Which seems to be evolution (Darwinism!) but according to God's preconceived plan.

Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.

“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.

I don't buy it, but this sort of theory at least doesn't contradict the evidence at hand.

Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.

It seems to me that, if one is going to believe in a faith-based theory of speciation, this one is least objectionable in terms of science. It's not really falsifiable, nor does it impose any dogma on scientific research, which is how I prefer my religious beliefs.

But that's just my humble opinion, of course.

Thanks to JackStraw.

Posted by: Ace at 01:14 PM | Comments (162)
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Cold Water: Commenters are telling me, so far, that only family members have Class A stocks, which control the company. Only Class B stocks can be bought, and they're nonvoting.

I wonder if there are any other big papers or wire services which are open to a hostile takeover.

Another Update: Professor Bainbridge on the Times' dual-share system and Morgan Stanley's efforts to fight it.

Thanks to Abe, I think, for that.

...

A commenter noted that the Times has an odd arrangement whereby the Sulzberger family retains control, somehow, despite not having the bulk of voting stocks.

Does anyone know how this arrangement works, exactly? And, more importantly, how it can be undone?

Suppose there are one to three million angry, blog-reading conservatives in total.

Suppose further that each would be willing to buy 5-100 shares, depending on one's resources, if we knew we could, were we to amass a big enough pile of stock between us...

* fire the Sulzberger family

* fire Bill Keller

* and fire Risen and Lichtblau

* and furthermore shitcan them with NO SEVERENCE PACKAGES WHATSOEVER.

Is this possible?

Can we simply cash these fuckers out?

Bear in mind -- the money fronted for this would most likely be lost. We'd immediately alienate the liberal readership of the Times and destroy its reputation by tainting it with conservative ownership. But it might be money well-spent anyway.

First Things First: If anyone knows, please let me know if there's anyway to override the Sulzberger family's control over the company.

And how much stock would it take to take over? Just need a ballpark here.

Hope Springs Eternal? Andy the Squirrel concludes "you can't do anything," but...

Works like this- A shares 4 seats on the board. B shares get 13.

The Och Sulzberger family holds the B's. The B's represent a teeny tiny piece of the equity of the NYT. Basically, they got their cake and ate it too- They retained control, but got the cashola from going public.

Some investors, notably Morgan Stanley, are fighting about this, and withheld their votes for the last board election, along with 23% of the total A-share float.

This whole deal seems pretty hinky. If Morgan Stanley is "fighting it," well...

Posted by: Ace at 11:38 AM | Comments (46)
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At the end of this post, Michelle names a bunch of them.

The post also recounts how Times reporters tipped off the terrorist-linked Holy Land Foundation to an imminent federal raid. Having been tipped off, they immediately began destroying and evacuating evidence from their offices.

The Paper of Treason (TM).

Actually...

I'm sure Michelle won't mind too much if I reprint the list right here. Let the advertisers know you'll be boycotting them and dumping their stock if they continue supporting terrorism.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (34)
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I've got news for these idiots. If they weren't attacking US troops and Iraqi citizens, we'd have been out of there a year and a half ago. Their attacks and terrorism aren't driving us out of Iraq; they're keeping us there.

So I don't see a downside, assuming this is a legitimate offer and they can and will stop attacks. And give up the remaining Al Qaedaists in their midst.

Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes.

Unfortunately, the groups do not represent all insurgents:

The groups do not include the powerful Islamic Army in Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella label for eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq. But the new offer comes at a time when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is reaching out to militant Sunnis, including a new amnesty plan for insurgent fighters.

Al-Maliki, in remarks broadcast on national television Wednesday, did not issue an outright rejection of the timetable demand but said it was unrealistic because he could not be certain when the Iraqi army and police would be strong enough to assume full responsibility for the country's security.

Bush's "lack of a plan" seems to be working.

Thanks to Brett.

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 AM | Comments (32)
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Via Prof. Shackleford.

