Democratic Leadership Says NSA Data Collection Is Fine Because You 'May Be In Communication With Terrorists'
from the seriously? dept
One of the things that became quite clear with yesterday's vote by the House to keep the NSA collecting records on every single one of your phone calls was the strange bedfellows that came together over this issue. Fighting against the surveillance were conservatives who were skeptical about government power along with liberals who were skeptical of government overreach into private lives. On the flip side, you had the White House and the leadership of both parties -- who tend to lean more towards supporting excessive power in the executive branch (perhaps because of their own dreams of being able to control that power). It's not often you see Michele Bachmann and Nancy Pelosi agreeing on very much.Over at the Huffington Post, there's a good article about these odd pairings, noting the oddity of Bachmann endorsing the "identical" position as the Obama administration. But the really stunning point is at the end of the article, where it mentions that Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip, who's in charge of gathering up the votes on the Democratic side, and who apparently was working overtime to convince Democrats to vote in favor of ignoring the 4th Amendment, sent the most bizarre "description" of the amendment. While that only has a clip, a friend sent over the full "description" sent by Steny Hoyer to all of the Democrats in the House:
Amash/Conyers/Mulvaney/Polis/Massie Amendment – Bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act (as codified by Section 501 of FISA) to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who may be in communication with terrorist groups but are not already subject to an investigation under Section 215Talk about misleading. The program pertains to everyone. At this point, it's no secret that the records collected under this authority include a record of every single phone call. This is not about collecting records of people talking to terrorists. It's about collecting records on everyone. So, the only rational deciphering of Hoyer's email is that he believes that every American "may be in communication with terrorist groups" and therefore it's okay to spy on them.
How do these people get elected?
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Filed Under: business records, collection, democrats, metadata, nsa, nsa surveillance, section 215, steny hoyer, terrorists
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"A chicken in every pot and retirement money to take care of you!"
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So... that's not it. Unless you can eat or retire on broken promises.
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thats enough
THIS MOMENT called FUCK OFF is about a man WHOM wasn't called grady , he did not have 3 kids of his own.....he met a lady and i swear she has a beard all her own.....
OBAMA = SPY
OBAMA = SPY
DEMOCRATS = SPY
DEMOCRATS = SPY
DEMOCRATS = SPY
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Re: thats enough
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More Republicans voted to keep this in place than Democrats. But the actual numbers were close enough that you can say it was a bipartisan in the end.
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Re: thats enough
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US citizens need to elect more intelligent representatives.
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It is more like installing a breathalizer in every vehicle because you may drink and drive.
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If we had smarter citizens, we would.
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If creationism doesn't belong in schools then neither does that other pseudo-science.
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One of the principles of science is that you admit if you don't understand something, and then try to find an answer, not fabricate one and then Believe it.
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Until you idiots can even comprehend that monumentally basic idea, a debate can't even occur.
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Yes, evolution can happen quickly, typically when organisms are stressed out by changing environments (in other words when selection pressures are strongest). It's not that at those times fossils stop forming - its that the likelihood of any particular organism becoming a fossil is vanishingly small. Greater than 99.9% of the species that have roamed the earth in its ~4.7 billion year history are extinct. There are entire genuses and families that we are unlikely ever to come across evidence of. That we have so many well preserved fossils is amazingly in and of itself.
But don't let facts and an organized, critical method for determining the truth stop you from believing fairy tales told by bronze age savages.
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It is also funny that you call them bronze age savages, yet there are many intelligent writings around math and science that pre-date the New Testament by hundreds of years and you call them geniuses. We still don't know how these dumb savages built pyramids, Easter Island, etc.
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Of course we know how the Egyptians built the pyramids - they kept amazing records (the only way to organize such an effort), some of which have survived. There may be a few quibbles over which of a few techniques were used for certain things, but the architecturing methods of the time were sufficient to accomplish the task given the resources they had. I'm not familiar with any controversy over Easter Island other than we're not sure why the monument heads were erected.
Yes, there were many intelligent writers way back in history. Even recently, some very intelligent people believe in nonsense - Isaac Newton was an alchemist (trying to turn lead into gold). The savages I'm referring to are the ones who waged war and committed genocides for not bowing down to their chosen deity. Savagery and intelligence are not mutually exclusive.
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So the only savages are religious ones? Does savagery disprove or prove anything? Didn't realize it was a key factor in the scientific method.
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Would you care to address any of the actual points in the discussion, or do you want to keep knocking down your own strawmen?
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There is 0 evidence for creationism. ZERO. The only reason it still exists is because it's the only explanation fully compatible with the evenly absurd belief in a god and the lies that belief has established throughout the centuries.
