Kooks
pharyngula | January 15, 2009The other day, I pointed out that tasteless web design is a hallmark of crazy web sites, and used this Overcompensating comic to illustrate it…and you all scurried over to Timecube to see one of the best examples on the web.
I got this email today.
Dear Mr. Meyers,
Putting aside any offensive criticism of our website on your web page at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/contact.php, we found many of the comments extremely humorous, even though at our expense.
We comment on your page at http://lfnexus.com/scumbagwebsites.htm.
Thank you for the good laugh!
Oh, yes, you can share…
pharyngula | January 8, 2009Some days, it's a little depressing to see all the ignorance running rampant in this country, so it's a bit of a relief to see people in other countries say something brain-bogglingly stupid. In this case, it's a reaction to the atheist bus advertising campaign in the United Kingdom — the signs that say, "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Now someone is making a legal claim, trying to suppress the signs, and his rationale is hilarious. Stephen Green, a known religious kook, is challenging the statement on its accuracy.
Mr Green has challenged the adverts on…
pharyngula | January 8, 2009Glastonbury is the legendary burial place of King Arthur, so as you might imagine, if you're a fey English wackaloon with a fondness for magic crystals and pagan rituals, it's a magnetic attraction. How bad can it be? Well, the wicked government of Great Britain, always trying to suppress the Old Ways and encourage this horrible practice of "modernization", has flipped the switch and turned on free wireless networking for the whole town. Evil!
"I don't want my son exposed to risk 24 hours a day, including at his primary school, which is within the Wi-Fi zone," yoga teacher Natalie Fee tells…
pharyngula | January 7, 2009Speaking of people who can't understand basic science, here's Denyse O'Leary:
A couple of years ago, after I had been following the controversy for several years, I found myself listening to a long lecture by a Darwinist, replete with bafflegab and pretty lame examples. Finally, sensing (correctly) that I was unconvinced, he proclaimed to me, "You just don't understand how natural selection works, do you?"
And suddenly, the penny dropped. What he meant was that I just don't believe in magic. I can't make myself believe in magic; I haven't been able to since I was a child.
Natural selection…
pharyngula | January 6, 2009I am genuinely amused at this caricature of scientists from a creationist site. How many of you believed these things?
Everyone is biased. Scientists just happen to be biased in favor of reality, and have a set of tools that help them overcome predispositions that might lead them into error (Non-scientists have the same tools. Creationists just prefer not to use them.)
Again, they try to be objective.
Hah! Anyone who has done any science at all knows that a good part of the process is spent winnowing out sources of error.
He wears a…wait, what? In a list containing such grand and…
pharyngula | January 6, 2009Did you know the Catholic church was established by Satan? You would if you read Chick comics. We also get the communion ritual explained for us.
You know what will happen if he doesn't. He will burn in hell for all eternity!
I do rather like the idea of an itty-bitty Jesus taking a dive off a cloud to land in a cracker, though. Wham!
pharyngula | December 31, 2008Casey Luskin once again complains about the fact that the propagators of intelligent design creationism are not regarded kindly, and in fact, are frequently disparaged. He takes it very personally, even.
On a personal note, I am familiar with these kinds of attacks. In one single forum at Antievolution.org, created and owned by a former National Center for Science Education staff member, I have been called no less than "Bizarre ignoramus," "retarded," "suck-up," "Pathetic Loser," "attack mouse, gerbil, rat, or clockwork powered plush toy," "an orc," "Annoying," "a miserable loser with no life…
pharyngula | December 21, 2008The outraged email from creationist fans of Ken Ham and the Creation "Museum" continues apace. Most of it is forgettable and repetitive — I'm usually accused of being against free speech, as if I had somehow barred the doors of that temple of foolishness in Kentucky, or had personally gagged Ken Ham — but this one stands out for it's opening insult. I am deeply offended. But then I read further, and it seems this poor man is simply incoherent and deeply confused, instead.
Mr. Myers,
I understand that you are creationist - that loves God and real authentic science....right!
Since you so…
pharyngula | December 19, 2008So a wingnut gets a cartoonish version of religious history:
Ritualistic Baal worship, in sum, looked a little like this: Adults would gather around the altar of Baal. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity. Amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, congregants - men and women alike - would engage in bisexual orgies. The ritual of convenience was intended to produce economic prosperity by prompting Baal to bring rain for the fertility of "mother earth."
And what do you think that reminds him of? I think I'm wrong: he's not making a…
pharyngula | December 19, 2008Lack of self-awareness is a tragic disease running rampant in the fundagelical community. Here's an amusing instance: what happens if you tell children about Santa, and then they find out the truth? Why, they go on a terrorist rampage of murder and mayhem, of course.
