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Friendly Atheist ★ State Sen. David Farnsworth's latest bill attacks evolution, the scientific method, and decades of settled law.

In an attempt to drag politics back about 20 years and drag science back a full century, a Republican lawmaker in Arizona has filed a bill to force Creationism back into public school classrooms.

Late last week, State Sen. David Farnsworth filed SB 1025, which is extremely short and gets right to the point:

Notwithstanding any other law, a public school may provide instruction in evolution by natural selection only if the school provides concurrent instruction in intelligent design.

In other words, schools can’t teach kids about evolution unless they also teach them about Intelligent Design (which is nothing more than Creationism by another name). It’s a poison pill that says you can’t educate students about science unless you also infect their minds with Christian bullshit.

Farnsworth’s defense of the bill reveals how little he knows about any of these topics: “If we’re going to teach that man came from monkeys, I think we ought to give a choice,’‘ the Republican said.

And Farnsworth made no bones about the fact that while he is using the phrase “intelligent design,’‘ he knows what this is about.

An Arizona Republican Is Trying To Force Creationism Back Into Science Classes

Anthony McIntyre  ☠ The other day a post crossed my feed. 

It had been uploaded by a Christian pastor. I like him because he enjoys the craic and is not a lemon sucker in our interpersonal relationship. He can bring a certain irreverence to discussions and is not afraid to stick his hand in his pocket when it comes to paying the breakfast bill! He even insists on it. 

It looked to me as if the post was some sort of justification, or at least an excuse for prosperity theology. It sought to downplay a Jesus of the poor, opening the door for the theology favoured by the rich to spread its virus of unrelenting greed.

The post was an image of a quote from the right wing evangelical Christian Francis Schaeffer who died in 1984. 


I read Schaeffer some years ago. I did not anticipate finding him persuasive. And I didn't. My purpose in reading him was to better acquaint myself with the type of illogic that bible bashers not only cling to but seek to inflict on the rest of us while screaming 'sinner.' A vigorous critic of pluralist secularism and secular humanism, he was a dogged opponent of a woman's right to determine the course of her own pregnancy, believing he, not she, had the right to choose. A your body, my choice type of guy.

His son Frank depicted his father in quite a negative light, accusing him of being physically and and psychologically abusive towards his wife Edith. Which might help his explain his misogynistic theology. 

Schaeffer believed that Jesus did not come to save people from poverty or to raise their educational standards. Jesus came to save them from their sins. A god of the rich rather than the poor.  

At its simplest and bluntest, Jesus came down to earth to stop people wanking but not to stop them starving. A Jesus that comes just to stop everybody else coming. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Schaeffer Syndrome

Right Wing Watch 👀Written by Peter Montgomery.

Vice President J.D. Vance spoke Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest conference, where Erika Kirk, widow of the group’s slain founder, endorsed Vance for president in 2028. Vance demonized “the left,” promoted Christian nationalism and right-wing populist conspiracy theories, and, unlike other speakers, refused to criticize far-right and antisemitic elements of the conservative movement like fascist personality Nick Fuentes.

Other conference speakers were willing to challenge the movement’s bigots and extremists. Podcaster Ben Shapiro took on Tucker Carlson for having provided Fuentes with an overly friendly platform from which to spread his poison. (Carlson, also invited to speak, mocked Shapiro’s concerns.) Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy challenged Fuentes's bigotry along with racially coded ideas like “Heritage Americans” that have taken root in the MAGA movement.

But Vance, who has his eye on 2028, was apparently not willing to risk alienating anyone on the right, demonstrating the concept of NETTR—“no enemies to the right”—that has been at the center of the ongoing turmoil over Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defense of Carlson’s promotion of Fuentes.

“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless self-defeating purity tests,” Vance said from the stage.

