Don’t miss this one: tomorrow on Science Friday, Flatow interviews the expelled director of the Texas science curriculum.
Education and Evolution in Texas
(broadcast Friday, December 7th, 2007)
The education official responsible for the science curriculum in the state of Texas resigned last month saying she was forced to step down after being reprimanded for informing colleagues of a talk on the conflict over the teaching of evolution. Christine Castillo Comer, former Director of Science in the curriculum division of the Texas Education Agency, forwarded several colleagues an email notice of a upcoming talk by Barbara Forrest, co-author of the book “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Castillo Comer’s supervisor said the email was grounds for termination as the ‘FYI’ email “implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”In this segment, Ira talks with Christine Castillo Comer about the case and about evolution, ‘intelligent design,’ and creationism in Texas.
So, the Texas Education Agency “must remain neutral” between science and anti-science. As they say, God bless Texas.
Why doesn’t Flatow invite Stein to add his denunciations of forcing Comer out over a bit of free speech?
Of course he’d duck it, but I’d like to watch him duck and squirm.
After all, as a putative entertainer, Stein owes us as much entertainment as we can squeeze out of him. We’re not going to get anything else worthwhile from him.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
I got ONE WHOLE DOLLOR on some moron calling in and griping that “they have no ID supporters on so this confirms the liberal media conspiracy” any takers.
I’d pay a whole dollar to hear someone call in and ask a question about whether anyone can explain why Comer must “remain neutral” while the board apparently does not have to… but you only get the dollar if you finish the question “anyone? Bueller?”
From the article:
“after being reprimanded for informing colleagues of a talk on the conflict over the teaching of evolution.”
Shouldn’t that be the conflict over the teaching of Intelligent Design?
“I got ONE WHOLE DOLLOR on some moron calling in and griping that “they have no ID supporters on so this confirms the liberal media conspiracy” any takers.”
Unfair bet. Those folks don’t listen to NPR, least of all “Science Friday”
J
Since when does FYI imply an endorsement ? I’ve done many FYIs of things I didn’t like.
I’m hoping Christine Comer reveals why she stepped down rather than forced them to fire her. I know there’s no way in hell I’d have left quietly, but I assume she has her reasons.
It’s fantastic that Comer’s going public so soon. I usually don’t expect to hear people, buried under a pile of lawyers as they are.
Of course, talking to NPR will only cement the public case against her in Texas, what with being interviewed by the cross-dressing volvo-driving latter-sipping Ira Flatow.
Ira Flatow’s show might have been the only one on NPR that I could not stomach—he just comes across as an ignoramus to me—but this show I might have to listen to.
Ah, then you’d love the Faith Middleton Show. That woman is so delightfully vapid I’m pretty sure she was the inspiration for the infamous Schwetty Balls sketch. I listen to her just to see how inane, ignorant and completely banal she can be. It’s quite amusing.
[/i] for what it’s worth.
None of this should surprise us, knowing what we know about the American public. (I just heard Craig Ventor say that 25% don’t know that the Earth orbits the Sun, & over 50% can’t calculate 10% of the restaurant bill for the tip!)
(I just heard Craig Ventor say that 25% don’t know that the Earth orbits the Sun, & over 50% can’t calculate 10% of the restaurant bill for the tip!)
Good heavens! Who tips 10%? Maybe that’s why I got 15-20% when I waited tables. People couldn’t do the math.
What a chilling story.
Maybe the F.Y.I. in this case should stand for Fuck You, Ignoramuses.
I’ve found that consistently tipping 20% gets great service, including piping-hot delivery pizza. (Pay in advance by card over the phone, and add the tip during that call, so the delivery guy knows what he’s getting.)
It doesn’t. For Your Information just means….For Your Information and doesn’t imply anything more.
This was just a pretext. Comer was a known evolutionist, a science supporter and head of Texas Science Curriculum. She was in the way of the creos. They would have nailed her for something, having a copy of a biology textbook, breathing, feeding stray cats. The probability that her replacement will be a raving religious bigot and a creo is 100%.
What is the point of being a Fascist religious fanatic if you can’t persecute a few 100 or a few million people now and then. Might as well believe in democracy or something otherwise.
And isn’t it a gross over-simplification to say that the Earth orbits the Sun, or that the Moon orbits the Earth?
In the Earth-Moon pairing, because we only need consider two objects relatively similar in mass, it’s clearer that there’s a shared center of gravity around which both objects orbit. Although that center is within the Earth’s volume, it is not the Earth’s own center.
Likewise, the Sun and its planetary subsystems orbit around their shared center of gravity, in this case within the Sun’s volume. Due to the Sun’s much greater relative mass, and the varying positions of the planets, that shared center of gravity may at times coincide with the Sun’s own center (and will never get very far away from it), but is not permanently identical with it.
When the objects at issue are closer in size (“double stars” or “double planets” or even “multiple” whatevers), we may use the phrase “orbit each other”, but still the more accurate description would be “orbit their shared center of gravity” — and that center may then be outside the volume of any of the objects.
The Austin American Statesman has actually been giving this story some decent coverage. Believe it or not, not all of us Texans are fundie morons. In the print version today, the entire letters section was devoted to letters supporting Comer and slamming the TEA’s political appointees. The online version has more letters. Sane people greatly outnumber the Creationists and smack them down pretty easily. Check it out.
The fundie comments are good for a laugh.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/opinions/entries/2007/12/05/when_teaching_science_in_texas.html
In my experience 8 times out of 10, FYI=CYA
George Burton,
As a fellow Austinite, you must realize that the rest of Texas views Austin as the Berkeley of Texas. I’ll be more surprised when the Houston and Dallas papers take a stand.
The Houston paper has, here and here.
Actually, I think these editorials have already mentioned in one of the other Pharyngula threads about this case.