It can be such a drag living in New Orleans. Sometimes it feels as if we are an island of diversity and culture in a bland sea of cracker crumbs.
And, too often, we pay the price for the ignorance of our upstate cousins.
Last summer, our governor and the GOP's Shining-Star-of-the-Future Bobby Jindal signed into law SB733, the "Louisiana Science Education Law," which of course, isn't about teaching science at all, but alternatives to same.
While the governor and the legislators who supported the law will mouth talking points about how the law "still requires teaching from the textbook" and "doesn't mandate any changes," intelligent design freaks like William Dembski are tickled pink with the legislation, which allows teachers to bring in "supplemental material" to "complement" the science instruction in textbooks, promoting "critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion."
Well, real biologists are having none of it. This week, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology informed Gov. Jindal that his hijacking of science instruction had led them to cancel their New Orleans convention, depriving our town of the economic impact of 2,000 scientists, instructors and graduate students.
"It is the firm opinion of SICB's leadership that this law undermines the integrity of science and science education in Louisiana," Richard Satterlie, president of the society, wrote to Jindal.
I fear this will not be last of the scientific community's backlash against this law, nor the final economic hit our open-minded, welcoming city will suffer thanks to the decisions of the narrow, thick theocrats who make up the bulk of our legislature.
Wish us luck.
Update (because I think it's funny): Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene in Mice: