Dr. McLeroy, addressing the Texas school board (Washington Monthly)
The Texas Board of Education has approved a new school curriculum that will put a stamp on history and economics textbooks that will horrify some and be questioned by others.
After three days of turbulent meetings, the board's far-right faction succeeded Friday in injecting ideals that:
--Question the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government
--Cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state
--Present Republican political philosophies and figures in a more positive light, including Joe McCarthy
--Stress the superiority of American capitalism while eliminating the word "capitalism" from the text
--Refer to the United States form of government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic republic"
--Give Confederate president Jefferson Davis equal footing with Abraham Lincoln
--Cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term "separation between church and state")
--Consistently defeated proposals to include more Latino figures as role models, though they failed to eliminate mention of Thurgood Marshall from the textbooks (he was the first black Supreme Court Justice and instrumental in the 1954 decision, Brown-v-Board of Education)
--Banned the children's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" because they thought the author had also written a book on Marxism
And that's just for starters.
The board voted to replace the word "capitalism" throughout their texts with the "free-enterprise system."
"Let's face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation," said one conservative member, Terri Leo. "You know, 'capitalist pig!'"
The banning of Brown Bear, Brown Bear arose when one board member discovered that its author happened to also write a treatise called Ethical Marxism.
The problem: The Bill Martin who wrote Ethical Marxism in 2008 is not the same Bill Martin who wrote the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. In fact, it would've been impossible for Bill Martin of Brown Bear fame to have written a treatise on Marxism in 2008 since, a) the Bill Martin of Marxism fame is a professor at DePaul University in Chicago and, the Bill Martin of Brown Bear fame died in 2004.
When the board first agreed upon this in January, you'd have assumed it would've uncovered its mistake and reversed its decision in subsequent meetings. The idea that someone would make such a deduction without anyone doing a simple Google search to realize there are two different authors of the same name speaks volumes about the intellectual curiosity and capacity of individuals who, additionally, are also determining an academic curriculum for millions of public school students across the country.
Adding insult to injury: The Brown Bear book, a 12-page picture book one reads to his or her 4-year-old, was slated to be part of the state curriculum for Texas third graders.
The curriculum changes aren't be driven by knowledge; they're being driven by politics, and by an effort to confront what many of the board members believe is the liberal bias in schools. As one of the largest buyers of textbooks, the changes in Texas, which still need to pass a final vote in May, could affect other states.
The standards, reviewed every decade, serve as a template for textbook publishers, who must come before the board next year with drafts of their books.
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 the ultra-Christian conservatives who dominate the Texas board have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country will read for years to come.
Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 100 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school.
The board consulted not a single historian, sociologist or economist at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.
"We are adding balance," said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left."
Voters may not agree with Dr. McLeroy. In Texas, board members are elected and McLeroy lost in a primary this month to a more moderate Republican.
Last month, the NY Times Magazine published an article by Russell Shorto about the influence of the Texas school board. It included an interview with the leader of the board's conservative faction, Dr. Don McLeroy. "I'm a dentist, not a historian," Dr. McLeroy told Mr. Shorto. "But I'm fascinated by history, so I've read a lot."
Here's how Shorto described the beginning of his interview last year with Dr. McLeroy at his dental office in Bryan, TX:
"I consider myself a Christian fundamentalist," he announced almost as soon as we sat down. He also identifies himself as a young-earth creationist who believes that the earth was created in six days, as the book of Genesis has it, less than 10,000 years ago. He went on to explain how his Christian perspective both governs his work on the state board and guides him in the current effort to adjust American history textbooks to highlight the role of Christianity. "Textbooks are mostly the product of the liberal establishment, and they're written with the idea that our religion and our liberty are in conflict," he said. "But Christianity has had a deep impact on our system. The men who wrote the Constitution were Christians who knew the Bible. Our idea of individual rights comes from the Bible. The Western development of the free-market system owes a lot to biblical principles."For McLeroy, separation of church and state is a myth perpetrated by secular liberals. "There are two basic facts about man," he said. "He was created in the image of God, and he is fallen. You can't appreciate the founding of our country without realizing that the founders understood that. For our kids to not know our history, that could kill a society. That's why to me this is a huge thing."
