Fun with Mark Steyn: But when isn't Mark Steyn fun?

Mark, Canadian columnist to the world, discusses a recent fossil find with Hugh Hewitt:

HH: Well, we cannot let this day pass without recognizing two important things. First of all, we’ve discovered a primate that’s 1.2 million years older than Lucy, and apparently a competition between ancient bones has broken out, Mark Steyn. Are you indifferent as to which is the older and allegedly part of our family tree?

MS: Yes, I am, really. I never get terribly excited about so-called evolution stories, because it seems to me that it’s the tiny little bit of us, I can’t remember what it is now, I think it’s not just that we’re, whatever it is, 97% ape, but we’re supposedly 86% or something pumpkin. And clearly, if that’s true, then there’s something not terribly useful about the scale. It’s the tiny little percentage that separates us from the rest of this stuff that makes the difference.

HH: Well, that pumpkin stuff explains radio producers. I’d never thought of that before.

In case anyone cares what I think, after the "Ida" fiasco, I have sworn off accepting any fossil tales in the early days if their discovery. Time will tell if this is anything to write home about.

See also: Scientific American quietly disowns Ida fossil

Human evolution: More from the Ida? I dunno ... files

Ida? I dunno. I wish I had bet a whack on the pop science press dumping all over it

Human evolution: Hype, tripe, trumpets, and (lagging some way after, way out of breath) truth and realism

Darwinists are forever nagging the keepers of the public purse to generously fund their efforts to sell their story to a disbelieving public, but the money is wasted by definition. The reason people don't believe a lot of this stuff is that it isn't believable. More public relations will actually make more people aware of scandals like "Ida" or the fact that there is little or no response to the ridiculous claims of "evolutionary psychology" - which make the science press sound like the National Enquirer.

Apparently, even New York Mayor Bloomberg got taken in. Trust he knows better now.