From funny man and personal friend, Norm Liebmann:

"If the Republicans are a pro-life party they show no signs of life in the Senate."

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Cal Thomas writes:

The decision by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III to bar the teaching of "intelligent design" in the Dover public school district on grounds it is a thinly veiled effort to introduce a religious view of the world's origins is welcome for at least two reasons.

First, it exposes the sham attempt to take through the back door what proponents have no chance of getting through the front door. Judge Jones rebuked advocates of "intelligent design," saying they repeatedly lied about their true intentions.

He noted many of them had said publicly that their intent was to introduce into the schools a biblical account of creation. Judge Jones properly wondered how people who claim to have such strong religious convictions could lie, thus violating prohibitions in the book they proclaim as their source of truth and standard for living.

This is false and true. True we shouldn't lie. We ought to be up front. False, in that "proponents have no chance of getting through the front door," a different perspective, religious, moral, or otherwise.

What Mr. Thomas neglects to say, when he goes on to promote homeschooling and private education as the only options to save this country, is that we have a right to freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, period. Our text book writers do, our administrators do, our teachers do, our students do - and on this ground alone, all perspectives ought to be open for debate, and just because the socialists have come thus far and crushed that debate, he is wrong that it shall always be this way.

We have rights, and we had better assert them or the same controls will soon be exercised over the private and homeschool. In fact, in many cases, they already have.

It's time to take a stand, not act like a coward. Sorry Cal, you are dead wrong. Christians must not, and will not retreat.

You advised that we ought not look back to the past. Well, it was your generation, the past generation, whose lack of responsibility and guts put us in this mess. We won't look back to that. We look forward to a more couragious and inspired exercise of our freedoms.

Centre Daily Times 12/28/2005 Best hope lies in private or home schools

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Is it time to withdraw financial support from our schools until they clean up the curriculum? Devy Kidd thinks so. She writes today:

It's no secret that America's education system became a tool of the Marxist agenda more than seventy years ago. Most parents in this country have no clue about the underpinnings of how their children are being inculcated with the communist morality. Most parents have no clue what Bush's 'no child left behind' means. Most parents in this country have no clue about the mechanisms beings used to brainwash their children into the perverted, filthy homosexual and lesbian lifestyle. Most parents in this country probably think GLSEN is just another after school group. America's parents better wake up to their evil agenda:

GLSEN, which stands for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is stepping up its efforts to establish homosexual clubs on all school campuses. Their goals don't stop at clubs according to their publications, they 'extend to incorporating homosexual concepts into all curriculum, holding diversity seminars for teachers and students and ensuring that only positive discussions about homosexuality are allowed into elementary school classrooms, including kindergarten.'

GLSEN also pushes for all schools to hold bisexual awareness days, strategy instruction for homosexual teachers to promote a pro-homosexual atmosphere and instill the message to children that the definition of family includes parents of the same sex.

According to GLSEN, their mission is 'about changing schools and school culture around LGBT issues and people. GLSEN believes that what children learn in our schools is essential to fulfilling this vision for our future. We know that life-shaping lessons are best learned when we are young. Therefore, we are dedicated to bringing positive change to every school in every community.'

Kidd recognizes the root of the problem - federal funding, and thus federal interference in taking over what is primarily the function of parents, educating their kids.

Ronald Reagan promised to abolish the unconstitutional Federal Department of Education. He never did. Congress refuses to do it, but it must be done and it can be done by the state legislatures by simply refusing all federal money and clean up the system within the states. Throw out these bums in your state legislature in 2006 if they don't promise to stop this type of garbage wasting tax dollars.

All politics are local and that's where parents should take their war. The way to do it is to go to school board meetings with as many other parents who feel the same as you about the brainwashing going on in your local schools. You tell these elected board members and trustees that if they don't get pervert organizations like GLSEN off school campuses, get rid of any connection with Planned Parenthood, get rid of all curriculum except what used to work, then you are not only going to recall them, you are going to run for their seat.

Here-here! Amen and amen! A bit of indignation, I'd say. But isn't that one of the reasons why we have come thus far - a lack of passion in defense of our kids, in defense of the truth, in defense of our country's founding values?

You know the answer, so get off your duff and follow this woman's advice.

Devvy Kidd — America's Parents: Where is Your Outrage?:

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Approximately half of all students in Texas’ state universities and colleges need remedial classes. Meanwhile, 30-percent of entry-level job applicants do not meet eighth-grade skill levels on a competency test administered by Texas Instruments, according to a company vice president.

Particularly in math and the sciences, Texas’ school children are lagging behind.

Texas Public Policy Foundation - Commentaries

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New York City has found a new way to raise millions - $311 million that is - for public education this year. The approach: private fundraisers soliciting major donations to supplement public taxes.

The upside of such an approach? The New York Times responds:

"In the context of the system's regular budget of about $15 billion a year, $311 million might seem insignificant. But the tax dollars come with so many strings that the administration has viewed private money as crucial for research and development and an array of experimental programs.

"You are able to do it without saying this is money that is going to come out of the classroom …

"So far, the mayor's and the chancellor's collections include more than $117 million to start new small schools; nearly $70 million to open an academy for principal training; $41 million for the nonprofit center supporting charter schools; $11.5 million to renovate libraries; $8.3 million to refurbish playgrounds; and $5.7 million to reshape troubled high schools."

Read the full story in the New York Times

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Despite the lack of proof that pre-school programs like Head Start really make a long term difference, a judge ruled the STATE'S system of funding poor schools unconstitutional Thursday, saying it fails to provide adequate education by not offering early childhood programs.

Circuit Judge Thomas W. Cooper said the state's previous spending to improve achievement in poor schools failed because those efforts did not address the early impact of poverty on children's lives.

Read: Judge: S.C. fails to fund poor schools - Boston.com

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Economic ignorance rises to the top: that seems to be one explanation for FEMA's continued support of building in flood-prone areas, and Congressional demands for FEMA to do even more of the same.

A Washington Post story (Oct 11, 2005 ) by Gilbert Gaul noted, "The pattern of federal flood payments on Dauphin Island [AL] illustrates the growing share going to properties that get hit over and over. Federal data show that 300 buildings with multiple losses account for more than two-thirds of all flood payments the town has ever received — $21.3 million. Katrina claims could add tens of millions."

Gaul continued, "Nationally, properties with multiple losses account for about 25 percent of the flood program's losses while representing 2 percent of all insured property."

Valid concerns.

Read the full story, A Flood of Folly, at The Mises Institute

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George Bush suffered heavy international criticism for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, but it now appears he was exactly right: The treaty is a "fiasco,” Forbes magazine declares.

The treaty was negotiated in 1997 as a way to slow global warming, and formally took effect in February, without U.S. participation.

NewsMax.com, quoting Forbes, notes, "Ironically, even western Europe is not reducing emissions. According to the protocol, western European nations must reduce their emissions to levels 8 percent lower than those of 1990. But in the years since the treaty was negotiated, carbon dioxide levels increased by 7 percent in France, 11 percent in Italy and 29 percent in Spain. Overall, the increase for western Europe was 5.4 percent.

"After many years of European chatter about the monstrous evil perpetrated by George W. Bush in rejecting Kyoto,” Forbes concludes, "it is of possible interest that the increase in carbon emissions in the U.S. during those years was slightly lower (4.7 percent).”

Also of note, India and China, which refused to participate in the accord, "send more tons of carbon into the atmosphere than all of western Europe combined."

Read the full story, Bush Was Right to Reject Kyoto 'Fiasco', at NewsMax.com

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A mother seeking an apology from Montgomery County officials was taken back when she received a phone call from her daughter's former school shortly after she went public about the girl's claim that an older boy forced her to commit a sex act on a school bus.

There was no apology. Instead, a Cabin John Middle School official told her that her home schooling of her 11-year-old daughter was being audited to ensure the girl was properly being taught.

The call came on Dec. 6, the same day her story was published in The Examiner's School of Hard Knocks series.

Read the full story in the Washington Examiner

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Finally, some solid thinking on how to increase teacher salaries without raising taxes.

Indiana school leaders will be asked to share resources and employees to free up millions for teacher pay and other expenses that directly benefit students under a plan that Gov. Mitch Daniels considers one of his top legislative priorities.

The proposal, endorsed Wednesday by Daniels and the state superintendent of public instruction, aims to cut administrative costs by unlocking financial regulations that bind school administrators.

The bottom line, pay for administration keeps skyrocketing, while teachers remain in a financial rut. Cut back or cut out the administration and the money will be freed up.

Governor Daniels says that he hopes to lead the way in setting a percentage cap on how much of the budget will go to administration.

My advice, make that cap zero percent. It will not only free up money, but help return the control of the schools to parents rather than the state.

Read the full article: Governor: Steer more school cash to teaching | IndyStar.com

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CATO Dispatch, Dec. 29, 2005. Data breaches disclosed at Marriott International, Ford Motor, ABN Amro Mortgage Group and Sam's Club this month capped what computer experts call the worst year ever for known computer-security breaches,” USA Today reports. In “When Data Security Regulations Fail, There Is an Alternative,” Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, writes: “[P]oliticians’ calls for ‘stronger’ regulation are predictable because ‘stronger’ regulation is ‘better’ — in a press conference. In the real world, however, regulation is no more capable of divining threats to data security than, say, a common law liability regime, or even businesses’ natural interest in maintaining their operations, integrity, image, brand, and assets."

Harper's answer to the problem?

"Rather than hurried, one-size-fits-all federal regulation, imagine a rule where negligent holders of sensitive data suffer liability for damage caused by breaches. Imagine they have to pay injured parties for the consequences. Ten thousand breaches causing $1,000 damage would cost a negligent data holder $10 million, along with adverse publicity and all the rest. Under such a rule, breached companies would race to shore up the damage because further damage would create further liability."

His point? Simple enforcement of property rights, rather than complex intrusive expensive regulation is a superior option.

Read more

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - God sees embryos as "full and complete" humans, Pope Benedict said on Wednesday in an address that firmly underlined the Roman Catholic Church's stance against abortion and scientific research on embryos.

"The loving eyes of God look on the human being, considered full and complete at its beginning," Benedict said in his weekly address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Quoting Psalm 139, Benedict said the Bible teaches that God already recognises the embryo as a complete human. That view is the basis for the Church teaching that aborting or manipulating these embryos amounts to murder.

In Psalm 139, the psalmist says to God: "Thou didst see my limbs unformed in the womb, and in thy book they are all recorded."

Read the full article

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"Dear Mr. Farrell:

FIRE often points out that colleges and universities cannot defend in public what they do in private, and Albertson College of Idaho has proven to be no exception. After being featured as FIRE's "Speech Code of the Month" in July, Albertson has changed the policies to which FIRE objected and publicly reaffirmed its commitment to freedom of speech. FIRE's intervention provoked a similar turn of events earlier this year at another private college, Dartmouth, and we hope to repeat it many times over during 2006. For more information, please read below.

FIRE's full press release click here.

Sincerely,

Greg Lukianoff, Interim President
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
601 Walnut Street, Suite 510
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215-717-3473; Fax: 215-717-3440

————————"

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—California State University at San Bernardino (CSUSB) has refused to recognize a Christian student organization for requiring its members to live according to the group’s religious faith. The Christian Student Association (CSA) at CSUSB contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help after the university said that the group’s statements on faith and sexual morality were “not permissible.”

“Time after time, college administrators have robbed students of their fundamental freedoms of association and religion, so CSA’s situation sadly comes as no surprise,” remarked FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff. “CSUSB, like so many other universities, is misusing nondiscrimination policies to tell Christian students that they cannot associate based upon the dictates of their faith.”

Read the full story at THEFIRE.org, and see what you can do for this fine group that defends freedom of religion in public life.

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Late on Friday evening December 16, the House passed Rep. James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437) to require employers to verify the legal status of each employee. No strong-arm tactics were needed to produce the stunning margin of 239-182, including 36 Democrats, because Members had heard from the grassroots.

Over 130 amendments had been submitted to the Rules Committee by the deadline for amendments at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Members of Congress are finally recognizing that immigration will be the hot-button issue of the next election,and they want to distance themselves from President Bush's unpopular guest-worker-amnesty proposal.

