Old Content:
Obama Proves His Intelligence
April 29, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: GOP, Government, Obama, Politics, Religion, Republicans, Research, Science
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I've spoken before on the horrible failure of the current incarnation GOP, as well as the main reasons I voted for Obama in the first place - his dedication to science, and intellectual pursuits in general. However, following his rise to the Presidency, "the auto bailout" had a bunch of money cut from science spending... this is a more direct attempt to return our country to a state of general intelligence, or at least competence.
As President Obama noted, our future lies in our continuing prowess in the realm of computers/computing and innovation... not in outsourcing these jobs to other countries. But this cannot be accomplished when the majority of people graduating high school, or even college to a lesser extent, don't understand the basic tenets of science, and have only a cursory grip on things like Algebra. And most of the country doesn't truly understand what "theory" means in the scientific world.
Obviously this is going to affect operations and organizations like NASA, the National Science Foundation, school systems, and public policies with a scientific tinge (abortion, stem cell research, global warming, deforestation, etc.). But there's something that isn't likely to be obvious to the already-ignorant: in the process of giving more money to school systems, they're going to set standards.
Numerous southern states have been battling evolution in recent history, to varying degrees of "success", and the evangelicals/Christian fanatics are feeling pretty good about themselves at the moment. We've finally defeated the "theory" of evolution! "Intelligent design" can be taught in schools! The Universe is only a few thousand years old! You can almost taste their elation. But it's not going to last.
Scientists all over are pushing back, and hard, against this, but the real power is about to step up... the Federal Government never hands out money to states without restrictions, qualifications, or kickbacks - they have a long history of "we'll give you money, as long as you do one thing for us...". This is how our highway system developed.
I, along with all of intelligent America, will applaud and support any movement by the Feds to lay down a more strict definition of what can and cannot be taught in the public school system as science. I'm not talking about Creationist pseudo-science, but the real kind that has evidence and no mentions of a superhero. I mean God.
President Obama, please keep this up. You're going to continue to outrage the GOP and their fanatical constituents, but America will be better off for all of this. Don't give in, don't cave to their whining or Rush Limbaugh's red-faced outrage.
They don't deserve even your consideration. And, thanks to both you and the GOP, I'm now a registered Democrat.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
