The Right Wing Professor's Blog

Chris Mooney noticed the hilarious top line of IDiot Tom Bethell's book cover.

It's been changed in the book printing, but lives on at amazon.com.

Let me say a few more words about Hurd's piece in PT.

I have no PI experience. I do, however, have tons of real world experience comparing actual events I've attended or participated in with subsequent media reports, and I know that, even with the best motives in the world, such reports are highly unreliable. This unreliability is doubled when one of the main media sources is a student newspaper. Constructing a detailed theory of an incident based on media reports, particularly as fragmentary as those in the Mirecki incident, is foolhardy in the extreme. Reading anything into discrepancies in such reports, when such discrepancies are most likely the result of sloppy reporting or notetaking, is particularly foolhardy. This applies to Michelle Malkin, who most definitely should know better; to the miscellaneous wingnuts, who have convinced themselves that tiny real or imagined discrepancies in reports of Mirecki's story mean he made it all up, and Hurd, whose inference that law enforcement did the beating is in the best traditions of conspiracy theorists everywhere. All this story needs is some black helicopters, or alternatively the KKK.

I'm coming to the conclusion we will never have corroboration of Mirecki's story. I will therefore ignore my lingering doubts and take the man at his word, having no reason not to do otherwise. But there is not enough here to turn this into a cause celebre. And anyway, the intimidation in this case came far more from Kansas fundie legislators, than from the goons who did the beating.

I agree with Hurd on much of what he writes about the hatefulness of the fundie reaction and about the craven cowardice of the KU administrators, who have, incredibly, lowered the bar for university administrators everywhere in caving in to the mob. Where I deviate from Hurd, aside from the grassy knoll stuff, is in his linking the perpetrators of this alleged beating to (supposed) conservative contributors to PT. That's vile. The fight to uphold science against theocracy can only be weakened by turning it into a Republican/Democrat, conservative/liberal issue. Let's focus on the issue at hand.

Gary Hurd on Pandas Thumb exemplifies what's wrong with the left wing of the Democrat party: when faced with what it considers objectionable, it seems to lose all hold on reason and logic and gives itself over to righteous indignation. Hurd gives a litany of execrable religious right comments about the Mirecki affair. These will be no surprise to readers of this blog (both of them!); I was collecting such comments the day the affair broke, and have continued to do so. Hurd goes on to call these attacks the 'Swift Boating' of Mirecki, when the 'Clarence Thomasing' or 'Borking' certainly have the merit of precedence. The Right learned this technique from the Left, and they've learned well.

I thought Panda's Thumb's choice to report the bare facts of the Mirecki affair was wise. I think it's wise to be skeptical about the affair. Skeptical does not mean 'disbelieving'; it means 'suspending final judgement until more facts come in'. I've been a little less skeptical since the Lawrence Journal World published photos of Mirecki -- he didn't make up those black eyes -- but at the same time we have one person's version of the incident, and that version has a few unusual aspects.

What is beyond doubt, though, is the vile reaction of much of the religious right, amply documented in this blog. That is what we should focus on; and regardless of what happened at 6:20 in the morning on a Lawrence road 13 days ago, the fundies' reaction is completely unacceptable.

The 2006 elections give us an excellent opportunity to teach the GOP a lesson about its uncomfortably close embrace of the Religious Right -- as long as the Democrats don't manage to make themselves an even more unpalatable alternative. It is not in the interests of scientists to increase the size of the wedge between the GOP and science. Putting all your eggs in the Democrat basket will result in being taken for granted, in the same way the Democrats take the African American community for granted.

Hurd says he is leaving Panda's Thumb. Good riddance. Anyone who is so incensed he can't even proof read his own posts has no place on a high-visibility, high-profile blog like PT.

The creationist myth that Richard 'von' Sternberg was persecuted for his anti-evolution position is comprehensively and remorselessly demolished on Daniel Morgan's blog; including some persuasive arguments for malfeasance on the putative martyr's part.

Two members of the Michigan Ba'ath Democrat party refused to comply with a court order to put on the November ballot an initiative calling for the elimination of racial discrimination 'Affirmative Action' in the state. Following violent intimidation by a couple of hundred thugs from Detroit, the State Board of Canvassers failed to comply with a court order to put the initiative to the vote. The two Republicans on the Board voted to comply.

