December 27, 2008
Fort Worth Weekly did a story on Willie Nelson’s living in Fort Worth in the 1950s. The writer drove by Willie’s old haunts.
But no pictures? No directions on how to get to the future shrines? How is the National Register of Historic Places supposed to find the things?
The Weekly was doing what might amount to a local sidebar on Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, Joe Nick Patoski’s biography of the composer and singer. The Weekly needs to learn a bit about including web links, and especially about including photographs!
(Who’s going to get Patoski’s book, get the addresses, and post photos?)
Accuracy note: I linked to Robert Hilburn’s review of the book in the Los Angeles Times; he has another version of the story of Willie’s first wife, Martha, sewing him in the bedsheets when he came home drunk, then beating him with a broom. Hilburn’s review is worth reading just to get this story from another view.
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Books, Capturing history, History, History images, Music, Texas, Texas history, Texas Music | Tagged: Capturing history, Fort Worth, History, Music, Texas, Willie Nelson | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
December 10, 2008
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year selection sometimes produces a shudder, such as when Ayotullah Khomeini got the designation for 1979. Time patiently explains that the designation is for the person who most affected the year, not necessarily the good guys. Even bad guys affect history.
The Dallas Morning News designates a “Texan of the Year,” with a month of conjecture and nominations for who it should be. True to the Time tradition, News columnist Steve Blow nominated a member of the Texas State Board of Eduacation, Cynthia Dunbar. Blow explained his nomination:
I mean, how do you top someone who warned us that the next president is a terrorist sympathizer with plans to topple the government?
Thank you, Cynthia Dunbar.
You knew about that, of course.
Dunbar is part of Dark Ages Coalition threatening to take Texas school kids hostage if science standards should — brace yourself — support science in Texas public school classrooms. You think I’m kidding? Blow noted that Dunbar’s views, now available in a book, do not count America’s public schools as things of much value.
In fact, she calls public education itself a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.” (Her kids have been home-schooled and attended private school.)
So on the slight possibility that she’s completely wrong about Barack Obama’s secret plan to overthrow America, I’d make her Texan of the Year for a second reason.
The Prophet Dunbar just might wake Texans up to the circus that is our State Board of Education.
That would be valuable, yes.
Note: I do object, with a smile, to Blow’s calling Dunbar our state Cassandra. Cassandra’s curse was that no one would listen to her, though she accurately foresaw the future. Dunbar doesn’t seem to be connected with accuracy in any discernible fashion.
Other resources:
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4 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Rampant stupidity, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Cynthia Dunbar, Education, Evolution, Rampant stupidity, Science, State School Board, Terrorism, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 3, 2008
An entire nation has expunged evolution from its school curricula: Romania.
Maybe it’s a preview. Which state in the U.S. wants to be like Romania?
Resources:
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4 Comments | Curricula, Education, Evolution, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Texas | Tagged: Curricula, Education, Evolution, Politics, Romania, Science, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 30, 2008
Looking for something to do in Dallas today?
Go see some international, championship chess sponsored by the University of Texas – Dallas’s world-beating chess team. The UT-Dallas Grand Master Invitational Tournament has round 9 scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn in Richardson, Texas. These are top-level matches (practice rounds for UT-D’s chess team sometimes affect international rankings), so play should continue for quite a while after the start.
Through the MonRoi site, you can watch the chess matches of the Dallas Tournament live — or at least, animations of the boards showing the moves. You have to register, but it’s free.
Below the fold, the complete press release with all details, from UT-Dallas.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Ed Darrell
November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving? Texas had it first. No kidding (unless you count the Vinlanders, who probably were grateful to be out of Greenland, but left no records that they ever actually had a feast to say so — but see the comments in the posts linked at various places).
Last year, Mrs. Bathtub was in the hospital. We sprang her before dinner, but barely. This year, #2 son is off in the wilds of Wisconsin — the first Turkey Day he’s spent away from home and family. We empathize with the families the first colonizers left behind.
Still, there will be dinner with the family, thanks for the endurance of storms and trials, reflections on good times past, and hopes for the future.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday, one of the 18 days designated by Congress as a “Fly the flag” day. It’s been a historic year. It’s a good day to fly the flag.
