stcynic
Posts by this author
January 21, 2005
For the second time in three months, Joseph Farah, owner of the Worldnutdaily, is the winner of the Robert O'Brien Trophy (formerly the Idiot of the Month Award). His latest foray into the world of sheer idiocy is this column, called The Threat to Adoption. Actually, it's not so much the column…
January 20, 2005
Jason Rosenhouse, a fellow Panda's Thumb contributor, has written a thoroughly blistering post about Bill O'Reilly's ridiculous take on Intelligent Design. In a segment about ID, O'Reilly interviewed a University of Colorado biologist, and in his typical smugness-meets-stupidity style, he made…
January 20, 2005
Another part of Bush's interview with the Washington Post the other day that was fascinating was this exchange on the Federal Marriage Amendment:
The Post: Do you plan to expend any political capital to aggressively lobby senators for a gay marriage amendment?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, I think…
January 20, 2005
First it was Jerry Falwell publicly claiming that Tinky Winky was gay; then a bunch of "pro-family" groups actually claimed that the animated movie A Shark's Tale was encouraging kids to be transvestites; now it's James Dobson's turn, taking aim at Spongebob Squarepants. His spokesman says that a…
January 20, 2005
Jon Rowe has a couple of excellent posts up, one on gay adoption and one on John Adams (there's no connection between them, but I didn't want to bother writing two different posts to link to them). The first one looks at the question of gay adoption and pretty much shreds the argument that James…
January 19, 2005
Here's an interesting aspect of the Dover, PA intelligent design lawsuit. In sworn depositions, three school board members and the school superintendant have either denied or said they don't recall any discussion of creationism or Christianity during the school board meetings at which the ID policy…
January 18, 2005
The Washington Post's interview with President Bush was....well, just surreal at times. Bush's answers virtually drip with disdain. At one point he actually says that he's having to make an effort to concentrate to answer their questions. And this exchange can only strike me as bizarre:
The Post…
January 18, 2005
There is an interesting exchange on Jefferson and Christianity going on in the neighborhood, which I think was kicked off by Jon Rowe's fisking of a very bad article the other day that included what appears to be a fake quote from Jefferson. Sandefur picked up on the discussion of the Jefferson…
January 18, 2005
My friend Wesley Elsberry has written an absolutely devestating critique of the ways that the Discovery Institute has engaged in deceit to spin the media coverage of intelligent design in their favor. He absolutely nails the big lie at the middle of the ID strategy, the false pretense that they are…
January 17, 2005
Feddie has a follow up on the story I referred to yesterday, where Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker had said that Clarence Thomas had told him that judges should be evaluated on their oath to God rather than their oath to the people or the Constitution. His follow up includes the actual…
January 17, 2005
Jon Rowe has a new post hammering yet another badly reasoned article against church/state separation. The article in question is written by Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America. As is very common for such articles, it includes a…
January 16, 2005
Liz Ditz left a link to some other articles written by Michael Tremoglie, the author of the very badly reasoned article on church and state that I fisked the other day, and I had to take a look. It looks like that article was no fluke, he really is that clueless about most things. To wit, this…
January 16, 2005
I found this story on Pagan Prattle (thanks for the link, by the way) and didn't know whether to laugh or express outrage. A little goth wannabe in New York was allegedly attacked by two guys from the neighborhood in Queens who thought he was a Satanist and now they are charged under New York's…
January 15, 2005
Reed Cartwright thoroughly demolishes the DI's spin concerning the Cobb County case in this post at the Panda's Thumb. Timothy Sandefur continues the fisking in this post, where he points out that all the talk of "critical thinking" on the part of the ID advocates is disingenuous nonsense. Nice…
January 15, 2005
New Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker, like former justice Roy Moore, is a bit of a controversial figure. He is, as Feddie from Southern Appeal put it, a Roy Moore clone. After being elected to that position, he had two different non-binding ceremonial swearings-in, one by Roy Moore and one…
January 15, 2005
I found this post on Blogesque through John Gorenfeld's site. It details how the Rev. Moon's speeches are often sanitized when translated into English. His translators take out some of the nuttier things he says in order to make them more palatable to non-Moonies. Specifically, he provides a more…
January 14, 2005
When I saw this breathtakingly ridiculous guest op-ed on the Dover situation, from two people claiming to be scientists, I shook my head in disbelief that two people with scientific training could be that utterly clueless about how science operates. I was going to sit down and demolish it line by…
January 14, 2005
Yesterday I thanked Timothy Sandefur for his hard work on the brief filed by a collection of state science organizations, which was cited by the judge twice in yesterday's ruling striking down the Cobb County disclaimer. I should also have included Reed Cartwright in that. Reed was the one, along…
January 14, 2005
If there's one thing you can rely on in this world, it's knowing that the Worldnutdaily's writers can be counted on to write something completely contrary to reality at least a dozen times a day. Here's today's example, from Kevin McCullough's column about Hillary Clinton promoting the use of…
January 13, 2005
Timothy Sandefur has a report on the decision at the Panda's Thumb. And CE Petit has a post about it as well. Both seem to think that it's a pretty solid decision.
You can also access the amicus curiae brief that was written by Sandefur on behalf of Michigan Citizens for Science and seven other…
January 13, 2005
Judge Clarence Cooper has ruled against the Cobb County school district regarding the evolution disclaimers:
"Rather, the distinction of evolution as a theory rather than a fact is the distinction that religiously motivated individuals have specifically asked school boards to make in the most…
January 13, 2005
A friend sent me a link to this horrible article on church/state separation written by someone named Michael Tremoglie. It's so badly reasoned that even with the straw man he constructs of his opponents' position on separation, he still has to resort to other logical fallacies and outright…
January 13, 2005
President Bush had a town hall meeting yesterday to discuss social security reform. It wasn't a real town hall meeting, where people could actually show up and say what they wanted so the President could actually find out what people are thinking; it was a town hall meeting set up with people who…
January 12, 2005
I'm gonna be gone for the rest of the day until late this evening. I have an advisory board meeting for Michigan Citizens for Science this evening in Lansing, where we will be discussing strategy for the new legislative session, electing new officers and nominating new members, among the…
January 11, 2005
Jon Rowe has an excellent post up about religion and the founding fathers, stemming from a book review at the Claremont website. I very much like the phrase "theistic rationalism", which he quotes the book review as coining. That's an excellent description of the religious views of men like…
January 11, 2005
I found the actual text of the bill proposed by Alabama Representative Gerald Allen, the runaway winner of last month's Robert O'Brien Trophy (formerly the Idiot of the Month award). It's pretty ridiculous stuff, and it goes even further than I thought. It even prohibits public universities and…
January 11, 2005
Feddie from Southern Appeal sent me a link to NRO for a post by John Derbyshire weighing in against ID, much to my surprise. Derbyshire writes:
(1) If scientist X passes a remark about the universe sure being a mysterious place, he has not thereby placed himself in the ID camp. ID is a specific…
January 11, 2005
Came across this post by Verdon, who has also attempted to answer Dean Esmay on why ID should not be in public schools. His answer sounds much like mine, though I think his is more succinct:
Now, when we look at ID what evidence is there? Well? Having a hard time aren't you. You can't look at the…
January 10, 2005
I am very disappointed to report that the Supreme Court has refused the cert petition in Lofton, the case that seeks to overturn the Florida ban on adoption by gay individuals or couples. They will not hear the case, which leaves the appeals court ruling that upheld the law in place. This does not…
January 9, 2005
A medical benefits company in Okemos, Michigan (where I used to live and coach debate) has begun firing employees who smoke:
Weyco Inc., a medical-benefits administration company, no longer will employ anyone who smokes -- including those who light up during their time off from work. Four…