McLeroy offered a similar refrain in an interview with the Washington Monthly late last year:
"I don't care what the educational political lobby and their allies on the left say," he declared at one point. "Evolution is hooey." This bled into a rant about American history. "The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation," McLeroy said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. "But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes."
If you want to know why the United States is in a race to the bottom, look no further than Texas and people like Dr. McLeroy. Other countries are leaving us in the dust because those residents know that science is taught in schools and religion is best taught in the church/temple/mosque.
American students, already woefully unprepared, cannot compete if they insist that the whole dinosaur thing is a hoax and that evolution is "a theory made up by evil liberal academics."
The late Chairman Mao also launched a campaign against experts. Like the Neanderthals on the Texas school board, Mao was a case study in the dangers of zealous ideologues in charge. So too are Dr. McLeroy and his fellow travelers.
The late Chairman Mao also launched a campaign against experts. Like the Neanderthals on the Texas school board, Mao was a case study in the dangers of zealous ideologues in charge. So too are Dr. McLeroy and his fellow travelers.
He's a factual cherry picker and a doltish ideologue guilty of every bias he claims exists on the left. He's the last person you want sitting on a school board.
To repeat: The board rammed through their changes without the input of a single historian, sociologist or economist, as they considered themselves more reliable on certain topics. As McLeroy said, "Somebody's gotta stand up to experts."
You don't need experts; the facts are already there. You just need the slightest amount of effort to find them. For example, anyone who thinks they need to rewrite history to "emphasize" that the U-S was founded on Christianity, from the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797: "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
Not that facts matter to the ideologue. The McElroys of history and their ilk were the same one who burned witches in Salem, persecuted Galileo in Rome and, I've no doubt, martyred Christians in the early Common Era. They've been with us always, and we've survived them. Little men afraid of the future.
It's always funny how evangelicals today think the Founding Fathers thought the same as they do, when the fact is many were deists who (and I'm grossly oversimplifying here) believed that a creator made and wound the watch and then set back and let the universe tick. Few were gung-ho about hellfire and brimstone and going to church every Sunday. Indeed, I wonder if Dr. McLeroy ever read the Jefferson Bible. The author of the Declaration of Independence edited the Bible to take out the supernatural elements (e.g. miracles performed by Christ, Virgin Birth, etc.) and retitled it the "Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth."
The text is in the public domain and available here.
The text is in the public domain and available here.
There's a very simple solution that we need to take --now-- because of the impact this kind of nonsense can have on children all across the country, and by implication on America's standing in the world (both its future economic prosperity, and its current image as a rational, first-world nation): any school system that advocates teaching faith as science is violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment, and as such must lose all federal aid, immediately.
The other disgusting thing about all of this is that publishers don't stand up to the bullies in Texas. If parents in Texas want to raise a bunch of morons, that's their choice, but they shouldn't be able to foist their ignorance on the rest of the children in the country.
In the meantime, those of us from more reality-based states need to band together. Texas may be one of the largest states, but (as hard as it may be to remember this) there are more of us overall than there are of them. If, for example, New York, New Jersey and New England all ordered textbooks together, the 42 million people in those states would easily trump the 25 million represented by the lunatic fringe on the Texas Board of Education.
Through California's 38 million in for good measure and Texas hasn't got a shot.
As a matter of fact, if ever there were a state that needed to cede from the Union, Texas would be it. Please, finally, give all those creationist-loving, tea bag sycophants their very own Galt's Gulch world of Ozzie and Harriet and let the rest of the country get back to the business of being America.
Our condolences to the city of Austin.
Comments
Once again it is demonstrated that those with political ascendency get to write history as they see it. Since the dawn of the 20th century, Collectivists (Democrats, Progresives, Liberals, Leftists, Socialists, Fascists, Populists) have been skewing history and cultural influences in the media to reflect their ideologies.
