Couldn't make it up

THE FESTIVAL of reaction in Texas government marches on.

Last year, the Texas Board of Education approved a host of curriculum changes to history and economics textbooks that are the stuff conservative dreams are made of.

By a 10-to-5 vote, the board voted for curriculum changes "stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light," according to the New York Times.

Now, the Texas House of Representatives has set its sights on higher education. Specifically, the House recently passed a budget bill that would require any public college with a student center on "alternative" sexuality to provide equal funding to create new centers to promote "traditional values."

In other words, colleges that have student centers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students would be required to have equal funding for centers that promote "traditional values" like heterosexuality and straight marriage.

THIS SPRING, the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage, Mo., and the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin, Mo., were fitted with signs with the words "In God We Trust," after the posting was approved by Jasper county commissioners.

The approval follows a request by Springfield, Mo., attorney Dee Wampler, the author of the book One Nation Under God, and advocate for a "grassroots" group making similar requests nationwide.

According to the Joplin Globe:

In a letter to the commission, Wampler said the motto has been posted in about 200 public buildings so far and in Missouri, most recently in Branson, Marshfield and Buffalo [Missouri].

Commissioners unanimously passed the request. Norman Rouse, legal counsel to the panel, said the action did not raise issues on the separation of church and state, because it followed a pattern already set by the federal government.

Noting Wampler's letter to the panel, he cited the motto on some U.S. currency, and engraved on the wall in the chambers of U.S. House of Representatives.

TALK ABOUT propaganda.

Perhaps disturbed by the growing numbers of people who are against hydraulic fracking--an environmentally destructive process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to fracture rock formations and release pockets of natural gas--Talisman Energy is going on the offensive...by producing a coloring book aimed at kids.

"Talisman Terry's Energy Adventure," is a handout for kids that explains the natural gas industry with the help of a "friendly Fracosaurus" dinosaur named Terry.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,:

Everyone smiles in Terry's world. Mom smiles, Dad smiles, the worker smiles, the dog smiles, the cat smiles, the deer smiles, the fish smiles, the sun smiles, the moon smiles, the flower smiles, the rock smiles. Even the helium balloon--used to demonstrate how "natural gas is lighter than air"--smiles.

IF YOUR kid's summer camp is just too darn liberal, preaching togetherness and all that kum-ba-yah crap, never fear--there's a solution!

Those who want a little dose of Ayn Rand with their kids' summertime crafts can now book their kids for a stay at the Tampa Liberty School.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the camp comes courtesy of the Tampa 912 Project, an organization "which falls under the Tea Party umbrella, hopes to introduce kids ages 8 to 12 to principles that include 'America is good,' 'I believe in God,' and 'I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.'"

The five-day program, available for up to 40 kids at the bargain price of $15, will "impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told," according to conservative writer and camp organizer Jeff Lukens.

According to the Times,

U.S. ATTORNEY General Eric Holder took a break from serious business recently to call on the creators of hit TV show The Wire to revive the show.

At a panel organized by the Justice Department about the effects of drug abuse on children. Holder told the audience, "I want to speak directly to [Ed] Burns and [David] Simon," referring to the show's creators.

"Do another season of The Wire," he said, adding, "I'm reminded of how great the series was. I want another season or I want a movie. I have a lot of power, Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon."

David Simon wasn't laughing, especially since the show consistently made the case that the government's "war on drugs"--a war Holder is now the chief officer of--punished the poor and vulnerable in society.

According to the Times of London:

Though the threat was light-hearted, it seemed an odd appeal from a man whose department was portrayed so unflatteringly in the show, almost akin to Stalin requesting a sequel to George Orwell's 1984.

PROMINENT AUTHORS--particularly ones that win the Nobel Prize in literature--are not necessarily known for their humility.

But the prize for arrogance should be awarded to Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul, for his recent lashing out at female authors.

According to Britain's Guardian:

In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society...about his career, Naipaul, who has been described as the "greatest living writer of English prose," was asked if he considered any woman writer his literary match. He replied: "I don't think so." Of [Jane] Austen, he said he "couldn't possibly share her sentimental ambitions, her sentimental sense of the world."

He felt that women writers were "quite different." He said: "I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me."

