PZ Myers. 2004 Nov 10. Sultana of the Texas Taliban, Scourge of Scholars, Despoiler of Textbooks. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/sultana_of_the_texas_taliban_scourge_of_scholars_despoiler_of_textbooks/>. Accessed 2008 Nov 19.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Sultana of the Texas Taliban, Scourge of Scholars, Despoiler of Textbooks
It must be sad and hard to be a textbook in Texas.
Last year, the school board was trying to cut evolution out of them.
The year before, they were removing references to pollution, global warming, and overpopulation.
Oh, and now the phrase "married partners" is not to be used, because it's too general and could include gay couples.
And health/sex ed books contain no mention of contraception. At all. Did you know that Texas is the #1 ranked state for teen pregnancy? I guess it's like football: they're going to hang onto that championship.
There's a name that keeps coming up in all of these dreary efforts to send Texas spiralling back in time to the Middle Ages, as if it were Bruce Campbell, only without the cool, and this time he's fighting on the side of the Deadites. The name is Terri Leo. She's a real piece of work. She's been working like a maniac to gut textbooks; she's even tried to get publishers to add little "facts", like "Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression, illegal drug use, and suicide." She's a perfect example of anti-science, anti-intellectual, intolerant bigotry, and yet there she is, on the state board of education. That's like hearing that Richard Dawkins has been elected by the College of Cardinals to the papacy, or that the new head of the NIH is Bluto Blutarski. She just doesn't belong there.
Her web page is weirdly dishonest by omission. She doesn't mention her jihad against evolution, or her desperate desire to pretend that teenagers will obey her rather than their hormones, or how much she despises gay people, which seem to be the key elements of her reputation. Instead, it looks like an exercise in subtle irony.
During my tenure on the state board, I have resisted efforts to lower the academic expectations of high school students in Texas…
Yeah, honey, and the Discovery Institute is a scientific research organization. Here, pull the other one. Tell me how much Brian Leiter loves you.
The real tragedy is that this ghastly dim harridan is guarding the gateway to the second largest textbook market in the country, and she's leading the publishers around by the dingus. They're trying to put up a fight, but money is a persuasive argument, and no one can afford to just throw away a customer that big. So I have a suggestion: how about if every other state in the union agreed that if a textbook were watered down enough to meet the standards of Texas, it was then inadequate for use in their school systems? It's getting to the point where publishers need to put out two editions of every book, one with reasonable academic standards for markets like California and Minnesota, and a "for dummies" version for Texas.
Sorry, sensible residents of Texas. Nothing personal, but that (brain)deadweight you're carrying is just dragging the rest of us down. And it's hard to be sympathetic after you inflicted GW Bush on the country. (Hey, I just realized…we're not at the bottom of the pillar of scorn. The way the rest of the world looks at America is the way many of us Americans look at Texas! And just as we hope the world doesn't see all of us as idiots, have no fear, I know that not all Texans are knuckle-draggers.)
Also: Gen. JC Christian has a few criticisms for Mrs Leo.
Posted by PZ Myers on 11/10 at 08:30 PM
Creationism • Politics • 2 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
Creationism • Politics • 2 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
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It was at least mildly amusing a year ago September to see Ms Leo get shut up for a few minutes. One of my fellow pro-science witnesses at the state BoE biology text hearings mentioned Wells (or Behe, I don't remember) in a disparaging sort of way - that he "didn't publish real science" or something to that effect. Leo, obviously having been prompted on responses, said "Why, he's a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science!" The witness pleasantly replied, "Ms Leo, if you send them $129 you'll be a member, too."
And PZ is correct in that there are a very large number of utter dumbasses in this state.#: Posted by on 11/10 at 09:11 PM -
Yes, Texas and many other southern states seem absolutely pathetic in this way. Their concentration of christian fundamentalist zealots is just abominable and because of this concentration of wackos we get people of this sort influsecing America in some way on the national level, wether it be giving kids watered-down books, or simply irritating the intellectuals in the nation (which seem to be becoming evermore rare).
Of course, part of the reason intellegent people are becoming uncommon is because it is the people with the reduced capacity for intellegence that multiply since they are the ones ignorant of overpopulation.
And speaking of Christian Taliban influencing the nation, I for one an glad that John Ashcroft is not going to be around for another four years. It would be wonderful if the entire Bush administration followed his lead.#: Posted by Archosaurian on 11/10 at 09:34 PM - I don't know what to feel for the students going through this. Remorse? Pity? Anger? Whatever it is, it surely isn't making me feel nice.
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because it is the people with the reduced capacity for intellegence that multiply since they are the ones ignorant of overpopulation.
Yeah, there's a point. Non-religious couples, in my experience, generally tend to have one or two children, or even none at all, while professional Catholic/Jewish/Muslim housewives/doormats are quite happy to punch out 6-7 of the little tykes in quick succession. We must start outbreeding them! 9 little heathens per family, absolute minimum. I don't know about the rest of you, but our host is only a third of the way through his quota, and he's putting me to shame. Let's get cracking! -
Uh, I'm going to have to check with the wife on that one. I think she's had enough.
