Yes, Gupta's statements were more qualified than those of the Discovery Institute. On the other hand, no Creationists were nominated for Cabinet positions (although Bush certainly would have tried, and certainly had some fellow travelers in his government).
On Jan 17, 2009, at 8:32 AM, [email protected] wrote: > On 17 Jan 2009, Christopher D. Green wrote, concerning the TIPS > campaign > to indict Dr. Gupta for crimes against science: > > Only immediately after saying "I saw many people using facilitated > communication, or FC, effectively in various ways." And immediately > before saying "For sure, it is amazing to hear the thoughts of > people..." > Doesn't sound very skeptical to me. Instead, it sounds very much > like the > fake debate junk that we get from the media about creationism, climate > change (and everything else that will make more money pitched as a > "controversy" than as a long-since settled scientific matter). > > I say: > > Well, I've never heard of creationists laying out the criticisms of > the > evolutionists quite as clearly as Gupta did of the criticisms of > FC. The > accusations against him are said to be supported by documents at four > different urls. In fact, most of this material is irrelevant to the > accusation. If what Chris has quoted above is the worst he can come up > with, and bearing in mind the qualifying statements I also quoted, I > think I'm justified in saying this is pretty mild stuff as advocacy > goes. > > Let's consider what real advocacy might look like. Our evil-twin > Gupta > (remember, this is fantasy) might have said: > > "FC is a wonderful advance in therapy for autism, ranking with the > discovery of insulin to treat diabetes. I will devote my life to > ensuring > that no child who needs this remarkably effective treatment goes > without > it. To that end, I am seeking funds for a foundation to cure autism > based > on FC, and will host a telethon on NBC for that purpose". > > But he said a lot less than that. I think it's also fair to note > that as > bad nominations go, Gupta is pretty small stuff compared to what your > departing prez tried (and got) confirmed. \ > > And actually, I think the office of Surgeon-General sounds a lot like > that of our Governor-General (note the hyphenation in the job > description, which is typical). Both are mostly ceremonial public > relations jobs. And it cannot be denied that Dr. Gupta is very cute, > allegedly one of the sexiest men on earth. Perhaps the Americans > thought > they had to nominate someone to compete with our Governor-General, > Michaëlle Jean, who is quite the babe herself (see > http://tinyurl.com/956vg5 ) > > > Chris: I wasn't able to include > marks to indicate quotes from you > probably because you sent your message in HTML, and turning it off > messed > up the formatting. Perhaps you [and the rest of you] might consider > sending in plain text? Pretty please? And don't blame me if the > formatting of this message is screwy. > > Stephen > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology, Emeritus > Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] > 2600 College St. > Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 > Canada > > Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of > psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > - > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
