I like the title of this post: Texas School Board votes on the age of the Universe. In case you were curious, the board decreed 11:3 that maybe it isn’t the age all those egghead physicists, geologists, and astronomers say it is.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
not exactly the most riveting video ever…
mostly that sounded to me as if she wanted to leave out actual information, and replace it with information-free generics and a “well, that’s what SOME people think” disclaimer?
I got over excited then when I realised I might be the first person to post on this. Then as I typed this I suddenly realised I don’t have anything to add to it. I’m not even American.
It’s just sad, very sad that this sort of stuff goes on anywhere, let alone in a ‘civilised’ society.
Ignorance is astounding, particularly because time is not on their side.
I wasn’t even first. Gutted
And Americans wonder why we’re falling behind in science…
It is just the usual for Texas. If it doesn’t concern football, then no one cares.
How do you know the age of the universe?
Were you there?
Checkmate!
Good discussion on this topic on the Dawkins website as well.
I watched the video and noted that the woman who proposed the change reassured the questioner that the change was not a way to sneak biblical accounts into the curriculum. Still, it sounds to me like that was exactly her intention. It’s the wedge strategy in action. First create doubt, then misinterpretation, then Intelligent Design.
You can vote on facts?
At least that settles it.
I know Texas is big. But big enough to decide for us how old things are? I just don’t understand. I’ve been an life-long atheist and I just don’t understand. If there was some scandal maybe I’d question the age of the universe but… for grown, intelligent people to cling to their fairy tales… I gave up on Santa Claus at 5, lost hope for magic when I was 12. Wow. Sad. And then there is Luskin’s stupidity you posted earlier…
We keep trying to educate. Can only keep on doing that. Sure feels like a brick wall.
Welp, now that they’ve voted for it it’s official. I guess all those librul Marxofascist commie atheist types will have a lot of work to do rewriting textbooks to acknowledge the new democratically chosen facks about the universe. The People have SPOKEN!
How do you know when the Civil War ended? Were you there?
Baskets of stupid just arrived via UPS.
Beardy† leftist eggheaded atheists (I’m at least one of those) think the universe is c.15 billion years old: 15×109.
In Texas it is—guessing, having not actually watched the video—c.10 thousand years old: 1×104.
Ergo, a Texan year is c.15×105 reality years: 1.5 million reality years.
Well, they do make things bigger in Texas…
And since no Texan is even one Texan year old, methinks they haven’t developed thinking skills. Possibly aren’t even potty-trained. I’m not certain it’s safe to let them near crayons at such a young age.
† At least if male.
Lets vote on whether the moon is made of cheese.
Sure, all the ‘evidence’ points to it not being made of cheese, but I want to believe it’s made of cheese, damnit!
To reuse one of Phil Plait’s oft-reposted image macros:
Texas: Doomed!
I’m sure we’ll be seeing it again very soon on the pages of BA.
Thanks for that heapin’ helpin’ of stupid to go with my eggs and toast PZ. I was going to spend the day slogging away at my dissertation but suddenly I thought, “Hey, whats the damn point?” maybe I should just post some questions here, you guys could vote and hey presto! I could save myself all that research time, spend more quality time with the family unit, no more statistical analysis, no more boring seminars, no more grant proposals…ya gotta admit its really kind of tempting….
Auy! : Stoopid!
So, are Texans going to pay to build the fence around the state, or will everyone else?
To the dumbfucks who ask “were you there?” with a straight face.
Were you there? No? Then how do you know you weren’t there, if you weren’t there to see you weren’t there?
Jesus fuck me, you don’t think Jod is powerful enough to send a future you back in time to see whether you were there?
Oh, wait. You are that stupid.
#16 Prof. Henry Armitage:
A better vote would be whether Texan’s heads are full of cheese.
http://www.stinkycheese.com
were you there?
Yes, I was there. Since the laws of thermodynamics states that all matter and energy is conserved, then the parts of my body have always existed in the universe. I was there, you were there, everyone we know was there.
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
The next thing to come up in the Texas board is to validate te claim the football was created 6000 years ago.
Of course we all know the football is at least 4.5 billion years old.
