stcynic
Posts by this author
February 4, 2005
Okay, this made me laugh. Eugene Volokh posted what was obviously a very sarcastic response to the Iraqi election noting that the 72% turnout was a 28% drop from the 100% turnout in the last election in which Saddam Hussein was reelected and asked, "Why isn't the media pointing this out?" The next…
February 3, 2005
In Texas, local school districts are in the process of choosing which textbooks to use in their health and sex ed classes. They can choose from 4 books approved by the state board of education, a highly politicized group that is largely controlled by the religious right. Here's their latest genius…
February 3, 2005
A few weeks ago, I blasted Casey Luskin for his article attacking ID opponents for comparing IDers to holocaust deniers, and I offered a list of quotes from IDers comparing us to Nazis and Stalinists. The use by ID advocates of the rhetorical device of comparing those who opposed their beliefs to…
February 2, 2005
I'm hitting the road for the day, going to Detroit to have a little reunion dinner with an old student of mine. It's a 3 hour drive, but since I haven't seen him in 15 years, during which time he has graduated from Harvard Law School, joined a firm, gotten married and is now on the verge of…
February 1, 2005
Timothy Sandefur has an excellent post at the Panda's Thumb fisking Frank Beckwith's article in Legal Times concerning the Cobb County decision. The crux of Beckwith's argument is that the ruling "presents a Catch-22 that makes it nearly impossible for religious citizens to remedy public policies…
February 1, 2005
It always amuses me that the Worldnutdaily wants to be taken seriously as a news source while constantly blaring huge headlines, complete with flashing red "Breaking News" or "Exclusive" icons, saying things like UFOs: Space Travelers or Demonic Deceivers? It probably goes without saying that most…
January 31, 2005
Newsweek has a story in its next edition about the various battles over evolution and ID going on around the country. The DI is sure to go ballistic over it soon, since it actually tells the truth about ID. But there's one passage in it that just leaps off the page. It's this one:
But I.D. has…
January 31, 2005
In the aftermath of the intentional controversy over Spongebob pushing the obviously un-Christian idea of tolerance for others, Focus on the Family has been in full damage control mode. Naturally, their strategy was to attack the media for its horribly unfair portrayal of his words. Ironically,…
January 31, 2005
A new study from Texas A&M researchers on abstinence-only programs in Texas concludes that they have had no effect on teen sexual activity for those enrolled in the programs:
The first evaluation of programs used throughout the state has found that students in almost all high school grades…
January 30, 2005
A couple days ago, I received an email from a correspondent named Nick, a man I've encountered in a political chat room before as well. He's one of those really hardcore religious right types who, as you will see, absolutely glories in his ignorance, and he was bound and determined to "educate" me…
January 28, 2005
The Discovery Institute's mid-winter festival of deceit continues with this absurd post about the recent Time magazine article on ID. This passage is particularly dishonest:
Time lists three authors for the story: Michael Lemonick, Noah Isakson, and Jeffrey Ressner. But in the interest of full…
January 28, 2005
It's been a while since I wrote anything about poker and things have been much too serious lately, so here's a post few people will care the least bit about from last night's game. We had two hands that were really pretty crazy. The first was very expensive for a couple of people. Flop is 10 J Q of…
January 27, 2005
In following up on yesterday's post, I thought it would be fun to go back in time to 1999 to see what the Worldnutdaily was saying about the issue of Wiccans in the military when the big stink over the issue was going on and Christian groups were telling their followers not to join the military as…
January 27, 2005
A few days ago, I wrote about the new Illinois bill that added sexual orientation to their already existing anti-discrimination laws. That bill, signed by the governor last week, did not specifically include an exemption for churches. That lack of exemption has caused what can only be described as…
January 26, 2005
The Worldnutdaily has an article up entitled Wiccans Meeting on Air Force Base. Now this would hardly seem to be newsworthy. There are over a million people in the US military, any logical person would assume that at least a small percentage of them are Wiccan or belong to any number of other…
January 26, 2005