Students chanted "No voter fraud" and "They say Jim Crow, we say hell no" to drown out canvassers when they first attempted to vote, knocking down an empty table where witnesses had testified earlier. A 17-year-old woman connected with the protest group was arrested for disorderly conduct outside the building where the canvassers were meeting, Lansing police said.

Maybe when we're done in Iraq, we can bring democracy to Michigan.

They predict the verdict in Kitzmiller vs Dover will be released early next week.

South Carolina last week was rated as a A state by the Fordham Institute for the quality of its science standards. Now, it appears, they're about to throw it all away. A state oversight committee has voted to remove from the South Carolina Biology standards the sections dealing with evolution, pending evaluation by scientific 'experts'. Hopefully these 'experts' won't include the idiots the Dover School Board paraded before the court in the recent trial.
It appears, however, the board may have overstepped its authority.

The Education Department writes standards teachers must follow in designing their daily lessons. The State Board of Education must give those standards final approval. The Education Oversight Committee can recommend the board approve or reject those standards. The head attorney for the state Department of Education said he didn't think committee members are authorized to change the standards. "This is unprecedented," attorney Dale Stuckey said. "It's my interpretation of the law that [EOC members] have no authority to change the standards."

Meanwhile, local Republicans (sigh!) are squarely in favor of teaching myth as science.

State Sen. Mike Fair, a panel member, wants the education department to change the standards to encourage teaching alternatives to the theory of evolution. Fair, R-Greenville, also has proposed a bill that would give lawmakers more say on biology curriculum.

Karen Floyd, a Republican candidate for state education superintendent, has said she will encourage the teaching of intelligent design.

Rep. Bob Walker, R-Spartanburg, said he supports Fair's efforts because "there are other ideas that can be addressed as to how this world came about."

Yes, there's the FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

God rest ye Unitarians, let nothing you dismay
There's no historic evidence there was a Christmas day
When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact

...with thanks to Ticklish Ideas

As discussed on the inestimable Panda's Thumb, Bruce Chapman in yesterday's New York Times claimed a

recent European conference on intelligent design - held in Prague and ignored by The Times - attracted 700 attendees, and featured leading scientists from Britain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as the United States.

We have no way of independently verifying who or how many attended, but the conference schedule is on line, and it featured a measly five speakers - four of them old antievolution hacks of long standing - over one day. The conference registration was a little over $20 -- too much to pay for rubbish, you might say, but it included coffee and lunch. The web page looks like it was put together by a computer science student on a wet Saturday morning. There was a booth where they sold the standard antievolution tracts translated into Czech, and that's it. If this is an international conference, my group meeting is an international conference.

This is the web page for the FEBS/IUBMB conference in nearby Budapest in July. Compare and contrast.

BTW, seminary teacher William Dembski, erstwhile luminary of the ID movement, banned me from his uncommon dissent blog for merely mentioning the size of this conference. I guess they're embarrassed it was so tiny.

In today's Lawrence Journal World, Paul Mirecki confirms he was forced into resignation by the administration at the University of Kansas. He also displayed the results of his assault.

Here's a free clue for you fundies out there. Somebody beat up this guy. You can hypothesize it was a confederate, if you like, but he's not making up those black eyes, and he didn't do this to himself.

(Added Sat 1:32 p.m.) Meanwhile, the usually excellent Mike Adams has a smarmy little column on the incident, in which he fakes a 'no comment' interview. One would have thought a criminology professor, even at a dump like UNC Wilmington, would be able to recognize real black eyes. I guess solidarity with fellow fundies trumps common sense.
On the other hand, Michelle Malkin seems to be backing off her position it's a hoax.

Compare and contrast. At the University of Kansas, administrative capitulation to religious fanatics. At the University of Nebraska, this clear, cool-headed, and intelligent defense of the first amendment from Chancellor Harvey Perlman (and praising Harvey is a new thing for me).

As a former Catholic, I understand why the play Corpus Christi really offends some Christians. I wouldn't go see it myself: making Jesus homosexual is not an improvement on the original. But as we've been saying to the left for 20 years, there is no right not to be offended. if you don't like it, don't see it. By all means, demonstrate and write letters to convey your disapproval and communicate your offense. Expect to receive a hearing of your concerns.

