Textbooks and the Texas Taliban

a clip from Alternet:

. . . .The latest battle in the ongoing war to turn public schools into propaganda machines for the right is being fought in the state of Texas. The state is often at the center of conservative-fomented education controversies, as right-wingers there keep trying to sneak creationism into the science classroom. Texas also continues to maintain its abysmally high teen pregnancy rate by pushing sex “education” that usually doesn’t bother to mention contraception. While the right has been losing some ground on those two issues, a new report from the Texas Freedom Network suggests that conservatives have been able to inject a shocking number of lies and disinformation into public school history classrooms. . . . .

Learning about Hippies in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

Beka Books is owned by Arlin and Beka Horton, who both graduated from Bob Jones "University" in 1951.  The company, which now has an extensive product line of semi-literate ultra-fundamentalist teaching materials, made headlines a couple of years ago by changing the Christian unfriendly "Slave Trade" to the "Atlantic Triangular Trade."  How offensive an unwholesome to talk about slavery in a Christian environment.  From Political Research Associates:

On May 21, Texas School Board member Cynthia Dunbar opened the board’s meeting with an invocation: “Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or the charter of New England, or the charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present—a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”¹ The board then voted nine to five, along party lines, to adopt new standards that will be used to teach the state’s 4.8 million students—resisting the pleas of educators, historians, and even Rod Paige, a former U.S. secretary of education under President George W. Bush. The new standards emphasize the role of Christianity in U.S. history and promote conservative values. A New York Times editorial pointed out that the Texas board did back down on a few of its “most outrageous efforts”—such as renaming the slave trade, the “Atlantic triangular trade”—but it nevertheless managed “to justify injecting more religion into government.” According to the Times, the curriculum differentiates between the Founders’ protection of religious freedom and “separation of church and state,”² which it deplores.______________________________________ 

Now Beka's books are being used in Louisiana's private voucher schools that are paid for with public money.  And Salon now reports that the following facts to be memorized about hippies are found in America: Land I Love:"They went without bathing, wore dirty, ragged, unconventional clothing, and deliberately broke all codes of politeness or manners. Rock music played an important part in the hippie movement and had great influence over the hippies. Many of the rock musicians they followed belonged to Eastern religious cults or practiced Satan worship."

Hmm.  Makes me wonder about the hygiene of that guy I've read about who spent 40 days in the wilderness meditating.