Oh, Ben Stein, I shake my fist at you in rivalry. The infamous apologist for Republican criminality, idiotic economics, and creationist inanity got to present a commencement address to a famous university.
As it happens, I’m going to be out of town for a few days now — I’m off to deliver a commencement address myself. Yes, it’s another travel day for me, I’m afraid.
Should I be jealous? Stein got to speak at Liberty University. I’m speaking at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. I might be a teensy bit ahead. After all, this is what Richard Dawkins had to say:
“Many of the questioners announced themselves as either students or faculty from Liberty, rather than from Randolph Macon which was my host institution. One by one they tried to trip me up, and one by one their failure to do so was applauded by the audience. Finally, I said that my advice to all Liberty students was to resign immediately and apply to a proper university instead. That received thunderous applause, so that I almost began to feel slightly sorry for the Liberty people. Only almost and only slightly, however.”
That’s a difference between Stein and myself. I’m the one speaking at a proper university.
My state’s former Attorney General teaches there. Despite being in a Republican state he was voted out of office, appointed to another, voted out of that, then run out of town. He was welcomed there to teach, despite being one of the worst lawyers our state had. They scrape the bottom of the barrel at Liberty University.
Dude. If you were addressing the graduating class of Edna’s Hair Care and Auto Repair School, you’d still be doing better than Ben Stein.
(And look out for Edna. She’s got a mean left hook.)
Good on you,PZ !
Lets compare fees between you and Stein,as a measure of intellectual integrity and prowess…:P
Can’t get the vid to work, finally someone managed to shut that boring idiot up! How do graduations work, does he call people’s names out? It wouldn’t take long before he got down to “Bueller… anyone… Bueller…”
Well, infamous, anyways…
ts;dw (too stupid, didn’t watch) If i want to watch Stein drone on, I can find a re-run of The Wonder Years somewhere.
Something I delight in pointing out to others ever since it was pointed out to me: the Liberty University seal contains the slogan “Knowledge Aflame”, hovering over an image of a book burning.
Stein gets tossed from the University of Vermont commencement and gets Liberty University as a consolation prize. Next stop, giving the welcoming address at Rev. Billy Joe Jim Bob Haggarty’s Washed in the Blood of the Lamb Evangelical Christian Academy (K-8) basketball homecoming bonfire.
mmmmmmmmmm I love the smell of irony in the morning.
This is a great honour, PZ. All the best, and hoping this is but one of many more to come!
Liberty U, where the truth is what you make it!
mmmmmmmmmm I love the smell of irony in the morning.
Ah, but it’s not ironic. It could not be more perfectly appropriate.
Just imagine how hopelessly stupid and insane a person must be just to consider becoming a student at Liberty University. They teach the entire universe was magically created 2,000 years after people started breeding cows.
If I was a hiring manager and I saw a resume with Liberty University on it, I wouldn’t hire that person for anything, not even to clean toilets.
Only a piece of shit would agree to give a commencement address at Liberty University, so I’m not surprised Ben Stein took the job.
True, but considering they thought it would be a clever I have to take a little ironic pleasure in it.
Well now sure, but for the previous 8 years it was almost a guaranty of a job working for the President’s administration.
Meow PZ! Saucer of milk, table 2! :)
I have to switch to Verizon FiOS soon. Comcast recently started an advertising campaign starring Shaq and “economist” Ben Stein.
You may be interested in this piece at the HuffPo about some students experiences as a transfer student at Liberty.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-roose/surprises-from-liberty-un_b_196882.html
Commencement speeches are boring enough, but add Stein’s monotonous voice will surely put all to sleep. His style was funny in Ferris Bueller, but painful in Expelled. Can’t imagine it there…
Pedants: Sorry about forgetting “student’s” apostrophe in my last post.
Are they making him an honorary goy?
Hilarious. Can we whack Stein on the head and substitute Dawkins instead? What can Stein possibly say except: “go forth, multiply like roaches, and spread ignorance and woo”?
I presume that the Liberty U. ceremony takes after MP&tFC’s “Idiot’s College”, with the graduates receiving a handful of mud and a swift kick in the pants to ready them for their new life as Certified Idiots seeking the village of their pointy-headed, ugly little dreams.
Snot recapitulates stupidity. I’ll take death over Liberty any day.
Any chance you could stop by at UCLA as well?
The moment Richard Dawkins mentions in that quote has been captured for posterity:
Rev @ 9,
Wouldn’t that be the smell of burning irony?
Oh, and imagine the whispering in the crowd!
Liberty-Boy: “He ain’t a bad speaker, fer a Jewboy that gwine t’ HELL!”
Liberty-Girl: “I’ll pray fa ‘im!”
Meow! Nice work PZ.
Louis
So PZ is a better speaker at a better University, but how does that compare to Obama speaking at a Catholic school?
COULD ALL AMERICANS PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING THE WORD ‘Irony’ OR ANY OF IT’S DERIVATIVES AND CONJUGATIONS IN GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES PLEASE.
It’s true definition is now grossly endangered.
A guy I went to school with is a department chair there. Nice guy, but religious zealot. I saw his name in the list of people who had signed out a book of 16th century songs, some of which were risque. I kidded him gently about having signed out a book of dirty songs. He took great offense and denied it completely.
Really, he was a very nice guy; fair, decent, hard-working, never pushing his views on anybody. Still, it seems fitting that he ended up on the faculty at Liberty, and a department chair no less.
Burning irony, irony burning. The point is, people, don’t leave your irony plugged in when you’re done with it.
/Elmer the Safety Mastodon.
Hmmm… talk about synchronicity. This morning, while driving to work here in Ottawa, I saw my first ever Liberty U alumnus bumper sticker. Coincidence? I think not. Clearly something is afoot, but I’ll need Eagletosh’s insight to help me understand what it all means.
I find it ironic that you’re complaining…
/Runs from room…
It’s true definition is now grossly endangered.
Was the improper use of “It’s” supposed to be ironic?
“If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.” -Spider Robinson
@ 18: Posted by: Mystic Olly | May 12, 2009 8:10 AM
You may be interested in this piece at the HuffPo about some students experiences as a transfer student at Liberty.
Yeah, I was patrticularly impressed with the first biology exam on which the first question required teen-age dinosaurs to have been on Noah’s Ark…
Liberty U was where Monica Goodling went to school, in preparation to become a serial law-breaker for imposing a political litmus test on DoJ hires under Bush/Gonzo…
I have nothing but contempt for Liberty U and its ilk, and wouldn’t hire a grad to such runny shit through a flavo-straw…
COULD ALL PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE COMMENTERS PLEASE JUST ADDRESS THE PERSON YOU ARE MEANING TO CRITIQUE?
Oh noes! The definitions and usages of teh words are changing!
Oh, and I plead with all of you, unless you are American*, to please stop using “it’s” for “its”. It is now grossly endangered due to YOU! (Also, I guess that means we can use “irony” however we want, as long as our sentences are not grammatical.)
*what’s THAT about?
Really, he was a very nice guy; fair, decent, hard-working, never pushing his views on anybody. Still, it seems fitting that he ended up on the faculty at Liberty, and a department chair no less.
I am always relieved to learn that the next generation of theo-fascist, anti-democratic, anti-science demagogues are “nice people” when you get to know them…
I have no doubt that if someone got an accounting or mathematics degree from Liberty University they would know something about accounting or math. However, I wouldn’t trust a science degree from the place.
I blame Alanis, although she’s actually Canadian.
So PZ is a better speaker at a better University, but how does that compare to Obama speaking at a Catholic school?
Catholic Universities often have non-Catholic, non-Christian, and secular faculty and students…
Did the honorarium include a table at the Ivy? (Don’t try to take any food from Lindsey Lohan’s plate, I hear she bites).
Don’t forget to get an In-N-Out Burger, PZ. I’d suggest a Monster Style Double-Double with a chocolate shake.
Here’s an example of someone with a Master’s degree from Liberty U:
http://www.voy.com/129615/
Agreed. Perhaps doing so makes me an elitist asshole. So be it.
I dunno. I had an accountant from there for a brief while…
He had… issues. Did my taxes, told me first that technically I owed my entire income. Something to do with ‘original balances’. That seemed off…
But then he came back, said it was all cool, because some guy called Jesus had paid ’em anyway… Pronounced it real strange, too. I know a few guys called Jesus, not one of ’em says it that way. Seriously, this guy was just weird.
Anyway, I called the ones I figured might just be that free with their chequebook, they said it wasn’t them. So that seemed off, too.
