Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Elections Matter

Elections Matter

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Interesting piece on what the folks in the creationism movement are up to:

Opponents of teaching evolution, in a natural selection of sorts, have gradually shed those strategies that have not survived the courts. Over the last decade, creationism has given rise to “creation science,” which became “intelligent design,” which in 2005 was banned from the public school curriculum in Pennsylvania by a federal judge.

Now a battle looms in Texas over science textbooks that teach evolution, and the wrestle for control seizes on three words. None of them are “creationism” or “intelligent design” or even “creator.”

The words are “strengths and weaknesses.”

The usual suspects have a better rundown on the wider implications for education, I will instead discuss why this is relevant to our current election. John McCain claims to personally believe in evolution, but in his own McMavericky way:

On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes “all points of view” should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.

The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.

Being a maverick means opposing torture but failing to vote to ban it, supporting evolution but allowing crap to be taught alongside it, professing to not know much about the economy while claiming to be the person who should be elected to fix it, and so on. Being a maverick ain’t easy- there are, shall we say, “strengths and weaknesses” to being a straight talker.

Reader Interactions

20Comments

  1. 1.

    gex

    If you can find no other reason to abhor the GOP, their deliberate goal of making Americans too stupid to compete in the world should be all you need.

  2. 2.

    demimondian

    Interestingly, of course, as they back away towards things which are actually debatable, they lose. Some of the major points that they claim are “weaknesses” (e.g. the Cambrian explosion) are actually predictions of evolutionary theories, not weaknesses thereof.

  3. 3.

    Jake

    You might as well teach kids that 2+2=4 is just one point of view, and that facts have a well-known liberal bias. This seems to me the best path to growing the GOP over the next couple of generations.

  4. 4.

    demimondian

    By the way, John, I don’t hold with those who call John McCain a flip-flopper. He’s a McMaverick, after all, so I think the term “sandaller” is probably more appropriate.

  5. 5.

    mantis

    Actually I have no problems with this.

    Strengths of evolution: The central organizing principle of the life sciences and one of the most robust and comprehensive scientific theories ever posited by humans, supported by evidence from fields as diverse as astronomy, paleontology, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, genetics, anthropology, and geology, tying together such natural phenomena as genetic diversity, environmental change, adaptation, differential reproductive success, and speciation. Without an understanding of evolution many of the medical advances of the 20th century would not have been possible.

    Weaknesses: Too complicated for biblical literalists and ignorant rubes to understand. Opposition to evolution has been shown to be an effective political tool for assholes and idiots.

    Class dismissed.

  7. 7.

    TCG

    21st Century Creation Science can be fun to teach!

    You could teach it by watching the Star Wars movies for a description of “The Force.”

    Or if you don’t believe in “The Force.”

    Another good movie for a dose of Intellegent Design is “Mission to Mars.” ET did it instead. Good stuff.

    I’m sure there are other movies out there which could be used to teach Creation Science for the 21st century.

  11. 11.

    Big E

    I saw some statistics on the ‘net that said 18% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth.

    There is a little known movie called ‘Idiocracy’ about a man who awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.

    We are on our way there between failing schools and dumbing down what is taught, politically correct history, creationism/ID and science research at the mercy of evangelicals.

  12. 12.

    4tehlulz

    Don’t make fun of creationists! They are principled! All of them have refused to partake in the poisoned fruits of evolutionists ideas, like vaccines and antibiot—–

    whoops.

  13. 13.

    wasabi gasp

    Johnny graduates top of his class in creationism sciences. Johnny explains the intelligent design of the Whopper to his customer at the drive-thru. Strengths and weaknesses.

  14. 14.

    ThymeZone

    I don’t get all that excited about the “all points of view” notion. We had “all points of view” when I went to school and I figured out pretty quickly what was superstitious nonsense and what was based on science, and what that meant. It wasn’t that hard.

    I think we underestimate peoples’ intelligence when we overreact to what we can say to them lest we confuzzle them too much. If science is properly taught, and by that I mean, the understanding of the processes and why they are essential, then the people who get that will not be inclined to think the earth is 6000 years old. The people who don’t get it? It doesn’t matter what you teach them, they won’t figure it all out regardless.

    Teach science and let the lessons of science do their work. If understood, they innoculate against the effects of Creationism and Intelligent Design.

  15. 15.

    Ulrich Von Leichtenstein

    Well, first off, evolution has nothing to do with the origin of man and/or the origin of the universe. All evolution is, is changes in the gene pool over time. It’s not really that radical.

    I’m tired of people conflating evolution and the origin of man and/or the universe.

  16. 16.

    Bubblegum Tate

    That was a smile? I thought he was chewing on a quarter.

    I thought he was trying out his Blofeld impersonation.

  18. 18.

    OniHanzo

    In the end it’s a losing strategy. You can’t use science to disprove science.

    As if these idiots haven’t met a losing strategy they didn’t like.

  19. 19.

    jake

    All points of view, Senator McCranky? That could be fun.

    In the begining there was only chaos. Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared.

    Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to man out of darkness.

    Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaea’s mate covering her on all sides. Together they produced the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.

    However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea’s womb. This angered Gaea and she ploted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the youngest Titan, Cronus.

    Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitales into the ocean.

  20. 20.

    Delia

    All points of view, indeed. And Stephen Colbert is helping out by holding a competition to let viewers fill in the green screen behind his dreadful speech on Tuesday to try to make it a little more interesting.

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