And I just got a new irony-meter for Christmas...

What level do you think will be registered on the Mark V Excelsior irony meter for this latest pronounciation from Pat Robertson... (as just reported by the AP)

NORFOLK, Va. --- Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested today that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land."

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine.'"

Gees, Is Robertson suffering from syphillis or something? what a complete nutter!

I wonder if his coannouncers at the 700 club secretly shake their heads when he says stuff like that.

Please note, the Mark V Excelsior is specifically not licensed for Kansas.

right, i'll prepare some extra sets of irony divining rods.

or i suppose you could buy your own and modify as needed:

http://www.naturesprite.com/

I read "Darwin on Trial" and I clearly remember that passage from the book (it's in the preface) and I thought that anyone who believes that this is what lawyers do will believe anything Mr. Johnson tells them. I showed it to my wife (a district court judge) who was appalled at this hubris and deception. Lawyers are highly paid advocates for a particular point of view and their job is to maximally inflate what benefits their clients and maximally discredit that which does not. There is no logic involved here. Lawyers who do nothing but logically figure out what happened based on evidence will be pounding the pavement in their daddy's wing-tips pretty darn quick. Their only connection to logic is to make their client's position to be the only logical one (if the glove dont fit you must acquit). I dont know who or what Gandalf is but Johnson is the Sam Wilberforce of the 20th century (if the fish has lungs you must babble in tongues?)

Pro from Dover,

You don't know who Gandalf is? Where have you been the past several years. Peter Jackson's "Lord Of The Rings" film trilogy swept the Oscars last year.

Where have you been the past several years

at least 40? why, ol' Gandalf's first appearance is in The Hobbit, IIRC 1933. Old boy's pushing 80.

btw Johnson = Wormtoungue

Gandalf should never be so maligned.

If scientists outside their field are just laymen (which is to a certain degree true), why does the DI shout so loudly about the non-biology scientific credentials of its fellows?

With regard to Dembski reopening his blog and giving his regular posters admin status, the first thing I thought was that now the patients are running the asylum. Then I remembered that Dembski was not much better. Oh snap!

most of their followers have been convinced scientists in general are evil, and biologists are the worst of the bunch. ergo, they HAVE to make clear that they also don't support any real science or biology.

simple.

sometimes the pro just sees the world pass him by. just yesterday i went to buy shelly fabres latest 78 rpm record and the tattood young man with the 20 earrings looked at me like i was from mars.

So will Dembski's new collegiate factotum be doing most of the damning -- I mean banning -- on Dembski's blog now? His warning "I have very little tolerance for brazen rudeness" is *very* intimidating.

Seriously, though, I can't wait to see what depths DaveScot etc. will sink to. As well as being a notable troll, he also stoops to random insinuations like like "[John] Derbyshire was an abused child."

sometimes the pro just sees the world pass him by

btw, uh, who is shelly fabres?

Re "Practicing scientists are of necessity highly specialized, and a scientist outside his field of expertise is just another layman."

That's interesting. A scientist out of his field is just another layman. That makes me wonder something - what's a lawyer who's out of his field?

Henry

btw Johnson = Wormtoungue

hmm, do we get Eugenie to slay him then?

naw, i see Johnson more like Saruman, deceived and deceiving, with a masterful forked tongue.

uh oh, it's starting to look like the ID movement might be ripe for a LOTR parody...

who's game?

Merry and Eowyn slayed the chief Nazgul...

so... Eugenie Clark = Eowyn?

hmmm. I don't know who Eugenie is until now

sorry, I'm tired. I'm also an ichthyologist who studies sharks, so you can forgive my mislabel.

I meant Eugenie Scott, who is one of the leading ID opponents:

Eugenie C. Scott is Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education

http://www.ncseweb.org/

Eugenie Clark is one of the most famous ichthyologists of all time, and i'm sure also a staunch anti-ider.

Yeah I googled Eugenie Clark and found out who she is. Eugenie Scott is closer to Gandalf, I think.

Comment #68159 Posted by Henry J on January 5, 2006 11:04 PM (e) (s) ... That's interesting. A scientist out of his field is just another layman. That makes me wonder something - what's a lawyer who's out of his field? Henry

oh, and it's a daily double...

how much money will you wager, Steve?

Maybe Phillip Johnson deserves a pass because he is the Program Advisor for the Discovery Institute "research" program, ... , who ... may be "the smartest man in California," ...

at least 40? why, ol' Gandalf's first appearance is in The Hobbit, IIRC 1933. Old boy's pushing 80.

Gandalf was in middle earth at least 2000 years, and was around pretty much from the beginning of it all. Tolkein's creation myth had him as one of the original lesser angels.

Uh, just nitpicking, but Gandalf first appeared in the Elder Edda (Poetic Edda - Viking Sagas), though it was the name of a dwarf, thus the "alf" in the name...

I am really disgusted with the way the IDiots have been handling their defeat in court. Talk about a bunch of bad losers! The worst though is the way they attacked the character of judge Jones. What a bunch of malicious people, and then they feel they have the right to dictate what OUR children should learn in school.

