There was some delectable doofus-bashing while I was away by the folks at ScienceBlogs. First, in preparation for his debate on NPR’s Science Friday, Chris Mooney allowed his readers the opportunity to savage the Dean of Doofus, Tom Bethell. They mangle Bethell’s climate change denialism here, his evolution denialism here, and his science policy fruitcakism here. A little like shooting fish in a barrel, but damn, those fish aren’t getting up again.
While you’re over there, observe Tim Lambert take his cudgel to Tom Harris, a global warming denialist (and ex-tobacco shill) that’s been getting a lot of attention in the rightosphere lately: whomp 1, whomp 2.
I’m a little ambivalent about the ultimate value of debunking paid shills. Of course they’re stupid — they’re paid to be stupid. And bashing them probably just gives them more attention than they deserve. But as the above links show, there’s something undeniably satisfying about seeing stupidity decisively and witheringly demolished.