The open-borders advocates realized that the House will not acquiesce in Bush's imperious demand that guest-worker-amnesty be part of any immigration bill. So their fall-back position was to insert sense-of-Congress language in the Sensenbrenner bill that would have no legal effect but would signal the House's willingness to deal with guest-worker-amnesty if the Senate passes it.

Early the next morning, word floated through the cloakroom that this language offered by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was likely to be added to the Manager's Amendment: "It is the sense of Congress that a necessary part of securing the international land and maritime border of the United States entails the creation of a secure legal channel by which the foreign workers needed to keep the United States economy growing may enter and leave the country."

At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the 90-Member House Immigration Reform Caucus met and agreed to defeat the rule for H.R. 4437 if language supporting guest-worker programs were added to the bill. Defeating the rule would effectively kill the bill.

On Thursday afternoon, the House manifested its new awareness of the public's demand for border control by passing the Hunter Amendment 260-159, including 49 Democrats. This so-called Fence Amendment mandates the construction of specific security fencing, including lights and cameras, along our southwest border for the purpose of gaining operational control of the border.

The bill orders 700 miles of fencing in sectors that have the highest number of immigrant deaths, drug smuggling and illegal border crossings. The bill also orders the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a study of the use of physical barriers along our northern border.

The momentum continued on Friday. By 273-148 including 57 Democrats, the House passed the Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)/Stephanie Herseth (R-SD) Amendment to repeal Ted Kennedy's favorite immigration provision, the Diversity Visa Lottery, which admits 50,000 foreigners every year, mostly from Third World and even terror-supporting countries.

Then, the House passed by voice vote the Jim Ryun (R-KS) Amendment, which codifies the Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance as federal law so that it cannot be changed without an act of Congress. The oath requires naturalized citizens to swear to "absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."

Then, the House passed by 237-180, including 30 Democrats, the Charles Norwood (R-GA) Amendment, which reaffirms the inherent authority of state and local law authorities to assist in the enforcement of immigration law, to provide training on this issue to the local agencies, and to increase law enforcement's access to vital information about illegal criminal aliens.

Then, the House passed by 420-0 the Cliff Stearns (R-FL) Amendment to prohibit the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Attorney General, and all courts from granting any kind of legal immigration status (i.e., "benefits") to an alien until the relevant databases of criminal records and terrorist watch lists have been checked.

Then, the House passed by voice vote the Ed Royce (R-CA) Amendment, stating that no immigration benefit may be granted until an FBI fingerprint check has been submitted and the results show that the alien does not have a criminal or immigration history that would render him or her ineligible for benefits provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Stearns and Royce amendments are important because, according to whistleblowers inside Homeland Security, a significant number of those applying for legal status do not go through complete background checks. When certain checks aren't completed within 90 days, current law allows the application to continue on to the next step anyway.

A Bush Administration-supported amendment to reduce the maximum sentence for illegal entry and illegal presence to six months was defeated 164-257. Current penalties remain in place.

The Senate will begin its debate on border security early next year and is predicted to be favorable to the guest-worker-amnesty plans proposed by President Bush, John McCain (R-AZ), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and others. The Senate and House bills will then go to a conference committee to work out differences.

Senators who are up for reelection in 2006 had better listen to the House votes.

Eagle Forum • PO Box 618 • Alton, IL 62002 • phone: 618-462-5415 • fax: 618-462-8909 • eagle@eagleforum.org

House Hears From Grassroots; Is Senate Listening?

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In response to reporters' questions about a court ruling in Pennsylvania on intelligent design, which holds that life on Earth is too complicated to have been created by chance, Florida Governor Jeb Bush says Evolution should not be dictated in the standards.

Governor Bush, a Catholic who personally believes God created life on Earth, thinks science teachers should have some discretion to discuss "any scientific theory."

Amen to that. Free speech, and true academic progress demands an open, not a controlled debate.

Jeb Bush: Don't Dictate Darwin in School Standards

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A tiny implantable device that aims to treat depression patients has started gaining some acceptance months after the federal government approved its used, the manufacturer said.

