(h/t Balloon Juice) — George Will has a message that Rep. Bosma and others who seek to introduce Intelligent Design into our school science classes would do well to heed.

he storm-tossed and rudderless Republican Party should particularly ponder the vote last week in Dover, Pa., where all eight members of the school board seeking reelection were defeated. This expressed the community’s wholesome exasperation with the board’s campaign to insinuate religion, in the guise of “intelligent design” theory, into high school biology classes, beginning with a required proclamation that evolution “is not a fact.”

But it is. And President Bush’s straddle on that subject—“both sides” should be taught—although intended to be anodyne, probably was inflammatory, emboldening social conservatives. Dover’s insurrection occurred as Kansas’s Board of Education, which is controlled by the kind of conservatives who make conservatism repulsive to temperate people, voted 6 to 4 to redefine science. The board, opening the way for teaching the supernatural, deleted from the definition of science these words: “a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena.”

“It does me no injury,” said Thomas Jefferson, “for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” But it is injurious, and unneighborly, when zealots try to compel public education to infuse theism into scientific education. The conservative coalition, which is coming unglued for many reasons, will rapidly disintegrate if limited-government conservatives become convinced that social conservatives are unwilling to concentrate their character-building and soul-saving energies on the private institutions that mediate between individuals and government, and instead try to conscript government into sectarian crusades.

I think there is a certain fanatical group of Christians who think that teaching evolution to our kids is the root of moral decay in today’s society; apparently harkening back to some mythical past when “moral decay” wasn’t proclaimed a dire problem by one blowhard or another. Those folks will certainly reward Bosma and his fellow travellers if they put on a good show of supporting the legislation only to have it fail in the end, darn it. I think most folks in our society like their religion, but they don’t think too hard about it. They like their science, but they don’t think too hard about it. They like fairness, so they generally nod when someone says “shouldn’t all ideas be given a fair hearing?” But, when push comes to shove, and they really have to think about it, they know that the scientific method is a pretty good way of figuring out how the world works. And if someone to ask them whether we ought to choose one of science or faith to figure out how the world works, most are going to say that science is the more practical approach. Don’t get me wrong, most would rather not choose. And most the time, you don’t have to. Religion addresses quite a bit that science does not, and vice versa. But, when you get folks trying to expand science to include more than, “a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena,” you’re asking them to essentially abandon science in favor of non-science. And that’s not something with which your average, practical, product-of-the-Enlightenment-whether-they-know-it-or-not American citizen is going to be comfortable.

Representative Chris Chocola of Indiana’s Second Congressional District appears to be taking a bold stand in favor of forcing St. Joseph County to remain on Eastern Time. Representative Chocola wrote a letter (pdf) to the USDOT. He does not explicitly take a stand on Central or Eastern, but he does say:

The counties of St. Joseph,
Elkhart and Marshall share close economic and social ties. The economic necessity of keeping these counties under one time zone must take precedence over all other justifications for a time zone change.

Since he does not and, to my knowledge, has not, suggest that Elkhart County submit a petition for a time zone switch (which it is allowed to do at any time); he is in effect asking the USDOT to give Elkhart County a veto over St. Joseph and Marshall Counties and force them to be placed in the Eastern Time Zone. This is a bold stand for Rep. Chocola since the entire Second Congressional District petitioned the USDOT to be placed in the Central Time Zone, with the exceptions of the slivers of the Second District extending to the city of Elkhart and the city of Kokomo.

If I were a Democrat looking to challenge for Chocola’s seat, I certainly wouldn’t be above using the time zone issue –which really isn’t a naturally partisan issue– to scrape off a few pro-Central Time Republicans.

Update The South Bend Tribune has a story on Chocola’s letter. His official line is that he is taking no position on which time zone is better, just that all the counties ought to stick together. Martin Agostino’s article states:

But under the time-zone process outlined by the Transportation Department, the federal government can only move a county to a new time zone if it petitions for a change. St. Joseph and Marshall counties did so, but Elkhart County did not.

“I don’t know if the DOT has other options,” Chocola said.

Well, that’s very helpful Mr. Representative, sir. As a U.S. Representative, it would be nice if he would think through the consequences of his proposals and how they work in the real world before sharing them with the media and federal agencies.