So, in keeping with that spirit of remembrance, it’s reprise post stuff mostly, today. If you need more, go here:
Here’s the main reprise post, text below (there were some good comments in 2006); Margaritas and nachos do sound good, don’t they?
___________________________
Patricia Burroughs has the story — you New Englanders are way, way behind.
Palo Duro Canyon during inversion, Winter 2001, site in 1541 of the first Thanksgiving celebration in what would become the United States. Go here: www.visitamarillotx.com/Gallery/index3.html, and here: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/paloduro/
Update, 11/27/2006: Great post here, “Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving.”
_______________________
Resources for 2007:
- The Butcher Carves a Turkey, video from the New York Times
- History.com ignores Texas, giving a good rundown of the old shibboleths about Pilgrims, etc., with some regard for accuracy (See the “Top 10 Myths” post above, from History News Network, too)
- Dates for Thanksgiving in the U.S. through 2013
- Canadians, claiming to have beaten the Plymouth Colony to Thanksgiving by 43 years, hold their Thanksgiving feast in October, to get all the good turkeys, I suppose, or at least the drumsticks (Canada’s Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October)
- Rachel Carson is often blamed for it, but she had nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Agriculture ban on cranberries in 1959 (Carson’s Silent Spring wasn’t published for another three years) [regular readers know why this is noted here]
- Cranberries are loaded with antioxidants, and other stuff from The Cranberry Institute
- ABC’s Good Morning America 2007 story on harvesting cranberries
- The Food Network on stuffing
- Post explaining the real, legal and historical meaning of the Mayflower Compact — no, it doesn’t mean the U.S. is a Christian Nation.
- George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, from the Library of Congress
- Smithsonian Institution says the Cherokees beat Texas to it, and Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t proclaim it
- James Madison issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in April 1815, as the War of 1812 was winding down – this was the last such proclamation until 1862
- Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
- Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week, for economic (”shopping”) reasons: 1939, the Year of Two Thanksgivings — from the Marist Institute, with images of original documents (via the FDR Library)
- Who was first between Plymouth and Jamestown? No, the pilgrims did not tie their ship to Plymouth Rock; no, the Prudential logo is the Rock of Gibraltar, not Plymouth . . . and more travel stuff, from today’s New York Times.
- For 2008, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Thanksgiving,” from Time, via HNN
- Indianapolis Star reports travel way down in 2008 – air travel in Indianapolis is easy with small crowds, brand-new terminal
- Plymouth Hall Museum has features on Thanksgiving not generally found at other sites
Google's 2008 Thanksgiving logo - click for search on "Thanksgiving"
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3 Comments | Fly your flag today, Food history, History, Presidents, Texas, Thanksgiving | Tagged: Fly your flag today, food, History, Presidents, Texas, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving08 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 20, 2008
Best of Texas features a tribute to Doug Tinker, “Lookout, Ann Richards, Another Texas Giant is Headed Your Way.”
I hadn’t heard the news (did you even bother to tell us, Dallas Morning News?). If you’re not steeped in Tejaniana — or Texana, if you prefer — you may not have known about Doug Tinker.
He was the sort of guy who was the best of Texas. Just telling the truth about him sounds like you’re telling a whopper – but it’s so satisfying to be able to tell such stories and know they’re the truth, too.
Best of Texas had a better vantage point than I had from here in the Bathtub — so read the story there (artfully dotted with links so you can check it out if you don’t think a human being could live that large). And think: Where would we be without good friends like Best of Texas, to tell the history worth the listening — and more, where would we be without good people like Doug Tinker, to make the history worth the telling?
Sometimes, people tell history so somebody will repeat it. Then they tip their champagne bottle with the straw in it to the clouds and say, “Take that! George Santayana!”
The Ghost of Santayana laughs, too.
More:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
November 20, 2008
More testimony from the Texas State Board of Education hearing in Austin yesterday, this time from a geologist, another member of Texas Citizens for Science:
My name is Paul Murray. I am a state-licensed geoscientist, I have BS and MS degrees in the geosciences, and I am a research scientist associate at the University of Texas at Austin. I am here today only as a private citizen and concerned scientist. I would like to speak to you about the often-misunderstood process of science.