Is it possible to find a cheese that stoopid?
To be fair, there are people in Texas who can outthink a cheese. (E.g., there seems to be 3 of them on the school board.)
Is there any vaccine against the dreaded disease called ‘Texas’?
I’d rather have the swine flu any day!
Nuke Texas.
How do you know when the Civil War ended? Were you there?
Look at the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction until quite recently and tell us who won.
maybe it isn’t the age all those egghead physicists, geologists, and astronomers say it is.
That’s right. We need to look at what Voodoo practitioners (who discovered action at a distance before quantum physicists did), geomancers and astrologists say. Then we can ignore them all and use Bishop Ussher’s God-given date.
To Texans it is perfectly obvious that the Universe was created on March 2nd 1836. The Unierse only started expanding in 1846. Of course, a Yankee wouldn’t know that.
‘Texas’ is not a virus. Instead, it’s a neurodegenerative disease something like Mad Cow Disease. There seems to be a number of different causes, mostly involving fairy tales (belief in), and it seems to be hereditary.
OK, it was inevitable. “He said, she said” journalism has moved on to education.
It’s pretty obvious that anything else having to do with biology will be next in line [1], but given wingnut cultural mythology I’d say history will be right afterwards.
I want to bid on Texan Mathematics, which will have a Biblical value for the circumference/diameter ratio and will support Bushian accounting systems.
[1] Where do babies come from? Teach the controversy! Have a vote in class over whether it’s the stork or the cabbage patch!
since when do we get to *vote* on the age of the universe?
i thought it should be done by drawing straws…
that’s the problem with democracy really… morons get to vote morons into power who get to take moronic votes on foregone conclusions…
now bring me a bucket, i need to throw up…
Hi PZ,
I am from India, and have been reading your blog regularly. I never commented though, as I realised most people here post much more intelligent comments than I can think of.
I have been reading about the ‘dispute’ between evolution and creationism in your country on the internet. I am unable to understand why the education system of USA cannot let education be just that.
India is a highly religious country, with so many religions being practiced together. However, no one thinks of messing up with the quality of education to promote their brand of religion. To a certain extent, ruling political parties try to distort history texts to further their point of views, but never science texts have been distorted.
It is disheartening to see a country earning the highest number of Nobel prizes and still considered the Mecca of science (for Indians, at least), going on self destruction mode.
So scientific theories are to be decided through voting?
It’s a long and honored tradition in the United States. Legislatures have decreed the origin of humanity, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, basic economics, etc.
We’re now in a wave of legislation that proclaims both solvency for large corporations and the end of anthropogenic climate change. Problems solved, move on to something else.
voting on the age of the universe makes about as much sense as voting whether next Tuesday is Tuesday or Wednesday.
Recalibrate your irony meters, everyone.
Sigmund was making a funny: throwing the creationists’ canard back at them.
Click his blog link if you’d like to confirm this for yourselves.
Oh, the stars shine bright
In the sky tonight
Deep in the heart of Texass
No they haven’t. They’ve tried to, but no such law has ever been passed. The closest case was in 1897 in Indiana, where a bill to redefine π as 3 was approved by the state’s House but failed in the Indiana Senate.
I was going to say something along the lines of “welcome to the post-modern right wing, which decides its own facts and creates its own reality”, but @35 is right. This sort of sideshow insanity has always been a part of the American political process. It’s part of the genius of the system, really, and it does self-correct in pretty short order.
And when I say “self-correct” I mean that we, who are also part of the system, must work to make reason prevail.
There’s a poll under the video!
Your call: Age of the Universe?
o Billions and billions of years, Carl Sagan said so
o Around 6,000 years, God said so
o <100, it didn’t exist until I did
You know what to do.
Whooops, the other option is (less than)100, it didn’t exist until I did.
But I thought we godless heathens were the arrogant ones!
Now, someone try to get the Texas School Board to accept the notion that the universe was created last Tuesday.
Why the hell do these people think they know it better than the experts who have devoted their lives to science?
Jared Cormier – And Americans wonder why we’re falling behind in science…
Actually those who care about science DON’T wonder and those who don’t care about science – don’t care to wonder.
