Monday, May 24, 2010

Texas leads the way ... in utter stupidity


You've probably heard that the Texas School Board voted to re-write, distort, and otherwise pervert their social studies text book state wide.

These bible banging right wing born again Christians have decided that Thomas Jefferson was being given too much credit for his leadership and down plays the concept of the Separation of Church and State guaranteed under the 1st amendment and confirmed by the Supreme Court. The book will proclaim that the US was a Christian nation founded on Christian values ( I assume that means we as a nation endorse killing fig trees, conducting exorcisms, infecting herds of pigs with demons, and encouraging horse thievery -- all New Testament values).

Their changes also give Ronald Regan and Newt Gingrich the kind of coverage previously reserved only for the greatness of Lincoln and our Founding Fathers; claim that the McCarthy Communist witch hunt of the 50’s was justified; devotes pages of accolades to Confederate leaders; and decries the United Nations as imperiling America’s sovereignty.

What Texas high school students will now get is an education not from an impartial historical perspective, but from the fanatical perspective of far right conservative fundamentalists. Lucky them. As if Texas wasn’t already a hotbed of religious delusion, and blind devotion to stupidity … now their children will be receiving a religio-political rewrite of our nation’s history.

Texas has often set the standard for school books. Since they have such a large population of school kids, publishers typically seek to use the same books all over the country. Already some states have moved to block the Texas version of US history so as not to infect their states with Texan insanity, ostensibly putting the publisher on notice that that version will not be accepted in their schools.

What’s next? My guess is some bible belt states will pick up this version of revisionist history. Then, Texas science books will be perverted to include rebuttals to evolutionary theory, Creationism, Intel-Design, Young Earth-ism; Noah’s flood being the cause of the Grand Canyon; resurrection of the old “missing link” bugaboo… wtf knows how far these mindless religious freaks will go?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: they should change that insipid motto “Don’t mess with Texas” to “Don’t mess with Texas -- we’re already as fucked up as we can get.”

33 comments:

NewEnglandBob said...

I think we should let most of the state secede from the US. We keep Austin (where sane people from the rest of the state can move to) and let the rest become the country of Texasshattery. They will quickly devolve into a third world backward country( Oh wait, they already are!)

Dromedary Hump said...

Maybe Mexico will buy it back. Heck, they practically own it already.

NewEnglandBob said...

I doubt that Mexico would want it back, unless they can get rid of the non-Hispanics. Who would want those fundagelical yahoos who live only for Friday night high school football and their rewards after death. (boy, am I stirring up a Hornet nest here with a stick...LOL)

Dromedary Hump said...

Hahah. You're probably right.
as Gringos go, Texans are the bottom of the barrel.

Rachelle said...

Just another example of why we lag behind other countries when it comes to education. Sad and disgusting.

The Texas textbook "industry" needs some good competition...Why should they be the main or sole provider of textbooks for the rest of the country?

Dromedary Hump said...

I was just musing:
- the Texas school book depository in dallas was the site of the death of a President.
- The Texas school board and their books will be the death of education.

Texas Mike said...

Just letting you know that there are a small minority of us Texans that have more than a couple of brain cells to rub together. There were a couple of hundred of us that marched on the Capital two weeks ago to express our displeasure concerning this act of religious insanity. We even made the news. They didn't even make us out to be crack-pots if you can imagine that.
Yes, I realize that being cured of the god-virus is the exception to the rule here in Texas. Just to show that I'm really from here I will relate to you that this weekend my Mom told me not to worry about the oil spill in the Gulf. God told her he was going to send an early huricane to clean it all up.

Dromedary Hump said...

Mike,
Yes.. I know intelligent people still exist in Txeas, inspite of itself. I have received thousands of emails from atheists wanting to be post rapture pet rescuers, and Texas had the highest number of applicants.

Mike, what your mom said scares the shit out of me. This fatalsim / god will take care of everything, mentality is one of the most counterproductive aspects of modern religiosity.

Devil said...

@Texas Mike. You mean I have to wipe my own ass, God won't do it for me? DAM it I have been lied to and deceived, I feel so silly I have been sitting on the pot all these years waiting for god to come and wipe the dingleberries away.

LuWeeks said...

Next revisions:

- Contract with America, the fourth founding document.

- Engineering: Internet is a series of tubes - and its spilling of information that must be stopped

Dromedary Hump said...

Luweeks..
Please...don't give em any ideas! ;)

Randall.Doc.Fleck said...

Martin Williams,
no2religion@gmail.com, has written a few good articles and comments on ways of combating the Texas Textbook only game in town problem. He touts online textbooks for classrooms, noting that not only will electronic texts encourage kids to research broadly on their own, but that electronic texts are a lot cheaper and easier to build curricula upon as well.

Martin is from California and as he tells it his home state is already looking into eliminating printed texts for some subjects altogether.

It sounds like a winner to me.

Angel said...