I've not commented on the brouhaha that has surrounded Harvard President Lawrence Summers' comment at a conference last week that innate differences might have some role to play in explaining the relative underrepresentation of women in math and science (and relative overrepresentation of women in…
January 25, 2005
I've not commented on the brouhaha that has surrounded Harvard President Lawrence Summers' comment at a conference last week that the relative lack of women in math and science might reflect innate differences rather than the effects of socialization. Let me do so now. Bottom line: *shrug*. I think…
January 25, 2005
The Worldnutdaily continues its campaign of outright dishonesty toward the ACLU with this ridiculous screed by William Simon. The lies begin in the very first sentence:
Believe it or not, there was a time when the American Civil Liberties Union was a respected organization that fought to protect…
January 25, 2005
It seems I have been nominated for something called the Koufax Award for best blog series, specifically for my Idiot of the Month series of posts. I haven't received a single vote so far, and frankly can't imagine that I deserve to get one for that particular series. But you should go there just to…
January 25, 2005
Pat Hayes has an update on the proposed changes in the Kansas science curriculum. It's back to the future for Kansans. I have no doubt that Jack Krebs, Liz Craig and the rest of the great folks at Kansas Citizens for Science will work tirelessly to prevent this absurd rewriting of those standards…
January 25, 2005
Fritz Stern, a distinguished historian from Columbia University whose family fled Nazi Germany in 1938, was recently awarded the Leo Baeck Medal from the Leo Baeck Institute. The LBI is devoted to studying the history and culture of German-speaking Jews and is named for the leader of Germany's…
January 24, 2005
Two new studies are showing the dangers of abstinence-only sex education. Both are reported here. Because abstinence-only programs are forbidden to even mention that condoms can help prevent pregnancy and STDs - it is literally illegal for them to mention anything about condoms other than failure…
January 24, 2005
With the legal controversies in Dover and Cobb County raging, the media is taking notice and publishing lots of articles and op-eds about it. Time magazine has weighed in with an article entitled Stealth Attack on Evolution that traces some of the history of attempts to weaken the teaching of…
January 23, 2005
As I went to bed this evening, I turned on the TV to watch a little bit before I fell asleep and found out that Johnny Carson had died. I could not turn it off, as I watched clips of his shows and reminiscences from his friends. And I felt compelled to write something. Like half the country, I grew…
January 23, 2005
Psychologists tell us that one of the primary manifestations of guilt is to accuse others of doing what one is guilty of themselves. This is why, for instance, a cheating husband will often exhibit jealous paranoia about his wife cheating on him, and vice versa. They know the lies that they've been…
January 23, 2005
From Bruce Gordon, former Discovery Institute Fellow:
Design theory has had considerable difficulty gaining a hearing in academic contexts, as evidenced most recently by the the Polanyi Center affair at Baylor University. One of the principle reasons for this resistance and controversy is not far…
January 23, 2005
Rusty Lopez has reacted to my post about Bush backing away from the Federal Marriage Amendment with this strangely myopic post. He says:
Speaking of venturing out of the "ghetto," Ed Brayton, over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, seems to think that because President Bush is now not pushing…
January 22, 2005
Jon Rowe has caught another great example of why the phrase "judicial activism", thrown about incessantly by conservatives, means nothing more than "judges doing things we don't like". The example comes, predictably, from the Worldnutdaily. Illinois has just passed a law to become the 15th state to…
January 22, 2005
In the recent hubbub concerning the use of the Nazi analogy, there are two seemingly unrelated statements that have struck me. The first was from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, while giving a talk at the oldest Jewish synagogue in the United States. The AP reported on November 22, 2004:
In…
January 21, 2005
And does so with his usual brilliance and clarity. His post is in response to this one by Mark Olson. Jason sums it all up so perfectly:
I must begin by saying that I do not seek respect for the gay community. Far too often, the gay community has been spoiled, immature, ignorant, and yes, purely…