Category: Uncategorized

That would be anti-semitic:

The Israeli ambassador to El Salvador has been recalled after he was found drunk, naked and bound in sexual bondage gear in his yard, an official said Monday. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that he could identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth….

Last year, Israel replaced its ambassador to Australia, Naftali Tamir, after he said Israel and Australia are “like sisters” because both are located in Asia and their peoples don’t have the Asian characteristics of “yellow skin and slanted eyes.”

I eagerly await Mr. Abe Foxman’s statement denouncing the BBC, Fox News and the country of El Salvador for their reprehensible irresponsibility denying the Holocaust like this.

It was Pharyngula’s head. Courtesy of his good friend and fellow atheist Scott Adams:

I’ve been trying for years to reconcile my usually-excellent bullshit filter with the idea that evolution is considered a scientific fact. Why does a well-established scientific fact set off my usually-excellent bullshit filter like a five-alarm fire? It’s the fossil record that has been bugging me the most. It looks like bullshit. Smells like bullshit. Tastes like bullshit. Why isn’t it bullshit? All those scientists can’t be wrong.

If you are new to the Dilbert Blog, I remind you that I don’t believe in Intelligent Design or Creationism or invisible friends of any sort. I just think that evolution looks like a blend of science and bullshit, and have predicted for years that it would be revised in scientific terms in my lifetime. It’s a hunch – nothing more….

The bottom line is that DNA tests (which do not set off my bullshit detector) have shown that you can’t really tell what set of bones begat other sets of bones just by looking at how they differed and how old they are. Apparently evolution is more complex than imagined, and there were lots of ape-people varieties wandering around at the same time. Some had modern features that they weren’t supposed to have. The so-called modern features apparently popped up and disappeared more than once, and in more than one species.

Like Scott Adams, I have always been an evolution skeptic. Not on the basis of my religious faith, as my skepticism long preceded that, but because it’s so obviously smoke, mirrors and mad dancing around flaw after flaw after flaw.

No disrespect to Patrick Ewing, (being raised a bit of a Hoya fan by my grandfather), but I can remember the first time I watched him play for Georgetown and thinking, you know, if they dug him up tomorrow, scientists would swear he was our giant ape ancestor.

I don’t know what DNA will reveal in this latest chapter, I’m merely looking forward to the first discovery of a T-Rex with a human in its stomach or something like that. And then all of the back-pedaling, followed by arrogant and superior statements about how we NOW know exactly what’s going on and if you don’t blindly put your trust in it, you’re just stupid and uneducated.

It’s tough to take today’s scientists and their certainties too seriously if you’re sufficiently well-read in history. The probabilities are high that 22nd century scientists will be denying their beliefs are “true science” in the same way that they try to disown 1930s German science.

The Good Fraters have some fun with the failed Bancroft Arnesen Explore expedition:

World-renowned polar explorers and educators, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, today suspended their historic expedition to the North Pole seven days in, citing severe safety concerns due to a combination of damaged gear, frostbite and extreme cold….

“The goal of this expedition is to help you learn more about global warming; we realize that it is ironic that frostbite and the cold temperatures contributed to our return. But, please know that global warming is real, and with it can come extreme unpredictable changes in temperature. Evidence abounds within this region and in our few days here we already observed some of its evidence.”

Such as toes freezing but not actually falling off, apparently. It is a shame, of course, that global warming has cost Bancroft and Arnesen their opportunity to invent the dykesicle.

I will, however, give them credit for not memetic cleansing their bulletin board. A lot of left-wing blogs, and more than a few right-wing blogs, would do well to take a lesson from them in this regard.

I’m not sure which is funnier, the one guy’s insinuation that all atheists are homosexuals or the grasp of theology demonstrated by the other one:

Simon Owens: Do you think the “blasphemy project” is an effective way for atheists to come out of the closet?

Brian Flemming: The Blasphemy Challenge has certainly encouraged quite a few godless folks to unequivocally state that they aren’t afraid of Satan. I think it’s hilarious that this is actually a controversial statement to make — as if Satan were not a purely mythological character. The Blasphemy Challenge is radical compared to how we normally talk about superstitions such as Christianity, but it shouldn’t be. It should always be acceptable to declare one’s independence from Bronze Age myths. In fact, it shouldn’t really be news at all.

Atheists have a tendency to think that Christians are afraid of their arguments. The truth is that we’re much more likely to marvel at their utter incompetence and demonstrated ignorance. For starters, it’s not Satan that one should fear after blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, it’s the one who has announced His intentions of throwing Satan into the incinerator once his day is done.

I do think the Blasphemy Challenge would be an interesting way to test how many atheists truly have the courage of their convictions, although I’d never set anyone to it.

Prof. PZ Myers demonstrates the innocence of the middle-aged Midwesterner:

She’s really reaching. I’ve never heard “fruitcake” used against gays, although I imagine practically every word has been used as an insult against them—I’ve mainly heard it to express one’s opinion of another’s sanity, as in “nutty as a fruitcake”. It’s too bad no one ever told Stark that the godless are never, ever allowed to get angry.

Far be it from me to defend Me So Michelle in any capacity… but sadly, I have no choice. What’s amusing is his commenters rushing to agree that they’ve never, ever heard the term “fruitcake” in reference to sexual orientation.

I await with interest to learn how long ago, in Prof. PZ Myers’ agricultural Midwestern town, “cocksucker” referred only to chicken farmers who happened to enjoy the taste of a rooster’s comb.

But the funniest thing is that the Malkin article cited to demonstrate how eager Christians are to attack atheists dates back to July 2003, only four years BEFORE Rep. Stark declared himself to be a lavalounger.

Science, as you can see, demands great logic and precision. So don’t thank me, PZ, I’m just a scientist, standing in front of another scientist, helping him self-correct science.

