Promise me, O Readers of Pharyngula, that you don't write emails as stupid as the ones below the fold.
The email has been piling up today in response to Mike S. Adams' recent column. Fortunately, the ones too stupid to spell my name correctly in my email address bounce, or there'd be lots more (the ones sent to my pharyngula.org address, at which I have access to the server logs, show about a 2:1 misaddressed rate…and those are the ones that managed to spell 'pharyngula' correctly!). Anyway, just for your enjoyment, and as an example of how not to think or write, here's a subset.
Thrilling to see Mike Adams make a complete fool out of you.
Does evolution explain the utter dicklessness of the liberal male? Why dont you post a video of the speech/event on your blog and let "objective scientific inquiry" be the judge of the evening and your courage and intellect? Or lack thereof.
Learning
Prof Myer.
Dr Adams' presentation was quite a learning experience. We learned that you are both a liar and a coward. LOL! Thank God for tenure or you'd be eating at a soup kitchen!
Liberal Tolerance
Why all the hate from you tolerant liberals? That's the one thing I don't understand.
Prof. Adams
I'm confused here....explain why you never got around to actually asking Prof. Adams any questions during his visit? Perhaps because you know you would have been shown up... As for your reference to micro vs macro evolution..., scholars admit that most of the controversy is due to the "evolutionists" refusal to debate. Much like what happened to Galileo....
Mike S Adams' speech at UMM
Dr. (?) Myers,
Leave it to a liberal to skew reality to mask his impotent ability to honestly debate an adversary. You tried to set up the scene with your inaccurate description and bias against Dr. Adams. When that failed you create an delusional recreation of the events to make it appear you tried when you didn't.
You are a loser, lackey, pitiful man. Go back to your liberal hole and leave America alone.
question on genotype/phenotypes
So, PZ. How did you like being put in your place by Mike Adams? Pay-back's a bitch, ain't it!!!!
DR ADAMS
I read this column with interest. Is it true? When afforded the opportunity to confront and confound your antagonist with your peerless logic and intellect, you withered? Say it ain't so!!!
If Dr Adam's account is true, you are beneath contempt. You have failed to validate the esteem and trust demanded of your professorship. Intellectual, moral, physical coward; that's you. No wonder you don't shave, you certainly can't look at yourself in the mirror.
Ah, right-wing spin. It's impressive how they can throw out an absurd claim and get their lackeys to trot obediently after it.
The facts of the case are simple. Adams gave a talk, there was a flurry of questions afterwards, the organizers shut off the questions somewhere around 20-30 minutes after they started, and I wasn't one of the people to ask a question. From this, they conclude that I was afraid, and that Adams put me in my place. That's an impressive conclusion to draw from no evidence at all. Evidence, of course, is something these conservatives don't need.
I have to apologize. I really had no idea that Adams had been so worked up about my attendance that he'd had to pray before he started, that he was hanging on the hope of hearing some word for me, and that the hope of American Liberalism was resting on my shoulders. I had so little concern for this event that I showed up fifteen minutes late; if only someone had told me that Adams was so desperate to engage me, I might have bothered to show up on time. It's obvious that he attached far more importance to getting my reaction than I did—pathetic little wanker, isn't he?
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OMFSM, did he just refer to the Galileo episode?
A great deal of america is like this (why?). So sad. You may not think that have to sink to their level to fight them, but they'll drag you down, eventually.
Clearly, Adams had you on the run. You couldn't think of a question. He was so convincing he blocked all your questions.
Um... what was he talking about, again? And who is he? I've never heard of him before...
PZ,
Seems like this is a measure of your increasing visibility as a firebrand for science and atheism. So, on that score, congratulations. Perhaps in the future when you attend an event like this you should have your people contact the speaker's people to arrange either a debate or a joint press release.
He's Ann Coulter when she puts on pants.
I think he was talking about how those damned feminists who rule America were oppressing him.
You must be doing something right, PZ. The nutjobs are getting restless.
May you never put PayPal on your site like Professor Vaginaphobe. What's up with that?
