Kooks
pharyngula | February 19, 2009While Arkansas takes a small step forward, a few people in my home state of Washington want to take a great leap backwards. Some crank named Kimberlie Struiksma, who is apparently associated with education, has proposed to put a remarkably clueless measure onto the ballot. Behold Initiative Measure No. 1040:
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 1040 concerns a supreme ruler of the universe.
This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research…
pharyngula | February 18, 2009There's going to be magic in Britain on 6 March.
It is a proven scientific fact that thinking about something often causes it to happen. Some call this quantum physics. Others simply call it "faith."
…and still others recognize it as the babbling of bilge-belching bliss-ninnies.
pharyngula | February 17, 2009Uh-oh. The Phelps Family Circus is planning to invade England and picket a showing of a gay-friendly play. If you want to see exactly how insane these people are, Shirley Phelps-Roper has written a defense of their planned action. If you like my "I get email" series, you will relish that letter.
pharyngula | February 11, 2009First Ken Ham, and now…the Paranormal Clergy Institute! Have a browse and a chuckle. These people seem to be part of some breakaway Catholic sect, and their specialty is demonology — possessions, hauntings, that sort of thing. You can even take classes if you want to know more about demons.
pharyngula | February 10, 2009I'm a bit jealous — I didn't get this amazing email:
As for myself, I believe that science has proved that there has to be a creator (The best mathematicians, physicists, biologists, astronomers,etc all admit they cannot explain how the DNA data gets into each cell/gene and can only be put there by intelligent design. But a campaign of disinformation from the atheist scientific communtity was exposed on British TV (I have the documentary), that proves that even the atheists admitted in secret scientific unpublished journals that all organic life in the universe had to come from a designer…
pharyngula | February 9, 2009A big chunk of Australia is on fire — over 700 homes have been burned, and it's estimated that over 300 people have been killed. We know the cause: a drought that dried tons of brush to tinder, lightning strikes, and deplorably, apparently a number of arsonists.
Well, that's what I would say were the causes. But then, I'm one of those materialists. Danny Nalliah, pastor of one of those cheesy evangelical organizations, has a different idea.
CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he would spearhead an effort to provide every assistance to devastated communities, although he was not surprised…
pharyngula | February 9, 2009Since I had the effrontery to critize futurism and especially Ray Kurzweil, here's a repost of something I wrote on the subject a while back…and I'll expand on it at the end.
Kevin Drum picks at Kurzweil—a very good thing, I think—and expresses bafflement at this graph (another version is here, but it's no better):
(Another try: here's a cleaner scan of the chart.)
(Click for larger image)
You see, Kurzweil is predicting that the accelerating pace of technological development is going to lead to a revolutionary event called the Singularity in our lifetimes. Drum has extended his graph (the…
pharyngula | February 5, 2009Sometimes these kooks reveal that they even read the blog…somewhat obsessively and angrily. This one seems to be a follow-up to yesterday's email, and I think he's unhappy that I put up that other crank's letter and not his. I'm sorry, but I don't even remember what his previous letter's point was, and if this one is any indication, it was another spittle-flecked disjointed ramble, and I'm afraid I don't read those with much attention. However, since he really wants to join the pantheon (a very crowded pantheon) of irate readers, I'm happy to oblige.
Don't get any ideas, though, all you other…
pharyngula | February 3, 2009Stein has a little tantrum over outcry against his address at the University of Vermont. It's not at all notable, except for one little comment.
Stein said he has spoken at many universities, including Columbia, Yale, Stanford, and American University, "and no one has said boo. Somehow at UVM, it has become a big issue."
I recommend that we make it a big issue at every university where he speaks. The man who said flatly that "science leads you to killing people" should not be honored at any university.
Well, OK, he would fit right in at Liberty University and such places as that. But no real…
pharyngula | February 3, 2009A nurse on a home visit decided to offer her services as a personal intermediary to a deity and pray for her patient. The patient objected and complained to the health organization — after all, the patient may not like her nasty bronze age god, and may feel put upon that a presumed professional is proposing to waste her time on chanted magic spells. It's also a matter of courtesy: when I'm teaching, I don't hector my students on matters outside the course content, like atheism, and when I'm being treated by a nurse or doctor, I expect them to leave irrelevant superstitions out of the…
pharyngula | January 27, 2009You can't get to Conservapædia right now — it seems to have been taken offline. It's not clear why, exactly, but there is a curiously hideous article that was posted there, as noted on Wonkette.
