Why we shouldn't take the Tea Party seriously

I can't believe we elected any of these hypocritical loons to office anywhere. Look at the shenanigans in Dayton, Ohio.

Kelly Kohls, who was elected in Springboro on a platform of fiscal responsibility two years ago, requested last week the district's curriculum director look into ways of providing "supplemental" instruction dealing with creationism. Fellow member, Scott Anderson, who was elected with Kohls when the district was struggling financially, supports his colleague's idea.

"Creationism is a significant part of the history of this country," Kohls said. "It is an absolutely valid theory and to omit it means we are omitting part of the history of this country."

That's not true. It is neither a significant part of our history nor is it a valid "theory" — it doesn't even deserve the label of theory, since it doesn't integrate a large number of scientific hypotheses and observations. It doesn't even deserve to be called a hypothesis, since it's made in direct contradiction to the evidence. It might best be called a myth, nothing more.

One other fine piece of hypocrisy: she and many Teabaggers are getting elected on promises of fiscal conservativism. Clearly, they didn't mean it: peddling creationism in the public schools means they're going down the Dover path, and we all saw how much that cost the school district. This should be seen as a ploy to destroy public education.

Also, how's this for irony? Kohls filed for bankruptcy. They own a house valued at $450,000 (in Ohio? What kind of mansion did they splurge on?), on which they owe… $829,000. Yeah, she's a smart money manager.