Florida did it: their ridiculous “academic freedom” bill that promoted creationism has been approved by their senate committee.
Here’s the cast of characters:
- Chair: Senator Don Gaetz
(R) - Vice Chair: Senator Frederica
S. Wilson (D)
- Senator Larcenia J. Bullard (D)
- Senator Lisa Carlton (R)
- Senator Ted Deutch (D)
- Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla
(R) - Senator Stephen R. Wise (R)
Floridians, you have a job to do.
Call or write Sen. Ted Deutch and thank him: he’s the only one who voted against the bill. Urge him to keep up the fight.
The chair and vice chair of this committee were absent and did not vote. Call them and cuss them out for abdicating their responsibilities. Tell them they screwed up, and that you do not support failure.
The rest…call or write and tell them that you won’t be voting for them in the next election. Explain that as members of the education committee, they had a responsibility to support good science education.
I don’t think all is lost just yet. This just means it moves out of committee and on to the rest of the senate (OK, maybe we are doomed). Whoever your representative is, call or write and tell them that this bill must be opposed, that it is a potential disaster for science education in the state, and that it is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Big Dave says
Good luck with this fight guys. I’d help, but am across the pond.
Saddlebred says
Maybe this will finally be the Waterloo for your evil darwinist dogma! If man evolve from a goo monkey why does Brier Rabbit and the Tar Baby say in the Bible that we didn’t?
Bill says
Well…
It still has to go through the senate, house, and governor. Let’s hope that more informed representatives step up and stop it.
Good for you Senator Deutch. Keep up the fight.
Salvatore Patrone says
Near as I can tell, all this bill does is secure a persons right to filibuster scientific educational endeavors on behalf of religious mythologies.
James F says
Senator Wise, the committee meeting is over, would you quit posting here?
Wazza says
One thing to do is reinforce that this isn’t about academic freedom, which in any case is a non-issue in classrooms. Kids in high school aren’t doing cutting edge research (I wish…), they’re learning about what the researchers have discovered so that some day they can join in, maybe
anyone in Florida want to take out a full-page newspaper ad or something?
raven says
FWIW, this bill has already been passed long ago in The Theocratic Republic of Texas.
Some posters on the blogs from Texas have claimed that it is already causing havoc in the Texas schools. These were anonymous posters, so this is unconfirmed information of unknown reliability.
Really, this is just the “Let Fundies Wallow in Ignorance and Stupidity Freedom Bill.” Wallowing, it is not just for pigs anymore.
Seraphiel says
Really, this is just the “Let Fundies Wallow in Ignorance and Stupidity Freedom Bill.” Wallowing, it is not just for pigs anymore.
Just because the parents are willfully ignorant, morally reprehensible goons, this does not mean that the children should be denied a proper education.
Anyway: if this bill passes, I can’t wait to see how many smarmy kids submit essays in their classes describing how Satan killed God and used Her steaming fetid corpse to construct the universe, and how we’re all living on the shriveled remains of Her Divine Pancreas.
blf says
Florida is conveniently shaped. A really big saw should detach it from the rest of Bushistan. The Gulf Stream will carry it out into the mid-Atlantic, where (being rather porous with all those leaky marshes and swamps and other gloopy things), it will hopefully sink. Problem solved.
Glen Davidson says
They must be proud of their contempt for Florida’s children.
As I’ve noted before regarding this nonsense, science apparently is for making dog food safe, not for making what goes into children’s minds scientific and accurate.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Glen Davidson says
By the way, how can they think that they can either avoid a lawsuit over this, or to win one?
It’s only directed at biological and chemical evolution. Which is the dumbest charade since–ok, last week, we’re talking creationism here. If academic freedom were what it’s about, there’s no way anyone would be narrowly concerned about academic freedom in biology (possibly chemistry).