"alf" means, obviously, "elf", and gandalf means "wand-elf".

I vote for Dembski as Smeagol/Gollum, and DaveScot as Wormtongue.

I think Johnson is a better Goodgulf, the fraudulent wizard in the Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings", written by the great Henry Beard and Douglas Kenney as a warm up before they launched the glory days of the National Lampoon.

"Do not mock powers beyond your knowledge, impudent hairfoot," he said, as five aces materialized in his hand, "For you see the efficacy of my enchantments!"

Oh yeah, and speaking of "Bored of the Rings", here's the map of Lower Middle Earth that graced the first edition:

http://boredoftherings.150m.com/bored_map.html

Artwork by William S. Donnell

Which fits DJ
I met all the characters in Bored where (I must now decloak)
I grew up in Jackson's land of country hobbits elves goblins and gandalfs coming out of my ears. Which is why I had to get away.As far a catholic/universal apologists go I prefer E.Waugh/Green/J.Joyce who were masters of idiom plus in Waugh's case a sarky SOB. Waugh was unkind to the yanks in a brilliant English sort of way but they loved him for among others "The Loved One".
Don't get me wrong about our colonial cousins give me "The Great Gatsby" Joe Campbell and Intel over LOTR any day.

"A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us."
W. H. Auden

shelly fabres was a 50s teen queen not far removed from annette funicello. you would never mistake her for brittany spear. Ive always wondered; is she the daughter of burning spear? Shelly was the daughter of nanette fabres i think (but really dont care). I never got past the 1st chapter of the hobbit.

Some Creationists place all their faith in a literal reading of the Bible; some place their faith in the other Creationist bibles: "Darwin on Trial," "Darwin's Black Box," "Of Pandas and People."

Being a scientist is a disadvantage? When you're an outsider, you try to put the insiders outside, in an effort to make people think the outside is inside, but what would you expect from the Bizarro World of ID where Up is Down?

Johnson is an intellectual Luddite who wishes to tear down a very effective means of knowledge production in order to preserve his lifestyle of wishful thinking and shifting of blame for society's ills.

Johnson is an intellectual Luddite who wishes to tear down a very effective means of knowledge production in order to preserve his lifestyle of wishful thinking and shifting of blame for society's ills.

— Mark Duigon

...Perry "supports the teaching of the theory of intelligent design," spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "Texas schools teach the theory of evolution; intelligent design is a valid scientific theory, and he believes it should be taught as well."

yah Kinky!!
IIRC he said sumt'n like "if you see me go by in a long black limo I'll be on my way to the guvnors house or a funeral"

Is there such a thing as an incomplete Bozo? Or would that be like half a wing?

(Don't mind me; I'm short on sleep today.)

Henry

Nick, no irony meter ever made can ever withstand the IDers.

having just read the complete course syllabus of WD's over at the "seminary", I challenge anybody's irony meter to gauge the following course title:

28970 Critical Thinking and the Art of Argumentation

it gets better:

Course Description:
This course examines the means by which we convince ourselves and others that
something is true. Of special interest here are the pitfalls to logical thinking that prevent
us from coming to the truth.

yikes.

lies about even the definition of critical thinking.

bill is one scary dude.

As to Pat,

I think Pat is so far off the deep end that he is actually a blessing. While it is truly a shame that he will twist the minds of some poor souls, he will push many more back to a more rationale place.

... and, well, my 8 year old son loves to mock him. Sure, he is such an easy target it is child's play, but a good source for the young skeptic to cut his teeth...

Tincy Miller of Dallas, chairwoman of the State Board of Education... "We had a huge discussion; it was just put to bed," Miller said. "We teach evolution in Texas." The board is slated to consider revised biology textbooks in 2008 at the earliest.

A modest suggestion: How about making stickers "Warning: May contain nuts" to put on school board doors?

The bananas are excellent. It's good to see that the Colorado State Board of Education maintains high standards for its fruit baskets.

Comment #68231 Posted by Dave Thomas on January 6, 2006 04:02 AM (e) (s) I vote for Dembski as Smeagol/Gollum

Many at the thumb seem confused about what exactly is wrong with Pat Robertson. So in the spirit of Billy Frist who diagnosed Terry Schiavo without examining her the pro ventures a diagnosis for Pat: hypozyprexemia.

Lol. I really think at some point his family's going to intervene and get him off the air, because all he's doing right now is transmitting the meme "People who say religious things are nuts"

which i'm down with.

.. all Trolls look the same to me after a while.... remind me? how do you tell a 'Holocaust Revisionist' from a 'White Nationalist'?

I know, neither of them agree with: 'White Supremacists' or 'Holocaust Deniers'....

but apart from that; .. how on Earth do we tell them apart?

... perhaps by asking them their views on astronomy?

it incorporates the latest in digital technology for accurate mensuration from very low levels to high-density irony field environments (accuracy better than 0.5% from 0.1 microHolden to 1.5 kiloHolden).