NASA Should Allow for Intelligent Design

[Watchman]

Redleg has a point.
Now I hate *both* of the twerps.

[Lemur]

Mea culpa, I grabbed the wrong article. Linked it and everything, didn't stop to check. Let this be a lesson to children everywhere -- sleeplessness and posting don't mix.

[Redleg]

Mea culpa, I grabbed the wrong article. Linked it and everything, didn't stop to check. Let this be a lesson to children everywhere -- sleeplessness and posting don't mix.

That is why I mentioned it, in the article mentioned in the first link George Deutsch seems to be an over-eager enforcer of the Public Affairs edit button. You know the type that wants all the i dotted, and t crossed before an article goes out.

So I don't know if he is just an over-eager brand new straight out of college public affairs officer, or is he what you are attempting to paint him as with such a broad brush stroke.


First link article only has this to say about the young man

In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times.

Your other link takes me to a blog, where the linked article refers to the same post that I took this quote off of. So before I go condemning this young man as a religious extremists - lets see more proof of his extremist behavior in more neutral and somewhat more credible press - not the one-side blogs.

In otherwords please provide the link for this complete quote - because the link provided does not have it.

The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements.

In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."

It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in all NASA documents.

The Deutsch memo was provided by an official at NASA headquarters who said he was upset with the effort to justify changes to descriptions of science by referring to politically charged issues like intelligent design. Senior NASA officials did not dispute the message's authenticity

Second edit: I did find this blog - with the New York Times link - but it requires a subscribtion which I won't do.

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/20...e_deutsch.html

Okay actually found it complete at this link

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/ap...YT02/602040354

Conclusion - knucklehead 24 year old that is both over-eager in making a name for himself as public affairs specialists, and not suited for the job that he has taken. However in his defense asking the NASA scientist to add the word theory was correct - even according to his boss.

The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in all NASA documents.