Something up Orac’s … alley » « I think this can be my last post on the debacle called Expelled

Catching up with old news

I have been very, very bad. I have been neglecting my obligations as a member of the blogosphere to share links to interesting stuff, all because I’ve been busy with travel and work. I missed the Carnival of the Liberals, the Accretionary Wedge, I and the Bird, the Carnival of Space, and even the Carnival of the Godless. I am wicked, the worthless scum of the earth, a footling twallop who deserves your scorn and needs to be demoted.

But I’m trying to catch up! I promise I’ll do better!

I also overlooked Revere’s Sunday Sermonette, which I usually catch: the latest is a tribute to George Carlin, but even worse, I missed the one from the week before, which was about one of my comments. At least Revere understands what I meant when I compared religion to knitting.

I haven’t had an open thread in a while, either. Go ahead, excoriate me.

Something up Orac’s … alley » « I think this can be my last post on the debacle called Expelled

Comments

  6. Sili says

    I thought the whole mea culpa shpiel was a catholic penchant. Sure you aren’t hiding something from us, PeeZed? Aside from the four tentacles, of course.

  7. Owlmirror says

    Speaking of PDFs of posts…

    I have noticed, in my local libraries, copies of Darwin’s Black Box, Icons of Evolution, and such.

    I think it might be worthwhile to have the detailed analysis and debunking of their various respective nonsense claims available as PDFs that could be printed out, folded, and inserted into these books.

    Makes sense?

  10. says

    You will take your beatings, sir!

    10 lashes with a wet badger should teach you a lesson.

    After that, there will be cake and coffee in the lounge afterwards because, if nothing else, we are a civilized bunch.

  11. JoJo says

    I am wicked, the worthless scum of the earth, a footling twallop who deserves your scorn and needs to be demoted.

    Far be it from me to disagree with PZ.

  13. BMcP says

    I am wicked, the worthless scum of the earth, a footling twallop who deserves your scorn and needs to be demoted.

    How about if you let us through pies at you like your students get to and we’ll call it even. :)

  16. says

    Thanks for sharing the link love, PZ. Erm, I mean, I condemn you to hell for spreading such wicked lies of science!

    (Thanks again ;)

  18. poke says

    So, whenever I visit Bad Astronomy the favicon for Pharyngula in my bookmarks changes to the Bad Astronomy favicon. I don’t recall seeing it happen before I upgraded to Fire Fox 3. What’s the deal with that?

  19. Matt Heath says

    So, what about those Anglican’s asploding? That’s funny!

    And the bigots are call “foca”. Double funny

  20. JoJo says

    So, whenever I visit Bad Astronomy the favicon for Pharyngula in my bookmarks changes to the Bad Astronomy favicon. I don’t recall seeing it happen before I upgraded to Fire Fox 3. What’s the deal with that?
    That’s nothing. Somehow in my bookmarks the Guardian Unlimited favicon has become the Schlock Mercenary favicon.

  21. Ichthyic says

    I am wicked, the worthless scum of the earth, a footling twallop who deserves your scorn and needs to be demoted.

    hmm, something tells me it’s:

    “dress up for sado-masochism nite”

    on the homefront…

    Is the trophy wife going to break out the horsewhip tonight, I wonder?

    I bet she has some good ideas on just how naughty little PZ has been…

    :p

  23. shane says

    Now this has me seriously pissed off. From the SMH:
    Thou shalt not annoy on Youth Day.

    Seems that our state government has passed laws that come into effect today to limit hijinks during the the World Youth Day love in. Even more draconian than the special laws for last year’s APEC conference. Bastards. This is seriously fucked up.

    EXTRAORDINARY new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for “causing annoyance” to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

    The laws, which operate until the end of July, have the potential to make a crime of wearing a T-shirt with a message on it, undertaking a Chaser-style stunt, handing out condoms at protests, riding a skateboard or even playing music, critics say.

    Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service will be able to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”.

    People who fail to comply will be subject to a $5500 fine.

    The president of the NSW Bar Association, Anna Katzmann, SC, described the regulations as “unnecessary and repugnant”.

    The Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said if someone exposed themselves in public, they faced a fine of only $1100 or six months’ jail under the Summary Offences Act.

    “So if someone flashes a WYD participant they will face a $1100 penalty but if they wear an anti-Catholic T-shirt they could face a $5500 penalty,” she said.

