Free Republic

Theory's largest national supporter won't back district The Dover Area School District and its board will likely walk into a First Amendment court battle next week without the backing of the nation's largest supporter of intelligent design. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based nonprofit that describes itself as a "nonpartisan policy and research organization," recently issued a policy position against Dover in its upcoming court case. John West, associate director of Discovery's Center for Science & Culture, calls the Dover policy "misguided" and "likely to be politically divisive and hinder a fair and open discussion of the merits of intelligent design."...

ITHACA, N.Y. - Lenore Durkee, a retired biology professor, was volunteering as a docent at the Museum of the Earth here when she was confronted by a group of seven or eight people, creationists eager to challenge the museum exhibitions on evolution. They peppered Dr. Durkee with questions about everything from techniques for dating fossils to the second law of thermodynamics, their queries coming so thick and fast that she found it hard to reply. After about 45 minutes, "I told them I needed to take a break," she recalled. "My mouth was dry." That encounter and others like it...

Buttars' pitch can't sway unanimous 'no' vote To borrow a line from Dorothy: We're not in Kansas anymore. Unlike the Kansas School Board, which earlier this summer approved allowing educators to teach theories in addition to evolution that explain life on Earth, the Utah Board of Education on Friday unanimously approved a position statement supporting the continued exclusive teaching of evolution in state classrooms. Only two people out of the dozens who attended Friday's meeting sided with Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, and his proposal to allow teaching "intelligent design" as a theory to explain the origins of life. Intelligent...

Dover officials testified that religious research was involved, court filings show. While members of the Dover Area School Board didn’t speak publicly about creationism until June 2004, private conversations about incorporating it into the biology curriculum started much earlier, according to documents filed in federal court this week. In late 2002 or early 2003, when Bertha Spahr, head of Dover’s high-school science department, requested a new biology textbook, she was told that a board member wanted half the evolution unit devoted to “creationism.” Spahr’s remarks about the creationism requests for biology class were part of her sworn testimony in...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An Egyptian chemist freed Tuesday after three weeks in custody for questioning about deadly bombings in London said he casually knew two of the attackers. He called one of them ''very kind and very nice.'' ... The 33-year-old chemist said he met one of the bombers, Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay, in Leeds during the last month of the Muslim period of fasting, Ramadan, which was in October and November. El-Nashar said that in June, Lindsay asked for help finding a place to live in Leeds, saying he wanted to move there from London with his wife and...

WASHINGTON - "President Bush, in advocating that the concept of 'intelligent design' be taught alongside the theory of evolution, puts America's schoolchildren at risk," says Fred Spilhaus, Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union. "Americans will need basic understanding of science in order to participate effectively in the 21st century world. It is essential that students on every level learn what science is and how scientific knowledge progresses." In comments to journalists on August 1, the President said that "both sides ought to be properly taught." "If he meant that intelligent design should be given equal standing with the theory...

Add a 10th planet to the solar system - or possibly subtract one. Astronomers announced today that they have found a lump of rock and ice that is larger than Pluto and the farthest known object in the solar system. The discovery will likely rekindle debate over the definition of "planet" and whether Pluto should still be regarded as one. The new object - as yet unnamed - is currently 9 billion miles away from the Sun, or about three times Pluto's current distance from the Sun. But its 560-year orbit also brings it as close as 3.3 billion miles....

Later this summer, the Kansas State Board of Education is widely expected to change its state science standards to cast doubt on evolution. The new standards will likely emphasize the unsolved problems in evolutionary theory's explanatory power, like gaps in the fossil record, that are the favorite hobbyhorses of creationists and advocates of "intelligent design." Intelligent design posits that certain biological mechanisms and the nature of DNA itself are too complex to have evolved--and therefore suggest the hand of an original designer. Advocates of intelligent design, including several of the witnesses who testified at the Kansas board's hearings that began...

Morning Edition, April 28, 2005 · A group of wildlife scientists believe the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct. They say they have made seven firm sightings of the bird in central Arkansas. The landmark find caps a search that began more than 60 years ago, after biologists said North America’s largest woodpecker had become extinct in the United States. The large, showy bird is an American legend -- it disappeared when the big bottomland forests of North America were logged, and relentless searches have produced only false alarms. Now, in an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White...

