That was the best line in Larry King’s interview of Jon Stewart. I didn’t quite get the point of the interview, except as a study in contrasts: the dumbest and the smartest man in the news, and both are dealing in completely fake news.
Stewart did do an excellent job of putting King in his place, though.
Well, this isn’t a big surprise: Rick Santorum is writing a foreword to a book…this book, Darwin’s Nemesis, a volume that praises Philip Johnson, father of the Intelligent Design movement. Santorum has a very confused history with ID: he was the author of the Santorum amendment, an attempt to couple ID to the No Child Left Behind bill. It was stripped from the bill, but that has never stopped the creationists from claiming it was a legally binding requirement.
The really funny thing is that the day after the Dover decision came down, Santorum backed down fast. And now he’s endorsing a pro-ID book?
Repeat after me: FLIP-FLOP.
(via Atrios)
Never mind me, I’m running around with classes and meetings today…here are a few quick links.
I’ve been savoring this lovely used book I picked up a little while ago, The Book of Spiders and Scorpions by Rod Preston-Mafham, and am appreciating more than the fact that it is full of beautiful photography of spiders and lots of general information on arachnid behavior and physiology; it’s also true that spiders are awfully sexy beasts. They are playful and romantic and kinky and enthusiastic and ferocious and savage and exotic, and really know how to have a good time. I thought I’d share a few of the pretty pictures and details of the arachnid sex life with the readers of Pharyngula—so if you’re mature enough to handle it, exuberant enough to enjoy reading about interesting animals doing fun things, and aren’t too squicked out at the idea of closeups of spider genitalia, read on.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, what the hell is wrong with you?
I also refuse to pay any attention to the ghastly Huffington Post—it’s an example of the worst excesses of left-wing credulity, as represented by that fraud and quack, Deepak Chopra.
And it’s caught on tape. He was briefed the day before Katrina hit, heard Brown say this was “the big one”, that it was a bigger threat than Hurricane Andrew was, that there was great risk of loss of life, and that the topping of the levees was of great concern, and then would say with a straight face several days later that he didn’t think anyone anticipated the breech of the levees. He assured everyone that they were fully prepared to deal with the disaster.
Liar.
That’s our president: a useless, worthless lump who declaims platitudes in response to dire warnings, does nothing, and lies about it afterwards.
(via Neurotopia)
Powerline spouts the party line. It was overtopping, not breaching! It’s the usual fine-grained parsing to avoid the real issue: callous neglect and incompetence and CYA evasiveness by our duly elected Republican leadership. Soon they’ll be arguing that it depends on what the meaning of “is” is.
In my talk on Tuesday, I suggested that if we really want to teach the controversy, we ought to put the Norse creation myth in our classes. I had no idea the plan would be so popular.
Some things are just too stupid for words, but lots of people are emailing me about this fool’s plan.
He wants to enshrine his ignorance in the Nevada constitution.
And he’s a democrat. Gaaaaa. Can we all just point, laugh, and turn our backs on this guy from now on?
Here are a couple of accounts of encounters with creationists that are amusing to read.
