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.
The National Academies Press is selling books at half price for the summer, meaning you can get Robert Hazen's excellent Gen-e-sis for cheap. It's perfect reading whether you're at a deep-sea vent, tidal pools or floating on the surface of the primordial ocean.
An important principle in first amendment jurisprudence is that government actions must not be undertaken solely for the benefit of religion. In 1987, the Supreme Court considered a law passed by Louisiana that required teachers who presented "evolution-science" to "balance" it with "creation-…
As Ben Stein's egregiously bad Expelled opens in Canada, the Canadian press is getting a taste of the offensive bile Stein unleashed in his US media tour. Peter McKnight, of the Vancouver Sun, asked Stein about the ADL's condemnation of his movie:
Nowhere does Stein mention the centuries of anti-…
MSNBC's First Read quotes McCain justifying offshore oil drilling:
Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial.
In other words, it does nothing, but might sound good to people who don't pay attention…
It can be difficult to understand creationists at times. Last week, I observed Disco. Inst. blogger Martin Cothran wondered: "If their relationships are already stable, then why do they need to be stabilized?" Cothran only applies that logic to teh gays, of course. I pointed out that the same…
Martin Cothran, blogger for the Disco. Inst., opposes gay marriage, and wonders:
If their relationships are already stable, then why do they need to be stabilized?
Compelling logic. Clearly, marriage is useless.
Of course, evidence suggests that marriage actually does have a stabilizing effect…
The confluence of forces that make San Francisco great:
I don't care what people say about the crazy homeless people in SF. They all hate these bigots [protesting against newly-married couples] and started picking fights with all of them because they had nothing better to do and nothing to lose if…
Disco. vocalist Rob Crowther wonders What Part of "shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine" do his opponents not understand? Writing about SB 733, a creationist bill winging its way to Governor Bobby "The Exorcist II" Jindal, Crowther points out that:
Section 1D of the bill…
Yesterday at 5:01 PM, California became the second state in which every person can get married, without regard to sexuality. Other states grant the rights and privileges of marriage under a different name, but only California and Massachusetts take the final step to equality by using the same name…
The Washington Post reports that the Red Cross has fallen on hard times:
The American Red Cross said yesterday that it has depleted its national disaster relief fund and is taking out loans to pay for shelters, food and other relief services across seven Midwestern states battered by floods.
The…
In a press release from the Louisiana Coalition for Science, Governor Bobby Jindal's college genetics professor asks him not to "hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors." The press release introduces an open letter from the group calling for Jindal to veto SB 733, a bill which opens…
After 8 years of having an Alfred E. Neuman impersonator in the White House, is John McCain really considering this man to be his vice presidential nominee?
Governor Bobby Jindal is not just an Alfred E. Neuman impersonator, though. He is a graduate of Brown University, where he majored in…
We live in a truly stunning time and place. The lovely vistas in the finest of science fiction movies could never produce the simple awe I feel when I look at NASA's image of sunset on Mars:
We did this. Next time someone tells you that the government can't do anything right, point them to this…
Disco. Inst. head Bruce Chapman takes a dip in denial. Global warming isn't an issue, he seems to believe, because:
We're having the coldest winter, er, spring in 100 years in the great Northwest. There's new snow in the mountain passes and even freak frosty flecks in Seattle's hilliy suburbs.…
Excellent news! Barack Obama "is quite literally moving swaths of the DNC to Chicago to create a unified organization with the sort of party-wide message discipline that has eluded Dems in the past."
TPM cites this as an example of what Obama is doing to avoid the split between his campaign and…
Among the many Republican congresscritters not backing McSame, Todd Tiahrt truly stands out. Tiahrt claims to represent the Wichita area, and his refusal to back his party's nominee probably doesn't mean he backs Obama. He may well think McCain is too nice to immigrants, or is insufficiently Bush…
Not content with mangling basic science and history, MediaMatters points out that Stein is misrepresenting Barack Obama's tax plan:
On Fox & Friends, Ben Stein misrepresented Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan to raise the capital gains tax rate on the wealthiest earners, stating: "[P]eople that have…
Not just by being a double-dealing hack. He also Toverrode the best advice Hillary got about Iraq. The former chief pollster and lead strategist for the campaign explains:
the rest of the campaign didn't want to tackle Iraq. They always felt that that was a losing proposition for her, and they…
SB 733, a creationist bill in the Louisiana legislature, was approved on a lopsided vote in the Louisiana House of Representatives today. It now moves back to the Senate, where small differences between this bill and the Senate version must be reconciled before it can go to Governor Jindal.…
Barack Obama's victory over the nation's racist history may be impressive, but unlike John McCain, he never had to face Rudy Giuliani or Law and Order's Fred Thompson.
Interestingly, Gerson is the author of President Bush's phrase about "the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Johnny West, associate director of the Disco. Inst.'s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture, is upset with the New York Times:
Message to New York Times Editorial Page: Hire a Fact-Checker ... The Times apparently hasn't been paying attention to Texas during the past decade, because ... the…
Living in the O! urges us to Save Transit at the Local, State & Federal Levels:
I hadn't realized that transit's being attacked by all levels of government this week. Luckily, there are three ways you can take action to stop these attacks.
1. LOCAL - This Wednesday, the AC Transit Board of…
Clownhall.com columnist Jackie Gingrich Gingrich Gingrich Cushman Gingrich is worried. Diving boards are in decline:
Steve Moore, in his Wall Street Journal June 23, 2006 article, "Off the Deep End," blames the decline in diving boards in the United States on the trial lawyers...
Moore believes…
The Kansas Republican party is bringing out the big guns:
Friday, June 20 The Johnson County Young Republicans are hosting Karaoke Night at Famous Sam's in Shawnee. Famous Sam’s is located in the strip mall on the southeast corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Pflumm. For more information email…
After it became clear that we invaded Iraq to rid it of stuff that didn't exist there (WMD, terrorists, African yellowcake uranium, imminent threats), the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI, or "sucky" to its friends) agreed to hold hearings on what went wrong. The report was divided,…
Pencil Nub:
I think I’ve come up with a solution to the controversy over guns that we’re having in this country.
We need to petition the FDA to approve firearms for use as devices to perform abortions.
Of course, there would be risks to the woman undergoing the firearm abortion, but that’s the case…
