Anti-science adventures: Stein, Ahmanson, & Fuentes

.....As I’m sure you are aware, some right-wingers are atwitter over the release of Ben Stein’s anti-science movie, Expelled. Being a hilarious guy, Stein has done a tour of college campuses with his flick. It’s now in theaters, where it isn’t doing as well as Stein & the knuckle-draggers had hoped.
.....Here are excerpts from a review of the movie that appeared in Scientific American a week or so ago: Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed:

.....In the new science-bashing movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein and the rest of the filmmakers sincerely and seriously argue that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution paved the way for the Holocaust. By "seriously," I mean that Ben Stein acts grief-stricken and the director juxtaposes quotes from evolutionary biologists with archival newsreel clips from Hitler's Reich….
.....No one could have been more surprised than I when the producers called, unbidden, offering Scientific American's editors a private screening. Given that our magazine's positions on evolution and intelligent design (ID) creationism reflect those of the scientific mainstream (that is, evolution: good science; ID: not science), you have to wonder why they would bother. It's not as though anything in Expelled would have been likely to change our views. And they can't have been looking for a critique of the science in the movie, because there isn't much to speak of.
.....Rather, it seems a safe bet that the producers hope a whipping from us would be useful for publicity…..
.....Unfortunately, Expelled is a movie not quite harmless enough to be ignored. Shrugging off most of the film's attacks—all recycled from previous pro-ID works—would be easy, but its heavy-handed linkage of modern biology to the Holocaust demands a response for the sake of simple human decency.
…..
.....…Stein explains that he is speaking out because he has "lately noticed a dire trend" that threatens the state of our nation: the ascendance of godless, materialist, evolutionary science and an unwillingness among academics to consider more theistic alternatives. … He and Expelled charge that scientists, in their rejection of religious explanations, have become as intolerant as Nazis….
…..
.....I should note that Stein and Expelled rarely refer to "scientists" as I did—they call them Darwinists. Similarly, this review may have already used the word "evolution" about as often as the whole of Expelled does; in the movie, it is always Darwinism. The term is a curious throwback, because in modern biology almost no one relies solely on Darwin's original ideas—most researchers would call themselves neo-Darwinian if they bothered to make the historical connection at all because evolutionary science now encompasses concepts as diverse as symbiosis, kin selection and developmental genetics….
.....Expelled then trots out some of the people whom it claims have been persecuted by the Darwinist establishment. First among them is Richard Sternberg, former editor of the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington…. Sternberg tells Stein that he subsequently lost his editorship….
.....What most viewers of Expelled may not realize—because the film doesn't even hint at it—is that Sternberg's case is not quite what it sounds. Biologists criticized Sternberg's choice to publish [an ID] paper not only because it supported ID but also because Sternberg approved it by himself rather than sending it out for independent expert review. He didn't lose his editorship; he published the paper in what was already scheduled to be his last issue as editor. He didn't lose his job at the Smithsonian; his appointment there as an unpaid research associate had a limited term, and when it was over he was given a new one. His office move was scheduled before the paper ever appeared… And so on.
.....…The movie's one-sided version is either the result of shoddy investigation or deliberate propagandizing—neither of which reflects well on the other information in the film.
.....So it is with the rest of Expelled's parade of victims. Caroline Crocker, a biology teacher, was allegedly dismissed from her position at George Mason University after merely mentioning ID; the film somehow never reports exactly what she said or why anyone objected to it. Reporter Pamela Winnick was supposedly pilloried and fired after she wrote objectively about evolution and ID; we don't know exactly what she wrote but later we do hear her asserting with disgust that "Darwinism devalues human life." The film forgot to mention that Winnick is the author of the book A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion—a title that suggests her objectivity on the subject might be a bit tarnished.
.....The movie's unreliable reporting is even more obvious during the scene in which Stein interviews Bruce Chapman, the president of the Discovery Institute, the institutional heart of ID advocacy. Stein asks whether the Discovery Institute has supported the teaching of ID in science classes so avidly because it is trying to sneak religion back into public schools. Chapman says no and the film blithely takes him at his word. No mention is made of the notorious "Wedge" document, a leaked Discovery Institute manifesto that outlined a strategy of opposing evolution and turning the public against scientific materialism as the first step toward making society more politically conservative and theistic. Maybe Ben Stein didn't think it was relevant, but wouldn't an honest film have trusted its audience to judge for itself? [END]

