A Stitch in Haste

My favorite flyover state, Kansas, is at it again:

Evolution's defenders, working to defeat Kansas Board of Education members who oppose modern Darwinian theory, are challenging three incumbent Republican conservatives and the political heir to a fourth in Tuesday's primary.

A shift of two seats to moderate Republicans — or to Democrats — in November almost certainly would lead to a reversal of state science standards celebrated by many religious conservatives and reviled by the scientific establishment.
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The Kansas standards have been denounced by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The editor of Scientific American, John Rennie — who has described the board's conservatives as "six dimwits" — posted on a blog to urge Kansas voters to defeat board members "who have inflicted embarrassing creationist nonsense on your home's science curriculum standards."

It's quite simple really: Some things simply should not be up for a popular vote. Like bigotry. And especially like science.

The question boils down to this: when will that other insular minority — the non-dimwits — take back their state governments, their schools, their public spaces, and most importantly, their states' reputations?

And remind me again why judges should defer to dimwit politicians, dimwit educrats or the dimwit voters who elect them?

Some things deserve no deference, but only contempt.

Like Kansas if the "dimwit slate" is re-elected.

UPDATE: The anti-science faction was mostly defeated. Thanks in part to my favorite Kansan.

More on Kansas here, here and here. More on Intelligent Design in the chain below.