Constitutional Obfuscation

It has been difficult to dodge politics recently, as the coming election compels candidates to throw their pamphlets in your face at every corner. One particular candidate in New Mexico has recently caught my attention, Republican Tom Mullins. He has achieved this by handing out pocket constitutions along with his various informational fliers (which proudly point out that he is a Christian who will defend the constitution!) Excuse my cynicism, but the more someone touts the founding documents as a campaign tool, the more likely they are to have little to no comprehension as to what they say.

I was able to confirm this today. Tom had taken it upon himself to campaign at a local pancake breakfast that my family and I were attending. He stopped by our table, introduced himself (to me, but not my wife who is nine months pregnant but INVISIBLE!), and gave me the opportunity confirm my suspicions through this short exchange:

Spacecataz: (After reviewing his business card) I've noticed that you've been handing out a lot of constitutions.

Tom: (Notably proud of this) Yes.

Spacecataz: Do you believe that the United States is a christian nation?

Tom: (Again, quite proud) Yes.

At this point, I merely handed his card back to him in an attempt to signal my lack of support. I could have pointed out that the first amendment explicitly prohibits the endorsement of one religion over another; I could have enlightened him to Thomas Jefferson's concept of a wall of separation; I could have, perhaps more aggressively, asked to which Christianity he refers when describing our government.

All of those would have been a waste of our time, however. Again, excuse me for being a cynic, but any hope of Mr. Mullins being an enlightened man who would have provided a productive discussion on such topics goes out the window when one reviews his website.

Conyers and Future Posts

For some reason, I've only had precious few opportunities to complain about the walking fail that is Monica Conyers. Despite the councilwoman's incompetence and moodiness (putting it rather mildly), she hadn't done anything truly illegal yet, had she?

Well, where there's smoke, there's fire. Conyers has pleaded guilty to bribery. While she hasn't decided to step down yet (and I fully expect her to refuse to do so), Detroit's other councilmen are putting the city first (for a change) and taking the choice out of her hands. Such a move indicates real leadership in Detroit's city hall; let's hope that it is not an isolated incident.


Besides this shitmess, I am now back in town and have a bunch of material that is overdue for this blog:

1. The GEM meeting wrapup.
2. Part two of my response to Telepathichtroy.
3. A looonnnggg overdue description of the best Spring AGU presenter ever.
4. The sun is boring again.

Should be a good blogging time all around!

Don McLeroy gets grilled

As I've said before, education standards in Texas are important to the entire nation because of that state's influence on textbook manufacturers. The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is led by Don McLeroy, a career dentist and young Earth creationist (read: evolution denier and religious extremist). He has fought hard to have intelligent design and creationist teachings forced into science text books. To have this man weild so much power over this nation is very frightening.

It looks like the Texas senate may have had enough, however. At McLeroy's confirmation hearing, he was grilled by both Democrats and Republicans. There must be a 2/3 approval rate for him to be reinstated, and that is now a questionable outcome. Check out the Texas Freedom Network's live blog of the hearing!

EDIT: Some quotes from the blog to give you an idea of what McLeroy would like your kid to learn in public school:

5:36 - Sen. Shapleigh asks about McLeroy’s beliefs about evolution. McLeroy acknowledges that is is his personal belief that Earth is only 6,000 years old.

5:37 -McLeroy says almost everyone in his church rejects evolution and supports creationism. He describes himself as a young Earth creationist. He says he tells reporters that he wants to be up front and honest about his beliefs. “I think it’s a pretty rational view.”

5:54 - McLeroy: “I don’t see any way I’m imposing my religious views in anything I’ve done on the State Board of Education.”

5:57 - McLeroy: He rejects the suggestion that evolution is the foundation for studying all the biological sciences. “Genetics is the foundation. . . for studying biology. . . . Genetics is good solid science.” [Note: this is patently absurd. I suggest readers watch any Ken Miller talk about how genetics soundly supports our understanding of evolution and common ancestry.]

6:37 - Questions for McLeroy have ended. Now the committee is hearing testimony from others. First up is Dr. Ron Wetherington, a professor of anthropology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Wetherington served on the state board’s panel of “expert reviewers” for the science standards revision. He objects to McLeroy’s attempts to promote challenges to mainstream science because his religious beliefs are in opposition to evolution: “It is an embarrassment to have such a partisan religious bias, fundamentally anti-scientific, promoted by an appointed chair of the SBOE, and I urge you not to confirm this appointment.” [emphasis mine]

Return science to its proper place.

Phil Plait has an exceptionally important post over at Bad Astronomy. It's about a new effort to reinstate the Office of Technology Assessment, a bipartisan group that provided scientific advice to the president. There is an online petition as well as a Facebook group. Check it out.