Showing posts with label ID. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ID. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Global warming

Not that President Bush will read, or pay any attention to a just released report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center that determined:

The 2006 average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was the warmest on record....

A contributing factor to the unusually warm temperatures throughout 2006 also is the long-term warming trend, which has been linked to increases in greenhouse gases.

Thankfully, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is now the Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, replacing Senator James Inhofe (Grumpy Old Pendejo-OK) who preaches that global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." (Actually, Senator, the myth of an Intelligent Designer by far remains the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people--but that's the topic of another post to come.) (And in case anyone should doubt that Inhofe is a certified pendejo, recall these two examples: in December of 2002 Inhofe said that Senator Trent Lott's expression of regret for having opposed a national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was "a stupid statement" and had he been a senator at the time of that vote that he would have voted "the same way" ; and, on the day after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Inhofe told CNN, "We are not sure how many federal employees are missing because we don't know how many were playing hooky." )

But unlike Inhofe, Boxer has been and remains a terrific advocate for environmental issues. Right out of the box from the November election she promised major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup. Boxer calls global warming a dire threat to the nation and she plans to hold in-depth hearings on the issue (as does Rep. John Dingell, D-MI, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee). Inhofe (whose term, thankfully, expires in 2008) refused to acknowledge that the clear consensus among scientist is that Earth's climate is being affected by human activities. Bush, whose impeccable scientific credentials leads him to believe that both evolution and so-called intelligent design should be taught in schools so that people can understand what the debate is about (ahh, George, wake up, there ain't no real debate you pinche pendejo !), will still try and ignore accepted scientific evidence on global warming, but Boxer and Dingell are certain to provide this matter the full and fair hearings it deserves.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

School board folly

In March of 2002 the Cobb County School Board (north metro Atlanta) put the following anti-evolution sticker in a variety of its high school science books:



Today that Georgia school board abandoned its legal defense of that nonsense:

Americans United Applauds Settlement Of Georgia Lawsuit Over Evolution Disclaimer

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today lauded a Georgia public school board’s decision to drop its defense of anti-evolution disclaimers for science textbooks.

The Cobb County School Board has agreed to settle the long-running legal fracas over its 2002 decision to place anti-evolution stickers in high school biology textbooks.

In an agreement announced today, Cobb County school officials state that they will not order the placement of “any stickers, labels, stamps, inscriptions, or other warnings or disclaimers bearing language substantially similar to that used on the sticker that is the subject of this action.” School officials also agreed not to take other actions that would undermine the teaching of evolution in biology classes.

“Cobb County school officials have taken the right step to ensure that their students receive a quality education,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Students should be taught sound science, and the curriculum should not be altered at the behest of aggressive religious groups.” (Americans United press release continued here.)

The National Center for Science Education has a nice background page on this issue, from which I've lifted the following FAQs:

Frequently Asked Questions

What's wrong with the disclaimer's language?
"Theory, not fact" disclaimers have been used by creationists for years in an attempt to cast doubt on evolution. This language is misleading in several ways:

  • First, in science, the word "theory" does not mean "guess." Rather, a scientific theory is a well-tested, systematic explanation of facts. Scientific theories are well-supported and well-accepted.

  • Second, the theory of evolution is among the most important, well-tested theories in all of science; it is as fundamental to biology as atomic theory is to chemistry, the germ theory of disease to medicine, or Einstein's theory of relativity to physics.

  • Third, the sticker singles out evolution from the many theories discussed in science classes, thus implying that evolution requires special skepticism. This is not scientifically justifiable.

This may be bad science education, but why is it unconstitutional?
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires that the government be neutral in matters of religion. The government may not give special privileges to a particular religion or promote a partcular religious belief. Cooper ruled that the disclaimer, by denigrating evolution, provides special support for special creationism, a particular religious belief.

As part of their settlement of this matter, the Cobb County School Board agreed to pay $166,659 towards plaintiffs' legal costs. Add to that their own attorney costs and assorted legal fees, plus costs for time each school board member spent discussing and implementing this nonsense policy for the past five years, and it amounts to...a shameful waste of precious monies that could have gone to worthwhile and needed educational programs and services for the kids in that district. Every damn one of those school board members responsible for this profound folly should have the moral integrity to remove themselves from office.

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