JD Vance Delivers Demagoguery, Christian Nationalism At TPUSA Fest, Refuses To Criticize Far Right

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Thirty

 

Pastords @ 24

 

A Morning Thought @ 3011

Paul Mallon 🏮Anti-imperialist to the end: Kieran Conway (1949-2025)

Kieran Conway
The death of Kieran Conway in June passed almost entirely unnoticed. That silence is no accident. Part of the ‘peace process’ was always to censor voices like his — men and women who refused to capitulate, who named betrayal for what it was, and who remained anti-imperialist and socialist to the end.

Conway belonged to the generation radicalised by the civil rights struggles of the late 1960s — in the United States and in Ireland. When British troops were sent to defend the Orange state in 1969, he understood, like thousands of others, that Ireland’s oppressed minority had no choice but to defend themselves. He became a revolutionary. He left behind a comfortable middle-class existence to join the IRA, first in England and then as part of the leadership. Conway rose to the IRA’s GHQ staff and at one point served as Director of Intelligence, playing a central role in the mid-1970s reorganisation of the movement.

He endured prison and exile, and when the Adams leadership steered the movement into constitutionalism, Conway broke ranks. He resigned after the Downing Street Declaration in 1993, correctly recognising that it represented a historic surrender: the acceptance of the unionist veto, the principle of consent, and with it the defeat of republicanism as a revolutionary force.

His 2014 memoir, Southside Provisional, was written without apology or repentance for his role in the armed struggle. It exposed the mendacity of Gerry Adams and Co — the lies told to their own base as they edged ever closer to administering British rule. Tellingly, Conway struggled to find a publisher willing to take the book, a reflection of the censorship imposed on any account that challenged the official narrative of ‘peace’.

Conway opposed the Good Friday Agreement and the sanitised ‘peace’ it produced. He never disguised that opposition. He stood as a reminder that the struggle was for national liberation and socialism, not for seats in Stormont or careers in government.

In later years he trained and practised as a criminal defence solicitor in Dublin, continuing to defend the oppressed against the state. But his greatest legacy is political: the testimony he left that cuts through the mythology of the peace process and the silencing of revolutionary voices.

Kieran Conway’s passing matters because it underlines what the ruling class and its nationalist partners want buried — the fact that the so-called settlement in Ireland was not a victory for the oppressed, but a managed defeat. The lesson for today’s movement is clear: revolutions are betrayed from within as well as defeated from without. Those who still stand for an anti-imperialist, socialist Ireland must study Conway’s life and his critique, not to mourn, but to prepare.

☭ This obituary featured in Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism in October 2025.

Kieran Conway

Muiris Ó SĂșilleabhĂĄin ✍ Gerry Adams was once my hero, a figure who I revered from afar so much so that I felt compelled to join the Republican Movement and play my part in the struggle for a 32 Country Socialist Republic. 

It was Gerry Adams who stirred me into entering a war that I could have so easily ignored from my cosy middle-class suburb.

My hero became my leader, he embodied the struggle, the strategy and the endurance that the long war demanded. His clinical ruthlessness, his unbending demeanour and his personal dignity were traits that were admired by even his most ardent enemies at a time when republicans and republicanism were under fire.

In the post ceasefire years, I got to know him, not closely but well enough to confirm the old adage that you should never meet your heroes. Unlike Martin McGuinness, I found Gerry A quite a disagreeable person. Martin always had a smile and a handshake, a most charming man. Gerry was cold and demanded veneration.

To question Gerry now is a deeply uncomfortable reckoning. There is guilt in it and a sense that I am betraying my past self. Like Michael Phillips, when I look in the mirror, the young man, who gave so much, fleetingly looks back at me and wryly informs me that I should have known better.

In castigating The Beard, it hurts and it shames because it necessitates that my past and my present collide reopening old and painful wounds. Silence, however, would extract too great a cost from my conscience and impede my journey of healing.

Q. What is the difference between Gerry Adams and God?

A. God does not think he is Gerry Adams.

There is unique pathology which takes hold of men (mostly men) who have survived history and helped shape destiny. The Emperor Caligula, Stalin and Bonaparte all exhibited the personality traits associated with “God Complex”. God complex is a phenomenon that does not manifest itself as insanity but in an unnerving conviction that events and history can be shaped according to their will.

