OK, Florida, this has gone far enough. You’ve been dallying with creationism, and I’ve read enough Hiaasen novels (who knew those were non-fiction?) to see that there are many screws loose down there, but this is getting ridiculous. Look at this reason for firing a teacher.
Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.
But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.
“I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,'” he said.
When Piculas went in,he learned his little magic trick cast a spell and went much farther than he’d hoped.
“I said, ‘Well Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’ [he said]. Wizardry?” he asked.
I’m calling Poe’s Law on the whole state of Florida. That place is entirely made up, isn’t it? I’ve been to Miami several times, but now I’m beginning to suspect that it’s actually a giant theme park set up on one of the Caribbean islands. It’s not really there.
I should have been clued in by the amusingly penile shape of the state drooping off our southern shores. That’s made-up, isn’t it? Right from the geography, it’s got to be one big joke a bunch of 16th century Spaniards were pulling on the whole rest of the world.
Well, the joke is over. It’s finally gone too far. No one could possibly be as loony as these fictitious (I’m sure) school administrators. Can we get around to correcting the maps and pulling those phony senators and representatives out of the federal government now?
Fired for being a “Wizard,” sounds like a good reason to sue the school for religious discrimination.
You know, I live here and I still agree. Time and time again this state has proven it’s not responsible enough warrant representation.
Yes, well, as we all know, belief in the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa leads to killing people. Who knows what could result from this wizardry….
He turned me into a newt!
…
I got better.
(What century is this, again? No doubt Harry Potter is banned there.)
wtf florida?
Yeah, I’m somewhat skeptical – seems like this is only the fired teacher’s side of the story. Might be he’s gotten fired for wizardry in the same way the ID “martyrs” got fired for endorsing ID, ie. not at all.
Well, it *is* where Piers Anthony based Xanth. And that is clearly <:start wobbly fiery characters>eeeevil lies
This is the sort of thing that earned Florida its own tag on Fark, I dare say.
Somebody has been watching too many Alltel commercials…
“Wizard!”
Cl
http://www.coulterlewkowitz.com
Clearly the penis snatchers have invaded Florida!
http://www.doodahblue.blogspot.com
There are wizards in Florida? quick! burn it!
Florida is fictional.
Sweet.
Does that mean we can take 2000 back?
So can that go on his resume now? Previous job: wizard.
Maybe the problem is that he’s not crediting the proper deity for his “magic”.
That said, I agree that there might be a good deal more to the story. In any case, it’s hard to believe this really is it, that a cheesy magic trick manages to spook the rubes there.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Let me reiterate that not everyone down here is an incoherent moron. Just enough people that it gives us a bad name. There are plenty of reasoned, intelligent people in florida. And we would probably rise above- if you all didn’t keep sending your nearly dead crazies down here to vote a few times, mix things up, then die before the repercussions of their stupidity come to fruition.
Accused of Wizardry…
That’s good. In this day and age it must be really hard to be accused of wizardry. That’d have to be a feat worthy of praise.
I’m adding that to my list of things to do before I die.
I can’t remember where I read it (Skeptic Magazine?), but several experiments testing reactions to the paranormal were done on a college campus. A stage magician was brought to perform for psychology students, who were in the study. Sometimes he was introduced as a magician who would do “tricks.” Other times he was introduced as a “psychic.” And in the third case, it was not made specific what he was. Afterwards, the students were questioned on what they saw, and how they interpreted it.
Of course, many students thought the simple hand tricks were “real magic” — the guy was obviously a psychic. The strange thing was that it didn’t seem to matter how the performer was introduced. The number of students who thought he was the Real Deal was almost the same even when the teacher made it clear that they were going to watch a magician doing tricks.
At least one of the sessions had to be stopped when pandemonium broke out — some of the students would begin to cry, or moan, or rock back and forth. As I recall, the guy was doing stuff with pennies and cards. Or, perhaps, toothpicks.
I suspect this isn’t just Florida. James Randi says that he used to constantly be approached after his shows by people insisting that he had magic powers — even when he kept explaining it was all faked.
As he puts it, people don’t just want to believe. They NEED to believe.
“If you can wish, you can believe.”
Having recently escaped Florida, I can say with authority – it IS that crazy there.
That having been said, I’d accept being fired from any job if the official reason would be “wizardry.” Some companies would hire you on the spot for such credentials.
I hate to be the Queen of Taking Everything Seriously, but if I was to hear someone lost his job for being a “Wizard,” I would think it was because his involvement in the KKK came to light, not that he had one paltry magic trick he used to amuse children with.
Or to put it another way, the state with Disney World is against magic? WTF?
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
@#6 James Haight —
The article is unfortunately not very detailed or informative on this possibility, but here’s what it does have to say:
If those former allegations are true, then I think they had the right to fire him (though if they fire all substitute teachers that do that, they have *much* higher standards than my school district did…); however, the “wizardry” remark was just bizarre and unnecessary.
Reginald wins the thread.
So what would they have done to him if he had turned water into wine? Or fed the whole school with a can of tuna and a loaf of Wonder Bread?
The whole state is Poe’s Law incarnate
I nearly pissed myself laughing at that.
Clearly another one who thinks that if a solution does not immediately come to mind that the answer is supernatural forces!
A friend of mine was kicked out of Rice University for ‘witchcraft’. He was a performance artist who held services at the Rothko chapel. So you can add Texas to the list.
Hey, its Pasco county. I lived in Pinellas, which is probably 1000% more based in reality than Pasco, and Pinellas (Largo) fired a city supervisor for being a transsexual – preachers showed up literally saying that “Jesus” would demand he be fired.
Pasco makes Pinellas look progressive by comparison – I’m surprised they didn’t want to burn him or see if he floats.
Actually, I take this story with a grain of salt. Whenever something this loony happens, usually there is something more going on. In this case, there had apparently been other allegations that this guy was a sub-par teacher. I don’t know if they’re true or not, but they have to be considered. Of course, that the last straw was this and that he was accused of being a “wizard” is still pretty dumb.
Woot! I knew it was possible! We still lead the nation in the stupid!
Of all the ways I could get fired, that may be my favorite. (Now he gets to add “because I’m a wizard” to the section of his next job application that asks why he left his last job!!)
He’s clearly a lousy wizard. One toothpick?
Hm. Googling Jim Piculas Florida has a hit on a web page discussing pagan products. This particular Jim Piculas is purportedly a Wiccan, and has (had?) a tampa bay email address. Wonder if it’s the same guy? If it is, maybe some kid looked for him online, saw that and…?
Not for nothin’, but this business of letting your students actually use computers can be hazardous to a teacher’s career, health, and financial wellbeing: Here in CT, we damn near put a sub in jail for 40 years because pornographic pop-up ads appeared in a classroom she was supervising. She was eventually cleared (actually awarded a new trial, but I don’t think they’re going to proceed with the case), but not before her life was essentially ruined.
Of course, if we, as a culture, weren’t so freakin’ insane regarding the very existence of [whisper]s#x[/whisper], this wouldn’t be such a big deal… but our demon-haunted attitudes about our bodies are almost as oppressive as our fear of witches and wizards!
