1. In honour of Dan Dennett

Comment #76902 by xkcd on October 7, 2007 at 4:52 pm

reading these sources, i'm very dissapointed in Steven Jay Gould. It seems like he wants to be an iconoclast so badly that he has to strawman mainstream evolutionary theory to make his very slightly different ideas seem revolutionary

2. In honour of Dan Dennett

Comment #76866 by xkcd on October 7, 2007 at 2:01 pm

I'm especially anxious to hear your arguments against Gould's review

puntuated equalibrium is a silly false controversy, the other two points gould brings up are both up for debate and he is really just criticising Dennett for coming down on the 'wrong' side, ie. the one Gould disagrees with. Also he is straw-manning Dennett with his claims about directionality(actually, upon further reading, most of his arguements in this area seem to be against ridiculous strawmen).

3. A New Debate

Comment #75892 by xkcd on October 4, 2007 at 1:38 am

No-one has ever come up with a scientifically credible mechanism wherby these could cause the destruction of "just about all life on earth."

Cobalt 60 bombs could conceivably destroy all life down to the bacterial level. and if you don't concider the 90% plus, and highr amongst more advanced life, destroyed during previous extinctions to be 'just about all', then your maths skills leave something to be desired.

4. Hirsi Ali Returns to the Netherlands after Losing Body Guards

Comment #75891 by xkcd on October 4, 2007 at 1:33 am

The neo-cons may be wrong but at least they make an attempt to base their policy descisions on something other than "Jesus/Muhammad told me so".

But they do pander to that community. Also, they're not so keen on basing their policies on reason and evidence either, given their distain for the 'reality based community'.

5. A Matter of Faith

Comment #65925 by xkcd on August 27, 2007 at 11:39 am

To describe Chomsky as 'a tired old communist hack' is a stupid thing to say. It's just about on a level with describing Dawkins as 'a bitter old God hater.'
Well said. In fact, since hes only a communist in the same way that all opponents of McCarthy were, its more akin to acusing Dawkins of being a satanist