Reading that the Texas Board of Higher Education is considering accrediting The Texas Based Institute for Creation Research made me have to lay down for awhile, which meant I got behind on my work, which makes me fucking crabby. I blame the god botherers directly for my problems today, therefore. If Texas does this, then we rightfully deserve repercussions of the sort described by PZ Myers.
I hope Texas scientists can slap that Board into wakeful reality before that meeting, because if this goes through, the trust I can give Texas-trained teachers is getting flushed right down the sewer. And if Texans can’t fix this, the rest of the country has to step up and deny certification to anyone trained in Texas — their diplomas and degrees will be worth about as much as Monopoly money.
Which would really suck, because a lot of great teachers come out of Texas, and many of our universities are top notch. Moves like this become direct attacks on the accreditation system itself, as people will have to start distinguishing between “real” accreditation and political sops to the religious right. Like PZ says, eventually it will just get easier to treat people from science-respecting states with more trust, and Texans will start losing out on jobs. I can’t think of a better example of how right wing politics are pro-red state citizens on the thinnest surface only, and underneath are all about screwing working class people, regardless of how they vote. We’ll pay some surface attention to the ridiculous superstitions of the most ignorant of you, but we’ll ruin your economic prospects, one job at a time.
Reading that next to this post by Digby is an exercise in random juxtaposition.
Like John Cole and others in the blogosphere, I confess that I’m also a little bit gobsmacked by the conservative opinion leaders’ open hostility to Mike Huckabee. Kevin Drum thinks it’s because the bloggers and op-ed writers are all cosmopolitan, big city folk who prefer that aristocrats pander to the religious right, not actually, you know, be them. Atrios says it’s a class thing, and he’s right. The Village has never taken to hicks coming in and trashing the place — it’s not their place.
The evolution battles are as clear-cut an example of how the Republicans (rightfully) view the religious right as a bunch of idiots who are so obsessed with winning symbolic values that they can’t be bothered to care about anything like actual victories, real power, or genuine representation of their community’s interests. The people who get the actual, material benefits from Republican policies don’t give a shit if the Texas education system falls apart, genuinely professional people educated here get their credentials torn up, and the state’s students lose a competitive edge in the college rounds and job market because they’re so badly educated. After all, their kids get to go to private schools and Ivy League universities, or at least state schools like UT Austin that are unlikely to have their reputations tarnished.
13 Responses to “Disco Ball, help deliver Texas from itself”
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Thass right, let the peasants worship their gods of twigs and mud, as long as they till the fields and give fealty to their rightful lords.
The Crusades were fought because there were all the younger sons of nobility couldn’t inherit the castle, but were trained in war and needed to bring back loot.
The peasants and children who followed and died in a religious fervor were collateral damage, up at the manor house the quality folk knew what the score.
This is also why conservatives are so happy to underfund, or gut public education. What difference does it make to their children in private (or at the least, magnet) schools in GOOD neighborhoods, at the Ivy League (or the private colleges for rich fuckups.)
Really, how well educated do the ordinary slobs need to be to man the counter of one of their francise businesses?
Judy Brown nailed it in one. Wingnuts are indeed indifferent to public education–why should their hard-earned tax dollars go to educate a bunch of brown-skinned people anyway?
Amanda, would you be so kind as to tell me where you found that awesome image?
Didn’t the University of California system refuse to accept students from schools that had the ABEKA curriculum? ANd the wingnuts whined about being discriminated against because of their religion?
But then students from Bob Jones and Patrick Henry get priority for internships with government agencies like the NSA and CIA. Unfortunately, I do not see how this will negatively impact those who want to go into public service.
Amanda, would you be so kind as to tell me where you found that awesome image?
I’m not Amanda, but I think it’s from MAD Magazine…I saw it over at Pharyngula.
felagund, according to PZ, it’s from MAD magazine.
If only the wingnutes really were indifferent to public education. In fact, they have a very good notion of what a useful tool it can be to further their agenda. Free money and a government mandate for kids to be forced to listen to their crap in order to get a diploma.
Yes, it’s from the latest MAD. My son gets it so I get to sneak a peak when he’s in school.
Wingnuts are indeed indifferent to public education–why should their hard-earned tax dollars go to educate a bunch of brown-skinned people anyway?
I am just nasty and cynical enough that I would also note that some consider a bachelor’s degree to be one of the key entry strategies to the middle class working world. Is there some classism playing out here as well? Or is it all just wingnuttery?
In hind sight we should have, as a nation, let Texas form their own country. It would have been taken over by either Mexico or Cuba by now and we wouldn’t have the Bush’s and all those freaks with big hair.
“It would have been taken over by either Mexico or Cuba by now and we wouldn’t have the Bush’s and all those freaks with big hair.”
We’d still (unfortunately) have Bushes, the difference would be in which state they claimed to be “authentically from” instead of just admitting they’re New England “royalty”…
Texas is the only state that can legally seceed. However, it’s not in the best interest of its elites for it to do so; despite the states rights bullshit, the state, like most southern states, benefits from the fed more than the east or west coast states.
Amanda, great write up and I couldn’t agree with you more. And the above post, let Texas be it’s own!
P.S. I think you need to loosen up your anti-spam measure, it’s taken me about 10 times to get it right (zeros & O’s are hard to differentiate).