The ‘appeal to authority’ fallacy is committed when arguments are presented as true simply because an individual or group deemed to have authority supports it, rather than being backed by evidence or sound reasoning. This fallacy, our research over the years has demonstrated, is employed continually by British media outlets to defame Israel, saving their […]
You may recall that Richard Dawkins, Steve Pinker, and I resigned from the Honorary Board of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) because they canceled a post I wrote for the FFRF—a statement they first vetted, approved, and published but then removed—without telling me or answering my email inquiries. (My canceled piece is archived here, […]
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is among the most prominent humanist/atheist/skeptical organizations in America, but it’s been getting increasingly “progressive” (read “woke”). You may remember that in 2021 the AHA revoked its “Humanist of the Year” award given to Richard Dawkins 15 years earlier, saying this: Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years […]
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a story in the New Zealand Herald this morning about the death of former King Cobras gang leader Ulaiasi “Rocky” Pulete. Carrying the byline of Herald crime reporter Jared Savage, it’s written in the reverential tones normally reserved for an esteemed community leader, business person or sporting figure. Pulete is described as “a […]
Imagine the reaction if Western media outlets participated in a campaign for Hamas to release the hostages in Gaza, which included suggested talking points, that was launched and coordinated in part by a pro-Israeli organisation in the UK: Let’s call it CAMERA-UK. The outrage expressed in posts decrying the media’s subservience to the “pro-Israel lobby” […]
The Herald reports: A German neo-Nazi will be allowed to start serving an 18-month sentence in a women’s prison after he used a new government policy to register a change in gender. Sven Liebich, who has been photographed at far-right rallies wearing a Nazi-style uniform, will be sent to the Chemnitz women’s prison in Saxony, […]
This is from CNN, so you know it pained them to publish a piece like this (click to read): Mahmoud Abbas, 90, was elected President of Palestine in 2005 for a four-year term, but somehow has hung on for 16 more years, having been voted an indefinite Presidency by the PLO (Hamas doesn’t recognize him […]
The NY Post report: A new documentary about the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas has been booted from the Toronto International Film Festival — because organizers insist the filmmakers need the rights from the terrorist group to use their horrific footage of the massacre. The festival claims the movie, called “The Road […]
In the advertising world, there is an old adage that there are times when you take a pitch and “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.” That expression came to mind yesterday when President Donald Trump signed an order to punish flag burning. The President may be hoping that the Supreme Court might salute […]
Previously we discussed a BBC News website ‘live page’ devoted to the topic of the latest report from The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). BBC COVERAGE OF THE IPC GAZA CITY FAMINE REPORT – PART ONE Additional BBC News website reporting on that topic published on August 22nd began with the following item: “Famine […]
Audrey Young observes: Chlöe Swarbrick became a distraction from the debate on Palestine during a crucial week in which Israel stepped up bombardments of Gaza City and New Zealand began debating a huge issue. But outrageously, she made it about whether being asked twice to apologise was unprecedented. It wouldn’t be so ironic if she […]
Well, Laura Helmuth may no longer be at the helm of Scientific American, but the magazine seems to have again again dipped its toes into the waters of unscientific ideology. To wit: they’re posted a 14-minute podcast emphasizing that nature—and that includes humans—is “non-binary”. The problem is that, as usual, they get what is binary […]
Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz appears to be living through a remake of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode. However, Dershowitz is facing a new culinary menace in Martha’s Vineyard. Chef Krem Miskevich has barred the famed lawyer from buying pierogis because of his political views . . . and liberals are applauding him for it. Welcome to Pierogi […]
This is one of the twenty-odd interviews that Lawrence Krauss conducted to support the new book he edited, The War on Science, comprising essays about the pollution of academia by ideology. (Nearly all of us indict ideology from the Left, though many of us, including me, admit that the Right is currently a bigger threat to […]
The Tenth Circuit handed down a notable opinion this week in Poe v. Drummond, upholding Oklahoma’s law prohibiting gender transition procedures for anyone under eighteen. The opinion by Judge Joel Carson (joined by Judges Harris Hartz and Gregory Phillips) concluded that parental rights do not trump a state’s determination of what are safe treatments for […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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