NPS update

A couple of weeks ago (December 29, to be exact), I posted about the flap generated by the National Park Service's intention to change a video shown at the Lincoln Memorial by removing images of gay and lesbian rights demos that occurred there and adding scenes of conservative demos (even though they had taken place somewhere else) in the interest of "balance."

The good folks at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), who publicized the plan, noted at the time another example of the NPS's direction: including a book offering a creationist rationale for the Grand Canyon in the park's bookstore.

That book has now drawn the kind of attention it didn't crave. The Guardian (UK) for Friday says that the book's claim that the Grand Canyon was formed by the Biblical flood a few thousands years ago

has prompted the American Geological Institute and seven scientific bodies to flood the National Park Service with complaints calling for the book to be removed from the shop.

As a result, while it is being reordered,

its display has been moved from the natural sciences section to "inspirational reading".

Exactly what it's supposed to inspire other than ignorance is unclear.