How can anyone be surprised at this turn of events? Governor Goodhair of Texas has appointed a flaming, blatant, unashamed creationist and friend of the Discovery Institute, Don McLeroy, to head the Texas State Board of Education. Phil Plait is not amused. But isn’t this part of the grand Republican and Texan tradition of promoting gross incompetence? Isn’t that how we got GW Bush? This is the state of Terri Leo and Mel Gabler. It’s all more of the same.
Texas is going to be soooo interesting in the next year or two. I wonder if this is where the next big court battle is going to occur? McLeroy is just the kind of conservative theocrat who’d provoke it.
First Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Alpha, now this.
Ugh. The Gulf Coast is getting worse and worse.
I wonder if there’s going to be locust next.
Well, optimism is rather foreign to me, but I can try on my “happy hat” every now and then. Maybe a “conservative theocrat” is most likely to provoke the kind of court battle which the side of reason has already won. I mean, McLeroy rejects common descent (and might even be a young-earther) — he’s clearly roosting on an old-school branch of the creationist phylomemetic tree.
In 2003, I was one of several people (whose ranks included Steven Weinberg) who spoke before the State Board of Education against efforts to include ID nonsense in Texas textbooks. Dembski and Behe and Wells were all there, looking increasingly pissed as one UT biology professor after another stood up and raked their idiocy over the coals.
The effort worked at the time: proper textbooks were approved. McLeroy, a completely uneducated tool who kept asking scientists if evolution was as well-supported a science as gravity, was one of two SBOE members who cast a dissenting vote.
If anything this bullshit proves faith-heads simply cannot learn. Everything they do is to protect their religious ideologies, first and foremost. Knowledge and education be damned.
The Atheist Community of Austin had comprehensive coverage of the hearings on its website at the time. I’ll try to see if the relevant material is archived somewhere and repost it to the Atheist Experience blog. It’s really worthwhile to check out.
Coming from Kansas, this event is all too familiar…even dated. We are losing. Seriously loosing the battle. The rise of atheist books only moves the religious right into a more deliberate and hostile plan of attack. We must find a better way to combat their assault on reason. We need a better platform to shout our message. We need a more mainstream spokesmen and advertising. We do need to “sell” our message better.
RE #4
Creationist don’t watch programs about evolution because they “know” it’s a lie.
We cannot coax them into actual study. We cannot embarrass them into thought. We shall defend our classrooms, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight in the museums, we shall fight on the play grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Sadly, if this went to the Supreme Court, we can’t even rely on them to make a sound, rational judgment.
Remember — In Texas, we put Ann Richards (RIP) into office before we did George Bush. If it weren’t for name recognition this whole thing would have never happened. I tried to stop the madness in 1994 with a vote for Ann. Alas, all for naught.
I think the Supreme Court would be the last place you’d want this to wind up. Then again, in a year or two, who knows? Maybe they’ll actually learn about the Constitution.
Y’know, P.Z., it’s embarrassing that you guys keep beating me to this stuff, since I ought to be covering it in some detail. (Brayton is also on the watch.)
But, I’m frying other calamari, and I’m grateful to you for calling attention to the problems.
The Dallas Morning News commented over the weekend that we might hope McLeroy rises to the leadership needs required as some people do when put into positions where they really need to be responsible instead of just throwing bombs. We can hope. But with biology book approvals pending in the next year or so, we cannot afford to sit back and hope — we have to prepare for the worst.
This is symptomatic of massive problems we have in Texas, in education, at all levels. Education is suffering from malignant neglect and harmful meddling that dates to the day Ann Richards left the governorship.
With Molly Ivins gone, it’s sometimes tough to see the humor, and there is a good deal to laugh at: In Beaumont, SBOE member David Bradly refuses to show at a grand jury hearing probing whether he lives in the district he represents (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4979910.html)
Did I mention that the state is low on money, and textbooks approved in the next go ’round may be in use for ten years or more?
Keep the heat on, please.
I just finished reading Matthew Chapman’s 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania, and I’ve got an idea.
