Thoughts in a Haystack

Sometimes it's nice to know there are some verities in life -- things that can be counted on to be rock steady when everything around you is spinning past at an accelerating rate.

And sometimes not.

An example of the latter is the way that the Discovery Institute has never seen a disingenuous spin they didn't like. The DI can be counted on all right -- to distort anything and everything it touches.

The latest example is almost funny though. Robert Crowther is over at the Ministry of Misinformation complaining about the New York Times article, "Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy," that focuses on the upcoming battle over the science standards about to be considered by the Texas Board of Education.

Crowther's complaint that the author, Laura Beil, is wrong to think the "strengths and weaknesses" ploy is new, not only misses the point of the article but ain't much of a defense in any case.

But here's where the giggles come in: Crowther kvetches that Beil interviewed "quite a few" opponents of the standards (four by my count), "as opposed to the one single person she spoke to that favors the current science standards." But that one unnamed proponent just happens to be the chairman of the state education board, Dr. Don McLeroy, who gets about as much of his views into the article as his opponents combined.

But it isn't hard to see why the Discovery Institute isn't happy. After all these years denying that they are pushing creationism, along comes Doctor Don:

No, of course not! Just because he believes in creation science ... um ... a creationist system of science ... won't effect what "weaknesses" he, a dentist, sees in evolutionary theory when the overwhelming majority of biologists see none. Right! The courts won't think twice before buying that!

No wonder the DI wants to forget McLeroy's name.
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