Charles R Darwin, is there anything good in Missouri? Came across this link via Richard Dawkins’ twitter. Briefly, Smith-Cotton High School’s marching band created the above t-shirt for its players to wear to promote their fall program. No sooner had the band debuted the t-shirts at the Missouri State Fair parade when complaints by “concerned parents” (including the eponymous Sherry Melby) trickled in.

The public school, naturally enough, caved in and forced the band members to turn in their shirts. What really had me blowing milk out my nose was the statement by Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt: “The district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned. If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s rewind here, people. “WHERE RELIGION IS CONCERNED”? Where does this knuckle-dragging, boneheaded jerkwad get off conflating “magical zombie man myth for retards” with “the observable fact of changes in populations of biological organisms over time”?

And Melby’s statement that “[she] [doesn't] think evolution should be associated with our school.” is hilarious. Imagine! The horror! Associating BASIC SCIENCE with an institution tasked with the instruction of young people in same! How could the local board of education live with itself?

The answer to that question is, sadly, “pretty easily”. I’ll pass the baton of outrage to PZ Myers on this one. I’ve got milk to buy.