Check out this fascinating Q-and-A with Texas State Board of Education member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, from The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto.
Money quote:
“Look, down here there are these groups from the far left. Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons. They’re very effective, dadgummit. Jefferson’s name was taken out of a list of Enlightenment philosophers in world history because he didn’t fit the period of the Enlightenment.”
Words fail us. So we’ll again let a real historian respond:
“There is absolutely no question that Jefferson is an Enlightenment figure of the first order.”
“Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons.”
It’s not that I think they are dumb morons–in fact, they’re very smart and strategically minded, it’s that they are unethical and have an ideological agenda that cannot be challenged openly. Mainly, because their means are subliminal and their talking points, carefully crafted as not to give too much away. Education is education because it has standards that are arrived at by consensus and methods for challenging errancy. If a person is looking for a long, moral screwdriver to insert into public schools with the aim of turning young minds into evangelical Republicans to fix all societal ills, that has nothing to do with education. That’s indoctrination.
If not, can we expect a challenge from Don McLeroy on the content of Prof. Countryman’s thoughtful response?
“Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons.”
Don. We are not that talented here. We just sit back, relax, and let you do your thing—knowing full well that you are going to screw up whatever you are doing. We might have some opinions about it. So, howse about you and your buddies on the Texas SBOE exhibit some of that good, old-fashioned “personal responsibilty” that the far-right fruitcake gallery is always harping about. Let’s see. How does that go, “Why are these left-wing liberals and sinners always blaming their circumstances on other people rather than seeing that these circumstances are their own fault—and then take personal responsibility for that fault and fix it themselves?”
For example, Don, let’s say your 8-year-old grandson comes down with leukemia. Why does he have leukemia? In the ideology of your far right compadres, he obviously has leukemia because of eating the wrong thing, drinking the wrong thing, breathing the wrong thing, or some sort of sin in his life. Your grandson should have “watched out” for himself and kept himself morally clean from the things of this world. This awful disease would have never happened if he had just taken personal responsibility for himself.”
Don. I wanted to write another paragraph above, but you would not have liked its contents. It would have been heavy with name-calling so intense that my mom would have slapped me silly for it—were she alive.
I have to say, the conservatives on the board seem to project a lot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
“dadgummit”
Enough said.
Little Lord McLeroy is back on stage proving the accusations are true just by opening his mouth.
“Somebody’s got to stand up to experts!”
I just cringe ever’ time I read someone saying that dadblamed word, “dadgummit”.
Dadgummit? Is that a word?
I’ve been doing some homework and cannot find the term “far” for meaning the left or the right.
If someone could tell me what this guy is talking about maybe I’d understand, but Jefferson wasn’t in the period of the enlightenment? I guess ALL non-Christians would fail his test. Yeah, Jefferson was a Deist, not a Christian. He among several other founding fathers were Deists who reject the concept of the trinity and thus would NEVER have tried to hijack the Christian religions to the Constitution. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can read the Constitution, in the first Amendment, and NOWHERE will they base the establishment of this country on Christianity.
Methinks there should be a test of one’s knowledge and UNDERSTANDING of the Constitution before being allowed to run for office. Give them three attempts and then move on to the next person wishing to run for the office.
As was previously noted, our AG has no right to file a suite against the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, the Constitution, simply because he doesn’t like the new Health Care LAW.
I advise anyone who hates the United States and its Constitution to not read my blog because believe me, folks, the party of “HELL NO!” has buried itself and should no longer be considered anything but a bunch of children on a ball field with ONE kid owning both the ball and bat. If they don’t get their way, they pack up and go home.
I would that it was possible to just go down the ballot and write ‘HELL NO” straight down the Republican side.
McLeroy uses euphemisms like “hooey” and “dadgummit” because he appears to have the mind and mental processes of a child. If you watch a video of McLeroy you observe that the man can’t string two consecutive thoughts together without getting lost in a muddle.
A man with the mental faculties of a child is a moron.
It’s not an insult to call McLeroy a dumb moron, it’s a fair observation. If McLeroy interviewed for a job with me he wouldn’t be qualified to work in the copy center, no offense intended to our valued copy center workers! However, McLeroy wasn’t hired nor promoted, he was elected and that requires no qualifications or minimum mental requirements at all.