“Actually, I take this story with a grain of salt. Whenever something this loony happens, usually there is something more going on.”
Its quite possible that something else is going on, but having lived there let me tell you – it’s not at all necessary.
The Tampa Bay area is full of this kind of thing. Huge dustups over gay-themed books at the local library, outrage in city councils over non-Christians having their religious holidays off (using roving holidays) etc.
A local bank bought by a church and preserved as a shrine because of a supposedly “Madonna-shaped” grease stain on a window…
World headquarters of Scientology, which pretty much owns all of downtown Clearwater.
Batshit crazy is routine there.
Even if there were underlying reasons, the fact that the word ‘wizardry’ is used by an educational system in any remotely serious context is breath-taking.
If I can’t be condemned as a heretic, I suppose fired for wizardry will have to do.
…SERIOUSLY?
Hmmm. The ‘it wasn’t just the wizardry’ part of the A.S.’s response worries me. It sounds like confirmation that ‘wizardry’, i.e. performing an innocent magic trick, was part of the grounds for dropping Piculas. If that kind of hyper-sensitivity to ‘Christian’ concerns (and that kind of paranoia about utterly harmless actions) is what we can expect from Florida schools, what chance does evolution have? (It’s really a plot concocted by the devil himself, you know…)
Sastra raises interesting and disturbing points. A lot of folks have a very loose grip on physical reality and are hugely attracted to the paranormal and occult. So you can imagine a kid going home and saying the teacher made a toothpick vanish.
I’m guessing that my highly scientific theory that Utnapishtim conjured up all life during a stint as a sustitute teacher will not be allowed as an alternative to Darwinism in Florida any time soon.
Gotta have theism, of course, but nothing pagan or Wiccan.
I wonder how soon it will be that biology lessons in certain states will have to include denunciations of other religions’ origins myths. After all, ID has to get rid of all competitors in order for it to appear even slightly reasonable.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Even after reading this story, my faith in the existence of Florida remained unshaken, but then I took a second look and saw that this all took place in “Land O’Lakes”. It was at that point that I realized the whole state and everything pertaining to it, including my trip to Disney World, is a myth and a lie.
In other leading news, a thirty-year-old man has successfully sued his uncle for the return of his nose.
Did Maryland just get knocked out of first place again? That was quick.
Magic never does much, though. Faith can move mountains, it just never does, I guess for the same reason that ID “predicts” just what non-teleological evolutionary theory predicts. Cause you know, life is too miraculous to have evolved, but somehow we should never expect the designer to be smart enough to use any sort of good design it used in an unrelated organism, or to be at all rational.
Demanding human abilities or decency from God is just unfair, since maybe he’s just a fucking bastard (and no, I’m not aiming at Scott Hatfield’s God, rather at the stupid prick Behe adores).
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Aquaria #32 wrote:
Wouldn’t it be funny if this turns out to be a separation of church and state issue, because the substitute teacher was using class time to proselytize for Wicca? He was demonstrating real live “magic” — Materialism is false, there is a goddess, and she cares, kids, she cares.
Cue screeching sounds as the entire blog shifts 180. Heh.
as a life long resident of florida, i assure you that you are correct in that it’s a joke.
it’s just not a funny one.
There is no need to condemn all of Florida, this could have happened anywhere that fundies lurk. Just to prove you are wrong to criticize, WE got rid of Katherine Harris, YOU still have Michelle Bachmann.
I suggest we saw Florida off the continent and watch it float away.
Heh, indeed: Shifting 180 because “new shit has come to light” is a Feature, Not a Bug!™
There’s no inconsistency between arguing that he shouldn’t have been fired because his demon-haunted students (or more likely, their parents) can’t tell the difference between stage magic and witchcraft, on the one hand, and arguing that he should have been fired if he was using a public school classroom to promote Wicca.
I now you don’t cvare b/c u want to do waht you want to do but if u think aboutit theres a REASON we were all made and that is we are made in FLORIDAS IMAGE-but not women-dont you look down when you pee yuo will see it [[and waht about the pictures of EPCOT canter did they get faked?? and even if yo dont believe in florida FLORIDA still bleieves IN YOU and LOVES you so stop thinking, ur so smart and ill PRAY for you that you LOVE Florida even if you dont wnat to ;-)
And dont say Im a troll or a Poe wahtever that is b/c Im as real as flordia
My (atheist) best friend always gets pissed at me because whenever he tries to do a magic trick for me, I insist on trying to explain it while he does it.
But I have a feeling he’d be a lot more concerned if I claimed he was a wizard….
LOL!
And LOL@ Disney – thanks, Glen. I needed that.
This story boggles the mind. It can’t be real.
Clue #1 should have been when Kent Hovind tried to evade taxes by saying he was a citizen of Florida and not the USA.
To be consistent, they need to burn Harry Potter books and DVDs. Along with Tarot cards and Yoga manuals and whatever else their pointy little heads think is wizardly.
There have been Harry Potter book burnings but none lately that made the news.
I’ve also escaped FL but instead of Poe’s Law I’d like to be the first to call shenanigans (for all of us). I’m getting my broom.
shenanigans in Urban Dicttionary
An official declaration made by patrons of an establishment who feel they have been cheated. Once a charge of shenanigans has been accepted by an authority figure, said patrons are free to assault the owners of said establishment with brooms.
Florida’s new motto: “Building a Bridge to the 17th Century.”
Craig #34
Will that fit on a license plate?
Very true. The most amusing part about that potential shift would be watching the fundy mouthbreathers in that part of the state who normally defend teachers who try to insert their particular brand of religion in the same classrooms.
At least most of us here would have a consistent stance, can’t say the same about a large chunk of the locals in that area, I bet. =)
Cheers.
Quick, send the SWAT team to fort Lauderdale to pull out Randi while we still can!
If he was any good he could have used his magic to stop them from firing him.
Turning into a giant wolf and smashing the place up works wonders if no one calls animal control.
Sastra @ 17–
The paper is:
Benassi, Singer, & Reynolds (1980) “Occult belief: Seeing is believing” Journal of Scientific Study of Religion, 19, 337-349.
“Rowr! Get in my way, and I’ll snap you like a toothpick! What? Yes yes, I know; these are toothpicks. I’m just sayin’.”
Hah! Puts me in mind of an old B. Kliban cartoon called “Map Filth”: A map of North America is saying, via speech balloon, “Hey Europe! Eat my Florida!”
Ah, Florida – the state so screwed up, it has it’s own Fark tag.
I remember watching a man walk on the Moon on television when I was a child. In fact, I remember several men doing so. I also remember watching what the TV presented as the Saturn V rocket carrying them blasting off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. If you insist that Florida doesn’t exist, then that means the other guys in foil hats are right, and the Apollo program was a lie, and that crowd is far more flaky than the ID folks. Then again, I think it took a certain delusional faith in your own machismo to get on top of one of those rockets and let the guys with slip-sticks shoot you at the moon, and there’s this huge crowd of Cubans in Fl who think that any day they will be welcomed back to Cuba as heros, and they will be the new lords of Cuba. Maybe Florida is real, it just has something really funny in the water that makes The Crazy come out and play?
