Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is formerly a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not battling creationists or modeling species ranges, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
Phill Kline lost his bid for a full term as Johnson County DA. Having lost his re-election campaign for state AG in 2006, the county's Republican party installed him in the post, despite the fact that he did not carry the county in that statewide election. This move peeved a lot of people, and…
With only a handful of precincts reporting, Phill Kline appears to be going down in the Republican primary. We can only hope and pray that the second "l" continue to stand for "loser."
In the Board elections, the excellent Mary Ca Ralstin has the edge in the race to replace Sue Gamble, subtle…
Barack Obama defends himself from Republican stupidity:
Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It’s like these guys take…
In a townhall meeting, John McCain said "I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise taxes." Anti-tax wingnut Grover Norquist declared that this was:
an updated version of "Read my lips, no new taxes"
That line of course, was George H. W. Bush's promise, which Bush promptly broke.
Of course,…
In particular, Kansas voters should be sure to vote for State Board of Education members. Stand Up For Real Science has the skinny on the candidates, with proscience candidates:
District 2 (Sue Gamble's old seat, KCK):
Sue Storm (D, unchallenged)
Mary Ca Ralstin (R, competitive race)
District 4 (…
Digging for something else, I encounter Kathryn Jean Lopez arguing with an emailer about curriculum. The emailer objects to an earlier comment, where Ms. Lopez allowed that she's "the Discovery Institute's patsy" at NRO, but "I don't want public schools reading Cardinal Shönborn's tract on…
Via Bora:
My Liberal Identity:
You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
Of…
Joan Walsh wonders: "Are Kaine and Bayh the best Obama can do?"
No. Conventional wisdom has narrowed the Democratic veepstakes to those two and Kathleen Sebelius. Kaine gets a lot of the DC attention, since he's right there in Virginia, but there's no reason Walsh should blow off Sebelius.
Bayh…
Senator McCain is attacking Barack Obama with an ad claiming Obama is the world's biggest political celebrity, on a par with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Others have noted that McCain is a bit of a celebrity himself, and, more importantly, the two blond starlets are not exactly at the top of…
I have never understood Maureen Dowd, neither why people read her, why she has a regular spot on the Times op-ed page, nor why she writes what she does.
At last, The Editors explain it. And the explanation involves furries.
Two stories came up next to each other in my RSS reader. First, Jessica's makeover, in which a caller discusses Jesse Helms and his crossdressing ways. Second, Jessica King joins the Luxurious Flowing Hair Club for Scientists.
Coincidence?
The pundit, famous for a profanity-laden exit from a CNN set in 2005, and for outing undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame in 2003, checked into a Boston hospital only days after running over a pedestrian in D.C. and insisting I didn’t know I hit anybody. In a statement, Novak explained:
I will be…
The Washington Post checks McCain's rhetoric about and the safety of offshore drilling:
Sen. John McCain says at every campaign stop that offshore oil drilling is safe, playing down the risk of environmental accidents, even when faced with the power of a hurricane.
"I'm aware that off the coast of…
After Phill Kline (the extra "L" is for "Loser") lost his re-election bid as Kansas Attorney General, the Johnson County Republican Party installed him as district attorney. The move outraged voters, and Kline promised not to run for a full term. Turns out, Kline was just kidding. He is running…
Jim Slattery, who I got to meet briefly at Netroots Nation, is a great guy, a great candidate, and now has a great ad up on Kansas TV stations making a simple case: Pat Roberts has been in DC for too long. It's time for a change.
Last week, I mentioned that Billy Dembski is all worked up over a paper which he claimed was a peer-reviewed rejection of the climate change. The publisher, the American Physical Science, attached a disclaimer to the piece, noting that it was in fact not peer reviewed. Dembski now defends his own…
My friend Chris Mooney wonders about critical reviews of Sizzle:
Could it be that, for some of these hypercritical bloggers, Randy Olson's documentarian character in Sizzle is really their reflection in the mirror? After all, the character is basically a caricature of someone who repeatedly demands…
Hey gang, the Sb crew is arranging a gathering of our readership in New York, probably on the afternoon of August 3 9 (a Saturday). If any of you might be interested in such a thing, email or leave a comment, so we can plan for the size of the crowd, and maybe convince Seed to have something…
39 years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped onto an elaborately constructed simulacrum of the lunar surface, the first time such a thing had ever been done in history.
Pardon me, my fact-checkers have determined that in fact, it was the actual lunar surface, and also reveal that tomorrow was supposed to…
Governor Mayor Gavin Newsom (I slipped up and made that verbal premonition yesterday) is sitting here in the airport with me. I may chat with him in a moment.
This morning, he introduced the capstone speech by Van Jones. Let it be said that Van Jones Rocks, and his Ella Baker Center is just down…
Gavin Newsom is a very tall man who walks very fast. He should challenge Schwarzenegger to a winner-take-all walking contest.
He is not all-powerful, though. Our flight, Mayor and all, was delayed from taking off for 2 hours, and then had to circle the airport for half an hour.
I finally made…
Billy Dembski, proud owner of a doctorate masters in theology, is very confused. In responding to Olivia Judson's argument that "Darwinism" is a useless phrase and that no sensible person ought to call evolutionary biology Darwinism (and, AFAIC, no sensible person does), Dembski picks out her…
Al Gore addresses the Netroots Nation:
Nancy Pelosi, and more, below the fold.
Nancy Pelosi:
Texas Board of Ed. Chairman Don McLeroy:
Texas SBOE members attempt to perform mathematics:
John Dean:
Cass Sunstein:
Unidentified citizens of the Netroots Nation watch Nancy Pelosi:
Ryan Valentine…
Cass Sunstein (law professor at the University of Chicago, mega-author and potential Supreme Court Justice) chatting with Samantha Power (genocide expert, once-and-hopefully-future Obama advisor) at the ropeline where Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi were greeting the Netroots Nation crowd.
Awesome.
Doop-de-doo, killin' time between sessions by checking the RSS feeds, and what do I find but Billy Dembski, the Heisenberg of cats, mouthing off on global warming. "So much for the 'scientific consensus' regarding man-made global warming," the boy adventurer expounds. "As I recall, there’s…
A teacher at Netroots Nation asks what can be done to improve science education, and to get principles of science as a process back into classes within the NCLB framework.
Gore responded briefly that it is "really harmful that science education… [has] been pushed out of the experience our children…
In 20 years, historians will try to figure out how global warming moved from an issue that scientists and wonks were alone in caring about. Nancy Pelosi began her prepared statement talking about her creation of a climate change committee in the House. At the Netroots Nation panel on space policy…
