Bluestem continues to find skeletons of a sort in Minnesota House District 47A Republican primary candidate Bob Frey's closet, and this time it's literally a bone.
On January 24, 2004, St. Paul Pioneer Press staff writer John Welsh reported in "Debate Over Science Opens; Critics Weigh in on Teaching Evolution":
The state science standards' strong endorsement of evolution was criticized Friday by those who say it goes too far, while defenders said the proposal reflects a consensus of scientific thought today.
Critics of evolution at a state Capitol hearing ranged from a Minnetonka school board member who wanted the standards to reflect scientific disagreement on the theory to a Norwood father who used the prop of a 42-inch replica of a bone -- which he said was a femur of a 12- to 16-foot-tall human -- to show that scientists have gotten it wrong.
The evolution debate was part of a seven-hour state Senate hearing Friday at the Capitol on proposed standards for science and social studies. The Legislature goes into session Feb. 2, and lawmakers are expected to act on the new standards this spring.
Friday's discussion was relatively mild, compared to recent standards debates, but after listening to testimony from a range of speakers, Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, said he was convinced the standards needed work.
"They are not passable in their current form," the chairman of the Senate Education Committee said. "There is too much dispute."
Education Commission Cheri Pierson Yecke defended the standards saying the criticism heard Friday was not backed up with the facts.
Last fall earlier versions of the standards in social studies prompted heated debate from critics who accused Yecke's committee of writing standards that were too conservative and missing crucial parts of American history.
The new version released last month still is producing criticism, though it is much less politically charged. Opponents, including representatives from St. Paul and Minneapolis school districts, complained the standards are too detailed and too lengthy and represent a state-mandated curriculum.
While much of the criticism of the social studies standards has come from those with a liberal perspective or from established school groups, opponents of the science standards appear mostly from the other side of the political spectrum.
Robert Frey of Norwood, who opened his testimony by plunking the large femur bone replica on the witness table, said the standards represent a "false and humanistic worldview" and "pseudo-science."
The bone, he said, represented an example of the large-size humans that once roamed earth, which he considers about 6,000 years old.
Frey linked the teaching of evolution to increasing teenage sexual activity and a decrease in college-entrance exam scores. . . . (Nexis All News, accessed June 13, 2014)
We found more detailed information about that bone cached at a Zoominfo snapshot of Dave Eaton and Intelligent Design a post at the now Tonka Focus website (emphasis in original):
Mr. Frey testifies that rising societal violence is equated with the teaching of evolution; he brought his plastic replica of a femur bone from a giant human, which he believes shows that humans lived with dinosaurs at the beginning of creation. Mr. Frey argued that nothing in science came about without the intervention of a divine creator.
Update: The audio of Frey's 2004 testimony begins here at 1:15:15. We're working on getting video, as the posted video file is in a format that doesn't seem supported by available media players. Around 1:23:40, Frey states that Minnesota has "a unique opportunity" to teach "real science" instead of defending "destructive alternate lifestyles with false science" Listen at the link above, where he correlates teaching evolution with increased teen STD rates, lower SAT scores, teen pregnancy, and teen suicide.
"Dinosaurs have always lived with man, Frey says beginning at 1:28:57. End Update
Where have we heard about dinosaurs and humans living at the same time? From none other than Allen Quist, as Tim Murphy reported in If You Thought Michele Bachmann Was Out There... when Quist was running for congress in 2012.
There are more connections here: Quist endorsed Aaron Miller, the endorsed Republican CD1 candidate from Byron who drew national attention with his remarks about teaching evolution in schools. Byron must be a hotbed for this sort of thing, since Duane Quam, now a state representative himself, was one of four members of the science standards committee who offered a minority report urging that the notion of intelligent design be included in the standards along with the teaching of evolution.
Minnesotans may remember that the DFL Senate failed to confirm Yecke's appointment in May 2004, after divisiveness marked her tenure. However, even Yecke repudiated Frey's nonsense.
We'll have more on Frey on Monday.
Illustration: A cartoon illustrating the cartoon creationism of Bob Frey.
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