I get email


I was cleaning out my filtered junk mail folder, and what do I discover? Mail after mail after mail from a long-banned kook, the infamously idiotic John A. Davison. Davison’s is notoriously incompetent: this is the fellow who has created multiple blogs, each with one entry, which he closes when it gathers enough comments…most of which are from Davison himself. He also tends to get in long running battles in blog comments, all over his dismissal of evolution, which he regards as the most important battle in the history of mankind!!!. He has also reported me to my university provost.

He has banned here for a long time. He’s banned just about everywhere, which he complains bitterly about, but it’s entirely because he’s obsessive and insane and repetitive — even the ID/creationist blogs can’t stand him.

So he’s been dunning me with email, apparently. He’s usually yelling at me to pay attention to him, and spamming links to one of his blogs…usually to some specific comment at his blog, because, as is par for the course, his blogs have almost no actual entries, just long mumbling rants by himself in the comment threads.

But he’s been so persistent that I’ll give him a moment’s attention, just to taunt him. Because he’s such an ass, though, I’m going to torment him by deleting all the links he sent me. Trust me, they all say the same thing: “I love it so,” and various permutations of his claim that evolution is finished, and that he has proven it wrong. He hasn’t.

These are just the most recent of his missives. There are many more, but I’ve deleted them.

22 March:

Dear PeeZee,

I invite you to savor my several recent essays which can be found on the link –

  url redacted  

Perhaps you would be willing to introduce them to your flock so they can enjoy them as well.

It doesn’t get any better thn this.


22 March:

Dear Pee Zee

Enjoy my recent essays –

  url redacted  

Let me know how you feel about them.


30 March:

  url redacted  

#712

Enjoy!


15 April:

Check out my latest challenge –

  url redacted  

and acknowledge it. I will look for it!


22 April:

Hey PeeZee,

Why don’t you call the attention of your drooling retards to the emails you get from me? I’ll look for it!


27 April:

PeeZee,

  url redacted  

#267

Enjoy!


28 April:

Dear PeeZee,

A collection of my unpublished Evolution papers is now available

  url to self-published book redacted  

The definitve cover and possible endoresements are not yet in place.


29 April:

Dear PeeZee

  url redacted  

#404

I expect to see an acknowledgement that I exist on Pharyngula.


30 April:

PeeZee

Why don’t you rate my book? I’m sure your fans would love to see you destroy it. I will look for it!


30 April:

Pee Zee

I see you, like Dawkins and Elsberry, go right on petending I don’t exist. That won’t work any longer. You clowns are finished. Now get cracking and recognize that you have been mortally wounded. The longer you ignore me and my sources the worse it wll be for you. I will see to it. Trust me.


1 May:

Dear PeeZee

How does it feel to realize that everything you believe is about to be exposed as meaningless drivel? It must be awful for you. Check out my Why Banishment? thread from time to time. There you will discover that thegang@pandasthumb.com refuses to accept my emails, a response in itself. Lynn Margulis has resorted to the same desperate device. If you Darwinian mystics think you can continue your time honored tradition of ignoring your real adversaries, you are all very sadly mistaken. It is crunch time PeeZee. Gird your loins. The longer you insist on silence the worse it will be for you. I will see to it and will enjoy every moment of it! Trust me.

Cheers

John


He’s just getting crazier and crazier, and now he’s beginning to sound like that other banned kook, Dennis Markuze.

Comments

  1. Lynna, OM says

    I was just wondering what you’d like to use to “gird your loins.” If you need donations of loin-girding raiment, let us know.

  2. co says

    Now get cracking and recognize that you have been mortally wounded.

    Huh. It’s a poor sort of wounding which requires the victim to work to recognize it.

  3. Invigilator says

    I really like his phrase “irreversible compulsive auto-destruction” (from PZ’s linked post). I fear it may be yet another case of psychological projection, so common on the fundie/tea party/Bircher/Birther right these days.

  4. Cerberus says

    I don’t know, reading that just makes me so sad. He’s so desperate to exist, to feel that he matters in this universe in some manner, that he’s connected to the world.

