Got this via @RobinInce — an interview with Christopher Lee in which he talks about Peter Cushing and their shared fondness for Sylvester and Tweety Pie.

I now consider myself excused if I occasionally descend into being five years old again.

If this works, that is…we’re going to try to have a conversation on YouTube live.

Want to join in? Click here.

Because we’re victims of a lawsuit intended to harass us. As you’ve probably heard earlier this year, Skepticon, Amy Frank-Skiba, Stephanie Zvan, The Orbit, Freethought Blogs, and I are the target of a ridiculous $2 million lawsuit by Richard Carrier, and the legal bills are coming due (actually, I’ve already coughed up a good chunk of change). I don’t believe there’s any way we can lose, short of doing something stupid like not hiring competent legal representation, which costs money.

Skepticon is already asking for donations to help cover the legal costs, the rest of us will be tagging along shortly with a separate fundraiser. We’re all in this together, and the only reason Skepticon is doing their bit separately is because they’re a 501(c)(3) organization, so donations there are tax deductible, while the rest of us are just lowly ordinary citizens. Please do help us out by donating to Skepticon, but you might also save a few pennies to throw at the rest of us.

Oy, I can’t believe we have to do this.

Or at least learn to use it correctly. This article reminded me of one of my least favorite words:

“Controversial”.

It’s rarely used appropriately — it’s more of a weasel word applied to dignify positions that ought to be laughed off the page. For example, here are phrases that the press might qualify with the modifier “controversial”:

• The earth is roughly spherical.
• The earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
• Dinosaurs did not live at the same time as humans.
• The planet did not experience a Great Flood any time in human history.
• The Civil War was fought over the institution of slavery.
• The United States has been and is a fundamentally racist nation.
• Global warming is real, and anthropogenic.
• Vaccines work and save lives.
• Black people are human.
• Women are people.

Every one of those claims is actually true, and is well-supported by the evidence. The existence of people who disagree with each of them is also a fact, but that fact is not sufficient to render the ideas “controversial”. We share a world with Alex Jones and David Icke, people who state the most absurd, insane, ridiculous propositions as facts, and their intrusion into any and every argument does not suddenly make every established idea that they disagree with “controversial”. I’ve had to deal with people for years who think evolution is a “controversial” theory, and the press just parrots the C-word right back for them.

So, just a suggestion for 2017: before you label something “controversial”, ask yourself whether it is actually something about which there is serious doubt and a substantial body of realistic argument on both sides…or even whether it is at all appropriate to fit it into this cartoonish two-sides model of everything. Because I guarantee you that the evidence-less, weak, minority side is going to love it when you elevate their lunacy to the status of a “controversy”.

I take it all back. 2016 sucks.

You know how when someone you love is in pain, and there’s not one damn thing you can do about it? It’s also personal and private, so I’m not going to discuss it, but at least I can show you how I feel.

We’ll all get better. But everything is going to be a bit raw for a while.

Carrie Fisher and I were about the same age, so I have to agree, she was too young and lively to die.

Dang. I should have headed off to Hollywood when I was 19 to become a cinema icon. Missed my chance.

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Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher’s mother, has died now, too. Outliving your children is a hard burden to bear.

Tell them you want to show them the true meaning of Christmas. Then play this video.

Let them know this is what you’re president-elect has in mind for us all.

You might also let them know that duck-and-cover crap is total bullshit.

You know what that means? I’m going to go take a long walk in the frigid cold, stop off at the gym, walk back to my lab, spend some time taking care of animals, water the plants in the greenhouse, and come home to an otherwise empty house occupied by an evil cat princess.

Bah, humbug already.

Guess what I’m going to do Christmas morning! The same thing!

Oh, also, I got the official notification that I’m denied a sabbatical next year. Bah! Humbug!

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I’m back! Animals watered, plants fed…hope I got all the instructions down correctly. Now I have to buckle down and get a couple of hours of textbook reading done.