So I called the accountant again, demanded to see the figures. He said they were ineffable…
In retrospect, I had to agree. Insofar as there was no effing way I was signing that return.
@13
My son has a dry sense of humor. I have been keeping him posted on creationism, fundies, and other assorted whaargarbl. I even told him that there were schools I would forbid him to go to for various reasons.
The other day, my wife hands me a postcard, saying “This is where Alex wants to go to college..”
I take a look, and it’s Liberty U (one of the schools he will have to walk to if he truly wants to attend). As I feel my blood pressure rising, I see him smirking behind the wife’s back.
He got me on that one…
@31
But isn’t irony like rain on your wedding day?
// ducks
If we’re going to blame Canadians, let’s go whole-hog and blame William Shatner or Colin Mochrie. How about Gordon Lightfoot? You don’t hear much about him these days, so his fair game for blaming.
IST @6
And how ironic that he plays Mr. Cantwell, Kevin’s junior high school science teacher.
*claps*
“I find it ironic that you’re complaining…”
LITERALLY.
nice
You know, I’ll bet there won’t be any idiot christofascist lawmakers in California clamoring for an investigation of PZ’s speech – like the intellectual midgets in Oklahoma did for Dawkins’ visit a while back…
Then again, knowing how Prop 8 went, maybe I spoke too soon. ;-)
Still, congrats! It’s a nice honor for you, PZ; enjoy!
P.S. Anyone know why my TypeKey ID went kaput? I can’t get it to work for the life of me… perhaps their system is (not so) intelligently designed?
For your amusement: Irish comedian Ed Byrne slates Alanis Morissette’s Ironic.
Dawkins’ written description of his retort to Liberty students doesn’t do the real thing justice. Everyone should check it out:
That, my friends, is a pwn.
This.
(but it’s actually called animal style.)
Yeah, no kidding. What’s ironic about rain on your wedding day? I could be ironic, but that would depend on additional circumstances, such as… oh, say, that you’d planned to get married under a waterfall, but didn’t want to get wet, so you planned to have the wedding somewhere out in the desert instead where, against all odds, it rained.
But that doesn’t rhyme.
I’ve always believed that Alanis was actually going for meta-irony in that song. It’s hard to come up with an entire song about irony that manages to actually contain no irony, so it has to have been intentional.
And she’s laughing at us that we’re still discussing it to this day.
Regarding the voy.com link @#46: What is the connection between bad website design and fundamentalists? That background, aiyiyiyi! Please Jesus, relieve this pain.
Excellent!
Regarding the voy.com link @#46: What is the connection between bad website design and fundamentalists? That background, aiyiyiyi! Please Jesus, relieve this pain.
It gets worse, that clown also has a myspace page (turn down your computer’s sound before visiting):
http://www.myspace.com/thetrumpetofthelord
And a myspace blog (which some may find “amusing”):
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=225572371
Only if you’re a meteorologist who specifically chose that day for your wedding because you predicted it would be sunny.
At least there’s no danger of science either from Stein or from Liberty.
For them, it’s perfection, their dream of a heaven devoid of thought.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Lynna, you’ve learned a very important lesson here today:
Always wear the protective goggles!
From the HuffPo article:
This doesn’t surprise me, because people who are united by a shared passion or interest probably would tend to be happier, particularly if their common ideals include upbeat, positive self-images (“I have Jesus inside my heart and I love everyone!”) Most of the devout people I know (either Christian or New Age) are very much “into” people, and caring about others. I suspected they’re attracted to their dogmas because of the emphasis they all put on the universe being a fundamentally loving and caring place.
The danger of course is that people both inside and outside any particular group tend to skip over and think that the working personal dynamics and benefits of a belief system has something very critical to say about the truth of the beliefs. If creationists — or homeopaths or environmentalists or flat-earthers — are really nice, then they’re probably on to something very important. Something real and true, because it is “working” for them. It’s considered crucial, if not decisive, evidence in its favor.
And, of course, if atheist materialist skeptical scientists are not nice, then there just must be a God, or cosmic consciousness energy fields, or magic water, or whatever it is that makes people, nicer people.
Re #67: this. Very much.
