First, a disclaimer. I do not believe that all Texans are idiots. It would be unfair of me to suggest that all Texans are stupid. I do feel safe in saying that the Texas State Legislature has lost its collective mind.
First, they unanimously passed a law allowing Texans to carry guns and ammunition in their cars to work, as long as they leave them locked in the car. Now before you rip the second amendment out of the Constitution and shove it in my weak-kneed, lily-livered, pacifist face, let me just suggest that the Founding Fathers probably didn't think that a "well-regulated militia" would necessarily include Bob in accounting, and it seems unlikely that the guy in the doing data-entry in his cubicle was meant to be our first line of defense against the forces of sedition.
Seriously, people. If anything defines 'slippery slope,' I think it's this. Basically, if you have a job, you can put your gun in your car and drive to work. In an society where workplace shootings make the news every few weeks, where will this lead? Back in the day, the only people who shot their co-workers worked at the post office (which I never understood--what kind of pressure was making those guys snap? There are jobs where I can picture someone cracking under stress, but whenever I go to the Post Office, the employees move WAY too slow to be under stress) .
Now, let's say that jerk of a boss is on your ass again to finish some project--he needs the March numbers now! I mean how many of us have thought "I am gonna kill that fucker!". Well, now in Texas, you just go to the parking lot on your lunch break and all of a sudden that Excel spreadsheet can wait.
And I love the reasoning espoused by State Senator Glenn Hegar:
"People like their firearms in Texas, and if they want to bring them to their workplace, they are going to do it whether there is a policy or not," Hegar said. Apparently, people "like their firearms," but are kinda ambivalent about their LAWS.
Now here's what's really cool. The whole "Take Your Gun To Work Day" idea wasn't the scariest thing to come out of the 2009 legislative session in Austin. This same august body also only narrowly defeated a proposition that would have required schools to teach that the theory of evolution has "strengths and weaknesses," thus opening the door ever so slightly to creationism.
Now before you internet villagers get your torches out, let me say that I am actually that seemingly rare liberal intellectual who believes in God. And I believe it's possible that God may have thought up the whole evolution thing, and sorta kick-started it. But please understand, my creationist friends--evolution is a fact.
Here's how it breaks down, kids:Strengths: it really happened, and there is an Earth-sized mountain of tangible evidence to prove it happened.
Weaknesses: Well, scientists agree that evolution cannot yet explain the lack of development in the brains of Texas state legislators.
What's really amazing is that the Luddites were only defeated by a margin of 8-7. Vegas wouldn't have taken those odds. I can just imagine that debate...one by one, seven people made impassioned, Bible-centered arguments showing the 'weaknesses' of 150 years of evolutionary research, at which point the other eight senators looked at each other and said "are you people kidding me?"
School board president Don McLeroy led the effort, threatening to not approve textbooks which don't allow some compromise on the issue. I worry that the Texas Board of 'Education' (quotation marks entirely mine) will start 're-examining' other scientific theories--kids in high school will be introduced to 'alternate theories' about gravity (maybe it's the actual Hand of God that's pushing down on us--students should consider this) or the solar system (Earth might not be the center of the universe--telescopes are known for their 'weaknesses'). Please, Texas. You're bringing down the curve for the rest of us.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
ordinaryjoe
John A Bayerl
icyhighs
nilesite
Firechick
Lauren J Barnhart
Salon.com
Comments
I have called my local pirate and we shall be organising in Texas imminently to counter this evolutionary revolution! Meanwhile, read more about how Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed creationist Don McLeroy to head the Texas State Board of Education: http://www.venganza.org/2007/08/05/texas-sboe/
Rated for not going postal but rather pOSting.
Mistercomedy - it's even worse than you thought - the recent vote was to delete the strengths/weaknesses rule. We've been required to teach the strength and weaknesses of evolution for YEARS. And since we are one of the largest textbook purchasers, and therefore influence content, the strengths/weaknesses argument is probably covered in your child's textbooks, too.
So we've finally joined the modern scientific community! Maybe it was an 8-7 vote, but it's a step forward!
@ Trudi Jo Davis "hand of God pushing you down harder on the scale at the doctor's" .......lmao
Is the stamp on straight?
Did they REALLY hit the package marked fragile hard enough in par with regulations?
Etc. etc.
:) (Also remember, the postman knows where you live!! EEK!! ~nervous giggle~)
A sociology professor of mine once said that a whole lotta old people need to die of natural causes before racism, homophobia and other outdated concepts are a thing of the past. We need to add biblical fundamentalism to that list.
Leave the "what is the meaning of life" and "where did we come from" for a lazy afternoon of contemplation with your fishing pole in the lake or basking on the beach.
I'm trying to stay open-minded about Texans but your post and our years of GB sure leave a bad taste.
Thanks, MC.
