Dumb as Dirt

Perhaps if the hottie from the TD Bank had dropped his green Speedo® maybe poor old “Right as Rain” wouldn’t have been so appalled.

What’s rather amusing about the Right One’s “awful” outrage (amongst other things) is the claim that “the first Google search for Pride 2009 pictures yielded me these shocking examples.” Oh really? Just out of curiosity, I Googled “Pride 2009” (and several variations) yet came up with nothing close to the “shocking” pictures in question. Now, why would some crotchety old windbag go out of her way to dig up pictures of frumpy men with tattoos parading in the buff simply in order to get all indignantly righteous about it? Oh yeah, it’s the Bloggin’ Tories… I forgot — that’s their whole pathetic shtick, isn’t it? Family values (circa 1896) and all that hypocritical rot.

Let’s look at these pictures again! [Must we? — ed.] How can any responsible person take their children to this parade? There is nothing wrong with the naked human body per say [sic], but I don’t won’t [sic] my children to be exposed to a stranger’s naked body.

A cursory examination of the pictures in question however shows no children whatsoever. In fact (something I suspect “Right as Rain” has little acquaintance with), there’s no indication at all that the pictures were even taken on the “Family Pride” days when some children might actually be expected to be present.

It is time to take back our country, if you don’t want filth like the above displayed for all to see during a parade then you had better donate your time or money to a party that will fight to prevent this sort of despicable display, a party that will fight for real honest to god family values.

Um, maybe if one doesn’t want to be exposed to “filth” of that kind, one shouldn’t go actively looking for it and then pruriently display it on one’s blog “for all to see”… Just a thought.

The Purpose of Purpose

From Dawkins’ American lecture tour this spring:

“We humans are obsessed with purpose. The question, “What is it for?” comes naturally to a species surrounded by tools, utensils and machines. For such artifacts it is appropriate, but then we go too far. We apply the “What is it for?” question to rocks, mountains, stars or the universe, where it has no place.

How about living things? Unlike rocks and mountains, animals and plants, wings and eyes, webbed feet and leaves, all present a powerful illusion of design. Since Darwin, we have understood that this, too, is an illusion. Nevertheless, it is such a powerful illusion that the language of purpose is almost irresistible. Huge numbers of people are seriously misled by it, and biologists in practice use it as a shorthand.I shall develop two meanings of “purpose”. Archi-purpose is the ancient illusion of purpose, a pseudo-purpose fashioned by natural selection over billions of years. Neo-purpose is true, deliberate, intentional purpose, which is a product of brains. My thesis is that neo-purpose, or the capacity to set up deliberate purposes or goals, is itself a Darwinian adaptation with an archi-purpose.

Neo-purpose really comes into its own in the human brain, but brains capable of neo-purposes have been evolving for a long time. Rudiments of neo-purpose can even be seen in insects. In humans, the capacity to set up neo-purposes has evolved to such an extent that the original archi-purpose can be eclipsed and even reversed. The subversion of purpose can be a curse, but there is some reason to hope that it might become a blessing.”

The following is a compilation of his keynote address dealing with the perennial “Why” question.

See more about Richard Dawkins’ upcoming book “The Greatest Show on Earth” here.

h/t: Dave in the comments several days ago.

Tim Who?

Briefly scanning posts from various Bloggin’ Tories yesterday, it seems many of them are quite enthused about Tim Hudak, the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

A spirited supporter of George W. Bush and the illegal war in Iraq, Hudak is apparently a flat taxer who believes in the public funding of faith-based schools, wants to abolish the Human Rights Commission, get tough on crime and freeze the minimum wage for years to come…

Prior to becoming a professional politician, he was an assistant manager at Wal-Mart.

Yep, that’s Bloggin’ Tory material alright.