Other people get email about me

Uh-oh. I’m in big trouble now — I’ve been ratted out to the governor. My nefarious schemes will certainly be foiled now! Here is the revealing letter; I’ve added a few comments in red to it.

Dear Governor Pawlenty

I am an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, having received my Ph.D. in Zoology in 1954 [We’ve gotten better since then].

I have for some time been concerned about the behavior of Paul Zachary Myers, Associate Professor of Biology at the Morris campus of the University. His rabid attacks on our most treasured institutions [What? The Discovery Institute?] give me great concern both for the University and for the citizens of the State of Minnesota [Since, as we all know, criticizing anything puts people in peril]. I have written to the Provost and received neither acknowledgement nor reply [I wonder why?]. I complained to the Board of Regents and received a reply from the Chancellor of the Morris campus supporting Myers’ right to say what he wants [I have heard of this custom, called “freedom of speech”]. Minnesota has become a center for Universal Atheism [I wish!] largely due to the pervasive influence of this man [Moi? Feel the power!] and his hundreds of devoted followers [Minnesota: population 5,200,000. Followers: hundreds. Yet we conquer!]. It shows in the presence of another foul mouthed atheist, Al Franken [I saw him campaign: he pointed out his Jewish religious beliefs frequently], poised to become a member of Congress [I wish, again…latest results show Coleman clinging to a slim lead]. I want you to know my feelings with the hope that you might use your influence as Governor and ex-officio member of the Board of Regents to expose and counter [How?], as I have and continue to do, Myers’ corrosive influence which I believe extends far beyond the borders of the State of Minnesota [My tentacles reach far]. It is especially important now that we have elected a man to the Presidency with extremely uncertain purposes [Delusional paranoid speaking there]. I see the future of the Republic to be in grave jeopardy [If Obama is Palpatine, do I get to be Darth Vader?].

Sincerely yours,

John A. Davison [Retired crackpot], Professor Emeritus of Biology

If I suddenly disappear after this, look for me in the dungeons below the Capitol in St Paul.

Egnor loses it, again

Creationists must live on a different planet. I just summarized this symposium I attended; I posted the schedule last week. In between, Michael Egnor takes this scrap of information and spins out a weird tale. He actually put up a post titled, “Is P.Z. Myers Attending a Conference on Eugenics?”. To which one can only mutter, “WTF?”

Here’s his “reasoning”:

I’m having trouble finding the program Myers is referring to (why wasn’t I invited!?), but Claudia Cohen Hall is on the medical campus at Penn, so I surmise that the presentations will be on eugenics (apologies for it, I hope), which is Darwin’s only legacy to medicine.

But of course eugenics won’t be mentioned, except perhaps brief exculpations (“Eugenics was the misuse of Darwin’s theory by a few rogue geneticists…”). No doubt the talks will be ‘Children Hate Vegetables Because of Ancestral Reproductive Advantage of Avoiding Toxins’ or ‘We Will Evolve Oiler Skin Because of Frequent Bathing’ or ‘X-Linked Color Blindness Evolved to Help Paleolithic Male Hunters See Camouflage.’ Believe it or not, these are actual cutting-edge evolutionary “theories.”

Do we need any further demonstration that creationists are divorced from reality, have no interest in pursuing the truth, and will make stuff up on the airiest of whims? No, it wasn’t a conference about eugenics, pro or con. No, it wasn’t about medicine. No, none of those very silly talks were given. No, since evolution contributes substantially to basic biology, all that stuff about how cells work and interact and change, evolution has contributed significantly to modern medicine — Egnor’s ignorance of the mechanistic underpinnings of what medicine does is no excuse.

Oh, and Dr Egnor, I can guess why you weren’t invited. It’s because you’re a babbling chowderhead.

Zombies defend Christmas!

That’s all I can imagine: this imaginary conflict has gotten so stupid that it must be mindless undead droning out their need for brains who are still fighting it (oh, hi, Bill O’Reilly!). The latest instance is one of these always-affronted religion organizations that has made a Naughty and Nice List, to “make sure that Christmas does not get secularized or censored from its essence, namely the birth of Jesus Christ”. On the naughty list: Disney, because their online store is called the “holiday shop”. On the nice list: Best Buy, because Jesus wants a new digital camera they use the word “Christmas” in their commercials. These are all, of course, stores selling stuff. I had no idea that the swiping of the credit card had become a sacred rite, holy to Jesus Christ.

