So my blog post in response to James Tour’s lying rant went on-line on April 29 this year, and the YouTube interview with Bill Ludlow followed on May 7. In just a few days
from my blog, Tour was pushing that he had personally apologized to Jack
Szostak and so all was well. The Disco’tute used their website to attack me on May
13 using what was a 10 page denial, and personal defense written by James Tour posted on-line.
On May 18, they added a disclaimer of sorts to their YouTube. They basically
said that Tour was “so sad" he kept calling senior faculty, and a Nobel Prize
winner liars, but really he was correct about all the rest. There had been 78,889
views of the YouTube by May 17, and there have been tens of thousands more
since then with all the same lies still being repeated. There was no
retraction. Instead there was a counter attack with even more lies.
I learned that James Tour had the time to write his 10 page duck-and-dodge
because he had actually been told I had seen through his obvious lies, and was
preparing a detailed public response. He
was told by Dr. Faizal Ali. My first introduction to this particular scam by James Tour was that Dr. Ali mentioned that there seemed 'problems' with Tour, and asked specifically if I could watch a short segment of a video. Dr. Ali has prepared his own article describing his
role in all this, “A Chemist Who Thinks He Understands Biology Better Than Biologists.”
Basically, Tour’s reaction before I had
posted anything anywhere was to attack Dr. Ali, and make unsubstantiated paranoid accusations and demands
to his Dean of Medicine, the President of the U of Toronto and his VP of Human Resources, and copied to Tour's Rice University VP of Research that they act to stop this
“extortion.” His assault against Dr. Ali made the following claim, "If I do not comply, there shall be some sort of career assassination upon me which Dr. Ali controls. Dr. Ali seems to hold the key to turn this on or off. That is extortion."
I learned that James Tour had the time to write his 10 page duck-and-dodge
because he had actually been told I had seen through his obvious lies, and was
preparing a detailed public response. He
was told by Dr. Faizal Ali. My first introduction to this particular scam by James Tour was that Dr. Ali mentioned that there seemed 'problems' with Tour, and asked specifically if I could watch a short segment of a video. Dr. Ali has prepared his own article describing his
role in all this, “A Chemist Who Thinks He Understands Biology Better Than Biologists.”
Basically, Tour’s reaction before I had
posted anything anywhere was to attack Dr. Ali, and make unsubstantiated paranoid accusations and demands
to his Dean of Medicine, the President of the U of Toronto and his VP of Human Resources, and copied to Tour's Rice University VP of Research that they act to stop this
“extortion.” His assault against Dr. Ali made the following claim, "If I do not comply, there shall be some sort of career assassination upon me which Dr. Ali controls. Dr. Ali seems to hold the key to turn this on or off. That is extortion."
[Ali
wrote to me, 7-12-19, “Yes, the words of advice were just to be a bit more courteous in tone
when speaking with fellow academics. I
don't think they gave any mind at all to the accusations of
"extortion", and I felt it best just not to mention all that in the
post. Water under the bridge.”]
Journalist (BA) and “Government Studies" (PhD), John West parsed Tour’s ‘It is not my fault screed' into an attack on me. I refuted his favorite line that I lacked the professional chemistry background to expose undergraduate level errors in Part 1 of this 3 part post. We shall call that lie Prime I. He then makes 5 numbered accusations that I somehow had failed to understand, or misrepresented po’ po’ baby James Tour. This will be the substance of following comments.
But, there is a Prime II lie
told by John West, James Tour, and the anonymous keeper of the lies for the
Disco’tute YouTube. And that is that James Tour was somehow surprised by the materials
he himself had prepared on Jack Szostak for his entirely scripted talk before
1000 preachers. Utterly surprised, and shocked without any advance preparation
that could have prepared his response, po’ po’ baby James never imagined that
he was lying his ass off over a dozen times in just 3:45 minutes.
Really! Watch it again. OH! OH! and James Tour really was correct all along.
What the Disco’tute YouTube hack wrote was, “Tour in his response apologizes
for using the word "lying" with regard to Jack Szostak, but he goes
on to explain in detail why his substantive criticisms of Szostak's article
were correct.”
John West wrote, “Tour’s public talks sizzle, and his rollicking Dallas lecture was no exception.
John West wrote, “Tour’s public talks sizzle, and his rollicking Dallas lecture was no exception.
At one point, Tour got a bit
carried away while critiquing an article by Nobel laureate Jack Szostak, one of
the world’s top origin of life researchers. Highlighting an inaccurate diagram
in Szostak’s article, Tour made an off-the-cuff remark about Szostak, telling
the audience that “he’s lying to you.”
He repeated that several times, but it is OK because he said he was sorry. Go look! The James Tour Lie Fest is still posted in full. In fact it now has had 127,307 views today July 14, 2019. That is up to 48,418 more viewers that James Tour, and the Disco’tutes lied to since I exposed Tour for what he is. John West runs the Disco’tute, and the lies become his as well. James Tour’s talk was scripted. He had selected the target, he added the lecture slides, he had the lies down smooth.
In fact, John West has reinforced these lies, and even added some new ones. The first I referred to as Prime I, and II. There is even another subtle lie because John West scrambled how Tour lies were presented, and how I exposed them. He numbered these as #4, and #5. I wrote at the top of my remarks, “The Szostak article that Tour falsely claimed was "part of the primary literature" was a 2 1/2 page sketch published 9 May, 2018. It was not in the main section of Nature magazine, nor was it part of the "primary scientific literature." The Nature website makes this adamantly clear at the end of this short little intro to prebiotic sugar and the origin of life, quote, "This article is part of Innovations In The Biggest Questions In Science, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties."
John West denies my opening observation that James Tour stated at the very first that he was going to expose the frauds and lies “from the primary literature.” Go watch it! Tour started his lying attack on Jack Szostak at 43:08, by saying, “So- Let me show you the primary literature from 2018 in the journal Nature. This is our top journal! You want to see what Nature will publish in this area? None of us could get away with this, except origin of life researchers do!” John West repeats James Tour’s lie that this was the editorial, and peer reviewed content of Nature magazine.
That was of course another lie. The first lie is that the article was not “primary literature,” as we have already shown. The Prime II lie is that Tour is so surprised and overwhelmed by the moment he is forced to keep lying some more. But John West cannot even pretend he is not lying because he hid these bare facts at the bottom of his lie fest as his point #4, and #5 rather than honestly admitting they were the first lies uttered by James Tour in that segment, and the first I exposed. West lies writing on his fake #5, “At last, a fair point, ...” Even then he had to admit I was correct. John West tries to cover up this lie by his boy James writing, “At last, a fair point (sort of), which Tour concedes in his letter to me. But this is a quibble,” and, “So this particular complaint is much ado about nothing.”
He repeated that several times, but it is OK because he said he was sorry. Go look! The James Tour Lie Fest is still posted in full. In fact it now has had 127,307 views today July 14, 2019. That is up to 48,418 more viewers that James Tour, and the Disco’tutes lied to since I exposed Tour for what he is. John West runs the Disco’tute, and the lies become his as well. James Tour’s talk was scripted. He had selected the target, he added the lecture slides, he had the lies down smooth.
In fact, John West has reinforced these lies, and even added some new ones. The first I referred to as Prime I, and II. There is even another subtle lie because John West scrambled how Tour lies were presented, and how I exposed them. He numbered these as #4, and #5. I wrote at the top of my remarks, “The Szostak article that Tour falsely claimed was "part of the primary literature" was a 2 1/2 page sketch published 9 May, 2018. It was not in the main section of Nature magazine, nor was it part of the "primary scientific literature." The Nature website makes this adamantly clear at the end of this short little intro to prebiotic sugar and the origin of life, quote, "This article is part of Innovations In The Biggest Questions In Science, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties."
John West denies my opening observation that James Tour stated at the very first that he was going to expose the frauds and lies “from the primary literature.” Go watch it! Tour started his lying attack on Jack Szostak at 43:08, by saying, “So- Let me show you the primary literature from 2018 in the journal Nature. This is our top journal! You want to see what Nature will publish in this area? None of us could get away with this, except origin of life researchers do!” John West repeats James Tour’s lie that this was the editorial, and peer reviewed content of Nature magazine.
That was of course another lie. The first lie is that the article was not “primary literature,” as we have already shown. The Prime II lie is that Tour is so surprised and overwhelmed by the moment he is forced to keep lying some more. But John West cannot even pretend he is not lying because he hid these bare facts at the bottom of his lie fest as his point #4, and #5 rather than honestly admitting they were the first lies uttered by James Tour in that segment, and the first I exposed. West lies writing on his fake #5, “At last, a fair point, ...” Even then he had to admit I was correct. John West tries to cover up this lie by his boy James writing, “At last, a fair point (sort of), which Tour concedes in his letter to me. But this is a quibble,” and, “So this particular complaint is much ado about nothing.”
I think the liars “doth
protest too much.”
So we have 3 false accusations left made by John West, #s 1,2,3. And remember John West claims he is merely reporting the self defense he received from James Tour. James Tour's 10 page whine added more basic undergraduate level errors, and misrepresentations.
When we looked at these they collapsed. Even undergraduate textbooks expose them. But in this example of creationist liars like John West and James Tour, I have the better support from Nobel Prize winner Jack Szostak himself.
More to follow in Part 3.
So we have 3 false accusations left made by John West, #s 1,2,3. And remember John West claims he is merely reporting the self defense he received from James Tour. James Tour's 10 page whine added more basic undergraduate level errors, and misrepresentations.
When we looked at these they collapsed. Even undergraduate textbooks expose them. But in this example of creationist liars like John West and James Tour, I have the better support from Nobel Prize winner Jack Szostak himself.
More to follow in Part 3.
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