Last cup of coffee!! At last - a man for Misshelver!

A friend has discovered another Darwin troll “reshelving” books:

Reshelving antievolution books in the name of science

Every time I go into the Hastings bookstore here in Butte, Montana, I get annoyed to see antievolution books in the science section, especially since these books are not scientific in their antievolutionism, but motivated by the intelligent design movement or other religious factors. So, I usually remove the books from the science section and reshelve them in the religion section. Usually I find the books eventually returned to the science section, and wonder if the bookstore employee returning them ever thinks, “Why do these particular books keep ending up in the religion section?”

So, I keep moving them. Today I went to Hastings and had my camera with me. The copy of Signature in the Cell I moved a few months ago was in neither the science nor religion section, and was probably purchased. Today I moved The Edge of Evolution and The Darwin Myth away from the shelve directly under where copies of Dawkins’s The Greatest Show on Earth were, and placed them next to – I just had to – the Adventure Bible and the Princess Bible in the religion section. [links inserted by post author]

I bet the troll “just had to.” His selfish genes made him do it.

He should meet Misshelver, another self-absorbed Darwin nit who thinks little of other citizens’ rights.

By the way, spend your Christmas money on these books, given that they are an anxiety for trolls. If you could order from Hastings, all the better. Anyway, boasts like this tell you what to expect if Darwinists get to be even more of a power in the land. Take heed if your head of state announces an affection for Darwinism.

Coffee!!: Miss Shelver strikes again, but this one must use men’s room, I gather

A while back, I wrote about a self-absorbed female Darwinist* who was misshelving Mike Behe's Edge of Evolution in the "religion" section of the bookstore, to make some odd personal point:

At a blog called "biologists helping bookstores," a Pasadena-based woman whose handle is Shandon explains how she deliberately misshelved Mike Behe’s Edge of Evolution, and a number of other books - distributing them around the store according to her private tastes.

Well, the misshelving bug has struck Darwinists again.

Here is another one - a guy, apparently, this time - helping to make life a bigger pain in the neck for everyone, in defense of Darwin:

Today I went to Hastings and had my camera with me. The copy of Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell I moved a few months ago was in neither the science nor religion section, and was probably purchased. Today I moved The Edge of Evolution and The Darwin Myth away from the shelve directly under where copies of Dawkins’s The Greatest Show on Earth were, and placed them next to – I just had to – the Adventure Bible and the Princess Bible in the religion section.

Now, if I had to say one thing about modern Darwinism that should raise suspicion in any citizen anywhere, it is this: The lengths to which these people will go to prevent their fellow citizens from discovering information that they are actually looking for.

If you ever wondered what a world run by Darwinists would look like, well, this is what it would look like: An unending stream of busybodies running your life by limiting goods and services, in the name of "evolution" or some similarly unquestionable cause. The big thing is to render the cause, whatever it is, unquestionable, by whatever means needed.

I hear that someone has complained about the problem to the bookstore- and hope that others will, and that the current Miss Shelver runner-up will be asked to take courses in information science, or something.

Earlier, I wrote to friends,

I used to write for Canadian Bookseller Association's trade magazine, so I know whereof I speak when say this:

No one has any right to mess with a private business's arrangement of legal inventory. They arrange it for customer convenience. (Except that the front tables and the end caps of shelves are usually sold to a publisher willing to pay a premium.)

And nothing is so time-wasting for the bookstore sales associate and the customer who is running between errands (= "Honey, if you are picking the kids up at the plaza gym anyway, could you pick me up a copy of Signature in the Cell?") as this scenario:

The computer reports three copies of the book, but no one can find them. Were they stolen? Ruined? Unintentionally misshelved by a new, inexperienced employee? No information on these possible explanations is likely. Thieves, for example, and people who accidentally spill pop on a book usually flee and do not e-mail the store to explain. Also, it is seldom worth interviewing an inexperienced employee, as it will only terrify her and she usually does not remember exactly what she did anyway.

So the assistant manager is called. Then the manager.

The store looks bad. But it isn't the store's fault - rather that of the intellectual vandal who deliberately misshelved the books, who is long gone, to congratulate himself somewhere on his heroic feat - which any old lady in a walker could have done, incidentally. So he should get some medal of honour? From which government? Where?

As a punishment, he should be forced to do the store's year-end inventory. The store would then find the books, eventually, and he might learn something in the process. Maybe he wouldn't need the courses in information science.

*I would like to think there are non-self-absorbed Darwinists, and comfort myself with the thought that people do not always live down to their convictions.

Edge of Evolution - a rare example of actual science in a bookstore science section today

Regular readers of this space will know that I blogged recently on an attempt to misshelve copies of Mike Behe’s Edge of Evolution, presumably to keep people from assessing its argument .

(Behe’s argument in a nutshell: He has no problem with Darwinian evolution in principle, but when Darwinian evolution has actually be observed over vast numbers of generations of life forms in the laboratory, it does not work quickly or straightforwardly enough to do the work that the Darwinist typically insists it can do.)

Having advised intelligent readers, who do not need the Misshelver to help them decide what they should read or where they should find it, to go quickly to their local bookstore, and find and buy Behe’s Edge, I of course did the same thing myself. I already owned a copy and had reviewed the book weeks ago, so my purchase was just a test.

Because I buy most of my books on Amazon Canada, I had not realized how much of the current science section of a major Toronto bookstore is in fact given over to topics that don’t seem like science to me.

Examples: The evolution of religion (assumes that there is no revelation), the evolution of morality (assumes that there is no intrinsic moral order, just survivors), our inner ape, our future ape ... in other words, a whole bunch of flapdoodle that was probably kicked out of the social science section because it isn’t scientific enough.

And finally, tucked obscurely on a bottom shelf, I found Edge of Evolution, a book that I know for sure IS about science - an exact history of the long war between the malaria parasite and the human blood cell, showing what Darwinian evolution has done and - more critically - has not done through countless generations.

I bought it - it was the only copy. And there, left all alone in the dark, was a single copy of Behe’s previous book, Darwin’s Black Box. Misshelver Canada, if she exists, will need to find that book in order to hide it wherever she prefers. But I won’t even tell her where the store is, let alone where the book is.

Meanwhile, there’s an active combox discussion on the recent admission of an attempt to hide a bookstore’s copies of Mike Behe’s Edge of Evolution by an aggrieved Darwinian evolutionist. One commenter asked me:

What I want to know is why does ID threaten a Darwinist like this so much that they feel the need to indulge in antics that would only impress a 10 year old ? Or apparently another "open minded godless liberal" ?

I replied

... it's hard to tell in this case because this individual is unwilling to confront her own real agenda.

That is, she tells us - and herself - that she'd like to teach the world biology and that her actions were "light-hearted" (= even if she did some damage, anyone who is annoyed with her has some kind of a problem).

Since you mention a 10 year old, even a 10 year old can see that the only foreseeable outcome of her activities is to create difficulties for people who wish to find Mike Behe's book. But a lucid adult of her political persuasion must protect herself from the realization that she is a censor by adopting a variety of poses - and that is just what we do see.

And so forth. Have fun. Enjoy the good weather.

Edge of Evolution “misshelved” by Darwin zealot customer

At a blog called “biologists helping bookstores,” a Pasadena-based woman whose handle is Shandon explains how she deliberately misshelved Mike Behe’s Edge of Evolution, and a number of other books - distributing them around the store according to her private tastes.

Now, you might think that Shandon (hereafter Misshelver) is restricting the right of others to read. But whoever she is and whatever her connection to biology, she does not see it that way at all. Anyway, she describes her modus operandi:

I think I might have picked a bad week to start this quest. Behe's new book must have been just released: Four copies of The Edge of Evolution were discovered once more in the science section.

I flip a copy and read the back. Here's the beginning of the first quote from the back cover: "Until the past decade and the genomics revolution, Darwin's theory rested on indirect evidence and reasonable speculation..." (Dr. Philip Skell, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences). That's not true! I am emboldened by this bare-faced lie from this well-respected elderly chemist, pick up all four copies, and stroll upstairs.

Now, some blog reader fans think Misshelver is way cool, but a bookstore employee wrote in to complain,

... At my bookstore, we attempt to shelve books where we think customers who don't want to ask for help in finding things will spot them.

Moving books to another section of the store is not "helping" or "making a statement"; it is making a mess. It makes finding a book much harder for the employee who has looked it up in the computer because it's not where it's supposed to be. It means the possibility of a lost sale because the book cannot be found, at least for the moment. It means more work for already underpaid sales clerks to have to move the books back to where they originally were -- because, rest assured, that's what will probably happen.

and other bookstore savvy dissenters chimed in.

Then, Misshelver herself held forth again, professing,

I am aiming to write a light-hearted blog that addresses the serious issue of the lack of science awareness in society: Science has been abused by extremist religion, business, and right-wing politics. So much so that the public cannot discern what science is and is not anymore. I mean, lots of people actually believe that evolution does not happen!

I understand the criticisms posted recently. However, if a few books get moved to another part of a store and a few people get an inkling of what science actually is from reading this blog, then it is worth it.

Well, I didn’t get any inkling of “what science is” from reading Misshelver’s blog, but I did get an inkling of the sort of people who are threatened by Edge of Evolution’s grim figures for the observed success of Darwinian evolution. A similar type of individual (a librarian) tried a similar stunt at a public library a while back.

I am beginning to recognize the type. Yes, they are dim, warped, and petty, but they are deadly serious. Now, if you think that you are a better judge of what you should read than they are, and have not already bought Edge of Evolution, this is definitely a good time. Go to your local bookstore and ask a clerk to help you find a copy. If copies listed in inventory are not apparently in stock, institute a search, citing this example. Whoever wins the intelligent design controversy, people like this must lose for the sake of society.