I say everyone dresses up like this for the next Mike S. lecture:
http://www.vaginalady.com/images/2003%20Events/Halloween2003_2.jpg
PZ
You didn't need to do anything at all. The fricking nutbags made it an event without you saying a word. And blamed you on top of it all. Damn! See where listening gets you? It is pretty much proof of how gutless and vile they are. It also explains the reason that we never come to terms with their kind in debate or dialogue. They always play their cards to win never to contribute.
Hi PZ,
The comments to Adams article are running hot with the belief that The Lord has stepped in and worked in favour of the godly and that American is the greater for it.
(Or something like that.) No wonder george W. bush keeps getting elected.
I've now been living here in Sydney for 26 years and while I get homesick from time to time, those sort of bible-thumpers do make me glad I am living here rather than there.
(signed) marc
Dear Dr. Myers,
I read your column with interest. Is it true? When afforded the opportunity to confront and confound your antagonist with your peerless logic and intellect, you politely allowed the students who subsidized his appearance to ask their questions first!? ! Say it ain't so!!!
If Dr Adam's account is true, you are so polite and considerate as to be beneath contempt. In treating these undergraduates with a modicum of respect, you have failed to validate the esteem and trust demanded of your professorship. Your commitment to undergraduate education proves you to be an intellectual, moral, physical coward.
Aha! So that's where Ann Coulter disappears to when Mike Adams is around!
I feel dumber than Lois Lane...
But...he knew you were there, and didn't say anything. And then obsesses that you didn't say anything either. How did he put you in your place if no one said anything? And why are they so obsessed with calling your a liberal? I...goddamnit. This is why I don't talk to people. It hurts.
PZ wrote:
Wow. They sound hot. Could you arrange an introduction?
:-/
Dear Prof. Myers,
Tonight, I held a debate in my hotel room (and in my skivvies, no less) about the relative merits of stuff. You failed to refute my arguments, which proves that I'm right and you're wrong, wrong, wrongity-wrong, wrong.
Take that,
Y'r Ob'd'nt S'rv'nt
There is so much pent-up, ignorant anger in the cited emails. What's got them all het-up about atheist liberal academics? All these hay-maker swings (swish!) suggest we've got way more power, somehow or other, than I've ever been able to find the handle to...
one time, i got in a debate with a carrot. i think i won. but i cried so long and hard afterwards. damn that smug silent carrot. damn him!
We have only Dr. Mike's testimony for that, including his claim that he looked right at PZ when prodding the audience for more questions. For all we really know, Adams had no idea that PZ was in the audience and cribbed that information directly from PZ's own account, embellishing it to make it look like PZ shied away from a direct provocation. Since Adams has frequently demonstrated a tendency toward exaggeration and misrepresentation, I am disinclined to take anything he says seriously.
one last comment...whenever someone says "liberal" as a pejorative, i wonder if they realize that the system that lets them call people names (they assume "liberal" is insulting. i like it) is a liberal system? or that the system of say, building roads and postal routes and electrical utilities and water and blah blah blah are products of a liberal government?
in thinking further i suppose they don't. these are deeply delusional, sad people.
That's right liberal males. We've been called 'dickless', a devastating insult straight out of 4th grade.
Funny how the Mammoth Penis People think 'dickless' is an insult, but have all sorts of heartbreaking stories of the terrible oppression carried out by Feminists.
Why so afraid, Mr. Adams? Is it the Black Helicopters? Or the Soviet Weather Control Technology? Or, maybe, just maybe, Mr. Adams is afraid of the deconstructive skills demonstrated by so many Feminist bloggers. They'll see what complete crap his arguments are.
Please consider posting another installment of the e-mails that you've received as a result of Adams's talk and post. So far, they're a treasure trove of raw data.
quork wrote:
Is there an equivalent to Godwin's law for the introduction of the Galileo episode into a thread about science and religion?
Uh-oh! Now you're in trouble! Wild Bill Dembski's on your case over at Unbecoming Display.
I must protest. Even the pugilists have the decency to have like fight like, as in welterweight, middleweight and lightweight. Here is PZ Myers, a heavyweight, swatting away at airheads.
Promise me, O Writer of Pharyngula, that this guy doesn't actually attend UMM?!!
