pharyngula

Wait, I don't think this was intended as a joke. Esquire introduces an article on oral sex with Dominique Strauss-Kahn's maid. We don't mean to be indelicate, but well, this whole thing has gotten a little indelicate, hasn't it? In the latest Newsweek, the maid who was allegedly raped by former IMF…

I had no idea we were so powerful. The loon in this video describes the ways Communists will undermine True American values: by promoting feminism, environmentalism, homosexuality, and atheism. Squeee! He's talking about Pharyngula! I think I'm pretty much an anti-Cleon Skousen, too. (Last…

Glenn Beck really is contemptible. Here's how he sees the murders in Norway: As the thing started to unfold, and then there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever — I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?…

Australia has a census coming up, and you know us atheists: we don't take religion seriously, so we're likely to write down any old mocking riposte to questions about our beliefs. Try not to do it: it gets the godless under-reported. Just answer "no religion" if you're an atheist. If it helps,…

I'm getting a clearer picture of Jennifer Fulwiler. She's very much a Catholic, she thinks she's an expert on atheists, and she likes things in fives. First it was five misconceptions atheists have about Catholics, and now she's written five Catholic teachings that make sense to atheists. As if she…

Over the course of the last few weeks, I have dragged myself through George R. R. Martin's latest, A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in his Game of Thrones series. I'm done. No more. I'm not reading any of his books any more. It's terrible. Martin has taken the concept of the pot-boiler to an…

(via National Geographic)

It's so good to see someone take off the rose-colored glasses and tell it like it is: the space shuttle was a flop. The most important thing to realize about the space shuttle program is that it is objectively a failure. The shuttle was billed as a reusable craft that could frequently, safely, and…

What has the world come to? Valley Park Middle School in Toronto has made a very special provision to make Muslim students happy: they allow them to use the cafeteria for private prayer (to which I have no objection), and then obligingly segregate the boys from the girls, and because it is so very…

The cartoon version of my Scandinavian ancestors has swarms of fiercely bearded men charging off of their longships into monasteries, where they lopped the heads off priests and plundered the gold and silver from the altars. While I admit that I find that imagery quite romantic and appealing, the…

I knew that last thread would fill up ridiculously fast — all one has to do is bait the idiots and draw in a mob of dullards to shout "Derp!" and we're done. So here's something that won't invite the clowns. (Current totals: 12,792 entries with 1,446,366 comments.)

Behind all the sweet imagery of the animals willingly marching two by two into the Ark, there had to have been eight people going insane.

You can now find a ghastly manifesto, purportedly by Anders Behring Breivik, on the web. The guy was delusional and insane: it's an incoherent 1500 pages long, and it reads like an obsessively fussed-over set of rules for a nerdy fantasy role-playing game…except, of course, that this lunatic…

Jen McCreight is deep into her blogathon day. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go over there and provoke, tittilate, inspire, annoy, or enrage her so she'll be able to keep churning out posts. No, this blog will not be self-destructing at all. Relax.

I have to throw in more videos featuring Rebecca Watson around here, just to piss off the clueless men. She does such a good job of that. Or maybe next time I'll put up some clip of Amanda Marcotte, to mix it up a little and make them cry harder. (Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,788…

I have been negligent in my self-appointed mission to oppose the hegemonic oppression of the Catriarchy, so today, behold, the beauty of sea pens and sea cucumbers. Cats can only dream of this level of exotic elegance, and of course, no one defaces echinoderms with juvenile LOLspeak.

The New Statesman has an article that asked a lot of atheist luminaries and some lesser glowworms like yours truly to explain why they don't believe in gods. I don't think it's available online (I have a copy, though, and posted it outside my office door, so stop on by if you want to read it), but…

Christian knees are trembling, sensing imminent doom brought on by juvenile fantasy literature. Which is ironic, considering that they worship a big sloppy book that fits perfectly into the genre. Anyway, first there was the Harry Potter series, which turned all the teenagers into Wiccans (what?);…

Isn't he clever? Do you think Congress should repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)? YES - The definition of marriage should be expanded to include same-sex couples. 434 votes NO - Traditional marriage is a sacred institution & cornerstone of our society. 284 votes Let's make him regret…

Casey Luskin has been at it again. The underwhelming squeak toy of the Discovery Institute, the good Christian kid with an undergraduate degree in earth sciences who couldn't cope with reality so he went for a law degree instead, has written another of his uninformed screeds explaining evolutionary…

You want to see how the Right loves to twist events to whatever end they want, just read the conservative columnists. Jennifer Rubin at the WaPo has already decided this was the work of jihadists, and sees this as an opportunity to lobby for mo' money for defense. This is a sobering reminder for…

The latest reports say eighty young people were gunned down on Utoya Island in Norway, and seven killed in the Oslo bombing. The questions now are who did it, and why. I've run across some wild speculation that it was an Islamic group, which would have meant we were in for months of furious howling…

Answers in Genesis has done something really stupid (I know, that's no surprise). The Creation "Museum" has some new exhibit, and they're trying to come up with a name for it. With a poll. And here's the best thing: it's on facebook, and it's a poll in which you can suggest names. It's up over 30…

Texas, that hotbed of creationism, has been reviewing curriculum supplements, including some additions composed by creationists. Governor Rick Perry recently appointed a hard conservative, Barbara Cargill, to head the state board of education. It was looking gloomy. And now the board voted 8:0 to…

Religion leads to moral bankruptcy, and can be used to justify anything. What else can you say when crazy theologians argue for murder? Rabbis Dov Lior and Yacob Yousef had endorsed a highly controversial book, the King's Torah - written by two lesser-known settler rabbis. It justifies killing non-…

There has been a major explosion at the offices of the prime minister of Norway — it's very early in the investigation, but news sources are talking about it being caused by a bomb. I know some good people in Norway, and I'll be visiting Oslo next month for the World Humanist Congress. It's…

The Campus Crusade for Christ is changing their name. They've decided that they aren't just about "campuses", which is great; maybe they can quit poisoning our universities then. They've also, after a mere 60 years, realized that "crusade" has negative connotations to a lot of people, so they're…

It's a terrible situation. Most of us can practice moderation, posting lightly or not at all, or at worst, pacing ourselves to avoid burnout. But for some students, it's a nightmare of weekend excess, where the afflicted egg each other on to greater and greater doses until they collapse in…

It's like PZ-bait. I can't help myself.