The Red Notebook

This site is, presumably, currently unavailable in Turkey—to children, at least:

Bianet: Darwin Sites Banned – Survival of the Fittest?
Access is being denied to all internet sites related to evolution as the result of the children profile of the internet filtering system implemented by the Council of Information Technology and Communications (BTK). The latest restriction on internet access caused uproar among internet users.

The “Secure Internet” filtering system was applied on 22 November. Its children profile bans the entire number of websites concerned with the theory of evolution and British naturalist Charles Darwin. This comprises all sites that contain the words “evolution” or “Darwin”.

Come on, chaps. If you really want to join the EU, you’re going to have to stop doing stuff like this!

It just occurred to me that President Obama might well choose to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of his predecessor Abraham Lincoln with some sort of speech or press release.

Wouldn’t it be rather nice if he took the opportunity to observe that Lincoln was born on exactly the same day as Charles Darwin, and to go on to give a ringing presidential endorsement of the Theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection? Just a fantasy, maybe. But it would be rather nice.

Do it for science, Mr President. I dare you!

Charles Darwin to Asa Gray, 21 July, 1861:

I was very glad of your P.S. on the state of your country; one values a private note far more than a dozen public letters. After carefully reading Olmstead’s last Book I never doubted the North would conquer the South. But then what is to follow? From Olmstead & Russell’s letters in Times, I cannot believe that the South would ever have fellow-feeling enough with the North to allow of government in common. Could the North endure a Southern President? The whole affair is a great misfortune in the progress of the World; but I sh^d not regret it so much, if I could persuade myself that Slavery would be annihilated. But your president does not even mention the word in his Address.— I sometimes wish the contest to grow so desperate that the north would be led to declare freedom as a diversion against the Enemy. In 50 or 100 years your posterity would bless the act.— But Heaven knows why I trouble you with my speculations; I ought to stick to Orchids.

The president in question was Darwin’s twin, Abraham Lincoln; his address was before a special session of the United States Congress on 4 July 1861.

The North, it turned out, could indeed endure a Southern president. How much more surprised (and, I presume, pleased) would Darwin have been to learn that the South would one day accept a black president?

Ga! Sometimes my self-imposed ban on dignifying Intelligent Design with any sort of response can be so hard!

Times: Creationism gains foothold in schools

The [UK] government has cleared the way for a form of creationism to be taught in Britain’s schools as part of the religious syllabus.

Lord Adonis, an education minister, is to issue guidelines within two months for the teaching of “intelligent design” (ID), a theory being promoted by the religious right in America.

Until now the government has not approved the teaching of the controversial theory, which contradicts Darwinian evolutionary theory, the basis of modern biology.

…so I’ll limit myself to just two words:

Arse wank!

(I hope that’s dignified enough for you.)