Oops…

I came across a post on Surfing the Apocalypse titled "TEXAS REPUBLICANS ARE ANTI-COPERNICUS...HUH" . It was mainly one long quote from a post over on The Daily Kos which was, in turn, an editorial on a different post over on Burnt Orange Report.

Basically, the posts were gleeful, anti-Texan rants about how the chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, the unfortunate Warren Chisum, circulated a memo, penned by Ben Bridges, (R, Georgia House of Representatives, 10^th District) that was a weird attempt to "challenge the evolution monopoly in the schools". The memo stated that:

"…the Courts have ruled that "creation science" (& "ID") has a religious agenda and….[violates] the U.S. Constitution."

And that:

"Evolution science", on the other hand, has been viewed by the Courts as "secular science" with no religious agenda…has been deemed lawful under the Constitution."

Then, like the impassioned pitch of an infomercial huckster, goes on to say:

"All of that can now be changed! Indisputable evidence-long hidden but now available to everyone-demonstrates conclusively that so-called "secular evolution science" is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate "creation scenario" of the Pharisee Religion".

That's right, the Pharisee Religion. I believe that what the Hon. Ben Bridges is trying to say is that Jews are somehow responsible for spreading Biological Evolution Theory, Copernican Cosmology, Quantum physics, the whole Big Bang, and just about every other advancement in science in the last 250 years. But wait, there's more! According to this memo all of these ideas are:

"…derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic "holy book" Kabbala dating back at least two millennia. Evidence in the URLs below shows conclusively that "evolution science" has a very specific religious agenda and (as with "creation science") cannot legally be taught in taxpayer supported schools, according to the Constitution."

Aha! Why it's all been an insidious Jewish plot to bring down the good and moral Christian values of home town America. There are three links and they all lead to pages at a site called www.fixedearth.com. It turns out that, not only is that website extremely stupid, it is also extremely and, quite predictably, anti-Semitic. I think we can all see where they were trying to go with this one, though. They were trying to pull the old "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" on science, but once again, ignorance is its own undoing. As The Houston Chronicles "Sci Guy", Eric Berger, said about it:

"If you have a reasonable understanding of science, this is all completely ludicrous…"

So, after an immediate outcry by the Anti-Defamation League, Mr. Chisum apologized for his association with this memo, and stated that:

"I sincerely regret that I did not take the time to carefully review these materials and recognize that I may have hurt or offended some groups including some of my dear friends."

The truth is that Warren Chisum represents only about 143,979 people in District 88, which is spread out over nineteen counties in the Texas Panhandle. That's a part of Texas that I like to call "Lower Oklahoma". It is a flat and desolate place. It is isolated and remote. It is a place where the horizon and the wind can drive a person mad with the enormity and solitude of it all. It is a twisted and awful place full of cracked pots and road-kill. It is not a place known for breakthroughs in science, art, literature, or any of the Humanistic sciences or arts.

The scary part, as stated by Mr. Berger, is that:

"This would all be really funny if the Texas legislature didn't have some sway over the State Board of Education (which is subject to the Sunset Law) and if Chisum weren't a powerful Rep (he's chairman of the Appropriations Committee.) The Texas House could pass a bill ordering the board to stop teaching evolution, or perhaps Chisum could easily enough lean on some of the board's more conservative members to take action."

That's Lower Oklahoma for you.