The beauty of the situation is the conservative but mainstream Christian voters in his district have turned Little Lord McLeroy out of office. Every time he opens his mouth he shows this majority that they were well justified in giving him the boot. He apparently has not awakened to the full reality that he is a lame duck.
However, I wish that he would be dumb.
My chief concern has evolved to another level: Does he fill teeth with the same skill and ability he exhibits on the Texas SBOE? Just wonderin’?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcELyKkOAak&feature=player_embedded#
Two McLeroy gems:
“Jefferson was like another generation of people writing, so that standard he was taken out of didn’t fit as well because he, you know, came hundreds of years or so later than the other philosophers or more of the people mentioned in that standard. That’s why he got stricken from that.”
And:
“Jefferson’s name was taken out of a list of Enlightenment philosophers in world history because he didn’t fit the period of the Enlightenment.”
Most amusing, given that Jefferson IS in fact of the Enlightenment, and contemporary with most of the others in that section, but even more amusing given the fact that two of the three people with whom he was replaced–Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) and John Calvin (died 1564)–predated everyone else on the list, and predated most of them by centuries.
Rocket Mike, you owe me a cup of coffee. I read your calling Don “Little Lord McLeroy” and out came a fine stream of coffee. That hurt! I’m only sorry I hadn’t thought of using that sobriquet for him.
I am very comforted by knowing that there are intelligent people on the ‘Net and that I can find most of them here on TFN’s comment board.
This entire escapade has made me much more curious about who exactly is on our board of education an if they have any of these “ignore the experts, go with your guts” agendas.
“Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons.”
We’d be better off if they *were* dumb…
Mike, go to http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3803
That shows the members of the SBOE.
Mike: The “ignore the experts, go with your guts” bloc is:
Gail Lowe, Chair
Terri Leo, Secretary
Don McLeroy, former Chair (defeated!)
Ken Mercer
David Bradley
Cynthia Dunbar (not running for re-election)
Barbara Cargill
TFN,
Just wanted to notify you that Texas State Representative Richard Peña Raymond has started the Thomas Jefferson Movement in an effort to get Jefferson back where he belongs in the standards. I wonder if we could pick the most egregious amendment to the science standards (like differing ideas of the age of the Earth/universe or however it was phrased) and target it similarly? Has the book already closed on the science standards?
Mike, the moron you are looking for none other than Don McLeroy.
“I disagree with these experts,” said Don McLeroy, a dentist, who heads the conservative bloc on the Texas board. “Somebody’s got to stand up to experts that are just … I think, I don’t know why they’re doing it. They’re wonderful people.”
You will find the quote at
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/schoolsandresources/article/782821–state-of-denial-revisionist-education-in-texas
An expert is a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field. Dr. McLeroy is an expert in dentistry, thus is entitled to the term Doctor before his name. Before a massive stroke killed a bunch of brain cells, I was an expert in computer science and also earned the right to put Dr. in front of my name; Now I can’t even write in BASIC Now McLeroy can ignore ME because I no longer consider myself an expert, but can he ignore ALL experts? Methinks not.
Beverly,
I hope you appreciate this BASIC simulation of how McLeroy’s brain works:
10 GOTO 10
20 END
You’re welcome!
As the old saying goes… Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Beverly, I hope it wasn’t too hot, and I’m assuming it didn’t drown your keyboard. I ‘ll gladly owe you a cuppa joe if you thought it was that good. Anyway, somebody has gotta stand up to this royalty.
That’s okay, Mike; I’ve learned to turn my head away from my system prior to laughing. You’re right, of course. This upcoming election is going to be a real bugger bear now that the Supreme Court has given corporations Carte Blanc to foster the misrepresentations and lies that the GOP is certain to spread like a flesh-eating virus. The Representative from Round Rock, even after President Obama signed a “no payment for abortion” memo, still claims that abortions will be paid for. They are stuck in their lies and simply cannot break their nefarious habits to which they’ve become hooked.
It is as though the GOP is on a drug that they can’t kick; anything that is true they say FALSE. If the Democrats say yes, they scream back at the top of their lungs, “THE HELL YOU CAN’T.” Yet, I fear that the American electorate are so uneducated and have such short memories that they may attempt to put the elephants back in charge.
Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and their partner in verbal warfare don’t give a damn about our country; as long as they get their ratings and can rake in the dough they will do anything even if it means tearing the country apart and destroying our Republic in the process. In money they trust.