"Why are there still monkeys"?

Man, this pisses me off! Thanks a lot, MSNBC...

To be honest, I don't really care that much whether or not Kansans are okay with letting their education system be hijacked by imbeciles, but I do so wish that the major news media titans would do a little reporting once in a while.

Here's the part of the article that actually gets me the worst (the itallics are mine):

"Science or culture?

Advocates of intelligent design say they are trying to expose students to legitimate scientific questions about evolution. 'Under these standards students will learn more about evolution, not less,' said Casey Luskin, a spokesman for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which supports intelligent design."

[Yes, they say that, but is it true?]

"However, mainstream scientists say that fossils and genetic research confirm rather than challenge the tenets of evolutionary theory. Although some of the mechanisms behind the theory are still not fully understood, they say the controversy has been stirred up by intelligent-design advocates largely for cultural rather than scientific reasons."

[Yes, they say that, but is it true? Why should you believe what these people "say" as opposed to what the other people "say"?]

And the punchline:

"These scientists argue that the Kansas board's language represents an effort to get around U.S. Supreme Court rulings declaring that the teaching of creationism violates the constitutional ban on the state establishment of religion."

After reading that passage, I was reminded of Al Franken's joke about how reporters have apparently thrown observable facts under the bus in favor of some weird belief in "balance at-all-costs, objective truth be damned". I paraphrase:

"George Bush went out on the evening news and proclaimed, 'The Earth is flat'. The CNN headline should be, 'Bush goes crazy: Says Earth is Flat', but these days, you'd get 'Shape of Earth in Question'".

True enough, and the coverage of the Kansas idiocy is just more of the same, "He said, She said, and You Still Don't Know" style of reportage that has become so fashionable these days.

Sorry to get bitchy... ...just makes me mad... ...at least we still have PZ Myers...

(Photo courtesy of Verganza.org)