This Should Scare Us - School Textbook Edition

It's interesting (and very scary) how the culture war continues in this country. I was taking a break from looking for work today and came across something that should scare everyone. Apparently, the Texas State Board of Education is planning for new history text books that have a definite right wing bias but remove any mentions of those deemed liberal.

Under their plans, the text books would include mentions of Newt Gingrich (former Speaker of the House leader of the so-called "republican revolution" of the mid 1990s), and Phyllis Schlafly (Eagle Forum founder) among others. Who do they want to remove from the textbooks? Several reviewers have mentioned removing United Farm Workers organizer Cesar Chavez.

The question is who else will be swept from history books?

At first glance, one would assume this is a localized example and that those of us who don't live in Texas shouldn't be concerned with it. However, one thing I didn't know until today is guess which state plays a large role in setting national standards for school textbooks?

Now I have a bit of disillusionment towards how things are taught in America's prison, I mean school, system. I do believe the late Frank Zappa's view on schools having a search and destroy program aimed at wiping out any hint o creative thinking amongst kids. However, this takes things to a level even my skepticism couldn't imagine.

Does this need to be fought? Hell yes. Hopefully this won't make it out of the Texas legislature and the rest of us won't have to worry about it. However, it does remain one more instance of how regardless of Obama and his allies' push for bipartisanship and moving forward, the conservatives still have every intention of making sure the "culture war" continues.

Oustsourcing for Assassinations? WTGDMF?

It's amazing how the further we get settled into the Obama age that more of how his predecessor (and dictator wannabe) got us further into a damn quagmire comes out.

A short while ago, we learned that Dick Cheney had organized CIA assassination squads to kill people in the name of our supposed "national interests" in the months after 9/11. Scary enough if you know history (Chile in 73 anyone?), but just when you think it couldn't get worse - it does. Turns out they outsourced some of this job to guess who?



WHile it should surprise no one with a knowledge of history that Blackwater (or Xe or whatever they're calling themselves this week) is involved in this. It's still scary just how willing to emulate a dictatorship this country was willing to become.

Now the new question should be why does Obama continue to give them money and pay them to work in the middle East.

For a transcript of the video in this post, go here.

Food For Thought

Like a lot of people, I've found myself worried about the path our country's going to. I realize Obama has the unenviable task of trying to clean up the clusterfuck of the past administration (it will take about three different administrations to really deal with that), but he seems to be more concerned with making deals rather than actually creating the change we were promised (right now he's not on Bill Clinton level yet but who knows).

I was fooling around online when I came across this article which state the case far better than I could.

You might think this is right on. You might think it misses the mark. I do encourage you to check the article out and make up your own minds.