stcynic
Posts by this author
May 3, 2006
The Cato Institute has a new group blog that includes some very good writers like Radley Balko and Tim Lynch. Michael Cannon files this report about the new Medicare and Social Security trustees' annual reports that were just released. Some of the, err, highlights of those reports:
The unfunded…
May 2, 2006
As you probably know by now, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of Vickie Lynn Marshall Anna Nicole Smith by a 9-0 margin in the matter of her continued attempts to get half of her late meal ticket's husband's fortune. Not since Falwell v Flynt have we had a Supreme Court case mentioned on…
May 2, 2006
I'm finding it rather amusing that so many blogs, particularly of the conservative variety, are making a huge deal out of Mark Steyn's article in the Chicago Sun-Times about a fake Jefferson quote. The quote, which we've all heard attributed to Jefferson repeatedly, goes like this:
"Dissent is the…
May 2, 2006
Dennis Prager has a column at the Worldnutdaily complaining of the dangers of historical revisionism by the ACLU and anti-smoking zealots. The connection between the two? You got me. I'm a strong advocate of the ACLU on most things and a strong opponent of America's anti-smoking paranoia. But along…
May 2, 2006
This weekend was the Tournament of Champions, the most prestigious high school debate tournament every year. It's very difficult to qualify for. You have to win two "bids" to get an invitation, each one of which requires getting to the late elimination rounds of a prominent national tournament, so…
May 1, 2006
I forgot to discuss this last week, but the Supreme Court denied cert in the case of Baldwinsville School District v. Peck, a church/state case involving a kindegarten student's right to express a religious viewpoint. The class was given an assignment to draw a poster with their perspective on the…
May 1, 2006
My pal DarkSyde is one of the major contributors to a new science book put together by the DailyKos folks. The book is called Kosmos: You Are Here. The foreword is by the brilliant Carl Zimmer and the illustrations by the equally brilliant Carl Buell, the same team that did At the Water's Edge.…
May 1, 2006
I didn't catch Stephen Colbert's lampooning of Bush at the White House Correspondents' dinner on C-SPAN, so I was thrilled to see that Crooks and Liars has the video available for download. This was brilliantly funny stuff. Editor and Publisher has some funny excerpts from the monologue. I'll print…
May 1, 2006
Another one of those perfect moments where Bill O'Reilly shows the world what a buffoon he is, this time from Media Matters. On his radio show recently, he was talking about how kids who fail a civics test should be shipped to Canada. Gee Bill, maybe if the schools actually taught civics classes,…
May 1, 2006
Let's do a little test, shall we? Let's see if all those folks who cry and whine about that big bad evil ACLU coming in and "intimidating" local school districts by filling lawsuits and then, when they win, getting the legal fees reimbursed will condemn such fee awards when they cut the other way.…
April 29, 2006
As an unofficial member of the Keith Olbermann fan club, how on earth could I possibly resist plugging a website and a book with the name Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly? I suggest reading it with a side order of falafel.
April 29, 2006
Also at Positive Liberty, Jon Rowe has a post about David Kupelian's book The Marketing of Evil. Kupelian is one of the big muckety mucks at the Worldnutdaily and his book is full of the sort of breathless and ridiculous "the fags are coming, the fags are coming" rhetoric that is de rigeur at that…
April 29, 2006
Jason Kuznicki has a terrific post at Positive Liberty about the legal and personal difficulties he will encounter as he and his husband Scott prepare to adopt a child. Yes, the post rambles a bit, but it really touches on how difficult it can be on him. Imagine this scenario and think about how…
April 28, 2006
This looks interesting. A new blog has begun and it's called Don't Stop the ACLU, obviously in response to our old pals at StopTheACLU. This should be fun to keep an eye on.
