Once again, Texas embarrasses the US

GarfieldtheCat

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2005
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That well known paragon of intellectual honesty, the Texas board of education, passed a non-binding resolution to curtail Islamic references in their text books.

Link

Can Texas get any more bigoted and ignorant? This is such an embarrassment.

Critics called it correctly:
"It's hard not to conclude that the misleading claims in this resolution are either based on ignorance of what's in the textbooks or, on the other hand, are an example of fear-mongering and playing politics," Miller said.

I'll take option #2 for $1000, Alex.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
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that's just silly. there is a lot of rich history in the Muslim world of "ancient times". how the fuck are they going to explain the history of math without referencing Islam?
 

motsm

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2010
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Eh... nice job spinning the story.

It was done to somewhat rectify the downplaying of Christianity. Either get pissed off about both problems, or neither.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
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Eh... nice job spinning the story.

It was done to somewhat rectify the downplaying of Christianity. Either get pissed off about both problems, or neither.

Can I get pissed off about them citing a "bias" against Christian history and for Muslim history without actually demonstrating that bias? Especially considering the people in question and their, if you'll pardon the pun, "history" with textbooks and facts. You'll forgive me if I don't just take their word for it.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
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Eh... nice job spinning the story.

It was done to somewhat rectify the downplaying of Christianity. Either get pissed off about both problems, or neither.
Why was Christianity being played down? What the fuck? Why are we trying to "play down" very important parts of our(human) history?
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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Silly fucking fundies...If they keep it up, no college/university outside Texas will accept a Texas high school diploma...
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
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Why was Christianity being played down? What the fuck? Why are we trying to "play down" very important parts of our(human) history?

Well, first off I'd like to see any evidence that it was being downplayed. Given the popularity of the persecution complex around the world and in the United States, I'd be skeptical of ANYONE claiming, without evidence, that their group is being written out of history.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
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Well, first off I'd like to see any evidence that it was being downplayed. Given the popularity of the persecution complex around the world and in the United States, I'd be skeptical of ANYONE claiming, without evidence, that their group is being written out of history.

Rainsford, I don't disagree I was just questioning the guy who said it.
 

motsm

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2010
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Proof?

Put up or shut up troll.
You can start by reading what is offered in the actual resolution before just believing the article you read on Yahoo News. If you still agree with said article, that's just fine by me, but no reason to get into all this ridiculous insulting rhetoric. Especially no reason to call me a troll, sheesh. The immaturity and dramatic outrage on this board is always good for luls though. :p

http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/SBOE_resolution_9.2010.pdf?docID=2041

I can ask how you'd prove your point as well? We can both cite as many articles as we want, but without having said books ourselves and reading them in their entirety, I'm afraid we're SOOL. Of course even that leaves plenty of room for opinion, so there's really no scenario where you win this argument.
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
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This worries me a lot less than the active distortions Texas already mandates, like basically writing Thomas Jefferson out of history.

Are there actually any Islamic references in grade & high school these days? It's been many a year since I was in school but I remember-at best-one or two brief positive remarks about unnamed Isalmic scholars in alegbra and medicine when Europe was going through the Dark Ages, and a generally negative discussion of Islam when the Crusades and Moorish invasion of Spain was discussed.

Here in the US we have a pretty strong western civ bias to our education and barely touch on anything not from ancient Greece and Rome, England or the USA-at least that's my impression.

Fortunately we all are born with the ability to learn outside of school, in any event.
 

runzwithsizorz

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2002
3,497
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[QUOTE

Fortunately we all are born with the ability to learn outside of school, in any event.[/QUOTE]

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Albert Einstein
 

Lanyap

Elite Member
Dec 23, 2000
8,295
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The AP article in the OP appears to be somewhat biased and sensationalized. If you read some of the other MSM articles you get more details of why they did what they did. I'm not saying it's right but you get a better picture. It boils down to them thinking Christianity is made to look bad while Islam is made to look look good. You can see examples in the other articles.

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#h...=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=123a88134bdd71c6
 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The AP article in the OP appears to be somewhat biased and sensationalized. If you read some of the other MSM articles you get more details of why they did what they did. I'm not saying it's right but you get a better picture. It boils down to them thinking Christianity is made to look bad while Islam is made to look look good. You can see examples in the other articles.

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#h...=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=123a88134bdd71c6

And that makes so much sense because in the US Islam is so often portrayed as 'good' and Christianity as 'bad'. Oh wait... o_O
 

punjabiplaya

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2006
3,495
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If only I could count the number of times I been yelled at with some sort of "go back to Pakistan" slur. I'm not Muslim and I feel the hate.
 
Jun 26, 2007
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Why was Christianity being played down? What the fuck? Why are we trying to "play down" very important parts of our(human) history?

From what i've read on the matter (which is exactly the complaint from the Christian group, nothing more and i can't search for more either) nothing was really played down, it's just that some unverified eventes were stricken (as they should be) and some verified events were added.

It's more historically accurate now and since this has to do with history and not religion, i'd say it's a good thing.
 
Jun 26, 2007
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If only I could count the number of times I been yelled at with some sort of "go back to Pakistan" slur. I'm not Muslim and I feel the hate.

Are you Pakistani? Would you mind helping me settle an argument?

Now before you agree perhaps you should know a bit about me, i'm English, originally from Brixton but when i'm home i'm home in Sheffield.

Would you be insulted if i called you a beloved patriot? See, where i grew up this was the common language for anyone from Pakistan, me, being a Jew was called jow, no one was ever insulted by the that, and no one in Sheffield has been either so i am trying to figure out if people in the US are?

If you're not Pakistani, sorry about wasting your time.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
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That well known paragon of intellectual honesty, the Texas board of education, passed a non-binding resolution to curtail Islamic references in their text books.

Link

Can Texas get any more bigoted and ignorant? This is such an embarrassment.

Critics called it correctly:


I'll take option #2 for $1000, Alex.


Errr so you are upset because they downplayed religious dogma from school text books? lol why didnt bitch when they downplayed christian stuff?