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People really don't like me very much. Huh? What did you really mean to say? Mr Myers I must say you are certainly a living testimony why we should have an official second language in the United States. Your 1 Sep 07 article "Sometimes, conflict is the only answer" makes about as much sense as the blathering drivel you normally publish on your blogs. Perhaps if you could write it in plain English it would be decipherable. The last person that sounded almost as intelligent as you was named Jim Jones. He had a few followers that believed what he said and wrote. In fact, they followed him…

Elsberry Nails the Discovery Institute's Spin

My friend Wesley Elsberry has written an absolutely devestating critique of the ways that the Discovery Institute has engaged in deceit to spin the media coverage of intelligent design in their favor. He absolutely nails the big lie at the middle of the ID strategy, the false pretense that they are not engaged in religious apologetics. We know how this strategy works because they've told us how it works. When speaking to predominately Christian audiences, they tell the truth both about their motivations and about the fact that they intentionally try to hide them as part of their PR strategy.…

When chemistry is outlawed, only outlaws will do chemistry

Hank Fox has brought a significant problem to my attention, one that I've addressed before: one of the consequences of growing American cowardice and these trumped-up Wars on Terror and Drugs (let's call them what they are: a War on Civil Liberties) is that science and science education are collateral damage. Memepunks has an excellent post on this subject: In an attempt to curb the production of crystal meth, more than 30 states have now outlawed or require registration for common lab equipment. In Texas, you need to register the purchase of Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers. The…

DI's List of 400 Shrinks by 1

Richard Hoppe has already put this story on the Panda's Thumb, but I had to write it up for here as well. The Discovery Institute loves to talk about the "growing number of scientists" who doubt "Darwinism", and especially about their list of 400 scientists who signed on to a statement they put together. Now one of the 400, Robert Davidson, is removing himself from the list, fed up with the DI's "elaborate, clever marketing program" and "misuse of science": He's also a devout Christian who believes we're here because of God. It was these twin devotions to science and religion that first…

Bush and ID

Much has been written over the last couple days about President Bush's comments endorsing the teaching of ID in public schools. In his typical folksy (read: not terribly thoughtful) manner he said that students should be exposed to "different ideas" and "different schools of thought." One has to wonder, then, why he has been so adamant about funding abstinence-only sex education, where students are told solely about abstinence and are in fact scared off from ever using birth control. Apparently, exposing students to "different ideas" only counts when he agrees with those ideas. But that is…

Mr. Sandefur Fisks a Pomo

This is a must see post by Timothy Sandefur that dovetails nicely with several of the subjects we've been discussing lately, particularly feminism and postmodern thinking. His post is a response to this piece of postmodern nonsense from someone named DF Moore, which purports to be a postmodernist response to libertarianism. It is subtitled How Libertarianism is a Masculine Belief. In short, Mr. Moore argues that libertarianism, with its focus on the primacy of reason and belief in an objective reality, ignores the subjective, touchy-feely things that women like so much and thus is "…

Clever Micah

Why, this must be the smartest dog in the universe. Her husband decided to ask their 4-year-old dog another question, the square root of 25. Micah tapped his paw five times. To prove this wasn't a fluke, the couple and a friend tossed out more math than teachers during exam time. Micah consistently pawed the correct answers, appearing to solve such problems as square root division, finding the numerators and denominators of fractions, multiplying and dividing, even basic algebra. "He can calculate problems given in English, Spanish, French and German," Cindy Tuten said. I know how the dog…

Frank Schaeffer Drops Republicans

Frank Schaeffer, son of prominent Christian conservative philosopher Francis Schaeffer, has written an op-ed piece announcing that he will no longer support the Republican Party because of the Allen campaign's appalling treatment of James Webb in their Senate race. I never served in the military. It was my son's unexpected volunteering that connects me to the military family and to my country. And I've been voting Republican for years. My late father - Dr. Francis Schaeffer - was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the…

A Slightly New Direction

There has been much discussion and contemplation this weekend about the direction this blog has taken lately, and I'm going to attempt to change the course a bit. Not a total overhaul, but perhaps a change in tone. Lately I have been focusing a lot on outright mockery of the truly stupid or deluded. There was no ulterior motive for doing so, the reality is simply that I find people who believe patently ridiculous things to be fascinating. Despite my cynicism, I still continue to be astonished that people can say things in public that are so illogical or contrary to the evidence that even a 9…

