Well, this is good news, I guess. Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery (mostly given the fact that she gave birth to a child two years after she and her husband divorced), has been spared.

What’s weird, though, is that she’s not being spared because burying someone up to her neck in sand and stoning her to death is a ridiculous punishment for any crime, especially a nonviolent one. She’s being spared because of procedural errors in the case, probabably because of the amount of international protest the case has sparked, and also, her lawyer argued, because it is believed in the strict Islamic law being followed that, “babies can remain in gestation in a mother’s womb for five years, opening the possibility her ex-husband could have fathered the child.”

This makes me want to scream and take notes at the same time.

Hi, this is Deana, your Michigan correspondant, writing with a report from the field. Despite all the supporting evidence, it turns out, according to this Detroit News editorial, that the theory of evolution is “an antiquated, unproven teaching theory”. Oh, I see. It also says that evolution “fails (the) test” of being a “genuine scientific theor(y)”. Ah. Unlike intelligent design, which “can and has been proved scientifically.” I’m learning so much here in Michigan!

It is so, so, so awful. I’ll finish this despairing rant with another quote, “Some Michigan educators have already vowed to fight intelligent design. One Grand Rapids Community College biology professor called it “embarrassing.” But the theory that we “evolved” from apes isn’t?”

Oh, joy.