When I was in college, I took a class titled "Evolution," and to my surprise, after handing out the syllabus, the professor announced, (I paraphrase from quarter-century old memory) "This class is going to be conducted on the basis that evolution in fact occurred, and anyone who cannot accept this, and would interfere with other's learning because of it, must leave now." Two guys got up and left. At the time, I was as appalled at their ignorance as I was surprised that they'd enrolled in a class for the sole purpose of disrupting it.

These people need to be taught, relentlessly and ruthlessly, that they have no place in modern society, and if they want to set up a benighted theocracy somewhere, have at it. Accepting their retarded and self-destructive superstitions into academia, even at kindergarten level, only emboldens them, and as Glenn's polling information at the top of the post illustrate, render fantasy, lies, and propaganda a legitimate matter of debate.

They are not. It's time the reality-based community stood up for itself, especially given the dire consequences of not doing so in the recent past.

Bernbart, this was a 300 level science course dedicated strictly to evolution; slightly more in depth than watching film strips about the Galapagos in fourth grade. But, while you're reclining so invitingly on the railroad tracks, allow me the pleasure of jumping on the snark train for a moment to point out that something else I learned in grade school, spelling, rather passed you by. I do, nonetheless, like your use of "Russet" for Tim Russert, though; it's humorously evocative of Mr. Potato Head, for whom the late great newsman bore a more than passing resemblance, although I've more often seen his visage manifest itself in the pumpkin section of the Farmer's Market.

I'm happy to say, and suddenly consider myself quite grateful, that my free, public education wasn't so bad after all. In fact, I didn't become unimpressed with the process, except intermittently, until college. Way back in the olden days of the 60's and 70's, we learned about science, and indeed even American Government, in a good old fashioned, straightforward way.

Even the Catholic Church, of which I was a member, hadn't yet joined a political party and was more likely to be concerned with war, racism, and poverty, which in those days were nonpartisan.... I think that "Tort Reform" was the catalyst to make them go all Repub/fundamentalist, for embarrassing reasons it would be unnecessary to bring up here.)

The sad thing is that today, a large and often dominant political movement utterly depends on the ignorance of the electorate, as others before have mentioned, and the very idea of educating children with, uh, facts, has become anathema to a disturbingly large number of people, and an even larger number of propagandists.

The war on truth, or as Al Gore called it, the assault on reason, is the real problem, and its success, against all evidence and common sense, is really what we're dealing with here.

What the Palin promoters are doing, essentially, is laying down a preemptive, "Who do you believe, me or you lying eyes (media)"

And why wouldn't they? It's worked before.

Aych... I'm not a psychologist, but I had a 13 year affair with one, and I don't recommend it. If you were disappointed to find yourself falling into a science-based typology, imagine my horror when an amateur astrologist, an aerobics teacher at my gym, took my birth dates and locations, and days later wrote a profile so accurate (and not particularly flattering) that identified influences and traits in my life I hadn't even admitted to myself, that I was almost a convert.

As Rummy said, "There are unknown unknowns..."

Let's just not teach them to children.

Semiodd hits the nail on the head.... The religion of the market and "self interest," (the "enlightened part got tossed in the crapper long ago) has permeated everything. Once an airy-fairy notion of a few Objectivists surrounding Ayn Rand, far divorced from reality, the notion of a Utopia borne of individual selfishness has been hammered into the heads of everyone with the misfortune to have been educated in the US, and not just in Economics.

Despite the fact that such selfishness inevitably leads to disaster, and then a "collective" bailout, those who have enriched themselves through organized theft and gaming the system live on to fleece another day. And teach another generation this utterly false religion.

I would like these "journalists" to think, for a moment, whether any professional, or even laborer, can possibly seek, first and foremost, his own "self Interest" only, without regard to consumers, clients, customers, co-workers, and society at large.... The whole theory is complete bullcrap, and needs to be knocked down, every time another disaster occurs that was borne of this theory.