Guess the Nobel, Win a Prize

I somehow managed to lose track of time for a bit, and forgot that it was Nobel season until I saw this morning's announcement that the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine hase just been announced, going to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies, for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells Good thing they got the Nobel, because that sounds like the sort of icky, un-Godly work we wouldn't want to actually, you know, fund. Anyway, the announcement of this prize means that the rest of the Nobels will be…

Software for experimentalists

A long time ago, all you needed to think about and record the data you were interested in was a pen and some vellum, and maybe a few candles and a trusty manservant. Somewhere along the line, the chart recorder got invented, and when combined with the oscilloscope and those awful scope cameras, a whole new world of data recording and storage was available. Having one's own ENIAC was pretty helpful, too, especially once manservants (and really, all of bored-noble-of-means science) became gauche. These days we're a little bit more sophisticated. Computers are indispensable parts of…

End of Term Shuffle

I'm turning in my grades today, which means another year has come to an end. Also, I'm on sabbatical next year. Woo-hoo! To celebrate, here's a silly random songs post. In honor of the end of the term, iTunes chose to serve up a set of songs with lyrics that are either completely insipid or ridiculously self-important. #10 in particular might as well be an instrumental, for all the sense the lyrics make. And you have no idea how hard it was to find a line in #19 that doesn't give the whole thing away. Anyway, these are off the four-and-five-star playlist, and I don't think they're all that…

John Scalzi, The Android's Dream [Library of Babel]

The latest step in John "BaconCat" Scalzi's project of world domination (or, at least, domination of the SF corner of the literary world), The Android's Dream is set in an entirely different world than his Old Man's War and sequels. It's still very much a Scalzi book, though, insofar as the third published book by an author can really be said to fall into an established pattern. It's got a fast-moving plot, inventive aliens, and snappy dialogue galore. After an opening chapter in which a disgruntled trade negotiator attempts to fart his way into a diplomatic incident, the book moves quickly…

Put Down the Slide Rule

One of the under-reported effects of cheap and widely available personal computers is the increasing dorkification of sports. I'm talking here about the rise in obsessive stat-geekery across the board, with the accompanying increase in "fantasy" sports. Those phenomena have hardly been ignored, but not many commentators put the blame where it belongs: on the computer industry. Back in the day, stat-wanking was mostly confined to baseball, which is so ridiculously boring that calculus seems like a fun way to spice things up. As computers have become more common, though, it's become easier for…

College Hoops Round-Up

Syracuse beat Providence yesterday, in a good old-fashioned Big East game-- on a critical late-game play, a Providence player got smacked across the face hard enough to turn his head, and no foul was called. He missed the shot, Syracuse got the rebound, and it was all over but the free-throw shooting. This was a classic bubble-team game-- Syracuse was up six for much of the first half, and trailed by four at halftime. Then they were up again for a while,were tied a few times in the middle of the second half, and held on to eke out a narrow victory. The win was their 20th, which is not as much…

Manute Bol

Former NBA player Manute Bol spoke on campus last night. Bol, who was born in southern Sudan, is currently working with a group called Sudan Sunrise to promote peace and reconciliation efforts in that country, and specifically to build a school in his home village. Bol spoke for an hour or so about his experiences trying to draw attention to the situation in his home region, where his people have been being oppressed by the Sudanese government since long before anyone had heard of Darfur. Even when he was playing, Bol sent a good deal of money to Sudan. Since his retirement he has spent…

The Importance of Temperment

Kevin Drum is amused by a historical comparison: THEN AND NOW....In 2004, everyone complained that John Kerry was an old-media plodder who didn't react quickly enough to conservative attacks. What a dunce! In 2008, everyone is praising Barack Obama for keeping his composure and not letting conservative attacks knock him off his message. What a cool customer! It depends a little on which part of 2008 you're talking about, of course. If you troll through the recent archives of liberal political blogs, you won't have any trouble finding dozens of posts wailing and moaning about the fact that…

Pop-Science Science Book Project

Jennifer Ouellette was inspired by the recent book "meme," and is putting together a similar list of pop-science books. It might surprise some people, but I haven't been a big reader of pop-science books over the years. In fact, I've read few enough of the books on her list that I'm only going to copy over the ones that I have (partially) read. Bold means I finished it, italics are books I've started or skimmed, and books I intend to read someday are marked with an asterisk. 4. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman 11. *The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene 14. *Where Does the…

