More Terrorism

To commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, some nutjob decided to drive his SUV into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota.

When [spokesperson] Di Nicola arrived at the clinic, she said the man had gotten out of the SUV and was pacing around it, holding a crucifix and chanting. "He was agitated and he was saying, 'shut down this Auschwitz,' " she said.

I can't say I'm surprised. Bob Dutko and his ilk are won't stop repeating that "abortion is murder" and that it must be eradicated. If I believed murders were actually occurring in a building, I might try to stop them, too.

However, abortion is not murder, no matter how many times Bob and his ilk say it is. Luckily, no one was hurt in this instance of domestic terrorism.

Bob Responds!

Responding to this post, Bob wrote me an email. I am posting his full, unedited letter as well as my response. Enjoy!

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Irl,

I get e-mail from plenty of people who disagree with me on any host of issues, and most of them are from just regular folks who disagree with me, saying basically, "Bob, I disagree with you and here's why". I'll level with you, I've never been able to understand the mindset of people like yourself who seem to be driven by hatred. I mean, it's obvious you hate me, and that's fine. I mean, I'm a big boy and I can certainly take it, but what causes you to have such hatred toward some talk show host you disagree with?

Just being honest with you, that's all.

Take care,

Bob

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Bob,

It's taken me some time to write back because I find your letter a bit incredulous. Honestly, I wasn't sure of what to say, and I've spent a good amount of time thinking about how to respond.

I could have not responded at all, because my instincts are that you are not sincere in seeking to understand me. It's not that you are incapable of understanding me, but you have already pigeonholed me into the "unsaved anti-Christian" and are convinced I am fated to hell.

I could respond by pointing out that you didn't actually deal with any of the points I raised, and observe that accusing me of hatred is avoiding the issue. I would still love to hear the scripture and verse where Jesus advocates the torturing of people. I've always thought Jesus was quite clear when he quoted Hillel, demanding his followers obey the dictum, "That which is hateful to you, do not do unto others." But since you don't find torture hateful, you can easily slither around Christ's commandment.

So, in as few words as possible, I'll try to explain why I have such problems with you.

First, I find you arrogant. You assert that your show is from a "Christian" perspective, and that you are "Fearlessly Defending the Faith." More often than not, your show is from your perspective and you generalize your beliefs to be the proper, true "Christian" stance. This makes you the arbitrary governor of what is or isn't proper Christian dogma, and I don't recall you ever being appointed to the position.

Further, I find your arrogance unwarranted. The "arguments" you stake out are fueled by profound ignorance. What technical training do you have to opine on subjects like evolution, medicine or thermodynamics? You have a basic understanding of these subjects, yet act as if you have are expounding from a full and comprehensive education. It is clear that you are not!

But I want to keep this discussion grounded, so let us discuss an example: Evolution. You dismiss evolution as being unscientific, yet you have never spent any time deeply researching the subject at a accredited university! You can point to no scientific studies that conclusively disprove evolution, yet you act as if there are! Further, you dismiss evolution as being "un-biblical" and demand that every Christian fall in line behind you and do the same. Yet there are Christians who accept evolution without denigrating their beliefs. Catholics are the biggest example of this, when, in 1950, the Catholic Church took a neutral position on evolution and allowed Catholics to believe in evolution. Provided, of course, that their belief in evolution does not take away from God's revelation through Christ!

Now, I know what you're thinking at this moment. You're cranking up your arguments in your Top Ten CDs and preparing to state that you are simply following the dictates of the Bible and being a good Christian. But that doesn't solve the true problem I am pointing to: That you are unwilling to take on the established churches and hold them accountable. If dismissing evolution and accepting the "factual truth" of the story of Genesis is necessary to salvation, then you must denounce Catholics and demand that they repent. But you won't do this, will you? You really aren't willing to rock the boat when there are advertisers on the line, are you?

This letter is going on longer than I intended. My first few observations are but the beginning of my complaints, though I will bring this to a close by stating this: I think Christ's teaching are broader than your theology. Your theology makes God a cosmic blackmailer who holds a gun to my head and says "Believe in me or you will suffer forever." Your theology denies compassion, leading you to believe adherence to the Bible is more important than treating others well. This is evidenced by your willingness to deny abortions to rape victims, your willingness to deny marriage to homosexual couples, and by your continued stereotyping of all Muslims into terrorists.

In short, I find you loud, ignorant, and cruel.

But you're a big boy and can handle my opinion, right?

Irl

Bobbo Loves the Torture!