Husain @ #33
Your posts are as inteligent as most and more so than many. And that’s not even counting the trolls.
Were you there?
Yes. ‘There’ is ‘here’.
Once again, all the Texas bashing shows profound ignorance on the part of the bashers. There are PLENTY of us who find this level of STOOPID to be infuriating!!!!! I love my state, but I hate the school board. And since the Republican party is managing to implode now, it won’t be too long until these jerks are out. In fact, people are lobbying the Texas congress now to limit the power of the school board. Also considering that the minority populations (who traditionally vote Democrat) are growing here, it is not implausible that Texas could be a blue state within a generation. 48% of Texans voted for Obama, myself included. Think about it.
Dog bless Texas.
This will go down with the story about some state trying to legislate the value of pi because a transcendental number is just too complicated.
Nationally. The remaining Faithful are talking about all moving to Texas. Think “Warren Jeffs,” except on a much larger scale.
Texas is the new Idaho.
If you were curious what the “teeks” that she kept referring to was, its actually TEKS: “Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills”
Here’s a fuller commentary:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/44945
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/
PDF of Proposed Recommendations for High school science topics TEKS:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/Sci_TEKS_9-12_Clean_010509.pdf
Page 41 under Item 13b is the item she has changed:
“research and describe current theories of the evolution of the universe including estimates for the age of the universe”
This is from Barbara Cargill’s website:
Barbara Cargill earned her undergraduate degree in education from Baylor University and a Masters of Science in Science Education degree from Texas Woman’s University.
[see http://www.barbaracargill.com/bio.htm for more]
And this is from the Baylor University website:
Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is a private Baptist university, and a nationally ranked liberal arts institution.
Baylor students are a part of a Christian community of faith. There is a very active community of faith on campus, as well as multiple choices in the larger Waco community.
I for one am willing to donate money towards U-Haul rentals to facilitate such a consolidation.
“Why the hell do these people think they know it better than the experts who have devoted their lives to science?”
@44
1. No interest in science or scientific method. Don’t care about facts.
2. Belief that if they accept old universe, they will go to hell.
3. Desire to be in control of something in their lives.
4. Need to belong to a group which they have been indoctrinated into as a child.
5. Contempt for anyone who claims to know the answers, since they are perceived as claiming to be smarter than the fundy.
6…I could go on…
Please, vote on my age too. Make me younger.
As the universe can be at most twice 6,013 light-years in diameter – that’s how long it’s been since 4004 BC, all those billions and billions of stars in the sky must be only a tiny fraction of a light year apart.
Since the distance separating Earth from the nearest must be small on the scale of Texas highway driving , and certainly not so great as the distance separating Austin from the 21st century or Tulsa, the Texas school board should board a Texas school bus and set out for the nearest star system to ask their opposite numbers what they think.
They should get back by Christmas
TWU is only regionally accredited to offer degrees, not nationally:
https://www.twu.edu/administration/accreditation.asp
And those degrees can be earned online or via “distance learning:”
https://www.twu.edu/administration/
I didn’t see any obviously religious overtones, FWIW. There’s even a LGB student group, at least according to the website. But an academic powerhouse it isn’t.
Are you trying to tell the Creator how to decorate His dining room?
It’s an old dead issue: there’s absolutely nothing to prevent Universal Creator from having created the universe this very moment complete with fossils, photons apparently en route from distant locations, and everyone’s memories of having actually been alive yesterday.
You can usually sucker an apprentice creationist into that line of argument, then hit them with the whole question who is the real Monarch of Lies? However, it only works once. Well, except for some who have managed to become the intellectual peers of Michele Bachman.
I would hope that the rest of the 49 state education authorities would tell the textbook publishers that any book approved in Texas will NOT be purchased by them due to the falsehoods and misstatetments (to be kind. That WILL get their attention and decrease the influence of the Texans (of course Florida and Louisiana I am sure are chomping at the bit to be the most inane educations system in the nation). Of coure the publishers could produce one book of lies for Texas and another for the rest of the country.
Yeah, I know – Dream On
I live in Texas, I have this to say:
.-´¯¯¯`-.
,´ `.
|
|
_
, _ ,´¯,/¯)
( q ,´ ,´ ,´¯)
`._,) -´,-´)
/ ,´/
) / /
/ ,´-´
Isn`t it von Triers manderlay in which people set the clock according to a vote? I don`t think that ended well.
Fiction meet truth, truth, this is fiction
Truth: Hi, nice to meet you
Fiction: Hi, yeah, nice to meet you, heard a lot about you
Later that evening, after the alcohol has been flowing generously, we meet fiction again
Fiction: Woooooh, like, that guy truth, that was weeeirrrddd! Man, those were some tall stories. That truth is one crazy mothe@#er!
I am gonna read some nice sane comic books, that should keep the crazy away.
It is disheartening to see a country earning the highest number of Nobel prizes and still considered the Mecca of science (for Indians, at least), going on self destruction mode.
It is not the whole country, husain.
just the parts we universally recognize as “Dumfukistan”: Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.
Stay out of those places and you’ll be okay,,,
@ #28–huh? I’m confused by what you wrote. I was trying to jump off from Sigmund’s comment, although looking back at it, it might have been a fail.
People are welcome to their own personal beliefs, but not to their own personal facts. These people should be fired!
Dunning-Kruger effect
@#63– Oh, ok, then. Well, it’s not like dumbfuckery doesn’t happen elsewhere, huh? I mean, it’s not like Canada has a quack for a science minister. It’s not like the Discovery Institute has it’s offices in Seattle and Washington DC. No, it’s not like that at all, is it?
Who was the second woman who challenged Cargill by asking if the change was a way to introduce “literal biblical” interpretation?
And why didn’t she follow up? I mean, taking out the phrase “expanding universe” as part of the facts-which-must-be-taught in textbooks is a major setback. Keeping the focus on 12-14 vs. 14 played right into their hands. Why didn’t she keep pushing? Or was she a plant, to make it seem like the idea was challenged and still passed muster?
Hey Woody, fuck you. You can argue that some people are stupid but making sweeping geographic generalizations makes you look as idiotic as the people you should be focusing on.
“You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.” George Carlin
I attended at meeting at the University of Texas last year in which the speaker discussed each school board member, and at least two, if I recall correctly, are aware of and deeply upset by how bad all of this makes Texas look, even though they are Christian and sympathetic towards “teaching the controversy” or whatever the Discovery Institute guy is trying this year.
Whatever pressure, i.e. bad publicity the internet can collectively heap upon these folks is definitely welcome. Several are spineless and will switch sides if subject to public (non-Texan) scrutiny.
Just check out this all-star team:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3803
As if negatively stereotyping an entire culture that you clearly know nothing about isn’t the height of dumbfuckery…
I thought ending with ‘checkmate’ would make it obvious.
I’m beginning to suspect it’s time to recycle all of those old jokes about the stereotyped-as-stupid minority-du-jour to be updated to “Texan Jokes.”
They’ll be BIG, I tell ya!
@66:
wow, when i read what the Dunning-Kruger effect was:
I immediately thought: Sarah Palin. Then: Dan Quayle.
so great there’s a name for it. little too late for 2008 election though.
I think I’ll start an initiative in my state to modify the Laws of Thermodynamics to allow perpetual motion machines.
Well at least it’s ‘democratic’ eh?
Good old ‘academic freedom’ strikes again. Who’s to say we cannot find out the age of the universe by voting on it? Silly of the scientists not to think of this earlier! :p
(Almost forgot to leave a smiley so people don’t mistake this for a Poe.)
When I grew up in Texas, we used to tell “Aggie” jokes.
Now I’ll just tell “Texas BOE” jokes.
Two Texas BOE members are standing next to a huge bucket of human excrement. One takes aim with his 12-gauge shotgun and shoots directly into the bucket, with the result of flying poo everywhere.
The second BOE member, wiping poo from his face says to the first one, “You know, I’ll never understand why all those people in Las Vegas get excited over shooting craps”.
Re 72
I’m afraid the weight of evidence is not helping.
I’m heartened to remember that Bill Hicks was texan, even if most texans thought he was canadian.