As the pendulum swings back from their leftist extreme, there is going to be adjustment. One thing is sure: The word "Democracy" appears nowhere in any of our founding documents. We ARE a Constitutional Republic. The critical distinction in this wording is that under our sacred system of government (rooted in the "Christian" principles of free will and tolerance) is the absolute rule of law above popular mandate: Certain things which overtly or tacitly violate the inalienablility of individual liberties are disallowed regardless of the fervency or numerical support they may recieve. Democracy is a death sentence for any nation that adopts it.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO! GIT-R-DONE! To see how we roll in Texas watch "Joe Horn supporters run off Black Panthers" on youtube.
So when are the KKK going to be ran off? Wow! Some of the comments made are unbelievable. Do we really think that we are speaking truth or re-writing history for political reasons? How can you rename the slave trade? Did it not happen? When the Lord looks at his creation do you really think that he sees color or His child that He created to have fellowship with Him? In the end all that is going to matter is What we have done with His son Jesus. Did we do what Jesus did or say what Jesus said and love as Jesus loved. Did we tell the whole world about His son? All of this mess is a bunch of non sense and boils down to $$ and politics. When will we take the blinders off and see this for what it is? Where are the true believers?
Karl Marx stated " My object in life is to detrhone God and destroy capitalism."
Yeah we've all seen how well libtarded ziocoms can run down the public school system.
Just who do these local people think they are to actually decide what their students learn and do not learn? Those in California and DC ALL know better then the local yokels in Texas know. How dare they take a local active role in their states education!
This type of local control of children's brains must be stopped and let the people like Arne Duncan and Obama's smart Chicago crowd control the minds of the young.
Maybe now the kids can learn Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln's full quotes on race instead of the PC edited versions.
Hehehehehe using New York, New Jersey, and California as examples bwah hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Yeah they're an example on how not to run your school system. Texas is the second largest state, thank God it doesn't try to emulate the fourth largest state New York. People are abandoning Brucie's home state so fast it ain't even funny. New Jersey bwah hahahahahahahaha what a cesspool.
My bad New York is still the 3rd largest in population slightly ahead of Florida but they will continue to drop.
My, Republicans are passionate, aren't they? So many strong emotions, powerful rhetoric and such a strong belief system, unshakable. Maybe I should believe them?? humm. I been listening to just science, it's boring, I want to have some good old fashion revival feelings, you know, just like back in the 50's. YES! I'll vote Republican, and then I won't have to ever worry about anything again. Thank you Lord for bringing me to Republicans, Praise God, I'm saved! Liberals will burn in Hell!! Yipeeee...And I'm going to move to Texas were my kids can get a good education from the right minded, old time religion text books now. 'It just keeps getting better all the time, Lord'. AAAAmen.
I'm trying to follow this logic: "If you want to know why the United States is in a race to the bottom, look no further than Texas and people like Dr. McLeroy." ... These people are trying to CHANGE Texas education. To this point, evolution and such have been taught in Texas. So how, exactly, is the U.S. lagging in education tied to a Texas education policy that hasn't even gone into effect yet? ... You should be careful with reckless rhetoric.
Bruce writes: "...let the rest of the country get back to the business of being America."
I know this sounds really passionate and heartfelt. but Bruce regularly demonstrates his chroinc delusion regarding what America is. Ironically, in this article he is defending the previously distorted paradigm of Leftist propaganda against the newer version of propaganda that is being realigned to fit more closely to the mainstream of American history, society and culture. Sorry Bruce, but you had to know that the scam couln't last forever. This is the point at which a smart grifter would quietly shut the hell up and leave town at dusk.
"To this point, evolution and such have been taught in Texas. So how, exactly, is the U.S. lagging in education tied to a Texas education policy that hasn't even gone into effect yet? ... You should be careful with reckless rhetoric."
Yes, this is very true. And this isn't "blame Texas" - this is ONE religious nutjob that is trying to make some political hay before he is tossed out onto the curb. The people of Texas voted against this goofball just because of this.
Evolution = Gorebal Warming
Wow, I didn't realize this was a Boston paper until after I read all the really conservative comments! Or maybe people just like to contradict the article? It's quite clear that the Texas Board of Education is imposing its political beliefs on the curriculum. I personally find this news pretty scary.
GOD BLESS TEXAS AND JOE HORN!
