Florida - Sinking or Floating? (News) (Commentary)

Carl Hiaasan, in the Miami Herald writes about the strife in the state of Florida over the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools. It's a great article with humor tossed in to make it a good read. Here are just a couple of one-liners from the article to whet your taste buds.

In a move that could endanger Florida's flaky backwater reputation, the state Board of Education is poised to endorse the teaching of evolution as a science.

This is a dangerous idea -- not the presentation of Darwinism in schools, but the presentation of Florida as a place of progressive
scientific thought.

In recent weeks, the Board of Education has been swamped by e-mails and letters from religious conservatives who advocate teaching creationism or intelligent design, and who believe evolution should be discussed strictly as a ``theory.''

For those who wish to see Florida standing still, if not sinking, this is a fantastic strategy. In fact, it could be expanded to revise other educational doctrines.Let's start teaching gravity as a ''theory,'' too. And don't forget the solar system -- what proof do we really have, besides a bunch of fuzzy, fake-looking photos, that Mars really
exists?

An Interesting Statistic (News) (Commentary)

Since we don't see what's going on over in Europe, we aren't very aware. Most Americans (self included) do not take enough time to follow how things are faring in the other well-developed nations of the world. Conservatives like to take time out to make fun of the French and the universal health care offered overseas, but for the most part, we really don't know how they are doing financially.

The following little bit came from Time Magazine, 1/21/2008, and I think it says a lot about what is happening to the US under the Bush administration. So many of our resources are going into fighting a stupid war and into rewarding citizens who are already rich that we're losing ground for the average Joe.

(Time) The United Kingodm's gross domestic product figures for 2007 reveal that the average Brit made $46,380 - that's $500 per year MORE than the average US citizen made. This is the first time since the 19th century (that's the 1800's, folks) that the average person in Britain will make more than someone in the US.

Bush's policies are hurting us badly. Maybe it's time to rething all of our trade agreements that allow US businesses to move their manufacturing to other nations, then reimport the production to the US at no cost and without trade protections. Let's bring some American jobs back home.

Bush Has Friends (News) (Commentary)

George Bush has his friends and one of the advantages of being the President of the U.S. is that you can award your friends with lots of other people's money - tax money. His friends include the business leaders of Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater.

From the AP via Yahoo...

A Bush administration plan to crack down on contract fraud has a multibillion-dollar loophole: The proposal to force companies to report abuse of taxpayer money will not apply to work overseas, including projects to secure and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not So Far Off...