July 29, 2010
Category: Creationism • Pointless polls
It's a simple question.
Do you think Livingston Parish public schools should teach creationism?
Yes, evolution is a lie 22%
Yes, so children can hear both sides 35%
No, religion has no place in science class 29%
No, we don't need to waste tax money on lawsuits 13%
Don't know 1%
I think readers here might have a slightly different set of answers than are up currently, though.
Posted by PZ Myers at 6:20 PM • 56 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Media
Helen Thomas vacated her front row seat in the White Press (under ignominious circumstances, unfortunately), and now it's up for grabs. The White House Correspondence Association is going to decide whether to give it to NPR, Bloomberg, or, appallingly, Fox News. Sign the petition. Slap down the right-wing propaganda organ and insist that a legitimate news organization like NPR get the seat.
Posted by PZ Myers at 6:00 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Godlessness
They just keep popping up out of nowhere, all shrill and assertive and extreme. Take a look at this new guy getting all in-your-face about religion. And he's a Scot, too; even worse.
Disreputable rascals, every one.
Posted by PZ Myers at 12:17 PM • 58 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cephalopods
Earlier this summer, I mentioned the Oregon Octocam, which featured an octopus named Deriq.
Deriq has died. It's a sad fact that most cephalopods are very short lived.
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq."
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:27 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Feminism • Religion
They're Christian, so you can trust them to have your best interests at heart. The Modesty Survey is a bizarre instrument created by asking young Christian women to put together heartfelt questions about their clothing ("Are bikinis immodest?" "Are jeans immodest?"), and then teenaged Christian boys are surveyed to get their opinions. Because, of course, the girls need boys' advice.
Reading through the questions is weird: they're phrased in different ways, but one of the most common motifs is the "stumbling block". The boys are asked to judge whether an item of clothing is something that might cause them to think wicked thoughts…so once again, the women are to blame for inciting men's behavior by wearing tight jeans or a strapless dress.
They're also explicit about it:
We're not telling you what to wear — we're just telling you what we, as guys, have to guard against. It is God's Word, your own heart and conscience, and your parents and godly friends who should help you decide what to do about it.
What they have to guard against? They should be plainer. "We're not telling you what to wear — we're just listing the stuff that will justify raping you."
I get a Taliban tingle just reading it. It's a far more generous document than anything Islam dictates — young Christian men do not want young Christian women to wear burkas — but in principle, it's the same thing. It's men declaring ownership of women's bodies and telling them what to wear, with the the threat of justifiable sexual assault if they do not obey.
It is a little disturbing, though, to see that their logo has a picture of a woman with a veil over her face.
Posted by PZ Myers at 10:46 AM • 409 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Equality • Kooks
One of the more contemptible anti-gay activists is Reverend Scott Lively, a true liar for Jesus who considers it his sacred mission to rid the world of homosexuals. He was proud to have inspired the Ugandan death penalty for homosexuality law (although in the face of the outrage that generated, he backed off, claiming they should give them the choice of prison or gay conversion "therapy").
His other claim to fame is that he is a holocaust revisionist. He has written a book, The Pink Swastika, in which he claims that Hitler and his entire inner circle was gay, that the atrocities the Nazis committed were driven by the immoral impulses of the gay Nazi elite, and that the well-known anti-gay laws and mass murders of homosexuals in the Third Reich were just a cover, a distraction to conceal the fact that Nazis were all gay. Oh, and also that the reason they were murdered is that gays are intrinsically violent, anyway.
Lively is an evil little liar, so it was delightful to see him exposed on the Daily Show. This is one of the clearest illuminations of the insanity of these gay-hating evangelicals I've seen.
The best moment was after Lively expounded on his ferocious gay Nazi theory and how the Nazi's public denunciation of gays was evidence that they were all secretly gay, the interviewer asks him, "That which you hate the most you secretly are?" Reverend Scott Lively sits there stunned for a moment before he can say, "I'm not gay."
I don't see how we can conclude that he's not, though, given the Christian logic he has so impeccably applied to the problem.
Posted by PZ Myers at 10:39 AM • 115 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 28, 2010
Category: Kooks
Mark your calendars! The end of the world is nigh, and we've got a specific date: the Rapture will occur on 21 May, 2011, and the world ends on 21 October 2011. How do we know this? As near as I can tell, it's pure numerology, diddling dates to create a pretense of pattern that are then used to draw conclusions.
I wouldn't worry about it. But now you've got an excuse to plan a party for next spring.
Posted by PZ Myers at 3:56 PM • 167 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academics • Kooks
Zeno catches something amusing: a right-wing radio host ranting about professors.
Sussman:I get a kick out of— You go to UC Berkeley, you go to Stanford, you go to these various campuses and these students are out there protesting, "We need more money for our schools!" And standing next to them are the professors. "We need more money for our schools!" Hey, have you ever asked that professor how much money they're making every year? These professors are all millionaires. They're millionaires with big, big salaries and big, big retirement packages. And yet they dress like little schmoes, you know, with their crummy jackets [Officer Vic: Patches on the elbow.] that are twenty years old, yeah, and patches on the elbow. And their ties are askew and their hair's kinda crappy and they drive crummy little cars and they're millionaires. They're all millionaires! And they actually have the gall to stand next to the kids who are protesting because their fees are too high. "We need more money for our schools!" So you can pay these millionaires!
Reality doesn't matter to these guys, does it? We wear the crummy jackets and drive the crummy little cars because that's what we can afford: professors are proud members of the middle class, not even the upper middle class. It isn't pretense.
I'm also not really getting a pay raise. In Minnesota, we're getting a pay cut this year.
Posted by PZ Myers at 1:53 PM • 170 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
…and this is a 