Dear Amateur-fessor ZP Meyers, if that is your real name,
If this dingleberry wants you to ask him a bunch of questions publicly, then why don't you? You could even make a game of it; he gets a point everytime he sites a scientifically reviewed fact, with documentation; you get one point everytime you invoke an illogical fact that you made up, possibly on the spot. The name of the game could be called "Switch-a-roo."
No, seriously, if the harpy wants questions - you should help him. An inquisitive mind is an foundation to good science. This man comes to you saying, "I am so lost, I don't even know the question. Please, just give me a question!" You should ask him questions and help him through the answering process. Publicly post 10-ish questions for him and let him ask you 10-ish questions. In x days from posting, you both post your answers to both sets of questions simltaniously. Then in x days you both post rebuttals.
OR you could play a game I like to call STOP GIVING THE PYGMIE + DWARF ALL THIS FREE ADVERTISMENT!! Yeesh!!
Mike Fox (if that IS my real name)
Dembski says:
Uh, what? I stood quietly at the back of the room and didn't ask a question, and now this is not only an "escapade" but a hostile situation?
Man, I must look like one fiercely menacing dude. I had no idea.
Where do all these right-winged idiots think that being a part of "The Christian Right" means that they can forgo proper ettiquette and good manners?
I mean, goddamn, these empty headed twits don't have the slightest idea how to recognize another human being, let alone address him with even the slightest bit of dignity.
It's another sign your long-awaited transformation is progressing. Cthulhu fhtagn!
Uh-oh, looks like Dembski has vagina issues too.
He needs the cure.
Your assignment, Bill, is to gaze upon the vagina until you now longer panic at the sight of it.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/FeministMajorityLeadershipAlliance/vag…
You can do it!
Wild Bill Dembski's on your case over at Unbecoming Display.
"P.Z. Myers -- does he have a clue how bad this looks?" Oh, dearie dear.
Okay, I was not at the event, but anyone can see that this is becoming just ridiculous. Does my favorite Martian at UD have a clue how stupid this looks? Hype it up, Wild Bill! Ride that bronco right out of the arena. All the way to Minnesota. Where I await you. With a question. Or two.
I can only conclude that the one thing folks like Dembski and Adams think is important and interesting in the topics they discuss is not the facts that underly them but rather the opportunity to personally assert dominance over someone else. It's the only way I can explain the fact that no dissenters bring any actual arguments to the table.
They remind me of a bunch of sick vultures.
I'm a dickless liberal but I at least have the secret weapon that he seems to fear most. Maybe he could get it in his mind that I and some of the other women here flashed him so that he will stop acting like a baby and go away.
Uh, no, he can't. Poor man, for him biological parts are irreducibly complex...
Shalini: That's a horrible thing to say and I demand you retract it.
I mean, really. What have vultures, healthy or diseased, ever done to you to merit that slanderous comparison?
Uuups!
Comment dropped:
"You can do it!"
Uh, no, he can't. Poor man, for him biological parts are irreducibly complex...
Oh. My. God. (OK, I'm a deist, so sue me)
This clown is a classic passive-aggressive twerp.
Paraphrase: I LOOKED RIGHT AT YOU and you didn't do anything - well, why didn't you challenge PZ, you nutless wonder??? You're in the driver's seat here!
Some unsolicited medical help for Dr. Adams - get intensive psychotherapy, STAT!
I always assumed that WD is a member of A(d)ams family.
have a look at
http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/1750
"P.Z. Myers -- does he have a clue how bad this looks?" Oh, dearie dear.
Okay, I was not at the event, but anyone can see that this is becoming just ridiculous. "
Well, that makes ME look really bad then - not only did I not ask a question, I didn't even go - and worse, I was hundreds of miles away.
Damn, I'm such a coward.
BTW, UD is becomming more and more the Creationist Fawlty Towers with Billy "Basil" Dembski claiming "Don't mention God". Of course "Manuel" Salvador Cordova just doesn't, cannot or doesn't want to understand it.
Poor man, for him biological parts are irreducibly complex...
Hmm, that gives me an idea. Bill Dembski, I am gazing at your photo right now...
(You should be glad I'm paying any attention to you.)
