Kooks
pharyngula | July 2, 2006Wingnuttia, O Wingnuttia. There are so many lunacies uttered in that fabled land that one cannot possibly keep up with them all, so it's useful when one of them distills it all down and gives us a condensed list of the properties of a True Conservative. We have such a useful list, written by Rob Hood in the Conservative Voice. He is a very silly man, but that online rag has him up there on the front page with Robert Novak and…and…well, a lot of ranting nobodies. This is a distinguished host in Wingnuttia, though!
As a matter of fact if you like Ann Coulter and want to make some liberals'…
pharyngula | July 1, 2006First, I was impressed that homosexuals had such immense power that they could trigger earthquakes, but then, darn it, someone had to actually look at the data.
pharyngula | June 29, 2006Sweet jebus. Peggy Noonan is insane.
Bush the Younger would breastfeed the military if he could.
But the codpiece…and the cyborg appliance on his back? Breasts? Bush?? …soldiers lined up for the teat…? Aaaahh. Neurons…recoiling. Synapses…boiling, erupting, melting.
Must…stagger…to hospital…
pharyngula | June 26, 2006I hopped out of bed this morning, certain that someone would have bravely answered my challenge to support Coulter's 'science'. But no, the Coulterites have completely vanished from my mailbox, and the official tally of entries stands at
0
Maybe I just haven't given them enough time. It takes a while to read a book when you have to slowly sound out each word, and when you're constantly tempted to close it so you can gaze rapturously at the cover, drooling.
I'll report back when we hit the one month mark. Will that be time enough?
pharyngula | June 23, 2006I suspect that soon there will be at least one religious person who will claim he converted from atheism who I will believe. The Raving Atheist is getting ripe: he's been ramping up the irrationality for some time now, precessing like a top slowing down, and I expect that soon enough he'll flop over for Jesus. I'm not questioning his sincerity—he is an atheist, all right, and there is no doubt about it—but his sympathies are getting weirder and weirder.
This is not a new development. I've discussed his radical pro-life position before, and now Punkassblog and Amanda bring to my attention his…
pharyngula | June 20, 2006DaveScot is one of those genuinely deranged ID supporters, and I don't like giving him any attention…but Richard Hughes just sent me a note mentioning this long defensive thread he has started at UncommonDescent, and he's just done something so darned funny and stupid I can't resist.
He's arguing about gravity. At one point, he claims that "By the way, gravity is the strongest force in nature." As you might guess, he's jumped on for that, and so he rushes off to find some supporting evidence…and gets it, he says, from John G. Cramer, professor of physics. Here's the part he quotes:
Curiously…
pharyngula | June 20, 2006A strange thing, after I clarified my Coulter challenge and requested that her fans get specific and tell me what they supported and why in her book…the e-mail from them all dried up. Pffft. Gone.
Maybe they just got bored with me, but it's sad that no one has even tried to suggest a single good paragraph in all of Godlessssss. It's as if they're willing to play mindless cheerleader, but actually committing to thinking and supporting specifically a single thing she says…well, that's just not going to happen.
pharyngula | June 19, 2006I succumbed to the tempting link Corrente waved around, and clicked through to see Connie Chung's farewell to some cable show I never heard of before. I suffered horribly, so it's only fair that you share my pain.
pharyngula | June 19, 2006Responses to my challenge at the end of this article are trickling in, but so far, none of them are filling the bill. Let me explain what is not an appropriate reply:
Cackling that Coulter must be right because she's got "liberal panties in a twist" is not cogent.
Telling me that the "WHOLE BOOK PROVES LIBERALS ARE THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA" is not cogent.
Promising to pray for me, or assuring me that I will burn in hell, is not cogent.
Explicit details about how Ann Coulter is sexier than "fat harry hippie jew girls" is not cogent.
Here's the simple summary. Ann Coulter has written this long…
pharyngula | June 18, 2006One more thing about the odious Coulter…Amanda takes note of the bigotry lurking under her schtick in the way she uses "Jew" like it was a dirty word. But look at her book: her weird attitude is right there in the title, Godless. I really thought nothing of it except, well, she's at least acknowledging us irreligious people, until I saw her on Leno where she made this same point, and read this Townhall column, Party of rapist proud to be godless.
