Well, this isn't a big surprise: Rick Santorum is writing a foreword to a book…this book, Darwin's Nemesis, a volume that praises Philip Johnson, father of the Intelligent Design movement. Santorum has a very confused history with ID: he was the author of the Santorum amendment, an attempt to couple ID to the No Child Left Behind bill. It was stripped from the bill, but that has never stopped the creationists from claiming it was a legally binding requirement.
The really funny thing is that the day after the Dover decision came down, Santorum backed down fast. And now he's endorsing a pro-ID book?
Repeat after me: FLIP-FLOP.
(via Atrios)
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Didn't he write the forward before the Kitzmiller decision? If that's the case he's got some 'splainin' to do!
I have a particular kind of learning disability which isn't entirely unlike dyslexia. One of the funnier quirks of my malfunctioning brain is that "Stantorum" gets read as "Scrotum" half of the time.
It wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't fitting.
Two words: drool cup.
Okay, FLIP-FLOP.
Owwwwwww...please say it ain't so, PZ. "Forward?" It's "foreword." That's almost as bad as those people "pouring" over ID documents before giving forgettable speeches.
jb, a chemist who proofreads involuntarily.
i'm assuming you all know what Dan Savage calls 'santorum'?
Yep, and he's living up to his name alright!
I know what Dan Savage calls "santorum," and I think this flippy-floppy man lives up to it.
So I didn't know what you folks were talking about, so I did a Google search for "Dan Savage Santorum". That's a mistake I won't make again.
Sounds like the kind of book that gets written about Kim Jong-Il. The ID movement having a circle-jerk.
He's no flip-flopper. His opinion on the issue never changed. He was just waiting for a politically expedient moment to try again. These guys will never, ever give up. They are kind of like the rabid pro-lifers always trying to chip away at Roe. Not surprising, since they are usually the one and the same. Eternal vigilance is our only weapon against this ignorance.
I can't wait to vote against this boob this fall. He needs to go down!
I have to agree that this isn't really a flip-flop. Yes, I'm sure he intended his "distancing" statement to do just that--distance himself from the suddenly radioactive DI, TMLC and Dover board, and possibly bamboozle a few into thinking maybe he wasn't an ID guy after all.
But his language has nothing to do with denying ID. It's carefully worded to avoid doing so. If anything, he seems to be trying to say "well, I knew all along this was a bad legal approach, and I don't support ID for religious reasons."
Whatever, Rick.
Anyway, my point being, I'd rather call this a half-flip-flop with a frantic-weasel-twist. Shame he bellyflopped it.
The ID guy is Phillip with two l's, not to be confused with our Philip Johnson. See, http://biocurious.com/whats-in-a-name
How can it really be a flip-flop, when the Deception Institute simultaneously wants to win America for supernaturalism but "doesn't want" (of course it wants) supernaturalism to be taught in schools? When Dembski & Co. run away from testifying in the Dover trial, then bitch about the ruling? DI, ID, and Santorum--it's all just one long arc in the curvature of space-cadet-time. It's an apple of stupidity, invading their flat-land and manifesting itself as a series of disjointed circular arguments.
What are the polls looking like in Pennsylvania? What are the chances of getting rid of this schmuck?
Last Quinnipiac poll shows that Santorum is 14 points behind.
I am moving to PA this summer. And I would rather bathe in santorum than vote for Santorum (and I don't play for that team).
Santorum back supporting ID? Ok, now the world makes sense again. Silly me forgetting he's a politician and giving him the benefit of the doubt that he might have seen the light.
Yeah, Casey, the Democrat who's running against Santorum this fall is a mite more socially conservative than I like, but a)at least he's a real opponent - the last time the Democrats ran a sacrificial lamb who couldn't even raise any money for himself, and b)I don't think he's pretending to live in a two-bedroom house in the Pittsburgh area with his wife and six children so he can get his home municipality to pay for the children's enrollment in an expensive net-based charter school, when said children pretty much live year-round in Virginia. Santorum's a real piece of work.
The only real surprise here is that he backed off after the Dover decision--and even that's no surprise. He's up for re-election this year, and polls show his Democratic challenger ahead.
As a Pennsylvania resident (one who was extremely pleased about the Dover decision), I plan to vote against Santorum in November. I can only hope enough others do the same. It's high time for this particular right-wing lunatic to be tossed out on his self-righteous ass.
The more I hear of him, the scarier Santorum becomes.
Hundreds of millions of dollars per year in subsidies to companies that fraudulently claim they are converting coal to oil are protected in his bill. This is done by pegging the reference cost of oil to a much smaller value than today's. Is he the biggest pork barreling pig or are there some even worse?