Comments

  1. IslandBrewer says

    You know that mentioning these awards on Pharyngula and Ed Brayton’s blog will probably increase the number of hits he gets by a couple orders of magnitude. Hell, it’ll probably quadruple the number of comments he typically gets.

  2. Celtic_Evolution says

    The funny thing, to me, is how he totally co-opts Jefferson as a like-minded person. If Jefferson were alive today, he wouldn’t piss on Larry Fafarman to put him out if he were on fire.

  3. ashleyfmiller says

    Maybe this is wrong, but I’m kind of in love with the whole “Sleazy PZ” thing.

  4. SteveM says

    It’s a major award!
    The leg lamp will be arriving via freight shortly.

    from Fragile, Italy.

  5. Humanistic Jones says

    Maybe this is wrong, but I’m kind of in love with the whole “Sleazy PZ” thing.

    To paraphrase Sleazy P Martini, “Let it never be said that Sleazy PZ ain’t a nice guy. I mean I ain’t, I just don’t like people talkin’ about it.”

  6. Inferno says

    Sleazy PZ beautiful Covergirl…

    Damn jingles, can’t seem to get em out of my head.

    Although as a friend of Hitler, shouldn’t you be calling for the extermination of those darned theists? You’re slacking PZ! If this continues at this rate we might end up in a free society that fights against fundamentalism! *Gasp!*

  7. IslandBrewer says

    Well, it’s obviously not much of an award. Francis Collins and Chris Mooney both got the same thing.

    Aw, and Kevin Padian? He was the coolest professor from whom I ever audited a class!

  8. Sili says

    Poor Fafarkins. Someone’s forgotten to brief him.

    That’s obviously supposed to be Friends of Thomas Aquinas.

  9. Celtic_Evolution says

    Just for a day, you need to get yourself all dressed up 70’s porn-star style, slick back that hair, get a picture for your profile on Pharyngula, and rename yourself Sleazy Myers.

  10. legistech says

    It is pretty hilarious that he gives Chris Comer a “FOH” award — apparently her sending out an email and getting fired for it was her method of suppressing expression.

  11. Celtic_Evolution says

    This really is pretty pathetic… I mean, don’t most people get over the act of overtly yelling “you’re a poopyhead” at people they dislike and “will you please be my friend” at people they like after 3rd grade?

  12. tsg says

    This really is pretty pathetic… I mean, don’t most people get over the act of overtly yelling “you’re a poopyhead” at people they dislike and “will you please be my friend” at people they like after 3rd grade?

    It’s eerily similar to the “you all suck” posts in alt.flame *mumble* years ago.

  13. FrankT says

    Sorry man, “Sleazy PZ” rhymes. And you know it rhymes.

    If you happen to speak American English.

  14. Larry says

    Did you update your c.v. yet, PZ? This award has to be pure academic gold, just a wee bit shy of a Nobel prize.

  15. vanharris says

    Do I get £1,000,000 with that?

    PZ, you’re not going to get a real award from a religious organization, are you? So forget the £ 1000 000. (It’s only the religious eejits who can afford that kind of money.

    Organizations that deal with the real world, with science, or rationalism, have useful things to spend their money on. (The Nobel Prize & Fields Medal are the exceptions that prove the rule. You know what i mean.)

  16. Sili says

    This really is pretty pathetic… I mean, don’t most people get over the act of overtly yelling “you’re a poopyhead” at people they dislike and “will you please be my friend” at people they like after 3rd grade?

    Poopyhead!

  17. Celtic_Evolution says

    Sili –

    Poopyhead!

    Aww… I was gonna ask you to be my friend…

    You’re worse than Hitler!

  18. Jadehawk OM, Hardcore Left-Winger says

    I’m tickled pink that Mooney, Collins, and Miller have to share what’s basically a “stridently anti-christian” award with the “new” atheists :-p

    crossposted at Dispatches

  19. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Mooney shares the FOH award with His Sleaziness but poor Kirshenbaum gets ignored.

  20. Ryan F Stello says

    I’m comforted that there’s more people that he hates than the people he lauds.