    Most of us find those connections with loved ones, with our passionate battles for the betterment of society, maybe even our jobs if we are lucky to have careers we believe in, or even just noticing the raw beauty of nature or the staggering works of art or science that humans have created.

    But this man, has likely been so twisted by his raising environment that he has been kept from even considering anything like that. Changes are evil, art is blasphemous, nature heresy, and all one needs is supposed to come in a hateful, petty God and the giving of one’s life to them.

    I think between sad cases like this and the Rapturists, we see one of the saddest truths about a number of fundamentalist religions. They claim to be the “thing that gives people meaning”, but by literally putting them at war with anything that gives their actual physical presence meaning, their minds end up breaking.

    So, you’ve got people pretending that the world will end any day now and that doing nothing with one’s life is preparing for some giant battle between good and evil, you’ve got people obsessively demanding that atheists acknowledge their existence, because they can’t find it in Churches or their homes, and you’ve got all manner of wingnuts who need to see other people in pain in order to feel better about their place in the world.

    I hate what these people do to the world, but especially in cases like this, I just can’t help feeling some raw empathy for how their lives have become so empty because of old damn lies.

  5. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    *looks around*
    Nothing wounded here. Evolution is chugging along just fine. No refutation in the only place that counts. And JAD avoids that like the plague…

  6. rewarp says

    Defining your existence by seeking the acknowledgement of others in shallow terms of anger and hatred.

    I feel nothing but pity.

  7. Zeno says

    Tsk tsk, PZ. It’s like you take a stick and poke it through the bars of the cage. The animal inside is going to be quite provoked with you.

    I am currently enjoying the attentions of the other kook you mention, who cuts and pastes long screeds into my blog — sometimes several in one day. I laughingly delete them. He thinks he’s on the same level of Einstein. Poor sap.

    Fun with trolls

    I decline to give him the satisfaction of even citing him by name.

  8. t3knomanser says

    I like to gird my (pork) loins with a nice dry rub, heavy on allspice and ginger.

  9. vanharris says

    I see from his blog that he wasn’t baptized in infancy, & that he recently got baptized as a Catholic.

    So there’s a good chance he wasn’t indoctrinated as a child. I guess the poor sap is just a natural nutjob.

  10. FossilFishy says

    There ought to be a Dunning-Kruger wing of the dungeon. Ol’ Johnny could be it’s poster boy.

  11. Criswell says

    Might be time to update Beckett and recast the main characters as JAD, Markuse, and Kwok (Waiting for PZ)

  12. co says

    I am currently enjoying the attentions of the other kook you mention, who cuts and pastes long screeds into my blog — sometimes several in one day. I laughingly delete them. He thinks he’s on the same level of Einstein.

    Aw. And here I was expecting to see something by Graeme Bird, not DM. Still, it’s fine entertainment for a snowy Sunday morning.

  13. Caine, Fleur du mal says

    Oh my. Davison seems to have stepped up his nuttiness a mark or three. Being ignored is a fate worse than death, it would seem.

  14. FossilFishy says

    Er, its poster boy. Most typos I don’t mind that one for some reason always annoys me. Grrrrr.

  15. Izzy says

    Does internet/virtual restraining orders exist? That’s scary mental stuff!

  16. Ströh says

    There’s probably a psychiatric diagnosis somewhere although this may not be the way to determine it. At the very least he doesn’t appear to be a paranoid schizophrenic – the most common hyperposter. 1 % of the population makes for a lot of crazies.

  17. Draken says

    It seems to be a peculiar form of mental masochism; he’s simply begging to be verbally chastised. Does Freud have anything to say about this?

  18. Duckbilled Platypus says

    I used to be an administrator to a forum which is frequented by hobbyist programmers, most of them in their adolescent years. I can tell you from experience that the only difference between your attention seekers and ours, is that yours tend to be more eloquent. I mean, he actually finishes sentences with no more than a single exclamation mark, he has an acceptable grasp of the use of Caps Lock and he is articulate enough to be allowed to go out and buy groceries.

    Though given his last message, if you would ever find yourself in his vicinity then I suggest that he is kept away from cutlery, just in case.