Why don’t we take a good quality biology textbook and give it a title like The Bible’s Right and Scientists Ain’t or something like that? If the Board in Texas is anything like the one in Dover, they’ll pass it through without bothering to open it.
All kidding aside, all the best to those of you who are in a position to fight for education in Texas.
“America is a Christian nation” is part of the Texas Republican party platform. (Page 21) The platform also calls for teaching ID in public schools. (Page 20) Republicans here are well in control and well funded, in large part by some real religious loons.
http://www.texasgop.org/site/DocServer/Platform_Updated.pdf?docID=2001
Read the whole thing.
Well, who cares about edumacation anyway? Any day now us faithfull will be swept away in the Rapture. And in Heaven we don’t need to be
intelijententeligentsmart. God will do the thinking for us.Martin Wagner says, “If anything this bullshit proves faith-heads simply cannot learn. Everything they do is to protect their religious ideologies, first and foremost. Knowledge and education be damned.”
Quite so. I find it rather ironic that they are universally referred to as “believers” when their credulity for anything outside of their dogma is effectively knill. They don’t truly believe anything. They are in actuality NON-believers: they are simply conformists.
And that’s not the reasoned kind of skepticism scientists practice whenever they are confronted by real-world evidence or other worldviews. Its just simple hatred, which religion conveniently institutionalizes as a moral (“evangelical”) prerogative, if not a responsibility. It protects the herd. It evidently must have all the protection it can get. Hatred is the only thing they got that actually works for them. It certainly isn’t rational argument. The pretense on that is good only for herd morale.
Its not that they CAN’T learn. Its that they DON’T WANT to, or think they don’t need to, since they “know” (NOT “believe”) that they are in posession of all the facts.
I’d like to share your optimism, Blake. But if the fight is over Exploring Evolution, then I think I agree with those who’ve been saying we’ll probably lose. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says they can’t just vandalize the biology curriculum.
“”America is a Christian nation” is part of the Texas Republican party platform.”
The better part I think, is that they say that they’re dedicated to dispelling the myth of the separation of church and state — and then earlier they said that they demand the state get completely out of all church related activities (pg 19). Hmm, seems kind of like a separation between this thing called the state and this thing called the church….
There is if the decision to do so is religiously motivated. That’s a large part of what the decision in the Dover Panda Trial was based on.
Gah! I might get taught with an ID textbook! HELP!
Callandor #15: Yeah, its a “myth” alright. Kinda. Sorta. But its interesting how the churches will not refuse state money through the “Faith-Based Initiative” (a better word for it is “regurgitative taxation”, in which religious institutions have actually managed to get subsidized by the state – meaning, ultimately, by every taxpayer) even as they insist the state should get out of their “business”. Noble lot. The moral principles involved are simply breathtaking.
Great. Not only is he a creationist, he’s also an abstinence only proponent. And from the home page on that site, he doesn’t appear to be too keen on critical thinking or problem-solving, either.
Reading any of Don McLeroy comments one quickly finds his
rantings almost comical,even for a dentist.Much of his malediction is little more than opinions and conjectures based on an inflated ego.With credulous statements such as, “Scientific dogmatism about origin of life and common descent has no place in Texas biology books. Our state’s scientific educational system must not be corrupted.”
Making ludicrous, nonsensical, and ridiculous comments
seemed to be a forte of his,good luck Texas!!!
Loc wrote:
So what now? Time to play hardall?
Time for biology, chemistry, CS, physics, engineering
professors to draw up a list of the DI funders and
start steering students away from these companies
Time to stop using their products.
Same thing for every government agency that hires one
of these DI “scholars”. No assistance on any critical
scientific matters for the agency or maybe even for
the state government (formal or informal) and steer
students away from the offending agency. No help with
nanotechnology, biowarfare issues, technology development
for the state…nothing.
Time to starve the beast.
Don’t blame McLeroy for being a fundie cultist. It is almost impossible to turn a hardcore crackpot. He’s just a loose cannon that goes off frequently.
What is wrong with the governor for appointing such a loon? The fish or state as the case may be, rots at the top.
