School Unit Mandates 'Intelligent Design'
DOVER, Pa. - When talk at the high school here turns to the origins of life, biology teachers have to make time for both Charles Darwin as well as his detractors.
Last month, this rural south-central Pennsylvania community became first in the nation to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design," which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by an unspecified higher power.
Last month, the Dover Area School District board voted to overhaul its ninth-grade biology curriculum. It now requires students to learn about alternate theories to evolution, which holds that Earth is billions of years old and that life forms developed over millions of years.
Critics say it's a veiled attempt to require public school children to learn creationism, a biblical-based view that credits the origin of species to God.
What's next, how about no birth control? Oh wait, they're doing that, too.
Some pharmacists refusing to dispense birth-control pills
Some pharmacists, however, disagree and refuse on moral grounds to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. And states from Rhode Island to Washington have proposed laws that would protect such decisions.
Mississippi enacted a sweeping statute that went into effect in July that allows health care providers, including pharmacists, to not participate in procedures that go against their conscience. South Dakota and Arkansas already had laws that protect a pharmacist’s right to refuse to dispense medicines. Ten other states considered similar bills this year.
At least we can keep the extremist off the Supreme Court. There are still enough rational reality-based Senators to fillibuster. Oh, wait. Maybe not.
Frist to Democrats: Stop Blocking Judges
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist urged Democrats yesterday to stop blocking President Bush's federal court nominees and hinted that he might try to change Senate rules to thwart their tactics.
"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end," Frist (R-Tenn.) said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.