Deus Vult: God Wills It

Adams, remapped Republicanism, throughout the last period of our conflict. Every road, the armed struggle, negotiations, decommissioning and the peace process ran back through his leadership of the IRA and Sinn Fein.

His function now, while no longer Presidential, remains of critical importance to the Sinn Fein project and also his careful curation of his own memory. Writing his own epitaph pre-mortem requires the redrawing of moral and historical boundaries.

Denial and reinvention are now his most trusted weapons. He was adjacent to the IRA but not intimate (allegedly) and therefore not accountable for their actions, he alone had the vision for peace, and he alone possessed the knowhow and cunning to deliver it; and Saint Gerry delivered.

Adams’ gerrymandering of history is slowly unravelling, with every legacy investigation and every time the unburied dead bear inconvenient witness, the truth emerges bit by bit. His commentary increasingly demonstrates that his god complex cannot tolerate such disruption to his well-managed eulogy.

The Andytout News affords Gerry A a weekly platform to share his insight with its few hundred readers, a column which is more akin to a papal edict than an opinion piece in a low brow tabloid. Like the Pope, Adams, who now claims to speak “ex cathedra”, writes with the cadence of infallibility and an arrogant conviction that he is immune from error and shall not be challenged or contradicted. Infallible by definition rather than by argument, for his flatterers, if Gerry says it then it must be so.

While the Church has largely moved away from the idea of Papal infallibility, Gerry surrounds himself with a group of sycophants who cater to his ego and uphold his sense of being infallible. These people are not fools (not all of them), rather opportunists who have learned that proximity to power and wealth necessitates the suspension of curiosity.

Their brownnosing is as dishonest as it is corrosive, but it offers them the comfort of a rationale that the bloodshed while regrettable was also unavoidable, and that the final settlement vindicates us all of guilt or blame. The duty of the gaggle of Adams’ flatterers is to accept the myth, applaud the amnesia and nod through the contradictions while genuflecting at the altar of the peace process.

There is a cost to this parasitic arrangement, and as always it is paid by the victims outside the room, those whose experiences and memories do not align with the infallible former MP for Belfast West. There are claims that critical examination threatens to undermine a nearly 30-year-old ceasefire, and that those who seek transparency or accountability and the truth are opponents of the never-ending peace process.

Saint Gerry does not tolerate heresy, not because heresy is wrong but because it is a reminder that believing in Gerry was always optional and dissent from his teaching may well expose him as an ordinary and fallible human.

No Big Suprise - No Shit Sherlock

In his latest Papal Bull, Adams broaches what should have personally been an awkward subject: Kenova. Unlike the Catholic Church, Adams and the Movement have yet to learn that public opinion can be quickly swivelled by humility, an unconditional admission of guilt and a meaningful apology.

Adams’ piece offers a familiar choreography, written as a bystander, someone who was not central to the creation of the Internal Security Unit and therefore not diminished by its actions. He resurrects the ghosts of Brian Nelson, the securocrats and the RUC to confirm his analysis that the “Kenova revelations come as no big surprise”.

Adams deploys his gravitas and privilege to blame the Brits and assert that, just like the Stevens Investigation, the Brits hindered the Kenova investigation team. No explanation is given as to why the IRA refused to cooperate with Kenova even though the movement now endorses the legitimacy of British policing in this part of Ireland. No clarification is given as to why Sinn Fein provided political cover for Scap for years.

Kenova is contextualised within the comfort zone of British culpability through its perfidious intelligence agencies, yet no similar analysis is provided on the machinery deployed by the IRA to maintain internal security.

Stakeknife was an IRA Volunteer, he did not operate independently. Every single act of torture, interrogation and every single execution was at the behest of the IRA and primarily the IRA Army Council who directed the ISU. In an epistle where Adams could have and should have displayed a modicum of humility and contrition, he chose the detachment and arrogance of the infallible.

More importantly what is absent from the Adams opinion piece is any acknowledgement of the people who carried the cost of the ISU. The men and the women who were abducted, interrogated, brutalised and murdered. Families who continue to demand the truth, real people whose suffering is as real as those families championed by the horde of “relatives’ groups”. When their relatives were murdered by the IRA (not the Brits) families were told by the IRA that they had to absorb their grief and not “create a fuss.” These are the families Adams continues to ignore. His omission of an apology was not an oversight, it was not a neutral position, it was a continued exercise of his power and further demonstration of his god complex.

Similar to other infallible leaders such as Stalin, Churchill et al, Adams’s legacy will be tarnished over time. However diligently Adams and his flock of sycophants attempt to launder the record, history will not be kind to him. No amount of slick suited libel lawyers can supress forever what is already known. Adams was not a peripheral figure nor a passive observer of events that ran beyond his control. He was the leader of a ruthless guerrilla organisation, that included the ISU and the consequences of that leadership are his to own.

For those of us that once believed.

⏩Muiris Ó SĂșilleabhĂĄin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fĂĄs.

The Beard

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Twenty Nine

 

A Morning Thought @ 3010

Anthony McIntyre  ⚑ Few would have known his first name was Gerard. 

Gerard Hucker Moyna
Hucker was all her ever got, and it was a name that many people had been familiar with long before he ever arrived in their lives. He acquired the reputation of being a ruthless and formidable IRA figure after witnessing his father dying from a heart attack induced by a British Army beating during a house search. His activism led to him developing into something of an IRA legend in the Kasmir/Clonard area of West Belfast.

Many conflict killings were attributed to Hucker, not all of them accurately so according to some of his former comrades who nevertheless acknowledge his operational efficiency in close quarter situations. Seemingly, the legend he grew into within physical force republicanism acquired a life of its own which some in the media were to prone to amplify and others to repeat.

Caught in 1984 he received a ten year sentence, and for a time while was on the red book in the H Blocks, which meant he spent only a short time on each of the wings. It was always enjoyable to see him arrive because he had excellent bullshit antennae. The Kool-Aid crowd tended to give him a wide berth. He breezed through jail as if he hadn't a care in the world. An intelligent guy but one who never picked up a book. Uniquely for the H Blocks his cell was a book free zone. He kept abreast of events through the radio which he played constantly.

A raconteur and wit, he once said that a certain SF councillor must be the bravest man alive. When asked to explain, his reasoning was simple: Every night he sits in terror that the IRA will kill him for being such a coward. Anybody that can survive that one day after another has to be brave.

One famous Hucker line was crafted outside the prison in the wake of an IRA operation which went wrong. The intended target was supposedly a prison officer by the name of Davy Long. Sitting in a bar when he heard what happened Hucker quipped to his drinking companion, I see the IRA shot Davy Wrong.That was typical Hucker, equipped with a wit that he would frequently deliver with relish when venting his low tolerance for Sinn Feiners. 

He had come into the H blocks at a time when within the Republican Movement the Blanketmen were being eclipsed by the Banquet men. In his view, Sinn Fein, was a hiding place for those who did not want to go to jail so avoided the IRA. He did not share the view of Bobby Sands that everybody had their part to play, big or small, feeling that the IRA was being played by Sinn Fein with its ever growing pool of careerists. Trying to persuade him that armed struggle alone was never going to go far was never the most successful of ventures.

I would run into him on the outside occasionally. One Sunday morning I chanced across him on the Whiterock Road not too long after the first IRA ceasefire of 1994. He told me he had been gripped on the orders of the leadership, When he turned up for the meeting he was asked to place a hood over his head. He refused, telling his interlocuters the most he would do was face the wall. His resentment was down to a feeling on his part that the people talking to him had previously sworn to prevent any sell out and now here they were standing behind him in a darkened bedroom feeling his collar because he had openly stated his opposition to what he felt was a sell out.

He later became involved in the IPLO after which he moved into some of the other physical force republican groups. One one occasion in 1997 he sustained a serious hand injury when the detonator of the device he was ferrying through Belfast city centre exploded. It resulted in the loss of several fingers and a prison sentence in Portlaoise after he had arrived in Sligo Hospital to be treated for his wounds.

Hucker was immensely well got by his fellow operators. Even if they regarded him as a bit of a loose cannon, he was known to be a can-do-man; somebody who would deliver the operational goods. He was not so well got by leadership figures who would seek to undermine him in a bid to prevent his stature taking on proportions larger than they were comfortable dealing with.

My last encounter with him was on a Belfast bus as I was travelling to Twinbrook to visit my mother.  On seeing him I jumped into the seat beside him. He had lost none of his acerbic wit or scepticism.

In April of last year, before the cortege set off for his final journey along the Falls Road, which he had traversed thousands of times, a volley of shots was fired over his coffin. He would have had it no other way.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Gerard Hucker Moyna

Christopher Owens đŸŽ” with his 2025 pick of the year.

Horns up 

20. Public Enemy – Black Skies Over the Projects: Apartment 2025

Five years on from the excellent, if somewhat self-celebratory, ‘What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?’, Chuck D and Flava Flav are back with another fine record to their name. While they’re never going to be as incendiary sounding as they were in 1987, it’s heartening that they’re still putting out LPs with humour, anger and groove.

 19. Ramleh – Hyper Vigilance

For those of us who have followed Gary Mundy’s musical journey over the last few decades, it’s not surprising to note that Hyper Vigilance is a lot more post-punk/post-rock in its outlook as opposed to dissonant noise (of which there is a fair bit of as well.  ‘New National Anthem’ is a perfect example of this approach and by God it’s astonishing.

 18. 1186 – Histeria

Although released digitally in 2024, the pressing on vinyl from earlier this year qualifies it for this list as far as I’m concerned. And for good reason as this record from Colombia is a prime example of deathpunk: goth played by punks. How could you listen to a song like ‘Ataque SistemĂĄtico’ and not get chills?

 17. Coroner – Dissonance Theory

When your labelmates were Celtic Frost, Voivod and Kreator, you had no choice but to up your game or be pushed aside.  For their first album in 30 odd years, the Rush of death metal have come back with a monster release that gives the classic sound a modern sheen. ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ gets the nod for some sick guitar leads.

 16. Home Front – Watch it Die

An odd listen in that it combines synth-pop, punk rock riffage, soaring choruses and vocals that attempt to be both passionate and dispassionate, somehow all these disparate elements come together to produce something utterly compelling, not a million miles away from the likes of High Vis. ‘New Madness’ sums up this eclecticism.

 15. Hellshock – XXV

Marking 25 years since their formation in Portland, Oregan, these crust legends have only gone and made their finest record to date. With Todd Burdette from Tragedy and Nightfell on 2nd guitar, the sound moves closer in tone to late period Celtic Frost and (unsurprisingly) Tragedy.

 14. The Saints – Long March Through the Jazz Age

The final release from Brisbane (by way of Belfast) singer Chris Bailey, this may not be a raucous album in the tradition of I’m Stranded and Eternally Yours but it is a damn fine country and roots record, showing that Bailey was determined to follow his own muse regardless of his legacy. ‘Vikings’ gets the nod.

 13. Laibach – Alamut

Laibach aren’t strangers to grandiose concepts and this might be their grandest yet. Recorded with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and several choirs, Alamut is based on Slovenian novelist Vladimir Bartol’s book which was sarcastically dedicated to Benito Mussolini when it was published. Over 2 hours long, it’s a gorgeous and stirring record.

12. Combust – Belly of the Beast

NYHC hasn’t sounded this metallic since ‘Best Wishes’ by the Cro-Mags. Filled with gang vocals, breakdowns, divebomb solos and oozing menace, this is a stellar release. 12 songs filled with anger and intensity that runs to 30 minutes with ‘Swallowing Swords’ and ‘Truth Hurts’ being particular highlights.

