I guess you didn’t get the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff when you were in school then.
Well, that’s all just fucked up. I mean, this whole question about science teaching has been a hot-button issue in Kansas for a while. There was even something of a victory for science in the 2000 Board elections when the conservatives lost their majority. But the forces of ignorance did pretty well again in the 2002 election. So it completely beggars belief that four of the five races in the 2004 BofE elections were uncontested.
It appears that at least some people have emerged from their stupor. According to this article,
At least there probably won’t be another round of uncontested races.
This should be easy to find out, but I’m having a helluva time. How did the board members representing Salina, Wichita, and Olathe vote?
As near as I can make out, Salina is represented by Kathy Martin, a “yes” vote.
Wichita (District 5) is represented by Connie Morris; “yes”.
Olathe appears to be in District 3 with John W. Bacon; “yes”.
Sorry I can’t liink to a cite, but if there were four “no” votes, Janet Waugh, in the story, is added to the three listed by Una, above.
Well, here is how each member voted, by district.
And according to this document (warning: pdf) Salina is in the 6th District, Olathe is in the 3rd, and Wichita is spread between the 7th, 8th, and 10th, with 73.3% of the city being in the 8th, 22.6% being in the 10th, and 4.1% in the 7th. So i guess it’s not unreasonable to say that the 8th District is the one that most completely represents Wichita.
So, from the first link, we can see that the member representing Salina (Kathy Martin, 6th) voted Yes, the member representing Olathe (John Bacon, 3rd) voted Yes, and the member representing most of Wichita (Carol Rupe, 8th) voted No.
I think that John Bacon’s comments on the issue are priceless, and worth quoting:
On preview, i see that kaylasdad and i disagree over Wichita, but the document i cited suggests that the 8th is the best candidate.
I think the confusion might arise from the fact that Wichita County is in the west of the state, and is in the 5th District, but the city of Wichita is in the south-east of the state, in Sedgwick County, which is mostly in the 8th District.
It says it on the front page, “Fighting ignorance since 1973.” It’s hardly our fault if Kansas exhibits monumental instances of stupidity like this.
No, just the Bush-voting half of it. Everyone knows the rest of us are just stuck along for the ride.
Thanks for the 411 on that. Truly disappointing, as I have relatives in those towns.
Olathe doesn’t surprise me, as it’s been described as the fundie capitol of the world. Which explains my uncle. Wichita surprises me only a little, and I’d hope my aunts are smarter than to vote for a moron. Salina bugs me out, because it used to be one of my favorite cities. Then again, the 3867 relatives I had there have all moved out or died. The last, who just turned 95, moved away about a month ago.
Amusing anecdote: When I was about 13 or so, my father got into CB radios big time. His call sign was something like 1234-KAIH. He remembered it with the mnemonic Kansans Are Intelligent Humans. And his handle was The Kansas Reaper. You have no idea how many people thought he was The Kansas Raper.
We lived in New York at the time, by the way.
Given the long history of trolls, idiots, and just plain mean and nasty people on here, I think not. Your assumption works IRL, not in the Pit on the SDMB. Maybe we should run through some of the cavalcade of past shitheads and see some examples - or maybe not, actually. My experience over the past couple of years has shown me that there are a lot of really fucked up people that like nothing more than to attack and slur and flame for any or no reason whatsoever. And even if it is hyperbole, I can certainly respond to tell them that their attitude is fucked up and call them out for shooting their mouth off without thinking. If someone uses the hyperbole “a gay guy cut me off in traffic, I think we should take them all to the desert and nuke them”, are we to let that stand too without comment, since it’s just hyperbole? Not likely, there’d be a 17-page long thead here flaming them for saying that, with a star-studded cast of the SDMB participating. Or even, if that’s too hyperbolic, how about saying “man, look at those Muslims in France - I told you all those people were fucked”. Guess how many pages that one would run?
I guess it depends on whose ox is being gored.
You seemed pretty offended that I called you on your first post in here (said post being one which offended me); I can take you at your word that you were not, however. Then Homebrew, a genuinely good guy as well, seemed offended that I and others were offended. As I said, this is a circle-jerk that I’m not playing.
In a gesture of goodwill to all the non-idiotic people in Kansas, I will be the first to admit that I live in a blue state and we have plenty of ignorance here as well.
My pastor, in fact, misunderstood some ID propaganda (say nothing to have a clue about evolution itself), and composed an entire sermon around the premise that secular scientists had recently admitted that evolution could not explain the observed complexity in life and how we as Christians had an obligation to explain to them how the Earth was “really created.”
I think he realized something was wrong when he looked around and saw:
:dubious: :eek: :mad: :dubious: 
(I’m the guy in red)
Described by whom? Olathe–like pretty much all suburbs of Kansas City–is fairly moderate. Generally you have to go rural before you see fundies in big numbers; you get the occasional outspoken church here and there, but that’s nothing unusual for the metro area of a semi-large city.
Geez, it was years ago, so I don’t remember. I just remember reading that and thinking “Golly! Really? My aunt and uncle aren’t – wait, yes they are. Yeah, makes sense.” So I confirmed the claim by seeing 100% compliance from a sample size of two. Which, under the New Science, is large enough. 
Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html
Will the Catholics in Kansas start a revolt?
That would be cool. As I said in previous posts, the Catholics have no problems with evolution - I cited John Paul II and Father Coyne, and they said the same thing your Cardinal says. I also made the comment that some people won’t want someone else’s erroneous or false “relgious values” crammed down their throats. There may be a Supreme Court case yet - using the state to teach the doctrine of one narrow religious group, a group that does not reflect the majority (majority being irrelevant anyway). I would go after it through Nonestablishment, at least to start.
People probably are thinking of MANU when they think about Olathe.
Not offended. Puzzled.
I thought about that, but it doesn’t seem to me that they have much of an influential presence in Olathe. Or if they once did, that influence has been diminished. 'Course, I may not be paying much attention to 'em. I’m always looking over my shoulder at neighboring OP’s First Family Church.
If you want, chalk it up to a combination of feeling embarassed for the decision and all the aforementioned reasons. One can feel like stepping into many Pit threads, and not actually do so, until something hits too close to home - gores my ox, if you will.
IMHO it isn’t a good day for science in Kansas, Homebrew, and given how much I do try to teach science online, and professinoally offline, it really sucks. We can all surely agree on that much.
Right you are (wrt my confusion as to the location of Wichita). One day, perhaps I’ll learn to research and verify before I post; for now, I thank you for your service.
I’m from Maryland. Go ahead, do your worst.
(And no fair mentioning Spiro Agnew or Marvin Mandel. The statute of limitations has definitely run out on those jerks.)