And probably a very significant factor in the survival of religion, actually. What greases the social wheels within a group may in fact be quite pathological outside it, and is in no particular way related to what makes a solid and useable cosmology… But within the group, these issues are easily conflated. You see bleed of this conflation all the time, too. Gee, y’know… if we just stopped people from saying the stuff we don’t say in our group, everything would be like our church picnic. They don’t see how incredibly ugly that is because they see it from inside that bubble.
#66:
The goggles, they do nothing!
These goggles?
Do they work on shitty webdesign and formatting too?
P.Z., I so wish you were speaking at my commencement on Saturday. As it is, I’m sure the ceremony will be filled with fundie woo since we’re deep in the Piney Woods of Texas. I’ll encourage the family to imagine what you would say to make the whole thing less excruciating.
PZ,
re: #45,
Don’t give In-N-Out your money. It goes straight into the Mormons’ war chest. It’s a shame, the burgers are fantastic.
Grey Theory @ #45
Thanks for the tip. Next time I’m at the Ivy, I’ll have to steal some of Lindsey’s fries just to see if it’s true.
Rev. BigDumbChimp @ 70,
Well, I presume one could get a copy of The Theory of Evolution in braille…
Baldrick’s Irony:
Urban Legend.
But they are still wingnuts printing bible verses on their packaging.
Congrats on being a commencement speaker PZ. One last chance to teach a group of med students to _THINK!_
But here’s what I want to know: any honorary degree with that? It would make my day to know that you are a “doctor of humane letters”. Too bad they don’t give out the degree “doctor of cephalapodian letters”.
I want these googles!
Nice pic indeed
Dude. If you were addressing the graduating class of Edna’s Hair Care and Auto Repair School, you’d still be doing better than Ben Stein
Like that guy from the HuffPo article, I went from a proper univeristy to a Fundamentalist Bible college and back again. The Bible college course credits all trasnferred back, though probably not into the categories that the Bible college intended. Science went into philosophy, and history went into religion! I basically had to take Geology over again, but it was much more informative the at the proper school.
It must be a day for strange occurrences. I too find myself in a position similar to Stein: any /we/ that includes him does seem to lack righteousness.
Somehow, I can’t read “In-N-Out” without thinking of this place (somewhere in Arizona, I think)
JC
Very nice! My med school alma mater (class of 91′). The times, they are a changing.
@JackC #83: they are also found in North Dakota.
Do they still get Stockwell Day off of school? And whatever happened to the national igloo?
If you had good, detailed notes from both of the classes, the comparison between the two would make an interesting article for the Journal of Geoscience Education.
Thus proving, once again, Poe’s Law.
BTW, the article also implies they’ve got a flag. I have real trouble believing that that flag was not chosen with satirical intent.
That middle part would entail the occasional case of parthenogenesis. Now that would be ironic.
=8-)
No, these here!!!
A hearty Fight On! to PZ from this Trojan alum. Kudos to USC for bringing you in, I might add.
PZ, if you get a chance, not too far from the medical campus is Philippe’s, a killer sandwich shop and one of my LA faves.
You guys poo pooing a science degree from Liberty. There’s lots of things you can do with it.
1.) Work as an “expert” at Ken Ham’s museum.
2.) Get a graduate degress from a creationist diploma mill.
3.) Be a guide for classes of high school students to explain “the real truth” at the Smithsonian or other errant museums.
4.) Or, the best uses, line a bird cage, put it on the floor and use it to train your puppy, or wipe you ass with it.
PZ,
By choosing you to deliver their commencement address, Keck is boldy demonstrating why they are such a great institution of learning. Go Trojans! USC’s educational leadership is an inspiration to all of us. Sincere congrats to you PZ! As we all know…you fricken rock.
And, yeah…In N’ Out is worth the trip.
PS Ben Stein…who’s that?
Priceless.
I am SO proud that USC has the appreciation to invite you to speak here. I am even more proud that you are bragging about speaking at my university PZ.
Fight On!
Come to think it. I spoke to Pastor Deacon Fred of Landover Baptist. He did attend Liberty and then got kicked out at the end for complaining about Jerry Falwell on the college radio station. He was great now where do I go and how will 3 years of Creation Science transfer. He did manage to get them to transfer and get an English degree. Creation Science all transferred as American Mythology.
Tooks a 4 hour trip to see my daughter and grandkids for Mother’s Day. My trip was ruined because all I did while gone was worry that I left the irony on.
