Trying to rewrite history, as they write the science text.

PZ Myers:

The producers of Expelled have spent a couple of days sweating over damage control, I guess. They've shut down or delayed all the pending screenings of their movie, and now they've issued a remarkably dishonest press release. The mendacity is astonishing in its scope; somebody tell me, is this "framing"?

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The amount of profuse lying from the movie's producer is amazing. The spyglass that he views the world through must be one fucked up kaleidoscope.

McCainomics

AMERICAblog:

The CNN video attached to the article is well worth watching because McCain is just terrible. His eyes stay glued to the teleprompter, proving yet again that when it comes to the economy he has no idea what he's talking about. His war-hero credentials are all fine and good if Iraq is the issue (though why he did a propaganda video is another question) how in the world does that show that he is the person to lead us out of what Goldman Sachs is now calling a $1.2 trillion credit crisis?

The best McCain can do is uncomfortably stumble through the teleprompter words and tell everyone what they already know. Speculative buyers and shady loans? You don't say! Gosh, what a story. The real whopper is when McCain calls for easing "regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital." Really? And here I was thinking that the lack of regulation has been critical to the runaway credit problem. The last thing we need is less regulation or more tax incentives for this group. Why would we ever make it easier for the industry that is dragging down the entire US (and probably global) economy? Don't journalists ask questions these days or will they just let McCain read scripts written by economists who created these problems?

Are they thinking?

Feministing:

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This is too gross. An online game, Miss Bimbo, encourages girls (as in under 10 years old) to buy their avatars plastic surgery - face lifts, boob jobs, you name it - in order to be the "hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world." Yeah.

Children are given a naked virtual character to look after. They compete against other players to earn "bimbo" dollars so they can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing. They are given missions, including securing plastic surgery at the game's clinic to give their dolls bigger breasts, and they have to keep her at her target weight with diet pills.

Perhaps even worse than the sexist and dangerous messages being sent to young women, is the cavalier response of the Miss Bimbo creators (both men, btw).

[Chris Evans says,] "But there are lots of positive lessons that replicate messages in real life."

While feeding your bimbo too much chocolate has added virtual pounds to the animated girls' hips, feeding her fruits and vegetables will improve her health, Evans points out.

That and diet pills, apparently. Evans also claims that the game is just aiming to be realistic: "The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life." You know, the kind of real life where nine year-olds get boob jobs. Charming.

Something about a man with a beard

Now this is an important discussion to be had.



PZ Myers:

What is it with this anti-beard sentiment? Here's an article that wonders why so many scientists have beards, with several amusing stories.

But anti-beard arguments also ran rife in pre-Victorian times: Beards trapped food and the stuff you spewed out when you sneezed. At a stretch, they could even go as far as to catch fire and trap vermin, some argued. This all came to a head in 1907, with a rather remarkable experiment. A French scientist took one bearded and one clean shaven man from the streets of Paris and asked each of them to kiss a woman, whose lips were previously swabbed with antiseptic. After each smooth, her lips were swabbed and the the cultures were smeared on agar. The hairy kiss, it turned out, was by far the more microbial-ly diverse.

That anecdote answers the question right there. Overgrown nerds experience very little risk of ever having to kiss French women on the streets of Paris, so there is very little selection against beard growth. Hey, if I had some likelihood of sweeping strange women into my arms, I might shave, too … and brush my teeth more than once a week, and take a shower more often than once a month, habits atypical of us hairy, dirty, microbe-rich men.

Beards are a fine thing, and an important resource to many thinkers.

Abstaining from funding

Crooks and Liars:

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family issued an alert to its membership yesterday with a banner headline: “Liberals Want Federal Abstinence Education Cut.” To which I thought, “It’s about time.”

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I was especially struck by the notion that the timing of the CDC report was somehow helpful to the right’s efforts to promote abstinence-only funding. If anything, the opposite is true — as the rates of sexually-transmitted diseases go up, it’s all the more important to offer quality education on sexual health.

It’s quite simple: the evidence that abstinence-only is more effective doesn’t exist.

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Thus far, it appears conservative groups have missed the memo. For that matter, as I understand it, House Republicans and Bush administration officials are prepared to fight to keep the funding for ineffective programs in place.

One wonders just how many more studies it will take.

Good quote.

This seems like an apt response to creationist and fundamentalist.

PZ Myers:

Mike the Mad Biologist wins a gold star for this quote that I'll be stealing:

The other thing we evolutionary biologists don't do enough of, and this stems from the previous point, is make an emotional and moral case for the study of evolution. Last night, I concluded my talk with a quote from Dover, PA creationist school board member William Cunningham, who declared, "Two thousand years ago someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?"

My response was, "In the last two minutes, someone died from a bacterial infection. We take a stand for him."

Now that is good framing.

Faith = Abuse ?

Sad story. A young girl develops diabetes, but her parents choose to pray for it to end. It was treatable, she could have survived, but her parents prayed over her as she wasted away. And the mom seems to still think she can be resurrected.

But it gets worse, PZ Myers notes...

But wait! That isn't the punchline. Read this and weep.

The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said.

"They are still in the home," he said. "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

Their sister is dead of stupidity and neglect; she died painfully with their dumb-as-rocks parents hovering over her, chanting to their sky fairy. And this brain dead cop sees no sign of abuse? What is it, does calling it religion make it invisible?

Bush's War

If you missed Frontline's two part documentary Bush's War, it is available to be streamed online now.

More trouble

Tonight they are showing the second part of Bush's War on Frontline on PBS.

And we are in the second day of blossoming of new trouble in Iraq.

Baghdad Green Zone hit by rockets

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said.

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TPM:

Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militiamen Tuesday in the southern oil port of Basra and rockets rained down on the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr expanded a nationwide backlash against government crackdowns.

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McCain cred

Washington Monthly:

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Via Steve Benen, MSNBC analyst Chuck Todd tells us why John McCain can get away with routine demonstrations of abject ignorance, like his recent proclamation that Iran is supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq:

Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, "Oh, he says he's Mr. Experience. Doesn't he know the difference between this stuff?" He's got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it'd have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.

Italics mine. Let's recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it.

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Let Others Be the Spokespeople for Science?

PZ Myers:

Matt Nisbet is currently running a photo of Dawkins and myself with this legend: Dawkins and Myers: It's Time to Let Others Be the Spokespeople for Science. Never mind the personal criticism, doesn't he even realize how wrong that statement is? No, it's worse than that; it's so bad it's not even wrong.

Who are the "spokespeople for science"? Is this a formal title conferred on specific individuals, is there a protocol for defining who gets the job, and most importantly, is there a salary? Nisbet doesn't seem to realize that there are no spokespeople for science — there are just people involved in science who speak out; I don't know of anyone who even declares themselves to be self-appointed spokespeople for science, especially not me, and not even more prominent representatives like Dawkins. Anyone who mistakes me for one of these mythical spokespeople for science, instead of a guy working within science who happens to have a blog, is too stupid to be taken seriously.

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Laughing at death

PZ Myers looks at a funny story from India. Seems this magician fellow says he has magic that can kill. So an atheist in India challenged him to do it to him, on TV.

Suffice to say, at the midnight deadline, the magician is sweaty and frustrated, and the skeptical challenger was alive and chuckling.

I am not sure if it is more funny, but it is less violent then the guy who said he could beat any martial artist without touching them...then got his ass kicked.

Straining at the seams.

TPM is pointing to a McClatchy story about concerning fraying in the twine holding the peace together in Iraq.

• Sadr is reasserting control in Baghdad.
• Sadr's people are pushing in Basra.

We hold our breathes. Will things hold together.

Ahhhhhh, shhhhhaddd uuupppp already!

Science advocate Matt Nisbet seems to continue to not like having the likes of PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins around (he also likes to gripe about Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens). Its just anyone who is opinionated about religion and science.

PZ Myers:

You just knew Matt Nisbet was itching to voice his opinion, and we all knew exactly what he'd say.

As long as Dawkins and PZ continue to be the representative voices from the pro-science side in this debate, it is really bad for those of us who care about promoting public trust in science and science education. Dawkins and PZ need to lay low as Expelled hits theaters. Let others play the role of communicator, most importantly the National Center for Science Education, AAAS, the National Academies or scientists such as Francis Ayala or Ken Miller. When called up by reporters or asked to comment, Dawkins and PZ should refer journalists to these organizations and individuals.

If Dawkins and PZ really care about countering the message of The Expelled camp, they need to play the role of Samantha Power, Geraldine Ferraro and so many other political operatives who through misstatements and polarizing rhetoric have ended up being liabilities to the causes and campaigns that they support. Lay low and let others do the talking.

So Richard and PZ, when it comes to Expelled, it's time to let other people be the messengers for science. This is not about censoring your ideas and positions, but rather being smart, strategic, tactical, and ultimately effective in promoting science rather than your own personal ideology, books, or blog.

Fuck you very much, Matt. You know where you can stick your advice.

I'm much more impressed by the fact that the Expelled crew is in damage-control mode and is beating a hasty retreat than the pontifications of a mealy-mouthed hack.

I think that puts it well.

Then Nisbet decides to gripe about EXPELLED, cause he's the voice of reason and discourse.

Hmmm. I should have thought the powerful voices of communications experts shrieking at Richard Dawkins to hide under his bed would have had some effect, but no…he's gone ahead and written his review of Expelled. And lo, in the camp of the Framers, there was much wailing and weeping and grinding of teeth, and rending of garments, and epic despair, because surely this will cause the destruction of Science.

Jason Rosenhouse also expresses his thoughts on Nisbet's utterances.

I suspect that everyone reading this has heard the story of what happened when P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins tried to attend a screening of Expelled in Minneapolis last week. Short version: P.Z. got recognized and was not allowed in. Dawkins was not recognized and was allowed in. If you've been living in a cave for the last week you can check out P.Z.'s post here. Then scroll through the remainder of his recent posts to hear about the fallout.

There are many aspects of this worth discussing, but here I am interested in only one. Matt Nisbet, you see, is once more beating his favorite dead horse. That's the one where he protests that people like Richard Dawkins and P.Z. Myers (and Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett) are hurting the cause of promoting good science education. They make people think that science and atheism are intextricably linked, you see, which causes fence-sitting religious moderates to side with the forces of darkness and ignorance.

I've discussed this point before at this blog. I see the argument Nisbet (and others) are making, but in the end I do not agree with it. Frankly, I think we need hundreds more just like Dawkins and Myers. That, however, is not the issue I want to raise right now.

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But this all goes along with the nasty comments shot at and the comments of those like Dawkins and Myers.

Is Richard Dawkins a Fundamentist?

Chris over at Mixing Memory argues, both in this post and in the subsequent comments, that he is. I think that claim is deeply silly and trivializes the term fundamentalist. I've been mixing it up with Chris and some of his readers in the comments to his post. Having spilled so many words on the issue, I figured I might as well get a blog post of my own out of it. So go have a look and let me know what you think!

New Atheist, Fundamentalist Atheist, it all gets placed on those at are more forthright in their opinions. Some don't want this and it is easier to just "frame" those that they disagree with as fringers or outsiders.

Now not everyone should or needs to be as outright as Richard Dawkins, but the drive to exclude and recategorize people like him is ridiculous. There is room for a variety of approaches. So to just try to silence or dismiss this debate is childish.

American Atheist Conference

The American Atheist Conference has just wrapped up up in the Twin Cities. Hence, the reason Dawkins and Myers were together this weekend. I was tempted to go, as I was going to be in the area, but plans didn't work out.

But for those that missed out, or are curious, PZ Myers has a rundown and some thoughts on the conference.

Dawkins on EXPELLED

Richard Dawkins:

The blogs are ringing with ridicule. Mark Mathis, duplicitous producer of the much hyped film Expelled, shot himself in the foot so spectacularly that the phrase might have been invented for him. Goals don't come more own than this. How is it possible that a man who makes his living from partisan propaganda could hand so stunning a propaganda coup to his opponents? Hand it to them on a plate, so ignominiously and so UNNECESSARILY.

In writing this for RichardDawkins.net, I have assumed that our readers will already be familiar with the facts of the case, from Pharyngula and the more than 40 other blogs that have picked up the story and are listed at http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/03/pz_myers_expelled_gains_sainth.php For the same reason, I shall not discuss the main message of the film -- that American creationist scientists are being victimized for their views -- except to say that it was very much NOT its main message when the film was called Crossroads, and when I, together with PZ Myers, Eugenie Scott and others, were conned into taking part.

