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Kentucky Lawmakers Shocked To Find Evolution In Biology Tests
bbianca127 writes "Kentucky mandated that schools include tests that are based on national standards, and contracted test maker ACT to handle them. Legislators were then shocked that evolution was so prominently featured, even though evolution is well-supported and a central tenet of modern biology. One KY Senator said he wanted creationism taught alongside evolution, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism in science classes is a violation of the establishment clause. Representative Ben Wade stated that evolution is just a theory, and that Darwin made it all up. Legislators want ACT to make a Kentucky-specific ACT test, though the test makers say that would be prohibitively expensive. This is just the latest in a round of states' fight against evolution — Louisiana and Tennessee have recently passed laws directed against teaching evolution."
Kentucky was a Union state. You're stuck with them either way.
Kentucky was claimed by both the Union and the Confederacy. Parts of the state actively supported the Union, other parts actively supported the Confederacy. Similar story when you get to individuals. Kentucky being considered a Union state is literally one of those instances where the victor gets to write history.
Missouri had a similar split and the results were particularly bloody guerilla raids by small local groups. Similar problems may have occurred in Kentucky, I'm not familiar with what happened there.
Virginia split in two, West Virginia exists because locals went Union.
I think NASA is as much of a drain on the nation's resources as Kentucky.
Setting aside how mind-numbingly asinine that remark is, I would like to introduce you to the concept of False Equivalence.
Taxpayer money invested in NASA projects has delivered huge returns in science, technology and prestige for the USA. Hardly a drain. And as one of the Curiosity scientists put it recently, they didn't just send $2.6 B to Mars and drop it there. That money was spent here on Earth.
Sure, they're stupid in Kentucky, but I didn't appreciate seeing all those tax-payer bought incredibly over priced apple laptops in mission control. Only the government would pay gobs of cash for a locked down version of BSD.
Yet another logical fallacy.
Apple products are generally more expensive than comparable products from other manufacturers, but not that much more expensive. Personally I don't use them, but I don't question the fiscal judgement of those who do. If you want to complain about overpriced tools bought with taxpayer money, I'd start with the military.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
if you are so all-fired to exclude scientific thought, send your kids to church school ...
Some church schools excel in science, surpassing most public schools. Some very large churches also have no problem with evolution and have publicly stated that scientific observations and finding are not in conflict with faith. The astronomer and physics professor who developed the big bang theory was also a priest.
Re: Apple laptops
I work for astronomers and physicists, so I have an informed opinion on the Mac prefrence:
It's an OS that comes, supported, on good hardware. Generally there aren't scrabbles to find drivers for hardware or other problems that you Just Don't Want if you travel a lot or have (literally) mission-critical duties. It also runs all of the software that astronomers have been running for decades. They still write FORTRAN. They will riot if you take away the command line.
The labor cost of buying Dells, for example, and throwing Linux on them can end up being higher than just spending extra for the Mac. It's especially true when something goes wrong and you can take it to any Apple store and get parts or software help, no admin needed.
Yes, they all love being in the Apple club, too.