December 4, 2011
Just under a year ago, I quoted and endorsed Stephen Post's argument that lack of civility isn't the problem we face in society, that incivility is a symptom, not an end unto itself.
Civility matters, and there are good reasons to urge people to be more civil in their interactions, and to model…
December 4, 2011
Martin Cothran â sometimes contributor to the Disco. 'tute blog, staffer for the Kentucky affiliate of Focus on the Family, general-purpose bigot, purported logic teacher â doesn't like Michael Shermer. Responding to an op-ed by Shermer, he writes:
Secularist atheists are all about having a "steely…
November 29, 2011
Last April, I blogged a paper by Will Gervais, that showed you could increase people's trust of atheists by simply telling them about how prevalent atheists are in their community. As I said at the time, the result isn't surprising and I didn't think it had any bearing on the debates over New…
November 21, 2011
The Discovery Institute is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Darwin on Trial, the mediocre book that inspired their movement. As part of the celebration, David Berlinski pounded out one of his typical droning missives from his recliner in Paris. As happens so often with the Disco. 'tute, there'…
November 21, 2011
This morning, OaklandBecks tweeted:
I just realized that this is the first morning since Oct 10 that there have been no #occupyoakland camps in Oakland.
I'm not sure that's an entirely bad thing. The camps were an effective protest for a long time, but it may well be time for the movement to move…
November 17, 2011
Marie-Claire Shanahan teaches science education at the University of Alberta, and blogs about her own research and about the state of science education (and science education training:Â science education education if you will). Her latest post summarizes her findings from reviewing science…
November 10, 2011
Disco. 'tute president Bruce Chapman is upset. There are ladies with their bloomers in a twist over something or other that they claim Herman Cain said. Let's read Chapman and see if we can guess what Cain is supposed to have done:
A number of significant insights are emerging from the charges of…
November 9, 2011
A month ago, I posted a link to an op-ed in the LA Times which referred to as-yet unpublished research which purported to show no difference in science literacy between people who don't take part in religion and evangelical Christians. Then I did my own analysis of the data, which found…
November 3, 2011
Hand in hand together
We shall not be moved
"We Shall Not Be Moved," Trad. civil rights song
On Wednesday, November 2, the people of Oakland peacefully, politely, closed downtown Oakland and the Port of Oakland – the nation's fifth busiest port.
It's hard to say how many people spent at…
November 2, 2011
Sorting through the 320 photos I took at the Oakland general strike today will take some time, as will getting all my thoughts together for a blog post. Meanwhile, here's a mini-essay I posted on twitter.
Each point was scheduled to go up at half-hour intervals, starting at 8 am, running…
November 1, 2011
Tomorrow, November 2, will be a general strike in Oakland. The move was approved nearly unanimously by the roughly 1600 people voting at last week's Occupy Oakland general assembly, held the night after police from Oakland and several surrounding areas attacked nonviolent protesters with tear gas…
November 1, 2011
Due to technical problems with my computer, I lost a long blog post I wrote last week about Occupy Oakland. It was a report on the meeting held the night after Oakland police attacked peaceful protesters, hospitalizing an Iraq veteran and others, teargassing people in wheelchairs and protesters (…
October 28, 2011
After Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Faye Flam took the Discovery Institute to task for their Hitler obsession and constant violations of Godwin's law, Disco. 'tute fellow Richard Weikart struck back, insisting, "I have spoken with intelligent Darwinists who admit point-blank that they do not have…
October 26, 2011
We've discussed yesterday's peaceful protest on behalf of Occupy Oakland, and the violent police response that dispersed that protest, but I want to quote at length from zunguzungu's excellent report:
You might find it a bit confusing trying to keep track of the different times the Oakland Police…
October 25, 2011
This morning (as I mentioned) police from Oakland and 15 other local law enforcement agencies sacked and pillaged the Occupy Oakland camp in downtown Oakland. Oakland's mayor was in Washington, DC at the time, trying to secure funding for the Port of Oakland, but insisted that the raid was…
October 25, 2011