    BTW: What will it mean for next year’s awards if he names pretty much any candidate he can think of in one go?

  21. Jadehawk OM, Hardcore Left-Winger says

    Mooney shares the FOH award with His Sleaziness but poor Kirshenbaum gets ignored.

    women generally don’t seem to exist in Fafarman’s universe… I guess Eugenie Scott must have really pissed him off to earn a honorary penis and get a mention

  22. spaninquis says

    Lucky you. I won $125,000.00 the other day, but I have to send them $2900 first.

    All you had to do was be sleazy.

  23. Larry says

    Hey, that’s nothing spaninquis, I’ve got an ex-African prince offering to share $50 million with me if I can help him get it out of the country. And it won’t cost me anything. I just need to give him the bank account number where he’ll wire the funds.

    Sweet!

  24. tsg says

    It is pretty hilarious that he gives Chris Comer a “FOH” award — apparently her sending out an email and getting fired for it was her method of suppressing expression.

    I’m particularly fond of the irony in giving a “Friend of Jefferson” award to someone who’s trying to purge Jefferson from Texas textbooks.

  25. Brownian, OM says

    If you happen to speak American English.

    I guess us Canucks (and other commonwealthers) will have to stick with Poopyhead PZ if we wanna get our rhyme on.

    But I’m surprised Mooney was awarded one. Isn’t being all nice and ‘framing’ the debate in such a way that promotes science while simultaneously giving theists a reach-around supposed to ingratiate theists to him? Boy, I guess for some people, religion and science really aren’t compatible.

  26. blf says

    Accidently posted to Ed’s blog…

    Ok, so is it Professional Poopyhead Sleazy Little Pee Zed, or Sleazy Professional Poopyhead Little Pee Zed? We need a poll!

     ○  Professional Poopyhead Sleazy Little Pee Zed.
     ○  Sleazy Professional Poopyhead Little Pee Zed.
     ○  Professionally Sleazy Poopyhead Little Pee Zed.
     ○  Both of the above.
     ○  Answer 7.
     ○  MUSHROOMS!

  27. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkdBtdJdCG7a0WDRhu9vMdFW4XysjuvvTE says

    It’s a major award! The leg lamp will be arriving via freight shortly.

    from Fragile, Italy.

    Man, if I had something like that I’d put it in the front window where everyone could see it…

    -Kemanorel

  28. blf says

    Feck. That should be MUSHROOMS! @33. Important distinction there. The vin was really good tonight, albeit the pizza was mediocre. Alas, there were no MUSHROOMS!

  29. Aquaria says

    OK, blf, I think you’ve had enough, hon. Give me the keys and the bottle of–Ooh! This looks good. May I?

  30. Aquaria says

    Ah, yes, Larry Farfarman, the very first denizen of the Dungeon.

    I’d wondered what he’d done to deserve it–no, I don’t follow links to crazy people.

    And now I know. He belongs behind a tiny door on a wooden clock.

  31. Walton says

    I’m not the first to comment on this, but I find it interesting that Fafarman lumps New Atheists, accommodationist atheists, deists, liberal Christians, and all other not-completely-insane people into one category as “Friends of Hitler”.

  32. KOPD says

    I’m not the first to comment on this, but I find it interesting that Fafarman lumps New Atheists, accommodationist atheists, deists, liberal Christians, and all other not-completely-insane people into one category as “Friends of Hitler”.

    Making Jefferson a friend of Hitler. He’d also call Stalin a friend of Hitler, despite evidence to the contrary…

  33. IslandBrewer says

    Ah, Larry is another retired mechanical engineer.

    What the hell is it with mechanical engineers?!?! Is there some sort of fluid that they’re all sniffing?

  34. blf says

    OK, blf, I think you’ve had enough, hon. Give me the keys and the bottle of–Ooh! This looks good. May I?

    Belch! Please, help yourself. Very tasty.
    Hey, there’s a reason I walked home. (Besides not having a car, that is.)

  35. Doug Little says

    Can we call him Larry Farfar(from reality)man!