And I am projecting my thoughts...you cannot resist...
(George please swing the irreducible vag like a pendulum. Thanks.)
Gaze at the vulva, Bill, and repeat after me: "I am irresistibly drawn to Minnesota. I am irresistibly drawn to Minnesota. I will not blog again until I reach Minnesota. I will not blog again until I reach Minnesota. I will play Truth or Dare with Kristine. I will play Truth or Dare..."
You know how bad this'll look for you, Bill, if you don't show up? And BTW, when you get here make me a Waldorf Salad, willya?
What a thrilling subject line.
I gather from reading the UD post is that what PZ failed to do, apparently, is what the Dembski camp expected of him. So should he have asked a question? Nope, not by their tenuous grasp on reality. Had he asked a question he would have been decried by the nutjubs for pushing his "Darwinist Agenda" during Adams' talk. Had he challenged Adams the hypothetical arguement today would be about why PZ would have the gall to show his face and ask such a bold question at a Republican event, hijacking it for his own devious purposes.
Because of the position PZ has established for himself he's either the bully or the coward. Damned...do...don't.
They don't want a dialogue, they don't want us to ask them questions, they just want to complain or insult, but the key is they want to react, not act. Adams wanted PZ to initiate, ask the question, even though he said explicitly that he had questions for PZ. And it's this tendency toward reaction that comes from not having a leg to stand on as far as the facts are concerned. I mean they have to have something to fill the time they're not conducting actual research, so they pick fights about nothing.
Heh, reminds me of a comment I saw quoted on the internet a while ago. "Stay away from my vagina...or it'll hiss, and bite you."
On a more serious note, what's with the "vagina-fearing" comments? I somewhat doubt it's women's genitals he fears; its women's genitals with *brains* attached (actually, read literally that DOES sound pretty alarming...)
My assumption as well (though of course I don't know) - rather than 'vaginaphobia', his real fear is of encountering a woman who could demolish the idiotic arguments he uses to support his vile sexism - and there are plenty of women who could.
Not really. A normal vagina has ~120,000 nerves in the clitoris alone - all attached to the brain. (Maybe I don't understand what you're thinking?)
I think there's a "male gaze" thing going on here. I have two theories.
Theory A:
Mike S. looks in the mirror in the morning, sees a tough Republican, and he yearns and pines for the old Mike, the liberal, basically compassionate, happy Mike of old.
To put a Lacanian face on it, by "gazing" at PZ so intently during the lecture, Mike S. was "gazing" at his former liberal self and hoping to make some kind of spiritual "lost brother" contact. Except he doesn't know that. Hostility is the only way he can express his attraction to his old self, at this point.
It's a cry for help. PZ, you need to reach out with compassion to Mike, and we all need to understand what the poor man is going through here. It's so tough to be a Republican.
Theory B:
Mike S. has been using Alpha Male Gaze Psychic Seduction techniques on PZ. According to a guy on eBay, these are "SECRET and COVERT TECHNIQUES USED BY GOVERNMENTS and UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE GLOBE."
The seller on eBay promises: "With the Alpha Male Gaze Psychic Seduction CD ... you will acquire the POWER to Instantly Seduce Women using the Alpha Male Gaze! These techniques are very powerful and will work for you effortlessly -- all you have to do is listen to invoke any state you want upon others and INSTANTLY have them."
Since Mike S. hates women now, he has no choice but to turn his Alpha Male Gaze Psychic Seduction techniques upon men like you, PZ!
My advice would be to learn the Alpha Male Seduction technique yourself, so that you can effectively neutralize Mike S. when he turns his Gaze in your direction.
Otherwise, you are doomed to fall under his spell and we will all wake up one day to find ourselves reading the "random ejaculation of a god-intoxicated conservative."
That would not be pleasant.
"On a more serious note, what's with the "vagina-fearing" comments?"
He's not a big fan of the Vagina Monologues.
"I will play Truth or Dare..."
Oh! No! You - Dared him! Bill will never again visit Minnesota.
(Oh, (wal)nuts! Making Waldorf Salad ... Sigh! Another point in the ever expanding list of "Practical Darwinism" or "Things to learn to get girls to select you" or "Why girls are indeed irreducibly complex systems". At least I like them too, if they are light on the mayo.