It's impossible to be more retarded than Don McLeroy, and Texas lets this idiot make decisions about science education.
darwin-killed-god dot blogspot dot com
Stan Transue says: Bruce writes: "...let the rest of the country get back to the business of being America." I know this sounds really passionate and heartfelt. but Bruce regularly demonstrates his chroinc delusion regarding what America is."
Here's what America isn't: It is not a Christian nation founded on the Bible or some idea that the world was created in six days. That 10 of the 15 members on the board think that's what the Framers thought is flat out bovine excrement. Until houses of worship are willing to accept sermons by scientists about why evolution is fact, then religious zealots need to keep their fairy tales out of public schools. We were NOT founded as a Christian nation. Not ever.
Larry Soetoro says: Just who do these local people think they are to actually decide what their students learn and do not learn? Those in California and DC ALL know better then the local yokels in Texas know. How dare they take a local active role in their states education!
You do not understand the economics of this issue, even though they were pointed out in the article. The majority of school textbooks nationwide are coming from Texas. They shape a national curriculum, not a local one. If this were a local issue, it wouldn't be a national story.
Are you that ideologically blind that you're okay with board members thinking a children's book should be banned because they were too knee-jerk stupid to learn that its author was not the same one who wrote a book on Marxism? And why would that even matter? Yeah, let ignorant schmucks like that make decisions on how a nation should be enlightened. Great idea!
Bruce,
This is a classic example of why local history is not the same for everyone. I'm using your reference to the Lincoln/Davis bit.
Lincoln was never the president of Texas.
Texas seceded before he took the oath of office and he was taken out before Texas signed back on as a state a couple years after the war ended. Also, you have to remember that Texas was only a part of the United States for less than 5 years when all this went down. Jefferson Davis was the legitimate president for Texas, not Lincoln.
For someone to petition that the issue NOT be taught in Texas is what indoctrination is about.
Facts are facts and while many have opposing views,..thats exactly what they are,..facts. Notice that nothing I said had bias,..just a fact.
But someone will disagree I'm sure. The REAL indoctrinators!
Excuse the exclamation points,..wasnt shouting.
Tim says: This is a classic example of why local history is not the same for everyone. I'm using your reference to the Lincoln/Davis bit. Lincoln was never the president of Texas...
Tim, I understand that but first, I'm sure you'll agree Davis is not of the same historical standing as Lincoln; it appears the Texas board is trying to equate the two (I'd have to see a history text to be sure of that).
Second, the board doesn't prepare curriculum solely for Texas. Because Texas is the largest publisher of public school texts, the same material kids get in Texas will also be disseminated across the nation. Should a kid in Pennsylvania be learning that that John Calvin is more important than Thomas Jefferson?
Thanks for raising your question in a polite manner.
Tim wrote:
"Lincoln was never the president of Texas.
Texas seceded before he took the oath of office and he was taken out before Texas signed back on as a state a couple years after the war ended."
Doesn't matter. One of the central arguments of the civil war was over whether states had a 'right' to secede. Nothing of the sort appears in the Constitution, no foreign nation ever acknowledged the Confederacy as an independent nation, and all of the confederate states conceded the point when they surrendered.
Likewise, there have been many court cases establishing that there was no right of secession. The most relevant for Texas likely being 'Texas v White 1869'.
Hence the wording of the pledge of allegiance, "one nation, indivisible" ('under God' was added later).
So yes, Lincoln was President of Texas... according to the US Constitution, the US Supreme Court, every other nation on the planet, and Texas itself when it surrendered.
Texas and Germany
Orwell wrote,"He who controls the past controls the future." How true! What the Texas Board of Education has done by "revising" history, de-emphasizing long-standing truth and fact and inserting a polemic agenda is nothing short of what the NSDAP did during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.
Education became much more ideologically driven during the Nazi years than in the past. Essays became not much more than a rewriting of propaganda handouts e.g. the theme of an essay set for school leavers , The educational value of the Reich Labour Service. The overall emphasis was on Nazi racial doctrines and physical education with far less emphasis on intellectual pursuits. This had a dramatic effect on standards.
What the Texas BOE has done is, I fear, but a foretaste of the right-wing takeover that is to come.
A nice woman named Virginia Thomas of Omaha Nebraska is taking part in the tea Party Movement. She said ""I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama's "hard-left agenda."