Hey, we don’t ship them to you, they go of their own volition. And Florida’s damn near the only place in the US that their withered, decrepit limbs don’t shatter from a chilly breeze.
So I’m sorry, America’s Wang, that the Invasion of the Elderly isn’t to your liking. But at least we don’t have to deal with them.
How do the Orlando Magic fit into all this?
And how will it affect the Pistons’ playoff run?
Mark B., do you have any links to your story about your Rice friend? I went there is the ’80s, and it was pretty damned secular at the time. I’d be shocked and greatly disappointed if things have changed that radically.
Well, they *DO* take their Holy Bible literally down there:
Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or woman…that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 “There shall not be found among you any one…that useth divination…or an enchanter, or a witch, … or a wizard…For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
Looks like the public schools are trying to keep up with the Christian church and home schools.
DeLeon searched for the Fountain of Youth, but found the Fountain of Stoopid instead? Sounds reasonable to me.
Hey Tulse. My friend’s expulsion from Rice dates back to the later 70s. I’m sorry I can’t remember it in more detail, but I think he holds the distinction of being the only person in the entire history of the institution to be expelled for that reason.
Florida’s new motto: “Building a Bridge to the 17th Century.”
More like the 14th Century. By the 1600s (17th cen), the Scientific Revolution in Europe was underway, with the general Enlightenment movement to follow in the 18th century.
Why did the image of Matsumoto Jun shackled to my wall and saying, “Thank you, Mistress Aquaria!” just go through my head?
Unfortunately, since he’s an “at will” substitute teacher, he could be fired just for looking at the principal funny; it says in the article they don’t have to give a reason for the firing. That’s true of a lot of part-time/adjunct type employees in education generally–i.e. have a lot less workplace rights, much more tenuous employment statuses, sometimes have to cobble together a career out of several of these part-time gigs, etc. Good luck to the guy, hope he has something to fall back on.
Well, he’s no Dumbledore. Color me unimpressed.
I’m sorry, but without context or some sort of support to this outlandish claim, I’m calling shennanigans. As a Rice alum, I have to say that Rice is quite liberal. I knew a number of people dabbling in Wicca while I was there. Not that there isn’t a CCC presence, but it’s hardly Bob Jones University.
The only people I’ve ever heard say “colored people” were from north Florida. It was recently.
The more I read coming out of Florida, the more I feel that I understand the subtleties of Lewis Black’s comedy. I don’t think there is a joke that can be written that would truly add anything to the experience of simply reading that article. You just have to read it, and deal with having a few synapses in your brain literally fucking explode, rendering you a shouting, hand-waving, ball of angry. Poe’s Law upon you Florida, it is the only way this makes sense.
Oh, c’mon! “Land ‘O Lakes”? That’s obviously made up. Everyone knows that that’s where all the cheese comes from.
When I was there, one of the bike teams raised money to replace stolen bikes by showing Deep Throat. And instead of protesting, one of the Christian groups on campus argued for their right to show it, and then counter-programmed with the anti-pornography documentary Not a Love Story.
There was also a group at the school that sold “Campus Crusade for Cthulhu” T-shirts, with the motto “It found me!” on the back.
So yeah, it seems extremely bizarre to me that someone would be expelled for “witchcraft”.
Ah, Rice…good times…
Didn’t they even check to make sure he weighed the same as a duck before firing him?
Teach *me* oh great and powerful wizard!
In other words, he was accused of being too awesome?
Man only 19 days left and I’m oughta Florida. Haha, If you’re in Miami, Orlando or Jacksonville you’re fine. As soon as you venture out of those areas, its god country and the land of the stupids.
i think he made a fine magician–he made his job disappear…
This is 50 miles Northwest of the “Magic Kingdom” right?
I’m still wondering if the reason this was called “wizardry” at all is because someone found out the guy might be Wiccan–whether or not he revealed it in any way, shape or form. Performing a magic trick isn’t proof of any particular belief–all kinds of people practice those tricks. If this guy is telling the truth that nobody ever addressed any problems with him in the past, these other charges look distinctly like cover the firing agent’s butt. Yes, an at-will employee can be let go at any time, but not because the supervisor doesn’t like people of a certain race, religion, gender, etc. I think it’s the EEO that states all employees have certain rights in that regard. Of course, IANAL, so someone correct me if I’m wrong on that.
And I’m with Glen D. How in the world can anyone have the Magic Kingdom in their own backyard and still have a problem with a magic trick???
:::Does not compute::::Does not compute:::
Someone should make a film about it.
Call it “Expelliarmus – No wizardry allowed”
…well they do write that he also did not follow lesson plans and let kids use the computers… THAT’S a good reason to fire someone. They didn’t have to add up the “wizardry” thing, that might make them look crazy!
…WHO accused him of wizardry anyway? A student? I bet not, kids dig such things.
“Real magic […] refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.” – Daniel Dennett
Pray for global warming and put Florida underwater.
What if he explained how the trick went in non-magical terms? Sure, he might get blackballed from the Magician’s Alliance, but that’s a price you pay for living in a crazy state.
The explaining of a trick is always my favourite part of ‘magic’ tricks anyway… if I cannot figure them out on my own, having them explained is very fun. There are some pretty cool ones you can do based on binary math…
Hey, don’t say that while I’m down here! Kids, clap your hands and shout “I believe in Florida!”!
…crap. If I die in Florida, do I die in real life?
D’oh! Quidam, I just wrote a post on my blog about this, and titled it:
Hexpelled: No Wizarding Allowed
Oh well. Did anyone else notice that “Land O’ Lakes” shortens to “LOL”?
Maybe the toothpick he disappeared was someone’s cherished *authentic* piece of Jeebus’ cruci-fiction cross? I know someone who claims to have just such a relic.
Oh, and I second the motion to saw off Florida and let it float away. Perhaps we could attach outboard motors to the whole eastern side to jettison it a bit. Or put in a call for all the tugboats available from Fla to Maine.
Rice is anti-witchcraft?
Uh… I don’t think so. It’s a private university, yes, but secular. The MOB alone (that’s Marching Owl Band) has been pulling irreverent and sometimes even subversive halftime shows for decades now. Google “Rice Tulsa Dante’s Inferno” for one of the most infamous of the MOB’s stunts, and then see if anyone in their right mind would say Rice would do anything to someone over witchcraft–at least outside of the classroom.
I agree with the concern about the principal’s comment that “it wasn’t JUST about wizardry,” admitting that it was, in part, about wizardry.
Spectacular!
I am so glad I left Florida.
As for this guy, there may be a silver lining to this story. Now he can apply at Hogwarts. I hear they are always looking for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor.
Look, M’lord…witches!
I think it’s the entire USA that is fake. Home of Creationism, UFOs, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism, Prohibition, Scientology, the RIAA, Microsoft and squid-addicted scientists. It’s all completely made up.
He’s a witch! Burn him! Burn him!
He turned me into a newt.
A newt?
I got better.
You know, every time something like this happens, it makes baby Isis weep.
I have a great never fail mind reading card trick that stuns everyone until they find out how (never explain magic tricks). Guess I better not go any further south than here in Charleston SC as I don’t want to be burned at the stake.
