Now I know without a doubt that people in Texas are stupid

Forums: Texas, Stupidity, Morons, Republican Idiot
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At least those on the Texas Board of "Education".
And yes, I put education in quotation marks, the article didnt.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/20/one-backwards-leap-for-texas/?huh

Quote:

I keep wondering what kind of dumbosity people associated with the Texas Board of Education can come up with next, and I keep being surprised at the depths of teh stoopid. And this time it’s not creationism!

It’s NASA. According to Houston Chronicle blogger Eric Berger, there’s a proposal to remove Neil Armstrong’s name from social studies textbooks.

Yes, you read that correctly. The proposal was suggested by teachers and parents reviewing materials, because Armstrong "is not a scientist".

I cant help but wonder about a state agency that seeks to remove the name of the first man to walk on the moon.
Maybe Neil Armstrong wouldnt have been noteworthy if he hadnt walked on the moon, but he did.
That is IMO still one of the greatest scientific achievements in my lifetime and to deny him his place in history is totally stupid.

The Texas state board of education should be horsewhipped.

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Kind of late to the game, aren't you, MM? Where was your outrage when they were attempting to put creationism into the science curriculum? You are offended that they don't want Armstrong in their books, but you were OK with it when they wanted to expunge Caesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall? I suspect this is a case of whose ox has been gored.

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By the way, the board of education in Texas is chosen in at-large elections--it's a political thing, MM. What you have here is not evidence that the people Texas are any more stupid than people anywhere else, it's just politics in action.

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@Setanta,

You are reading a hell of a lot into what I said.

I am not in favor of expunging anyone from history, whether its by denying that they existed or by simply denying what they did.

I havent paid atention to what Texas is doing because we have the same kind of nonsense here in Ky that I have been to busy opposing.
For you to assume that I support removing Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks or anyone from the history books is ridiculous on its face.

Next time, read what I wrote and not what you think I wrote.
You might learn something, instead of looking like such a fool.

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Wee teh peepl of Texas resint that alli gayshun. We is no mere stoopid thin teh peepl in Missippi, Luweezieanna nor teh sociuluts in Washinton.

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@mysteryman,

Are they going to remove references to Thomas Edison or the Wright Brothers?

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@farmerman,

Someone in the comments section of the article asked the same question.
I wouldnt be surprised if they tried it.

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@farmerman,

The brothers Wright were scientists though. Armstrong is more like Columbus, an explorer who led the way at significant personal risk. I can't imagine what these folks were thinking, even from a political point of view. It's not like Armstrong is a commie. He's a national hero, so where is the gain in poking him in the eye.

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@mysteryman,

I didn't read anything in to what you wrote. I asked a series of questions. You can tell that because i used question marks, clown.

Next time, read what I wrote and not what you think I wrote.
You might learn something, instead of looking like such a fool.

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@engineer,

The Wright brothers were bicycle salesmen and repairmen. Neither of them had a high school diploma. It is a bit much to describe them as scientists.

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@engineer,

The wright brothers have less formal training than did Neil Armstrong who holds an MS in aeronautical engineering.Wrights were both HS dropouts and ran printing businesses and later the famous bicycle shop. My point was that removing Armstrong as "not a scientist" is a stretch of definition that shows the ignorance of the Texas Ed Board.

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I don't believe that the Texas School Board called for Armstrong to be removed. It appears that parents and teachers called for this. If you read the article linked in the blog which is linked in the initial post, you'll see that the Board hasn't reviewed this yet. I suspect that this was a misguided effort to show just how stupid it was to call for the removal of Chavez and Marshall, by attacking someone who could be considered a hero of conservative Republicans. NASA is big business in Texas, it is possible that those calling for Armstrong's removal were attempting an act of public irony which would have an immediate impact on people.

The entire Board of Education situation is very politicized. Unfortunately, Texas rules on textbook selection mean that this will have a significant effect on the content of textbooks used throughout the nation. So, it becomes important without regard to any opinion we have of the people of Texas.

I think that what is truly stupid in this thread is to label the people of Texas stupid because of the politicized nature of the decisions made by their Board of Education.

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@farmerman,

on the other hand, some of the biggest idiots I've ever met were highly educated.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

The Wright brothers were bicycle salesmen and repairmen. Neither of them had a high school diploma. It is a bit much to describe them as scientists.

I disagree. Not with their formal careers, you are correct there, but with their body of work. The Wright brothers started working on their flight designs using the barometric pressure tables of the day and with a very specific problem statement: How do you control flight? When their model kites failed to perform to expectations, they discovered all the information in those tables they were using was highly inaccurate. They designed a wind tunnel and lead shapes to better characterize how air interacts with surfaces and documented their data, then incorporated their work into a control system (the three axis control system) that is still the mainstay of aviation control. You can see they shapes today at the Wright Brothers Mueseum at Kitty Hawk and their pressure tables were a mainstay of aviation science for many years. I grew up thinking the Wright brothers were just a couple of bicycle makers with some smarts and some luck. The reality was that they embarked on a detailed scientific investigation program spanning years where they make significant advancements in basic technology and then applied that to a real world problem. That makes them scientists to me regardless of their education.

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@Setanta,

I think you are right, this makes a lot more sense as a protest move rather than a true argument.

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@engineer,

Even as a protest, though, i think it's rather lame. I wonder if it will have the intended effect, if that in fact is the intended effect.

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@Setanta,

In retrospect, I think that it would have been much better to have admitted Texas to the Union as four separate states like the original proposal. Imagine 8 more Senators

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@mysteryman,

Quote:

More than 50 people mentioned in current textbooks are not included in the proposed standards, including Carl Sagan, Colin Powell, Nathan Hale, Neil Armstrong, Eugene Debs, John Steinbeck and Mother Teresa.

the article the bloggers started with

They were apparently also considering dropping references to Christmas. Apparently those kids in Austin have kinda leaky brains, can't be expected to hold much in.

Quote:

We don't want to burden textbooks with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of names

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@mysteryman,

mysteryman wrote:

At least those on the Texas Board of "Education".
And yes, I put education in quotation marks, the article didnt.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/20/one-backwards-leap-for-texas/?huh

Quote:
I keep wondering what kind of dumbosity people associated with the Texas Board of Education
can come up with next, and I keep being surprised at the depths
of teh stoopid. And this time it’s not creationism!

It’s NASA. According to Houston Chronicle blogger Eric Berger,
there’s a proposal to remove Neil Armstrong’s name from social studies textbooks.

Yes, you read that correctly. The proposal was suggested by teachers and parents
reviewing materials, because Armstrong "is not a scientist".

I cant help but wonder about a state agency that seeks to remove the name of the first man to walk on the moon.
Maybe Neil Armstrong wouldnt have been noteworthy if he hadnt walked on the moon, but he did.
That is IMO still one of the greatest scientific achievements in my lifetime and to deny him his place in history is totally stupid.

The Texas state board of education should be horsewhipped.

Is it the position of the Texas Board of Education
that only scientists r elegible to have their names set forth
in "social studies" books in Texas ?

David

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I'm a wee bit curious, update history books sure, but why do they need to cull history? Are they trying to cut costs - paper/ink? Are they going for a standard sized book, therefore the need to excise a few names? Has there been a bumper crop of recent important history and/or people that justify or outshine the groundbreaking accomplishments of Lincoln et al?
Perhaps when Bush said he'd let the history books decide, the Texas board of Education took that on as a challenge.
Then again, they've messed with ancient history as well... from creationism up.

1 Reply

Now I know without a doubt that people in Texas are stupid

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