We didn’t have to wait long for right wing brains to explode into loopy, tangled strands of conspiracy theory nonsense. Creationist brains, already in a state of disarray, are already predisposed to this kind of inanity, so don’t be too shocked at what Cynthia Dunbar, creationist, Christian, and member of the Texas State Board of Education has to say:
So we can imagine the blatant disregard for our Constitution, but what other threats does an Obama administration pose? We have been clearly warned by his running mate, Joe Biden, that America will suffer some form of attack within the first 6 months of Obama’s administration. However, unlike Joe, I do not believe this “attack” will be a test of Obama’s mettle. Rather, I perceive it will be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is threat to tyranny.
Apparently, Obama is going to have the terrorists he loves so much carry out some awful action, which will excuse the use of martial law and the subsequent abridgment of our constitutional rights. Talk about projection — has she looked at the Bush record since 2001?
And it looks like Michelle Bachmann will retain her seat.
We shan’t lack for entertainment.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
As it happens, i heard a very similar scenario offered up on many occasions as a Bush plot to remain in power and cancel the election. IE, another 9/11 type attack, followed by a declaration of martial law, every DailyKos poster being rounded up and stuck in concentration camps, etc, etc.
Paranoid fantasies are not the exclusive province of the right wing, by any means.
-jcr
Ah yes, warnings from “Joe the VP-Elect”. She and her buddies shouldn’t have to worry though. Foreign terrorist killed a lot of East Coast liberal elitists. It’s the domestic ones that kill Real Americans TM. Didn’t she get the memo?
I don’t know if anyone watched OneNewsNow (the American Patriarchy Association’s nasty little site) liveblogging and livevlogging the election, but it was fun seeing all of the hosts turn a deep shade of red and get really sweaty when Obama won.
Then in the live chatroom, everyone was talking about how the rapture would be soon, debating whether or not good Christians would have to suffer through the seven years of tribulation, and a couple said stupid things about revolution.
Buncha nutbars.
Dunbar is no different than roughly a third of my Anglo neighbors here in Texas, and they’re proud of it too.
Dealing day to day with these idiots is a lesson in skepticism; they appear to be nice normal people and then they open their mouths.
What scares the shit out of me is that last night, watching Obama come out for his acceptance speech, all I could think of was “Oh god, please let there not be a sniper who got through security. Please let him make it through this alive.”
And that’s not a weird paranoid thing on my part – he had enough death threats to get a Secret Service patrol long before the other primary candidates. I hate hate hate that that moment was marred by worrying about the militant wingnuts in our country.
Then in the live chatroom, everyone was talking about how the rapture would be soon, debating whether or not good Christians would have to suffer through the seven years of tribulation, and a couple said stupid things about revolution.
I hope there IS a rapture, than all those fucking hateful morons will be gone and the rest of us can work on making the world a better place at a much quicker pace.
Ecccch. Bachmann. A dangerous little fool, that one. Watch her.
I can’t disagree with JCR on his point. The fringe conspiracy theorist are beyond salvation, and should be dismissed.
However, the “blatant disregard for our constitution” line was priceless. Holy Jellyfish Armada, Batman! Does this Dunbar woman lack eyes, ears, fingertips, and brain?
With our luck, the Rapture will take the Presbyterians and leave the rest behind.
But in GOOD news, LB Fridays start up again soon! This time, he’s taking on Kirk Cameron and the movie.
I think both sides need to take a deep breath and effin’ relax. He’s not the Messiah or the Anti-Christ. He’s a politician, and as such he will triangulate and break promises. Things won’t be remarkably different two years from now than they are today. You just don’t have a President to be so embarrased about.
I think the rapture will really be a group of aliens beaming up the religious fanatics because their soft brains are considered an alien delicacy.
Whatever, just so long as we get Sharia law and compulsory gay Mexican socialist abortion marriages for everyone.
I’m building a re-education camp as we speak.
After all, we know all too well the attack the reason of this great country undergoes on a daily basis from our own militant, religious-extremist Supreme Court and much of its leadership. Can you imagine how much worse this would have gotten with McCain appointees?
To be fair, she almost certainly wouldn’t have made it if a third party candidate, Bob Anderson, Independent Party, hadn’t siphoned off about 10% of the vote.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
I don’t get it. Didn’t I hear almost exactly this same conspiracy theory about Bush a few years ago? I think it was some crazy guy on public access TV who said it.
PZ, Obama is a Christian theist who believes in creation. He rejects atheism. So let us know when you’re ready to stop pretending like anybody with a “creationist brain” (whatever exactly that means) is a lunatic. Obama, as well as scientists, philosophers, and countless intellectuals and scholars across the globe stand as instant refutation to the delusional “we the rational v. anybody who thinks there’s a God” mentality that you promote here for your credulous throngs. Please pick up an introductory logic textbook and read it carefully, as it would potentially add some intellectual credibility to your posts.
If you really want a taste of religious fanatic raving, check out ARN:
A sample:
Y’know, when I heard from Fox News that Obama was the leader of the international Muslim-Socialist-Neonazi-Weatherman-black Baptist extremist-terrorist conspiracy, I said to myself, “THAT’S the guy I want to vote for. Talk about your man for all seasons. Talk about your unifier, not a divider. A guy who can bring leftist radicals, rightist radicals, defunct groups from the sixties, Muslims and Christians together under his leadership – well, let’s just say, it makes me proud to be an American.”