Engagements: Wheaton College, Norton, MA   Mar. 29, 2005 Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA   Apr. 5, 2005

Sen. Chuck Hagel met Monday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to discuss a new proposal to address global climate change. Hagel was co-author of the 1997 Senate resolution signaling opposition to the international climate change accord negotiated in Kyoto. After the resolution was approved on a 95-0 vote, President Clinton decided not to submit the Kyoto agreement to the Senate for ratification. Blair has embarked on an effort to secure U.S. support for an alternative initiative.  The prime minister  plans to make global warming a centerpiece issue during Britain's chairmanship of the G8 group of industrialized nations...

A comet discovered earlier this year has now moved close enough to be visible without binoculars or telescopes by experienced observers under dark skies. It is expected to put on a modest show this month and into January. Comet Machholz will be at its closest to Earth Jan. 5-6, 2005, when it will be 32 million miles (51 million kilometers) away. People with dark rural skies and a good map should be able to find it on Moon-free nights now into January. Backyard astronomers have been watching Machholz for months through telescopes. It was spotted by naked-eye observers for the...

Hagel poised for presidential bid in 2008 BY DON WALTON/Lincoln Journal Star A journey of a thousand days begins with a single step. Sen. Chuck Hagel appears ready to venture onto that perilous path toward a possible 2008 presidential bid. The road is long and hard. It winds through peaks and valleys over a challenging landscape that will change with events and be transformed in unpredictable ways. There will be plenty of points of return along the way. For Hagel, the first step will be more like three. Look for him to sharply widen and deepen his fund-raising efforts. His...

The Los Angeles Times this morning ran an article on the alleged looting of the Al QaQaa explosives. Pivotal to the article, whcih relied on unidentified GI alleged witnesses to the looting, was this: One soldier said U.S. forces watched the looters' trucks loaded with bags marked "hexamine" — a key ingredient for HMX — being driven away from the facility. Unsure what hexamine was, the troops later did an Internet search and learned of its explosive power. "We found out this was stuff you don't smoke around," the soldier said. The trouble is, it's completely bogus. Hexamine isn't an...

After trading in a narrow range (save for a brief hiccup) from 61 - 64 for over a week, GWB just rocketed above 67.0 in this futures market. There is high trading volume, and this looks like a major move. Dubya hasn't been this high since the beginning of the year. Could it be the NJ poll results?

Lou Dobbs just said that as a boy, he hunted pheasants, not with a shotgun, but with a .22 rifle. And it was a single shot .22 rifle. He thinks semiautomatic .22s are 'unsporting'.

Microsoft announces release of Word '73 (retroactive) Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) today announced the release of its long-awaited '73 release of its popular Word word processing program. The new release allows implementation of popular word features, such as superscripting, proportional fonts, and center justification, on older technology, such as IBM selectric typewriters, and quill pens. Said prominent Kerry supporter Bill Gates "While some users, principally those born after 1980, have questioned why we should implement MS Word on pre-PC tehnology, we in Redmond recongize a sudden need for our product, particularly for retroactively producing important memoranda for political campaigns. There are...

Text of memos about Bush suspension By The Associated Press  |  September 9, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Here are the texts of four memos indicating George W. Bush was suspended from flying during the Vietnam war because he failed to meet Texas Air National Guard standards and did not take his annual flight physical as required. Copies of the memos were provided by the White House. (Memos follow)

John Kerry last night on ESPN claimed he nearly threw something at the television during the notorious Red Sox Yankee playoff game 7 last October. No doubt this was to establish JFK as a man of the people. Trouble is, it's almost certainly a lie. On the evening of October 16, 2003, as the Red Sox and Yankees were duking it out, the Senate was in session, debating the 87 billion dollars for Iraq that Kerry said he voted for before he voted against. Kerry was present and voting for roll-call votes at 9:33 p.m. and 10:02 p.m.. It's tought...

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and one of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us. He looks at how — and why — Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and...