After all the recent controversy in Florida Floriduuh over updating their K-12 science education standards to start teaching kids actual science (and the strident minority who were offended by that), and the even more recent attempt to completely undermine the new standards and grant teachers the "Academic Freedom" to ignore standards completely and teach whatever the hell they wanted (a battle still going on in several other states), now comes... Wizardy!

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears. But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own. The charge from the school district — Wizardry!

So, on that note, I'd like to propose the state name be officially changed to "Floriduuh", and a new State Motto, "Floriduuh, The Most Retarded Place on Earth" and while we're at it, let's just declare that citizens of Floriduuh, especially anyone educated there, are now officially known as Floridiots. So, go ahead and call your favorite Floridiot and congratulate them... just be sure to speak slowly and use small words.

Update: May 9th 2008

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/08/me-evolution-darwin-day-big-problem/

Could only happen in Floriduuh! (Well, honestly, it could happen elsewhere (probably has), but it didn't this time, and I've got a great theme going here.) Come on Floridiots, keep the great material comming.

Hello Readers, and Happy National Day of Prayer to you.

I'd like to dedicate this post to Madeline 'Kara' Neumann, an 11 year old girl from Weston Wisconsin, who tragically died of untreated diabetes on March 23, 2008, due to her parents insufficient faith and unwillingness to pray harder. President Bush states in his 2008 National Day of Prayer Proclamation, that...

"As we observe this National Day of Prayer, we recognize our dependence on the Almighty, we thank Him for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us, and we put our country's future in His hands."

Clearly, Kara's parents, Leilani and Dale Neumann, failed to recognize their own "dependence on the Almighty," and for this their daughter deserved to die, ... slowly. If they had only prayed harder, called on more friends to help them pray, and sent more emails asking fellow christians around the world to help them pray, maybe this tragedy could have been avoided. Thankfully, these faithless parents are now being charged with second degree reckless homicide and are facing sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

Naturally, there are terrible people in this world trying to undermine the power of prayer, such as the malicious scientists behind this 2006 study showing prayer has no effect, and recklessly subjecting innocent people to crises of faith. Who cares if there's no evidence to support a belief in prayer? There's no harm in believing (except deaths of innocent children), right? And what about those heathens who support a National Day of Reason instead of prayer. How dare they challenge the establishment of a Christian Theocracy to replace the U.S. Government for the purpose of instructing all Americans which god to follow, and how, if they intend to testify on how taxpayer dollars should (or not) be spent. Really, of all the nerve.....

It would seem as if the idle time sitting in airports and on planes has a positive influence on PZ's creative juice glands... A little humor and levity is much appreciated when it's so easy to get pissed off at the crackpots endlessly trying to redefine Science so that it includes their untestable, evidence-free, intellectually dishonest mumbo-jumbo that goes by the name Creationism, errr, no... Intelligent Design... errr... no,... what are the Liars for Jesus calling it this week? Oh, yes... "Academic Freedom."

Sigh... and here's some more fun on that topic. Expelled? No... I think flunked is more like it.

This is an excellent talk from about a year ago by Neil deGrasse Tyson on Intelligent Design's appearances throughout history and it's effects on science. It's a little slow to start but very entertaining once he gets going and a much better spent half hour than watching another one of those junk "reality" shows on TV.