I JUST got my two boys enrolled in virtual school for 2010-11 and now Texas pulls this shit?!? If I notice any shenanigans with our books I'll pull them out of public school entirely and homeschool them. I really don't have the energy to create a syllabus but by DOG if I have to then I will get up the willpower somehow. I feel like I've fought enough this year over religious issues in our central Florida elementary school for a lifetime. (The religious tract being sent home wasn't the only thing that happened.)

Yeah. Let's find new interesting ways to trample on the Constitution, Texas. If our kids get suspended for holding a prayer circle then why are they suddenly able to talk about creationism in TEXTbooks?! Fuck em. Let em build a fence around themselves and write their own damn laws. Anyone with over a 100 IQ better leave Texas before that fence goes up because as soon as the padlock snaps shut their reality will regress at least 100 years. Antibiotics? What? Never heard of 'em. Might want to toss the polygamous Mormons in with them, too. They've always wanted their own state, anyway.

Anyone who has read my blog will see that I am a religious individual. Not crazy. Highly intelligent. But in touch with my 'conscience', if you will. Our country was founded on the premise that publicly funded schools be free of religious indoctrination of any type. This is what the founding fathers wanted. It is a well thought out opportunity they've given us: the ability to learn the facts which can be proven in a collective environment while practicing our own religion(if we have one) in the privacy of our own home. It works! It's not broken! Don't try to fix if if it's not broken.

We shouldn't trample on the freedom to think independently. Next thing you know non-Christians will be wearing colored armbands, sitting in the back of the bus, and drinking from different water fountains. 'Cause you know... Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and all the rest of those heathens are contagious. Wouldn't want your kids to get infected and go to Hell, right?

Hump, thanks for creating a post on this news. I know I found it and linked you to it originally(tripped over the article), but I have to say that I know more about what's going on in the world because I read your blog, than what I would otherwise. You are a wise camel and your research efforts are very much appreciated.

Dromedary Hump said...

Angel:thanks for the kind words...and an excellent rant :)

Randall: good info, thanks. Meanwhile, CA is one state that is already moving to ensure the Texas version of history never finds its way in their classrooms.

Anonymous said...

Based on the info in this link, I say us New Englanders should secede first and beat Texas to the punch. Let's be proactive.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114022/state-states-importance-religion.aspx

Lisa said...

The ABC news reporter asked the Texas school board chairman (now retired, interestingly) how he could claim that the US was founded on Xtian principles, when there is no mention of Xtianity in the US Constitution? "No problem. Same thing." he blustered avoiding the question while pretending to answer it. The reporter screwed up his face and stared at him for a telling moment. I felt releived to see that tack on national TV, but at the same time felt sick in the pit of my stomach over the news. These simple minded people are scary.

Angel said...

Randall, I have two thoughts on these e-textbooks you're speaking of.

First, kudos to California for smelling the southeastern bullshit and taking a stand! Technology is meant to be used and heck, let's save some trees.

Second, there is a potential scary side to this. Think about how easy it is to modify most documents and then re-save them. Unless there are some truly magical safeguards on the technology then we're going to be in the same boat in the long run. Certain cerebral-spastic educators will feel free to exercise their editorial pen upon these e-textbooks and oh boy, here come the lawsuits from pissed off parents.

A published, printed paper book has some editorial scrutiny before being handed out en masse.

Quite a few of the 'textbooks' my two boys will be using this next year in virtual school are in this virtual format. I'll be watching their content closely.

Hump: always a pleasure to get in on the good fight.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Hump,
I just did a piece this morning on the Texas Board of Education giving the history and even some quotes from one of the members of the board. REALLY GOOFIE STUFF!!!

This past Saturday, I was listening to a talk radio early in the morning headed to the Chesapeake Bay to go on a fishing trip with my son-in-law. I wish I could have recorded the program because if I did not know that the Texas Board of Education member being interviewed was serious...I would have thought it was a comedy joke. Un-Freak’in Real!!

http://www.engineerofknowledge.blogspot.com/

Maybe the rest of the more sane States in the Union will stick with the History Books they have for a few more years instead of purchasing the Bull Crap that Texas has just sanctioned.

Dromedary Hump said...

Eng...good piece you did!! reading that really puts a face on the absurdity of it all.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Thank you for the kind words Hump. I think I am going to coin a new phrase for the Board of Education of Texas....or better known now as the "Tards of Texas."

Angel said...

Engineer, those quotes in your blog post are hilarious!! Put that crazy Texan in a rocking chair, give him a handlebar mustache and I swear we'd be watching a Saturday Night Live skit. SAD!!!

Dromedary Hump said...

POSTED ON BEHALF OF RACHEL H.-

Would you post this on your blog for me, please?

I just have to speak up for people who DO think rationally in the great state of Texas. I'm proud to call myself a Texan. I'm proud to be a graduate of the University of Texas which, I must emphasize, is an oasis for free thinkers and helped lead me out of the bondage of the religious brain washing in which I was raised. There are excellent minds and excellent educational institutions here, ya'll :) Given the history of our state attracting independent pioneers like Sam Houston and Davey Crockett, you would think that Texas would have become a bastion for free thinkers and non-theists. Sadly, this is not the case. I have no explanation for it other than one generation of the religiously mindless brainwashing the next. I'm sickened by the decisions the Texas Board of Education has made. The only consolation is that McLeroy has been voted off. And to him I say, you have no place in the 21st century, Mr. McLeroy. You are a disgrace to the state of Texas. I abhor your small-minded, backward, uneducated non-thinking ways! Please go away and leave our text books alone. Mr. McLeroy, you are an idiot! Let my people go!!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Lisa said...

