RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/November 2009

November 2009
An article showing why you should ignore all pleas to "common sense" in politics. Why there isn't a Chemistry Inquisition. The UK Government reviews licensing homeopathic treatments. Ben Goldacre reviews the results and brings up the curious case of the nocebo effect. Glenn Beck -- Community Organizer. From YouTube, the Darwin Chorus, singing the Incompetent Design Hymn. Refutations of 36 arguments for God. NYT blogger Jack Hitt argues, in Orwellian fashion, that a public university's barring of a communist from speaking on campus, on account of his disagreeable political views, is "the triumph of free speech." But it is, of course, a violation of the First Amendment to deny a paroled prisoner travel across state lines to go give the speech.

The great debate. Dr. Jerry Bergman loses to Dr. P.Z. Myers through a own-goal Godwin. (Here's PZ's take on the debate) [http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.] The PDF of the act can be found here [http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/11/16/theyve-banned-christmas-sort-of/ They’ve banned Christmas! Sort of!]- Liberal Conspiracy examines lazy "Winterval" stories. A blogger examines Sarah Palin's conspiracy theory about the government moving "In God We Trust" to the edge of the coins. Obama must be behind it! When does pseudoscience stop being funny? When a government spends $85 million on dowsing rods for detecting bombs. Letting your child die of a curable illness? just claim to be a faith healer and you'll get less jail time. In the original manuscript of From Here to Eternity, Private Maggio (played by Frank Sinatra in the movie) was a part-time gay hustler. Two articles on Christians and financial responsibility from the December, 2009, issue of The Atlantic: The cover article, "Did Christianity Cause the Crash?", examines how  the prosperity gospel helped bring about the recession. Also in this issue, this article about financial guru and talk show host Dave Ramsey, who uses the pre-Reaganomics tenets of evangelical Christianity (i.e., thrift, delayed gratification, living within your means) to help his listeners achieve financial solvency. The joys of the open Internet. <vote poll=blog431 closed="yes">A fired associate editor of the New York Post -- aka, Fox News Print Edition -- alleges that the newsroom is run like a racist, sexist frat house. The D.C. bureau chief's stated objective is to "destroy Barack Obama." (Earlier this year, this editor protested the infamous cartoon of the chimpanzee -- Obama, metaphorically -- shot by cops.) <vote poll=blog430 closed="yes">The people at large respond with largely sensible opinions regarding Gordon Brown's bad handwriting. <vote poll=blog429 closed="yes">"...imagine being seated at a table with two bowls, one containing peanuts, the other the illegal drug MDMA. Which is safer to give to a stranger?" Sacked advisor to the UK Government, Professor David Nutt, responds in New Scientist. <vote poll=blog428 closed="yes">Ray Comfort shows his usual intellectual standards: plagiarising parts of his "special" introduction to the Origin of Species (2009). <vote poll=blog427 closed="yes">Animal health alert: To the growing number of swine flu cases, add one cat. <vote poll=blog426 closed="yes">Sarah Palin's -- not John McCain's -- speechwriter wrote her election night speeches. That's why McCain didn't allow her to deliver a concession speech that night. Now we can read both her victory and concession speeches and decide for ourselves if he made the right decision.

<vote poll=blog425 closed="yes">Special Clogosphere cross over: Eugenie C. Scott explains why Comfort is an idiot who does not understand evolution. Round two Scott's final word to Comfort - look, you are a PRATT.