Uncategorized
stcynic | April 4, 2005I was just looking at my sitemeter stats and found this rather interesting. I seem to have quite a few readers in government jobs because in the last hour I've had hits from the state government domains for Maryland, Virginia and Texas as well as a hit from the National Institutes of Health. I also had one earlier from an Air Force computer. I'm glad to have the readers, but don't let your bosses see you goofing off!
stcynic | April 3, 2005I don't know how many of you got to listen to my appearance on the Jim Babka show tonight, but here's my take on how things went. First, I was absolutely stunned by how bad Larry Klayman was. I mean awful, stink-up-the-joint horrible. Totally unprepared, ignorant of the facts of the case, thin-skinned, cranky. It was really a pathetic performance. Every argument he made save one was an ad hominem, and the one that wasn't was completely false. Rather than discuss the actual legal record and whether Judge Greer ruled incorrectly on anything in the case, he just ranted about how judges are…
stcynic | April 2, 2005I don't know how to make heads or tails out of the blog rankings. According to the Truth Laid Bear ecosystem, I'm the 482nd most read blog with just over 700 hits per day. But according to their link rankings, I'm #2055 with 74 inbound unique links. But according to Technorati up until the last few days, I had over 150 inbound unique links. Then Technorati suddenly changed to say I had 80 inbound links from one source - obviously false. And now it says I have 20 inbound links from one source - even more obviously false. So it seems to me that if the inbound links were being counted correctly…
stcynic | April 1, 2005I just got off the phone with Jim Babka, a radio talk show host and founder of DownsizeDC.org. He has invited me to come on his show on Sunday evening to debate the Terri Schiavo situation with Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and tireless filer of lawsuits. The entire show is one hour long and I'm told we'll likely be going on the air around 5:10 and will be on for about a half an hour. The show is broadcast on the ABC radio feed and can be heard in Kansas City and Knoxville, among other place. It looks like you can listen on the internet as well at this link, but apparently you only…
stcynic | March 31, 2005This is a banner week to be a Michigan State University alum. The men's basketball team is in the final four. The women's basketball team is in the final four. And, obviously with far more importance than either of those, the MSU debate team just finished in the top eight at the National Debate Tournament. The team of Aaron Hardy and Shaun Van Horn lost in the quarterfinals to Berkeley, but finished the season ranked 4th based upon overall results. The team is coached by my good friend Will Repko, who won national coach of the year a few years ago and led MSU to a national championship in…
stcynic | March 31, 2005And no, not Terri Schiavo's. For all practical purposes, she has been dead for 15 years. But I just received an email from a reader who works at Comedy Central that Mitch Hedberg has died of an apparent heroin overdose. I knew Mitch only vaguely, from running into him on the road a couple times, so it's not a personal loss. But he was one of our most creative and daring comedians, and his voice will be sorely missed. Comedy Central is working on a tribute on their webpage and I will add a link to it as soon as it's finished.
Update: This is the link to the Comedy Central bio page for Mitch…
stcynic | March 30, 2005We hear constantly from conservatives about "activist judges" and how horrible they are. One of the grand ironies of the Schiavo case is hearing conservatives complaining that judges aren't being activist enough while still simultaneously complaining about activist judges. It's absolute proof that "activist judges" is a meaningless catchphrase that only really means "judges making rulings I don't like." We hear this catchphrase constantly from those who say that we must have more conservative judges on the court because they won't be "activist", yet in the Schiavo case conservative judges…
stcynic | March 29, 2005
The national director of programs for the Boy Scouts of America has been charged with receiving and distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's office here told NBC News on Tuesday.
Douglas S. Smith Jr. was charged with one felony count of having photos that show "minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct."
Sources in the U.S. Attorney's office told NBC that Smith was expected to plead guilty.
Good thing they kept the gays out, though, eh?
stcynic | March 29, 2005Pastor Ray Mummert, in a report on the Dover, PA "intelligent design" lawsuit:
"Christians are a lot more bold under Bush's leadership, he speaks what a lot of us believe," said Mummert.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture," he said, adding that the school board's declaration is just a first step.
