Stepping in a pile of Broun

There is, of course, the slim possibility that Paul Broun's publically uttered pile of Stupid from a few days ago was actually caused by a brain fart of incredible proportions and is not actually what he believes. Fine. I also hold that there's the equally slim possibility that I was secretly made the King of Sweden overnight (my apologies to King Carl XVI Gustav for unseating him if I'm wrong), but somehow I doubt it.

Paul Broun, as far as I know, is running unopposed in a district where most voters actually think that his particular brand of serial idiocy is perfectly acceptable to all involved. What's especially nauseating is that the district actually includes the University of Georgia (and boy, that fact must fill their seven biological sciences subdivisions with oodles of pride, right?), and despite the fact that some people in that district probably don't want him around anymore he's still running unopposed. Apparently, nobody could even find a rock brave enough to take him on despite the rock's obvious intellectual superiority. Which leads me to the following:

A while back, Dan Savage took issue with the equally vapid Rick Santorum on a certain issue and ended up sticking him with the (completely deserved, in my opinion) stigma of having a surname synonymous with certain, shall we say, unpleasant byproducts of a sexual act. I'm not trying to top Savage on this, mind you, but I believe that the following proposition concerning the meaning of the surname "Broun" should be added to the next slew of dictionaries to be published because it just fits so well. To wit:

"Broun (1) (n); An individual whose position of authority and public trust are entirely contradicted by his or her intellectual inadequacy and by concomitant appeals to ignorance and demagoguery in order to shore up their aforementioned position;

(2) (v) To engage in demagoguery and similar unsavory appeals to anti-intellectual behavior in order to gain and/or maintain public favor".

By the way, I intend to take full credit for getting the ball rolling on this if it succeeds. And maybe somebody will find a rock (or - shock of shocks! - an actual human being) brave enough to take him on by 2014.

(Also on WTTFTG)

State legislative attacks on evolution in science education since 2011: a rough guide

It took me a while to get around to this, and for obvious reasons; so many of these bills have been proposed since January 2011 that even writing up a brief list of them (with massive help from the NCSE's archives, of course) took a fairly long time to compile and edit. The following is a list of bills that either contains language attacking the teaching the Theory of Evolution (or that advocate "alternative theories" such as Intelligent Design) that have been proposed in state legislatures from January 2011 to the present; they also include information on who proposed the legislation, whether anthropocentric global warming (AGW)  or other scientific topics were also targeted and whether the bill has passed, was voted down or merely died in committee as a result of being tabled.

KENTUCKY House Bill 169; proposed by Tim Moore (R-26th district) on January 4, 2011; died in committee as of March 9th, 2011.

MISSOURI House Bill 195; proposed by Andrew Koenig (R-88th district) and 13 others on January 13th, 2011; died in the House Elementary and Secondary Education commitee as of May 13th, 2011.

OKLAHOMA SENATE BILL 554; prefiled by Josh Brecheen (R-6th district) on January 19th, 2011; died in committee on February 28th, 2011.

OKLAHOMA House Bill 1551; prefiled by Sally Kern (R-84th district) in January 2011; initially rejected in committee on February 22nd, 2011; reintroduced by Gus Blackwell (R-61st district) on February 20th, 2012; passed the House 56-12 on March 15th, 2012; died after being rejected by the Senate Education Committee. Bill also attacked academic discussion of AGW, abiogenesis and human cloning.

NEW MEXICO House Bill 302; introduced by Thomas A. Anderson (R-29th district) on February 1st, 2011;  died in committee on March 8th, 2011. Bill also attacked discussion of AGW, abiogenesis and human cloning.

TENNESSEE House Bill 368; introduced by Bill Dunn (R-16th district) on February 9th, 2011; passed the state House of Representatives by a 72-23 vote on March 16th, 2012; allowed to become law by Governor Bill Haslam without signature on April 10th, 2012. Bill also attacks discussion of AGW, abiogenesis and human cloning.

TENNESSEE Senate Bill 893; introduced by Bo Watson (R-11th district) on February 16th, 2011; passed the state Senate by a 24-8 vote on March 19th, 2012; allowed to become law by Governor Bill Haslam without signature on April 10th, 2012. Bill also attacks discussion of AGW, abiogenesis and human cloning.

FLORIDA Senate Bill 1854; introduced by Stephen R. Wise (R-5th district) on March 5th, 2011; died in committee on May 7th, 2011.

TEXAS House Bill 2454; introduced by Bill Zedler (R-96th district) and James White (R-12th district) on March 8th, 2011; died in the House Committee on Higher Education on May 30th, 2011.

