A couple of quickies: Revisonist Education and my favorite songs

At times I am worried that we are indeed becoming separate nations, each receiving a different education.

In science, it has been reported that 1 in 8 biology teachers teach some sort of creationism in class!

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science – and especially evolutionary biology – tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.

US courts have repeatedly decreed that creationism and intelligent design are religion, not science, and have no place in school science classrooms. But no matter what courts and school boards decree, it is up to teachers to put the curriculum into practice.

“Ultimately, they are the ones who carry it out,” says Michael Berkman, a political scientist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

But what teachers actually teach about evolution and creationism in their classrooms is a bit of a grey area, so Berkman and his colleagues decided to conduct the first-ever national survey on the subject.
‘Not shocking’

The researchers polled a random sample of nearly 2000 high-school science teachers across the US in 2007. Of the 939 who responded, 2% said they did not cover evolution at all, with the majority spending between 3 and 10 classroom hours on the subject.

However, a quarter of the teachers also reported spending at least some time teaching about creationism or intelligent design. Of these, 48% – about 12.5% of the total survey – said they taught it as a “valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species”.

Science teaching experts say they are not surprised to find such a large number of science teachers advocating creationism. [...]

I’ll go ahead and say it: our high school teachers, with some exceptions, are not the best and brightest we have to offer. Millard Fillmore’s bathtub explores some reasons that this is the case:

Recruiting high-achievers, across the board and not just with the help of a flagship do-gooder program, will require that starting salaries be competitive with those jobs where people of high caliber flock. Education competes with accounting, law, medicine and other high-paying professions for the best people.

If Milton Friedman and Adam Smith were right, that most people act rather rationally in their own interests, economically, which jobs will get the best people?

Teaching is the only profession I can think of where the administrators and other leaders threaten to fire the current teachers, work to keep working conditions low and unsatisfactory, and say that more money will come only after championship performance.

There isn’t a person alive who hasn’t cursed George Steinbrenner and said that he or she could run the Yankees better. Whenever he opens his checkbook, the nation howls. And yet, year in an year out, the Yankees win.

Is there any fool alive who thinks Steinbrenner could do what he does by cutting pay, not cleaning the locker room, and drafting the cheapest players he could find? Were we to assume Steinbrenner the world’s most famous lousy boss, there are a million education administrators who would need to step it up to get to Steinbrenner’s level.

As Utah Phillips famously said, graduates are about to be told they are the nation’s greatest natural resource — but have you seen how this nation treats its natural resources?

And, well, the behavior of parents doesn’t make it any easier for the good teachers (and yes, they are there!)

ARRRRGGGHHH!!!! If there were any justice at all, creationists and ID types would be denied access to any of the benefits derived from evolutionary biology, which, of course, includes many modern medicines and medical research.

But, as a Daily Kos diary by troutfishing points out, revisionism (that is, telling history the way that you wish that it were) is alive and well in U. S. history. Yeah, it is the same old “the US was founded as a Christian nation” bull *hit again.

Now, don’t get me wrong; education had its trouble without this stuff; personally I detest the leftist versions of this nonsense as well (example)

Well we all know about force don’t we? Especially when a ‘her’ is involved. Force means violence. Violence means rape. And when (say the augurers) the father of Western science, Francis Bacon, writes of scientific experiments designed to ‘force nature to yield her secrets’ only a fool could mistake his intention.

Believe it or not nothing more substantial than this allows Sandra Harding, for example, in her popular and widely used The Science Question in Feminism, to ask ‘why is it not as illuminating and honest to refer to Newton’s law as ‘Newton’s rape manual’ as it is to call them ‘Newton’s mechanics’?’

Yes, I know, such idiocy is considered “higher scholarship” in some circles, but at least students are exposed to such nonsense when, presumably, they’ve at least had basic education.

On a lighter note Just for the heck of it, I’ll post some youtube videos of some of my favorite songs. There is no particular order to them.

(Yes, I know, Elton John is a huge Hillary Clinton fan and hosted a concert for her. You know, I might even buy that soundtrack! ) Note also that I didn’t include any Beatles music; I love most of what they did but I didn’t really have a single favorite song; if I were to name their favorite albums it would be: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers and Abbey Road. I like their “blue album” remix too.

I am learning something…

Workout notes Yoga class followed by 7 miles of walking (though Springdale, Glen Oak and then back to the Riverplex..

