stcynic
Posts by this author
December 19, 2005
Wow. You just have to see this unbelievable screed in the Worldnutdaily by Erik Rush. He actually says that those who deny the trumped up "War on Christmas" are just like those who deny the holocaust. Seriously, he does. With a straight face, presumably.
There are, as the reader may well know,…
December 19, 2005
Given the events of the last few days and this highly controversial post at the Panda's Thumb, it is time that I finally addressed the Paul Mirecki situation. For those who may not know, Mirecki was, until recently, the chairman of the religious studies department at Kansas University. He was…
December 19, 2005
Pat Buchanan has a blissfully ignorant essay about evolution at Human Events that isn't even worth fisking. His heart isn't really in it, he just kind of ticks off a standard laundry list of long-debunked arguments - natural selection is a tautology, there is no missing link, blah blah blah. Feel…
December 18, 2005
Laurie Goodstein has a profile of Judge Jones, who presided over the Dover trial, in today's New York Times. It's a flattering portrait of the judge as an independent thinker, as every profile of him seems to be (he appears to be widely respected across political boundaries). In the article, there…
December 17, 2005
For those who are interested, the mp3s of my last 3 appearances on Jim Babka's radio show are available for download. I did three consecutive shows, each on the subject of intelligent design, evolution and religion. Here are the links:
November 27th show
December 4th show
December 11th show
December 17, 2005
Our favorite Utah wingnut, State Sen. Chris Buttars, is back in the news again, but not for his opposition to evolution. This time, it's his opposition to the formation of gay-straight clubs in Utah's public schools. Showing once again the typical connection between creationist activity and the…
December 16, 2005
I somehow missed this article from the Chicago Tribune on December 6th, about the possible outcomes of the Dover trial and the long term impacts on the larger dispute those outcomes would be likely to have. The article notes the three possible ways the judge could rule (and the ruling is expected…
December 16, 2005
Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably heard about "Brokeback Mountain", the movie about two gay cowboys starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall. I haven't seen this movie yet, but the more furor it causes among the self-righteous, the more I want to. The religious right is throwing…
December 16, 2005
I'm not the only one who has been poking holes in this absurd "war on Christmas" meme and I thought I'd point you to some other folks doing the same thing. Robert Parry has an essay at Consortium News that I think nails the fact that the crusade to convince Christians that they are under attack,…
December 16, 2005
A reader sent me a link to this post by Steve Benen about an Eagle Forum article on evolution and creationism. No, Steve is not the potential O'Brien Tropy nominee, the author of the document he cites is. That author appears to be "Virginia Armstrong, PhD", the national chairman of the Eagle Forum…
December 16, 2005
The ACLU-PA blog is reporting that Judge Jones will hand down his ruling in the Dover case next week, before Christmas. And in related news, the Cobb County case went to appeal yesterday. I've got the transcripts of the hearing to go over and I'll post an update later.
December 16, 2005
No matter how one felt or feels about whether the war in Iraq was justified, one has to recognize that what went on in Iraq yesterday was a very good thing. The parliamentary elections took place with massive voter turnout, with participation from all of the nation's ethnic groups, and with very…
December 15, 2005
Daniel Morgan has written a very thorough review of the entire Richard Sternberg situation and it's well worth reading. Sternberg, you may recall, was the editor of a journal who went outside the normal peer review process to insure that a very badly written paper by DI fellow Stephen Meyer would…
December 15, 2005
Ever on the lookout for any company who dares to acknowledge that there are gay people on the planet, the American Fascist Family Association is now targeting Walmart because - ohmygod! - they're looking for ways to market products to gay people to get a share of the half a trillion dollars they…
December 15, 2005
Folks, the servers are still not working efficently from the problems the other day. If you submit a comment and it just goes to a blank page, please check the front page to see if it posted before you go back and submit it again. Thanks.
December 15, 2005
Sadly, we have yet another frightening case of government thought police activity regarding someone giving anti-gay opinions, this time in Great Britain. Lynette Burrows, the British equivalent of what we would (misaptly) call a "family values" lobbyist here, went on a talk show to discuss Britain'…
December 15, 2005
This kills me. Reported, naturally, in the Worldnutdaily, the incredibly annoying and painfully unfunny Jackie Mason is joining up with a group called "Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation" and will be riding down 5th Avenue in New York to protest the entirely mythical "War on Christmas". And he'…
December 15, 2005
How about a little applause sent Ford's way for not caving in to an American Family Association boycott. The AFA started a boycott of Ford because - gasp! - Ford takes out ads in gay magazines and provides funding for events sponsored by gay organizations. According to Donald Wildmon, not only is…
December 15, 2005
I'm sure you've all heard by now about that school in Wisconsin that Falwell's legal group threatened with a lawsuit because they allegedly changed the words to "Silent Night" to be "Cold in the Night". Bill O'Reilly has been fuming all over the place about this. Mathew Staver, of the misaptly…
December 14, 2005
Media Matters has been doing a thorough job of following Bill O'Reilly's fake "War on Christmas" crusade of demagoguery. At this moment, they've got posts up catching him in no fewer than three lies trying to turn myth into reality. They are:
Lie #1: Saginaw, Michigan tells people not to where red…
December 14, 2005
I hinted a few weeks ago at some big news about this blog that would be upcoming, but I couldn't actually make an announcement because it wasn't official; now it is. Dispatches from the Culture Wars will be moving sometime in the next week or so to a new location. When the move is completed, I…
December 14, 2005
Positive Liberty has been home to a compelling series of posts lately, posts which show clearly why I am proud to be on the same page with Jason Kuznicki and Timothy Sandefur. It started with Sandefur's review of the new Narnia movie, which contained some powerful analysis of CS Lewis' views and…
December 14, 2005
There are many compelling arguments made in the briefs filed by the plaintiffs in the Dover trial. I'll post a few excerpts of some of the more interesting ones. One of the keys to this trial is establishing that the board acted with the intent of promoting a religious viewpoint in adopting that…
December 14, 2005
The NCSE has posted several new post-trial documents in the Dover case. Essentially, since the testimony phase of the trial ended both sides have been filing briefs with the court making formal arguments for their position and responses to the other side's position. Both sides filed long briefs…
December 13, 2005
Noah Graubart has an excellent essay on the varieties of judicial conservatives, particularly in respect to the Alito nomination. Unlike most commentators, he recognizes that there are different varieties rather than casually lumping Scalia and Thomas together. That alone is refreshing to read. He…
December 13, 2005
This is certainly an interesting little tidbit that I missed the first time around. A couple months ago, in Pennsylvania, a conference was held called "When Christians and Cultures Clash.” One of the presenters there was an attorney named Randy Wenger, who is affiliated with the Alliance Defense…
December 13, 2005
This is certainly an interesting little tidbit that I missed the first time around. A couple months ago, in Pennsylvania, a conference was held called "When Christians and Cultures Clash." One of the presenters there was an attorney named Randy Wenger, who is affiliated with the Alliance Defense…
December 13, 2005
As I'm sure you all noticed, this page has been unreachable for about the past 18 hours. My hosting service, IPowerWeb, apparently had a major hiccup. As you can also see, everything from Saturday forward has been erased. I'm trying to get through to tech support now to see if there is any hope of…
December 9, 2005
I'm hitting the road shortly for a most interesting weekend. Last year I told the story of my oldest and dearest friend, Rick, finding out that he had a sister. He was raised essentially without a family. His mother died when he was a toddler, then he was raised by his grandparents until both died…
December 9, 2005
Jason Rosenhouse has a follow up post on SETI and ID, responding to Dembski's reply to Seth Shostak's article debunking the link between the two. Well worth reading.