Credo Action: Stand Up to the Texas Taliban

The religious right nuts that sit on the State Board of Education in Texas have gone crazy and are attempting to rewrite American history.  You may think this doesn’t affect you and the entire countries future, but if that’s the case, you’re dead wrong.

According to Credo Action:

If you thought that decisions made by the Texas State Board of Education don’t affect you, think again.

Led by far-right ideologues, the Texas SBOE recently gave preliminary approval to a plan that would radically change what children across the country learn in history class.

The ultra-conservative majority on the board (none of whom are experts in any academic discipline and many of whom are explicitly anti-science) took the curricula proposed by teachers and made more than 100 changes to “correct” the perceived left-wing bias.

But it gets worse. Since Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the country, material written to carter to the Texas curricula will find its way into textbooks across the country unless textbook publishers take a stand.

Find out what you can do and send an email to the publishers by clicking here!

Warning: Gay Marriage is Hazardous To Your Health

Or so the religious right would want you to think!

“The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state,” said Chuck Hurley, president of the group. “The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”

He continued: “Homosexual activity is certainly more dangerous for the individuals who engage in it than is smoking.”

Wow, so…homosexual activity contributes to lung cancer, birth defects, cardio-pulmonary disease, gum disease, emphysema and a whole variety of other life threatening illnesses like love, kindness, understanding, empathy, equality and minding your own business about what happens in bedrooms not belonging to you.  Just when you think you’ve heard it all.

So, for all us gay non-smokers…go ahead, light up…it’s the sex that will kill you,  not the cigarette after.

No Offense…But LGBT’s Aren’t Red White & Blue

OK, So…I’ll leave this one up for debate…I ran across this facebook page that accuses the LGBT community of defacing the American flag.  Apparently someone’s upset that the American and Pride flags have been combined.

I wonder is the fact the American public has defaced the LGBT community (sometimes in a literal sense) over the past couple hundred of years counts for anything.

Check out the site here:  http://www.hs.facebook.com/pages/1-Million-Strong-For-Banning-The-New-LBGTAmerican-Flag-In-The-US/488177175532

Then let me know your thoughts!

Texas BOE Jumps Over the Edge

Actually, I believe the headline would read better if that were true. But it looks as though the Texas Board of Education has been busy re-writing American History to promote their religious and right wing agenda…but hey, it’s only history…”right”?

According to PRwatch.org:

In a straight party-line vote, ten people on the Texas “Board of Education” voted Friday to change history textbooks to advance right-wing ideological positions on historical matters (the five members of the other party voted against the measures as a whole). Because Texas is one of the most populous states in the union, the contents of history books that it requires will affect the quality of history education students in other states receive. (Hawai’i, for example, lacks the population leverage to push for a laid-back island view of history….) In all, the Board has passed over 100 amendments to curriculum since the beginning of the year. According to the New York Times, “no historians, sociologists or economists” were consulted during the Board’s meetings on these right-wing changes, which were spearheaded by board member and dentist, Don McLeroy, who claimed expertise in a host of serious educational matters not involving tooth decay. Here are the “highlights” of this Texas-sized historical spin, the Board:

* Required that students learn about positive things like “Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

More here!

Out With the Old and In with the New?

There’s been a great deal of speculation across the internet as to why James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family has stepped down.  From some reports, you’d conclude the 70+ year-old anti-equality, anti-right to choose Evangelist could perhaps be looking forward to doing what people do at that age…retire…go fishing…and wait for his admittance into the pearly gates of heaven, however, I ran across a post on TPM that may actually offer another reason, especially being that Dobson signed off as host from the Focus on the Family radio program and is set to launch a new radio program in May, which naturally leads to the question…If you’re going to retire, why not retire?  Is James Dobson being pushed out of Focus on the Family for so staunchly rejecting equality for LGBT citizens and a woman’s right to choose?

According to TPM:

Pastor Ken Hutcherson, who leads the Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, and describes himself as a longtime friend of Dobson, says he became suspicious when Dobson, 73, announced he would launch his own independent radio show this spring. While the new show is not associated with Focus on the Family, it will be called Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson, and center on the same issues Dobson brought to his Focus broadcast.

And Focus — which has been through several rounds of painful layoffs — agreed to donate $1 million to Dobson to start the new show.

“Dr. Dobson gets off the radio in February, and he’s starting a new program in May. It just didn’t make sense. Why get off if you don’t want to get off?” Hutcherson asked in a phone interview with TPMmuckraker.

and…

Hutcherson says he’s talked to both Dobson and Focus president Jim Daly. While he won’t say what Dobson views on the matter are — and Dobson’s office did not respond to a request for comment — Hutcherson penned a WorldNetDaily column this week writing that, “One thing is for sure, in his humility, Dr. Dobson only wants to continue to speak the truth on the radio. Apparently, that truth has limited appeal to the new leadership at Focus.”

So, is their a kinder, more gentle religious right brewing? Are the old school thoughts of hate, intolerance, bigotry and discrimination being tossed aside? I suppose only time will tell, but at least this gives a glimmer of hope!

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