  19. MikeMa says

    I wonder what the critical mass of kooks, morons and wingnuts is? Would that be a per capita or per square mile measurement? Are teabagger rallys the manifestation of critical mass situations?

  20. Jillian Swift says

    @Draken

    Does Freud have anything to say about this?

    Nope. He’s dead.

  21. Dae says

    Wow. He reminds me of a guy we banned from my gaming forum – not even for being an ass; he got away with that – for using another person’s account to circumvent restrictions we placed on him. Said rabid wombat pops up every few months on the game’s official forums denouncing the whole organization and demanding that we give him his “due” in attention. (The whole “you’re going to be sorry you ignored me!!!1!11!!” thing rings familiar in particular…)

    As far as we could tell with this guy, any attention was good attention, and that seems to be the case for John Davison.

    Bravo on the deleted links; I’m sure he’s steaming out the ears!

  22. jaranath says

    We’ve always known he needs psychiatric help, but damn, does this ever reinforce that fact. Look at the way he consistently claims he’ll make PZ suffer soon for his Evilutionist ways. What level of delusion must one have to be so certain they have such power?

  23. derelicthat says

    Oh, this is so sad that I actually can’t get into the humor. I just want to take him out for ice cream or something (in a very visible public area however) and get him to relax.

  24. Alteredstory says

    ‘The Bandar-log howled with triumph and scuffled
    away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting:
    “He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us. All the Jungle-People
    admire us for our skill and our cunning.” ‘

    –The Jungle Book

  25. raven says

    Creationist Tom Willis:

    Clearly then, “evolutionists should not be allowed to roam free in the land.” All that remains for us to discuss is “What should be done with evolutionists?” For the purposes of this essay, I will ignore the minor issue of Western-style jurisprudence and merely mention possible solutions to the “evolutionism problem,” leaving the legal details to others:

    Labor camps. Their fellow believers were high on these. But, my position would be that most of them have lived their lives at, or near the public trough. So, after their own beliefs, their life should continue only as long as they can support themselves in the camps.

    JA Davison:

    The longer you insist on silence the worse it will be for you. I will see to it and will enjoy every moment of it! Trust me.

    Davison is starting to sound vaguely ominous and threatening. He has a ways to go until he sounds like Tom Willis who wants to herd scientists into slave labor concentration camps and work them until they die.

    There is a reason why they are called fundie xian death cultists. Violence, hate, and murder are always right below the surface.

  26. Gregory Greenwood says

    What starts out as delusions of power degenerates into delusions of adequacy and finally into a desperate desire simply to be acknowledged. It must be sad when your life is so empty that you quite literally have nothing better to do than to cyber-stalk PZ and make vapid clims about the imminent failure of one of the best evidenced theories in biological science.

    This chap is so obsessed with our tentacled leader you have to wonder why he doesn’t simply ask PZ out on a date and get it over with. Then PZ can let him down gently and maybe he can get on with his life.

    Don’t worry , John. I am sure the right person for you is out there. The person who will always listen to you and prop up your oh-so fragile ego by nodding appreciatively at you pronouncements and saying ‘oh yes, John’ and ‘You’re so wise, John’ and ‘No one else appreciates your genius, but I do John.’

    I imagine there must be dating sites for that kind of thing…

  27. Kraid says

    I see you, like Dawkins and Elsberry, go right on petending I don’t exist. That won’t work any longer. You clowns are finished. Now get cracking and recognize that you have been mortally wounded.
    […]
    I expect to see an acknowledgement that I exist on Pharyngula.

    So in this guy’s personal psychodrama, he has pitted himself as the protagonist vs. Teh Evilutionists, and what gets me is that he fully expects them to reciprocate. Like it’s their obligation to play the roles he has written, right down to the part where they shake their fists and curse the name of John A. Davison in utter defeat.

    It’s like he treats other human beings as mere extensions of his own will, which is pretty seriously mental. He -expects- to see an acknowledgement? Well PZ doesn’t owe you shit, buddy. But hey, you got your nod, so now you can put it to rest. Right? Right?

  28. OurDeadSelves says

    But he’s been so persistent that I’ll give him a moment’s attention, just to taunt him.

