…and this is a 
Brace yourself, Sixth Congressional District!
Category: Creationism
Posted on: October 25, 2006 11:08 AM, by PZ Myers
Look who's coming to campaign for Michele Bachmann: the home school kids of Patrick Henry College and Generation Joshua.
Abram Olmstead- Upperclassman, Patrick Henry College
Meredith Schultz- Student, Patrick Henry College
Adrienne Cumbus- Upperclassman, Patrick Henry College
Ioanna Lily Cornett- Student, Patrick Henry College
Nathan Martin- Student, Patrick Henry College
We've also got a team of young evangelicals on their way to help out Mark Kennedy. Doesn't it just make your heart do a little happy pit-a-pat dance?
There is a Kansas connection here: one of their leaders is Ned Ryun, son of the odious Kansas politician. I notice that one of the "resources" the site touts is Answers in Genesis—basically, we've got a gang of pathetic creationist conservatives being exported by Kansans to the state of Minnesota to work to make our state as screwed up as theirs. Thanks, Kansas!
Comments
Well, actually, Patrick Henry College is in Virginia.
And even though Ned Ryun and his "odious" dad (excellent description!) are from Kansas, we can't claim Ned anymore. After all, he was home-schooled, and thus didn't even get the quality of education that Kansans are getting used these days.
Posted by: Albatrossity | October 25, 2006 11:26 AM
Are atheists looking forward to the day when they can put these odious people in Gulags?
Posted by: Nyablien | October 25, 2006 11:34 AM
Just wanted to point out, for the record, that many people choose to homeschool because they are fed up with the low quality of the public schools available to them, or because their children are unable to be respected as secularists.
Posted by: speedwell | October 25, 2006 11:36 AM
WTF name an educational establishment after a homicidal French paedophile?
Posted by: paulh | October 25, 2006 11:40 AM
Speedwell points out that some people home-school their kids because they are "fed up with the low quality of the public schools available to them". Absolutely true in some cases. But in the case of Ned Ryun, it might not be true. An equally plausible alternative explanation is that his folks have some very strange ideas about the world.
Posted by: Albatrossity | October 25, 2006 11:50 AM
I'm surprised that all of the evangelicals have fashionably modern hyphenated last names. Could it be that Nathan Martin-Student is related to the guy who did that statistical test with the t distribution?
Posted by: Zeno | October 25, 2006 12:05 PM
No, we are just looking forward to the day that they no longer set policy in our country, try to ruin our education system, try to enfore their "morals" on the rest of the population through legislation and are pushed out to the fringes of our culture where they belong.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 25, 2006 12:10 PM
I recently read through The Brick Testament. I'm now getting a twinge of fear whenever I see the name "Joshua" accompanied by the Darth Vader theme.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | October 25, 2006 12:12 PM
Troll feeding:
Nope. After all, they sent evolutionary scientists there for opposing Lysenko, didn't they? I wouldn't wish such a religiously inspired crime on anyone.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | October 25, 2006 12:14 PM
Could I get some extra Jesus with that?
Posted by: melior (in Austin) | October 25, 2006 12:16 PM
...or because their children are unable to be respected as secularists.
It's a feature, not a bug. Put down the Jeezus, stay in school, keep studying, and they'll get there some day.
Posted by: Teh Dude | October 25, 2006 12:19 PM
These poor kids already live in the Gulag. And they have had the Gulag hammered into their heads. That's the problem.
Posted by: Kristine | October 25, 2006 12:28 PM
I think maybe you need to cut down on the caffeine.
That was "Student", AKA William Sealy Gossett. He worked for Guinness, and they wouldn't let him publish under his real name.
Bob
Posted by: Bob O'H | October 25, 2006 12:34 PM
I wonder how they keep thier tax exemption
Posted by: ts | October 25, 2006 12:36 PM
ts
Re tax-exempt status, it appears that they fund the student action teams from PAC money
But they still might be bumping up against the law by spending PAC-donated money to support individual candidates. Anybody want to forward this to the IRS?
