Here’s my original take on the discussion of this at the BBC that’s unfortunately too long for their comment system:

It appears to me that many are missing the whole point of Intelligent Design. It was not dreamt up to be a serious alternative to evolution (it can’t be because it’s not scientifically testable) but to be part of the leaked “Wedge Strategy” by the evangelical “Discovery Institute” to try and undermine science and replace it with a version that is based on Christianity.

There is no attempt at objectivity or experimental verification here, merely an attempt to socially engineer American society to reflect conservative Christian values.

This is not science, not even religion really, just a political tool being used for political ends to try and establish a single religion in the US political system, which the US constitution prohibits.

So, the judge in Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. has ruled that:

“The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”

So now “Intelligent Design” like its parent, Creationism, is now barred from being taught in public schools as an alternative to Evolution in that school district, & a precedent for the rest of the country. Common sense prevails!

Google News has all the reporting.

Via LWN this morning, a disturbing FFII press release about new EU regulations requiring the retention of records about communications. To quote:

Jonas Maebe of the FFII says: “Among other harsh measures, the
directive mandates recording of the source and destination of all
emails you send and every call you make, and your location and
movement during mobile phone calls. Additionally, the directive says
nothing about who has to pay for all this logging, which will
significantly distort the internal telecommunications market.”

and, getting worse:

The gathered data can be made available without special warrants, and
without limit to certain types of crime. There will be no independent
evaluation, and no extra privacy and no specific security safeguards.
The data will be retained for periods ranging from 6 months up to any
duration a member state can convince the Commission of.

The FFII have a permanent link to their press release on their website.

Richard Pryor has died after a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 65.

Found an interesting Q/A from an interview with a journalist covering the Dover School Board Intelligent Design case in the US.

Has any one of these factors in particular—politics, religion, age—been an indicator for which side of the case Dover residents come down on?

Interestingly, the division didn’t conform neatly to any of these lines. One consistent division I noticed, and that I wrote about, was between people who read and trusted the very good local newspapers (nearby York has two, which is pretty unusual for a small American city these days) and those who just didn’t trust them. The plaintiffs were the newspaper readers; the pro-intelligent-design school-board people were the newspaper rejecters.

Sounds like another manifestation of the effect that was found in 2003 that those who relied on Fox News had incorrect perceptions on events surrounding the war in Iraq (PDF, see page 14), such as whether WMD’s were found in Iraq after the war.