Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The law is an ass, and then there are the people with their head in it.

You'd have to be aware of this in the first place to understand what's happening. PZ Myers, who writes the outstanding blog Pharyngula, is an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota and is a vocal atheist found himself being sued by one Stuart Pivar. I'll give you the intro from that last link:
Remember that Stuart Pivar fellow who wrote a book called LifeCode (2004), a book which purported to advance a new theory of developmental biology — a theory which would, naturally, overturn everything biologists have figured out so far? Well, here’s a quick refresher:
The rest you can follow over there.

Well, it appears Pivar's attorney withdrew the lawsuit yesterday. That's a good thing since the whole suit appeared to centre around Pivar's attempt to silence a negative review of his book.

However, Peter Irons, a constitutional lawyer who stepped forward on PZ Myers' behalf and literally destroyed Pivar's case is apparently being threatened with legal action by Pivar's lawyer, Michael J. Little. Presumably the basis for Little's suit is this letter in which Irons, quite appropriately describes Little's activities as hasty, sloppy and frivolous.

And here I was trying to wean myself off popcorn.

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