 11. Intensive Care/The Body – Was I Good Enough?

Supposedly, multi-genre legends The Body sent over rough sketches to death industrial Intensive Care who then added parts before chopping and screwing the results. The end result is a dissonant, cut and paste sense which is not far removed from the early Mark Stewart albums.

 

 

10. LA Witch – DOGGOD

A shocking five years have passed since the underrated ‘Play with Fire’ and they’re back with more garage influenced post punk, albeit with slightly more emphasis on the post punk this time around. Songs like ‘777’ give off autumnal vibes due to the brittle (yet cutting) guitar tone while ‘Eyes of Love’ perfectly meshes The Gun Club with The Sound.

 9. The Young Gods – Appear Disappear

It’s been a rough few years for TYG singer Franz Treichler due to the death of his wife. However, that seems to have given him and the band a focus to return to basics after the underrated Data Mirage Tangram and the instrumental piece In C. Although the ethereal atmospherics are still present, the rock element is more upfront this time.

 8. Cathedral – Society’s Pact with Satan

Apparently recorded at the same time as the underwhelming ‘The Last Spire’ and recently rediscovered, one would have to question how this was allowed to be forgotten as it is an utter belter. A 30-minute track that encompasses what made Cathedral such a legendary band, the blend of psych, folk, stoner and doom is revitalising.

 7. Guiltless – Teeth to Sky

As a follow up to one of the finest releases of 2024, Guiltless are back with a full length release and what a monster it is. Mixing math rock, post metal and noise rock into a powerful, overwhelming and apocalyptic sounding release, Guiltless made the first essential release of the year. In particular, listen to ‘Our Serpent in Circle’ and feel the power on display.

 6. Drain - …Is Your Friend

The third album from the Santa Cruz crossover thrashers ups the ante from the previous two records: the riffs are faster; the vocals are more pissed off and the drums groove in a way that they previously haven’t. Despite the colourful cover, this is an angry LP that takes aim at the rat race, former friends and critics. ‘Nothing But Love’ is the daddy of the record.

 5. The Ex – If Your Mirror Breaks

Dutch legends The Ex continue their idiosyncratic journey from anarcho-punks to art punks without ever compromising their principles. Although not a million miles away from 2018’s ’27 Passports’, this is no bad thing as ‘If Your Mirror Breaks’ is an immediate, angular and tuneful record with ‘Wheel’ being the standout number.

 4. Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking

The last few Manics albums have been ruminations on aging as the world you knew collapses. While in a similar vein, this is much more optimistic LP in its outlook with songs accepting that humans aren’t perfect (‘People Ruin Paintings’), finding catharsis in reconciling the old and young self (‘Hiding in Plain Sight’) and standing firm against the madness (‘OneManMilitia’).

 3. HAIM – I Quit

Their first album in five years is a little sprawling and a tad confused in terms of lyrics, but it’s appropriate considering that the theme running throughout is the end of relationships and what happens next. Musically, a lot more acoustic and less poppy than previous outings which further the mood of introspection and confusion. Sampling U2 on the final song? *chef’s kiss*

 2. Turnstile – Never Enough

One of the records that will define the summer of 2025, Turnstile return with another record that blurs the boundaries between hardcore, pop (80’s and current) and alt rock. Maybe not quite as breath taking as 2021’s ‘Glow On’ but songs like ‘I Care’, ‘Slowdive’ and ‘Sunshower’ certainly help lift the mood whenever one is feeling down in this heat.

 1. Swans – Birthing

For the final release of this iteration of Swans (according to Michael Gira), they’ve gone out with a bang. Easily their most astonishing LP since 2014’s ‘To Be Kind’, the power on display throughout is nothing short of breath-taking: ‘I Am a Tower’ and the title track make the listener feel like they’re standing on a mountain during a storm, challenging God to deliver more.

 

⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.

Predominance đŸ„ Best Of 2025

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Twenty Eight

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