What weight of evidence? I just told you that 48% of Texans voted for Obama. We also had a democratic governor a few years back– here name was Ann Richards. LBJ was a democrat and a Texan. We have world class universities (ie University of Texas), architecture (IM Pei), and museums(Rothko Chapel) here. The RECENT influx is idiot fundies into the Republican party isn’t a Texan phenomenon, it’s a national phenomenon. It’s also a phenomenon that will fizzle out as backlash increases. So, no, there is NO mounting evidence that we Texans are a bunch of dumbfucks. If that were the case, then I’m sure Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel would never have let me spend two years in his lab.
Re 79
Sorry, Bill Hicks was born in Georgia, though he moved to Houston at age 7 (leaving for LA after graduation). Btw. why does being born somewhere make you something? Should think it would be more important where (and how) one chooses to live, if at all.
What scares/frustrates/angers me is the following:
1. American education is already falling below minimal standards of quality.
2. Bush’s NCLB program made it worse.
3. The recession has hit public education badly; many schools across the country are cutting teaching positions.
It may take 10-20 years before our school system starts providing a GOOD education again. Yes, there are excellent schools in the country. In general though, most are just crap.
You can follow the whole drama at the Texas Freedom Network blog. In a nutshell:
1. “Strengths and weaknesses” language was removed (8-7 vote)
2. Several nonsensical amendments like the one in the video were pushed in at the last minute
and most importantly:
3. Texas Board of Education Chair Don McLeroy’s nomination (he was the main proponent of the creationist nonsense) was the only one of Gov. Rick Perry’s latest appointments set aside and not confirmed by the Senate nominations committee. If they don’t vote on it by June 1, he’s still on the board but no longer chair – see the TFN link and write the nominations committee (at least the chair, Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte ) and tell them they did the right thing and urge them not to confirm McLeroy.
Next up: the vote on social studies standards. And one of the “expert reviewers” to be assigned to the panel is….
David Barton. I’m not kidding.
Get cracking and email the Texas Senate, guys.
#83
ETA: That should read “set aside by the Senate nominations committee and not confirmed by the Senate.” The chair doesn’t think there are enough votes to confirm McLeroy, and it’s easier to quietly let the nomination die. The Discovery Institute is apparently emailing the Senate claiming that McLeroy is being “expelled!”
She was asked point-blank whether this amendment would allow discussion of a 6000 year Biblical age for the Universe. She didn’t answer.
“Houston, we’ve got a problem.”
Sometimes I just want to throw up my hands in disgust at these articles. I do what I can to get out the idea that we’re not all backwards idiots here but most of the time when anyone reads something about this state, it’s a story like this.
Classic headline from Harvard Lampoon‘s parody issue of USA Today:
Lead now the heaviest element, survey shows
Lynna and others: the ‘regional’ accreditation doesn’t mean what you claim it to mean. Even Baylor (national ranked as one person put it) is accredited by the same southern college accreditation group. Harvard is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Are you saying that means is a regional school? NO. Graduate and professional schools will be accredited by different agencies. For instance, the Harvard Divinity School has been accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.
All? No, this is ScienceBlogs and we do understand that any population has outliers.
On the other hand, you and the others trying to convince the world that there is intelligent life in Texas are outvoted — literally. When you have Perry, Hutchison, McElroy, etc. as the public faces of the Lone Star State (and Faux News as your PR department) the rest of us do have reason to suspect that that “lone star” was awarded to a kindergarten student and thus became the State’s greatest educational accomplishment.
Well, if a lone star in kindergarten is our greatest educational accomplishment, then explain the University of Texas to me…
Smells like one of those flaky Rasmussen polls to me. :) Faux News has no Texas tie-ins we’re aware of down here in Austin, but might rightly be hung around the necks of Rupert’s Australia, NewsCorp’s charter state of Delaware, or their HQ home of Noo Yawk City. While you’re voting, y’all are also gonna have to fess up to foisting fake Texans GW Bush and Dick “Dick” Cheney on us, just to be square.
We’ll also proudly match Lloyd Doggett against all comers for the true face of Texas Congressional representation.
Argument by geographical stereotype is so lazy.
Also, I don’t see how 48% of a population (as in the case of voting for Obama) counts as outliers… explain that one.