And have you ever been to Utah? I knew quite a few Mormon families with 12-15 kids, and I'm not talking polygamous males, either—women who had been pumping out almost a baby a year for 20 years. You're really falling behind. -
Ashcroft is only gone because he was too much of a lightning rod, bringing criticizm that the administration can't afford in it's next term. His stepping down was pretty much inevitable. The question is, does Powell stay on or leave? It's definitely too late for him to salvage much if any of his reputation, so he either stays on and lends a degree of legitimacy (because he simply doesn't impact policy sufficiently to stay for that) that they don't deserve, or he goes off and becomes a lobbyist. I think it's the latter, but that's just me.
And yeah, they got nothin' on the LDS. Gotta hurry and get all the souls their chance in the world so the End Times can come. -
I'd better stay out of this one. Mrs. Leo took a particularly rabid disliking to me on the evolution issue, and I thought she might burst a vessel when I was talking about preventing HIV this year.
I won't even begin to tell you about the errors in the history and economics books I use.
Oh, and I'll keep quiet about having grown up in Utah, too.#: Posted by on 11/11 at 03:12 AM -
I grew up in Texas, in a mixed religious family of Jehovah's Witnesses and Southern Baptists. Talk about eye-opening! I haven't talked to any of them in years, but last I heard, my oldest brother hinted he was thinking of buying a mountain in Arkansas or somewhere, and starting his own
cult... er, congregation.
Fortunately, I got out in the 70s, when the people living there still understood something about American ideals.
Shameless plug for my blog, regarding the recent aurora and the intellectual capacity of some of those people, with mention of stem cells thrown in for good measure: "Wednesday Morning Aurora" http://www.hankfox.com/weblog/
By the way, OGeorge, the natural history illustrator who did some of Dr. Myer's art, makes a cameo appearance. -
First, 45% or us voted against him.
Second, if you guys have any advice on how to run for local school boards, I'll buckle down and keep my kid's school idiot-free.
And if you're very nice, I might tell you what my brother did to a biology teacher that opened the evolution section with "So who here believes in that evolution crap, anyways?". (Hint: It involves talk.origins printouts, little plastic dinosaurs, and inventive insults. Poor teacher never did figure out who was leaving him gifts....) -
As for advice, take a look at Leo's web page. She doesn't mention any of her heinous activities there, which tells me that she knows that if her opposition to good science was widely publicized, it would cost her votes. She's playing the game of using code words to keep her religious base lined up behind her, and otherwise keeping mum to avoid alienating everyone else. There's got to be an electorate lurking out there that wants somebody strong on positive issues in good teaching.
I'm very nice. Please do tell us the story. We've got a creationist high school teacher here, and it would be good to have tips. -
I personally grew so disgusted with this story (after having read it on Salon ), that I've begun writing my own health text, starting with sex ed. You think I'm kidding.
No state this decade will buy it, but I'll license that sucker under Creative Commons license and let any educator or student who wants it get it for free.
I mean, it is National Novel Writing Month, and the novel isn't really going very far, so—well, hey, I guess nonfiction's my new forte.#: Posted by Tyson Burghardt on 11/11 at 10:46 AM - Great idea! Let me know when it's done and I'll take a copy.
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Seems like this wacko, more than anything, wants Texas to become a nation of idiotic, ignorant ignorami and wants to remain blissfully unaware of the reality of everything.
Regular creationists in such power are aggrivating enough, but taking important environmental issues like global warming, overpopulation, urban sprawl, pollution, habitat destruction, etc., that is absolutely infuriating.#: Posted by Archosaurian on 11/11 at 03:00 PM -
Tyson, Excellent.
#: Posted by on 11/11 at 03:43 PM
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Remember: reality is only important if you're in the reality-based community.
*sigh*#: Posted by on 11/11 at 03:56 PM -
More or less on this topic, here's an excellent article on how journalistic practice works against good science coverage, especially on issues where there's a manufactured "opposition" such as ID or climate "skepticism." (No extra charge for the scare quotes.)
#: Posted by Chris Clarke on 11/11 at 04:08 PM
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<i>Remember: reality is only important if you’re in the reality-based community.<i>
True, but ignorance still does more harm than good, even if the ignorant community is not aware of being ignorant. They will still multiply like rabbits, pollute the earth, destroy habitats, and eventually make America the ridicule of the world, if it isn't already.#: Posted by Archosaurian on 11/11 at 04:27 PM -
Archosaurian,
Yes, one gets the sinking feeling that Venezuela may be about to pass us in the fast lane of civilization. Or maybe, dont forget Poland.#: Posted by on 11/11 at 05:10 PM -
I dug out Leo's actual statement on evolution teaching from the minutes of an SBOE meeting last year - she bizarrely asserted that Steven Weinberg's testimony to Congress supports her position. I've got it here.
#: Posted by Bartholomew on 11/11 at 06:31 PM
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Your entry says that the state board are removing references to pollution, global warming, and overpopulation "this year" - but the article to which you link is dated 2002.
