Jonathan Wells Turns Lead into Gold...

...with another crackpot prediction! Yay!

Stupid "darwinists"! When will they ever learn?

Hey Wells--wanna make a bet?

(Shimmies to Ed at Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Little Girl not Christian Enough for Dr. Philistine

UPDATED: In light of the fact that there is a “disturbing number” of physicians out there “who are not, in fact, doing the right thing,” is there need of a national database of physicians who are committed to offering all treatment options and to making all the referrals necessary?

Would compling such a database be beneficial? Is it necessary?

Please feel free to comment on this, especially if you are part of the profession. This blog accepts anonymous comments.

Dr. Gary Merrill, do you have something to add?

SECOND UPDATE: Now a boy has died from an infected tooth because of lack of health care. This is yet another issue I have with American health care.
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This is beyond whack! A so-called “Christian” refuses treatment for a little girl with a sore ear because her mother has a tattoo.

The writing is on the wall—literally: “This is a private office. Appearance and behavior standards apply.”

For Dr. Gary Merrill of Christian Medical Services, that means no tattoos, body piercings, and a host of other requirements—all standards Merrill has set based upon his Christian faith.

“She had to go that entire night with her ear infection with no medicine because he has his policy,” Tasha Childress said.

Merrill won’t speak on camera, but said based on his values and beliefs, he has standards that he expects in his office.

He does that, he said, to ensure the patients he does accept have a more comfortable atmosphere.

According to the American Medical Association and other doctors, he reserves that right.

This is so wrong on so many levels. For shame. I've read the same book he did and I cannot imagine where he's getting this. (Does he think he's going to get a gold star in heaven for his "purity"?)

Hold it right there--before you tell me that he is a selfish ass who doesn't represent the majority of sensible believers, I know that. But that's the problem that I have with religious belief. It can be made to say anything. In and of itself, it's not a methodology. That's why I place my trust in the imperfect, but self-correcting, flawed and yes, human (unlike the inhuman rationalization of this twit) process of the scientific method and rational thinking. Whether we are religious believers or not, all ships need an anchor.

(And this doctor needs to walk the plank! I hope he slept well while that poor kid suffered.)

Shimmies to Pharyngula

An Inconvenient Oscar

An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award for best documentary last night. It was a wonderful moment for Al Gore, who made an impassioned speech for acting now to head off the worst effects of global climate change.

In the meantime, the sages at Uncommon Descent have continued their "global warming is a Darwinist conspiracy" wail, illustrated with some Thomas Kincaidesque crap that William Dembski thinks is art.

It should be called egoarts.org! (After all, that's all intelligent design is, looking at the works of others and saying, "I could have done that!" when in fact they couldn't have done it, or even thought about it, without first seeing it done first.)

Over at AtBC, I posted the news about Al Gore's film (and noticed a subsequent posting at UD--I have a little shadow) and asked this question: designed, or not?

Yeah, abstract expressionism. I don't the the ID folks are big fans of real art. Elitist conspiracy, you know.

Dawkins Vs. a Talking Booger, Uncensored!

The Science Pundit just sent me this uncensored (but mercifully blurred at key spots) video clip of Dawkins' interview with the, um, er, incorrigible Rev. Ted Haggard, who has just supposedly been "cured" of teh gay. Get out your hankies, but not for the reason you think! (I laughed! I...uh, I laughed!)

Holy Crap, WHO AM I??!!!

People, please help me remember my real life before the amnesia struck!

It's a plot to cheat me out of my millions! Well, they won't get away with it. My memory's come back, and heads are going to roll! (And if you help me get my revenge, I give you a cut.)

Shimmies to Kevin who gave this wayward girl a ride home in his porsche.
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UPDATED: You know what? To hell with Hollywood. This is much better! I've been given a Molly award at Pharyngula, along with Scott Hatfield, also a regular commenter.

Shimmies, as always, to PZ and to all the Pharyngulites. And this is the second time that my detractor VMartin has called me witty. I guess he has a soft spot for me.

UPDATED BY THE MOMENT: Come one, come all, to my sermon. (Just hang on until I can hitch-hike to the east coast!)

No Thanky-Ma'amy in Alabamy!

Federal court decision upholds Alabama ban on sex toys. Must be read to be still disbelieved! What a bunch of...well, tools.

Shimmies, as always, to JanieBelle and Kate.

Borat: Design vs. Evolution Make Glorious Kidnap Warmhearting Valentine Meme

or, What Would Happen In the Borat Sequel If Kristine Signed A Release.
A peek into my sick mind. Be warned: I have it on dubious authority that I am not a lady.

(I’ve been holding onto this one for a while—and it got recast, due to an actor’s spat with the director (me)—but here it is, offered with love and shimmies to all. It's a joke, people. Do not take this too seriously! And if anything, the joke's on me.)

