1. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199155 by atkinson on June 25, 2008 at 8:52 am

BTW: Has anyone recognized the similarity between Mormon and Moron?

According to Mormon tradition, Moron the First was the angel who guarded the golden plates (google Moroni).

2. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #195127 by atkinson on June 17, 2008 at 7:01 pm

Seems to me that a person's affectional orientation is readily measurable, and from early age:

Consider that part of a gay man's body that exhibits the greatest increase in size upon viewing an attractive man . . . the corresponding part of a lesbian's body also enlarges rapidly and visibly when she sees a desirable partner . . . and just about every one else from infant on upon perceiving a person worth spending time with. The rapidly expanding pupil of the eye betrays a person's preferences more accurately than that leap of pulse that comes when one feels that little crush. Observing pupil size during a slide show would make orientation pretty clear.

3. Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

Comment #195113 by atkinson on June 17, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Beautiful! A new collective noun: "a pot-pourri of lies" (when spelt "popery").

4. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #186659 by atkinson on May 30, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Does an expedition now descend to snatch a specimen and apply the anal probe? :)

5. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #181049 by atkinson on May 16, 2008 at 11:06 am

Tom Lehrer in "Smut":

When correctly viewed
Everything is lewd
I could tell you things about Peter Pan
And the Wizard of Oz, there's a dirty old man

6. Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study

Comment #158948 by atkinson on April 11, 2008 at 8:11 am

I can see the new rules now: require a urine specimen before award of any scientific or literary prize to ensure the absence of performance-enhancing medication.

7. In His Name We Pray, Ramen

Comment #151965 by atkinson on March 29, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Dept. of inadvertent accuracy

. . . intelligent design, although based on improvable hypotheses, was a better fit for the science curriculum of Kansas.

8. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #147136 by atkinson on March 19, 2008 at 10:26 pm

A population of gay men whose daughters produce on average more offspring than daughters of other men provides sufficient genetic reason for persistence. BTW, to those wishing to offer up the canard that gay men don't reproduce, let me remind of the high error rates when specifying paternity.

9. Fleabytes

Comment #134101 by atkinson on February 27, 2008 at 8:45 am

Re: Steve #1021

I too have slipped the surly bonds
and flown above the sod,
but never once put out my tongue
to lick the arse of god.

10. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114268 by atkinson on January 21, 2008 at 5:08 pm

We've met the playwright of Corpus Christi here already: search on McNally for his interview with Richard.

11. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107562 by atkinson on January 4, 2008 at 6:45 pm

Tack [35] many thanks -- your Linux line did the trick (I'll have it in a coupla hours :)

12. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107473 by atkinson on January 4, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Is this debate available on another server? The referral on that webpage
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1336746820/bctid1329234778
didn't download for me either. :(

13. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #106119 by atkinson on January 2, 2008 at 11:36 am

The gay Star Trek character was the Enterprise helmsman:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/cast/69078.html

14. Georgia plans service to pray for rain

Comment #86576 by atkinson on November 9, 2007 at 4:30 pm

The gov ought to heed the advice in Mark Twain's Notebook: "It is better to read the weather forecast before we pray for rain."

15. A Table for One

Comment #71089 by atkinson on September 17, 2007 at 8:00 pm

The link failed for me, too. So did the alternative. :(

16. PZ Myers on Blogging Heads

Comment #57921 by atkinson on July 22, 2007 at 10:23 am

Thanks, magetoo. I, too, hate digging to tease out links.

17. Darwin or Design

Comment #57540 by atkinson on July 19, 2007 at 5:37 pm

[Jason in 82 responding to "If this guy actually presented any real evidence, then he would be able to have a debate"]

"I've offered to make a stronger case in a more neutral forum. Should I take it as cowardice on your . . ."

Ah another demonstration of The Intelligent Design Hoax. ID proponents are convinced of the existence of strong (or even overwhelming) evidence for design in organisms, but even the ID experts seem personally unacquainted with any. Jason could supply a URL to some of this evidence, if he knew of one. The vaunted evidence seems not to be in the public domain, and because this evidence is kept secret, it is easy to conclude that Intelligent Design is a hoax.

18. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45354 by atkinson on May 27, 2007 at 10:38 am

life's difference-engine at its simplest

beautiful!

19. Richard Dawkins in the Time 100

Comment #37138 by atkinson on May 3, 2007 at 1:00 pm

Behe live or Behe dead,
I still won't choose ID instead
( Jack's giant ? )

20. 4 Sermon for Matins: 'Dawkins and The God Delusion'

Comment #36613 by atkinson on May 1, 2007 at 6:24 pm

I read all the way to the fourth paragraph to learn that Dawkins "slides gently into blaming God." Sagovsky might have had the grace to start with this construction, thereby providing early warning of codswallop to follow.

21. 'god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything' by Christopher Hitchens

Comment #36258 by atkinson on April 30, 2007 at 4:51 pm

Shuggy (Comment #36234) would like to see:

1. A detailed critique of the more sophisticated versions of God . . .
More sophisticated versions are no better at explaining reality.

2. A detailed analysis of the role of religion in creating masterworks of art, music . . .
Holding the pursestrings. Atheists can also be patrons of the arts.

Additional detail seems superfluous.

22. Believe in God Spray

Comment #36249 by atkinson on April 30, 2007 at 4:08 pm

The new invocation: Let us spray.

23. Is this another Sokal Hoax?

Comment #29087 by atkinson on April 1, 2007 at 3:12 pm

Dr. Johnson put it well: "I have indeed, not read it all. But when I take up the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking further, to find embroidery." [Boswell: Life]

24. God and His Gays

Comment #27562 by atkinson on March 25, 2007 at 9:39 am

Wee Flea: Science is not ever likely to "catch up" to the notion that human beings were created equally in the image of God; nor are religionists likely to recognise any Darwinian reality that might support homosexual attraction, e.g., that daughters of gay men produce more offspring than daughters of straights.

25. Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Comment #18075 by atkinson on January 18, 2007 at 7:24 am

Should've called it "intelligent dropping."

26. Secret Life of Brian

Comment #16800 by atkinson on January 8, 2007 at 9:21 pm

Re #16716 from Irate Harry

Thanks. That did the trick.

27. Secret Life of Brian

Comment #16709 by atkinson on January 8, 2007 at 8:30 am

Is a downloadable version available? I lack the bandwidth needed for UBloodyTube.

28. Letter From America: Atheists throw down the gauntlet

Comment #16135 by atkinson on January 4, 2007 at 9:09 pm

Comment #15974:
Google "bush god told me to"

29. Not Yet The Majority But No Longer Silent

Comment #15477 by atkinson on December 31, 2006 at 5:01 pm

Like Gay, the term Bright is upbeat, terse, and useable as either adjective or noun.

Bright might be a nice term for recruitment -- "you, too, can be a bright!" -- but many responses here show great reluctance to accept the term, and I suspect few would march for Bright Rights.

Nor has Gay been generally accepted as an inclusive term. In 80s Los Angeles, the Gay Rights Chapter of the ACLU was renamed Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter to make clear their inclusiveness.

We may thus see handbills inviting to meetings of the Bright and Infidel Brigade. With such a name, I'd surely give it a look.

30. Beneath The Surface

Comment #13989 by atkinson on December 20, 2006 at 2:07 pm

McNally offers a fine example of how to prepare and conduct an interview, starting with actually reading TGD. Richard was afforded plenty of opportunity for discussion, and was allowed to put his case without the confrontational interruptions that have been so common in recent interviews. I thought the music interludes were well-chosen. I note the good news that KPFK is no longer just "for all of Southern California", but is now "streaming globally".