Alabama

No sooner that I posted the current status of anti-evolution legislation that Glenn Branch posted on a new “academic freedom” bill in Alabama. HB 300 is sponsored by Republican (seeing a trend here?) David Grimes and has been sent to committee. Unsurprisingly, it’s the same old DI boilerplate that is popping up everywhere.

So the field of play for 2009 now looks like:

  • Mississippi - disclaimer - dead in committee
  • New Mexico - “strengths and weaknesses” - in committee
  • Iowa - “academic freedom” - in committee
  • Oklahoma - “strengths and weaknesses” - in committee
  • Alabama - “academic freedom” - in committee.
  • Texas - "strengths and weaknesses" - at state board

More like this

I'd like to see a black "X" in Mississippi (and hopefully other states as the bills fail).

Why did we fight to keep the South again?

(Oh, right; the port of New Orleans.)

Florida is in play again, too:

State Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville [Florida] Republican, said he plans to introduce a bill to require teachers who teach evolution to also discuss the idea of intelligent design.

If this one passes (and Rep. Alan Hays, the sponsor of the the "critical analysis" bill in the House last year says it's likely to pass this time in a close vote), get ready for Dover II.

The one in Florida is particularly nasty, in that it doesn't merely 'allows' the teaching of nonsense, but REQUIRES it.