The difference is that string theory is perfectly respectable in the academy, and if a physics teacher taught it in high school, the ACLU wouldn’t file suit.

There’s an awful lot about cosmology and origin of life (which is, strictly speaking, not part of evolutionary theory) that is hard to distinguish from Intelligent Design with respect to experimental verification. Unlike the True Believers of Evolution, I’m prepared to allow non-testable claims to be discussed in public schools. It strengthens the student’s understanding of science to see how these questions of “What constitutes science?” get handled.

I’m not speaking on behalf of your generation. But I know more than a few Republicans in their 20s. A lot of them aren’t thrilled about homosexuality.

“You trying to scare everyone with those pictures is the equivalent of me trying to say all Christians are dangerous psychopaths because a few of them shot up some abortion clinics.”

Tell me: does the fact that the police were ordered not to arrest anyone for public indecency tell you anything? Imagine if police were ordered not to arrest abortion clinic bombers. Would that tell you something about what the dominant values were of the community?

As for your photos, that’s absolutely absurd. You trying to scare everyone with those pictures is the equivalent of me trying to say all Christians are dangerous psychopaths because a few of them shot up some abortion clinics. It’s extremely hypocritical of you to attempt to paint an entire subsection of humanity with a broad brush based on the actions of an extremist few. I’m pretty sure you’d be unhappy with someone trying to get Christianity criminalized because of the extreme actions of a few.

Warning: not only is this not worksafe–it wouldn’t be worksafe at Hustler magazine. I’m not sure it would be worksafe in hell. I thought that after living in the Bay Area that there was nothing left that could shock or disgust me. I was wrong.

As for the experience issue, although I don’t insist on the comparison, I suspect Palin might well take a page from Margaret Thatcher’s book. When Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister, her foreign policy experience was deficient also. She solved that by setting up a committee of people who she respected to advise her and by study. I’d say that worked out pretty well for her. And it’s to be expected Palin will have the advantage of serving under McCain, who is very good on foreign policy, for some time.

BTW, some experiments in the Galapagos have strongly supported the theory of evolution. I refer to some experiments where the beaks of a species of bird not only adapted to the food source on a particular island, but adapted again when the food sources changed measured over a period of years. (Sorry, I don’t have a source– going by memory here)

Of course, this could also be attributed to God changing his design…

As for inexperience, that dog won’t hunt – she has more executive experience than either of the Wonder Twins, and will be apprenticing to a man with a fair amount of experience…

For the more machiavellian among y’all – the chance of her running top-ticket in 2012 (if McCain is a 1-term president for whatever reason) massively increases Hillary’s chances to be the Dem candidate in 2012; and consequently increases her desire to drag the Wonder Twins down…

Just saying that because we occasionally discover new information that overrides old information that evolution is wrong is like saying that subatomic particles are just a theory because we’re discovering new information about them all the time.

My wife grew up in an anti-evolution household, raised by a pastor with a PhD, and went to all Christian schools. She was taught a lot of things about evolution that she came to later discover were fabrications, either willful ignorance at best or outright lies at worst. Having educated herself on the subject from the other perspective by reading many books on evolutionary theory, she was blown away by how much she was told that was just plain wrong.