Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | July 7, 2006Sounds dirty, don't it? It's always nice to see sites that usually deal with politics discuss science. Or in this case, the opposite, also known as Ann Coulter. Robert Savillo, of Media Matters, demolishes the creationist arguments found in Ann Coulter's latest book Why I Think All Liberals Should Be Brutally Murdered Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Before I get to Savillo's summary, he discusses a part of the book where Coulter refers to the 'Flatulent Racoon.' Now, a farting racoon is sort of funny in a five year-old kind of way, but we all know that this just means she is…
mikethemadbiologist | July 7, 2006Well, with at least one thing she writes:
For the past six years, the most prominent Christian in America has been the president. His belief is not of the "God said it. I believe it. That settles it," sort that fundamentalists embrace. Rather, Bush subscribes to a syllogistic doctrine of presidential infallibility: God works through Christians; I am a Christian; I have decided to do X; therefore, X is God's will.
Crazy bugger, that Bush.
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2006Matt Stoller at MyDD.com comments on Andrew Sullivan's and Robert Samuelson's apologetics for global warming:
This is rich. The rush to war was premised on the assumption that the judgment of the Bush administration (and Sullivan) was superior to that of professional weapons inspectors like Hans Blix. This turned out to be false. Now, the foot-dragging on global warming is premised on the assumption that the judgment of the Bush administration (and Sullivan) is superior to that of the global scientific community.
As usual, this is an issue of judgment and trust. Put Sullivan and Samuelson…
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2006That was the response of the head of Stop the ACLU to publicizing the names, address, and telephone numbers of the Dobrich family who were suing the Indian River School District in Delaware for violating the separation of church and state by using the public schools to indoctrinate students in Christianity. This led to widespread intimidation that ultimately forced the Dobrich family, along with another, unidentified family to move out of the district.
Jesus' General decided this would be a perfect opportunity for satire, and so, wrote a letter to Nedd Karieva. Karieva responded (italics…
mikethemadbiologist | June 30, 2006Full disclosure: I am a moderately observant Conservative Jew (Conservative is a denomination of Judaism, not a political leaning). Having said that, the bandying around of the term faith is disingenuous. Religious people are supposed to be honest--at least, that's what I was taught.
We hear all the time expressions like "people of faith", "faith-based groups", and "faith-based approaches" [to sex ed, for example]. Of course, "faith" doesn't mean faith at all, but religion. After all, the secular humanist Albert Camus had great faith that there would always be those who armed only with "…
mikethemadbiologist | June 23, 2006While I'm away at the Evolution 2006 Meeting, I'll leave you with some posts from the archive of the Mad Biologist (Intelligent Designer, I love this scheduled post thingee). This one is about the misuse of language by creationists (originally published Feb. 9, 2005).
From time to time, I get emails from people asking me about evolution (they range from the curious to dogmatic anti-evolutionists). One common refrain I hear from the anti-evolutionists is "evolution is just a theory." This comment also pops up over and over again on widely-read blogs, such as the Washington Monthly. Now, the…
mikethemadbiologist | June 22, 2006driftglass takes up a topic near and dear to my heart because it's a cancer that still corrodes and corrupts the U.S.: the use of hate-mongering by the Right to gain and keep political power. And you thought I was Mad (and if you're not reading driftglass, what the hell's the matter with you).
driftglass writes:
And every year it gets easier to call a feminist a "feminazi". A Liberal "America-hating". A homosexual an "abomination". A scientist a Godless "tree-hugger".
To accept the swiftboating of patriots as normal, and to vote sadistic, damaged drunks and war criminals into office.
And…
mikethemadbiologist | November 10, 2004Two nights ago, ABC News reported that in Cobb County, Georgia, those who favor creation "science" are in court arguing over whether they can place stickers on biology textbooks that state that evolution is a "theory", not a fact. As an evolutionary biologist, I am so sick of this. I could write an exposition on the historical roots of evangelical/fundamentalist opposition to evolutionary biology, but I don't know what the point would be. I'm not sure how to even begin to fix this. Many of my colleagues say that we have to do a better job educating the public. I don't know about this-the…