Mary Lou Bruner, extremist who thinks Obama was a prostitute, heads to runoff in Texas State Board of Education race.

Do you want a person who believes that the current occupant of the Oval Office was once a prostitute to decide what’s in your children’s textbooks? How about a woman who thinks that climate change is a Marxist “HOAX” (caps hers) to steer K–12 curricula for more than 5 million kids?

Well, then Texas has a candidate for you—and she won big on Super Tuesday.

Texas State Board of Education candidate Mary Lou Bruner’s website features a prayer that begins, “Lord, We ask You to show us where we as Christians and as a nation have fallen short of the mark allowing our government leaders to pass evil and ungodly laws which displease God.”

It seems the Lord has been listening to Bruner, for she took a commanding 48.45 percent of the vote in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for one of the state board’s 15 seats. She will face a run-off—in Texas, you have to hit the 50 percent threshold to make it official—against the second-place candidate in what promises to be a very-tiny-turnout election in late May. Because Texas heavily influences textbook content for schools all over the country, Bruner’s probable ascent is a very big—and very disturbing—deal.

Mary Lou Bruner, extremist who thinks Obama was a prostitute, heads to runoff in Texas State Board of Education race.

The wacky wacky Reich,,,

Rafael Cruz: The Poor Man's David Barton

The Sunday before the midterm elections, Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Sen. Ted Cruz, spoke at John Hagee's church in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent an entire hour delivering a speech that was literally little more than an amalgamation of material that he has directly pilfered from other Religious Right speakers, most notably pseudo-historian David Barton.

As we have noted before, the elder Cruz is quite fond of lifting Barton's misinformation about American history and the Constitution and passing it along during his own presentations, but the speech he delivered at Hagee's church was quite remarkable for just how much of it was simply a rehashing of Barton's standard presentation.

Cruz's presentation was such a wholesale rip-off that he even managed to work in Barton's false claim that the Supreme Court banned school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools because it could cause brain damage:

Fischer Proposes Religious Right Conclave To Pick The Next GOP Presidential Nominee

On his radio broadcast today, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer called for Religious Right leaders to gather together for what would amount to a political papal conclave designed to pick the next Republican presidential nominee.

Worrying that the Religious Right may have too many excellent choices among the crop of 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls and may end up diluting its power by splitting its support among various candidates as a result, Fischer suggested that Religious Right leaders ought to organize a summit where they would all gather and relentlessly "grill [the candidates] one after another."
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"It's kind of like picking a Pope," he said,,,

Wondering what exactly a "homosexual book " is,,,

MassResistance: Gays Seek To 'Criminalize Christian Belief' And 'Homosexualize Children

The anti-LGBT group MassResistance is upset with companies like Staples and CVS for sponsoring an upcoming Human Rights Campaign fundraiser, and is accusing the businesses of supporting the criminalization of Christianity.

“Most people don’t know that major corporations in America are funding the massive push to introduce homosexuality and transgenderism into the elementary school grades, pass laws across the country to criminalize Christian belief in the workplace, force ‘gay marriage’ through the federal courts, viciously harass pro-family groups, and much more,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

Before asking conservatives to contact HRC’s donors, MassResistance warns parents to fear the day “when your child comes home from school reading homosexual books.”

Daubenmire: Christians Can Never Compromise On Allowing Gays To 'Come Out Of The Closet'

As Daubenmire explained, once Christians compromised on God's standard of "no homosexuality [and] sodomy is a crime" by agreeing to allow gay people to "come out of the closet and be recognized," it became impossible to stop gay marriage.

"The church is rot with compromise," Daubenmire said. "Values we used to stand for we now compromise because why? We think maybe God was a little bit crazy back in those old days when he made some of those rules ... Compromise isn't a good thing. How do we know that? Because the Lord himself said, 'I change not. I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever.' He is a solid rock. He doesn't compromise. And neither should we on values that matter. Compromise is deadly, folks."

