Apparently this is how Trump supporters take their college graduation photos.

I don’t take normal college graduation photos... pic.twitter.com/eI1NvLFYHs

— Brenna Spencer (@BrennaSpencer) April 7, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Post:  

A Tennessee college senior is sticking to her guns after posting a graduation photo in which she stares wistfully off-camera while lifting her “Women for Trump” T-shirt to expose a firearm in her waistband. 

Despite receiving what she called a surprising “amount of hate” on social media, Brenna Spencer, 22, says she has no regrets. 

“I know the Tennessee state gun codes …. I carry everywhere that I’m allowed to carry,” the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga student told ABC News. 

On Twitter, where Spencer’s profile states that “political correctness offends me,” she posted the provocative photo with the caption: “I don’t take normal college graduation photos…”

Well, she should be joining the Trump Administration any day now. 

So is this shoving a gun into your cootchie the new hot thing among conservative females?

Because I really don't get it.

White supremacist groups dramatically increase their college campus recruitment.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

White supremacist groups have stepped up their recruiting on college campuses over the past two years with a sharp increase in their presence and activism in the past year, a period that perfectly overlaps with the political presence and prominence of President Donald Trump, according to a new study released this week by the Anti-Defamation League. 

Calling the spike in hate group behavior “alarming,” the ADL tallied a three-fold increase in propaganda efforts by a variety of hate groups and white nationalist organizations on hundreds of campuses nationwide. “White supremacists, particularly alt right groups, have been actively targeting U.S. college campuses since January 2016,” the report states. “The practice failed to get any real traction until the fall semester of 2016. Since then, propaganda efforts have increased dramatically.” 

The ADL recorded 346 incidents of white supremacist materials — fliers, stickers, banners, posters — littering college and university campuses since September 1, 2016. “These campaigns targeted 216 college campuses, from Ivy League schools to local community colleges, in 44 states and the District of Columbia,” the report said.

Well with a card carrying white supremacist in the White House, of course the racists and alt-right folks are going to come crawling out of the woodwork.

Donald Trump is their guy, and he provides a kind of unspoken permission for the country to slide right back into the days of Jim Crow laws, rampant segregation, and of course the oppression of minorities.

Here is some good news to start our Friday morning.

Americans with college degrees are favoring Democrats 16 points more then they did in 2014. Nation as a whole is leaning 10 points more blue. https://t.co/r4Fa9feXzdhttps://t.co/r4Fa9feXzd pic.twitter.com/IQdsF1SODT

— G. Elliott Morris📈🤷‍♂️ (@gelliottmorris) December 27, 2017

Things are really looking good for Democrats if they don't once again somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory again.

Barack Obama's alma mater launched a scholarship program in his name.

Courtesy of Occidental College:  

Occidental College today (Actually Wednesday.) announced the launch of its Barack Obama Scholars Program to empower exceptional students committed to the public good as it honors and perpetuates the principles President Barack Obama has advanced throughout his life. 

“My years at Occidental College sparked my interest in social and political causes, and filled me with the idea that my voice could make a difference,” said President Obama, a member of the Occidental College Class of 1983. “And throughout my time in public service, I’ve tried to use my voice to bring people together, in common effort, around the idea that we could give every young person in America the chance that America gave me.” 

“That’s why I’m so humbled by the Barack Obama Scholars Program at Oxy, and proud of its mission to identify promising young people from all backgrounds—with an emphasis on first-generation students, our veterans, and community college transfers—not only to give them access to higher education, but to train the next generation of leaders and active citizens, and fill them with the conviction that they too can change the world.” 

Beginning in fall 2018, supported by donors who share the Occidental-Obama vision, Occidental will endow two scholarships and thereafter ramp up to 20 scholarships for a select group of students, providing a singular liberal arts education designed to equip them to bring about meaningful change in the world. Prior to today’s public launch, Oxy raised $7 million from a wide range of generous supporters drawn from alumni and friends of the College, including Susan DiMarco and Jeh Johnson, Glenn and Jane Hickerson, Leif and Aileen Isaksen, Ann and Bruce Blume, and Janice Gonzales.

I don't know I just thought we could use reminder that the best president ever is still having a positive impact on the world.

Could you even imagine anybody attempting to establish a Donald Trump scholarship program?

Besides Donald Trump of course.

New study finds that the reason that Brexit passed is because Britain is full of uneducated morons. They needed a study for that?

Courtesy of The Independent:  

Britain would have likely voted to remain in the European Union were its population educated to a slightly higher level, a new study has found. 

Researchers at the University of Leicester say that had just 3 per cent more of the population gone to university, the UK would probably not be leaving the EU. 

The researchers looked at reasons why people voted Leave and found that whether someone had been to university or accessed other higher education was the “predominant factor” in how they voted.

The level of higher education in an area was far more important than age, gender, the number of immigrants, or income in predicting the way an area voted, the researchers found. 

Age and gender were both significant but not as important as education level, the researchers found. Income and number of immigrants in an area were not found to be a significant factor in how people voted.

You know just back about seven or eight months ago this would be the part where I would point and laugh, "Ha ha England your country is full of  idiots."

But then this happened.

Yep, no pointing and laughing for us.

Just another opportunity to reinforce the importance of improving our educational systems and in helping our children gain access to colleges and universities.

Remember, dumb people vote for dumb policies and even dumber politicians. 

Here is the People's President giving a commencement speech at Wellesley College.

If you click here you can read the Washington Post's transcript complete with annotations.

Here is just a portion:.  

You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for ten seconds. It will hit you right in the face. People denying science, concocting elaborate, hurtful conspiracy theories about child-abuse rings operating out of pizza parlors, drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor, turning neighbor against neighbor and sowing division at a time when we desperately need unity. Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds, and then defending themselves by talking about quote-unquote “alternative facts.” 

But this is serious business. Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us, the youngest, the oldest, the poorest, and hard-working people who need a little help to gain or hang on to a decent middle class life. It grossly under-funds public education, mental health, and efforts even to combat the opioid epidemic. And in reversing our commitment to fight climate change, it puts the future of our nation and our world at risk. And to top it off, it is shrouded in a trillion-dollar mathematical lie. Let’s call it what it is. It’s a con. They don’t even try to hide it.

Oh, what might have been.

I am sure that at some point Trump will take to Twitter to attack Clinton for telling the truth about him again.

Sarah Palin uses the Bible to attack education and smear college professors.

Palin at one of the numerous colleges she attended.

Courtesy of Sister Mary Hypocrite's Bible study page:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 

Matthew 6:24 

(And what does that passage have to do with college you might ask? Nothing really, but that does not stop Palin from using it as an opening for this serving of stupidity.) 

It took me five years (And five different colleges.) to graduate college, because I worked throughout to pay for it. All my siblings did; there was never a question about Dad’s teacher salary covering four kids in college at once. We did the math…we all got jobs. Nowadays, parents unload boatloads of money on a kid’s “college experience,” and that “experience” has never been costlier. (The Democrats had a plan for bringing tuition costs down dramatically, just that I should remind people of that.)

Not just financially. Modern college culture often involves nonstop efforts to unravel our children’s value systems. Self-indulgence is the name of the game, with professors blatantly attempting to indoctrinate with their liberalism. (Well facts DO have a liberal bias.) College today isn’t necessarily an incredibly rigorous experience, where students’ minds are constantly challenged and their horizons broadened. (And you would know this how?) So many courses are so politically correct they don’t even pass the straight-face test. Since really buckling down to take silly courses isn’t required, much time is dedicated to just having a good time – to partying. Many professors have cushy jobs that don’t require them to, you know, actually teach. (Also complete bullshit.) That means parents spend their hard-earned money – or, more accurately, borrow their not-yet- earned money – for grad students and adjuncts to fill the role of educator. You getting what you paid for, Pops? 

And for all of this, the student-loan debt in America is nearly $1 trillion! It’s prudent to think twice before shelling out big bucks to liberals so they can enjoy efforts to brainwash the next generation.

(Well she has a point. The best way for conservative parents to keep their kids conservative is to deny them an education.)

Today, teach kids the value of higher education, making sure they value God’s Truth over the falsehoods of man. (In this context God's Truth is superstitious nonsense from the Bible, and the "falsehoods of man" are facts.) Consider creative ways to pay for education – such as, ummm, getting a job. It teaches them the value of what they’re receiving, and even possibly keeps them from blowing cash when the keg party passes the hat.

I am sorry, HOW many of Palin's kids attended college? (And I don't mean hair or skin college.)

And HOW many of them have jobs right now? 

Last I heard Willow was working, but as for the others.......

And do we have an example of what happens to kids who do not go on to pursue higher education, and instead embrace their parent's values?

Oh that's right, we do.

