December 1, 2004

Slip Slidin’ Away
Well, the euro hit a fresh record high to the dollar on today! And the Yen is roaring away in second place.

Nice work George. In less than four years you have managed to turn the richest nation on earth into its biggest deadbeat debtor. And the rest of us are stuck now with the bill. Of course you could pay that bill off early by simply revoking some of the overly generous tax cuts you gave to the already rich. But no, you won’t even consider that. Instead you will take more away from the rest us, our children, and their children.

The “taking away” part has begun. Since Bush has already ruined our national credit rating it will get harder to borrow. So, he must now begin cannibalizing domestic programs. Among the first to go – government funded scientific research.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - Congress has cut the budget for the National Science Foundation, an engine for research in science and technology, just two years after endorsing a plan to double the amount given to the agency….. The $388 billion spending bill for the current fiscal year, approved by both houses of Congress on Nov. 20, provides $5.473 billion for the National Science Foundation, $105 million less than it got last year…. (NYTimes)

While we cut spending on real science the Bush administration’s evangelical supporters are eagerly filling the science gap in our schools with so-called “creation science.” It’s a full-court press by the biblically lobotomized to lobotomize public school students. It's not the Body Snatchers, but the Mind Snatchers. This is not just a red-state phenomena, it’s a happening thing across the nation. Here’s just a sampler:

• Tennessee: Blount County's Board of Education votes not to adopt three high school biology textbooks because they do not present creationism alongside evolution.
• California: The Board of Trustees of the Roseville Joint Union High School District (Placerville County) decide not to enact a district- wide policy on teaching evolution. Science teachers have told the district that they do not want to add anti-evolutionist materials that are not state- approved.
• Oklahoma: Textbook legislation passes after it is stripped of a provision that all textbooks include a disclaimer describing evolution as "a controversial theory which some scientists present as scientific explanation for the origin of living things" and "the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of living things."
• Pennsylvania: A Dover, Pa., school board votes to include intelligent design in the district's science curriculum, making it the first such school district in the country.
• Georgia: A lawsuit is filed against the Cobb County School District over this disclaimer inserted into textbooks: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
• Grantsburg, Wisconsin: school board revised its science curriculum to teach "various scientific models of theories of origin." In Charles County, Md. , the school board is considering a proposal to eliminate textbooks "biased toward evolution" from classrooms. ( Similar proposals have been considered this year in Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma.)

You can think of it as Bush’s faith-based alternative to his now under-funded National Science Foundation. Onward Christian soldiers poisoning the minds of what would have been America’s next generation of scientists, filling their heads, not with facts, but with fables, fantasy and fallacy.

(And we wonder why US students continue to score lower and lower on international science and math tests? Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Just wait til the Mind Snatchers get done with them. “How old is the earth?” Why it’s only 6,000 years old. Didn’t know that, did you? Heathen!)

The dollar's decline, the de-funding of science, the assault on public education by the evangelical pod people, are all related. Each is a direct manifestation of the stupefaction of the American electorate by mendacious manipulators of the first kind like Karl Rove. Rove and his kind understand that voters who can be mesmerized for hours by automobiles racing in endless circles were easy prey. Just give them a few catchy slogans, some low-brow smear ads, a soundtrack of jingoistic country and western tunes, and regular warnings that “elite liberals,” if elected, would turn America into a French lap poodle – a gay one at that. So primed these largely working class folks could even be convinced to vote against their own economic interests -- sort of like getting a chicken to vote for Colonel Sanders.

Rove was right of course. Nov. 2 proved that. Now the knuckle draggers are in the drivers seat. They understand little about economics and, like their voter base, think Wal*Mart and easy credit are at once the solution and the fruits of prudent fiscal policy. Add to that that scientists have been added to their pantheon of “elites” who must be watched and countered whenever they present evidence of evolution or global warming.

Down, down, down we go. How low, know one knows. But we have four more years to find out. It’s an assault on everything America has come to stand for in the world… domestic prosperity, progressive ideas, freedom, science and progress.

And where are the Democrats? Are there still Democrats in Congress? You could fool me.