Re: NY Times: Jindal should veto
- From: Boikat <boikat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:04:34 -0700 (PDT)
On Jun 21, 7:38 pm, Bodega <michael.palm...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
June 21, 2008
Editorial
Louisiana’s Latest Assault on Darwin
It comes as no surprise that the Louisiana State Legislature has
overwhelmingly approved a bill that seeks to undercut the teaching of
evolution in the public schools. The state, after all, has a sorry
history as a hotbed of creationists’ efforts to inject religious views
into science courses. All that stands in the way of this retrograde
step is Gov. Bobby Jindal.
In the 1980s, Louisiana passed an infamous “Creationism Act” that
prohibited the teaching of evolution unless it was accompanied by
instruction in “creation science.” That effort to gain essentially
equal time for creationism was slapped down by the United States
Supreme Court as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. State
legislators, mimicking scattered efforts elsewhere, responded with a
cagier, indirect approach.
The new bill doesn’t mention either creationism or its close cousin,
intelligent design. It explicitly disavows any intent to promote a
religious doctrine. It doesn’t try to ban Darwin from the classroom or
order schools to do anything. It simply requires the state board of
education, if asked by local school districts, to help create an
environment that promotes “critical thinking” and “objective
discussion” about not only evolution and the origins of life but also
about global warming and human cloning, two other bêtes noires of the
right. Teachers would be required to teach the standard textbook but
could use supplementary materials to critique it.
That may seem harmless. But it would have the pernicious effect of
implying that evolution is only weakly supported and that there are
valid competing scientific theories when there are not. In school
districts foolish enough to head down this path, the students will
likely emerge with a shakier understanding of science.
As a biology major at Brown University, Mr. Jindal must know that
evolution is the unchallenged central organizing principle for modern
biology. As a rising star on the conservative right, mentioned as a
possible running mate for John McCain, Mr. Jindal may have more than
science on his mind. In a television interview, he seemed to say that
local school boards should decide what is taught and that it would be
wrong to teach only evolution or only intelligent design.
If Mr. Jindal has the interests of students at heart, the sensible
thing is to veto this Trojan horse legislation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/opinion/21sat4.html?ref=opinion
He's not. He's going to pander to the religious wankers. No, wait.
He *is* one of those religious wankers. In his first bid for the
"Boss Hogg" of Lousianner (Which was during the same time frame as the
Ten Commandments on the lawn of the Alabama(?) court house), he made
several statements about how the Ten Commandments would be displayed
on his desk, that he was in favor of school prayer, and so on. I was
surprised he didn't win that time around.
The massive screw-up of disaster response to Katrina and Rita is the
only *real* reason Jindal won this time around is because Blanco was
made to look like the reason things in the south of La "went south"
after the hurricanes. He also ran this time around as "Mr.
Integrity", but in the great tradition of Louisianner politics, he's
allowing the state legislatire to pass a 200% to 300% pay raise for
themselves, and will not veto it because he's afraid that if he does,
then they will not "work with him" on future programs he wants them to
address. Integrity my ass!
Yup, the best government money can buy with my state tax dollars. Yee
haw!
Boikat
.
- References:
- NY Times: Jindal should veto
- From: Bodega
- NY Times: Jindal should veto
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