stcynic
Posts by this author
December 1, 2005
I've often heard the Food Network referred to jokingly as "food porn". Here's an analysis of the network's offerings that argues that it actually does borrow techniques from porn to make the food more alluring. I find it quite amusing.
November 30, 2005
I just got an email from the Thomas More Law Center. Apparently the family in Novi that was being told to take down their nativity scene contacted them and they threatened the HOA with a lawsuit. The HOA backed down and told them they don't have to take it down. Doesn't much matter to me either way…
November 30, 2005
For those looking for more information on the lawsuit between the Association of Christian Schools International and the UC system over approval of their courses, Liz Ditz wrote a pretty thorough review of the situation back in August.
November 30, 2005
There are now two competing curricula available for teaching about the bible in a public school elective course, the NCBCPS curriculum and the Bible Literacy Project. The former, you will recall, was thoroughly trashed by SMU religious studies professor Mark Chancey, whereupon the NCBCPS and their…
November 30, 2005
On his blog, William Dembski is trying once again to argue that the intelligent designer need not be God: Everyone knows he doesn't mean it, of course, but this is the pretense that they must maintain for purposes of their legal strategy. Unfortunately, their own words keep tripping them up in the…
November 30, 2005
In a victory for free speech, a Swedish minister who was charged and convicted under that nation's "hate speech" laws has had that conviction overturned by the Supreme Court of Sweden in a unanimous ruling. The Ake Green case is similar in some ways to the Stephen Boissoin case in Canada, but in…
November 30, 2005
In Novi, Michigan, there's a big battle kicking up over a family's nativity scene in their front yard. The problem is that they live in a neighborhood with a neighborhood association that has rules against such displays:
The Samonas' neighborhood association has ordered the Novi family to remove…
November 30, 2005
Nick Matzke has an excellent post at the Panda's Thumb about cooption as an evolutionary mechanism for building up complex biochemical systems. Cooption is when a given feature - a protein, perhaps, or in some cases an entire organ - that developed for one purpose is adapted for a different purpose…
November 29, 2005
This is very cool. Carl Buell, better known by perhaps my favorite nickname of all time, Olduvai George (if you don't get the reference, do a google search on "Leakey" and all will be revealed), has finally gotten around to starting a blog. Carl has been a frequent commenter here at Dispatches. He…
November 29, 2005
The lawsuit between the Association of Christian Schools International, Calvary Chapel Christian School and the University of California system over the UC's refusal to give credit for certain courses taught in Christian schools is going to trial on December 12th, according to the New York Times. I…
November 29, 2005
The Chicago Tribune has an article up about a new IDEA (Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness) club at Cornell University, where the president recently delivered a scathing critique of intelligent design in his annual address to the school. The article includes many misconceptions and…
November 29, 2005
Many new documents have been released in the Dover trial. The docket page with links is here. The most interesting parts are the plaintiff's brief in support of proposed findings of fact and the defendant's proposed findings of fact. Those are essentially the briefs filed by the attorneys for both…
November 29, 2005
If you want to read something so stupid it will make you shake your head in amazement that anyone would publish it, try this ridiculous cautionary tale from the year 2030, as a man tells his grandson about the good old days when you could buy Christmas wrapping paper and say "Merry Christmas"…
November 29, 2005
Last night, Genie Scott of the NCSE spoke at Michigan State and about half of the board of Michigan Citizens for Science was there. The subject of her speech was, essentially, the evolution of creationism, how creationism has evolved over the last 80 years in the United States. It was, as expected…
November 28, 2005
I'm off to Lansing to meet with and hear an address by Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education. She's giving a speech at the Kellogg Center Auditorium at 6 on the evolution of creationist strategies and most of the MCFS board will be attending and, presumably…
November 28, 2005
Jay Wexler of the Boston University School of Law has an upcoming article in the Washington University Law Quarterly which responds to the arguments of Francis Beckwith concerning the constitutionality of teaching ID. Beckwith is a Discovery Institute fellow and the associate director of the Dawson…
November 27, 2005
I just finished my appearance on the Jim Babka radio program, which was entirely too short. It's just so difficult to even begin to examine the issue in any depth in a one hour show where we've really only got maybe 25 minutes of airtime in between commercials and sponsor's reports and the like. So…
November 27, 2005
According to Agape Press, the Texas State Board of Education has severed its ties to the National Association of State School Boards because its policies, in their view, "continue to gravitate to liberal left."
Last week, the Texas State Board of Education voted 10-5 to remove itself from…
November 27, 2005
Last night they showed the induction ceremony for the UK Music Hall of Fame on VH1. I didn't see the first part of the show, only the last part where they inducted Pink Floyd, but that was well worth it. Pete Townsend did the induction, which is appropriate given his friendship with the band and…
November 26, 2005
Just how embarrassed must this guy feel for making the following statements:
Massachusetts' attorney general is launching an investigation into several supermarkets that opened on Thanksgiving in defiance of the state's Puritan-era Blue Laws.
The laws were passed in the 1600s to keep colonists at…
November 25, 2005
I will be appearing on Jim Babka's Culture Repair show on the Genesis Communications Network on Sunday afternoon between 5 and 6 pm eastern time. You can also listen online by going to this page and selecting a feed at that time. I'll be on the show alone with Jim, no other guests, and we'll be…
November 25, 2005
Here's a great example of why I consider Paul Musgrave to be one of the very best writers in the blogosphere. He tackles the difference between a partisan and an ideologue, two terms often used interchangeably that are actually near-opposites.
November 25, 2005
Joe Carter has a post where he lists the 100 most overrated and underrated movies of all time, by arbitrary category. They're listed by category, with the most overrated movie listed first, then the most underrated movie listed next. As would be expected, I agree with some of them and not with…
November 25, 2005
In the event of a future lawsuit over ID here in MIchigan, this little item might come in handy. Try as they might, the ID crowd just can't distance themselves from old-fashioned creationism. Here in Michigan, we have a state representative named Fulton Sheen (yes, the famous Bishop from television…
November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I'm off to my parents' house for the day. I hope everyone has a great day with their families. In Michigan, we have a tradition. We eat far too much, then fight over who gets the couch, then we all watch the Lions play, which makes us want to regurgitate the meal we…
November 23, 2005
Joe Carter has a review up of a new documentary called The God Who Wasn't There, by Brian Flemming, which takes the rather audacious position that there was no man called Jesus at all, that the Jesus of the bible is entirely fictitious and invented out of whole cloth. I've not seen this movie yet,…
November 23, 2005
I know the season just started, but if there's a better game to be played than the one last night between Gonzaga and Michigan State, I can't wait to see it. If you missed it, you missed a triple overtime classic. It wasn't Duke-Kentucky in 92 great, but it was a small step below it. How about two…
November 22, 2005
This is totally coincidental, but on the heels of my leaving In The Agora, Paul Musgrave has also ended his tenure there as a contributor. That is a real loss, surely a much bigger loss than my leaving. Paul is easily among the dozen or so best writers on the blogosphere. When he writes on a…
November 22, 2005
And here is why, despite Prof. Zywicki's behavior, I continue to read Volokh every day. For legal scholars like Randy Barnett and the kind of information that can be gotten only from blogs like that. Barnett writes that the case of Gonzales v Raich, last year's infamous medical marijuana ruling, is…
November 22, 2005
***There is an update at the bottom of this post with yet another email and response***
I received an email this morning from Todd Zywicki, the person I criticized yesterday for making false and inflammatory accusations against PZ Myers and then, in Orwellian fashion, attempting to make them…