Go ahead revisit the Palin family embracing their family values instead of going to college and being "indoctrinated."

Gee, if only ALL parents raised their children in a similar fashion.

Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee once started an organization called the "Fascism Forever Club." Nothing troubling about that.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch founded and led a student group called the ‘Fascism Forever Club’ at his elite high school, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

The club was set up to rally against the ‘left-wing tendencies’ of his professors while attending a Jesuit all-boys preparatory high school near Washington D.C. 

The name may be inconvenient for a Supreme Court nominee facing a tough confirmation battle. However it also shows the depth of Gorscuch’s right-wing credentials – and his penchant for mischief while attending his exclusive prep school in the 1980s. 

Mischief? Sure, let's just write this off as youthful hijinks. 

Very similar to the type that led a young Adolph Hitler to start a club of his own in Germany. You know, just for shits and giggles.

I keep hearing the media suggesting that the Left keep should their powder dry for a REAL problem nominee and not go after every one of Trump's choices, but I disagree with that completely.

We KNOW that any choice that Trump makes is going to be problematic for the country, so why would we not demonstrate complete resistance to ALL of them?

Trust me we are not going to run out of steam.

In fact I predict that we are just getting started and that soon Donald Trump will know what opposition REALLY looks like.

The Tea Party was amateur hour, THIS is going to be huge!

#TheResistance

Orange Coast College teacher in hiding after she receives death threats for calling Donald Trump election an "act of terrorism."

Courtesy of the Orange Country Register:  

An Orange Coast College teacher who told her students that Donald Trump’s election was an “act of terrorism” has received threats and has temporarily left the state. 

News of the threats against Olga Perez Stable Cox came to light Monday, as hundreds of people turned out at the college to demonstrate in support of her and against her. 

The professor, the union that represents her and the college have received more than 1,000 emails, calls and Facebook comments – most of them critical of Cox, who a week after the election was recorded on video telling students in her human sexuality class that “we’re really back to being (in) a civil war.” 

“Someone emailed her a picture of her house, with her address,” said Rob Schneiderman, president of the Coast Federation of Educators/American Federation of Teachers Local 1911. The email called Cox a “libtard, Marxist, hatemonger, nutcase” and said “her home address is now going to be sent everywhere,” he added. 

Others threatened her livelihood, some her life. 

“You want communism, go to Cuba ... try to bring it to America and we’ll put a (expletive) bullet in your face,” read an email to her.

Hey do you know what doesn't convince people that the election of your candidate is not an act or terrorism?

Making terrorist threats against the person who made that accusation.

Seems kinda obvious actually. 

New website targets college professors that they feel are advancing "leftist propaganda." Welcome to Donald Trump's America.

Courtesy of New York Times:  

A new website that accuses nearly 200 college professors of advancing “leftist propaganda in the classroom” and discriminating against conservative students has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom. 

The site, Professor Watchlist, which first appeared Nov. 21, says it names those instructors who “advance a radical agenda in lecture halls.” 

“We aim to post professors who have records of targeting students for their viewpoints, forcing students to adopt a certain perspective, and/or abuse or harm students in any way for standing up for their beliefs,” wrote Matt Lamb, an organizer of the site. 

The Professor Watchlist is a project of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that says its mission is to educate students about “true free market values.” Charlie Kirk, its founder and executive director, wrote in a blog post that “it’s no secret that some of America’s college professors are totally out of line” and that it was time to expose them. 

Yep a website that targets teachers for teaching facts, instead of upholding "conservative values."

Nothing troubling about that, right?

Why do I get the feeling that this is just the beginning?

President and First Lady's daughter Malia to attend Harvard. Update!

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Malia Obama, the older daughter of President Obama, plans to attend Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2017, the White House announced on Sunday, waiting until her father leaves office to begin her college career. 

Malia’s much-speculated-upon decision, announced in a news release after months of official silence from the White House about her college search process, will make her the latest in a long line of presidential children to attend the elite university in Cambridge, Mass. Both of her parents attended law school there. 

“The President and Mrs. Obama announced today that their daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall of 2017 as a member of the Class of 2021. Malia will take a gap year before beginning school,” the White House said in a statement.

Sure, but can she get into hair and skin school?

Gee both a great President AND a great parent.

There are some people in the world who cannot even do one of those correctly.

The article also points out that Malia will be taking a "gap year" before starting school.

I myself took a gap year after high school, to raise money for college.

Then took another two year gap to raise more money for college.

And then took yet another still ongoing gap during which I got married, had a baby, got divorced, got remarried, got re-divorced, and completely forgot about college.

I assume that Malia will stay a little more focused.

Update: Apparently the racists have started weighing in:

Believe it or not I left off some of the worst ones, though you can see them for yourselves at the link.

Despite all of this nastiness directed at her I predict big things for this young lady.

Report from Pew Research shows that the more educated we are the more liberal we are. And that the highly educated are becoming even more liberal.

Courtesy of NPR: 

A report from the Pew Research Center finds a wide partisan gap between highly educated and non-highly-educated americans. Not only that, but the share of college grads and post-graduates who are "consistently liberal" (based on their answers to a series of policy questions) has grown sharply in the last 20 years.

In 1994, 7 percent of post-grads were "consistently liberal," and 1 percent of people with high school educations or less were — not much of a difference. Today, the gap is 25 points wide — 31 percent of people with post-grad educations are consistently liberal, compared to 5 percent of those with high school educations or less. 

The same kind of change just hasn't happened on the conservative side.

The research also finds that while the Right has also grown more conservative, it is certainly not due to higher education. Though it seems age is a factor.

So to sum up the better educated, and younger Americans are becoming increasingly liberal, while the poorly educated old folks with one foot in the grave are becoming more conservative.

Damn I like those odds.

And now boys and girls you know why the Right Wing is always attacking public education, liberal arts education, and of course teachers in general.

They are losing, but they are certainly not planning to go down without a fight.

Seriously Michelle Obama is like the coolest FLOTUS ever, amirite?

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

As if we didn't already think Michelle Obama was the chillest FLOTUS yet, her new rap video will make you love her even more (and want to go to college). 

 The first lady teamed up with "Saturday Night Live" comedian Jay Pharoah to drop a beat about the benefits of higher education. 

 "If you wanna fight crime, you should go to college/If you wanna write rhymes fill your head with knowledge/If you wanna stare at grass don't go to college, but for everything else you should go to college," Obama expertly raps alongside Pharoah, from a recording studio that appears to be inside the White House. 

I love Michelle Obama!

It is really going to be a shame when she and Barack are no longer our first couple. 

Though I have to admit I can certainly imagine "first gentleman" Bill Clinton pulling off something like this as well.

Ben Carson suggests that people only want free college because they are "not well informed" and that it will "hasten the destruction of the nation."

"Because if the people are not well informed all it takes is unscrupulous politicians, and news media, and off the people go in completely wrong direction. Listening to all kinds of propaganda and inculcating that into their method of thinking. And then it becomes real easy for them to swallow things. If they don’t understand our financial situation of the country and somebody comes along and says, ‘free college for everybody,’ they’ll say, ‘oh what a wonderful person,’ and they have no idea that all you’re talking about hastening the destruction of the nation."

So to be clear, according to Ben Carson, having greater access to education in this country is only something stupid people want, and if they get it that will be the end of America.

Seriously?

Okay so here's what I think.

I think Carson is confusing the impact that access to a free college education would have on this country, with the impact that free access to a college education would have on the Republican party.

I mean let's face it, better educated voters are going to see right through the GOP cow manure, and are far less likely to cast their ballots for the types of politicians who are constantly attempting to undermine education, and suppress the votes.

A smarter population does not bode well for the Republicans.

But for America?

Yeah I think we know the answer to that question.

(H/T to Raw Story.)

New evidence proves the Umpqua Community College shooter committed suicide, and new witness debunks story that he targeted Christians.

Courtesy of MSN: 

An autopsy determined gunman Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer killed himself Thursday morning after his shooting spree on the campus of Umpqua Community College, said Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin. 

Authorities initially believed the 26-year-old killer died in a gunfight with police respond to the campus. He apparently shot himself as cops closed in after responding to a 911 call.

So that is one bit of evidence that disproves the initial assertion by officials that Mercer was killed by law enforcement officers.

Another widely reported "fact" is that the shooter was targeting Christian for execution.

Not so says witness Rand McGowan: 

Despite some reports to the contrary, McGowan said Harper-Mercer didn't appear to target Christians in particular. 

"He didn't really, honestly," McGowan said in a quiet voice while standing on the doorstep of his house in Roseburg, Oregon, on Saturday morning. 

McGowan’s right arm was wrapped up after surgery from a gunshot wound. 

"Obviously he was asking what religion, but he wasn't really just targeting. He was kind of just saying, 'Oh, since you have a God, you'll be joining him in a little bit," McGowan told The News. 

"It wasn't really like, 'I'm targeting you and I'm going to kill you,'" he said.

In fact the initial reports that Mercer was targeting Christians seems to have come from second hand accounts, and an online dating profile in which he identified himself as a "conservative" and a "Republican," but claims to dislike "organized religion."

Of course that was enough to convince the Wonder Twins to jump on the Christian persecution bandwagon, and for actor James Woods to attack the President for not speaking out about it.

By the way the shooter's father is also now calling for stricter gun control laws:  

The father of the gunman who killed nine people at an Oregon community college before turning a gun on himself said the shooting “would not have happened” if his son would not have been able to amass so many weapons. 

“The only thing I would like to say is a question that I would like to ask is how on earth could he compound 13 guns? How could that happen? They talk about gun laws, they talk about gun control but every time something like this happens they talk about it and nothing is done,” Ian Mercer told CNN. “I’m not trying to say that’s to blame for what happened but if Chris had not been able to get a hold of 13 guns, it wouldn’t have happened.” Ian Mercer also said he had no idea his son had any guns, let alone more than a dozen. Authorities recovered an additional weapon at the shooter’s home, bringing the total to 14.

The guy is not terribly articulate but I think we know what he is trying to say. 

There are more Atheists and Agnostics entering Harvard this year than Catholics or Protestants.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Harvard’s combined number of atheists and agnostics among its incoming class exceeds the number of Catholics and Protestants, as Pew Research Center’s Conrad Hackett noted. The number appears to be a striking contrast with the rest of the U.S. millennial population, those from ages 18 to 34. 

Pew’s survey suggested a decline in Christianity in the U.S., especially among millennials, though Harvard’s freshman still don’t appear to reflect the rest of millennials in the U.S. 

Among the general population in the U.S., 52 percent of millennials identify as Protestant or Catholic, according to Pew, compared to 34.1 percent of Harvard’s incoming class. And 13 percent of millennial Americans identify as atheist or agnostic, compared with 37.9 percent of Harvard freshmen who said they were atheist or agnostic. 

Part of the reason why American Christianity is on the decline is due to the number of people who don’t self-identify with a religion anymore. Pew also asks survey respondents if they are unaffiliated with faith, and 36 percent of them describe themselves as not affiliated with religion.

This is just the kind of thing that makes me hopeful for the future of our country. 

The more critical thinkers that we produce, no longer hindered by superstitious nonsense, the stronger and more progressive we become as a nation. 

The bizarre story of a white woman posing as black woman and heading the local chapter of the NAACP has folks talking. But all Sarah Palin sees is an opportunity to attack liberals.

If you have not read the story about Rachel A. Dolezal you can read more about it here.

In a nutshell Dolezal is a white woman, who attended the predominantly black Howard university, married an African American man, has a biracial child, and has recently been the head of the NAACP in Spokane, Washington. Oh, she has also claimed to be biracial herself, which by the way is no prerequisite for working with the NAACP.

However it is pretty clear that Dolezal has some real issues, and seems to have lied about not only her racial heritage but also about several events that took place in her life. 

Here she is in an interview essentially being outed:

Okay so it's an odd story which has a lot of people talking about the definition of race in America.

However as a pasty white guy living in Alaska, I did not feel it was my place to weigh in on the story.

However being a pasty white woman from Alaska did not seem to stand in Sarah Palin's way: 

Ok, I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh... this hard. I know this isn't a victimless crime, what this white chick perpetrated. But it's a most crystal clear picture of so many screwed up things we've let society adopt as the norm. Namely, the practice nowadays of judging someone not based on character, but on skin color. Our original civil rights freedom fighters are rolling in their graves over the backward steps we've taken lately. It's politically incorrect to call out Elizabeth Warren for falsely claiming she's American Indian, or dinging Obama for just making up his former multi-ethnic girlfriend, and I guarantee I'll be branded a racist for laughing at this Rachel Dolezal story. Whatever. Dolezal is an unsatisfied lily white leftist who believes the only thing less politically correct than being a white girl is to be a white guy today. Can't help but be preemptively amused as I post this and invite Dolzel's defenders wrath to aim and miss at we who won't put up with political correctness destroying truth in America. Oh, and on a personal note, I can finally look forward to the Left's positive comments about a scholar's association with college in Idaho! After all that high-falutin' criticism for choosing a good school that I could afford to attend while working my way through, graduating college debt-free, I can't wait to hear the former mockers of Idaho now defend the integrity of that great state's academia! Go Vandals!