    What the hell is it with mechanical engineers?!?! Is there some sort of fluid that they’re all sniffing?

    Hey, we are all not sniffing the fluid. Only the bat shit insane ones are doing that.

  36. Walton says

    Making Jefferson a friend of Hitler. He’d also call Stalin a friend of Hitler, despite evidence to the contrary…

    Conversely, Hitler probably wouldn’t have been a “Friend of Hitler” by Larry’s definition.

  37. IslandBrewer says

    @DougLittle

    Hey, I don’t mean to insult rational sane mechanical engineers, but I’m baffled as to why your profession has a surplus of outspoken creationist nuts.

    I’m in a profession that bizarrely attracts a large number of ‘reasonably’ educated anti-government knee-jerk social conservatives. I have no explanation for this, either. I often feel like an outlier at professional meetings (which I try to avoid).

  38. llewelly says

    Walton | April 6, 2010 5:00 PM:

    I’m not the first to comment on this, but I find it interesting that Fafarman lumps New Atheists, accommodationist atheists, deists, liberal Christians, and all other not-completely-insane people into one category as “Friends of Hitler”.

    If it was only Larry Farfarman, it could be dismissed. But it’s not; it is something common to most of the anti-science crowd. And it’s one reason I’m somewhat skeptical of the claim that being an affirmative atheist is necessarily bad for promoting science. Clearly, it does not make PZ or Dawkins any less popular with the hardcore anti-science nuts. (And if one is to judge by book sales or blog popularity, it has helped PZ and Dawkins enormously with some audiences.)

  39. jidashdee says

    Damn!

    I wish my name was “Sleazy PZ”!

    Now you have to join the World Poker Tour.

    And get the vanity plate “SLEE ZPZ”.

  40. Doug Little says

    IslandBrewer,

    I think it has something to do with supposedly being able to detect design in nature. I think that engineers, esp. mechanical, are naturally prone to this. Plus I think most mechanical engineers don’t study a whole lot of biology during pre and post matriculation. Things do look designed and without a good understanding of the processes of evolution you could draw that conclusion. Of course then there are a few that graduate that couldn’t design their way out of a wet paper bag.

  41. Aquaria says

    Hey, there’s a reason I walked home. (Besides not having a car, that is.)

    You too, huh? Sucks. Riding the bus has been murder on my health.

  42. Menyambal says

    I did an explanation of why mechanical engineers are woosters and bonkers, somewhere else here. There are some nasty fluids in the business, but it is mostly a simplistic attitude.

    Engineers know some amazing stuff that no-one else knows, but they don’t get a lot of respect. And they view the world as a simple mechanism, obviously built by an uber-engineer, which is to say God is an engineer. Then it all goes to hell.

  43. Aquaria says

    Island Brewer:

    I’m kinda wondering about this career that attracts knee-jerk conservatives, and the image it conjures isn’t very pretty. I hope it’s not insurance, but, if it is, you poor thing.

  44. Doug Little says

    Of course their inability to understand the simple concepts put forth by evolution and their denial of the mountains of evidence that exist in support of these concepts probably alludes to their ability to process new information as it comes in, which hinders their problem solving ability and ultimately their effectiveness as an engineer, or they are just lazy and ignorant, which is worse.

  45. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    I hope there’s cash, or at least a gaudy trophy, to go with it.

    His Sleaziness shouldn’t get anything until M*bus sends Rev BDC his FINISHED.

  46. SteveM says

    re 50;

    Engineers know some amazing stuff that no-one else knows, but they don’t get a lot of respect. And they view the world as a simple mechanism, obviously built by an uber-engineer, which is to say God is an engineer. Then it all goes to hell.

    The problem is that any good engineer would realize that God is a lousy designer. And “trial and error” is obviously how most natural “designs” have come about, and the only reason that some of them are so impressive is due to many millions (if not billions) of trials and errors.

  47. SteveM says

    Hey, I don’t mean to insult rational sane mechanical engineers, but I’m baffled as to why your profession has a surplus of outspoken creationist nuts.

