Dixie Notes

The bill, a nakedly obvious attempt to drum up some poll participation from values voters(see stem cells and the 2004 election), would encourage and protect teachers who want to teach their religion in our schools. See here for a much longer explanation of why such a bill is a bad idea. The basic idea is that anyone is free to believe whatever they want, but when they start making decisions on behalf of others, their duty to their constituents supercedes their personal duty to their faith, and there’s no way to justify your actions on behalf of your constituents without basing your decisions in consensus reality, not your personal version of it.

Perhaps the Gambit said it best,

the last thing Louisiana needs now is to portray itself to the world as an intellectual backwater.

There’s been some talk recently about attempts to legislate diversity. Whatever side of the fence you are on with respect to this issue, This is something you must read:

“Whereas the Victorian ladies were concerned about evolution’s challenge to conventional religion, their equivalents today are worried about its impact on the egalitarian premise on which democracy is based. Perhaps, Hamilton suggests, Darwin’s lesson, put simply, is that all men are not born equal. He considers the current academic enthusiasm for political correctness - an ‘escape route for less able minds’ - an institutionalised form of denial.”