stcynic
Posts by this author
June 29, 2006
James Dobson has written a commentary for CNN's webpage on gay marriage that is amusing both in its lack of logic and its misuse of statistics. The statistics come first, as he is claiming that the media provided "cover" for the Senate voting down the Marriage Protection Amendment by claiming that…
June 29, 2006
I've avoided saying anything about the current uproar over the NY Times until now, mostly because I think the whole situation is patently absurd. Every single side of the story is represented by people who are, frankly, completely full of shit. The New York Times is full of shit, their critics are…
June 28, 2006
In a half hour, the NBA draft will begin on ESPN. As a certified basketball nut, let me make a few predictions here.
1. The team that decides to draft Rudy Gay instead of Adam Morrison will regret that choice very much in a couple years. Rudy Gay is an athletic marvel, with enormous natural gifts,…
June 28, 2006
Here's a new church/state lawsuit (see actual complaint here), and one in which the Alliance Defense Fund is on the right side for a change. The city of Idaho Springs, Colorado refused to allow a religious group to use the city council chambers for a National Day of Prayer meeting that was planned…
June 28, 2006
This just occured to me. I've made the argument that HR 2679, which would eliminate fee reimbursement for the winning side in establishment clause cases, is really just an attempt to hobble the competition because they can't beat them in court. In case after case, starting with mandatory bible…
June 28, 2006
I've been scooped by my buddy Wes Elsberry, who has this post on Tuesday's hearings on the motion to dismiss in the ACSI's lawsuit against the University of California system. To refresh your memory, a group of Christian schools are suing the UC because they will not accept credit for certain…
June 28, 2006
The NY Sun has another article about the internal problems at the ACLU, this one focusing on Anthony Romero's tenure as executive director, which began shortly before 9/11. One of the main criticisms, and one I agree with completely, is that Romero had no background as a civil libertarian prior to…
June 28, 2006
Dembski's Sycophant-in-Chief has a brief post supporting the passage of HR 2679. It's predictably ill-reasoned.
This bill, introduced in the U.S. House with 50 cosponsers, seeks to bar awarding attorney's fees in lawsuits involving the 1st amendment establishment clause and limit the awards to…
June 28, 2006
The Senate Judiciary Committee has begun holding hearings on the issue of presidential signing statements. PSS are statements that the President signs along with a piece of legislation that gives his interpretation of certain provisions of the act. Such statements are not new, but Bush has used…
June 27, 2006
Thank goodness. The flag burning amendent fell one vote short of the 67 required to send it on to the states tonight. Madison's ghost will sleep a bit more soundly tonight.
June 27, 2006
I think we have a first in medical history. Rush Limbaugh was detained at an airport in Palm Beach for having a prescription bottle of viagra that wasn't his prescription. And just to show you how powerful the stuff is, this story gave David Letterman and Jay Leno erections. Seriously, how…
June 27, 2006
You gotta love this kind of fevered rhetoric from the religious right:
The president of the American Family Association (AFA) of Pennsylvania says lawmakers in her state have voted to destroy traditional marriage. The pro-family group is decrying a move by Pennsylvania senators that weakened a…
June 27, 2006
Here's more reason to be skeptical about Bush's executive order last week concerning eminent domain. Radley Balko reports on the Cato blog that not only did the Bush administration refuse to file a brief on behalf of the property owners in Kelo, but it took a lot of lobbying from conservative…
June 27, 2006
Like between 6/29 and 7/04, according to this press release from a group of Bible scholars. The folks at truebiblecode.com have it all figured out (just as Nostradamus predicted they would) and say that there will be a nuclear terror attack on Manhattan between those two dates. They've got a really…
June 26, 2006
Until a short while ago, I had no idea that someone could possibly think that I'm part of some "leftist" conspiracy not to attack astrology. To say this post from Commissar at the Politburo Diktat came out of the blue is an understatement:
Does the Left have a segment of their base that believes a…
June 26, 2006
