**Barely drunk and somewhat nervous, we pick up in the front of the propaganda laden bookshelf**

When Kate expressed her interest in the legalities of teaching ID, Casey’s beady eyes lit up as I imagine they might were he presented with proof of a creator. Like a toddler having just managed to make poopy in the toilet for the first time, he proudly exclaimed that he was a lawyer, and could really, really, honestly for reals tell us anything we wanted to know about the legal issues.

But first, since we were standing here, wouldn’t we like some handouts to take home with us? Some teaching guides, some books he just happened to co-author, maybe a pamphlet or six? Wouldn’t we like copies of several different versions of a thing called “Icons of Evolution”?

Would we EVER.

After our bright eyed and dimwitted host heaped piles of propaganda into our open and willing arms, we kept walking down the hall.

We were walking toward the door, and almost certainly on our way out, when I unthinkingly mentioned the Dover trial.

His eyes lit up, and his expression became some odd combination of excited, predatory, and aroused. He invited us to go have a seat in a small dark room, while he went to get yet another book for us to read, this one one he co-authored on, as luck would have it, the Dover trial.

Sitting in this tiny room, Kate and I were both fairly certain something terrible was about to happen. We were caught. We were caught, and we were trapped, and we had no way out. Something told me that Casey Luskin was the kind of man that eats what he hates, and he no doubt hated us, if he’d figured out the game now.

When he returned, I was coiled and ready to spring. I had an escape plan, and if worst came to worst, I figured, he’s a small guy, and while I’m barely over five foot tall myself, I can hold my own in a dirty back alley type no holds barred fight. I had this.

Of course, all of that was baseless paranoia, as when he came back, he handed us copies of his book and sat down, eager to discuss the case.

The bulk of the conversation was just a rehashing of Luskin’s nonsense statements on the subject, which means it wasn’t terribly interesting. Until Kate said, quietly but with obviously sincere indignation, “But that judge was supposedly a Christian.”

It was like turning on a light switch. Luskin’s face darkened, his brow furrowed, becoming (if possible) even more prehistoric in appearance, and his slightly high pitched whine turned into something much darker, and passionate. With his next sentence, everything you need to know about the difference between their public portrayal of ID and it’s roots in religion, and the reality of the situation, was said.

His tone strident, leaning across the table to get as close as possible, he said “I know! But he wasn’t a real christian, he was a country club christian! I even heard that he referred to his church as his wife’s church. So that explains that. A real christian wouldn’t have sided with the ACLU the way he did. It was sickening.”

At the point, it was no longer hard to keep from laughing. Vomiting, yes, but laughing? There was nothing funny about this. The only thing I could think was “Holy shit, they do exist.”

From that point forward, Luskin explained at length that the judge had lifted entire sections of the decision from a brief by the ACLU, and that, while that wasn’t necessarily illegal, it was obviously immoral and only done to discredit good christians and to keep god out of the classrooms. And that any real christian wouldn’t do any such thing.

Every time he said “the ACLU”, his voice turned into this low hissing sound, and truly, the only way to describe his expression is as that of a zealot.

We sat back, hardly saying a word, almost incapable of believing just how nakedly Luskin was saying all of these things, and that, again, these people exist. They’re not kidding, they’re not elaborate jokes, they exist, and they think this way, and they are pouring large amounts of money, time, and energy into promoting this horrific, anti-science, anti-reality, anti-education worldview.

The conversation from there naturally wound down, and Luskin announced he had to meet his wife for dinner. We were, however, welcome to call or drop by anytime, He ensured that we had his number and email, asked if we knew of any good Indian restaurants in town, and ushered us out the door with a handshake and a genuine smile.

I fully intend to take him up on his kind offer.