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stcynic | January 5, 2006Okay, I didn't see Bill O'Reilly's appearance on the David Letterman show two nights ago, but I did see O'Reilly whining about it on his show last night and I frankly laughed my ass off. Apparently Letterman told him that he thinks about 60% of what he says is crap, which strikes me as a tad too low, and O'Reilly apparently spent all afternoon on his radio show posing about it and then virtually his whole TV show as well. First he had Juan Williams (when did he sign a contract requiring him to kiss O'Reilly's ass?) and Jeanne Wolf (good lord, why?) on to talk about it.
Williams dutifully…
stcynic | January 5, 2006David Schraub points out something interesting while linking to my post about Douglas Laycock going to U of M law school and being a grad of Michigan State:
Interesting factoid revealed--he attended Michigan State University as an undergrad. Know who else did? Constitutional law and Church/State expert Michael W. McConnell, currently on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and, in my opinion, one of the more brilliant writers I've ever read. What is in the water in East Lansing?
I suspect both of them went to James Madison college at MSU, which is home to a lot of pre-law students. But it is…
jlynch | January 4, 2006You only have to visit the ID-friendly sites to see that there is much displeasure with the decision by Judge Jones in the Kitzmiller v Dover case. Over at the Panda's Thumb, various people have responded to often uncivil and frequently legally misinformed commentary by the likes of John West (also see here, here, here), Phyllis Schaffly, Joseph Kippenberg, Albert Alschuler, and others. Throughout all of this, the following comment by "improvious" is particularly trenchant:
Just out of curiosity - is there anyone at all out there who is basing their argument against the judge's decision on…
stcynic | January 2, 2006I've never tried this before, but I thought I'd start out the new year with some predictions about a wide number of things. It'll be interesting to look back next year and see how I fared. Here they are:
1. The Democrats will pick up many seats in the November elections, possibly enough to retake control of the Senate.
2. The number of troops in Iraq will be below 90,000 by the time the elections take place in November, possibly below 75,000.
3. NCAA Final Four teams: Duke, UConn, Villanova and Michigan State. National Champion: UConn (and it kills me to say that).
4. The Pistons will win…
stcynic | January 1, 2006Article3Groupie, the hypothetical transsexual wit behind the terrific blog Underneath Their Robes is back in business for the new year. You may remember that this blog, which purported to be written by a catty and sarcastic female, was actually written by David Lat of the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey. When that fact came to light in a New Yorker interview in November, his blog was suddenly shut down, presumably by his bosses. Well, Lat has now left his government job and is apparently headed to DC; for what, no one seems to know. But in the meantime, his blog is back and that is good…
stcynic | January 1, 2006Just found a new blog that critiques ID claims, The Inverted Bowl. The owner, who goes by the nom de plume The Fallible Fiend, has a Masters in engineering math and computer science and does some good writing. He has a short answer to Behe's claims about falsification, pointing out that he misunderstands the concept entirely in claiming that disproving a single example of an IC system would falsify IC or ID as a general notion. He also has a longer post that debunks DaveScot's claims about humans and coelecanths. Definitely a blog worth keeping an eye on.
stcynic | December 30, 2005Sandefur has the idea that the Positive Liberty writers should lighten things up a bit and write an essay on our favorite things. Not a bad idea, I'm up for that. And let me start by wholeheartedly endorsing his choice of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King as a favorite book. Florence King is an often overlooked American treasure, one of our most brilliant writers and most unique personalities, and if you have not read any of her books I suggest you run, not walk, to the library or bookstore to get them.
While Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady is her best work (it is…
stcynic | December 30, 2005Having not even looked at my blog all morning, I sat down and peeked at the usage statistics and was shocked to see a much busier than usual day without having posted anything new since yesterday morning. Turns out it's because the blog Crooks and Liars linked to my post on Mel Gibson and evolution. So welcome, those who followed that link and have never seen this blog before. Stick around and explore.
stcynic | December 29, 2005Jim Lippard has some amusing excerpts from a Playboy interview (though I have it on good authority that Jim reads it only for the articles) with Mel Gibson. It's an interview that leaves you wondering why on earth someone would put such stupidity on display in public. To wit:
PLAYBOY: So you can't accept that we descended from monkeys and apes?
