Fitzroy and Darwin

Wow. Daily Kos occasionally has such brilliant posts that it makes me all the more sad when they have crappy, repetitive posts about trivial topics like Sarah Palin or Governor Sanford's scandals.

In an extremely thoughtful essay, Devilstower describes the Beagle voyage that led to Darwin's evolution theory, and how his former friend Robert Fitzroy came to be opposed to Darwin's theory. Rather than merely setting up the usual conflict between science and religion, Devilstower talks about gradualism vs. catastrophism. Some ironic history of Georges Cuvier is thrown in too, along with the eventual modifications of evolution theory to include extinction periods and more rapid transitions. It's really wonderful writing, although there's a section about economic catastrophes to make it relevant to today's politics. I find it a little bit awkwardly placed, but overall the essay is insightful and informative.


If only my opinion of Daily Kos could remain good, but their quality is highly uneven. They continually focus on tiresome topics as I said above, and whenever an excuse arises, they repeatedly bash the hell out of Texas, saying in contemptuous voices that Texas should secede, just as nutjobs like Rick Perry claim that we should do. Good riddance, they say, as if they didn't really believe in Howard Dean's 50-state strategy for Democratic victory after all. Boy, they can be blind hypocrites.

We Texans aren't are all ignorant hicks, and we can't all just pick up and move to another state just for the convenience of ignorant, dismissive Northerners. Texas was a blue state as recently as the time of Ann Richards and Lloyd Bentsen, but now we're all tarred and feathered with Bush's reputation. We DID try to help ourselves, and change our state. We WANTED to get John Cornyn out of the Senate but you damn Kossacks wouldn't raise money for Noriega's fucking campaign! I remember the very late fundraising diary there in which snotty Kossacks kept peeking in just to say "I'd rather give my money to a race we can win," creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat. They need to focus on how to help us, instead of putting us down for stereotypes.

Some days I can barely stand to read stuff on Daily Kos, other than the pootie diaries that bring a smile to my face and remind me to click to donate to charities on Hunger, the rainforest, and animal welfare, etc.