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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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January 31, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
It's pretty hard to see how McCain could fail to romp through Feb. 5, especially if Romney isn't running any ads in the 22 states holding primaries or caucuses. As Steve Benen notes, this creates an opportunity for the Democratic candidates to break the circular firing squad and start showing who can better beat McCain. Benen explains: As far as I can tell, the basic pitch from Obama's perspective will be: He appeals to more independents and frustrated Republicans than Clinton; he represents a better contrast (old vs. young, new vs. stale); and he unites the left and divides the...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Guest blogging at Balkinization, Jeffrey Tulis considers Obama’s Beef, concluding: Senator Obama has the beef, Senator Clinton the hamburger.Leaving the Republicans with ......
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:47 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
One of the things that impressed me about Obama when I met him in 2006 was his nearly palpable intellect. In a situation like that interview, a five-minute session with a little blogger in Kansas, wedged between a private chat with Governor Sebelius and an address to the state's Democratic powerbrokers, it'd be easy for him to have gone on autopilot, giving canned answers with his mind elsewhere. Nonetheless, I got the genuine feeling of the gears whizzing, working through my questions, turning them around in his head and genuinely engaging me and them as he answered. It's possible that...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:45 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
As Florida gears up to revise state science standards, they seem insistent on topping the anti-science nonsense which earned Kansas such mockery. The St. Petersburg Times education blog reports: Another key lawmaker says it's likely the Legislature will weigh in on the evolution controversy. And in this case, the lawmaker, Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, says he has concerns about the proposed state standards himself. "If it becomes a matter for legislative discussion, then I would have opinions that if it's going to be presented, it's presented … in a manner that is not potentially exclusive of any other theory," including...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:04 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Mr. Speaker! The Preznit of the Untied States of America. Congresscritters, esteemed Cabinet members and other besuited Washingtonians, I stand before you to tell you that the state of the union is … tolerable. After all, there'll be an election in November, and then it'll all be someone else's problem. Heh heh heh. (Applause) We're still torturing people who may or may not be terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, but my Attorney General assures me he can stall congressional questions about what, exactly, "torture" means until well after the election. My unconstitutional and illegal plan to spy on...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:41 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2008
Category: Creationism
Mike has some astute observations about the Disco. Inst.'s Dissent from Darwinism List. Noting that Rob Crowther claims: Signers of the Dissent List have signed the list because it is their professional opinion that the evidence is lacking for the claims for the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Period. Nothing more, and nothing less.Mike proceeds to point out that most of the signers have no professional basis for such an assessment. This is a fair and important point, but it misses an even fairer and more important point: the barrier to...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:07 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Cato's Andrew Coulson actually applies that "logic" to a different government program, but it makes just as little sense. Yes, Americans tend to reject evolution, though not, as Coulson claims, 2 in 3; a survey by FASEB this month found that 6 in 10 support evolution. That doesn't mean we should give up on public education. It mean we should give public school teachers more support. A survey by the National Science Teachers Association found that When asked if they feel pressured to include creationism, intelligent design, or other nonscientific alternatives to evolution in their science classroom, 31% of teachers...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:09 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Kevin Drum evaluates the Democratic frontrunners on their ability to move an agenda through Congress: Congress is a different kettle of fish [than the public, which he allows Obama could probably swing to his side], and obviously a lot depends on just what kind of majority the new president has to work with. I think everyone's assumption here is that Obama's personal charm and readiness to listen would help him hive off at least a few moderate Republicans to pass his legislative agenda. Hillary, by contrast, is someone who knows how to throw elbows when she needs to, and she'd...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:11 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2008
Category: Creationism
Tony Campolo, generally considered a member of the Christian Left, writes a staggeringly wrong essay on evolution. After rightly dismissing typical creationist complaints that evolutionary "theories contradict their literal biblical belief that creation occurred in six 24-hour days," Campolo jumps onto the Coral Ridge/Disco. Inst. bandwagon, claiming that the "real dangers of Darwinism," lie in "the ethical implications of Darwin's original writings." After which we get the typical half-literate practice of judging Darwin's 500+ page opus based on a single phrase in the subtitle: "Favored Races." Anyone who reads the book would know that Darwin used "races" here to refer...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:05 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2008
Category: Creationism
PZ watches a clip from a creationist video game and wonders: Now here's the question: is this the work of a sincere creationist, or is this the product of the evil atheist conspiracy, made with the intent of making creationists look like talentless, tasteless hacks? I can't tell.This is an example of Poe's Law: "Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to make a parody of Fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing."...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:00 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