Science begins with an idea. If you can write a coherent paragraph or two, you can submit it as an abstract to a conference. You then have the chance to present your work to other scientists. There, you will get feedback and questions from those scientists. You can use that feedback to expand your original work and submit it to a peer-reviewed journal. The peer review process is brutal and impersonal; logical fallacies, bad arguments and unsupported conclusions will be threshed out; only the seed of good science will remain. When your work is published, others will analyze it again and again. Either it will grow as others build upon it, or some better idea will grow in its place.
Eventually, those ideas that become part of the accepted body of knowledge are used as the foundation upon which to build a well-rounded education. What this process does not include is an express lane for those who instead want to publish books, blogs and newspaper articles to go directly to our children’s classroom and foolishly ask them to sort out the good ideas from bad for themselves. This is like asking pilots in the second week of ground school to land a plane with an engine fire.
I am concerned by some of the “expert” feedback sought in revising the science standards. Stephen Meyer has an extensive publication record of books, reviews and newspaper articles, but has not once published a legitimate work in any peer-reviewed scientific journal. Given his well-documented anti-scientific rhetoric and lack of direct participation in the process of science, I see no experience that qualifies him to comment on either science or science education.
Doctors Garner and Seelke both have publication records that at least expose them to the process; however, neither has ever published a peer-reviewed work that is even remotely critical of Darwinian evolution, which is ironic because their criticism is their main source of notoriety.
Any legitimate scientific debate to be had over evolution would be welcomed by all scientists. Science is a strong, viable process because scientists reserve the highest honors for those who can tear down our best ideas and replace them with something better. As a famous resident of Crawford, Texas once said, “Bring it on!”
But please bring it on in the proper forum for scientific debate. I ask the State Board to adopt language that recognizes the process of educating future citizens and leaders of Texas is separate and distinct from the process of legitimate scientific debate.
That the creationist experts have not published seemed to be a surprise and a concern to the creationists on the SBOE who (we must assume) worked to have the out-of-staters appointed to the review panel contradicting 40 years of “keep it in Texas” tradition. According to some, Murray was “grilled” on his testimony; when applause broke out in support of Murray, Board Chairman Don McLeroy flew into action. Here’s how Steve Schafersman described it at Evosphere, where he live-blogged the event to its very late end:
Gail Lowe thanked Paul for mentioning that Charles Garner of Baylor did not have any peer-reviewed “anti-Darwinian” publications, and she did not choose him because of such literature. Paul said it was true that Garner had no anti-evolution peer-reviewed publications, but his Creationism was well-know among colleagues and students at Baylor. I think Lowe knew this and picked Garner for precisely this reason. As I reported before, Garner was the only Baylor science faculty member who did not criticize William Dembski when he arrived at Baylor under a special arrangement created by its new president.
Cynthia Dunbar said she didn’t think Galileo would have been peer-reviewed well by his fellow scientists, because he was persecuted by them. Paul corrected her, saying that Galileo was esteemed by his scientific peers and was persecuted by the religious authorities of the day. With this remark, an audience member applauded and was promptly ejected by Chairman Don McLeroy, who said in a very loud voice, “Sir, you may leave!” The fellow said “Thank you” and promptly left. I felt like joining him but I need to suffer a few more hours.
Dunbar next said she only advocates academic freedom, saying that this and having students learn about any problems of explanations faced by scientists is all that she and her colleagues want.
9:20 p.m.
News reports this morning not with that air of ennui that the SBOE is again contesting evolution and other science; some of the news reports could have been recycled from four years ago.
Resources:
- Texas Citizens for Science president Steve Schafersman’s live blog of the event (photo of Paul Murray there)
- Gary Scharrar’s news report in the Houston Chronicle
- Terrence Stutz’s news report in the Dallas Morning News (the chief story according to headlines in this paper’s blog was the SBOE vote to allow high school athletes to count four years of athletics towards graduation)
- Dave Montgomery in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:AUSTIN — Texas became the latest stage for the debate about evolution and creationism Wednesday, as more than 80 witnesses trooped before the State Board of Education to weigh in on proposed changes in the public school science curriculum.With few exceptions, the speakers — scientists, teachers, clergy and grassroots activists — took the side of evolution, saying they feared that the proposed changes will open the door to the teaching of creationism or intelligent design.Board Chairman Don McLeroy said the lopsided turnout was part of an orchestrated campaign and flatly dismissed the notion that the board is intent on sabotaging the teaching of evolution in public schools, which would defy the U.S. Supreme Court.”This is all being ginned up by the evolution side,” McLeroy, of College Station, said in an interview during a break. “I’m a creationist, but I’m not going to put creationism in the schools.”
