My Dream Desk?

HT: Tom King. His sharp eyes also spotted the one thing that would not appear on Jeff's desk. Can you see it? Hint: product from a company hq'd at One Infinite Loop.

Most Hated Toy in Burtonia: Gone!

At the height of the Chinese Great Leap Forward, even small towns and villages had steel quotas. Since it was impossible for them to comply with the insane demands of the communist planners, the hapless peasants would melt down their agriculture implements and submit the resulting "product." Another example of how socialism is most adept at subtracting value from industrial inputs.

Until yesterday, we had just such an endeavour in our home, thanks to the Crayola Crayon Maker. It made crayons in the same way the Chinese peasants made steel in the 1950's. You take a perfectly good existing crayons, heat them to about 200 degrees, and pour the burning hot liquid into a mold. The end result is crayon slag that comes in colors like "dark mucous" or "abyssal mud." Below is a picture of a couple of these excreta.




The whole idea is so preposterous that one might expect to find it on the store shelf next to the Lil' Woodsman Junior Chainsaw or Baby's First Soldering Iron. For me it sums up everything wrong with America: cheap plastic landfill fodder, pointless and wasteful "activities," and indulgence of children. But since my boys absolutely love everything that has to do with wanton destruction, it was one of their favorite toys. So how did this state of affairs come about?



Mom was up late scraping crayon wax off the floor. Now to figure out what is the second-most hated toy in Burtonia.

I've Been Expelled

I granted Scott Nehring an exclusive on my "Expelled" review. You can find it here. Short take: disappointment.

Many are hyping this film as a skirmish in the culture wars and are therefore tracking theatre attendance closely. For what it's worth, the 7:20pm showing in Oakdale, MN was nearly sold out last night.

March of the Scientismists

Have a moral or ethical problem with a particular line of scientific inquiry? Just get out of the way. That according to the "Hinxton Consortium", an international group of medical researchers and ethicists. Here is what they say?

Societies have the authority to regulate science, and scientists have a responsibility to obey the law. However, policy-makers should refrain from interfering with scientific inquiry unless there is a substantial justification for doing so that reaches beyond disagreements based solely on divergent moral convictions.

Anyone see any problems with that?

Darwin and Hitler

The Expelled movie has roused evolutionists to fury because it links Darwinism with Nazism. Put this down as another reservation I have about this film. Not that there wasn't a link. It's really funny to watch the materialists tie themselves into knots trying to deny and explain away the obvious. I was just at the National Holocaust Museum's traveling exhibit titled "Nazi Medicine." One of the first pictures you see when you enter is a big picture of Darwin. One of the last things you read as you leave is about Dr. Mengele's later writings while in Brazilian exile. They concerned Darwinism. It's not a great leap to connect the stuff in between with Darwinism.

That said, I question the strategy here. No Darwinist today advocates genocide (euthanasia is a trickier question). More importantly neither of the following are true:

* Without Darwinism, the Holocaust would not have happened.
* Given Darwinism, the Holocaust was inevitable.

So what's the point? It's a variety of the genetic fallacy (the cousin of your theory undergirded Nazism!). Again, I wish a high profile vehicle for education and communication like this one would stick to more straightforward arguments in favor of design in science.

Reservations for Expelled

The title's a cheap pun. I fully intend to be at a theatre on opening and it won't be for Harold and Kumar, as much as those two lovable mugs warm my heart, lift my spirits, and tickle my funny bone.* But from what little I know of "Expelled", I'm a little uneasy. I understand that at least some of the film will take up the issue of academic censorship of Intelligent Design.

I believe that whining about persecution is a weak kind of persuasion. I hope the film concentrates on the science and avoids trying to gin up sympathy. This argument will be won on its merits, and appeals to "fairness" are going to play right into the Scientismists** hands.

Whatever the content, this movie is an utterly polarizing Rorschach test. The reactions I've read have been either "Sleazy but ameteurish propaganda" or "Even better than The King of Kong". My promise to you: my review will be honest, even brutally honest. Because brutality and honesty are two great tastes that taste great together.

* Cheap sarcasm.
** Cheap neologism.

Red in Tooth and Claw

This is the funniest thing I'll read all day: the world famous polar bear Knut has committed grave icthi-cide. He has wantonly murdered ten carp in full view of his sensitive admirers at the Berlin Zoo. Schrecklich! "There is speculation that hand-reared Knut killed the carp just for fun."