Seriously though, I would like to think, dare I say pray, there is more to the firing than this. However, the supervisor saying it “wasn’t just the wizardry” does make baby Isis cry…and I doubt Zarathustra is happy either.
“Flori-DUH” Me likey.
Oh please. This is just a tabloid beat up. I’m sure his firing has nothing to do with “Wizardry”. I think a little skepticism is required before be wet too carried away…
Maybe the toothpick he disappeared was someone’s cherished *authentic* piece of Jeebus’ cruci-fiction cross?
If so, he probably stole it from Skwisgaar Skwigelf’s guitar.
Surely, there’s got to be something in this for Keith Olbermann.
Another point – he was called into the office in the middle of the day. I assume he meant school day (being a former teacher, that is what I would mean), which means his transgression must have been quite severe in the minds of the administration. You don’t just pull a sub out of his class, because it is tough to get someone to cover the classes at that late hour. They would probably have to be covered by a vice principal, or various other teachers/staff during planning periods. Good luck with that!
The reasons given – not following plans, unauthorized computer usage – don’t seem so egregious to me. If this was a habit of his, they would have known about it and not had him on the sub list. If those things were a problem in this instance, they probably would have just told him to get back on track and don’t let kids use the computers. Then canned him after school.
Besides, when you teach, you count yourself lucky if any of your lesson plans were followed while you were out. And those would be the special “sub-day” plans that you made a lot easier (worksheets, videos, etc.) because you just know your regular plans won’t actually go well without you.
So, he either did something really, really bad that we’re not hearing about (and proselytizing Wicca would count) or else they are just nuts.
There must be something wrong with me. Everyone sees Florida as “America’s Junk” while I see it as “America’s Forelimb.” Texas is “America’s Back Leg” so obviously it’s Louisiana that, geographically speaking, is “America’s Junk.”
Pah, only making a toothpick disappear? Pathetic. I can probably 1 shot him with a 5th caster level fireball!
JeffreyD,
It’s baby Horus, dammit. Baby Horus!!
You know, the fish-penis baby.
So Augusta is America’s Brain?
#74: “Unfortunately, since he’s an “at will” substitute teacher, he could be fired just for looking at the principal funny; it says in the article they don’t have to give a reason for the firing.”
I’m not sure that’s quite true. Even in “at will” hiring situations, isn’t it still against the law to fire someone for discriminatory reasons?
In other words, if they fired him and gave no reason, they’d be fine… but if they fired him and said that the reason was that he was black, for instance, they’d be in trouble. And this case could conceivably count as religious discrimination.
Whether him being fired for wizardry is the whole truth or not, what does it say about the image of the USA these days that I have no trouble whatsoever believing it may well be true? I really wish it wasn’t so easy.
(sob!) Piculas could at least have had his day in court, if only those rat bastard meanie liberals in the Florida Senate hadn’t strangled the high-school Academic Freedom bill!
Maybe we can just give Florida to Cuba? Think UPS will ship it?
I suggest we saw Florida off the continent and watch it float away.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just pull the plug and let it sink all the way? If you did it your way it might just make it to the gulf stream and wind up here on the coast of Spain. We grow our own brand of nutters here so we don’t need to import them.
Bill Dauphin #49 wrote:
Indeed. The “heh” wasn’t for potential hypocrisy, but potential irony.
Anon.#61:
Thanks. It must have been summarized elsewhere, though, since I don’t read the Journal of Scientific Study of Religion.
Bumper #106 wrote:
If any of the kids was upset and came into the office whining that “teacher is doing magic and my mother says magic is of the devil,” then they may well have hit the roof and called him in to the office. After all, they’re in a very precarious position. If they try to explain that “the magic isn’t really real,” then they’re denying the Power of Satan is real.
People who believe in Satan — and my understanding is that Florida is filled with them — can’t really say any psychic or pseudoscientific crap is false. Their faith in God is shored up by their faith in Satan — and their faith in Satan is shored up by the evidence of evil presence all around them.
Astrology! Psychics! Witches! Spells! When fundamentalists say they “don’t believe in them” they don’t mean what skeptics and humanists mean when we say we “don’t believe in them.” They mean they don’t believing in trusting and using them, because they’re dangerous.
Talking about magic as a “trick” would be like talking about miracles as a “trick.”
I was really expecting to read “Source: The Onion” at the bottom of that article.
Well, what did you think?
I think that was clear enough.
———————-
…which is a codename for Area 51. Duh. N00b, really. Next you’ll probably tell me Bielefeld exists. <sigh>
———————
That’s when the witch burnings happened. Not in the 14th century.
@#116 Sastra —
Their faith in Satan is also shored up by people’s belief that Satan doesn’t exist — hence the old religious saying (I can’t for the life of me figure out who said it originally…lots of unattributed google results): “The greatest trick Satan ever played was convincing people he didn’t exist.”
It’s a lose/lose situation. Like
so manyall firmly held religious convictions…Ted D at #112:
I second that.
Description of the Middle Ages in a TV series on history: “People believe in God, but even more in the devil.”
Re #109
Frog, I only have one word for you – “Heretic!!!!!!’.
Oh wow, my ass actually fell off while laughing.
BTW, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit to be being a Later Day Rotarian on the Hoyle Side of the Silicon Enhanced or Natural Heresy schism.
Ciao
I must be missing something here. It seems in Florida that the fictional is really real. So a trivial magic trick is “wizardry”.
So this must that all other wizardry is real and forbidden as well. Let’s see. Astrology, New Age Stuff, Halloween, Yoga, meditation, Tarot cards, Harry Potter books, and who knows what else.
Do they have book burnings in Florida or do the just make the sign to ward off the evil eye and pray real loud when they see the astrology column in the newspaper?
Buncha superstitious hicks.
David @118,
Next you’ll probably tell me Bielefeld exists.
I have been to Bielefeld several times, and thus am well placed to assure you that it indeed does not exist.
The assistant superintendent says it wasn’t just the wizardry. Epic Fail at damage control.
More weight!
As close as this was to Disney, wouldn’t it be Pooh’s Law?
Tampa Bay’s 10 talked to the assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District who said it wasn’t just the wizardry and that Picular had other performance issues, including “not following lesson plans” and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.”
Allow me to translate from Bureaucrat to English: “We couldn’t find an actual justification for letting him go, so we’re pulling various “discipline” issues out of our asses to make our self look LESS like a bunch of knuckle-draggers.”
And I thought people were being to harsh when the term Floridiot was being tossed about.
I hope gentlemen has the sense to sue. Florida may be at “at will” state but if a you’re being fired for cause, the cause must be proper.
“So, he either did something really, really bad that we’re not hearing about (and proselytizing Wicca would count) or else they are just nuts.”
bumper …ive dealt with the creo crowd over on Beliefnet…..they’re nuts!!!
Mrs Tilton @ #123
..but how do we know that you’re just not a part of the conspiracy to say it exists?
It is the heat and brutal sunshine. The midday sum will take the hide off your average frog-belly-white Yankee in twenty minutes or less. Causes dain bamage if they don’t wear a hat. Lots of dementia round here.
Answer to LightningRose, #91: “Pray for global warming and put Florida underwater.”
Global warming won’t affect us because witches (presumably wizards also) float. :P
Answer to SamD , #11: “There are wizards in Florida? quick! burn it!”
Please, no. The state is terribly dry. Not too many years ago an entire county was shut down and faced mandatory evacuation because of the wildfires. And it is dryer this year.
Water, yes. Fire, no.
I was not aware that number 4 Privet Drive was in Florida. Oh, the very worst sort of muggles!
Hell, even little kids on youtubecan do that one.
I bend spoons (and show them how) for my intro to bio students to help them avoid magical thinking. I’ll add this to my lesson.
People, please, this is ScienceBlogs, we need to take a more scientific approach to this issue.
If he weighs the same as a duck….
[hey, the “turned me into a newt” bit was already used]
Yeah, but you still have a lot of stiff competition!
#115 “Wouldn’t it be easier to just pull the plug and let it sink all the way?”
But, but. . . . What about the poor innocent alligators?
I don’t expect he was proselytizing in the classroom. If he were, the school could just cite separation of church and state and fire his butt, so why the cover story? It seems far more likely that somebody found the wicca reference online, complained, and the school officials freaked out.
T-Mobile’s current TV ads feature a wizard. Note to Florida residents: Don’t purchase a T-Mobile phone of plan; they endorse wizardry as well.
Terry Goodkind said it all in Wizard’s First Rule: People will believe any lie provided they want to believe it’s true or are afraid that it might be.
I believe the current PC term is Warlock. Wizard is so, like, you know, 70’s.
tim rowledge @ #7 – That was the first reference to Xanth I’ve seen since high school. During an English class one of our assignments was to present a book review to the entire class. Oh, the blank looks I got when trying to summarize the plot of “Ogre, Ogre”…
Paul T. @ #47 – That is not funny. Bachmann is a certifiable crazy person. My head hurts every time I see her in the news and am reminded that there is a district in my state where a majority of people actually thought she was the most qualified candidate to serve in Congress. She is a complete wackaloon.
Tulse @ #80 – Please tell me you purchased a large stockpile of the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu shirts that you still have and are willing to sell.
I have no trouble believing some wanker in Florida actually believed a sleight-of-hand trick was ‘occult wizardry’ and complained.
That was, after all, the state where some dimwitted mayor lady had poles erected at the ends of town, containing scrolls commanding the devil to not enter the town. (Either she had them erected, or wanted them erected but was stopped.)
Just imagine how much more stupid the deep south would be if NASA weren’t there… (Even if, per Salem, you allow for some demented Creationist engineers on staff.)
huh? My PC is always trying to start up one “wizard” or another. It’s like Bill Gates doesn’t think I can do anything on the damn computer without some kind of “wizard” to do everything I didn’t want, but automatically.
oh…never mind
There is a magazine for these people.
http://i.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/photoshop/04-04-08-magazines/el-Gran-Poco.jpg
But, but. . . . What about the poor innocent alligators?
they can swim to Atlanta and Alabama. maybe hit up mardigras in New Orleans if they feel particularly fit.
But back to the OP…My Uncle Bert used to pull the ol’ blow-on-the-nickel-it-disappears-and-then-I-find-it-behind-your-ear trick every…freakin…year and by the time I got to about 14 I wished there were religious police I could call on to BUST HIS ASS UP THE RIVER.
So maybe it was a really really annoying sleight-of-hand trick. Guy might have deserved what he got.
Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?
It’s okay. The toothpick of the school chaplain swallowed up the toothpick of the substitute teacher.
WE got rid of Katherine Harris, YOU still have Michelle Bachmann.
As a Minnesotan, I’m desperately trying to defend myself. Seriously, that hurts.
#42 – you owe me a new keyboard – I sprayed diet Coke all over this one…
I’ll have to tell DH about this – he’s a fairly decent (but quite amateur) sleight-of-hand artist (or he was, anyway) – this will give him yet another reason to stay out of the US…
Yeah, it’s pathetic. In my short take on the subject of Floridian stupidity, I think we need to give them another new license plate.
I’ve always known that Land ‘o Lakes is a fucked-up place, but I had no idea it was *that* fucked up.
Sorry, Earth.
I agree with the other writer that said that the whole US doesn’t exist. It was just created as something for Aussies to watch on TV when the cricket isn’t on
Terry Goodkind said it all in Wizard’s First Rule: People will believe any lie provided they want to believe it’s true or are afraid that it might be.
of course, there were others who noted it long before Terry:
http://home.earthlink.net/~tjneal/goering.jpg
The reference is obscure if one is not in Minnesota. Bachmann is a representative but what makes her a “complete wackaloon”.
Not that there aren’t plenty in the US congress.
#20- “I hate to be the Queen of Taking Everything Seriously…”
You owe me a new keyboard. :)
Listen guys, no matter what you can’t cut Florida away.
Think about it. Look at the map. It’s OBVIOUSLY North America’s penis.
#48
Bugs Bunny tried that in 1953, it didn’t work then, either.
As a professional magician for over 20 years, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that a fundie parent reacted to a “trivial” magic trick in such an outlandish fashion. For this type of person, so demonstration of illusion is seen as trivial. I’ve been the recipient of hand-holding, song-singing prayer vigils intended to keep people from entering my shows, I’ve had people try to excorcize my demons. I’ve had a woman march onstage and insist that I release the audience from the grip of Satan immediately.
Most of my work is on college campuses, but occasionally I perform at a High School. Whenever this happens, there is a good chance the gig will be cancelled due to complaints from fundamentalist parents. In my opinion, your average school administrator should be classified as an invertebrate. So few have the spine to stand up to to the nuts.
If a person has been trained to believe in the literal existence of devils and related magic, nothing you can say or do will alter their belief. Logic is simply no longer an issue. Even exposing the illusion will not succeed in convincing them that no demonic forces were involved. I tried that tactic a few times, but was always met with something like, “Of course you would say that. But Satan is the prince of lies. Even if you use trickery this time, you were using demonic aid when you did it before.”
So, the boob has a toothpick taped to his thumb and he goes “Ah ha!” and the toothpick “appears” to disappear.
Oh, great magic trick.
This passes for entertainment in Florida? Wow, I could be a magician and make a fortune, or be labeled a wizard and burnt at the stake.
Somebody needs to get fired for being stupid in public, and it ain’t Mr. Wizard.
Why is Michelle Bachmann a “complete wackaloon”? There are a lot of reasons, but these strike me as the most noteworthy:
She hid behind the bushes at Minnesota state capitol to spy on a gay rights rally:
http://www.eleventh-avenue-south.com/archives/000491.html
She fabricated a story about Iran’s secret plan that she was privy to, which would divide Iraq into separate states. She didn’t explain where she heard about the plan, or how it wouldn’t be a breach of national security to mention it in a small town newspaper if it was real:
http://ww3.startribune.com/bigquestionblog/?p=554
She groped the president:
This story made http://detentionslip.org! It’s a leader for crazy headlines from our public schools.
Well, thank you for drawing this latest bit of nonsense to my attention. I’ve just put together a nicely scathing article about it on my site (though not as good as this one).
