I should point out that I owe Berlinski a debt of gratitude for my own blog's title (Clever Beyond Measure). In this little piece in the Daily Californian Berlinski said,
Wearing pink tasseled slippers and conical hats covered in polka dots, Darwinian biologists are persuaded that a plot is afoot to make them look silly. At Internet web sites such as The Panda's Thumb or Talk Reason, where various eminences repair to assure one another that all is well, it is considered clever beyond measure to attack critics of Darwin's theory such as William Dembski by misspelling his name as William Dumbski. (Emphasis added)
Thank you, Dr. Berlinski. At the time the piece was published, about a year ago, it was pointed out that no one at Talk Reason had referred to Dembski as Dumbski, and only a few commenters (not a sinister group of bungling "Darwinian Biologists") had done so at Panda's Thumb. But never mind; it soon becomes clear that Berlinski is more interested in sniveling condescension than he is in actually making any sense, or contributing anything but fatuous fluff to the discussion about biological evolution.
You see, Berlinski is a mathematician and is amused beyond measure when mere scientists wearing clown costumes presume to elevate themselves to the level of his stately Presence. I'm reminded of a James Thurber cartoon depicting a gracious host displaying a bottle of wine to his guests and saying, "It's a naive domestic burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption." So Berlinksi has his fun at the expense of people who actually get their hands dirty in their foolish attempts to augment the body of knowledge in biology.
Berlinski accepts the mantle of DI Fellow, one suspects, because they're willing to pay him the sycophantic homage he believes is his due. He's on record as saying that the idea of Intelligent Design "Theory" doesn't interest him much. In the linked "interview" he describes his attitude towards it as "...pretty much what it has always been: warm but distant. It's the same attitude that I display in public towards my ex-wives." The fact that Berlinski has had wives is somewhat more surprising than the fact that he has a collection of former ones.
Berlinski's disdain — no, contempt — for The Panda's Thumb is enlightening, I think. In his self-interview he describes it this way:
The Panda's Thumb...is entirely low-market; the men who contribute to the blog all have some vague technical background--computer sales, sound mixing, low-level programming, print-shops or copy centers; they are semi-literate; their posts convey that characteristic combination of pustules and gonorrhea that one would otherwise associate with high-school toughs, with even the names--Sir Toejam, The Reverend Lenny Flank,--suggesting nothing so much as a group of guys spending a great deal of time hanging around their basements running video games, eating pizzas and jeering at various leggy but inaccessible young women.
Wow. That's some sentence. One gets the feeling that Berlinski eschews the utility of the full stop out of his utter glee in hearing himself go on and on unimpeded by bothersome punctuation. It's also interesting to note that he ascribes low-lifeism to "the men who contribute" to PT without saying that it's the commenters there and not the actual contributors that he's referring to. Otherwise he would have to admit that the intellectual assets of PT contributors are considerable; you can see for yourself here.
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