I don’t know if that would be right.

I think we need more hand-wringing first.

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2011/the-prodigal-returns/

Unlike you, I don’t obsess about PZ Meyers and honestly don’t pay much attention to him. I don’t always agree with him and in fact often disagree with him. I am certainly not a “pharyngulite.” Shockingly, I don’t even think his tone is always all that appropriate. While I am known to get angry with the religious, I get angry when they actually do or say something repugnant.

But I vastly prefer his honest and open anger, to your slimy, obnoxious bullshit. People who are being assholes, should just be fucking assholes and not pretend they are doing something more socially acceptable. Rude is rude, with or without overtly rude language. The latter just happens to be more honest.

Seriously

Thanks for demonstrating your sanctimonious batshit crazy. Telling me that you read Gordon Wood’s “The Creation of the American Republic” elsewhere here at Greg’s blog proves nothing about your intelligence (I read James Joyce’s “Ulysses” when I was that age, but didn’t understand it until I talked about it with Frank McCourt when I was a student in his sophomore English and creative writing class. And Frank’s opinion I respected highly, since he was the resident Joyce scholar in the Stuyvesant High School English department (There was another who was an expert on Herman Melville, and who, years later would give private tours on Melville living in New York City.).

Ash is absolutely right. And for the record, if you want to condemn me for not reading a book (I did that once BTW in support of PZ Myers who was sued by a brilliant nut who had graduated from a rival high school, Brooklyn Tech, but of course PZ has forgotten this.), then why not start first by condemning PZ for attacking Ken Miller (which he did in his September 9, 2006 Pharyngula entry entitled “Ken Miller, Creationist”, for attacking eminent evolutionary geneticist Francisco J. Ayala, and for attacking eminent molecular biologist Francis Collins. But wait, isn’t that what I am accused of in the opening sentences of the RationalWiki entry on me? You could substitute his name for mine and it would have a much better, more accurate fit.

Again, when I have criticized Jerry Coyne and Richard Dawkins, I have taken great pains to attack only their atheist views, not their extensive work as the notable evolutioary biologists that they are (in Dawkins’s case has been since I am not aware of any substantial research that he has published since 1990). I have no such compunction with PZ Myers since he is, by his own admission, a mediocre evolutionary developmental biologist. A mediocre evolutionary developmental biologist who exults in the harsh attacks on his critics that you and your fellow Pharyngulites are demonstrating here.

Finally, if anyone is obsessed, then it is PZ. He is the only PT blogger who will consistently delete any comments I post at his blog entries, while allowing real lunatics, like an odd assortment of “drive by” creationists to stop by his blog entries and post quite weird commentary that’s far removed from anything I have posted at his PT blog entries.

Somewhere up there, I linked to the thread wherin Kwok argues voraciously, that he has every right to review a book he didn’t read. I don’t give a fuck if that was the only time, nor do I care if the book he didn’t read was complete and utter shite (which it likely was). That is absolutely inexcusable and indefensible.

Wow. This discussion thread has gone completely bonkers. I really don’t want to comment on it but only wish to factually note that John’s reviews are up for anyone to see on Amazon.com. If you read them, you would not make the argument that he has not read the books. Just take a look at his meticulous and comprehensive reviews of Dawkins’s or Coyne’s books for instance, or his devastating take-downs of the creationist IDiots Dembski and Meyer. By any stretch these reviews indicate that John has read the concerned volumes in detail.