- News 8 Austin, with a video link; I was unaware the Free Market Foundation had any dog in this fight, but News 8 finds them arguing against business in this case, arguing that creationism needs to be in the curriculum regardless the damage it does to Texas business — need more evidence that this is a political-religious fight, and not science?
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6 Comments | Creationism, Curricula, Education, Evolution, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Curriculm Standards, Education, Evolution, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Texas, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 19, 2008
If I didn’t have two other competing meetings, one which is rather life-or-death, I’d love to on my way to Arlington, Texas, and the University of Texas at Arlington, right now.
Tickets are free to hear Doris Kearns Goodwin, the eminent historian, lively lecturer, and author late of Team of Rivals, which must surely be one of the more enlightening and surprising biographies of Abraham Lincoln.
When the senator from the Land of Lincoln, Barack Obama meets with John McCain to smoke the peace pipe, and seems to be on the verge of inviting his chief rival, Hillary Clinton, into his cabinet, Goodwin’s lecture cannot be more timely.
And, probably, fun.
DR. DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN
Admission is free, but tickets are required. Go to www.utatickets.com for your free tickets.
Dr. Doris Kearns Goodwin (MOVED TO TEXAS HALL)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian
November 19, 2008 · 8:00 pm · Texas Hall
A recap of the presidential election and discussion of her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Here’s a link to maps of UTA’s campus; you can get closer directions to Texas Hall there.
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Leave a Comment » | Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, History, Presidents, Texas | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin, History, Team of Rivals, Texas, UT Arlington | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 19, 2008
Ouch. As I noted in my testimony in 2003, much of Texas business is based on the pragmatic applications of evolution. Today, the Texas State Board of Education heard that businesses are leaving Texas because of the danger that an ill-educated workforce might hamper the business.
According to Evosphere:
Andrew Ellington, the UT Austin biochemistry professor spoke and said that he has formed two biomedical companies that use “directed evolution” (he presumably means gene sequencing techniques) to manufactures and delivers drugs for humans. He started these in Boston, MA, and Durham, NC, not Austin, because he needed to be sure there were plenty of workers properly trained in evolutionary biology that could understand the modern recombinant DNA techniques that are needed to produce and deliver the drugs. He spoke harshly about the “retrograde” Texas SBOE and its interference in accurate and reliable science education.
Most of the members of SBOE were there in 2003 when they tried to trap Ellington into admitting that evolution couldn’t occur because of the “handedness” issue. Ellington’s lab was where the handedness issue was put to bed, and he instead delivered a 15-minute tour-de-force lecture on how handedness is not a problem for evolution at all.
Dr. Andrew Ellington, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas, spoke to reporters at a Texas Freedom Network press conference following his testimony to the Texas State Board of Education, November 19, 2008
I guess they didn’t listen then. Will they listen now?
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11 Comments | Business, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Politics, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Andy Ellington, Business, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Politics, Science, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 19, 2008
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) hearings on proposals for new science standards kick off today — and will probably run long into the night.
You can probably still sneak comments in. You can listen to the hearings in streaming audio, live. You can read the live blog reports from Texas Citizens for Science (TCS) President Steve Schafersman.
Texas science teacher Joe Lapp (a member of TCS) will give the board some good advice — will they listen?
Lapp will say:
My name is Joe Lapp, but I go by Spider Joe. I teach children about spiders, about the biology and physics of a spider’s world. My mission is to stoke passion for science in children and to empower children to think like scientists. I like to think that I’m launching these children into productive future careers as scientists, and indirectly, through them, contributing to solving some of mankind’s most serious challenges.
I’m watching what is going on here in the State Board of Education. You’re vying over what to teach about science and about evolution in particular. Some of you say, “teach the weaknesses with evolution.” Some of you say, “the ‘weaknesses’ are phony, don’t teach them.” You argue over whether science includes the supernatural or is restricted to just natural phenomena.
