I know that true Sciencebloggers don’t link to Billy D’s blog, but there’s just too much amusement to be had there. His latest shows that not only did he clearly fail biology (and math), but literature isn’t his thing either. Billy explains:

The Nazi emphasis on proper breeding, racial purity, and weeding out defectives come from taking Darwin?s theory seriously and applying it at the level of society.

Those of you who do remember high school will remember quotes like these from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:

He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well-bred, were not inviting.

This is clearly a cryptic forerunner of the Lebensborn.

That is my idea of good breeding; and those persons who fancy themselves very important, and never open their mouths, quite mistake the matter.

Or:

Nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne without anger such treatment; but Sir William’s good breeding carried him through it all;

Or indeed:

“I am the less surprised at what has happened,” replied Sir William, “from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are, which my situation in life has allowed me to acquire. About the court, such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon.”

Truly, this will not do, for the hate simply goes on. Jane Austen, who died when Darwin was just 8, is clearly the first in a line of ideologues that ended in Hitler and Mengele.

We must instantly ban “Austenism” from the schools, to be replaced by “Intelligent Literature.” Such literature would consist of more than just marriage plots, and would delve into issues of greater substance. Fine works that would doubtless meet Billy’s scrupulous concern for breeding, racial purity and care for “defectives” might include Othello or perhaps Verdi’s excellent Otello. Richard III would be another excellent choice.

It’s a shame that much of American history could not be discussed in Billy’s ideal world. Why did the rumors that Alexander Hamilton was a mulatto, or the fact of his bastard birth, keep him from the presidency? In Billy’s world, such concerns originated with a book published in 1859, and could not possibly have played a role in late 18th century American politics.