The misleadingly named Louisiana Science Education Act has scientists worldwide chucking at the Bayou State's expense.
Mention the Louisiana Science Education Act around actual scientists and you're likely to get one of three responses: a laugh, a groan or a sigh. Laughter was the first choice of members of the Botanical Society of America during a Monday symposium in New Orleans as they watched a YouTube video of state Sen. Elbert Guillory's ridiculously humorous "witch doctor" comment during a hearing this past legislative session on repealing the creationism-friendly law, according to an account in The Times-Picayune.
In fact, however, the entire symposium was devoted to somberly criticizing the law, which allows science teachers to introduce "supplemental" material into curricula questioning everything from evolution to global climate change to cloning. It's no coincidence that the powerful, evangelical Louisiana Family Forum was the biggest supporter of the law signed in 2008 by panderer-in-chief Bobby Jindal, who just this past April told NBC News he has no problem with creationism being taught alongside actual science in actual science classes.
Our fave LSEA gadfly, Zack Kopplin, was a guest speaker at the symposium. Read all about it here.