Let’s play spot the fallacies (sports fan edition) May 30, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in constiutional issues, Religion, wingnuts.8 comments
I’m still on the road, but a local internet cafe has given me a chance to bring you this (with thanks to PZ for pointing it out). Steve Deace, sports fan and rabid fundie, has his panties in a twist that an atheist (gasp!) would dare to suggest that forcing a chaplain down the throats of students might be a bad idea. I won’t reprint the whole article here, but we’ll hit the highlights:
Those of you that pride yourselves on being more “tolerant” and more “enlightened” than you fellow upright vat of primordial ooze should stop reading now, or face the implosion of your frontal lobe.
When the article’s disclaimer takes a shot at tolerance, you know you’re in for a long ride. But it gets worse. Oh-so-much worse.
Contrasted without further comment: racial profiling edition May 23, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, constiutional issues, News and politics, wingnuts.add a comment
Earlier today a troll had this to say:
i really agree with you aboyut the racial profiling thing. i read a quote earlier on today and it went something like this. not all muslims are terrorists are islamic people are terrorists, but have you ever noticed that all terrorists are islamic. i really agree with this there are many place in the world that have been bomb and destroyed and the majority of them were damaged by the islamic males 17-40, not 80 year old women. if bus loads of old ladies bombed a bunch of buildings,e would be right to racially profile them.
Taking the commenter’s own “logic,” this incident, combined with OKC and the Olympic Park and clinic bombings, should imply something about how we deal with fundamentalists*, no?
A small group of protesters gathered near the funeral services to criticize the man who mobilized Christian evangelicals and made them a major force in American politics — often by playing on social prejudices. And Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.
The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service.
*No, I don’t support profiling of any religious group, even Scientologists. Just illustrating the point.
Update of sorts May 23, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging.3 comments
I’m going to be traveling and largely without net access for the next week, so expect things to be pretty quiet around here. In the meantime, some things to occupy your time:
Flixster: what can I say? I like movies!
Hockey: The NHL finals should be a great series, and has to be better than the NBA Conference Finals.
Harry Potter: post your Deathly Hallows predictions in the comment thread.
Informed Comment: if you’re not reading Juan Cole right now, you really need to be. I suspect we’ll see the White House escalate the rhetoric for an attack on Iran sharply over the next several weeks, if not even more quickly than that. With the Guardian and ABC both indicating that the Bushies are actively looking to start a shooting war with Iran, we need to counter the disinformation as quickly as possible, and no one is better than Juan Cole at that.
What we need are more privileged white men writing book reviews May 21, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in arts and culture, language and lit.2 comments
Both Echidne and The Lizard Queen have both taken Richard Schickel to task for his inane argument that people expressing opinions about books is bad. It’s noteworthy that his three hero book reviewers are white men, and that, even if Schickel doesn’t see it, the only “danger” of the blogosphere to the business of book reviews is that we might find out we don’t need to rely on the opinions of professional critics.
It’s also a bizarre position to hold; anyone with any sense can see that writing-as-as-serious-endeavor is in a lot of trouble, especially when it comes to “serious” fiction and poetry. People read a lot less than they did a generation ago, and it’s only through the rise of the Internet that I see much of a potential resurgence for the written word. More reviewers means more information, more opinion, and more attention on an art for that Shickel would no doubt claim to love. So is it really reviewing he’s worried about, or that the edifice of his good-old-boys club might be beginning to crack?
Ratzi: those Indians wanted to be Catholic. Do we have some more blankets around here somewhere? May 19, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, wingnuts.5 comments
And people wonder why I have such contempt for the man.
Pope Benedict XVI told Latin American bishops in Brazil that American Indians had been “silently longing” to become Christians 500 years ago…
Our correspondent said Pope Benedict also made no mention of the violent history that followed or the documented decimation of native cultures in favour of the Christian model Conquistadores and other Europeans colonisers.
Violence in the name of other peoples’ gods, not okay. Violence in the name of one’s own god, perfectly acceptable.
Ann Coulter: not parodic, but definitely a fucking moron May 19, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, News and politics, wingnuts.1 comment so far
This, I’m sad to say, is not parody. From Coulter’s obit of Falwell (I’m not going to link to her–google it if you like):
Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners.
She goes on to say:
Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell.
Actually, there was one small item I think Falwell got wrong regarding his statement after 9/11 that “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians — who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle — the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’”
First of all, I disagreed with that statement because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and “the Reverend” Barry Lynn.
Ann “I lie all the time and still get TV interviews for some reason” Coulter goes on from there. So let’s fact-check Ann, and see about the “Christian” values of Falwell. Some quotes from the dear departed:
If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.
– Rev Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang “God Bless America” and said “let the ACLU be hanged”? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time — calling upon God.
– Rev Jerry Falwell, justifying the breech of Constitutional Separation of Religion from Government while blaming civil libertarians for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, to which Rev Pat Robertson again agreed, quoted from AANEWS #958 by American Atheists (September 14, 2001)
AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.
– Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.
– Rev Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976
Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.
– Jerry Falwell, on CNN’s Crossfire, May 17, 1997
The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews.
– Rev Jerry Falwell (attributed: source unknown)
I really hope this is parody May 19, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Humor, Science, wingnuts.1 comment so far
The reason it sounds so real, of course, is that it mirrors Creationist “arguments.”
One Question on Michael D. Evan’s New Book May 18, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, Iran, Middle East, News and politics, wingnuts.add a comment
Why didn’t he just name it “The Final Solution to the Muslim Problem”? I mean, the ideas it contains are offensive enough, but doesn’t he have either the historical awareness or the sense of propriety to find a different phrase for his title?
Jesus Christ, these people terrify me.
In which I express my support for Intelligent Design May 17, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Origins, Science, wingnuts.add a comment
At last, a theory of Intelligent Design I can get behind:
Human beings helping other human beings out. I wonder if the DI will claim they needed God to come up with the idea for Adoption.*
*Actually, I’ll go on record now as predicting that someone over at Evolution News and Views will claim this is the opposite of natural selection and so is “anti-Darwinian” or somesuch nonsense, as thought the fact of our origins makes some sort of claim about how we should structure the family. You heard it hear first.
Why I love Al Gore, or if only life was like a JLA Comic Book May 17, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Al Gore, language and lit, News and politics.1 comment so far
Melissa brought my attention to Gore’s latest brilliance:
The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.
A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: “What has happened to our country?” People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it…
It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America’s public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.
Indeed. Now as soon as I learn how to go back in time and assure the man who won the popular vote in 2000 would be the man occupying the White House now…
