Editorial Conundrum

I’m in a bit of an editorial quandary.  Last year I ran a pro-wind piece extolling the virtues of sustainable wind power.  I don’t claim any special expertise on the subject other than being surrounded by a sea of these devices here in the Umwelt-sensitive district of Munsterland.   That said, I am in extremely close proximity to these devices.  They’re everywhere.   My enthusiasm for the technology caught the attention of some anti-windfarm group because there’s been an attempt to inject some anti-wind propaganda into the comment thread on that piece.

I’ve never blocked or banned a comment on this blog that wasn’t outright spam.  I even let the haters and the trolls take their shots.  I am willing to risk the potential of PTSD because, as a Vietnam-era service member, I know that shell shock is a risk of battle.  It’s been that way for men as long as there have been men.  But I digress.  This is not about my particular sensitivity to criticism or inability to take as good an ad hominem homo-baiting as the best of the Tea Party ‘tards has to offer.  It’s about whether I give exposure to what I consider is a coordinated attempt at consumer misinformation and propaganda.

Part of me wants to expose the anti-wind shill/idiot(s) involved.  Another part of me is reluctant to give them any publicity at all.  It’s an editorial conundrum I’ve not encountered in the past.  I’ve reviewed the material and visited the websites of the links that were attempted to be placed in my comment section and find them to be total rubbish and some of the more transparent anti-wind FUD propaganda I’ve ever seen.

About the only crazy claim not being made by these lunatics is that the windmills are somehow dragging down the rotational speed of the the Earth.

Just to give you one example of something we’re all suppose to be deathly afraid of?  The possibility of an out-of-control fire in one of these generators!!  As if a relatively small fire once in a blue moon, on a tower a high up in the middle of a field somewhere is suppose to be more scary than global warming or nuclear accident?  Give me a break.  It’s insulting.

Even though it would be fun to deconstruct the rather transparent attempts at misdirecting the public discussion on renewable wind power generation, I am going to set it aside for now unless prodded to do otherwise by an overwhelming request from the masses.

Enjoy.

 

Shameful Non Self Promotion II

It hasn’t escaped my attention that my observations on the recently leaked video of the Atheism Plus helicopter gunship attack on Michael Shermer is as popular to my readers as it is loathed by the outlaws of Atheism Plus.

For the last couple years, I’ve documented the increasingly incestuous relationship between PZ Myer’s mix of outlaw atheism and Rebecca Watson’s Fear and Loathing brand of feminism.

Why I Don’t Matter

I’m a heteronormatively cisgendered male, giving my vast army of critics ALL the ammunition they feel is necessary to discredit me (and help keep their naked emperor from feeling the cold Minnesota draft on his aged and dangling nutsack.)

Ladies Night Out

So, enough of what I think of PZ Myers! If you haven’t figured it out by now you’re probably one of the people who gets down on their knees before bed every night praying that Sarah Palin will finally decide to run for President in 2016  (Run, Sarah, RUN!).  Let’s see what is being said (outside the echo chamber of PZ Myer’s and his baker’s dozen of hell-raising harlot apostles) by the saner female voices of skepticism:

174 Skeptic Women Speak Out

We do not find the community to be misogynist. We feel safe and welcome here.

EllenBeth Wachs

 Immediate Past President, Humanists of Florida; Founder, The Atheist Empathy Campaign

The Wooly Bumblebee

Atheist, Humanist, Activist, Writer, Wife & Mom

Renee Hendricks

Web Production Manager

Karla Porter

Human capital & new media, workforce development, HR, recruiting, digital marketing

Sara Mayhew

International award-winning mangaka, writer, illustrator, TED Fellow

With apologies to the other eleventeen hundred women of Atheism who favor fact and logic over fanaticism and pearl clutching and are not featured in this missive.

The first installment of my Shameful Non Self Promotion series.

Enjoy.

Marginalizing Misfits

The Bukkake Factory is suing her for trademark violations.

Rebecca Watson, always eager to root out every acorn in the woods concerning anything even tangentially offensive to her delicate sensibilities is (still?) clueless to the mission and goals of The Richard Dawkins Foundation! Becky must avoid looking for information on Richard Dawkins like Kirk Cameron avoids Googling “banana”. She recently stated:

“Regardless of what RDF does for science (and I’m not sure what that is, exactly, though I do know that they donate substantial amounts of money to other organizations that actually do things)”

That is gobsmackingly incurious on her part, considering the magnitude of historical events and given her obvious lust to retain “privileged focus” with the serious rationalist media. Playing(?) dumb works well with her #atheismplus cohorts because they are 99% feminist and only 1% rationalist.