Here is a very good article on the subject:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16859-texas-vote-leaves-loopholes-for-teaching-creationism.html?full=true&print=true
From that very document
p34
(2) Scientific processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:
(A) know that scientific hypotheses are tentative and testable statements that must be capable of being supported or not supported by observational evidence. Hypotheses of durable explanatory power which have been tested over a wide variety of conditions are incorporated into theories;
(B) know that scientific theories are based on natural and physical phenomena and are capable of being tested by multiple independent researchers. Unlike hypotheses, scientific theories are well-established and highly reliable explanations, but may be subject to change as new areas of science and new technologies are developed;
(C) distinguish between scientific hypotheses and scientific theories;
Does this not equip Texan schoolchildren to counter the “It’s only a theory” argument?
Also Page 41
13) Science concepts. The student knows the scientific theories of cosmology. The student is expected to:
(A) research and describe the historical development of the Big Bang Theory including red shift, cosmic microwave background radiation, and other supporting evidence;
(B) research and describe current theories of the evolution of the universe including estimates for the age of the universe; and
(C) research and describe scientific hypotheses of the fate of the universe including open and closed universes and the role of dark matter and dark energy.
Appling those two sections together means that it doesn’t matter what the BoE THINK they have voted. That’s why civil servants who REALLY run democracies. If you could actually let the general populance change the leaders every 4 years based on who-ever has the nicest hair, nothing would ever get done. So they removed 14m years from the guidelines- the TEKS is what will be taught- not the actual facts.
The chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee handed out pamphlets saying the Earth is fixed (does not even spin) and the rest of the universe revolves around the Earth:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2916&view=print
LRA has a point–the madness is everywhere. Remember, Michelle “Batshit” Bachmann is from Minnesota. (As are P.Z.–and me!) And I hope LRA’s right–that Texas may be waking up from the fundie fever-dream it’s been stuck in for the last 20 years.
And may the country follow….
Am I the only one who objects to the wording of the poll? I don’t know the universe is 1.37e10 years old because Carl Sagan says so; I know it because all the evidence available points to it.
Note to self: signing in is good.
#48 LRA –
“love my state, but I hate the school board. ”
aren’t your school boards decided by direct local elections? if so, you should moblize to change them, unless the “stoopids” out vote you of course.
i mean it, please try to change this so the board isn’t filled with such numbskulls. thank you and i wish you luck.
Presumably then texans think that NASA has been wasting the taxpayers money for the past 50 years. We should move the Johnson Space Center somewhere where it doesn’t annoy the natives. I vote for New Jersey.
Could we PLEASE have open source modular text books so Texas isn’t holding the national text book market by the balls balls?
Of course it ISN’T Texas as a whole that is stupid beyond the conception of the ordinary human, what with a percentage of perfectly reasonable people, many atheists or agnostics or casual Christians, nearly as high as the idjits behind these Poobahs of Idjitry, but something about the South seems to somehow allow them a stronger voice.
Why is that?
LRA:The RECENT influx is idiot fundies into the Republican party isn’t a Texan phenomenon, it’s a national phenomenon.
Yes. And the South has more idiot fundies then any other part of the country, hence the Republicans are becoming known as a Southern Regional Party.
Eh. Whatever. It’s not reflection on you or your laboratory or the city of Austin or whatever liberal oasis you live in.
And of the 48% who voted for Obama, what percentage do you think believe in non-theistic evolution? There are other reasons to vote for Obama.
There are intelligent, educated, rational people living in Texas. There are even intelligent, educated, rational people living in South Carolina. However there are some pretty stupid, ignorant people living in these states as well. Unfortunately the stupid, ignorant ones are louder than the intelligent, educated, rational folks.
reminds me of the quote from Douglas Adams
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
I have it from good sources that it happened last Tuesday. All Texas is trying to do is to prevent this from happening again.