I ask you, how many of you grew up to be scientists? How many of you make a living teaching science to children? In a world full of people who dedicate their lives to science or science education, how many of you on the board are one of these specialized experts?
I’m suggesting that you recognize that you yourselves don’t have the answers.
We all come to the table with preferences and biases, but we’re talking about our children’s education and their future lives. When a scientist approaches a question, she may have a preferred answer, one that might win her the Nobel prize. When Pons and Fleischmann performed their cold fusion experiment, they wanted to see more energy output than input. Their bias blinded them to the truth, and rather than winning the Nobel Prize they became laughing stocks. If a scientist wants to know the truth, she must design an experiment that might show her desired outcome wrong; she must delegate her answer to the outcome of an experiment that ignores her biases.
The State Board of Education has a choice. One option is to play politics with our children’s future and vote your bias, regardless of the truth. The other option is to delegate your answer to the outcome of an experiment that ignores your biases, so that the answer better reflects the truth.
Fortunately for you, you have already performed the experiment. You delegated answers to your questions about science and evolution to experts in science and science education. They answered in the form of your September TEKS drafts. I urge you not to suffer the embarrassing fate of Pons and Fleischmann and to accept your experimental results. I suspect that politics introduced biases into the November drafts. Don’t fudge your results.
Please show your respect for children and science by making this a scientific decision and not a political one. Launch children into science by example. Envision children growing up to create new biofuels, cure cancers, eliminate AIDS, end malnutrition, reverse global warming, and save our wondrous natural resources for future generations.
Science is our children’s future.
Resources:
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1 Comment | Biology, Business, Creationism, Education, Education reform, Evolution, History, Intelligent Design, Politics, Public education, Science, Separation of church and state, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Biology, Business, Education, Education reform, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Science Standards, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 18, 2008
Many scientists and researchers call Texas home, working at the Johnson Space Center, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas, University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, Baylor University, Rice University, the University of Houston, Texas Tech, the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center . . . well, you get the idea.
These are people who work in science every day. Many of them dedicate their lives to research in biological sciences, where evolution theory is the foundation and framework that hold all the biological sciences together.
In a groundbreaking poll released today by the Texas Freedom Network, 98% of Texas scientists told the Texas State Board of Education to quit trying to inject religion into public school science classes under the guise of intelligent design.
Will the Texas State Board of Education members listen to wise, professional advice?
The report highlights five key findings from the survey:
1. Texas scientists (97.7 percent) overwhelmingly reject “intelligent design” as valid science.
2. Texas science faculty (95 percent) want only evolution taught in science classrooms.
3. Scientists reject teaching the so-called “weaknesses” of evolution, with 94 percent saying that those arguments are not valid scientific objections to evolution.
4. Science faculty believe that emphasizing “weaknesses” of evolution would substantially harm students’ college readiness (79.6 percent) and ability to compete for 21st-century jobs (72 percent).
5. Scientists (91 percent) strongly believe that support for evolution is compatible with religious faith.
The survey results show that politicians who argue that there is a scientific controversy over evolution are not supported by scientists even in a state as conservative as Texas, [TFN President Kathy] Miller said.
Texas scientists report that their students from Texas too often are unprepared for college science curricula in biology because evolution wasn’t taught to them. This increases costs at the college level where remedial work must be done, and it discourages many capable students from pursuing careers in science. The report urges SBOE to listen to Texas scientists:
It is no exaggeration to say that Texas colleges and universities have a world-class science faculty and boast some of the most respected science educators found anywhere. These scientists should be an invaluable resource in crafting curriculum standards that prepare Texas schoolchildren for college and for the jobs of tomorrow. But is anyone listening? The State Board of Education would do well to heed the advice from these professors. The science education of a generation of students hangs in the balance. [page 9]
Hearings on proposed changes to the science curriculum are scheduled for Wednesday, November 19, in Austin. Steve Schafersman, Texas Citizens for Science, will live blog the hearings for his Houston Chronicle blog, Evosphere.
Resources:
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37 Comments | Creationism, Education, Intelligent Design, Politics, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Politics, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 11, 2008
Reminder: Dr. Barbara Forrest, the noted science historian whose testimony was key to the decision in the Dover, Pennsylvania, evolution trial, is speaking at 6:00 p.m. at SMU tonight, November 11, 2008.