That sounds nice, but unfortunately just can’t be done. Regardless of our underestimated numbers, we simply don’t have the power to see a change in philosophy just because we don’t use their products. And, whether we like it or not, our scientific and medical community is incredibly dependent on government funding, and not being diplomatic with them over their “values” will achieve nothing but an increase in these people receiving even more funding.
Not to be too cheerful, but there is a case in Texas of a university biologist being attacked and assaulted for teaching evolution. They no longer teach in Texas.
The war on science is very real. It is not always just words. It does seem to be tilting towards violence. Might want to talk to MDs about that. They’ve been getting assassinated here and there for a decade now.
TSG: Don’t consider me an expert, here…but I’m not so sure. Dover did cover the motivations, but it also relied heavily upon the clearly creationist origins of Pandas, and the “creationism in a cheap tuxedo” status of ID. If Exploring Evolution is as cautious as I’m hearing, then all we’re left with is the motivation angle. At the least, that leaves our case weaker, and vulnerable to similar accusations of motivation. The idiots at Dover botched the cover-up of their motives but good, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t do a much better job, no?
Either way, I’m reminded that encouraging and defending the basic quality of science education is one of our primary duties, if not the primary.
What is odd about this is that Texas has a lot of high class research institutes and universities. There is a lot of oil money floating around there and the state has poured a fair amount of it into higher ed.
Doesn’t look like that higher ed. has filtered down too far though.
Tom @ 23, that sounds pretty defeatist. You should think of the successes the gay community has. See Americablog’s John Aravosis – he has grabbed issues and slapped some corporations around by motivating the minions (no offense to the minions). They also don’t respond with pleasant discussions, they call a bigot a bigot. And it is pretty likely that the gay community is smaller than the non-theist community.
I wouldn’t count on Texas, but these corporations do business elsewhere, and aren’t too keen on being attached to bigots.
God damn it… I live in Texas. I just had a daughter here. What have I done!!!
Fine. Maybe it’s time we let Texas be the laughing stock it seems to want to become. When their young adults are denied college education from real colleges, maybe they’ll think twice about this game plan.
Has Texas completely given up the idea of parting company with the rest of the Union? Maybe this should be encouraged?
;-)
Like Dennis Miller once said (back when he wasn’t a shill for this administration) “Maybe it’s time we thin the herds.
Can anyone give me a single good reason to keep the South in the USA? We’d all be better off to give these freaks sovereignty and hand them all the freedom they want to become the pervasively ignorant, hateful and vile society they so desperately wish to create.
A lot of people could happily get rid of Dumbfuckistan.
The reason against. Nuclear Weapons. As we know, they are rather fond of guns and trigger happy. You can imagine what they would do with their share. Vermont, New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco would disappear immediately. A lot of these guys think the worlds 2 billion xians are in a life and death struggle with the 1.4 billion moslems. KABOOM. There go 1.4 billion heathens. Don’t forget the commies. KABOOM. There go 1.3 billion Chinese plus an insignificant number (but 100%) of Cubans.
Somewhere along the line, the world would decide they really don’t need North America as bad as they need to see the sun rise tomorrow. KABOOM. A few thousand years from now, the New American Indians will greet the New Columbus all over again.
And that next Columbus will think the world is only a thousand years old…
Texas will become a blue state within four years. The Republicans knew this years ago and redistricted the hell out of this place to hold on a little longer. My own US congressional district was gerrymandered into oblivion. I’m glad my old rep, Chris Bell, took DeLay down with him.
But Texas will become blue. We pay more in taxes than we receive in govt spending, we are mostly urban, and we suffer fewer of the social pathologies that beset the red states.
Can anyone give me a single good reason to keep the South in the USA?
Johnson Space Center, NASA, Cape Canaveral, 1861 – 1865
A lot of people could happily get rid of Dumbfuckistan.
The reason against. Nuclear Weapons. As we know, they are rather fond of guns and trigger happy. You can imagine what they would do with their share.
Not a problem. The boomers sail out of the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest (actually I think the PNW base is the only active one now). The ICBM silos are in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming (legacy of the Cold War and the need to shoot over the arctic circle). The ChristoSoutherners might have a few air bases with nuke bombers, I’m not sure… but the heavy assets and the real deterrent (the boomers) are all based in Northern states. Suckers.
