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Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
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September 29, 2006
Category: Policy and Politics
Unholy Moses' Obituary for America is too good not to reprint: Washington — America, United States of, died Sept. 28, 2006, after a six year illness. The family states that is was, in fact, the domestic foes, not foreign, that finally took their toll.Born in 1776 in Philadelphia, America grew up in an age of reason, matured during industrial expansion, and spent its final years basking in a glow of technology. Her parents were Checks and Balances, while her second set of parents were Habeas Corpus and Due Process. Admittedly a complex family, they enjoyed more than two centuries of...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:23 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Chris Mooney expresses concern at his blog and in Seed magazine about the possibility that Scientists and Engineers for Change (SEforA) will be too partisan. The races they expect to target include (according to the Times) "Senate race in Virginia between George Allen, the incumbent Republican, and James Webb, a Democrat; a stem cell ballot issue in Missouri; the question of intelligent design in Ohio; and Congressional races in Washington State." On the conference call announcing the group's kick-off, retiring Republican Representative Sherwood Boehlert was the only politician mentioned by name as the kind of person the group wants to...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:28 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Planet Earth
I have no opinion about marijuana. Never toked, never cared to, and I can't say I feel strongly about whether anyone else chooses to, especially while cigarettes are legal. That said, the periodic discoveries of pot farms in national parks and forests is a definite disaster, and one that can be fixed. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a Big raid in Marin County: The discovery of 22,740 marijuana plants growing in and around Point Reyes National Seashore last week wasn't only the biggest pot seizure ever made in Marin County. It was an environmental mess that will take several...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:22 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 28, 2006
Category: Culture Wars
Billy Dembski's "research assistant" weighs in on Judge Jones at the Wichita Eagle's blog....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:32 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
The Times gets it wrong in criticizing the torture bill that the House passed yesterday. We aren't Rushing Off a Cliff, we're strolling, carefully and deliberately. Other than that, the editorial is dead on: Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to push through ghastly ideas about antiterrorism that will make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:30 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
I hate, hate, hate the phrase "citizen journalist." I don't know what it means. Someone is a journalist or isn't, and a given bit of writing is or isn't journalism. Would a "citizen journalist" be like a "citizen soldier," doing journalism a few weekends every year? Are members of the Journalist Reserve held to a lower standard than regular journalists? If we are to set such standards, does Fox News still get to be considered journalism? What about People magazine? I dig what Gone Mild says about Blogging and Journalism: Bloggers who take themselves seriously and consider themselves "citizen journalists"...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Apparently Bob Corkins gave away $32,000 to whoever asked for it. The money came from federal funds for charter schools. Commissioner of Education Corkins solicited proposals from people who would help create charter schools. "I have not been able to find any connection between these people and a school district," said Board of Ed member Sue Gamble. Two of the grant recipients are at the same address in Georgia. According to Gamble "These are just apparently individuals who walked off the street and said, 'We like charter schools, can you give us some money?'"...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:21 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 27, 2006
Category: Policy and Politics
Journal World's Congressional Briefing points out an Atlantic article about Hillary Clinton, and how Sam Brownback made peace with her. Brownback came to the Senate prayer group planning to talk about a cancer scare, but seeing new Senator Clinton at the meeting: confessed to having hated Clinton and having said derogatory things about her. Through God, he now recognized his sin. Then he turned to her and asked, “Mrs. Clinton, will you forgive me?” Clinton replied that she would, and that she appreciated the apology. “It was an extraordinary moment,” the member told me.Brownback's Presidential campaign seems to be stagnating,...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:51 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture Wars
According to the Tom Sawyer campaign for the Ohio Board of Ed, Deborah Owens-Fink said in a radio appearance: "If you are Christian, vote for Debbie. If you believe in evolution, abortion and sin, vote for Sawyer." No mention was made of who Indian Jim or members of the whitewashers' guild should vote for. A spokesman for the Sawyer team tells us "For the record, as a campaign for State School Board we are in favor of teaching evolution and take no position on abortion. As for sin, we are agin' it."...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:39 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Americans "need leaders to protect the integrity of science," according to Neal Lane, Bill Clinton's science advisor from 1998-2001, and before that the director of the NSF. He said that in announcing the kick-off of Scientists and Engineers for America, a new 527 that will be fighting to protect scientific integrity. Lane explained that the group will not be partisan, because people will "lose confidence in science if it is used to advance a political agenda." The goal is to encourage lawmakers to take scientific advice seriously and to respond seriously to issues that arise. The goal is to change...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
