Mocking the stone age science at the Texas State Board of Education has now gone viral — late-night comedians have the rest of the country laughing at us. Bill Maher de-pantsed the governor on last Friday’s episode of his HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher.
He [Perry] appointed a creationist to head the Texas State Board of Education, which is shocking. Texas has a board of education?!?
Ouch.
And Maher surely speaks for scientists everywhere when he scolds Texas politicians who had a sudden come-to-science moment last week when confonted with the outbreak of swine flu.
You can’t crap all over Darwin and stem cell research and global warming, then come crawling back to science when you want Tamiflu.
Watch the whole embarrassing segment (warning: Maher’s language is colorful).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBQRy0aV3P4]
Do you now see TFN that when someone calls you far left they are wrong. Bill Maher and I are far left, yous guys are moderates:)
Point taken. 🙂
Keep up the good work TFN, it is appreciated.
Lat week I was in Miami for my daughter’s college commencement. EVERY TIME someone found out I was from Texas, the FIRST WORDS out of their mouths were, “Where did you get that wacky governor? The one that wants to secede and thinks the earth is only 6,000 years old?”
I would hastily point out that, as wacky as he is, he’s no better or worse than the LAST moron to hold the same office. That comment was always met with a knowing shrug, nod and chuckle.
Thank you, Republicans. Our state is now the LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE ENTIRE NATION! Apparently, even in the south.
TFN says,
— late-night comedians have the rest of the country laughing at us —
“The rest of the country laughing at [you]”? Can’t you tell that the laughter and applause in that video are obviously canned? Duh.
TFN, you applaud when this stupid comedian ridicules your state. I have no respect for you. None at all.
He also ridiculed the 78% of the public that a Zogby poll showed are in favor of teaching the evidence both for and against evolution. How is it “embarrassing” for Texas to be associated with 78% of the public?
Also, the guy shows that he doesn’t know the difference between microevolution and macroevolution.
Also, he mischaracterizes the way “members of the mainstream media” look at the controversy —
Intelligent-challenged members of the mainstream media: “creationism and Darwinism are not opposing but equally legitimate theories to be treated as such.”
Who says that “creationism and Darwinism are not opposing . . . theories”? Not anyone I know. He also ignores the fact that not all criticisms of Darwinism are “creationism” — pure creationism uses only religious sources whereas there are scientific and pseudoscientific criticisms of Darwinism that use only scientific evidence and scientific reasoning.
This dude is a stupid ignoramus. If I were you I would be ashamed to present this video.
Larry writes: “I have no respect for you. None at all.”
We love you too, Larry. Now goodbye.
Larry, and when you are blindly loyal to an intellectually barbaric state what does that say about you? Zero evidence against evolution…ZERO. Science says one idea with no basis in being testable or repeatable is why creation/id is not a theory but a creation myth and why evolution is a fact/theory because the hypothesis is supported by evidence. I’m ashamed of Texas…do mess with Texas so we have less McLeroy’s and Perry’s.
Larry. Please put a little more effort into understanding what you read before you comment on it.
“creationism and Darwinism are not opposing but equally legitimate theories to be treated as such.”
Does not imply that creationism and Darwinism are not in opposition. It simply states that they are not both equally legitimate theories on equal footing and should not be treated as such.
Larry you are a sad sad man. You are so blinded by your religious idolotry and arrogance regarding your supposed intellect that you can’t even get out of your own way. Open your mind!!!!!! Creationism is religious fantasy that is untestable and un verifiable. Evolutionary science is testable, proveable and OBSERVABLE in our lives today. I understand that you are old and probably worried about where you are going once the big bell rings for you, but I am here to reassure you. NOBODY knows! All that is left here on earth are the memories left from your actions in this life. Sadly you will be remembered for being narrow to close minded and blinded to truth by your wishful thinking about an idealogy that was invented by man for his own purposes. If there is a God I am certain that it would be very disappointed that you choose not use the brain in your head but rather to believe that which other men told you to believe. It is my sincerest wish that your open you mind to wonders of the universe so that you can marvel at magnificance of it all without having to invent some mythology about how it all happened.
