All entries by this author

Brown v Churchill *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Is the issue free speech or academic standards?… Read the rest



A Genocide That Wasn’t? *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Thomas Brown says Ward Churchill invented a story of intentional smallpox infection.… Read the rest



Statement of Prof. Yakin Ertürk After Visit to Iran *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Discriminatory laws perpetuate violence against women. … Read the rest



Noah Feldman Reviews Books on Political Islam *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Concern about unintended consequences of civilizational encounters.… Read the rest



Salman Rushdie on the Danger of Taboo-thought *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

The moment you say any idea system is sacred, freedom of thought becomes impossible. … Read the rest



The Star-nosed Mole and ‘Intelligent Design’ *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Evolutionary biologists have offered hypotheses for how complex things evolve in nature. … Read the rest



Taboo Mentality at Odds With Free Inquiry *

Feb 9th, 2005 | Filed by

How much we want to believe a proposition is not a reliable guide as to whether it is true.… Read the rest



Behe Jumps the Shark

Feb 9th, 2005 | By P Z Myers

Nick Matzke has also commented on this, but the op-ed is so bad I can’t resist piling on. From the very first sentence, Michael Behe’s op-ed in today’s NY Times is an exercise in unwarranted hubris.

In the wake of the recent lawsuits over the teaching of Darwinian evolution, there has been a rush to debate the merits of the rival theory of intelligent design.

And it’s all downhill from there.

Intelligent Design creationism is not a “rival theory.” It is an ad hoc pile of mush, and once again we catch a creationist using the term “theory” as if it means “wild-ass guess.” I think a theory is an idea that integrates and explains a large body of observation, … Read the rest



PZ Myers Gently Takes Issue With Michael Behe *

Feb 8th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Behe doesn’t get to just wave his hands and have all the evidence for evolutionary biology magically disappear’… Read the rest



Should Biology be Taught via the Bible? *

Feb 8th, 2005 | Filed by

No. Why bother debating?… Read the rest



‘Didn’t God do That?’ *

Feb 8th, 2005 | Filed by

In Kansas, the state-approved answer might soon be Yes. … Read the rest



How Do I Look in This Beret?

Feb 7th, 2005 11:21 pm | By

Norman Levitt has some very pointed things to say about Harvard.

Harvard University, the oldest in the USA and the wealthiest in the world, thinks very well of itself…It is an open secret that [Summers] was handed the helm at Harvard out of a growing sense that the place had grown stale, complacent, and narcissistic. Too many Harvard professors had settled into the habit of assuming that any old doctrine, opinion, or casual observation they chanced to utter was, ipso facto, profound and epochal merely because it issued from the great faux-Georgian citadel on the Charles. In truth, the place had grown somewhat dowdy, intellectually speaking, and, even worse, had proved itself susceptible to the vagaries of academic fashion…In some

Read the rest


Dennis Banks on ‘Academic and Indian Fraud’ *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Ward Churchill has been masquerading as an Indian for years behind his
dark glasses and beaded headband.’… Read the rest



No Evidence That Ward Churchill Is Indian *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

‘The image of an angry Indian’ – as seen at your local multiplex.… Read the rest



Michael Behe Argues from Personal Incredulity *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Lacking ‘convincing’ non-design explanation, justified to think intelligent design was involved in life.… Read the rest



Freeman Dyson on Seeing the Unseen *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Two very different ways of thinking about science: via tools or concepts.… Read the rest



Norman Levitt on Revealed Truth at Harvard *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Barbarity of refusing to examine a theory because it contradicts favourite pieties.… Read the rest



Colin McCabe on Francis Wheen *

Feb 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Saying ‘pull up your socks, Baudrillard minor’ is not quite enough.… Read the rest



Churchillian

Feb 6th, 2005 10:05 pm | By

This Ward Churchill guy is quite funny. I shouldn’t say that, I suppose, but he is. He’s so…obvious. The hair, the shades, the jaw, the flocks of doting students. You can tell he thinks he’s Nick Nolte crossed with Russell Means with just a dash of Springsteen. Yeah dude you’re just like totally cool man.

Ward L. Churchill has been angry for years, shaking a clenched fist at American power from the streets of Denver and the lecterns of academia.

Where it’s both safe and profitable to do so, one can’t help noting.

Born near Peoria, Ill., Churchill has a master’s degree in communications and is a U.S. Army veteran.

He’s also a full professor. Usually people need … Read the rest



Why Did Churchill Get Hired in the First Place? *

Feb 6th, 2005 | Filed by

How did he get hired, tenured and named the head of a department?… Read the rest