Texas Teacher To 9th Grade Student: “I Bet You’re Grieving About Your Uncle (Bin Laden)”
ABC 13 reports:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — The death of Osama bin Laden is related to an investigation of a teacher at Clear Brook High School. The teacher is accused of making a racially insensitive comment to a student in front of the entire class.
A Friendswood mom says she was offended by what her daughter says happened Monday in ninth grade algebra.
She said, “The teacher told the student that ‘I bet you’re grieving.’ And she basically looked at him and said what are you talking about? And he said I heard about your uncle’s death and she said wow, because she understood that he was referring about Osama bin Laden being killed and was racially profiling her.”…
As Texas Burns From Worst Wildfires In History, State Government Organizes Rain Prayers
Wildfire is ravaging the Texas landscape on a never-before-seen scale which will shatter previous records.
Governor Rick Perry’s response? He has commanded residents to pray for rain. No, not in a passing remark in a speech, but with an official decree designating “Days of Prayer for Rain” on which Texans will “offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land and the restoration of our normal way of life” and “to humbly seek an end to these dangerous wildfires.” No further comment needed.
Texas Blocked From Debuting Controversial New Lethal-Injection Cocktail
The state of Texas will have to wait until another day to try out a newly formulated death-inducing mixture which critics say could cause agonizing suffering. Cleve Foster, a Desert Storm veteran convicted of the murder of a woman he’d met in a bar, was scheduled to be executed tonight; this afternoon the Supreme Court blocked his execution for reasons including “questions related to his guilt.” The Atlantic Wire elaborates:
Foster has maintained his innocence for years, writing that he is “on death row waiting to die for a crime another man has confessed to.” He’s referring to Sheldon Ward, who was convicted alongside Foster in 2004 and has since died in prison of a brain tumor.
The drugs the state would have used to execute Foster–a cocktail of pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride–have never been used in a Texas execution before.
If the cocktail doesn’t work properly, says Stafford Smith, director of…
You Have No Legal Right to Sex, and Never Had
François-Rolland Elluin, Gli abitanti di Sodoma provocano l'ira divina. (1789).
Really interesting article from Paul R. Abramson and L.J. Williamson in LA Weekly:
In fact, in case you haven’t heard, Texas Republicans want sodomy to be a crime again. Last June, the Texas Republican Party embraced a political platform that opposed the legalization of sodomy.
To be clear, sodomy law refers to either oral or anal sex. It would be a bleak day if Congress made the eradication of the backdoor and the blow job a priority over war, economic upheaval and environmental disasters, but that’s beside the point. The bigger question is, does sex, sodomy included, warrant constitutional protection?
The answer is no. You have only a “right to privacy,” and in 1965, when that right first came into being, anyone who wasn’t married missed the boat. Privacy rights are more inclusive now, but they’re still only tangential to sex; they’re more akin…
Atheist Students Group Offers Porn For Bibles
Via WOAI San Antonio:
SAN ANTONIO — An atheist student group at UTSA is again offering to trade porn for bibles.
Atheist Agenda set up a booth on the UTSA campus on the Northwest Side and asked students to bring in their bibles in exchange for pornographic magazines. The event is called “Smut for Smut” and, obviously, brings with it some big controversy.
“It is to send a message that the stuff in the bible, and the Quran, and the Torah, and all that sort of thing is, in our case worse, in our opinion worse, than pornography,” explained UTSA student Kyle Bush.
“I can see that God can definitely use this for a greater purpose,” UTSA student Alex Liu
said. “And I see a lot of Christian organizations coming together, you know, to be brothers and sisters standing up for their faith.”
15,000 Gallons of Animal Fat Clog the Houston Ship Channel
What spills threaten to contaminate our waters? Well, I bet beef fat wasn’t your first guess. 2010 ended with 100,000 gallons of raw sewage leaked into the Buffalo Bayou which was estimated to take three weeks to repair. 2011 brings animal fat. NPR reports:
Workers with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office used pitchforks on Wednesday to pierce and remove chunks of beef fat clogging the Houston Ship Channel, shutting down nearly a mile of one of the nation’s busiest marine arteries.
No ship traffic is delayed, however, because the spill occurred at the end of the waterway, said Richard Brahms, a spokesman with the Coast Guard.