Posted by: Albatrossity | October 25, 2006 12:48 PM
Hunh: funny! These mercs were shipped into Virginia for the governor's race: grounds troops to knock doors for the Republicans. Fat lot of good it did them in the end though.
Posted by: plunge | October 25, 2006 12:49 PM
You are, of course, more than welcome to our boy Ryun. I'm especially proud of the role Ned Ryun played in spiking the nomination of Harriet Miers. Ned wrote a Christmas, errr Holiday card for the White House, but Miers declared it too religious. So he wrote angry op-eds about how she waged her war on Christmas.
Good times.
Posted by: Josh | October 25, 2006 1:25 PM
More Bachmann info here:
Dump Michele Bachmann Blog
Theocratic Bachmann videos here:
Michele Bachmann Video Blog
Posted by: Avidor | October 25, 2006 1:42 PM
And let's not forget that Laura Bush is flying in to pitch in as well. Michele Bachmann, the Bush Administration;s kind of candidate. How can her district be this conservatives?
Posted by: Odd Jack | October 25, 2006 2:56 PM
OK, I'll ask the dumb question...
Why are some "students" and others "upperclassmen"? Do the terms "Freshman", "Sophomore", etc., imply that the bearer of those titles is going to H-E-doublehockeysticks or something?
Posted by: Opiwan | October 25, 2006 3:40 PM
Having recently relocated to Dumbfuckistan...errr..I mean, Kansas....PZ, I'm going to be generous here and say....you can keep them!! :)
No really, we don't want them back.
....ever.
Cheers.
Posted by: Fastlane | October 25, 2006 4:13 PM
DAMMIT! Lay off my name, you jerks!
Posted by: Joshua | October 25, 2006 4:14 PM
The Gen Joshua site has a course on Founding Fathers. It includes:
Lesson 1: The Reverend John Witherspoon
Lesson 2: Noah Webster
Lesson 3: Benjamin Rush
Lesson 4: John Dickinson
Lesson 5: John Quincy Adams - Part I
Lesson 6: John Quincy Adams - Part II
Lesson 7: George Washington
Lesson 8: Samuel Adams
Lesson 9: Revolutionary War Sermon
Lesson 10: Revolutionary Election Sermon
No point in mentioning Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton when you can talk about the Reverend John Witherspoon and John Dickinson (who opposed independence and didn't stick around to sign the Constitution).
Posted by: George | October 25, 2006 5:14 PM
Another perspective of Kansas from Dawkins' blog of his visit:
Posted by: KansasWillTurnBlue | October 25, 2006 6:06 PM
Hi Alba
The may be both tax exempt and fact exempt.
Where do we appy?
Posted by: ts | October 25, 2006 7:46 PM
Are atheists looking forward to the day when they can put these odious people in Gulags?
No, just to the day when they stop f*cking up this country for sane, rational folk.
Ideally that day would come as the result of these odious people waking up and realizing the folly of their ways . . . but I'll settle for simple political marginalization.
Posted by: spencer | October 26, 2006 10:19 AM
George: I've sometimes wondered how the fundies treat Jefferson when not distorting him ... now I know ...
Appalling.
Posted by: Keith Douglas | October 26, 2006 1:13 PM
So riddle me this: If we don't believe in God, why do we care what these people do or who wins this election? We're only here for a few pointless decades and then we're gone like a bit of cosmic piss in the wind. Who cares about these people and how many others they convince?
Posted by: Altheides | November 7, 2006 12:52 AM
So riddle me this: If we don't believe in God, why do we care what these people do or who wins this election? We're only here for a few pointless decades and then we're gone like a bit of cosmic piss in the wind. Who cares about these people and how many others they convince?
Posted by: Altheides | November 7, 2006 12:54 AM
[Sorry about that; slight web page malfunction. Thank the stars for Microsoft.]
Posted by: Altheides | November 7, 2006 12:55 AM