What will happen with the differing versions of the deceptively named “academic freedom” bills now? (The two pages we need to keep an eye on are this one (House) and this one (Senate).)Â The Senate and House approved very different versions of the bill, and each bill sponsor seems convinced his or her own version is the best one. With four days left, it’s a good bet that the House version will get nowhere in the Senate. But the Tampa Tribune reports that Senator Storms might be able to ship her version back to the House for a second look.
Monday evening, Hays said he thinks his version is the better one, but he will try to pass the original bill. He had not polled House members about it yet, he said, but is hoping that the Senate will send back the bill quickly and that House leaders will give him ample time to persuade enough Republicans to vote for Storms’ version.
“Our Democratic colleagues are vociferous in their opposition” to either plan, Hays said, but “I believe we can bring this home.”
Asked about the possibility of a last-minute save for the legislation during this final week of session, Storms said, “I believe in miracles.”
However, the St. Petersburg Times got a quote from the House majority whip, who notes that the House lawmakers aren’t crazy about the Senate version:
But Monday’s lengthy debate on the House floor might have been all for naught anyway.
Legislative procedure requires that the House bill now go back to the Senate for consideration.
Unless lawmakers there accept it, the bill cannot go to the governor to sign into law.
Storms said Monday that she knows her chamber won’t pass Hays’ proposal, so she will ask the House to consider and vote on her version.
“I have no choice,” she said. “And I believe in miracles.”
Hays said he’ll try to get Storms’ bill heard before session ends Friday, but he conceded it will take “a lot of lifting.”
Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, House majority whip, said there is “not much appetite” in the House for Storms’ proposal.
“I think we made our position clear already,” she said. “The members are uncomfortable with the Senate version.”
So, we have to pin our hopes on the conflict between the House and Senate lasting four days. With larger issues looming before the legislators in a short time frame, I like our chances. A few phone calls to House Republicans expressing your opposition to the Senate bill couldn’t hurt, though.
“Asked about the possibility of a last-minute save for the legislation during this final week of session, Storms said, “I believe in miracles.â€
This is not about religion, no sir it’s about errrr freedom and and and scared teachers and and democracy, did you see Expelled?nothing to do with my personal religious convictions!!! SURE.
Amen Jonathan! LOL.
Think of it this way: Storms has, at last, told us what “alternatives” to evolution she expects to be taught.
This is my “ripple of evil”. First it is science, then what subject? Is math going to be deemed “godless” because it was used before the advent of chritianity? And the peoples who used it worshiped “pagan” and “untrue” gods- oh no! Then they [religious right] will try to make the bible mandatory reading in literature class.
I heard this this morning. Let’s hope the 4 days fly by quickly.
Maybe we should ask that if they insist on passing this nonsense, they at least tack on an amendment requiring the schools teach our children to say “Would you like fries with that?” in Mandarin.
Why does this debate always get linked to Baptist organizations? Seems like it was this way for our founding fathers as well. I found this on wikipedia
The phrase “separation of church and state” is derived from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to a group identifying themselves as the Danbury Baptists. In that letter, referencing the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Jefferson writes:
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” [11]
I’ve been looking, but there’s no news at all on these bills today. What’s going on?
“The phrase “separation of church and state†is derived from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to a group identifying themselves as the Danbury Baptists.”
Ah, but in those days the Baptists LIKED the separation of church and state. Jefferson was assuring them that they would be protected from any attempt by the Federal government to establish an official “church of the United States,” similar to a number of the states that still had established religions at the time.
It seems to me that all of creationism–including ID–is about bringing “miracles” into science.
@robert … The Danbury Baptists were appealing to Thomas Jefferson,s because sense of freedom. They were being forced to pay taxes to the Catholic Church even though they were not Catholic. Doesn’t sound like freedom of religion, does it? They pleaded with him to take action. He did, and wrote the now famous letter which call for a wall of separation of church and state.
Although I’m not a certified teacher, I will be petitioning the Boca Raton school systems to let me teach a class called “Miracles and Pop Culture”. The only course material will be Hello Kitty, unicorns, trolls (the ones with the big hair), and lots of kittens. Oh, and I’ll ask Rep. Storms to teach us advanced physics.
I’m sure the latter will definitely be a miracle.
(Thank you for making our state even dumber than the last one I lived in…Alabama).
This just in from the Anti-Defamation League …
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5277_52.htm
P.S. I just read over my last post. Yikes – I’ll try to do a better job “prufereeding” in the future. 🙂
Well, Green Earth, I think math will be safe. After all, the Bible says pi = 3. That’s close enough, right? 😉
Bugger! My car tires just went down!
Oh…it’s ok…they’re only flat on the bottom 🙂
Rose- YES!
Teach the contorversy
pi = 3 1 Kings 7:23-26
Not all Baptists fall in lock-step with the “academic freedom” antievolution crowd. Here is an insightful review of Expelled from a mainline Baptist organization:
http://www.baptists4ethics.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10385