Open thread. Frog vent the blast core.

Let me just say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHRGGGHG. It’s the last week of classes here; I have to finish a big pile of grading, and there’s a hogshead of administrative work hanging over my head. I also chose, freely and of my own irresponsible will, to flit off to New York for a pleasant weekend with a mob of science nerds and English majors (and unholy chimeras of the two), which has put me even further behind. I’m stepping away from my thin metal and glass interface to the universe of the interweebles to get some work done. You’ll just have to chat among yourselves about something or other for a while.

I will be back later. I’ve got a long post in the works about my horrendous evil flight back home that I’ll have to share with you. Well, the flight itself wasn’t so bad, but it had Eagleton and Fish and Samuel L. Jackson in it, so it got ugly for a while. I shall purge myself of those evil thoughts once this pile of earnest, thoughtful student labors is converted into soulless but judgmental rows of numbers in a spreadsheet.

Why do we even have chaplains in the military?

They’re dangerous and destructive, and erode the mission of our soldiers — and they also seem to be remarkably stupid. In the latest incident, people in Afghanistan are unhappy with the Christian evangelism that accompanies the US military. I can’t blame them.

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility “to be witnesses for him”.

“The special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down,” he says.

“Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That’s what we do, that’s our business.”

I think it’s the business of the secular officer corps to hound these vermin with courts-martial.

There is no requirement that Molly winner’s names must begin with “J”

It’s May, which means I have to tally up all the votes you made in April for the Molly-worthy commenters in March. We have two winners this month, the alliterative duo of Janine and Josh. Everyone say “OM!”

Now you face the onerous task of thinking back over the last month and nominating an exceptional commenter for the month of April. Leave a comment here with the name of your favorite.

Missouri absolves pharmacists from responsibility

And Ema gets very, very snarky. Missouri’s legislators have just passed a vague law that says pharmacists don’t have to fill prescriptions for things that they don’t like, especially nothing that might look sorta like an abortifacient. This is a bad law that removes standards of professional conduct from licensed pharmacies, and further removes all liability from pharmacists who disregard the doctor’s prescriptions for their patients. Well, some of their standards. Ema has a plan.

One last thing. I have a question for Rep. Ed Emery, Rep. Cynthia Davis, and all the other Missouri politicians who passed HB 226. Since you’ve removed the professional duty and standard requirements for the sale of drugs, can I haz street stand for the glorious, Capitalist selling of Plan B in your state?

Silly Ema. Only lawyers and politicians and priests are allowed to determine what is best for women’s bodies.

Radio reminder

It could be a very interesting morning on Sunday at 9am on Atheists Talk radio. Eugenie Scott will be on, and she’s always interesting…and Greg Laden will be interviewing her, and he threatens to bring up the recent accusations of truckling to the theistic evolutionists. I will be looking forward to hearing Genie’s take on the subject. Call in! (I’m still going to be on the road, so I won’t be able to…but I will definitely catch the podcast later.)

High school teacher guilty of telling the truth…oh, and Chad Farnan is an idiot

I guess we have our own little anti-blasphemy principle operationally at work in the US. Look what can get you in trouble with the law now:

A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled today.

James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, was found guilty of referring to Creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense” during a 2007 classroom lecture, denigrating his former Advanced Placement European history student, Chad Farnan. 

I am astounded that Corbett was found guilty of anything.

First of all, he told the truth: creationism is religious, it is a product of superstition, and it is nonsense — it doesn’t fit any of the evidence we have about the history fo the world or life on it. We have to have the right to tell students not only that something is wrong, but that it is stupidly wrong.

Secondly, we are being told over and over again that Christianity is not equivalent to creationism. This teacher has specifically said that creationism is nonsense, and this judge has equated a dismissal of a weird anti-scientific belief with making a rude remark about Christianity. So…where are all the Christians rising in outrage at the slander of their faith?

Thirdly, and this must be said, Chad Farnan is a self-righteously moronic creationist wanker who deserves to have his stupidity pointed out publicly, in the classroom and out of it, far and wide. Spread the word.

Another creationist fraud visiting my back yard

Ugh. Steve Austin, creationist geologist, is coming to Roseville to debate the age of the Grand Canyon on 13 May. He’s going to be engaging a local “evolutionist” who I don’t know — Steve Johnson — who I will trust to have the facts, but still — more geologists need to show up in the audience, because Austin is an ignorant clown who will put on a show to pander to a crowd that will mostly be even more ignorant than he is.

Debates are bad idea because they tend to put ludicrous claims on an equal footing with solid science. Sometimes we have to do them, because you’ve got to bring the argument home to the enemy, but when we do, we must get a supportive crowd in attendance, too. Otherwise, they’ll lose on the evidence but play games with the perception.