In a weird reversal of the normal state of affairs, the Democratic governor of Kentucky has long been pushing support for Ken Ham’s ridiculous Ark Park…and now his Republican challenger, David Williams, has come out opposing it. Even more interestingly, he argues that the feasibility study was bogus, and that it simply won’t get built. Of course, Ken Ham isn’t happy with that.
Unfortunately, Williams is far behind in the polls, and isn’t expected to succeed in his bid.
Or rather, fortunately. My brain would melt into a puddle that flowed out my ears if I lived in a country where the crazy social conservatives were the pro-science party, while the social progressives were all NewAgey dingleberries who promoted bad science. It sort of saves my sanity that the Republicans tend to be so unremittingly evil on all fronts that the sickly performance of the Democrats doesn’t cause me any major dilemmas. Just constant despair.
(Also on Sb)
This was great:
Were you there, Ham?
Any chance you’ll ever quit trying to teach children to avoid reasoning with idiotic “questions” for the sake of your own agenda and pocketbook, Ken?
Anyhow, even if Williams gets nowhere in his election bid, he’ll at least embarrass these appalling yahoos.
Glen Davidson
LEO: What do you think about jesus coming back from the dead, or are you agnostic on that?
Williams: Well, I’m not agnostic.
LEO: Well not literally agnostic. The whole magic man, being killed, coming back resurrected…
Williams: (deadpan) I wasn’t there.
Dammit PZ, did you have to link that page? The one with the video of Ken Ham indoctrinating children. That shit is scary.
I can only hope those kids grow up and see reason…
In fact, my own mother warned me before I went to high school that two teachers would be lying to me, the History one and the Biology one. The only teacher I ever actually caught in a lie, and called out on it, was the Religion one. Obviously.
Anybody who can’t smell the eau de scamme emanating from Hammikins “project” isn’t paying attention.
I found this fairly typical of the upside down politics here. Historically the state has been strongly blue. That started to change in the 60s in national elections. Now KY is a solid red state. But democrats here are still a weird breed. The incumbent governor Beshear has been a big supporter of Ham’s folly with tax breaks. The GOP candidate, Williams, is a favorite of the tea party here and a slime ball regarding shady financial deals. I’m thinking of voting for the independent, Gatewood Galbraith, who is essentially a single-issue candidate. He has run for various state and federal offices on a marijuana legalization platform since the 80s. He was notorius for wearing a suit made of hemp fiber to rallies. The state police even conficated the suit once to test it’s THC content.
“I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because it’s always 20 years behind.” – Mark Twain
I’m getting Ron Paul ads on your site through Google Reader. It’s mind-boggling.
To Baktru at #3:
Just curious, what did your mom think the history teacher would lie about?
Love one of the comments left by Hammy’s followers on his Facebook page. Jeffrey Dykes writes:
More ad hominem tactics from the author – “Ken Ham is ‘brainwashing’ children…..” Hmm – no scientific evidence provided, of course.
I could feel a million irony meters spilling their contents.
I guess it takes a Canadian to see this but, while your Republicans are batshit crazy fundamentalists, your Democrats are ultra-damn conservative too…just not quite as batshit crazy.
current democratic strategy, explained by Greenwald:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/13/obama
so, if you’re ever wondering why Obama seems to have abandoned the progressive base of the democratic ideology, that article explains it quite well.
in short:
progressive policies no longer pay in the US.
Greenwald’s epiphany:
ichthyic, you make it sound like there’s no real difference.
ichthyic, you make it sound like there’s no real difference.
politicians are salesmen. In many cases, there is no practical difference, as the requirements of re-election force their hands.
ideologically, there can be great differences, and one can only hope that when freed of the need to “feed” from the political trough, they will act accordingly.
Bush, when given free reign, deliberately acted to line his own pockets.
Obama, when given free reign, has not.
that, in and of itself, is the only difference that remains.
Greenwald’s epiphany was the same one that I had. It’s just naive to think that progressive politics will have any significant influence on legislative policy for the foreseeable future.
Of course, in a nutshell, that’s why I left.
and if you’re thinking that this is how politicians have created themselves, it’s not. They’ve always been this way. We, the people, created this situation for them. They are just the salesmen.
I leave you with a famous scene from the movie, “The Mission”:
Hontar: “We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus.”
Altamirano: “No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world.”
How to change that?
each person MUST take personal responsibility by both their actions and inaction as to how the world is.
want better politicians?
be one yourself.
ichthyic, I guess I can’t even accuse you of cynicism.
:|
(Shame, that)
ichthyic, I guess I can’t even accuse you of cynicism.
sure you can; I just apply all that cynicism to myself.
for example:
I don’t doubt the correctness of what I said, yet…
I have yet to ever run for office myself.
so, I’m just as responsible for the mess we are in as anyone else.
No surprise that politics trumps science here.
Wow, great post! Added so much substance and nuance to the issues at hand.
Alternatively, what in the almighty fuck are you talking about?
As usual, our friendly author cares more about hating the GOP than he does about advancing science. Because he’s a hypocrite.
[Two]
Good try there, at least you were more specific this time. Now I’d like to see some citations and intelligent analysis. You know, like, substance. What about this post indicates that PZ cares more about “hating Republicans” than advancing science? How are those two goals mutually exclusive? And an explanation of what you mean by “hypocrite” in this context would be nice too.
Let them build the Ark Park. It’s gonna lose money. And when the FFA girl who raises prize chickens gets there she’s gonna understand that the ark is woefully inadequate for the number of animals it would need to sustain for a year.
My cousin raised the second place Jersey cow at the Houston Livestock Show. She barely made it with her little barn, and two hay lots. And she still had to buy feed and scavenge every watermelon rind she could for extra nutrition. She got a small scholarship as a prize and enough cash from the auction to be able to go to college. She did OK and got into a second rate law school, South Texas College of Law. She is now almost a fundie teabagger. If she could go to the Ark Park and think “Siht, they have the space it would take to sustain one cow allocated to more than a hundred animals.” She just might see the light.
This is what I don’t understand about US politics. You have one party that actively promotes raping its own citizens up the backside, and one that actively promotes raping its own citizens up the backside with a condom and water-based lubricant. And the electorate still vote for no lube …..
Get real, kids! Most of you are never, ever going to be millionaires (unless the dollar hits parity with one of the coins that the Euro replaced). Higher taxes for the rich will never be anything but good for you and hey, even if you had that much money, you wouldn’t miss it.
AJS, LOL, in fact, that is worth at least another LOL. You win one interwebs.
Funny because it’s true.
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