Coffee!! I am now an Examiner columnist

Go here for my first column (“Some claim that Satan is a great motivator, just like God”).

Sure, especially if you think you could save money by having hellfire heat your house.

and and here for my second,(“Faked embryos back at PBS, December 29, 2009.”)

No really. Those fudged embryos are back. As a “learning tool,” in total ignorance of the development hourglass. The “hourglass” just means that embryos look different when very young, similar later, and different again when older.

That says nothing about common descent, one way or the other (that is just the trouble, right?)

Embryos, like cakes, dresses, and renovations, look different at different stages.

I think common descent is probably true in most cases, but we cannot necessarily use embryos to prove it.

I wonder how long this Examiner thing will last? I registered at Beliefnet on the advice of a friend, but they deleted my profile, and my query about the matter has received no response.

Shrug. I like Examiner better anyway.

Coffee! Darwin’s granddaughter tosses the fat white woman to the snarks ... but then ...

A friend references this poem, written by one of Charles Darwin’s granddaughters, comfortably seated in a train, which gives you some idea of the family’s values in general:

O fat white woman whom nobody loves,

Why do you walk through the fields in gloves, ...

to which G. K. Chesterton riposted.

How do you know but what someone who loves

Always to see me in nice white gloves

At the end of the field you are rushing by,

Is waiting for his Old Dutch?

- “The Fat White Woman Speaks”

You need to see the whole of both short poems to get the full flavour, and I don’t know that either is in the public domain.

Note: Old Dutch = “duchess” - a term of endearment. A duchess is a high ranking noblewoman.

Also: Here’s some stuff on Darwin and racism.

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: