Thoughts in a Haystack

By now you've probably heard about the firing of Chris Comer by the Texas Education Agency in an obvious move to intimidate education professionals in anticipation of the scheduled rewrite of the state's high school biology standards in 2008. The Texas creationists have people like the disingenuous dentist Don McLeroy, who are never afraid to tell any lie, to stick at any fraud, to stoop to any ploy no matter how low. On our side, however, we have people like Barbara Forrest, the very mention of whose name sends the creationists into paroxysms of fear ... for good reason:

The one thing that should not be forgotten in this episode is that Ms. Comer herself has been injured, and Texas children have lost a valuable advocate for quality science education. I regret deeply that the TEA chose to use my work as an excuse to hurt Ms. Comer. Even more, I am incensed by it. However, what happened to her may be just the tip of the iceberg. This country has reached a sorry state of affairs when one of the largest, most prominent departments of education in the country fires a public servant for doing her job. But while I regret that the information I related in my presentation in Austin and in my book has been confirmed in such a sad way, my co-author and I have every intention of continuing our efforts as scholars and citizens to inform the American people about the threat that the intelligent design creationist movement continues to pose to public education and to the constitutional separation of church and state.

I almost feel sorry for the Texans.
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Via Pharyngula.
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