Actually, I suspect Rep. Chocola is very much aware that the “keep ’em together” line is a de facto way of forcing Eastern Time on St. Joseph County. I suspect he fears the consequences of being forthright about that stance. Maybe I’m wrong though. Maybe he is just wading in to the public policy debate without really understanding the issues.

I don’t have a link to a story, but I saw Lafayette’s television news, WLFI, reporting this morning that Representative Tim Brown, M.D. is considering a run for the state senate seat being vacated by Senator Joe Harrison who has indicated he is not running for another term in 2006.

Jennifer Whitson, for the Evansville Courier Press, has an article entitled Verdict still out on tax amnesty. The article has Republicans and Democrats trying to position themselves on the state’s tax amnesty problems. Democrats: ‘It encourages scofflaws, it was too expensive, and it didn’t work that well.’; Republicans: ‘Who cares how we get the money, getting the money is the important part and it worked spectacularly.’

We’ll see. Ms. Whitson reports that the normal collections for the Dept. of Revenue was down $12 million right before the amnesty. Representative Bauer suggests that, when analyzing the effectiveness of the program, that $12 million ought to be taken off the bottom line since it’s “money we would have collected anyway.”

Taking Down Words has a very amusing post on Representative Hostettler’s efforts to “quietly” perform tornado clean up by working on a television news anchor’s front yard.

The Indy Star has an article entitled Many back Central time at 2nd hearing for counties.

Sounds like it went much like the first, a lot of passionate Central Time supporters sprinkled with a few Eastern Time supporters. Judy Kaleta, the Transportation Department’s representative who is on a magical mystery tour of Indiana time zone zealots has to be wondering who she pissed off at the United States Dept. of Transportation to get this assignment.

The most entertaining quote from the piece:

Ron Mott, a morning radio personality with WAXI in Terre Haute, took to the Hulman Center meeting-room floor like a preacher delivering a fiery sermon on the evils of Eastern time.
“I don’t think I should have to be on the same time as Bangor, Maine,” Mott bellowed, hardly needing the hand-held microphone each speaker was given. “I can spit and hit Illinois. But on the same time as Bangor, Maine? Now how smart is that?”

Another salient point was made by “Vincent Lundstrom, a retiree from Terre Haute, [who] was frustrated by a process that meant no matter how many of his fellow Vigo County residents asked for Central time, that change wouldn’t be considered. Vigo County’s commissioners did not petition for a change, so the federal government will leave the county in the Eastern time zone along with most of the state.”

As I’ve mentioned before, the USDOT has unnecessarily placed that restriction on itself. There was no legal requirement that the USDOT confine its inquiry only to petitioning counties.

Update The Indy Star has an editorial entitled “It’s About Time, It’s About Jobs”. First of all, I have serious doubts that alterations to our time struggles will add a single job to Indiana. And, if we were really concerned with jobs above all else, we wouldn’t be entertaining the idea of diluting our science classes with Intelligent Design philosophy/religion/superstition (depending on the implementation), and we wouldn’t be reinforcing the country’s notion that we’re culturally backward by announcing our hostility to gays through Constitutional Amendment. All that aside, however, and accepting the Indy Star’s premise that “fixing” the time issue will actually add jobs for Hoosiers; the Star doesn’t make an argument for why eastern time does more to add jobs than Central Time. It simply makes the assertion:

For a few counties in northwestern and southwestern Indiana, joining their neighbors on Central time makes good economic sense. For most of Indiana, however, the Eastern time zone holds the best opportunities.

Thank you, O omniscient editorial board, for sparing us from the evidence of this self-evident fact which would doubtless confuse our small minds. But, in fact, there is a convincing economic argument to the contrary. developed by mathematician Jeff Sagarin, and Indiana University Kelley School of business professors F. Robert Jacobs, and Wayne Winston. Indiana’s “economic time zone” lies squarely in the central zone. It assumes that we want to maximize the business to be done by Indiana firms with the other states in the six time zones of this country: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaskan, Hawaiian and Aleutian. It also assumes that potential business in a region is proportional to the population of that region. And it then assumes that the “coverage” of that region is proportional to the number of common hours of the business day that Indiana would share with that region. The reasoning being that the number of hours of common business hours is the number of hours when you can do business with that time zone. The current geographic population center of the United States is in the Central Time Zone and it continues to shift westward.

