Best of Bob

This is a special edition of Real Science Radio. After a brief discussion of Illinois' governor...

* Snow in Houston and Orleans: Tuesday we reported a temperature of minus 81 degrees in Siberia, while I was interviewing the author of It's the S-U-N, Not Your SUV, John Zyrkowski, who opposes the global warming hype along with the 31,000 U.S. scientists who signed the petition against the global warming scare, and we reported that America can expect cold and snow, due to the minus 81 degrees forecast for Siberia. Now on Thursday, while there is much more cold coming from the arctic through next week, it's already snowing even in New Orleans of all places, and in Houston (see caption) earlier in the season than it has in 64 years, per the Weather Underground: "broad area of snowfall... ties the mark for the earliest snow fall in the Houston area [from Dec. 10] 1944."

* Comes Now Atheist Dan Barker: the media has been quoting atheist Dan Barker regarding the atheist plaque set up in the capitol in Seattle near the nativity scene. When Dan Barker was a teenager, he was involved with the ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman, one of a group of so-called faith healers. (See a BEL listener, TOL's Crow, who initially compared Bob to Benny Hinn until...) After interviewing atheists including:
- ABC's Reginald Finley, called The Infidel Guy, from ABC's Wife Swap program;
- TheologyOnline's psychologist Zakath;
- TOL's member who calls himself Fool;
- John Henderson who wrote the book God.com; and,
- Michael Shermer, an editor with Scientific American and the Skeptic Society who in in this famous 73-second excerpt on BEL denied that the sun is a light, illustrating that it's tough debating atheists when they're hesitant to admit to even the most obvious common ground;
now comes Dan Barker, a director with the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

* Truth, the Senses, the Universe, Sun and Moon: Acknowledging the difficulty in proving a negative, Bob Enyart stipulates at the outset that atheist Dan Barker would not have to worry about whether God was out on a star in a galaxy far, far away, but rather, Bob and Dan could discuss the evidence before us all, right here and right now.

* China Would Imprison Xiu: "I am in an impossible situation," says Xiu. "If they deport me to China, I have to take my children, because I am their mother and must care for them. But I cannot take them to China, because they will lose their freedom, and endure forced abortion of my grandchildren. This is an impossible situation." Xiu Mei Wei, pronounced Shu May Way, flew to America legally on a temporary tourist visa. Upon her arrival her fiancé told her he had found another woman. She met a man who married her and they now have four children.

* One of Eight "Women to Watch:" according to the Washingtonian, Ilana Goldman, president of Women's Campaign Forum, is one of the most powerful women in Washington. Ms. Goldman advocates the "right" to kill a fetus. Bob Enyart asked Ms. Goldman a number of questions which she did not answer including "What is a fetus?" and "Is the fetus living?" Ms. Goldman argued for a right to terminate it, but insisted on avoiding a discussion about what "it" is. Ms.

* To Train Up a Child: Bob Enyart and Michael Pearl of No Greater Joy Ministries discuss Michael and Debi Pearl's best-selling short book, To Train Up a C