Pharyngula

Posted by: Siamang | August 19, 2008 4:41 AM

Is Bill Donohue actually condemning her for linking to images that she found offensive... of BALOON DEPICTIONS OF JESUS?

How can I get on unka Bill's list of shame myself? Can I just say I find balloon depictions of jesus offensive too? Will that do, or must I be a lapsed catholic?

I once ate a communion wafer without being a catholic (I was a kid at the time, and didn't know why the rules should be any different at one christian church from another). Will that do?

Posted by: arachnophilia | August 19, 2008 4:55 AM

yeah, uh. i'll side with her. balloon-jesus is WAY more disrespectful.

Posted by: clinteas | August 19, 2008 5:15 AM

Who cares what Donahue types on his blog,does anyone actually read that?
The guy is so irrelevant,its not even funny!

In other news,a bag of rice has fallen over in China....

Posted by: wazza | August 19, 2008 5:20 AM

who the hell uses the word "Nix"?

It went out of style once everyone got sick of it during Watergate...

Posted by: Lout | August 19, 2008 5:31 AM

Will somebody please yank Bill-O's chain and tell him the Pope has made cross-dressing socially acceptable?

Posted by: Lago | August 19, 2008 5:40 AM

Can I be next Mr. Donohue?

Ok oK!

Why did Jesus cross the road???

(drum-roll) Wait for it...WAiT for it!

BeCaUse he WaS NAilEd tO A CHICKEN!!! (Snare Cymbal CRasH!!!)

(I will sit and wait for my write-up with patient glee)

Posted by: slang | August 19, 2008 5:42 AM

Cute press release, you can almost feel the raging spit coming through the screen. Oh, and mr. done-a-Hugh? ..|.,

Posted by: Kimpatsu | August 19, 2008 5:49 AM

Bill Donohoe seems to have only two emotions, which are intertwined: anger and censoriousness. And that tells you all you need to know about him.

Posted by: Claudia | August 19, 2008 5:50 AM

Jimmy Groove, if you look at the second "Balloon Jesus", it most definitely looks like his penis. As much as I enjoy the Donahue bashing, this thought isn't far fetched, nor was it his own... Just check out the comments below all the "Balloon Jesus" suffering on a cross FUN!

Posted by: negentropyeater | August 19, 2008 6:05 AM

Clinteas,

Who cares what Donahue types on his blog,does anyone actually read that?

Interestingly Donohue who most certainly has a very inflated opinon of himself probably believes he is far more important and offical than any of these damn bloggers. He doesn't communicate his little rants and opinions with posts and threads, but with "News releases"...

If one looks at google trends and compares [PZ Myers] and [Bill Donohue] one can see clearly who gets more interest :

http://www.google.com/trends?q=PZ+Myers%2C+Bill+Donohue&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2008&sort=0

Posted by: Kobra | August 19, 2008 6:14 AM

http://www.kobrascorner.com/opine/wafers-donohue-catholic-league.php

Hey Bill Dumbohue, read that!

(Normally I'm above link dropping, but I think it's appropriate right now.)

Posted by: MH | August 19, 2008 6:25 AM

Bill Donohue wrote: "Several who commented on this image made patently obscene comments."

Expletives = bad. Death threats = fine.

Posted by: Masks of Eris | August 19, 2008 6:41 AM

On the home page of Bitch Ph.D. there is a picture of two children: one of them is shown flashing his middle finger. That is WRONG, it is academic stupidity and is evil. The educated stupid should acknowledge the natural antipodes of +1 * +1 = +1 and -1 * -1 = -1 exist as plus and minus values of opposite creation - depicted by opposite sexes and opposite hemispheres.

Posted by: craig | August 19, 2008 6:55 AM

"Loincloths just aren't typically round and sausage like in appearance. "

Just how to you make something with balloon twisting that ISN'T round and sausage-like?

Posted by: craig | August 19, 2008 6:57 AM

Why, when I see the word nix, do I always think of pig latin, and a stooge using it? Ixnay on the Assphemy-blay!

Donohue is kinda like Moe, isn't he?