According to the Indy Star, State Senator Clark is stepping down to become a partner in the law firm of Baker & Daniels.

Seems like odd timing, but maybe the opportunity is just too good to pass up or maybe there is a replacement he or the Republicans want to get in place before the next election or some combination thereof.

Indiana’s Tax Amnesty ends tomorrow, so my guess is that we will be seeing some news in the next few days telling us how much the Dept. of Revenue collected. I don’t know if or how many reporter types read this page, but some information I would find useful:

Gross amount collected or promised.

Breakdown between amount actually received and amount promised. (As a debt collector, I can tell you that every once in awhile, a debtor’s promise to pay doesn’t work out. Or, more accurately, “most of the time” the promise doesn’t work out.)

Collection costs — how much did we pay outside contractors or additional to state employees to get what we got.

Amount compromised — how much debt was forgiven to get what we got.

My guess is that the executive branch press releases will tell us the answer to the first question but none of the rest.

Some good articles on Indiana politics in today’s Indy Star:

Intelligent design evolving into hot issue. At a glance, Rep. Bosma appears to be backtracking a little bit.

“”My personal belief is there has to be a master designer who has placed life on Earth,” Bosma said. “The question is, do we require that to be taught as part of the curriculum in science class? That’s a tough question.” Just asking it doesn’t signal agreement, he said.

And, Representative Phil Hinkle ought to be in for at least a bit of derision: He said, “he doesn’t believe evolution is science.” A few things. First, Intelligent Design isn’t science. Evolution is. So, teach evolution in science class. Teach Intelligent Design in philosophy or comparative religion classes. If you teach ID in science classes, you’re contributing to the decline of Indiana’s scientific and technological base and contributing to the perception that Indiana is a hick backwater — a perception the Republicans claimed to be trying to fight by screwing around with our time. Placing superstition in science classes is going to do a heck of a lot more to add to that perception than whether or not we fiddle with our clocks. Another point to keep in mind: the school board members in Dover, Pennsylvania — al 8 who were on the ballot were shown the door after trying to jam ID into science classes where it doesn’t belong.

Matthew Tully: Battle for House will be one to watch in ’06: He asks whether Daylight Saving Time will hurt the Republicans with the House split at 52 to 48. (My prediction — at least Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff is endangered because of the DST issue, probably several more.) He also points to the Sodrel v. Hill re-rematch for Indiana’s 9th Congressional District as one to watch. Same with the 8th District campaign between Sheriff Ellsworth and Representative Hostettler.

Sheriff Ellsworth is also the subject of an article entitled “8th District Challenger was picture of storm relief”. Asking whether Hostettler’s “no” vote on Hurrican Katrina relief would come back to haunt him in the wake of the tornadoes in southwest Indiana, the article says:

Hostettler, you see, was not only a “no” vote on Katrina but also a no-show after the tornadoes, deciding not to tour the parts of his district flattened last Sunday in the deadliest storm to hit Indiana in 30 years.
Ellsworth, by contrast, was often the first person reporters would talk to when they arrived at the demolished Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, and he was often still there when they wrapped up their reports at night.

Jennifer Whitson, writing for the Evansville Courier Press reports that Governor Daniels supports more flexibility for local governments in terms of taxing authority and fewer mandates from Indianapolis on how local government needs to spend money. I agree with the Governor on this, but he is implementing this vision exactly backwards from how it ought to be done.

I went into the problem at greater length yesterday. What has happened is that the State has cut subsidies it pays to local government and has not reduced taxes on citizens commensurate with the subsidy cut. Governor Daniels says he is in favor of providing local government with more taxing ability and, gradually, a change away from state mandates on the form of local government and toward more home rule.

Like I said, this is exactly backward. First should have come a reduction in state mandates on local government. Second should have come more taxing flexibility. And, last, should have been a shifting of burdens currently borne by the state to local government.

As it is, the local governments have been given additional burdens without adequate ability to tax to pay for those burdens. Next, presumably, will come more flexibility to impose taxes. However, the problem with that will be that the State and Federal government already have their places at the taxation trough. Allowing local government to be a bigger pig at the same trough isn’t going to help the citizens of Indiana.

Last, possibly, some day, the State will reduce mandates on local government which in theory could allow local government to maybe, possibly, gradually reduce the taxes it had to impose to meet its obligations.

Bass ackward.