Bad news for Weinberg. How does he put up with this?
Maybe it’s time we let Texas be the laughing stock it seems to want to become.
Can anyone give me a single good reason to keep the South in the USA?
Wow, lots of anti-Texas sentiment floating around. Kidding or not I have to say I’m disappointed in the ability of people that are “on my team” to stereotype and paint with a broad brush. We’re not all yokels down here, and some of us are furious with Gov Perry’s decision.
There are stupid people everywhere, not just down here. We just have some people that are excessively proud of their ignorance.
As for one reason to keep the South? Both The University of Texas, where I’m a postdoc in Chem/Biochem and Texas A&M, where I did my BS in Microbiology, are very large top notch public universities where a ton of good science gets done and opportunities are opened for thousands of kids. Good enough?
Now excuse me while I go back to lurking.
So here I sit in my Dallas suburban home while stuff is exploding downtown, Public Television and radio support are at an all time low, my public library refuses to put The God Delusion on the shelves for fear of public outcry, and now a creationist is in charge of education.
It’s a good time to be moving to New York to finish my degree.
Could we just give it back to Mexico? Like, never mind, thanks for the loan.
Holy crap, that’s one saucy add up there on the top of your page PZ… I’d be little pissed (not that that the coal adds weren’t bad enough)…
Probably true. I believe CARE or the Red Cross might help out. Kidding aside, there are some strange and disturbing people down there.
I talked recently with a Texas parent. They are a cultist who believes that the moslems are all spawn of satan who want to kill all xians. So we should kill them first. By itself this would just be so what. But his son is a soldier in Iraq.
I’ve never seen anyone so calm and matter of fact about it. He says, if he gets killed, he is a martyr and they will meet in heaven. ????Is this guy a robot or crazy or what??????
Parents that I know have lost kids in Vietnam and now in Iraq. They eventually recover. Life goes on. The world never looks very interesting after that. It’s a damn tragedy that no one really gets over. Maybe it’s different in Texas and I’m just lacking in imagination.
Another reason to keep the south–ME!! Don’t throw baby out with the bathwater just yet. Fighting the good fight down here in Florida with Randi.
Dominionists do believe in Separation – the magical one-way door version, of course, in which Gov doesn’t mess with Religion, but Religion has a say in Gov. Hey, that’s what the Founders intended all along! Just ask David Barton. *gag*
Bastards.
The Texas GOP platform is regressive. Be afraid.
Can anyone give me a single good reason to keep the South in the USA?
Posted by: Swedish Chef | July 25, 2007 06:48 PM
We tried that once before. Didn’t work out to well. Perhaps the second try will be a charm?
This is bullshit PZ, He don’t believe in God, he is my Govener unfortunatly. The bastard does this for politcal ambitions, because the evangalical right are republican lemmings. It doesn’t give F*ck about Texas, or the united states he pedofile and they got him by the balls. You dion’t know what I know about the guy, he likes little boys, especially the ones that are put in the boot camps, where they have no rights. They guy is one of the most dispicable coorperate Facists the are (and please no opne accuse me of redundancy, I undertand).
Perry is trying to sell our infrastructures to private interests, mostly foreign. I could almost write a book on the BS he has pulled since he became governor.
Look, guys unfortunately there are two political philosophies left in the world, the are soft Communism and soft fascism. We are living under soft fascism in the states, and already have one political prisoner if you know the whole story and the recent arrest of Korey Rowe ( http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2007/07/25/jprowearrest0722.html ), the first political prisoner of many to come. Iknow much more than in this story, he has already been brought before a military tribunal and his case was dismissed, but since the recent release of loose change – second edition he was arrested on the same cahrges.
Go to google video and search loose change, Korey Rowe spent from 202-2005 in afganinstan and Iraq, and when he came back, he found out about a friend of his video, loose change, and told him you don’t kow the half of it.
