Here is the response I emailed to my Representative and posted on the Facebook wall of the sponsor, Rick Brattin (R-District 124).

Intelligent Design was proposed a few years ago as an alternative to Evolution after the Supreme Court ruled that Creationism couldn’t be taught. It’s essentially a way to insert Creationism under another label into public school curricula. This was demonstrated conclusively in a big court case in Pennsylvania a few years ago: http://ncse.com/creationism/legal/cdesign-proponentsists

That ID is rebranded Creationism wouldn’t inherently be a problem for public school science education if ID presented any ideas that held up to scientific scrutiny. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. ID proponents have had more than a dozen years to demonstrate that their ideas have more predictive and explanatory power than Evolutionary Theory does, but they’ve never been successful. The closest they’ve come are with notions of “Irreducible Complexity” and “Specific Complexity”. Unfortunately for them, every example they’ve ever presented as an example of IC or SC has then been shown to be explainable through existing Evolutionary processes.

Further, IC and SC boil down to the idea that hard problems are hard, so we should stop trying to find answers to them. Instead of being an advancement of science, ID represents an end to scientific inquiry.

I care about science education, so this sort of interference rankles me. As an analogy, it would be the same as proposing giving 9th graders equal access to astrology and astronomy and expecting them to be able to figure out which is more likely to be true. Or asking 7th graders to be able to tell the difference between chemistry and alchemy when their teachers aren’t allowed to tell them which has evidence behind it. Or teaching 10th graders that the Holocaust might or might not have happened (and it’s just not fair to give evidence one way or the other).

Even with the failures of ID proponents to this point, that’s not to say they shouldn’t be able to continue trying. They should definitely keep trying. However, what they shouldn’t do is subvert the educational process by attempting to inject a failed hypothesis into science education.

The academic process is to test the frontiers of knowledge and develop and test new ideas in the post-graduate and professional ranks. When ideas have been demonstrated to be reliable, then they are taught to the lower levels of college and eventually to public schools.

This bill (and others like it) is an attempt to skip the line – to give a failed notion equal billing with a theory that has been tested and validated for 150 years and not give unsuspecting students the tools to tell the difference.

It’s not fair to science, and it’s not fair to the students.

To celebrate the occasion, we took a week-long trip to Europe, our first return to the Continent since we lived there in 2005, and our first extended trip alone since the kids were born (thanks for watching the boys, Grandma and Grandpa!).

Map of our route on our 10th Anniversary Trip

Day 1: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Jenny picked me up from the Munich airport because she had already been in Germany for a few days for work meetings. Our goal for the day (besides getting me through jet lag) was to go to Füssen to see crazy King Ludwig’s castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Jenny had seen them before, but I hadn’t, and I really wanted to see the crazy eccentricity.

The castles didn’t disappoint, with Hohenschwangau being the older and more genuine castle. Neuschwanstein is a whole different beast – a nostalgic invention by a monarch with money to burn. Unfortunately, the castle wasn’t completed, but the rooms that were finished were impressive, and the views from the edge of the Alps were very nice.

Hohenschwangau Castle

Lance and Jenny at Neuschwanstein

We spent the night at a cute and friendly Restaurant Hotel that went the extra mile for Jenny’s birthday by lighting a candle at our dinner table (I guess German tradition doesn’t include free dessert). Unfortunately our photos of it didn’t turn out.

Day 2: From Germany to Liechtenstein via Austria

Jenny woke me up with the news of Pujols’ monster Game 3 of the World Series, which had been played in the middle of the night in our time zone. This brought up one of the unfortunate aspects of the timing our trip: when we scheduled it in July based on Jenny’s work meetings, we had no expectation whatsoever that the Cardinals would turn suddenly into a great team and make the playoffs, no less the World Series. I caught the first two games before I left, but Jenny ended up missing all of the World Series because all of the games were played in the middle of the night.

At least we got home in time to see the post-victory rally.

Anyway, we explored Füssen a bit in the morning before heading through Austria to get to Liechtenstein. I had been to Liechtenstein on a previous trip, but Jenny had never been there, so we made that a goal of the trip.

Jenny in the painted Hohes Schloss in Fuessen

Annakapelle from the Hohes Schloss in Fuessen

Google Maps and our SatNav both suggested a long, flat, fast route on the German Autobahn to get to Liechtenstein quickly, but I wanted to see more of the Austrian Alps, so we went south towards Imst. The mountains were worth it.

Zugspitze in the Austrian Alps

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see as many of the mountains as I expected because there were lots of tunnels as we approached Liechtenstein, including one that’s 14 kilometers long. That’s something you don’t see in St. Louis.