    A police source said causing an “annoyance or inconvenience” was a highly subjective offence. A police lawyer would define it in layman’s terms for operational use by officers.

    Civil libertarians said they had never seen anything like the new powers and believed they are more extreme and broader in scope than those used during last year’s APEC summit and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

    But the State Government said “World Youth Day is a happy and positive celebration of youth” and “no additional or ‘APEC-like’ police powers have been granted under the World Youth Day regulations”.

    The Catholic Church denied it had called for such powers.

    The regulations were quietly gazetted by the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, on Friday afternoon and apply to more than 40 city locations, including museums, galleries and cinemas, as well as Darling Harbour, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Randwick Racecourse and parklands.

    More than 500 schools across Sydney and 35 train and bus stations have also been listed as “declared areas”. People entering them will be subject to vehicle and baggage searches that require them to remove jackets, gloves, shoes and headwear if requested. “Reasonable force may be used to effect the person’s exclusion” if they do not permit the search, the regulations stipulate.

    The Government’s World Youth Day spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, said “bag checks are a sensible safety precaution which any young person who is going to a major event in Australia … would expect”. Everyone had the right to protest so long as it was “peaceful and lawful”.

    The president of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, said the broad meaning of “causes annoyance” had the potential to encompass any activity. “This sort of amendment is extreme, unnecessary and is likely to escalate conflict when officers issue directions,” he said. “People are going to be unaware that they have the power to do this and will find themselves in court facing an enormous fine.”

    Ms Katzmann said: “The mere presence in the vicinity of a person wearing the apparel or insignia of another religion might be annoying or inconvenient to a participant in a World Youth Day event.”

    Ms Rhiannon said the regulations were about “shutting down protests and quarantining the Pope and visiting Catholics away from messages World Youth Day authorities don’t approve of”.

  24. Wowbagger says

    Shane,

    Thanks for posting that. I especially like sentences such as: Quite simply, Darwin and Wallace destroyed the strongest evidence left in the 19th century for the existence of a deity.

    All that is left is sophistry.

  25. Ichthyic says

    All that is left is sophistry.

    technically, that’s all there ever was.

    what was destroyed wasn’t “evidence”, it was the veil obscuring the fact that there was no evidence to begin with.

    what was destroyed was the recognition of sophistry AS evidence.

  26. shane says

    Actually probably makes that bumper sticker I found the other day illegal if I stuck it on my car for the next month or so.

    What the hell is wrong with this country? We are in no way religious but we seem to have a problem with seeming to offend anybody, in particular the US pres (APEC) and the Catholic church (WYD).

  27. Wowbagger says

    I can only really guess at what effect the Darwin/Wallace findings (or popularisations) had on theists.

    Having been fortunate enough (to my knowledge) to have never believed in god/s, to try and work out what it is that allows believers to believe (or proponenents to justify pushing) is always going to be guesswork on my part.

  28. says

    Dear Mr Myers,

    Your comment about wanting religion to be like knitting really made me angry. I posted this video, which I hope you will review, to explain exactly why you are wrong in this comparison:

    I hope you’ll forgive my strong tone and language, Mr Myers, but I will knot stand for your sort of intolerance toward the humanities.

  29. Ichthyic says

    I will knot stand for your sort of intolerance toward the humanities.

    heh.

    subtle.

    ;)

    could you expound on the Knitting Worldview for us in your next vid?

    I have a feeling you could take that ball (of yarn) and run with it.

  31. says

    Howdy all respected Pharyngulites (that’s most of you, by the way).

    Over at my blog I’ve got a discussion kicking off in the comments section of one of my posts (here)with a guy who says he will provide rational proofs of the christian God – he chimes in at comment 2 and we get to the meat by comment 8 and 9. I think his arguments are rather silly but my knowledge of philosophy is strictly amateur at best. If anyone wants to come on over and tell him/me where we’re going wrong, that would be appreciated.

    Is an appeal for help blog-whoring? Should I feel dirty?

    Keep up the good work PZ, and don’t be too hard on yourself – I don’t see how you find time in the day for everything you do here.

  32. CosmicTeapot says

    Lee @ 31

    Unfortunately, I don’t have time (mostly down to this blog and work), so I will have to decline.

    You are not blog whoring, you are calling in the cavalry in the fight for rationality. Hopefully help is on the way.

    PZ, I understand how you feel. Don’t feel guilty, leave that to the Catholics.