The Vagus Nerve Stimulator delivers mild electrical pulses every 5 minutes to the vagus nerve, which carries information to parts of the brain that control mood, sleep and other functions

I'm still waiting for some more reasonable "first line" approaches (before medical therapy is even considered) such as dietary change, herbal alternatives, exercise, prayer, talking counseling (e.g., thought redirection, stress therapy, etc.), Christian service (turning the attention away from self to others), repentance (if warranted), music therapy, reading therapy, time, sunlight, a vacation, a career change, a new hobby, relationship alterations, massage therapy, etc.

Mind altering, toxic to the body, medication ought to be the last consideration - if a consideration at all - the extreme at the end of trying everything else first. And yet one would still hope that a skilled physician would proceed with great caution - for there is also the option of dealing with it. For is depression, in most cases, as harmful and dangerous to the individual as sending the mind into a drug induced state?

I've seen too many who are before the drugs, normal people with human challenges, and after the drugs, destroyed, either through their mindlessness, their rage, their abanonment of religion, family, morality, employment, and even life.

Why are these pills handed out like candy? Why do we put so much trust in psychiatry, a profession, which began with this end in mind: to replace the role of the Christian counselor, and along with that, to eventually assume some of the police powers?

Marxism from the start embraced pyschology, and not coincidentally, so many of psychology's founders were dedicated marxists and athiests who despised capitalism, God, and the family, and who also, without surprise to this reviewer, set forth theories which in one way or another deny the agency of man.

Read: Anti-Depression Device Gaining Popularity at NewsMax.com

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BEIRUT, Lebanon –Israeli jets attacked a Palestinian militant group's training base in southern Lebanon early Wednesday, hours after an Israeli border town was hit by rocket fire, the military said.

The base located five miles south of Beirut is operated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small group that has been waging a decades long fight against the Jewish state.

"This is in response to the firing of projectile rockets last night toward Israeli communities," the military said.

It said it views such attacks with "extreme severity" and holds Lebanon responsible.

Read: Israeli Jets Hit Militant Base in Lebanon, at NewsMax.com

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MOSCOW, Dec. 27 - The most outspoken of President Vladimir V. Putin's senior advisers abruptly resigned today, warning that Russia's nascent political freedoms have been lost and the Kremlin's economic choices have been poor. He also said that he had no more ability to influence the government's course.

Read: Putin's Senior Economic Adviser Abruptly Resigns - New York Times

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Is the President honoring his oath to defend the Constitution as to the 4th Amendment and its protection against warrantless searches?

David Limbaugh believes so. He emphasizes the amendment's protection against "unreasonable" searches, the President's higher duty to national security, the reality that we ARE at war, and the President's record of balancing out rights with security concerns.

Please read his column at NewsMax.com, and decide for your self.

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Liberty Letters is disappointed to report that Russia's Parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to increase control of charities, foundations and other nongovernmental organizations in Russia.

"The vote," writes the New York Times, "endorsed a slightly better version of the bill than the original one. Under pressure from the West, President Vladimir Putin dropped proposed rules that would have forced foreign groups to register as purely Russian groups. But they still will have to prove periodically that their work does not contravene Russian national, social or security interests. That is broad enough to make all unofficial groups permanently vulnerable to the Kremlin's whims.

"… [T]his law was written mostly to weaken Western support for democratic movements in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. That was evident when Lyubov Sliska, one of Mr. Putin's many supporters in the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, snidely asked one of the bill's few critics, Vladimir Ryzhkov, what kind of passport he carried. A bill with this baggage is unfortunate for three reasons: it reflects the Soviet attitude that Ukrainians, for example, would not have supported Viktor Yushchenko had they not been incited by devious outside powers. Though some nongovernmental organizations are patronizing and meddlesome, most are doing genuinely good and useful work. And finally, Mr. Putin is popular and respected by his constituency, so he does not need to constantly expand the Kremlin's powers.

"There is no stopping the bill. We can only hope that Mr. Putin and his bureaucrats do not adopt it as a weapon with which to attack perceived critics and opponents. Russia and the other former Soviet dominions need all the honest voices they can muster."

True enough. Our foolish and over-optimistic faith in the fall of communism in Russia, which too often resembles a strategic retooling consistent with the dialectic, had led us headlong into a more dangerous 21st Century than we would have faced had we been far more cautious with our aid after the so-called "fall."

Our hope should never fail that liberty under law can spread, but never should our need to be on guard.

