He is the author of NM House Bill 302 which is designed to protect teachers who want to teach anti-evolution or climate change denialism. This is not too different than the bill Michele Bachmann, who is also an idiot, introduced when she was a Republican member of the State legislature in Minnesota some years ago.
House Bill 302, as it’s called, states that public school teachers who want to teach “scientific weaknesses” about “controversial scientific topics” including evolution, climate change, human cloning and — ambiguously — “other scientific topics” may do so without fear of reprimand. The legislation was introduced to the New Mexico House of Representatives on Feb. 1 by Republican Rep. Thomas A. Anderson.
Supporters of science education say this and other bills are designed to spook teachers who want to teach legitimate science and protect other teachers who may already be customizing their curricula with anti-science lesson plans.
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God, it’s a fucking whack-a-mole with this Discovery Institute.
I don’t see anything in the bill that says economic science isn’t covered – so I guess it would protect an NM teacher who wants to teach his students the ‘scientific weaknesses’ of the theory of capitalism? Talk about unintended consequences. And since the bill explicitly states that it doesn’t cover teaching religion, ID is actually already out, since it’s settled law that ID is a religious subject, no matter what Congresshominid Anderson believes.
That’s really the other problem with that kind of wingnut legislators – not only do they follow a loony agenda, they’re usually also completely incompetent at tailoring the language of their proposals narrowly to their goals. Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise, usually is just screws everything up worse. Not that they care, since these bills are written for the abuse, anyway – after all, the problem they are ostentatiously addressing (suppression of valid scientific information) doesn’t exist to begin with. But they fail to realize what can come of such legislation when other people get to be at the trigger.
Fortunately, it seem this bill has little chance of going anywhere.
I suspect that “idiot” is too kind a word for Thomas Anderson. He likely knows that his bill will not pass, or that if it does pass, the courts will eventually overturn it. He doesn’t care, because whatever happens, it will win him votes.
Anderson may in fact be an idiot, but he may also be one of a large herd of politicians, pundits, and lobbyists who know they are peddling nonsense, but they just don’t care because it makes money for them.
Will it hurt the environment? They just don’t care.
Will it hurt the country? They just don’t care.
Is it unconstitutional? They just don’t care.
Is it bad for their children and grandchildren? They just don’t care.
Does it pander to prejudice and bigotry? They just don’t care.
Thomas Anderson is a former naval officer, so we can assume he has some education. Presumably, he has the type of education he wants to enshrine as law: Narrowly focused but otherwise profoundly ignorant.
uqbar,
You mean there are politicians who would put up a bill knowing it will fail for the express purpose of pandering for votes from a conservative constituancy?
Sorta reminds me of a scene from Casablanca:
Capt Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
Well this is the 5th such Bill this year. I wonder how many there will be by Dec 31? (http://sciencestandards.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-many-anti-evolution-legistations.html)
Wish-fulfillment, saying it isn’t going to make it true. The ice is melting. The climate is changing. It may be past the point where we can do anything about it, but that’s the fault of people like you.
FYI “Captain Patriot” = “Johnson B Long.” Except I suspect it isn’t.
FYI = “fuck you idiot” I would have thought you’d know that.
I thought Stephanie was referring to climate change, then I got it about Johnson’s name. Wish-fulfillment indeed 🙂
Thomas Anderson is a former naval officer, we can assume that has some sort of education. I have no problem with school teachers on climate change.
Anderson is a well-known wack job of a republican. I have had several “conversations” with him-he is a repuke in the best Palin/Bachman tradition. I hate to admit he is an ex-Naval officer-I am ex Navy enlisted-but even the Navy makes errors on who they admit to OTC! This guy is what we called “an Officer and a gentleman by an act of Congress”. I don’t know if the man is bright enough to realize this “Law” that he proposes will not pass. He doesn’t even know what a scientific “theory” is-listen to has comment on the clip! He needs defeated next election-check out his do-nothing record in Santa Fe.
Umm Johnson, if you’re serious you might want to take a class or two to figure out how economics and government work… Sounds like you consider Fox News a suitable source of education on government
Also, why do you read a science blog without any apparent openness to the thoughts described by the author? Seems kind of like masturbatory to write a long comment meant only to attack and not persuade the author. You could probably better spend the time and calories elsewhere.
HDMW-er for life,
Rob
PS I do understand the hypocrisy of attacking your attacking Greg through attacking you. I just thought you could use the question for some self-reflection.
(Oh and, PS = post scriptum…)
Hey guys – don’t feed the troll. Let him rant without response until he goes back to whatever Tea Bagger web site he gets all his ideas from.
Brad, he’s a semi-permanent installation under many, many names. He’s addicted. He’s not going away. The only way to get rid of him would be to ban him as PZ did.
But it is pretty much pointless to engage with him. Pointing him to actual footage of an event he continually misrepresents did nothing to slow him down.
The only reason the ‘troll’ is here is so that people can respond. He is a classic exemplar of what a lot of people actually think, so, it is appropriate to hear it and then make the counter argument! He’ll come back with the same old arguments and on a given thread but will eventually melt down. Sometimes the steam coming out of his ears fogs up his glasses and he loses the path and falls off a cliff. That’s when I start deleting his comments (believe me, you do not see all of it). There’s no reason to delete his comments, tough, as long as he is making actual arguments no matter how obviously baseless and misguided. The fact that they are baseless and misguided, AND typical of tebagging philosophy is rather convenient.
@Stephanie, @ Greg
Thanks for the info…but I choose NOT to interact with his type anymore – sounds like you guys have it covered anyway.
Has anyone actually read the bill or is it being reported as if we were Washington politicians who have to pass the bill in order to find out what is in the bill?
Get the info, read the (very short) bill:
http://www.examiner.com/christian-apologetics-in-albuquerque/on-creationist-anti-science-and-anti-evolution-new-mexico-legislation-house-bi
Mariano, yes, I’ve read the bill. Brad, I don’t blame you. You may prefer to shift your efforts to Mariano!
Hey Guys! Is still still support out there for the defeat of Tom Anderson?