Just waiting for the proud day when we atheists also get to join this patchwork conspiracy.
No, tolerance for ludicrous projections depends on one’s world view. I tend to be very wary of those people who believe in magic and the supernatural, racists too, as well as those raving paranoid people that have a propensity for violence. So yes, I have a stronger bias against the raving rightwing loonies and freepers, who don’t seem to be a small minority, but I am not denying there are a few whackaloons on the far left too.
So your point was that nutballs exist regardless of political and philosophical affiliation or because of political and philosophical affiliation? Or did you have a point?
Yeah really. The vast majority of the population would be cheering wildly and waving bye bye to the nutcases.
Somewhat off-topic, but I couldn’t resist the “And So It Begins” as a segue into this news about fossil “eight-armed animals”: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/04/2409959.htm?site=science
evidence? link?
Ditto.
Y’know, when I heard from Fox News that Obama was the leader of the international Muslim-Socialist-Neonazi-Weatherman-black Baptist extremist-terrorist conspiracy, I said to myself, “THAT’S the guy I want to vote for. Talk about your man for all seasons. Talk about your unifier, not a divider. A guy who can bring leftist radicals, rightist radicals, defunct groups from the sixties, Muslims and Christians together under his leadership – well, let’s just say, it makes me proud to be an American.”
Just waiting for the proud day when we atheists also get to join this patchwork conspiracy.
And so it begins – King Theoden – nice one PZ.
I had the same feeling as Carlie, scared of that possible sniper. His staff will really have to be on their toes to guard him. I marveled at how brave he was to stand up there alone.
Unfortunately I missed most of the coverage, our 2nd disabled Bulldog arrived to be adopted, 5 hours late!
ChR:
Pfffft. Begone little dingleberry. You’re out of your league.
Um, isn’t this the same State Board of Education who pushed out Christine Comer because she “wasn’t being neutral (on evolution/creationism/ID)?”
Dunbar should recuse herself from the SBOE reviews of Social Studies/History/etc. texts since she’s obviously not neutral.
uhh, really? Arent they ‘nutcases’ because they beleive in God and this Rapture thing? I’m sorry, if a rapture happens, I’m going to have to re-evaluate my atheist position.
Sven, he won’t be able to provide one. Obama accepts the theory of evolution as true and disagrees with the teaching of creationism or ID in science class. See http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/04/01/obama-on-evolution/
@18:
The fractured language makes me wonder if the screen was mostly covered with rabid froth when the person was writing it. I most liked “Inherently Wind.”
But the “thoughts” seem to be standard fare, so rabid foam might not be the main problem.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Yep. Now that’s a nice little laffer, right there. Seein’ as, after eight years of Bush rule, we don’t so much have to imagine blatant disregard for the constitution. Having the real thing handy makes it a bit unnecessary.
John Stewart, a week or so ago, was commenting on the differences between the McCain campaign and Obama’s. Described it, to paraphrase, as the former worrying about hypothetical threats which, y’know, might someday become a problem, while the latter was actually focusing on bad shit that’s already happened and rather more imminently needs fixing…
Berube also had a nice bon mot on this, a few days ago:
… to which I can add little.
They are SO predictable. Also, I’m sure Obama’s mention of Science and Education has them shaking in their Jesus sand footsteps.
This is exactly what I meant when I mentioned the red-blue state divisions. Surely Utah/Idaho and Nevada are in two entirely different countries, right?
Obviously not, but I tell you, it sure seems that way.
Even Montana. Or California. I live in the border town of Southwest Sac, which might as well be on a different planet than Northeast Cal. And they’re 20 miles apart.
Utah is now sandwiched between two very blue states (Colorado and Nevada), and it must be really weird for them.
My prediction is that Texas will never come close to respecting Obama… But how close did California voters ever come to truly respecting Bush? Northeast CA; sure. Coastal CA; never.
The red-blue division is getting more and more stark, and I have absolutely no idea how to stop it. If we don’t make an effort to come together and try, there will be another revolution.
I meant to tell you. Your doctor called. They found an irony gland donor.
She may not deserve full credit for this scenario. Didn’t something similar unfold in book 6 of the left behind series?
Then it’ll be too late. You’ll go to HELL.
I expected this sort of thing.
John McCain shushed the boos and shouting in his concession speech, and I ended up respecting him a bit more. But it doesn’t excuse the flames of right wing craziness he fanned over the past several months — that fire still burns, and all the hotter because of what he and his running mate did and said.
Our biggest challenge over the next few years isn’t going to be the economy, or the environment, or the wars, or any other solvable human problem, it’s going to be the people who will fight to the bloody end to keep all those other problems from being solved, because … well, mainly because other people aren’t really real to them.
Morality — the unwillingness to use coercion or lies or violence — is a condition that occurs only in the presence of other PEOPLE. A slaughterhouse worker thinks nothing at all of using an electric prod to zap a steer to get it to go into the kill chute.
The extreme wingers just don’t see most of us as people. We’re not their religion — party, class, race, gender, orientation, whatever — so we’re not really human.
Everything is automatically all about them. Even on a sinking ship, they can’t compromise or work together with the rest of us, because for them there IS no “rest of us.” We’re milk cows, or meat, or simply obstacles to be cleared out of their way.
I think they are THE most extreme danger to any progress or solutions.
I don´t get it. Hasn´t Jesus made his will quite clear by making Obama the winner of this crucial election?
