Federal Judiciary

Retarded state legislation: Connecticut and Mississippi Double Edition

Here's a church/state double whammy for you today! Let's start with Connecticut, where it's as cold as a witch's...trial. What did you think I was going to say?

In the Connecticut State Senate, Democrat Paul Doyle has proposed legislation every year recognizing the "victims of the witch trials of colonial Connecticut." (Gee I wonder why it has to be reintroduced every year?) Yes apparently, there were witch trials in parts of America that Arthur Miller never dramatized. And they caused innocent people to be harmed, and the state wants to (somehow) rectify that fact a mere 300 years later.

According to the resolution: "Although these accusations, prosecutions, trials and executions cannot be undone or changed, no disgrace or cause for distress should attach to the heirs of those persons."

Distress? I doubt ANYONE knows their genealogy well enough to feel distress at what happened to their ancestors. And even if there was distress, what the hell good would this steaming turd of a resolution do? I don't really understand why I'm so steamed about this resolution - maybe I am descended from witches!

Let's move South to where the air is warmer and the legislators even dumber (at least some of them). Rep. Gary Chism (R-Shocker) has introduced a bill that would require a disclaimer be placed in school textbooks about evolution. The warning reads in part:

This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things. No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life?s origins should be considered a theory.

This is pretty sad - this public official has so little understanding of how science works that thinks that scientists can only make conclusions based events they personally witnessed. Think of the implications! If it snows today in Chicago, and I fly to Chicago tomorrow, I can?t conclude that it snowed in Chicago the day before because I wasn?t there to see the snow fall.

If we take this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, no one was present when God created the universe, so any statement in the book of Genesis ?should be considered a theory.?

The disclaimer notes: "the word 'theory' has many meanings, including: systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a speculative idea or plan; or a systematic statement of principles."

I would also like to point out that the word legislator has many meanings, including: pinhead, theocrat, and demagogue.

Mississippi could become the second state to print a textbook disclaimer on evolution - I suppose they want to ?keep up with the Joneses? over in Alabama.

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on January 27, 2009 (boomark / email).