    Damn, PZ, that is harsh. But it is funny to think of this guy in his impotent rage, sending you emails that go right into your spam folder.

    I’m surprised no tone trolls have popped up yet.

  29. kiyaroru says

    Becoming “involved” in a blog is kinda like (re)discovering the old imaginary friends from your childhood. Except the new IFs are often smarter and better-informed than you are. And, if you are lucky, sometimes you can actually hoist a real pint with them.

    John A. Davison’s imaginary friends won’t talk to him. Could anything be any sadder?

  30. Knockgoats says

    I imagine there must be dating sites for that kind of thing…

    Or at least professionals who provide that personal service along with (or instead of) more conventional ones!

  31. Gregory Greenwood says

    knockgoats @ 39;

    Or at least professionals who provide that personal service along with (or instead of) more conventional ones!

    I think you are right on this one. Perhaps a professional is required. Someone who is used to the more… unusual clientel and has a few bouncers nearby in case things get out of hand.

    Knockgoats, I think you may have just won the thread!

  32. CTC says

    I would agree with 19 that this would appear to be grounds for harassment, or at least worthy of a mention of his behavior to his ISP, but there’s little doubt that he’d grasp the seriousness of that and would instead use it as more batshit-based fuel for his fire of insanity.

  33. Ströh says

    @ Feynmaniac, Chimerical Toad

    Good point, I personally found narcissism quite fitting. The thought hit me before I even checked the DSM to be honest.

    Especially the parts about self-aggrandising and a delusional sense of accomplishment and entitlement without cause fit well.

  34. Cerberus says

    Kraid @33

    That’s also very unique to this sort of scream to exist type “fighter”. I’m involved in a good number of visibility/equality/social justice movements and I can’t think of any of them that demand recognition of their “enemies”. Even the visibility movements are more about getting their stories out than deliberately finding antagonists and demanding they listen to us personally.

    The point of “fighting” for the “truth” in conventional, actual movements for the betterment of humanity isn’t to hear the lamentations of our enemies at the weight of our better arguments, but to actually improve the lives of actual, real people and leave life better for the people “like us” of the future than it was for us.

    I don’t really want the Pat Robertsons or Phyllis Schaffleys of the world to be weeping in their morning coffee at the thought of me. I mean, if they decide to put so much of their self-worth into keeping the rest of us down, I guess it could be a side-effect, but it’s not really the point and what I’m looking forward to in the “culture war”.

    Again, this gets to the raw emptiness. They need literally personal victory. The acknowledgment of their victims that they have personally won and thus matter. I hate it because it’s the bully canard, but it’s also a horrible way to live one’s life. I mean, they are literally trying to drown out their doubts about how they’ve lived their lives by demanding that others tell them to their face that it wasn’t wasted because those others are negatively affected.

    That’s a damn hideous way to live one’s life.

  35. Derek Bartholomaus says

    These emails remind me of the emails I have gotten from time to time from Michael Horn, the publicist for Billy Meier (Swiss UFO Contactee).

    He would also send emails that I wouldn’t respond to and then say that my ignoring him meant that I “surrendered” and retracted what I have said about the case.

    As Bugs Bunny would say, “what a maroon.”

  36. rni.boh says

    He’s just getting crazier and crazier, and now he’s beginning to sound like that other banned kook, Dennis Markuze.

    When I saw the start of this post, that’s who I thought it was about – Mabus has become active again. He’s been spamming Nature Network for a few weeks.

    It’s good to hear that JAD is still around, though. Nuts as he is, he is still human.

    There is a reason why they are called fundie xian death cultists. Violence, hate, and murder are always right below the surface.

    I’m not sure JAD has anything to do with fundie Christianity: his schtick is being anti-evolution, rather than pro-God.

  37. Sili, The Unknown Virgin says

    Most of us find those connections with loved ones, with our passionate battles for the betterment of society, maybe even our jobs if we are lucky to have careers we believe in, or even just noticing the raw beauty of nature or the staggering works of art or science that humans have created.

    And some of us just post on The Thread.

  38. direvus says

    There isn’t much sport in making fun of someone who is clearly suffering from serious mental illness.