The Long View:

Thanks to Slubby for the reminder.

Posted by: Ace at 10:28 AM | Comments (25)
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Recounts Kevin Smith's notorious rips on hairdresser/producer Jon Peters. But fails to mention's Peters' demand that Braniac (the villain in earlier scripts) have some kind of a cute alien dog-creature who Braniac would hate but would be forced, for some reason, to care for rather than kill.

Peters insisted on this because he felt he needed a cute toy for merchandising deals with McDonalds or Burger King. "I need my Wookie," he would say over and over.

Thanks to The Corner.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 AM | Comments (8)
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Anyone have this? It's damned weird and funny, and I can't believe it's not somewhere on the Internet.

This is in the same weird ballpark.

From Greg Gutfeld's new blog, the Daily Gut. I'd like to link his article about this, but damned if I can see how to link an individual entry. Just scroll down until you see the adorable new plushy kid's toys, "Pee" and "Poo."

Coming soon: "Cheesy," the cheesy urogenital discharge plushy, and "Smegmee."

Posted by: Ace at 08:53 AM | Comments (19)
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And he thinks that's a good thing.

Dean said he is looking for "the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision."

"The problem is when we hit that '60s spot again, which I am optimistic we're about to hit, we have to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes," Dean added.

He then goes on to admit actual liberal mistakes-- government housing which created ghettos for blacks, giving away stuff "for free," and the like.

But then this erudite analysis of the minimum wage's effect on marginal job creation:

As one method of accomplishing that goal, the DNC chairman called on Congress "to raise the minimum wage until we have a living wage in this country." He dismissed criticism of a minimum wage hike as "economists' mumbo-jumbo."

Strong. Scientifically-minded.

Gee, I don't know where people get the idea that the Democratic Party is stuck in the 60's, the party of pot, pacifism, and pwife swapping.

Posted by: Ace at 07:43 AM | Comments (58)
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What, they couldn't find a Palestinian flying a kite? Actually... that flag looks pretty kite-like, no?

Strong. Subtle.

LGF, which is on a roll with pictures demonstrating reporters' solidarity with terrorists.

In Further Black-Is-White, Up-Is-Down News... Andrew Sullivan accuses Instapundit of being "passive-aggressive."

Projection, Andy. It's not just a river in Egypt.

He then goes on, yet again, to spout off about how, unlike Reynolds and Goldstein, he's on no one's team but Team Truth. He tells us once again that his stance requires "thinking," which no one who supports Bush (post-FMA, of course) is capable of.

Posted by: Ace at 06:51 AM | Comments (26)
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Meh. He does wear the black suit -- or a black suit; it's just the normal costume in black and white, rather than the differently-styled black suit of the comics -- and he does bond with the alien symbiote Venom.

And Sandman's in it, as well as Hobgoblin, though they seem to just be calling him Green Goblin. Which they're probably doing because Gwen Stacey is in this movie, if you know what I'm getting at.

Strangely, they introduce the alien symbiote by actually doing a very quick version of the whole Marvel Secret Wars story line and they briefly introduce every major character in the Marvel Universe, including four or five of the X-Men from the current franchise (plus Gambit and a black mutant that might be Bishop).

Don't pop a chubby, nerds. No they don't. I'm lying. Come on, how could they do that?

They just say the alien symbiote came back with J. Jonah Jameson Jr. after one of his space missions.

I don't know if the Venom storyline is a good idea. It's so oooolllld now. No one even looks back and thinks, "Cool!"

Oh, and Venom is played by... Topher F'n' Grace from That Seventies Show. So this will not be the hulking Venom you remember from the comics.

They shoulda gone with a Sinister Six storyline. Would have loved to have seen the Scorpion, the Rhino, Shocker, and Mysterio all fighting Spidey.

Thanks to steve_in_hb.

Posted by: Ace at 09:06 PM | Comments (59)
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