Bobbo,

I imagine you spend a great deal of time in masturbatory glee at your presumed brilliance. But I find you to possess a vile little mind, filled with hatred and paranoia for anything you cannot understand.

First you you commit the intellectual sin of post hoc ergo propter hoc by making the spurious claim that torture has protected us from further terrorist attacks. Then you go on to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantanmo by claming its a great place to be! For good measure, you debase the American justice system by claiming that "slick" defense attorneys "like O.J. Simpson's" would be lining up to free Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

None of this compares the Grand Whopper of Ignorance you laid at the end of your bullshit parade! You all summed it all up by claiming that only Americans have rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

What an amazing mixture of racism and ignorance you are Bob! The abuse you suffered at the hands of your father sure has lasting effects, doesn't it?

I'll try to be as plain as I can so even your feeble mind can understand: By your own admission our rights are granted to us by God. If God granted us our rights, did he grant them to everyone or just believers? If God granted rights to everyone, then the terror SUSPECTS are due the protections of the Constitution, right? Or does your God make exceptions for the scary brown people?

And if God only grants right to believers, then would you advocate the imprisonment and water boarding of atheists? Those mean, nasty atheists have the temerity to not be afraid of your mythical big scary man in the sky, so they deserve what they get, right?

Which is it Bob? Why don't you use you big brain to cut the Gordian knot of this little dilemma?

And while you're at it, why don't you do an in studio demonstration of water boarding? If it's not torture, a big strapping guy like you would have no trouble being water boarded, right? If you're too afraid of the demonstration, why don't you bring in one of your kids to be water boarded? If it's not torture, they won't be harmed, right?

Bobbo, you can redeem yourself by two simple acts: First, host an in studio demonstration that proves water boarding isn't torture, and, second, try practicing the compassion that Christ displayed.

Oh, my mistake, you don't believe Jesus of compassion. You believe in Jesus, Lord of War.

Irl

Bob Lies About Terrorism. Again.

Today, Bob repeated the right wing lie said that Bush was in a lose-lose situation on the Global War On Terror. He started by saying that Bush kept us safe for seven years from terrorist attacks.

Ummmm….not so much.

When you include domestic terrorist attacks, we’ve had well over 100 terrorist attacks since 9/11. This includes the anthrax attacks that occurred just after 9/11, a shooting of a Unitarian church, a shooting spree from a white supremacist, hoax anthrax letters being sent, attacks from the Army of God and others against abortion clinics, and several others. And we always love to remind people of Bob's love for domestic terrorists who praise God for 9/11.

But Bob and other right-wingers like him think that the only terrorist attacks that count came from brown people. There was one of those, too, when in 2002 a man shot up LAX.

Then Bob said that if another terrorist attack did happen on 9/11, we’d be saying Bush didn’t do enough to protect us by taking away our civil liberties. Bob said that if another terrorist attack happened, we’d all be screaming: “You better waterboard the guy!”

Last I checked, waterboarding someone to extract a confession wasn't exactly something Jesus condoned.

If you’re a Christian, that’s not exactly something you want to hear from someone who claims to be “fearlessly defending the faith."

Dinosaurs and Man

Last week, on the continuing adventures into stupidity with Bob Dutko, Grady McMurty proclaimed that the "last known dinosaur" was killed in 1887 in Bolivia. I was, of course, skeptical of this claim. Irl found the "source" of this information, a Creationist website called "Genesis Park":

At the end of the 19th century Scientific American recorded the following remarkable events: "The Brazilian Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, had remitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary saurian killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved in Asuncion, was sent to La Paz." The "monster" was reported to be twelve meters long (39 ft) from snout to point of the tail, which latter was flattened. It's head resemblance the head of a dog and its legs were short, ending with formidable claws. The legs and abdomen sported a kind of scale armor, and all the back is protected by a still thicker and double cuirass, starting from behind the ears of the anterior head, and continuing to the tail. The neck is long, and the belly large and almost dragging on the ground."

So the "evidence" that Grady and Bob were hanging their hat on is a short blurb in a 100 year old magazine that reports that photographs of drawings of a dinosaur were taken. Got it.

After reading this, I thought: Why didn't they take photographs of the dead dinosaur itself, instead of drawings of the dinosaur? Has anybody seen these photographs or the drawings themselves? It says the body was preserved. What happened to it? Where is it now? Of course, Grady didn't think to ponder these questions before stating this tall tale as fact.

But wait, it gets better. The "Genesis Park" story goes on to say: "One of the odd things about this report is that the saurian creature had multiple heads." (emphasis added) So not only did they kill a living dinosaur, but this dinosaur had more than one head, which is a true oddity of nature.

