Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life on this continent...

Eli was lying about, nattering with Ms. Rabett, competing (in a good natured, fuzzy way) to see who could come up with the news of the wierd item of the day. Now Ms. Rabett is a ferocious consumer of trivia, and Eli is no slouch, and lord knows the INTERNETS bring it right to your door, but the winner was so good that we are seriously reconsidering our Pielke points offer on the grounds that who else could find this stuff for you. From the Seattle Pilot Post-Intelligencer we read

This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."

Why you ask gentle reader, but, of course, this is America, and we have, parents, and those parents know what is good for their little bunnies, and one of them knows that Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth is a Condom for Climate Change:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

As Dr. Ruth says, remember, Always Use Protection (wadda youse expect, this is a family blog).

UPDATE: Steve Bloom pointed out that Eli had the wrong Seattle paper. As he said, clearly the Post-Intelligencer is that paper that HAD to carry this one.

But dear reader, this is just the usual nuttiness in America, here, we have school boards that are positive nuttiness feedback machines. They banned the movie, and why, pray tell, well as one of the board members said

"Somebody could say you're killing free speech, and my retort to them would be we're encouraging free speech," said Larson, a lawyer. "The beauty of our society is we allow debate."

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."

And where would an illustration of clue deficit disease of this magnitude be without that golden oldie from the school board Pres:

Students should hear the perspective of global-warming skeptics and then make up their minds, he said. After they do, "if they think driving around in cars is going to kill us all, that's fine, that's their choice."

Asked whether an alternative explanation for evolution should be presented by teachers, Barney said it would be appropriate to tell students that other beliefs exist. "It's only a theory," he said.

Of course, anyone who knows anything about climate change is anti-American

"From what I've seen (of the movie) and what my husband has expressed to me, if (the movie) is going to take the approach of 'bad America, bad America,' I don't think it should be shown at all," Gayle Hardison said. "If you're going to come in and just say America is creating the rotten ruin of the world, I don't think the video should be shown."

The kids have a clue

"I think that a movie like that is a really great way to open people's eyes up about what you can do and what you are doing to the planet and how that's going to affect the human race," said Kenna Patrick, a senior at Jefferson High School.

When it comes to the idea of presenting global warming skeptics, Patrick wasn't sure how necessary that would be. She hadn't seen the movie but had read about it and would like to see it.

"Watching a movie doesn't mean that you have to believe everything you see in it," she said.

UPDATE: As a high school teaching anonymouse in the comments says, the kids are open, when do they take their stupid pills and turn into adults. More importantly how do you get out of the line. Inquiring minds wish to know