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More on being EXPELLED

Now, on the one hand this gives Stein and the film's producers more publicity. But the True Believers will be blind to all but their most fervent and base beliefs. And it is nice to talk and discuss and just see and show how much crap these guys are spouting.

RichardDawkins.net has a clip from a discussion where Expelled is discussed by PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins.



Here are some more views.

• A Reasonable Doubt
• Greg Laden

PZ Myers goes into the topic a little more, and covered his history with Mathis, and his vitriol towards Myers.

The New York Times has weighed in, and they contacted the producers of Expelled…and what do you know, they're still scrambling to find a credible story. They haven't succeeded yet.

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Here is a clip from Expelled which apparently inflames the fans. I don't know why. Science over faith, religion as a minor piece of life. It's not as if he's advocating criminalization.



Oh,wait maybe not, (PZ Myers notes.) but the quote comes from people who think people walk on water, the world in 1000's of years old, and that the Flintstones should be on the History Channel.

This is terrible. I've kept her under the radar for so long, and now this recent incident has blown her cover.

Shocking information has reached us that PZ Meyers trophy wife (paid for by the tax payers of state of Minnesota) was taking names of the movie goers to, and I quote her words, "be put first in line for the gas chambers once we overthrow the Constitution". That is correct, this state funded mistress was making a list of local Christians for eventual extermination.

All that money invested in her ninja training, wasted.

Can you say, Coo Coo? Taking names and pointing, don't people know that the scientist implanted trackers when the masses were vaccinated and don't need to be so primitive as to point...WE KNOW ALREADY.

And they say TV rots the brain, that bible is a nastier than sugar on the teeth.

Historical reminder

What was that about those who refuse to learn from history...

Crooks and Liars:

The New York Times:

[W]hat we should be asking is: How did we get here?

The answer, at a fundamental level, is that we’re paying the price for willful amnesia. We chose to forget what happened in the 1930s — and having refused to learn from history, we’re repeating it.

Contrary to popular belief, the stock market crash of 1929 wasn’t the defining moment of the Great Depression. What turned an ordinary recession into a civilization-threatening slump was the wave of bank runs that swept across America in 1930 and 1931.

And I feel the need to remind you we are in the midst of an administration and a Republican candidate who have a disdain for history and it's discussion.

Heck they all like to write history on their own.

Expelled, who know how literal Stein could be?

Plenty of stories are going around about the movie Expelled. Outside the religiously sycophantically religious, it ain't purty. People are "sneaking" in, or reviewers are going who aren't RSR. Which means the films attempts historical and scientific accuracy are open to critique. Based on how bad the film is, and how desperately they are trying to keep people out (They do want to make money, right?), it seems they were hoping to avoid this. Heck they give free tickets to religious groups and they can't seem to bother to show up. Eek!

Well, PZ Myers decided to go to a showing, dragging along the beleaguered Richard Dawkins. Nah, seeing as they were both tricked and manipulated by the film makers, they were both curious to see what the film was like. Wouldn't you? So he signed in to go to the film, cause wouldn't you be scared to have your film seen...if it were this bad. Then the producers of the film saw him, and had him ejected. Nice. Again, they REALLY seem to be REAL professionals, don't they?

• PZ Myers on being ejected, just after being ejected.
• PZ Myers clearing up the lies and rumors the producers and supporters of the film tried to spread about him in the aftermath.

Phil Plait goes into this some more.

I was laughing off the whole PZ-expelled-from-Expelled thing, but I’m now seeing a particularly evil side of this, a distortion so horrid I cannot keep quiet about it.

On the official Expelled website is a post that consists of an email from someone who was at the movie when PZ was evicted, and describes the movie itself. Remember, this was posted on the official Expelled site, giving it their tacit approval.

Sitting down? I hope so. The post on the Expelled website says this:

The film can best be described as subtly clever and occasionally funny. Emotions are stirred up especially built around the movies overall theme*, and many scenes especially later in the movie might be difficult to watch based on one’s ethnic and religious background.

and the footnote therein says this:

*SPOILER!! […]Many scenes are centered around the Berlin Wall, and Ben Stein being Jewish actually visits many death camps and death showers. In fact, Nazi Germany is the thread that ties everything in the movie together. Evolution leads to atheism leads to eugenics leads to Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

Think on that for a moment. Nazism is what ties all this movie together, meaning it says that evolution leads to the cold and ruthless slaughter of millions of people.

