Now this is just funny. I have an entry on Conservapedia, which establishes its unquestionable credibility by focusing exclusively on the fact that I’m overweight — you know, like any legitimate website would do. Here’s the whole thing:
Ed Brayton is an atheist blogger at freethoughtblogs.com. His blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars is a prominently featured blog at freethoughtblogs.com. He is also the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of the pro-evolution blog The Panda’s Thumb.
Ed Brayton’s challenge with being overweight
Pictures of an overweight Ed Brayton can be found HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.
Currently, there are a number of scientifically sound methods which medical science, nutritional science and exercise science offer which have assisted people in losing weight.
Congratulations, you’ve discovered something that has absolutely nothing to do with the truth of anything I’ve ever written. It is as irrelevant to anything substantive as the color of my ties. Anyone have a picture of Jerry Falwell or John Hagee laying around?
74 comments
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slc1
July 7, 2012 at 10:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Anyone have a picture of Jerry Falwell or John Hagee laying around?
Not to mention lardasses like Rush Limbaugh and Marc Morano.
bachalon
July 7, 2012 at 10:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Look on one of the many good sides: if that’s all they can come up with to say about you, they really don’t know you all that well. Surprise surprise.
chuckcain
July 7, 2012 at 10:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am very jealous. Congratz!
Stephen "DarkSyde" Andrew
July 7, 2012 at 10:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
LOL! Nice close buddy!
Lowcifur
July 7, 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I usually loathe to do this but, that Conservapedia entry has elicited a “cool story, bro” from me, almost like a rhetorical belch.
Larry
July 7, 2012 at 10:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And not only that, Ed, your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries!
Trebuchet
July 7, 2012 at 10:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yeah, CP’s User:Conservative (Ken DeMeyer of Buffalo, NY) has been obsessing with overweight atheists for several years. See also the article on PZ and this one on “Atheism and obesity”.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_and_obesity
I follow the hijinks on Conservapedia regularly on RationlWiki, but almost never go there directly.
ambulocetacean
July 7, 2012 at 10:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, that was pathetic, even by the standards of the author, Conservative ( http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conservapedia:Sysops/Conservative ).
You’d think he’d make some sort of effort, like he did with his imaginative essay on why ponies are better than atheism ( conservapedia dot com/Essay:_Ponies_vs._atheism_-_Ponies_win )
Really, Ed, you do deserve better. At least your old pal Pat used to call you gay as well as fat.
Have you screen-capped the entry? It will probably be taken down soon.
(BTW, does posting more than one link trigger the spam filter? I forget.)
Modusoperandi
July 7, 2012 at 10:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh yeah? Well…Edbrayton is fat! So there!
michaeld
July 7, 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yeah they seem to have some weird obsession with fat atheists. Its really strange.
anteprepro
July 7, 2012 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gotta love fundies treating weight like a character flaw. Fucking assholes showing their Christian love all over the place!
Ophelia Benson
July 7, 2012 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder if they’ve incorporated any of Paula Kirby’s taunts yet.
Gretchen
July 7, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Way to go, Ed! I’m jealous.
flash
July 7, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hmm, I glanced through their article on Rush and the list of “facts” about him has no mention of his corpulence. Strangely enough it also neglects to mention his little problem with hillbilly heroin. My favorite part has got to be the list of related bullshit, er, articles that follows Ed’s entry; there is a list of entries on overweight atheists by various cretins, but the real prize is the last one on the list, an article by that giant of conservative thought, that towering intellectual…Chuck Norris!
slc1
July 7, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re ambulocetacean @ #8
Of course, ole Pat wasn’t the world’s example of svelte either (a gross understatement)
JoeBuddha
July 7, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I seem to remember once reading something about eyes and motes and beams? I’m pretty sure it’s in their holy book somewhere…
Reginald Selkirk
July 7, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed wears ties? Colour me shocked.
smhll
July 7, 2012 at 11:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This almost calls for the speech from Cyrano where he comes up with 100 better insults.
A Hermit
July 7, 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s the same critique conservatives offer for Al Gore and Michael Moore.
Congratulations Ed; you know you’ve made it big when…
jonrowe
July 7, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not to mention Chris Christie.
RickR
July 7, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Argumentum ad….ipose?
I’ll get my coat.
Doc Bill
July 7, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey, on the bright side it’s better than being called a lightweight!
dingojack
July 7, 2012 at 11:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ambulocetacean (#8) – One or two is OK, three is a no-no.