I know that religion and logic are oxymorons but even most mentally ill people have a consistent system of illogical logic.
re. the worries about a sniper in the crowd at Obama’s acceptance speech: I had the same worry for a moment. Then I thought about how every square foot of ground for a mile in any direction was densely packed with enthusiastic Obama supporters. How is anyone supposed to produce and aim a firearm in that?
O bama
Who art in waiting
Hussein be thy name
Thy kingdom won
Thy will be none
In Wash as it was in Chi-town
Give us this term
Your ordered bread lines
And give us your handouts
That you take from the rich
And lead us not into prosperity
But deliver us from responsibility.
John Derbyshire had some interesting things to say about Obama’s victory. And by interesting, I mean ‘crying into his mint julep’.
Paranoid fantasies are not the exclusive province of the right wing
I certainly won’t argue that point, but the fantasies on the left, at least, are fed by actual events that have been happening. There was an attack, the Bush administration did use it to scare Congress into giving him virtually unlimited warmaking power, and he has claimed and used the authority to detain US citizens in military prisons.
Speaking of introductory logic,
Appeal to authority
Appeal to popularity
#34 MikeM
From RogueColumnist (http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/10/a-little-fun-from-the-web.html)
The “conservative intellectuals” might have gotten the point, but so what? What are we talking about here, 10 people or so. “Conservative intellectual” is almost an oxymoron like “giant microbes”.
The theothuglican base is not known for thinking about much of anything and it undoubtedly went right by them.
Well, I got my two wishes this election, now.
1. See Hillary go down in flames.
2. See the religious loons go down in flames.
Clearly the work of Satan. (I like it == God did it. I don’t like it == Satan did it.)
Or God works in mysterious ways.
Or something.
Why is it that people who use “J” as a moniker are almost always assholes?
Well not all, but the ones here for sure.
Not just assholes though, painfully ignorant.
Loved Emmet’s comment on this:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/10/this_test_is_much_easier_than.php#comment-1177633
(Two letters is, of course, completely different. :))
Because if their moniker was any longer they couldn’t remember it.
This Dunbar makes Bachmann sound like a moderate leftwinger !
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6092712.html
-“No matter who you support for president, we should all be able to agree that Ms. Dunbar’s disgusting attack is a shocking example of the extremism that has infected the state board,” TFN President Kathy Miller said.
-“Right now, we’re still in America and we still have freedom of speech,” Dunbar said. “And unless that’s changed, I’m not aware of it.”
What a nut !
Oh, he’s just an old impotent Pharyngula troll coming around to stir shit up. His douchebaggery is particularly lame and not worth the effort to engage him.
J, J,
Go away.
Come again,
Yesterday.
Okay, Cuttlefish I’m not.
Behind two inches of bullet resistant glass. He’s not an idiot. Watch the footage where the Obama and Biden families are on the stage and, from time to time, you can clearly see extensive glass at the sides of the pier/catwalk; although it’s hard to see the full extent of it, it seems to be pretty extensive.
I don’t think anyone is disputing that.
Okay, here, I’ll have to refer you to his official stance on evolution:
I don’t think PZ has ever claimed that anyone who believes in God is a dangerous nutjob. He has only been critical of the ones who try to force their beliefs on the rest of us.
But then, who is? Still, a very apt poem.
Actually, I’ve heard any number of rather dim bulbs on the right pick up strands of that theme and try to run with them, in their awkward, shuffling way. But as to the thinking part you rightly question, no, they’re probably not so much thinking about it (since, ya’d think, if they actually had, they might by now have noticed the plank in their own eyes) as parrotting the talking point…
Speaking of, and as to the term ‘conservative intellectual’, I believe you’ll find Mr. Berube was being somewhat sarcastic in his usage, there, too.
J, you left Red Dawn paused at the paratrooper attack all night again. Honestly, if you don’t start taking better care of your things, you won’t be able to enjoy them anymore because they’ll be broken. Now finish your lunch and hurry back to school.
Is there some kind of mental competency procedure to remove a loon like this one from the board? I mean this only partly as snark. Think of the children!
hehe…
J we won! SUCK IT JESUS.
@Techskeptic
I was being slightly ironic
“for right wing brains to explode into loopy, tangled strands”
That I’d pay good money to watch. Baby FSMs crawling out of asploding right wing skulls.
E.V. @20:
The Freepers are a joke.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2126063/posts#comment
Hopefully they will give the Commander-in-Chief the respect and obedience he deserves in this time of war.
I caught a brief newsbyte on CNN which outlined Obama’s proposed energy plan. The plan made no mention of nuclear.
thank you
Ka “Then it’ll be too late. You’ll go to HELL.”
Maybe. There is some slight remote possibility that you are correct and all the stuff written in the bronze age book and the iron age book is totally correct and it represents the true way that some all powerful being wants me to live my life.
But I can do nothing about that. I can not live my life by rules I see as immoral. I can not pray to a god who has done immoral things. I can not respect a god who put together a guide book so obviously contradictory and out right wrong about so many things.
So, either I am right and I live this one life along the moral path I have set. Or I am wrong and go to hell. I am at peace with that because it can be no other way for me.
You have picked your path. I have picked mine. Why does that upset you so?
I don´t get it. Hasn´t Jesus made his will quite clear by making Obama the winner of this crucial election? I know that religion and logic are oxymorons but even most mentally ill people have a consistent system of illogical logic.
its the typical religious double standard. When things go THEIR way it’s god’s will. When things go AGAINST them its the work of satan.
