Are ID proponents being silenced?

We can only hope. (Kidding)

I suppose the IDbots have a right to their say. But I think things like the creationist propaganda movie "Expelled" are what's meant when people refer to the downside of free speech being the attempt to push irrational and stupid ideas into the mainstream.

Amanda Gefter of New Scientist recently went to a screening of "Expelled", and given the chance to explain themselves, the ID proponents don't do a very good job of it:

"I had another question to ask and held my hand up high, but Mathis called on anyone and everyone else who appeared to be more sympathetic. Finally, he looked at his watch and said, "Well, I think that's all the time we have," and began to walk out. I followed him out into the lobby to speak with him.

I said that the film spent a lot of time making the point that proponents of evolution can't explain how life arose from non-life, and asked how intelligent design explains it. It doesn't, he acknowledged.

"Then don't you think it's strange that you tried to pin that on the scientists?" I asked. "Well, it's a real hole in their theory," he said.

"Actually, it's not - the theory of evolution never purported to touch on the issue of how life arose from non-life, it's about how species arose from other species." I said that in science, criticising someone else's theory doesn't make your theory right, and that the film never bothers to say how intelligent design explains anything at all.

He countered that intelligent design says there are things that are too complex to be explained by natural selection.

I asked how ID explains the complexity, but he said, "I don't have time for this," and walked away." (emphasis mine)

Huh. And "Up is up means I win, nyeah nyeah nyeah".

Memo to Democrats: Watch and Learn

Okay, Dems -- this is how it's done.

"NEW YORK (CBS) ― If Gov. Eliot Spitzer opts to roll the dice and not resign, state Republican leadership will force him to go all-in and call for his impeachment from office, according to a state Assemblyman.

Sources told CBS 2 HD shortly after it was reported that the governor was linked to a prostitution ring that he would likely hand in his resignation, which could happen within the next 36 hours."

Spitzer fucked up fairly big time, although to say he was "linked to a prostitution ring" is like saying every time I get a pizza I'm "linked to Panago". (Good reporting there, liberal media!) But anyway.

Because of Spitzer's fuckup, nobody died, nobody was tortured, the Constitution wasn't compromised, the economy didn't tank, civil liberties weren't curtailed and a sovereign nation wasn't invaded under false pretenses... and yet the Republicans have the moxy, the balls, the supreme arrogance to demand Spitzer's resignation within 48 hours or be impeached.

Follow the bouncing ball -- do you get it now?

Pull this guy's Hazmat license

Okay, how could this happen?

"Police in northern Alberta are asking the public to be on the lookout for a stolen pickup truck containing radioactive equipment.

The Ford F-350 was left unlocked and running outside a Fort McMurray hotel Saturday morning. The truck's licence plate is H04411.

The truck was carrying radioactive equipment used for work on the oilfields, said RCMP Cpl. Sean Maxwell, who declined to say which company owned the vehicle."

Huh!? Dude's driving around with a truckload of hazardous (radioactive!) material, decides to stop for a six-pack and leaves the truck unlocked and running? And we're worried about someone getting on a plane with a pair of tweezers!? Fuck!!!