A tip for Howard Dean. When someone prominently displays their ignorance in public, it's best to just ignore them. Look at how we deal with trolls on the Internet and you shall see how the Left should deal with Ann Coulter. Until you adopt this tactic, you continue to feed the troll. 
Dave Winer: "It was a mistake to believe that creativity was something you could delegate, no matter how much better they were than you, because it's an important human activity, like breathing, eating, walking, laughing, loving." Preach it, brother Dave!
Idiots wanted for church leadership 
I'm not totally sure what the requirements are to become a pastor in the Church of England these days. The ability to speak in a drone-like, sombre voice and look good in a black dress are probably high on the list. Believing in God helps, but if you know a fair bit of philosophy, you can find a neat way of saying that you believe in God without actually having to (tip: Wittgenstein, 'anti-realism', 'communal language game' etc.)
But it seems that the key thing that is required to be involved in the Church these days is the ability to say absolutely absurd things with a straight face when in the presence of reporters.
This is not a new story but I've been putting it off for a few days. In a farcical article from the Guardian's G2 section, the Revd Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark Cathederal is reported as saying:
Atheists like the Richard Dawkins of this world are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube, the hardline settlers on the West Bank and the anti-gay bigots of the Church of England. Most of them would regard each other as destined to fry in hell.
We're just as fundamentalist as the guys who blew up the Tube? Hmm. How is that exactly, Mr. Slee? How many atheists do you see blowing up tube trains or clambering on to buses with belts and bags filled with explosives? How many hijacks of commercial airliners do you see in the name of religious disbelief? How often do you see atheists tearing school teachers limb from limb for teaching girls mathematics? How many atheists out there like to butcher their childrens genitals to reduce their enjoyment of sex and to prevent masturbation? How many atheists even think that those aims aren't totally batshit insane?
How many atheists do you see lynching gays and fighting against gay equality? How many atheists do you see spreading misinformation in AIDS-ridden parts of Africa about the use of condoms? How many atheists do you see teaching their children that abstinence is the only way to get rid of STDs? How many atheists just wake up one morning and call themselves a "community leader"? How many atheists do you see who want to impose their dresscode on the women of a whole nation because they think that women have a responsibility to prevent men from getting aroused? How many atheists do you see covering up for their employees sexual child abuse by simply moving them to another office?
I want to make a simple proposition to you. All of these "outspoken" ministers are simply trolls. They are trolling the media. Why? Because they can't actually come up with a proper response to atheism that uses logic and reason. Those don't have much of a role in the media anyway, so they've got a perfect situation. They can just come up with the most ludicrous thing to say and the media will breathlessly report it.
I've never seen a coherent refutation of people like Richard Dawkins given by a religious person. They get their knickers in a big old twist, but they never actually provide an argument against Dawkins' views. They call him reductionist, and Dawkins becomes the but of many of their jokes. But jokes, ad hominems and silliness abounds where refutations do not. The silence really is deafening.