I would like to read Engineer of Knowledge's blog. Can you please tell me how to access that? Thanks.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Angel,
I am glad you like the Texas Board of Education member’s quotes….They just explain so much.

I have since posted a video clip from Bill Maher's show speaking about Rand Paul’s recent comments….A Teabagger with a lobotomy. He is Bat shit crazy and the Republican nomination.

Hello Lisa,
Just copy and past this below into your address bar:

http://www.engineerofknowledge.blogspot.com/

I would love to have you visit. Enjoy. :-)

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Hump,
I am passing this on because it happened in Concord NH. The Trinity Baptist Church in NH is at the center of 1997 teen rape case.

Tina Anderson was a scared 15-year-old rape victim who was raped by another adult church member who she was baby sitting for.

But the Baptist church in which her mother had taken her to, summoned her, by church leaders, to stand before her congregation and apologize for getting pregnant out of wedlock.

"I was completely humiliated," Anderson said, her voice quavering at the memory. "I hoped it was a nightmare I'd wake up from, and it wouldn't be true anymore."

Anderson was sent to Colorado and was home-schooled, had no contact with students her own age and was told by her pastors not to discuss what happened to her in New Hampshire.

She placed her daughter, born in March 1998, up for adoption at Phelps' urging, with a family he had chosen.

Below is the link to read more. You may want to do a post on this with more detail. Good Luck my friend.

http://home.myhughesnet.com/news/read.php?ps=1011&rip_id=%3CD9FVDVT01%40news.ap.org%3E&_LT=HOME_LARSDCCLM_UNEWS

Dromedary Hump said...

Eng,
Thanks. Yes, Iread this story in the Keene Sentinel the other day. Hideous.

I'm not sure what more I could add to the matter. Sadly there is so much sexual abuse in the church that it has almost become commonplace. In fact, it's practically a Christian rite now.

NewEnglandBob said...

Off topic and To "Engineer of Knowledge":

I subscribed to your blog and get notified of posts, BUT:

I tried leaving a comment by either logging in either my Google, WordPress, TypePad, Blogger.com and even as Anonymous and every one failed.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello NewEnglandBod,
I myself log in in the upper right hand corner of either my own blog or I can do it from others like Hump's. (It will note "Sign In" within this strip just at the top of the blog site. From there I am signed in and can place my comments on all others.

I hope you can get signed in...I would love to hear from you.


Good Luck

Engineer of Knowledge

DM said...

you FIGHT PAPER MONSTERS...

the blood and bodies of the atheist movement...


you mofos killed MICKEY MOUSE!!!!


this has more TRUTH then what Dawkins, Randi, Harris, Myers, and Shermer combined have said in their entire lives...


http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=5R2wE8Sduhs&playnext_from=TL&videos=hht1U_19anc&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh%2Bdiv-1r-3-HM



they tried to BULLDOZE the entire METAPHYSICAL DIMENSION...

they LOST THE WAR......

you have FORFEIT YOUR SOUL, shermer... you have become an object in the material world, as you WISHED...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/7/11792994_ffaaee87fa.jpg

we're gonna smash that TV...

They had become ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE AND OF GOD...
you pushed too much and *CROSSED THE LINE*

degenerates (PZ) or children (HEMANT) - ATHEISTS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRRg2tWGDSY

do you have anything to say, you STUPID LITTLE F*CKER?

how about I tell you, Mr. Shermer, EVERYTHING YOU THINK ABOUT THE WORLD is

*WRONG*

THE BOOBQUAKE - 911!

http://dissidentphilosophy.lifediscussion.net/philosophy-f1/the-boobquake-911-t1310.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7XNb3Q9Ek

RUN, ATHEISTS, RUN!!!

Tom said...

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian Doctrine."

Article XI, Treaty of Tripoli
passed by Congress 1797

Dromedary Hump said...

try getting these fundie theocrats to read real history, Tom. Its like trying to get them to read The Origin of Species

Huffy1166 said...

The problem is not Texas, the problem is religion and faith oriented people (people who do not use logic and reason). Texas just happens to be a hotbed for them. Getting rid of Texas will not solve this problem, however, just make a dent.

The way to combat this is to simply make it known how off base they are. For example...the media should not say "Texas School Book Assholes (is that their official name?) have reduced the role Thomas Jefferson played in our foounding." Instead the headline should read, "Religious people believe the man who singlehandedly wrote our Declaration of Independance, served as US ambassador to France at a time when we needed France as an ally AND our served as our 3rd president, did not play a large role in our founding."

Dromedary Hump said...

Huffy, well said.