    John, if you are reading this, seek help! I am not joking, or saying this to be rude, I honestly think you could use some assistance on this one.

    If you don’t know what to say to get help, here’s a template you can use. Just call up any psychiatrist and say the following to them:

    Hi. My name is John A. Davison.

    I earnestly believe that I have single-handedly overturned several scientific disciplines, using only my incredibly astute mental powers.

    Clearly I am the most scientifically brilliant mind ever to walk the face of the Earth, but for some reason, incomprehensible to me, nobody wants to publish my ideas or read my blog.

    Can you explain what’s going on here? I just don’t get it.

    Help me, mental health professional. You’re my only hope.

    Sincerely,

    John A. Davison

  39. https://me.yahoo.com/a/NNElX.lopoxuMge1_bGvXqFvnkbkcEId0Nbpsg--#c96d1 says

    Sounds like a grade 10 Teabagger.

  40. clare7 says

    Alteredstory #29: Nailed the reference perfectly! I’ve a number of folks I’ll have to start referring to as ‘Bandar-log’ — no fear of recognition.

  41. David Marjanović says

    Although I agree with comment 50, I kept laughing throughout the post and till about comment 30. (And I started again at comment 51! :-D )

    Might be time to update Beckett and recast the main characters as JAD, Markuse, and Kwok (Waiting for PZ)

    Win.

  42. chgo_liz says

    Cerberus, your posts on this issue are a revelation.

    I assume, like many others here, that JAD is on the edge of becoming unhinged, to the point where he could be a danger to himself or others.

    You’ve made me see him with more compassion, as someone tortured with a ravaged psyche. And, you’ve explicated the larger picture as well, how people’s pysches are mangled by religious threats.

    Thank you.

  43. Sasha says

    On my! Someone sure has his knickers in a twist. I agree it is sad – pathetic actually, but replying to his rants will only enable him further. Makes me wonder if he was looking in the mirror when he came up with the term ‘drooling retard’.

  44. Travis says

    Wow, what I desperate need for acknowledgement plus a generous dosage of hubris. The arrogance and the pathetic nature of the cries are so sad.

  45. chosenfrozen says

    As above, WOW, but are you not allowed to make
    more fun of him by acknowledging he is a
    prof of Biology, as you are

  46. pv says

    Over at BadScience, Dennis Markuze isn’t banned. He’s still barking mad but… he’s like the forum’s pet troll. We’d like him to post some awesome new pictures instead of recycling the same old crappy ones. And to give him his due he does start his own threads and stay in them.
    See how his latest effort has developed:
    http://badscience.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15921

    He’s almost (only almost) started to engage. Though not quite.

  47. Neil says

    That string of emails reminds me of the end of the Black Knight scene in Monty Python where he’s armless and legless, but still demands that he continue fighting, as Arthur just ignores him and rides off.

  48. leepicton says

    Oh dear. JAD is clearly mentally ill, and you have decided to taunt him. PZ, you are probably one of the kindest people ever; whatever has gotten into you? That was unkind, and not worthy of you. If anyone wants to call me a tone troll for this, so be it.

  49. Hurin says

    Damn. That’s a pretty pathetic display.

    I have to wonder why this guy feels such a desperate need to be published on Pharyngula. If his ideas are really so powerful that they are going to reinvent modern biological theory, then you might expect them to be capable of garnering attention independently.

  50. jre says

    Now, now.
    Lest we be tempted to dismiss JAD as completely useless, let us not forget that he served as the inspiration for the immortal John A. Davison orders a pizza. A sample:

    Davison: I would like to order a pepperoni pizza. Extra cheese. Oh, and with olives.

    Youth: Is that all?

    Davison: That’s about it. What’s the total?

    Youth: Twelve eighty including tax. Your phone number?

    Davison: 555-6219. 232 4th Ave southeast… My name is John… John Davison… John A. Davison… I will not soon be forgotten. [awkward pause] I have my own blog.

    It does have a “Waiting for PZ” ring to it, now that you mention it.

  51. b.richard.martin says

    Lol at april 29:

    url redacted
    #404

    Does anyone find the 404 and no url fact funny?