Like any respectable cult leader she is in the position of having to gin up enough dog whistle code to keep her disciples smiling without looking too much like a Pentecostalist tongue-babbler to the diversified (educated) majority of rational skeptics. You need better PR control than Scientology if you want to hide the steady stream of “crazy” coming from Watson these days, and all the banning and blocking in the world ain’t gonna save her. The scam is coming unglued. It certainly isn’t working for her anymore. She is young. She lacks proper perspective. No formal math or science education. The deleterious effects of binge drinking are a real ‘mutha??? People notice….

I was always as underwhelmed by her intellect as I was suspect of her motives and veracity, but even George Bush had heard about “the Google”. Looks like Becky is now gunning for Ken Ham status in the Academy of Intentionally Ignorant Asshats. Maybe she got pointers from PZ Myers? He took a trip down to see Ken Ham and rode his plastic dinosaurs awhile back. Maybe she was there with him riding something too? I dunno. I stay home and Google.

I’ll spare Becky the heavy journalistic work since I know how painful a hangover can be.

Richard Dawkins Foundation

Our mission is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and human suffering.

http://www.richarddawkins.net/events

Richard Dawkins has a voluminous selection of past presentations that are easily available on YouTube, You can see him speak in person at various upcoming atheist and science events. He is scheduled to,speak at a conference involving medical advances made through the use of evolutionary applications. He’s written a ton of best selling books debunking religion and supporting scientific methodology in support of his work in evolutionary biology, but then books and beer don’t mix so I guess Becky hasn’t read them.

There’s more backstabbing of RDF in her online screed against Dawkins, even as PZ Myers himself called for reason. She wasn’t having any of that tainted old white guy perspective privilege. It was heartwarming to see the King and Queen squabble so openly in public! My regards to PZ for the thinning of his harem, and in his honor:

I nominate “Nailing a cracker” as a synonym for “CONSENSUAL sex with a Skepchick” in the Idioms of New Atheism handbook.

I get my inspiration from the great men of science and skepticism that Rebecca Watson hates on. Where does she get her inspiration?

Enjoy.

Panic in the Trenches

The pearl clutching panic among the FTB Girlyban conspirators is still going full bore.  Not since that billionaire dick (Koch) was caught giving a fiscal reach-around to those global warming deniers, have so many loud-mouthed public blowhards been so afraid of having their insider conspiracy exposed.  The degree of anticipatory fear shown by the  #FTBullies  (that Thunderf00t might actually do the kind of document dumping that makes me proud of Bradley Manning), has me wondering if Thunderf00t is actually sitting on equally explosive information.  It is just as likely that they are freaking out because they are afraid Thunderf00t will release their secret “brownie” recipes.  It would be imprudent not to speculate.

Not enough resolution to determine if jewelry passes the Surly Amy standards of acceptable public display.

For all their over-the-top brouhaha, the FTBullies are fun to watch and mock.  It isn’t everyday that you can witness intellectual or cultural evolution of this magnitude in real time!!  We were all getting totally “mocked out” on creationists and religious apologists anyway.  Even the sight of PZ dry humping Ken Ham’s fiberglass Dino-donky was starting to fade in allure.  And then there was this:

The Bukkake Factory is considering suing her for trademark violations.

You know what I’m telling you is true because back in the old days (before BigPappa fell under the spell of the red-headed hippie chick above), we used to have real cohesive internet social gatherings.

Holy Christ on a Cracker!,how I long for the good old days when a certified sacrament of questionable moral acquisition could be openly desecrated by BigPappa to the delight of all skeptics.

I blame the presence of so many jack-booted Girlyban enforcers, heavily armed with their intimidating “douche detectors”  for harshing the mellow of the entire movement.  There isn’t enough Preparation H available on the entire planet to stem the massive output of “butthurt” being spewed by the hyper-vigilant  SHE ORG division of Girlybantology Inc.

I would be too busy spending money to blog if I had the presence of mind to go bullish on hemorrhoid cushions early last year.

In my wildest dreams, I never imagined having a front row seat to a New Century religious movement that blended (tiny) bits of rationalism, Scientology, secrecy, radical feminism, Fox TV “debating” techniques, Muslim fanaticism and hero worship; all in one fell swoop!  Given the breakaway faction’s science geek provenance, it isn’t specially shocking to see them borrowing freely from their more successful peers on the lunatic fringes.  I guess we should count our blessings that they haven’t yet tried to enforce a Klingon-Only language policy at Skepticon or TAM.  That could be a bit much to bear, as the guys are still getting used to the mandatory guyliner applications and hair braiding sessions.

I honestly do regret having to see many great men of skepticism and science slandered (Dawkins, TF, Krauss, Grothe, Hitchens, ElevatorGuy…) while simultaneously witnessing former giants of our movement toilet-hugging drunk on their power (PZ, Dillahunty).

Enjoy.

Mounting Casualities

Looks like Thunderf00t and Greg Laden have been run off Free Thought Blogs.:

We are parting company with two of our bloggers: Thunderf00t and Greg Laden. We wish them both the best but, unfortunately, their behavior towards other members of the community has made it impossible to keep them as part of our network. This is not a matter of a disagreement or difference of opinion, but of behavior that we cannot condone or support.

Didn’t take Thunderf00t long to get accused of bad behavior.  About a week if I recall.   There must be something we didn’t see, because the only “behavior” I ever saw him display was rational examination of what are the most irrational claims being thrown at atheists and skeptics since the quieting of the flat Earth contingent.

Congratulations to the the American Girlyban!!  Your list of scalps continues to grow even as the level of attention (and mockery) you bring to yourselves and skeptics in general hits new levels of vapidity.  I am not sure what Greg Laden is accused of.  I had already quit reading FTB and only returned when Thunderf00t joined.  I need to go back and examine what dastardly deed caused Mr. Laden’s eviction.  I suspect it was rational thinking based on Thunderf00t, but maybe the Gasbagging Girlyban are fingering him as “creepy elevator guy”?  I always assumed it was PZ Myers, but whocouldanode?

I left the following comment on this blog in response to the news that yet another (male) blogger is throwing in the towel from the continual bashing he is getting from the Gasbaggers.  Best Wishes to CoffeeLovingSkeptic.

I try to steer away from the more vulgar assessments of Baby Becca, even if I agree that what she is doing IS downright vulgar.  I never met her (or any of you) except on the blogs.  I attend ALL the major conferences though (on Youtube…lol).

She will not be shamed (or reasoned) into admitting her inter-group terrorism is unnecessary and obnoxious, no matter what approach one uses.  I came out-of-the-gate (Attack of the American Girlyban) with a mix of humor, mocking satire, and sarcasm hoping to induce a bit of shame.  At the end of the day, nobody who worries about security at heavily attended events held in classy hotels (often casinos with uber security btw) should be taken seriously.  Such concerns are CLEARLY irrational.

Many skeptics of higher regard than myself weighed in on the initial creepy elevator guy incident, the most noted being Richard Dawkins, who not coincidentally said exactly the right thing in about the right tone of voice.  Dawkins is certainly not considered a firebrand by anyone except the crazy religious crowd.  When his viewpoint was met with such hostility, it prompted me to engage.  Not only because I am a HUGE Richard Dawkins fan, but also because his viewpoint and mine were in accord.

It was almost a year ago today that I penned the original American Girlyban column.  I won’t link whore.  Google finds me quick enough for those who desire, and unlike CoffeeLovingSkeptic, I won’t be cowed into submission or silence by a bunch of spoiled, yuppie post teenagers with bad attitudes.  Nothing short of a massive “cloud” failure is slowing down my output.  I do Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Yelp.  I have been blogging since before Blogger was Blogger (Pyra Labs).  My Yahoo email account was established in 1998, and it wasn’t my first.  So bring it on.

FWIW, I am not “doing” Freethoughtblogs anymore.  Thunderf00t was the last straw for me, though with the introduction of the all the earlier banning and blocking, it was already coming to resemble a bad replica of nearly any Creationist or ID website.  They can all sit around over at Freethoughtblogs curling each other’s hair and painting each other’s toenails while PZ Myers does tantalizing things to them with octopus tentacles.  I don’t care.

I have taken to cross-posting my longer comments to my blog before submitting, since these days, one never knows if their comments will meet with the approval of the host.  I don’t mind being shunned, but I won’t be shouted down.  There weren’t any WMD’s in Iraq, and there is nothing dangerous for women attending conferences of skeptics that requires the level of bullshit, whining and focus that the American Girlyban have proffered.

Enjoy.