The charming combination of creationism and anti-semitism in the Georgia legislature

[Spoke]

I spend a fair amount of time on these boards trying to fight the image of Southerners as fundamentalist, anti-intellectual, racist boobs. And then some idiot in the Georgia legislature goes and plays to the stereotype.

Republican state representative Ben Bridges is planning to introduce legislation to ban the teaching of evolution in Georgia classrooms. That’s bad enough by itself, particularly given the poor performance of Georgia students in the sciences, but then the bastard promotes the legislation with a bizarrely anti-Semitic memo blaming the theory of evolution on a secret Jewish conspiracy. From the memo:

Indisputable evidence – long hidden but now available to everyone – demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion," says the memo, which has Bridges’ name on it. “This scenarion is derived, concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

Oh noes! Not the Joos!

And the madness grows! The memo directs readers to a website where the discerning anti-Semite can also learn that the earth is neither rotating nor orbiting the sun. (Don’t let the Jews fool you!)

Oh how wonderful to have a lawmaker so wise in the ways of science!

Next session, the house takes up Ben’s witch-burning bill.

[hawthorne]

The highly evolved Jew Zev has beaten you to it: Don’t you know? The Jews invented evolution…But yeah, this is brain-meltingly insane.

[samclem]

From the story, Bridges denies he had anything to do with the memo.

Bridges, chairman of the House Retirement Committee, denied writing or authorizing the memo.

“I did not put it out nor did I know it was going out,” said Bridges, a former state trooper and aide to former Lt. Gov. Zell Miller. “I’m not defending it or taking up for it.”

[stolichnaya]

I think Tim Hardaway wrote the memo.

[tagos]

@samclem

From the story, Bridges denies he had anything to do with the memo.

In dispute

Indeed, even Bridges is now saying that he didn’t have anything to do with the memo.

Hall doesn’t agree. He said he wrote it and got Bridges’ approval to send it out. "I gave him a copy of it months ago,” Hall, who is a retired high school teacher told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I had already written this up as an idea to present to him so he could see what it was and what we were thinking.” And of course the two have teamed up to ban the teaching of evolution in Georgia back in 2005. So, Bridges’ denials are ringing a tad hollow.

And the views expressed in his memo are just too compelling for Bridges to deny outright.

Asked if he agreed with the Kaballah evolution conspiracy theory and the earth’s lack of motion, he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory. I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”