…and this is a 
Tomorrow's the day
Category: Creationism • Politics
Posted on: February 22, 2007 2:26 PM, by PZ Myers
John McCain is going to be addressing the Discovery Institute in a panderiffic event tomorrow. DefCon Blog has a petition urging him to cancel his appearance, on the perfectly reasonable grounds that no candidate should be giving moral support to such a contemptible organization.
I have mixed feelings about it. I'm no fan of McCain, and I like watching the far Right embed themselves ever deeper into Christian lunacy—I have this hope that someday everyone will wake up and see the whole Christian/Republican edifice as purest poison. So I can't quite bring myself to sign the petition, not that McCain would care about my opinion anyway, but you others can make your own decision.
Comments
Posted by: Blake Stacey | February 22, 2007 2:37 PM
Has it been settled yet how much actual involvement the DI has with this affair? I try to learn from Atheist Pope Richard I's mistakes and thus am reluctant to sign petitions I haven't examined fully. Last I heard, the DI was only one of several (three?) sponsors, and McCain wasn't scheduled to speak about science education or creationism — but it's hard to keep up with all the foolishness going on these days.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | February 22, 2007 2:37 PM
I'm not gonna sign it. Perhaps folks will see the way that McCain twists himself to suit a fundamentalist constituency and realize that Republicans are stuck with pandering to the religious right whether they agree with them or not.
Posted by: Steve_C | February 22, 2007 2:49 PM
Hehe. I hope McCain actually gets taken in by their tripe.
Would love for him to start blathering about a designer.
Posted by: Molly, NYC | February 22, 2007 3:10 PM
I won't bother signing it either, essentially for the reasons Mike Haubrich mentions. McCain clearly expects to receive the Rs' nomination in return for whoring himself out to the religious right, so his speaking at the DI is pretty much what you'd expect.
Posted by: Coin | February 22, 2007 3:11 PM
Last I heard, the DI was only one of several (three?) sponsors
Thirteen. The event is being presented by two Seattle area groups called the World Affairs Council and CityClub; there are two corporate sponsors, one of which is Boeing; and there are nine "co-presenting organizations", one of which is the Discovery Institute. The whole thing is just a generic fundraiser lunch talk thing, and it sounds like the subject of the talk is going to be foreign policy.
This has been blown up in the blogosphere into McCain "addressing the Discovery Institute" or "giving a keynote for the Discovery Institute" due to the Discovery Institute press release, which made it sound like there were only three organizations involved and all were on equal footing with the Discovery Institute; and a wildly inaccurate article on Think Progress.
I of course think it is right and proper to ask John McCain whether he knew about the Discovery Institute cosponsoring the talk and why he thinks it is a good idea to associate himself with the DI, or to call for him to not appear at the event so long as the Discovery Institute remains involved. But I'm rather annoyed at Think Progress for confusing so many people as to what exactly the nature of this talk is. If we are to consider ourselves the reality-based community, we need to act like it, and what McCain is doing here is bad enough by itself that we're not helped by exaggerating it.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | February 22, 2007 3:14 PM
Thanks, Coin.
Posted by: Coin | February 22, 2007 3:17 PM
Sure.
Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | February 22, 2007 3:31 PM
The pander's bum.
Posted by: J-Dog | February 22, 2007 3:37 PM
McCain COULD grow some cohones and speak out against the DI duplicity, but he won't. Heads up there pretty tight, and can't eve get wedged out....
Posted by: GW | February 22, 2007 3:38 PM
Doesn't matter, even if the DI is not a major sponsor. McCain has made several ID-friendly statements in the past, whether he actually believes it or not. He'll do anything for the nomination.
Posted by: George | February 22, 2007 3:54 PM
Not going to sign. Phoney John is a lost cause. Biggest bullshitter and greatest suck-up artist in Congress.
Posted by: quork | February 22, 2007 4:20 PM
Is there going to be complete video and transcript coverage of whatever he says?
Posted by: dr. dave | February 22, 2007 5:02 PM
Is that "panderiffic" or "pandariffic"
Of Panderers and People...
Posted by: Geral | February 22, 2007 5:14 PM
I think PZ's mighty band of readers killed defcon there.
Posted by: Revenant | February 22, 2007 5:19 PM
He's already spoken at Falwell's Liberty "university", so any credibility he might have had with me went out the window at that point.
Posted by: Keanus | February 22, 2007 5:42 PM
As Coin described the DI's involvement is only tangential. In fact the web pages adverstising the event from the City Club and the World Affairs Council don't even mention the DI. Yet, the DI's website describes the event as if they were the sole sponsors. Me thinks the DI is trying to latch onto McCain's coattails for a small taste of respectiability--among those who think McCain offers that prospect. The DI is engaging in pure credential embellishment.
Posted by: CurseMaster | February 22, 2007 5:48 PM
A pox on all his faces -- to include any new ones, as they emerge.
Posted by: llewelly | February 22, 2007 5:49 PM
Stop making fun of Eve. She was given conflicting claims about the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. God said BAD, seprent said GOOD. Eve did the reasonable thing - she experimented. She tasted the fruit. Having made her observation, she reported it, and asked Adam to repeat the expriment, so that they might either have higher confidence in her findings, or reject them.Eve was the first scientific thinker in the Bible. Unfortunately, she endured great persecution, and ongoing infamy for her contributions to human knowledge. She was the Giordano Bruno of her time.
Posted by: Kristine | February 22, 2007 5:54 PM
Absolutely, what George said. John McCain threw his Liberty University grad cap into the ring, and I want him to go and speak. Let there be transcripts, video. Let there be questions about intelligent design and global warming. (Unfortunately, there may not be.) Let it be posted on YouTube. Let there be sampling and parodies galore. And if he is put on the spot regarding his position on global warming by the DI folks, there shall be shimmies.
Posted by: Kristine | February 22, 2007 6:02 PM
Bwahahaha! The show has begun! (Good dig at Coleman, too.)
Posted by: writerdd | February 22, 2007 7:35 PM
Let the idiots expose themselves for what they are. Why try to stop them from making asses of themselves?
Posted by: MikeM | February 22, 2007 8:01 PM
Sound bites! Give me sound bites!
I'm glad McCain's talking. Let's hope he brings up ID. Sounds like that won't happen, though. Oh well.
Posted by: Saint Gasoline | February 22, 2007 9:09 PM
I'm with you. Most social conservatives are already mindless idiots, so they might as well associate with another gathering of mindless idiots.
Posted by: Drake Milton | February 22, 2007 11:40 PM
Hey McCain-- you need to hear this!
I just heard University of Wisconsin's Dr. Sean B. Carroll (Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical) talk about evolution and how the Discovery Institute cheats students out of an education.
Carroll, author of the recent book "Making of the Fittest," explains that the US is paying a price for its lack of scientific literacy.
Listen here
Posted by: Mena | February 23, 2007 12:15 AM
Story about a case challenging faith based initiatives being brought to the Supreme Court, written as only Yahoo can write a balanced story.