So it’s transparently about ID/creationism. They’re not willing to make a shambles of their entire educational program, only in biology, and only because they’re lying for Baby Jesus. But there’s no way that the stupidity in biology can be confined to biology alone, since science is a cross-disciplinary set of methods.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Sideways says
Does anyone else find it peculiar that the people of Florida elected a state senator namedLarcenia ?
Talk about setting the fox to guard the henhouse…
Brownian, OM says
If only I were back in high school: I’d have a great time at the science fair exploring whether Enki filled the ancient riverbeds with water (“a” in Sumerian) or his semen (also “a” in Sumerian). The interactive component of the display would be a veritable orgy of scientific discovery!
Y’wanna give these creotards a taste of their own medicine (and by ‘taste’ I mean a death-by-medical-misadventure-scale overdose)? Ensure every science student gets a copy of Frazer’s The Golden Bough.
AlanWCan says
What am I missing? If you don’t want your kids in science class, don’t send them to science class. (Oh, and stop using antibiotics, no surgery, definitely no anaesthetics, vitamins, water purifiers, cars, electricity, TV, and other products of scientific enquiry). Why do they get away with forcing everyone else’s kids to not be able to go to science class too? Seems in your country you can get away with any stupid (and dangerous) old thing as long as you call it religion.
Sideways says
Seems my copy-paste HTML ninjitsu is weak today… here’s another attempt at Larceny
Ben Abbott says
We Floridians are split into two groups.
Those who look forward the ushering an new age to
indoctrinated darknessenlightenment :-(… and those who look forward to a front row seat in federal court ;-)
When I laugh out load at the shenanigans, I wonder if I’ll be held in contempt ;-)
Florida will get hit very hard by the courts. We require the state to balance its budget every year. The IDiots will be packing it in rather quickly. Either that or they’ll end up burning all the political capital they have. One way or the other, they’ll be branded with the reputation they’ve earned … and I don’t mind paying extra in taxes to make that happen.
Especially, if I get that front row seat ;-)
Lev says
How do you pronounce Duetch?
Sideways says
#17: Doy (rhymes with boy) -tch
ice9 says
dang. I wanted that larcenia one.
Can you believe the citizens of Florida elected a senator named Jethro Dumbass?
ok, well, not yet. But soon.
And they elected a conservative, Jesus-loving, gay, tough-on-gays governor named Crist?
They really did that one.
ice
Rrr says
What are you missing? Maybe the previous post, None so blind as those who will not see, about a family which let one child die from diabetes while offering no other solace than prayer, certainly no fancy insulin and such evil stuff, and which still has three more children in its “tender care” and loving “custody”. Tough on the poor kids, although maybe long-term effective in a Darwinian sense…
Such sad things really do occur, in this day and age, in such an evolved country as the U.S. That is one thing I find pretty hard to believe before breakfast!
Mike Haubrich, FCD says
Sue, Ben, Sue your school district if they comply. Get it to the State Supreme Court. Class action on behalf of the state. ACLU will help. FCLU will help. A school can’t be forced to violate the U.S. Constitution by a State law and this clearly violates the 3-Prong Lemon test
Brownian, OM says
For those of you who don’t know what Mike Haubrich is referring to, the Lemon test is a three-prong test to determine whether some action by a level of the US government violates the violates the Establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Brownian, OM says
violates the violates the
Sorry about that. I have been experiencing power fluctuations in my positronic brain. I will go to engineering and run a level three diagnostic.
Holdust says
*distant sound of enraged profanity being copiously spewed somewhere in South Texas*
CanadianChick says
hell, not only am I not a Floridian, I’m not an American, and *I* just sent the senator an email thanking him for voting against this bill…
edm says
Florida is conveniently shaped.
On a map, it does kinda look like a penis hanging off of america.
inkadu says
Nah. The matrix is just glitchy is just glitchy today.
WRMartin says
@26: Simpson’s Did It!
Wasn’t it Homer (Simpson – not the other one) who said, “Florida?! But that’s America’s wang.”
qedpro says
I wish that this type of idiocy could be punished in better ways. For instance wouldn’t it be great if companies announced that they won’t put an office or plant in Florida because they can’t attract people due to the poor public school systems.
