As Texas Dumbs Down, So Does the USA

[midlifebear]

There's more than one black hole down in Texas. Right around Dimebox is a "flow and glow" vortex that threatens to suck everyone and everything into dark image that looks like a giant megachurch. Spooky. I understand that it is a brain removal plant.

 

[maxcok]

Okay, el Bear. You know the lay of the land down there, so tell me what you think here: Now I got my shorts in a bunch on that Secessionist thread awhile back, on the whole dumbfuck redneck Southern stereotype thang. (Y'all please note I'm notably not doing that tonight elsewhere on another thread.)

However . . . . I'm rethinking this whole thing now. I mean Texas already thinks it's a separate country, so why not let all the neocons, neonazis and radical evangelicals have it? They could put up a giant wall on the Mexican border, hell, around the whole damn thing if they want. They've got plenty of cows and they could drill to their I-heart-Texas heart's content. The only flaw in my plan is, how are we gonna relocate Austin, and more importantly Hippie Hollow?

 

[HazelGod]

The only flaw in my plan is, how are we gonna relocate Austin, and more importantly Hippie Hollow?

:biggrin1:

Right? Because we all know how well the notion of having "West Berlin" sit in the middle of "East Germany" worked out!

 

[maxcok]

:biggrin1:

Right? Because we all know how well the notion of having "West Berlin" sit in the middle of "East Germany" worked out!

" Mr. Perry . . . Tear down that wall !!! "

 

[B_spiker067]

Makes we wonder why CA doesn't in its own way dominate the publishing of k-12 textbooks.

It is a large market AND it is ideological liberal. WTF, really, the CA liberals roll over and die on this one?

 

[Zeuhl34]

Makes we wonder why CA doesn't in its own way dominate the publishing of k-12 textbooks.

It is a large market AND it is ideological liberal. WTF, really, the CA liberals roll over and die on this one?

I believe that's explained in the article in the OP.

 

[maxcok]

I believe that's explained in the article in the OP.

You expect spikey to read before publishing his opinion? LOL.

 

[B_spiker067]

You expect spikey to read before publishing his opinion? LOL.

This claim that TX somehow dominates the content of textbooks goes back years. NOT NEW.

Makes you wonder why CA libs years ago didn't do something about it. THIS ISN'T a recent phenomenon.

This explains the NYTIMES fear mongering:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-216269849.html

Battles over textbooks are nothing new, especially in Texas, where bitter skirmishes regularly erupt over everything from sex education to phonics and new math. But never before has the board's right wing wielded so much power over the writing of the state's standards. And when it comes to textbooks, what happens in Texas rarely stays in Texas. The reasons for this are economic: Texas is the nation's second-largest textbook market and one of the few biggies where the state picks what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to the whims of local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. As a result, the Lone Star State has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers. As one senior industry executive told me, "Publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list."

Until recently, Texas's influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation's largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014. This means that McLeroy and his ultraconservative crew have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.

But the fact is today publishing is a far more flexible process and in 2014 (or sooner) textbooks with a liberal bend will be readily available.

I do kinda wonder though why CA is broke and TX isn't? Hmmmmm....

^The real intended question I should have just asked point blank.

 

[midlifebear]

Well, one of the reasons the Texas School System isn't dead (and this includes all elementary, intermediate, high school, community colleges, and universities that are part of the state system as opposed to MSU and other religion supported schools) is because the Texas Legislature crafted a nifty law that all money generated by pumping petroleum out from under public state lands goes into a "untouchable" State Education Fund. Clever, no? So for most of the 20th Century and still raging into the 21st, public education in Texas has benefitted from THE LARGEST government education funding machine in the USA. Even when oil was only about $9 a barrel in 1985, there were few (as in almost no) cutbacks in Texas Public Education. As for other sectors of the State's budget they haven't been as wise. But Education funding hasn't been meddled with for a long time. How else do you think Texas can support all those high school football programs and marching bands?

By the way, this particular legislation was drafted, promoted and passed back in the days when Texas was primarily a Democratic stronghold.

 

[faceking]

That was an amazing article, MLB. Amazing and frightening.

Now, how can I put this delicately? I fuckin' hate the religious right. Yeah.

We should safely assume that includes Mooslims, many of which would slit your throat vs. legislate upon your beliefs.

Jus' checkin'.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

We should safely assume that includes Mooslims, many of which would slit your throat vs. legislate upon your beliefs.

Jus' checkin'.

No... you're flame baiting as usual.
And BTW, most Muslims don't want to slit your throat. I should know... I vacationed in the Middle East for a couple of weeks less than 2 years ago.

 

[midlifebear]

FaceQueen:

We have travelled to Morocco, spent far too many days running naked on the sunny beaches of Saida (Western Sahara), floated aimlessly off the coast of Tunisia (probably the worst authoritarian regime in Northern Africa) in clear ocean water the same temperature of a warm bath, and even slugged down far too many martinis at a luxury hotel meant for foreign travelers. And not once has a Muslim treated us with disrespect or threatened us. Just imagine, two gay men traveling together and no one raises an eyebrow. I'm sure it might be different if we openly asked "Where are the local gay bars?" But we're not that stupid. However, we've even gone to gay bars in these countries. We even felt completely safe and welcome traveling to Egypt (lots of pick pockets and insufferable pollution, though).

But I've been shot three different times in the USA by "nice christians" simply because someone assumed I was gay. Go figure.

You should get out more. At least cross the State line a few times to see how others live.

 

[houtx48]

At least cross the State line a few times to see how others live.............cross the county line.... facequeens hate to travel

 

[Calboner]

We have travelled to Morocco, spent far too many days running naked on the sunny beaches of Saida (Western Sahara), floated aimlessly off the coast of Tunisia (probably the worst authoritarian regime in Northern Africa) in clear ocean water the same temperature of a warm bath, and even slugged down far too many martinis at a luxury hotel meant for foreign travelers. And not once has a Muslim treated us with disrespect or threatened us. Just imagine, two gay men traveling together and no one raises an eyebrow. I'm sure it might be different if we openly asked "Where are the local gay bars?" But we're not that stupid. However, we've even gone to gay bars in these countries. We even felt completely safe and welcome traveling to Egypt (lots of pick pockets and insufferable pollution, though).

But I've been shot three different times in the USA by "nice christians" simply because someone assumed I was gay. Go figure.

Shot three times, on different occasions? :wtf:

I've never traveled in a Muslim or an Arab country, but my understanding is that in many of them, at least Arab countries, a higher degree of physical intimacy between men in public is common than in the West, and is not interpreted as sexual. (Physical intimacy in public between a man and a woman, on the other hand, can get you into serious trouble.) So behavior that would mark you as "gay" here would not mark you as "gay" there. Arabs and other Muslims are not in the least tolerant of homosexuality: they just aren't as quick to see it as fag-bashers in the West are. (Remember Ahmadinejad saying that there are no gay men in Iran?) If your Muslim hosts had known what you and your boyfriend were getting up to, I don't think that your tale would have been such a happy one.

 

[midlifebear]

Yeah, I've been shot three times.
1. Once by my brother who thought it was best if I was baptized in my own blood for my atonement for being gay and not feeling a bit repentent. It was long shell 22 bullet with a split end. Fortunately my brother was a lousy shot and it just messed up the muscles in my right thigh.
2. Took a 38 caliber bullet in my left elbow just walking down the Castro after work with some friends when teenagers from Oregon drove by and took pot shots at "the faggots" walking up and down the sidewalks "to teach those [us] fuckers a lessson!" Those cute kids all got "special deals" and all live in Oregon with their sweet wives and special children.
3. I've got a nice long scar along the side of my head where a bullet made more than just a slightly deep graze (it took out some bone) when I grabbed the arm and took down of one of a group of guys intent upon gay bashing us (me and several friends), again at night in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco as we were leaving a bar. At first, I was arrested for supposedly carrying a gun. By the time I was dragged off to an emergency room in hand cuffs (boy, do head wounds ever bleed) San Francisco's Finest finally figured out I was a victim and not a perpeptrator. All of these "gun" incidents happened before Harvey Milk and Mayor Mascone were gunned down in their offices in City Hall back in 1978. But they aren't the reason I'm so intolerant of the uber religious.

