Tuesday morning

Good morning and happy Tuesday. There's no live chat today on TroxBlog -- we'll pick up again with chats after the holidays, probably on Tuesday, Jan. 8 -- the world will have resumed by then and there should be lots to talk about.

My print column today (Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander) is about the right to petition in St. Pete Beach, a charming barrier-island burg in Pinellas County that has been wracked by division these past couple of years. Each side, when it has held power, has tried to block the other from using the right to petition to put their ideas on the ballot.

Also:

* There's a difference, news-wise, between these School Board members launching an actual own campaign to teach intelligent design, and just stating their off-the-cuff opinions on the topic... it is interesting to see what they have to say, but unless they are proposing to hijack the curriculum, it is, uh, academic.

* I was interested to see this editorial about Clearwater's tough rules on signs for business. It struck a note with me, since I wrote a column in early 2005 about a good charity that was having similar troubles.

* Now that it's working, anyone want to bet on how long before it's shut down again because of problems?

* P.S. -- If you were really, really saving up a question for a chat today, put it in the comments of this announcement... I'll check in during the day.

Comments

[Jonny Anonny]

I am deeply, deeply disturbed that these folks are on the School Board.

How can Peggy O'Shea's comments regarding science -- science! -- be read as anything but utter lunacy?

"I'd probably ideally like to keep it all out of the classroom," she said. "If it's going to create this much controversy, how important is it?"

Nearly 2008 and we're having a debate -- ostensibly a serious one -- about whether science should be taught in the classroom?

Howard, I don't understand it. Why can't science -- and despite Mrs. Bostock's protestations, there are actual *facts* to bolster the science -- be taught in the Pinellas County school classroom and religion be taught in the Sunday School classroom?

[Booger]

This is what happens when we elect “Party Puppets” to our School Boards. This issue is riding Party lines, just as in the national “Political” races. It’s a diversion from the Choice (re-segregation) issue that will be postponed (prediction) today… until “After” the elections in ’08.

If there’s one place we need “LESS” politics, it’s in our classrooms. I don’t recall ever seeing a “God or Darwin” question on an application for employment.

Stop the freaking madness, and focus of teaching our children how to read, write, and do arithmetic. I’m hip with sports and the arts to help with the tedium, put leave politics in the civics class.

[Kay]

Children do not live in soundproof booths. Even if it's not in the curriculum, don't you think questions will come up? Considering so many people, even non-christians, believe in intelligent design.

[Drew Smith]

Kay writes: "Children do not live in soundproof booths. Even if it's not in the curriculum, don't you think questions will come up? Considering so many people, even non-christians, believe in intelligent design."

Many people believe in astrology, ghosts, and alien abduction, too, but does that mean that those things should automatically be covered in public school science curricula? Are you going to use "many people believe" as the criterion for inclusion?