Wait till this hits the big progblogworld.
78% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Oh and by the way this nation was founded and built by white Christians, not jews, not buddhists, not hindus, not scientologists, not muslims, and only a very miniscule percentage of atheists and agnostics. All you knuckle dusting jews, muslims, atheists etc. need to stifle if you have a problem with our children learning creationism or better yet get the hell out of the US. Another thing why is it that you atheists only have a problem with Christianity? If you're against religion or God why is it you never attack Judaism or Islam for example? Why do you have no problem with a Jewish Extremist group like Chabad Lubavitch placing and lighting a menorah on the White House Lawn, while no other religious symbols like a cross are allowed? Who the hell are you brainwashed idiots to tell someone what they can or can't do. MMMM MMMM MMMMM it's time to b**ch slap some whining malcontents MMMM MMMMM MMMM barry soetoro obama.
Bruce says: "America isn't: It is not a Christian nation.."
But demographics say otherwise. Americans turn out to be 78.5% Christian, 5.4% other religions; and only 16.1% non-religious. (less than 1/100 of 1% were ACLU lawyers and Leftist columnists)
But the FACTS are that America is an overwhelmingly Christian nation. George Washington said that the Bible was as important to just governance as the Constitution. Hmmm
But really Bruce, what you hate (other than God)is that the tools of your Leftist tyranny are being used against your agenda (sob).
First, you advocate Democracy (mob rule). In this case the majority is on the other side. Then you advocate protection of the minority against the majority. In this case a minority (10 school board members in one itty bitty state) are acting to preserve their unique cultural heritage.
So now you are against majority rule, minority protection and cultural diversity. Truth (or at least Bruce) IS stranger than fiction.
94% of the Founding Fathers quotes were based on the Bible and 34% are directly from its pages. Colonial America believed that individual rights were God given, not man made. Patrick Henry who is best known for the quote "Give me liberty or give me death" also said "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" George Washington, the father of our nation said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." Fifty-three of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians. It isn't just the Founding Fathers who expressed their Christian beliefs or values they held as principles fundamental to our nation. Andrew Jackson stated, "The Bible is the rock upon which this Republic stands." Abraham Lincoln, preserver of the Union said, "I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man."
Uber leftist fascist like Brucie are becoming dinosaurs, Thank God. I actually thought most of them disappeared in the early 90's but it seems like a few of the parasites are still hanging on in desperation. Man this country will be so much better when these whiners move to their favorite commie country with Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin.
Bruce says: "You do not understand the economics of this issue" "Are you that ideologically blind"
As you have pointed out before, you have no clue what I understand or not!
And I am ideologically driven to understand that local people control their schools, not people in CA or Wash DC.!
Bruce said: "We were NOT founded as a Christian nation. Not ever."
John Adams: "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity" “We recognize no sovereign but God, and no king but Jesus!”
T. Jefferson: “To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others.”
James Madison: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
Hell Larry they only one that "understands" anything is Brucie. If you don't believe Brucie is the all knowing just ask him and he'll tell ya.
Brucie would rather them teach the little kiddies to worship big eared barry than Jesus.
This is a great, scary article. Even scarier that so many in the comments are caught up in the insane "the earth is 6,00 years old" crowd. Unreal. Well-- the US will keep falling behind in global science knowledge, no problem.
The one ironic flaw in the article that I found was the spell check fooling the author -- or him not knowing the correct word - for the first word in this sentence: "Through California's 38 million in for good measure and Texas hasn't got a shot."
Of course he meant "Throw" not "through".
Please don't assume that everyone in Texas agrees with this insanity. I live in Texas, and I am a christian parent with strong faith and beliefs, and I am appalled by what is happening. It's just as ridiculous for you to say we want "to raise a bunch of morons" as it is for these idiots on the board to re-write history.
Give a BIG HELL YEAH FOR TEXAS AND JOE HORN!!
MMMM MMMM MMMM says: 78% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Oh and by the way this nation was founded and built by white Christians
You are ignorant of history.
Stan Transue says: Bruce says: "America isn't: It is not a Christian nation.." But demographics say otherwise.
