November 6, 2007
On the subject of national politics, I come from the blind loyalty wing of the Democratic Party. When I look at the sort of things Democrats do when they have power compared to the sorts of things Republicans do, it seems clear to me that the Dems do a far better job of running states and…
November 6, 2007
Writing in The New York TImes Stanley Fish discusses two new books on the problem of evil.
Since Fish hails from the pompous, pseduo-intellectual school of writing, in which it is considered extremely low-brow to actually make a point with force and clarity, he has little light to shed on the issue…
November 2, 2007
I'm serious. Follow this link.
October 31, 2007
Back in June, Brown University biologist Ken Miller published this review of Michael Behe's book The Edge of Evolution in Nature magazine. Considering the venue, Miller quite appropriately focused on Behe's rather dubious scientific arguments and showed that they were entirely incorrect.
Miller…
October 29, 2007
At least, that is the conclusion you would inevitably come to if you read Town Hall on a regular basis. The wesbite that boasts of being the first conservative web community seems to have a yen for anti-atheist propaganda.
For example, here's Mike Adams in a column entitled, “Understanding Atheism…
October 29, 2007
Former World Chess Champion and current political activist Garry Kasparov appeared on Bill Maher's program the other night. The entire, seven minute interview is worth watching, but I especially liked this part:
MAHER: But if you look at what's going on in Russia, Putin has a very high approval…
October 29, 2007
This week's New York Times Magazine has this lengthy article suggesting that the evangelical voters are modertaing their views a bit:
So when Fox announced to his flock one Sunday in August last year that it was his final appearance in the pulpit, the news startled evangelical activists from…
October 25, 2007
Writing at the Cato Insititue blog, Chris Edwards believes he has found the Ann Coulter of the left:
For those who think that it's just conservatives, such as Ann Coulter, who are mean-spirited, they should check out the new book by Jonathan Chait, a senior editor of the New Republic, entitled The…
October 24, 2007
Another day, another debate between Christopher Hitchens and a defender of the faith. This time it was Dinesh D'Souza. The video of the procedings can be found here.
It was a frustrating debate. Through most of it I felt D'Souza and Hitchens were talking about different things. Hitchens focused…
October 24, 2007
Columbia University Law Professor Michael Dorf uses the Dumbledore flap as a teachable moment:
These principles may seem obvious enough when considering the relation of a fiction writer's intentions to her text, but they are highly contentious when it comes to legal documents. In the balance of…
October 23, 2007
Christian apologist John Mark Reynolds answers no:
Recently, J.K. Rowling announced to the world that one of her characters, the heroic mentor of Harry Potter, Dumbledore was gay.
Nonsense. There is no evidence of it in the books and the books (at this point) are all that matter. I have always…
October 23, 2007
I see P.Z. Myers already has the video of Bill O'Reilly's interview with Ben Stein. But just in case you're at work and don't want to get caught watching such filth, I have taken the liberty of providing a transcript below. Read it and weep:
O'REILLY: In the unresolved problems segment tonight,…
October 22, 2007
J.K. Rowling made some news at Carnegie Hall the other night:
But when the questions began -- they had been submitted by audience members before the event -- she came into her own. Finally able to talk freely about the end of a series that had been so long-anticipated, she left nothing out. The…
October 22, 2007
A while back I wrote an opinion piece (PDF Format) for BioScience magazine entitled “Leaders and Followers in the Intelligent Design Movement.” The intent of the essay was to draw a distinction between the rampant dishonesty among the leaders of the ID movement, with their blatantly out of context…
October 18, 2007
Slate has an interesting piece on som erecent dinosaur finds in Argentina:
Paleontologists announced on Monday that they had discovered the remains of a 105-foot-long dinosaur on the banks of a lake in the Argentine portion of Patagonia. The Futalognkosaurus dukei ranks among the largest known…
October 17, 2007
In my blog entry of a few days ago regarding Jerry Fodor's poorly argued essay in The London Review of Books, I remarked that Fodor divided his criticisms of natural selection into both an empricial and a conceptual criticism. I focused entirely on the empricial side of his essay. Happily, Bob O'…
October 17, 2007
It's been pointed out to me that the banner residing atop my blog is a bit dull. There's a very good reason for that. I haven't the faintest idea how to make a snazzier one.
