The good news about this barren part of the state is that, economically, we're alright thanks to strong oil and agriculture markets. I live in the state's largest oil-producing county, unemployment is just about non-existent (in fact we're begging for workers), and as the article in the Guardian notes, most of us have a "live and let live" mentality.

Not so much a local church, though. The Hays Celebration Community Church and its radio station at 98.5 FM are sponsoring "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" next Saturday (November 1st) at the fabulously retro Fox Theater. The student-oriented radio station, which calls itself "The Truth," deserves low marks for sponsoring a movie which is so devoid of truth. (This Christian radio station also carries spots from local teachers who announce "Hi, I'm (name), a teacher at (public school), and this is my favorite radio station." That's a battle for another day.)

The timing of this showing is interesting; three days after the movie, Larry Salmans hopes to regain his former State Senate seat from current State Senator Janis Lee (D). Salmans introduced a so-called "Academic Freedom" bill in the Kansas Senate in 2003.

Readers will recall that these types of bills, promoted by the Discovery Institute, give legal protection to science teachers who present intelligent design, creationism, astrology, and Raelianism as legitimate science. Louisiana - with their bottom-ranked educational system - passed similar legislation this summer despite objections from all national and state science organizations. "Expelled" is a Michael Moore-ish attempt to persuade state legislators in the U.S. to promote and pass just such legislation.

I'm speculating that this church-sponsored showing is part of an effort to get Larry Salmans elected, as the pastor of the sponsoring church has a history of telling his congregation how to vote. You can listen to yesterday's sermon, "The Conflict Between Evolution and Intelligent Design."

Thankfully, we'll have an "Expelled: Exposed" session at 3:00 pm next Sunday afternoon in the Hays Public Library Gallery designed to help counter some of the misinformation presented in the movie. Kansas Citizens for Science president Harry McDonald will give a brief presentation, then others will lead small group discussion. We're indebted to Harry for making that looooong journey out here.

(Any Haysians who'd like to watch "Expelled" in the company of scientists should give me a call; we're putting together a function that includes margaritas.)