Elections: I have to admit that, while I knew that I didn’t agree with John McCain on many matters, I thought of him as being smart. No longer; in fact, the more I learn about him, the more I am aghast at his lack of basic knowledge and, well, aghast that he doesn’t recognize his own ignorance of the basics of world affairs.

His previous gaffes about confusing Al Qeda (a Sunni Muslim extremist group) with the Shiite extremists in Iran has been well publicized.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EetobKXQsr8]

But it gets worse. He doesn’t know the basics of the Iranian government! I reported this in my Daily Kos Diary:

So John “more of the same” McCain is running on his knowledge of foreign policy and on defense issues? If that is his strength, I sure hate to see his weakness!

A Huffington Post article reports on a question and answer session in which John McCain, in an attempt to bash Barack Obama, made yet another gaffe.

More below the fold

Update: There is already a diary on this but evidently it scrolled off.

Source for this diary

Basically the issue is this: McCain was slamming Obama because Obama was supposed to have said that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In fact, Obama said no such thing; he mentioned that he would be willing to meet with *Iranian leaders* and, evidently McCain doesn’t know that foreign policy is NOT under the auspices of the Iranian President; instead it is under the auspices of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei!

Yes, the Iranian government is somewhat complicated, but hey, a President should know that, right? From Wikipedia:

The Supreme Leader

Main article: Supreme Leader of Iran

The Supreme Leader of Iran is responsible for the delineation and supervision of “the general policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. The Supreme Leader is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, controls the military intelligence and security operations; and has the only power to declare war. The heads of the judiciary, state radio and television networks, the commanders of the police and military forces and six of the twelve members of the Council of Guardians are appointed by the Supreme Leader. The Assembly of Experts elects and dismisses the Supreme Leader on the basis of qualifications and popular esteem–none have ever been dismissed.[9] The Assembly of Experts is responsible for supervising the Supreme Leader in the performance of legal duties.

[edit] Executive branch

Main article: President of Iran

Wikinews has related news:
Iranian President Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University

The Constitution defines the President as the highest state authority after the Supreme Leader. The President is elected by universal suffrage, by those 15 years old and older[1], for a term of four years. Presidential candidates must be approved by the Council of Guardians prior to running. The President is responsible for the implementation of the Constitution and for the exercise of executive powers, except for matters directly related to the Supreme Leader. The President appoints and supervises the Council of Ministers, coordinates government decisions, and selects government policies to be placed before the legislature. Currently, 10 Vice-Presidents serve under the President, as well as a cabinet of 21 ministers, who must all be approved by the legislature. Unlike many other states, the executive branch in Iran does not control the armed forces. Although the President appoints the Ministers of Intelligence and Defense, it is customary for the President to obtain explicit approval from the Supreme Leader for these two ministers before presenting them to the legislature for a vote of confidence.

So, enjoy the “Straight Talk Express” getting it wrong, yet again!

KLEIN: Also checked, also checked with the Obama campaign and he never, he’s never sai — mentioned Ahmadinejad directly by name. He did say he would negotiate with the leaders, but as you know – Ayatollah,

MCCAIN: (Laughing) Ahmadinejad is, was the leader.

KLEIN: But if -

MCCAIN: Maybe I’m mistaken.

KLEIN: Maybe you are, because -

MCCAIN: Maybe. I don’t think so though.

KLEIN: The Supreme, you know, according to most diplomatic experts, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the guy who’s in charge of Iranian foreign policy and also in charge of the nuclear program, but you never mention him. Do you, you know, um, why do you always keep talking about Ahmadinejad since he doesn’t have power in that, in that realm?

MCCAIN: Oh I thin-Again, I respectfully disagree. When he’s the person that comes to the United Nations and declares his country’s policy is the extermination of the state of Israel, quote, in his words, wipe them off of the map, then I know that he is speaking for the Iranian government and articulating their policy and he was elected and is running for reelection as the leader of that country. Yes sir, go ahead.

NEW REPORTER: One more quest-

MCCAIN: I mean, the fact is he’s the acknowledged leader of that country and you may disagree, but that’s a uh, that’s your right to do so, but I think if you asked any average American who the leader of Iran is, I think they’d know. Go ahead. Or anyone who’s well-versed in the issue.

Oh, so the average American is now the expert!

Oh my. This is getting to be embarrassing.

