Comments on: Ed Board Extremists Target Social Studies

By: Gerri Allen

Gerri Allen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:01:00 +0000

I must confess I have not read ev ery word in this email, but I am sick at heart at what appears to have happened to so much of our population. Ev en our president “lost it” and called the actions of a policeman who arrested a man for being in his own house “stupid.” I agree with our president. When you consider our national politics along with our education problems (Doesn’t Texas rank 47th or 48, somewhere near the bottom of the list of states?) I fear we will soon be a third world country. Or worse–because we know how to make so many weapons that can kill millions of people. A nd obviously we do LOVE WAR . Right now we have another well-educated and extremely intelligent couple in the White House. But what intelligence and goodwill can do appears to be no match for the mean lunatics who follow one ideology. What can we do? What we are doing is not getting our country what we need. Sincerely, Gerri Allen

By: DaveY

DaveY — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:14:26 +0000

bye bye Larry. Go tend to your blog if that’s what you want & stop wasting our time & your hot air.

By: TXatheist

TXatheist — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:33:28 +0000

Larry, if ID is not religion then why was the original founder of ID, Philip Johnson, also the one to push the Wedge Strategy which is nothing more than an attempt to say evolution can’t explain every detail and therefore ID should be discussed? I’m for discussing ID in comparative religion classes or mythology class but there is nothing testable about ID.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:19:30 +0000

Kimberly.

You have my utmost sympathy and empathy. It must be an awful circumstance. As I have said before, this whole sordid saga is like the witch trials in medieval Europe and Salem, Massachusetts. The only difference is that ideas are on trial rather than people. However, if you think about it, you will see that people are wedded to their ideas about as much as kinship weds one to other people. It must have been an awful trauma for a man to see his innocent wife burned at the stake in the Middle Ages. In many ways today (in all this mess), it is just about as traumatic to see the innocence of “truth” burned at the stake by narrow-minded and self-righteous religious zealots, but that is precisely what we are witnessing.

When I was a child, I remember reading about the witch trials and similar matters like Aztec human sacrifice in my Golden Book Encyclopedia and thinking, “Boy, am I ever glad no one is stupid enough to do that kind of stuff these days!!!” So much for childhood innocence. As an adult, I think the truth of the matter is that human nature as a whole never really changes and that every time and place in human history (including our own) has a small handful of people who are just itching for a chance to be the one who lights the wood under an innocent “witch” or who craves the opportunity to rip out a human heart with an obsidian blade and offer it to the gods. If we have learned anything from human history, we should have learned that such people need to be identified as soon as possible and stopped before they hurt themselves and other people.

By: Kimberly Griffith

Kimberly Griffith — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:56:06 +0000

I’m on the social studies TEKS revision committee. I have a bachelor’s degree in government and a master’s degree in education; I’ve been teaching for 12 years. My grade-level committee has four teachers and two university professors on it. We’re trying to update the current TEKS, take into consideration the revisions recommended by the Texas Social Studies Council, and remain virtually aligned with other grade levels. We’re volunteers, and we considered this task an honor. We have been woefully unprepared for the libel and slander that has greeted us since the SBOE released our first draft for approval by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. There has been no indication so far that ANYBODY on the SBOE has even read our recommended revisions; they’ve been relying on ‘expert’ (not the revision committees; we’ve been painted as commie pinko anti-Americans) opinions. I dread going back this summer to listen to the ‘experts’ that have been appointed to oversee our work; the ironic thing is, the experts are already on the revision committees.

By: Buhallin

Buhallin — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:01:22 +0000

“Buhallin, you are not interested in having an intelligent conversation — you just want to play one-upmanship and “gotcha.””

For the record, I’m very interested in having an intelligent conversation.

That’s why I’ve given up conversing with Larry.

By: Larry Fafarman

Larry Fafarman — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:53:15 +0000

Kver Says:
–Larry:
I thought you wouldn’t rise to meet my parody/satire, I guess that’s what I get for thinking.–

What? I responded to your “parody/satire” right here –
http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/ed-board-extremists-target-social-studies/#comment-3567

And your comment wasn’t even directed at me. Since when am I expected to respond to everything that is posted here?

BTW, did Chris Comer file an appeal of the dismissal of her wrongful termination suit against the Texas Education Agency? If not, time has run out for her.

By: Curly

Curly — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:23:37 +0000

I apologize for posting the links and will refrain from additional comments towards “you-know-who” in the future. The links were posted for the forum members to show a pattern of unwilling cooperation, ludicrous commenting topics, demands and harassment. This isn’t a new thing and only issolated to this blog. The pattern goes back several years and extends to several blogs/sites. I just wanted to clarify my purpose for doing so.

I look forward to commenting on your well-researched articles in the future.

By: Kver

Kver — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:45:20 +0000

Larry:
I thought you wouldn’t rise to meet my parody/satire, I guess that’s what I get for thinking.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:20 +0000

Yes, let’s forego the insults, and instead ask the hard questions that need to be asked. Like these:

Larry, has your bed ever levitated off the floor? Have you ever spoken in the voice of a priest’s dead mother?