“Ur ghey.”

Well, that’s not an exact quote, but it portrays the same meaning.

If I had a penny for each time I was called that in High School, Bill Gates would be my bitch. Really, that was just the beginning of High School. That doesn’t count the numerous fights and vandalism that occurred during those 4 years. And that’s just me. This shit happens all the time.

Multiply that by eleventy billion for the internet. No one gives a shit about you or your son or your 30 cats on the internet, so expect to be ridiculed, no matter what. They aren’t going to smile and nod, but instead point and laugh.

It’s the internet.

Now, I’m sure she’s playing this up just to get some publicity. But really, it’s free speech, plain and simple. Ugly free speech. Well, I suppose it’s not so free anymore.

I’m so tempered by the intarwebs, I don’t even notice juvenile comments anymore. Someone should show her and her son goatse, or tubgirl. It took me a little longer to recover from those. Actually, wait, everyone should see those.

That way, really, anything else seems like no big deal. After the initial shock, vomit, and recovery, these stupid little free speech attacks will disappear.

It’s like doing drugs without using drugs.

It’s like taking a shower without water.

Meh, not quite as humorous, but still. What would (does? did?) this man think of the last two decades of entertainment? It seems that some things never do change. There will always be people who are paranoid at new and different things.

I’ve been browsing that Letters of Note website for a bit, I highly recommend it.

In summary: “Take it from me, who believes that Joseph Smith received golden tablets from an Angel in upstate New York in the 19th century describing the true True Religion! America has been successful, not because of its tolerance of people of all kinds, but because of it’s blind obedience to God! It has nothing to do with how humans have run things, it’s all God’s direct handling of things! See, if we were just more like Iran, things would be great!”

A few things to note:

• Glenn says you can’t pray in public schools. Wrong, you can, but the state can’t make you.
• Glenn says you can’t have the ten commandments on government property. Right, you can’t. He thinks it’s because the commandments are considered “bad”. No, the government can’t display a preference to or against religion. It has to remain neutral. It’s in that document he seems to love but have selective memory on.
• Glenn says you can’t sing Christmas Carols in this country. You can still sing them in the USA, last time I checked. Not at school though. Makes sense to me.

Why is it, that these right-wing extremists are so for individual freedoms, and against government intrusion in our lives, but when it comes to religion, they want a state sponsored one? They want mandatory prayer in schools. They want being gay, a personal choice according to them, to be illegal. They want marriage to be defined by the government. I don’t get it. And in their defense of all these things, they reference The Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. One only has a vague reference to a “Creator”. The other makes no mention of him, and specifically states that the government may not promote one religion over another.

From Pharyngula.

I’ll bring my ID book and see if I can get Judge Jones to sign it with some sly remark.

Dembski is apparently going to give his students extra credit for going. Well, not just going, but “interacting” with “Darwin lovers”:

I don’t want you going there merely as spectators but will indicate in class how you might actively participate and engage the Darwin-lovers you’ll find there.

Interesting. Why doesn’t he give extra credit for the science lovers there who’ve stood up for what they believe in and exposed ID as some pseudo-scientific crap that’s sole purpose is to “wedge” itself against Evolution. His own testimony at the trial exposes it as trash. But he seems to have forgotten that. He’s still pushing ID as some “acceptable scientific theory” when at the trial he admitted that it’s not acceptable, and that there’s no research to be done, and that it’s just a bunch of arguments against Evolution.

Breath in, breath out… Anyway, I hope I can go!

Thanks to TFN for letting me know about this.

So, if she be in Britain and complain that they aren’t Muslim, why can’t I go to Iran and be offended because they aren’t all atheists? Oh wait, that’s right. Because I’m an infidel, and my head gets chopped off. Makes total sense!

Wait, the offended is a woman? Where was her Muslim husband? Those damned Muslim women aren’t supposed to be outside without their husbands! You never know when a group of men will snatch you and gang rape you. Then you would go to jail and receive a few lashings for being alone outside.

So, let’s get started:

Ben Stein - His movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has him whining about how it’s not fair that Intelligent Design isn’t taught in schools. That, and a massive amount of references to and video clips of Stalin, Hitler, and the end of the civilized world, if Evolution is “followed to it’s logical conclusion”.

What Stein fails to realize is a) ID has been proven to be creationist propoganda, by the ID movement itself. This judgement was sent down by conservative judge appointed by Bush. See the “Wedge Document”, Stein. b) Evolution isn’t meant to be taken as some life philosophy, some religion. It’s a science. You don’t apply it to areas where it’s not meant to be. You can debate for as long as you like that Hitler loved Darwinism (and I can show you quotes of him convincing people that he was led by God), but either way it’s a man in power abusing his power and using whatever reasoning he wants to get more power. On that same note, Ben fails to realize that countries have been and still are fighting over imaginary friends. So you can’t attack Evolution for “sponsoring” death without realizing the past few thousand painful years with various religions.

Stein also said in late 2008 that there would be no financial crisis. He was last seen in commercials for one of those scam credit score companies, and has been let go from is position in the New York Times, although Stein thinks it’s a conspiracy.

Tom Cruise – There’s nothing like a person with tons of money and media attention telling other people what they can and can’t do. No medical degree, no know-how, no nothing, but he knows that Scientologists are better than everyone. He donated tons of money to the 9/11 detoxification project, and shows his true loon in those leaked scientology videos.

Supporting a cult that’s overinvolved in mysterious death, litigation, censureship and secrecy by saying it’s the greatest in the world and has never done anything wrong makes it easy for Cruise to come in on my list.

