May 30, 2010
Shorter Billy Dembski: BEACON comes home with the bacon!:
Why doesn't the NSF give meeeeee $25 million?
"Wah!" would've been even shorter, but would limit my ability to distinguish this whine from every other post at Dembski's blog.
May 28, 2010
My review of Elaine Howard Ecklund's Science vs. Religion is online and will be in the print edition of your Washington Post this Sunday. I'm unaccustomed to reviewing books in 300-400 words, so there's a bunch I'd have liked to say but couldn't, and I felt like I should wait to blog the book…
May 24, 2010
Shorter Martin Cothran: How Whiteliberaldemocrats voted on the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Rand Paul can't be a racist for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in 2010 because there were racist Democrats who opposed it in 1964.
Cothran doesn't know why everyone is beating up on Republican Senate…
May 24, 2010
Before they discovered Casey Luskin, the Disco. 'Tute's legal nerve cluster resided in Seth Cooper. Cooper offered his sage advice to the school board in Dover, PA, then left first for the staff of a state legislator, and then high-tailed it to a conservative legislative activism group in DC,…
May 24, 2010
From Eric Hovind's twitter feed, we get a photo and a caption:
Hanging out with Dr Stephen Meyer from the Discovery Institute. Wow, smart guy!
For those who can't keep track, Hovind is the son of Kent Hovind, currently serving time in a federal prison on charges related to tax evasion. Hovind…
May 23, 2010
Rand Paul is a wuss.
I mean canceling his appearance on Meet the Press just means we won't be treated to his explanations for opposing widely beloved government programs like the EPA, Civil Rights Act, FHA, minimum wage. Have some courage of your convictions, Rand!
May 21, 2010
l cannot fathom why Robert Gibbs, the President's Press Secretary, would dispute that the animal scurrying past the President's feet is a vole. The short tail, the shape, the fur, all scream meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus). And yet:
"Where I'm from, that's a rat" Press Secretary Robert…
May 20, 2010
Panel moves âReligious Freedom Actâ:
A Senate panel narrowly approved legislation Tuesday whose supporters say reaffirms constitutional guarantees of freedom of religious expression.
Approval came over the objections of those who contend Senate Bill 606 is unnecessary because the U.S.…
May 20, 2010
For a long time, the Disco. 'tute insisted that "intelligent design" is science, and that questions about who did the designing are theological and beyond ID's scope. IDolators insist that ID can be evaluated without knowing anything about the nature of the designer.
This never made sense.
So in…
May 20, 2010
Martin Cothran, staffer with the Family Foundation of Kentucky and generally awful person, is excited about Rand Paul's recent primary victory in the Kentucky Senate race. "Is Rand Paul the de facto leader of the Tea Party?", he asks:
In fact, one of the Tea Party's long-term problems is that it…
May 19, 2010
First, my very favorite creationist in the wide world has an appropriately snarky (but optimistic) take on a new ID journal. He opens by noting, "The last time ID supporters tried their own journal was PCID, which seemed to whither and die five years ago." Indeed, they appear to have been unable to…
May 19, 2010
Bruce Chapman, head Disco. DJ, thinks we're going through global cooling:
It certainly seems so this spring. Winter on the East Coast was grim and summer temperatures are hard to find now in the West. Snowfall also higher than in decades past. It doesn't mean anything except this: there is (and…
May 19, 2010
Right-wing Israeli activists threaten to protest Rahm Emanuelâs sonâs bar mitzvah in Jerusalem:
Last year, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel announced at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington that he was planning to take his son Zach to Israel for his…
May 18, 2010
Recent weeks have brought a steady stream of interesting reports about Israel's internal politics and how those politics relate to the rest of the world.