Dingo
neonsequitur
July 7, 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They really dropped the ball by not mentioning the fact that you gamble too much and under-cook your steaks. [/snark]
Oh, wait… that would require reading, not looking at pictures.
otrame
July 7, 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If I were the type, I’d go edit the links so that instead of Ed they went to pictures of Rush, and that little toad Hagee.
I’m not the type. It was fun watching them for a while, but now I say let them stew in their own juices. Anyone, hyper-Christian teenager or not, with the slightest sense of decency is very quickly run out of there by the other editors.
DaveL
July 7, 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Every so often, I check in on Conservapædia to see whether they still have entries on sex and human reproduction that manage not to mention the word “vagina”.
…
Yep, still there!
reverendrodney
July 7, 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s a wonder Gov. Christie isn’t listed in Conservapedia as a raging communist!
Not to mention that blathering blob of blubber, Rush Limbaugh!
cthulhu
July 7, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You should change the pics in that article, hosted on your freethoughblogs domain, to some naughty ones for fun.
Crocoduck Hunter
July 7, 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I posted literally just last night on Facebook that my life’s goal is to be added to Conservapedia’s list of obese atheists.
IslandBrewer
July 7, 2012 at 1:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What? Not one “AND HE’S UGLY, TOO!!11!”?
Wow, they went easy on you. I’m rather shocked that they actually mentioned Michigan Citizens for Science and Panda’s Thumb – that, after all, has no bearing on how fat you are.
michaelraymer
July 7, 2012 at 1:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I like to think that Conservapedia is largely irrelevant. I’ve never actually visited the site, but I remember reading somewhere that there’s an article there about “alternatives” to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. That made me chuckle, but then I shouldn’t be surprised since they’re the same folks that deny evolution, and both theories have mountains of empirical evidence supporting them.
As for the whole “Ha ha, you’re fat” thing, it’s easy to point out all the god-fearing conservatives that are also overweight/obese, but that’s kind of missing the point. Aren’t 33% of American adults obese? So isn’t pointing out an American’s weight kind of like “Yeah, so what?” I’m just another statistic too, though I have managed to shed about 40 pounds in the last couple years. I’m still fat though, just not morbidly so now, at least. I like to think I’m doing my part to combat global warming by keeping extra carbon locked up in my big body. Sadly, I doubt that helps much, haha…
Midnight Rambler
July 7, 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The deranged POV of Conservapedia can be summed up in Andy Schlafly’s obsession with the idea that liberal physicists are only pushing the theory of relativity because it drives people away from the Bible. And this shows the outcome.
garnetstar
July 7, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed, Rebbeca Watson pointed out to PZ that if he lost weight he would inevitably and helplessly succumb to Christianity. Don’t fall into that trap!
Me, I’m trying for obese, so as to avoid that dreadful fate.
Akira MacKenzie
July 7, 2012 at 2:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think that the Conservapedia obsession with weight has to do with 1) to demonstrate that we’re sotf, weak, and decadent unlike their “heroes” who serve in the military and star in cheesy action movies,, 2) to show that we are hypocrites because we’re stereptypically for healthy eating, vegitarianism/vegan, and exercise.
Draken
July 7, 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If overweight and atheism are somehow interrelated, Europe should be quite a bit more religious than the USA.
regexp
July 7, 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If you look up Jerry Falwell you will find this nugget:
Trebuchet
July 7, 2012 at 2:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nobody understands Andy’s obsession with relativity, including his brother Roger who occasionally tries to reason with him. Apparently he confuses relativity in physics with moral relativism. Andy also doesn’t believe in complex numbers, despite having a degree in Electrical Engineering where use of them is essential.
dingojack
July 7, 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh – he’s an electrical engineer. Well that explains a lot.
;) Dingo
procyon
July 7, 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD’s. Leviticus 3:16
The Lord loves him some fat.
TCC
July 7, 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Congratulations, Ed, you’ve definitely made it now.
roggg
July 7, 2012 at 3:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Poe’s law has never been more relevant. Part of me thinks this is so ridiculous that a satirist has infiltrated conservapedia and is trying to make them look bad by making ridiculous edits. But then again, I spent a day googling the Schlafly family, so any level of stupidity is potentially genuine.