  52. Hurin says

    @59

    Over at BadScience, Dennis Markuze isn’t banned. He’s still barking mad but… he’s like the forum’s pet troll. We’d like him to post some awesome new pictures instead of recycling the same old crappy ones. And to give him his due he does start his own threads and stay in them.
    See how his latest effort has developed:
    http://badscience.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15921 He’s almost (only almost) started to engage. Though not quite.

    You guys got him to rant in all caps about boobquake?! I almost just pissed myself laughing.

  53. MadScientist says

    “#404 I expect to see an acknowledgement that I exist on Pharyngula.”

    Man, you just fed the troll! Now we’ll never get rid of it or its smell.

    @b.richard.martin #68: I thought “#404” was just one item on his long list of demands. #405 would be something like “I demand god move Mt. Rushmore to Seattle to prove he exists”. Oh, wait – no, that’s the sort of demand that I’d make.

  54. NotStradamus says

    Are all the nutbars on the creationist side? We really should have at least one token ignorant buffoon or looney bin escapee on the side of evolution. Does anyone know of any cranks on the side of evolution?

  55. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmi0enWEr3aTvuG9Z9VYXrYemhjnDKbjKo says

    Somehow, I think if I even hover my mouse over that forbidding “url redacted” I might be sucked into a black hole.

  56. gmartincv says

    It took the second reference for me to get Waiting for PZ. Along with that theme, maybe we will get JAD’s Last tape?

    George

  57. Kliwon says

    PZ, you need a better spam filter. That way, you’ll never get the e-mails to let you know that you aren’t repsonding to his e-mails. It’ll drive him nuts.

  58. BiblicalAtheist says

    He’s running for Governor in Vermont. Perhaps we should keep an eye out for some polls. LOL.

  59. co says

    NotStradamus, #69:

    Are all the nutbars on the creationist side? We really should have at least one token ignorant buffoon or looney bin escapee on the side of evolution. Does anyone know of any cranks on the side of evolution?

    Bird is pro-evolution, mainly because he doesn’t think that the Big Bang makes any sense (you’ll just have to read his drivel to figure out what that means):

    http://graemebird.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/the-fucking-faux-pas-of-intelligent-design-the-current-state-of-play/

  60. Michelle R says

    I almost pity that guy. Almost.

    How sad it must be to be him! His whole life is SPAMMING PEOPLE!

  61. thomas.paul says

    This is what these nuts don’t understand… if there really was proof that evolution was wrong, the person who provided that proof, the person who did the scientific research to reveal the error would win a Nobel Prize. They would be hoisted on the shoulders of scientists and awarded with grants and prizes. But saying, “nanny-nanny-poo-poo your wrong and I’m right,” is not scientific research no matter how much they wish it was.

  62. efrique says

    Was it Einstein who said “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” ?

  63. chaseacross says

    Nutters and cranks are by definition outsiders. Given that evolution is so thoroughly accepted, it’s really hard to get excited about it. When was the last time you met someone who was hopping mad about gravity? Or the fact that there is no land bridge from North America to Asia? Reason doesn’t lead to madness because reason is reasonable. It’s wacky theories that make for wacky disciples.

    Now that I think of it, my loins could use some good girding right now…

  64. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    JAD is so pathetic I almost feel sorry for him. I don’t, however, because of his scarcely veiled threats.

  65. speedweasel says

    These cranks need to put their money where their mouths are.

    You are convinced of the imminent downfall of TToE, fine I’ll give 2:1 odds on that. You send me $100,000 dollars and when we have scientific consensus in your favour, I’ll pay you $200k.

    What’s that? But it’s failure is imminent! You said so. Come on, demonstrate your conviction. You stand to double your money here.

    It’s easy to make claims when you don’t actually have to invest anything in supporting your position, isn’t it?

  66. Westcoaster says

    From the article:

    Hey PeeZee,

    Why don’t you call the attention of your drooling retards to the emails you get from me? I’ll look for it!

    Oh man, that would make a great user name.

    -Drooling retard.

  67. Galactus35 says

    I spent the day reading his posts on Bad Science and his website. It’s pretty sad to see that level of disconnect with reality in a grown man of that age.