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You can't equate the two things. Actual science (what you mysteriously call "pseudo-science") is a search for the truth, based on evidence. Creationism is based on faith.
They're different animals completely.
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Science is based on evidence, you come up with a hypothesis, and amend it depending on the evidence found. If the evidence does not jive with the hypothesis, create a new hypothesis. If the evidence overwhelmingly supports the hypothesis, further testing is needed so that it becomes a theory.
Proper science is about critical thinking, not faith.
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I'll wait.
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Arguing about faith just leads to stronger faith-based beliefs and never leads to any improved understanding.
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Just because somebody has a degree and wears a lab coat doesn't automatically mean that they possess truth, just as telling a lie over and over again will not make it true.
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It has been actively observed happening many times. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria (thousands of studies). The shape of the beaks of the finches of the Galapagos (a decades long study still underway). And that's just me naming two before I've had my caffiene this morning.
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Please read the description at the bottom. I'll quote:
"This diagram is a cladogram... "
"Each clade is defined by a distinguishing characteristic... "
"Sometimes that characteristic disappears in later organisms"
"Some well-known groups of organisms are not clades - including reptiles, protists, fish, invertabrates, sponges, and prokaryotes - because they do not include all descendants of the most recent common ancestor."
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http://www.tellapallet.com/tree_of_life.htm
---
The primary sources for this illustration are: The journal Science (13 June 2003: Vol. 300. no. 5626). ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/300/5626/1691 )
The NIH on-line taxonomy browser ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/ )
---
If you follow the links in the Science journal, you'll see links to the the many papers laying out all the evidence.
This is fun. Give me some more links to things that support my argument and make you look silly.
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"species", first and foremost, is an arbitrary artificial concept that has no natural counterpart in reality. there are no "borders" between species and there is nothing in reality that necessitates that concept. biology's definition of a species is that individuals that belong to a species can produce fertile offspring, while individuals belonging to different species can not. that this concept of a species does not reflect anything real or tangible is for example demonstrated by the existence of ring species. any argument relying on "species" being anything but an artificial concept is almost guaranteed to fail.
the argument that, if i can not observe something directly i have to take it on faith is ludicrous, to say the least. by that logic i have to take absolutely everything on faith because "direct observation" is impossible, unless you use a naive definition of "direct observation". every single thing we know about physical reality has to be deduced by interpreting incomplete information through inaccurate senses, be it the light that reaches me nanoseconds after it bounced off an object or a fossil i find in a certain rock formation which shows certain isotopic ratios. it is the context, the host of mutually supporting clues gathered by our senses that allow us to form an accurate approximation of reality. a single fossil on its own does not say much, thousands of fossils in accordance with genetics, geographical distribution, what we know about breeding, computer models, etc. however paint a fairly accurate picture.
and please stop insisting that the fossil record is something that evolution depends on. it doesn't depend on it at all. the fact that every single fossil ever to be found supports evolution is just another strong piece of evidence. there could have been so much contradicting evidence in the fossil record that would easily disprove evolution, yet there is none. not the slightest bit.
to rely on the fossil record as your prime argument as to why evolution is not backed by convincing evidence kills your point right from the start. maintaining this position tells everybody that you are completely unaware of the vast body of evidence that speaks for evolution, completely independent of the fossil record. you have been mislead to believe that evolution is just supported by a few weak pieces of evidence that could easily be placed by a conspiracy of god-hating scientists. the truth is the opposite, many thousands of people use and confirm the fact of evolution on a daily basis, using independent methods from a wide array of scientific fields.
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If you are looking to science to try to confirm faith you are going about it the wrong way. How can you have faith in something that you can confirm as a fact through perception? That is no faith at all.
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Ridiculous, isn't it? The best thing about evolution is how it so brazenly contradicts all rationale.
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Your comment shows a serious misunderstanding of evolution. One species does not evolve "into" another. There is not a singular instant where a species becomes another. The descendants of a single species can diverge into seperate species. The typical example is a population of a single species that is cut off from the rest of its species, such as on an island. That population can change over succsessive generations, adapting to a different environment from the rest of its kind that are elsewhere. Over time, those changes add up into something distinctive, and in which even if re-united will not or cannot interbreed.
A chimpanzee does not evolve into a human. But both humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived around 5-7 million years ago.
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Evolution has been observed happening. Just because you are unwilling to recognize that it has does not mean it didn't happen.
No one living "observed" the millions of years it took for humans and chimpanzees to diverge from their common ancestor, but we have plenty of evidence that shows it happened - multiple seperate lines of genetic evidence, and some limited fossil evidence, and others. Just because you are unwilling to recognize it does not mean that evidence doesn't exist.