When we emerged from the tunnel, we explored the old center of Feldkirch for a little while. It’s a small but historic town that I had been to previously, but in that trip Eugene and I skipped the center and just used the town as a base for getting into Liechtenstein. This time, Jenny and I wanted to see a bit more and look for lunch.

Old Feldkirch seen from Schattenburg Castle

Finally, we got to Liechtenstein, where the small capital of Vaduz was fun to walk through but much too expensive for much else ($20 for a basic pizza for one). So, we walked around (including a side-excursion to a wooden bridge over the Rhine to Switzerland) and headed back to our hotel.

Vaduz Castle above St. Florian Church

Liechtenstein's Alps above the Rhine

At the Swiss Border on the Wooden Bridge

Our hotel, the Hotel Oberland was outside the capital, in the mountain village of Triesenberg. The drive up was a bit sketchy (the first time – after that, we discovered the wider two-lane road up the mountain), but the view at the top was completely worth it. Additionally, they had very good local dishes (Hirschpfeffer! Spätzli! Rösti!) for dinner. Yum.

Hotel Oberland in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein

Afternoon View of the valley from Triesenberg

Day 3: Liechtenstein and Switzerland

We woke up to a spectacular view of the Rhine Valley, with the sun creeping down the Swiss Alps across from our mountain-side hotel. I really wish out pictures could do the scene justice.

Early Morning Sun Catching the Swiss Alps

Morning Sun on the Liechtenstein's Rhine Valley

Liechtenstein is still an active monarchy (with an unusual history – it’s named after the ruling family that bought the land 300 years ago but didn’t set foot there for 120 years), and the Prince makes a decent Pinot Noir. Before we left the principality, we stopped by his winery for a sample, and then drove by his castle (where he still lives, apparently).

Lance at the Vineyard of the Prince of Liechtenstein

After that, we checked out the Prince’s wine and vines in Vaduz before heading into Switzerland.

Vaduz Schloss - the Prince's Castle

Then we headed into Switzerland. Our goal for the day was to get to the German city Konstanz, which would be only a couple of hours drive by Autobahn. However, Switzerland considers all of its main highways to be toll roads, and they use an annoying an expensive sticker system to enforce it. So, we decided to take an extra hour and drive on secondary roads to save money.

Of course, this ended up adding a lot more than an hour to our day and costing a lot more than the sticker would have, because we stopped in several towns along the way.

Our first stop, Altstätten, was going to be just a lunch stop, but then the very helpful clerks at the tourist information office recommended that we go to Appenzell (“a traditional famous Swiss town – with cows”) and St. Gallen (to see the UNESCO World Heritage Site). So, after decent pizza, we were off.

An Unusually-Bestickered Building in Altstätten

Appenzell was just what we were promised – a traditional Swiss town, nestled in the Alps, surrounded by picturesque farms and happy cows. We didn’t stay there long, but we got some nice souvenirs and sweets.

Appenzell, Nestled in its Alpine Valley

After Appenzell, we went to the regional capital St. Gallen to see the Stiftsbibliothek, the perfectly-preserved Baroque library from the old defunct abbey. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any pictures of the inside of the library, but that’s probably for the best for the preservation. We didn’t see a whole lot more of the town, but we did have some really good Hot Chocolate.

Odd Public Art in St. Gallen

One other thing we learned of from the tourist office in Altstätten was a Market Hall designed by the Austrian artist/architect Hundertwasser. Over the years, we’ve seen several of his whimsical buildings, so we decided to add one more to our list.

Hundertwasser Markthalle in Thal, Switzerland

Finally, we were back on track to our destination of Konstanz, with an evening drive on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance).

Bodensee, with Distant Alps

Day 4: The Black Forest

After great hotels in Füssen and Triesenberg, our luck ran out in Konstanz – it was just an overpriced hostel near the busy train station. Oh well.

Despite that disappointment (and the disappointment of waking to a second consecutive Cardinals loss), we still enjoyed a nice dinner in Konstanz and an interesting walk around the old city in the morning before heading out.

The Bizarre Harborfront Statue "Imperia"

Bemaltes Haus, a Beautifully-Painted Building in Konstanz

Our first stop as we descended into the Black Forest was an unusual one: the Danube Sink. Before becoming one of the great rivers of the world in Central and Eastern Europe, the Danube starts as a small river in the Black Forest. Unfortunately for the river, it travels through a karst region, where there are many rivers and caves in the limestone underground.

