Search
Profile
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.
Sb/DonorsChoose Drive
Thanks!
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Blogroll
May 31, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Department of Homeland Security report on Rightwing Extremism, issued April 7, 2009: Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.Rep. Michele Bachmann, April 22, 2009: Will the Federal Government start IDing returning veterans, start IDing gun owners,...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:20 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
The Wichita Eagle reports that George Tiller was shot and killed: George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.Tiller is one of the few doctors in the country who offered third trimester abortions, and did so in a city that rekindled the anti-abortion movement in the '90s. His clinic was the subject of numerous attacks, including a shooting which wounded him in 1993. Tiller also worked through his political action committee to ensure that women had access to lifesaving medical...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:40 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 29, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
The AP reports: Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. The 13-year-old Kansas girl saved the biggest smile for last, when she rattled off the letters to "Laodicean" to become the nation's spelling champion. The budding neurosurgeon from Olathe, Kan., outlasted 11 finalists Thursday night to win the 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy. After spelling the winning word, which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, Kavya received huge hugs from her...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 28, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Justice Learned Hand was not Native American....
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:41 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture Wars
Texas Board of Education chairman Don McLeroy's nomination to continue in that capacity was just rejected by the Texas Senate. For all the gory details, check out TFN's liveblog. The vote was 19-11 in favor, and requires 2/3 for approval. The Senate President briefly had trouble with the math, either thinking 19>20 or that 30 * 2/3 ≠ 20, but it all sorted out. Check out my article on events in Texas for more background on McLeroy's antics....
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 27, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
Ned Ryun, son of former Olympic miler and stumbleprone former Congressman Jim Ryun, is worried about Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court. How worried? "I have a sneaking suspicion," he writes, "that she has a different view of the Constitution than our Founders did." I kinda hope so, truth be told. Our Founders thought that the Constitution should allow slavery, should not grant equal rights to women, should not apply equally without regard to race, thought that the Senate should not be directly elected by the states' voters, and generally believed that the...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 8:46 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 26, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
The California Supreme Court upheld the legality of last year's ballot initiative writing discrimination into the Constitution. No one can marry a same sex couple now, but they didn't invalidate marriages performed in the window between a previous ruling permitting same sex marriages and the amendment's passage. This is obviously a disappointment. Proposition 8 is a travesty, and should never have passed. Indeed, it surely won't stand. More and more states are legalizing marriage equality through the legislatures, and it's increasingly uncontroversial. The fact is, California nearly beat them all to the punch. Two successive meetings of the California legislature...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:19 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 22, 2009
Category: Policy and Politics
George W. Bush, addressing the graduating class of Artesia High School, says: I no longer feel that great sense of responsibility that I had when I was in the Oval Office. And frankly, it’s a liberating feeling.For us as well....
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:35 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 21, 2009
Category: Creationism
There are those who say "Not only does the NCSE not criticize religion, but it cuddles up to it, kisses it, and tells it that everything will be all right." There are others who say: The continuum [between creationism and evolution] as described on the NCSE site strongly implies that “atheist science is better science”. Even though the objective of the continuum is to counter the belief that “evolutionists must be atheists”, it indirectly implies that evolutionists should be atheists. For this fact alone, I think the model needs to be replaced.A simpler person than I would take this to...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 8:51 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture Wars
Reluctant as I am to endorse anything on America's Shittiest Website™, this article should be required reading for any politically active atheist. It's written as advice for social conservatives/political evangelicals, but for reasons which have implications I won't get into, it applies equally well to the New Atheists or whatever their favored term is these days. Maggie Gallagher, a loon associated with various fringe evangelical projects like limiting access to marriage and complaining loudly about how much sex everyone else is having, observes: Social conservatives simply have not been in politics. We lack institutions that can defeat our enemies and...
Read on »
Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:02 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
