Texas Bill Would Outlaw Discrimination Against Creationists

From Mother Jones:

Last week, Republican State Rep. Bill Zedler introduced HB 2454, a bill that would establish new workplace protections for proponents of intelligent design. Here's the key part:

An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.

More here.

Um...this is like a guy with a peanut allergy claiming discrimination because he wasn't hired to work at the peanut farm. Or a man getting pissed off because he wasn't allowed to use the women's restroom. That is, there's a damned good reason "intelligent design," or more simply "creationism" if you want to be honest about it, doesn't get much support in academia: the notion is the very antithesis of science, or any other kind of honest intellectual inquiry, for that matter.

I mean, I suppose there's some room to study "intelligent design" as a sort of cultural phenomenon, depending on the field, but that's about it.

I had thought that my home state had reached its nadir as far as education goes with the approval of its recent history textbook standards, which, among other things, glorify President Reagan, while diminishing the accomplishments of Texans and Americans who are not white. But this one really gives those textbooks a run for their money.

Can right-wing self-imposed stupidity get any worse than this? I'd like to say no, but I'd probably be wrong.

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