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Sound ridiculous doesn't it? And evolutionists think Christians are the only ones living by faith.
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Ahh, I see. For you, the only valid "proof" is what you can see with your own eyes happening right in front of you.
Fair enough, but that's a far, far cry from proof on two counts: first, you can't trust what you see with your own eyes (so that's not necessarily proof), and second, it means you cannot accept any scientific study of processes that take longer than a lifetime or that involve structures larger than or smaller than what the human eye can perceive.
In other words, you've predefined your terms in such a way that you've made most scientific studies unscientific through nothing but the power of rhetoric. Good job!
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You can easily tell scientific arguments from faith based arguments by asking the question: "Can you imagine some type of evidence that when confirmed, could change your views?"
I can imagine all sorts of things that could change my views on evolution if they are proven. The classic example is fossilized rabbits in the Pre-Cambrian.
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"God just made it to look like that is what happened"
But the point is from a scientific perspective, it doesn't matter. Whether a scientist believes evolution actually happened, or if god just made everything 5 minutes ago to look and act as if it happened, from a scientific perspective, there is no difference whatsoever.
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There are many scientists who would disagree with your statements. It may not be possible to absolutely prove we're not all under the control of a malevolent deity, or in the Matrix, or a brain in a jar, but there's no good reason to think that it is so when there are better explanations that do not include those complexities.
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I never said all scientist think we are, any true scientist will admit the possibility (not likelyhood of course) of anything that has not been disproven. Otherwise, the OP is right and they are being faith based.
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I don't know, therefore god.
LOL!
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What is religion doing being taught in the classroom? Of course I'm speaking about evolution.
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Then you simply don't understand evolution. It's not even close to being "faith-based". It's on solid evidential ground.
But here's a challenge that science-haters have yet to successfully take up: evolution, like all scientific theories (and unlike religion), is disprovable. So disprove it. If you pull that off, you'll get a Nobel prize in addition to the right to say "I told you so".
That's another difference between science and religion: scientists love it when longstanding hypotheses are disproved. It means a massive leap forward in understanding has occurred. Faith-based people hate it when some aspect of their belief system is disproved, as that represents a threat to their belief system.
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Good question but an obvious one: the constituency is as clueless when it comes to science as the politicians who press for ID being taught in schools.
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We have been steadily increasing the cost per child in education with no discernible results. And don't believe that "cutting education spending" tripe. Whenever pols talk about cutting they are talking about cuts to future spending increases not a decrease in current funding.
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Here's a 60's term, college boy: The Establishment.
So long as you keep running pieces in which you're mystified how DC works and take the notion of partisan politics any more seriously than pro-wrestling, I'll try to find patience to yet again point out that by doing so you expose yourself as either a fool or a knave, or in your case, a college-trained fool who believes that he's an "Insider" knave. That anyone follows you here for more than jeering at shows only how many larger fools there are, and that's how "these people" get elected, IF that hasn't been totally rigged by now, and how The Establishment gets away with crimes.
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Re: Here's a 60's term, college boy: The Establishment.
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Re: Re: Here's a 60's term, college boy: The Establishment.
Damn, that sounds ironically familiar.
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Hey Congress
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Re: Hey Congress
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Re: Re: Hey Congress
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Re: Hey Congress
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Weasel words
For those linguists out there, I do not support the use of the word "may" in statements of fact, just pointing out that this is a common political loophole.
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Re: Weasel words
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Re: Weasel words
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Voting day I get to decide between a punch to the face or a kick to the shin. Love the 2 party system...
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Surveillance State Repeal Act
I'd like to send you the bill text, summary and press release on my boss's bill to repeal the PATRIOT Act and FISA Amendments Act, which he introduced yesterday during the vote on the Amash amendment. If you email me at the address above I'll get it to you immediately.
With thanks,
Pat Eddington
Senior Policy Advisor
Rep. Rush Holt
1214 Longworth Building
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
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Re: Surveillance State Repeal Act
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Re: Surveillance State Repeal Act
Repeal the whole thing, sounds good to me.
Rush Holt running for President?
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The truth is that the corporations aren't in bed with the government, the governments of the world are increasingly in bed with the corporations. You can see this in the way multiple world government rules and regulations are increasingly coming under the sway of corporate dictates, most especially in their international trade agreements (like ACTA, TPP and such).
As for some of the claims being made by government these days, terrorism, like child porn/abuse and a few other buzz words, are ready terms to help sway the masses who are easily distracted and no longer motivated to maintain vigilance in accountability (as the Declaration of Independence says "and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed"). For many, the depredations of our leaders are still tolerable, if only barely in an increasing amount of cases.