To whit: Israel Roiled After Chomsky Barred From West Bank:
Front-page coverage and heated morning radio discussions asked how Mr. Chomsky, an 81…
May 18, 2010
30 years ago, a very young Josh Rosenau looked out the window of his parents house in Portland, Oregon, pointed at the volcanic ash settling on the trees and sidewalks, and explained: "'cano!" Folks had been anticipating the eruption of Mt. St. Helens for weeks, some of them even eagerly urging…
May 18, 2010
In Pennsylvania, retired admiral and current Representative Joe Sestak won the Democratic primary against former Republican Arlen Specter; Sestak will face failed Senate candidate Pat Toomey in November. In Kentucky, Jack Conway will be running for the Senate seat currently held by Jim Bunning.…
May 18, 2010
The Pope is likely to have a lot of reading soon:
Roman Catholics can send now text messages of support to Pope Benedict XVI, Italian public television said Saturday, as the Church faces an international paedophile scandal.â¦
All messages sent to the special number -- +39 335 18 63 091 -- will be…
May 18, 2010
In the video above, you can watch Indiana's Rep. Mark Souder yammer about creationism with staffer Lisa Jackson. He crows about his on-screen experience in Expelled: No Intelligence, and his efforts to twist Smithsonian emails into a conspiracy.
Souder recently won his primary election, but just…
May 14, 2010
Retiring Rep. Bart Gordon wins the internet with this comment:
"For anyone that is concerned about federal employees watching pornography, they just saw a pornographic movie. It's called; 'Motion to Recommit,'" Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) said. "It was a cynical effort to undermine an important bill…
May 13, 2010
Ophelia Benson continues to tangle with the silly and unjustifiable argument by Sam Harris that science can produce morality. Harris has shown himself to be beyond the realm of reason on this matter (and perhaps others), but if it brings her joy, I say mazel tov. At long last, someone is…
May 12, 2010
So remember how I posted a thing about how "critical analysis" is just another Marxist/postmodernist catchphrase adopted by fundamentalists to advance their religious/political agenda? I thought it was interesting, but relatively uncontroversial.
Rob Crowther, Disco. 'Tute's scribe in residence,…
May 11, 2010
When I first heard about an attack ad in Alabama charging that gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne was in favor of evolution, I didn't even bother blogging it. Of course Roy Moore â famously removed from the state judiciary for unconstitutionally forcing religious symbols into public places â…
May 10, 2010
Those who follow creationism carefully know that after it became clear that Intelligent design would fail in court, the new strategy which took the field often simply called for "critical analysis" of evolution. The practical effect is the same as when creationism is forced into the curriculum,…
May 10, 2010
I'm honestly undecided about Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. She's got a distinguished record of legal service and scholarship, though few publications to document her views. Larry Lessig likes her, Glenn Greenwald doesn't. At the end of the day, President Obama likes her, and the…
May 10, 2010
Chris Mooney interviewed Elaine Ecklund about her just-released Science vs. Religion, and takes issue with her claim that second-generation atheists (those raised by atheists) are less anti-religion than first-generation atheists. As a counterargument, he writes that he is a second-generation…
May 6, 2010
Jim Lippard is tracking down the origin of the term "woo". He finds a few references (mostly to "woo-woo" or "woo woo") in the 1990s, and then a gap until this, from The North British Review, vol. 1, no. 11, p. 340, in a discussion of "Our Scottish fishermen" from 1842:
When beating up in stormy…
May 6, 2010
S.E. Cupp has become a minor bete noir here, partly because I've been tracking reaction to her profoundly inaccurate book. But today, she actually says something I agree with. Or at least, she accidentally implies something I agree with.
The essay is a bit of sports commentary, or rather sports…
May 6, 2010
He's funnier than S. E. Cupp, at least.
May 4, 2010
ThinkProgress rounds up some of the over the top reactions of conservatives to the arrest of Faisal Shahzad. My favorite comes from New York's Rep. Peter King:
Did they Mirandize him? I know heâs an American citizen but still.
Just to stretch that out a bit, King is arguing that he knows Shahzad…
May 3, 2010
No More Mister Nice Blog explains the facts of life to Bobby Jindal:
For the last sixteen months the GOP has been screaming that government is evil, that it is the problem, that we need less regulation in order to be more productive, more profitable, and that rules and oversight aren't needed…
