Matthew LaClair op-ed in Los Angeles Times

Matthew LaClair has an op-ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times in which he talks about his evangelizing history teacher and the biased textbook used in his class.

James Q. Wilson defends his textbook in a companion L.A. Times op-ed; the bulk of his defense is that the later edition of his book fixes the problems LaClair complains about.

UPDATE (June 29, 2008): The July/August 2008 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer comments on this controversy. It seems that the later edition of the book is not yet available for schools and contains most, if not all, of the same misrepresentations and problems that LaClair complained about. Wilson, through his dishonest op-ed, has thrown away his credibility.

Mathematical misunderstanding by Marks and O'Leary

Jeff Shallit has a post at his Recursivity blog about some "comical misunderstandings" by intelligent design advocates Denyse O'Leary and Robert Marks. In O'Leary's case, the misunderstanding is expected, but Marks is an engineering professor at Baylor University who should know better.

David Berlinski, King of Poseurs

Jeff Shallit talks about Discovery Institute Fellow David Berlinski, notable as one of the few advocates of intelligent design who is not an evangelical Christian. He's also not a scientist or a mathematician; he has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton. Although that's a top school for philosophy in the U.S., Berlinski hasn't been working as a professional philosopher, either.

Of course, he was touted as an expert in "Expelled."

"In God We Trust" license plates

Arizona's legislature, like Florida's, is considering creating "In God We Trust" license plates. Indiana already has them, which, unlike other specialty plates, require no additional fee. The ACLU's lawsuit in Indiana against the plates was recently dismissed.

In Arizona, the state Senate approved legislation (HB 2046) sponsored by Rep. Ron Gould (R-Lake Havasu City) which would require the Department of Transportation to provide "In God We Trust" license plates if some organization pays the $32,000 necessary for design costs. The bill was originally for "Arizona Highways" license plates when introduced in January, but has been modified into a religious proposal.

It looks to me like Gould's proposal puts the imprimatur of government on the promotion of religion, which violates both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions. A contrary argument would be that there's no financial expenditure by the government, since the fees to produce such plates come from the individuals rather than the government. But by allowing the expression of a particular religious sentiment (supporting monotheistic religions) and not other religious sentiments (including disbelief in any religion), it will clearly favor one set of viewpoints on religion over others.

UPDATE (May 1, 2008): Correction, the Florida license plate under consideration was one which said "I believe" with a picture of a cross. The Florida legislature looks set to allow the legislation to die without passage.

Reason to be skeptical about anthropogenic climate change

Two of the least credible spokespeople for their respective political and religious positions...

"Expelled" reviewed from a filmmaker's perspective

At the Evolved and Rational blog, John Ray gives a review of "Expelled" from a filmmaking perspective:

Cinematically, Expelled gets off to a lovely start. First-time director Nathan Frankowski chooses a nice, rich level of contrast and uses it to create some sparkling opening shots of our nation’s capitol. Those who knew what they were in for when they walked into the theater (presumably, most of the film’s so-far few attendees) were given an artistic visual rough outline of where the film was going. By the time we see Ben Stein taking a deep breath, looking indeed like “the little investigative journalist that could” in his trademark adorable little sneakers, the audience is practically eager to believe whatever he has to say.

Then he starts talking and the effect is ruined.

Poor narration, over- and under-exposed shots, "Lord Privy Seals," and endless footage of Ben Stein walking are a few of the technical complaints.

Ex-Scientology Kids

Kendra Wiseman, Jenna Miscavige Hill (niece of David Miscavige, head of the Church of Scientology), and Astra Woodcraft are three ex-Scientologists who are now running the Ex-Scientology Kids website, critical of Scientology.

Jenna Hill will be on ABC's "Nightline" tonight.

Ben Stein lies about Sternberg affair

In an interview with Newsweek, Ben Stein falsely stated that:

There are a number of scientists and academics who've been fired, denied tenure, lost tenure or lost grants because they even suggested the possibility of intelligent design. The most egregious is Richard Sternberg at the Smithsonian, the editor of a magazine that published a peer-reviewed paper about ID. He lost his job.

Sternberg was never employed by the Smithsonian and never lost his unpaid Research Associate position there. He never worked for any Smithsonian magazine, and resigned from his position as editor of The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington six months before the publication of the Stephen Meyer intelligent design article which he approved with inappropriate review.

The Smithsonian responded to Newsweek:

Sternberg has never been employed by the Smithsonian Institution. Since January 2004, he has been an unpaid research associate in the departments of invertebrate and vertebrate zoology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Dr. Sternberg continues to enjoy full access to research facilities at the museum. Moreover, Stein's assertion that Sternberg was removed from a Smithsonian publication is not true. The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington is an independent journal and is not affiliated with the Smithsonian.

(Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.)

"Expelled" is not Holocaust denial

I agree with Orac at Respectful Insolence, contra bioethicist Arthur Caplan, that "Expelled"'s argument that Darwinism was a contributing cause of (the main cause of?) the Holocaust doesn't constitute Holocaust denial.

Shermer vs. Lukianoff in L.A. Times

Michael Shermer of the Skeptics Society and Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education debated back and forth for five days in the Los Angeles Times on speech codes, faculty bias, and "Expelled." Actually, they were pretty much in agreement on "Expelled." (Where they disagree on other issues, I think Lukianoff generally has the better of the argument, though I side with Shermer on the rights of private institutions.)

I happen to support both of their organizations, and I think it's interesting to point out that FIRE is the major organization defending the freedom of speech of students and faculty in academia, though they've not noticed any issues of persecution of ID advocates worthy of their attention. They actually deal with real cases of suppression, censorship, and indoctrination, not phony cases like those in "Expelled."