  68. phoenixwoman says

    Over at BadScience, Dennis Markuze isn’t banned. He’s still barking mad but… he’s like the forum’s pet troll. We’d like him to post some awesome new pictures instead of recycling the same old crappy ones. And to give him his due he does start his own threads and stay in them.
    See how his latest effort has developed:
    http://badscience.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15921

    He’s almost (only almost) started to engage. Though not quite.

    Little Waster is my new hero.

  69. Travis says

    I often wonder why these cranks do not take their amazing, groundbreaking unpublished papers, format them to the standards for a couple of journals and submit them. I know the standard line they use is that they would never get published and that the current establishment is keeping them down but I would love to see one of them try. I often wonder if nasty evolutionists are keeping these people from publishing where the evidence for all of this is. Otherwise it just seems like they are lazy.

  70. MATTIR says

    So what is one to make of this loon’s desire to see PZ’s legs after his loins are girded? Very suspicious. What does our Official SpokesGay, OM, think?

  71. speedweasel says

    Wait, Bad Science has a forum!? Why am I wasting my life posting here?

    So long losers!

    :)

  72. Ing says

    “When was the last time you met someone who was hopping mad about gravity? ”

    Segan.

    Mad in a good way, as in ZOMG THIS TIS AWESOME!!!1!!11!!

  73. V. infernalis says

    Wow, this guy is actually faculty at the University of Vermont? (Just Google “John A Davison”, and his UVM page is the first hit).

    Can tenure be revoked once you’re deemed to be senile?

  74. Bix12 says

    What a sad, sad man.

    He’s obviously deeply lonely & desperate for attention…too bad he’s insane, though, otherwise he just might find at least one poor sap who’d at least acknowledge his miserable exsistence.

    I’d prescribe lot’s & lot’s of therapy, both talk & medicinal…if I cared.

    He’s craving your attention, PZ–desperately…no, rephrase that…pathetically so.

    Sad, sad man.

    Mow, something important: Why do I have to re-establish my password every time I try to log in? Any clue?

  75. b.richard.martin says

    PZ No! You fed the troll! But, he’s gonna get a warm fuzzy feeling inside from reading this article. Warm, fuzzy feeling are OK, am I correct?

  76. emigrant2immigrant says

    I’m torn between feeling sorry for the poor guy… and laughing. Gird your loins??

    As a side not, PZ, I hope that you have an unlisted number. And address. You do draw the weirdos to your blog!

  77. danielm says

    His screed is so irreversably broken, that even the bad translator refuses to translate it!

  78. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Oh dear. JAD is clearly mentally ill, and you have decided to taunt him. PZ, you are probably one of the kindest people ever; whatever has gotten into you? That was unkind, and not worthy of you. If anyone wants to call me a tone troll for this, so be it.

    Lee are you unaware of the history with this nutball?

  79. Copyleft says

    What a shame. How far he’s fallen from hosting That’s Incredible….

    Oh, wait.

    DAVISON, not Davidson.

    My apologies. Mr. Davidson clearly has made a more intellectual contribution to America than this joker ever could.

  80. Chuck C says

    Now get cracking and recognize that you have been mortally wounded.

    If I didn’t have the whole script memorized, I’d swear that was from The Holy Grail.

  81. OrchidGrowinMan says

    Would it be cruel to point these guys at each other for my own entertainment? I mean, I wouldn’t be FORCING them, and it would probably make them happy to have someone to argue with, even over if only over minutiae of their respective prophesies/philisophies. After all, wasn’t that a great sport of the Middle Ages? It was bloody then, but I think this is one that can be revived in our modern times, unlike bear-baiting, burning people and cats, and all that other fun.

    I’d think of starting it off sort of like XKCD:
    http://www.xkcd.com/555/

  82. Th0th says

    Fark has it’s own resident trolls, and even though they’re funny and predictable, they’re irritating as Hell because they screw up every single perfectly good evolutionary science thread. Bevets and SkinnyHead are the two most popular one, but recently we’ve obtained a guy by the name of CDP who is a sort of anti-troll inoculation. He posts screeds from various Creationist blogs and journals, then closes with an image that makes the aforementioned Creationists look like a complete joke. Some newbies take CDP to be a troll, and argue with him in the threads until someone lets them in on the fact that he’s on the side of science.

