Jindal signed a law that would create more stupid republicans.
At the recent republican summit, Louisiana governor bobby Jindal boldly suggested that his party stop being "the party of stupid", even though he seems to believe "The Exorcist" is a docu-drama.
Late last year Jindal signed into law a bill that gave Louisiana schools taxpayer funded vouchers to teach creationism and anti-evolution theories in science class, despite the fact it was ruled unconstitutional and illegal. The law mentions by name three specific studies that make conservative republicans extremely joyous: evolution, climate change, and creation.
Though sold as "freedom to teach", there are no provisions for anti-religious teachings. That would still be legally taboo in Louisiana schools. Instead, the man who wants to be known as one of the "smart guys" in politics wants to teach his state's students that science is nothing more than a democratic plot to indoctrinate their children.
Last year a young man stood up to fight the state on this matter. Nineteen year old Zack Kopplin went before the Louisiana senate and argued with state legislators to defeat the "Louisiana Science Education Act" (LSEA) before it became state law. At the hearing he faced LA Senator Mark Walsworth who clearly does not understand evolution at all. He wondered how scientific proof of evolution transfers to human evolution.
The experiment outlined in the video below by science teacher Darlene Reaves explains how E.coli bacteria would evolve after only a few generations in a lab. Walsworth doesn't understand that an complex organism like human beings takes billions of years to evolve, and the experiment used bacteria for the interest of time. He asked if that E.coli could evolve into a human being, figuring that made his point that we were indeed created at our current state of being:
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Here Zak and state senator Karen Carter Peterson, a champion of science, answer questions from creationist, lawyer, and state senator Julie Quinn. Listen to the hate and contempt in Senator Quinns voice as she cites scientists "with all those little letters after their names" in her attempt to discredit teaching science in the classroom. "Party of stupid" indeed:
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Kudos to Ms Reaves senator Carter Peterson for standing up to Republican state senator Quinn and proving that republicans will never evolve beyond the stupid party that they find a source of great pride. And much thanks to Zak for showing that all young people of Louisiana will not re-enter the dark ages willingly.
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I haven't lived there for the past 25 years but still visit often, and have seen the state regress tremendously over that period of time. That's probably around the same time the fundies started taking control. The videos are just sad. I love how the lady in the audience started shaking her head in the first video. Ms. "I'm an attorney" Quinn seems pretty intimidated by the little letters. LOL
