A feud is brewing between wingnut heavies Powerline blog, and young upstart Pharyngula.  PZ Meyers, the blogger behind Pharyngula argues that Powerline is out of the mainstream because they believe in creationism.  Powerline counters:

[T]his is the state of so much of today's left -- unwilling and/or unable to argue political issues (or scientific ones, as far as appears) on the merits. Under leftist logic, the fact that one of us doesn't believe a piece of scientific orthodoxy demonstrates, what, that our attacks on liberal political orthodoxies, falsehoods, and forgeries shouldn't be taken seriously?

Naturally, the Iron Mouth editors were compelled to respond via E-mail:

Big Trunk, I see that you assert ("Call Me Stupid"), that the Left is "unwilling and/or unable to argue political issues (or scientific ones, as far as appears) on the merits." I beg to differ.

First, since the efforts of religious conservatives to discredit the theory of evolution in school text books is certainly a political issue, discussion of it definitely has a place in the poltical discourse. Furthermore, I think its safe to assume that a professor of biology like the blogger you mention, who spends a huge amount of time on his blog discussing evolution, (indeed the very name of the blog indicates that evolution v. Creationism is the main topic of the blog), isn't going to go into the details of his position on the subject in a single post on the blog.

Indeed, the post which prompted Prof. Meyers to post on the subject is simply conclusory--there is no evidence to back up the assertions about evolution other than: "I think that Darwin’s theory of macroevolution is plainly wrong, on strictly scientific grounds." Much like the post of Prof. Meyers which you singled out for criticism, the statement on evolution in your post was conclusory.

Indeed, there is plenty of evidence to support evolution. First, it is clear that evolution does occur in the natural world now. There is a reason the doctor tells everyone to take all of the antibiotics which they are prescribed--because otherwise, a resistant strain of bacteria will evolve out of the non-resistant strain the patient is infected with.

The only question is whether or not that process also created the forms of life we see today. It is clear that there are fossil records of extinct life forms almost everywhere on Earth, some of which can be dated using objective scientific methods--dated to millions of years in the past. These forms are different from our own.

Creationists like those on www.Powerlineblog.com would have us believe that a process proven to occur in the world today to result in changes to the forms and genetic code of living beings simply did not work in the past. This statement is hard to swallow for most people with science backgrounds, as well as for much of the general public. It seems to go counter to Occam's Razor, which calls for the most parsiminous explanation to be credited.

The fact that bloggers on your site support creationism without providing any real evidence for it does call their judgment into question. It seems to indicate that they do not do their homework and operate on belief rather than reasoning. Rob W

We await a response.

Hunter S. Thompson, dead at 67.

 Mr. Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians would not like his refusal "to kick gays."

Really?

Rove Denies Gannon Connection.

This just in: Rush Limbaugh to visit the troops in Afghanistan.

In other news, Opium production skyrockets in Afghanistan.

Who to blame in the NHL debacle?  The man who started the fight--Gary Bettman.  Remember, this wasn't a strike, it was a lockout. 

From BBC4, The Donald Rumsfeld Library of Quotations.

Right-wing National Review Online commentator Ramesh Ponnuru on Republican's claims that Howard Dean is a racist for commenting that "the GOP couldn't fill a hotel ballroom with "people of color" unless they brought in the hotel staff:"

Give me a break. Dean is saying, hyperbolically, that there aren't many blacks or other nonwhites in the Republican party. He's right. I've been to many, many Republican dinners where most nonwhites present have been serving the food. (Or giving the keynote.) If Republicans are bothered when people make that observation, they should try to make it less true.

Score one for the man.

If there were a such thing as the Lion Award, going to a person with courage--the first award should go to William Howard Taft IV--who, from within the Bush Justice Department argued that the U.S. did not have the right to suspend the Geneva conventions when it came to treating the Taliban captured in the Afghanistan campaign.

I do not, however, believe, that on the basis of your draft memorandum I can advise either the President or the Secretary of State that the obligations of the United States under the Geneva Conventions have lapsed with regard to Afghanistan or that the United States is not bound to carry out its obligations under the Conventions as a matter of international law.

The point of this memorandum is to not lose hope.  There are men and women out there of good faith who are doing there best to see that the cause of good is advanced.  This administration, when confronted with a choice between a morally correct but difficult course and an easy, immoral course, has always taken the easy way. 

We've just upgraded our version of our blogging software.  If anyone has any problems commenting--please drop us a line at ironmouth@gmail.com.  More blogging to follow.

Blah blah blah blah fake Bush memos.  Blah blah blah Dan Rather should be fired.  Blah Blah Blah Rathergate.  Blah blah blah the power of bloggers is ending the MSM.  Blah Blah Blah.

Blah blah blah looking into fake reporter planted by the GOP J.D. Guckert is stalking and wrong.  Blah blah blah its a gay witchunt

What?  Nothing about the power of blogs?

For the last year, the White House has issued a daily press pass in the name of Jeff Gannon of Talon News.  Mr. Gannon is known for tossing softballs at Scotty “Little Mac” McClellan, major general of the White House Press Room podium.  Many a time Gannon's puffballs have saved Scotty from answering tougher queries by other reporters.  Indeed, Bush himself asked him a question at his last press conference. Check out this humdinger from the campaign:

JEFF GANNON (Talon News): Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard?
Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam?
And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?
What was he doing after he was honorably discharged?

So what is Talon News?  Turns out it isn't news at all--it is associated with the infamous GOPUSA, a partisan website.  Scandal you say?  Not quite yet.

You see, Mr. Gannon was subpoenaed in the investigation into Plamegate, the investigation into the outing of the CIA wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, who debunked the President's claim in the 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium alloy from Niger.  Turns out Mr. Gannon suprised Mr. Wilson during an interview by mentioning that his wife was a CIA agent.  Certainly this is turpidue enough to start the media digging to find more.

Not quite--it gets better.  It turns out that “Jeff Gannon” is a pseudonym.  Despite the fact that married women reporters who keep their maiden name professionally are required by this Administration to keep press passes in their husbands' name, Mr. Gannon is allowed to keep his pass in his fake name.

So the folks over at Daily Kos went to work trying to find out who this gentleman is.  They think they have a prime suspect: Mr. James Dale Guckert.  Mr. Guckert owns www.jeffgannon.com and key details of his life match those of Gannon's own biography.  Certainly enough to trigger the “Gannon Affair“, right?

Once again, not enough--turns out that the blossoming story includes the key ingredient to any great scandal--sex.  You see, the detectives over at Daily Kos assert that they have found that Mr. Guckert also owns some very interesting web domains, such as:

www.jeffgannon.com
www.Hotmilitarystud.com
www.Militaryescorts.com
www.Militaryescortsm4m.com

Wow.  So, research seems to indicate that the fake GOP reporter who attacks Democrats in White House press conferences, possibly leaks the name of a CIA agent in an unsolved national scandal, turns out to be either a gay pornographer or pimp? 

I don't make this shit up, people. 

Update, Wed. 10:48: Gannon quits Talon News--there must be something else to his story or he wouldn't give up so easily.