When things go bad for THEM they are being tested by god. When things go bad for OTHERS they are being punished by god.
It is SO convenient to pick a side that makes you feel better when trying to determine the why a fictional character does things.
Hank:
I would have respected him more if the first part of his allegedly “gracious” concession speech wasn’t the equivalent of saying “that Obama sure is a credit to his race”. There was nothing about generational change, nothing about the contest of ideas — it was all just “well, you can’t fight it when those black folks feel history in the making”. I found it rather belittling to Obama’s actual qualifications and accomplishments.
J:
Unlike the $700 billion that Bush gave to them? Curious that the tax cuts for them, which McCain swore he’d keep, didn’t prevent that little financial glitch….
Ka “Then it’ll be too late. You’ll go to HELL.”
OMG, you, like, so serially made be, like, believe in jeebus.
Where do I sign up for my lobotomy????
Will there be cookies and cool aide?
Oh how I love the smell of burning theocrat brains in the morning. Smells like…victory.
Speaking of victory, Bill Sali has just become the most pathetic of political creatures: a one-term Idaho Republican representative. How sweet it is.
He’s not the Messiah or the Anti-Christ. He’s a
politicianvery naughty boy! – AndrewcFixed!
Maybe not. If there is a benign, supernatural entity watching out for us, it is far more likely that he is as fed up with some of his more demented followers as we are. Really, you think any god has to be stupid and blind.
Just think of it as Noah’s ark meets Star Trek. The bad people aren’t drowned, just sucked up by a huge celestial vacuum cleaner. LOL
How is “love me or be tortured forever” morally different from “give me your lunch-money or get a wedgie”?
Your saviour is a trumped-up schoolyard bully, a laughable “lunch-money messiah”.
Now stop trolling and go back to your pathetic groveling.
Jsug, that is correct and consistent with what I said. We know Obama does not want creationism qua the creationist movement taught in schools and he opposes it for obvious political and scientific reasons. He does however believe in a personal creator and a specifically Christian one at that, even to the extent of encouraging his supporters to “come to Christ” so that their “sins can be washed away.”
Now, regardless of whether his beliefs are factually right or wrong, a moment’s reflection would tell one that Obama is quite consistently intelligent, rational, informed, and forward-thinking. So, with all due respect, I must say that PZ looks remarkably stupid and naive when he lumps everybody into a overgeneralized, indistinguishable stew of “creationist brains” and dismisses them as lunatics, despite all empirical evidence to the contrary. I recommended an introductory text in logic simply so that he can familiarize himself with the distinction between particulars and generalities.
By the way, the guy above who claims I made “appeals to authority” by bringing up Obama’s Christian theism and rejection of atheism should note that this is not a fallacy per se; it’s only a fallacy when the authority to which one appeals is an illegitimate justificatory basis for the truth-value of some proposition. Needless to say, the point of bringing up Obama was never to adjudicate any Christian proposition (that would be a fallacy), but merely to raise an obvious counterexmaple among many to PZ’s rampant illogic, which many of the faithful here seem eager to uncritically accept.
Oh yeah, well I’m going to cast a spell on you.
And stick pins in this doll that looks like you.
And pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to turn you into sauce.
And ask the Invisible Pink Unicorn (Blessed Be Her Holy Hooves) to trample you.
And get Thor to strike you with lightning.
And tell Santa you’ve been bad.
And, and, and, and hold my breath until I DIE!
Scared yet? No? That’s funny, because neither am I.
#67, #70:
Calm down, people. It was a joke. I am an atheist and therefore I am sure that The Rapture will never happen. I just wanted to point out that, by religious logic, it would be indeed to late to repent if it actually happened.
Because J stands for Jackass.
I didn’t get to see much of the coverage. We were doing an adoption. Missed seeing the glass, but I still think he was brave.
Bah. Poe’d again.
Tulse @ 69 : Unlike the $700 billion that Bush gave to them?
Far be it from me to defend the pscyhotard GWB, however that 850 billion dollar re-allocation of resources was not a gift from Bush, you need to add a couple thousand more names to that list including a considerable skank of neo-liberal crooks.
It was caused by a saturation of global capital that had nowhere to go, so a false market was created, and it crashed.
Practically every financial fuctard from the mail room upwards was in on it, and there was plenty of early warnings since 2005.
Head up Assery from every Greedhead that stains the Earth. Make pot legal, clear the prisons for them, and auction off their Porsches.
Of which the ethereal …
…does not negate. You could just as easy have pointed to garbage men, radio disc jockeys and dog trainers. All which can be rational or irrational and doesn’t change the fact it is appeal to some group of people who don’t hold any mandate on rationality, especially when they believe in irrational and wholly unsupportable things like Christian creationism.
John C. Randolph @ #2, yes I was one of those excitable left wingers afraid of Bush becoming King George.
Thing is, I felt that way because he ignored warnings of an attack, then he used our anger about it to give his branch of the government unprecedented power, even to the point of bringing a veteran Army unit home for the expressed purpose of facing the public. At the height of his power, he made people who spoke of moderation and care sound like traitors.
I feared that crackpot theory because there was *evidence*.
What’s this woman’s evidence against Obama? That he’s black?
It was not just from Bush, but the Republicans (including McCain) certainly played their role, and Bush signed the bill into law.
It was neither parody nor satire, just posting one line that could’ve been posted by any drive-by Christian troll. How is that funny?
Ka: I meant mine as a joke KNOWINGLY playing off your joke, um, yeah, that’s it.. I was totally in the know…
The problem with sarcasm and religious vitriol is its so hard to tell the difference.
a moment’s reflection would tell one that Obama is quite consistently intelligent, rational, informed, and forward-thinking. So, with all due respect, I must say that PZ looks remarkably stupid and naive when he lumps everybody into a overgeneralized, indistinguishable stew of “creationist brains” and dismisses them as lunatics, despite all empirical evidence to the contrary. – ChR
Like so many godbotting trolls, you’re a barefaced liar. PZ has never said any such thing. On the contrary, he has repeatedly noted that, for example, Ken Miller is an excellent scientist as well as a Christian, and that such a combination is not uncommon. It’s called compartmentalization. Miller, like Obama, keeps his irrational beliefs in a separate mental compartment from the ones relevant to his professional life, which he subjects to rational criticism in the light of the evidence. Obama, of course, is not “consistently… rational”, because he holds Christian beliefs that do not stand up to rational examination.
You should be thanking God.
If folks like me didn’t come around and give you kids fodder to excrete upon, these atheist vs truth themed comment threads would be as barren as the ones where PZ actually talks about science.
Peace and Love Brothers & Sisters
Poe’s Law
Fixed
You should be thanking God.
If folks like me didn’t come around and give you kids fodder to excrete upon, these atheist vs truth themed comment threads would be as barren as the ones where PZ actually talks about science.
TRUE,
because there would be no bullshit for fertilizer if you stopped posting.
See…. Dumb Chimp got to feel special one more time!
Thanks God.
There, fixed it for you.
The problem with sarcasm and religious vitriol is its so hard to tell the difference.
I couldn’t agree more.
SELF PROMOTION ALERT….SELF PROMOTION ALERT….SELF PROMOTION ALERT
Jesus Christ on the radio Thursday night, 10:15 til 11:00 pm Central, taking phone calls and requests for miracles, etc. Cut out the middle man and commune with Jesus directly.
The Petey
You agreement displays that there is at least one observant poster here. If PZ stuck to science subjects here on scienceblogs, then traffic would slow way down, then ad revenues would fall off, and poor seedmedia would need to cut back on blogger payolas.
Now lie back down and finish your nappy.
J is it at all possible for you to make a coherent argument or are you just about school yard taunting?
My favorite part of the Bible is where Lot has sex with his daughters.
DumbChimp is special, he’s the King of Typos.
I’m special too, I’m the Queen of Typos. *Pffft* Janine!
Go suck your binkey J.
sniff sniff
I think I smell mother jokes coming up next.
#97
Co-opting someone’s handle to post as if it is them is bad form no matter what a giant tool they are.
I was watching a final interview with Sarah Palin on the day before the election and she was enthusiastically assuring the country that the will of (her) god would prevail. Has anybody reminded her of that yet?
Sorry Petey, That smell is J’s diaper, he needs to leave the basement and get his mommy to change him.
I have to agree with Charlie @#6. All I could think of when Obama walked out on stage was a sniper with a high powered rifle on one of those tall buildings. A mile is not to far for such a shot. And if you are willing to die for the cause, it’s so much easier. I feel sorry for Obama’s security detail. Sigh…
The rapture: sounds like a win-win to me.
Say, didn’t Pat Robertson say something about a disaster, which, per God, was supposed to happen late last year? Millions died? Possibly nuclear?
Well goodness, even if something bad does happen, per VP Biden, that means that our Vice President is better at telling the future than the Christian God is.
Kind of cool.
No, it just means Biden is better at telling the future than Pat Robertson. Not that that’s saying much.
If Robertson says “what a nice day”, I get my umbrella and galoshes out.
Did you not notice the enormous slab of bulletproof glass?
Obama has a good security detail.
I live like 5 minutes from the capital building in Austin Texas! You think they will let me go argue with her for a few hours so she can’t enact any stupid policies on education?
I’m not Cuttlefish, either…
J, fuck the fucking fuck off you lying hate-mongering anti-American fuck.
http://www.nebscience.org/dunbar.html
Dunbar deserves a web page
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/096EcYd7Gnc7F/610x.jpg
On McCain asking people to not boo:
I’d have felt a lot better if McCain had said, “Okay, people, I heard enough of that during our rallys, and frankly, I’m tired of it. This is a case of too little, too late, but I should have followed my initial instinct, which was to tell all of you haters to just fut the shuck up. You. Lost. Me. Votes. Got it? All the moderates that I was trying to attract left the room as soon as they heard cries of ‘Kill Him!’, and ‘Socialist!’. Don’t you bozos get it? I’m admitting to a mistake I made, which was to not respond appropriately to these PATHETIC cries. But who made the first mistake? Me? Nope. It was the haters — that’s who.
“I’m not going to be president, and you helped make this bed.
“Deal with it.”
But then I remembered, hey, this is McCain and Palin, and they’re not quite rational. So here they go.
Thank you, Tucscon, for voting against McCain. I am proud of you; I am proud of St Louis, and KC, and Missoula.
McCain and Palin? Not so much.
Chr, have you already forgotten that you said that Obama “believes in creation”? Myself and others have noted that he says differently – where is your evidence that he is a creationist?
that there made my brain hurt… you can’t use evolution to support your racism if you don’t even believe in evolution!
no wonder it’s so hard to make logical arguments at people like that… they seem to lack a basic understanding of what logic even is.
Ya know, if someone is constantly accusing you of being a liar you can’t believe a word they say.
The hopeful thing about Obama is that he’s intelligent and he listens. He gave a nod to science in his acceptance speech. I’m really looking forward to his review of the situation in New Orleans and his project management skills to get them little things they’ve been missing like a fire station.
And he strikes me as a person who can compromise – in a good way – and change his mind if necessary. The government that dragged Japan into the modern era was elected on a platform of “back to the good old days.” When they looked at the facts, they realized it was not the right way to go and instead pushed the country into modernizing. Let the man get his feet under the desk and see what is needed. He has a history of reaching across the aisle, concentrating on the positive, and empowering people.
Congratulations and good luck, those of you in the U.S.
My father once gave me some good poker advice: anyone who is constantly accusing you of bluffing is very likely bluffing quite a bit.
#45 “nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes”
Nuh-uh. Those were caused by all the gay homosexual atheist tolerant enablers so they’ll go with the blue states, too.
How do fundies survive to adulthood if they’re so dumb?!
The same way our stone age ancestors did.
You mean with ool and zug zug?
I smiled at “O bama”, but this here is as ignorant as anything your namesake Homer Simpson could produce. Have a look outside the US borders, and contemplate the fact that all those countries still exist, as opposed to having become Belarus-in-winter or Somalia.
ROTFL!
Probably Catholic-style: the body evolved, and the soul was created… such people are not called creationists.
not omniscient.
Comment 87: Trolling and Wanking at the same time. Congratulations.
haha, According to Hannity, they are now going to be the “Conservative Underground”.
At the Guardian Unlimited website there’s a thread entitled FreeRepublic Classic Quotes.
I live in Idaho where I have lots of religiously-inclined neighbors, most of them Mormons. They include me in their email campaigns. I received the original email about Obama’s supposed Muslim faith, etc. I got the anti-gay marriage email. I recently received a pro Ben Stein email. Today I got the ultimate anti-Obama email which I’ll paste in below. The Mormon email tree is large and efficient. Fifty recipients is not uncommon, along with the usual request to pass the “facts” along. The senders Believe and they Hate.
Letter begins below (spelling an syntax presented as received):
Y’all might want to print this out and keep it for re-reading in 3-4 years………….
Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer
I must confess, I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident, a wholesome presidential package. I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words. Obama’s speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history. Never a politician in this land had such a quasi “religious” impact on so many people. The fact that Obama is a total incognito with zero accomplishment makes this inexplicable infatuation alarming. Obama is not an ordinary man. He is not a genius. In fact, he is quite ignorant on most important subjects. Barack Obama is a narcissist. Dr. Sam Vaknin, the author of “Malignant Self Love,” also believes, “Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist.”
Vaknin is a world authority on narcissism. He understands it and describes the inner mind of a narcissist like no other person. When he talks about narcissism everyone listens. Vaknin says that Obama’s language, posture and demeanor, and the testimonies of his closest, nearest and dearest suggest that the Senator is either a narcissist or he may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves. Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of People’s Temple, the man who led over 900 of his followers to cheerfully commit mass suicide and even murder their own children was also a narcissist. Charles Manson, Joseph Koni, Shoko Asahara, Joe Stalin, Saddam, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong IL, and Adolph Hitler are a few examples of narcissists of our time. All these men had a tremendous influence over their fanciers and followers. They created a personality cult around themselves, and with their blazing speeches elevated their admirer’s souls, filled their hearts with enthusiasm and instilled in their minds a new zest for life. Those men gave their followers hope! They promised them the moon, but alas, they invariably brought them to their doom. When you are a victim of a cult of personality, you don’t know it until it is too late.
One determining factor in the development of NPD is childhood abuse. “Obama’s early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations,” says Vaknin. “Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident. His mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia, a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a stepfather. He was raised as an only child, full of himself and no others. He never had to share the spotlight with any siblings. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995.”
One must never underestimate the manipulative genius of pathological narcissists. They project such an imposing personality that it overwhelms those around them. Charmed by the charisma of the narcissist, people become like clay in his hands. They cheerfully do his bidding and delight to be at his service. The narcissist shapes the world around him and reduces others in his own inverted image. He creates a cult of personality; his admirers become his co-dependents.
Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to reach their personal objectives. They are focused on one thing alone, and that is power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is beneath them and does not deserve their attention. If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he has no interest in it. The “Present” vote is a safe vote; he used the “Present” all the time as a member of the Illinois legislature. No one can criticize him if things go wrong. Why should he implicate himself in issues that may become controversial when they don’t help him personally? Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him.
Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and an advance to write a book about race relations. The University of Chicago Law School provided him with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. The book took him a lot longer than expected and at the end it devolved into…, guess what? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly paper focusing on race relations, for which he had been paid, Obama could not resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book “Dreams from My Father.”
Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler also wrote his own autobiography when he was still nobody. So did Stalin. For a narcissist, no subject is as important as his own self. Why would he waste his precious time and genius writing about insignificant things when he can write about such an august being as himself? Narcissists are often callous and even ruthless. As the norm, they lack conscience. This is evident from Obama’s lack of interest in his own brother who lives on only one dollar per month. A man who lives in luxury, who takes a private jet to vacation in Hawaii, and who has raised nearly a half billion dollars for his campaign (something unprecedented in history) has no interest in the plight of his own brother. Why? His brother cannot be used for his ascent to power. A narcissist cares for no one but himself.
