Category Archives for Liberty Institute

Standing with Bigots and Extremists?

Why is Liberty Institute, the Texas affiliate of the right-wing Focus on the Family, standing with religious bigots and an extremist who hates the Statue of Liberty? It’s a question worth asking about a group that bills itself as “protecting freedom” and wanting students to learn how to be patriotic.

Also posted in Rick Perry, The Response
| 6 Comments |


Inventing ‘Facts’ Fails in Hearing on SBOE

When fanatics don’t have facts to back up their arguments, they invent them. We saw that during the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee’s hearing Wednesday on SB 1348. That bill and companion HB 3263 call for the appointment of teams of highly qualified scholars from Texas colleges and universities to review proposed public school curriculum [...]

Also posted in curriculum standards, State Board of Education
| 7 Comments |


Give Us ONE Good Reason

Why wouldn’t you want a state entity to operate more efficiently and transparently? That is a question that no one had a good answer for Tuesday evening as the House Committee on Public Education took up HB 862, legislation sponsored by state Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, that would place the Texas State Board of Education [...]

Also posted in education, State Board of Education, Texas Eagle Forum
| 2 Comments |


RR Groups Oppose Anti-Bullying Bill

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller testified yesterday at a Texas House Public Education Committee hearing (archived video of the hearing here) in support of legislation to help schools better protect their students from bullying. Tragically, unrelenting harassment and bullying have led some Texas students — like 13-year-old Asher Brown last September — to take [...]

Also posted in bullying, religious right, Texas Eagle Forum
| 25 Comments |


The Right Throws a Temper Tantrum

It didn’t take long for right-wingers to erupt in fury over the Fordham Institute’s new report about the disastrously bad social studies curriculum standards in Texas. Fordham’s report demolishes the State Board of Education‘s politicized new standards. The far right’s unhinged temper tantrum and lashing out that we’re seeing in reaction is revealing.

Also posted in social studies, State Board of Education
| 5 Comments |


Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Once again Texans are getting a lesson in how the religious right uses lies and distortions to promote fear and bigotry. The newest lesson revolves around the Mansfield school district’s decision to accept a five-year, $1.3 million federal grant that largely funds elective classes teaching Arabic (alongside current classes in the district that teach Spanish, [...]

Also posted in Islam, Kelly Shackelford
| 20 Comments |


Rick Perry’s War on Christmas

In his 2008 book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, Texas Gov. Rick Perry criticizes the American Civil Liberties Union for supposedly engaging in a “war on Christmas” by forcing schools to remove references to Christmas in holiday programs and decorations. Last year one of Gov. [...]

Also posted in American Family Association, Rick Perry, war on Christmas nonsense
| 16 Comments |


The Right Lies Again in the TX Speaker Battle

TFN Insider has already reported about the religious campaign the far right has been waging against Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio. Now PolitiFact offers a clear example of how the religious right is also spreading distortions and falsehoods in the effort to replace Straus with another speaker far more likely to obey their [...]

Also posted in Donna Garner, Joe Straus, Pat Carlson, sex education, Texas Eagle Forum
| 5 Comments |


They Really Must Think Christians Are Stupid

Or maybe the lawyers at Liberty Institute — the Plano-based Texas affiliate of Focus on the Family — think Christians are just remarkably gullible. During the revision of social studies standards this year, for example, the group portrayed Texas teachers on the curriculum teams as anti-Christmas zealots who want to erase the holiday from their [...]

Also posted in social studies
| 23 Comments |


Religious Right Targets Speaker Straus

Battle lines are forming in the newest “culture war” flash point in Texas: the state House of Representatives. In fact, religious-right pressure groups are working furiously to replace Republican Joe Straus of San Antonio with a hard-right Speaker of the House. Each day brings a new attack in the far right’s “scorched earth” strategy, with [...]

Also posted in David Barton, Joe Straus, Texas Eagle Forum, Texas Legislature
| 2 Comments |