I’m pretty sure that’s sarcasm

One of our soldiers in Iraq leaves an interesting comment on the web:

Here’s a picture of me celebrating Ash Wednesday shortly before going out on mission. The Catholic Priest also blessed all of our Gun Trucks. You can’t ask for much more protection than that when doing Convoy Security. Unless of course, I painted a picture of a unicorn on the side of my Gun Truck. I don’t know anyone who could hurt a unicorn. Especially one that has magic dust. Those are my favorite.

I think he’s mocking the whole business, but I note that he’s still getting the magic ashes daubed on his forehead.

Let’s hope the fairy sprinkles work.

The right author for the job

Kevin Beck tells us that finally, Florida has the right spokesman for the creationist situation down there: Carl Hiaasen has written an editorial. If you don’t know Hiaasen, you should — he writes hilarious comic novels that highlight the absurdity of politics and culture and crime in Florida. I’m wondering if he doesn’t see the recent creationist shenanigans in his state as an opportunity for more local color and background research.

He is taking an ironic approach though: it’s all about “boldly going against the flow, in defiance of reason and all known facts,” and you can see that he’s in a win:win situation. If evolution is supported, the state provides better education. If evolution goes down, the state provides more fodder for his books and columns.

Matthew who?

Apparently, I was challenged by some functional illiterate who demanded that I address some unstated complaint by 5:30 today, or I will “forever be cast as having no credibility.” , and accusing me of hiding some “skeletons”.

Those skeletons aren’t mine, they’re the department’s, and really, they’re right out in plain sight. I do have a few bones of my own in my office, but they’re all fossilized, and tens of millions of years old — I have an alibi!

I think I’ll let that deadline slide on by.

Holy crap. This Matthew guy has finally spelled out the shocking revelation, the horrific skeleton in my closet, the disturbing fact that he was demanding I admit.

Brace yourselves. My credibility is going to be a shambles after this.

The horrible, terrible, no good wicked fact that I’ve concealed is … that I’m going to be in the Expelled movie!

Seriously. That’s it.

The tidbit was that PZ was in the movie. This was news to me and hence reported as such. I’m a bit surprised that it did not come out during the escapades in January but c’est la vie I guess.

Wow. That is some world-class stupid. It’s been all over Pharyngula, but perhaps he doesn’t read this site; but it’s also been all over the Expelled movie site. We’ve been talking about this since around August, and now, in the last weeks of February, a small squeaky voice pipes up to say, “I got you now Myers, you’re in that movie, ha haaaa!”, and the sad little gomer acts as if he’s made an astonishing discovery.

Tom Bethell cries

Russell Seitz discovers another review of Expelled. It’s by that deluded dolt, Tom Bethell, and it’s a positive review.

It is surely the best thing ever done on this issue, in any medium. At moments it brought tears of joy to my eyes. I have written about this controversy for over 30 years and by the movie’s end I felt that those of us who have insisted that Darwinism is a sorry mess and that life surely was designed are going to prevail.

Deluded much? If he were at all aware of the science of biology, he’d know that evolution is not going anywhere but deeper into explaining life on earth. A propaganda film cannot change the science, although it could, if it were better done, change the culture in damaging ways.

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Salt of the earth

Perhaps you thought that glossolalic freak I highlighted the other day is unrepresentative of religious attitudes in America. How about these people, though?

They’re probably good, decent people who care about their families, but listen to what they are saying — they are picking a president on the basis of his dedication to the Bible. They are advocating a foreign policy based on biblical prophecy. They measure patriotism by whether someone “worships” (interesting slip, there) the flag and Jesus. They parrot lies, such as that Obama is planning to be sworn in on the Koran.

Like I said, probably good people…but the whole problem here is that their brains have been poisoned by religion, a lying, dishonest, corrupting religion that has turned them into deluded fools. Lay the blame for this criminal distortion of human minds right at the feet of religious belief.

Oh, and lest anyone think I’m not an equal opportunity rejecter of religion—be entertained by this Iraqi kook who thinks the earth is flat. Blame that idiocy on religion, too.

Full-Time, One-Year Faculty Position at UMM Biology

Full-Time, One-Year Faculty Position in Biology
University of Minnesota, Morris

The University of Minnesota, Morris seeks an individual committed to excellence in undergraduate education, to fill a full-time, one-year position in biology beginning August 18, 2008. Responsibilities include: teaching undergraduate biology courses including an introductory level survey of organismal biology (with lab) and a core ecology course (with lab); advising undergraduates; and sharing in the governance and advancement of the biology program as well as the campus at-large.

Candidates must be at least A.B.D. in ecology, organismal biology or a closely related field. One year experience teaching undergraduate biology is required. (Graduate TA experience is acceptable.)

The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) is a nationally-recognized, small, selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts campus of the University of Minnesota. It has an enrollment of about 1650 students with 120 faculty members. The campus is located in west-central Minnesota, 160 miles from Minneapolis, in a rural community of 5000 people. The college is organized into four academic divisions, of which Science and Mathematics is one. Disciplines represented in the division are Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics. The college attracts excellent students many of whom go on to graduate or professional studies. Visit www.morris.umn.edu/positions/ to learn about other open positions at UMM.

Excellent fringe benefits and a collegial atmosphere accompany the position. Appointment will be at the Assistant Professor level for those having the Ph.D. in hand and at the Instructor level for others. The standard teaching load is twenty credit hours per year.

Applications must include a letter of application, resume, transcripts, a teaching statement (in which teaching goals and methods are discussed), and three letters of reference. Send applications to:

Biology Search Committee Chair
Division of Science and Mathematics
University of Minnesota, Morris
600 East 4th Street
Morris, MN 56267-2128

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Screening begins March 14, 2008. Inquiries can be made to Ann Kolden, Executive Office and Administrative Specialist, at (320) 589-6301 or koldenal@morris.umn.edu.

The University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

I am underwhelmed

Perhaps I’m not as disappointed as Greg, but I am unimpressed with the ‘presidential’ debate at the AAAS. What we had was two assistants to the Clinton and Obama campaigns (the Republicans were complete no-shows) pop in to run through some canned promises. There was no debate. There was no commitment from the candidates themselves.

I think that the ScienceDebate2008 idea is a great one, and the failing is really on the part of the candidates and the parties themselves. Obama will happily leap to appease the faith-heads of an organization like Call to Renewal; Clinton thinks the Decorah First Methodist Church is an appropriate campaign venue; the Republicans traditionally kowtow to training grounds for anti-science morons like Bob Jones University; but none of them could invest a day speaking to scientists at one of the biggest science conferences in the country, sponsored by a prestigious organization like AAAS? Their priorities are clearly screwed up.

A presidential science debate is a grand idea. What we need to do now, though, is not praise them for a pathetic, back-handed, minimal effort, but rake them all over the coals for their inadequacies.