Like a lot of folks, my first reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests â which began on September 17th, over a month ago â was dubious. While I agree with their concerns over income inequality and the failure of policymakers and law enforcement to hold Wall Street accountable for its role in…
October 15, 2011
Earlier this week, I quoted this from an op-ed in the LA Times:
I recently conducted survey research comparing the most conservative of Protestants â those who identify with a conservative Protestant denomination, attend church regularly and take the Bible literally, or about 11% of the population…
October 10, 2011
Sociologist John Evans talks about his research on evangelical attitudes toward science. Writing for the LA Times, he says:
I recently conducted survey research comparing the most conservative of Protestants â those who identify with a conservative Protestant denomination, attend church regularly…
October 8, 2011
Sarah Posner reports from the Values Voters Summit, a gathering of the theocracy-in-waiting. Various GOP presidential candidates spoke, as did Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association:
Fischer followed Romney's speech with an ugly anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-liberal speech. Although he…
October 5, 2011
Modeled Behavior tells A Tale of Two Recessions, noting a rather shocking statistic:
as of the last few years the auto fleet in the United States has begun to shrink. That is, we are scrapping cars at a faster rate than we are producing them.
Unless something changes in the next 18 months, our…
September 21, 2011
Elaine Howard Ecklund has a new paper out, building on her survey of scientists' views on religion, research she reported in a book last year, and in a series of papers over the last few years. In this paper (press release for those of you who haven't got access to the journal), she looks…
September 21, 2011
A couple weeks ago, Fox News released a new poll asking about evolution and creationism. It didn't strike me as especially noteworthy, though it does show a statistically significant rise in acceptance of evolution (21% think "the theory of evolution as outlined by Darwin and other scientist" is "…
September 20, 2011
Kevin Drum takes up a repeated theme: GOP to Country: Drop Dead:
We've talked before about the Republican genius for taking advantage of political norms that have traditionally been followed by both parties but have never been actual rules. This has produced a growing list of partisan ambushes like…
September 14, 2011
The problems with the latest reply from Disco. 'tute's David Klinghoffer begin in the title. He claims: "National Center for Science Education Defends Its Association with James Fetzer, Peddler of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories." NCSE did not address Klinghoffer's specious and slanderous claims…
September 14, 2011
Martin Cothran asks: Are there really 15.1 million poor people in the United States?
Short answer: Yes. Cothran doesn't actually answer, but strongly implies that he thinks the answer is: no. To justify this, he claims:
A multi-millionaire who owns several houses (with servants' quarters),…
September 12, 2011
Shorter David Klinghoffer: Strange Bedfellows at the National Center for Science Education:
Has NCSE stopped beating its wife?
He's writing in reply to my post a couple days ago. I had criticized him for comparing 9/11 "truthers" to scientists who advocate for evolution, when it's easier to find a…
September 8, 2011
David Klinghoffer of the Disco. 'tute wants to draw links between evolution and 9/11 conspiracies. In his usual long-winded way, he makes a lot of efforts to link evolution to anything evil, but doesn't offer much beyond hand-waving to back the claim up. This must be the best he can do for the 9/…
September 8, 2011
Yesterday's post on Rick Perry's Galileo gaffe has gotten a lot of attention, much supportive, but some critical. On twitter, historians of science Rebekah Higgit and Thony Christie have helped me sort out some of the threads. I don't think this alters any of the basic results, but it's worth…
September 8, 2011
Dave Roberts writes a dialogue on the notion of growth in modern politics and economics. On one hand, he notes that economic growth has been the most powerful engine for genuinely improving human wellbeing, and on the other hand, that it's doomed to run out, and that even as it can improve…
September 7, 2011
In the last few weeks, and at tonight's Republican debate, lots of national politicians have been asked their views on evolution, and lots of politicians have answered embarrassingly.
We should bear in mind, as I pointed out before:
Like the Miss USA contestants, most politicians (excluding those…