However, the bigger point to remember is that the politicians who get elected today mostly do so by the influence and money funneled into their elections by corporations and those that control them. While the politicians themselves may often use the specter of terrorism to influence people in their policy decisions, the people/powers increasingly in control look at the world from a certain point of views. And from that viewpoint of power, people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin would generally be seen as real "terrorist". Therefore, yes, from the viewpoint of these people, every American is a potential "terrorist" and must be monitored to prevent an eventual loss of control as happened when the American Colonies declared independence (and countless other examples throughout history).
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i think the more relevant point is
'How do these people get re-elected?'
i cant help but wonder on the intelligence of those that vote the damn fools into office, not once but again!!
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Re: who keeps re-electing these asshats?
If I could actually vote against someone - enough people casting "negative" votes and that office is vacated - we might see some real change. I think a lot of people would rather see nothing get done than learning after the fact that when something gets done, it usually only fucks us harder.
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Re: How do they get re-elected
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democrats are history
BYE BYE DEMOCRATS
and to republiconartists i hope your watching cause if you dont give an alternative the fewest people voting may occur in the history of the USA ON YOUR WATCH
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Re: democrats are history
That's what the republican party wants. The fewer people who vote, the better they do at at the polls.
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Re: democrats are history
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Slipery Slope
Maybe we should install cameras and recorders in every room of every building including all private property? And also in every vehicle. After all, the data is being recorded and tucked away in case it is ever needed later. The NSA will not look at the recordings -- they promise!
But think of how valuable it would be? If we find out that Jane Doe is a terrorist, we could then see everything she has ever done, anywhere she has ever been. Wouldn't that be a valuable law enforcement tool?
In a police state, police work is easy! Please pass the donuts...
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So politicians
They must also be ok having all this data collected where it could be potentially leaked and anger their significant other, constituents and donors too.
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The problem
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One World Government
The new world order is trying to establish a one world government to spread its tyranny worldwide, but they need to destroy the USA first, before they can establish their demonic one world government.
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Re: Is the NSA collecting congresses emails too? They are the real terrorists.
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Saxby Chambliss
WTF How do people get these stupid names
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Definition of "may be in communication"?
How does someone by this law determine who is not in communication with terrorist groups. If no-one can be ruled out then it's a useless clause.
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Roger wilco
I guess that means it's A-OK for Anonymous to hack into the NSA's database and collect their data, since any group investigating one group of terrorists is more likely than not to be in communication with another.
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Evolution vs Creationism
2) every single individual is an intermediary between its parents and its children. thus the requirement of finding all the intermediaries could only be met by finding a fossil for every single individual in the ancestral line. since fossilization is a rare occurence this is an impossible task and the theory of evolution does in no way depend on it being fulfilled. every fossil that fills an evolutionary gap necessarily creates two more gaps of roughly half the size. the request for all the intermediaries is comparable to requesting an image for every single point of jupiter's orbit for you to accept that it approximately obeys kepler's laws.
3) the theory of evolution does not depend on fossil evidence at all. there are several completely independent kinds of evidence that would strongly suggest or prove evolution on their own (the structure of the genetic code, coevolution, geographic distribution of species, visible evolution in microorganisms, artificial breeding, genetic algorithms). together they confirm evolution as fact in the same way every measurement ever taken confirms gravity as fact.
4) that scientists have to have some point at which they have to take things on faith (for example that their measurements are real, and not just tricks by a deceitful god or matrix operator and that basic logic and reason do indeed work) does not mean their method is comparable to the creationists'. scientists base as little as possible on faith and when evidence contradicts that faith the latter is discarded, while creationists base as much as possible on faith and when evidence contradicts that faith they discard the former.
5) even if evolution was shown to be completely false (none of your arguments come even close), creationism would not be a single bit more plausible. proving creationism by disproving evolution is called a false dichotomy.
the reason people are laughing at creationism is not some false sense of superiority. it is the style of argument and the many logical fallacies that completely discredit it. i know, on creationist websites they give you guidelines how to use rhetoric tricks rather than actual argument to "win" a debate. they make you think that you are proving your point, while you are actually just proving your ignorance. you are fighting a straw man, not the actual theory of evolution and you really ought to inform yourself independently about what evolution actually says, not just on creationist websites that smugly but falsely claim to have disproven evolution and its large body of independent and mutually supporting evidence with a badly reasoned bullet point list that boils down to "hah! take that evolutionists!!".
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oh jeesh
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