Today's news:

The fiercely split Kansas Board of Education voted 6 to 4 on Tuesday to adopt new science standards that are the most far-reaching in the nation in requiring that Darwin's theory of evolution be challenged in the classroom.

The standards press beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by recommending that schools teach specific points that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education.

Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations.

I suppose we'll just have to defer to the Kansas school board about what science is from now on.

When someone writes the next piece puzzling over reasons Republicans seem to be unable to make it in academia - and in science, as the data suggests - I hope they turn to this as one of the main reasons. If your party overwhelmingly comes from states where they teach you garbage in school, its hardly surprising that you don't amount to much in the world of ideas.