Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
June 24, 2011
This weekend is the Twin Cities Pride Festival, and the city has lit up the 35W bridge to acknowledge it. Now where's Minnesota's gay marriage law?
June 24, 2011
The New York legislature has just approved a same-sex marriage bill, and it just awaits the governor's signature to become the law. Six states now offer marriage equality — only 44 more to go. Congratulations to New York for finally doing the right thing.
(Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,…
June 24, 2011
I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides tonight, and I've got to say…Tim Powers was robbed. It was a mess of a movie that wobbled from point to point, with no sense behind it, and a plot that had nothing to do with what I expected.
Skip the theater and read the book, On Stranger…
June 24, 2011
I need to buy a few dozen of these shirts to prop up my self-esteem.
Probably a better question, but one that does my self-esteem no good at all, is to ask what they heck they're for? I know they're not actually for me — is there a place called PZ?
June 24, 2011
O Delight! Savage interviews Minchin. It's beautiful.
I'm also very sad. Minchin is coming to Minneapolis…on the same weekend I have to be in Las Vegas for TAM. Or I'd be there.
You other Minnesotans better buy out every ticket to his performance so he'll feel like coming back.
June 24, 2011
Minnesota has the lowest frequency of searches for "free gay porn" in all 50 states? Is it because we all already know exactly where to find it, so we don't bother googling for it, or is it because we're too busy snuggling up to keep warm all winter?
And why are Alabamans looking for god on the…
June 24, 2011
It's demons. The whole state is infested with 'em.
There was a big conference on exorcism offered by the Catholic church in Texas; it was apparently well-attended by an enthusiastic crowd who were anxious to learn how to purge the state of evil invisible magic beings. Bishop Pfeifer had this to say…
June 24, 2011
The Exhibition is going on in Winnipeg right now and through the weekend, and the Humanists of Manitoba are out in force. Stop by and say hello and tell them I sent you.
June 24, 2011
Taner Edis is uncomfortable with the label "atheist", even though he agrees that he is one.
One problem is that I know how far too many Muslims react to the word; "atheist" has connotations of "enemy" as well as someone opposed to all that is True and Good. I would like Muslims to allow scientific…
June 24, 2011
I don't think they do, but a few certainly do their best to taint the whole. Listen to this accidental recording of a pilot ranting about what he really thinks (warning: autoplay at that link): he's complaining that 11 of 12 flight attendants on his plane are gay, and the 12th is a granny; he…
June 24, 2011
Squid babies have such cute adorable faces.
(via TONMO)
June 24, 2011
This is a German scandal: Sylvana Koch-Mehrin was recently found to be guilty of extensive plagiarism in her doctoral thesis, such a blatant abuse of scholarship that the University of Heidelberg took the remarkable step of revoking her doctoral degree. Before that happened, she had been marching…
June 24, 2011
The Talk Origins Archive Foundation is bidding to buy the movie Expelled from its bankrupt owner. They're looking for donations to use in bidding in the auction (note: donations will be used for this purpose, but they obviously can't guarantee they'll win; if they don't, the money will be used to…
June 23, 2011
After the public scorn Scott Adams received in response to his appalling "pegs and holes" post that tried to play the self-pity card — Adams is so disadvantaged by being a man — he sent out an invitation to various magazines to engage in a public dialog.
I'd like to offer an opportunity to one of…
June 23, 2011
Ken Ham is crowing over fooling a child. A young girl visited a moon rock display from NASA, and bravely went up to the docent and asked the standard question Ham coaches kids to ask — and she's quite proud of herself.
I went to a NASA display of a moon rock and a lady said, "This Moon-rock is 3.…
June 23, 2011
It's true, I couldn't predict most of these entries, but I totally guessed the general subject of the #1 entry correctly, so that's got to count for something.
June 23, 2011
It takes decades, though. When did you last hear anyone seriously advocate a flat earth? How many Republican presidential candidates would raise their hands if asked if they believed the earth was flat? Sure, you can find a few far out fringe cranks who babble about it, just as there are a few…
June 23, 2011
This one uses cricket sex to correct naive ideas about how selection works.
June 23, 2011
A new umbrella organization, the Kansas City Atheist Coalition, is forming up and they need help and donations. Check them out, contribute, conquer!
June 23, 2011
University College Cork is hosting a small academic event featuring the work of Chicano artists, which includes an art exhibition that includes irreverent images of the Virgin Mary, with titles like "Our Lady and Other Queer Santas". Apparently, this image has stirred up fury and threats from…
June 22, 2011
Matt Taibbi is giving me nightmares. Read his long political biography of Michele Bachmann, with this terrifying conclusion.
Even other Republicans, it seems, are making the mistake of laughing at Bachmann. But consider this possibility: She wins Iowa, then swallows the Tea Party and Christian vote…
June 22, 2011
I patiently explained all that was wrong with Be Scofield's characterization of atheists; now he has written back and said
I am wrong, wrong, wrong. I'm just going to focus on his first weird point, because the whole thing is disposable, but I feel like making a token effort anyway.
A good part of…
June 22, 2011
This email is different than the usual rants and threats and claims about creationism disproving evolution — instead, my correspondent claims that the Catholic church knew about evolution all along. All I learned from the letter, though, is that he doesn't have a clue about what evolution is.
Dear…
June 22, 2011
She's done. She's been on this cross-country bus tour to promote her folksy ways, and now she has quit halfway through. This is a woman with a very short attention span and a complete lack of discipline and focus; she couldn't complete her governorship, she can't finish a bus tour, there's no way…
June 22, 2011
Darryl Cunningham has a new comic explaining evolution — read the whole thing.
June 22, 2011
Athletics are a fine part of the college tradition — students come to our universities, and some of them want to participate in sports, others like to watch, and others like to enjoy a non-academic social event. I think some support for our students' extracurricular interests is a good idea. What I…
June 21, 2011
This apologist for religion, James Scofield, has written a bizarre essay titled 5 Myths Atheists Believe about Religion. It's a peculiar screed that assumes atheists are somehow aliens outside religious culture, looking in uncomprehendingly, needing some kind of correction in our perceptions — more…
June 21, 2011
I actually had a creationist try to stump me by pointing to this page at chick.com, reiterating Kent Hovind's arguments. I was stunned at their stupidity. The first is that strange numbers game that argues that starting with 8 people 4400 years ago and multiplying by some arbitrary rate produces…
June 21, 2011
You can find a thorough explanation at Scientific American, which can be summarized by one simple phrase: Natural selection isn't all-powerful. There are other complicating factors that Jeremy Yoder mentions as well — I might summarize that as "evolution is more complicated than you think."
He did…