You write funnily (?) but Jeebus! These issues are serious. I mean, come on - NO ONE NEEDS TO BE BRINGING THEIR GUNS TO WORK? What next - let kids bring their guns to school?
"let me just suggest that the Founding Fathers probably didn't think that a "well-regulated militia" would necessarily include Bob in accounting,"
I'm laughing, in spite of myself.
FYI, there is a great deal of pressure behind the scenes at the Post Office. I dated a guy once that works there and he said a man approaching retirement had the job of pushing mail carts from one place to another; lines were drawn to provide a path that mail carts had to follow and the man who was a few months away from retirement was written up every time he pushed a cart outside the lines.
That'd make me shoot SOMEBODY and I'm also a pacifist! That's why I'd never have a gun, in Texas or anywhere else. I love what you said about evolution! "I actually am that seemingly rare liberal intellectual who believes in God. And I believe it's possible that God may have thought up the whole evolution thing, and sorta kick-started it. But please understand, my creationist friends--evolution is a fact." My sentiments exactemente (I never went to Mexico during all the years I lived in Texas, but I studied Spanish for four years in junior high and high school)!
Thanks you for the disclaimer BTW. Not everyone in Texas is an idiot. All of my relatives stayed there and they're not stupid. But it's a big state, so the idiots are probably in the majority. See, the problem is most smart people who are born in Texas leave the state because it's of a Darwinian law: evolve or die and there's no evolution in Texas, not, as you stated, even in the textbooks.
Last I heard there was some couple that looked like a caricature of "The American Gothic" portrait who selected textbooks for the state and who reminisced about the "Dick & Jane" readers, which we probably had at my school because the "colored" schools got the white schools used texts back in the 1950s and 1960s and that's what they called "separate but equal" in good ol' Tejas!
For decades a fundamentalist married couple, Mel and Norma Gabler (see Wikipedia), from East Texas rode herd on textbook content in the state with reviews that struck terror in the hearts of school board members across the state. By extension they exerted enormous influence on what textbooks were used nationally because if Texas schools, with the second-largest student population in the nation, nixed a textbook publishers sometimes wouldn't bother to print it. Both dead now, their work continues through a group they founded that has pressed for the teaching of creationism for years. One of my favorite objections of theirs in a textbook was that they didn't want to see a reference to Robin Hood because that story encourages our youth to steal.
The gun thing heated up again in Texas when W took over as governor. The first thing he did was lift a ban on assault weapons. From there laws were changed to allow the carrying of concealed weapons with a license. So carrying one to work is a logical progression, n'est pa?
Texas has many fine attributes. Not everyone there is a gun-toting creationist. Unfortunately, it seems, many of the elected officials are.
trudi--gravity, lol, and. . .nice birthday
Religion you must accept on faith. Science you take a guess at what might be going on and then you try to find evidence to support your claim.
But evolution is a theory. It is a theory that is overall accepted by the scientific community, but that doesn't make it fact. A fundamental science precept is that you can never PROVE a theory to be true. You can only disprove theories. Then you have to make a new theory. And they are a lot more wrong theories than right ones! That's why science changes every so often.
The evolutionary chain is well documented and again accepted, but it DOES have a hole or two in it. Mainly that our brain sizes tripled in an unbelievably short period of time. Maybe that's because Adam and Eve's sons joined the gene pool! :)
But even if Evolution is not a fact - and it is only a theory (everything is science is a theory btw), a Biology class is not complete without a unit on evolution. Its become one of the fundamental components of Biology. Creationism or even if you want to call it Intelligent Design is not a major Biological theory and therefore should not be in the classroom.
But these people have their children so stigmatized against the word evolution (which actually just translates to change over time) they just ignore everything a teacher says on the subject. So instead I found it more successful to not even mention the word. Instead we'll have a unit on Natural Selection. And because the students that are resistant to Evolution have never learned anything about it they don't realize that's what they're learning.
At the END of the unit, after they've had time to learn the theory with a somewhat open mind, I'll admit that we just had a unit on Evolution. And we can talk about the strengths and weaknesses. But once they've truly learned it they then can evaluate the theory based on its merits and not based on what the bible says. They're usually pretty sold on it. You've just got to find a way to make them keep an open mind.
Its a mistake to try to sell it as a concrete undeniable fact. We have to talk about the holes in all scientific theories as this allows us to develop new and better ones. Science is anything but concrete. Good scientists are skeptical - they do not take anything on faith and should not believe a theory just because the textbook says so. They look at the theory and then the evidence and evaluate whether that theory makes sense. Or if another fits the data better.
That's why evolution fits the data so much better than creationism does - the theory has been modified so many times to accommodate the new observations.
In some ways, science is just like a religion. Once something has been accepted scientists cling to it unwilling to accept anything new because it disproves this fundamental principle that they BELIEVE in. That's why most new major theories take so long to be accepted.
