Senator Stephen Wise? Senator IDIOT, really.

From the Jacksonville News:
Wise to introduce bill on intelligent design

Here's the thing: there is only one scientific theory on how we ended up with all the different kinds of animals on the planet. That's it, only one. Not one person in the last 140 years has come up with a scientific theory that has passed all the tests required of a scientific theory.

You've got the theory of evolution, and that's it for science. Every other explanation offered on the subject is based on articles of faith, and not the rigors of scientific study. And that includes "Intelligent Design," a bald-faced blatant re-tread of "creationism," which is basically a statement that the Christian Bible's Book of Genesis is the only place we need to look for evidence.

The Theory of Evolution is tested - and proven - every single day; it is the foundation of genetics research; it is a keystone of pharmaceutical development. It explains the failure of anti-biotics, and predicts how the flu virus changes every year. It guides research into birth defects, and our understanding of the human immune system.

And yet, we still have superstitious dingbat like Senator Stephen Wise, who is introducing a bill that will force teachers to hold a discussion of religious convictions if they are teaching actual science.

Wise explains his twisted logic thus:

"If you're going to teach evolution, then you have to teach the other side so you can have critical thinking."

The problem is that there isn't "another side." It's like demanding that teachers discuss the alternatives to "2 plus 2 equals 4." There isn't one. Just as there isn't an "alternative" theory to the Theory of Evolution. There's only the one valid scientific theory, and a lot of religious beliefs.

“Someplace along the line you’ve got to be able to make a value judgment of what it is you think is the appropriate thing.”

Religious beliefs are fine; a lot of people have them. Native Americans, for instance, know that the world was created on the back of a giant turtle, floating in the ocean. The Great Spirit need a place to build The World, and the great turtle volunteered to carry it.

They also have a Creation story, one that explains how Man came to exist: and explains a lot more than Genesis ever did. It seems that when the Great Spirit created Man out of clay, He was too impatient to see how Man would turn out, and took the figure out of the kiln too soon. The first Man was arrogant and hateful and ran away to settle in Europe. The Great Spirit tried again, and this time He left Man in the kiln too long, and he burned. The black Man didn't like the land the Great Spirit provided, so he ran away to Africa. Finally, the Great Spirit tried again, and this time He got it just right, and the result was the perfectly bronze-red skin of the Native American.

So if the Sioux are correct, Senator Wise is only half-baked, and that's why he thinks it's a good idea to shove Sunday-school into our serious discussions of Science.

But Senator Wise isn't an idiot because he wants to force public schools to teach Christian doctrine; that only demonstrates that he's very poorly educated. He's an idiot because a Federal Court has already ruled that a law requiring inclusion of "Intelligent Design" is a violation of the Constitution.

Senator Wise is introducing a practice that has already been tested in the courts, and lost. It lost in a big way. And if Senator Wise somehow manages to bring this very bad proposition into law, it will be challenged, and taken to court, and the State will lose.

And you and I get to pay for it. On top of all the financial stimulus packages that will cost us billions but at least have the potential to do some good, Senator Wise is introducing a stupid law that will cost us millions of dollars to pay for a defense and we already know that the law is in violation of the US Constitution!

Florida Citizens for Science made this observation, and it's a good one:

You’re wrong again, Sen. Wise. It’s not about making value judgments. It’s about teaching science, and the Pennsylvania case determined without a doubt that intelligent design is devoid of any real science.

Contact your representatives and senators. Remind them that Intelligent Design isn't science, and make them aware that this kind of law has already been ruled un-Constitutional in Federal Court. We can't afford a bone-headed law like the one Senator Wise has proposed.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants its Florida specialty license plate.

Remember, I warned about this last year. So who's going to start the process on the FSM plate?

I want to proclaim my love for His noodly Goodness!

Update on Tri-Rail funding

I've been keeping track of Florida House Bill 1245: Regional Transport Funding and Senate Bill 1512: Relating to Transportation and Transit Authorities. Basically, these bills would secure a portion of fees tacked onto car rentals in South Florida, and deposit them into the operating accounts of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.

It's important to residents of South Florida to ensure that Tri-Rail continues operating at its full capacity, especially in the face of $4.00 a gallon gasoline. I've already gone on the record with my own savings. It's not chicken feed. If you're commuting across county lines, you can save some serious money by taking the train.

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner sent me the following update:

Today, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 1245 - Regional Transportation Authorities. The bill will now move to the Florida Senate for consideration. I encourage you to continue your commitment to helping secure funding for Tri-Rail by contacting Senator Steven Geller and ask him to pass House Bill 1245.

You might make the assumption that Adam Hasner contacted me because I'm particularly active in politics: I assure you, I am not. I don't belong to a political party, I don't have funds available to donate to candidates; I'm just a working stiff who drives a used car and rents an apartment.

So how did I come to get updates from the House Majority Leader of Florida? I filled out THIS FORM, conveniently provided by the South Florida Regional Transport Authority. That automatically sent a letter to all the representatives for this area. Ron Saunders, the rep for District 12o, suggested I email Rep. Hasner, and I've been in the loop ever since.

