Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Scopes II
It will be 86 years this summer when a Tennessee public school teacher, John Thomas Scopes was convicted of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach evolution in the state. The trial at the time was a bit of a publicity stunt: the town business men wanted the trade they assumed would come from a high-profile litigation. The case famously pitted the two great legal minds of the era, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. With reportage from H. L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun, the event ended up bringing the town of Dayton a lot more than it bargained for.
And now, nearly 90 years later, the Tennessee State Legislature, in its unassailable wisdom, has passed yet another anti-science law, this time by a margin of 70 - 23. The pertinent language:
This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.
Weaknesses that do not exist. Throw in that word "theories" for sure. And make sure your example covers the two things the right hates most: evolution and global warming.
We are doomed.
And now, nearly 90 years later, the Tennessee State Legislature, in its unassailable wisdom, has passed yet another anti-science law, this time by a margin of 70 - 23. The pertinent language:
This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.
Weaknesses that do not exist. Throw in that word "theories" for sure. And make sure your example covers the two things the right hates most: evolution and global warming.
We are doomed.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Clarence Thomas is . . . something
In the case of Connick v. Thompson (and yes, that's Harry Connick Jr.'s dad, a District Attorney in New Orleans), the court has apparently taken the teeth out of Brady v. Maryland, which says prosecutors must turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense. In this case, they sat on it for 20 years, and the petitioner, Thompson, sat in prison for over 14 years for a crime he did not commit. The trial court awarded Thompson $15 million, which was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. But that is vacated now; the court has guaranteed that nobody can be held responsible for even the most shocking civil rights violations.
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