Folks, if someone came up to you and said they just killed a dinosaur with multiple heads, you'd probably ask them for evidence. And if the evidence they provided was photographs of drawings that you had made of the dinosaur, you'd laugh at them and walk away. But Bob and Grady don't do this. They accept the evidence because it's what they want to believe. More importantly, it also what they want you to believe.

For extra credit reading, check out this article at the blog Stupid Dinosaur Lies. The author dissects Genesis Park (and other Creationist mumbo jumbo) with more accuracy and detail than I could ever achieve.

Grady and Bob Capitalize on Public Ignorance

Tuesday, Grady told us the nature of sediments do not indicate an old earth as shown by research done at Colorado State University’s Sediments Lab

Looking for more detail, I got the following from Grady’s website:

Research conducted in sedimentation laboratories at Colorado State University and in France proves conclusively that in nature sedimentary layers do not form slowly one on top of the other as evolutionists claim; but, rather that sedimentary layers form by growing sideways as the result of sorting by size and velocity as they are extended by water deposition flowing in a specific direction. This is well documented revolutionary research refuting evolutionary thinking.

Note that Grady did not describe or post a reference to a paper or an author of said “research.”

To those masses unfamiliar with the ways of science and research, this raises no “red flag.” (No surprise, since only about 50% of the adults know the earth circles the sun every twelve months and 72% of the same cannot properly describe a molecule.) This means that the general public and Dutko’s audience are hopelessly uninformed about the fundamental ways of science, and Grady & Co. get away yet again with blatant and deliberate and selective disclosure.

If Grady, really, truly, had “proof conclusive,” would he not shout the names and specifics of all relevant and supportive findings? Anyone else would.

But Grady and Bob make nonsense assertions about the “fossilized” cowboy boot, complete with remains of the owner’s foot. If this was on the level, someone would have presented at the annual meeting of the full membership of the American Geophysical Union for its amazement and wide-eyed endorsement.

Why has this not happened?

Because it’s not on the level, that’s why.

Refutations of Bob

On Friday, Bob criticized a listener who sent him an email for failing to refute any of his so-called "evidence." He then went on to accuse evolutionists of failing to refute him. (Actually, it's just simpler to point and laugh.)

Well, in the past two years, this blog has specifically refuted Bob's statements many, many times. These refutations are not limited to evolution, but science, history, politics, and other topics. I've assembled a partial list of these refutations below.

Therefore, I refute Bob's accusation that evolutionists never refute him.

Science

• Bob's contention that Neanderthal DNA is identical to Humans is easily refuted by the evidence.
• Bob's contention that the Universe is less than 10,000 years old is incorrect based on the scientific evidence provided by Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
• Bob states that radiometric dating shows that every single rock on the entire planet is actually over 100,000 years old. However, Ar-Ar dating accurately places rocks from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius to about 2000 years ago.
• Bob stated that there was no evidence of what Trilobites evolved from, but there actually is.
• Bob says transitional fossils don't exist, but that claim is easily refuted.
• Bob says that doctors take the Hippocratic oath that bars doctors from participating in abortion. However, doctors don't actually take that oath.
• Bob's false assertions about Lucy are refuted.
• Bob thinks the Earth may be the center of the Universe, but this is shown to be wrong by a real scientist.
• Bob says that the laws of thermodynamics prove God's existence; Irl refutes this supposition.
• Bob says warming on Mars proves that warming on Earth is not caused by human action. An astrophysicst thinks otherwise.
• Bob says Abortion causes breast cancer, but scientific studies say the opposite. Again.
  
• Bob says that carbon dating of dinosaur bones dates them to under 10,000 years old. However, this story has been debunked.
  
• Bob's guest says there's no giraffe or blue whale fossils on record, ignoring the multitude of giraffe and blue whale fossils.
• Bob says "dinosaurs are nothing more than reptiles that continued to go," but real scientists, who study the evidence, say this is incorrect.
• Bob says "the creation of matter and energy violates the first law of thermodynamics." But this is refuted.
• Bob says there was hysteria over global cooling in the 70s, when there really wasn't.
  

