There's a lot of grist in this story from today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporting that a complaint from a parent has prompted a school in Federal Way to restrict the showing of Al Gore's movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. Here's part of the text of the email complaint:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

It seems like Hardison's email might have edited to make that last statement look as foolish as possible, but nevertheless it's the kind of statement that leaves you speechless.

But on the other extreme, check out the response of Laurie David (the co-producer of the movie) to news the school board has decided to treat global warming as a "controversial subject" thus requiring teachers who want to show Gore's film in class to also show or present an alternative view of the subject to students:

"I am shocked that a school district would come to this decision," David said in a prepared statement. "There is no opposing view to science, which is fact, and the facts are clear that global warming is here, now."

I happen to think there is merit to the argument of global warming, not only because of the science but also because a beneficial by-product of the global warming issue is to provide additional, compelling reasons for America to speed the switch to alternative fuel sources as quickly as possible, which I consider a vital component of long-term U.S. national security.

Nevertheless, for Ms. David to arrogantly assert "there is no opposing view to science" when she knows there is legitimate disagreement about the science behind the claim of global warming itself is nearly as bad as the guy who claims the world is only 14,000 years old.