I hope that there is more than meets the eye here…

According to an article in the DesMoines Register, a college professor was fired….because he taught that the Biblical Adam and Eve story shouldn’t be taken literally:

A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.

Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.

“I’m just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master’s degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job,” Bitterman said.

Sarah Smith, director of the school’s Red Oak campus, declined to comment Friday on Bitterman’s employment status. The school’s president, Barbara Crittenden, said Bitterman taught one course at Southwest. She would not comment, however, on his claim that he was fired over the Bible reference, saying it was a personnel issue.
“I can assure you that college understands our employees’ free speech rights,” she said. “There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment.”

Bitterman, who taught part time at Southwestern and Omaha’s Metropolitan Community College, said he uses the Old Testament in his western civilization course and always teaches it from an academic standpoint.

Bitterman’s Tuesday course was telecast to students in Osceola over the Iowa Communications Network. A few students in the Osceola classroom, he said, thought the lesson was “denigrating their religion.”

“I put the Hebrew religion on the same plane as any other religion. Their god wasn’t given any more credibility than any other god,” Bitterman said. “I told them it was an extremely meaningful story, but you had to see it in a poetic, metaphoric or symbolic sense, that if you took it literally, that you were going to miss a whole lot of meaning there.”

Now, of course, there may be something else going on that I don’t know about. But if he were really fired over this, well, I should hope that the various 4 year universities and colleges would then decide to not grant credit to graduates of this junior college; as far as I am concerned, such a place wouldn’t be worthy of being called a “college”.

If there were any justice at all, such fundamentalist clowns would be ineligible to receive any benefits of modern science, including medicine.

Hat tip to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.

Humor Dunlap and Jackie come up with a health care plan that Republicans can get behind.

Non local stuff

Workout notes lazy yoga session this morning. I admit that I am a bit nervous about tomorrow’s marathon; most of the time I view these as “tune ups” for my ultras. But my miserable performance at the F/X rattled me; fortunately I’ve been walking faster since then. But I really don’t want to get pulled from this course due to time limits, and I don’t want to have to resort to running.

Yeah, I’ve beaten the time limits at a practice walk, but that was then, and tomorrow is tomorrow.

Some other odds and ends:

I need this lady as a teaching assistant!

Here is a thumbnail:
; go to the article to see the full sized shot.
My guess is that she’d get the guys to pay attention, though they might not be paying attention to the mathematics.

Recursivity: on why some theists just “don’t get it”:

[...]In the end, I don’t think that Professor Higgins gets it. The new atheists have been emboldened by religion’s excesses, but they don’t base their arguments on that alone. Fundamentally, the new atheists are simply not convinced by religion’s claims. When we hear Higgins assert that “God is bigger than our systems”, we want to know, where’s the evidence that what you are talking about even exists? We don’t see God-talk as helpful in resolving issues; when God-talk is introduced, it moves us away, rather than towards, a solution based on rational consideration of the issues. Higgins wants to appropriate human values, such as compassion and tolerance, to religion’s domain, but these values are subscribed to by theist and non-theist alike. In the end, religion doesn’t have as many virtues as Higgins claims, nor does the new atheism have as many faults as he would have us believe.

(emphasis mine)

Bill Richardson: the voice of reason on this issue (I’ve been looking for more good things to say about him):

Everywhere I go on this campaign — from Iowa to New Mexico — I hear people asking when is this war going to end and when will we get all of our troops out of Iraq? Everyone, myself included, is tired of waiting for this war to end and tired of feeling let down by the people we elected.

The message I hear on the road seems pretty clear to me, but apparently the people in Congress aren’t getting it. I know legislating is hard work — I spent 15 years in Congress — but I believe that when the people have given you a mandate, and soldiers are dying, it is your solemn duty to get the job done no matter what it takes.

Two days ago the Senate had a chance to help get more of our soldiers home for longer periods of time — but the measure failed. Yesterday they had a chance to set a timeline to start withdrawing troops — but that failed too. And today, another measure that would’ve required a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq failed. Three chances to make a difference, lost. But instead of continuing to push on the most important issue facing our country right now, yesterday Congress spent their time debating and condemning a newspaper ad by an anti-war group.

Let’s get some perspective here — ads don’t kill people — wars kill people. And it is long past time to end this war.

