Krauze referred to John Wilkins' blog about the Mirecki story and PZ Myers praises it as an objective account.

Wilkins begins his blog by outlining the series of events, beginning with Paul Mirecki deciding to teach Intelligent Design as mythology. We at Telic Thoughts had supported Dr. Mirecki's right to teach this class when we heard about it . But apart from some lip-service, Wilkins fails to address the contents of Mirecki's e-mail, as it raised several red flags. In fact, Wilkins' entire blog has very little bad to say about Mirecki's e-mail. He describes it as "obnoxious," but its not hard to imagine that many atheists would proudly be obnoxious when dealing with those "stupid bastards" (as Wilkins calls them). So it's not clear if this is really a criticism. Other than this, Wilkins only laments that the e-mail was "ill-advised" and "bad manners."

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The blogosphere is buzzing over the reported assault on Kansas University's Paul Mirecki, who caught headlines for his e-mail about slapping fundamentalists in their fat faces. Mike has already mentioned that the biggies are weighing in, but many other bloggers are also commenting on this.

Foyle from Verum Serum has been covering this from the beginning, and has a couple of posts about it.

Considering the potential PR value, the intelligent design critics at The Panda's Thumb have been remarkably silent on the issue.

David Heddle quotes some "R-rated" comments from Pharyngula, who's crediting the assault to "ignorant thugs with a bible".

In Thoughts from Kansas, Josh Rosenau quotes one of his commenters, a semi-professional boxer, who believes that Mirecki's injuries "are consistent with a serious assault, not simply asking a friend to punch you a few times."

Steve Jones does what he's best at: Finding lots of news articles, and commenting on each one.

John Wilkins writes, on Evolving Thoughts: "Mirecki's email was obnoxious, but in no way unjustified or immoral or contrary to decent ethical standards. Religious people make much worse comments about "godless atheists" every day, and in America, they (and he) have that right constitutionally."

And of course, there are many other blogs simply linking to the story together with a brief comment.

The Daily Kos, one of the most popular blogs on the internet, has been trumpeting Thugs beat up evolution supporter - We're fighting back. Unfortunately, the Kos is a fountain of misinformation.

The Kos starts out as follows:

As you've probably seen on the top of the recommended diary list, today a pair of 'Christians' stalked and attacked Professor Paul Mirecki, the Chair of Kansas University's Department of Religious Studies. He currently sits in hospital recovering from his savage beating. [UPDATE: He's since been released from hospital and is doing fine]

The Kos also tells us:

but I'm incensed, outraged, ready to spit that so called 'religious' individuals think it's okay to spend days stalking a university professor (or religious studies, no less!), and then attack him in the early hours of the morning, leaving him within in inch of his life.

Here is a description of the "savage beating," where Dr. Mirecki is beat "within in inch of his life." As you can see, the Kos is peddling misinformation. The Kos backpeddles some, writing "This diary was written when news on the attack was sketchy at best - turns out the Prof isn't in as bad shape as I made out above." However, if you follow Kos' links, the sketchy information was the LWJ article we've all seen, where Mirecki says, "I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots."

The Kos transformed "I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots" into a savage beating that had Mirecki clinging on to life.

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Let me share with you how I've experienced the events surrounding the alleged assault on Professor Paul Mirecki. I first heard about it when "Myrmecos" posted a link to a news story on the ARN Board, and my immediate reaction was, "Why did they have to do something so stupid? If you want people to take your position seriously, this is the very thing to not do."

But later, I started to get the feeling that we weren't getting the full story. First, PZ Meyers at The Panda's Thumb wrote a post, pointing the finger at "ignorant thugs with a bible". Later, he updated it, saing that he'd received an e-mail with "other details" on the attack, and that he wasn't going to say any more until he'd received "confirmation one way or the other". And finally, he deleted the post altogether and replaced it with this, refraining from taking a stand, and stressing the fact that all they had to go on was "a few second-hand reports".

Now, I don't have a firm belief either way. Mirecki's story could still turn out to be 100% correct, and we can all go back to denouncing the vile behavior of his attackers. But, as Mike has just pointed out, we only have one fact. There's a lot of unanswered questions about this case, and the one that's on my mind is this: What was in the e-mail PZ Myers received?

Update: Thanks to David Heddle, I've discovered that the post is still available at Myers' own blog, Pharyngula.

In light of all the outrage that has been sparked by Mirecki's story, it is important to remember that there is really only one known fact about this story - very early Monday morning, Dr. Mirecki checked in at a hospital with some minor injuries and was released.

The sheriff's report, which is classified as an aggravated battery, says that Mirecki suffered minor injuries. It says the incident started about 6:20 a.m. and was reported about 6:40 a.m. Here

"I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots," he said. Here

KU religious studies professor Tim Miller said he saw Mirecki on Monday and that he looked "scraped up." Here

Meanwhile, Mirecki appears to be doing well after his hospitalization Monday morning. According to KU spokesperson Lynn Bretz, he even taught his class later that day. Here

Also, there were mistakes in the original reporting:

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office initially labeled the attack on Professor Paul Mirecki a hate crime. But the office removed the title today, calling the labeling a mistake. Lt. Kari Wempe said that the error occurred Monday morning when the attack was reported. Officers wrongly transmitted the information over the police radio, she said. It is not classified as an aggravated battery.

That's all we really know, people.

The Mirecki incident has made a lot of people very angry. Here's a sampling from the blogosphere:

Thugs beat up evolution supporter
And Another Witchhunt Begins
Beating Free Speech in Kansas
More about religious extremism
Professor beaten; attackers cite KU creationism class
Blackmail in the name of God
Nothing like a little blackmail to spread the love of God
Fundamentalists Will Be Fundamentalists
Theocratic Christians Continue To Spread Their Message Of Brotherly Love
Intelligent Design Goons Pummel Professor
Christians. You Gotta Love Them…

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The Lawrence-Journal World has an update: Mirecki mum on details of beating.

Professor Mirecki, whose "slap in the face" course on intelligent design was recently withdrawn, alleges that he was assaulted by two unknown men. In an interview for 6 News, Andrew Stangl, the President of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, claimed that the assailants were creationists who were angry with Mirecki's comments. Like the writers on The Panda's Thumb, we'd like to have more than "a few second-hand reports", so we won't take a position on whether this is correct or not.

However, if Professor Mirecki was attacked over his remarks about intelligent design, then that's something that should be renounced by every civilized person. Disagreements over an issue like this should be resolved through discussion and arguments, never violence. We wish the police all the best, and hope that the case will soon be solved.

Via Darwinian Fundamentalism, I've heard that Professor Mirecki of the University of Kansas has canceled his course on intelligent design as mythology. After Professor Mirecki wrote an e-mail to a public list-serv, in which he referred to conservative Christians as "fundies" and announced that the course was intended as "a nice slap in their big, fat face", he was eventually forced to issue an apology and remove the word "mythology" from the course title.

But Professor Mirecki's situation only grew worse when more of his e-mails from the list-serv were brought to light. In one, he told of how he, following his first communion, had swallowed his own wommit, which he considered "a big part of the Catholic experience." He continued: "I don't think most Catholics really know what they are supposed to believe, they just go home and use condoms and some of them beat their wives and husbands."

To be honest, I'm a little dissapointed that the course will no longer be taught. After the change of course title, there was talk about putting the actual lectures on the internet, and I was looking forward to covering it. As I predicted in my first post about this, "the students at the University of Kansas are in for a spectacular display of an academic mind slamming shut at the mention of intelligent design", and the latest e-mail has only strengthened my suspicion. Goodbye to the greatest anti-ID course you never saw.

Update December 4th: Sahotra Sarkar is outraged at the evil University of Kansas for cancelling poor Professor Mirecki's class. Sorry Sarkar, but it was Mirecki himself who withdrew the class.

In the proud tradition of politicians and business leaders, Professor Paul Mirecki has issued an apology for his public e-mail, in which he referred to his upcoming intelligent design course as "a nice slap in [the] big, fat face" of "fundies". I don't have time to offer much in the way of commentary, but if you look below the fold, you'll find the text of his apology, as well as the full text of the original e-mail that got him in trouble. Among related news, the University of Kansas will be releasing the course description, reading list and syllabus, and is considering putting the course lectures out on the internet.

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