Ken Ham whines again

Shorter Ken Ham: Other museums have dinosaur models with saddles, so why does everyone pick on my “museum”?. Ham seems to have been scrambling to save face by finding a few other places that put out exhibits of dinosaurs with saddles, but he, as usual, misses the point.

Yes, other places will display dinosaurs as fun exhibits for the kids, and I have no problem with that. The natural history museum at the University of Utah had a talking dinosaur out front — throw a coin in its mouth, and it would roar and thank you for your donation, and my kids were always pestering me for my spare change. That’s fine; they knew it was for fun, and when you went upstairs, you saw serious displays of real fossils with accurate ages and relationships posted by them, and no one argued that they could talk, or that people coexisted with them, or that they could be saddled and ridden.

Ken Ham doesn’t do that. Right after he blubbers that he is being unfairly mocked, this is what he has to say:

By the way, we do believe that dinosaurs and humans have co-existed; I am only pointing out here how these evolutionists can be inconsistent–and also misrepresent what is in our Creation Museum. The Minnesota professor we mentioned above knows that our saddled dinosaur is in a children’s play area and is not a museum exhibit. Even though there is a sign next to the sculpted dinosaur that says it is only for children to get on (“wear and tear” is lessened that way), this atheist professor–consistent with his belief that he lives in a universe without purpose and standards of any kind–felt that he could disregard the child-only sign (even after he signed an agreement–drafted by the tour leader of his atheist group–that he would obey the museum’s policies rules).

Kenny baby. That’s the thing: your “museum” pretends, in defiance of all the credible evidence, that dinosaurs and humans co-existed. That’s what makes your whole preposterous edifice a great big joke — not that you have kiddie rides, but that the dinosaur with a saddle is so perfectly emblematic of the whole Creation “Museum” experience. That’s what makes this picture funny.

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(Thanks to Steve O’Kane for the cleaned-up, polished version of this image)

We aren’t laughing at the dinosaur with a saddle, Ken. We’re laughing at you, and the fact that you are so oblivious to the absurdity.

Atheism and sex and gender

I’m sad now. Jen has a video of Greta Christina talking about atheism and sexuality, and for several days I’ve been trying to get it to work…and no matter what I do, it won’t play. Greta is great, though, so it’s almost certainly an excellent talk…maybe it will work for you.

Greta Christina on Atheism & Sexuality from Jennifer McCreight on Vimeo.

Jen also has the results (and more) of a survey of her readers, with the somewhat sorta kinda surprising result that even as a young feminist atheist writer, 75% of her audience are male. We need to encourage more women to participate and lead the atheist movement — speak up if you have suggestions how to increase women’s involvement. And telling us to be nicer and softer and gentler, as if women are somehow more delicate and need more coddling, is only going to make Elizabeth Cady Stanton spin in her grave. I’ve noticed that atheist women are quite good at roaring ferociously themselves.

Allah hates masturbation

You all know that if you masturbate, you will become feeble, blind, and incontinent, right? Well, at least according to folk wisdom shouted at you by grandmas and grandpas (who, I will assure you, masturbated: it’s a nearly universal practice.) As it turns out, a compendium of Islamic thought on masturbation agrees on all points, and adds a few other consequences of the practice I bet you never thought of.

Atta (Rahmatullahi alaihi) says: “Some people will be resurrected in such a condition that their hands will be pregnant, I think they are those who masturbate.” (Tafsir Mazhari, vol 12, pg 94)

I am trying to visualize that, and failing. Fortunately.

Have no fear, though, there is a remedy! Under Islam, you are not allowed to masturbate, but you are encouraged to have sex with your slave girls!

Libertarianism defined

Uh-oh, the libertarians are getting noisy again. I have not expressed myself clearly enough, I guess. I will remind them all of my previous commentary about anti-environmentalists and libertarian nut-cases, and I will also cite with great approval a passage from one of my favorite authors.

It has been revealed that I’m a fan of Iain Banks. On my last long flight, I read his latest, Transition(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), which is a SF novel about people who can shift to alternate streams of reality, and who choose to meddle. One of the heroes of the story, Mrs Mulverhill, is explaining to another character about the various bizarre forms of government they find in alternate time-lines, and she defines one of the more freakishly weird.

“Libertarianism. A simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard.”

That is perfectly in line with my own sentiments. Libertarianism isn’t so much a political and economic movement as it is a widespread pathology.

As for the book itself — not bad. It suffers a bit from odd expectations, since he writes his SF Culture novels as “Iain M. Banks” and his less genre-specific (and often more disturbing) books as “Iain Banks”, and this is an M-less book that isn’t about the Culture but is definitely SF. It’s a fairly mainstream SF novel without the level of perversity and weirdness I love most about Banks’ stories, but still recommended.

Kevin Smith is too fat for the sky

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Kevin Smith, the writer and raconteur, was recently booted from a plane for being too fat. He’s a big guy, but not so big he doesn’t fit in an airplane seat — so this looks like some weird, nasty, rude policy being pushed by Southwest Airlines. It’s an injustice, but it’s also hilarious, because Kevin Smith is the kind of guy who can turn it into a 1½ hour rant.

It’s also amusing because Smith has 1½ million followers on Twitter, and he tweeted the whole escapade. He has far more followers than Southwest Airlines, and while maybe they’re trying to say their side of the story on the airline’s blog, Smith’s readers have melted their blog down.

It was a wonderfully awful PR move. You do not cross Kevin Smith, or he’ll turn you into a story in a long monologue.

I’m rather disappointed in some of the comments here. All the whining about “I don’t want to sit next to a fat person” is deplorable — look at yourselves. Are you perfect?

I do a lot of flying, and I’ve had to sit next to a few very large people who are much larger than Kevin Smith. It was a far more pleasant experience than sitting next to a) the chain smoker who reeked of cigarettes and was jittering the whole time, b) the drunk guy who hadn’t bathed in a few days, c) the couple with the baby who cried the whole flight, d) the little old lady who had to get up every 10 minutes to use the bathroom, e) the evangelical who tried to witness to me, or f) the young lady who was chronically airsick.

When you get on an airplane, you are voluntarily joining a cross-section of humanity who will be packed as tightly as the airline can squeeze you into the flying tin can. You will discover that people are diverse. Sometimes they will annoy you, and sometimes you will annoy them. Get used to it. Learn to be tolerant with the expectation that others will tolerate you.

The bottom line for me is that Kevin Smith was healthy, mobile, and fit (perhaps tightly) into the narrow volume of space allotted him. He did not require special assistance, did not demand special privileges, and was accommodating to his neighbors. He should have been allowed to fly, but was selectively discriminated against.

Weight was just an excuse.