Two gnus, Voodoo woo woo, the Hoodoo Gurus, and other news

Two gnus, Voodoo woo woo, the Hoodoo Gurus, and other news June 3, 2015

• “It’s time to stop taking George Weigel seriously, because his analysis is profoundly unserious.”

Weigel is famous for being a respected Catholic intellectual. The problem is that he has spent the last two decades in an awkward attempt to be a say-whatever-nonsense-it-takes-to-win culture-warrior, and now it’s hard to remember the last time he really seemed to be respected, or Catholic, or intellectual.

At this point, I’m not wholly convinced that George Weigel, Robert George, and George Will are really three different people. Back in the last century, one of them said something interesting about Tony Gwynn, but if that was the last thing you read from him/them, you haven’t missed much.

• Once again, “Trying to ease traffic congestion by widening the highway is like trying to lose weight by loosening your belt.”

Hemant Mehta shares a report on an odd study that explored antipathy and bias by encouraging participants to stick pins into one of various Voodoo dolls representing people from different groups. It seems participants were most inclined to stick their pins into the doll representing atheists.

For what it’s worth, if I were taking part in this study and I had to jab one of the dolls, I’d pick the atheist doll, too — not because of any sense of antipathy toward atheists, but because I know it wouldn’t worry them. Atheists don’t believe in Voodoo. Thus I know that atheists, unlike many members of the religious groups in the study, would not feel threatened or frightened by the impotent gesture of sticking pins into a doll. If I’m required to put a curse on someone, I’ll pick the people who have the good sense to appreciate that putting a curse on them is meaningless.

My preference, of course, would be not to stick pins in anybody’s doll. Even if we all agree that it’s a powerless gesture, it’s still just mean.

• “30 People Kicked out of Hotel After Scuffle Over Waffle Iron.” (Not Florida!)

TwoByTwoNot sure whether to make a rainbow joke here, or a “pride” joke … (via).

Apart from the biological problem of taking two male lions aboard the ark, this illustration also highlights the anachronism in the story of Noah in Genesis. There are two lions, two giraffes, two elephants and two polar bears in the picture because these are “unclean” animals and Noah was told to bring “a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate.” For animals that are “clean” according to the laws of Moses, Noah was told to bring “seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate.”

That’s another problem with illustrations of this story — they usually show two of every kind of animal, but not 14 sheep and 14 cattle, etc. Two-by-two is just easier to draw, I guess. And it avoids the awkward acknowledgement that the laws of Moses distinguishing between “clean and unclean” animals hadn’t been written yet because Moses hadn’t been born yet.

Bookmark this for the next time someone tells you women can’t be funny.

• “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.”

A West Virginia man has decided to sue government officials for teaching evolution in schools, saying it is hampering his daughter’s dream to become a veterinarian.

Kenneth Smith’s lawsuit says that education officials are violating the Constitution and infringing the civil rights of his daughter by “propagating” the “religion” of evolution …

• Since we’ve already talked about Voodoo woo woo, here’s some Hoodoo Gurus:

 


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