We truly live in an amazing country, where any of us can have a direct impact on those who are making our laws and governing on our behalf.

So join me in contacting Senator Geller. It's past time for South Florida to secure its mass transit system.

If we're opening the door...(updated)

As long as the drooling morons in Tallahassee our elected officials are open to idiotic ideas allowing religions to prosletyze through state offices, let's let them know what other plates they will HAVE to approve if they put out even one plate that endorses a religion.

Here are my proposals:

First, the ones we should expect, and only a few will protest:

Judaism

Islam

Here's where some people will start getting upset:

Wicca (Goddess Worship)

And this is where the real trouble starts:

Church of Satan (Satanists)

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Pastafarianism)

Florida Budget Priorities

Since the idiots in Tallahassee our elected officials seem to be having a problem understanding what their priorities should be, I thought I'd put together a list for them to refer to. So here they are, in order of importance.

EDUCATION
This must be Number One, before anything else on a rational budget. You can't thrive in the world without an education. You need a good education to get a good job, or to understand the world around you. To solve our problems we must understand them; and the problems we'll face tomorrow will only be more complex. Our schools must not be treated as a baby-sitting or warehouse service; our children must grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow. We must prepare our children to face the problems facing them, and that means fully funding our schools. Remember, in a few decades your children will be taking care of YOU.

PUBLIC SAFETY
We must be safe. If you do not understand this, you should not be in public service. We need to know that our laws will be enforced, and that help will come in an emergency. Our police and fire departments lay their lives on the line for us, the least we can do is make sure they have the equipment they need to do that job. A police officer shouldn't be alone on patrol. Firefighters need to have gear they can rely on, and paramedics need to have the supplies they need to save lives. We also need to ensure that they can pay their bills, and that their families are provided for if the worst should happen. Cutting their budget is like cutting off your arm or leg, or that of someone you love.

WATER
Without clean water, you have nothing. We must stop dumping sewage in our oceans; this contaminates our oceans and destroys our fisheries. We must stop further destruction of the Everglades; most animals know better than to destroy their own homes, and it's time we learned at least that much.

We must carefully regulate the use of our fresh water supply; we can't continue to squander drinking water on our lawns, golf courses or the estates of a privileged few. We're literally flushing our most precious resource down the drain. NOW is the time to ensure that we'll continue to have fresh water in the future. With prudent management, we should never have to worry about the taps running dry.

TRANSIT
Apparently some of you missed the 1970s and the two crises that should have alerted you to the fact that the supply of oil is finite. We should have been building our cars and trucks with an emphasis on efficiency; instead, you've allowed Detroit to foist bulky and inefficient SUVs on us. The result is that instead of building up a reserve of decades that would have stabilized both supply and price, you've left us at the mercy of foreign powers. Gasoline is rapidly climbing towards $4 a gallon on average. It's becoming too expensive to drive our big, gas-guzzling cars, and even the more efficient cars are becoming increasingly costly to operate.

Yes, it's great that we're starting to see hybrids that get greater mileage, but not everyone can afford them; and even if we could, we still don't know how long the batteries will last and how much they'll cost to replace.

No, we must stop focusing on accommodating automobiles; we must not expand their infrastructure, we must not widen our highways, or add new routes. It's time to get cars OFF the road. And we do that by giving would-be motorists better options; and that means buses and trains.

It's time to design transit systems that WORK. We can't look at the broken half-formed poor excuse of a system now in place and claim that it teaches us anything. Learn the lessons Tri-Rail teaches us: once the double-tracking allowed trains to run every half-hour during rush hour, ridership shot up. People will use public transit if it is reasonably convenient for them to do so. This has been proven around the world time and time again. We are no exception to that. It's no longer viable to use the excuse that other places had it longer, or that it was cheaper then: it really wasn't. It used up just as much resources then as it would now.

We need to act now to solve tomorrow's fuel crisis. Our economy will collapse if people can't afford to get around town. Businesses are already seeing a drop in patronage as people stay home more. People on the lower half of the economic scale may soon have to choose between putting gas in their tank or putting food on the table. Some are already there.

CONCLUSION
The simple-minded Republican solution of cutting taxes will not get us out of this mess. Neither will hand-outs. We need to set clear and logical budget priorities, and exercise prudent administration of our tax monies.

We shouldn't underwrite businesses that make enough to pay their own way; our sports franchises make a lot of money for themselves, they don't need a dime of tax money. Expenditures at the state level must reflect value for the entire state; at the same time, the state needs to make sure that a fair proportion of funds return to their county of origin.

The legislature needs to stop wasting our tax dollars debating bad law, such as the bill forcing women to pay for ultra-sounds before having an abortion; our legislators are not doctors, and have no business dictating unnecessary medical procedures. It's wasteful and a clear abuse of power. How much has this stupid debate cost the taxpayer so far? Such behavior will not get us out of our budget mess, and should be stopped immediately.

There's a lot I left out of my budget discussion; that's because we need to concentrate on the four areas I laid out above. Everything else must be dealt with AFTER these four key areas.

The next time we're adding frivolous amendments, we should consider adding practical ones: preventing budget cuts in the areas outlined above except under very proscribed and specific circumstances.