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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Smugly inane god-walloper of the day
Category: Kooks • Religion
Posted on: December 29, 2006 4:19 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: Karley | December 29, 2006 6:07 PM
I used to read Cal's column for a cheap laugh. I stopped when he flat out called Democrats terrorists. And I'm not going to start again today.
Off topic: what's going on in the billboard thread? My connection goes belly up every time I try to load it. Plus, I suspect I'm not missing much.
Posted by: j | December 29, 2006 6:27 PM
Karley, that sometimes happens to me too. The thread will, in all likelihood, die soon now that both trolls have been banned.
As for Cal Thomas, that article is absolutely astonishing in the sheer number of tired fallacious arguments it manages to employ in so few sentences.
Posted by: Matt T. | December 29, 2006 6:49 PM
Cal Thomas was one of the first political columnists a young Matt T. developed an opinion on, way back when. I thought myself a lot more conservative than I am now, and certainly was on one or two topics. Still, the guy just pissed me off. Part of it was because his scornful, scolding tone reminded me of every two-faced, holier-than-thou self-described "good Christian" in my small, Southern community, but it bothered me that he was supposedly representing What's Right yet came off as such a misinformed jackass. Then I read a quote by Molly Ivins that was along the lines of "Cal Thomas, the finest thinker of the 13th century" and it all came together for me. Just like the "pay for Saturday night Sunday morning" guys, he was ignorant and proud of it.
Posted by: Rey Fox | December 29, 2006 7:03 PM
Good ol' Molly. I picked up the paper recently, and there was a sidebar saying that she was taking a medical leave of absence from her column. And it was right next to the latest blather from Mr. Moustache. Not a good way to start the day.
Posted by: Nick | December 29, 2006 7:51 PM
Holy shit. Does he actually believe that snowflakes are unique because God personally manufactures each one?
There is no word for such fuckwittery.
Posted by: j | December 29, 2006 8:17 PM
"There is no word for such fuckwittery."
Well, "fuckwittery" is a start.
Posted by: D | December 29, 2006 10:39 PM
I was heartened by the response to the article...hardly a good word for his idiocy
Posted by: minimalist | December 29, 2006 11:01 PM
Cal Thomas was one of the first political columnists a young Matt T. developed an opinion on, way back when.
Same for me, actually. It's kind of sad that a prominent conservative columnist was printing pap that even a somewhat gullible 14 year old (hey, I still believed in God back then) could easily see through.
He is, and always has been, a jumped-up simpleton who thinks his ignorance gives him a charming, folksy wisdom that "you dern smarty edumacated libruls could never understand." Easy to see why so many newspapers, in their race to the bottom, print his column in hopes of winning over same.
Posted by: Kristine | December 30, 2006 12:32 AM
Callow Thomas:
It takes more faith not to believe in God than to believe in Him. It is also intellectually lazy. You have to believe the vastness of the universe "happened" without a Designer and that unique things like fingerprints and snowflakes occurred by pure chance.
But I thought that Uncommon Descent had thoroughly debunked that designed-snowflake argument. You'll get yelled at if you suggest design for snowflakes. Snowflakes are not designed, they're not. Got that? Now, don't ever say it, or even think it.
(Don't ask me! I would think that snowflakes were the perfect candidates for intelligent design claims but what do I know? They're allergic to internal logic, that's obvious, but also even to the self-consistency of the paranoid schizophrenic. At this point I only read the stupid blog to see what my favorite undertaker is up to.)
Posted by: Umilik | December 30, 2006 9:38 AM
Most shocking about the James Hrynyshyn arrticle was/is the statement of how widely published Cal Thomas is. He appears occasionally in our New Orleans paper, but I always just dismissed that as one of these peculiarities that could only happen here. Thomas has never had a single innovative thought in any of the columns that I managed to actually read to the end. He's dull, dimwitted and entirely uninspiring. Not the quality I would have thought make a good op-ed writer. As they say... only in America
Posted by: khan | December 30, 2006 10:38 AM
Cal Thomas is the "Smugly inane god-walloper" of the day, year, decade, last several hundred years.
He wrote a column castigating President Clinton for naming his dog "Buddy".
He wrote a column castigating President Clinton for dismissing the White House chef.
He wrote a column that said the only women who were 'healed' after being raped were those who gave birth to the rapist's child.
He truly brings meaning to the term 'bat-shit insane'.
Posted by: MarkP | December 30, 2006 11:45 AM
I once saw Cal Thomas on Crossfire ask a guest something like:
"You have physical evolution, cosmic evolution, and biological evolution. Which is true?"
The scientist then got that look on her face you get when you are confronted with total idiocy, but Thomas took her hesitancy as some sort of victory.
To borrow another great Ivinsism, "if he learned Spanish, he'd be bi-ignorant".
Posted by: Kristine | December 30, 2006 1:50 PM
"You have physical evolution, cosmic evolution, and biological evolution. Which is true?"
Bwahaha! That's a new one by me. What a dork!
Another "axis of evil," eh? (Never understood a three-point axis, but whatever.)