Apparently other people have had contests to find a banner. That sounds good. Make other people do the work. I like that…
October 17, 2007
From the public editor of The Sacramento Bee:
There they were, two stories on the Metro cover last Monday about a common topic: religion and beliefs.
Yet they were as opposite as night is to day.
The headlines said it all.
“Atheists stand proud,” said one. “Church's members unite to aid schools,"”…
October 14, 2007
Sunday's New York Times offers a poignant look at some of the victims of the Iraq War:
IT was a bitterly cold night in the Baghdad winter of 2005, somewhere in the predawn hours before the staccato of suicide bombs and mortars and gunfire that are the daily orchestration of the war. Alone in my…
October 14, 2007
Philosopher Jerry Fodor offers up the latest example of a familiar genre: essays declaring the forthcoming demise of natural selection, coupled with very little in the way of supporting argument. He is writing in the London Review of Books. There's quite a bit I find wrong with Fodor's essay. In…
October 12, 2007
The new issue of the Reports of the National Center for Science Education turned up in my mailbox the other day. As always, it contains lot's of interesting nuggets.
Michael Ruse reviews Sahotra Sarkar's recent book, Doubting Darwin: Creationist Designs on Evolution. The review is well done, by…
October 12, 2007
Paul Krugman does his usual fine job of exposing the utter lack of conscience on the American political right:
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they're on scholarship), because…
October 11, 2007
UPDATE: October 12, 5:00 pm. It has been pointed out to me that my statement that support for Israel has been a constant of post WWII American foreign policy is not correct. President Truman recognized Israel upon its formation, but relations between Israel and the US were distinctly chilly…
October 10, 2007
My reviews of Phillip Kitcher's Living With Darwin and Francisco Ayala's Evolution and Intelligent Design are now available over at Skeptic's website. Enjoy!
I should probably mention that I wrote this review some time ago, and in the meantime Ayala has published a slightly more detailed book on…
October 9, 2007
As if worried that fellow lunatic Michael Barone might receive the honor for the silliest attack on universities in recent memory, Dennis Prager steps in with his own worthy pretender to the title.
His jumping off point is the recent “editorial” in the Colorado State University student newspaper…
October 9, 2007
Town Hall columnist Michael Barone has a bee in his bonnet about universities:
I am old enough to remember when America's colleges and universities seemed to be the most open-minded and intellectually rigorous institutions in our society. Today, something very much like the opposite is true:…
October 9, 2007
It seems that Larry Craig is not resigning:
Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho, defying the wishes of many in his own Republican Party, said Thursday that he would remain in the Senate through next year despite a court ruling against him in Minnesota, where he had sought to rescind his guilty plea…
October 8, 2007
Take away the question mark and that's the name of a blog maintained by Zack Exley. I came across it by following links from BoingBoing and Andrew Sullivan.
Exley's premise is that “secular progressives” ought to take a second look at Evangelical Christianity. He writes:
Right after the 2004…
October 8, 2007
From the stopped clock department, two of my least favorite New York Times columnists have managed to get it right on the subject of Clarence Thomas.
Here's Frank Rich:
This could be seen most vividly on “60 Minutes,” when he revisited a parable about the evils of affirmative action that is also a…
October 1, 2007
Viswanathan Anand of India is the new, mostly undisputed, World Chess Champion, thanks to his stellar performance at the Mexico City tournament. The Chess Ninja has the details.
By all accounts Anand is a class act and a well-deserving champion. He played, and lost, a title match with Gary…
