I Know Nothing! Nothing! LALALALALALALALALA!

Buckingham seesaws on the stand

Maybe it's the panda's fault.

There's a panda on the cover of "Of Pandas and People," the "Intelligent Design" textbook. It's a sad panda, or at least it makes people sad, because then they can't read the book. It's this not-reading-of-the-book that allows them to not know that the book is about creationism.

And, you HAVE to not know it's about creationism to put the book into your science classroom. You have to, because if you DID know the book was creationism, well, then, if you go ahead and put it into your classrooms, you are breaking the law. And breaking the law is bad, because then you have to go to jail or pay fines. Separation of church and state, that hoary, nostalgic old fantasy, still has some supporters that won't seem to let it die.

But, nobody knows the book is creationism, so it's Perfectly All Right to cram it into the classroom cirriculum in Dover, Pennsylvania.

The Dover Area School Board member, Bill Buckingham, was the member responsible for obtaining the 60 copies of the books they made their students read. Which were about creationism, but Ssshhhh! Don't say that word! It's science, unless people actually notice what's in it.

This article, by Mike Argento in the York Daily Record, illustrates the mental contortions you have to acclimate your brain to, in order to be a proponent of ID, or "Intelligent Design." You have to not know things you clearly MUST know.

Bill Buckingham, for instance, does NOT know where the money came from to pay for these donated books. He stood up in his church, and mentioned to the parishioners that money was needed to purchase these "science" "textbooks," and he does know that he did this. He accepted money from the people who saw fit to hand it over to him, and he does know that he accepted the money. He then wrote the check to pay for the books. And he does know that.

But he does NOT know where the money came from. He doesn't know who donated these books. He doesn't know how the district got the books. Knowing those things would be bad, because if he knew THOSE things, he might know the books weren't science at all, but religion.

So, Bill doesn't know what he doesn't know, and what he doesn't know won't hurt him. You know?