Posted by: craig | August 19, 2008 7:05 AM

hey, this google trends stuff can be fun!

http://www.google.com/trends?q=anal+sex%2C+Bill+Donohue&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2008&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=pustule%2C+Bill+Donohue&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2008&sort=1

http://www.google.com/trends?q=bozo+the+clown%2C+Bill+Donohue&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2008&sort=1

http://www.google.com/trends?q=atheism%2C+Bill+Donohue&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2008&sort=1

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 7:41 AM

P.Z., this comment seems to me to reflect a gloating immaturity on your part that is hardly worthy of a professional or a scientist. Hooray for you - you are so superior!

Posted by: CSBSH | August 19, 2008 7:59 AM

I think I'll start a website where I issue "press releases" about things I think suck.

Listen up, world! Here's an important press release: I think Bill Donohue is a cock!

Posted by: negentropyeater | August 19, 2008 8:05 AM

Hooray for you - you are so superior!

su·pe·rior (sə pir′ē ər)
adjective
1. higher in space; placed higher up; upper

But look at that picture :
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/31/pzm_london_lg.php

Isn't it absolutely clear that PZ is superior to the river Thames ?

Or did you have anything else in mind ?

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 8:39 AM

Kate, Donohue has never advocated death threats as far as I know. However is a 'scientific spirit of inquiry' I will be willing to look at the evidence of such comments if you will direct me to them.

I am not at all jealous of P.Z. - I just find that his comments toward those with beliefs that are different from his own to reek of self satisfied smarminess. He is a scientist for Christ's sake. Surely, you wouldn't expect this type of behaviour in Galileo, or Darwin.

Are you laughing yet?

Posted by: Kate | August 19, 2008 8:54 AM

Well, I'm not laughing as much as I'm chuckling over my morning coffee.

I suppose, though, that you don't quite get what's so funny about your reply... Then again, you seem to think scientists are automatons instead of actual human beings with emotions and lives outside of their work. That alone gives me a very good idea about what your problem is, and it's *isn't* PZ's post.

Posted by: wombat | August 19, 2008 9:04 AM

What most of you are fundamentally misunderstanding about Donahue are his motivations. The religious angle is a facade. Bill Donahue is about getting conservative Republicans elected. That's his 1 goal. I can guarantee you he is not currently picking over the haystacks of the bloggers covering the REPUBLICAN convention. This is nothing but an attempt to use the cover of religious outrage to hurt Democrats and rile up his crypto-fascist base. Bill Donahue is about politics and politics alone. That is his end. He just uses religion as the means.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 19, 2008 9:09 AM

I think you are giving him too much credit, I think "Ridiculous" is more appropriate than "scary".

Or "Bill Donohue is loud".

Posted by: Peter Mc | August 19, 2008 9:12 AM

Dan:

Galileo 'Eppur si muove', as he sat down after being forced to recant his heretical theories under pain of punishment by the Office of the Inquisition.

Darwin in his autobiography: "I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."

Maybe not quite with PZ's style (and Monty Python had not yet come among us to give us the tablets with the Gumbies on), but pretty good kicks in the slats nontheless.

Posted by: craig | August 19, 2008 9:23 AM

First I think Dan should explain why he has the superior attitude that anyone should give a flying fuck what he thinks.

Posted by: Capital Dan | August 19, 2008 9:40 AM

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 8:39 AM

I am not at all jealous of P.Z. - I just find that his comments toward those with beliefs that are different from his own to reek of self satisfied smarminess. He is a scientist for Christ's sake. Surely, you wouldn't expect this type of behaviour in Galileo, or Darwin.

Are you laughing yet?

I'm always laughing every time Billy Donohue issues yet another internet fatwa. The man is an unhinged, gibbering, little garblemouth of irrational, half-cocked hatred and paranoia.

Aside from that, you're a cute little concern troll, but you really have no business or right telling PZ or anyone how to conduct themselves. The fact that you somehow consider yourself in possession of the sole license to do so is fucking comical beyond description.

Posted by: Nick | August 19, 2008 9:47 AM

Uh, Bill, Jesus did have a penis...