GIBSON: No, I think it's bullshit. If it isn't, why are they still around? How come apes aren't people yet? It's a nice theory, but I can't swallow it. There's a big credibility gap. The carbon dating thing that tells you how long something's been…
stcynic | December 25, 2005Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus to all of the wonderful people who have made this blog a success by reading and sharing your thoughts with me. And in the spirit of Seinfeld, a Happy Festivus as well. One of the great Festivus traditions, of course, is an airing of the grievances. Many bloggers have put together some of their grievances and complaints and a lot of them are really brilliant. Here a some of my favorite samples. From John Cole:
The Republican Party- I will never forgive the shameless display during the Schiavo affair, elevating a personal family tragedy into a cruel farce…
loom | December 20, 2005For the information hounds out there, Alan Templeton's paper, "Haplotype Trees and Modern Human Origins," on which I based my previous post is now published.
stcynic | December 20, 2005In the wake of Judge John Jones' ruling against ID in public school science classrooms, Pat Robertson released the following statement:
I'd like to say to Judge Jones, the activist liberal judge in this case, that if there is a disaster in your life, don't turn to God because you just threw him out of schools. In fact, I've just spoken to the Lord and he tells me that he has a voodoo doll that is an exact replica of the likeness of Judge Jones. Over the next few days, he will begin to feel pains throughout his body as Jesus pokes and bends and crushes this voodoo doll in order to move the…
stcynic | December 20, 2005Nick Matzke has added an addendum to the bottom of Gary Hurd's post about Mirecki at the Panda's Thumb. I didn't know he was going to do this, but I'm glad he did and it only reinforces the enormous respect I already had for him. While I'm slightly more inclined to be skeptical than Nick is, I don't find anything unreasonable at all in the scenario he draws out for what he thinks happened. It is entirely plausible to me, which doesn't necessarily mean it's true. My argument from the beginning of this has been that reasonable people, regardless of what side of the evolution/ID divide they may…
stcynic | December 19, 2005Given the events of the last few days and this highly controversial post at the Panda's Thumb, it is time that I finally addressed the Paul Mirecki situation. For those who may not know, Mirecki was, until recently, the chairman of the religious studies department at Kansas University. He was planning to teach a class there next year about ID as mythology, which caused quite a bit of controversy, especially when someone released several emails that he had written on the listserv of a campus skeptic's group that were rather crude and unprofessional. The ensuing brouhaha hit its crescendo when…
stcynic | December 17, 2005For those who are interested, the mp3s of my last 3 appearances on Jim Babka's radio show are available for download. I did three consecutive shows, each on the subject of intelligent design, evolution and religion. Here are the links:
November 27th show
December 4th show
December 11th show
stcynic | December 16, 2005No matter how one felt or feels about whether the war in Iraq was justified, one has to recognize that what went on in Iraq yesterday was a very good thing. The parliamentary elections took place with massive voter turnout, with participation from all of the nation's ethnic groups, and with very little violence. You have to feel good for the Iraqi people, who have a say in their own political future for the first time. Are there problems? Of course there are. But yesterday was very hopeful and might indicate that, despite what I believe to be massive mismanagement of the war by our government…
stcynic | December 15, 2005Folks, the servers are still not working efficently from the problems the other day. If you submit a comment and it just goes to a blank page, please check the front page to see if it posted before you go back and submit it again. Thanks.
stcynic | December 14, 2005I hinted a few weeks ago at some big news about this blog that would be upcoming, but I couldn't actually make an announcement because it wasn't official; now it is. Dispatches from the Culture Wars will be moving sometime in the next week or so to a new location. When the move is completed, I expect that I'll just make this page automatically forward to the new one to make it easy on everyone. In the meantime, let me address the two obvious questions - where is it moving, and why?
A few weeks ago I was approached by the editors of a fairly prominent scientific publishing company, Seed Media…
stcynic | December 14, 2005Positive Liberty has been home to a compelling series of posts lately, posts which show clearly why I am proud to be on the same page with Jason Kuznicki and Timothy Sandefur. It started with Sandefur's review of the new Narnia movie, which contained some powerful analysis of CS Lewis' views and equally fascinating thoughts on the role of mythology. At the end, he also includes a defense of the war in Iraq, prompting Kuznicki to write an equally compelling response discussing both Iraq and the broader "War on Terror". Sandefur then replied to that response. I urge you all to read them, in…