But I got off lucky. The late night/early morning I was shot in the elbow a best friend was senselessly killed by the same teenagers when a bullet blasted through his abdominal artery. And there's one guy who has been in a wheel chair ever since that night, (who wasn't even gay), and several others who lost use of limbs from bone-shattering gun shots.

All of these incidents were perpetrated by "nice young christian boys from white middle-class 'Mericuhn families." I wrote a long post about it once a couple of years ago. And in 'Mericuh there are still folks who don't believe in hate crime legislation.

As for "our hosts" in Muslim countries, it's usually the gay men who can't help it and appear and act effeminate in public. Even straight men are given a rash of shit for acting or putting on the airs of women -- in public or private. And it's not like The Squeeze and I go out of our way to suck face waiting to be frisked at Ezeize (Buenos Aires) International as we go through security. And hate crimes ARE illegal in Argentina and have a good legacy of being heavily prosecuted. But no one in any of the Muslim countries gave us any mind for walking arm in arm or holding hands.

But all of this is best addressed in a specific thread on gay bashing or, just simply being -- how did another poster try to rationalize it? Intolerant? :smile:

 

[Industrialsize]

Texas Textbook MASSACRE: 'Ultraconservatives' Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum

Thomas Jefferson? Who's that?
The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.” From the Texas Freedom Network's live-blog of the board hearing: Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with “the writings of&#8221 and to Thomas Jefferson.
No church-state separation
"Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." “I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
U.S. no longer a 'democracy'
Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Hip-hop not culturally significant
Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.
All religions equal under Constitution?NOT
The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”
Preserving McCarthy's legacy
"Other changes seem aimed at tamping down criticism of the right. Conservatives passed one amendment, for instance, requiring that the history of McCarthyism include 'how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.' The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States."
'Conservative resurgence'
"They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about 'the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.'"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html#s73765

 

[finsuptx]

Hey, I think Texas is dumbing up. This is, I think, a good thing, as long as Texas is genuine in its inquiry. Like or not, JustAsking, I think you have a protege.

The Texas Board of Education was NOT genuine in its inquiry, I can assure you. They included what they 'chose' to include, and it was a highly contentious battle along religious and political lines. Don't bother coming to help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, there is no hope.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Indy: What's most ironic about these Ultraconservatives and their blatant denial of Hip-Hop Culture, is that the mass majority of sales come from people who live in the Suburban areas they claim to protect. But beyond that, it's still a great indicator as to how archaic some people are to this day.

 

[finsuptx]

Makes we wonder why CA doesn't in its own way dominate the publishing of k-12 textbooks.

It is a large market AND it is ideological liberal. WTF, really, the CA liberals roll over and die on this one?

California used to be the ones who did decide, but then they sort of drove themselves off a fiscal cliff, and can no longer afford to buy new textbooks, so the textbook manufacturers looked to the next biggest customer, and it was Texas.

I also want to thank all you kind, friendly folk who toss the baby out with the bathwater in their remarks about Texans. Just like every Southerner during the Civil War was not for slavery, not all of us here are dumb, uneducated, twisted rednecks.

I'm ashamed of what my politicians do, from Governor Goodhair on down to County Judges and Constables, but I am NEVER ashamed of Texas.

 

[midlifebear]

Well, everyone knows that John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was Photoshopped.

Boy, howdy. This is certainly a dark day in the history of the USA. :frown1: :stupid: :frown1: