Think about it…

That time you spent clipping your toenails last week?

I don't clip my toenails, I bite em off.

Art: TT has amongst themselves a contributor who sympathizes with those who would torch my lab at the drop of a hat. I've commented on this on occasion, and the group of blogmeisters have taken considerable umbrage at my temerity.

Joy: LOL right back at you, Art. Did you learn this trick from Dick Cheney? I won't eat or grow genetically modified garbage disguised as food, so I must be a Terrorist Sympathizer. Oooohhh, scary!

Joy, do you actually have a point about Cheney, or is this a trick you learned from Lenin and/or Stalin? Cheney won't support the forced socialization of American society, so he must be an evil Evil Sympathizer. Oooohhh, irrational!

I do not nevertheless define my cyber-existence as some type of Pro-Science Advocate or argue under the "Defender of Science" flag. For example, according to the PT self-description, "The patrons gather to"¦.defend the integrity of both science and science education." No such self-description exists here. In other words, I do not wear the "pro-science" label on my sleeves for rhetorical/political purposes. It is not some rallying cry. Is that distinction too subtle for you?

The fact that the PTers see themselves as the self-appointed defenders of science speaks volumes in itself. Who asked them to take on this role anyway? For that matter, which view of science do they think needs to be defended and why? (that's rhetorical…we already know the answer). It requires a tremendous amount of intellectual arrogance to proclaim oneself the "defender of scientific truth". Or to proclaim that anyone who disagrees with your view is somehow "anti" science. Yet that is what we see all the time with the PT crowd. Call it what is: intellectual arrogance of the worst kind. It does nothing to advance science or knowledge, but does a lot to make them all feel good about themselves. Whoopity doo!!

TT has amongst themselves a contributor who sympathizes with those who would torch my lab at the drop of a hat. I've commented on this on occasion, and the group of blogmeisters have taken considerable umbrage at my temerity.

LOL right back at you, Art. Did you learn this trick from Dick Cheney? I won't eat or grow genetically modified garbage disguised as food, so I must be a Terrorist Sympathizer. Oooohhh, scary!

If your 'lab' gets torched it won't be this little old lady doing the dirty deed. If it makes you feel safe to attack me instead of real lab-torchers, great. It doesn't do much to enhance your macho image, though. In the meantime, keep your not-clever pharma-industrial transgenes off my land and out of my food.

"Feel free to "remind" me, ever so gently, from time to time."

Why would you need to be reminded? Aren't these people who would torch your lab at the drop of a hat?

Richard Dawkins is a very public figure who defines science for many people in the street. As the Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, the author of many popular books, and the producer of an anti-religious television show, why does it bother you when people legitimately criticize Dawkins? After you, we can't rely on you to raise the legitimate criticisms, now can we? So where are they supposed to come from?

Art is again confused.

LOL:

Art, we are not the ones who posture as "pro-science" or "defenders of science."

From the same comment:

… it is my sincere opinion that Dawkins is doing great harm to the public perception of science, as he masquerades his anti-religious agenda with "pro-science" terminology.

Someone here is confused, alrighty.

Aside to Guts - catch a wave, dude. Yer wound up way too tight.

Aside to Krauze - obviously, moonlighting as a off-hours security guard is going to make some demands on my time. But hopefully I can use the grace period to dig up some things that I never bothered to file. Feel free to "remind" me, ever so gently, from time to time.

The obligatory vague allusion - this entire episode brings to mind the Cadets' 2005 show. I feel like I'm peering into that door, fer sure.