I’m rather fed up with the pointless inanity, especially since most of the godless I know will be celebrating this Christmas. Here’s a suggestion. Maybe all of us atheists need to point out that “holiday” is derived from “holy day”, and retire aghast to our fainting couches at this religious taint to the season, moaning, “Oh, Br’er Jebusite, please don’t use that word holiday on me”. Then they’ll get all smug and satisfied when some store acknowledges that it is a generic holiday, and they’ll all shut up.

Casey Luskin writes a revealing letter

A while back, two ladies visited the Discovery Institute, and wrote about their experiences afterwards. They admittedly did so under false pretenses, acting as if they were fellow travelers in creationism, but they did get interesting and amusing responses from the inhabitants.

They tried to do it again. They wrote a letter and were entirely upfront about their motives this time, and asked to have a real conversation about Intelligent Design creationism.

Casey Luskin wrote back. It would have been entirely understandable if he’d simply turned them down, but no … instead, he writes a long letter in which he stirs himself to defend the DI in a rambling reply that offers fascinating insight into how these people see themselves. Number one: they are civil. That seems to be all that matters. Never mind that they are calling almost every biologist in the world corrupt and deceitful; ignore the fact that they are a propaganda organization trying to poison the educational system of our country; it is entirely irrelevant that they are ignorant of biology yet want to dictate how all of science should be taught; they think they are being very, very nice. And Casey Luskin, of course, has been nothing but sweetness and generosity, a poor soul who has been rebuffed by the “Darwinist community”, and who gets called mean names.

Then he makes demands. He’s willing to meet and talk if:

  1. The ladies apologize for their previous attitudes towards the DI.

  2. They edit all of their past posts about their visit to the DI to add a disclaimer, saying that they were sorry, that they were naughty, and urging everyone else to be nice to the DI.

  3. They make a new series of blog posts that call all those other “Darwinist” blogs on the carpet.

  4. They cease saying mean things about all creationists henceforth.

Awww, doesn’t that sound exactly like someone who wants to kiss and make up? Although I’m actually thinking the whole thing makes him sound like a whiny, pretentious pipsqueak.

Ooops, there I go again. I just violated the “culture of civility” in which Casey takes such peculiarly unself-aware pride. I am chastened, and need to revise my approach, I think. I therefore offer to get together and discuss reconciliation with the creationists if:

  1. Casey Luskin immediately apologizes for the Institute’s meddling in school boards around the country.

  2. They edit all of their PR pieces at Evolution News & Views to include a disclaimer, saying that they were sorry, they really don’t know what they’re talking about, and they ought not to be peddling such nonsense.

  3. They make a new series of blog posts at EN&V that tell all the ID blogs that they shouldn’t be pushing propaganda anymore, and that their ought to be some actual science done for ID before they make further demands to change the culture to suit their ideology.

  4. They cease saying stupid things about biology henceforth.

I think that’s fair.

He’ll probably turn me down. That’s OK. The poor guy has just added to his own mythos with an obliviously pathetic email that adds pitiful whiner to his accomplishments as a credentialist toady and scientific ignoramus; maybe he’ll learn his lesson, and realize that sometimes he needs to shut up, crawl into a corner, and lick his wounds.

(By the way, the two ladies will be on the Skepticality podcast in a week or two. I’ll have to catch that one for sure.)

The Wall Street Journal editorial pages are a very silly place

The United States has some serious problems: an ugly war, a shaky economy, a bad government (on the way out, at last). It’s been a rough eight years. So of course it must be someone’s fault, and Daniel Henninger has a simple explanation: blame the atheists. Especially blame the atheist’s successful war on Christmas. He says, “A nation whose people can’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ is a nation capable of ruining its own economy.” You see, we’ve all lost the important values of “responsibility, restraint, and remorse” that Christianity inculcates.

It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.

The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.

Feel free: Banish Merry Christmas. Get ready for Mad Max.

Wait, what? The country has been run for the last eight years by a gang of amoral atheists? Bankers are atheists? All those people who borrowed money unwisely are atheists? Christians don’t default on loans, don’t exploit lax banking rules, don’t start wars, don’t torture?

I would like to visit Mr Henninger’s alternate dimension.

Here on my planet, of course, this country has been run by the evangelical wing of the Republican party, the vast majority of the population are Christians, it’s almost impossible to get elected to positions of any power without being a professing theist, and the religious right has been deeply tangled in political decisions, while atheists do little more than write books. Nobody has banned “Merry Christmas” — militant atheists like Dawkins (and Myers) happily put up Christmas trees every December, although of course we do regard it as an entirely secular holiday.