Keith Eaton says
It’s a done deal and the reason is that once all the evo butt brownshirts left Florida the averge IQ went up 28 pts and this most important bill went forward.
The other great news is some 28 states are asking for copies of the language for their states action.
How great is that!!
Mike Haubrich, FCD says
I just wanted to clarify what I wrote above (#22) regarding The Lemon Test (thanks for adding the link, Brownian.)I was at work and trying to rush a comment in before the next call came.
Let the fucker pass, let the governor sign it. And then sue. But it has to move through the courts before Stevens is off the Court (may he live for a long time, yet.) And then they can readdress it and make it apply to Texas. Texas would either have to comply or re-secede from the Union. Either way, we win.
Rey Fox says
Come on Keith, you forgot to work in something about how remote and cold Morris, MN is. You’re off your game!
woody, tokin librul says
The only purpose this measure serves is to put the ‘evolution battle’ on the front-page of GOPuke politics in Murka’s glans.
This is what they call a “wedgie” issue (no, not a ‘wedge’ issue: the reason for the passage of this insanity is to drive the left bananas, get ’em raving about ‘religion’ and its baleful effects (indisputable) and prove to the religious Jebo-fucktards that, yes, the Romans do still rule Rome and are still looking to throw the faithful–especially their children–to the beasts.)
There is NO way to diffuse this, except to let it lie, challenge it in court, etc. But mounting a public campaign does, especially fueled by the kinds of impotent rage I, for one, feel when I regard this travesty, we play into their hands.
Remember Mencken: No one ever lost money underestimating the taste of the average American…these folks are as ‘average’ as it gets…
woody, tokin librul says
“I wish that this type of idiocy could be punished in better ways. For instance wouldn’t it be great if companies announced that they won’t put an office or plant in Florida because they can’t attract people due to the poor public school systems.”
It would be nice, but the idea rests on at least one extremely faulty assumption: that said companies would rather have intelligent, informed workers than indoctrinated, obedient drones. That is demonstrably untrue. And many (if not most, in this most anti-intellectual of all “modern” nations) parents concur–not, perhaps, explicitly, but almost certainly by tacit consent…
Brownian, OM says
So Keith, what’s your position on whether Enki created rivers out of regular water or his semen?
No matter; we’ll let your kids hash it out when we devote a whole section of the curriculum to the study of Creation, the Sumerian way.
(Did you know Enki and his mother Nammu created humans out of clay? Your kids will.)
GG says
I’m a first year law student so take the following comments with a grain of salt. The wording of the statute makes it ripe for litigation. It calls for allowing teachers to “objectively present ‘scientific’ information relevant to evolution…” The meaning of the word scientific is up for serious debate and interpretation. I predict many suits about what qualifies as scientific, but I think publication in legitimate journals is the only objective standard for ‘scientific’ that can be used. Anything else would be too subjective for judges tastes.
James F says
Thankfully, it has to make it through the Judiciary Committee next. And Sen. Deutch is a member (as is absent Pre-K-12 Chair Sen. Gaetz, who has a chance to redeem himself, and Sen. de la Portilla).
CParis says
If Florida and Texas (and any of the other Bible-beating states) want to fill their students’ brains with creationism nonsense – that’s fine with me. Less competition for students from my rational state at top colleges and for real jobs, you know the ones where you don’t ask “can I supersize that for you?”
Chris Krolczyk says
Brownian, OM: you do realize that your reponse to Keith’s screed probably rocketed over his head, right?
(Ah, “evo butt brownshirts”. You gotta love the level of sophistication trolls are capable of…)
Wazza says
I suspect Keith meant “went down by 28 points”
@CParis: Scientists ask “Can I supersize that for you?” too, they’re just referring to things like crop yields and life expectancies.
Maybe, just maybe, if we play our cards right, we can get an OJ-level monkey trial. Please?