Since 1874, the Danube has occasionally succumbed to the karst, seeping completely into cracks in the ground on some days (with the water reappearing 12 km away in a tributary of the Rhine).

We sought out this strange geographic feature outside Immendingen and saw the river disappear completely in front of us as we hiked from the parking lot.

This is the way the Danube ends: Not with a bang but a whimper

Then it was lunchtime, and for both of us, time to eat in the Swabian region meant one thing: Maultaschen. We found our tasty lunch in the heart of the town of Villingen. Unfortunately, we ate our Maultaschen up before thinking to get a picture, so here’s a pretty building and fountain instead:

Villingen Cathedral and Fountain

To descend further into the heart of the Black Forest, we drove the Hexenloch (Witch’s Hole), a tiny road that follows streams into hidden cold valleys with beautiful autumn color.

Farmhouse on the Hexenloch

Hexenlochmühle, the Mill that's the Tourist Center of the Hexenloch

Finally, we explored the larger city of Freiburg a bit before heading on to France. There seemed to be a lot that could be seen there – a nice Cathedral, an old university, a lively old town, etc., but we really just zipped through for some shopping and a crepe.

The colorful old sales house (Kaufhaus) in Freiburg

After the quick stop, we drove ahead to Colmar, in the Alsace region of France.

Day 5: Wine and Cheese in France’s Alsace

For the first time in the trip, we decided to stay in the same place for two nights. That wasn’t our original plan – we were originally going to return to Germany after on night, but we decided to let ourselves spend more time in the Alsace wine region. It was a very good decision.

A really nice facet of Alsace for us was the German history and culture. Because the region has passed back and forth between Germany and France over the centuries, most of the people we met were as fluent in German as Germans (and more understandable than the Swiss). Jenny is nearly fluent in German and I can get by, but our French is much, much weaker. Being able to use German as a starting language instead of defaulting to English was fun and comfortable.

We headed out early to find some local independent wineries in nearby towns. We ended up visiting four of them that day, buying a bottle from each one. We would have liked to have purchased more, but U.S. Customs regulations held us back. The Gewürztraminers of the region really work for us.

Joseph Schaffar - good Alsatian Gewürztraminer

The day wasn’t just about wine, though. We also had explored cheese.

Near Colmar is the town and valley of Munster, home of Munster cheese. This is different than the Muenster cheese with the orange rind we get in America, but it was still worth checking out.

So, we spent a lot of time in Munster Valley’s Maison du Fromage (House of Cheese), a museum of sorts with a traditional stable full of live cows and a demonstration of making Munster cheese. A woman in traditional Alsatian costume told us all about the process of making Munster, let us drink fresh whey, and served us a local dessert made from fresh curds, sugar, creme fraiche, and (optionally) Kirschwasser cherry schnapps. There were also in-depth exhibits on different aspects of French cheese.

Traditional Cow Bells displayed at the Maison du Fromage

Lance Sampling the Scents of Cheese at the Maison du Fromage

Jenny with the Happy Cows at the Maison du Fromage

Cheese-Making Demonstration at the Maison du Fromage

Fresh Cheese Curd Dessert at the Maison du Fromage

We drove through several cute wine towns along the Alsace Wine Route, enjoying the half-timbered buildings, vineyards, and views of castle ruins before getting tired and returning to Colmar.

Core of Eguisheim, a Medieval Alsatian Village

Castle Ruins Towering over Husseren Les Chateaux

In the evening we walked throughout the cute and historic city center of Colmar, including a wonderful dinner at a tiny restaurant. Seriously tiny.  Le Petit Gourmand had room for only five tables – 14 seats total meant an intimate dining experience with impeccable service. It also meant that we could easily tell the chef how much we enjoyed the lavendar-vanilla sauce in which he served his zander (a fish similar to walleye). It was goooood.

Colmar's Cathedral pokes out above the City

Colmar's Market and Canal at Sunset

Colmar's "Little Venice"

Day 6: Strasbourg and the Alsace Countryside

We sadly left Colmar, France in the morning and drove to Strasbourg, France for lunch. Along the way, we saw more of the wine villages of the Alsace wine route, but unfortunately we didn’t get any particularly good pictures.

We got lost for a while trying to drive through the center of Strasbourg – the big pedestrian zones that so many European cities are great for pedestrians, but combined with the narrow one-way street, they make life difficult for drivers. On balance, that’s probably a good thing, but it’s something we didn’t really notice as much on our previous train-based trips.

When we finally got where we wanted to go in Strasbourg, we wandered the old city a bit and had a fancy Alsatian lunch. The most interesting point was when Jenny realized that she had foie gras on her plate. That’s something we would never order in America, but it was very common in the tourist restaurants in Alsace.

Strasbourg's Cathedral

Tourist Boats on the River Ill

After lunch, we drove back to Germany to the small city of Weinheim, where Lance’s second cousin Jill has been living for a couple years. Jill and John and their two kids were very generous to host us, particularly as the first day of our stay overlapped with a visit by John’s parents! However, from our ex-pat experience, we remembered how much we enjoyed having visitors, so we hope our visit was as good for them as it was for us.

That night, we went to an Italian restaurant in the old part of Weinheim with the whole clan and returned to the house for some reminiscing and reuniting.

Day 7: Weinheim and Heidelberg, Germany

We woke up that morning to chaos. Not at Jill and John’s house, but on Twitter, our Facebook pages, and back in St. Louis. While we had slept, the Cardinals and Rangers had played Game 6 of the World Series, perhaps the greatest World Series game ever. Some of our friends were still awake when we woke up and were jumping on IM to tell us all about it.

Travelling in October is a risk.

Anyway, this was a day of a lot of hiking – Jenny and I hiked Weinheim’s Geiersberg (a forested hill) in the morning, walked up to the Windeck castle before lunch with Jill, and wandered and shopped the well-touristed streets of Heidelberg in the afternoon. None of these hikes were that much by themselves, but cumulatively it was a lot more walking with elevation than we’re used to in our normal lives in St. Louis.

Trail Marker up to Geiersberg

Weinheim, seen from the Ruins of Windeck Castle

Heidelberg's Famous Schloss

Thanks to Jill and her family for their hospitality!

With Jill and her Family

Day 8: Flying Home

We won! We won!

Ok, so Jenny and I didn’t personally win anything, but we woke to the news that the Cardinals had won their 11th World Series. Since this was the day we returned to St. Louis, it definitely made for a Happy Flight.

Otherwise, the return home was mostly uneventful, except for the frighteningly inefficient passport and security lines at the Frankfurt Airport. Come on, people, don’t you know you’re German?

Anyway, we got home safely, gave our kids big, big hugs after having been gone for a week, and fell to sleep early.

It was a good trip. Before we had kids, Jenny and I traveled like this often, but it had been too long. It was wonderful travelling again with my sweetheart, celebrating ten years together.

Essentially, he said that he doubts the consensus conclusions of scientific inquiry on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) because he doesn’t like the idea of making changes to the American economy that he sees as damaging. This isn’t an uncommon stance.

Perhaps he’s right that a Carbon Tax or Cap and Trade would be too damaging to the economy to be worth it; I don’t know. However, he that’s a different issue than the scientific questions of whether the atmosphere is warming and what role humanity plays.

He’s objecting to a scientific conclusion because he disagrees with a potential resulting political reaction.

It’s a non sequitur.

We tend to talk about Global Warming as though there were only one level of the debate, but there are really four stages:

1. Whether the globe is warming. This is purely a scientific issue because it’s a discussion of objective historical records. Laymen can debate it, but we’d really just be arguing about different impressions of what the experts say is in the evidence. And the evidence is rock solid on this.
2. Whether the warming is due to human activity. This again is purely a scientific issue because it’s a discussion of why something is happening in the physical world – it’s not really a venue for political opinion. The experts aren’t 100% unanimous on this, but it’s above 95%, and the confidence is growing because the fundamental physics and empirical observations agree.
3. What will happen next. This is still a scientific debate, but the science inherently cannot be as confident on this. After all, this is the realm of computer models and prediction. However, the models are pretty consistent that things will get bad in lots of ways if the current trends continue unabated. Could the models be wrong? Sure, but they’ve been validated enough that the starting position should be to accept their general conclusions unless a good reason is given not to.
4. What we should do in light of the predictions. This is where politics get involved. Cap and Trade? Carbon Tax? Nothing? This should be a debate within the political sphere based on values and ideological perspectives, but informed by the scientific results.

Perry casts doubts on the scientific results at the first and second levels of the debate because he disagrees with some of the possible answers to the fourth level of the debate. This is an appeal to consequences, a confusion of what the debate is about. As long as that confusion remains, Perry and his detractors will never be arguing about the same thing.

To be fair, while this conflation of issues is common on the political right, the political left sometimes makes the opposite mistake, applying the ”denier” label to someone who accepts the scientific consensus that AGW is real but doesn’t agree with some of the proposed liberal solutions (Cap and Trade, Carbon Taxes, Priuses, etc.).