If you’re in Dallas, go.
Also, I got word today that Texas teachers can pick up CEU credits for this event, sponsored by the science and philosophy departments at SMU together with the Texas Freedom Network. Check in at the registration table.
Forrest’s presentation will serve as a warning to Texas: “Why Texans Shouldn’t Let Creationists Mess with Science Education.”
The event is at the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, in the Hughes-Trigg Theatre (map with free parking shown) — more details at the Texas Freedom Network site.
Hope to see you there.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
November 10, 2008
Update: Teachers may sign up to get CEU credits for this event. Check in at the sign-in desk before the event — certificates will be mailed from SMU later.
It will be one more meeting of scientists that Texas State Board of Education Chairman Dr. Don McLeroy will miss, though he should be there, were he diligent about his public duties.
Dr. Barbara Forrest, one of the world’s foremost experts on “intelligent design” and other creationist attempts to undermine the teaching of evolution, will speak in the Faith and Freedom Speaker Series at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. Her evening presentation will serve as a warning to Texas: “Why Texans Shouldn’t Let Creationists Mess with Science Education.”
Dr. Forrest’s presentation is at 6:00 p.m., in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center in the Hughes-Trigg Theatre, at SMU’s Campus. The Faith and Freedom Speaker Series is sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network’s (TFN) education fund. Joining TFN are SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Center for Teaching Excellence, Department of Anthropology, Department of Biological Sciences, and Department of Philosophy.
Hughes-Trigg is at 3140 Dyer Street, on SMU’s campus (maps and directions available here).
Seating is limited for the lecture; TFN urges reservations be made here.
Dr. Forrest being interviewed by PBS's NOVA crew, in 2007. Southeastern Louisiana University photo.
From TFN:
Dr. Barbara Forrest
is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. She is the co-author with Paul R. Gross of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (2004; 2007), which details the political and religious aims of the intelligent design creationist movement. She served as an expert witness in the first legal case involving intelligent design, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for Science Education and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Widely recognized as a leading expert on intelligent design, she has appeared on Larry King Live, ABC’s Nightline, and numerous other television and radio programs.
Also see:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
November 6, 2008
Do you think this blog is really written by two older women?
I’m jealous of their ability to get people to comment.
What ship is that in the masthead? The U.S.S. Texas?
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Posted by Ed Darrell
November 3, 2008
Police are still looking for signs of lipstick.
Was it a real hockey mom? Who has time to check for lipstick when the thing lunges at you? How can you really tell?
From The Dallas Morning News:
Democratic judicial candidate Ken Molberg was attacked and bitten multiple times by a pit bull Saturday while walking a southeastern Dallas neighborhood as part of his party’s organized effort to turn out Democratic voters.
Mr. Molberg, a Dallas lawyer who is running for the 95th Civil District Court post, was going door to door on Lake June Road with fellow candidate Judge Don Adams when the attack occurred shortly after noon, local Democratic Party officials said. He was bitten on the upper leg and groin.
Steve Tillery, executive director of the Dallas County Democratic Party, said Mr. Molberg was walking up to a house and saw the dog through an open door. The dog ran out and attacked him, he said.
Mr. Molberg said he punched and kicked the dog then hopped onto a car to get away from the animal.
He said he received 17 stitches at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and has about eight open puncture wounds. He was home by late Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Molberg is the most senior member of the party’s State Democratic Executive Committee.
“My crack to the family that helped me was that it must have been a Republican dog,” he said.
The candidate said the wounds will keep him out of commission for a while, but he’ll continue to talk to voters – by phone.
“I think I got a bunch of votes in the emergency room,” he said.
Molberg is famous for his cowboy hats and for his staunch support of the Democratic Party. His candidacy is endorsed by the Dallas Morning News.
- Democrat Ken Molberg, top right, listens to a delegate’s question on convention procedures during the Texas Democratic 23rd Senatorial District Convention, June 2008, well prior to his run in with a pit bull dog. Molberg , ever the gentleman, had removed his trademark cowboy hat, indoors. Photo copyright 2008, Ed Darrell
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 