#391: — 01/22  at  10:06 PM
Whatever her failings, Yecke isn't responsible for the material you quoted, which was addressed to her in a proposed minority report.

#392: PZ Myers — 01/22  at  10:13 PM
You may not be aware of the circularity of the situation here. The 'minority report' is written by Yecke's fellow travellers in the ID movement, and is a set of comments that she herself has been pushing all along.

#393: — 01/22  at  10:37 PM
Oh, no argument there; Yecke is certainly a bad 'un. But as it stands the attribution is incorrect.

What Minnesotans need to worry about now, though, is that the Discovery Institute just officially endorsed the minority report: see its new press release. NCSE has been notified.

#394: PZ Myers — 01/23  at  06:40 AM
Ah, I see what you're objecting to: my leap to assume Yecke is all on board with the statement. I've revised it slightly, but from all that I've seen and heard, our commissioner is in full agreement with everything coming out of the minority committee, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she vetted their statements before they were made public.

That interesting DI report you cited backs that up:
"Cooper added that the minority report followed guidance from Education Commissioner Cheri Yecke, who had encouraged the standards committee to look to guidelines set down by Congress in the Conference Report of the No Child Left Behind Act. Congress urged states to present “the full range of scientific views” on controversial topics “such as biological evolution.” "

#395: — 01/23  at  10:57 AM
How long is it going to take before the Discovery Institute is going to stop using that lie? They have to realize that everybody who's against their theocratic agenda and even slightly motivated to argue the issue knows about the Santorum amendment, and how it never made it to the final bill. How does an amendment that was never signed into law become a mandate from Congress? Are they really that hard up for a justification for themselves?

I guess they are: first it was intelligent design is an alternative scientific model that should be taught alongside evolution.

Then it became: we should teach the weaknesses (unspecified) of the theory of evolution.

Then it became: we need to teach ID in schools so we'll have scientific workers in ID who will someday provide the empirical justification we ought to have presented already.

And now: teach ID because Congress demands it! (Well, not really, but we hope nobody will look closely enough to find out we're lying.)

It may be premature to completely count "intelligent design" out, but from the decreasing quality of their rationalizations, I wonder if we're not beginning to see the demise of ID as a political movement.

#396: PZ Myers — 01/23  at  11:04 AM
Why are the words "Weapons of Mass Destruction-Related Program Activities" running through my head when I read that?

I think the rationalizations of the reactionary-conservative wackos are being stretched into ever more tenuous threads.

#397: Brent — 01/23  at  11:08 AM
Have you seen this story about IDiots pushing a bill called "HB911" in Missouri? It's said that this bill would "define how to teach life's origins" and then goes on to babble about the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of evolution and how they should be taught to children, blah, blah, blargle. (If I had a nickel for every IDiot who has confidently told me that evolution was a theory concerning the origin of life, I'd be a rich, rich man.) Some Republican State Representative named Robert Wayne Cooper is pushing the bill at the request of an IDiot group called "Missourians for Excellence in Science Education". Here's an excerpt:

"Cooper said he seeks to improve science education by changing textbooks, by making sure fact and theory are not commingled and to allow discussion of intelligent design as a model for the origin of life."

Hi co-sponsor on the bill, State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R), say that she decided to co-sponsor the bill so that students would have "intellectual freedom" - which I guess for her means that they can believe any weirdo thing they want and their teachers will be constrained from telling them the truth about it. Sounds like intellectual suicide to me. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/5D953C9E082AAF2686256E24001748C2?OpenDocument&Headline=Bill+defines+how+to+teach+life's+origins+++

#398: PZ Myers — 01/23  at  11:24 AM
Yes, here, here, here.

With any luck it will die in committee and never see the light of day.

#399: Brent — 01/23  at  11:39 AM
This thing just toasts me for some reason. The sheer obstinate willingness to remain ignorant blows me away. The IDiots in the citizens group are just acting like the religious wackos that they are, but those two legislators should be prosecuted for willful negligence or something.

(insert Howard Dean scream here).

Trackback: I Lost A Wife Once, But Her Name Wasn't ID And It Wasn't In A Flood Tracked on: Unscrewing The Inscrutable (0) at 2004 01 23 11:44:16
Have you seen this story about a bill called "HB911" in Missouri? It's said that this bill would "define how to teach life's origins" and then goes on to babble about the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of evoluti...