UPDATED: Maybe I should have just used these!

INTRODUCTION
Borat: Kristine, I want you teach me the belly-dancing!
Kristine: All right, Borat. First you'll learn what everyone else always wants to learn: how to slide your head.
Borat: Slide my head?
Kristine: Yes. There's a muscle at the back of your neck...
Borat (big grin): You want I get to slide my head--you mean, I get to...?
Kristine: No, Borat! No. Your head. On your shoulders. Slide it back and forth, like this.
[Kristine slides her head back and forth. Borat's head stays still and he jerks his shoulders back and forth.]
...

Kristine: Borat. Are you broad-minded?
Borat [confused, still dancing or whatever you'd call it]: What?
Kristine: Broad-minded. You know. You like new ideas... challenges?
Borat [stopping now with sudden purpose]: Yes, Borat is a very broad-minded. May I say, you are sumptuous broad! [Borat stretches out arm like he's grabbing for a doughnut.]
Kristine [ducking expertly--she's done this before]: Thank you. Then I need your help, Borat.
Borat [with a big grin]: Yes? Borat help beautiful Kristine!
Kristine: Well, that's sweet of you. I appreciate that. You know that quaint custom of yours, of kidnapping the bride? With the sack, and everything?
Borat: YES! Is way most peoples get make togetherness!
Kristine: I want you to kidnap that man for me. [Points at intended victim.]
Borat [incredulous]: You want I should kidnap that man for you?

KRISTINE'S DESIGN VERSION
Borat [nervously approaching victim]: Hello! My name Borat!
Dembski: Man, don't kiss me! [Ducks kiss.]
Borat [quavering with fear, awkwardly holding sack]: My friend. I wish to greet you. I wish to show you my sack. I made it with great big fat purpose! It designed!
Dembski [still backing away]: Yes, very nice. Look, I need to--I'm in rather a hurry...
Borat [misquoting what Kristine told him to say]: I make sack to bring you my pineapple! I mean, goddess make bring world to you!
Dembski [thinking, "Oh, one of those"]: Well, uh--thank you very much. And, Blessed Be. Thank the Goddess for rice'n'beans, or whatever you say. [With an expression that says, "Now I need to go wash out my mouth"] If you'll excuse me...
[Borat throws sack over Dembski's head.]
Dembski [muffled]: Hey!
Borat: Now my friend. I put you in trunk. Please to hold still.
[Unintelligible yells from the sack.]
Kristine: In the truck, in the truck, Borat--you dolt! What do you take me for? And be careful with him, for goodness sake. That's not a balloon-babe you're squeezing! You'll hurt him.
Dembski [muffled]: Hey! Let me out of here! Are you crazy? WTF?
Kristine [incredulously to a grinning Borat]: Did goody two-shoes just swear?

UNDIRECTED EVOLVING SCENARIO
Borat [nervously]: Hello! My name Borat!
Dembski: Man, don't kiss me! [Ducks kiss.]
Borat [quavering with fear, awkwardly holding sack]: My friend. I wish to greet you. I wish to show you my sack. I made it with great big fat purpose! It designed!
Dembski [still backing away]: Yes, very nice. Look, I need to--I'm in rather a hurry...
[JAD runs up and grabs sack from Borat, who surrenders it without a struggle.]
JAD: Aha! [Throws sack over Kristine's head.] You are no lady, young lady. A past escape possible, a present escape undemonstrable!
Kristine [muffled]: Hey!
JAD: It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Borat [to JAD with a big, smarmy smile and a salute]: She all yours, my friend!
Dembski: What's going on? Who invited the nut?
Borat: John my very good friend! John very wise. He me show what make to how [Dembski: "What? I can't understand a word you're saying."] evolution stop.
Kristine [muffled, stuggling in the sack]: JHC! Let me out of here! Are you crazy? WTF? Borat! You traitor!
JAD [stuggling mightily with the sack, and beaming]: I'll just put the girl evolutionist extraordinaire into my hummer! I love it so!
Dembski [with a wicked smile dawning]: Ohhh, yeah! Good idea, John. You do that. Maybe play a little Hossam Ramzy on the stereo until she calms down. No, I've got a better idea--drive Boom-Boom to the nearest Falafel King instead. She'll like that.
[Unintelligible outraged yells from the sack.]
Dembski [to Borat]: The last place you want to be is between Amused Muse and the feta. Trust me. I have the footprints on my back to prove it.
[Borat, not understanding, smiles broadly but vacantly.]
Kristine [stung]: Just because you scarfed so many of the scotch-basted baby back ribs that you couldn't make it to the buffet table in time to get a third helping of avocado dip before I could! And what make you think you'll survive a night with me, JAD-About-Town? Ali-Bubba? What makes you think that you can handle—

[Suddenly, there is a huge explosion. JAD drops the sack. Kristine pokes head out of sack to see JAD squatting (due to last-minute recasting, use of stunt double here) beside his front tire.]

