Carnivalia, and an open thread

Do Pastafarians have a mid-winter celebration?

Kan. abortion doctor charged, atty says

By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
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TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas' attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, has filed criminal charges against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, the doctor's attorney said Friday.
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Attorney Dan Monnat did not identify the charges, and officials in Attorney General Phill Kline's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
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Kline, who lost his re-election bid in November and leaves office in three weeks, has been investigating whether Tiller and other abortion providers performed illegal late-term abortions in Kansas or failed to report suspected child abuse as required by law.
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Can anyone suggest a good source for information on prehensile and semi-prehensile tail anatomy and physiology?

(Or on the low-light vision of certain nocturnal mammals, for that matter.)

I haven't gotten around to the Kanizawa article analysis I promised you, PZ, but I haven't forgotten about it either--real life has been making me its little cat toy lately, and I just have not been able to get to it yet.

In the meantime, sorry for the personal message, but I don't know any other way to reach Steviepinhead than this forum. If you are reading this, Steviepinhead, and if you practice small corporation law (or you have someone to recommend), please mail me at helarctos DOT scor AT gmail DOT com with your contact info. All other things being equal, I'd rather give my business to a biology-open, reality-based, Pharyngula-friendly lawyer, so let me know if that's something you'd like to pursue.

Well...just spent the day arguing with Creationists on a message board. I got as far as one of them claiming she would take a look at the Talk Origins site, but I don't have much hope for her. She was trotting out a bunch of classics - Pascal's Wager, atmospheric composition and (lack of) cometary dust as evidence for a young Earth, errors with snail ages as an invalidation of carbon dating, and so on.

I think I can even diagnose brick wall syndrome in this case - after a long post in which I explained how humans didn't "come from monkeys", her very next reply complained that there's no evidence for monkeys becoming human. Even when I tried to be an appeaser (don't kill me PZ!) and explain how she could both believe in God and accept evolution, she insisted that Genesis had to be the inerrant word of the Lord.

Sigh...guess you can't win 'em all. But there is good news! Look out, John Gibson - WWE World Champion Dave Batista has enlisted in the War on Christmas by wishing the fans "Happy Holidays" on Smackdown tonight!