I’m not at all concerned about people who say “Merry Christmas”, and don’t really think whether you say the magic mantra or not has much of an effect on the economy. I’m much more worried that the editorial staff at the Wall Street Journal, who all seem to be delusional loons, might be influencing the management of our economy.

Maybe Mr Henninger needs to read Kathleen Parker, who at least has noticed that the Republican party has become the god-walloping know-nothing party, and that maybe that has something to do with the state of the nation.

God speaks up

At first, I was a bit put off by the awesome hubris of someone filing an amicus brief on behalf of god, especially since it was a brief in favor of California’s proposition 8. Who would have the gall to declare that they speak for a deity, and use that false authority to promote intolerance and hatred? Oh, wait … that’s rather common, actually.

But then I read further, and discovered that this was something special. The author isn’t just speaking for god, she is god!

I solemnly declare that I am both fully God and fully human in nature, and currently I am on earth dwelling among the human race. My fully God nature is Messiah’s sibling in the Holy Trinity’s family. I am the third Person and youngest person in the Almighty Eternal Creator’s family. I currently reside on earth and I am the sole heiress of the Almighty Eternal Creator. My declaration is based on the Genuine Holy Bible, especially the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelations that are full of revelations regarding the truth of my identity and my authority over humans on earth, given to me by the Master of the Universe, who is Almighty Eternal Creator!

Well, that’s all right then. I guess D. Q. Mariette Do-Nguyen does have the authority to file.

Hooray for Catholics!

Don’t be too shocked at the title; my arguments are with Catholicism, not the poor unfortunate victims of that dogma, the Catholics. In this case, one Catholic organization, Catholics for Choice (uh-oh—already, I can tell that one argument against them will be that they aren’t True Catholics™) has published a scathing criticism of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League. Here’s their summary:

  • From the beginning, the Catholic League was marked by a schizophrenic attitude that
    would become its hallmark: It simultaneously argued for the right of conservative
    Catholics to impose their values in the public sphere, while arguing against the right
    of others in the public sphere to offer legitimate criticism of Catholics or Catholicism.

  • The Catholic League tactics are i) manufacture controversy; ii) try to intimidate the
    “enemy”; iii) bully the opposition; iv) complain early and often; v) attack popular
    culture; and vi) silence the loyal opposition.

  • In utilizing these tactics it actively embarrasses, intimidates, bullies and distorts
    reality to suppress critics of the Catholic church, the Vatican, and the church’s many
    controversial policies.

  • Catholic League president Bill Donohue is in a constant quest for the next
    “controversy” to keep his particular brand of reactionary Catholicism in the media
    spotlight.

  • Once Donohue has found a “controversy” he uses wildly inflated rhetoric that is sure
    to inflame–either in print or in one of his infamous cable TV news appearances–and
    then stages a protest or takes out an ad in the New York Timesto attract attention.
    Then he waits for the seemingly ever-receptive press to show up.

  • When it comes to peddling its special brand of inflammatory rhetoric, the media and
    arts have been a special target of the Catholic League since the mid-1990s.

  • The number of examples of anti-Catholicism claimed by the Catholic League grew
    from 140 in 1995 to 320 in 2006, yet the only thing that seems to have actually
    increased is the League’s definition of anti-Catholic activity.

  • As thin-skinned as Donohue appears to be when it comes to any one else referring to
    Catholicism, Jesus or the Virgin Mary, apparently his rules don’t apply to himself and
    his friends.

  • Unable to explain away the Catholic church’s embarrassing pedophilia scandal,
    Donohue tried to turn it back on progressive Catholic activists, claiming that they
    were exaggerating the scandal to try and bring down the church.

  • When the media cover the tempests he manages to whip up from time to time, few
    ever stop to examine the basis for his objections–they just cover the dog fight.

  • Donohue claims that the Catholic League has some 350,000 members and that
    number is often used by the media when referencing the organization’s supposed
    clout. These numbers, however, appear to be a highly inflated picture of the Catholic
    League’s actual membership.

Right on!

Read the whole thing, all 25 pages of it. It’s a very useful takedown.

An early Christmas present!

Watch Bill Donohue explode! I know, it’s so easy to set him off, so it’s not much of a present…maybe we should think of it as a reassuringly repetitive holiday tradition. This time he’s outraged because humanists bought ad space on city buses. It prompts him to a tirade about atheists, Hitler, and even fatwah envy — they’re always picking on Christmas, and don’t have the guts to abuse Ramadan, don’t you know.