Hmm. It would probably not be nice to explain if I mean the girls, the salads or both there. :-)
Azkyroth:
Why is that alarming? Because most men doesn't work that way? Even more cause to hope *someone* brings a brain to a meeting of genitalia.
What Zeno said. The most parsimonious explanation is that he didn't know PZ was there until informed of the posting here.
We can wait for him to figure out how to provide evidence that his theory is true, given that it all happened in the past. Is he a creationist too, by any chance?
Dammit Azkyroth! It's Halloween, Zombie time! And your image mixed with zombies... Oh gad! It hurts!
"braaaaaiiinnnnssss"
The synchronously latest suit weapon+the latest FB+latest edition!Don't enter a station to see!game
"Is there an equivalent to Godwin's law for the introduction of the Galileo episode into a thread about science and religion?"
Wondering something like that myself. Maybe something about a finite probability that someone will mention Galileo, at which point the discussion becomes a competition of half-assed ideas about what happened and what it means, killing the thread.
But in fact it hasn't happened on this thread, yet, so this looks like a counter-example. A beautiful theory murdered by an ugly fact. We're not yet ready for the brain-eating Inquisition Zombie.
I'm still not sure what the original reference to Galileo was supposed to mean. A few years ago one could assume that the bible-thumpers were likely to use Galileo as a positive name, because after all, he got punched out by Papists. But recently the tactics seem to have changed toward the recruitment of any idiots they can find on Rome's side of the fence (which officially has been prudently quiet on the Evo thing), so it's hard to guess.
Maybe he was talking about Galileo's notorious refusal ever to engage in controversy. Yeah, that's it.
What I am envisioning is literally a brain attached to a vulva, pulsating wetly and amackily while either floating around or crawling across the floor, accompanied by eerie, screechy, dramatic music and the hysterical shrieking of monochrome women in beehive hairdos. Perhaps this is what Adams is envisioning as well. Or maybe just vaginas containing teeth, or something worse... "I looked and...all I could see...was CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS... *sob*" ;/
No, because disembodied organs connected in a Frankensteinish fashion tend to be alarming. Especially animate ones, as in the example above.
"pathetic little wanker"
I can tell you've just spent some time in England ;-)
Is the video available from the question and answer session ?
All we would need to see is the final minute.
Alternatively if anyone else reading this thread was at this event maybe you could let us know what happened ?
Im not doubting PZ but its always easier for us scientists when theres a little evidence available.
"Does evolution explain the utter dicklessness of the liberal male?"
I hope you rplied with a quick "that's not what your mother says" response.
"pathetic little wanker"
Oh, I'm so proud to see PZ using insults that originate in my homeland ;) It brings a tear to my eye, so it does.
The comments that were posted at the site with the article are even worse. Those people are just asking for someone to sell them swampland, have them don a pair of Nikes and put a plastic bag on their heads, or the ever popular giving them poisoned Kool-Aid to drink in the middle of the jungle. I know that they say the same thing about us but none of us can quote Darwin verbatim and use that as literal truth in an argument. Besides, even if we could we wouldn't get that goofy spaced out look in our eyes if we did. What's with that? Does anyone know?
If Dr Adam's account is true, you are beneath contempt. You have failed to validate the esteem and trust demanded of your professorship. Intellectual, moral, physical coward; that's you. No wonder you don't shave, you certainly can't look at yourself in the mirror.
I love it -- PZ just has to stand there and he elicits vitriol! Do they realize the compliment they're paying you? Wow, you must have a powerful vibe goin' there, PZ, dare I say...
And now we know the truth about beards -- they're just to hide self-hatred and shame -- you're a "physical coward"! (I guess they missed out on that picture of your naked chest you posted.)
The sad thing is I often hear comments like this about liberals from people who profess to have a college degree, who should, in fact, have a problem looking in the mirror for writing emails like these to a professor.
My goodness they do act like playground bullies, don't they. I was so expecting one of them to write 'your momma'
Well, I held a seminar where we dissected the Iraq war WMD "justifications", as well completely discrediting the current WH policies regarding nuclear proliferation (in general) and North Korea (in particular).