JAD [crestfallen]: I don't know how to change a flat tire.
Kristine: Yeah? Well, I do.
JAD: I love it so! That's good news.
Kristine: It sure is!
[Kristine climbs out of sack and stalks off down the road.]
JAD: Just where do you think you're going, you hyperventilating harlot?
Kristine: FALAFEL KING OR BUST! [Gives JAD the finger and walks on.]
Dembski [in a mocking monotone, while winding his watch]: Hey, Kristine, come back. Where have you been all my life. Don't leave me know, when I need you so. Oh, don't leave. [Sneezes]
[Kristine turns around in a huff while Dembski smiles down at his watch. Kristine points at Dembski, then at Borat.]
Kristine: You two make a fabulous couple. Maybe you should rent a hotel room.
Dembski: Awwww! How original! Somebody saw Thelma and Louise! [Kristine turns her back again.] Kristine, baby. You got it goin' on, girl. Yeah, you know it. Mmm-hmmm! [Kristine turns around again.] Oh, here it comes--yeah, give me the finger, girl, go right ahead. You're a class act. Bring it on. [Kristine blows Dembski a kiss and flounces away.]
[Borat smacks Dembski on the back so hard that he starts coughing]
Borat: You got it on-going, dude!
Dembski [coughing]: Yes. [Recovers.] A feint. That was great.
Borat [deeply concerned]: You feel about to faint?
Dembski [irritated]: No!
[Kristine, in the distance, turns around again.]
Kristine: This is not over, Bill, honey!
JAD [suddenly rising to the occasion]: It is all over! Evolution is over! I keep telling you subnormal creeps that, but you herd of illiterate cowards cannot realize—
Dembski [yelling over JAD at Kristine]: Oh, not by a long shot this is not over! It's not over! Honey! See you later! [Kristine turns her back again and continues walking, and Dembski chuckles.]
JAD [without taking a breath]: --you debilitated Dawkins-slobberers who are so enamored of each other, slurp, slurp! Go ahead and hitch-hike to the Isle of Lesbos, and become the next Ann Miller of Darwinian shimmies! Entertain the pettifoggic evolutionist natives! It's hard to believe, isn't it? I love it so!
Borat: My friend. She want I kidnap you!
Dembski: Yeah, I know.
Borat [incredulously]: Woman kidnap man? [They both laugh.] Is stupid!

The Extended Phenotype: Organisms, Groups, and Memes

Head on over to the Triumvirate for the latest in this series.

Five Blogs That Make Me Think

(Think about what? Heh, heh, heh.)

It is my pleasure to make people think. I am honored to be among such much more accomplished and distinguished blogs.

(And I do believe that I added the word "shimmy" to everyone's vocabulary.)

Oh geez, now I have to pick some...out of so many...well, here goes:

RedStateRabble
Good Math, Bad Math
Respectful Insolence
The Panda's Thumb
The Austringer and Wes's slate of discussion boards, particularly AtBC
and of course, Pharyngula, the site that opened up this whole world of bloggy creatures to me!

But you all make me think, people.

Thanks, Greg!

Here I Stand

"Do you honestly believe God would allow humans to destroy the earth He created?"
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UPDATED: BeepBeepIt'sMe has some incredible charts for people to look at.

Sir Nicholas Stern lectures an already isolated George W. Bush on the need to act now to combat global warming.

NASA warns that global warming raises risk of drought in vulnerable areas.
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I really cannot believe the depths to which this nation, formerly a powerhouse of scientific thought and achievement, has sunk.

Unlike God, global warming is real and is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels by human beings. Chris Allen, the Discovery Institute, the guys at Uncommon Descent, Katherine Kersten and her budies at the Center of the American Experiment, among the other selfish, dismissive self-styled gadflies, are going to eat their words.

Someday people are going to try to claim, just as the Discovery Institute now claims that no Christians ever thought the earth was flat, that no Christian ever denied the reality of global warming. They’ll pull out their revisionist style book (as they always do) and say, “The church was always at the forefront of this issue! That Christians did nothing about it is a lie manufactured by those unbelievers/atheists/secular humanists.” In religion, it’s like France after World War II—suddenly, no one was not a member of the French Resistance (when in fact, few were).

Sorry, folks. You’re on record—just like William Dembski. (See the count down at left - we're coming up on an anniversary!) We’ll see how it plays out, people. We’ll see.