Obama-Clinton Reports are that there is at least a detente of some sort between the camps.

Religion A reader suggested that I look into this article by the Rolling Stone which is about John Hagee’s church.

The whole article is a hoot but check out the description of one of the church camp’s activities:

At first, the whole scene was pure comedy. Fortenberry was standing up at the front of the chapel, reading off a list, and the room was loudly chirping crickets back at him.

“In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of incest! In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of sexual abuse! In the name of Jesus. . . .”

After a few minutes, there was a little twittering here and there. Nothing serious. I was beginning to think the Deliverance was going to be a bust.

But then it started. Wails and cries from the audience. To my left, a young black man started writhing around in his seat. In front of me and to my right, another young black man with Coke-bottle glasses and a shock of nerdly jheri curl — a dead ringer for a young Wayne Williams — started wailing and clutching his head.

“In the name of Jesus,” continued Fortenberry, “I cast out the demon of astrology!”

Coughing and spitting noises. Behind me, a bald white man started to wheeze and gurgle, like he was about to puke. Fortenberry, still reading from his list, pointed at the man. On cue, a pair of life coaches raced over to him and began to minister. One dabbed his forehead with oil and fiercely clutched his cranium; the other held a paper bag in front of his mouth.

“In the name of Jesus Christ,” said Fortenberry, more loudly now, “I cast out the demon of lust!”

And the man began power-puking into his paper baggie. I couldn’t see if any actual vomitus came out, but he made real hurling and retching noises. [...]

Note: one of the “demons” is “philosophy”. No, I am not kidding.

So, we are supposed to respect all religion?

Clinton: This Is Nowhere Near Over – The Caucus – Politics – New York Times Blog

McCain: similar to Jesus? The, ok, some wingnuts think so.

Liberalsmustdie has their back!

Here we go again.

The story is from the New York Times. (blog story plus video there)

We are constantly told to be nice to her, but she keeps doing stuff to draw ridicule. Now they are going by Karl Rove’s calculation? For something more realistic see Election 2008.

Just a hint: Obama puts many states in play that Clinton does not; and to be fair, the reverse is true (Arkansas and West Virginia, for example). They indeed do it differently.

As for Kentucky…

A Daily Kos member tintinspry has a nice answer.

So I have a 11 year old daughter and I decided to observe her and her behavior for the last few weeks. My daughter is like Hillary Clinton, she does not like to lose, no matter the odds.

My daughter:
She is the one thing I love more then anything in life and would give up anything for her. She makes me happy and even though she is not perfect I love her, even when she is not my little lovable baby.
So my daughter has friends over and they play games: So I want to ask the Clinton “hardcore” reps what they think I should say when my daughter cheats, since she is bigger then them and can bully them.

Should I tell her that she should:

1. Change the rules because they are playing at her home court.

2. Change the numbers so she has a better chance to win.

3. Allow blatant fouls because she is bigger then them.

4. Make up stuff as she goes, all in the name of greater glory.

None of the above would be acceptable to me I might add, because it would be unfair. None of you would allow the above to be acceptable for your children but you think the behavior is fine because Clinton is the first viable female candidate in the presidential race. I do not have a son, but if I did I would tell him to be honest too.

When you think about your support for your candidate you should think about what you are telling your children. They live by your example after all. I want to be a honest example to them. What is your excuse ?

Oh yeah, as far as “nowhere near over”: check out the political futures:

Barack Obama 92.00 +0.000 92.00 +0.000 95.00 +1.000
Hillary Clinton 6.50 -0.400 5.70 +0.002 7.00 +1.000

In short, to buy an Obama contract which pays 100 dollars, you’d need to pay 92-95 dollars. To buy a Clinton contract which pays 100 dollars, you’d need only pay 5.70-7.00. So, if she and her supporters are so sure, there is a ton of money to be made!

Oh yeah, the general election:

Barack Obama D 57.00 -0.600
John McCain R 38.40 +1.000
Hillary Clinton D 4.80 -1.500

The winning party:

Democrats 61.60 -1.200 59.00 -0.010
Republicans 38.10 +0.000 41.00 -0.009

Back to the moronic: Right wing watch is a good source.

No, “Bishop”, you aren’t a “Uncle Tom” nor an “Oreo”. You are merely a garden variety woo who knows nothing about science. See, “sky daddy” will take care of it all. What idiots.