Helie L says
I just sent an email to my senator:
Hell if I’m going to learn ID at school.
Fernando Magyar says
ROFLMAO, that’s almost better than teaching the Pastafarian version. As a resident of the great state of Sunshine I think it behooves me to bone up (no pun intended) on the details of the Sumerian creation
mythscience.Glen Davidson says
Actually, the bill has been changed to at least ostensibly keep ID out. As such, it is really impossible to figure out what the point of the bill is, but here’s what they’re telling us:
I’d far rather see the damn thing die, however this is certainly an improvement.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
James F says
Dig, dig, dig that grave. There is less secular justification for this bill than ever. EPIC FAIL of the Lemon Test.
QED says
But I’m sure Storms and her IDiots think that ID *is* “…facts, data, and peer-reviewed research specific to the topic of chemical and biological evolution…”. What other possible reason could this shrill fundamentalist have for her “compromise” to push her bill forward?
UprightAlice says
In response to #43:
The additional section wasn’t the only change to the bill… in two circumstances the word “evolution” replaced the word “origins”. No further comment needed. Even that additional, supposedly clarifying, section is so poorly written as to leave a lot of wiggle room.
pcarini says
Aww.. the amended bill takes out the fun bits. The former version used the phrase “objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution” three or four times. The language seemed strikingly similar to that used at intelligentdesignnetwork.org which provides a good glimpse of what they consider “objective” and “scientific”.
I worry that the people introducing this bill fully expect it to pass only to be struck down in court. Then they can express righteous indignation about “them Liberal Activist Judges”, start pushing conspiracy theory about how Atheist Jew Scientists run the courts, etc. The end result should be to shore up their base and perhaps push a couple whackos closer to doing the whole Tribulation Saint shtick prematurely.
(I just pulled an all-nighter, perhaps I’m just feeling paranoia due to lack of sleep?)
lauram says
Please, please, please, PZ, don’t limit this to Florida residents only. The rest of us can go to actblue.org and donate something (anything) to anyone who is up against these knuckle-draggers. Money talks, more than votes sometimes. And money from out-of-state libs scares the livin’ cressus out of ’em.
Autumn says
Florida may be America’s wang, but it’s a hell of a lot better looking than Massachusetts’s shrivled peninsula.
Sure, it’s just the cold water, Costanza.
P.S., I am appaled at the stupidity of my home state, and always make a point of being extra loud when I explain something to my kids at the Florida Museum of Natural History, just in case there’s one of those odious “creation tours” in the place.
Lyle G says
If Christians can put in their take on creation in school, how about neo-Pagans and Wiccans putting in their interpretations. (The Great Mother inspired life to arise from the sea…)
windy says
If Christians can put in their take on creation in school, how about neo-Pagans and Wiccans putting in their interpretations.
There already is a lesson plan!
-We’re a deeply religious people.
-Religious? With ruined churches, no ministers, no priests… and children dancing naked!
-They do love their divinity lessons.
-But they are… a-are NAKED!
-Naturally! It’s much too dangerous to jump through fire with their clothes on!
Keith Eaton says
Borowny,
My kids could easily distinguish myth from reality in short order, although your hypothesius is redidulous on its face.
What is more troubling is the constant barrage of garbage like,
And then the great molecular roulette wheel called evolution spun and spun until the platypus developed its super sensitive bill implanted, milliamp current sensor so it could locate its food under the mud, process the data on its brain, solve a 3-d kinematics set of equations and have dinner.
Now that people can actually be convinced has efficacy.
MH says
Scientology is big in Florida, isn’t it? I wonder if they’ll be trying to sneak their origin myths into science lessons. I wonder what fundie Christians would think of that?
MH says
#52: “your hypothesius is redidulous on its face.”
Ha, ha! Keith, you are an illiterate little shit.
“My kids could easily distinguish myth from reality in short order, although your hypothesius is redidulous on its face.”
And just how do you determine which of two faith-based positions is correct? I’d love to know what approach you use.