..... The chief financial backer of the Discovery Institute is, of course, Orange County’s own Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a close (and filthy-rich) friend of trustee Tom Fuentes (both are on the Claremont Institute board of directors and Bible Study Group).
.....As we’ve reported previously, Ahmanson is a Christian Reconstructionist, i.e., someone who seeks to apply “the general principles of Old Testament and New Testament moral law and case laws in the appropriate family, church and/or civil government.” Christian Reconstructionists further believe “that God's kingdom began at the first coming of Jesus Christ, and will advance throughout history until it fills the whole earth through conversion to the Christian faith….”
.....(Ahmanson is a disciple of Rousas John Rushdoony, who wrote: "...Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies....")
.....Fuentes is on the board of a right-wing publisher that puts out anti-evolution books such as Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? See "Kill It or Grill It"—and other Fuentean titles.

Help me count these beans

.....I admit it. When it comes to fiscal matters, I’m pretty clueless.
.....Occasionally, I hear our union leaders carp about the huge pile of money the trustees are sitting on, thanks to our “Basic Aid” gravy train—apparently, the SOCCCD is nearly unique among cc districts with regard to funding. We’re rolling in dough, they say, and yet the colleges are kept on miserly budgets. And why no raises for faculty? And why are these trustees squirreling away so much of the taxpayers’ money? “It’s obscene,” they say.
.....I guess so. I’m trying to find somebody to explain all of this.
.....I try to follow the bouncing Basic Aid ball, but it isn’t easy. Every time somebody explains that funding model, they make it sound as though budget cuts in Sacramento don’t affect us, since we get our money from local property taxes, not as an allocation from state budget money earmarked for community colleges.
.....OK. I get it. Or do I?
.....A few days ago (April 14), we received state budget news from Tracy Daly. Evidently, the district has been sent an “update” written by Robert Blattner, which was attached to Tracy’s email. The upshot seems to be that April tax collections are “down.” The news is bad and will continue to be bad, budgetwise.
.....But wait! The SOCCCD is a Basic Aid district. That means we get most of our funding from local property tax, not from the state via money budgeted for community colleges. Isn’t that how it goes?
.....Maybe so. After laying out the grim April tax facts, Blattner presents what he takes to be an even more “solid” fact:

According to a just-made-public survey of County assessors…, statewide growth in local property tax revenue for the budget year is sharply below earlier projections. The survey, which included most of the state’s counties and all of its large ones, projects a 4.5 percent growth between current and budget years, compared to the 7 percent forecast by the Administration…. This news doesn’t affect school districts directly (except for Basic Aid districts, which receive their local property taxes instead of revenue limit funding).

.....Blattner is saying that the bad news about property taxes does directly affect us. OK, I get that.
.....In her email, Tracy quotes the Chancellor:

“At this point, the State budget shortfall is being projected at $22 Billion. It is anticipated that the budget will get worse as the State receives the tax filings by April 15 and homeowners increasingly request reappraisal of their property taxes due to the declining housing market.”

.....--OK, I get the “homeowner” part. We’re Basic Aid. But is there any reason why the budget Stinkeroo should affect us, beyond the property tax situation?
.....Tracy (Mathur?) goes on to say:

The Orange County Community Colleges Legislative Task Force is working to communicate to legislators our concern over proposed cuts to community colleges, and gathering support letters to present to the Governor. More information will be sent out on this campaign soon.

.....--Yeah, but we’ve gotta be the odd duck in that crowd, right? These other districts aren’t Basic Aid, and so they’ve got to worry about these cuts. Not us. We are Basic Aid. What we want isn’t quite what everybody else wants, right?
.....Help me out here.
.....Tracy finishes with:

Board Vice President John Williams and Chancellor Mathur will be in Sacramento tomorrow [i.e., on the 15th, last Tuesday] to join the Community College League of California in speaking with legislators about the budget.

.....But, again, among this delegation, we’re odd man out, right? Insofar as SOCCCD is concerned, we don’t care about no stinkin’ state budget, right?
.....I figure that, if this is confusing to me, it’s likely confusing to other folks too. So maybe some of you out there can enlighten the benighted—in plain English. I’d appreciate it.