A Lament

Harrogate tonight laments the disparate geography of TRS. And it will only get more disparate as time passes.

Maths and You

I try to avoid FailBlog - based posts because, once started, I may never stop.

However, this is for the teachers in the room. Especially in this room of people who will protest that they aren't "math-people."

I have .002 dollars that says that we all subvocalize a scream at the same moment, at the same line, at the same illogical defense.

Friday Musical Tribute; or, Texas State Board of Education Races to the Bottom, Seeks to Institutionalize Creationism

Sigh

Texas has earned a reputation as an innovation powerhouse in fields ranging from agriculture and life sciences to high technology and space exploration.

But in a report issued this summer, a panel of Texas business, education and government leaders warned that without "critical changes" in state schools — especially in science-related instruction — the state will lose its global competitive edge.

It appears, however, that some members of the State Board of Education are working on a different agenda. Last week, they appointed three anti-evolution activists, including a leader of the "intelligent design" religious campaign, to a six-member panel that will review proposed new science curriculum standards.

The new standards will shape how science education is taught in Texas for the next decade, and it would be a terrible mistake to water down the teaching of evolution in any way.

Given the concerns about the state's future work force, the appointments are a troubling signal. At a time when most educators are working to prepare students for 21st century jobs, the board members' action threatens to confuse students, divide communities and tarnish Texas' reputation as an international science and technology center.

This linked article does a good job laying out the pedagogical and Enlightenment-based arguments for why Texas' parents need to put a stop to what these people are trying to do.

Now, Harrogate humbly offers a Humanistic Argument against the Evolution Deniers:

They prosecuted some poor sucker in these United States
For teaching that man descended from the apes
They coulda settled that case without a fuss or fight
If they'd seen me chasin' you, sugar, through the jungle last night
They'da called in that jury and a one two three said
Part man, part monkey, definitely

Quote of the Day

"Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."- Sarah Palin in response to a question at a town hall meeting.

Does it really matter what the question is? Even Wolf Blitzer admitted it was, "not exactly easy to understand what she was saying."

It get's better and better.

For Amy Reads; or, Breaking News: Sarah Palin Has a Style Team (In Other Breaking News, The Sun Came up Today, Once Again)

Ahhhh, ye can always count on the vaunted Page Six of the New York Post to do you right in the clutch. The link Harrogate hath provided, provides a link to photos illustrating the work of Palin and her designer team.

Fun facts and sly rhetoric:

Insiders tell Page Six Palin has a secretive circle of stylists who dress her for events. For her big speech in St. Paul, where she accepted the GOP's vice-presidential nod, this fashion-conscious team encouraged the Alaska governor to splurge on a $2,500 jacket from Saks Fifth Avenue designed by Valentino Garavani [News Alert!!!!! Down home country people prepared to "splurge on a $2,500 jacket from Saks Fifth Avenue designed by Valentino Garavani" really, really hate elitists!!!!!!]

Palin, shunning the pantsuits favored by Hillary Clinton, wore the top during her first big speech.....

Sigh.

Was John McCain "Born to Run"?: New Jersey Spells More Bad News for Obama

Unfortunateness abounds.

No longer dreaming of Virginia and Colorado. Beginning to worry substantively about New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania. Are even Oregon and Washington in play?

What is happening to this country?

Assy McGee Award®: Ann Althouse. Runner-Up: Carly Fiorina

Today's Assy McGee Award® goes to Ann Althouse, earned by this response to the new Obama ad that rightfully highlights the ever new depths of sleaze and cynicism to which John McCain has sunk. The Althouse post embeds the Ad, in case people would like to see that too. One thing Harrogate will give Dr. Althouse. She's got her talking points down pretty good. For the last several days Repugs have been defending McCain's sleaze and dishonor by calling Dems whiners. Althouse takes the baton seamlessly:

This ad strikes me as a big whine: Hey, no fair. Your ads work better than mine. Quit it. Or I'm telling

Meanwhile, the Runner-Up goes to Carly Fiorina, who accuses the SNL Palin/Clinton skit of . . . Wait For It . . . SEXISM.

SNL, asserted Fiorina while talking to Andrea "Too Many Balloons" Mitchell, was. Drumroll.

dismissive of the substance of Sarah Palin

UPDATE: Harrogate here would like to add that the SNL Skit did not deny there is substance to Palin. Au contraire (Harrogate and oxymoron got As in a Graduate Level French Class), SNL did a great job of pointing up the nature of Palin's substance. "Please, ask this one about dinosaurs" identified her red meat, extremist substance.

Yes, it Has Come to This: Harrogate Takes A Page from LBJ; Or, a Response to Solon's Black Hole Post

Except that unlike the purpose of Johnson's draconian anti-Goldwater Ad, Harrogate posts this not to persuade viewers to do anything more than, perhaps, join him in saying:

Sigh.

McCain Squeals Like a Stuck Pig

".... but John McCain is an honorable man."