Well we’ve had some new entries and suggestions. I think the best so far is the entry from John Lynch of Stranger Fruit (inspired by Glenn Branch inspired by Carrie Sager).
More below the fold!
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Denialism Blog
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LOL Creationists II
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LOL Creationists
Since today is apparently LOL day (my favorite being LOLpresident) I decided we should create a new category.
Here’s my first three for LOL Creationists!
Send me more, I’ll put up the best ones. -
Denialists' Deck of Cards: The Jack of Clubs, "You're A Ninny"
It’s time to go on the offensive. Call your opponent a ninny! One of the best examples of this comes from–you guessed it–our friend Jack Abramoff. One of Jack Abramoff’s teammembers, Dennis Stephens, once proposed to attack Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert because Ruskin’s group was criticizing “Channel One:”
From: Dennis Stephens
To: Chad Cowan
Cc: Abramoff, Jack“Have you guys ever looked into Gary Ruskin, a Nader protege who runs Commercial Alert (which is attacking Channel One, our client)…The guy is a weasel…Someone should consider doing an in depth piece on Ruskin and his Nader front groups. We should have lunch and review the options.”
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Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Spades, "Self-Regulation"
At this point, the denialist must propose “self regulation” to deal with the problem that doesn’t exist. Self-regulation is a set of rules that an industry generates to govern itself. The cool thing about self regulation is that it cannot be enforced, and once the non-existent problem blows over, the denialist can simply scrap the rules! For instance, in the runup to passage of bank privacy legislation in the late 1990s, data brokers created an organization called the “Individual Reference Services Group” that proposed rules for selling personal information. After the legislation passed, IRSG promptly disappeared. And it was those weak, unenforceable IRSG rules that made it possible for identity thieves to subscribe to data services and buy more personal information (even the FTC spotted that risk).
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61st Skeptics Circle
The 61st Skeptic’s circle is at Skepchick’s.
It’s a special towel day version. In particular I like Orac’s coverage of anti-peer review attitude among cranks.
Like I say, beware the bashers of peer review.
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Denialists' Deck Applied: Lobbying Reform
The Newhour had a debate tonight full of denialism provided by Paul Miller, former head of the American League of Lobbyists. It’s an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how the lobbying tactics outlined in the Denialists’ Deck of Cards can be employed to fight a proposal without really dealing with the merits of it.
The issue: lobbying reform in Washington that will ban certain gifts by lobbyists to Members, and will provide greater transparency on money provided by lobbyists. The legislation isn’t perfect, but check out the tactics used by Miller to kill the proposal:
PAUL MILLER, Miller-Wenhold Capitol Strategies: This bill should have never come to the floor. This bill should have never been written, for one thing. Congress overreacted and has had a knee-jerk reaction to one individual (Jack Abramoff), and that happened two years ago. This system is not broken.
Wow, this guy doesn’t mess around! In a single statement, he fit in two versions of “No Problem” and “Bad Apples.”
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ALF Qaeda
Both Nature and the LA Times this week have articles cautioning against labeling animal-rights extremists “terrorists” in the US. The justification that they’re using is that the groups in question, ELF and ALF, are not terrorists because so far they’ve only destroyed property, and haven’t managed to kill anyone yet. Terrorism, in their view, should be limited to instances in which people are actually killed or in which the government is attacked.
I completely disagree.
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Yabba Dabba Science
Given that the NYT piece on the Creation Museum was such fluff, I was gratified to read the LA Times’ more rigid take.
HE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum’s animatronic balderdash — dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! — we’d like to clear up a few things: “The Flintstones” is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners? All make-believe.
Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here’s another: The Earth is round.
The museum, a 60,000-square-foot menace to 21st century scientific advancement, is the handiwork of Answers in Genesis, a leader in the “young Earth” movement. Young Earthers believe the world is about 6,000 years old, as opposed to the 4.5 billion years estimated by the world’s credible scientific community. This would be risible if anti-evolution forces were confined to a lunatic fringe, but they are not. Witness the recent revelation that three of the Republican candidates for president do not believe in evolution. Three men seeking to lead the last superpower on Earth reject the scientific consensus on cosmology, thermonuclear dynamics, geology and biology, believing instead that Bamm-Bamm and Dino played together.
Good for the LA Times. And I can’t believe no one else coined “Yabba Dabba Science” yet. Did I miss it? It’s genius.
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Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Diamonds, "Bureaucrats!"
Okay, everyone, practice your sneer, because it’s time for the 10 of Diamonds: Bureaucrats! Everyone hates “bureaucrats,” whether they ever met one or not. So, the industry denialist often plays the bureaucrat card in order to denigrate proposals that would vest decisionmaking with those fat cats in Washington (Cato has over 3,000 hits for “bureaucrats”). -
Pat Michaels Bashes Gore for Cato
How dare Al Gore open his mouth and say things! Here comes the Cato Institute to the rescue, featuring denialist Pat Michaels (Also see Sourcewatch).
What were Gore’s great gaffes worthy of scorn from the esteemed think tank?