Damn! I can’t see Dawkins smacking them down because it says the video has been removed for terms of use violation. I can imagine how it went, but it’s still fun to watch.
JackC, I don’t know of any Kum n Gos in AZ (I live in AZ, and the only place I ever saw them was the midwest), but that’s not a statement based on definitive, first-hand proof. We do however have the oft-admired In-n-Out Burger. While I like the company’s (more) ethical business model, the food is good but not spectacular. I hadn’t seen any Bible verses on the cartons last time I was there, but I will have to check. I know they trend conservative as a company, but they do pay their people generally better, and provide other benefits that big chains don’t if I recall. I admit my understanding of InO is based in largely on the description in Fast Food Nation. According to Schlosser’s research, Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr./Green Burrito and Jack-In-The-Box are two of the more ethical fast food companies. But that research is a few years old at this point; hopefully things didn’t change too much. If anyone’s been in the southwest, Whataburger PROUDLY posts conservative codespeak on the outside of their stores.
Citizen Z, EXCELLENT point. Although the flame on the book is supposed to be the godly, non-bush-burning kind. But instructive nonetheless.
Wow, what a guy, what a prof– given to self-congratulation, sunk to seeking praise. I suppose that’s “character” ?
I was trying to assess relative prestige and coolth of the occasions. Obama ranks above PZ (sorry, but he is after all the POTUS); how does ND compare to USC?
(Then-Senator Obama actually did one commencement at my son’s alma, though not his grad year. His class got Madeleine Albright. Other speakers while he was there were Bill Clinton and Stephen Colbert).
@87 – It was so many years ago that I have few notes from the proper Geology course (I did keep the textbook, though.) I do have ALL the notes and materials from the Creationist “science” classes, though. There is even a diagram of the early solor system by the professor. A figure of Jesus with slight shooting out from him literally resides in place of the sun first the first few days. Otherwise, he reasoned, photosynthesis would be impossible.
How can you argue with that?!
I saw that original Dawkins speech followed by Q&A and he’s right about the applause. However he was a bit more circumspect. From memory, after a parade of leading creationist questions, he said something like “If you’re at an institution that teaches that dinosaur fossils are 10,000 years old then you should quit and find a proper University”. Again I’m paraphrasing from memory.
26:
Congratulations on a most inspirational typo ! —
” go to a proper univeristy.’
As Liberty verifiably teaches belief in just one truth and just one book, and “Univeristry” perfectly embodies the didactic sophistry of such institutions of lower education , it should be added to the dictionary forthwith.
I hope it rains on my wedding day.
If I ever get married.
Nevermind…
Ironic, don’t you think?
COULD ALL AMERICANS PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING THE WORD ‘Irony’ OR ANY OF IT’S DERIVATIVES AND CONJUGATIONS IN GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES PLEASE.
Crap usage of
‘it’s” aside, how would you conjugate the word irony, which is a noun? Make it a verb? Like “ironicize,” or “ironiculate??”
I used to find Stein sort of harmless and very mildly amusing, back when he had his game show. Now I want to pull an Elvis on my TV whenever I see his evil, ignorant, boring physiognomy.
As a science teacher, I begin to take these know-nothing ID creeps personally. When someone is devoting most or all of their energy to making your job as difficult as possible, it’s hard not to.
It does have the adjectival form “ironic” and the adverbial form “ironically”.
Wow.
“Conjugate” means “to put a verb into different persons and numbers” (which in modern English amounts only to choosing whether to add the 3rd-person-singular -s or not).
It rained on mine after we planned and had it all set up to have it outside. Instead we moved it inside to a large ballroom. Next to the bar.
Everyone was happy.
I found no irony in it whatsoever
Not like other languages, where prefixes, suffixes, and stuff thrown in the middle of the verb designate tense, person, gender, possession (or lack thereof), condition, perfect or imperfect, and various other attributes of the verb. Of course, if the verb is irregular, then you just have to memorize the permuations.
If I continue to listen to his wonderful voice, sound, and songs, I’m quite happy to blame him for everything except peas. Peas are inexcusable. Not even Mr Lightfoot can mitigate the horror of peas.
You’re gonna be in Ellay?
Will there be a symposium, in the classic sense?
Let’s see here. Stein was scheduled to be the commencement speaker at the University of Vermont until a bunch of wining atheists sent emails to complain.