Bill Maher – He’s  an atheist. Oh wait, no, that’s not it. He’s on the board member for PETA. You know, the organization that supports (but doesn’t support!) the ALF, ELF, and other violent organizations. The one that shows you animal abuse videos that are of stuff that a) either in the wrong country, and/or b) already illegal. They are the ones that wouldn’t let a blind man have a seeing eye dog, or even let its own supporters have pets if it had it’s way. Although, the high-up members of PETA are allowed to use animal-derived diabetes treatment, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to live, duh!

Glenn Beck – Can’t spell Oligarchy, and thinks everyone’s out to get him. Not that big of a deal except he’s heard and seen by millions of people who think the end times are nigh. That’s bad. I’d go on, but if you are even somewhat intelligent you can watch his show and realize all the crazy he spews on your own.

Wendy Wright – Head of Concerned Women for America. Long story short, her world is less than 6,000 years old, and Evolution is a bunch of crap. She debated Richard Dawkins and smiled the whole time. She thinks there are no transitional fossils–the fossilized ones don’t count. She also thinks that Women need more rights and freedoms. So do I, like ones from the Bible, which she seems to take pretty literally. This is too easy:

Be quiet, wench!
1 Corinthians, 14:34-35:  “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.  And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

How to sell your daughter:
Exodus 21:7-8: And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.  If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.”

Men Rule:
Genesis 3:16: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

Take my daughters and have fun with them:
Genesis 19:8 “Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes”

It’s okay to rape her, she’s a slave:
Leviticus 19:20:  “And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.”

Now where do we start, Wendy?

Don McLeroy – Former leader of the Texas Board of Education. Famously said, “Someone needs to stand up against the experts!” He said that because all the experts support Evolution, and he believes the Earth is about 6,000 years old. You know, at about the same time that dogs were domesticated. Let’s repeat, he was the head of the Texas Board of Education.

Barbara Cargill – A somewhat replacement for McLeroy. She’s all over the “strengths-and-weaknesses” talk to try and move our 15 billion year old universe down to… hmm… under 10,000 years or so. See, that would put it more in line with how she believes. And that’s more important than whatever science says. All those facts and whatnot. Ugh.

William A. Dembski – Unshakable supporter of Intelligent Design:

You think I’m joking? The science-defending, neutral, young-earth creationist chairman Don McLeroy said it himself: “Someone has to stand up against the experts.” And it is he, the dentist, that has decided to do so:

“Somebody has got to stand up to these experts,” McLeroy said. “Why does evolution have this lofty status? It’s all about ideology.”

Why does it have this lofty status? The same reason the the Theory of Gravity has a “lofty status”. You don’t seem to be contesting gravity’s status. Why is that? Well, there’s not much to contest it with, and your faith seem to jive just fine with it too.

So, two possibilities here: Is there some busting evidence that needs to be considered? You seem to think so, but you also think that the world is around 6,000 years old, despite GARGANTUAN evidence to the contrary. Not that that should preclude you from presenting anything valid. Now, your exquisite background in science should lend you plenty of respect within the scientific community to consider these “discoveries”.

But, they scientific community is just a bunch of narrow-minded bigots who have nothing but ideology on their minds. I mean, what has science really done for us in the last century?

Oh wait, you’re a reborn young-earth creationist. And, you’re a dentist. And you’ve “read books” on the subject. Hm, so as a creationist you doubt evolution, but on scientific grounds. Of course, doubting it on religious grounds wouldn’t be acceptable. So, you want the science to fit your ideology, instead of the scientists’ ideology. Hmm, much better.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with following and “ideology”, surely you should be aware of that. What’s wrong is following the wrong ideology. Like the one that believes humans coexisted with dinosaurs.

There aren’t “two sides” to this debate. There isn’t a debate. All of modern biology is based on Evolution. There isn’t a controversy. It’s the pious doubting evolution, yelling, “but are kids aren’t getting both sides of the issue!” When science speaks back, “What other side?” The pious respond, “See, they are denying it, there’s controversy!”

So, the “Strengths and Weaknesses” language is out. Good. However, before that species could be wiped out it evolved down the standards line to:

Analyze and evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency of common ancestry to explain the sudden appearance, stasis and sequential nature of groups in the fossil record.

That’s not so bad, is it? No, it isn’t. But one word feels like a small crumb under paper: “insufficiency”.

It’s the foot in the door. It leaves it open for doubt. Is this bad? At face value, not really. However, if tells students that there really is a reason to doubt common ancestry, then yes. And that’s what Don wants, exactly what he wants.

Don can quote mine all he likes, but the overwhelming scientific consensus is for Evolution. It’s a long way from “sufficiency or insufficiency” to burning witches, but the creationists will take anything they can get. That is one reason why I detest using this language. There’s no real reason for it except to cast scientifically unfounded (unless you count religion as a scientific base, which Don seems to) doubt on basic tenets of Evolution. It’s a sham, and it’s shouted as “academic freedom”. Critics are calling us “censoring science”, trying to purvey themselves as the “saviours of science”.

More about the decision can be read here.

Well, that’s simple, there really aren’t any. You can squabble about a few small things, but the big picture still remains steadfast in almost every scientist’s head. But never mind those scientists, you need an uneducated man to lead science…. to wherever his chance religion takes it.

That the Earth is only about 10,000 years old or so and flat or something. Dinosaurs lived peacefully with Adam and Eve…

The fact that if this man were of any other religion,and wanted more curriculum saying how that religion sees things, undermines the whole argument. Science would still be the same with or without this asshole. It’s just his personal religion. Personal, religion.

I’m proud the school board of my home state is being run well by a dentist.

This comment on the article about sums it all up:

I think they should teach creationism in Texas. That way natural selection can weed out the kids who are stupid enough to buy it.