America is failing because we do not want to achieve greatness in the world of science.  We complain that jobs go overseas, but there is no one to blame but ourselves.  When we demanded all of our clothes and toiletries be Wal-Mart cheap, everyone followed the Wal-Mart way and bought the cheapest products they could from overseas.  For better or worse that was the trade off we made and it switched us from a manufacturing economy to a service economy.  People now sell goods, rather than make them and our lifestyle adjusted.

The same thing is happening within our education system.  We used to teach pure science for the purpose of teaching science.  No matter what your personal beliefs were you were required to learn the general scientific principals of life, the universe and everything.  This is what let us keep the top scientific and high tech jobs in this country.  We were about science.  Through complacency we have allowed our education system to be manipulated by conservative Christian elements.

A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash - NYTimes.com

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — David Campbell switched on the overhead projector and wrote “Evolution” in the rectangle of light on the screen.
Daron Dean for The New York Times

…in a nation where evangelical Protestantism and other religious traditions stress a literal reading of the biblical description of God’s individually creating each species, students often arrive at school fearing that evolution, and perhaps science itself, is hostile to their faith.

Some come armed with “Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution,” a document circulated on the Internet that highlights supposed weaknesses in evolutionary theory. Others scrawl their opposition on homework assignments. Many just tune out.

This is a good demonstration of how we went from being a clear leader in the sciences to falling behind the likes Japan, Korea, and India.  The more we get away from teaching science, real science not science as determined by religious committee, the harder it will be to get companies with an interest in those sciences to invest in our country.  We have not yet lost this educational war, but we will if we don’t stand up to challenge the fundamentalist crusade against science.

I know there are those moderates who are really asking how teaching alternatives to evolution hurts.  You say that the religious right make a valid argument about it being only fair and logical that alternatives to evolution be taught.  Here is the problem with that logical argument, alternatives to evolution are not taught. Creationism no matter how you package and re-title it is first off isn’t science and nor does it allow you quest for more information.  With (un)Intelligent Design the answer is because that is the way the designer made it, now shut up and quit asking questions because the answer is always going to be the same.

There are alternatives to strict Darwinian theory which itself only gets glossed over in public schools, but we don’t teach them either.  We say Darwin came up with the theory here are a few of his notions and then we move along.  There are literally hundreds if not thousands of scientific theories about evolution, but the one thing they all agree on is living organisms evolve.  These theories are just as unwelcome by those who would have us throw away our scientific future.

(Scientific Answers to The Ten Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher.)

Unemployment rate hits 4-year high as job losses continue - Aug. 1, 2008

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers cut jobs in July for the seventh straight month, while the unemployment rate hit a four-year high, according to a government report released Friday.

This is not surprising at all.  Locally I have seen way too many retail and fast food businesses going under.  Part of this has been do to the rapid expansion in these areas and keeping them understaffed while overworking the few employees they maintain.  Lack of insight into the human behavior, poor management and the general economic down turn has truly hampered many of these businesses.  I expect the trend will continue.

The best example of how dense some of these companies are can be seen in my small 40k person town.  Currently in a three mile radius There is a K-mart, Super Wal-mart, Target, and a Super Miejers.  None of the stores show any outward signs of doing well, and I have inside information that both the superstores are losing money hand over fist.  Despite those issues Target is planning a new superstore of their own right between the other two despite having just done a multi-million dollar remodel.  If trends continue, the currently understaffed Target will add fifty percent more floor space yet not increase their staff.  Any lay person can see this won’t work, but somewhere in the minds of mid level executives they obviously are too afraid of losing marketshares to understand you can’t build up when your base is a fragile house of cards.

If that wasn’t enough of an example of over reaching another local area will be getting three new McDonalds in a five mile radius.  Inside that radius they already have two stand alone stores, and two more inside of Wal-Marts.  Why might they think they need the extra stores?  The reason is obvious to them, blot out your competetion.  These new stores are all going in next to existing or new fast food restaurants.  Maintaining market shares at the expense of profits and employee retention is short sighted and likely to result in the further economic of already depressed areas.