Presumably you don't mean "this year", or you have another article or something?#: Posted by on 11/12 at 07:54 AM -
Hey PZ, I can't help it if my fellow Texans want to wallow in ignorance. I have been putting up the good fight since Mel and Norma Gabler pulled the same textbook shit. Leo is just one more in a line of fools determined to protect us from our own intelligence (a stupid fundy Christian is a happy fundy Christian).
Still you can't blame Texas for G.W. this time...say it all with me now...Ohio...Ohio.
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There are a whole bunch of states we can blame.
Minnesota, of course, went for the Democrat with a greater margin than we did in the last election; we got bluer, I'm proud to say. So at least one thing we can definitely say is that you don't get to blame Minnesota. - I've patched up the chronology that so concerned Mr Anonymous.
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Thank you.
I've been defending you over on Crooked Timber (http://www.crookedtimber.org), by the way - just in case you think I'm a troll...#: Posted by on 11/12 at 01:16 PM - No, it's a fair cop. I assembled those links and then lost track of the chronology, so it needed a bit of a clean up -- not that it changes any of the points, but we all know how the rightwingers love to leap on tangential distractions.
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As I've probably mentioned here before, my late father, a secondary school science teacher in Houston and a member of the state textbook committee back in the 1970's, successfully fought the anti-science textbook mafia to a standstill. So it is nothing intrinsic about or specific to Texas; it's the spirit of the times today, at least in states with large religious fundamentalist populations.
A word about GW Bush: he isn't a Texan. He wasn't born here. His family came here entirely for financial reasons. And his fake accent makes every native Texan cringe. He used Poppy's money to propel him into the governor's chair, ousting the most popular governor in recent Texas history (Ann Richards) in the process. We have suffered him six years longer than the rest of you; please have pity on us who tried every legal thing we knew how to do to stop him.
As to the idea of other states' boycotting publishers who cave in to the fundies, I'm all for it. Surely if most other states were to band together, the economic weight of Texas textbook purchasing could be counterbalanced.#: Posted by Steve Bates on 11/12 at 11:01 PM -
One of the problems I recall (not even in the USA) was down to a school library run by the Head of English, who would put the weirdest stuff in the sceince sections.
I don't think it was an anti-science attitude as such, just ignorance.#: Posted by on 11/13 at 01:45 PM -
Where to start? yes, the part about paying the AAAS dues was funny, the whole room laughed and a few people clapped, and I am fairly sure the chair at that point reiterated that applause during the hearing was not appropriate.
This seat is a gerrymandered Republican seat. I worked on Floy Evan's campaign last March against Terri. This was doomed for a lot of reasons. First Floy started too late, after January. Second, the entire Harris County Republican party establishment supported Terri. She is well loved and her views are very popular among the party activists. Third, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas is her church coordinator. Fourth, she took money from hospital magnate and right-wing sugar daddy James Leininger and sent out deceptive attack ads during late February. Then her husband had the audacity to call Floy and criticize her for sending out a (truthful) attack ad. (that's beside the point, but, basically she's not constrained by the truth but people who tell the truth, she will guilt into shutting up.) Fifth, she had the Texans for Gutting Science Education supporting her and the Christian Coalition chairperson in Montgomery County forwarding her "friends and family" letter saying how wonderful she is to all her contacts with a note to please help Terri because Terri's so great and SEX EDUCATION is coming up this fall. This SEX EDUCATION issue is a big deal (and now we see why).
One of the election day pollsitters was pissed because Terri's pollsitters were aggressively getting into voters' faces saying that Floy supported SEX EDUCATION and teaching children things they shouldn't know until marriage. I had the joy of sharing a precinct with Frank Mayo of the Texans for Gutting Science Education. He informed me that Floy was bankrolled by liberals, that she had been asked to run by the liberals on the board who had been bamboozled by the evil humanists such as (gasp) Stephen Weinberg and Samanatha Smoot (of the Texas Freedom Network). This sells, I guess, in Republican circles.
If someone is going to beat her, he or she will have to start early and somehow manage to get more people out than the "party hardy" voters. The better way is to completely abolish the State Board of Education. I have no idea what they do that is productive. All they seem to do is to politicize the textbook adoption process. 5 of the 15 members are part of this ultra-radical religious right-wing block, I don't see it getting any better.
And yes, the Republican Party of Texas opposes "junk science" like evolution and global warming. That's in the platform.
And as a PS to this already too-long comment. Terri was absolutely coordinating with Discovery Institute on the biology textbooks. She uttered all their sound bites, defended Jonathon Wells to the point that she should have been embarrassed, provided a letter to the members of the Board from the DI regarding the Santorum Amendment, and faxed material from them in to the Austin office with the notation "be sure this gets into the record" (or words to that effect. There is something wrong when a group like DI can get behind the scenes and use an elected official as their mouthpiece.. She is my SBOE rep and it really hacks me off.#: Posted by on 11/13 at 11:08 PM -
Tyson: Let us know when the book is done, so I can send a copy to my nephew who is trapped in Texas. I know my sister is concerned about his education, but she's a very busy single working mom...
#: Posted by on 11/15 at 03:20 PM