Would Somebody PLEASE Mess with Texas?

Wanting to secede from the country is one thing.  Electing a boob like George W. for governor is one thing.  Forgetting that there's a state in the Union over twice as big as yours is one thing.

Rewriting textbooks so they are filled with lies is another.

In case you've been living on the Moon this past week, or maybe in Texas, here's what's going on.  The State's Education Board has revised its education standards.  And honey, it makes Kansas' removal of evolution look like child's play.

Highlights include:

• Removal of Thomas Jefferson.  That's right kids: one of our most prominent and critical Founding Fathers has been erased from the record.  Why?  Because he promoted separation of church and state. 
• Propagating the "we are a Christian nation" myth.  While Jefferson is out, the Fathers in general are in.  But only because they had some loose rooting in Judeo-Christian foundings.  The fact that they were Deists will be conveniently ignored.
• No Freedom of Religion.  Students will not be taught that the Constitution prohibits the State promotion of one religion over another.
• False vindication of right-wing abusers like McCarthy.  That's right.  Texas kids will now learn how poor McCarthy was "blacklisted" by the liberal media, when in "fact" his communist witch-hunt was "necessary."
• Rewriting post-Reagan sociopolitical history.  Students will learn all about the magnificent "conservative resurgence" that Dear Father Reagan ushered in.  Thank god he helped us get rid of all those pesky, liberal thinking hippies of the 70's.  According to the new version, liberal thought is virtually nonexistent. 

And of course the usual slag of revisionist ideas that don't deserve further mention here.

Now, if this stupidity was limited to Texas, I'd say who cares.  Let them turn their kids into bigger idiots than they themselves are.  But the situation is far more sinister. 

Texas is the second largest buyer of school textbooks in the country.  The publishers, eager to make a dollar in our marvelous, free-enterprise system, cater to the whims of the biggest buyers.  So if Texas wants books full of lies, the rest of the country gets them too. 

Sadly, this incredibly important story has received little coverage, even from the progressive media.  While health care dominated (as it should), this story didn't even rank second.  Ed Schultz spent all day talking about Tiger Woods.  Randi Rhodes talked about Neal Horsley's admission that he f****d a mule.  I heard Thom Hartmann mention this the other day, but it was a footnote in the main discussion. 

Now don't get me wrong.  I love all three of the aforementioned people.  But it was a serious lack of judgement to let this story slip by.  I'm especially looking at you, Ed.

I don't know what can be done now.  I, for one, will make sure that my two kids know better.  And I will keep screaming the truth here, there, and everywhere.  I hope you do too.  Because if we don't, we're lost.  in two or three generations, the Truth will be gone forever.