P. Z. Myers Critiques a Book Against Science

I am very familiar with the confused feeling of "but they say it so eloquently!"  You know, when you're steeped in misinformation and it all sounds so logical, having never been introduced to real data or current research, you sort of stop listening to the other side.  Once I left fundamentalist Christianity, I began to study other viewpoints, especially science.

P.Z. Myers is one of my favorite science writers because he spends the time to carefully explain the process of how conclusions are made and gives you much of the history of a developing or accepted theory.

Then he does this.  Go read it. I love it when he skewers the arguments of those that I used to trust blindingly.  I hunger for getting things right and I sorely appreciate his pen.

Enjoy!

I Call Them "Word Games"

P. Z. Meyers recently wrote a brilliant critique of the argument of "presuppositionalism", which isn't even a real word.  I've even heard the school of thought framed as "everything that is argued between Creationism and Evolution stems from some sort of circumstantial evidence."

In his eye-opening and thought provoking article, Meyers tells us why that just isn't true.

" The presuppositionalist who says the total foundational premises of his view of the universe are determined entirely by one holy book is crippling their inputs — it’s like trying to read a book through a pinhole and refusing to ever turn a page. " - P. Z. Meyers.

Enjoy the read...

Beware!  Presuppositionalists!

Jesse Lee Petersen: Why are his allies quiet?

It has been six days.  Six days since Kirsten Powers "hijacked" the Sean Hannity show on Fox News to make a valiant attempt at confronting Jesse Lee Petersen and his idiot rant on his misogynistic beliefs - in a sermon, no less.  Yes, it has been six days since Sean Hannity was confronted with the issue on his show, right under his nose. 

Six days of silence. 

Well, not really silence.  Hannity, at 10:38PM EST that evening posted a short transcript of the confrontation and yet focused exclusively on the "hijacking", rather than the content of Kirsten's words, especially what she was referencing.  Jesse Lee Petersen and his allies at bondaction.org posted their own version of the events, painting Kirsten Powers as a liberal-minded woman who savagely attacked the innocent lamb, Petersen.

Nothing is farther from the truth.

The fact that Kirsten Powers had to do the deed makes me ill.  Sean Hannity, as has been reported elsewhere, was dredging up an old partisan head-fake, attempting to get the guests to argue about the fact that Obama does not deserve credit for the death of Osama Bin Laden.  Out of the blue, Kirsten confronted Petersen and Hannity, understandably, looked like a deer in the headlights. 

I understand the nature of fast segmented discussion shows and that Hannity was trying to save his show from going off the rails.  To the casual observer, it appeared that Powers had a personal vendetta against Petersen and I suspect this may have been what Hannity focused on, though his judgement was severely clouded by the fact that he sits on the board of Petersen's BOND organization.  The fact that Hannity did not dig into the accusations on his show is not at issue here. 

The problem is the six days of silence.

Worse yet, Petersen posted this misogynist rant on his own YouTube channel on March 5, 2012.  That was a full two months before he appeared on the May 1 show.  Does Fox News, especially the show that is going to be using this man as a credible pundit, not vet their guests before each and every appearance? Also, why have Sean Hannity or his handlers not done their due diligence and researched what Powers was referring to?

Or have they?

Forget about Sean Hannity for a minute.  What about others on the conservative side?  Anyone!  I don't care who steps up to the microphone and simply distances themselves from Petersen's beliefs.  But strangely, every one of his allies are silent.

When Hilary Rosen coughed up a gaffe on a news commentary show about Ann Romney not having worked a day in her life, the allies of Ann Romney were there to defend her in 3.2 seconds.  For two weeks, it was all Fox News could talk about.  Does this mean they only defend stay at home mom's (women in their rightful place, according to Jesse Lee Petersen, that is, as long as the husband is telling her what to do)? 

And a finer point, Jesse Lee Petersen is a liar.  He stared at Powers with a smirk on his face and tried to spin his words from March 5, 2012, pretending that he was only referring to "liberal" women.  That is a lie from the pit of hell.  If you watch his sermon there are many quotable quotes to catch him at his lie, but let me grace you with one of the better ones:

"I think that one of the greatest mistakes that America made, was to allow women the opportunity to vote.  We should have never turned it over to women." (8:29)

Yes, he was obviously just talking about liberal women.

Will Sean Hannity stay on the board of BOND and stand behind his man?  Will he stand up for every woman that has ever lived, who have worked so hard to become equals in society with men?  Will others yell from the rooftops and give two weeks of programming to decrying the words of Jesse Lee Petersen?  I'm not speaking of P.Z. Myers, Libby Anne, Vyckie Garrison, and many more who already disagree with Jesse Lee Petersen in other areas.  I'm referring to his allies.  Those that call him friend and expert commentator.

Why are you silent?

My Dear Beard...Ok..My Patch of Scruff

An epic song came out in 2010, sung by Ke$ha.  The tune is catchy and it has my kids hopping around our van while we drive down two lane country roads in Wisconsin.  But that doesn't make the song.  Sure, it has a bunch of Gaga-esque randomness (even a squid for a split nanosecond that would make the single worthy of a "thumbs up" from P.Z. Myers) with a playful message about how love can mess with your head, rendering you idiotic while drunk on the elevated dopamine effect - a truism for a culture obsessed by the "meaning" of love.  That's all well and good.

What makes the song is the last four words, "I love your beard."  I have no idea why that works for me, but I enjoy random creativity out of left field, which is very much the reason why I skip past the country stations on my local radio dial.

Maybe I love the phrase because I have scruff on my face that I really like.

When I was a young boy, I was a late bloomer.  My brothers, at the age of 13, sprouted mustaches and had to begin shaving.  A year and a half later, I passed the age of 13 and watched my perfectly smooth upper lip turn more pinkish as the days went by.  I hit 14.  Then 15.  At 15, I had one hair on my lip and I left it.  It was the seed that would begin my efflorescence.

Someone told me that if I shaved once, my hair would grow back faster, thicker, and stronger.  So I shaved - four times a day.  I went to college and met a gentleman with a face that needed shaving five minutes after he touched a razor to it.  He was a fellow of European descent and yet looked downright Arabic.  I noticed he sipped coffee (black, mind you) all day, every day.  I began to drink coffee.  Lots of it.  Not your watered down horse pee you find in a church mega-pot.  Thick black coffee that ran like molasses.  If I could rub my teeth together after a sip without a squeak, I knew the coffee was too weak.  And so my hair grew.

My grooming habits became, well, habitual.  I would shave my face.  Then, three days later, my scruff was absolutely perfect.  The length of the scratchy stuff was downright sexy.  Then, after six days, my neck would begin to itch and I would start scratching.  On the seventh day, I would scratch my neck red, get sick of it, shave, and start the process all over again.  To this day, I still run this schedule, occasionally working in a goatee or a week-and-a-half beard.

Then I got married. 

I met her on the third day of my shaving cycle.  She swooned.  Then I kissed her.  She laughed and said I tickled her nose and that I scratched her.  I stepped back and she swooned again.  I wanted to kiss her, so I shaved and went back for a kiss.  She said I looked too young.

One day, I might try kissing her again.