Texas requires stupidity

“God made an idiot for practice, and then He made a School Board.” - Mark Twain.

Texas has an elected state board of education. This is not exactly a fortunate 'democratic' experience. Texas elected geobushjr, rick perry, tom delay, dick armey, phil gramm, and a slew of other idiot gomers.

Thirty years ago, it was already apparent that, public school textbooks were going for the lowest common denominator. Tejas was then a large state, it is larger now. Companies were tailoring there texts to be adopted by this large customer. So, in part, not "as Maine goes, so does the nation", but Tejas.

Things have gotten much worse. The idiot and malicious bilge Texas has sent to the District of Columbia has created disaster after disaster. In many ways Texas has become the fiftieth of the fifty states.

Now, the commissars have dictated their party line as guidelines for social studies curriculum in what once was history and other fields. The only good note, is their leader, a dentist, Don McLeroy has lost the Republican primary for another term, though he was the governor's appointed chairman. Perhaps, even some Texas Republicans have realised his unsuitability; and it is not often that that happens.

Chairman McLeroy justified his ten year programme with the FOXesque, "We are adding balance." Of course, Tejas has many negroes, mexicans and tejanos living there. Their contributions for "balance" were not included. The word 'democratic' was removed as a description of government. Thomas Jefferson was removed as a contributor to revolutionary thought, one of his replacements was John Calvin. A principle 'historical' concern was the need to triumph the cause of Ronnie Reagan, and anything that can be associated with that cult. McElroy has said,"The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan..."

McLeroy has had a history of comments, such as, "Somebody has got to stand up the experts."* And so it was done without any meddlesome historians, or academics to influence the process of history writing. McLeroy and his evangelical,'free-market' and Republican comrades did so by such favored insertions as: "Describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association." Balance was not affected by a contrary list. McLeroy, as did the soviets, can also rehabilitate those that were universally condemned, he did so with Joe McCarthy. Do we see the trajectory. Yes, the Texas School Book Depository shall do great harm to America again.
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*McLeroy is a dentist, would he trumpet free-lance dentistry?