PZ did his graduate work at (cough) the University of Oregon. Stein graduated from Columbia University and Yale Law School.
Not that I am a fan of Stein.
Whining.. cute.
What happened in Oklahoma recently?
Um humm
Yes, Stimpy, but you’re too stupid and uneducated to weigh in on either of them (though you’ve got a streak of dishonesty that puts you on par with Stein. Good work!)
Have you read any of the materials I suggested to you when you lied about wanting to learn some actual biology?
No?
Then why do you persist in thinking that anyone, anywhere has the slightest interest in what you might have to say?
I can’t remember what you put on my reading list. What was it again?
Catholic Universities often have non-Catholic, non-Christian, and secular faculty and students…
*raises hand*
And the commencement speaker at my ceremony next Monday is Ken Burns.
Yawn Randy. Get a clue how science really works. Like your invisible paper to Nature. No paper, nothing you have to say on evolution is scientific.
NoR you are tempting me to make a politically incorrect statement about people your age. However, I want desert tonight so I will be nice.
What did happen in Oklahoma? Did some atheist get persecuted for righteousness sake?
We have these things on the internet called hyperlinks. On this website they show up as blue. So when you see some words in blue in a comment there is a very good chance that they are a hyperlink. If you click on that hyperlink it takes you to another webpage. On that webpage there are these things called words. If you read those words they convey ideas and stories. Sometimes people put hyperlinks to other websites to take the reader there to make a point or to disseminate information.
This is one of those times.
Opps.
And I don’t condone that Oklahoma nonsense either.
RBDC FTW
hehe no worry. gave me an opportunity to stretch my passive aggressive sarcasm chops.
But can you see the difference?
What, something like ‘we young people aren’t like you old science-types – we don’t need your ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’ and ‘scientific method’; we can just make shit up as we see fit and demand it be accepted’?
RBDC, I see both as examples of intolerance. The difference escapes me.
They were biology references. If you’d read them like you said you wanted (you might have been too busy whining at the time that everyone here is so mean to you, at which point I took you seriously enough to share a few basic texts) you’d have remembered. And begun to know a little of the evidence for the theory you’re convinced isn’t possible.
But no worries. No one here is surprised by your dishonesty, laziness, and commitment to fallacy.
But by all means, continue to post here as if you have relevance.
here’s a hint
One involves a government resolution
Brownian,
I don’t have time to read everything you guys put on my reading list. That doesn’t make me lazy, dishonest and stupid. My job requires me to do a significant amount of reading to keep up with new technology so I don’t have time to go through your reading list. I have been reading “Why Evolution is True” here and there. Does that make you happy? I must have spent a whole 10 minutes reading it last night. I could have spent more time but after a long day at work I decided that it would be more fun to go see Star Trek. Am I forgiven?
Humm. What did you think?
In other words, unforgivable until he produces stuffed porkchops with sweet and sour glaze, and chocolate rumballs.
I think people who watched the TV series of the original Star Trek will appreciate it most. I loved it. I thought it was better than all the other Star Trek movies.
Yeah I hear it’s good, really good. Wife is out of town this week, might be ubergeek and go solo it.
Did he do his homework? Can he give the next line to:
“He’s the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD”
OH MY GOD! I am laughing hysterically.
AssProf PZ, I guess you have to take what you can get, don’t you? Here you devote a full blog post to tooting your own horn about speaking at a “proper university” when you teach at the University of Minnesota, Morris, which is basically the used Kia dealership of colleges. And you’re not even a full professor there! So eat a piece of humble pie, a BIG one.
I’m going to see it (Star Trek) tonight. I’ve never really watched any of the series, but have absorbed a lot via all the pop culture references to it in stuff like The Simpsons and Futurama. Plus I had a flatmate who was very into it, so I’ve picked up a few things.
Ah poor Robert, who can’t even get PZ’s title right. You must have gone to Pudunk’s igranceRous™ Xian schools, which shows with your inane posts. After PZ gets his books written, which is what his sabbatical is for, he will be duly promoted to full professor. Make fake fun while you can. Meanwhile, all you seem is stupid.
Lay of the lead paint chips bobby.