Olympic Comments

I am generally not hugely enthusiastic about the Olympics, and I really wasn't following the run-up to the Beijing games this year. The games turn out to be great mindless distraction while SteelyKid is between feedings, though, so I've ended up seeing a fair amount of them. I know you're dying to hear my comments, so: -- There's this kid for the US, a swimmer, something Phelps? You may not have heard this, but he's pretty good... -- Nobody who has met me will mistake me for a great runner, but I was on the track team in high school, so I have some small appreciation for track and field…

Maryland beats North Carolina

My Maryland Terrapins have been, shall we say, inconsistent this year, with back-to-back home losses to Ohio University (not Ohio State, Ohio U.) and American University. As a result, I didn't have really high hopes headed into Saturday's game at tope-ranked North Carolina. Much to my surprise, they played a really good game, and held on to win 82-80 on one of the ungainliest layups in the history of the game by Bambale Osby. Carolina came into the game undefeated, and have been racking up big wins using Roy Williams's usual fast-paced style. They get up the court faster than almost any team…

Dorky Poll: The View from (Outside) Your Office

The building where my office is is one of those 60's era brick buildings with lots of basically identical little offices arranged along indistinguishable hallways. Tenured professors are known to get lost in there trying to find specific offices. To make it a little easier, some of us decorate our doors: The key identifying the numbered items is below the fold, but as this is a fairly general phenomenon in academia, I thought I'd try making this a Bonus Photo Edition Dorky Poll: What's on your office door? (If you don't have your own office, then what's decorating your workspace? If you're…

Stephen Colbert Is Afraid of Me

Well, so are all the other Presidential hopefuls-- not one of them has responded to my offer to endorse any candidate who will play me in basketball-- but I particularly want to address Colbert. After all, he's supposed to be the unconventional maverick candidate here, tooling around in a bus stolen from John McCain... Now, you might say, "Why does Stephen Colbert need your endorsement? After all, his fan group on Facebook has 1.3 million members, and he's got a tv show (admittedly, on basic cable), while you're just a jackass with a web page. He's got the power to break the DonorsChoose…

Links for 2010-08-16

Sex between adolescents in romantic relationships is often harmless to their academics "The context in which adolescent sexual activity occurs can substantially moderate the negative relationship between sexual intercourse and education, according to research to be presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. "Compared to abstinence, sexual intercourse in committed romantic relationships is often academically harmless, whereas in other types of relationships it is more detrimental," said Bill McCarthy and Eric Grodsky, sociologists at the University of…

Links for 2010-07-16

Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » Grading every country's national anthem, part one "Burundi. Sounds more like a movie soundtrack than a national anthem - a really awesome movie, though, about African cowboys looking out over the savannah as the sun sets over the elephants, and then maybe they fight evil white people from some European country bent on exploitation, and of course there would be a good white person, possibly played by a Baldwin. But, yeah, this anthem is not very anthemic. Nice, though. 67" (tags: world music silly blogs) The Analogizer « Tom Scott "Journalists! Do you…

Links for 2010-06-25

Sci-Fi Airshow :: Home "The SCI-FI AIR SHOW's purpose is to preserve and promote the rich and varied history of Sci-Fi/fantasy vehicles. Through display and education we seek to celebrate the classic design and beauty of these ships and the rich imaginations that created them. When the cameras stopped rolling, many of these proud old ships were lost and forgotten. Please join us in working to keep these rare and beautiful birds soaring! " (tags: movies television culture nostalgia sf silly) Dumb Astronomy Acronyms "Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site (or DOOFAAS)" (tags:…

Actual Basketball

I want to take a quick moment to echo what Dave Sez about the World Basketball Championships: Now, I know what you're thinking. You've seen the US play in past years and have been underwhelmed and maybe a bit disgusted. I'm with you. I felt the same way. Ever since the Dream Team in 1992, we've been putting out worse and worse teams filled with disinterested players. There was nothing worse than watching a team full of NBA All-Stars get drubbed by Puerto Rico by 20 points in the last Olympics. It was disgraceful. But that's the past. This team is awesome. They way they play is awesome. The…

