I try to keep faith in the innate good sense of the American people, and then I come across this recent poll of voters in Mississippi and Alabama and I know despair.  66% of people in Mississippi do not believe in evolution.  The number 60% in Alabama.

The press mostly nattered about the other finding in this poll that most people in those states thought President Obama was a Muslim.  I  found that less terrifying then the evolution question.  The hate this president, and to call him Muslim is a way to say he’s different without having to refer to the thing that really makes him different to them — his race.

How are we going to continue to be a country that creates and innovates when broad swathes of the citizenry doesn’t accept scientific fact?