Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., took some ribbing for introducing 17 bills last month to suspend the duties on different types of footwear, from shoes “with open toes or heels” to “certain house slippers.” But The Hill newspaper reported last week that Brownback also introduced three measures to suspend the duties on “padded potty seats,” “traveler padded-potty seats” and “contoured padded-infant potty seats.” In both cases, the amendments were aimed at helping Kansas companies, first for Topeka-based Payless ShoeSource, then for Mommy’s Helper, a Wichita business.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Given that many Kansans have doubts about evolution or think that it conflicts with their religious beliefs, it’s not too surprising that 72 percent of those surveyed last week said they favor State Board of Education candidates who support teaching alternative theories. But this support may miss the point.
The issue that has been before the state board — and has caused so much ridicule of our state — is not whether teachers can discuss other theories or use the controversy as a teaching tool. Rather, the state board’s job was to set official science standards for the entire state. When setting such standards — whether in science or other subjects — the board needs to base them on what the experts in those fields recommend. And mainstream science experts are nearly unanimous in their support of evolution.
That doesn’t mean teachers can’t discuss other theories — provided they aren’t promoting religion. But the state shouldn’t put into its official standards theories that the scientific community overwhelmingly rejects.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Hard to believe, but the buzz about almost-president turned movie star Al Gore is intensifying. In Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter promotes an Al Gore-Hillary Clinton ticket for 2008 and says: “As Democrats bicker about who might lead their party into the 2008 presidential elections, they should take a good look at the man who once led them and who has been right on just about everything lately.” Then again, a New York magazine profile of Gore was headlined “The Un-Hillary.” Word also is that Gore, a Google senior adviser since 2001, has made so much money on Google stock that he could pump a lot of his own dollars into another presidential run. Time magazine quotes Gore as saying, “I’m not planning to be a candidate again, ever. I have no intention of being a candidate.” But he also says, “I haven’t made a Shermanesque statement because it just seems odd to do so.”
Journalist Richard Ben Cramer, who wrote the campaign book “What It Takes,” isn’t buying Gore’s repeated claims that he isn’t planning to run for president. Here’s how Cramer answered when blogger Washington Post Joel Achenbach asked him if he thought Gore would mount a campaign: “Oh, he’s running. If he’s breathing, he’s running.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
If any legislators in Washington, D.C., were hoping that the illegal immigration issue would just go away, they now have a concrete reminder that it hasn’t. Voters in favor of building a wall along our southern border have sent legislators an estimated 10,000 bricks through the mail to get their point across.
The illegal immigration issue is such an emotionally charged one that perhaps the spokesman for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., was right to suggest that the effort was a show of restraint by the voters: “Given the approval ratings of Congress these days, I guess we should all be grateful the bricks are coming through the mail, not the window,” he said.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
One of the legacies of Enron’s fall has been the University of Missouri’s difficulty in knowing what to do with its Kenneth L. Lay Chair in International Economics, which has been unfilled since its endowment in 1999. Lay variously has asked that the $1.1 million-plus be donated to Katrina relief and his own legal defense, but state university system officials reportedly are deciding its fate. The Concurring Opinions legal blog had a bit of fun with the dilemma, pondering the possibilities of a Fred Phelps Chair in Family Law, a Martha Stewart Chair in Business Ethics and a Michael Hayden Chair in Privacy Law.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
