U.S. teacher broke law by calling creationism "superstitious nonsense"

More delights from south of the border:

A US teenager has successfully won a lawsuit against a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense".

Chad Farnan, a devout Christian studying at California's Capistrano Valley high school, persuaded a judge that his European history teacher, James Corbett, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which courts interpret as banning government employees from promoting, or displaying hostility towards, religion.

From the Guardian, via Unionist in this babble thread. Maybe the teacher was being unnecessarily rude, but you have to wonder what kind of chilling effect this ruling might have on other teachers. To be fair, the judge dismissed a lot of the complaints, and only the aforementioned comment was deemed to cross the line, but still...

Indeed, American culture seems to be getting more and more anti-intellectual as time passes. Here's a nice piece by Heather Mallick on the subject, in which she discusses Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason:

On September 11, 2001, New York author and historian Susan Jacoby headed home, not unreasonably stopping at a bar first, where she overheard a conversation between two men in suits:

"It's just like Pearl Harbor," one of the men said.

"What's Pearl Harbor?" the other one asked.

"That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbour, and it started the Vietnam War," the first man replied.

Yikes. And it's getting worse, not better.

There are no dinosaurs in the Conservative Party...

... they all died out in the Great Flood:

Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.

“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

A funding crunch, exacerbated by cuts in the January budget, has left many senior researchers across the county scrambling to find the money to continue their experiments.

Some have expressed concern that Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor from Cambridge, Ont., is suspicious of science, perhaps because he is a creationist.

When asked about those rumours, Mr. Goodyear said such conversations are not worth having.

From the Globe and Mail. Putting someone who might be a creationist in as science minister says a lot about the Cons' attitude towards science (some would say that the fact that he's a chiropractor only adds to the concern). And if you like their attitude towards science, you'll love their attitude towards human rights:

A longtime Conservative who opposes same sex marriage has been appointed to the tribunal that decides whether gays get refugee status in Canada.

Doug Cryer , a former director of public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, has also publicly defended the right of churches to denounce homosexuality.

“Doug Cryer of the EFC said the church has a right to say that homosexual behaviour is sinful, just as it can say that adultery is sinful,” according to a November 2006 edition of CanadianChristianity.com.

“It is part of God’s teaching,” Cryer told the publication.

Cryer is among a dozen people appointed by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last month to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board — an independent administrative tribunal that hears applications for refugee status in Canada.

Among the many grounds for refugee status is the fear that someone will be hurt or killed in their home country because they are homosexual.

From the Portage Daily Graphic. Just another reason why the Harper government cannot be allowed to continue.

More craziness, closer to home this time

Well, first the good news -- the crisis in the Caucasus seems to be abating. But have a look at this:

However you describe it -- distinct, peculiar, or stubborn -- it's undeniable: Albertans possess a unique propensity for bucking national trends.

Not that we're troubled by it, mind you; quite the opposite, in most cases. When Albertans are seen to be out of step with much of the country, we wonder what's wrong with everyone else.

This is a case, however, where we should be wondering what's wrong with us -- a case where Alberta's anomalous body of opinion is not a source of pride, but rather a deep embarrassment.

An Angus Reid poll released last week asks Canadians their views on the question of evolution versus creation.

Overall, 58 per cent of Canadians say they are believers in evolution. By region, the numbers are more or less in keeping with the national average.

However, there's one notable exception in this poll: Alberta.

A shockingly low 37 per cent of Albertans supported the position that humans beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years. An even greater number of Albertans -- 40 percent -- agreed that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years.

From this babble thread. My dad has often said that Albertans are pretty darn close to being Yankees, and this certainly offers support to his claim. Especially with stuff like the Big Valley Creation Museum.