    I believe you have it backwards. When you ask why are creationists are attracted to engineering (of all types, not just mech.), it becomes a little less baffling.

    It is not that engineering has a disproportionate number of creationists, but a disproportionate number of creationists are engineers. There is a difference.

  48. IslandBrewer says

    @SteveM #57

    I can definitely see your point, and I do agree that there is a difference between engineering having a disproportionate number of creationists in the field, and a disproportionate number of creationists being engineers.

    However, these two states are not mutually exclusive, and until I see some evidence, hell, even an amusing anectdote, I suspect that both are true. Some good data would be useful, but I doubt I could dredge it up.

    And in case I’m wrong, I’ll attempt to resist changing my goalposts and not harp on the “outspoken” part of the “outspoken creationist nuts,” as opposed to all those quiet and demure creationist nuts.

  49. IslandBrewer says

    @Aquaria #51

    No, not Insurance.

    *sotto voce* Patent Attorney

    But I used to be a scientist, and still pretend to be! I was an evo-devo guy, and studied peptide growth factors in early development and organogenesis. I worked on the best allo-tetraploid tetrapod ever, Xenopus laevis.

    Then, after being denied one too many post-doc grants, I put down the mouse (I’d moved on to mammals), and sold out for some filthy lucre.

  50. Ring Tailed Lemurian says

    Yeah, PZ should be proud of “Sleazy PZ”. Catchy. Surprised he never got called it at school.

    In the thread that won’t die I gave you (Nice ‘N’) Sleazy PZ, now I give you, not just Cheesy PZ, but this.

  51. Fil says

    No prize? Not even a packet of crackers?

    Also, I was pronouncing Sleazy PZ with the Z as a “zed”. Just realised…

    Sleazy PeeZee, lol. OK. OK, I’ll grow up now. ;-)

  52. jidashdee says

    @SteveM

    Yeah, that’s one of the reasons that I left systems design engineering for Mathematics (capitalisation intentional).

    It was fun to study all of the complex topics that I was exposed to, but it was all wrapped up in a simplistic, utilitarian approach to the world. I new that I was different from the rest of the class because if I laid out a beautiful proof by induction or contradiction, containing barely a word of English, I could hardly keep my pants on. I didn’t give a sweet goddamn if it could be used to encode anything or keep a rocket engine from overheating or anything else. It was just beautiful in and of itself.

    I had no choice but to come out as a Mathematics major and I’ve been living as openly math oriented since 1986. Maybe I’ll start a parade for Ring and Field Theorists. Group Theorists can fuck off. Everybody hates them. On second thought we’d probably just theorize about where the parade would be and how it would go. We can leave the actual parading to the applied math chimps.

  53. BlueEyedVideot says

    Once again, the christianists turn black to white, lies into truth, and water into wine. Vermin.

    On the other hand, congratulations, P.Z., you must be doing something right!

  54. pnrjulius says

    Seriously, “Sleazy PZ” and “Evil Genie Scott” could totally catch on.

  55. Scott Hatfield, OM says

    I’ve heard of damning with faint praise, but Faferman’s odious rhetoric achieves the rare feat of lauding with great condemnation.

    I should be so lucky to be named one of Larry’s ‘FRIENDS’. In fact, I told him so, in the following comment I left on my blog (and his).

  56. ambulocetacean says

    I’d like to see him try to put Evil Genie back in the bottle. She’d just wiggle her nose and turn him into a tiktaalik.

  57. llewelly says

    ambulocetacean | April 6, 2010 8:42 PM:

    I’d like to see him try to put Evil Genie back in the bottle. She’d just wiggle her nose and turn him into a tiktaalik.

    And that would be the biggest promotion he ever received.

  58. Haley says

    Hey, don’t be hating on the mechanical engineers. All the mechanical engineers I know (quite a bit from being involved in a robotics team in high school) have been very rational atheists or at least apathetic non-theists. My anecdote is bigger than your anecdote.

    My boyfriend is a mechanical engineering student, and he’s one of the most outspoken “new” atheists I know.