Texas

Congress Critter: All Your Uteri are Belong to Us

What do you say to a woman who tells you how a anti-abortion bill you’re supporting would have forced her to give birth to a fetus that was missing a significant part of it’s brain and would have most likely died in agony? If you’re Republican representative Louis Gohmert of Texas, you express your sympathy.

Then you insinuate she should’ve given birth anyway and, oh by the way, you do think that women should be consulted  when it comes to their own medical care.

It starts at about the five minute mark and this is what he said:

GOHMERT: Ms. Zink, having my great sympathy and empathy both. I still come back wondering, shouldn’t we wait, like that couple did, and see if the child can survive before we decide to rip him apart? So. These are ethical issues, they’re moral issues, they’re difficult issues, and the parents should certainly be consulted. But it just seems like, it’s a more educated decision if the child is in front of you to make those decisions.

Get that? The woman should be consulted. As though she has no legal standing as an actual human being, but is just a vessel owned, if not by the man who impregnated her, then by the state itself.  Sometimes I wonder how we have managed to get as far as we have in this deeply misogynistic country.

Texas to Islam: We’re on to You!

The Texas Board of Education is back to meddling again.  The target this time is Islam.

Why?

Because a failure to paint Muslims as wild-eyed jihadists from the darkest and deepest pit of hell come to kill white Christians us all consitutes a country wide conspiracy to paint Islam as ‘good’ and Christianity as ‘bad’.

Or something like that:

The resolution states that pro-Islamic, anti-Christian half-truths, selective disinformation and false editorial stereotypes “still roil” some social studies textbooks nationwide, including “sanitized definitions of ‘jihad’ that exclude religious intolerance or military aggression against non-Muslims … which undergirds worldwide Muslim terrorism.”

The fact that the books they cite as evidence are not in use in Texas? The fact that Texas shapes what textbooks are made available to the other states?  Those don’t mean a thing because “Middle Easterners” are buying into companies that publish textbooks:

Members of the board’s social conservative bloc asked for the resolution after an unsuccessful candidate for a board seat called on the panel to head off any bias against Christians in new social studies books. Some contend that “Middle Easterners” are increasingly buying into companies that publish textbooks.

I wonder when they’re going to call for a resolution to ban the word “racism” from dictionaries made available to Texas schoolchildren.

No book burning for you, a-hole

David Grisham, the Christian extremist leader of Repent Amarillo, had planned to burn a Quran this past Saturday, but a skateboarder by the name of Jacob Isom swooped in and snatched the Quran out of the guys hands:

Jacob Isom, 23, grabbed David Grisham’s Quran when he became distracted while arguing with several residents at Sam Houston Park about the merits of burning the Islamic holy book.

“You’re just trying to start Holy Wars,” Isom said of Grisham after he gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo.

Other protesters kept their hand on the grill Grisham planned to use & others stole his light, leaving him with just a bottle of lighter fluid.

Rick Perry for Creationism

With the race with Bill White as close as it is, Rick Perry has decided to lay on the religiosity quite thick.  Not only does he think the Texas Board of Education is doing a bang up job, he supports teaching creationism in Texas schoolrooms:

Explain where you stand on evolution-creationism being taught in school.

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.

Once again he shows why he has the nickname “Governor Goodhair”. Hopefully he’ll be “Ex-Governor Goodhair” before long.

Creationists concede defeat

The ICR has conceded defeat and given up its quest to issue MS degrees here in Texas:

Now, with the federal ruling against ICR, the Texas government may mandate that any private sector college, even those that accept no government funding, may be regulated by the THECB,

…

However, please know that, while ICR’s legal battle is over, we will not retreat from other public efforts to fight the “Dragon” and his minions.

Sorry, but I had to snip out all the crap about how not letting them piss on the furniture is discrimination. You can read the whole thing here.

A Master of Science in Creationism?!

The loons are determined to take over Texas with State Rep. Berman of Tyler introducing a bill that would allow The Institute of Creation Research to grant a Master of Science degree in creationism:

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) proposed House Bill 2800 when he learned that The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), a private institution that specializes in the education and research of biblical creationism, was not able to receive a certificate of authority from Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board to grant Master of Science degrees.

Berman’s bill would allow private, non-profit educational institutions to be exempt from the board’s authority.

And no, Berman does not accept evolution:

“I don’t believe I came from a salamander that crawled out of a swamp millions of years ago,” Berman told FOXNews.com. "I do believe in creationism. I do believe there are gaps in evolution.

What the fuck is next? A masters in intelligent falling?

She calls that bacon?!?

My morning ritual consists of getting a big cup of coffee, going outside to have a smoke & reading the editorial page in the Chronicle.  More often than not, the letters frustrate me.

Such was not the case this morning thanks to John Grothues who wrote in about the principled stands our esteemed politicians such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison have been taking over ‘pork’ here lately.

Grothues writes:

Sounds like Kay Bailey Hutchison’s got some ’splainin’ to do! Oh, I don’t mean the part about speaking out and voting against the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, but then taking credit for millions of dollars in pork that came to Texas. We Texans expect our senators to take a principled stance against pork while they bring home the bacon! Shoot, that ain’t hypocrisy, that’s good politics.

The part that bothers me is how little she got — only $54 million for the entire Houston area. That bacon’s so small you can’t even smell it. Yes, it is better than nothing, and yes the very few who got something do appreciate it; but, I’m sorry, we expect better than that from our senators.

If that’s the best she’s got, I suggest that she give up her chair in the Senate, and do something she can’t mess up, something really useless, something where the expectations are so low as to be non-existent. Hmmm. Let’s see — I got it! She ought to run for governor of Texas.

It brought a grin to my face, especially the bolded part. It’s nice to be reminded that it’s alright to grin over the hypocrisy.

One for the history books

An epic war is brewing in Texas. Kay Bailey Hutchison is considering leaving the Senate and fighting Perry in the primary and from what’s already going on, it’s going to be a primary that’s spoken about for years.

Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison hasn’t formally announced she’s running for governor, but Texas Republicans are nevertheless gearing up for a knock-down, drag-out 2010 primary brawl between Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry, a race that will pit the nation’s longest-serving sitting governor against one of its most popular statewide politicians.

Perry’s campaign has already slammed Hutchison as “Kay Bailout Hutchison” because of her support for President George W. Bush’s bailout legislation last year — and Perry’s State of the State address last month focused on the Republican Party’s failures in Washington. It was reported that a Perry operative was recently digging into City Hall documents in search of unfavorable information about Hutchison’s husband, a prominent bond attorney.

Hutchison’s camp has returned fire by portraying Perry as an ineffectual executive who has worn out his welcome in Texas.Even Sarah Palin has gotten into the act, endorsing Perry and suggesting Hutchison was not sufficiently opposed to abortion rights.

A recent poll has her ahead of Perry by 25 percent, she’s extremely popular here in Texas and has won by more than 60 percent every time she’s been up for re-election.

Perry on the other hand only became governor after Bush vacated the position. He’s only been re-elected twice.  Once with 59 percent of the vote and the other (in 2006) with 39 percent of the vote.

I am definitely looking forward to Hutchison whipping his ass.

Lock up your Mastercard, the atheists are coming!

say_what_dog We atheists get accused of a lot of things. Usually it’s just the same tripe repeated over and over again ad nauseum.  Every now and then though a religious group has an original thought.  It’s a stupid thought, but it is original.

The religious group this time is the Free Market Foundation here in Texas. According to the Texas Freedom Network, this group sent out an email with the subject of “Atheists Attack in Texas” listing things we atheists here in Texas are allegedly doing.  Somewhere in it was this accusation of sorts:

Another big issue is taxes. We’re all tired of our property taxes being raised each year without being allowed to vote on this issue. We are working hard to support legislation to cap raising appraisal taxes more than 5% unless approved by local citizens. These tax increases must stop!

What in bloody hell does that have to do with atheists?  Beats the shit out of me, but as I said above, it is an original thought.  Surely that’s worth a smile or two?

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