Yet, old white farts have their knickers in a knot because Latinos will eventually be the majority ethnic in this country.
Dude, I'm not talking demographics; I'm talking government. We are not a Christian nation. If we were, we'd be a theocracy. Is that what you want?
Larry Soetoro says: A nice woman named Virginia Thomas of Omaha Nebraska is taking part in the tea Party Movement. She said ""I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama's "hard-left agenda." Wait till this hits the big progblogworld.
It already has --hundreds of times, since Ms. Thomas is just parroting what hundreds of tea partiers have already said ad nauseum. Tea partiers are this year's election hope. Next year, they'll be among the disappointed.
MMMM MMMM MMMM says: "Who the hell are you brainwashed idiots to tell someone what they can or can't do"
This from a person who defends creationism. Everything about what you wrote is an embarrassment to Christian principles.
Brucie is a hack who is in a state of denial and deceit. The commenters have provided him with facts about the founding fathers and yet he still opines his worthless commie drivel.
Loved the article. And congrats to the "Christians" who are attacking you for voicing what you've found; so very Christlike of them isn't it?
MMMM MMMM MMMM said, "this nation was founded and built by white Christians, not jews, not buddhists, not hindus, not scientologists, not muslims, and only a very miniscule percentage of atheists and agnostics."
I think that the two best responses to this particular strain of ignorance comes from the actual writings of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When Gen. Washington was hiring men to work at Mount Vernon, he wrote to Tench Tilgman and said, "If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mohometans, Jews or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists." Similarly, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his autobiography about his statute for religious freedom that,"they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."
So...it sounds to me like MMMM really doesn't know what he's talking about. Perhaps he was educated in Texas?
Bruce says: Ms. Thomas is just parroting what hundreds of tea partiers have already said ad nauseum
You do not realize who Ms Thomas is do you?
And yes, EVERYONE but yourself "parrots" the lines of whoever and YOU are the only one who "parrots" nothing? Your elitism and self importance shines through again!
Bruce says: "Dude, I'm not talking demographics; I'm talking government. We are not a Christian nation."
Bruce, the "government" is not the "nation." The Nation is a collection of individuals living according to relatively uniform moral code. A government is a body of officials who act to either impose control upon or provide protection of those individuals.
Your Collectivist ideology is the cause of this problem. YOU want publicly funded and managed education. YOU want everyone taught according to a uniform set of sterilized moral standards (which just so happen to erase any mention of our religious heritage to satsify the paranoid hypersensitivity of a fringe minority).
The answer to this conflict is so simple it must be suppressed by your Leftist Despots: GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE FRIGGIN' SCHOOLS! But then, your mechanism for behavior management and compliance conditioning would be let loose to the vagaries of local priorities and beliefs. Freedom BAD!!!
haqs anyone else noticed that Bruce is ALL FOR government intervention and control...until the intervention and control HE SO LOVES is used by those of a different ideology? Then its evil. Bruce, I know this is a big leap for you...but THAT is the REASON the Constitution so limited government powers. It wasn't to "make the needy suffer at the hands of evil, wicked, greedy self-sufficient people. It was to secure everyone's rights equally by ONLY intervening in cases of force, violence, fraud and tresspass; and only for the purpose of preventing, impeding or resoulving the restitution for such acts.
Government is not now, nor ever will be Friggin' Santa Claus. It is at best, Friggin' Rambo!
"If the party tells me five fingers, then five is what I'll say, even if the four displayed are waving in my face." Next we'll be taking cues from the Flat Earth Society? Really? This level of ignorance is criminal.
There is a wildly obvious gap between truth and faith, between science and religion. Religion should be taught only if explicitly separated from science & history, and only if equal treatment is giving to all major religions, not just Christianity. Otherwise we are doing a diservice to both our forefathers and our children.
Bottom line is the evolution knuckle duster, commie fascist, closet heterosexuals who think you have a high IQ are only a fraction of the population, so sit yo whining bony arses down.
Can these creationists explain how Adam and Eve populate the planet without having sexual relations with their own kids?
The Dude says: Can these creationists explain how Adam and Eve populate the planet without having sexual relations with their own kids?
Eden is now where West Virginia is.
Pages
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!