“What is more troubling is the constant barrage of garbage like: And then the great molecular roulette wheel called evolution spun and spun until the platypus developed its super sensitive bill implanted, milliamp current sensor so it could locate its food under the mud, process the data on its brain, solve a 3-d kinematics set of equations and have dinner.”
Yes, that would be troubling. Just as well it doesn’t happen. Unless you have some evidence that it does?
Wolfhound says
MH, he’s a moronic troll who gets more and more unbalanced and shrill as he gets excited. Don’t expect too much from the poor guy. Like sense, reading comprehension, logic, and literacy.
Lana says
Great letter, Helie (#41) – I’m encouraged there are high school students like you.
dave says
If Florida’s the wang, what does that make west Texas?
Brownian, OM says
How ’bout English? Can your kids distinguish that from whatever the hell it is that you were writing in? Did your designer also design the suite of learning and reading disorders that obviously plague you? You must be some big-time sinner for God to hate you so much as to deny basic communication skills to ya. It’s a good thing prayers are spoken, not written, or you’d be looking like PZ in no time: “Give us this day our daily beard….”
Thanks for your help Keith. From now on, whenever somebody suggests we ‘teach the controversy’, I’m just going to direct them to your comments and ask: Do you really want our kids to turn out like this guy? ID’ll be dead before it hits the ground.
Yeah Chris, but undoubtedly so does The Cat in the Hat, or as Keith would write it, Theu Cad inn teh Hater
And Helie L: You. Are. Awesome. Good for you! Way to stand up for your education (though, judging by your letter, I doubt you’ll be held back by whatever poor curriculi they try to foist on you.)
I’m sure you won’t need it, but good luck to you in whatever you decide to do with your future!
Mister Earl says
Isn’t this bill essentially giving Creationists the ability to force a state endorsed religion? Isn’t this unconstitutional?
Science class is about science. Creationism isn’t science. 6,000 years, when pertaining to the age of the Earth, is wrong. It should be marked such.
Stacy S. says
Please, please, please help us in Florida!! My head is about to explode from the stooopidity!
Desertphile says
Way cool! I’m all for academic freedom in public schools. If this law passes, I am going to become a Florida teacher and get a job teaching the fact that black people are superior to all other people—- which I will have every right to do.
Anyone want to teach the astrology course?
Keith Eaton says
So you deny the capabilities of the platypus as described?
Or you agree such capabilities are designed by intelligence?
You really do hurt my sensibilities with your crudities and inane comments.NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
Imagine how many of these sorts of bills will emerge and pass across America once people get a good look at the evobutt, narrow minded brownshirts via the Expelled movie? I appreciated having the email addresses so handy and wrote to each member expressing my sincere thanks for their courageous action in behalf of decent and freedom loving Americans in Florida and across the nation.
In all honesty I always thought people were exaggerating the rank ignorance among the last three decades of “graduates” in the sciences until I started debating this crowd and found how tiring it can be to just humiliate and kick butt on a regular basis. The level of ignorance in math, physics, chemistry and such is incredible among the evos.
I do give you credit for having bone cleaning, frog gigging, and glass blowing down pat.
Mike Haubrich, FCD says
Keith, you make interesting and valid points.
Not. (See, I get the joke. I learned it from watching Borat.)
Nick Gotts says
This guy Keith Eaton is for real??? I read #62 and thought no, this must be satire, then looked back… I’m flabbergasted. In fact, never has my flabber been so completely gasted.
Robster, FCD says
Sounds great, Keith. I love it when state budgets get awarded to the ACLU as payment for protecting the constitution from religionists and their attempts to get religion taught as science.
BTW, your designer is an incompetent sadist. Any one of us could suggest improvements on the human body, from how the eye is enervated, to the structure of the spine, to the lack of repair of sensory hair cells in the ear, let alone the diseases and parasites your designer set forth, or the pain and waste caused by competition for limited resources among and within species that produce more offspring than can survive.
On the other hand, it all fits perfectly within the good enough to survive and reproduce fitness schema of evolution. No assembly required. Just add water.
Robert M. says
I’ve already written to my state Senator about this… she’s the moron who introduced the bill.
She was on the board of county commissioners prior to her Senate campaign; I suspect a number of people voted for her trying to limit the amount of damage she could do locally.
Quiet_Desperation says
I wish I were a kid again. :-(
Q: How and when was the Earth created?
A: According to my religion, the Earth was created 3.14 billion years ago in an act of pure will by my Dark Lord Guning-Zo Phah, the duoprime overmaster of the Subducted Continuum. It was used as a vast orgasmatarium where Guning-Zo Phah and other elite of his uberspecies would hold what passed for orgies for them until the world was abandoned 2.97 billion years ago.
Everything alive on the Earth today evolved from the sticky residue left over from nearly 200 million years of spooky, alien sex parties.
Which explains a lot, actually.
Rey Fox says
I’ve already told you guys, Keith is a performance artist. He should be treated as such (i.e., walked past quickly and without eye contact made)
phantomreader42 says
There’s a technical term for people like Keith Eaton:
Totally Batshit Fucking Insane
This guy is so dense I’m surprised he hasn’t generated his own personal event horizon. His first post on the expelled debacle declared, without the slightest shred of evidence and in blatant contradiction to publicly available airline schedules, that Dawkins couldn’t even have been in the right state, this AFTER the creationist nutjobs behind the movie had falsely accused him of gatecrashing (which is kinda hard to do from another state). He then did a complete about-face as if the previous post never happened, parroting the offical lie.
He’s so hopelessly delusional that he’s impervious to any form of reality. He just doesn’t live in the real world. No amount of evidence will ever convince him of anything.
Keith Eaton says
I don’t see much changing in these classes except abiogenesis BS, first replicator mystery creatures, pictures of the plaster of paris wolf-whale, and other such tripe.
Bad designs that work in harmony with the entire eco-complex, maintain viable life forms across the planet, and display a level of cooperative complexity of staggering proportions now being analyzed by a band of semi-illiterate
dropouts responsible for the underground tattoo economy.
Next session they may pass laws against necrophilia with lab animals and you’ll have to go live in Quam.
Steve_C says
Keith. You need a nap and a binkie.
Grow the fuck up you ignorant fuckwit.
Stop feeding this troll shit.
Zach says
The following is a pretty close to a transcript of a phone call I had with the office of Senator Frederica S. Wilson.
Me: Hi. I was calling regarding the Academic Freedom Bill, the one that keeps students from being marked wrong if they give religious answers about biology?
Staff: [my connection was bad, so he asked]The Academic Freedom Bill?
Me: Yeah. I was wondering what the Senator’s stance on it was since she missed the vote.
Staff: [very annoyed as soon as soon as I bring it up] Well, first of all she missed the vote because she wasn’t here.
Me: She wasn’t there?
Staff: She’s not in Tallahasse.
Me: Well, as co-chair of the Education Comitte shouldn’t she be there for an important vote like that?
Staff: Sir, I don’t work for you. I’m just going to tell you that she was away on personal business.
Me: [can’t believe I’m being talked to like that, I’m even calling from a Miami-Dade telephone number] Um…. alright. Thank you.
Brownian, OM says
can’t believe I’m being talked to like that, I’m even calling from a Miami-Dade telephone number
Well, how dare you demand an elected official be accountable?
James F says
Next you’ll be asking for the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Ya damn hippie!
Helie L says
#58:
Thanks so much! I’m trying to get my friends involved in this as well, so hopefully we can make some sort of impact.
Keith Eaton says
What’s the mystery? Expelled, IC, ID and bills such as the Florida effort, its all very straight forward.
First you inadvertantly permit the wirehead, evolander, broenshirt cult to have sway in science education.
The we discover the near illiterate level of the average evolander in basic hard science skills such as math , physics, chemistry, etc.
We decide in the interest of western culture and quality of life issues that we need to rescue science from the crowd with average IQ’s approaching a cold buffalo turd.
We begin to rally the rational element of talented scientists in various callings around the ID concept and expose the brownshirt tactics of the above BT people and Americans respond to the message.
It’s all pretty straight forward to the enlightened minds of we intellectuals and I’m sure post Exposed, etc. you’ll get the jist of the effort in time to take you proper place in society, the lower level labs.
We’ll keep tossing you a littel grant money from our taxes as long as you promise to keep quiet and just toil away down there.
Any questions?
Steve_C says
I have a question.
Did your mom drop you on your head when you were a baby?
Fernando Magyar says
Nope.
ramiro quai says
I like Keith Eaton’s idea.
How can one claim to understand or “believe” in evolution without at least some knowledge of statistics? Chemistry would be a bonus.
I have heard many people defending evo against the religious with arguments like “Monkeys evolved FOO so that humans could build cities”, and I’ve had evo defenders admit that CO2 is an organic compound because it contains carbon. I know no real biologist or chemist would say such a thing.
We need to have more people defending evo based on knowledge and understanding, and not just parroting “science” journalists or making up half truths based on their misunderstanding of books and conferences.
So, Keith, who from the ID side is introducing the bills to give more money to science education? To have better math programs? To provide chemistry and biology labs to every high school in the country? To give access to advance courses to bright students?
Until I see these attempt at legislation, I say you are full of bullshit.
Rey Fox says
“Staff: Sir, I don’t work for you. I’m just going to tell you that she was away on personal business.”
For real? I would have said, “Yes you bloody well DO work for me!”
Keith Eaton says
Achievement starts at home the underleadership of parents who enforce homework, talk about scholastic achievement, insist on well rounded interests and experiences in early years, illustrate moral and ethical apporaches to work and play and reward positive responses to all such efforts as well as expressed disapproval for indifference or disobedience.
Parental and business involvement at the community level can have enormous influence on the quality of teaching, materials, resources, opportunities, and results.
While most would agree money/student is a critical measurement it is only necessary and certainly not sufficient for higher student achievement.
It is possible to attend very small rural schools or small urban schools with less than advanced programs and still excell if the work ethic is there, desire is there, a plan for achievement is held prominent, and hard work is engrained in the day to day lifestyle.
The extension of the horizon beyond next week, month, year is in need of emphasis in young people who have very short horizons and no coping skills, this in comparison to the earlier generations.
Local bond issues, excellence foundations, community involvement beyond athletics can do more good than 100 government programs.
When the evo community turns attention to actual science rather than history and philosophical naturalism as their entire focus, then we can get back to some real progress.
Proving god doesn’t exist and all faith is worthless is not science and won’t cure HIV/Aids, generate clean power, or erradicate poverty.
Somewhere along the way science lost its mission and its compass.
Nicki says
“Proving god doesn’t exist and all faith is worthless is not science and won’t cure HIV/Aids, generate clean power, or erradicate poverty.”
No it may not be science, but it will LEAD to better science that will give us all that and more once we remove those like you that wish to lead us back to the dark ages of fear and shame.
Progress does not come from saying that the magical sky fairy did everything. Keith, do you drive a car? Take medicine? You’re on the internet so you must know about satellites.
None of this came about because your god (emphases on the little g) wanted it to everything we have now is because of science and scientist that worked hard to move understanding forward.
This bill will effectively keep promising young scientists from building ever-greater knowledge bases that may one day bring us to a type 1 socity and for that, i am deeply sorry.
Just some thoughts from the Great White North.
Nicki
Wolfhound says
PZ, haven’t we tolerated the idiot troll that is Keith Eaton long enough? He isn’t even entertaining.
phantomreader42 says
That’s not the right question. The right question is how often?
Wolfhound says
Idiot Larry Fafafafafalafel is blithering over at Flascience again on the “Bad News” thread right now. Sigh.
prof weird says
Keith Eaton vomits his psychopathy upon the board with :
What’s the mystery? Expelled, IC, ID and bills such as the Florida effort, its all very straight forward.
Lie, lie, and lie some more until Hidden Magical Skymanism is accepted as valid science.
First you inadvertantly permit the wirehead, evolander, broenshirt cult to have sway in science education.
‘inadvertantly permit’ ?
Oh, THAT’S RIGHT ! Science isn’t science unless YOU approve of it ! If reality contradicts your delusions, then it is REALITY that must be adjusted.
“There is no scientific observation imaginable that cannot, one way or another, be MADE TO FIT THE CREATION MODEL.” – Henry Morris
You ‘intellectuals’ must really be slow on the uptake if the ‘evolanders’ COULD have wrested science education from you !
The we discover the near illiterate level of the average evolander in basic hard science skills such as math , physics, chemistry, etc.
All of which show ID to be a festering pile of maggot dung that only the most brain dead eat up.
And creationuts, IDiots, and theoloons are NOT nearly illiterate in math, physics, chemistry ? These are the simpering buffoons that STILL vomit up the ‘2nd Law of Thermodynamics forbids evolution !!!’ crap !
We decide in the interest of western culture and quality of life issues that we need to rescue science from the crowd with average IQ’s approaching a cold buffalo turd.
Translation : “Reality does not conform to Lord Eaton’s delusions !! So we MUST MAKE IT FIT !! By any means necessary, either foul or even fouler !!”
Bloggers like PZ ARE rescuing science from the crowd with average IQ’s approaching that of a cold buffalo turds.
The crowds are known as ‘IDiots’, ‘creationuts’, and ‘theoloons’.
Initiating delusion of grandeur :
We begin to rally the rational element of talented scientists in various callings around the ID concept and expose the brownshirt tactics of the above BT people and Americans respond to the message.
The ID concept being : “If Eaton can’t figure it out, then an unknown being with unknown abilities somehow did something sometime in the past for some reason !” ?
What ‘brownshirt’ tactics, oh vomiter of ad hominems ?
Oh, right – SHOWING that ID is a glorification of gibbering ignorance is a ‘foul, underhanded and MEAN tactic !’
It’s all pretty straight forward to the enlightened minds of we intellectuals
Yep – Mathis is a liar, you are a arrogant, sanctimonious cockalorum, ID is a glorification of ignorance (with some mathematical masturbation thrown in to make it look all sciencey an’ that !), and that the only way to promote ID is to misrepresent, bellow, and lie.
You ? An intellectual ?!?!
BWA HAHAAHAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAA !!!!
Such vainglorious posturing !
and I’m sure post Exposed, etc. you’ll get the jist of the effort in time to take you proper place in society, the lower level labs.
So – in other words, science will kneel before your ignorance. Researchers will find the answers YOU tell them to find in the name of the Unknown Magical Sky Man/Intelligent Designer.
Tell us, you coprophagus philodox, what, EXACTLY, would ID research look like ? A bunch of twits sitting in a lab looking at things and saying “Well, *I* can’t figure out how it works, so it must’ve been designed ! Time for a two hour lunch !” ?
We’ll keep tossing you a littel grant money from our taxes as long as you promise to keep quiet and just toil away down there.
In other words, you’d like to subjugate science to your willful ignorance; no one is allowed to know more than his Blithering Greatness, Lord Keith Eaton.
The church tried that with Galileo and Giordano Bruno.
Any questions?
Yes – are you this sanctimonious and arrogant in real life, or does the anonymity of the ‘net just bring out your true nature ?
William Mc Devitt says
Time for the FSM to make his noodily appendages known to the un-believers.
Wayne McCoy says
Maybe products that have been made possible through a knowledge of evolution should be denied to those who profess ID or creationism, on the grounds that we don’t want to offend their religious sensibilities. After all, they offer that reasoning for refusing to dispense certain products in pharmacies.
Ichthyic says
Any questions?
were you actually there at the battle of Waterloo?