Kunshalini needs to take a few more courses in the English language. This should explain why:

Vox misrepresents science in saying that scientists believe that science possesses a unique claim on truth.

No, he doesn’t. “Science boosts its claim to truth by its spectacular ability to make matter and energy jump through hoops on command, and to predict what will happen and when.” – Richard Dawkins, “What is True?” The Devil’s Chaplain (2004)

In fact, I daresay that nearly every scientist would greatly object to Kunshalini’s unusual assertion that science does NOT possess a unique claim on truth. They tend to look down on truth by divine revelation, for example, preferring instead truth by empirical evidence gained through observation and experiment.

It’s possible, of course, that she simply doesn’t understand the distinction between A unique claim and THE unique claim.

I do agree that science is self-correcting (unlike religion/so-called ‘divine’ revelation), but this does not mean that I worship at the altar of science, claiming it to be the ‘holy’ Truth. Vox needs to stop jumping to absurd, wild conclusions.

Kunshalini needs to stop imagining that I said things I manifestly did not. I never said anything about an altar of science, any ‘holy’ Truth or her worship.

Where in my post (or my entire blog), did I say that I disapprove of the unmasking of scientific frauds? In this case, Vox is simply being a deliberate liar.

The Inquisitions, of course, referred to the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions, not any unmasking of scientific frauds. You see, in the English language, the capital I indicates a proper noun referring to a specific historical Inquisition. (The ‘s’, of course, indicated that I was referring to more than one.) If Kunshalini subsequently informs us of her approval of the Spanish or the Roman Inquisitions, I shall certainly retract the statement. I’d say that she’s being deliberately obtuse, except it’s becoming increasingly obvious that she’s merely stupid.

…his claim that the advocates of science will dictate how people choose to live does not make sense, and is not documented by any facts whatsoever. I wonder how Vox managed to pull this idea straight out of his ass.

Apparently Kunshalini hasn’t been following the Global Warming – excuse me, Global CLIMATE CHANGE – debate and is unfamiliar with the Kyoto Protocols adapted by dozens of governments at the behest of thousands of scientific advocates.

There’s more, but it isn’t any more interesting. Or competent.

You cannot kill Christianity, you can only make it stronger:

The CAA estimates that more than 600 Christians were detained in 2006, down from about 2,000 the year before. But most of those arrested last year were church leaders. Moreover, “local officials closed and demolished more house churches in 2006 than 2005.” China also targeted congregations as cults. “After being classified as a cult, House churches in Langzhong city, Sichun province were severely persecuted in 2006.”

Even as Europe seems to slip further from its religious moorings, Christianity is growing rapidly elsewhere in the world, including in the PRC. The Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs estimates that there now are 130 million Christians in China, roughly 10 percent of the population.

The number of Christians in China is increasing despite sustained state repression. Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association (CAA), notes that “the unprecedented growth of the Chinese church has happened under ceaseless persecution.”

The irony, of course, is that the best way to weaken Christianity is to create a state church, give it plenty of money and mandate attendance in its churches. In the long term, weak and lukewarm Christians are more deadly to the faith than the Neros of the world… temptation is harder to resist than persecution.

In case you find this post to be particularly brilliant:

Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.

The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice — and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise.

They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise.

Perhaps we’ll have to do a fitness challenge one of these days, which will consist of a Mind-Body-Spirit exercise competition. Any ideas? I’m thinking of something that would combine a reading program, a free weight-and-cardio program and a spiritual program.

The VPQF variant will consist of watching the Euro 2008 qualifiers, hitting the night clubs and dancing to electronic 80’s music while working Michel Foucault into every other conversation. And Blue Hawaaians with little umbrellas, can’t forget that. I think we’ll put Nate in charge of overseeing that one….

“Any student of history recognizes there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq.”
– General David Petraeus

It’s interesting that it has taken them four years to figure this out. Too bad they couldn’t have simply listened to Pat Buchanan in 2003 or me in 2004.

Taking out Hussein was always viable and was not, in my opinion, entirely unreasonable. It was done in an unconstitutional manner and with duplicitous justifications, which I of course opposed, but then, so is everything else the federal government does these days.

But playing colonial games without colonists, that doesn’t tend to work so well. I’m now awaiting Powerline and the gang at National Socialist Review to begin attacking the man they were hailing as the Lion of Baghdad only six weeks ago.

Mychal Massie sees it all:

This is a ruse, a con, and in brief, an attempt to hustle the voters. GOP leadership is trying to “Bob Dole” us. They have, in effect, met in the smoke-filled back room of a private club and decided amongst themselves who they want in 2008. Their problem is how to deceive the voters into believing that said pick is of the voters’ choosing.

Their solution: hand pick the candidate, truncate the primaries, shove the candidate down our collective throats vis-à-vis the media’s promoting, interviewing and discussing (ad nauseum) McCain, Romney and Giuliani, but in such a way as to always have Giuliani shine brighter. Then, when he has garnered the nomination, we the voters will be told, “Yes, it is true he is a little more moderate than we may like,” but if we don’t vote for him, Hillary will win and hell will freeze over.

To which, allowing that same has no basis in theological truth, I respond, “If there be a hell on earth, and it freezes over because I vote my conscience and Hillary wins, I’ll walk on ice until the party lets the voters truly have a say.”

If the Republican Party was actually trying to win this fall, they would pay attention to the way even conservative commentators are declaring that they will sit it out rather than vote for Giuliani, McCain or Romney.

But, as I’ve written repeatedly over the last two years, this is the Lizard Queen’s election. It’s the Democrat’s turn again, so the GOP has to throw up a sacrificial lamb. I guessed it would be Pataki, but it turned out that he’s not even electable enough to serve as voter bait.