Tales from the kingdom of smug: ID linked to government financial regulation

Commentator Tony Blankley attempts to link financial regulation with intelligent design (bad) and non-regulation with "an evolutionary process" (good).

The whole tangled metaphor reads like the guy doesn't get it.

Whether one regulates or doesn't regulate is intelligent design - because intelligent agents make the choice either way.

And regulation has its own evolutionary process - often, alas, it is the law of unintended consequences = the system evolves without guidance to produce unintended outcomes.

Some people should read up on ID and Darwinism before they use them as metaphors.

Quote mining: Classic old media vs. new media

Recently, I have been writing about the difference that the new social media are making to media in general.

Generally, the professional gatekeeper who controls the information members of the public receive is becoming redundant. There are many streams of information, increasingly free.

Here is an example: When ID folk point out that there are many examples in the professional literature of tax-supported Darwinian evolutionist talking honestly about the flaws, defects, or lack of evidence for Darwinian evolution (natural selection acting on random mutation) in their professional journals, Darwin lobbyists accuse them of "quote mining."

The Darwin lobby is a splendid illustration of old media thinking. "Quote mining" is just telling the public what the privileged, salaried, tenured elite admit to each other - and always assumed that the public that supports them would never find out.

Sorry, folks, that circus has left town. I would have thought that Altenberg would warn them, but some people retire without seeing that the world is changing.

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: