I traveled to Tyler, TX this weekend for a tennis tournament for my daughter.  Driving along highway 31 back to Austin on Sunday, I couldn’t help but notice a very large billboard with the phrase:

"Where’s the birth certificate?"

Of course, this is in reference to the group known as the "birthers", who seem to think that our president isn’t a naturalized citizen even though the evidence is clearly there that he was born in Hawaii.  But then again, there’s no convincing some people.  What surprises me though, is the tenacity of this "movement".  It won’t go away.  I think the basic issue is, there are just some people who will always ignore the evidence if it contradicts their world view.  In this regard, the birthers are no different than the young earth creationists.  No amount of logic or evidence will assuage them from their opinion.  But the size of this group is surprising, numbering in the tens of thousands, maybe even the hundreds of thousands.  And they are a very vocal group.

In the old days, before the Internet, this would have been a small subculture of people and would have had little chance of growing into the movement it is today.  But in the world of the internet, there is a ready environment for any fringe idea to take root and grow, fed by a media that is in search of ratings over facts.  The internet provides a bully pulpit for any subversive or subcultural view to be seen by millions.  And with all the spectrum of opinions available among the billions of webpages, there is no need for anyone to view an alternative opinion to their own.

In fact, we all have our favorite websites, bookmarked in our browsers for easy access or fed to us in our feed readers.  And more than likely they consist of those sites that agree with our opinions or that feed our political leanings.  There’s no need to look at dissent or alternate opinions.  No need to try to see things from the other side of the fence.  In fact why should we?  Those alternate opinions were written by individuals who have a bias, right?  While the websites we like are written by those who are thoughtful and knowledgeable.  Why would I waste my time on those other silly opinions?  I already know they can’t be right.

And that’s the root of the problem.  There’s no longer any room for rational discussion or talking about the actual merits of any issue.  No concept of respecting the individual who might have a differing opinion.  There’s only room for opinion that is skewed either left or right for consumption by the faithful.  Our surfing habits only foster a reinforcement of our preconceived opinions.  And this leads to a wider polarization of our society.  Those on the left and those on the right, with no need for either side to try to understand the other, only the ability to despise what they stand for as we’re told how silly they must be to think like they do.

This narrowly focused view of the issues also allows for mis-information to be easily disseminated.  If the media outlets have a ready audience that is already agreeable to their philosophy, sowing the seeds of mis-information is easy.  They already know their audience is not very likely to fact check what they say.  So we end up with the idea of "death panels" in the health care reform bill, or calls of "socialism".

In this regard, if we’re not careful to understand where our information is coming from and to not get our information from a variety of sources, we could all become members of the lunatic fringe.

I’m sure by now everyone has heard about Rick Perry’s comments about Texas seceeding from the United States.  Heck it even made the late night talk show circuit on both Leno and Letterman.  I must say it was a bit unexpected to hear, but what bothered me even more was a poll done afterward that indicates that if a vote were to be held on the matter, 75% of Texans would vote against secession.  And this was held up like a great thing…Texas is still ok.

Now I’m not bothered that the vote would fail, I’m bothered that it indicates that 1 in 4 Texans possibly would vote FOR secession.  If you look at the poll, it indicated that 18% would vote for secession and an additional 7% were unsure.  To put this in round numbers, Texas has about 24 million people living here, of which about 72% are of voting age.  If we do the math, that means there are roughly 4.3 million people that think secession is the right thing to do. That’s a pretty scary number.

Where are all these people? and what are they complaining about?  Is this the same percentage of Texans who watch Fox News?  The one "news" organization that helped promote these so-called Tea Parties where Perry made his comments?  Unfortunately, I can’t find any statistics on that, but it would be an interesting comparison.

I guess their big beef is the enourmous amount of recent spending the government is doing to try to keep the economy from failing.  Sure, none of us are happy about it, but I think what people fail to realize is we’ve been living on borrowed money for way too long and now it’s time to pay up.  Americans love low taxes, heck so do I.  Just look at what happened to the first Bush when he tried to raise taxes after saying he wouldn’t.  The bottom line is we can’t expect to have the level of services we do and not at some point have to pay for them.  But that’s what we’ve collectively been doing for that last few decades.  We expect more and more, but want to pay less and less, just like Wal-Mart.

The US has one of the lowest personal tax rates of any developed country.  If we want to keep it that way, it’s going to mean fewer services or more debt.  Take your pick.

So to all you Tea Party folks out there, which will it be?  What are you willing to give up to keep our future taxes low?  Social Security? Medicare? reducing our military spending?  fewer and less well maintained roads and schools?

The hangover is here and there is no quick remedy.

It’s not my habit to push sites that are selling stuff, but when I saw this, I had to share and I certainly can’t argue with the logic.