We used to have several maypoles set up at our history festival. The Catholics complained because the dance around the maypole was a pagan fertility rite 3000 years ago! This happened in PZ’s own Minnesota. No need to travel south to find Religidiots.
Please tell me you purchased a large stockpile of the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu shirts that you still have and are willing to sell.
‘Fraid that’s the wrong timeframe for ’em. My roommates made the first batch in ’85 (year before I got there) and kept at it until we’d more or less graduated. We think we were first with that organization, but I wouldn’t be completely surprised if someone else thought it up independently. Nobody I know has any, not even Guppy. We made just enough to pay for the CCC party every year. Somehow it was always an exact balance. :)
I’m also going to question the “witchcraft” story. Rothko Chapel is part of the Menil and not associated with Rice. If the guy was doing something there and, for instance, got arrested, it may be that he was expelled for less sacred and more profane reasons related to HPD.
I’ll ask my cousin, who was Baker ’76 if he recalls such an incident. I don’t know of anything like that at Baker, and my roommate was Chief Justice and we read the old court cases for fun. My favorite was the guy who was rusticated for shooting, cleaning, and cooking a squirrel on campus. Yep, we were the smart folks.
Q. What is the best thing to come out of florida?
A. Empty Greyhound buses
Stop me if you had heard that one.
For what it’s worth, I got fired as a substitute teacher for making an offhand comment that might be interpreted to mean that homosexuals could be considered to be fully human beings. Of course, I found out about this the same day that I called the office to tell them that I would no longer be available for teaching assignments. So we’ll call it a draw.
Register your displeasure in writing.
mwhaley@pasco.k12.fl.us
Flame the buggers responsible. :)
Even if there were underlying reasons, the fact that the word ‘wizardry’ is used by an educational system in any remotely serious context is breath-taking. – Posted by: Don
You’re telling me. I read the words ‘teacher’, ‘fired’, ‘wizardry’ and ‘Florida’ and a cold chill ran down my spine. How long until someone is murdered for the crime of penis theft? How soon before they move from burning books and cds to burning “witches”? Atheists under seige in a evangelical military, teachers fired for wizardry… if this isn’t a new dark age for America then just what the fuck is it?
Just a warning to readers of this blog from all other coutries – America is about to implode from the stupid. RUN!
That’s it. I have now entirely lost my ability to distinguish between reality and satire. After reading this and the AP story about praying to lower gas prices, some cognitive bridge inside my brain has collapsed.
Doomed. All Doomed.
Now seeing as reality has finally snapped, I’m off to the woods to await the arrival of The Things from the Dungeon Dimensions.
I have no difficulty believing that there might be more to the story – maybe he was someone they were worried about anyway for vaguely understandable reasons. But it also looks as if his dismissal from employment was at least partly about stage magics tricks being seen as somehow “wizardry”.
My only experience that relates to this dates to an occasion some years ago now, when I sold a short story to a series that was to be used in the education markets in both Australia and the US. To meet American religious and other sensitivities, prospective authors were given a long list of things to avoid. I should add that the stories were supposed to be science fiction or fantasy, and that my own piece was a little fantasy story.
The list of don’t’s was so long and restrictive that it’s difficult to imagine how any of us wrote anything at all that would be remotely interesting to kids.
My own story, entitled “Return of Nakos”, as I recall, was a typical fantasy story involving monsters and heroic adventure type sorcerers … but nothing like witchcraft as I would normally have thought of it. Nonetheless, my editor received some criticism from the American end for accepting a story that breached the “no witchcraft” rule. Fortunately, that’s all that came of it.
Apparently this rule is exercised with at least some rigour against anyone who wants to write for the American education market. Thus, the Harry Potter books, written for the trade market, have to be specifically banned; but in the American education market, nothing like them would ever be allowed to be published in the first place – or at minimum it would have to sneak past the moral gatekeepers somehow. Likewise for anything like The Lord of Rings. Publishers and editors cooperate with this since it’s a lucrative market and it’s in their interest to do so. I have no reason to believe that the situation has become any better in more recent years (I can’t imagine ever wanting to write for that market again).
That’s my own small and unexciting encounter with idiotic American religiosity. I can’t extrapolate too much from this one bit of experience, but it did suggest to me how stuffed up things seem to be in education over there. I mean, many kids love stories of magic and heroism, and heroic fantasy is one kind of fiction that might actually encourage a few of them to read. But basically any kind of narrative involving magic is ruled out of bounds in an effort not to offend people with concerns about exposing children to depictions of so-called “witchcraft”.
In the upshot, I take the story about this guy getting the sack for “wizardry” quite seriously, even though it may not be the whole of what was involved.
@ Eric No 172:
>Just a warning to readers of this blog from all other coutries – America is about to implode from the stupid. RUN!
As another commenter said before,Im glad to be sitting in Australia,and watching the US on the telly only when the Cricket isnt on !
The depressing thing is that Im beginning to think that there might be too many of these delusional pre-enlightenment folks in your country to turn things around….
You are correct. We Southerners made up Florida just to Fuck with and Spite you Yankees in response to your equally fictional “snow”.
Pfft, Frozen water falling from the sky *shakes head in disgust*.
My elderly parents lived in Florida for two years. Nice place to retire. What with no State Income Tax and all. Little did they know. They did escape before becoming totally bat shit crazy. Now they’re just a little weird. Maybe we need a study of those who turn 65 and move to retirement states to find out if there is in reality a big hit on cognition. Florida can be the experiment, Minnesota is the control, and Washington can be the ghost in the machine. Anyway my parents left the country and moved to Sweden. Given the circumstances that was a supremely rational decision. It was in 2003, Bush invaded Iraq. Initially their retirement pension doubled. Given the fall of the dollar, in US terms, it’s tripled. And so it goes.
Didn’t mean to imply that stage magic is trivial. Just that it doesn’t really involve supernatural or demonic powers. You don’t have supernatural powers now, do you? LOL.
But yeah, it is depressing that these frightened and ignorant people exist in 21st century America. Even worse, lately they’ve been running the country without a lot to show for it.
On the bright side, they might be losing influence. Every year it was amusing to watch the wingnuts go on about the war on Xmas (by atheists and pagans) and the war on Halloween (by frightened Xian fanatics). This year both were rather disappointing. Barely made the news. It could just be that the USA is getting tired of people with brains the size of walnuts who haven’t heard that the Dark Ages have been over for 5 centuries. Except in Florida.
The school could hire Ricky Jay as a replacement.
#161
Actually Bugs did it in the late forties.
Rebel Rabbit was the Merrie Melody.
Mrs Shrek @133,
how do we know that you’re just not a part of the conspiracy to say [Bielefeld] exists?
I’m not, though! If you read my comment carefully, you’ll see that I have actually spent time in Bielefeld (more time than I care to remember, possibly as much as nine or ten days in total) and hence can proffer concrete evidence that it does not exist.
Please, if he were a real wizard, Jim Piculas would never have even stayed fired. Charm Person is only a first-level spell.
I found another good example of wizardry by Ricky Jay.
In this one he also talks about past wizards.
PS to PZ, I had to change my email having lost my previous server.
Believe it or not, we had noticed… Where do suggest we run to?
