Wirt Atmar wrote:


 >The following is an editorial from today's NY Times by Paul Krugman, a
 >I believe Chuck Ryan asked about a year ago what does it matter if a
textile
 >mill worker in South Carolina understands evolution?

As you later corrected yourself, it was I, Ken Hirsch.

[...]
 >To further this descent into prideful ignorance, creationist theme
 >parks and museums are now being built in Kentucky and Florida.

Dinosaur Adventure Land: about 240 visitors per week
American Museum of Natural History: about 96,000 visitors/week

Sources:

http://www.drdino.com/QandA/index.jsp?varFolder=Critics&varPage=Skeptical_Inquirer.jsp
  http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/credits.php

I guess the AMNH is running scared!


 >Evolution is only a stalking horse, but superstition and ignorance
 >won't stop there. Geology and cosmology are becoming equal targets of
 >late. But medicine is next, where medical directives will be guided by
 >Leviticus rather than understanding (as they already are in some
 >fundamentalist sects).

Evolution has been the issue for eighty+ years.  Someday we'll find out
their true agenda!  Of course people have been refusing medical
treatment for religious reasons since at least 1875 in America.  Do you
have any evidence that this is increasing?

 >If you don't think that this impacts American competitiveness, you
 >simply don't understand the nature of what constitutes a well-educated
 >and intellectually aggressive work force, all of which directly affects
 >your future prospects.

I'm still waiting for any plausible reason why knowledge of evolution
would help a mill worker.

I'm appalled by the willful ignorance of the right, but the left has its
own taboos.  Just recently the faculty of Harvard censured its president
for his measured remarks on women in science.
  http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=584242
  http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html

If I had to say whether the ideology of the left or the right hurt
education the most, I'd probably have to choose the left.  Here's what
math god Lenny Ng had to say about my home town school system:
  Unfortunately, schools nowadays show a troubling tendency to emphasize
"feeling good" rather than excelling and to encourage their students to
slip into comfortable mediocrity. My brother, Jakun, who is currently
suffering through a secondary schooling when the so-called "middle
school philosophy" is all the rage, has encountered obstacles far worse
than those I encountered. His middle school reasons that all students
should be treated equally and denies Jakun and other talented students
their chance to excel. It is a pity, because if Jakun receives the same
opportunities I enjoyed, I am sure that one day my friends will be
asking me what it is like to have a famous brother.
  (http://print.ditd.org/floater=142.html)

Let's review some facts about American "competitiveness"
(1) American workers are the most productive in terms of output/year.
(2) Productivity increased faster in America than European countries
over the last ten years.
(3) Productivity in China and many other Asian countries is growing
rapidly, but they have *a lot* of catching up to do.  China's GDP per
capita is less that 1/7th of ours.  India is even poorer.

Jobs have gone overseas because of ****low wages****, not mythical
superiority of foreign workers.

America has the highest proportion of college graduates of any country.
About 34% of young Americans get college degrees.  In China and India,
about 12% do.  About 1.6% of young Americans get engineering degrees.
In China, it is about 0.9%.

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