Poor Martyn Iles

Martyn Iles lost his status as Ken Ham’s successor at Answers in Genesis (there’s a story there, I’m sure, but no one is talking), and now he’s an immigrant wandering loose in the United States, which is definitely not a good position to be in. Normally, I’d be sympathetic, but Martyn Iles? The Young Earth Creationist and far right kook? Nah. Deport him.

Prayer request: | need a new visa for the USA so | can come and go freely for our new project.
The lawyer recommends going for an O-1 visa, but it’s a high bar.
I’ll need some senior political and church figures to help me out with letters that verify my past activities… essentially to confirm that | have been a national leader in political, legal and grassroots advocacy work. And trust nobody who really hates my beliefs ends up with the application on their desk.
But once it’s granted, it’s a very good visa, and very durable.
So… Pray everyone is suddenly overtaken by a desire to do me just a small favour

OK, I’ll be generous: everyone can give him all the prayers he might want. I don’t know what his “new project” is, but I’m sure it’s garbage pandering to ignorance.

I am relieved that our invasion plans are all going to fail

I think this clown’s head might roll pretty good

Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and Panama are even more relieved that the American war machine is run by idiots and incompetents. When they make war plans, they invite random journalists to the meeting…which is also held over a commercial app rather than all those secret channels the government controls. The editor of the Atlantic got advance notice about a recent bombing run over Yemen.

The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.

I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.

This is going to require some explaining.

Is it? Is it, really?

It’s clear the military is being controlled by the gang who can’t shoot straight. My questions are: are they going to repeat this behavior next time they want to blow something up? Are they going to pay attention when the Pentagon tells them to not use that app? Will the Democrats be as persistent in hounding these baboons as the Republicans were about Hillary’s Emails?

And, was Pete Hegseth sober at this badly mismanaged meeting?

The fox is in charge of the henhouse

NASA’s budget is getting slashed.

NASA is terminating $420 million in contracts the agency says are redundant or “misaligned” with its core priorities, but has provided few details about what is being cut.

In a statement to SpaceNews late March 24, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens confirmed a post by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that NASA had terminated about $420 million in “unneeded” contracts.

The question I have is…how much of that $420 million in contracts was going to SpaceX, which is run by Elon Musk, who is also running DOGE?

Much corruption, so respect.

Feminine stereotypes

Male tarantulas, when they reach sexual maturity, are focused on wandering away to find sex, to the point where they may lose interest in eating.

Females, on the other hand, turn into voracious consumers of calories.

Blue wants her morning mealworm, and strikes like lightning.

The “Average Christian” is a believer in lies

Apparently I need to go back to bed and shut down all social media, because this is the dreck I’m getting now on Bluesky.

Created by @darwintojesus, posted by @markwillworship

I can’t resist, let’s look a little more closely at the supposed contrasts in this illustration.

The average atheist pretends to understand science, while the average Christian understands science. I’m an atheist who has an advanced degree in biology and teaches evolution, and I guarantee you that the average Christian apologist does not know the first thing about science — I’ve been debating them for a few decades. All I have to do is point out that this illustration was created by a fanatical Christian who thinks Darwin is to science as Jesus is to Christianity.

The atheist doesn’t believe in right and wrong while the Christian believes in right and wrong. Atheists do believe in right and wrong, they just reject the unthinking authoritarian right and wrong, the rule-following idea that Christians have that they already possess absolute inviolable Truth in their mish-mash of a Bible.

The atheist secretly hates god while the Christian loves god. Nope. God doesn’t exist. We don’t feel much of anything about the invisible man. Now Christians, on the other hand…

The atheist doesn’t care about evidence while the Christian cares about evidence. The one thing about most debates between Christians and atheists is that the atheist will spend most of his time asking for evidence to back up the Christian’s assertions, while the Christian will gish-gallop all over the place, making a whole series of baseless claims. These debates get boring and predictable.

