CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • Anti-Science, Creationist State Senator: Louisiana Republicans Are Freeing African-Americans “From Ignorance”

    Yesterday, Louisiana State Senator Conrad Appel (R- Metairie), the Chairman of the Louisiana Senate Education Committee, published an extensive and bizarre screed on the right-wing website The Hayride, ostensibly in response to a column by Professor Bob Mann in the Sunday edition of The Times-Picyaune. Professor Mann lamented the balkanization, fragmentation, and privatization of the Louisiana public school system, arguing, rather forcefully, that these policies were misguided and ultimately counter-productive. Quoting: A strong component of Louisiana’s education “reform” agenda – led by Gov. Bobby Jindal and state education Superintendent John White – is abandoning public schools in favor of private educational enclaves. For…

  • The Discovery Institute Is A Con-Profit Scam

    Yesterday, David Klinghoffer, a fellow at the creationist “think tank” the Discovery Institute and the author of the absurdly titled book How Would God Vote?: Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Conservative, forcefully demonstrated the ways in which he and the Discovery Institute engage in blatant intellectual dishonesty. Shortly after Zack Kopplin routed Klinghoffer’s colleague Casey Luskin on a national radio show, Klinghoffer took to the Discovery Institute’s website and published an article titled “Zack Kopplin Thinks Louisianans Are Stupid,” an argument he based, entirely, by lifting and grossly mischaracterizing a single sentence from a story Zack told about…

  • The Discovery Institute Thinks Americans Are Stupid

    Earlier today, on the nationally syndicated Michael Medved radio show, Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based “think tank” that lobbies for intelligent design creationism in the classroom, debated Louisiana’s own Zack Kopplin about the merits and the intent of the Louisiana Science Education Act (the LSEA). For those unaware, despite its banal title, the LSEA was sponsored by a creationist lawmaker, State Senator Ben Nevers (who, when the bill was in its initial draft, told the media that it was intended to promote creationism); it was written by a group of creationist lobbyists, modeled after a statute crafted…