T1B

I read it over the week in Maryland. It's an overview of the 2005 Dover (PA) "intelligent design" trial (where some inbred Christers were hell-bent on putting "God/Christ back in schools"). Starts of slow, but the author lays out the history and agenda of the cryptocreationist ("intelligent design") movement carefully before moving to the specific incidents in Dover prior to the trial. The creationist school board members were freaking wing nuts, specifically asking folks if they were "saved" at meetings, going on and on about how to put Jesus back into the public classroom, etc.

The description of the trial itself is hysterical, with the school board members and "expert witness" Michael Behe coming off like the intellectually dishonest freaks they are. Behe was forced to admit on the stand that the definition of science that he and other ID proponents were shooting for would include astrology as legit science. What a freaking hack. And the author did a good job of describing a key point of the trial - the unmasking of the classic ID "textbook" Of Pandas and People as a creationist text that the editors did a "Find/Replace" to switch "creation" with "design" was nicely described.

One of the ironies of the case was how the allegedly devout Christian school board members were willing to frigging lie on the stand so stupidly to cover their asses. They got caught in their own lies time and again to the point where even the judge -who was a conservative Bush appointee- was stunned at their stupidity and duplicity.

Intelligent design is a process by which the most perfect possible oxymoron is established.

One of the truly enjoyable parts of the book highlighted quotes from Ann Coulter, who was shown as the ranting imbecile by supporting ID/creationism hardcore in her book "Godless."

She managed to display her irrefutable ignorance of basic science and biology for the world to see, getting every point she made on the subject of evolution completely wrong. Hell, she even misunderstood the points that she was ostensibly trying to support. The fact that she she got it all wrong while using that pompous, holier-than-thou tone of hers made it even funnier.

I don't give a rat's ass what her grades were at Cornell and UM...the fact is that Coulter is a complete fucking moron on the level of dirt-eating inbreds when it comes to science.

mvscal wrote:

Mike the Lab Rat wrote:I don't give a rat's ass what her grades were at Cornell and UM...the fact is that Coulter is a complete fucking moron on the level of dirt-eating inbreds when it comes to science.

...and history.

....and nutrition.

she did (somehow) steal the title "horse-faced skeleton" from Celine Dion.

the thing with Coulter is she can't be correct, the ideological task she's appointed with is not one about intelligence but cultivating and exploiting inbred (pun alert) knee jerk scapegoat "opinions" to people who hate fancy book learnin' from the git-go. people who think this is a simple world in which to live....and you already already know what's what. "common sense". common sense is the masterpiece of ideology, as they say.