@100– yes if only there wasn’t gerry mandering. Yes, the rebulican’ts were originally a party about keeping the rich rich and the middle class and poor middle class and poor. So they gerry mandered districts to make that happen. Except that now it is backfiring on them because of the nutjob religious right. Yes, the republican’t party is imploding here too… believe it or not…
104: I have lived in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. Despite what Sandra Bullock says, the three cities aren’t that different. You have plenty of republican’ts and democrats in both places. You have Texan hospitality in all three places. I love my state because the people here always have each other’s backs… except for the small percentage of the crazy religious right put in place by George Bush… who is actually from Connecticut.
I don’t get all the Texas bashing. Texans reading this should uncloak and tell everyone else that those morons don’t represent everyone in Texas. Now for the rest of the state – they’re obviously crying out for everyone else to save them from their gods and themselves.
There must be Python fans in Texas. In one programme there was a wrestling match between a bishop and an atheist to settle one and for all the question of whether god exists. Over the closing credits, they announced a late sports result: “God exists, by two falls to a submission”.
Bush couldn’t find enough crazy, religious right folks in Connecticut so he had to move to Texas.
Anonymous @ 109 (emphasis added):
Not everyone is bashing all Texans. So why do you seem to be doing that exact same overgeneralised bashing in reverse?
Presumably then texans think that NASA has been wasting the taxpayers money for the past 50 years.
Well, now that you mention it, we have a vermin infiltration here called Moronosaurus Tex, and one of the characteristics of the species is thinking that everything is a waste of taxpayer money.
I’ll just be happy if the stupid per square mile goes down some around here. Or at least concentrates itself to everything north of Georgetown. Not that it doesn’t work out that way, anyhow.
I would have no problem with Texas if they would keep out of Minnesota politics. We had Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty running for governor, when Dick Cheney got involved, phoned up Normie and told him to run for senate instead, “We’ll take care of Wellstone for you”. Wellstone got offed, and Norm the Toothy got in. Now that we voted him out, another Texan (Cronyn) is pledging to keep the election in the courts for years, if need be.
I am totally in favor of Texas seceding as long as Minnesota can annex North Dakota and claim the right to first-strike nuclear attack to protect us from them.
A touchy question that would generate all sort of replies:
How old is your god?
Er, my god is as old as the universe. No wait, my god is as old as the first humans. Yes, that’s the answer.
Dear Rev. BigDumbChimp (#69)…I’m afraid your moniker shows that you live in a state of “Dumbfuckistan” no matter where in the country your residence is…Rev.(religious nut) BigDumbChimp…explains itself…but why do you have to demean Chimps…I suspect most of them are smarter then you are.
And boy was that “fuck you” a great come-back…did you also flip a bird at the screen and kick your dog?
You must be new here.
What weight of evidence? I just told you that 48% of Texans voted for Obama. We also had a democratic governor a few years back– here name was Ann Richards. LBJ was a democrat and a Texan.
If you’re trying to make your state look good, LBJ is probably not the best example to use.
AND i guess you were all there too when they were waterboarding Galileo. Free expression of ideas is what makes us the United States. But interestingly enough, Galileo died the same day that Sir Isaac Newton was born. 400 miles away. I believe in conspiracy theories…there is intelligent design..called GOD. But then Im from Texas.
No one is stopping their free expression of an idea.
but that is all it is, an idea. It’s not science and teaching it as science is a disservice to the students.
Take your persecution complex elsewhere.
That’s great for you. Just make sure you keep your ID/God out of my science classroom and we’ll be just fine.
@Max (#106)
There is yet a third theory that state both of the two previous theories were concocted by a wily editor of the HHGttG, to increase universal unease and paranoia, thereby boosting sales of the Guide.
This third theory, is of course, the most convincing.
As Davy Crockett so aptly put it, when he was departing Washington DC, “You all can go to hell, for me, Im going to Texas”. By the way, he was one of the last to die at the Alamo. A great American. and a great Texan. Im sure he would really have liked the internet.
As the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it so well: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts.
Considering he spent less than three months in Texas, a claim that Crockett was a Texan is rather dubious.
This reminds me of one terrible, boring teacher I had in college. He made attendance mandatory for all lectures, but then wasted at least half the class time with random boring stuff. One time we were talking about the Arrhenius equation, and the teacher thought it was somehow relevant to teach us the nationality of Arrhenius. There were a few guesses, then the teacher actually asked the class to vote on it. It’s completely irrelevant to begin with. And his nationality wouldn’t change based on the vote of the class. If 75% of the class thinks he was German, that doesn’t make it true. The whole thing was just silly, but not quite as much as this age of the universe thing.
wagonjak
You got anything else to say?
