February 14, 2007
Be sure to see update here, next post. Worse, even more, here.
Don’t you just love the Texas lege?
And could you make this stuff up if you were writing a novel? Nobody would believe it.
Warren Chisum is a good ol’ boy from Pampa, Texas, and the second most powerful man in the Texas House of Representatives. So when his friend, Georgia State Rep. Ben Bridges, asked him to — well, what was it he asked? — Chisum agreed to circulate a petition that calls evolution a plot of the Pharisees, Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan members of a Kabbalistic plot, and Big Bang ancient religion.
The Associated Press report in this morning’s Dallas Morning News (free subscription required eventually):
The memo assails what it calls “the evolution monopoly in the schools.”
Mr. Bridges’ memo claims that teaching evolution amounts to indoctrinating students in an ancient Jewish sect’s beliefs.
“Indisputable evidence – long hidden but now available to everyone – demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” writes Mr. Bridges, a Republican from Cleveland, Ga. He has argued against teaching of evolution in Georgia schools for several years. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Science and faith, State school boards, TEKS, Texas Lege, Textbook Selection, Voodoo science | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 14, 2007
I’ve never seen a pro-breast cancer post before. That post is easily as crazy as the kid I had in class who said he’d never let his “baby mama” breast feed his son, because he didn’t want his son to be “homo.” That was from a kid steaming to be a high school dropout.
Nuts. Why don’t people just stick to the facts?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Freedom - Political, Hoaxes, Politics, Public health, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2007
Divest yourself of that tired and false notion that you’re bad at math. That’s hooey, though it probably sets your self-expectations low enough that it damages your math performance. Don’t make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
New Carnival on the block: Carnival of Mathematics at Alon Levy’s Abstract Nonsense. It’s got some good stuff there for math teachers, and I suspect people with other interests will find something of interest, too. For me, for example, there is the link to the post that Fisks arguments of some of the more unsuspecting intelligent design fogmeisters. More pure historians may like the history of algebra post. There’s a lot more history and controversy in a post about why students should study math at all:
Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals—the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.
—Martin Gardner
quoted by G. Simmons, Calculus Gems
(Take THAT you creators of state history standards!)
Hmmm. I’m teaching algebra and geometry this week (“go figure!”). I may use some of that stuff.
Tip of the old scrub brush to JD2718.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Brain learning, Creationism, Creativity, Education, Education blogs, History, Intelligent Design, Lesson plans, Public education, Science, TEKS, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2007
Today is Evolution Sunday. It’s a day when thinking Christians make a modest stand for reason, it’s a day when caring Christians make a stand for facts and truth, versus calumny and voodoo science and voodoo history.
Debunking hoaxes — finding the truth about who put the first plumbed bathtub in the White House, repeating the debunking of the “Lady Hope hoax” that claimed Darwin recanted his life’s work on his deathbed, holding a spotlight on the facts of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the events in the Gulf of Tonkin, highlighting the bravery of Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the Pueblo, noting that there never was a family of chainsaw murderers in Travis County, Texas — is difficult work. One wag I used to see posting on an internet bulletin board had a tagline, “Fighting ignorance since 1974 1973– it’s taking longer than I thought.”*
So, if you’re in church today, light a candle against the darkness, as Carl Sagan would say. Candles show us where demons are not, and where it is safe for humans to go. The more candles against ignorance, the greater the realm for human reason.
As Einstein almost certainly did not say, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. And as Frank Zappa probably did say, hydrogen is not the most abundant thing in the universe — ignorance is. Light some candles against ignorance today, in church or out of it. Reason gives us hope, and there is precious little of both today.
Be grateful for those things that keep us free, for those things that keep us seeking and acquiring knowledge, and for those people (like P. Z. Myers) who prod us — righteously — to stand up for the truth.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Free speech, Freedom - Political, Public libraries, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 6, 2007
As the title notes, without comment:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Accuracy, Books, First Amendment, Libraries | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 4, 2007
Thanks to P. Z. Myers, I found a very interesting blog by an intermediate grades teacher in Ross River, Yukon Territory (that’s Canada, folks). Go check out Primordial Blog. It’ll give fits to hoaxers of all stripes, including especially intelligent design, creationism, and history hoaxers.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 3, 2007
Chuck Colson claims to have found God, while in prison, and changed his ways. He’s got a newspaper column and radio feature called “Breakpoint” which generally covers issues at least tangentially related to ministry and church work.
But he’s either fallen victim to a great hoax, or he’s in on it and spread it.
Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars alerted us to Colson’s “Breakpoint” commentary dated February 2, in which Colson repeats the disproven claims that Judge John E. Jones of the Middle District of Pennsylvania “plagiarized” significant portions of his decision. The charges are completely out of line, and have not held up under scrutiny. The claims were invented by people at the Discovery Institute who have no knowledge of how federal civil trials work, who misinterpreted trial procedures, and who made an invalid count of the words in the decision (failing to account for most of the 129 pages of the work for reasons that have never been explained).
If this catches you unaware of the issue, you can catch up with several posts. Attorney and Panda’s Thumb contributor Tim Sandefur explains how the charges are false here. Sandefur’s earlier explanation of the statistical errors behind the false claims is here (also at Panda’s Thumb).
You should act. If your local newspaper carries Colson’s column, notify them of the hoax. Give them the links above, and urge them to contact the press people at the National Center for Science Education for comment. Tell them they can quote Panda’s thumb, and that they can contact Sandefur, Brayton, or me, for comment.
Similarly, if your local radio station carries Colson’s commentaries, notify the station. Stations need to check to be sure they are not broadcasting hoaxes for license renewal reasons (though the FCC polices this issue rarely, and not often well).
Were Colson a practicing attorney, of course, he’d probably remember how federal trial procedures work, and not make such errors.
You can help him recall.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
22 Comments | Accuracy, Creationism, Evolution, Hoaxes, Intelligent Design, Journalism, Justice, Plagiarism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 31, 2007
Molly Ivins died tonight. It’s really quite unbelievable, to me.
Here’s the Austin American-Statesman story, “Molly Ivins, queen of liberal commentary, dies.”
Here’s a tribute from Editor & Publisher. And a recent interview with E&P.
Graphic by Tim Porter, copyright 2001
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Accuracy, Ethics, First Amendment, Journalism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 31, 2007
Great title for a sermon, yes?
Does the sermon live up to the title? The Rev. John Robinson preached the sermon on September 18, 2005, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco — at least, that’s what it looks like from the sermon archives where I stumbled on the thing. Fillmore was a Unitarian, so that sect might take a bit of pride in his accomplishments.
One historian said of Fillmore: “He came to the Presidency by the only road available to a man of limited ability, the death of his predecessor.” He was accused of being both pro-slavery and abolitionist. It was said he did “not have courage” “but was just inflexible.” They accused him of having “no position except equivocation,” that he was “without personal earnest conviction, personal force, or capacity for strong personal leadership.” His general rating as a president has been, until recently, below average, way below. He is judged bad or poor in his religiousness by those who judge such things. He was rejected by the religious community of which he was a member. He was a Unitarian.
There are three reasons to tell the story of Millard Fillmore: First, he illustrates the on-going tension in our free religious community, between the prophetic and the practical – the privilege of moral purity and the necessity to make real world decisions. Second, he illustrates well how difficult it is to judge our contemporaries. And third, to help restore Millard Fillmore to his rightful place in history.
I wish the good Rev. Robinson had included footnotes with the sermon.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
7 Comments | Accuracy, History, Millard Fillmore, Politics, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 31, 2007
Do I correctly recall that President Bush suggested Republicans and Democrats can work together?
How long ago was that?
Already the right-wing hoax machine is out in force (Swift Boat Veterans again?). A couple of people sent me the latest hoax against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, claiming she was advocating a 100% tax on incomes of the rich. To be really fair and accurate, we need to note the hoax has been circulating since at least October.
Pelosi didn’t say she favors a 100% tax. The e-mail circulating is a hoax.
Snopes.com, that grand internet ally for getting the story straight, has a debunking post up.
Here are a few of the victims of the hoax:
It’s almost painful to watch how quickly some people succumb to hoaxes like these. One hopes the perpetrators of the hoaxes get the same twinge of regret that Mencken got from the Fillmore bathtub hoax — but one may be hoping against experience.
So far as I can tell, no one who posted the hoax has yet corrected the post, or noted the error (in a few places, others have written in to note the hoax).
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Current History, H. L. Mencken, Hoaxes, Politics, Quotes, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 27, 2007
Do we want to prevent future genocides?
Then we need to study history.
I came across this article from the Azeri Press Agency, noting the death of historian Eric Feigl, who “disproved” the story of the Armenian genocide.
Amazing. Is there an official association of voodoo and bogus historians?
(Here’s a collection of Los Angeles Times pieces about the Armenian genocide and current events around it, including the murder of a reporter who argued for Turkey’s recognizing the events.)
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Armenian genocide, Bogus history, History, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 27, 2007
Texas newspaper columnist Molly Ivins fights cancer in an Austin area hospital. 
Editor & Publisher:
Her assistant Betsy Moon says she may be able to go home Monday. She adds that those close to Ivins are “not sure what’s going to happen, but she’s very sick.”
The 62-year-old columnist had taken an earlier break from her syndicated column, but resumed writing earlier this month.
Last October she had suggested this headline to an E&P interviewer: “Molly Ivins Still Not Dead.”
Ivins’ column carries a strong defense of traditional American liberalism, the love for education, home, family and a good story. Fiercely dedicated to getting the story right when she was a beat reporter (I encountered her when she covered the Rocky Mountain area for the New York Times), Ivins contributed some of the best stories on politics over the past three decades that I have read her work.
Heal up, get back to work, Molly.
Also see: “A ‘troop surge’ is not acceptable to most Americans,” Bangor (Maine) Daily News, January 17, 2007
Tip of the old White House scrub brush to Virgotext.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Freedom - Political, History, Journalism, Texas, Texas Freedom Network | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 26, 2007
The first step to maintained equality of opportunity amongst our people is, as I have said before, that there should be no child in America who has not been born, and who does not live, under sound conditions of health; who does not have full opportunity for education from the kindergarten to the university; who is not free from injurious labor; who does not have stimulation to ambition to the fullest of his or her capacities. It is a matter of concern to our government that we should strengthen the safeguards to health. These activities of helpfulness and of cooperation stretch before us in every direction. A single generation of Americans of such a production would prevent more of crime and of illness, and give more of spirit and progress than all of the most repressive laws and police we can ever invent — and it would cost less.
Who said it? Who prescribed such a “socialist” plan for our children? John Dewey? Hillary Clinton? Answer below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Education, Herbert Hoover, Leadership, Lesson plans, Politics, Presidents, Quotes | Tagged: 1928, Education, Gordon Lloyd, Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, Leadership, Poltics, Presidents, Quotes, Two Faces of Liberalism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 24, 2007
Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered the State of the Union speech for 1941 on January 6. Eleven months and one day later, Japan attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. I have been fascinated by Roosevelt’s clear statement of the freedoms he thought worth fighting for, especially considering that most Americans at that moment did not consider it desirable or probable that the U.S. would get involved in the war that raged across the Pacific and Atlantic.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, August 9, 1941; aboard the U.S.S. Augusta, in the Atlantic. Library of Congress.
Here is an excerpt of the speech, the final few paragraphs:
I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.
If the Congress maintains these principles the voters, putting patriotism ahead of pocketbooks, will give you their applause. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
11 Comments | 1941-1945, Accuracy, Famous quotes, Franklin Roosevelt, Free speech, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Good Quotes, History, Lesson plans, Presidents, Quotes, Religious Freedom, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 20, 2007
Swedes entertain skepticism much better than U.S. residents do, or they attain much better understanding of science.
That conclusion can be deduced from the results of a poll showing that 23% of Swedes think astrology is scientific. Most poll results show more Americans put stock in their daily horoscopes than the 23% of Swedes, but not a lot more.
Swedes really doubt intelligent design: Only 14% think there is any science there.
The poll was conducted by the Swedish group Vetenskap & Allmänhet (Public and Science) (VA).
So, contrary to the recent efforts of Seattle’s Discovery Institute to make inroads in Europe, their push for intelligent design is just more than half as credible as Sidney Omar and other fortune tellers.
The poll found support for science and hope for good results from research very high among Swedes:
Nine out of ten people have high confidence in the potential of research to develop more effective and environmentally friendly sources of energy. A smaller but increasing proportion believes that research can contribute to reducing segregation in cities.
Seven out of ten people believe that there is a strong possibility that research will help increase economic growth, which represents a marked increase since 2005. Six out of ten believe that there is a strong chance that research can help reduce climate change.
The poll also hints at a way scientists can more successfully argue against crackpottery and crank science, such as intelligent design: Emphasize the benefits people get from applied research.
Research areas that are currently in the news tend to be viewed by many as important. Most people would like to see support for research that people can benefit directly from, says Karin Hermannson, Research Manager at VA.
Scientists in the U.S. should spend more time explaining how their research is used in the real world.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 