stcynic
Posts by this author
January 1, 2006
Casey Luskin has been writing a series of posts on the DI blog that alleges to contain "International Scientific Discoveries Since Kitzmiller Which Support ID." You can see Part 3 here, and you're gonna love it. In the entire series, there is not a single research article that actually supports ID…
January 1, 2006
Just found a new blog that critiques ID claims, The Inverted Bowl. The owner, who goes by the nom de plume The Fallible Fiend, has a Masters in engineering math and computer science and does some good writing. He has a short answer to Behe's claims about falsification, pointing out that he…
December 31, 2005
I have to confess to being tired of answering William Gibbons' occasional replies. It's to be expected that someone with a "PhD in creation science apologetics" (which is roughly the same as having a PhD in defending astrology) would have mastered the "Gish Gallop", but Mr. Gibbons, it appears,…
December 30, 2005
Sandefur has the idea that the Positive Liberty writers should lighten things up a bit and write an essay on our favorite things. Not a bad idea, I'm up for that. And let me start by wholeheartedly endorsing his choice of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King as a favorite book.…
December 30, 2005
Several people have responded to my post about Mel Gibson by saying that they'll never see his movies again. I have to confess to being baffled by that. I don't get it when those on the right do it and I don't get it when the left does it either. When those on the right freaked out about the Dixie…
December 30, 2005
Having not even looked at my blog all morning, I sat down and peeked at the usage statistics and was shocked to see a much busier than usual day without having posted anything new since yesterday morning. Turns out it's because the blog Crooks and Liars linked to my post on Mel Gibson and evolution…
December 29, 2005
Law.com has an interesting article about Eric Rothschild and Steve Harvey, the two Pepper Hamilton attorneys who led the legal team for the plaintiffs in the Dover trial. One statement really stuck out to me:
Rothschild said what he was proudest of throughout this whole trial was his cross-…
December 29, 2005
Jim Lippard has some amusing excerpts from a Playboy interview (though I have it on good authority that Jim reads it only for the articles) with Mel Gibson. It's an interview that leaves you wondering why on earth someone would put such stupidity on display in public. To wit:
PLAYBOY: So you can't…
December 28, 2005
CNN has a long review of the job Chief Justice John Roberts is doing so far at the Supreme Court. By all accounts, the other justices have embraced him and he has shown great understanding of and affinity for court tradition. The article contains some interesting items for those of us who really…
December 28, 2005
You might notice on the right that I have a new sponsor, TerriPAC. The ad will be there for two weeks. Unlike the last ad, pushing the profoundly silly idea that 9/11 was staged, this is one I can really get behind. It's a political action committee set up by Michael Schiavo to fight against the…
December 28, 2005
Raj left this as a comment and I thought I'd move it up here. Charles Socarides, a psychiatrist and anti-gay crusader who helped found the "ex-gay" movement, has died at age 83. The NY Times obit is here. As seems staggeringly common among the harshest anti-gay activists - Randall Terry, Anita…
December 28, 2005
Longtime readers of my blog have likely followed the exchange between myself and William Gibbons, a young earth creationist (with a PhD in "creation science apologetics", no less). Mr. Gibbons only posts a reply once every few months, and he left his latest reply in a comment that doesn't show the…
December 28, 2005
James Q. Wilson has a terrific op-ed piece about evolution, ID and the nature of science in the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps the most important part of the column is a section about the meaning of the word "theory". This is by no means a revolutionary passage, but the colloquial meaning of the word…
December 28, 2005
Okay, this is just funny. This is a statement from Pat Buchanan's latest column on ID, this one about the Dover ruling. I presume he wrote it with a straight face:
In his opinion, Judge Jones the Third declared:
The overwhelming evidence is that [intelligent design] is a religious view, a mere re-…
December 27, 2005
Utah State Senator Chris Buttars has released the full text of his new bill. As expected, it's a train wreck. Throughout the last few months, he has seemed quite confused as to what exactly he wanted to argue against. First he indicated that it was the teaching of evolution itself, which he wanted…
December 27, 2005
I don't know how, but I somehow managed to get on the mailing list of the Christian Worldview Network and I get their emails regularly. Most recently, I was sent a link to this ridiculous article from Sean McDowell (Josh McDowell's son, I imagine) about evolution. It's probably not worth fisking,…
December 27, 2005
Here's another example of the Worldnutdaily's dishonest headlines: 17-year-old challenges Pledge of Allegiance. It's a link to an article in a Florida newspaper about a student who has filed suit, represented by the ACLU, against a school that punished him for not standing for the pledge of…
December 27, 2005
Here's a typically hysterical article from the Worldnutdaily: Canada new destination of choice for pedophiles? The article, predictably, is highly inaccurate. They're trying to whip up some irrational fear as a result of the Canadian Supreme Court's recent ruling that legalized group sex clubs in…
December 26, 2005
The Bush administration genuinely appears to think that as long as it claims it needs the authority to do something in order to fight terrorism, there are no limits whatsoever on its power. This has reached the point where even the administration's defenders are having a difficult time finding a…
December 26, 2005
I came across this comment from Lenny Flank about one of Hugh Ross' recent books and I thought I'd post it. Let me make clear up front that I have not read the book in question, so I can only go by Lenny's account of what it says. If that is accurate, I think it gives a pretty good idea of what…
December 26, 2005
This is certainly interesting. Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the Dover ruling. No one will be surprised that he thought it was a bad ruling, but he said something very interesting in his discussion of it. The Worldnutdaily reports:
Limbaugh continued, "On the other hand, I do think this: I think that…
December 26, 2005
The recent spasms of reaction from Utat state Senator Chris Buttars in many ways echoes the entire ID movement over the last few years. If one were to describe the strategic plans of the ID movement in that time, it might well be called the Incredible Shrinking Agenda. First they wanted ID taught…
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus to all of the wonderful people who have made this blog a success by reading and sharing your thoughts with me. And in the spirit of Seinfeld, a Happy Festivus as well. One of the great Festivus traditions, of course, is an airing of the grievances. Many bloggers…
December 24, 2005
I and some of my readers have mused at what motivates all of this "War on Christmas" nonsense. I think there are several answers. For the Jerry Falwells, Matthew Stavers and Bill O'Reillys of the world, the answer, I have no doubt, is pure demagoguery - they make money by exploiting these absurd…
December 24, 2005
Here's another case of the British police "investigating" someone for making mildly anti-gay comments:
Joe Roberts 73, and his wife Helen, 68, of Fleetwood, Lancashire, wrote to Wyre Borough Council complaining at their bid to promote awareness of gay issues.
The devout Christians said the council…
December 23, 2005
Wes Elsberry has a great response up to a statement made by William Dembski the day of the Dover ruling. Dembski said:
"This galvanizes the Christian community," said William Dembski, a leading proponent of the theory and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank that…
December 23, 2005
The American Family Association has issued an amusing press release on the Dover ruling. It says:
"According the logic of the court, any hint of the existence of God, whether derived by scientific means or otherwise, renders it off limits to public schools," said Stephen Crampton, Chief Counsel for…
December 23, 2005
I mentioned the other day that I thought Judge Jones was being particularly courageous to issue this ruling because it essentially means the end of any hope for an appeals court nomination. A close White House ally has now confirmed that:
"This decision is a poster child for a half-century…
December 22, 2005
This is very funny. Rick Santorum is now leaving the Thomas More Law Center board in the aftermath of the Dover ruling. And despite having written an op-ed piece praising the Dover school board last year, he now says he never supported their policy. Hilarious. NIck Matzke has the full story here.