Two points Higher than Nixon
Well, our Bushbaby has been handed his lowest approval rating to date - only 28% of American citizens approve of his job as head Oil Lobbyist. I wonder how many of them still would like to have a beer with him, now?
This also indicates that a little bit more than a quarter of Americans polled are functional morons with just slightly more sense than a pile of plastic soldiers.
* * *
C'mon! You Don't Protest Jimminy Cricket, Do You?
In Kentucky (no dumb Southerner jokes here - I was born in Tennessee), some folks have finally opened a Creationist Museum, complete with figures of Adam and Eve lounging about with dinosaurs and the 'scientific' explanation of the Grand Canyon (it was created by Noah's Flood, dontcha know...).
I'm not here to put the slap-down on Christianity, religion, or any spiritual belief - some of the smartest, most thoughtful people I know find great comfort and security in the spiritual. That said, I very much doubt that most folks really believe that the cosmos was created in six 24-hour days or that the planet is only 6,000 years old. Hey - some do, just like some really believe in faith healing, that weight loss can happen by wishing real hard, and that Iraq was somehow responsible for 9/11.
But why protest this?
You don't go protest Disneyland because it promotes talking bugs and animals and mermaids and a host of other fictional creations, do you? You don't protest Bruce Willis because he isn't really as badass as the Die Hard movies indicate. The Creationists want a cool, laser-light, playland to help fuel their fantasies and I say awesome. At least they aren't trying to heal children with nothing but prayer and some leeches or bug me on the street with a pamphlet, so leave them alone.
* * *
UN-freaking-believable...
Kid Kills GIGANTIC FREAKIN' HOG.
I...I have no words for this. Jesus. When I see this, I'm almost willing to believe that Eve actually grew out of a rib like some bizarre Reanimator sequence. Also that those giant bosses at the end of videogames can really be killed with a tiny gun.
* * *
Who Would You Rather Have in Charge?
One of the most interesting "slams" against John Edwards by the GOP is repeated references to his good looks and pristine hair. What the fuck does this mean? It means that the GOP would rather have an ugly, wrinkled guy with mange underneath his sub-par toupe run the country?
I'd vote for this guy to run the poop deck...
...and this guy to fix healthcare and education.
* * *
The Weekend
Today, I go work with my twelve KidSKALD kids at Jose De Diego, meet with one of my Production Class students for some consultation, and work on some DADA. Saturday, I have callback auditions for Fugue, the Theatre Momentum show I'm directing and then to see the first eight plays in Collaboraction's SKETCHBOOK (Jen directed the one in the boat). Sunday, we have a SKALD organizational meeting and then the W.I.P.
At least I'm not bored.
* * *
Portrait of an Evil Asshole
Friday, June 01, 2007
Friday Roundup: Delusional Beliefs and Giant Hog Balls
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Stumble It!
6 comments:
You protest the Creationist Museum because they're not just saying "this is a large diorama of our faith," they're saying "This is a house of the True Science."
You know how hard it is to teach children, Don, even when you have consistent and proven information to impart. If you have an outside party claiming that what you teach in school is wrong, then what you get is a child full of half-truths and confusion...the sort of child who ultimately stops trusting teachers altogether.
Inside the Confusion exhibit, I strike up a conversation with Tim Shaw, a high school student visiting from Florida. "I don't care how long it took to make the Grand Canyon," he tells me. "It's not how old it is that matters to me. What matters is being right with God. Darwin's theory has no God. It can't be right. I don't know if this story is truer than Darwin's theory, but I do know it's better."
Three of the Republican candidates for 2008 believe more or less the same thing. That's why you protest.
Here's the thing:
At the root of all the arguments for stifling these nutbags and their wack "scientific" fictions, we make the assumption that education is about telling children what to believe.
I believe that education should be about providing children with the intellectual tools to find things out for themselves and base their beliefs on what they discover.
I don't believe protesting this museum is the key to changing anyone's mind - yelling at a stupid person that he is stupid doesn't make him less stupid and causes sympathy to be given to the poor put-upon stupid person. By attempting to rid ourselves of the, admittedly, far out concepts these idiots believe, we communicate to the children to believe what we believe without question, which is exactly what the crazy Evangelicals are doing.
Oh, those crazy Evangelicals ...
I just wanted to write and quote Charlotte's Web by saying: "That's Some Pig!!!!" Dang.
Rebecca
About the pig. You know I love the idea of Hogzilla, but this photo is well "doctored". When compared to other photos of the beast, it becomes clear that the boy is actually not leaning on the hog but kneeling behind the animal at some distance (a yard or 2). It is still bigger than your average pig, but not as impressive as it appears to be from the photo.
bob
Regarding the Creationist thing - Don, you're totally right. Education isn't about teaching students what is right and wrong. it's about teaching students how to sift through information and make their own decisions.
in one of my education classes last year, I wrote a paper on the teaching of ID in schools. in doing my research, I found a study that took two classes of high school science students (basically the same kind of kids in each class), and one group was taught only evolution, and the other was taught ID and evolution equally (i think for a quarter of the year). Before the quarter, and after the quarter, the kids were asked their beliefs about ID and evolution. The kids who were taught evolution only didn't really change their opinions. The kids who were taught both - their opinions changed in favor of evolution.
By being presented both theories, and given the tools to make a comparison, most of the kids found evolution to be more valid that ID.
Teaching kids facts is like giving a guy a fish. Teaching kids how to analyze and compare information is like teaching them HOW to fish.
That said, I'm taking a roadtrip to this museum. It's going to be worth it just for the shotglass with Adam, Eve and a dinosaur.
In related news:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/05/debate.evolution/index.html?eref=rss_latest
Post a Comment