GWB stayed away. Even is lickspittle lackies like Rice and Rumsfeld didn't dare show their faces, let alone show up in the back of the room and neglect to ask any questiones. Cowards!
So obviously by wingnut logic, I win.
Adams is a 'Criminology professor'? I wonder if he's of the "execute 'em all, let God sort them out" school of thought.
Post their names, PZ.
Do not post their names.
(Unless they ask you to)
ooooh, he really showed you, PZ. You were just so afraid to.... ask a question??!!
How stupid can these guys be. Talk about having nothing to talk about: this Adams has to try to make your not havign a chance to ask him a question into something big.
These guys are pathetic.
PZ Myers dissed Mike S. Adams? And Perez Hilton hasn't picked up this thread yet?
The irony, of course, is that Galileo was right.
I feel as if I am witnessing the "Talibanisation" of America. How sad.
Well, Zwirko, we're waiting for the slightly less insane Christians to start fighting the American Taliban instead of whining that atheists are oppressing them. (I am happy to acknowledge that a few of them actually are. For the others I suspect we'll be waiting forever, alas.)
If these people had their way, all academic discourse would be silenced in favor of costumed wrestling. What a bunch of buffoons.
Mike Adams just became my hero again. Professor Myers' ridicule of Adams both before and after the fact, coupled with his race-baiting reconstruction of the Q&A afterwards and his own refusal to put his mouth where his keyboarding is, speaks volumes about the relative courage of the two men.
Twist it however you want, Dr. Myers, but you are the one who insults, preens and postures from the safety of your blog but then have not got a word to say in person. Dr. Adams may strenuously engage adversaries from a distance, but he's not afraid to say the same thing to that adversary's face.
And your coyness is unbecoming a pundit who puts himself out there for everyone to read. "Dr. Adams wanted to hear from little ole me? Aw shucks, I didn't know I mattered." Nice attempt at a save. Bait someone before they come to speak, talk about how easy it would be to show them up. Then back off when your adversary is more well-spoken than you had imagined, and act surprised that your baiting had consequences.
You, sir, are an academic hypocrite of the first order in my estimation.
And I never even heard of you before today.
Rae Stabosz
Rae,
You're a joke. Why didn't Adams say anything to PZ if he's so brave and intellectually superior? It wasn't PZs show. It was Mr. Adams.
Adams is a boring rightwing joke and you're one of his followers.
Try following the links that were not posted at his site. Every insult Adam's gets is rightly deserved.
What a tool.
Dr. Adams may strenuously engage adversaries from a distance, but he's not afraid to say the same thing to that adversary's face.
Then why didn't he? If he really did see him standing there and didn't make all of this up after seeing this blog then why didn't he even acknowledge his presence? A simple "Dr. PZ Myers is here, maybe he would like to ask a question?" would have gone a long way in showing that he is telling the truth or isn't totally delusional. I do suspect the latter and you people are sucking it up and believing it because it's what you want to hear and it feeds your fantasies of persecution. Face it, no one cares enough about your opinions unless you are trying to shove them down everyone else's throats. You are just not that interesting and no one who has posted in support of Adams has said anything that is anything close to profound, no matter what the poster thought. It's the same old angry, ill informed, hate filled drivel that gets repeated over and over. It's lame, deal.
And I never even heard of you before today.
Rae Stabosz
And we have never heard of you before today. What's your point?
People who argue like Adams--and people who defend him, like Rae--remind me of part of lifeguard training (of all things!): if you've tried to rescue a drowning swimmer but he keeps fighting you and putting you at risk, you may have to leave him and go to safety yourself. You can't help anybody if you become a victim yourself.
The same thing applies here. Many of the commenters here, not to mention Dr. Myers himself, have tried to show how inane, inaccurate, and just plain childish Adams' complaints are about the presentation--maybe they even convinced one or two people--but the rest just don't get it. Now it's time to swim to shore and let the whole lot of them drown in their collective obstinance (or stupidity, if you want to be less charitable). There are more important things to do.