This election is like no other election in the history of America. The issues are insignificant compared to what is at stake. What can be more dangerous than having a man bereft of a conscience, a serial liar, and one who cannot distinguish his fantasies from reality as the leader of the free world?
I hate to sound alarmist, but one must be a fool if one is not alarmed. Many politicians are narcissists. They pose no threat to others. They are simply self-serving and selfish. [Witness Al Gore’s Income Tax; it reveals that he gave away NO MONEY to charities, not even to a church!] Obama evinces symptoms of pathological narcissism, which is different from the run-of-the-mill narcissism of a Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, for example. To him reality and fantasy are intertwined. This is a mental health issue, not just a character flaw. Pathological narcissists are dangerous because they look normal and even intelligent. It is this disguise that makes them treacherous. [Look up the word ‘treachery.’]
Today the Democrats have placed all their hopes in Obama. But this man could put an end to their party [and to this great nation]. The great majority of blacks have also decided to vote for Obama. Only a fool does not know that their support for him is racially driven.
Let us call a spade a spade [No pun intended]. This is racism, pure and simple. The truth is that, while everyone carries a misconceived collective guilt towards blacks for wrongs done centuries ago by a bygone people to a bygone people, the blacks carry a collective rancor, enmity or vendetta towards non-blacks, and to this day want to “stand up” to the white man. They seem to be stuck in 19th century [encouraged by race baiters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others].
The downside of this is, that if Obama turns out to be the disaster I predict, he will cause widespread resentment among the whites. The blacks are unlikely to give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama’s detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites. The white supremacists will take advantage of the discontent and they will receive widespread support. I predict that in less than four years, racial tensions will increase to levels not seen since the turbulent 1960s. Obama will set the clock back decades. America is the bastion of freedom. The peace of the world depends on the strength of America, and its weakness translates into the triumph of terrorism and victory of rogue nations. It is no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, the Maoist Castroists, the Hezbollah, the Hamas, the lawyers of the Guantanamo terrorists, and virtually all sworn enemies of America are so thrilled by the prospect of “their man” in the White House. America is on the verge of destruction. There is no insanity greater than electing a pathological narcissist as president.
The government that dragged Japan into the modern era was elected on a platform of “back to the good old days.” – Monado
Which government are you talking about? Japan did not have elections (for a Diet with limited powers) until 1890, when the “dragging” was well under way.
Emmet Caulfield, Thanks for posting that picture, I couldn’t see the glass.
Oh, and your fund to hire a hooker for Walton – I’ll donate $20 too. If PZ isn’t going to ban the young toad, then he really needs to do something about that poker.
Those who called me a “troll” are themselves trolls and are unworthy of further remark.
To those who raised substantive points, you challenged me on my assertion that Obama believes in creation. Note the distinction between belief in a creator of the universe and activism in the creationist movement. I have never suggested, implicitly or explicitly, that Obama aligns himself with the latter. That said, I offer you Obama’s Faith Page as swift and easy evidence of the fact that Obama is indeed a committed Christian who rejects an atheistic worldview.
Virtually nobody, atheist or theist, in academia takes PZ Myers seriously except for a (relatively) tiny circle of those who already agree with his anti-intellectual pro-bigotry ideologies. He is incompetent and unaware, and he does not know how to logically evaluate issues of religion and atheism. I know that will offend many of the faithful here, but facts are facts.
oooh, what an insult!
Christ on a crotch rocket! Who is this new godfestered troll?
Insult? Ha! Try harder moron.
Those who called me a “troll” are themselves trolls and are unworthy of further remark.
Translation: When I can’t think of a reasoned response, I’ll find an excuse.
You’re a brazen, barefaced, lying hypocrite, ChR. Isn’t there something in your “holy book” about “bearing false witness”? You falsely said PZ “lumps everybody [i.e. all theists] into a overgeneralized, indistinguishable stew of “creationist brains” and dismisses them as lunatics, despite all empirical evidence to the contrary.” Produce your evidence that he has done this, or admit you are a lying, godbotting troll.
Or really? Please enlighten us to how you know this.
To those who raised substantive points, you challenged me on my assertion that Obama believes in creation. Note the distinction between belief in a creator of the universe and activism in the creationist movement. I have never suggested, implicitly or explicitly, that Obama aligns himself with the latter. – ChR
Deceitful little shit, aren’t you? Your original comment was deliberately ambiguous, and of course it is only those “active in the creationist movement” who are attacked here in the terms you suggested PZ attacks all theists.
Ah yes, good old rapture. A scenario:
All the saved Christians get whisked up to heaven.
The rest of us take a look across the world, and oh, the muslims have despaired, thrown away their Korans, realizing they were wrong. The Hindus follow suit, most of the Buddhists are quite content the way they are. With no Christians left to demand irrational privileges and protection, humanity gets working.
After one thousand years of tribulation, Jesus comes back to a surprisingly healthy-looking Earth: “Hear me now! I shall now, as prophecized, send all you unrepentant unsaved to hell and…”
A guy in a field engineer overall raises his hand and interrupts: “Ummm, no you wont.”
Jesus: “What do you mean? No human can stop me from demonstrating my unwavering love!”