From my many years of diplomatic negotiations I have learned that persistence is key to wearing down the most recalcitrant opponents. So I will be persistent — and I hope you all will too. If we don’t get this done now, we may not have a chance again until a Democrat is in the White House in 2009. That is too long to wait. [...]

Emphasis mine.

Were we too hard on Joe Lieberman? Evidently not.

National Review’s Cliff May reports:

Senators Lieberman and Kyl are offering an amendment today calling on the US to combat, contain and roll back Iran’s aggression in Iraq. It also designates the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.

They’re apparently not satisfied with the ongoing wars; they’re ready for another.

I think that the first commenter on this thread got it right:

I still laugh at the idiots in Connecticut who re-elected Lieberman.

And shame on those (including those I like, e. g., Barbara Boxer, and Barack Obama) who helped this evil moron in the general election. Hmmm, perhaps a Lieberman-Thompson ticket makes sense?

Some local notes

They walk among us: I live in a blue state, but that doesn’t provide me a shield from wingnuttery, as this recent letter to the editor shows:

I thank God every day for a president who on that fateful day six years ago – Sept. 11, 2001 – had the courage and conviction to stand up for our democracy. I thank God every day that I am a true believer in the greatness of our country and that I have the mental fortitude to ignore the falsehoods that the mainstream media – both on TV and in print – jam down our throats.

We are fighting in Iraq against terrorists who hate our country and everything we stand for. We are fighting the terrorists there instead of here. President Bush has changed history. He had the conviction to do what Bill Clinton and other liberals did not, which is change the world for the better.

Our troops deserve better than the Peoria Journal Star and you other liberals out there who have forgotten why we fight. This is a tough fight and I know we will prevail. I believe in our country and I will never forget 9-11!

Ann Kauppi

Dunlap

Never mind that Al Qeda didn’t have an operational presence in Iraq until we went in. And no, I haven’t forgotten why we are in Iraq; that is why I want us out.

IL-18 race: it looks as if I won’t be spending any time with this, as this race appears to be as good as lost.

Former NBA and Bradley basketball coach Dick Versace hopes to add another win to his record with a bid for Congress.

“I’m all in,” Versace, a Democrat, said Thursday.

His confirmation ends several weeks of speculation about whether he would seek election for the 18th Congressional District seat held by Ray LaHood, who is not seeking re-election.

He said he’ll hold a news conference to officially announce his bid in the next couple weeks. After that, Versace will take off in a 38-foot motor home he will call “The Common Sense Express.”

“The Common Sense Express is going to visit all 20 counties in the district,” he said. “I’m going to go on a listening tour.”

Lovely. This probably means that Bill Edley won’t run. At least I’ll have more time to spend with other activities as I won’t touch this race with a 10 foot pole.

As far as the Republicans: Bill Dennis is going after Aaron Schock! It will be interesting to see how this unfolds; Mr. Schock ran a good campaign in a small, local area. It will be interesting to see how he plays in a much larger, more socially conservative district, and whether the rural types will have a problem with the questions about his sexual orientation (which aren’t a big deal in his state district).

So what of Shock’s soon to be vacant IL-92 house seat? There is a Democratic candidate that Peoria Pundit thinks can win

When Aaron Schock decided to abandon his spot in the Illinois House of Representatives months after winning re-election, there was already a very viable candidate being groomed to take him on in 2008.

Today, that woman announced her candidacy … without having an face an incumbent, and without any announced opposition in either the primary or general election.

Jehan Gordon, current member of the Pleasant Hill School District 69 board of education, announced she is running to replace Schock. She was surrounded by friends and family, as well as local political leaders including State Sen. Dave Koehler, former State Sen. George Shadid, County Board member Lynn Scott Pearson, Peoria School District 150 member Martha Ross and Peoria County Democratic Party Chair Billy Halstead.

She worked on the campaigns of both Koehler and Senator Barack Obama. She also attended a two-week camp run sponsored by Obama to encourage young people to get involved in their communities.

Koehler thinks Gordon’s a better fit for the district than Schock has been. Being a member of a minority helps her understand the needs of the entire district, as does her job as Diversity Retention Coordinator at Illinois Central College. She’s a 1996 graduate of Limestone Community High School, which sends a message that “it’s not just about Peoria. It’s about the whole district.” [...]

Having State Senator Koehler’s backing means something here. We’ll just have to wait and see.

All I know about her is that she is photogenic (which, unfortunately, means something in a political race).