Monday, September 18, 2006
Scalded Dogs
Red State Rabble sent the following e-mail to Krauze at the Tellic Thoughts blog:
Dear Krauze,
Although I don’t really know who I’m addressing – the identity of the person hiding behind your pseudonym – I wanted to write anyway to tell you how charmed I was by the sublime irony of your Telic Thoughts post, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
Your post was written in response to a piece I posted on my own Red State Rabble blog commenting on the intellectual dishonesty of Richard Weikart, a historian who falsely asserts that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution "played a key role in the rise of eugenics, euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis."
What caught your attention, you write, was my observation that the Discovery Institute “howled” in dismay when the Smithsonian publicly disassociated itself from a screening the ID film “The Privileged Planet.”
“Funny,” you go on to say, “I was blogging the event at the time, and I don't recall any howling from our Seattly-based (sic) friends at the Discovery Institute.”
Memory often plays tricks on us. Quite often we remember things the way we wanted them to be, rather than the way they were.
Perhaps it would have been wiser, in writing a piece provocatively titled, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” to have first spent a moment searching Discovery’s Evolution News and Views blog, before rushing to publication a post based only on a search of your own memory.
May I suggest in a friendly way that Google (available on the Internet) might have been a useful search tool for this purpose?
Had you done this, you might have found these examples –from but a few of the many we might have chosen -- on Discovery’s Evolution News and Views:
“It will be interesting to see how the story [the film’s screening, RSR] is covered given the hysterical tone in evidence on certain ultra-Darwinian blogs in recent days.”
“Would it be unfair to suggest that perhaps the Smithsonian caved in to organized pressure from Darwinists who cannot imagine any ideas coming from the Discovery Institute… “
“… the event comes burdened with this peculiar statement of disassociation that critics are sure to use against us. It would seem a wholly bizarre turnabout if we had not heard about the way the Darwinian lobby attacked the Museum in recent days and agitated the staff members there.”
“Here we have the spectacle of dozens, maybe hundreds, of fulminating “scientists” and Darwinist groupies who have protested the showing of a film none of them has seen.”
Or this from Agape Press:
"The reality is that attempts at censorship and suppressing ideas that people are interested in -- it never works in the long run," the Discovery Institute [Jay Richards, RSR] spokesman notes.
Or this from Denyse O’Leary:
“ I call the outraged Darwinists “Darwinbots” because I’ll bet that most of them have never seen The Privileged Planet or considered grappling with the questions it raises about design and purpose in the universe.”
You might even have found this by someone named Krauze:
“ …after experiencing a barrage of letters from ID critics and an attempt from James Randi to make them look like prostitutes, the Smithsonian has suddenly discovered that "the content of the film is not consistent with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution's scientific research.”
I don’t know how you would characterize these statements, but here in Kansas, we’d say you’re howling like a scalded dog.
Please feel free to use this in any way you’d like, including posting it to the comments of your post. I’ll be posting it myself on Red State Rabble.
Regards,
Pat Hayes
Note: bold = emphasis added.
Dear Krauze,
Although I don’t really know who I’m addressing – the identity of the person hiding behind your pseudonym – I wanted to write anyway to tell you how charmed I was by the sublime irony of your Telic Thoughts post, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
Your post was written in response to a piece I posted on my own Red State Rabble blog commenting on the intellectual dishonesty of Richard Weikart, a historian who falsely asserts that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution "played a key role in the rise of eugenics, euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis."
What caught your attention, you write, was my observation that the Discovery Institute “howled” in dismay when the Smithsonian publicly disassociated itself from a screening the ID film “The Privileged Planet.”
“Funny,” you go on to say, “I was blogging the event at the time, and I don't recall any howling from our Seattly-based (sic) friends at the Discovery Institute.”
Memory often plays tricks on us. Quite often we remember things the way we wanted them to be, rather than the way they were.
Perhaps it would have been wiser, in writing a piece provocatively titled, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” to have first spent a moment searching Discovery’s Evolution News and Views blog, before rushing to publication a post based only on a search of your own memory.
May I suggest in a friendly way that Google (available on the Internet) might have been a useful search tool for this purpose?
Had you done this, you might have found these examples –from but a few of the many we might have chosen -- on Discovery’s Evolution News and Views:
“It will be interesting to see how the story [the film’s screening, RSR] is covered given the hysterical tone in evidence on certain ultra-Darwinian blogs in recent days.”
“Would it be unfair to suggest that perhaps the Smithsonian caved in to organized pressure from Darwinists who cannot imagine any ideas coming from the Discovery Institute… “
“… the event comes burdened with this peculiar statement of disassociation that critics are sure to use against us. It would seem a wholly bizarre turnabout if we had not heard about the way the Darwinian lobby attacked the Museum in recent days and agitated the staff members there.”
“Here we have the spectacle of dozens, maybe hundreds, of fulminating “scientists” and Darwinist groupies who have protested the showing of a film none of them has seen.”
Or this from Agape Press:
"The reality is that attempts at censorship and suppressing ideas that people are interested in -- it never works in the long run," the Discovery Institute [Jay Richards, RSR] spokesman notes.
Or this from Denyse O’Leary:
“ I call the outraged Darwinists “Darwinbots” because I’ll bet that most of them have never seen The Privileged Planet or considered grappling with the questions it raises about design and purpose in the universe.”
You might even have found this by someone named Krauze:
“ …after experiencing a barrage of letters from ID critics and an attempt from James Randi to make them look like prostitutes, the Smithsonian has suddenly discovered that "the content of the film is not consistent with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution's scientific research.”
I don’t know how you would characterize these statements, but here in Kansas, we’d say you’re howling like a scalded dog.
Please feel free to use this in any way you’d like, including posting it to the comments of your post. I’ll be posting it myself on Red State Rabble.
Regards,
Pat Hayes
Note: bold = emphasis added.
