Anti-Evolution Legislation in Louisiana

Senator David Vitter has earmarked funds of $100,000 to a group that opposes teaching evolution in classrooms according to an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. According to the article, Senator Vitter issued a written statement: “This program helps supplement and support educators and school systems that would like to offer all of the explanations in the study of controversial science topics such as global warming and the life sciences.”

I am from Louisiana, and this news is wholly embarrassing. There are so many points of contention I have with this news I hardly know where to begin.

Earmarking itself invites corruption. Senators should only be allowed to budget money from taxes. Federal agencies should then choose how to apply those funds to achieve the goals of the budget. The only controversy I see with evolution is with Christian religious organizations. Christianity is not a science, and its lessons do not belong in biology.

I agree global warming is controversial. Both sides of global warming, man-made or naturally occurring, seem to have valid evidence. Funding to resolve this needs to be used objectively by scientists. The funding does not belong in Louisiana public schools at this time.

Sadly, there are few in this state that feel this way. Perhaps we deserve this shameful representation.

Fox News

I watched 15 minutes of Fox News this morning for the first time in six months. I am not sure if they have gotten worse, or if I am now less tolerant of their ignorance.

There were two stories covered in the time I watched. The first was about the MIT freshman student that was arrested for wearing a 9 volt battery-powered LED name tag to an airport. Apparently airport security thought it was a bomb. The Fox News anchors kept referring to the girl as stupid. They were saying things like, "How does someone like this get into MIT?" and "This just goes to show even smart people do stupid things." I like to imagine the TSA when they saw her: "Look at that Clevus! That's one of them there Muslims (she was Hawaiian) with a suicide bomb (there was a battery with wires)! Let's arrest that godless freak at gunpoint."

The second was about Columbia University allowing Ahmadinejad to speak there today. Here's how they introduced the story: "Here's another place with a lot of smart people, Columbia University, but the president of the school is making a stupid decision by allowing the leader of a terrorist nation address the students today."