And he used it, every day!

Posted by: raven | August 19, 2008 9:54 AM

Donohue is just the Catholic Rush Limbaugh. He gets paid to pander to the fringe elements of society.

Although a side benefit for him is an outlet for his incoherent perpetual rage against everything.

We all have to eat and pay bills. Unlike Donohue, many of us have just chosen to do it by providing something useful and worthwhile.

Posted by: Capital Dan | August 19, 2008 10:01 AM

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 9:48 AM

Now I'm laughing because this is exactly what I think P.Z. is doing when he bothers worrying about what the non-scientific world believes.

Ask yourself, is PZ a member of the non-scientific world as well as the scientific world?

How does PZ's being a scientist disqualify him from having an opinion of the world in which he lives?

If you continue your petty, arrogant call for PZ to censor himself, you're only going to prove to us all what a colossal, fucking idiot you really are, Dan. The fact that you can't grasp this, yet still manage to write a coherent sentence, is really astounding.

Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | August 19, 2008 10:09 AM

*points upward* I'm pretty sure my nick by itself is enough to raise Donohue's blood pressure. The guy will flame out from an aneurysm any day now.

But, just in case more is needed: When Jesus called Peter his rock, he was really talking about Peter's peter.

Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | August 19, 2008 10:27 AM

He is a scientist for Christ's sake.

And...what? Scientists have to have their personalities surgically removed, or perhaps submit themselves to the Vulcan discipline of Kohlinar to have their emotions purged?

Surely, you wouldn't expect this type of behaviour in Galileo, or Darwin.

I wouldn't? Why not? Why do you just assume that famous scientists must be dour, humorless fellows with no egos? Did you ever go to a party with them? Chat with them over dinner?

I really don't get this idea that a scientist's personality must be reflected in his or her professional writings.

To me P.Z. has made a god of his own ego

Projection from the guy who thinks it's his prerogative to tell all scientists everywhere the proper way to behave themselves.

Posted by: negentropyeater | August 19, 2008 10:35 AM

Dan,

you're absolutely right, a country where people believe such really weird unscientific things such as a cracker transforming itself into the creator of the universe, and who use these beliefs to deny basic human rights to homosexuals or pregnant women, surely doesn't exist.

Must be a complete figment of the imagination you know.

Posted by: lauram | August 19, 2008 10:40 AM

Please oh please PZ, if you can, just post one or two offending sentences from BD's site so i don't have to soil myself by going over there to read it. Yuck. Now I have to take another shower.

Posted by: amphiox | August 19, 2008 10:52 AM

There are many things about Donohoe that I just don't understand. Applying reason to the analysis of his activities is like trying to square root -1.

So he is offended by someone being offended by a picture of a balloon Jesus with a penis? Does that mean he approves of depictions of Jesus with phallic acoutrements? With enough passion to care what someone he's never heard of before thinks of it? (Or does he simply like ballons, what with all that rubber and latex and such?)

By the way, how does one nail a balloon jesus to a cross without it going "pop"? Would said "pop" be a rational explanation for the resurrection myth?

Posted by: Moggie | August 19, 2008 11:00 AM

He is a scientist for Christ's sake.

No, I think it was for the money and the trophy wife.

Posted by: Allytude | August 19, 2008 11:10 AM

Methinks the man has another problem
"The writer then objects to some children's toys on the grounds that they are more offensive than desecrating the Eucharist. The toys are actually balloons that have been made to depict Jesus in various poses, including a crucified Christ; one of these images shows Jesus with a penis."

I mean seriously- is that why he is so upset, Jesus has a you know what...Did he expect Jesus to be without one?

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 12:04 PM

Craig #50 "....First I think Dan should explain why he has the superior attitude that anyone should give a flying fuck what he thinks."

Thanks Craig, I realized that if I change "Dan" to "P.Z." you have managed to succinctly, if crudely, to make my own point concerning a scientist who insists upon pontificating(note the Catholic irony in choosing this word)
on areas that he seems incapable of understanding.

