Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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But of course there were the rules. Everyone knew there were rules. They just had to hope like Hell that the gods knew the rules, too.
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« A compromise: maybe they could operate with their feet? | Main | One author responds »
Category: Academics • Politics
Posted on: February 10, 2008 10:16 PM, by PZ Myers
I brought that Washington state 'academic freedom' bill to your attention a while back. I've been hearing from lots of readers from the Pacific Northwest that the bill died in committee. Perfect!
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Comments
Don't tell Ben Stein.
Posted by: danley | February 10, 2008 10:43 PM
I think the politicians are starting to get the message that this whole "Christians America" concept is a really bad idea, not to mention an outrageous lie, and perhaps seditious too.
Go Washington!
Posted by: Andy James | February 10, 2008 10:47 PM
That's what I'm talking about! This brightened my night.
Nicely done, Washington - first you deny Huckabee his first primary win outside of the flat-earth belt, now this!
Now...could Rep. Waxman and company put the smackdown on HRES 888, PLEASE?
Posted by: J | February 10, 2008 10:47 PM
Thank you, PZ. Good to know that the emails to my reps may have had a lot of company.
Andy, my fair state's wingnut-dominated GOP gave Pat Robertson a win in '88, and there looks to be shananigans concerning the current totals in any case. The good news is the amazing turnout for the Democrats yesterday, there were 79 people for my precinct, up from 16 in '04. This bodes very well.
Posted by: Mark Centz | February 10, 2008 11:00 PM
Seems like any bill with the words "freedom" or "patriot" in its title should be assumed dodgy until proven otherwise.
Posted by: markp | February 10, 2008 11:10 PM
does that mean promoting stupidity alongside intelligence?
(sorry for the double post)
Posted by: markp | February 10, 2008 11:17 PM
Let's do the Time Warp again!
That didn't take long. Obviously the work of the Worldwide Darwinist Federation for Global Domination (or is that the Worldwide Domination Federation for Global Darwinism?). Watch No-wits parlay this into another conspiracy yarn. *yawn*
Posted by: Kristine | February 10, 2008 11:30 PM
Turnout wasn't great everywhere in Washington... only 13 people turned out from my precinct. I was very happy to see Huckabee not take the Republican caucuses, but we have yet to see what happens with the Republican primary in Washington...
Posted by: Kirt | February 10, 2008 11:38 PM
Still remains to be seen, and the state did, after all, go for Robertson in 1980. Washington's Republican party has resumed counting delegates in the wake of all the bad publicity and Huckabee's threatened legal action.
But I have to give it to them; it was some kind of ballsy to stop the delegate count halfway through and just declare McCain the winner. It's not just any old political party that's willing to publicly come out and declare its contempt for voters and the process quite so openly.
Posted by: thalarctos | February 11, 2008 12:44 AM
Thanks PZ! Your efforts in getting the word out are much appreciated.
Posted by: Form&Function | February 11, 2008 2:17 AM
The turnout was great at my neighborhood Democratic caucus in Seattle. It was standing room only, with several hundred of us packing the school cafeteria by the time the voting took place. Just as we were tabulating the votes in my precinct, we had a surprise visit from WA state governor Christine Gregoire, who spoke briefly to a very jazzed crowd.
Definitely a caucus to remember!
Posted by: Mike Richardson | February 11, 2008 2:36 AM
I can't wait to read the DI whine about this one.
Posted by: waldteufel | February 11, 2008 3:49 AM
Han is retracting his bogus paper.
You helped civilization, PZ. My hat is off to you.
BTW, you exposed another douchebag along the way. Joshua LaBaer at Harvard claimed "much of the paper was good science," farcical given Lars line-by-line evisceration of the paper on his blog.
Posted by: Jay Clayton | February 11, 2008 5:39 AM
Intellectual diversity: every campus already has that. They're called freshmen. Then the intellects become sophomores. The diverse get wedgied and drop out. That's called natural selection.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | February 11, 2008 6:00 AM
As soon as I read it here, I emailed all my representatives, and a couple who weren't mine. Good going!
Ditto on the caucus comment above. Four years ago when I went our precinct had about ten people present. This year it was nearly forty. The entire city, as was the case last time, was in one venue, broken into appropriate areas for discussion. This year, in a much larger venue, the place was packed beyond ability to function. Monster turnout. One would think it bodes well...
Posted by: Sid Schwab | February 11, 2008 1:29 PM
Re #13:
You helped civilization, PZ. My hat is off to you.
BTW, you exposed another douchebag along the way. Joshua LaBaer at Harvard claimed "much of the paper was good science," farcical given Lars line-by-line evisceration of the paper on his blog.
Jay,
I must rise to the defense of my colleague Dr. LaBaer. I was suspicious of the Crimson article because it paraphrased Prof. McDonald as stating that Warda and Han "may have stolen sentences from at least six recent biology papers," when in fact he documented the near-verbatim copying of entire paragraphs.
I emailed Dr. LeBaer and he said that at the time the Crimson reporter contacted him, he had heard suggestions of plagiarism but didn't know which sections were stolen; the "good science" sections were, in retrospect, most likely the sections copied from real research papers. He was surprised that he was even quoted, since he explicitly told the reporter could not comment on the paper since he was not an expert in mitochondrial biology.
Trust me, I agree that there is egregious douchebaggery going on here, but Dr. LeBaer doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the bad guys.
Posted by: J | February 11, 2008 4:06 PM
Posted by: Bobby | February 12, 2008 2:37 AM