As I’ve posted earlier, the Texas State Board of Education is set to vote on the science curriculum standards later this week and I had suggested those so inclined to send an email to the Chairman, Don McLeroy and remind him of something he said.  Well, I thought I would go ahead and post what my email contained in case anyone else wanted to use it as a guide.

Mr. McLeroy,

    I simply want to remind you of something you said during your interview on Texas Montly Talks that aired on KLRU in May of 2008.

 

    "I certainly don’t want to force my views on anybody else." – Don McLeroy

 

    You said this in reference to the debate regarding sex education in Texas.  But shouldn’t this apply to everything you consider while in the position of Chariman of the Texas State Board of Education?  In fact, this statement should be read to all the committee members at the beginning of every meeting and before every vote to remind them of what their purpose really is, to serve the citizens of Texas, not their personal political or religious agendas.

     Your statement should apply to the upcoming vote regarding the Science curriculum standards.  If you truly meant what you said, you would listen to the educators and experts in the field to determine how Texas schools should treat and teach the concepts of science and not try to insert language that is intended to tear down well established principles.  Your personal beliefs should not get in the way of trying to provide Texas children with the best science education possible.

    That’s all.  Please follow your own words and do the right thing for Texas and it’s school children.

We’re about a week away from the final vote that will determine the Texas Science curriculum standards for the next 10 years.  This vote will also heavily influence what gets put into the Science textbooks students will use.  The Texas State Board of Education meeting is scheduled for next week, March 26-27th.  There have been some improvements in the standards, such as the removal of the "strengths and weaknesses" language.  But our creationist members of the board have proposed amendments to insert "sufficiency or insufficiency" language in its place.  The creationist members are trying to insert language that would allow teachers the flexibility to introduce non-scientific ideas into their classrooms.  Specifically, the idea of creationism and intelligent design.

There are some very good write-ups about this already, so I won’t go into detail but instead just refer you to the links below.

• Texas Science Standards: Game on! 
• Texas Freedom Network on Don McLeroy
• Austin American Statesman article on Don McLeroy
• Quote mining by Don McLeroy to defend his postion

What I do want to encourage is people to send emails to Don McLeroy, who is the Chairman of the Texas SBOE, reminding him of a quote he made during an interview with Texas Monthly Talks in May of 2008.  He said:

"I certainly don’t want to force my views on anybody else." – Don McLeroy

If only he would follow what he said and instead of trying to impose his personal religious views on the rest of Texas he should listen to the throngs of educators and science experts who support good science education.

All the board members use the same email address, so please enter his name in the subject line:  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

This can make a difference.  The overwhelming public outcry has helped so far, but until the final vote we need to keep our voices heard.

I know confusion is probably a normal state for me, but in this case I just don’t understand.  Compare these two headlines.

Stem Cell Research Opponents want Personhood for Embryos

2,000,000 Children Die From Diarrhea Each Year

So the first is discussing how pro-life advocates are fighting to give legal rights to fertilized embryos so they can’t be destroyed or used in research.  While the second article talks about how a large number of living and breathing children are dying every year from a very treatable disease.

So here’s my confusion.  Why aren’t the pro-life people up in arms about the issue of children dying?  Why aren’t they pushing through laws to support efforts to treat these children around the world.  It seems to me if they are really pro-life, start with protecting the lives of people that are already on this planet and trying to survive.  Then, once you have all those issues worked out, attack the issues of the unborn.  Until you’ve wiped out disease, hunger and poverty, don’t talk to me about protecting embryos.

Now this is refreshing to hear and fills me with hope.

Here’s the quote that got to me the most.

"Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources, it’s about protecting free and open inquiry, it’s about insuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology."

All I can say is WOW!

I’m posting this under “politics” since I don’t have a category for “religious idiocy”.

It seems the National Association of Evangelicals doesn’t like any of it’s leaders even saying they might be changing their minds on the idea of gay marriage.  Richard Cizik was talking to Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air and was asked this question.

“A couple of years ago when you were on our show, I asked you if you were changing your mind on that. And two years ago, you said you were still opposed to gay marriage. But now as you identify more with younger voters, would you say you have changed on gay marriage?”

And his response was.

“I’m shifting, I have to admit.  In other words, I would willingly say that I believe in civil unions.  I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition”

Well, that was enough to get him fired from his position as Vice President for Governmental Affairs at the NAE.

I heard that show earlier this week, I’m a bit behind on my podcasts, and was amazed to hear his statement, but then I thought maybe things might be changing now that Jerry Falwell and others are gone and a new breed of leaders are coming into their own and it filled me with hope that maybe things will get better.

Apparently not.

The Senate seat selling Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich and the diminutive sidekick from Fantasy Island, Herve Villechaize.