April 28, 2006
Yes, yes, I know - Godwin's law and all that. But the term is so perfect that I choose to use it, even while recognizing that the analogy is obviously absurd. I refer, of course, to the full range of health and longevity fetishists who push for ever more intrusive regulation of what we eat, drink…
April 28, 2006
A reader alerted me to a situation down at Calvin College, right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have many friends associated with Calvin, including the theistic evolutionist mentioned many times in the comments on a thread below, Howard Van Till (he's a retired physics professor from Calvin).…
April 28, 2006
If you're looking for a really amusing response to the Jesus cartoons, look no further than this column by Kevin McCullough at the Worldnutdaily. Unlike Donohue, he doesn't attempt to censor the paper; he figures God will do that when he sends those blasphemers to hell. Good for a chuckle or two.
April 28, 2006
And it's on the same topic. In response to the Day of Silence, a group of religious right organizations sponsorded a "Day of Truth", encouraging kids to speak out against homosexuality. At Mira Loma High School in California, a group of students staged an after school protest in response to the Day…
April 28, 2006
When I'm looking for wingnuttery to have a little fun with, I can always be sure to find something crazy at any website associated with Alan Keyes. Today's example is this column at RenewAmerica by Pete Fisher in which he argues that we should actually evict all Muslims from the US. Yep, you read…
April 28, 2006
Okay, this is just funny. After my post yesterday about the Jesus cartoons in an Oregon newspaper and the Catholic League's attempt to censor them, someone named mnuez left the following comment. My regular readers will no doubt find this as ridiculous as I do:
Boy, you sound pretty upset. Now, I…
April 27, 2006
Two sports posts in one day? They're going to revoke my membership in the Association of Intellectuals. But hey, college basketball is one of my great passions. ESPN has been discussing and debating who would go on the Mt. Rushmore of college basketball for both coaches and players during the ESPN…
April 27, 2006
An alternative student newspaper at the University of Oregon, The Insurgent, has printed a set of offensive cartoons that depict Jesus on the cross with an erection, and kissing another man, among others (the cartoons don't appear to be available at the link above). Naturally, this brought out the…
April 27, 2006
To those who claim that we've never seen one species turn into another, I give you the Oklahoma University IDEA Club. It used to be known as the Creation Science Society. In fact, their webpage initially said:
Welcome to the University of Oklahoma IDEA Club website! We are no longer the Creation…
April 27, 2006
I sent Afarensis a link to this post by Casey Luskin at the DI blog about human evolution, hoping that he would write up a critique of it. And indeed he has. It's very much worth reading. And it's another example of why most of the arguments made by ID advocates are not at all consistent with…
April 27, 2006
Someone left a link to this article about the FDA dragging their feet in making Plan B contraception available without a prescription. Take a look at what it says about an internal memo from one of the insiders:
In the memo released by the FDA during the discovery process, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an…
April 26, 2006
And with the mess surrounding their lacrosse program, they could use some. Josh McRoberts, their only returning big man, has just announced that he will return for his sophomore season rather than enter the NBA draft. He was expected to be a lottery pick if he had gone pro, based purely on…
April 26, 2006
The Seattle Times has an article about the Discovery Institute and its struggles in the wake of the Dover trial. Prompt the whining from the DI Media Complaints Division in 3...2...1.
The most interesting thing in the article, to me at least, was this statement about Bruce Chapman:
Chapman said he…
April 26, 2006
There is an interesting exchange going on in the comments after my post on ID and Creationism. I want to move part of that conversation up to the top so it doesn't get lost. In particular, I want to focus on an argument made by Jeremy Pierce, author of the Parableman blog. I want to focus on that…
April 26, 2006
Last week the New York Academy of Sciences held a conference on Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science, an event I wish I had been able to attend. Several friends and colleagues were speaking there, including Rob Pennock, Glenn Branch, and Ken Miller. Ars Technica has two reports on the…
April 26, 2006
In an interesting reversal of tradition, a member of the media has left to become a paid liar press secretary. Tony Snow, Fox News personality, is replacing Scott McClellan as White House press secretary. We're used to seeing government spokespeople becoming pundits; George Stephanopolous, Dee Dee…