Through the looking glass

The title is of course a reference to Alice in Wonderland, and particularily to the quote about believing 6 impossible things before breakfast (which Eli Rabbet upped to ten) and, again, of course applies so nicely to the climate contrarian community. But I guess it is not quite a perfect fit for what I am posting about now, which is rather believing contradictory things, before, during or even after breakfast. (cartoon source) [Note: we could make this cartoon a perfect fit for Monckton just by adding another panel where the scientist suddenly turns to the Galileo-wannabe saying "WTF!? I…

Berlinski and his astonishing “cows to whales” argument

Over at the Sandwalk, Larry has a video of Berlinski pompously denouncing the idea that "cows evolved into whales". As everyone is pointing out, it's ludicrous because cows didn't evolve into whales — but what struck me is the supercilious arrogance of this mathematician as he plucked numbers out of his ass. First he claims that he has a quantitative approach to measuring the magnitude of the nonexistent transition of cow to whale: We have some crude way of assessing quantitatively, not qualitatively but quantitatively, the scope of the project of transformation Oh, really? This could be…

RealClimate on the Australian bushfires

I recently wrote about the tragic bushfires in Australia and how it seems to me that it is reasonable to ask if this would have happened without anthropogenic climate changes. Real Climate has the details on this in their latest post: Bushfires and extreme heat in south-east Australia. The post is by David Karoly, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He identifies four factors in the fire's ferocity - maximum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speeds and the ongoing drought - and discusses the possible role of climate change in each of them. For three of…

Poor and disadvantaged suffer greatly from poverty-caused neglected diseases

The best of last June Triatoma infestans, Chagas vector This is the conclusion of a report to be published in the June 2008 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal. The report, by Peter Hotez of George Washington University and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is a clear indictment of economic disparity in the United States. The bottom line: Many poor Americans are, effectively, living in a poorly managed third world country. Poor people in the United States are subject to a mostly ignored burden of diseases "caused by a group of chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and…

New rodent species discovered

Aprile Pazzo was about to call it a day when she noticed that the penguins she was observing seemed strangely agitated. Pazzo, a wildlife biologist, was in Antarctica studying penguins at a remote, poorly explored area along the coast of the Ross Sea. "I was getting ready to release a penguin I had tagged when I heard a lot of squawking," says Pazzo. "When I looked up, the whole flock had sort of stampeded. They were waddling away faster than I'd ever seen them move." Pazzo waded through the panicked birds to find out what was wrong. She found one penguin that hadn't fled. "It was sinking…

Killer orgasms?

Sometimes I do get strange requests in email. For instance, I was asked if the claim in this article was true: When an orgasm has been achieved through sex, you can measure theta waves. These are also said to cause the "running high" feeling of euphoria experienced sometimes by marathon runners. If theta waves are taken as a criterion, the entire brain emits theta waves when women reach an orgasm that are close on 10 times stronger than when men climax. So, if theta waves are an indication of an orgasm's strength, then women experience an orgasm that is physically impossible for men to go…

Darwin in Danger in the Land of Disney?

... again ... This just in from the NCSE: Antievolution law proposed in Florida It's not a hurricane or even a tropical storm. But a small knot of ignorance is twisting through the Florida state senate. Late last week, Stephen R. Wise (R-District 5) filed Senate Bill 2396, which if passed, would require "[a] thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution." Like other "academic freedom" bills that aim to smuggle creationism back into the classroom, this bill would let educators teach the supposed scientific controversy swirling around evolution. "…

I have some potentially very bad news

It is time to be alarmed. An usual but possibly valid poll taken at Saint Cloud State indicates that Norm Coleman may be quite far ahead of Al Franken in the Senate race here in Minnesota. This is very disturbing for three reasons. 1) This is one of the only poll anywhere, and certainly THE only one for this race, in which a systematic effort was made to contact people who's primary telephone is a cell phone. The theory was that this cell-phone subset of people would be smarter, more liberal, less likely to support a lying treacherous dweeb like Norm Coleman. So, either that theory is…

Hey, can I still get that $50 / hour for picking lettuce?