Dufaq?  Well hey, at least she's writing her own posts.

I was forced to actually visit Palin's link to Breitbart (Which I usually avoid because you know, cooties.) in an attempt to decipher this gibberish but it did nothing to help me.

I am not at all sure why she brought up her own college career (By the way it was five schools not one "good school."), but it seems to have little to do with Dolezal's story.

However her undisguised racism, as usual, is more than apparent, as is her penchant for making EVERY single story an opportunity to attack the President.

Which by the way is also somewhat racist.

My take is that meth, red bull, and computer keyboards should never be mixed together.

After all you have ghostwriters on retainer crazy lady, use'em.

When Fundamentalists argue with Atheists.

This reminds me of an epic debate I got into when I was in college.

My roommate was planning to enter the priesthood, and had an honest to goodness eidetic memory.

He was able to quote line from line almost every book he had ever read, which of course included the Bible.

This put me at a distinct disadvantage, until I proclaimed that since the "facts" in the Bible had never been backed up by independent sources, and many if not all of them were disputed by other sources from those time periods, that I would treat them as mythologies, much like the Greek and Roman mythology I had studied in high school.

He still did pretty good even with his primary source material removed, but ultimately it ended in a tie.

(Of course that is what I led him to believe, however there was really no doubt that I crushed him. No, really.)

Even though it is illegal under federal law, public schools in Louisiana are openly teaching Creationism as part of their "science" curriculum.

Courtesy of Zack Kopplin over at Slate:  

Through a public records request, I obtained dozens of emails from the Bossier Parish school district that specifically discuss teaching creationism. Shawna Creamer, a science teacher at Airline High School, sent an email to the principal, Jason Rowland, informing him of which class periods she would use to teach creationism. “We will read in Genesis and them [sic] some supplemental material debunking various aspects of evolution from which the students will present,” Creamer wrote. 

In another email exchange with Rowland, a parent had complained that a different teacher, Cindy Tolliver, actually taught that evolution was a “fact.” This parent complained that Tolliver was “pushing her twisted religious beliefs onto the class.” Principal Rowland responded, “I can assure you this will not happen again.” 

Another email was sent by Bossier High School assistant principal Doug Scott to Michael Stacy, a biology teacher at that school. “I enjoyed the visit to your class today as you discussed evolution and creationism in a full spectrum of thought,” Scott wrote. “Thank you for the rich content as you bring various sources to bear in your curriculum.” 

The Louisiana Science Education Act, passed by the state legislature in 2008, permits science teachers to use supplemental materials to “critique” evolution, opening a backdoor that these teachers are using, as intended, to teach creationism. Such lessons are allowed under this Louisiana law, but they are illegal under federal law. 

“We know that one in eight high school biology teachers advocate for creationism, even though it's unconstitutional,” says Josh Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education. “These emails make clear that many teachers are interpreting the Louisiana Science Education Act as allowing such unconstitutional and scientifically-misleading lessons.” 

On April 22 the Louisiana Senate Education Committee voted on a bill to repeal the Science Education Act, referred to by many on both sides as the “creationism act.” This was the fifth vote since 2010, and legislators voted 4–3 to keep creationism in Louisiana classrooms.

This kind of thing literally makes me sick to my stomach. 

Science is science, and fairy tales are fairy tales, and never the twain shall meet.

What Louisiana is subjecting their students to will cause them no end of discomfort if their intention is to pursue a college degree in a university NOT founded by an evangelist.

Let's face it coming to a regular college classroom convinced that the Biblical version of creation is just as valid as the scientifically vetted theory of evolution is going to seriously impede a student's ability to understand the concepts being taught in a biology class.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, this is nothing less than child abuse.

I didn't think I could dislike Ted Cruz any more than I do. But then I saw his picture from college.

Picture courtesy of Raw Story

You know I have read before that Cruz was an arrogant SOB in college, and this picture does much to support that.

The guy looks like he is playacting at being a cigar chomping political bigwig even before he finished school.

The Raw Story article claims that Cruz acted in college, which makes me wonder once again if his entire schtick is one big put on to get conservative support and to increase his time in the limelight.

Either that or I have to accept the fact that he is actually what he appears to be, an ignorant, arrogant, blowhard.