When Evangelicals Got Standing Ovations at the Vatican 

This week, Pope Francis welcomed an ecumenical (“Humanum”) gathering discussing the significance of the complementarity between men and women for our lives and the future of marriage and the family. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, was among those in attendance. In an interview with National Review Online, he shares some insights on the discussions — including the warm welcome a number of evangelicals received there.

[,,,]
Q:  It seems difficult if not near impossible these days to talk about men and women and marriage without sounding like you’re excluding those who are attracted to the same sex. Is it in fact an impossible task?

A: I believe this is why the focus of the colloquium was on “The Complementarity of Man and Woman.” It is not that religious groups or groups in society are excluding particular individuals; it is that those who reject such complementarity are essentially excluding themselves from this divine and natural reality.

Q: When you talk about a natural order, isn’t there a danger of making it seem some are unnatural? That could seem the case with those with same-sex attraction and those who are not married.

A: When it comes to marriage it is contrary to nature.

Q: It still escapes a lot of people why same-sex marriage is a threat to any man and woman’s marriage or marriage itself. If marriage and family are in crisis, why not open it up to more?

A: The crisis in marriage has grown in proportion to the degree to which society has allowed it to deviate from what it was designed to be, a life-long monogamous relationship between one man and one woman.

Texas Approves Textbooks With Moses As Honorary Founding Father

The Texas State Board of Education approved several dozen social studies textbooks after a contentious battle over their treatment of subjects including climate change, the role of slavery in the Civil War, Islam, and biblical influence in America’s founding. One major publisher, however, withdrew a book from consideration, saying that it was unable to meet all the standards set by the school board.

The Texas Freedom Network, which live-blogged today’s vote, said that much problematic material had been removed from the proposed textbooks, including climate denial and “offensive cartoons comparing beneficiaries of affirmative action to space aliens,” but that references to Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy remained. But TFN notes that publishers posted a number of last-minute changes to the textbooks yesterday, leaving board members and observers without time to figure out exactly what was in the approved texts:

One of America's most anti-gay organizations rallies for the Duggars; because of course they would

Over the past few years, TV's Duggar family has gone from reality television personalities who mostly keep their political lives separate from their public personas to a family that proudly pushes its beliefs into public policy. Eldest son Josh took a job with the extremely anti-LGBT and political Family Research Council, where he claims his lesbian aunt is "choosing a lifestyle" and leads rallies opposing marriage equality. Mom Michele has recorded robocalls advocating against LGBT nondiscrimination laws. And recently, when the family asked married couples to post photos of them kissing, the Duggars deleted any same-sex married couples who tried to participate. To name just a handful of the family's anti-gay activities (they also regularly show up at anti-LGBT conferences, campaign for anti-LGBT politicians, etc.).

Now the American Family Association, an organization that was founded on proud discrimination and that currently employs a chief analyst whose rabid comment bank is so unbelievable that the average person would probably assume its fiction, is rising to the family's defense.

Because of their uncompromising stand on marriage and abstinence, the homosexual lobby has drawn a bully bead on Jim and Michelle Duggar. Gay activists are publicly labeling Jim and Michelle with words like “ignorance” and “fear mongering.”

WND Editor: Obama Has 'The Kind Of Thinking That Led To The Gas Chambers'

WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah writes today that President Obama “appears to be doing everything in his power to spread the Ebola virus” as part of a nefarious plan to grow the size of government.

Farah claims that Obama’s “evil nature” comes from “the satanic death cult euphemistically called ‘progressivism,’” which he says is based on the Cloward-Piven strategy.

“It’s the kind of thinking that led to the gas chambers,” Farah writes. “It’s the kind of thinking that led to the gulags. It’s the kind of thinking that led to the guillotines.”

According to Farah, Obama has launched a “Cloward-Piven-Ebola Strategy” in which he hopes that more people will contract Ebola in order to justify government expansion.

Since there are exactly zero people in the U.S. who have Ebola, Obama must be doing a pretty bad job of it!

SBOE Politics as Usual: Textbook Review Once Again Corrupted by Lack of Expertise - Texas Freedom Network

Same shit different day for Texas textbooks

TFN analyzed panels assigned to review textbooks for courses such as U.S. and world history, geography and economics. Out of more than 140 individuals appointed to the panels, only three are current faculty members at Texas colleges and universities. TFN has identified more than a dozen other Texas academics — including the chair of the History Department at Southern Methodist University as well as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin — who applied to serve but did not get appointments to the panels.

But the TFN analysis found that political activists and individuals without social studies degrees or teaching experience got places on the panels. One reviewer, Mark Keough, a Republican nominee for the Texas House District 15 seat, got an appointment to a U.S. History panel after being nominated by SBOE chair Barbara Cargill. Keough, a pastor with degrees in theology, has no teaching experience listed on his application form. Keough recently retired from a career in car sales to run a ministry in Cargill’s hometown of The Woodlands and to run for office.

SBOE Politics as Usual: Textbook Review Once Again Corrupted by Lack of Expertise - Texas Freedom Network

Creationists' Last Stand at the State Board of Education - - News - Dallas - Dallas Observer

An interesting look at the "history" or maybe better stated, the development of Texas anti-evolutionism. Some may argue that the author is being sympathetic to the creationist crowd, but that is not the feeling I get. It's more of delving into their ideology that drives them to deny science. For example, Raymond Bohlin whose sole purpose of attaining his doctorate in molecular biology was to be a critic of evolution, "I have to make sure I understand in detail how it's supposed to work." But yet, as the author points out, ",,,he may be the only creationist to have participated in naming a new species,,,"

The author also take a look at Mel and Norma Gabler, founders of Educational Research Analysts, notorious for their fear of secularization, "relativist erosions of traditional, Judeo-Christian morality, free-market principles, patriotism and abstinence-only sex education." And continues up to today, including David Barton and Peter Marshall, the Dover Trial.

Creationists' Last Stand at the State Board of Education - - News - Dallas - Dallas Observer

Jesus, Take the Wheel: Texas Education Is a Mess of Biblical Proportions: Texas education is a mess of biblical proportions - News - The Austin Chronicle

Although the Texas Legislature in 2007 passed a law requiring school districts to teach the influence of the Bible on history and literature, just 60 districts have used that to create special electives on the Bible. Indeed, before the bill was passed, there were 25 Bible courses already offered, and a 2006 report by the Texas Freedom Net­work Education Fund detailed "serious academic and constitutional problems" with most of them. In passing the 2007 bill, lawmakers put in measures designed to address some of those problems. Now, some five years later, the problems persist, according to a second report, conducted by Mark Chan­cey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas for the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund.

According to the new report, most of the districts with Bible-specific courses failed to train educators to teach the course, as required by the law, and the State Board of Education has failed to adopt content-specific curriculum standards for the Bible classes, also required by law. Combined, the lack of training and guidance mean that many of the classes lack academic rigor, are biased in content, and treat the Bible as a history text. In short, many of the districts now offering the classes are not only out of compliance with state law, but may also be running afoul of constitutional protections. Indeed, as a PowerPoint created for Harris County's Klein ISD explains to students, "The Bible is united in content because there is no contradictions in the writing [sic]. The reason for this is because the Bible is written under God's direction and inspiration."

Jesus, Take the Wheel: Texas Education Is a Mess of Biblical Proportions: Texas education is a mess of biblical proportions - News - The Austin Chronicle

Texas, where science and history have become ideological battlegrounds | Ars Technica

Some of the most important decisions that influence the public's knowledge aren't made by scientific societies and they don't take place in Washington DC. For the most part, they're made in the capitals of each state, as each has its own standards for what students leaving its public schools should know. Those standards set lesson plans and help decide which textbooks are acceptable.