Loose change, Second addition
http://video.google.com/url?docid=7866929448192753501&esrc=sr1&ev=v&q=loose%2Bchange&srcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D7866929448192753501&vidurl=%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D7866929448192753501%26q%3Dloose%2Bchange%26total%3D2713%26start%3D0%26num%3D10%26so%3D0%26type%3Dsearch%26plindex%3D0&usg=AL29H20lArtlghJRz8f_wzTUJcMW6qnWdQ
Popular Mechanics- very sensible rebuttal to conspiracy theories
I second Matthew. I mean, sure I appreciate the human form and all…hard to look away, really…er, what were we talking about again?
Oh! Right! Distractions.
Popular Mechanics- very sensible rebuttal to conspiracy theories
Posted by: RamblinDude | July 25, 2007 09:41 PM
Yeah why don’t oy pull ASTM E119 for fire protection of buildings and tell Popular mechanics to go to hell. Fortunately in my profession I have free access to all ASTM document,l without personal charge. The PM’s rebuttal’s is full of shit.
I remember when a fuel truck ignited under a bridge herw in dfw area and the bridge collapsed, and the talk conservative faces said see fire can collapse a structure. well I sent an email out to everyone of the with ASTM e119 for buildings, which are not required for bridges, and ask them to get an expert on to explain the difference in design. Not one of them did, because I kicked their ass and it didn’t follow the agenda. Folks, I am holding my thumb and fore finger about 1/8th inch a part and telling you Bush is that close to being Hitler. Look at the “Patriot act And the “Enabling act” of Hitler and tell me the fucking difference, do you people even read history, or are you just concerned whether people believe in evolution, or God or both?
Aww sheeeeiiiit. It’s hard to defend your home state when we have to take credit for Bush (even though he’s originally from Maine), Tom Delay, Rick WTF Perry, and a whole army of born-again fucktards. SMU Science Profs fought like hell against the Bush Library and all that NEOCON Thinktank shit that’s part and parcel of the Bush ideology.
With Molly Ivans, Ann Richards and John Henry Falk dead and buried, it seems that the Lone Star State is doomed to the idiocy of evangelical “wisdom”.
I’m ready to get the fuck out of here and find a blue state to call home.
What’s really worrisome it that, because of their enormous purchasing power, Boards of Education in Texas (together with California) pretty much determine what will be found in textbooks across the country. Textbook publishers like Houghton-Mifflin, McDougal-Littell, Scott-Forsman, and others publish what districts in these states will buy, with less regard to what is accurate than to what will sell textbooks in Texas.
Texas has one of the most liberal (liberal, that is, meaning “relatively free from government interference”) homeschooling laws in the country.
Time to turn that to our advantage, eh? My guy and I have a toddler nephew in Montessori whose mom, my guy’s sister, is more and more open to having us participate in educating him at home, even though she is not an atheist.
She does look up to her brother and recognizes the role that his commitment to rational thinking has had in forming and supporting his high intelligence. She sees me as practical and successful (though I don’t say this about myself), and feels that my commitment to facing reality led to the gains and accomplishments that I have made.
If it takes teaching our kids logic and reason while hiding out in the basement from the fundiecrats, then we’re just going to have to do it.
Hey, it’s “The Physicist”…Hi, Gregg! You were almost making sense there for a while, man!
Jsn, you guys still have Nanci Griffith and Kinky Friedman. Larry McMurtry. Not too shabby.
I do believe the Physicist just Godwinned his own team there…
I’m just amazed that he can even spell Physicist.
As in “Last week I couldn’t spell Enginear and now I are one.”
Maybe it’s time we let Texas be the laughing stock it seems to want to become.
Can anyone give me a single good reason to keep the South in the USA?
Wow, lots of anti-Texas sentiment floating around. Kidding or not I have to say I’m disappointed in the ability of people that are “on my team” to stereotype and paint with a broad brush. We’re not all yokels down here, and some of us are furious with Gov Perry’s decision.
While I feel for you, alone, among the Lone Star Chapter of ConservaCrackers, I stand by my words. Texas will become moreof a laughing stock than it is now if it proceeds down this road it seems determined to.
And I wish you luck and Good Hunting, all of you Texans that want to stay and fight these nitwits.
Probably copied it from somewhere.
a flaming, blatant, unashamed creationist and friend of the Discovery Institute
I never would have guessed that from looking at his photo. Oh well, can’t judge a book by its cover and all that.
