November 07, 2004

• Being a student in Texas, I am weeping openly for humanity.
• Even worse is that Texas is the largest consumer of textbooks in the country; their purchasing power gives them some de facto editorial control (or at least influence) over the materials the rest of the country uses to teach their kids.
• addendum: I once spent an entire year of biology without a textbook because they were arguing about evolution.
• I'm sorry for you poor bastards that lost the election, but this is what you get when you live with intolerant religious ideologues. (Yes, I'm in day five of hating all Americans. I'd stop, but you keep giving me more reason to hate you.)
• Also, this sort of thing has been going on in Kansas for at least the past decade, has it not? This doesn't surprise me in the least.
• Kansas, Georgia, Texas... state by state, creationism is spreading like a virus. So much for separation of church and state.
• Or religious ideology, rather than plain old creationism. All part and parcel.
• Even worse is that Texas is the largest consumer of textbooks in the country; their purchasing power gives them some de facto editorial control (or at least influence) over the materials the rest of the country uses to teach their kids. That's true. You can take some solace in that the other driver of textbook content is California. Well, you probably shouldn't. It makes working on educational materials reeeal interesting I tell you what. This from professional experience. Also they probably would have done this whether Bush won or not.
• One board member who led the effort to get the text changed referred to text like "individuals who marry" as "asexual stealth phrases." To me, it feels like the definition the publisher agreed to - a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife," could itself be considered stealthy, especially the "lifelong" part if the textbook didn't provide the context of current divorce rates.
• chrominance: don't hate us all -- just 51% of us. You can flip a coin when you meet a random American to decide if you should pat his shoulder or punch him out. At least that's what this American is doing.
• Once again I am reminded of why I left Texas. San Francisco may be too expensive, but it sure is comfortable.
• I can't help but think American people get more pathetic everyday. My great neice and nephew are being raised to think like Bible thumping Christians, with all the hate and bigotry that goes with it. Six and seven years old, already they try to convert their radical, left leaning great aunt (me, their granny's discription of me) to believe as granny and gramps (bigot, bible thumpers) believe.I try to fix what damage is done with these two kids. I only hope I can help keep their minds open, and that they don't fold under the pressure of the grandparents and the schools. At least their Mom is in agreement with me, and with the two of us working together, perhaps these two kids will grow up with open minds and little damage from the Bible thumpers and the schools.
• Sensible Texans have actually been fighting the textbook fight for a long time. It's been a long war, and you win some of the battles and you lose some. We lost this one, but it's not too surprising, given the anti-civil union law. If you're not familiar with the long-term Texas war against idiots, let me introduce you to Mel and Norma Gabler, who have been plaguing our textbook review process so long that I literally can't remember when I wasn't hearing about the trouble they made. I remember back in the 90s, the Board of Education actually did something to limit changes that could be made to factual errors only to limit the influence of the Gablers. I suspect under the currrent administration in Texas, all such rules have been swept aside or are being interpreted broadly.
• This frustrates me so much. Such a complete waste on so many levels in addition to being homophobic and unaware. However more and more families do not resemble this white christian hetro model and some students will be wise to that. Many will notice that it does not describe what they know from their own lives.
• The woman in question also proposed -- but was not able to pass -- an addition that would say something to the effect of "Opinions differ on why homosexuals, lesbians, and bisexuals are more prone to self-destructive behavior like suicide and depression." Sorry, I don't have time to find the source just now...
• That would be Board member Terri Leo of Spring Texas and you should tell her what you think.
• Don't they have an old Book Depository they can go to and just dig out some old textbooks from the forties and fifties? It would be so much easier than recreating them. Cheaper, too. And the pictures would be cooler.
• If they defined marriage as, "A committed relationship where one party is capable of receiving vaginal lancing from the throbbing cock of another," then I would have no problem with their exclusive definition.
• I, for one, welcome our new fundementalist overlords.