I like this comment by Dawkins about Liberty University from here:
http://richarddawkins.net/tourJournal
The host institution here is the Randolph Macon Woman’s College — a proper university, unlike the ill-named and ill-favoured “Liberty University”, founded by the infamous Jerry Falwell, which shares the same town. It seems that some official body, somewhere, has seen fit to grant accreditation to “Liberty University” — a “University” which, in all seriousness, teaches its unfortunate students that the world is less than ten thousand years old. I briefly visited “Liberty University” this morning. Knowing how many tax-free dollars had been donated or tithed to this “University” I thought at least that it might have nice buildings. Remarkably, they are spectacularly ugly, an architectural disgrace on the outside to match the educational disgrace of what is taught inside.
George
here’s a hint
One involves a government resolution
Now, RBDC–don’t be mean. They don’t understand science of any kind (maybe even allergic to it). And that includes political science. All they know is tantrum politics.
@ 133; I think the post was more of a backhand at Ben Stein than anything else, IMHO. But, while we’re on the subject where is your next commencement address? Anywhere?Anytime?
Intelligent Designer aka Randy Shithead Stimpson: “I don’t have time to read everything you guys put on my reading list. That doesn’t make me lazy, dishonest and stupid.”
You’ve studied evolution but still prefer supernatural magic? You are stupid. Incredibly stupid.
Robert,
You Oxy addict…you are reading (and making a fool of yourself on) the number two science blog on internet. Pharyngula is just behind a blog called Wired (a well financed, full-time, pseudo blog if you ask me)…and PZ has done this IN HIS SPARE TIME. Time to wake up Sleepy.
For Dr. P @ #139: “But, while we’re on the subject where is your next commencement address? Anywhere?Anytime?”
Oh Dr. P, so clever! Well, I’m slightly less than half the age of AssProf PZ–who is 52 years old–so give me another two-and-a-half decades and yes, I will be more successful.
I saw Star Trek. I thought it was ok-a rather fast action movie with lots of jokes. Didn’t care for the actor playing Kirk-but liked the young Mr. Spock, and the old Mr. Spock.
My brother loved it and he loves the original ST-but I could see why some hard core Trekkies wouldn’t like it.
The bad guy’s space ship for some reason reminded me of the Reavers from Firefly-but I don’t know why since they don’t look similar at all.
Oh Dr. P, so clever! Well, I’m slightly less than half the age of AssProf PZ–who is 52 years old–so give me another two-and-a-half decades and yes, I will be more successful.
“I will be more successful” is an incomplete sentence. But do tell us about your dissertation.
More successful than you are now? An anti-intellectual? I doubt it. Given your posts, I’d say the odds of you making it to the level of cleaning lavatories without a brush is about 50-50.
Unfortunately, this must be my last comment for the evening.
For Ranger Rick @ #141: I didn’t realize that catering to a anti-religion niche market on the internet with content tailor-made for feeding that niche market’s anti-religion mania made one a success. If you feed the pigs slop, they’re sure to like you. And I wouldn’t call this a science blog; it’s a politics blog concerned with power and whether religious or anti-religious groups have it.
For kamaka @ #144: I find it amusing that you call my mastery of the English language into question. Apart from the careless typo here and there, I’m a damn fine writer. My sentence in syntactically correct, thank you very much. Your comment, however, is foolish. “I will be more successful” can indeed function as a complete sentence, but it functions as an independent clause in my sentence. LOL, ur dum. :-/
reminded me of the Shadows from Babylon 5. anyway, I liked it kinda… except for the treatment of the female characters in the movie (both the notable lack of them, and the role assigned to the single one that WAS there)
“I will be more successful” can indeed function as a complete sentence
Fine, perhaps that is so. But you failed to answer the inquiry, just what might your doctoral dissertation be about? “More successful” in the context, must mean more successful than Dr. Myers. So spill it, what are you contributing to the sum total of human knowledge?
except for the part where they messed with continuity even where not necessary for the plot, where I didn’t catch on to the redshirt joke until he was about to disintegrate… not to mention the love-story, which I disliked for many reasons that have nothing to do with the love-story itself, and a lot to do with the character-abuse :-p
also, since when is Spock’s mother brunette?! [/Trekkie mode]
the stupid “asian driver” joke didn’t help, either….