Right from the start, this is an total and abhorrent lie. This false connection between the Holocaust and the teaching of evolution is a gross and profound twisting of reality. Creationist love to say that Hitler used evolution as an excuse for genocide, but actually he makes it clear that religion played a major role in his decisions. For example, in a 1922 speech Hitler said "My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter." Oddly, the creationists never seem to mention that.

Despite whatever reasons Hitler gave for his reasoning — and honestly, how much can we trust him? He was Hitler — that doesn’t mean that evolution leads to atheism leads to Nazis. Evolution, like all of reality, is a fact, and how we use it is independent of that reality itself. I can just as easily point out how many people have been slaughtered in the name of Jesus. Both arguments are grossly unfair when used in this manner. I can use a hammer to build a house, or to beat someone’s brains in. In what way is either the fault of the hammer?

It’s unfair to lay the blame of human faults on religion or the lack thereof. It’s how humans use or abuse these tools that’s important.

For the producers of this movie to continue this Big Lie tying evolution and Nazis together is an irony almost too big to comprehend, given that this is precisely how Nazi propaganda worked. In a rich field of creationist ironies, this may be the elephant in the room. They are projecting onto their enemies the very thing they are guilty of.

For Ben Stein to go to concentration camps and promote creationism is beyond the pale. It’s a lie, it’s ugly, and it should spark universal condemnation from every thinking human on the planet. This movie is founded on falsehoods, the producers lied to get interviews, they’ve used decidedly shady tactics to promote it, and the movie evidently has a huge lie as its very premise –a lie to which the producers themselves have admitted.

We must continue to discuss this, to air it out, to show these people for what they are. Like any noisome and foul thing you find under a rock, exposure to sunlight is the best cure.

Forward with Iran

Interest in McCain's claims...misstatements...claims...continues.

Crooks and Liars:

I know the two Democratic presidential candidates seem inclined to go after one another right now, but the more they criticize John McCain, the better it is for the party and our chances of winning in November.

At a news conference in Amman, McCain said Iran supported the Sunni group al Qaeda in Iraq, until he was corrected by a colleague. U.S. officials believe predominantly Shi’ite Iran has been backing Shi’ite extremists in Iraq, not al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group.

It was the first stumble of note that McCain has made since clinching the Republican presidential nomination early this month, and Obama quickly pounced on it.

“Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shi’ite, Iran and al Qaeda,” Obama said.

“Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades,” the Illinois senator said.

When McCain gives them a golden opportunity — such as repeatedly screwing up the basics of Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda — it’s important to take advantage.

Mark Kleiman added, “Given McCain’s buffoonish performance in Jordan, wouldn’t this be a good time for Hillary Clinton to say, ‘Gee, I thought he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. The least we should expect from the President is some basic knowledge about who our enemies are.’”

But apparently the impossible is possible...just like it's been for the last 7 years.

NY Sun:

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But while the McCain campaign is backing away from the specific claims about Iranian training of Al Qaeda, it is asserting that Iran collaborates with Osama bin Laden's organization.

Mr. McCain's national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, told The New York Sun, "There is ample documentation that Iran has provided many different forms of support to Sunni extremists, including Al Qaeda as well as Shi'ia extremists in Iraq. It would require a willing suspension of disbelief to deny Iran supports Al Qaeda in Iraq."

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Really? They are bringing al Qaeda in and out of Iran and funding them? The group that they fanatically oppose? Could we get some sound evidence?

An example.

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A subsequent story, based on an interview with a Kurdish prisoner who went by the name Osman the Small, said Iran's revolutionary guard and domestic intelligence service had issued the Kurdish jihadist group political refugee cards, identifications that made it possible for them to cross back and forth into Iraq from Iran.

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Oh good, some with a presumed name with an inside story. Am I the only one that remembers this stuff from...five years ago was it?


Josh Marshall has some added thoughts on McCain "thinking" on Iraq, and what it means for the US and the world.