Borwnien (#50):
Who is this mysterious person? I can hardly believe what they say, and yet… how could I disagree with a recipient of the Order of Wally?
Alas, I only have my rather-worse-for-wear example (and some eldritch and unnameable power has shrunk it substantially since I was a slender college student). JMC, it’s great to get the background on this classic (and it is amazing to me how many people here went to a relatively small university).
For more on nutcases in Florida, here is a report on Scientology in Clearwater, Florida.
#50 & #189…
I interpretted the OW as “The Order of the Walleye”.
So, WikiHow says the toothpick trick will fool just about anybody. Little did they know…
The comments thread here is outdoing itself on wit. Hats off to all of you, but #50 – you get a shot of the most expensive stuff in the cantina. Incredible! The misspellings, the earnest idiocy, the INTERMITTENT CAPS – too perfect, you almost had me fooled and you definitely had me contorted!
Although I don’t, personally, believe that Florida exists, I think that the so-called “New Afloridians” go too far, are too rude, and in the end drive people away from their position and towards Florida-belief.
I admit there are plenty of conservative “wackaloons” in congress, but there are loads of liberal “wackaloons”, as well. Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, of Texas. Just do some web searches on her, and all will be clear. Then there’s politicians from the state capitol’s and the nation’s capitol who proclaim that violent, first-person shooter video games cause school school shootings. Only one problem with that. Compare the hundreds of thousands, or millions of teens, who have been playing these games since Doom in the 90’s to the present. Then, compare the relatively low number of school shootings each year. NO COMPARISON. Just like the people on the conservative side who swore up and down that kids were committing suicide, and joining cults because of playing Dungeons and Dragons, or listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s single, Suicide Solution back in the 80’s. A relatively low number of kids allegedly did these things, and usually you’ll find that the religious right didn’t have all of their facts straight. Either way it’s just (my term)”common sense math” D&D, and OZzy albums have sold literally millions since the 70’s. ANd, even if the small handful of teens actually did kill themselves, or join Satan, I ask you how many MILLIONS didn’t? The answer is quite clear. Satan, and the video game companies aren’t working hard enough to make all of us commit evil deeds. hehe
Aw, what a bunch of doomsayers! They used to have this kind of thing back during the Roman Empire and all that happened to them was the takeover of the government by Christians, who burned all the science books so they were unable to maintain the infrastructure, shattering the unity of the empire and leaving it prey to Christianized barbarian fanatics and leading to the Church-dominated Dark Ages.
Hmm.
Well, you know that could never happen here…
Steve “Everything sounds better if you don’t think about it.” James
I agree in part with the previous comments. Everything does sound better if you don’t think about it. That said, it’s not just one group that you have to fear. Republicans, Democrats, libs, and conservatives(whatever you prefer to label them)have been getting into our business more and more. More legislation trying to tell people where they can or can’t smoke, guidelines that(in some schools) prevent parents from including cupcakes, or banned food items in their own kids lunch box, states who try to tell 18,19, and 20 year old women that they can’t work at a strip club. States who prohibit people from drinking and handgun ownership until they’re 21, etc. Yet, these same adults can serve in the military, vote, smoke, be executed or serve life in prison for horrific crimes(and so they should if they’re 100 percent guilty). I’m getting way off of the point, but I think you get the point. People are happy to let liberal and conservative idealists walk all over them, and tell them what to do. In my neck of the woods, conservatives in particular, used to bitch excessively about liberal government officials doing this sort of thing. I complained, as well. But, when ol’ G.W. was elected for two-terms…most of that talk vanished. On another note, people need to get on their politician’s asses about how much money is being spent in Washington, D.C. Both sides are bleeding this country dry. Most people expected this from one side of the coin(in the past) But, the damned Republicans have also been spending like there’s no tomorrow. The lib’s want to tax and spend, and worse yet, the conservatives want to borrow and spend. ANd, that’s excluding the war budget. When you get down to it, most of the D.C. polit’s are one in the same. Maybe a few differences on the war, guns, or abortion, but otherwise they’re over-legislating any aspect of our lives they can get their grubby hands on. I’m not telling you that third parties are the perfect solution, but this sort of conservative friendly, libertarian-ish kind of guy has been voting outside the box. ANd, I don’t give a damn if they don’t win. At least I’ve stopped holding my nose for the lesser of two evils.
And, don’t forget. When it comes to politics, the lesser of two-evils is still evil.
Oi! all you vandals proposing sawing off your wang or towing it out into the Atlantic: those of us over here in Yurp take a dim view of literring the world’s oceans with toxic waste you know and our friends the Russians have iirc the biggest tugs in the world. So if you don’t want your wang coming out of your forehead I’d leave it where it is and deal with your toxic waste yourselves.
just a figment of cartography
Another teacher fired for doubtful reasons.
“But the day before class was scheduled to begin, her appointment as a lecturer abruptly ended over just the kind of issue that might have figured in her course. She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to “defend” the U.S. and California constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
The loyalty oath was added to the state Constitution by voters in 1952 to root out communists in public jobs. Now, 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main effect is to weed out religious believers, particularly Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oath2-2008may02,0,6280956.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel
14 years in Florida has been enough. I’ve started my relocation search and plan to leave soon. This is the most screwed up place I’ve ever experienced.
I guess Randi is in danger now :(
C’mon guys, look at the bright side: how many people do you know who can answer the “Reason for leaving your last job” question on a job application with “falsely accused of wizardry”?
If the person hiring you is a rational, intelligent human being, they will be curious and interview you just to find out more. If, on the other hand, they believe in wizardry, they won’t call you, but who cares? Did you really want to work for another one of them?
Whee! I didn’t know there were so many Owls here! I went to Rice too (Chem E, Baker ’98) and I am very skeptical about the claim that someone was expelled for witchcraft. I think it must’ve been something else, the campo’s can be pretty fascist sometimes.
I don’t remember anything about the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu, but I am not at all surprised that it once existed. I was more of a Baker 13’er, myself.
Also, the Rothko Chapel is part of the Menil, not part of Rice:
http://www.menil.org/rothko2.html
Hey, at least they suffered him to live!
As for Florida, it’s sad when a theme park is the most realistic and educational thing in your state.
raven,
For a great article profile Bachmann and her craziness, see http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1348/article14760.asp?page=1.
Basically, she’s a right wing fundamentalist Christian that thinks you should be too.
While a Minnesota state senator, she introduced legislation to that would require that stillbirths be noted as official births with the state registrar, a bill proposing an amendment to the state constitution “recognizing as marriage only a union between a man and a woman” that goes on to propose that “any other relationship shall not be recognized as a marriage or its legal equivalent”, a bill called “Free Speech for Faculty and Students Bill of Rights” that proposes that students be graded “according to reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge” of their studies, and “shall not be discriminated against on the basis of political, ideological, or religious beliefs”, etc.