Right. I'm sure you all remember that day when you discovered Santa Claus was just-pretend, maybe when you were 4 or 5, and you right away ran out and burned down the pre-school and strangled the cat. Funny, isn't it, how everyone reading this figured out that Santa isn't real and managed to survive the trauma without committing…
pharyngula | December 17, 2008Oh, no — more hysteria over Christmas from Bill O'Reilly, joined now by Gretchen Carlson, the blinkered bigot host of some other Fox program. The dialog is hilariously stupid.
Billo blows it early, claiming that Christmas marks "the birth of Jesus Christ, which is what the holiday is based on", which is simply not true. Midwinter festivals have a long history predating Christianity, and Christianity simply coopted this one, right down to the date and many of the pagan traditions that go with it. The name is taken from Christianity, but so what?
Then the two begin a duet of historical…
pharyngula | December 15, 2008In these times of economic crisis, war, and uncertainty, it is reassurring to know that our diligent representatives are hard at work in congress to make the country a better place.
Behold, House Resolution 847.
H. Res. 847
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
December 11, 2007.
Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans and many other cultures and nationalities, is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and the world;
Whereas there are approximately 225,000,000 Christians in the United States, making Christianity the religion of over three-…
pharyngula | December 11, 2008The skirmish over Christmas in Washington state just gets funnier every day.
Now someone wants to put up a Festivus pole in the capitol. That's hilarious enough, but it gets better.
The Westboro Baptist Church has demanded to be allowed to put up a sign that says, "Santa Claus will take you to Hell". I never thought I'd laugh at Fred Phelps and his gang of hateful loonies, but there you go.
We aren't done yet! Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has to butt in and bray, too.
Gov. Gregoire is responsible for this mess. Having first acceded to the requests of atheists to attack Christmas, she…
pharyngula | December 10, 2008The Muslims have entered the fray now —
one crazy lawyer, Anjem Choudary, is calling Christmas evil. How can we godless top that?
The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam. Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire. Protect your Paradise from being taken away - protect yourself and your family from Christmas.
Have no fear. We can say something much, much worse. Here's an elementary school teacher who told her class that Santa wasn't real. The reaction from…
pharyngula | December 9, 2008Bill O'Reilly makes one of his trademark screeds against the War on Christmas, but it doesn't quite have the effect he intended, I think. He's very cranky about the atheist sign in the capitol of Washington state, which is Olympia, so he rants against Seattle. I'm sure it makes sense in Billo World.
Seattle now rivals San Francisco for secular-progressive nuttiness. The city fathers are allowing public nakedness in city parks, nude bike riding, and in Fremont, a Seattle suburb, they actually put up a statue honoring Lenin, the father of communism.
What's wrong with nudity? That sounds like a…
pharyngula | December 8, 2008He has written recently about the terrorism in Mumbai.
Grand old hotel, in an increasingly progressive and prosperous India: Suddenly, hundreds of innocent, unsuspecting people are hostages, some of them being systematically murdered. Bombs are exploding, people are screaming, military are descending into the chaos, TV crews are coming from everywhere to broadcast the carnage worldwide.
Yes, it was a terrible and shocking event. However, he really doesn't care about Indians suffering and dying — he wants to warn Americans that it could happen here.
Look around. Watch your evening news. Read…
pharyngula | December 6, 2008Yeah, I get odd threats. Apparently, I can now expect every Christian in the country to now inundate my university with mail accusing me of Marxism and telling us that evolution is dead. It's kind of a threat; if it happens, then I'll post Bonnie's full headers and we can wage a little internet war. I suspect, though, this will be nothing but a damp squib from an ignorant kook with delusions of competence.
Professor P.T. Myers
Dr. PZ Myers
Division of Science and Mathematics
600 E 4th Avenue
University of Minnesota, Morris
Morris, MN 56267
Dear Mr. Myers,
I am writing to you concerning the…
pharyngula | November 30, 2008Look, I don't need this. It's been a rough weekend, with way too much travel for my mental and physical health, and I started off today with the Atheist Talk radio broadcast, which was good, but it was bracketed by those horrible woo-woo infomercials that always piss me off, and then I had to drive three hours to Minneapolis to send my son back to school, and then three hours back, and I haven't had time to sit down and eat yet, and the email piled up something fierce while I was away, and I still have lots of grading to do for tomorrow, and when my brain is burned out I forget how to end…
pharyngula | November 29, 2008This isn't fair. Dawkins gets censored in Turkey, now Mike Haubrich gets a warning letter, and I get nothing other than invitations to debate Harun Yahya. I'm losing my mojo — I guess I'm not sufficiently scary to the Turks. Go ahead and say lots of rude things about these Turkish creationists in the comments — I'd like to catch up with everyone else.
In less amusing email news, as you all know, I get lots of drive-by abuse in my inbox, and it usually doesn't concern me at all. Lately, though, I've been getting regularly dumped on by a guy going by the name Bayridge Brooklyn. It's crazy stuff…