Let them secede.
These people are fucking morons.
To still be debating the age of the earth today, and
voting on whether this is allowed in a classroom is
reprehensible.
Ignorance is no longer bliss. It is deadly for our species.
This blatant disregard of science and knowledge to satisfy the supernatural space guy is now no longer amusing, it is
becomming a hinderance to our continued progress and well being.
Look, I find the wingnuts as ridiculous as the next guy, but this is getting serious…
I’m getting pretty damn close to geezing, and I’d like the generation that will be next in charge of things to at least be well versed in science…stem cell research, birth control, climate change, mutation of viruses…the list is
unlimited. We face numerous perils.
Leave it to them, and the cockroaches will truly take over.
The way around this is easy, and works no matter how much disagreement there is:
In PZs example, X=the age of the universe, Y=what the bibble sez.
The equation is based on the number of people on the comittee, in this case:
(3X + 11Y)/14
Then you round to the nearest 13 billion or so.
Problem solved.
@ #123
, Fortunately there are other Texans to dissuade me from the idea that this is the most intellectual firepower they have ;otherwise, on the whole , I’d rather be in hell.
I used to be a professor at U.T. Austin for several years. Indeed, Texas is full of nonsense like this. I was so depressed to feel I live in a State where many people (fortunately few of my colleagues) believed in religious stupidities.
If I remember correctly, in front of the new Texas History Museum (opened by GW Bush 8 years ago or so), there are two dates for its inauguration year. One is, say, 2000 AD. Below it, there is another number, something like 6543 AL. I don’t recall the number correctly, neither do I recall whether this was a permanent sign or not. I searched around the Internet to find it and couldn’t. If anyone knows about it, I’d appreciate futher information/confirmation of what I remember. I never asked what the second date refers to (do you dare ask such questions in Texas when you know that you may be shot?), but it seems that it refers to the age of the Earth (sorry, the age of Texas–Texas seems to be much younger than the rest of the Earth), as read in the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
Oh yes, for those who wonder, I can’t go read the sign myself now because I live in Scotland. Texas is quite far from here. (Or is it not? What does the Bible say?)
“If anyone knows about it, I’d appreciate futher information/confirmation of what I remember. I never asked what the second date refers to (do you dare ask such questions in Texas when you know that you may be shot?), but it seems that it refers to the age of the Earth (sorry, the age of Texas–Texas seems to be much younger than the rest of the Earth), as read in the Judeo-Christian scriptures.”
Are you sure about the number?
The date of 2000 AD in the Hebrew calender would be something like 5770.
To #20, you’ve been hitting the Bong a little too much. Tax-Ass,
Why didn’t we just let the Mexican’s have it.
@65:
“People are welcome to their own personal beliefs, but not to their own personal facts. These people should be fired!”
Out of a canon.
Into the Sun.
Should have been cannon, not canon (although, considering that many members of the TSBOE wear their religion on their sleeves……)
We just took a vote over here, and it was decided that I have the biggest d*** ever. Sorry, gentlemen – the debate is over.
#131
Sigmund:
No, I’m not sure about the number, that’s why I wrote a random 4-digit date which seemed to have the correct order of magnitude. Any information would be appreciated.
If anyone has gone to this Texas History Museum, then he/she should have seen it. It’s next to the main door.
Posting from Dallas, Texas (and a former Republican, to boot):
Lighten up on Texans, folks. We have plenty of smart people down here. This vote is not about science, it is about the Republican party re-making itself as the party of the lunatic fringe. Every time they lose a few votes, they figure they have to get back to their “core values.” I kept tellin’ them that their core values was what was causing people to walk, but they are clueless. I gave up about 5 years ago and am independent now.
Mark my words, they won’t last much longer in power at this rate. You may laugh, but I think Texas will be solidly Democratic in 10 years, maybe 5. The Republicans have just gone too far for reasonable people here.