gregladen | December 24, 2007Huckabee Alert:
Ed Brayton discusses Huckabee's recent assertion that the Ten Commandments for the basis of US Law... More Huckabee Absurdity
And Robert Novak dropping names and generally being alarming:
Baptists Not on Board
When Mike Huckabee went to Houston on Tuesday to raise funds for his fast-rising, money-starved presidential candidacy, a luncheon for the ordained Baptist minister was arranged by evangelical Christians. On hand was Judge Paul Pressler, a hero to Southern Baptist Convention reformers. But he was a nonpaying guest who supports Fred Thompson for president.
Huckabee…
gregladen | December 24, 2007From Oxford University Press Blog, regarding Aaron Filler's recent, very controversial, and very interesting publications.
It's easy enough for anyone to tell the difference between a human and an ape today, but how easy would it have been six million years ago, around the time of the split between the lineage of modern humans and the lineage of the chimpanzees. If you were to see the common ancestor would you think "human" or would you think "ape?"
Over the past 50 years there has been an understanding in the scientific community that the common ancestor would look somewhat like a knuckle-…
gregladen | December 24, 2007You might want to take along this song sheet of Atheist Christmas Carols.
Including such soon-to-be classics as "No joy to the world!," "Silent Night, Normal Night," "Hark the Herald Hallucinations Sing," and "O Come All ye Faithless."
And many many more.
... here.
gregladen | December 23, 2007Genesis 1
Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs
1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1
6 An Ceiling Cat sayed, im in ur waterz makin a ceiling. But he…
gregladen | December 23, 2007... which is what most people who read my blog think. Turns out I'm wise, and I'm not alone...
From PZ Myers' Holiday Season Sermonette:
We're going to have to start calling ourselves the Three Wise Atheists of of Scienceblogs: as Revere reveals in his Sunday Sermonette, he, Greg, and I don't seem to have much difficulty with this Christmas stuff, and contrary to the Fox propaganda channel, most atheists [enjoy] cheerful holidays with our families and friends, just like Christians, only without the boring superstitious part.
PZ goes on with additional salient points, and I'm sure the…
gregladen | December 23, 2007In just over one year from now, there is a good chance that your television will stop working. Like in that old TV show, The Outer Limits. But for real. And the frustrating thing is that nobody seems to believe it. Like how nobody believed that the earth was being taken over by pod people in that movie about the pod people.
We are speaking, of course, about the coming of Digital Television.
In a telephone survey in November of 1,017 people, only 48 percent said they had heard about the switch to digital television. And only 17 percent correctly identified 2009 as the year that analog…
gregladen | December 23, 2007Edited for brevity ...
Dec 23
Joseph Smith born, 1805
Dec 23
Emperor's Birthday in Japan
Dec 23
Victory Day in Egypt
Dec 23*
Hanukkah (Fourth day)
Dec 23
First G&S collaboration, Thespis, 1871
Dec 24
KKK formed in Pulaski, Tenn, 1865
Dec 24
Christmas Eve
gregladen | December 23, 2007Dispatches: More War on Christmas Idiocy
Regarding Pat Boone ...
What fucking universe do these people live in? I'd bet a month's pay that not once in Pat's entire life has even a single person ever objected to him saying "Merry Christmas" to them.
Pharyngula: We have a Problem ...
The archbishop of Wales thinks one of the greatest problems facing the world is "atheist fundamentalism"....
and we have presidential candidates pretending to talk to god, and getting standing ovations for it...
Respectful Insolence: Deirdre Imus gives everyone some stupid for Christmas
I've mentioned before…
gregladen | December 23, 2007
Jennifer Gooch's mission was to create a simple Web site where people could go to find their lost gloves. Even if no happy reunions ever took place, she was just content to spread a little goodwill.
But just a month since http://www.onecoldhand.com went live, the Carnegie Mellon University art student is busier than ever. She's reunited four gloves with their owners, is working on similar sites for cities around the globe, and is planning a book to showcase her found gloves.
Four. Wow, that is impressive, I would have thought zero.
Why do I think that? No, not because I think the dog…
gregladen | December 22, 2007Two years ago, the S.C. state school board introduced creationist-friendly language into its science standards, mainly on the urging of Republican State Senator Mike Fair. This was part of the Wedge Strategy, and involved including language to "critically analyze" evolutionary theory. They were highly criticised at the time.
In January, the board will consider the use of two textbooks in sate schools. Board Member Charles McKinney is brining into the discussion criticisms brought up by Clemson Universtiy Professor Horace Skipper. One of the books is by Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine.…
gregladen | December 22, 2007Gene Expression has the second in a pair of posts on race that is worth a close look. In Why phenotypic races may not disappear, G.E. speaks of the particulate nature of inheritance in relation to culturally defined racial types (that are in turn based on appearance).
There is the idea in the minds of some that interracial relations in the most intimate sense will banish racism or racial consciousness. To me that seems unlikely, though Latin American nations do not exhibit the sort of racism based on ancestry traditional in the United States, they do retain a marked preference for those…