@ 144, and #146; “What I’m going to be when I grow up” is a excuse for someone who has yet to say anything of any consequence.If you obtain half the status of anyone here at twice PZ’s age, then talk to me;otherwise impress me with your rapier wit O Wise One, it’s the only way to garner any respect now.If there was any insight into your blithering you’d realize that yes, politics fly fast here, from the left and right, but there, IS a healthy amount of science as well; it’s all apparently lost on you.
Unfortunately, this must be my last comment for the evening.
Why is it that the insufferable assfaces like to imply that everyone desires their anal blasts?
RBDC asked
No, please don’t.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | May 12, 2009 9:41 AM
COULD ALL AMERICANS PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING THE WORD ‘Irony’ OR ANY OF IT’S DERIVATIVES AND CONJUGATIONS IN GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES PLEASE. It’s true definition is now grossly endangered.;br:
COULD ALL PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE COMMENTERS PLEASE JUST ADDRESS THE PERSON YOU ARE MEANING TO
CRITIQUERIDICULE?Fixed to show real intent. Deservedly so, at least when it comes to godbots.
Unfortunately, this must be my last comment for the evening.
aww, too bad.
was hoping you were going to say “ever” instead of “the evening”.
Hopefully not a Masters in web design!
#91 PS Ben Stein…who’s that?
Not a case of a ‘who’, but a ‘what’, as in a turd on the lawn.
#111:PZ did his graduate work at (cough) the University of Oregon. Stein graduated from Columbia University and Yale Law School.
Not that I am a fan of Stein.
And where did GWB graduate from? Didn’t make him any brighter!
#66: Lynna, you’ve learned a very important lesson here today:
Always wear the protective goggles!.
No, welding goggles #13 would be the only recommended protection to avoid a flash on that site.
But must give him praise for having used all colours you’d find in vomit. Very appropriate.
And where did GWB graduate from? Didn’t make him any brighter!
“I’m not impressed by what college your kid is going to. George Bush went to Yale. The End.”
— Bill Maher
“It rained on mine after we planned and had it all set up to have it outside. Instead we moved it inside to a large ballroom. Next to the bar.
Everyone was happy.
I found no irony in it whatsoever”
I was more questioning whether or not I want to get married. I hope it rains every damn day.
I’ll cross both bridges when I get there.
No ironic irony on the other side either.
Okay, deep breath, Brownie.
You asked for the information claiming you were interested in finally learning what evolution is, idiot, and then never bothered to read it. So yes, that makes you dishonest and lazy. Stupid’s more of a lifetime achievement award for you.
Again, you asked for it, so don’t come whining to me. But it’s interesting to note that you do have an inkling that competence requires at least some study. More on this below.
You love to drone on about how important your programmer’s job is and how you have to learn so much in order to satisfy your clients, but what makes you a moron asshole Stimpy, is that you don’t seem to think you have to do the same in order to achieve a similar level of competence in other fields. You’ve been posting here for at least a year or more about how evolution couldn’t happen because of this or that bullshit, and you write cute little programs that are as relevent to the study of evolution as a child’s crayon drawings of mom and dad are to human anatomy, and yet just now you’re reading a book like Why Evolution is True? You get that your clients would be upset if you couldn’t be bothered to read up on the latest innovations in your field, but you seem to feel your opinions carry weight in biology, even though you haven’t a freshman’s understanding of it. If your clients wouldn’t put up with someone ignorant of programming, why do you expect we should put up with your biological ignorance?
Would you tell your clients the same thing and then ask their forgiveness?
Hey, do what you like. I don’t give a fuck how you spend your evenings, provided they involve willing consent all ’round. But then while you’re here you should restrict your comments to discussing Star Trek or programming, not evolution. At least not until you’ve demonstrated you have a grasp of the basic concepts. Because so far, all you’ve been is a waste of everyone’s time.
one suggestion
make sure there is a bar
Not reading it and going to watch Star Trek doesn’t make you lazy, dishonest and stupid.
Pretending that you know what you’re talking about when you clearly do not, does.
We don’t mind people who are honestly ignorant and don’t pretend that they know better than those who are not ignorant, we dislike jerks like you who think you know even though you don’t.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Duh nuh
duuuh nuh
duuuuh nuh
duuuuuuuh nuh
Duuuh nuh
Duuuuunuhdunuduhnuhdunuhduhnudh dunning-kruger
DUNNALLAHHH!!!
“one suggestion
make sure there is a bar”
There may not be a groom, but by something or other, there will be a bar.