NEW HAMPSHIRE House Bill 1148; prefiled by Jerry Bergevin (R-17th district) on December 21st, 2011; defeated 280-7 by House vote on March 16th, 2012. Also attempted to compel inclusion of the "political and ideological viewpoints (of  "theorists") and their position on the concept of atheism".

NEW HAMPSHIRE House Bill 1457; prefiled by Gary Hopper (R-7th district) and John Burt (R-7th district) on December 21st, 2011;  killed by voice vote in week previous to vote for HB 1148 above.

INDIANA Senate Bill 89; prefiled by Dennis Kruse (R-14th district) in December 2011; passed by the Senate by a 28-22 vote on January 30th, 2012; shelved by the House of Representatives in early February 2012.

MISSOURI HOUSE BILL 1227; introduced and sponsored by Rick Brattin (R-124th district) and five others on January 10th, 2012; died in committee on May 18th, 2012.

MISSOURI HOUSE BILL 1276; sponsored by Andrew Koenig (R-88th district) and 13 others on January 11th, 2012; died in committee on May 18th, 2012.

OKLAHOMA SENATE BILL 1742; prefiled in January 2012 by Josh Brecheen (R-6th district) in January 2012;  Bill also attacked AGW, abiogenesis and human cloning. Died in committee on March 1st, 2012.

ALABAMA HOUSE BILL 133; introduced on February 7th, 2012 by Blaine Galliher (R-30th district); died in committee on May 16th, 2012. Would have authorized "local boards of education to include released time religious instruction as an elective course for high school students.", including courses in "creation science".

OKLAHOMA HOUSE BILL 2341; a previously passed bill that was amended by Steve Russell (R-45th district) to include language identical to Oklahoma HB 1551 above; bill died when it was not brought to the floor for a vote in amended form on April 26th, 2012.

(Also available at WTTFTG)

It bears repeating...

I've been remiss in banging the drum here for a while (because, see, I was at this thing in late August and early September that took up most of my leisure time), but I got the feeling that somebody a good deal more credentialed than I am should drop some appropriate propaganda on readers of this blog. Granted, the following videos definitely fit the category of preaching to the choir on this blog, but if you think somebody needs to see these, then by all means point these out:

 

Something to be optimistic about, for once

The Mars Curiosity rover made it to the surface of its target intact and is probably collecting reams of data as I write this.

Louisiana continues to slide into the muck

Bobby Jindal continues to offer up reasons why he should never, ever be elected to anything ever again:

Louisiana is about to spend almost twelve million dollars to fund the teaching of creationism, charges Zack Kopplin, famous for organizing the effort to repeal the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act. In Kopplin's sights now is a controversial new voucher program in the state that uses public school funds to pay for tuition and certain fees at private schools for students who attend low-performing public schools and whose family income is below 250% of the federal poverty level. When the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education considered a set of accountability guidelines for such private schools at its July 24, 2012, meeting, Kopplin testified that of the roughly 6600 spaces available for students under the program, 1350 will be filled, as the Lafayette Independent Weekly (July 26, 2012) described it, "at private Christian schools that teach creationism and peg evolution as 'false science.'”

There's more, but don't bother to read the link if you're depressed about the state of science education in the US. It won't help.

(Also on WTTFTG)

The Aurora shootings: "explanations" that don't explain much of anything

By now, any number of unlucky people have run into some serious whoppers that  purportedly "explain" the root cause of James Eagan Holmes' rampage at a Aurora, Colorado cinema during the midnight preview of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th. Other than predictable missives full of irrationality from all the usual suspects (including such piles of  self serving drivel as Louis Gohmert's "it's all the fault of atheism!", Rick Warren's equally hideous "it's all the fault of the Theory of Evolution!" and a hackneyed laundry list of convenient scapegoats provided by the American Family Association), I'm sure that there will be the usual reams upon reams of nonsense generated by people who - much like Columbine - have decided to use this tragedy to fill their coffers with donations and generate unwarranted media attention.

Add to this the fact that Holmes previously was a honors student in neuroscience and you have all the makings of another parade of idiots attacking science and scientists for no good reason except that it earns them easy points with people dumb enough to agree with them. It'll happen. Just you wait.

(For those of you who'd like to read a far more exhaustive list of articles both good and bad on the subject of the Aurora shootings, Gawker has provided one.)

(Also on WTTFTG)

Kansas: supporting documents for Dumbth

It turns out that Ken Willard does indeed have supporters for his latest effort to slip pro-creationist language into the NGSS debate, but they consist of the usual predictable suspects:

The Associated Press (June 13, 2012) reports that Ken Willard, a member of the board, described the draft as "flawed" and "distributed a nine-page letter criticizing the draft multistate standards from the group Citizens for Objective Public Education Inc., which lists officers in Florida and Kansas. The letter suggested that the draft standards ignore evidence against evolution, don't respect religious diversity, and promote secular humanism, which precludes God or another supreme being in considering how the universe works." Willard said of the letter, "I hope that it will be taken seriously and not as just information from a bunch of crackpots."

But Citizens for Objective Public Education is not exactly a well-known or a well-established group; its vice president Anne Lassey told the Associated Press that it was founded only in March 2012. Lassey is the wife of Greg Lassey, who was one of the authors of the so-called minority report of the committee that revised Kansas's state science standards in 2005; the report systematically deprecated the scientific status of evolution. The group's president, Jorge Fernandez, is a self-proclaimed young-earth creationist, with publications to his credit in Journal of Creation and on the True.Origin Archive website. The letter claimed that Citizens for Objective Public Education represents "children, parents and taxpayers who share our views"; Lassey told the Associated Press that the group has members across the nation.

(Also on WTTFTG)

Kansas: here we go again

You'd think that certain individuals on the state Board of Ed would've learned their lesson by now. No such luck:

Kansas is among the twenty-six "lead state partners" of the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) development process, officially assisting in the development, adoption, and implementation of the standards; although the lead state partners are not required to adopt the standards, they have agreed to give them "serious consideration" for adoption when they emerge in their final form — which may be as soon as the end of 2012. But Kansas state board of education member Ken Willard told the Associated Press that the draft embraces naturalism and secular humanism, which he described as "very problematic" and as "preferring one religious position over another"; he intends to raise the issue on June 12, 2012, when the board is scheduled to hear a presentation on the present status of the NGSS.

"In the past," the Associated Press noted, "Willard has supported standards for Kansas with material that questions evolution; guidelines that he and other conservatives approved in 2005 were supplanted by the current ones." As NCSE reported, in November 2005, the Kansas state board of education voted 6-4 to adopt the draft set of state science standards that were rewritten, under the tutelage of local "intelligent design" activists, to impugn the scientific status of evolution — a decision roundly condemned by state and national scientific and education groups. After the antievolution faction on the board, which included Willard, lost its majority in the 2006 elections, the board reversed the decision in February 2007; the antievolution version of the standards was not in place long enough to be felt in the classrooms.

(Also on WTTFTG)

Good riddance times three

Good news out of Oklahoma for once:

When the Oklahoma legislature adjourned sine die on May 25, 2012, no fewer than three legislative attempts to attack the teaching of evolution and of climate change (i.e., Senate Bill 1742, House Bill 1551 and an amendment to House Bill 2341) were finally laid to rest. All three would have encouraged teachers in the public schools of the Sooner State to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of "controversial" topics such as "biological evolution" and "global warming."

One of these days, I'm going to have to sift through the NCSE's archives and see exactly how many of these bills floated in state legislatures contain the usual weasel words concerning the supposed "controversies" concerning "biological evolution" and "global warming". I'm not going to be able to get around to it now, but my guess is that the over-under is around 15 bills in total since January 2011. Place your no-prize wagers and we'll see. 

(Also on WTTFTG)

Cretin of the moment

Representative Jeff Flake (R-Wingnut), for a self-serving (but futile, apparently) attack on the NSF's 2013 budget that puts him in the running for "politician with the most appropriate surname".

Oppose CISPA - before CISPA opposes you

This is a bit of a departure from the science-themed nature of this blog, but it's still a highly important issue for anyone using the Internet, much less writing on it:

Congress is currently considering CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act) – a bill that purports to protect the United States from “cyber threats” but would in fact create a gaping loophole in all existing privacy laws. If CISPA passes, companies could vacuum up huge swaths of data on all Internet users and share it with the government without requiring a court order. CISPA is an exceedingly bad piece of legislation that should be opposed on constitutional grounds, and Congress would be wise to reject it and any other legislation that:

*  Uses dangerously vague language to define the breadth of data that can be shared with the government.

*  Hands the reins of America’s cybersecurity defenses to the NSA, an agency with no transparency and little accountability.

*  Allows data shared with the government to be used for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity.

Please join me in opposing this bill by posting this statement on your own page and using the online form available at the link below to send a letter to Congress against CISPA:

(Form available here)