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There's always some good news behind every dark cloud, and in this case literally:

After being pounded by Wilma, Katrina, Frances, Jeanne and other hurricanes, South Floridians may not want to hear this.

But hurricanes have some good points — ecologically speaking.

The storms and their winds, surge and rain can do some positive things while carving their widely destructive paths. They build soils in marshes, seed new patches of coral reef in the sea and shake new life into static coastal waters among other things, scientists note

Read this fascinating and informative story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "nsantaniello@sun-sentinel.com "

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NEW YORK — A proposal to change long-standing federal policy and deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil ran aground this month in Congress, but it is sure to resurface - kindling bitter debate even if it fails to become law.

At issue is "birthright citizenship" - provided for since the Constitution's 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868.

Section 1 of that amendment, drafted with freed slaves in mind, says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Some conservatives in Congress, as well as advocacy groups seeking to crack down on illegal immigration, say the amendment has been misapplied over the years, that it was never intended to grant citizenship automatically to babies of illegal immigrants. Thus they contend that federal legislation, rather than a difficult-to-achieve constitutional amendment, would be sufficient to end birthright citizenship.

With more than 70 co-sponsors, Georgia Republican Rep. Nathan Deal tried to include a revocation of birthright citizenship in an immigration bill passed by the House in mid-December. GOP House leaders did not let the proposal come to a vote.

"Most Americans feel it doesn't make any sense for people to come into the country illegally, give birth and have a new U.S. citizen," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation of American Immigration Reform, which backs Deal's proposal. "But the advocates for illegal immigrants will make a fuss; they'll claim you're punishing the children, and I suspect the leadership doesn't want to deal with that."

Deal has said he will continue pushing the issue, describing birthright citizenship as "a huge magnet" attracting illegal immigrants. He cited estimates - challenged by immigrant advocates - that roughly 10 percent of births in the United States, or close to 400,000 a year, are babies born to illegal immigrants.

Read: Debate Over Birthright Citizenship for Illegals a Bitter One, at NewsMax.com

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This is what happens when you compromise with terrorists and dare to market it as democratic reform:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military on Tuesday fired a barrage of artillery and missiles at the Gaza Strip, hitting two offices of the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and a bridge the army said was used by militants to reach areas where they fire rockets.

Hours later, about two dozen armed Al Aqsa militants took over the governor's office and two other government buildings in northern Gaza the latest outbreak of lawlessness that has undermined the rule of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel's pre-dawn aerial strikes were part of the army's attempt to halt rocket fire on Israeli towns bordering Gaza. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved a buffer zone in northern Gaza, although the army said it has not yet implemented the plan. Enforcement including firing at anyone who enters the area is not likely to begin in the coming 12 hours, the army said.

The army has been destroying roads and other installations used by militants to get to areas that put Israeli towns within range of their highly inaccurate, homemade rockets. The bridge destroyed Tuesday has been targeted before.

Since Israel's withdrawal this summer from the Gaza Strip, more Israeli towns including the city of Ashkelon have come into rocket range. Earlier this month, a rocket landed near Ashkelon's power plant and a fuel depot, alarming Israelis

Read the full story at NewsMax.com

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USA Today. Pyrrhic victory.

It's a phrase proponents of Darwin's theory might do well to ponder as they crow over the decision by a federal judge in Pennsylvania “permanently enjoining” the Dover school district from mentioning the theory of intelligent design in science classes.

Contrary to Judge John Jones' assertions, intelligent design is not a religious-based idea, but instead an evidence-based scientific theory that holds there are certain features of living systems and the universe that are best explained by an intelligent cause. No legal decree can remove the digitally coded information from DNA, nor molecular machines from cells. The facts of biology cannot be overruled by a federal judge. Research on intelligent design will continue to go forward, and the scientific evidence will win out in the end.

Still, Darwinists clearly won this latest skirmish in the evolution wars. But at what cost?

Evolutionists used to style themselves the champions of free speech and academic freedom against unthinking dogmatism. But increasingly, they have become the new dogmatists, demanding judicially-imposed censorship of dissent.

Now, Darwinists are trying to silence debate through persecution. …

Read the rest of this article.

John G. West is associate director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture, and associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University.

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