Nah, this can’t be the REAL Physicist. He might be an idiot but his tard typically doesn’t contain so many typos. And I don’t recall him having such potty fingers, either. Or am I off base here?
Slightly off topic, but have you guys run across this:
http://www.proofthatgodexists.org/
See if you can spot the logical flaws! The first person to pick out 60 gets a special prize!
I’ve sees a lot of ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!” recently. I think they’re on the right track.
Maybe we should pull the baby from the poisonous muck it’s drowning in, and then throw out the poisonous muck.
Yes, that’s him. Perhaps you missed his stellar demonstration of debating prowess.
c’mon guys, less of the Gregg ad-hom. the guy can’t type, i think, rather than not being able to spell.
Gregg, you can’t honestly think the guy doesn’t believe in God, though. i mean, just look at his homepage – he’s a nut, man. this is exactly the point i was making earlier as regards separation of church and state – these people are dangerous.
Lepht
I’m still trying to figure out how ASTM E119 proves that it was a conspiracy. Maybe I should ask Rosie. ;-/
Austin is the only blue part of Texas, and they decimated our congressional districts to dilute our representation. I hear Portland, Oregon is blue.
Indeed, there are far better things to insult him for.
The thing about Physicist is that his typing skill seems directly correlated with his state of mind. He’s frequently more or less lucid (though still prone to self-aggrandizing exaggeration and fabrication, and still making a few minor typos.) But he also frequently loses coherence as an argument drags on or when he’s pressed on a specific point, and his typing skill usually goes with it.
re: #52
Hey, Jsn, part of that army is:
re: #46
You’ve got The Phys, as well.
My condolences. I was raised in deepest East Texas — I well know the endemic religiosity of the rural part of the state. Astoundingly, in my three years in Waco (2000-2003), my Darwin-fish bumper plaque (and the car attached to it) was never messed with. That was the time-frame in which Dembski was cast forth from the garden of Baylor.
— CV
As a research biologist in and out of academia for decades and lived all over the country, I’ve watched the changes in our US of A (and northern neighbor) wave and ebb at all levels. Growing up in a family of intellectuals, one side dogmatic atheist, the other Christian, I’ve lived on both sides of the religion tracks. But I often feel like an alien watching a movie. Although I have no belief or even empathy in religion, it amuses me to see just how much the atheist community resembles their foe to the point of atheism becoming another religion, simply a polar opposite ideology.
Thus comments and behaviour I’ve seen here and elsewhere in the media (and on the streets) are merely primates beating their chests. The winner is who shouts the loudest and beats the hardest. Let’s try using the advanced brain capability we evolved with, think and strategize to compete with and overcome our opponent. Allegiant belief and faith are often blind to logic.
Sun Tzu wrote “If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” In this battle, we must know both ourselves and our enemy.
BTW, PZ. I thoroughly enjoy your blog and recommend it to all my colleagues for enrichment :)
I agree with post #40; perhaps it is time for this nation to simply give Texas back to Mexico with our apologies for launching a pre-emptive war with them and seizing parts of their national territory.
Funny how history is repeating itself; I wonder if GWB is simply trying to get a 51st state (with tons of oil)?
Dearest Macrobe,
Ever heard of the concept of “venting”? Yes there is hyperbole here (much of it meant to be faceteous with a little wry irony sprinkled about) but the general tone is “those darn evangelical christians/IDers, what silliness will they come up with next?”
I don’t claim to come from a ” family of intellectuals”, and in fact, make my living as an artist, not a scientist. I was brought up as a southern baptist and even dabbled in the charismatic evangelical movement in my youth. I have seen the goodness of most of these people as well as the overriding superstition, and their mob mentality when it comes to threatening their sacred cows (pun intended); in fact almost all of my relatives and in-laws are devout evangelicals which can make you want to smash your head against a wall repeatedly when topics of politics, religion and science are mentioned.
Even more threatening are the Neoconservatives, who have not only have the same ideology but usually have money and power to back it up -hence G.W. Bush, RIck Perry. et al. I distiguish Neocons from mere evangelicals by way of their priorities: Neocons – political/religion, evangelicals – religion/politics. All are misguided, but few are actually evil. AND they will smite yo’ ass if you even suggest they are primates. (I’m no monkey’s UNCLE!!!” a number of relatives declaim repeatedly)
In response to Texas as the #1 home schooling state, who do you think are pulling their kids out of school to be taught at home? The majority here are those who feel that public school is too secular and think that Southern Baptist private schools are a)too expensive; b) too liberal (ouch), and think private Catholic Schools are a sure way to hell. (It’s just Meskins and Yankees who are Cath’lics here, another uncle informed me)
The overwhelming number of those home schooled here are raised in fundamentalist families, i.e. Assembly of God, “Hardshell” Babtist, Church of Christ, Jehova’s Witness, Pentacostal, and every other fundamental, charismatic, evangelical, paranoic, David Koresh-defending atheistphobes you can think of. Remember, when you think of Waco, think Whacko.
In case anyone is interested, here’s the appointment announcement from the Texas governor’s office:
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/press/appointments/Appointment.2007-07-17.0848
The only glimmer of hope is McLeroy’s appointment ends Feb 1, 2009.
The ignorance facing the teaching of evolution is not confined to Texas, or Kansas, or Pennsylvania; it’s a national travisty. Sure, those of us who live in Texas have a steeper ignorance gradient to overcome but how about less condemnation and more dialog on how we can fix this national problem?
I moved to Europe in 1999 when I retired and am glad I did as it appears that ignorance is now becoming an art form in the States.
Wow,
That was very strange. I just read the Republican platform for the state of Texas. It simply has no relation to reality.
This IS George Bush’s agenda. An agenda that they propose not only will drive us into a national oil slick cesspool, but will give the Dominionists complete control of the state. It is the blueprint for Fascism wrapped up in the American flag with the Cross held high. When we push back against this shit, we are not ‘Fundamentalist Atheists’ we are Freedom Fighters, we are the PATRIOTS, in the best tradition of the secular rationalists of the American Revolution.
We’ve already won the rational battle, that was no contest. I fear that we will soon have to put our bodies on the line to defend the American Republic.
Here’s the rub, as Scientists most of us did not pay attention to the change in the 1890’s. That was when the meme of us being citizens of the American Republic shifted to us becoming subjects of the American Nation.
I do not accept that we are a Christian Nation!
I am a citzen of the American Republic!
Ken
As a Texas (Houstonian, to be exact), I should feel a big put-down from all of the negative comments. However, I am used to it. I would like to point out to one and all that the state of Texas is very large, and very diverse. You will find a variety of people, from the deeply ignorant to the highly educated, and from reactionary racists to enligntened progressives. Amanda at Pandagon is one of us.
I find that the best people stay away from politics, as it can get as ugly as a five dollar whore. The best we can do is try to vote out the bastards when we get the chance.
Hey Ken,
Pretty scary isn’t it? Page after page of intent to go backwards by centuries. The part about letting preachers be exempt from IRS rules about preaching politics is revealing all by itself.
Tom@Thoughtsic.com wrote:
This is not about “values”, this is about a class of people with
more money than sense attempting to exert political, social and
economic *control* over American (and Western) society for their
own selfish ends. They care no more for “values” than the Borgias did.
Mr. and Mrs. Average Churchgoer are sadly mistaken if they think
otherwise.
Actually what scares me more is the growing ‘faith based’ recovery and rehabilitation programs, including their support for ‘boot camp’ programs for those whop are under 18. Here are programs that propagandizes for soldiers for Jesus. Whether you actually believe matters not. So long as you meet their confessional goals you get a pass before those who do not meet their particular evangelical requirements. I call it Sociopaths for Jesus. Just think, those who are of a violent bent, get to kill for Jesus. That scenario doesn’t even take the Domionionist (sp?) vision to the extreme!
A good line to stand against these preverters of the US Constitution is at your local school board. NOT IN MY CHILD’S CLASSROOM! So long as you push back, they being the scared guppies that they are (in spite of their bullyishness), will usually yield.
Matt,
It’s okay, it’s not a personal attack on you. As a fourth generation Texan, born in the Permian Basin area, having lived in the Panhandle, central Texas, Nacognowhere east Texas and educated in the Metroplex, I can tell you we don’t think all Texans are jingoistic, mouth breathing, chromosomally damaged zealots with a cross in one hand and the other hand on the electric chair main switch (Huntsville now uses lethal injection…).
You have to admit that we have more than our share of crazies, though. Look at any national murder or scandal and odds are that there is a Texas connection.
Despite that, we have many great intellectual institutions here and a number of wonderful pioneering folks. The problem is the theocratic former govenor and the current theocratic govenor have the clout to implement their screwy ideology for the whole(hole?) of Texas. So rest easy, I personally don’t think you are a mouth breather or you wouldn’t be able to find or even spell “pharyngula”, Tex.
It’s times like this I miss Molly Ivins something fierce. She could always make you laugh til your sides hurt, and then you’d feel just a little better about the squalid comedy that is our state government.
Jsn # 80 said
We don’t? DAMN IT! The EAC forgot to send me the stinkin’ memo AGAIN! What is it with those guys in distribution?
I am so goin’ down there first thing in the morning.
:)
Kisses
McLeroy: “However, most of the books we are considering adopting, claim that Nothing made a spider out of a rock.”
That permit a new creationnist dumb claim: “If spiders came from rocks, why there is still rocks out there?”
Desnes
Oh, man, I REALLY miss Molly Ivins at times like these….
“As a Texas (Houstonian, to be exact), I should feel a big put-down from all of the negative comments. However, I am used to it.”
GEEZ–what is it that makes people respond this way? Is it not obvious that when someone posts about a Stupid Practice or Person residing in a particular location, the Stupid Practice or Person is what’s being criticized and not the intelligence of the persons who live there? We all know that there are plenty of intelligent, clear-thinking, non-moronic citizens in Texas, Alabama, Montana, Delaware, or wherever (the question of how many are found in the legislatures of these and other states is a discussion for another day.) The other day on Respectful Insolence, Orac was holding forth on the homeopathic woo that’s legally sanctioned by the state of Arizona, and from some of the fire-breathing responses, you’d a-thunk he called every Arizonan a mouth-breathing, slack-jawed, unibrow, knuckle-dragger.
Goddamn, folks, RELAX, will ya? And grow some thicker epidermis.
I’m from Ohio, and we’re all dumb as rocks.
It is so frustrating to me that scientists, educators and others have to waste so much energy and time fighting against the stifling ignorance of people who cannot or will not muster the imagination and open-minded curiousity to explore and learn concepts beyond their ludicrous and limited fear based religious beliefs.
If these words seem arrogant and elitist, so be it, not all thinking and beliefs are equal. Creationism and ID do not qualify as rational objective knowledge. They are ideology driven, biased, closed ended, with outcomes and conclusions pre-decided. If their “facts” do not support their faith based beliefs then they are rejected. That is not science, nor it is honesty and utilizing the intelligence humans are capable of.
It mystifies me also why it is so repulsive to them that evolution shows that all life is related by origin and process. Why is deep time so threatening? I feel no less respect for my humanity and the worth of others by accepting that I am descended from other “simpler” life forms. To me such amazing interconnections is much more “spiritual” and deeply satisfying than any religious dogma that places humans as some type of seperate, special creation divorced from the rest of life.
Such illusionary biases I believe are a part, but not all, of why we do not do a better job of protecting and preserving the environment. The Earth and other life is seen as nothing more than “sin-corrupted”,unrelated objects, beneath us, seperate from us.
I pity these mediocre minds who have such myopic, fearful and small views of life and the universe. If they wish to remain stagnating in some medieval religious fantasy world, then fine, but don’t use decietful politics to drag down the rest of us with you into your fortress mentality of darkness and ignorance.
Many of us desire something more rewarding, invigorating and uplifting…to use human freedom,curiosity,intelligence and tools to try to better understand the incredibly rich complexity of the universe we evolved in.
Did anyone else notice the phrase “dogmatic atheism”?
Did anyone else think that was funny as hell?