I don’t know what the best solutions are to fixing the mess we’re getting ourselves into, and I think it’s completely legitimate to debate which of the many possible responses we should take as a society, a nation, a government, and a world. However, I really wish people would stop denying the results of scientific inquiry and accusing scientists of being involved in a massive hoax out of dislike of some of the proposed responses.

In other words, even if you think Al Gore is a complete hypocrite and jerk, that doesn’t mean the people who advise him are liars.

Update: For the record, here’s the statement by Perry that prompted this post:

“The idea that we would put Americans’ economy in jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean, and I told somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said, here is the fact — Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”

Previously, I have written articles in the series on an Intro to JGoodies Forms, Units and Measures with JScience, an Intro to JGoodies Validation, Writing Music in Java: Two Approaches, A Better Date and Time API: Joda Time, Highlights of Apache Commons Lang, Part 1, Highlights of Apache Commons Lang, Part 2, and Project Coin: Small Changes in JDK 7.

Check it out!

So goes the state of American political debate today.

It’s been amazing.

Not only was it amazing to see a peaceful pro-democracy revolution in the biggest nation in the Arab world, but it also was amazing to feel so close to it. I felt close to the action by reading Andy Carvin’s curated Twitter feed of the revolution, reading information about the situation on the ground immediately, hours before CNN and the rest caught up. And I was even able to have short twitter conversations with people on the ground during the battle to ask some (probably naive) questions. While some people are giving undue credit to Twitter and Facebook for the success of the revolution (all the credit goes to the people of Egypt), the new tools of social media let the world into what happened.

Now, of course, is the hard part for Egypt. The military has taken over. People on the ground consider this a good thing because they trust the military to heed their words and deeds and guide the nation to prompt, free, and fair elections that will result in a democratic civil society. In contrast, some on the American right fear that what happened yesterday was simply a military coup. For now, I’m throwing my lot and hope in with the Egyptian people, not with the naysayers like Drudge.

Overall, it’s very interesting so see how the American right is reacting to this:

• In 2003, right-wing pundits said that democracy was such a universal good that we shouldn’t consider any risks involved in bringing it to Iraq by force.
• In 2011, right-wing pundits say that an organic movement towards democracy in Egypt should be feared because the risks are the only thing to consider important.

I definitely recognize that there are risks to American interests in what’s happening, that a movement towards freedom and democracy can be subverted and distorted. However, having the people of Egypt on their own express yearning for values that we share is a wonderful thing, and I think it’s worth the risk. And it’s miles better than the bloody and expensive force we used to try to impose those same values.

So, congratulations, Egypt. You followed the wave started in Tunisia, and I’m excited to see what happens next, even though we don’t know what the aftermath will be.

I have hope.

• In 2007, we went to a game in Milwaukee at which Hank Aaron was being honored, so we got to see The Home Run King speak.
• In 2009, we went to a game at Yankee Stadium at which Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter were being honored, so we got to see Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, Dave Winfield, and other greats give them awards.
• Today, we went to a game at Bush Stadium at which Stan Musial was being honored, so we got to see him and Red Shoendienst (not to mention seeing Albert Pujols play again).

After the ceremony for Stan, I said to Douglas “You’ve been really lucky – you’ve gotten to see Hank Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, and Stan Musial, and you don’t even know who they are.”

And his response?

“And Fredbird!!”

Gee. How could I have forgotten Fredbird?

We’re hoping that he’ll learn about saving, the value of delayed gratification, and charity from this, but maybe that’s too much to expect of a four-year-old.

Douglas gets $4/week ($1 per year of age), independent of chores. He has four banks into which he puts his money:

• 25% that he can spend any way he wants (it’ll probably be candy for a while).
• 25% for charity (church tithe or Ethical Society contribution each week, or another charity)
• 25% for short-term savings (he’ll be able to take money out once it’s been in for a month or so; this isn’t fully defined)
• 25% for long-term savings (theoretically for college)

We saw some schemes in which parents gave the child choice on which bank to use and supplemented with matching funds when the child chose something other than spending money. I like the idea, but I think it’s too much for a four-year-old.

Does anyone have experience with these approaches? Other thoughts?

It’s now been months, and not only is he still Buzz, but he thinks that Matthew is Woody, Jenny is Jessie, and I’m Rex. I thought it was manageable, but now he has Matthew getting mad if we refer to him as “Matthew”.

The four-year-old has convinced the nearly-two-year-old to call himself a cartoon character.

Great.

Eddy and Wally in their cage

So, over the weekend, we adopted two brothers and got pets for the boys. I think they’re going to like their namesakes.

Jenny and the boys welcome Wally