stcynic
Posts by this author
August 28, 2006
Well I watched about half of the abominable D. James Kennedy special about Darwin and Hitler last night, about as much as I could stomach. It was every bit as bad as I imagined, perhaps even worse. The dishonesty absolutely leapt off the screen. At one point they present noted paleontological…
August 28, 2006
Stepford Senate candidate Katherine Harris attempted to "clarify" what she meant last week when she told the Florida Baptist Witness that separation of church and state was a lie and that God decides who gets elected. Here's her explanation:
Harris' campaign released a statement Saturday saying she…
August 28, 2006
This story illustrates perfectly the problem at the core of hate speech laws of the type that so many of our Western allies have. I've documented many times what goes on in England whenever anyone reports an anti-gay statement made there. Scotland Yard sends out detectives to investigate. Now I…
August 27, 2006
Here's a very funny clip from comedian Greg Giraldo on getting old and watching Mtv.
August 27, 2006
I came across this picture on another blog. I have no idea where or why it was taken, but the juxtaposition of the three people in it is jarring to me. I wonder if Bin Laden is rethinking his love for Whitney now?
Did Ariel Sharon knock on their door and wake them up? Or did they dress like that…
August 27, 2006
I have been neglectful in not linking to this post by PZ Myers, wherein he exposes the highly dishonest tactics of Jonathan Wells in chapter 3 of his new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. It's pretty much just a rehash of the Haeckel material from Icons of…
August 26, 2006
Wes Elsberry has uncovered this article by Patrick Malone about things to avoid when choosing an expert witness pursuant to Daubert and Federal Rule of Evidence 702. Daubert is the controlling Supreme Court precedent that governs when courts should accept or reject expert scientific testimony.…
August 26, 2006
I found this on Youtube and wanted to share it with everyone. It's a video for the song Biko, by Peter Gabriel. Stephen Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist who was killed by the police in 1977 while in custody. I was at the Amnesty International concert in Chicago in 1986 and heard…
August 26, 2006
Like the Worldnutdaily, Agape Press has been frantically trying to defend D. James Kennedy's absurd documentary claiming that Darwin led directly to Hitler. Their latest attempt has the producer of the documentary, Jerry Newcombe, trying to defend it. Predictably, he falls flat on his face in the…
August 26, 2006
People complain about the stores putting on Christmas music too early, but now we can complain about the bitching and complaining starting early. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first idiotic whining about the "war on Christmas" for the year. Naturally, it comes from the American Family…
August 25, 2006
Okay, I know most of my readers aren't gonna care at all about this, but as an inveterate watcher of pop culture disasters, something has to be said about the performance of Kevin Federline on the Teen Choice awards (yes, I actually wrote myself a note to turn it on for the last 10 minutes - even…
August 25, 2006
John Gorenfeld reports that 700 Moonies in South Korea attacked a newspaper after the paper printed unflattering reports of the cult's activities. They smashed the front windows of the building, destroyed computers and other fixtures in the building, then sent some 200 text messages to the reporter…
August 25, 2006
There is a fascinating exchange going on over at Positive Liberty between Jon Rowe, Jim Babka and Gregg Frazer. There are two questions under consideration - to what extent is Calvinism opposed to revolution and to the notion of political rights in general; and on a larger level, does the Bible…
August 25, 2006
Despite no longer working as legal counsel for the Discovery Institute, Seth Cooper has still been quite busy writing articles on their behalf slamming Judge Jones' ruling in Kitzmiller. Not content with the whopper he told a few months ago in an article he wrote with Joe Manzari of the American…
August 25, 2006
As a follow up on the question of Christianity and Adolf Hitler, I refer you to this 2003 article in Free Inquiry. I don't agree with all of it, nor do I really put the blame for Hitler on Christianity (we must bear in mind that a great many Christians both risked and gave their lives to fight…
August 25, 2006
Here's an amusing interview with my favorite demented little harpie/wannabe Senator in the Florida Baptist Witness. Some of these statements will leave you scratching your head wondering what the hell she's talking about. Like this gem:
Do you support civil rights protections on the basis of sexual…
August 25, 2006
Balko finds another ridiculous case of law enforcement seizing property without ever proving it was involved in any crime,t his one from New Hampshire.
The state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the government can keep and destroy more than 500 CDs taken from Michael Cohen, owner of Pitchfork…
August 24, 2006
We start with this excerpt from from his book The O'Reilly Factor:
My thing was the music: I was a dancing machine. Sock it to me, Donna Summer! Let's shake this place, Gloria Gaynor! Get down! Now, this was the lad of a quarter century ago, okay? But I make no apologies. I loved the all-out…
August 24, 2006
Recognize these folks?
It's Randall Terry and his family. The picture is taken from the mailers he sends out in his campaign for the State Senate in Florida. But it's missing two of his children, Jameil and Tila, both adopted. Why aren't they in the picture? Well, Jamiel is gay. And Tila had a…
August 24, 2006
Judicial Watch, the group founded by legendary nutjob Larry Klayman whose goal appears to be to sue every human being in the western hemisphere by the year 2050, is making a big deal out of an alleged conflict of interest by Judge Taylor. Naturally, STACLU is jumping on board, as is much of the…
August 24, 2006
Anthony D'Amato of the Northwestern University School of Law has a new paper available at SSRN that compares the statistics for the last 35 years on access to pornography and the incidence of rape. The religious right likes to argue that pornography increases rape, but the statistics certainly do…
August 24, 2006
And I regard that as very good news. Last week, Georgia Tech dropped its speech code as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought against them by the Alliance Defense Fund (and yes, I will agree with them completely on this one despite my opposition to them in most cases). The same thing happened…
August 24, 2006
Here are three items, all found via Radley Balko's blog and all dealing with government overreach. The first is from Chicago, where a group of chefs is suing the city council to reverse a city-wide ban on serving foie gras at restaurants. I don't know that they'll win the lawsuit. The grounds on…
August 23, 2006
Howard Friedman reports that a movement to change the Hudood Ordinances in Pakistan - a set of harshly oppressive laws that result in the imprisonment and death of thousands of women for charges like adultery - is being opposed by a coalition of Islamic parties in that country. Last month, the…
August 23, 2006
I wonder what Godwin's law would say about this restaurant in India?
When Hitler's Cross restaurant opened four days ago in a Bombay suburb, local politicians and movie industry types were on hand to celebrate beneath the posters of the Nazi leader and swastikas.
The owner insisted then -- and…
August 23, 2006
God I love Youtube. Here's a series of clips from one of the funniest comics working today, Christopher Titus. The clips are from a one man show he did called Norman Rockwell is Bleeding. The show was absolutely brilliant, exploring his incredibly dysfunctional upbringing, with an alcoholic father…
August 23, 2006
A new report in Nature says that a California company has found a way to extract stem cells from embryos without destroying them. It's not perfected yet, but apparently has some promise. I'll make a bet: even if the technique is perfected and stem cell lines can be created through that technique…
August 23, 2006
A coalition of conservative groups took out full page ads around the country urging the justice department to ban porn movies in hotel rooms. Radley Balko has the perfect response:
Here's an idea, fundies: Don't order the boobies. If you don't order them, they won't show up in your room.
Although,…
August 23, 2006
It looks like Australia has a similar situation to Germany and many of our other allies when it comes to laws against criticizing religions, at least in one province. Victoria has something called the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act that prohibits "inciting hatred against a person or class of…
August 23, 2006
The Anti-Defamation League has joined the chorus blasting D. James Kennedy's flagrantly dishonest TV special about Darwin and Hitler. They issued a press release that addressed the Francis Collins issue as well:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today blasted a television documentary produced by…