So don't be so quick to judge. God wouldn't want that. ;)
Thoroughly enjoyed your post and I do agree with you. But as sad as this situation may be it does make sense. After all, it goes against human nature to consider perspectives that are new and different from their own.
Yes, guns are what we need. It would make it easier to control the gangsta problem and tardies probably wouldn't be an issue. And if there is a fight in the hall, all a kid would have to do is swipe a teacher's weapon and the resolution would be clear.
Sometimes I am so embarrassed to be from this state.
I question the safety of ammunition in a car in the heat of a Texas summer.
They commented on how they couldn't think of living next to gays and foreigners and I thought the same thing about living next to them.
They are in their own little world where everything is black and white and well those pesky grays are just prayed, or shot, out of their lives...
Their world, these people, revolves around football, which is nearly a religion down there, and listening to Rush, Beck and Hannity.
I met someone else from that part of Texas and they were raving about Michigan State University and how 'clean' it was there. He meant 'no gays'. I just had to puncture that bubble. I haven't heard from him since... :-)
It's always been amazing to me on how people can be so proud of being so '-ist' and culturally ignorant.
Oh, their latest rant is 'that damn Obama' wanting to take away all our guns. I was an oddity though, being the only 'lib-rul' that they know that has a carry permit. You should have seen their faces. A Kodak moment...
Heck, when I went to school, there were students that would overpower a teacher just for the opportunity to get a gun. They also wanted to eliminate the part of the law that banned guns from hospitals. Yeah, there's a really fantastic idea... They also wanted to eliminate the part of the law that forbid guns to 'mentally challenged' people. Again, another fantastic idea... NOT!
Can you imagine that guy in "Office Space' having access to a gun? It would have made for a dramatically shorter movie.
https://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/ACSBriefFinal.pdf
Look at the cities with the top numbers of openly co-habitating same-sex couples. Are Austin, Houston, Dallas not among the greater numbers there? Also note earlier in the report the whopping 63% jump in San Antonio. Our gay marriage bashing governor? There's more to that story than you think. Wink! Wink!
Again, I really enjoy how the rest of the country projects its worst fears and unwanted desires on the fine folks in Texas. It never ceases to amuse me how yankees are so quick to write my fellow Texans and I off as a racist homophobes. I lived in northern California for five years. I saw more racism and homophobia there in that short span of time than all my 40 years in Texas. I knew it was time to leave California when my girlfriend, a CA native (poorly chosen, yes) expressed her disdain at my love of spanish language pop music and futbol on univision. "Why do you like all that Mexican shit?" she yelled one day. All of your vitriol toward the Lone Star State amuses us. However, it would be nice if you all took a look in the damn mirror every once in a while. I said, good day, y'all.
Oh-- is that a plank in your eye?
Texas has 24 million residents, there is good and bad everywhere in Texas just like there is in every single state.
The creationism vs. evolution fight has gone on in several states in the past and in the present; Oklahoma, New Mexico and Iowa have recently introduced legislation to allow creationism to be taught. The bills all died, but they can be resurrected since most legislative sessions are not over.
Texas has the wonderful, Texas Freedom Network, a group founded by Gov. Richards daughter, Ellen Richards (who is now the president of Planned Parenthood) that has been fighting the creationism and anti science bias in textbooks since 1995.
No state has the corner marketed on good legislation nor bad legislation or on good people or non racists. Every place, every city, every state has all kinds.
Plus I can't understand these people that want to inject their 'god' into everything.
It's as if people just can't see the influence that religion, the negative influence, that religion has had over the years...
I loved Dallas, especially Deep Ellum and did meet many great people but some of the bad ones were so bad. Racist, ignorant and damn proud of it too. Authoritarians to the max... Bush ass kissing and libertarian fascists that would probably make Germany nervous.
But then we had a guy that walked in front of a car dealership in full Nazi uniform, with a gun... It takes all kinds of nuts. I was shocked that malls in Dallas have armed guards. Around here that's unheard of, so far.
I did get a chuckle while visiting Dallas over the 'big hair'. Everything is bigger in Texas.
Yes, wasn't it Louisiana and/or Kansas that had the last go round with evolution?
this is another deal tho: I worked for Gov Richards when all the statewides were democratic and some even populist, Jim Mattox, Jim Hightower, Gary Mauro, Dan Morales and John Sharp. It was an incredible time in our state. Politics and elections are cyclical and our ideas and values will again win elections one day soon, we are seeing the numbers turn our way
Or maybe the UFOs ventured outside the Permian Basin area and.....probed the legislators.
Jersey Bill cracked me up with his comment, making me recall all the "SECEDE" bumperstickers I saw on the Ford trucks with gun racks cruisin' along I-10. heh.
that's a pretty weak disclaimer, after reading the headline of this post, and after watching you wrap the thing up with this:
"Please, Texas. You're bringing down the curve for the rest of us."
whaever dude.