Some 15,000 gallons of animal fat poured into the channel through a storm drain on Tuesday after an onshore storage tank owned by agricultural company Jacob Sterns and Sons leaked 250,000 gallons of the greasy substance, Brahms said.
Texas May End Medicaid
With conservative politicians riding high on their broad electoral success, red-dominated regions of the country are already considering sweeping changes: in Texas, lawmakers are debating the possibility of opting out of the federal Medicaid program. Will this mark the start of a trend of right-wing states, fed up with the federal government, seeking to withdraw and “go it alone”? From the Texas Tribune:
Some Republican lawmakers — still reveling in Tuesday’s statewide election sweep — are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program.
Far-right conservatives are offering that possibility in post-victory news conferences. Moderate Republicans are studying it behind closed doors. And the party’s advisers on health care policy say it’s being discussed more seriously than ever, though they admit it may be as much a huge in-your-face to Washington as anything else.
“With Obamacare mandates coming down, we have a…
Mr. Spock Is Now A Legal Authority in Texas
Wow, Texas just became a lot more … logical. And picking the best film from the original series, nice touch. (You’ll find the scene referred to in this ruling at about two minutes into the clip below.) Great find from Charlie Jane Anders on io9.com:
The wisdom of Spock has guided us all for years, but now it’s enshrined in Texas law. Ruling on the limits of police power, the Texas Supreme Court quoted from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Ruling in Robinson vs. Crown Cork Seal Company (PDF), Justice Don Willett writes:
Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Second, while this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only by urgency, not expediency.
And there’s this footnote after the word Vulcan:
See STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (Paramount Pictures 1982). The film references several works of classic literature, none more prominently than A Tale of Two Cities. Spock gives Admiral Kirk an antique copy as a birthday present, and the film itself is bookended with the book’s opening and closing passages. Most memorable, of course, is Spock’s famous line from his moment of sacrifice: “Don’t grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh . . .” to which Kirk replies, “the needs of the few.”
Texas Vs. New York: Whose UFOs Are Bigger?
How fitting that as the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers do battle in Major League Baseball’s playoffs, Texas comes up with its own set of mysterious UFOs over El Paso, right after New Yorkers spotted UFOs over Manhattan.
Texas Moves To Limit Islamic Brainwashing In Textbooks
The Texas State Board of Education has approved a resolution condemning “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias” in public school textbooks, Texas’s KTBX reports. Why? State board candidate Randy Rives explains that Islamicists are influencing the state’s textbooks as a way to brainwash children, and ultimately to “take over America without firing a shot.”
Meet A Fourth Time Lottery Winner
What are the odds of winning the lottery? Sufficient to say most player’s odds are slim to none. With luck like Joan Ginther, I’d be playing everyday. She recently picked up her fourth set of multi-million dollar winnings. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Texas gives details:
Joan R. Ginther, a native of Bishop who moved to Las Vegas, made her fourth appearance Monday at lottery headquarters in Austin to collect seven figures, lottery officials said.
Ginther, 63, won $10 million, the top prize in Texas Lottery’s $140,000,000 Extreme Payout scratch-off ticket, pushing her total wins to $20.4 million.
It was her third time to win on a ticket from a Bishop store, and second one at Times Market at 525 Highway 77 Bypass, in Bishop.
“This is a very lucky store,” said Bob Solis, store manager. The owner Sun Bae is the one with the lucky hand, Solis said. “Sun sold both the winning tickets…
Texas City Reinstates Corporal Punishment In Public Schools
If there’s one thing Texans love besides barbecue, it’s paddling their kids. From the Washington Post:
“There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea,” said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. His son graduated from Temple schools several years ago.
Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out.
But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Since paddling was brought back to the city’s 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in…
Erykah Badu Strips Naked Where JFK Was Assassinated In New Music Video
OK folks, this is not an April Fool’s Joke. I have observed that disinfo.com readers (especially those who leave comments) enjoy the intersection of conspiracy and pop culture, however, it looks like Erykah Badu is taking it to a whole new level.
What would Crossfire author and JFK conspiracy expert Jim Marrs say? (Answer: He’s fine with it.)
(Below is a news report, not the actual video itself.)