See also the atheist refuses to defend his atheist worldview while the Christian defends his worldview. This is not true, the two approach this concern from two different angles. The Christian thinks a recitation of dogma is a defense, while the atheist expects to give and take evidence.

The atheist has no purpose while the Christian has a real purpose. All purposes are constructed frameworks we use to explain why we do what we do. Atheists have them, they just don’t accept that they are fixed and absolutely assigned by a deity who communicates them to us through an old book. Christians real purpose is an arbitrary bit of nonsense, to serve God, which is dangerous and destructive since that God is observed by following a lot of out-of-date rules that don’t apply to the society we live in.

Then the whole image collapses into scattershot nonsense because the artist couldn’t think of comparable contrasts.

I’m not particularly terrified of dying, I’m sort of resigned to the reality — but I will resist it even as I know it’s inevitable. I don’t believe that Christians are unafraid of death or ready to die and go home, they will fight it as hard as I will.

I don’t think I’m just an evolved fish. Fish are pretty amazing organisms. I respect my lineage, I don’t deny it like the average Christian does.

I do understand the moral argument. That’s just the idea that a moral norm is an objective truth that is only explainable as a command from a God, or a kind of created instinct. I understand it, I just reject it.

I don’t want to be god. Can Christians ever get it through their thick skulls that we don’t believe in gods?

I’ll add another label. The average Christian believes in pious bullshit and readily lies about others.

JB Pritzker makes my day

We have two kinds of Democrats in the party, and I want to see more of the JB Pritzker kind.

He gave a great speech.

Donald Trump cannot take anything from us that we don’t choose to give him. He and his henchmen don’t want people to realize that. But now is the time for us to wake up. The good news is every day I’m seeing more and more people across this country realize that they don’t want to give him much at all.

The question I get asked most right now is, “So what can I do? What can I do?” And I’m going to be blunt about this. Never before in my life have I called for mass activism, but this is the moment. Take to the streets, protest, show up at town halls. Jam the phone lines in Congress, 202-224-3121, and afford not a moment of peace to any elected representatives who are aiding and abetting Musk and Trump’s illegal power grab. This is not a drill, folks. This is the real thing.

Seize every megaphone you have. Go online and make a donation to the legal funds fighting Trump, to HRC, and to the candidates for Congress that vow to take this country backward. And don’t limit your voice to the traditional political channels. Be like Lucy Welch. When JD Vance went to vacation at the Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont, Lucy, who writes the Sugarbush Daily Snow Report, used her report to defend her diverse and wonderful community, ending by saying, “I am using my relative platform as a snow reporter to be disruptive. What we do or don’t do matters.”

What we do and don’t do matters. It matters right now more than it ever has before. When my future grandkids look back on this moment, I want them to know that my voice was one of the loudest in the room, screaming for justice and fighting against tyranny.

And in the midst of this existential fight, this battle that seems to consume everything, well, let’s not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular. I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.

Yes! More Democrats like that!

The Eichorn saga is sinking into the abyssal depths

Remember Justin Eichorn? The Minnesota Republican who was caught in a sting trying pick up 16 year old girls? This is what he looked like before his arrest.

Update: here’s his latest available photo:

Yikes. That man is not coping well. He’s also in even more trouble: he tried to get an accomplice to go to his apartment before the police, in order to get a gun he lied about, and to get rid of a laptop. They failed. The police haven’t yet said what was on the laptop, but I think the fact that he would try to hide the evidence is incriminating in itself.

You know, I don’t feel any need to erase my browser history if I’m ever arrested — it might be weird, and it might trigger a few WTFs, but there’s nothing illegal on it.

Another twist of the knife: Eichorn’s wife has filed for divorce. This guy has ruined his life.

I think Blue is a she

Blue is the lab mascot, a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, and after their last molt, they’ve acquired the dark blue and blue-green colors of a mature greenbottle blue tarantula, and maybe reached sexual maturity. I’ve been checking out those palps, and they look very feminine to me.

Let me know what you think.

Fortunately, Blue is a perfectly good name for a female. Or male. Or immature juvenile.