Okay, so he is an atheist and doesn't hide this fact - so what? If he has not had, or is incapable, of having the same sorts of religious experience that others of his own species have had - why assume that billions of believers are wrong and his view is "real"?

I would actually have the same problem with a 'professional' artist making snide & derogatory comments concerning scientific theories and scientists in their blog. I would feel inclined to ask them why they feel a need to deride scientists and science on their blog. Especially a blog posted by an 'artist' on "ArtBlogs." (Pharyngula is hosted by ScienceBlogs)

So yeah, I do wonder if P.Z. has made a 'god' of his own ego - he seems to have a need for affirmation. After all he has links to his MySpace, and Twitter, and Facebook, and so on... right on the upper right of this blog.

Anyway, if you can't see the irony in the fact that supporters of P.Z. get angry at the slightest offense that they imagine being done to their 'hero' & yet trash Catholics for getting upset over offenses made against their beliefs by P.Z. and others - I cannot help.....

I cannot make the 'blind see & the deaf hear.'

Posted by: Bubba Sixpack | August 19, 2008 12:08 PM

Knowing the way the Dem Party has turned out - a bunch of craven spineless tools who stand for nothing other than appeasement to loud-mouth bigots - I would not be surprised in the least if the convention did indeed nix these bloggers.

Posted by: N.C. | August 19, 2008 12:11 PM

I cannot make the 'blind see & the deaf hear.'

Physician, heal thyself.

Posted by: bitchphd | August 19, 2008 12:18 PM

Thanks, PZ!

I'm completely amused at Donohue's crappy research skills. I mean, there's *way* more offensive stuff on my blog. Tsk, tsk, Bill.

(Also, the RSS feed, for whoever mentioned upthread that there isn't one, is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/BitchPhd . I have no idea why RSS readers don't automatically find it anymore.)

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 19, 2008 12:20 PM

Thanks Craig, I realized that if I change "Dan" to "P.Z." you have managed to succinctly, if crudely, to make my own point concerning a scientist who insists upon pontificating(note the Catholic irony in choosing this word) on areas that he seems incapable of understanding.

Dan I'm sorry but you have failed to show where PZ does not understand. All you've done is come here and say he doesn't understand but still have not given us any reason why you think so other than you think he is smarmy and has a big ego (oh shocker a professor with an ego!!! Call the press).

Demonstrate why he is wrong.

Posted by: raven | August 19, 2008 12:24 PM

Dan the dumb troll:

I cannot make the 'blind see & the deaf hear.'

Well that is true. You are a moron who writes boring personal attacks because you can't think of anything intelligent, interesting, and on topic to post.

No one cares what you think about PZ.

Posted by: Dan | August 19, 2008 12:50 PM

Thanks Raven! for pointing out that I am a dumb troll, who is a moron who writes boring personal attacks because I can't think of anything interesting to say.... I guess, "dumb troll" and "moron" aren't boring personal attacks. I guess I was taking the P.Z. minon's comments that seem to advocate a 'freedom of speech' in blogland seriously. I thought that I was on topic since the topic is the "twisting of Bill Donahue's panties" and I was commenting on why I thought it is ridiculous for a 'scientist' of the caliber of P.Z. to care.

Posted by: Ron Sullivan | August 19, 2008 1:00 PM

Quick, someone make balloon Jesi for dan and that hardworking Pete fellow. They're obviously feeling all left-out.

And when you get yours, guys, rub 'em on your hair and stick' em on the wall. Let's see whose stays up longer.

Winner gets a balloon Bill Donahue.

It occurs to me that a balloon Cthulu wouldn't be beyond a good balloon-twister's skills.

Posted by: arensb | August 19, 2008 1:07 PM

I may regret saying this, but I've set up an RSS feed for the Catholic League website, since Bill either lacks the technical skillz to set one up, or can't be buggered to.

Contact me for the source code, if you want it.

Posted by: Kobra | August 19, 2008 1:24 PM

#86:
Just because you have the right to say whatever you want doesn't mean we won't criticize you for it.

Posted by: SteveM | August 19, 2008 1:44 PM

The only way to remain panty twisting free, is to go regimental.

I thought the phrase was "go commando". :-)