My book makes a stark assertion: Liberalism is a godless religion. Hello! Anyone there? I've leapt beyond calling you traitors and am now calling…
pharyngula | June 18, 2006There are some great lines in Coulter's Godless—great lines in the sense that you can scarcely believe someone was so stupid that they'd say them. Here's one for the ladies and the life scientists here at scienceblogs.
Their grandiose self-conceptions to the contrary, the cult [the "evolution cult"] members are rarely scientists at all.
They aren't scientists? Get ready for it: here's the problem with those darned people who study evolution. They're biologists and women.
They're almost always biologists—the "science" with the greatest preponderance of women. The distaff MIT "scientist" who…
pharyngula | June 18, 2006I've now read all of the science-related (that's applying the term "related" very generously) stuff in Ann Coulter's awful, ghastly, ignorant book, Godless, and it's a bit overwhelming. This far right-wing political pundit with no knowledge of science at all has written a lengthy tract that is wall-to-wall error: To cover it all would require a sentence-by-sentence dissection that would generate another book, ten times longer than Coulter's, all merely to point out that her book is pure garbage. So I'm stumped. I'm not interested in writing such a lengthy rebuttal, and I'm sure this is…
pharyngula | June 14, 2006Lots of people have been telling me to ignore Ann Coulter: that she says outrageous things to get attention, that addressing her antics is exactly what she wants, that the best thing to do is to starve her of the publicity. I sympathize, I really do. It's giving her and her kind far too much credit.
However, I've been hearing the same argument applied to creationists for about 25 years. "Ignore them and they'll go away," or "Serious scientists don't pay attention to the lunatic fringe," they say. We tend our little gardens, and we don't worry about what the crackpot next door is growing in…
pharyngula | May 22, 2006Just wait—I have an inside scoop on amazing insights into biology that will definitely win me a Nobel prize. I have to thank Eve for leading me to this incredible prophetic knowledge.
Who among you has heard light lately? Many doubt me. Watch for this: Someday your science is going to show that DNA actually sings! Instruments will show that DNA sings [has vibrations of sound] and you're going to say, "Wow, this sounds like something Kryon told us." [Laughter] Why don't you save some energy and simply believe it now instead of waiting for your scientists to tell it to you? Is it because it's…
pharyngula | May 20, 2006She's brave and honest, and she doesn't hide her full objectives.
I am a Protestant who opposes contraception, not only because some of its forms may cause abortions, but also—moreso—because the thinking behind contraception makes it the forerunner to abortion.
That's a simple, clear, and believable statement. I'm sure she does believe that, as do many others, but it's to her credit that she is not ashamed of her beliefs and states them forthrightly. Bravo, Ms Stanek!
I think she's wrong, of course, but the openness is commendable. I'll be similarly honest.
I'm an atheist who thinks…
pharyngula | May 19, 2006Huh. I'd been wondering why I've been getting so much complaining email lately, defending Pensacola Christian College.
Pz Myers,
I'm A Christian. I came across your blog when searching for PCC in Pensacola FL. This web site was the first on the list. I of course disagree with you, but I do know why you as a "professor" at a University can not understand why someone would go to that college. I mean think about it? no fun, not accredited, religious? What sparks the endurance for a average 18 year old to go were the rules are so strick? Is it their parents? the answer is no. Is it the society?…
pharyngula | May 18, 2006Clear off a space on the floor near you, because soon you'll be rolling around laughing on it.
You may recall that John A. Davison, infamous advocate of Intelligent Design, started a blog of his own, titled Prescribed Evolution, back in November of 2005. It generated a lot of hilarity because it consisted of one post. This is it.
I have my own blog now, only because I have been banned from just about all the others. Since I am computer illiterate, don't expect very much from me. I welcome any comments about my published papers including my unpublished "An Evolutionary Manifesto: A New…
pharyngula | May 18, 2006Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Jer 14:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in…