, no DOJ departmental meeting transcripts are available on the department’s website either by search or through the DOJ Office of Public Affairs list of publicly available documents.

DOJ Verdict:
21st Century Fireside Chat commitment not met
Departmental meeting webcast commitment not met
Departmental meeting transcript commitment not met

I got more than a few minutes this morning, and with more than an iffy video camera to take it all in. That made me pretty darned lucky.

The side of science, on the other hand, has a growing mountain of evidence.

The side of disbelief has critiqued a private email message lying on the side of that mountain, and declared that the mountain must not be there at all. This week, however, the mountain of evidence grew even taller, as a little butterfly, carrying 65 years of observation on its thin wings, landed on the summit.

Generations of data on the emergence of the Common Brown Butterfly in Australia have been analyzed, and a statistically significant correlation between emergence date and temperature. The Common Brown Butterfly now emerges 10 days earlier than it did back in 1935. The study is a nice complement to an earlier study that finds that many species of butterflies and moths have added breeding cycles to their annual rhythms of reproduction, as the warm season has grown longer.

The ten arrested activists represented organizations that were promised H.R. 3017 (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) would be brought to the floor of the House last year. It didn’t happen. It’s still not happening. The bill, which would prohibit hiring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, is stuck in committee. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is keeping it there because she says the time still isn’t right.

The activists had appointments at Pelosi’s offices in San Francisco and Washington. They showed up, sat down and asked Pelosi to make a choice: bring H.R. 3017 to the floor, get used to the activists sitting in as a reminder on the bill, or have the police haul them out and arrest them.

Pelosi called in the police to make arrests.

Back to business as usual.

The idea of gay pride might bother some people in the village of St. Agnes, the event organizers were told. So what are the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered residents of Cornwall supposed to do on Good Friday? Hold a gay shame event?

If observers of Good Friday don’t want to celebrate gay pride, they don’t have to. No one is telling them that they do, but banning someone else’s gay pride event is another matter.

The fact that a popular gay pride event could be planned on a Good Friday shows that many people in that Cornwall village are no longer celebrating the holiday. Yet, those people who are still active Christians in the town still expect their practices to be put high on a pedestal, observed by everybody whether they’re Christians or not. It’s an insult to the rest of the village for one group to expect everyone else to put their lives on hold, sacrificing their own identity for the sake of ancient ideas that aren’t adapting to the times.

If that’s what Good Friday is all about, then I suggest the holiday be renamed Bad Friday.

And yet the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (aka ENDA) has seen no action on the floor.

Tired of promises and waiting and more promises and more waiting, a group of activists from Nancy Pelosi’s office. They say they won’t leave until either they are arrested or the Speaker of the House commits to bring H.R. 3017 to the floor for a vote.

From their e-mail flash announcement:

Nancy Pelosi has the ability to end workplace discrimination of LGBTQ people, but she is refusing to act. It’s time to let her know that we won’t wait any longer.
As you read this, GetEqual.org members are entering Pelosi’s offices in DC and her district office in San Francisco….

Can you call Speaker Pelosi right now to demand that ENDA (HR 3017) move to the floor for a vote? Call (202) 225-4965….

A majority of Congress supports this bill to stop job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but promises to bring it to a vote last fall were broken several times. ENDA has been jammed up in committee for six months, awaiting a signal from Speaker Pelosi that hasn’t come. We have visited, called and written Congress by the thousands, and have been ignored. The usual lobbying tactics do not appear to be having the needed effect. Now the midterm elections are coming, and Speaker Pelosi has promised Congress no more “controversial” votes. The “controversy” is whether LGBT Americans have the right to a job.

If you support ENDA legislation, now would be a good time to call Speaker Pelosi’s office and show your support. If 202-225-4965 is busy, call Pelosi’s California office at 415-556-4862.