I have been censored! Oh no!
I have been cenored! What is up?
Can’t you tell that the laughter and applause in that video are obviously canned? Duh.
It’s a studio audience. They are shown on camera several times on each show.
He also ridiculed the 78% of the public that a Zogby poll showed are in favor of teaching the evidence both for and against evolution. How is it “embarrassing” for Texas to be associated with 78% of the public?
Argument from popularity fallacy. If 78% of people believe something that’s wrong, it’s still wrong. You could go to some state in the south, take a poll showing 95% of respondents expressing racist views. Would you then say to non-racists, “How can you criticize 95% of the public?” Duh, Larry.
Also, the guy shows that he doesn’t know the difference between microevolution and macroevolution.
You mean he doesn’t misrepresent it like the fools on your side do.
This dude is a stupid ignoramus.
Pot, meet kettle.
You can’t crap all over Darwin and stem cell research and global warming, then come crawling back to science when you want Tamiflu
what a mouthful!!!!! i LOVE this sentence!
Has it ever occurred to anyone here that Larry is getting too much of your attention, thus sucking away energy that might be better spent on an issue other than Larry. As long as Larry IS THE ISSUE, TFN is being co-opted, more or less, by the other side. You are also feeding Larry. This guy thrives on the food you give him, and that food is called “ATTENTION” and “CONTROVERSY.”
I would like to propose a very calm, civil, and prolonged fast. You do not have to be religious to participate in this fast. It is just a refusal to feed Larry what he needs to be obnoxious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE
Charles is right. TFN is enabling Larry’s bad behavior, know it or not. He loves this stage and revels in the attention he gets when he makes ludicrous statements just to get a rise out of people.
Let’s just ignore him. If he gets no response he will get bored and go away.
Great video! Love it. Thank you, TFN, for posting it.
Unfortunately, this message doesn’t have quite the power it could have given who it’s coming from — Maher himself is anti-science when it comes to things he isn’t fond of such as ‘Western Medicine’. The guy is an anti-vax nut who supports the claim that vaccines cause autism, that the flu vaccine has Mercury and will give you Alzheimers and he even claims the Germ Theory of Disease is wrong. He’s also a very vocal PETA supporter.
Details on it here: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/08/bill_maher_antivaccination_wingnut.php
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/10/is_bill_maher_really_that_ignorant_part.php
That said, does that goodbye mean that Larry has finally been banned?
Great job, Thomas M! I was just coming here to comment on that. It’s a real shame that Bill Maher doesn’t apply the same scientific reasoning to his altmed and vaccine stance, so this is all kind of a pyrrhic victory. Good that his entire audience has been made aware of the issues, but his other stances have an actual body count.
That said, I think he mentioned the vaccine thing once publicly last year when interviewed surrounding Religulous, but most of his public declarations on that have seemed to have tapered off. Also, the articles you linked to are from 2007, and in my searches, I wasn’t able to find much that was more recent, either. Is he still actively promoting these positions? (I don’t get to watch him often, as I live overseas)
Thanks, TFN, for your tireless efforts in standing up for real science!
Maher is a lightening rod for sure. Of course, I disagree with his anti-religion position. If he did not have that particular piece of baggage, which ways him down way too much with way too many people, he could create utter devastation in the ranks of—them guys. Nonetheless, he has some funny things to say every once in a while.
Charles, if you saw religulous you’d know 16% of us are eye to eye with Bill on mythology and the number will keep growing so it’s not weighing him down to be against religion. It’s weighing us down to keep perpetuating religion.
When you post Maher videos and encourage TXatheist to post, you show your true colors, TFN. I’m sure you bigots won’t be happy until we’re silenced.