Last night, gunfire was exchanged between Pakistani and American troops (and Afghani troops as well). This may not have been a particularly big deal, but minor incidents like this can turn into decades of strife and warfare when people like George Bush, Sarah Palin, and that selfish addled moron the Republicans have nominated to run for President, John McCan't, are in charge. I am deeply annoyed at the selfish and cowardly stunt McCain pulled earlier this week. As the Herbert Hoover of the presidential candidates, the only thing McCain can do to have even the slightest chance of winning…

Is McCain Even with Obama and Coleman Killing Franken in Minnesota?

According to the Star Tribune: But the Star Tribune is wrong, and they know they are wrong (according to sources close in). So, is their front page editor on crack or something? Let's test this hypothesis. (UPDATE: See: Senate race polling breakdown) Available recent polling data suggest that Barack Obama is leading John McCain in the Great State of Minnesota by double digits. Here is a picture of the data from Polster.com: The little dots are data points and the lines are regressed off of these points. The most recent Rasmussen poll shows Coleman and Franken in a dead heat at 44/43…

The American South, Urban Areas, People of Color, Native Americans ... In short, the poor and disadvantaged ... suffer greatly from poverty-caused neglected diseases

Triatoma infestans, Chagas vector This is the conclusion of a report to be published in the June 2008 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal. The report, by Peter Hotez of George Washington University and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is a clear indictment of economic disparity in the United States. The bottom line: Many poor Americans are, effectively, living in a poorly managed third world country. Poor people in the United States are subject to a mostly ignored burden of diseases "caused by a group of chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections known…

Sunday Chess Problem

This week we continue our look at helpmates. This week's problem has very different feel from the two helpmates we have seen thus far. It was composed by Joao Santiago and Nenad Petrovic, back in 1951. The stipulation calls for helpmate in four: Let me remind you that in a helpmate, white and black cooperate to contrive a position in which black is checkmated. We assume that black moves first. Even though white and black are cooperating, normal chess rules apply. In particular, if either side is placed in check during the solution, then that person must get out of check on his next…

Sunday Chess Problem

When I started this series, one of the first topics I highlighted was the idea of a logical problem. The idea is this: White has a main plan for achieving his objective. However, if he tries to play it immediately black has a defense that will defeat him. So white must first play a foreplan, whose sole purpose is to neutralize that defense. Once the foreplan has worked itself out, he can go back to executing his main plan. I love logical problems. When I think of the problems that really get me emotional, at the top of the list are the great logical problems. So, how about we start off…

Barnyard Week: BoERVs in Big Bos Taurus

Like BlagHag, I have a soft-spot for astrology. Not that I ever 'believed' in it, I have just always loved the stars and the moon and zodaic stuff is just fun. Via that, Ive also always had a soft-spot for cows. I am a Taurus, and I just think cows are pretty: I also love zodiac for the lulz. Example #1: *in an argument with person Im dating* Me: You should have known I wouldnt like you changing plans on a whim like that. You KNOW Im a Taurus. *angry face* Person: *stops argument dead in tracks in disbelief I just said that* Me: LOL PWND! Example #2: Literally everyone Ive dated has had…

'A dubious diagnosis'

Trine Tsouderos has done it again! She is a one woman, woo-fighting machine! She has taken on anti-vaxers. She has taken on Dr. Oz. She has taken on XMRV-->CFS. And now shes goin after a rare wooity-- Chronic Lyme Disease: Lyme disease is real. The bacterial infection, chiefly transmitted by deer ticks, can cause rashes, swollen joints and inflamed nerves, and usually is curable with a round of antibiotics. But doctors around the country are telling patients with common medical problems such as back pain, poor concentration and fatigue that their ailments stem from a chronic form of Lyme…

Obvious scam is obvious: Dinesh D'Souza

So, Dinesh D'Souza is speaking at OU tonight. Or this afternoon. Or whatever. I couldnt help but notice not only how D'Souza is defined by his 'enemies', but that D'Souza defines himself by his 'enemies': The God Decision: Delusion, Confusion or Truth? The "New Atheism" is an increasingly popular worldview promoted by well-known intellectuals including, Sir Richard Dawkins (who spoke at O.U. in March 2009), Christopher Hitchens, Dr. Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris -- the so-called "Four Horsemen of the New Atheism." This belief system is essentially an embrace of scientific and philosophical…

Saturday Shillery: Quaker Oats

Here at SciBlogs, there are apparently very specific rules we have to follow for shillery. Scientists writing about their presentations and conferences, radio programs, debates, books, etc: GOOD Science 'journalists' writing about their books, appearances/signings, TV shows, movies: GOOD Mark CC writing about Google and Google products: GOOD Pepsi scientists writing about the science of products at Pepsi: BAD Well I feel left out. Ive never written a book or worked with Alan Ball or big HALLAYWOOOOD directors. No one even asked me to be in EXPELLED. So I cant shill for any of that stuff.…

Epigenetics is not magic.