  83. SteveM says

    The longer you insist on silence the worse it will be for you. I will see to it and will enjoy every moment of it! Trust me.
    Cheers
    John

    Don’t you just love threats followed by “Cheers”?

  84. Quantumburrito says

    PZ, you should un-ban Davison here just for a week or so, so we can all have some great laughs at his expense. Then just ban him again.

  85. Agathon says

    Do the phrases “I’ll look for it,” and “I will see to it” sound like tics to anyone else?

  86. Will Von Wizzlepig says

    Black Knight: Right, I’ll do you for that!
    Arthur: You’ll what?
    Black Knight: Come ‘ere!
    Arthur: What are you going to do, bleed on me?
    Black Knight: I’m invincible!
    Arthur: You’re a loony.
    Black Knight: The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on then.

  87. Kevin Burkhoff says

    I definitely thought by mentioning the crazy one, Markuze, that would bring him here.

  88. IslandBrewer says

    A professor at UoV? Oh dear.

    This is quite sad, and reminds me of Harry Rubin and Peter Duesberg at UC Berkeley when I was a grad student.

    For those who don’t know, Peter Duesberg was actually a bright and promising virologist and epidemiologist once upon a time. And then, in the early days of AIDS research, he was skeptical of the claims that HIV caused AIDS. Unfortunately, his skepticism drifted into denialism long after there was sufficient evidence to prove him wrong, and persisted rather infamously as an HIV denialist for quite some time. He got some fame and notoriety from it, though.

    Harry Rubin is less well known. He was also considered a competent and well regarded cell biologist long ago, working with Harold Varmus and others. And then, he too became a denialist. A DNA denialist. Yes, he believes that DNA is not the mechanism that instructs cell differentiation or development, and that information is transmitted to cell progeny through an extra-nucleic acid mechanism. Oh, and he’s an HIV denialist, too.

  89. Criswell says

    Pales in comparison to Jim A’s ‘JAD Orders a Pizza’ (h/t jre for the link) but….:

    DM: Waiting? You were waiting on HIM??

    JAD: We meant no harm

    DM: Here? On MY INTERNET???

    JAD: We meant well; we love it so

    Kwok: As my good friend and long time mentor Genie Scott once said to Kevin Bacon who told my other good friend and delightful raconteur Jerry Coyne, who is not as mean as PZ by the way, really, I once..

    JAD: I have my own blog. So Jim Anderson says.

    Kwok: The internet is free to all. Just like I was telling Sherrill and Chris over lunch at Ciro’s when we were waiting on that bold spirited framer known as

    DM: THIS … IS ….. SPARTA! (sudden moment of lucidity) Or Rue Ste Catherine in Montreal (it passes) GOATS ON FIRE!!!

    JAD It’s not Sparta; it’s a disgrace; they shall all pay

    Kwok: Speaking of paying, did you known PZ welshed on giving me a camera? I wanted a shrubbery too and said ‘Ni’ at him – but to no avail even though I asked my friends Oprah and Dr. Phil…

    DM: Its not worth it.

    JAD: We can go

    DM: Shall we go

    JAD: Shall we go/I love it so (breaks into tin pan alley song…)

    (They do not move)

  90. finback says

    I remember asking JAD how his model of feral animals “regressing” back to their original genetic “type” held up against instances like how feral pigs in Australia, living in arid conditions, are more akin to peccaries than wild boar, or how our feral cats are much larger than any of the ancestral wild-cats.

    He said a) I was a moron b) that Australia didn’t count.

    *Australia didn’t count when it came to evolution*.

    Which was kind of awesome when you think about it.

    meanwhile, Dae @26

    I tend to deal with Rabid Wombats with a simple Terror, Dark Banish or Swords to Plowshares..

  91. Peter Ian Staker says

    Maybe Internet memes have just gotten to my head, but I keep picturing that Davison guy shouting “PAY ATTENTION TO ME! SHOW ME ON YOUR BLOG!” and PeeZed doing the ‘awesomeface’, saying “Cannot has!”