But don't expect you can shut down free speech down just because you don't like what's being said.

Tara Smith in Aetiology reports, as befits an MD, another outbreak of the vile ID pox, this uncomfortably close, in Muscatine, Iowa. I won't rehash her acute analysis here; I just want to draw attention to this remarkable quote.

Board member Paul Brooks said he was still deciding his position on intelligent design.
“I know what I believe, but I guess my feeling is I don’t know if I want atheist people in teaching positions trying to talk about intelligent design,” he said. “If I could determine who the instructors were, that’d be different. Right now, I’m confident our teachers give students a fair assessment of the creation.”

So, by this logic, it's reasonable for me to argue that I don't want fundamentalist Christians teaching science?

Michelle Malkin claims to be skeptical about the Paul Mirecki beating. No problem with that: I'm skeptical. It hasn't been corroborated, and I therefore would withhold judgement about whether it happened. But is she really skeptical? Malkin follows up her 'skeptical' blog entry with a set of links to hate crime hoaxes.

Call me cynical, but I think she's made up her mind.

The Christian jihad against Paul Mirecki appeared to conclude successfully yesterday, with his resignation as chair of Religious Studies. After Mirecki proposed an entirely legitimate course on Intelligent Design as Mythology, and injudiciously boasted in email that it would be a nice slap in the big fat face of the fundies, the mob gathered. State Senator Brownlee opined

We have to set a standard that it’s not culturally acceptable to mock Christianity in America.

State Senator Kay O Connor ominously warned

I’m surprised that something more severe isn’t happening to this teacher who obviously has a hatred for Christians.”

Editorial writer Phillip Brownlee from the Wichita Eagle even suggested Dr. Mirecki be physically assaulted:

But KU officials — though not state lawmakers — still need to get tough on Mirecki. A chairman of a religion department shouldn’t be hostile to conservative Christianity. How about making Mirecki go through a paddling line at one of KU’s fraternities?

And so words morphed into actions. Mirecki apologized, then withdrew his course. On Monday he was allegedly assaulted; then on Wednesday resigned, under pressure, as Chair of his Department.

So Christian Fundamentalists have won their battle; they have suppressed free speech and academic freedom; may have physically intimidated a man who dared to mock them; and taken one further step towards a theocratic Kansas. How the large number of decent Kansans will react to this will decide the war; I predict when they realize what has been done, they will recoil, throw out their know-nothing School Board majority, and remove some of the more fringe nutcases from office. Kansas has been damaged already; but if its voters don't act quickly, it will be damaged far more and for a longer time. No intelligent person I know wants to live in a state where you can be hounded or beaten for a single injudicious comment, or for voicing your opinion.

I reserve most contempt, however, for the administrators of KU, who seem throughout to have run scared of the fundies; who have done little or nothing to stand up for academic freedom; and who seem to have pressured Mirecki to resign. Anyone considering studying or teaching at the University of Kansas should take note: if you go there, be prepared to keep your head down and not offend the mob.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, based in Washington DC, and dedicated to supporting "research, publications, and action projects of national significance in elementary/secondary education reform", released grades for K-12 Science Standards for the 50 states, and Nebraska earned an F, scoring a miserable 38/100, 43rd out of the 49 states and DC. Nebraska also shared the honors for the biggest decline, from a grade of B in year 2000. The report characterized our state standards as a minimal document...

heavily in debt to the available national standards, but not nearly as comprehensive

... and went on to say...

substantive science content is sparse at all grade levels, and such content as is offered is often marred by vague terminology. Mathematical problem solving is virtually non-existent.

In specific areas, biology and physics standards were singled out for criticism, and the report noted that

One reviewer describes the treatment of earth science as “empty and bleak".

The question is, will our always self-congratulatory state education establishment even notice this document, let alone pay attention to it?

From kimosabe31 on Free Republic

Do you mean to tell me that as a Christian, you would not consider blowing up or otherwise killing mass murdering abortionist doctors in order to save the lives of innocent unborn infants?

-5°F last night (-21°C)

Professor Paul Mirecki, of the University of Kansas, was allegedly beaten up by two men yesterday; the beating was in response to Mirecki's remarks about Intelligent Design and about fundamentalists. Mirecki's story has not yet been corroborated, and of course anyone has the right to be appropriately skeptical until it is independently confirmed. What is fascinating, though, is the reaction of the adherents of the religion of peace and love, as posted on the conservative web-site Free Republic. Here is a sickening sample.

Gaybashing

Religious Right FReepers' theories mostly involved self-inflicted injuries, or homosexuality, or some combination: e.g. ExPatGator

I'll bet a dollar to a donut that his homo lover smacked him around

Dr Eckleburg, a Christian Reconstructionist, agreed

He probably picked them up in a bar.

The gay theme just wouldn't go away. Can we say obsession? From LouD
>He's either wandered to Kansas from the cast of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" or he's full of it.
...and more from tallhappy

How convenient. The libs will go all Matthew Shepherd.

And of course, if he's a homo, as kajingawd suggests, the evidence of beating is just disease lesions:

HA...bruises and sores are probably caused by pestilence and crack/aids. Look at that filth

Schadenfreude

Some were unenthused with analysing the crime itself, and were instead disturbed by the unprofessionalism with which the beating was handled.

I hope they catch those two incompetent rednecks for not even doing a simple assault properly!

On the same theme, from kimosabe31, who also likes to quote the Bible

Whatever Mirecki got wasn't bad enough.

kimosabe31 was so excited at his own wit (or maybe his ability to type an entire sentence, period and all), he posted the same thing twice
Wherease F.J. Mitchell opined the cause was Dr. Miercki's appearance

A face almost everyone would love to stick a fist in. Questioning suspects will go something like this: Did you beat up the Proffessor? No but I would love to do so

Another helpful suggestion from Muzzle_em

Too bad they didn't break his knees.

Some FReepers, like wardaddy, were distressed at their lack of empathy

I'm supposed to feel bad I know. The fact that I don't makes me a long knife right?

FReeper Go Gordon opined that Mirecki got what was coming to him.

I don't know that I wish him well. If he is spewing and spreading anti-religious hatred, I say he deserved it. Yes we have free speach. But all that means is you won't get arrested. That doesn't entitle you to not pay a price for your actions.

FReeper LK44-40 compared Miercki's beating to another famous incident that brought joy to his heart.

I am about as concerned about this fellow's little scrape as I am about that queer that got beaten up and tied to a fence on a chilly Wyoming night.

Yes, of course he's Christian.

Well, actually, I believe the Lord left us a more ambiguous commentary which you are using selectively to claim Him on your side.

But truly the most crass of all was FReeper BOAZO...

Now, the management of FReerepublic is quite aware of all of this. They have been alerted to several of the crasser posts, and have let them remain. Since Free Republic is usually willing to remove posts it disapproves of, and ban the offending poster, one can only assume Jim Robinson approves of the posts above. Indeed, only a month ago, a FReeper called dsc called for the use of bloodshed against academics who disparage religion. The moderators were alerted, and did nothing.
The moderators however today banned a Roman Catholic FReeper whose only offense, apparently, was to question the Christianity of the yobs quoted above
Unless the conservative movement purges itself of religious right wingnuts, Americans will recoil from the garbage I've quoted above. And one has to question the intelligence and the ethics of a web site owner who provides a forum for it.

Why oh why do political news magazines think non-scientists are competent to review scientific works? Gertrude Himmelfarb, in reviewing Darwin: The Indelible Stamp: The Evolution of an Idea , James D. Watson, ed., ignorantly claims James Watson as 'co-discoverer of the DNA molecule' (it was discovered half a century before Watson and Crick's work).

As for the rest of the review, it's simply argument from consequences. Biology is taking over spheres of human learning over which theology and philosophy once had a monopoly; biology is amoral; therefore biology must be challenged. Who cares if science is right and theology is content-free? We like the reassuring platitudes theology feeds us; whereas who knows what uncomfortable truths biology will teach us about ourselves?

Himmelfarb belongs squarely in the William S. Buckley camp of conservatism, standing athwart history, yelling 'Stop'! Sorry, Gertrude, it never works.