Engineer guy: “With all due respect, you are gravely mistaken (chuckles and snickers something that sounds like ‘omniscience’). You see, my colleagues and our scientist friends over there have figured you out. It took us two centuries of rigorous testing and examination of those rapture remains you left the last time you visited, but we did it. Thanks by the way for giving us the decisive clues about how you do all that.”
Jesus: “Bah, no way you have done that. You’re bluffing!”
Jesus raises his hand in the direction of those who so insolently mock him, his eyes taking on a disturbing sparkle of megalomania.
The engineer sighs: “I wish this wasn’t necessary…”, pushes a button on his amazingly techy belt pouch, and Jesus dissolves in a puff of smoke.
Engineer: “Ah, the smell of divinity puffing up into a mist of manifest logic in the morning… Ok folks, where were we?”
Meanwhile in Heaven, the Christians continue their everlasting worshipful groveling and drooling before what is from now on a shivering Holy Duality.
You make this allegation but you neglect to discuss that boring, prosaic matter called evidence.
Patricia,
Rather sad that it should be needed, but that’s the way the world is, I’m afraid.
As soon as we get sufficient donations, we can place the ad for a hooker with proctological experience; gender to be determined.
You just don’t have a President to be so embarrased about.
That alone is something to celebrate.
I read ChR’s initial post and it was incdredibly dumb
When people say creationist in this modern day, they refer to the spontaenous creation of life by a deistic figure. Obama is not a creationist, believing there is a God who created the universe is a question of cosmology, not of biology. Sarah Palin is a creationist, Dubya is a creationist, McCain is not a creationist nor is Obama.
Before you go on a tirade about atheists not getting it, maybe it would be wise to understand the definition and context of the words you are making a fuss over. Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to mistake cosmology for biology? That’s Kent Hovind stupid…
Emmet – Oh dear, I forgot about the gender of the hooker. Yes, that may be a problem. Walton gets up on his high unicorn when I tease him. All his bawling does put the question of gender into play.
This may take some time, and perhaps may need a committee.
*Pffft*
My understanding of the Rapture:
1. A large number of obnoxious, hateful, and occasionally dangerous fanatics vanish off the face of the earth, transported to a place from whence they can’t return.
2. There is a period of conflict, war, and suffering, which pretty much describes the way things are now, and the way things have been for the entire history of human civilization.
3. Eventually the turmoil is resolved, and the good guys win.
4. There follows a very long period, at least 1000 years, of peace, tranquility, universal brotherhood, etc.
How is any of this not a good thing?
My condolences on Michelle Bachmann’s reelection. She wants to get on the Ways & Means Committee this time. Saints presarve us.
(From a 2d-district denizen)
‘Tis Himself @134, replying to some godbot loon,
Blockquote fail!
If Bill Clinton had proposed half the things in the Patriot Act, the Republicans would have been in an uproar over his assault on our freedoms. But when Bush did it, it was necessary for national security.
Hey, guys, Obama got 44% of the popular vote in Texas. That’s a generous plenty of folks who respect him! Alas, our unenlightened neighbors drag us down into the lower quartile of, well, just about every measure of civilization.
‘Tis Himself, thanks for that Freeptard link (to the Guardian). How nice to enjoy the reeking essence of stupidity without having to go into the sewer!
Glen Davidson#1:”And it looks like Michelle Bachmann will retain her seat. We shan’t lack for entertainment.”
A repellant outcome to me too…but if any marzipan-case was going to stick around to provide the necessary tension, keep that ideology fortified by that hideous visage, now nationally-recognizable, on display for all to see, she’s a very fine one to draw the ire and motivate continued and unrelenting pressure against the forces of lunacy.
The election didn’t fix anything, and it ain’t finished yet.
“It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”
– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson – 1950
I think the term they’re looking for is “uppity”.
Rumor is that Obama may nominate antivaccination wingnut Robert Kennedy for EPA. So much for science.
exactly.
Ahh…sometimes a little schadenfreude feels SO DAMN GOOD!!!! Cry me a river, righties. :)
The fact that Obama is a total incognito (sic) with zero accomplishment ….
Degrees from Columbia and Harvard, president of Harvard Law Review, three terms in the Illinois state legislature before being elected to the U.S. Senate, taught at the University of Chicago Law School for eight years, founding or board member of at least eight charitable or civil-rights foundations, successful advocate for better mental health care for returning veterans, community activist, published author, keynote speaker at the DNC in 2004 ….
All this before the age of 50.
But then again, these are the folks who claim that there’s no evidence for evolution. They just don’t let facts ever stand in their way.
Joe the Wanderer @124
Holy shit! Did a follower of Joseph Smith seriously just accuse Obama of creating a “personality cult” around himself by “elevating” his followers’ souls with fancy rhetoric?
Srsly?
There goes another irony meter. I don’t know why I even keep one around anymore.
At least Obama only lost 45-55 in Texas compared to 38-61 in 2004 for Kerry-Bush. Our children is learning!
The lousy economy has one up-side – misguided folks can’t afford to home indoctrinate their kids and have to send them to public schools where they might actually learn the scientific method and be exposed to all of their human brothers and sisters regardless of superficial surface differences.
How about we start a movement to have the Bill of Rights posted in every classroom (instead of the 10 commandments, for instance)? Or maybe atheists could give replicas of the Bill of Rights to be hung in churches all around the USA? As a symbolic measure of good faith, of course.
Vile woman.