Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 3.12

Amanda

Amanda works in healthcare, is a loudmouthed feminist, and proud supporter of the Oxford comma.

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24 Comments

  1. Thanks for depressing me first thing in the morning. History curricula should be written by history scholars, not political ideologues on either side. That list of changes is downright scary.

  2. A bit off topic, but I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the Dr. Poul Thorsen news going around? Seems there are reports that he embezzled millions and disappeared, and now the anti-vaxers are having an orgasm over this.

  3. The baby elephant showed no signs of life for days but is now shuffling around with red eyes? Maybe its a Zombie! Where is that model on how to defeat zombies before they get out of control. If control measures are not implemented quickly, hordes of zombie elephants will soon be roaming the streets feasting on the flesh of the living.

  4. My favourite line in the first linked article was this:

    “There is a bias,” said Don McLeroy, a dentist from College Station who heads up the board’s conservative faction. “I think the left has a real problem seeing their own bias.”

    I actually think this is true, and a worthy point to explore (though my snarky response is that liberals are right an awful lot of the time, and simply get used to it). The article then proceeds to explain exactly how the Conservative bias should be pushed instead.

    Utter.

    Crap.

  5. Did anyone else read that the elephant’s mother is 18 year old Porntip? i have the maturity of an 11 year old boy.

  6. @Sam Ogden: I feel for you, dude. This is awful, on so many levels. And it is the reason I stay involved in the skeptical movement.
    Anti-vaxxers are terrible.
    Alt-med is terrible.
    Swindling the gullible with astrology is terrible.
    Dowsing for bombs is terrible.

    But these “conservative” liars-for-jesus are trying to reshape our country in their own warped image. They get slapped down (Dover, et. al.) but never, ever cease. They are everywhere, and attack on all fronts. If they are not stopped, in twenty years we are going to be a nuclear-armed third world theocracy. Other countries will be dispensing pills that cure cancer, while we tout the virtues of cursing fig trees for not having fruit (Mark 11:12-14).

    I just re-read your post on running for Texas SBoE. I was from Texas once-upon-a-time. If you run, I will return, register, and vote for you.

  7. Texas conservatives seek deeper stamp on text books: Those people scare the hell out of me. I believe that this is one of the most important skeptical/secularist issues in America today. Please keep us apprised.

  8. I am thinking maybe some states should be allowed to secede from the union. Please. I also wonder in the days of computers why textbooks have to be the same just because Texas orders a lot. Are there still people using Gutenberg presses?

  9. Hi there!

    At first I was outraged by the Conservative push to be more represented in the textbooks, but then I thought: “No, this is probably a GOOD thing. Maybe children SHOULD know that … for example, that the longest filibuster on record was Republican Strom Thurmond arguing against Civil Rights. Maybe children SHOULD know about Herbert Hoover’s role in the Great Depression, etc …”.

    On a related note, it both amuses me and scares me that if you go to the GOP home page they list Teddy Roosevelt as an example of a proud Republican. Teddy. Fucking. Roosevelt. You know, the Trust-buster. The Progressive. The guy that founded Yellowstone National Park. The Environmentalist. [shakes head]

  10. I’m all for Texas seceding.

    Given that 48 states are on board with national standards for education and textbooks, Texas is bound to have less of an effect on publishers.

    The Texas plan to change history is on a par with the conservative Bible “translation”.

    I’d be depressed if it weren’t for the squirrels. Teh cute!

  11. I like that they want Jeff Davis’ speeches put alongside Lincoln’s. Maybe they oughta look up Lincoln in Wikipedia and figure out what political party he belonged to.
    And they are all “America, Fuck Yeah!” but also big fans of the Confederacy? Gargh! They don’t even know what they stand for!!! How could they be opposed to history textbooks when they have’t ever read them?

  12. ” Astro-squirrels use coconut shells as helmets from Jen.”

    My first thought was “What’s Jen throwing at those poor squirrels that they need helmets?”

  13. This seems like an opportune moment to mention that there is a non-spiritual rehab, SMART recovery, and that they are one of the organizations that have a PSA on the Foundation Beyond Belief’s awesome podcast that stars Skepchicks very own Elyse Anders.

    Oh, and there is pretty much no solid evidence that spiritually based treatment works, as claimed in the article.

  14. In a few short months, my little boy will be entering Kindergarten in a Texas public school. This crap going on with the SBOE depresses me more than words can say.

  15. The part that these religion/prayer based rehab organizations do not get is that if prayer worked then there would be no addicts.

  16. I don’t get the religion/prayer based alcoholic groups…

    isn’t the point of such rehab to remove the need for spirits?

  17. Seems to me that if the blue states banded together as a buying bloc and told the textbook publishers to go shove those Texas imaginary history texts, they’d “see the light” really fast and put out a historically accurate version. After all, money talks…loudly.

  18. just a small FYI about the religious rehab lawsuit from Canada – this case is ALL over the news, every night this week. People are really curious how this will turn out, and anyone I can find hopes he wins. Personally, I hope he wins and it leads to AA NOT being a suitable treatment plan for courts to prescribe in the US.

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