Dembski's Blog is Back

Just after Christmas, Dembski decided to mothball his blog because it was taking up too much of his time. Now it's back, but you're not gonna believe who's in charge:

By popular demand this blog is back in operation, though with only limited participation in the future from me. Past contributors to this blog have decided they are willing to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining this blog, namely, DaveScot, Bombadill, Crandaddy, and Gumpngreen. Unlike in the past, when they were limited to commenting on my postings, they now have full posting privileges. They will be in charge of the day-to-day business of this blog, everything from keeping it interesting to approving comments to booting recalcitrant commenters. Of these four, DaveScot has been the designated blogczar -- the buck stops with him.

Putting a juvenile, ignorant cretin like DaveScot in charge of a blog is like giving a handgun to a monkey - no possible good can come from it. Well, other than our amusement at watching him an even bigger ass of himself and, perhaps, of Dembski in the process. Fire up the blender, boys, this should be fun to watch.

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Okay, okay, I admit that it's not sound sport to agitate such an obviously challenged cretin, but Dembski's experiment with DaveScot as his "blog czar" - he's actually signing his email that way, folks - just gets funnier and funnier. Yesterday he apparently lost his mind and put up a post…
ID advocates are prone to brag about their self-professed expertise, which all too often relies on some respectable knowledge of engineering or other fields irrelevant to biology. DaveScot, the raving mad anti-scientist at Uncommon Descent, is a perfect example…but even in their own domains of…
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They forgot Dr. John Davison! Oh, never mind. It's off-topic, but speaking of monkeys with handguns, I just saw a new thread over at infidels.org about the Thomas More Law Center threatening to sue the school board in Gull Lake, Michigan, because they *don't* allow the teaching of ID in their science classes.

By Roadtripper (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

I presume by "keeping it interesting" Dembski means keeping all those damn evolutionists from shooting holes in his pet theories?

What odds that Dembski will ever be willing to testify in a major ID court case, and thus submit to cross-examination? A man THAT averse to criticism would surely avoid it like the plague.

By Tim Makinson (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

They forgot Dr. John Davison!

Nah, they didn't forget him, they just didn't want him. You see, Davison is cranky crank who can't get along with anybody, and that includes DaveScot. Davison even has his own surreal blog, which as you can see consists of just a single introductory post from 2 months ago and 364 comments, the vast majority from Davison himself. DaveScot tried to talk to him for a while (thinking no doubt the enemy of my enemy must be my friend), but then they started to row with hilarious results.

Roadtripper wrote:

I just saw a new thread over at infidels.org about the Thomas More Law Center threatening to sue the school board in Gull Lake, Michigan, because they *don't* allow the teaching of ID in their science classes.

Do you have a link to that? I'm involved with the Gull Lake situation and we are waiting to see whether the TMLC will file that suit. We are prepared for it if they do.

Anyone want to bet when DaveScot will ban his first commenter? Or who it will be?

By Ginger Yellow (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

...and it's just come to my attention that you already found that thread. My apologies for not providing a link in the first place!

By Roadtripper (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

What odds that Dembski will ever be willing to testify in a major ID court case, and thus submit to cross-examination? A man THAT averse to criticism would surely avoid it like the plague.

No state has any plans to criminalize advocacy of intelligent design, so it's unlikely Dembski will ever be accused of anything -- and were he accused, a smart lawyer would have Dembski exercise Fifth Amendment rights to avoid testifying.

Don't underestimate Dembski, though -- the creativity he exercised in finding a way to tick off the Thomas More Center folks to the point they'd fire him as an expert witness even though that left them without experts was nothing short of astounding, akin to Dr. Strangelove amputating his own misbehaving arm. I wondered how Dembski would get out of cross-examination, and I'm still shocked that he managed to pull it off.

By Ed Darrell (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

Ed Darrell commented "I wondered how Dembski would get out of cross-examination, and I'm still shocked that he managed to pull it off."

Notice also that after
accepting the challenge to put up or shut up in Ohio by disputing the form proposed (essentially a research colloquium in front of an audience with knowledgeable critics to be on stage), and passing the buck to the Disco Institute, Dembski slid out of it.

I am reminded of the title of David Wolpert's dissection of Dembski: William Dembski's Treatment of the No Free Lunch theorems is Written in Jello.

"Of these four, DaveScot has been the designated blogczar -- the buck stops with him."

Ah, i see said the blind man with a chainsaw in the forest. DaveScot will now be responsible for countering and responding to criticisms of all the lies and factual errors of his mentor Dembski. It won't be Billy's problem, blame it on Dave.

Ed:

From what I heard, the reason TMC 'fired' him was that he (along with Meyer) refused to testify at deposition without their own lawyer present. I suspect TMC took that as meaning that they had an agenda that would be likely to conflict with the client's interests - not something you want in a witness.

However, given Shallit's shredding of him, it's unlikely that he would have done himself, TMC or the Dover School Board much good if he had testified.

By Tim Makinson (not verified) on 05 Jan 2006 #permalink

Oh my goodness, how terribly amusing. . .

Treban, I asked you an o/t question in the Mel Gibson thread, but I guess you haven't been back. Was the trail you were describing Eagle Creek, perchance?

Before the subject of Dembski gets too cold, I would draw your attention to this article ( http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/562zfezu.asp ) by Adam Wolfson, describung Dembski, along with Behe as "scientists with first-rate credentials".

I think it's high time that Dembski's scientific 'credentials' got a thorough debunking in the mainstream press. Otherwise journos will continue to cite him as an authority.

By Tim Makinson (not verified) on 06 Jan 2006 #permalink