My god, epigenetics is a woo-magnet. Its not epigenetics fault, its just science. But the word 'epigenetics' gets put on this ('chambery thing' heh.). And this. And this. And... well, just Google it. Find your own favorite bit of self-help/explain all/magic epigenetic crap. Attention woo-meisters: STOP WHORING UP EPIGENETICS. IT IS NOT MAGIC. ITS JUST THAT 'BORING SCIENCE CRAP' YOU HATED IN HIGH SCHOOL. Its science and its cool because its science. DEAL WITH IT. THIS is epigenetics: KAP1 controls endogenous retroviruses in embryonic stem cells-- Almost half of the mammalian genome is…

YAY! We can still kill babies in OK!

That was close. HB 1326, aka 'Politicians against baby murder and for hot pancakes' was vetoed by Gov. Henry last night. This morning the House voted to override the veto 68-26... But the override only got 26 votes in the Senate. They needed 32. So us evil Nazi scientists can officially "KILL TEH BAAAAABBYS!" in OK, and I wont be getting a misdemeanor for infanticide this year. *sad* However the Christbots in OK are now having seizures, which has cheered me up immensely. Lisa Billy is concerned that scientists are now going to roam dark alleys, preying on 'poor minority women' to get their…

Responsibility for ones actions

Wow, the crazies are going... crazy... this week. So the bigots who gave money to pass Prop 8 are bawwing about how theyre being persecuted by homosexual terrorists, thus laws must be changed for their personal comfort. Not happy with taking away homosexuals right to marriage, they now want people to be able to donate large sums of money to political campaigns anonymously: Proposition 8 proponents' complaint that a California campaign-finance disclosure law has led to harassment of same-sex marriage opponents failed today to sway a federal judge, who refused to throw out the law or shield…

McCain Goes Splat

In the first debate I thought McCain had slightly the better of it. Basically a draw, but McCain seemed a bit more forceful and confident. Then the polling over the next few days showed that most people thought Obama was the clear winner. Yay! I hope, though, that I am not similarly out of touch with my country on this one. I thought McCain made an absolute fool of himself in this debate. Carnage. The calculus exams I was grading while watching were less gruesome than McCain's performance. Obama was his usual super-composed self, delivering one solid answer after another to the…

The Desperation of Theistic Evolution

Karl Giberson offers up the usual cliches of the genre in in this essay for Salon. Those mean ol' atheists are trying to make a religion out of science, but savvy clear thinkers like him see the problems with that little project. Blah blah blah. P.Z. has already spanked Giberson in this post. Nonetheless, there was one paragraph that really caught my eye: In order for many of us to truly feel at home in the universe so grandly described by science, that science needs to coexist as peacefully as possible with the creation stories of our religious traditions. I share with Myers, Dawkins and…

Sullivan's Double Standard

Andrew Sullivan was not amused by P. Z.'s post: It is one thing to engage in free, if disrespectful, debate. It is another to repeatedly assault and ridicule and abuse something that is deeply sacred to a great many people. Calling the Holy Eucharist a “goddamned cracker” isn't about free speech; it's really about some baseline civility. Myers' rant is the rant of an anti-Catholic bigot. And atheists and agnostics can be bigots too. But wait a minute! Wasn't Sullivan leading the charge in defense of the Danish newspapers that published caricatures of the prophet Muhammed? Yes, I believe…

Entrance Music

The AV Club had a Q&A last week asking "What would be your entrance music?" As a music fan and a sports junkie this is, of course, a nearly irresistable question, though a lot of other things got in the way before I could get around to typing up an answer. I've always kind of thought that Superchunk's "Hyper Enough" would be fantastic entrance music for somebody: Of course, that somebody wouldn't really be me, as I'm not especially hyper. If I were going to be running out onto a stadium floor for some sporting purpose, I would need something more in line with my actual speed. Maybe a…