MASSACHUSETTS REPUBLICAN state Rep. Ryan Fattman has some interesting advice for undocumented immigrant women who might be victims of rape: don't think you should be able to report the crime to the police.

As Marie Diamond of ThinkProgress.org recently reported, "while defending a controversial federal immigration program that many say will damage the relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities," Fattman essentially stated that he thinks undocumented women who are raped should be afraid to go to the police:

Mr. Fattman dismissed concerns of some law enforcement officials--cited by the governor--who said using local police to enforce immigration laws could discourage reporting of crime by victims who are illegal immigrants.

Asked if he would be concerned that a woman without legal immigration status was raped and beaten as she walked down the street might be afraid to report the crime to police, Mr. Fattman said he was not worried about those implications.

KANSAS STATE Rep. Pete DeGraaf has a novel way of talking about rape.

Last month, during a discussion of a bill that would ban insurance companies from covering abortions under general health care plans, DeGraaf said women needed to "plan ahead" for being raped--and the possibility that they might become pregnant as a result of that rape.

According to the Associated Press, when Rep. Barbara Bollier questioned whether women would buy abortion-only policies long before they have crisis or unwanted pregnancies or are rape victims, Rep. DeGraaf, who supports the bill, responded: "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?"

It got worse:

Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?"

DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have spare tire on my car."

"I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."

SOME MIGHT have thought that Scott Walker, the Tea Party, union-busting governor of Wisconsin couldn't get any worse.

Think again.

In May, Walker asked a judge to allow the state to stop defending a new law giving same-sex couples the right to visit their partners in the hospital--because, according to Walker, the law violates the state constitution.

In 2009, Democrats, then in control of the state legislature, changed the law so that same-sex couples could sign up for domestic partnership registries with county clerks in order to be afforded some of the rights that married couples have.

The conservative group Wisconsin Family Action sued to stop the law, arguing that domestic partner registries violated a state ban on same-sex marriage and other similar arrangements.

Walker has now filed a motion to stop the state from defending the case.

"Governor Walker, in deference to the legal opinion of the attorney general that the domestic partner registry...is unconstitutional, does not believe the public interest requires a continued defense of this law," says the brief, filed by Walker's chief counsel, Brian Hagedorn.

KENTUCKY LAWMAKERS have been making what they call "tough choices" in recent years. The state has gone through several brutal rounds of drastic cuts to social services in the last three years that have, among other things, cut money for education and instituted a pay freeze for all teachers and state workers, in addition to cutting Medicaid by shifting enrollees to managed-care plans.

But there's one thing they do have money for--a "full-size" replica of Noah's ark, a Tower of Babel, and other religious-themed amusements at a Bible-themed amusement park outside of Williamstown, Ky.

In May, according to ThinkProgress, "the state approved $43 million in tax breaks for the project. In addition to the tax incentives, approved unanimously by the state's tourism board, taxpayers may have to pony up another $11 million to improve a highway interchange near the site."

A BILL working its way through the Tennessee legislature would prohibit teachers from mentioning homosexuality before the ninth grade.

Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Stacey Campfield, SB 0049--also known as the "Don't Say Gay bill"--would make it illegal for teachers and other educators to discuss any sexual behavior--apart from heterosexuality, of course--with students in kindergarten up through the eighth grade.

Campfield has made a name for himself sponsoring similarly draconian bills in the past--including a proposal to issue death certificates for aborted fetuses.

As Salon.com's Alex Pareene noted:

It is already against the law in Tennessee to "teach any sex education that is not part of the 'family life curriculum' adopted by the state Board of Education," making any objective classroom discussion of "homosexual practices" a misdemeanor. But Sen. Campfield insists that gayness is still being talked about, and he aims to stop it.

WAUPACA COUNTY Judge Philip Kirk apparently thinks child molesters are gay.

While recently sentencing 71-year-old former school bus driver Delton Gorges for molesting four boys over the course of several decades, Judge Kirk told Gorges that, "I think you were born gayer than a sweet smelling jock strap."

The judge went on to confirm his belief that Gorges' interest in molesting boys was a part of his supposed homosexuality, stating, "If anyone believes that in the last 10 years or 15 years all of a sudden you developed an interest in homosexuality and young boys, then I must have looked ravishing in my prom dress this year."