The Constitution provides that if a senator is unable to complete his or her term then the governor of the state will appoint a replacement Senator. Below is a list of Senate Democrats from States with Republican Governors. Currently the Democrats hold a 58 seat majority in the Senate. If these Senators were unable to complete their terms and were replaced by qualified Republicans by their Republican…
pharyngula | January 26, 2009A hint: Glenn Beck. James Dobson. Together. This will rot your mind.
They are complaining about a court decision that ruled that a 'moment of silence' rule in a public school was a veiled attempt to introduce sectarian religious belief into the classroom. Nobody is afraid of prayer; kids can pray all they want, however they want, whenever they've got the free time. However, you don't get to tell my kids that they have to contemplate your god — do me that favor, and I won't insist that the schools force your kids to stop whatever they're doing and think about the nonexistence of same.
By the…
pharyngula | January 24, 2009Ted Haggard is in the news again — it seems he has been involved in long term homosexual relationships, and has been abusing his power for sexual favors. Raise your hands if you would never have expected it!
Hey, how come none of you lifted your fingers from your keyboard?
Here's his latest excuse, and it's actually a good one.
In an AP interview this month before an appearance in front of TV critics in California, Haggard described his sexuality as complex and something that can't be put into "stereotypical boxes."
Yes! Now if only he could understand that everyone's sexuality is…
pharyngula | January 22, 2009Here's another gagworthy media experience for you all: an interview on Skeptiko with Denyse O'Leary, author of one of the worst books I've ever read, The Spiritual Brain. O'Leary is awful, as usual, but the interviewer is horribly credulous as well — I had to turn it off when he started nattering on about the wonderful evidence of near-death experiences.
I'm feeling terribly cruel this morning. It must be the fact that on Thursdays I have to teach an 8am class.
pharyngula | January 21, 2009Ray Comfort has a new site, Pull the plug on atheism. It's a series of short pages which consist mainly of plugs for some bad books he is peddling, with a few paragraphs in which he announces a few of his misconceptions about atheism, with the air of one who has trounced every objection. It really is as bad as his pathetic blog.
For instance, the first thing he does is define what he means by atheist.
An atheist is someone who believes that nothing made everything.
Then he goes on and on with fallacious analogies: "Imagine if I said my latest book came from nothing." Imagine if I say that I…
pharyngula | January 20, 2009The pompous know-nothing we all love to despise gets a nice keelhauling over his economic predictions. Not only was he wrong, he was arrogant about it — I guess he's about as good an economist as he is an actor and polemicist.
pharyngula | January 19, 2009It's inauguration day, and in a fine old American tradition, every event must be associated with a commercial tie-in. Krispy Kreme dougnuts is offering a free choice of a doughnut in honor of the change in presidents.
Did you hear that? Free choice of a doughnut?
Get it? Choice?
Yeah, I know, most of you aren't obsessive lunatics, so it's not obvious. You need to see the press release sent out by the American Life League.
The unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that 'choice' is synonymous with abortion access, and celebration of 'freedom of choice' is a tacit endorsement of…
pharyngula | January 17, 2009Alzheimer's disease is a serious problem that causes devastating and progressive mental deficits, and we need to have some of our best minds working on it. So what are these two jokers contributing?
Dr. Michael Salla's work in Exopolitics seeks to inspire humanity to appreciate pathological conditions like Alzheimer's and Dementia within a broader context of Extraterrestrial activities, which have been repressed from a vital body of human knowledge. Dr. Salla and his colleagues seek to disclose insight and awareness of Extraterrestrial activities that are potentially having profound effects…
pharyngula | January 16, 2009 Mr Ron Heather, Unprofessional Bus Driver and Pompous Faith-Head, has decided to become briefly famous for his stupidity by refusing to do his job and drive a bus with advertising on it.
Mr Heather told BBC Radio Solent: "I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face, my first reaction was shock horror.
"I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did.
"I think it was the starkness of this advert which implied there was no God."
Apparently, passing an intelligence test is not…
pharyngula | January 15, 2009I just got a long, whiny, self-serving email from a Mr John Buford, in which he claims that I was in error for banning him, because he once took a 4-credit course in anthropology, and his comments about race are therefore credible.
You may recall Mr Buford by his pseudonym, "hahajohnnyb". He's a racist moron.
I won't bother with posting the whole of his letter, which is mostly a lot of chest-thumping about how smart he is, but I will share with you his closing threat.
It is your blog, and you certainly have the right to ban whomever you choose, and I shall respect your ban, but I intend to…