Houston Bus Driver Runs Red Light Into Train, Asks Right Afterward: “Was That Light Green?”
KTRK-TV Houston reports that future Darwin Award nominee, bus driver Debra Harrison, not only ran a red light right into a train … but right afterward said to the bus passengers, “was that light green?”
Nineteen people were hurt, and Harrison has been involved in five accidents in the last three years according to KTRK-TV Houston. Below is the raw footage of the “accident” below from the AP:
Texas Board of Education Says Thomas Jefferson Didn’t Contribute Much to America’s Intellectual Origins
The Texas Board of Education is seeking to rewrite certain portions of their state’s history books with their version of conservatism.
Among the proposed changes are reducing the scope of Latino history and culture, removing hip hop music from a list of important cultural movements, portraying Joseph McCarthy in a more positive light, and downplaying Thomas Jefferson’s influence in the intellectual origins of America.
Yes, Thomas Jefferson.
In his place, they want to highlight St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone.
Read more about it on Yahoo News.
How Not To Get 35 Years For Pot Possession
Craig Malisow writes on Houston Press:
Smith County (East Texas) judges and juries have long had a reputation of meting out severe, some might say ridiculous, punishment for drug convictions. And Henry Wooten’s case is no exception: the 54-year-old Tyler man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for possessing slightly more than four ounces of pot. Wooten actually got off easy — the prosecutor asked the jury to give him 99 years. (We just hope TDCJ can free up room for this menace to society; maybe the state can release a child molester or serial arsonist to find a cell for Wooten.)
While the sentence may be asinine, we can’t help but feel Wooten brought much of this upon himself — mostly by choosing to be both a pothead and live in Tyler, when clearly that calls for an either/or scenario. But Wooten could have taken at least a few steps…
A Third Of Texans Say Dinosaurs And Humans Coexisted
Does a third of the population believe that “The Flinstones was a documentary”? In a poll, one out of three Texans say that humans and dinosaurs lived together at one point. Oh, and, the majority say that humanity did not develop from an earlier species. The Texas Tribune reports:
Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
[Professor David] Prindle recall[s] a line from comedian Lewis Black. “He did a routine a few years back in which he said that a significant proportion of the American people think that the ‘The Flintstones’ is a documentary,” Prindle says. “Turns out he was right.”
The Coming Christianizing Of Public School Textbooks
The New York Times asks, “How Christian were the Founding Fathers?” The Texas State Board of Education will be rewriting the standards for public school textbooks, and there’s a good chance that the resulting books (used across the country) will teach that America is a “Christian nation”:
The Christian “truth” about America’s founding has long been taught in Christian schools, but not beyond. Recently, however, some activists decided that the time was right to try to reshape the history that children in public schools study. Succeeding at this would help them toward their ultimate goal of reshaping American society.
As Cynthia Dunbar, a Christian activist on the Texas board, put it, “The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”
Texas Social Studies Curriculum: Out With Civil Rights Leaders, In With Phyllis Schlafly And Joseph McCarthy
From Think Progress:
For months, the Texas State Board of Education has been hearing from “experts” about the direction of the state’s social studies curriculum and textbook standards. The advice to the 15-member board — which is composed of 10 Republicans — has included more references to Christianity, fewer mentions of civil rights leaders, George Wasington, and Abraham Lincoln.On Thursday and Friday last week, the State Board of Education took up these recommendations in a lengthy, heated debate. Some highlights of what the Republican-leaning board ended up deciding, and the debates that went on:
— On a 7-6 vote, the board decided to add “causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association” to the curriculum.
[Read more at Think Progress]
Texas Rewrites The Nation’s Textbooks
Washington Monthly reveals how a small group of ultraconservative Texas residents has managed to rewrite the public school textbooks used across the entire nation:
“Evolution is hooey…the way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan.”
Views like these are relatively common in East Texas. But McLeroy is no ordinary citizen…[he] sits on the Texas State Board of Education, [and leads] an activist bloc that holds enormous sway over the body’s decisions.
As the state goes through the once-in-a-decade process of rewriting the standards for its textbooks, the faction is using its clout to infuse them with ultraconservative ideals. They aim to rehabilitate Joseph McCarthy, bring global-warming denial into science class, and downplay the contributions of the civil rights movement.
