The Arkansas Times breaks an important story this week in the national war against science and reason, this time in the state's public schools:

Teachers at [a geology teacher's] facility are forbidden to use the "e-word" (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word "adaptation" but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term "natural selection."

"I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old."

Arkansas kids will be dumb as rocks if the state keeps this up. As my friend Tony says, "it's like the Enlightenment never happened."