My long-time friend Ed Brayton blogs over at Dispatches From the Culture Wars about various topics related to the “interface of religion, science, law, and culture.” Â A stalwart defender of civil liberties, he has come under fire from an indeterminate number of trollish posters accusing him of being insufficiently anti-Sharia and anti-Muslim for not being … Read more
*Blush* Guess I can stop defending the free speech rights of scoundrels. Well, at least these scoundrels. For now.
Some of these people are really annoyed at you Apparently I might have Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome. According to the Wall Street Journal, Researchers say the concept of “sidewalk rage” is real. One scientist has even developed a Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome Scale to map out how people express their fury. At its most extreme, sidewalk rage … Read more
Westboro Baptist’s reply to Anonymous is predictably childish. (That link goes to the PDF, but you can see a jpeg version here.) Short version: “Bring it!” Speaking of shutting down web sites, the Department of Homeland Security shuttered nearly 84,000 of them last weekend on suspicion of child porn. People attempting to access those sites … Read more
“Aggressive proponents of free speech,” my arse. I would wonder how it’s possible for them to claim that label while simultaneously threatening to shut down a group’s website due to ideological differences with a straight face, but they’re Anonymous– there’s no face to see. Note: this response is not because of any love lost … Read more
Oh, I know there are sadder ones– Ugliest Tattoos is on my blogroll. But this one must be way up there: PZ Myers writes: I have a recommendation for his left arm, though—something from Leviticus 19. Lev 19:26 Eat not on the mountains, nor shall ye employ auguries, nor divine by inspection of birds. … Read more
Somebody pointed out in the Pharyngula thread that while “female” can be used as a noun, so can “black,” and it doesn’t sound very good to refer to a black person as simply “a black.” Comedian Lisa Lampanelli refers to “the blacks” on purpose because being offensive is her shtick. I think that using those … Read more
Bill Bailey, hilarious feminist …is that it’s still possible to make general statements criticizing them and be taken seriously. Richard Dawkins weighed in on the sex/gender dispute, pretty much attributing all of the consternation to a blanket disapproval of the “million dollar challenge” (an experiment intended to show that women are essentially sexual gate keepers by asking … Read more
Wonder how he managed to narrow it down to ten…. This is a very good list explanations and examples of fallacies commonly made by politicians. In the world according to Gretchen, all children would learn about logical fallacies in school at a young age and then go home and apply that knowledge when watching politicians … Read more
I love this lady: