Iowa "academic freedom" bill dies with a whimper

By tsmith on March 13, 2009.

For those of you following our "academic freedom" bill saga here in Iowa, you'll be pleased to know that today was the last day for the bill to make it out of subcommittee, which it appears it hasn't. Hector Avalos has an overview of the history of the bill, our response, and the results at The Panda's Thumb.

More like this

Up is down, black is white...

A few readers have asked in comments or emailed me regarding the tenure denial of Iowa State astronomer (and Discovery Institute fellow) Guillermo Gonzalez. I noted that I've not written about it because I've just not been around much lately due to travel, and because others are covering it quite…

DaveScot Loses What Was Left of His Mind

You gotta hand it to this cretin - when he loses it, he loses it big. Matt Young puts up a perfectly reasonable post at the Panda's Thumb about a teacher in Colorado who was suspended for showing a 12 minute sock puppet animation of the opera Faust and the absolutely ridiculous response that…

Iowa faculty on the “Evolution Academic Freedom Act" (HF 183)

There’s a petition and statement going around regarding HF 183 for Iowa academics to sign. The text reads: We, the undersigned members of institutions of higher learning in Iowa, urge our legislators to reject passage of "The Evolution Academic Freedom Act" (HF 183) introduced by Rod Roberts (R-…

Ohio can't catch a break

As I've mentioned previously, I'm an Ohioan, born and bred. I was living in the state when all the Discovery Institute shenanigans were ongoing, resulting in the addition of a "critical analysis of evolution" lesson plan (which was removed this past February). Of course, that hasn't stopped the…

WHOOO!!

We should set up a gnome punting field so that Abbie and Avalos can kick Luskin back and forth all day.

Tara - Thanks for helping organize the DI / Luskin / ID opposition, and congratulations for making Casey cry and stamp his feet.

Outstanding! Thanks for helping to expose and destroy this latest academic fraud bill to fall.

Meanwhile, the New Mexico bill has about one week left before it meets the same ignominious fate. Let's keep it up!

I didn't even realize until today that New Mexico had one on up this legislative session. Sigh... Hopefully we'll kill it in committee. Just when I thought we were finally a blue state.

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Ann

http://largepet.info

Ann

http://largepet.info

Advertisment

Donate

ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. We are part of Science 2.0, a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access.

You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something.

Science 2.0

Science Codex

More by this author

Movin'...

October 18, 2017

As several others have already noted, after almost 12 years, Scienceblogs is shutting down at month's end. Though I've done most of my writing elsewhere over the last few years, I'd certainly like to keep the archives of this blog up somewhere, and maintain it as a place to post random musings that…

The high cost of academic reimbursement

September 29, 2017

Spring, 2004. I was in the second year of my post-doc, with kids ages 4 and 2. Because I was no longer a student, the full brunt of my student loan payments had hit me, which were collectively almost double the cost of my mortgage. To put it generously, money was tight. Truthfully, we were broke as…

Vaccine advocacy 101

July 26, 2017

I recently finished a 2-year stint as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. It's an excellent program--ASM pays all travel expenses for lecturers, who speak at ASM Branch meetings throughout the country. I was able to attend Branch meetings from California and Washington in…

Is there such a thing as an "evolution-proof" drug? (part the third)

May 31, 2017

A claim that scientists need to quit making: I've written about these types of claims before. The first one--a claim that antimicrobial peptides were essentially "resistance proof," was proven to be embarrassingly wrong in a laboratory test. Resistance not only evolved, but it evolved…

HIV's "Patient Zero" was exonerated long ago

October 27, 2016

The news over the past 24 hours has exclaimed over and over: HIV's Patient Zero Exonerated How scientists proved the wrong man was blamed for bringing HIV to the U.S. Researchers Clear "Patient Zero" from AIDS Origin Story H.I.V. Arrived in the U.S. Long Before ‘Patient Zero’ Gaetan Dugas: "patient…