[,,,]
The process for creating Texas' educational standards is mostly a sound one. A panel of educators and subject experts, often drawn from the academic community, decided which subjects are most relevant and what students should know about them. The standards are then handed over to the board for approval. But the soundness ends there. The board, which may not (and in many cases, does not) have expertise in these subject areas, is allowed to delete, edit, or replace any of the standards recommended by the experts.

[The last sentence is what galls me, that and McElroy's satement, "Someone has to stand up to the experts."]

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The movie follows the testimony and actions of the board as it tears through—and in some cases, tears up—the science and history standards that were forwarded to them. It uses footage of hearings and votes, along with interviews of many of the participants, including a professor involved in writing the science standards, and Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization dedicated to limiting the impact of the board's more ideological members.

[,,,]
If anything, the history standards were worse. Dunbar claims she's a "big fan" of Thomas Jefferson, but thinks a "secular humanistic ideology" has clouded current interpretations of his work. So she cuts him out of the standards on the Enlightenment and its influence on the US' founding documents, instead substituting in pre-enlightenment figures like Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. Further revisions to history come rapid fire, as others try to add the Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority, and NRA to a section on the '80s, and another person tries to make sure Barack Obama's middle name (Hussein) is added to the text where his name appears.

[,,,]
Enough people describe the whole process as a mess that it's no surprise The Revisionaries struggles to lay it out in a narrative. The challenge is made larger by the filmmakers' decision to provide little framing for the footage, other than sporadic notes scratched on a blackboard to give some sense of the timing and location of the clips. As a result, the movie really doesn't work if you go into it hoping to get a history of the Texas school board. In fact, it would probably be better if you went in to things with a rough outline of the events (the one in this review would be enough).

Texas, where science and history have become ideological battlegrounds | Ars Technica

The Revisionaries | Creationism and Evolution Caught in Textbook Debate | Independent Lens | PBS

Texas gets it's own little amalgamation of postings,,,first up this documentary and IMHO if you care about what your kids are learning in regards to science, history, social studies (and math to some degree), this is a must see,,,

ID /creationism or whatever you want to call it is bunk it is not science and has no place in public education,,,teaching that the sun stood still or that Moses parted the Red Sea is not science, it is based on a system of faith which belongs in the confines of home and church,,,

Another issue (which will be highlighted in an up coming posting concerning the voucher program in Louisiana), there exists in this world a couple of religions that insist that their religion is the TRUE religion,,,for Texas students, one of those religions is attempting to control not just the Texas school books but all state's books,,,it is why I strongly believe in the separation of church and state, when you allow individuals to insert their religious beliefs into the political process; it results in discrimination of others who hold different religious beliefs or those who don't believe in any of them,,,

What is appalling to me is the statement by one board member saying that Thomas Jefferson should not be in the circle of great political thinkers who engineered the American Revolution,,,to say that he did not get his ideas from John Locke is a further travesty,,,where does she think that Jefferson got "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from" (this would David Baron's influence as I have highlighted numerous times),,,teaching th claptrap that they are is dooming all students in Texas

In Austin, Texas, 15 people influence what is taught to the next generation of American children. Once every decade, the highly politicized Texas State Board of Education rewrites the teaching and textbook standards for its nearly five million schoolchildren. And when it comes to textbooks, what happens in Texas affects the nation as a whole. Texas is one of the nation's largest textbook markets because it is one of the few where the state decides what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. Further, publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the requirements of the biggest buyers. As a result, the Texas board has the power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.

[,,,]
The Revisionaries shines a spotlight on the key players effecting U.S. high school textbooks, with characters representing a wide array of personalities and desires. Some see the board as a stepping-stone to future political success. Others see it as their ordained quest to preserve the teachings of the Bible. Still others see it as their duty to ensure that their children, who are in the public schools, have access to the best possible education that will prepare them to compete for jobs in the global marketplace. In all of this, one thing is assured, these board members are in the right place at the right time. They have the opportunity to affect a generation of Americans.

The Revisionaries | Creationism and Evolution Caught in Textbook Debate | Independent Lens | PBS