Comments on: Truth, meet advertising

By: Master Mahan

Master Mahan — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:17:22 +0000

A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design can’t be that hard to write. All you need to do is cross out the word God every time it appears in the Guide to Creationism and replace it with designer. Easy money.

By: eric

eric — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:54:54 +0000

#11

My jibe wasn’t aimed at home schoolers in general, but limited to people who would attempt something as demanding as home schooling on the basis of a “Complete Idiot’s Guide”. I can see how that wasn’t clear.

By: The Bee

The Bee — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:02:52 +0000

—-dodgy reporting on massive (and apparently entirely imaginary) Hezbollah invasions of chunks of Beirut——
But, but, people on the ground have reported for months that a Hezbollah tent city has blocked of inner Beirut as well as parliament.

Now what do we believe?

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:55:50 +0000

A title like “The Complete Idiot’s Guide” may, if taken to refer to the author, be more accurate than the similar “Politically Incorrect Guide”, but the latter has a more descriptive acronym.

By: Rowz

Rowz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:18:48 +0000

#3 – Regarding homeschoolers:

“Major findings include: the achievement test scores of this group of home school students are exceptionally high—the median scores were typically in the 70th to 80th percentile…”

http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/

I imagine this is mostly or entirely selection, but, well, that’s the point.

By: Oh Great! Now What? » Blog Archive » Even More Creationist Humor

Oh Great! Now What? » Blog Archive » Even More Creationist Humor — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:36:40 +0000

[...] as I was drilling down to get more of a sense of what all the fuss is about, I got to a site called Crooked Timber, where I found that this creative “reporter”, Mr Smith, is also co-author of a book [...]

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:23:42 +0000

Bryan,

He’s evidently working on a counter theory to that of the Church of the Great Flying Spaghetti monster.

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

It’s true! There’s a table and everything! Global warming, intelligent design and pirates are inextricably interlinked.

By: thompsaj

thompsaj — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:51:39 +0000

@6, there were several trollish comments about the subject of beauchamp and tnr at Political Animal. Suffice to say that the answer is “few if any”.

By: josh

josh — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:23:02 +0000

Ah. I’d always assumed, seeing them on the shelves, that the Complete Idiot’s Guides were designed FOR use by complete idiots. Now I realise that the title actually reflects those they are written BY. Good to know.
(Incidentally, any bets on how many of the folks up in arms about the alleged misrepresentations by the soldier writing in the New Republic will also condemn NRO for publishing these, um, creative reports? Anyone?)

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:10:31 +0000

Also, strangely enough, he’s co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Pirates. Obviously a “polymath” on par with Micheal Medved, movie critic and historian of slavery.

By: The Next to Last Pope

The Next to Last Pope — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:37:11 +0000

I thought you were joking about the book title until I clicked on the link. At least he understands his readership.

By: Who buys these books? « Debris

Who buys these books? « Debris — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:08:26 +0000

[...] buys these books? Posted on December 2, 2007 by eric I was perhaps unduly stunned to learn that there is actually a book called of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent [...]

By: eric

eric — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:54:35 +0000

I suspect that the readership of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design overlaps substantially with the readership of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Schooling. In both cases, of course, the "complete idiot" designation is redundant.

By: blatherskite

blatherskite — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:08:55 +0000

Co-author?

That makes him not quite bright enough to be a complete idiot.

Even about as dumb a subject such as Idiotic Design.

By: Cheryl’s Mewsings » Blog Archive » Of Course There Is

Cheryl’s Mewsings » Blog Archive » Of Course There Is — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:06:41 +0000

[...] Crooked Timber I discover that there is a book called The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding [...]