Politics

• Bob says Democrats had an "overwhelming majority" in the Senate, when in fact, that majority was by a single vote.
• Bob's freakout about the Fairness Doctrine is refuted by actual facts.
• Bob said that Obama's website had been scrubbed of campaign promises when, in fact, it had not.
• Bob agreed with a caller that Hillary Clinton wasn't vigorously campaigning for Obama; when, in fact, Hillary was all over the place for Barack.
• Bob lies about Obama's voting record in the Illinois State Senate concerning the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act".
• Bob says Obama is the most liberal Senator, but he's not.
• Bob complains that Republicans were treated unfairly in the CNN/YouTube debates, but Democrats got the same treatment.
• Bob complains that "puff piece" written about Hillarly Clinton was proof of media bias. However, these positive articles are written about every major candidate.
• Bob wrong about a tazer incident at a John Kerry speech.
• Bob says voting is a "privilege"; the Constitution says its a "right".
• Bob says Nancy Pelosi is violating the Logan Act by going to Syria, but he is refuted by the facts.
• Bob says Bill Clinton committed perjury when he was actually was found non guilty.
• Bob implies Nancy Pelosi is corrupt for exempting American Samoa from the new minimum wage, but the facts say differently.
  

Law

• Bob is educated on when a legal provision is "constitutional".
• Bob bashed ACORN for turning in likely false voter registration cards and failed to mention that they are required by law to turn in all voter registration cards.
• Bob says that buying a raffle ticket for a car is tax deductible, but it's not.
• Bob says male cops can't frisk female subjects and vice-versa, but he's wrong.
• Bob is educated about fundamental rights, in addition to abortion, that aren't explicitly recited in the Constitution (e.g., freedom to marry, Miranda, etc.)

History

• Bob quotes James Madison as stating "religion is the basis and foundation of government." However, this quote is absolutely false.
  
• Bob omits evidence regarding the desires of the Founding Fathers to have a secular government.
• Bob says "Iraq and the terrorists in Iraq" attacked us on 9/11, but Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
• Bob thinks the American military was primarily fighting al Qaeda in Iraq, when in fact, they were fighting home grown Sunni militants.
• Bob makes multiple false statements about Margaret Sanger that are easily refuted.
• Bob is wrong about how long it took the U.S. to develop a constitution after independence.
• Bob says deaths are "way down in Iraq," when they weren't.
• Bob believes that the Framers of the Constitution did not want a secular government due to the use of "...in the Year of our Lord..." in the Constitution. However, Bob ignores numerous evidence to the contrary.
• Bob says the Iraq government wants us to say while polling says the opposite.
• Bob says Thomas Jefferson was the first to use the phrase "wall of separation", but that's not true.
• Bob says Thomas Jefferson ordered the Bible to be taught in schools, but the facts don't support this assertion.
• Bob says we didn't have troops in the Middle East in 2001, but we did.
  

Mystere (Edward Endo) is off his medication.

Other

• Bob says Plan B is an abortifacient; it isn't.
• Bob says it's hard to find retailers selling nativity scenes, when in actuallity, they're widely available.
• Bob implies that abortions are the main business at Planned Parenthood, when they're actually only 3% of their business.
• Bob says that the burden is on an atheist to prove God does not exist. This is not logical.
• Bob says feminists are silent about suppression of women in Iran, but it's simply not true.
• Bob says Google won't acknowledge Easter because they're left wing. He ignores Google's acknowledgment of Easter.
• Bob says a biology teacher was fired for mentioning the Bible, when, in fact, he was fired teaching some really crazy stuff.
• Bob says Wikipedia is liberal when they have a neutral point of view policy.
• Bob says "the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks in the United States are caused by Muslims." But the facts don't back this up.
• Bob says "liberals in this country paint Israel as the bad guys," but this is a straw man argument.
• Bob routinely attacks the ACLU as being "anti-Christian", but ignores all of the pro-Christian causes they defend.
• Bob says women are dying from using RU486, but in actuality, the small number of deaths are probably due to misuse of the drug. Besides Tylenol and Viagra are more dangerous.

Grady McMurtry: January 6, 2009

I love it when "Doctor" Grady McMurtry is on the show. He brings a fresh bag of crazy every time he is on. A few months back, Bob and Grady couldn't agree on which radiometric dating methods work and which don't. Then Grady went on to analogize gravity with evolution.

But on Tuesday, the good doctor threw out this whopper:

The last known dinosaur that can be documented living with people was in 1887. This was down in Bolivia, when a small armored dinosaur was killed.

Well, that's a new one for me! I scoured the Internets (OK, I just did some mild searching), but couldn't find anyone else making this claim. Perhaps Grady is confusing "small armored dinosaur" with an armadillo.

So, I hope Dutko and McMurtry fans will please point me towards this "documentation." I'm dying to see it.