Well, religious right-wingnut Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is definitely beefing-up the religious right-wingnut credentials to his resume. As are the majority of the Louisiana state legislators. Yesterday, the legislators handed him a bill, SB 733 (there were very few nay votes against this bill), aka The Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), and he promptly signed SB 733 into law.
LSEA is being touted as providing the "critical thinking" so desperately required by students in Louisiana’s public school science classes for their success in life. However, this bill was basically written by none other that Seattle’s Discover Institute, the home base of Intelligent Design. And as most of us are aware, courts in Dover, Pennsylvania, and Cobb County, Georgia, have in cases decided against the Discovery Institute, ruling that Intelligent Design is basically akin to teaching biblical creationism.
So Governor Bobby Jindal, a biology major of all things during his time at Brown University, just couldn’t let the opportunity pass by to begin turning the state of Louisiana into a religious theocracy.
So SB 733, Louisiana Science Education Act is now law. This law appears to start off as if good things are going to be possible with it:
to promote students' critical thinking skills and open discussion of scientific theories;
Yes, I can live with that. Critical, clear, analytical, focused, unconvoluted thinking and discussion are needed to develop understanding of scientific theories. But then this bill steers into somewhat more onerous language.
to provide relative to support and guidance for teachers; to provide relative to textbooks and instructional materials; to provide for rules and regulations; to provide for effectiveness; and to provide for related matters.
This "provide relative to support" and "related matters" and this such language started many rational folks up in arms. And further into the language of this bill, many folks realized it for the crap it was, and then pleaded for Jindal to veto it. Buy according to The Times-Piscaynne,
Jindal ignored those calling for a veto and this week signed the law that will allow local school boards to approve supplemental materials for public school science classes as they discuss evolution, cloning and global warming.
Hmm. Evolution? Cloning? Global warming? Aren't these some of the same issues that these loony extreme right-wing Christian conservative groups always seem to be ranting and railing about? These wingnut groups always want their bibles to be the authority on these matters. Well, if that's what they want for themselves okay, fine. But I just have lots of big problems when they start force-feeding their crap on me or into any other public arena. I want sharp, intelligent minds working to solve important scientific problems based on the best available facts. I do not want cults ranting and raving about superstitions anywhere near science.
So this bill had been opposed by every scientific organization that weighed in on this, as well as by editorial writers, secularists and other sensible minded-people. But this from ars technica
The bill has been opposed by every scientific society that has voiced a position on it, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science. AAAS CEO Alan Leshner warned that the bill would "unleash an assault against scientific integrity, leaving students confused about science and unprepared to excel in a modern workforce."
Jindal, who was a biology major during his time at Brown University, even received a veto plea from his former genetics professor. "Without evolution, modern biology, including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn't make sense," Professor Arthur Landy wrote. "I hope he [Jindal] doesn't do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors."
So OMG! Jindal signed this bill and at the same time is now committing a generation of students into substandard futures.
Let's now get back to this "relative to support" and "related matters" language as mentioned above. The language of this bill seems like it is coercing local school districts "into the opportunity" to use other publications in addition to the standard textbooks when teaching science - in order to promote this "critical thinking." And you wouldn't believe this but... the Discovery Institute, not only did they so willingly and graciously provide their assistance in writing this bill, but they have ready and can deliver the publications necessary for the school districts to comply with this bill. Also from ars technica:
Lining up to promote the bill were a coalition of religious organizations and Seattle's pro-Intelligent Design think tank, the Discovery Institute. According to the Louisiana Science Coalition, Discovery fellows helped write the bill and arranged for testimony in its favor in the legislature. The bill itself plays directly into Discovery's strategy, freeing local schools to "use supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner."
Discovery, conveniently, has made just such a supplemental text available.
So we thought that it was Waterloo in Dover Pennsylvania for Intelligent Design and the Discovery Institute and the teaching of Intelligent Design (or here, now repacked as "critical thinking") in public schools science classes. In 2005, a Republican appointed judge ruled that Intelligent Design cannot be taught in public school science classes. And another judge ruled in Cobbs County Georgia, that Discovery Institute cannot even attach labels on science textbooks in public schools questioning evolution. And there have been other unsuccessful encounters in TexasandFlorida.
So you think that after all of that the Discovery Institute went away? No. They found this stoopid schmuck in Louisiana named Jindal who's happens to be the governor, and they sold him on a toxic bag of shit. Not only is Jindal risking the future of Louisiana students, but he is also mandating a law that puts each and every school district that attempts compliance with financial risk, since there is more than a strong possibility of lawsuits with this bill. And it seems that the state itself will not be involved in any of these lawsuits, as we have this from the same article at ars technica:
As such, most observers are expecting the passage of the LSEA by the state to unleash a series of Dover-style cases, as various local boards attempt to discover the edges of what's constitutionally allowable. The AAAS' Leshner suggested that the bill's passage would "provoke an expensive, divisive legal fight." ... In essence, Jindal is inviting local school boards to partake in that explosion {of lawsuits} without committing the state to paying the inevitable costs.
Mostly, I really feel for the kids. It's time to start adjusting to the new religious theocracy of Louisiana. Religion will start being brought to you in the public schools. And quite a bleak future economy-wise. But hey, when all of the oceans begin to start flooding, at least in those lowlands of Louisiana you'll know how to get out of the belly of a whale.
Even John Derbyshire, a conservative columnist for the National Review Web site, wrote as he lobbied for a veto, "Any Louisianian who wants his kids to have a religious education can send them to parochial schools."
All that stupid Jindal is doing with this bill is producing a supply for the next generation of ignorant and angry Freepers and RedStaters. We have diaries here about them mostly laughing at them, or even sometimes fearing them, but I would imagine this is a lot of them as kids.
Anyone for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for President of the United States and a religious theocracy?