When I first heard about an attack ad in Alabama charging that gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne was in favor of evolution, I didn't even bother blogging it. Of course Roy Moore â famously removed from the state judiciary for unconstitutionally forcing religious symbols into public places â would use evolution as a weapon against his opponents.
But now former state board of education member Byrne is defending himself against the attack, not by standing up for evolution, but by denying the charge that he thinks "evolution ⦠best explains the origin of life." According to Politico, Byrne responded:
As a Christian and as a public servant, I have never wavered in my belief that this world and everything in it is a masterpiece created by the hands of God. As a member of the Alabama Board of Education, the record clearly shows that I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school textbooks. Those who attack me have distorted, twisted and misrepresented my comments and are spewing utter lies to the people of this state.
And it's true. Alabama requires stickers to be placed in textbooks attacking evolution. Those stickers were first placed in books in 1996, revised in 2001, and again in 2005.
However, I'm not sure what Byrne did that could be said to have encouraged teaching creationism. In a 2000 story about an assessment of Alabama science education which dinged the state over the stickers, Byrne told the AP: "We do teach evolution, and it is mentioned several times in the Course of Study," and the AP adds he "said he favors doing away with the disclaimer sticker during the next statewide science textbook review."
That's the only story in LexisNexis specifically mentioning his take on the stickers, or on evolution or creationism. I do hope he tells us more about how he's violated the Constitution and held back Alabama's children, though.
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Any candidate for public office who is so out of touch with reality as to deny the fact evolution happens should be disqualified. Anyone that ignorant and that gullible should not be in any position of authority. It shames America that nearly half of its adults are so misinformed about this subject. Imagine a country where half the people thought the earth is flat, in the 21st century! That is just like what is going on here.
Tom, I think you skipped a couple of steps in your hurry to cry havoc and unleash the Frogs of war. . .Step one should be knowing what the end state will be.
These French air drops may very well become a problem later by having arms scattered all over the place, to include in the hands of al-Qa'idah in the Maghreb and will only exacerbate the problem should civil war break-out, which is a real possible scenario after crazy Omar exits.