She was also caught hiding behind bushes while spying on a GLBT rally against her amendment legislation, worked in support of ID being taught in public schools, accused two lesbian women of holding her hostage in the restroom during a public forum. After being elected to Congress she made claims about having knowledge of Iranian plans to partition Iraq (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/02/23/bachmanniran/, http://ww3.startribune.com/bigquestionblog/?p=554), is trying to repel legislation phasing out incandescent lighbulbs (http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/house/17002506.html), has said about global warming that “it’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax” and a leftist conspiracy to redistribute wealth, and on and on and on…
Also, some great videos capturing the crazy can be seen at:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SJ4wtwcrybM – “Fool for Christ”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l0rUBomKvY0 – “God called me to run for Congress”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=f13Dj2HaRWg – Terri Schiavo “healthy”
It makes me very sad and disappointed in my fellow Minnesotans that she is part of our Congressional delegation.
I have heard reliable stories that certain restaurants in Florida sometimes have giant satanic beings on the premises, who try to approach children, wearing strange clothes, and having enormously long feet. Sounds like the work of satan to me.
I paraphrase Dr. Azo Mazur, Director of the reDiscovery Institute http://www.re-discovery.org of Tacoma, Washington in reference to the Dover Kansas Board of Education, “Florida: as dumb as you think.”
Well, the story about Rice University and the Rothko Chapel was told to me by someone I trust many years ago, but since I was at UT Austin at the time, and didn’t meet the person in question until many years later, it may be apocryphal.
I tend to believe it, but since I can’t provide independent verification, I’ll drop it. It would have happened about 1975, and that’s pre-googleable.
If subs were fired for not following lesson plans, there would be about 3 left in the entire country. As far as I can tell, if you show up on time and don’t grope the students, you’ve got a job for life.
dang, I’m late to this party.
In the 1980’s I got a sub teacher job and had to fill in for a teacher (on maternity leave) for 4 months at the end of the year. I was told I would be hired on as a probationary teacher in the fall. (This is in Fannin County Georgia, in the mountains near where the Appalachian Trail starts.)
In the course of a unit on astronomy, I happened to mention that the first astronomers were probably Babylonian astrologers. The next day I was called in the principal’s office to explaing why I was teaching astrology, and then found myself before the school board a week later. My denial didn’t seem to help and I was not rehired.
I wrote to the Pasco Co. school board and got an article from the Tampa Tribune as a response. It essentially said the same things as the link PZ has. Although Piculas was fired for other things than the “wizardry,” that magic trick was the last straw. So, it did matter, and he was let go for freaking a superstitious kid out with a simple trick.
Backwards idiots.
Okay, so I am a Florida resident, and I happen to have seen Rushe Middle. As a matter of fact, I was a student of Mr./Mrs. Karen Rushe (whom this school was presumably named after) while she was vice principle of my middle school… I’m 28 now. I graduated with her daughter (class of ’98, Ridgewood HS. I think Rushe’s daughter may have been president of our class.. lol). FREAKS, the lot of them in Pasco. It honestly doesn’t suprise me that they would allow something like this to happen. Florida is a God-Forsaken SandBar, the free-standing, open beta test-zone for the Rapture.
As Florida is a right-to-work state, they can be fired for anything that is not discrimination or otherwise unlawful. It will be amusing to see how this one plays out, as ‘Wizardry’ of prestidigitation (slight of hand) is not in fact anything to do with Wicca or Witchcraft (I am Wiccan); thereby no religious discrimination is possible.
It is par for the course for the school board of pasco county to make up reasons after the fact to cover up their abominal decisions based upon nothing. Harry Potter books are quite strictly banned from any school around here, too. (is that a national thing? I have no clue, but its funny) Hopefully someone will have the good sense to pull the life support plug on America’s hospice waiting room, lovingly called Pasco. Oh, and someone mentioned the KKK in a comment earlier, so to humor you all, a nearby development called Moon Lake does indeed have a decent-sized KKK outpost, or whatever… not that this poor substitute has anything to do with that; but maybe some of the school board? given their demeanor and character and morality, it wouldn’t phase me if the Grand Wizard got him fired for cutting in on hiz grand wizardry. LMAO.
Quick! Lets send in David Copperfield and Chris Angel!
There’d be heads exploding all over Land O’ Lakes.
Did Maryland just get knocked out of first place again? That was quick.
Posted by: Wicked Lad | May 5, 2008 2:31 PM
Trust me we’ve got more than our fair share of religious wackos.
I’m a Wiccan substitute teacher. Really. All I can say about this story is that you just cannot let kids sneak onto school computers if you’re a sub. No amount of making toothpicks disappear will help you keep your jobs if the kiddies are watching two girls, one cup when they’re supposed to be completing a hidden word puzzle on the U.S. Constitution.
I think it is religious discrimination: If they fired him (even in part) for “wizardry,” it’s presumably either because they believe (however erroneously) that what he did is connected with Wicca or because “wizardry” is offensive to the religion (presumably Christianity) of the administrators. Either way, they’re subjecting a public employee to a religious test.
Half of the population is below average, with extreme outliers. This, apparently, is also true for the states.
This Floridian teacher has NO problem believing this story. My own district “settled” a lawsuit a few years ago to the tune of $250K+ after a Jewish family sued to stop the school board opening its meetings with the Lord’s Prayer. The SB President said she would go to jail before she stopped forcing everyone to join in her prayer. The solution involves having other Christian pastors lead the prayer (besides the regular one).
Two of our schools have morning prayer vigils before school starts each day out at the flag pole. And our state legislature just cut funding for public schools to the tune of $50+ million (we already ranked 49th in per-pupil spending, just beating out Mississippi).
That’s what you get when you elect conservative, Christianist Republicans and let them run the state for a decade. Me. I’m saving my pennies to get out ASAP….
Hi Mark, we’re everywhere, apparently…
I don’t remember anything about the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu, but I am not at all surprised that it once existed.
It only existed to the extent that :
A: We printed and sold T-shirts ($6.66)
B: We have a party for people who bought T-shirts.
Any existence beyond that was in the heads of groups of people who wanted to feel as if they were discriminated against and put upon by the existence of the CCC. In way, we were sort of providing them a service…
I was more of a Baker 13’er, myself.
There was a lot of overlap. We got the Baker master (Dr. Rod) to run. He told us that he’d join a run if 100 naked people covered in shaving cream came and knocked on his door. Back in the day, we were calling it ‘Club 13’, because the Baker Cabinet didn’t want to pay cleanup bills. OTOH, it was the job of the Baker Chief Justice to handle organization and procurement of shaving cream.
Resident of Pasco, and my mom’s a teacher in the state, so I kinda know the location and the work environs.
From what I’ve seen in the news reports, the guy had other issues managing classes and sticking to lesson plans, with the magic trick stuff highlighted as something freaking somebody out. He was probably let go for the other stuff, but he heard ‘wizardry’ in the response and jumped on that.
I’ve also seen some comments about the populations being ‘better’ AKA ‘more enlightened’ in more posh communities like Orlando and Miami. Uh, yeah, right. The whole state’s schizoid. Third largest population and 49th smallest school budget, with high dropout rates and even the NCLB crap has the whole state rated C+, and massive budget cuts on the way all because no one wants to pay for anything anymore.
I live by the school, and he did not get fired for doing a silly magic trick. The man got fired for not following lesson plans, letting children not allowed to go onto the computers go on the computers and more. This was just another reason and what he likes to focus on so he can get more attention.