Politicians Dealing With Really Important Matters

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The Kansas State Capitol: Where we just spent $200 million to fix the
leaking roof and the roof still leaks.
Photo: Destination 360
The deficit? The war in Afghanistan? The poor showing in science among America's school children? These are the vital issues our elected representatives are fighting over, right?

Nope.

This is what the Kansas legislature is fighting over:

On Monday, state Reps. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, and Don Hineman, R-Dighton, introduced a bill to declare the fossil of the Xiphactinus audax the official fossil of the state of Kansas. The bill's genesis came from Sloan's constituents.

On Wednesday, Sloan said, he started hearing views that the more fitting state fossil was the pteranodon.

Hineman's heard those arguments, too, and he indicated Thursday there could be a change.



Lest you think this issue might fade away,

We're kind of in limbo right now. We may change the species of the fossil before we finish with that bill," said Hineman, who has hunted and found fossil specimens in western Kansas.

Sloan isn't keen on throwing the fish back in the sea.

"Frankly, what is going to happen is that people will suggest other fossils, confusion will reign among the legislators and nothing will happen," Sloan said.
Horrors!

The full report is here.

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