Three cheers for Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who has a video out for BigThink.com titled, “Creationism Is Not Appropriate for Children.”

Denial of evolution is unique to the United States. I mean, we’re the world’s most advanced technological—I mean, you could say Japan—but generally, the United States is where most of the innovations still happens. People still move to the United States. And that’s largely because of the intellectual capital we have, the general understanding of science. When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in that, it holds everybody back, really.

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. It’s like, it’s very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates. You’re just not going to get the right answer. Your whole world is just going to be a mystery instead of an exciting place.

As my old professor, Carl Sagan, said, “When you’re in love you want to tell the world.” So, once in a while I get people that really—or that claim—they don’t believe in evolution. And my response generally is “Well, why not? Really, why not?” Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution. I mean, here are these ancient dinosaur bones or fossils, here is radioactivity, here are distant stars that are just like our star but they’re at a different point in their lifecycle. The idea of deep time, of this billions of years, explains so much of the world around us. If you try to ignore that, your world view just becomes crazy, just untenable, itself inconsistent.

And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can—we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.

It’s just really hard a thing, it’s really a hard thing. You know, in another couple of centuries that world view, I’m sure, will be, it just won’t exist. There’s no evidence for it.

Directed / Produced by
Elizabeth Rodd and Jonathan Fowler

(h/t: BoingBoing.)

Forecast: probable bail-out due to high pressure.

Todd Akin to Hold Press Conference at 5:15 ET.

St. Louis - Todd Akin will hold a press conference in St. Louis County today at 4:15pm central time.  Details to follow.  

If he is bailing and not just jerking everyone around again, the knuckleheads who donated money to Akin now get to pay for him to obtain a court order and reprint the ballots — just to maintain the charade that Akin is not representative of the Republican Party, even though the GOP’s vice presidential candidate has exactly the same views as Akin on women’s rights.

Excellent! He’s not bailing out after all.

Akin campaign staffer confirms reports Akin to announce he is staying in #Akin

— Micheal Mahoney (@KCMikeMahoney) August 24, 2012

The press conference just finished, and hallelujah! He’s staying in the race. I’m sure Claire McCaskill couldn’t be happier.

Read it all here.

Pat Rogers, a Republican National Committee (RNC) leader, is facing calls for his dismissal after telling the staff of Gov. Susana Martinez, R-N.M., that because she agreed to meet with American Indians, she disrespected the memory of Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Custer is infamous for being a U.S. Army commander in the mid-1800s who killed many American Indians during what are historically known as the Indian Wars. He was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Rogers is a GOP lobbyist and partner with the Modrall law firm of Albuquerque, New Mexico. A recent member of the RNC Executive Committee, he is also an RNC National Committeeman for his state. He is currently in Tampa, Florida preparing for the upcoming Republican National Convention.

[…]

‘The state is going to hell,’ Rogers wrote in part of the e-mail. ‘Col. [Allen] Weh would not have dishonored Col. Custer in this manner.’ Weh was a Republican candidate for governor of New Mexico in 2010 who ran against Martinez.

The e-mail was sent following a meeting in June between Martinez and the state’s tribes, according to ProgressNow. It was directed to senior members of the governor’s administration. The governor’s office has not responded to requests for comment.

‘George Armstrong Custer may be regarded as a kind of military hero by Pat Rogers, but to the Native peoples of America Custer represents the bellicose imperialism that was responsible for the systematic slaughter of American Indians throughout this continent,’ according to an e-mail being circulated by ProgressNow.

‘Such a blatantly racist statement against our Native people is offensive from anyone, but to come from a national GOP leader and lobbyist for some of our country’s largest corporations is indefensible,’ said Pat Davis, executive director of ProgressNow New Mexico, in a statement.

[…]

Song of the day: Born in the U.S.A. OFA.BO/irL3ZV

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 24, 2012

Nothing surprises me any more about Mitt Romney’s pandering to the lowest, craziest elements of the right wing base, not even Birther “jokes.”

COMMERCE, Mich. – At a rally meant to highlight Mitt Romney’s hometown roots here in Michigan, a joke delivered by the candidate seemed to make reference to the fringe birther controversy that suggests President Obama was not born in the United States.

“Now, I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born,” said Romney. “Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital.”

“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate,” said Romney. “They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

And don’t forget, the upcoming Republican National Convention will be featuring appearances by not one, but two high-profile lunatic Birthers: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Donald Trump.

If Mitt Romney had ever denounced Birtherism, even once, it might be possible to accept his “joke” excuse.

But as you can see in the video above, when Romney made his “joke,” the right wing audience cheered. Welcome to the mainstream Republican Party.