Bias, skepticism, and nonsense

[elfs]

Okay, I owe you an apology. Two weeks ago I posted an article about in which I compared UK schools' refusal to teach the Holocaust for fear of upsetting Muslims to US schools' refusal to teach evolution for fear of upsetting Christians. As it now turns out, concern about the former may have been completely overblown. It is not a national crisis of teaching in the UK; it seems to have been a few anecdotes, not a reliable survey of course teachings.

Concern about the latter, however, is not. Half of all public schools in this country elide evolutionary biology in their biology courses for the simple reason that the teachers don't want to have to talk to angry parents.

I mention this because today I read from Americans United for Church and State that The Pentagon has agreed to allow fallen Wiccan soldiershave the pentacle on their gravestones. Barry Lynn is sometimes given to hyperbole so his statement that opposition to the recognition of the Wiccan symbol came from Bush personally makes my newly sensitized skepticism meter twitch just a little bit. My suspicion is raised because there are no links off the page to support Lynn's contention.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Americans United’s attorneys uncovered evidence that the VA’s refusal to recognize the Pentacle was motivated by bias toward the Wiccan faith.
President George W. Bush, when he was governor of Texas, had opposed the right of Wiccans to meet at a military base in that state.
Bush’s opinion of Wiccans was taken into consideration when making decisions on whether to approve the Pentacle.

Personally, I read that as someone trying to curry favor, or at least not piss him off, not that he PERSONALLY said anything on this issue. This time at least (damiana_swan points the the infamous prior statement.)