The eight year old girl who was trying to get the South Carolina legislature to make the woolly mammoth the state fossil has reason to be happy today: the ass of a state senator who was trying to insert Bible quotes into the bill, effectively killing it, has withdrawn his obstructionist amendment.
He said he removed his objection after another senator told him the story of how an 8-year-old Lake City girl had written to lawmakers suggesting the mammoth as the state fossil because fossilized mammoth teeth had been discovered in a swamp in the state in 1725.
Yeah, right. More like he saw that he was being perceived as the sanctimonious ogre who beats up on little girls, and withdrew in the face of withering scorn.
is it too late to nominate bryant as the state fossil?
FWIW, the senator removing the objection isn’t the senator that added the creationist words, so it’s plausible he didn’t know the story already. They’re both creationists that played political games with the bill though, so it’s not worth much.
“the ass of a state senator who was trying to insert Bible quotes into the bill…”
Objection: Long back as a part of a project, I’ve dealt with dozens of asses (E. hemionus). And they are way more intelligent than the above described senator. Or are we talking of a different ass?
In other secularism news. (UK) NSS’s Secularist of the Year award has gone to Turkish MP, Safak Pavey. And well-deserved it is, too, so congrats to her.
Isn’t Equus hemionus the half-ass?
QFT. , unless it becomes politically inconvenient to do so… and nothing tugs at the public’s collective heartstrings better than an 8 year old white girl.
@Daz #4
It certainly looks like she deserves it :) Huzzah for Safak.
I think we should try and find a friendly paleotologist and get him/her to name their next fossil find after Olivia. Gary Larson has an owl louse named after him
Now if only Gohmert Pile will realize that the idea of separation of church and state is to keep the church OUT of the state and not just vise versa.
Excellent. Congratulations, Olivia!
Congratulations, Olivia!
I went to U of South Carolina back in the ’80s when Mike Fair was on the Board of Governors. He made some big splash trying to ban all opposite sex visitation on campus that failed when it was demonstrated that doing so would bankrupt the dorms (nobody would live on campus). It looks like he’s still up to his old tricks.
“the sanctimonious ogre who beats up on little girls”
Well he could always stop being sanctimonious and stop beating up on little girls – unless that’s the Christian thing to do.
No fair! He already had the thagomizer. Now an owl louse!
Chengis Khan @3
Really? I’ve never looked up the scientific name for asses, but really? Their specific name actually means “half-ass”?
I overrule your objection. Horse’s half-ass could hardly be more applicable.
David Marjanović
Sorry! Should have read the rest of the thread first.
Being perceived as a sanctimonious ogre may be a bad thing in Atheistia, but down in Jesusland it’s a vote-winner. There must be something else at work.
He was obviously going after the gay vote. Think how dorm prices would plummet.
I don’t know (the hemi- part is suggestive, but I don’t understand the rest). In German, however, Equus hemionus is in fact sometimes called “half-donkey” – Halbesel – because it has a few more specifically horse-like features.