Ian H Spedding FCD: In honour of Carl Sagan, we can call it the "Bozo the clown" rule, viz. anyone comparing themselves to Galileo is bozofied. Conversely, anyone claiming that Galileo "got what he deserved" can be awarded The Feyerabend Prize. :)
So, all these people are pissed because a professor from tiny little UMM didn't bother to ask some conservative puppet a question? JFC, these people need a hobby. I mean, a hobby that does not include dogpiling academics.
"... the relative courage of the two men ..."
Why is asking someone - and a someone of truly dubious reputation - a question at a lecture a sign of courage?
This is just surreal. The guy is a fucking joke. Read about why he converted to the Republican party. Like a lot of other Republican's reason, his reasons are stupid an basicallt come down to being offended by things like the way people dress. For crying out loud!
He's a dumb fuck of the highest order. He has chosen to stop using his brain and spend his life making jibes at, and money off of, poking liberals.
It can't be difficult to be a Professor of Criminology. What's the scholarship like in that field? Hmmmm? Requires a high degree of intelligence, I'm sure.
"Criminology" "professors" are the people from whom cops take "college" courses. Being one requires as much intelligence as most cops have- i.e. not a whole lot.
I'm still trying to figure out how you can be cowardly and hostile at the same time.
A great public debate is developing here. Americans love controversy and debate, and I am sure they will force on Prof. Myers a televised encounter with Mr Adams. Seen from the outside, it is ludicrous that this is happening in our time, I thought the issue of evolution had been settled a century ago by Huxley and that Anglican Bishop or whatever. I hope the event will be shown on the internet so I can watch it.
Keith Douglas wrote:
I like both of these!
His point is that he knows nothing about PZ and has never seen this blog before. He's received all of his information from Adams' misleading account, and from that position of ignorance has reached the sure-fire conviction that has PZ all figured out.
At least that's how I understand it.
Khaaaann!, you haven't heard of passive-aggressive?
RACE-baiting? Wait... what?
I missed something?
Azkyroth:
"No, because disembodied organs connected in a Frankensteinish fashion tend to be alarming."
Oh, now I get it! Yes, that is an icky and sticky image.
(Probably because we are used to see bodies; animated animals or rustling plants. Especially hard if a face gets too out of skew - it seems to be on a separate system.
I still remember that it took time to retrain my face detector for the documentary when they had this man where a killer fungi had been excised from around his sinus and ocular cavities. He had no eyes, nose, upper lip, so it was too unfamiliar to work with at first. After about 30 minutes of interrupted clips to my relief finally a sense of face zoomed into place.)
Are you practicing to go trick-or-treating as Rush Limbaugh's idea of a liberal, or just venting about a traffic ticket?
This sort of rank smear needs to be called out whether emitted by a troll or a regular. Crime is a non-trivial phenomenon, and one of adequately humbling complexity for any serious academic.
Admittedly, crim is a non-glamor field, mostly applied by the bluest of blue collars. And it has been held back from its full potential: for example, in the seventies the entire College of Criminology at the U. of California Berkeley campus was shut down - not by student protesters, who tried to save it, but by a certain governor (known as "RR") who had been unable to force the dismissal of tenured professors whose research into white-collar crime had gotten too close to some of his friends in Sacramento.
If some of them study environmental crime and justice, that would be cool.
I shouldn't have disparaged the field or Criminology.
Useful, established fields of scholarship should not be cavalierly dismissed by people (like me) who know nothing about them.
And the overrepresentaiton of ill-conceived, poorly implemented laws, enforced selectively to haphazardly by often corrupt and arrogant agents, frequently for no legitimate purpose whatsoever even in theory, shouldn't be construed to reflect on people who study crime. That's like saying all Bible scholars are sociopathic imbeciles.
Pierce- I (a forensic scientist by the way) call bullshit. There are indeed scholars doing serious scholarship on the criminal justice system. They can typically be found in SOCIOLOGY departments. "Criminology" and "Criminal Justice" departments exist primarily for the low-wattage service purposes to which I alluded.
P.S. There are exceptions to every generalization, of course. But one thing that is dead certain is that exceptions to this one don't exist at institutions like the one Adams teaches at.
Berkeley it ain't.
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