Any questions?
stcynic | March 23, 2005Today is the one year anniversary of the Panda's Thumb, the group science blog that I and a few friends started to address the evolution/creationism/intelligent design controversy. They grow up so fast, don't they? And you really should check out Ian Musgrave's brilliant dismantling of Michael Behe's arguments on blood clotting and Russell Doolittle. Also, keep an eye out for the new Panda's Thumb mascot, which will be unveiled and traveling the country soon.
stcynic | March 23, 2005One of the longtime Dispatches readers, Dave Snyder, sent me an email yesterday telling me that there was a panel discussion on evolution and ID in public schools at Central Michigan University, where he teaches. I decided to attend the discussion to do a little recruiting for Michigan Citizens for Science. We don't have many members in that area of the state and it's only about an hour drive for me, so what the heck. Plus it gave me the chance to meet Dave for dinner beforehand, which was pretty cool. It boosted my ego a bit (not that it needs boosting, obviously) to see that he has a post…
stcynic | March 11, 2005Steven Pinker, in my opinion one of the dozen or so most brilliant thinkers on the planet, has an article in the New Republic about the brouhaha over Lawrence Summers' remarks on possible non-discriminatory causes of the differential success of men and women in science. In the midst of an enormous amount of emotion-laden overreaction, I think Pinker strikes the right chord of rationality when he says, "To what degree these and other differences originate in biology must be determined by research, not fatwa. History tells us that how much we want to believe a proposition is not a reliable…
stcynic | March 11, 2005The Worldnutdaily is reporting about a group in Maryland that is up in arms because a new sex education program in Montgomery County Public Schools includes a video of a woman showing how to put on a condom by using a cucumber:
Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum features an excerpt from the seven and a half minute video on its website. The group is fighting a decision by the Board of Education of Montgomery County, Md., to show the video, entitled "Protect Yourself," to students as part of its new sex-education curriculum.
"Remember to use a condom for oral, anal and vaginal sex," the…
stcynic | March 10, 2005Today is my beloved Lynn's birthday, so please join me in wishing a Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, most courageous and most inspiring woman I've ever known. Sadly, the day she was born I was probably eating paste in a kindergarden class and was unaware of the sheer magnitude of the event taking place a few hours south of there and how it would later change my life. Happy birthday, honey.
stcynic | March 9, 2005Jon Rowe has responded to my post on the polygamy debate that has been going on in the blog neighborhood. He writes:
I don't have time to address all the issues, but I must say that I'm a little taken aback by Ed Brayton's dismissive attitude towards my rationale; he doesn't even examine my underlying premise. But it's a premise that needs to be examined.
First, let me apologize if I appeared to be merely dismissive of his premise. Jon's thoughts on any subject deserve nothing less than thorough consideration as he always presents challenging and well thought out ideas. That doesn't mean we'…
stcynic | March 8, 2005In the wake of our recent discussion about polygamy comes this report of a Utah state judge who is himself polygamous:
Hildale Justice Court Judge Walter Steed - an admitted polygamist with three wives and 32 children - should be removed from the bench, according to a recommendation by Utah's judicial watchdog group.
The Judicial Conduct Commission claims Steed violated the law and his oath of office by engaging in bigamy.
In documents filed with the Utah Supreme Court, the commission concludes that removal from the bench is the only appropriate sanction because "Steed does not intend to…
stcynic | March 8, 2005For my first real post at In the Agora, I decided to repost the open letter to gay marriage opponents I wrote a few months ago. I'm proud of that post and I hope that perhaps it will do some good in a different setting.
stcynic | March 8, 2005My friend Barbara Forrest, co-author with Paul Gross of the wonderful book Creationism's Trojan Horse, has finally hit the big time. Yes, she's been quoted in the New York Times and other major media outlets before. But once you've been seen on the pages of Al Jazeera, there's nowhere to go but down.
stcynic | March 7, 2005I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to join In The Agora as a contributor and have accepted that invitation. For those who are not familiar with it, In the Agora is an excellent group blog founded by Josh Claybourn and Paul Musgrave. I have admired their work from afar and linked to them once in a while; ironically, this invitation came as a result of having been critical of something Josh had written about a recent Supreme Court decision. I have long considered them to be two of the best young conservative writers, and I am pleased that they've asked this mildly left-wing…
stcynic | March 7, 2005CNN has a story on people who have been fired for blogging. Since I don't have a boss, I don't have to worry about such things, but those of you who work for a private company, you should keep in mind that the first amendment does not protect you from being fired in most cases for what you might write in a blog.