Another week has passed and we’re still waiting for the Coppedge decision. It seems that until the world knows the results, all other news of The Controversy between evolution and creationism is on hold. But we did find a few items of interest.
We may have had a positive effect on Ellis Washington, our favorite columnist at WorldNetDaily (WND). Ellis often describes “trilogies” of evil people. The names comprising Ellis’ trilogies vary, but one of the three is usually Darwin. If Darwin isn’t in a trilogy, he’s always included in one of Ellis’ name-salads of evil people. His article this weekend, Is Obama a Marxist? (the answer will not surprise you), is the sort of thing that would usually mention Darwin. This time he didn’t do it, although he managed to toss in Joseph Goebbels, Woodrow Wilson, Mussolini, the Bolsheviks, Karl Marx (of course), a few Frenchmen, and several others — but no Darwin. Perhaps we’ve taught him a thing or two.
We also learned that termites behave like suicide bombers, and — this is truly shocking! — Study shows people view women as a collection of body parts.
In case you were wondering, the Amish are growing more rapidly than most other religions in the United States, and A new Amish community is founded every three and a half weeks in US.
Finally, according to the subject lines in today’s spam email, we can remodel our kitchen cabinets, earn an online degree, get a great deal from the Scooter Store, improve our credit rating, lose weight, and — best of all — the FBI is ready to send us our Nigerian inheritance.
So there you are. We’re on our own again. As with all our free-fire zones, we’re open for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.
We now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it.
Copyright © 2012. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The stereotype that people view women as collections of body parts is frequently parodied in limericks. The most extreme example I know is this:
A comely young lass from Assizes
Had boobies of two different sizes.
The one was quite small
And worth nothing at all,
But the other was large and won prizes.
Retired Prof says: “The stereotype that people view women as collections of body parts is frequently parodied in limericks.”
I was briefly tempted to compose one that begins:
But then I decided not to continue.
Oh, wait. You meant something else?
My bad.
Gary says: “Oh, wait. You meant something else?”
No, no. That’s fine.
Here is blog post I wrote about the kerfuffle in which the Discovery Institute-affiliated Biologic Instituted opened comments at their Facebook page, and were then driven mad by the simple, simple scientific questions asked by Carl Zimmer and scientists. Klinghoffer makes multiple appearances. Zimmer ultimately hands Casey Luskin his own tail for dishonest quote-mining in his latest creationist book.
http://lamp-of-diogenes.blogspot.com/2012/07/discovery-institute-face-plants-at.html
Diogenes says: “Here is blog post I wrote”
Very nice. I didn’t want to blog about it … too much back & forth. Zimmer did just fine, yet the Discoveroids are claiming victory. Still more reason never to engage in a debate with creationists.
This from Ellis Washington’s screed. It appears he has two fake quotes in one paragraph:
I am certain Jefferson never said any such thing; it doesn’t resemble his intellectual style at all. Such simple-minded syllogisms were not his style.
No Nazi would ever say “Truth is the enemy of the State” in reference to their own state, although they might use it to criticize their opponents, like Weimar or the Bolsheviks.
But since you bring up Goebbels: here are some real quotes from Goebbels, from his novel “Michael”:
I assume he hates Woodrow Wilson because he passed child labor laws and (eventually) advocated for women’s suffrage? He couldn’t possibly mean that business about racial segregation in Washington. After all, Ellis Washington is on record declaring that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unnecessary.
No, I didn’t read the article. I am just not up to a dose of WhirledNutsDaily today. I’ll take your word that he didn’t mention Darwin. Maybe he was having a bad day and forgot?
Is there some genetic reason creationists can’t quote somebody without removing all context? It seems like quote mining is in their blood (where they get an injection for that, I have no idea) or a required class for a degree in Creationist Dishonesty.
Without quote mining and ad hominems, creationist have nothing.
If I had to debate a creationist, I would say, “How about if you describe the evidence that persuaded Dr. Smith to allegedly believe [insert creo-claim here], instead of quoting him out of context? How about if you try providing no authority quotes at all– and I’ll do the same. Nothing between quote marks. Just try that for one whole debate.”
Suicide bomber termites are in fact depressed individuals because Casey and Klingleboffer proved that the bacteria in their guts( termites that is, ‘er) ,did not evolve to consume wood.. Rather, I think It has apparently been shown in the super secret double probation Discoidtute “labs” , that termites and wood funguses molds and mushrooms in fact, don’t exist at all. At least this was the main ponts of one of their recent “design” papers.
The longer it takes, the more I think Hiroshige is
struggling to compete an impartial and well defined ruling.
Yikes Curm it suddenly occurs to me that limestone and dolomite strata, deposited throughout the post Pre Cambrian geologic ages must also be proof of design. After all, almost all limestone is calcium carbonate organically formed by corals, benthic invertebrates , foraminifera and other CaCO3 encased or framework supported marine organisms. It can be rworked by waves and other organism into pelloid, ooids and other limestone forming grains but the organism genesis of most limestones is indisputable. Cave limestones form a small % of total limestone and is an exception. That no organism evolved to consume this material(actually that’s inaccurate as in Kooplenooples original “paper” ,but I digress), then, like unconsumed wood forming coals when buried in subsiding geologic basins, lack of an organism that consumes all the limestone is proof of the magical designer. Eureka!
Hey Casey! Another “paper” for you!
@Diogenes:
Brilliant post at your site. I was just reading about this “debate” this morning, so let me add these references:
http://apomorph.blogspot.com/2012/06/science-and-human-origins-chapter-1.html (where McBride’s demolition of the Dishonesty Institute’s book begins)
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2009/02/the-rise-of-hum.html (referred to in part 4 of McBride’s series of posts)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/07/23/and-finally-the-hounding-duck-can-rest/ (also referred to in part 4 of McBride’s series of posts)
Diogenes: You are correct. The quotation is not from Thomas Jefferson, but, most likely, Gerald Ford. http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/government-big-enough-to-give-you-everything-you-wantquotation
@Chuck: Thanks for checking it out. No offense, but I’m guessing it took you 5 seconds of googling to find that out… 5 seconds Ellis Washington didn’t have.