If the two awful pieces by science ignoramus Tom Bethell and Islamic propagandist Mustafa Akyol have you depressed about National Review, a discussion on the Corner between John Derbyshire, Jonah Goldberg, Ramesh Ponnuru and Clifford May may be somewhat of a relief. Derbyshire's characterization of the embrace of ID/religion, by conservatives who don't actually believe in such rubbish, as 'Boob Bait for the Bubbas' is priceless.
It would be nice, though, if just one single conservative magazine would simply refuse to provide a forum for the IDiots.

0.1°F last night (-18°C). Extra significant digit provided to assure you we haven't yet dropped below zero this year.

The experts have no idea what animal gave rise to the first bat.

It was true until recently that the origin of bats was murky. We have a 50 million old fossil bat, but nothing earlier in the fossil record. However, the gap has now been bridged by molecular genetics. A recent paper in science gives a well rooted molecular cladogram for the bats, showing them to share a common ancestor with the carnivores, pangolins, whales and hippos, rhinos, tapir, etc.. The paper also places the common ancestor in Laurasia in the Cretaceous. So far from having no idea what animal gave rise the the first bat, we know where it stands on the tree of life, where it lived, and when it lived.
6°F (-14°C) last night.

One of the better arguments for Intelligent Design (and this means the best of a bad lot, therefore still not very good) is that we know humans 'intelligently design' transgenic organisms. If we can detect evidence of such design by humans, why can't we detect the work of an intelligent designer?

So, let's look at 'intelligent design' as humans practice it. It primarily involves the implantation of existing genes from one organism into another - we put bacterial and mammalian genes into plants, and genes from higher organisms into bacteria. So, if we came across a transgenic organism by accident, could we detect if it had been genetically engineered?

Well yes, the answer is, I think we could. If we found an identifiable gene in a higher organism that came from an entirely different branch of the tree of life, we could, using BLAST or some similar tool, certainly tell it was in the wrong place. There are some natural mechanisms that lead to genes being in the 'wrong' place - we broadly categorize them as lateral gene transfer -- but they're relatively rare outside the prokaryotes. And in addition, human genetic engineers have genetic tags they use as aids in various steps in the process of producing a transgenic organism, and these tags are certainly detectable.

But consider the premises that underly this argument. The only reason we can detect such human intervention is because we don't expect to see pig genes in corn, or corn genes in bacteria. In other words, we can detect human intelligent design in these instances precisely because we assume there is no non-human intelligent design; and we assume this because we haven't detected evidence of non-human intelligent design.

If there were apparent genetic tags and misplaced genes promiscuously scattered throughout the tree of life, we wouldn't be able to do what the IDers claim we can do. So, in effect, the argument that human intelligent design is detectable does not support the case that design by other entities is detectable; it weakens it.

Most articles by supporters of Intelligent Design are pretty dumb. But National Review, which should know better, just ran a particularly awful one, by Tom Bethell, who apparently is writing a book about science - which would be like RWP writing a travel guide to Mozambique. This is my email to Mr. Bethell

Mr Bethell:
I have no idea where you got the idea that you were competent to write a book about science, politically incorrect or otherwise. But let me disabuse you.
Your discussion of antibiotic resistance is rather comically wrong. When we generate such resistance by evolution, we generally start with a monoclonal culture - where all bacteria are descended from a single individual and are genetically identical. We then expose to a mutagen, and then to an antibiotic. Since the culture began from one individual, all of the diversity arose from mutation, and selection acting on a mutated gene pool is precisely the definition of evolution.
I ran the experiment as an undergraduate in a microbiology course. I expect they still do.
Your citations of Colin Patterson employ a technique known as 'quote mining'. The full truth is here.
As one of a dwindling number of conservative scientists, I find articles such as yours profoundly embarrassing. Please stop, or at least learn some science before you start. And a little intellectual honesty would be refreshing too.
Gerard S. Harbison, Professor of Chemistry, UNL, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
gerry@setanta.unl.edu
http://homepage.mac.com/gerardharbison/blog/RWP_blog.html

Yet another decrepit political hack soon to be term-limited State Senator, Marian Price, is going to court to try to overturn the right of Nebraska voters to set rules governing who can represent them.

“I will take the bouquets and bricks thrown at me because I feel like the constitutionality of this needs to be clarified,”

Oh yeah. It's nothing to do with her desperately trying to hang on to her job.