What's the matter with Kansas? It's fucked in its collective head.

Actually, not really. But certain Kansans definitely are. Slate has some interesting commentary by William Saletan about how "liberals" are missing a great opportunity to do battle with ID proponents in Kansas by boycotting the State Board of Education's hearings on the issue. I'm not sure if I agree. The ID folk are waging a public relations war, NOT a scientific war. They do not proffer their theory because they want it subject to scientific scrutiny, they proffer their theory because it's a useful camoflauge for their basic creationist beliefs. I think Saletan misses that point.

Scientists and "liberals" may not be joining in the battle in Kansas becuase they recognize that doing so will merely give a sheen of legitimacy to science that has been repeatedly disproven in peer-reviewed journals. As I understand it, ID is not so much a scientific theory, but rather a choice selection of natural phenomena for which the evolutionary process may not yet have been explained. In fact, the major flaw of ID (again, as I understand it) is that it fails as an explanatory model, providing no process, no causal chain, no logical route by which species are formed other than by some divine and hence unexplainable design.

Fact is, the creationists failed in their explicit attempts to take the science out of classrooms, now they're just using ID as cover for a second attempt. You can dress a big, stinking religious turd up in a lab coat and eyeglasses, but underneath it's still a big, stinking religious turd. Scientists and liberals are right to refuse to participate in the Kansas charade.