Over at PT, a massive 400+ comment thread has degenerated into the kind of slimefest I have no tolerance for nor interest in. I wouldn't even have noticed this comment from Gary Hurd if someone hadn't alerted me to it. But since it's full of dishonest accusations against me, I think it deserves a…
June 26, 2006
The Washington Post has declared that Jon Stewart and the Daily Show may be "poisoning democracy." Why? Because by exposing the lies and contradictions of our leaders, the show makes people more cynical about politics. Well, duh. Why on earth is that a bad thing? We don't suffer from a lack of…
June 26, 2006
You'll recall that last week, Sam Walker told Radley Balko that Scalia had gotten his research considerably wrong in his opinion in Hudson v Michigan. Walker has now written an op-ed piece for the LA Times making the same argument. That prompted Orin Kerr to argue that Walker's complaint is invalid…
June 26, 2006
From Greg Laurie in the Worldnutdaily comes this little tidbit of absurdity:
It is my belief that one of the reasons for the great success of the United States of America over our 200-plus years can be found in our origins, the fact that our Founding Fathers built this country on a belief in…
June 26, 2006
This letter irritates me, not only because it recycles tired old creationist canards but because it appears in the Michigan State newspaper. The fact that it's written by someone studying chemical engineering, implying at least a modicum of understanding of science, is even worse. It's just one…
June 26, 2006
Chris Buttars may have some competition for the loopiest Utah politician if this guy makes it into office:
Republican congressional hopeful John Jacob believes the devil is impeding his efforts to unseat five-term Representative Chris Cannon.
He says there's another force that wants to keep him…
June 25, 2006
The Rutherford Institute, one of the more credible religious right legal groups, has announced that they have agreed to file a Federal lawsuit in the case of the Colorado valedictorian who had her microphone cut off for speaking too bluntly about her religious faith during a graduation address. The…
June 25, 2006
Jonathan Alter has a compelling essay on the flag burning amendment under consideration - again - in the Senate (it's already passed the House). I'm with him on this one being a litmus test:
The phrase "litmus test" is in bad odor for good reason: politicians should be judged on a variety of…
June 25, 2006
After the elections in Alabama recently, I mentioned that Roy Moore had lost in the primaries in his attempt to become governor of the state. But I forgot to mention that the entire slate of Moore candidates lost, not just thim. There were 4 men running for spots on the state Supreme Court who were…
June 24, 2006
Another great Youtube video, this one from Doug Stanhope. Stanhope is the closest thing we have to Bill Hicks since he died. This is a 10 minute political rant that is very, very funny. It goes from airport security to the war on terror to religion. Warning: it's very crude, it's very dark and it's…
June 24, 2006
I've said before that, for my money, Bill Hicks is the greatest comedian of all time. And I came across this video from Daily Motion (similar to Youtube) and thought I'd post it here. This is Bill Hicks riffing about the war on drugs. Enjoy.
June 24, 2006
This has been out for a while, but there is an excellent article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation about the ID movement. The authors of the paper include such eminent scholars as Elliot Sober (philosopher of science) and Ronald Numbers (historian of science, author of The Creationists, the…
June 24, 2006
I've done more than my fair share of bashing the Bush administration for its many sins. But after seeing this executive order (hat tip to Jon Rowe), let me offer some mild praise. In most cases, it is the courts telling the other branches of government that they may not violate the rights of…
June 23, 2006
The latest temper tantrum from STACLU is over the ACLU filing an FOIA request to have the military's investigation of the Haditha incident made public. And believe me, you're gonna laugh at the, uh, "reasoning" they use. After quoting an article about the ACLU's request and how they hope that this…
June 23, 2006
Perusing the comments at STACLU can be an amusing way to pass the time. You think the main writers there are clueless? You should see their fans. I particularly liked this little tidbit about evolution from kerwin_brown:
To change from horse to a donkey or vise versa requires at least one and…