(Shimmies to Stranger Fruit)

Kansas vs. Darwin, the Film

UPDATED: Reason prevails in Kansas. May it prevail all over the U.S. Let freedom ring.
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Last night I saw the documentary Kansas vs. Darwin at the Bell Auditorium. I highly recommend this film, so see it if you get a chance! Apparently, a Young Earth creationist was in the audience and told the director, Jeff Tamblyn, that it was a fair and compassionate treatment of the May, 2005 Kansas School Board hearings, which apparently mirrors what other Y.E.C.s have told the director about the film.

When I heard about that I did kind of feel a little bad for the Y.E.C., because we are all human beings after all, and the audience, including me (especially me, you know me by now), was verbally hooting at the creationists—but you just can’t help it, since they hang themselves by their own golden chains!

I also found the film to be objective and fair, and yet it got some digs in, too. The visual juxtapositions display a fine wit. It does take a point of view—all films do, no matter what—in its calm observation of the proceedings, in the gentle encouragement of the creationists to tell their stories, and in the deft interweaving of the testimony before the board, including statements by Jonathan Wells (whom I hissed—I harbor a secret affection for a lot of the ID folks but I simply detest Wells) with commentary from scientists (including Jack Krebs—I applauded for him) and the Kansas Citizens for Science group.

Mr.Tamblyn led a discusson about the film afterward, both in the auditorium and a little later at a cake-cutting for Darwin’s birthday sponsored by Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists (C.A.S.H.). The man is a wonderful speaker and thinker, and provoked some really good discussion on the issue of science education in this country and of the stereotypes that Americans on both sides of the issue have of each other. He challenged me to justify my opinions at one point, and he is as passionate and informed about this issue as anyone I’ve met. He made me think about a few things that I hadn’t before, and it was really a pleasure to meet him and to see his work. This film is truly a crucial document of an important point in American history and deserves a wide release.

And I noticed that Pat at RedStateRabble was among those thanked in the credits!

Next Tuesday, the Kansas School Board will vote on the ID-inspired standards adopted last year. The expectation is that these standards, which allow for supernatural explanations for phenomena, will be discarded in favor of science standards drafted by the curriculum writing committee, chaired by Steve Case. Stay tuned.

And don’t diss Kansas, people—that state is usually ahead of the rest of the nation in dealing with issues (remember Brown v. the Board of Education?) and is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of us.

Discovery Pushes Primate Timeline Back

But don't expect human footprints next to Brontosaurus prints. These are not very human-looking primates.

Gödel, Eschy, Blech

Sal Cordova inaction again.

Shimmies to Growth Rate nlgn.

UPDATED: MarkCC also takes down Cordova again at Good Math, Bad Math. Over and above the call of shimmies, Mark - shimmies and snake arms!

20 Face Whippings for Dancing

And the perpetrators are our allies!

Beliefs Have Consequences

Aetiology has a summary of the HIV-denial trial, calling it HIV Denialism's Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, et al. Let us hope so. The trial is taking place in Australia, where Intelligent Design also has a foothold, but as you know the U.S. has its own home-grown Intelligent Design hucksters/HIV Denialists.

Shimmies to Tara at Aetiology for all her hard work to counter these dangerous superstitions about science and AIDS.

In other news, it seems that global warming is finally being taken seriously.

All of us have a right to our own opinions as to the seriousness of global warming. We don't have the right to our own science. - Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.)

UPDATED: The one-and-only Stranger Fruit sniff out a new "sciency journal" that really stinks.

Europe's First Stegosaurus Found

Story here.

Dembski's Seminary Enforces "Suffer Not a Woman to Teach"

UPDATED: Hey, nobody asked me about the Baudelaire remark. Is that because everyone gets it? It's a joke about a French film. Can you guess which one? (One of my favs.)
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This is a strange and outrageous story. I am linking to an overtly religious, dissident Baptist blog Grace and Truth to You because of the level of detail that it offers about the case.

In essence, a female professor of Hebrew, Sheri Klouda, was hired at Southwestern Theological Seminary, the same Bible school at which William Dembski teaches, around a year before the hiring of the current president, Paige Patterson. She was suddenly told that she would be dismissed due to my &%#@! favorite biblical passage of all time, I Timothy 2:12: "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men. She is to keep silent."

Such bullshit in this day and age I cannot believe. Just another example of the Christian Taliban howling and pounding the tables over nothing. And is a mother not supposed to teach her son anything? Just how erratically can the fundy clown car drive? The good news is, even among conservative Baptists a lot of men are calling this for what it is--gender discrimination.

Let me tell you something. If it weren't for women, the damn churches would close. Women do all the work while men strut their stuff at the pulpit. I've seen it. Women let them get away with that because they tend to see preachers as sexy (I'm not kidding, it happens all the time), but it is high time that women walk away from church if they cannot speak in it.

How do you say "Tell it to the air, Baudelaire" in Hebrew?