Trebuchet
July 7, 2012 at 3:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@dingo:
Oh, it gets worse. He’s also a lawyer. Of course he’s a failure at both professions.
@Rogg: See here: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conservapedia:Parodist
It’s commonly suggested that the whole site is parody. Sadly, that’s not the case.
criticaldragon1177
July 7, 2012 at 4:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed Brayton,
Wow, they’re not even going to respond to any of your arguments with half truths, lies and logical fallacies?
rturpin
July 7, 2012 at 4:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Trebuchet writes:
I don’t even know what that would mean. That he doesn’t think they’re well-defined? Useful?
(No slight to Trebuchet. A lot of people have strange ideas about mathematical objects, and anyone who condemns relativity in physics for its impact on morals likely falls in that camp.)
grizzle
July 7, 2012 at 5:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“I always think it’s a sign of victory when they move on to the ad hominem.”
-Christopher Hitchens
pacal
July 7, 2012 at 5:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If you really want to annoy Andy Schlafly and in all liklihood get you banned from Conservapedia just mention Andy’s Gay brother.
aaronbaker
July 7, 2012 at 5:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As FDR said: “I welcome their hatred.”
That they’ve attacked you says nothing but good about you.
Raging Bee
July 7, 2012 at 5:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Who’s running that place, Beavis and Butthead? I had VERY low expectations for Conservapedia, and this entry is still a disappointment. These people aren’t just stupid, they’re developmentally stunted. Eating lead paint-chips perhaps?
ohioobserver
July 7, 2012 at 6:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Conservapedia entries we’d like to see:
Andy Schlafly is an conservative propagandist and founder and Editor-in-Chief of Conservapedia, which has a reputation for gross inaccuracy. He is also the chairman of Eagle Forum, which supports taxes on families with children, opposes the right of Americans to worship freely, and oppose mental health care for children. (http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/descript.html)
Andy Schlafly is quite skinny and is showing signs of premature aging. (http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/Schafly%20Colbert.jpg)
It is well known that proper diet and appropriate exercise and hygene can retard premature aging and allow one to reach a healthy weight.
(Is there anything in the above that isn’t “truthy”?)
christophburschka
July 7, 2012 at 6:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Oh yeah? Well you’re FAT.”
slc1
July 7, 2012 at 6:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I still have a challenge to the relativity deniers out there like Andy Schlafly and Tom Bethell. If the Special Theory of Relativity is wrong they must explain how quantum electrodynamics is able to perform a calculation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron that agrees with experimental observations to 10 significant figures. Rather better then the Hebrew Bibble which can’t do any better then 1 significant digit for the value of pi.
Akira MacKenzie
July 7, 2012 at 6:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“…which supports taxes on families with children…”
Are you sure about that? I could believe they’d want to tax families without children (How dare they use sex merely for pleasure and not burden the planet with more people!) but the Schafley clan tends to raving anti-choice/anti-contraceptive Catholics and would probably oppose anything that would impede anyone from from being fruitful and multiplying.
jakc
July 7, 2012 at 7:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I like the mention of “scientifically sound methods”, like Conservapedia would know any of them.
Trebuchet
July 7, 2012 at 8:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@rturpin, #44: See here, if you think your brain can take it:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conservapedian_mathematics
I strongly recommend RationalWiki as a source for all things Conservapedia, as well as a good all around source for general cranks and nutters.
Pinky
July 7, 2012 at 9:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Once again conservatives are trying to project their dissoluteness to Atheists. Unfortunately for Conservapedia denizens their fulminating results in only glee and the pointing out of the lacuna in their thinking.
criticaldragon1177
July 7, 2012 at 9:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Pinky,
Shouldn’t that be conservative Christians? Not all conservatives are Christians and some are atheists.
Zeno
July 7, 2012 at 10:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The creeps at Conservapedia are so obsessed with avoir du pois that I suspect Andrew Schlafly is anorexic. I knew the moment I saw the title of your post that they would rag on your plumpitude.
On the flip side, however, the cabal at Conservapedia has no problem with idiocy and false reasoning, which has certainly helped to swell its ranks with the rankest imbeciles to be found anywhere.
Area Man
July 7, 2012 at 11:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Never mind the stupidity of the argument…
Can’t these guys even string together a grammatically correct sentence? Their writing would have a hard time passing at the 7th grade level. It’s like they’re trying to prove that conservatism is little more than perpetual childishness.
allytude
July 7, 2012 at 11:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So the point of that entry is that a person is overweight because they are atheist or atheist because they are overweight? Which came first extra poundage or atheism? It is extremely confusing. That said, they should have had more against a godless atheist, not just their weight. They do sound like a bunch of mean kids.
Trebuchet
July 7, 2012 at 11:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In the world of Conservapedia, only Christians (and YEC Christians at that) can be conservatives. The others are CINO’s. Sort of like RINO’s.
Surprisingly, however, one of CP’s leading lights, Ed Poor, is a Moonie! He’s also very proud of being “User 188″ on Wikipedia.
Where he’s since been banned.
lancifer
July 7, 2012 at 11:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Huh? WTF!
I went to Conservapedia and Schlafly is engaged in a largely semantic argument which is pretty much “They’re called imaginary numbers therefore they don’t exist.”
Well, OK but every concept is merely an imaginary construct even if it is meant to represent a physical object…
So what?
And complex numbers are just a way of keeping two pieces of information with one number.
ohioobserver
July 8, 2012 at 1:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Akira MacKenzie no. 52:
Actually, what it says in their mission statement is “We support reduction in income taxes and lower taxes on families with children.”
This implies they support SOME taxes on families with children, doesn’t it? Well, DOESN”T IT? You’re just trying to justify fascistic bigotism! How dare you question our interpretation!
And Andy Schlafy is still skinny. And his brother is a homo. So there.
/snark/
pipenta
July 8, 2012 at 6:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t recall if I ever visited Conservapedia before, but I had a hard time pulling myself away. It’s one jaw-dropping click after another. The entertainment value alone is well worth your time.
And I’m sorry Ed, your page was not as interesting as it could be. You’re going to have to muster up a scandal of some sort to make for really juicy reading. But did you know that there is a CHUCK NORRIS LINK on your very page? One degree of clicky-good separation like that from internet meme royalty? Do you know how much TEH AWESOME rubs off on you? And he’s got a weight loss program all set for you! And me! Chuck FUCKING Norris! And all we have to do is buy his books and a CD or too and maybe attend a seminar. Pricy, I’m sure, but oh so worth it.
Only, I think he’s missing the most obvious tie-in. Perhaps a homeopathic treatment say, tears: Norris chuckii 10X? Let’s get on that!
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
July 8, 2012 at 7:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Ohioobserver:
It’s a poorly worded sentence, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be:
We support reduction in income tax. We support lower taxes on families with children.
raym
July 8, 2012 at 8:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@dingo: Oh – he’s an electrical engineer. Well that explains a lot.
Speaking as an electrical engineer myself, I have to conclude that he’s not a True EE. Or is it me that is out of kilter?
StevoR
July 8, 2012 at 8:32 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, congrats .. I think?
StevoR
July 8, 2012 at 8:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So they’re calling you fat?
Guess someone should tell Conservapedia (Via letter to their primary school teachers?) that being fat is something you can fix, being stupid not-so-much!
Also methinks I detect just a smidgin of bias there, Al Gore is fat, Rush Limbaugh is .. well so many adjectives to choose from they don’t use!
jesse
July 8, 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I saw the debate on relativity. Just, wow.
I mean, the guy is an electrical engineer and has never handled a GPS unit? A cell phone? Doesn’t get the connection between relativity and PT scans? Man.
Where did this guy come from?
StevoR
July 8, 2012 at 8:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Shorter Conservapedia :
Ed Brayton = Someone we don’t like. Und he’z fat. So there. Nyah, nyah, nyah!
Reckon I’ll stick to the regular Wikipedia.
StevoR
July 8, 2012 at 8:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@68. Jesse :
Well, when a woman loves a man very, *very*, much ..
Or according to Conservapedia, he was delivered by a stork.
Doug Little
July 8, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
WTF!!
That is just bizarre.
conway
July 8, 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Maybe Ed is so fat because he ate the last two episodes of Culture Wars Radio.
valhar2000
July 9, 2012 at 4:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Challenge? Do they present any evidence that Ed has tried to loose weight and failed, or that he is worried about it in any way? I have certainly never seen any indication of it.
In addition to that, it seems to me that the old saying about glass houses may very well apply here.
bananacat
July 9, 2012 at 10:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t know if it’s a poe in this particular case, but at least have the moderators at any given time are just trolling Shlafly. He’ll ban them when he finally realizes it, but there are plenty more out there to fill the vacant positions.