One step forward, one step back for the U.S. this week. Finally, although not entirely perfect, healthcare. Just when you think there’s some progress, and that the U.S. is slowly climbing out of the tremendous wreckage left at the end of the Bush era, comes this. Texas is changing its textbooks to reflect a more christian, conservative agenda. Here’s the article from The Toronto Star:

State of denial: Revisionist education in Texas

March 21, 2010 Oakland Ross
FEATURE WRITER

Sayonara, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, and 50 Cent.

Adios, Cesar Chavez.

And a big welcome-back hug to Phyllis Schlafly, Newt Gingrich, and the ghosts of Stonewall Jackson and Joseph McCarthy.

If the Texas Board of Education gets its way – and it probably will – the complexion of history and social studies as they are taught in most U.S. schools is about to assume an even whiter shade of pale, while undergoing a sharp lunge to the Christian-fundamentalist right.

“I’ve just been muttering to myself all morning,” said Megan Boler, a U.S.-born educator, now a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). “I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen this extent of revisionist history.”

Earlier this month, by a vote of 10 to 5, the body responsible for the contents of textbooks used in Texan primary and secondary schools gave preliminary approval to more than 100 controversial and ideologically driven amendments to state curriculum standards.

The vote followed three days of rancorous debate and proceeded along partisan lines, Republicans triumphing over outraged Democrats.

The public will now be granted a 30-day period to comment on the amendments, before a final vote takes place in May.

Given Republican dominance of the board, it seems likely the proposed changes will survive.

If they do, the amendments will overturn a broad array of long-standing tenets and beliefs about U.S. history and society, rejecting the constitutional separation of church and state, promoting a Judeo-Christian interpretation of the motivations that inspired the country’s founding fathers, dropping references to Latino heroes and accomplishments, and justifying the red-baiting, anti-Communist extremism that overran large tracts of the U.S. body politic during the 1950s, spearheaded by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Read the rest of the article here.

Sarah Palin is out on tour with her recently released book of fiction. You can learn quite a bit about an author by the intellect of her fans. Here’s a video with just that. Fans of Palin at an Ohio book signing:

Well, technically it’s not the new blog site, as I didn’t really have a blog before. I have had a webpage for many years, at JoshHolliday.com. At this point, I’ve got a bunch of irons in the fire. Literally, cause I heard it’s good luck. Although it’s making my place unbearably warm. With this new site, I’m going to take everything that’s going on in my life and put it up here in neat little categories. If I do some radio, I’ll try and get the audio up here ASAP. I can get irriated at idiotic behavior, and I’ll use this as a forum to call people out.

Now that I’ve set out the broad ambitions, I will try not to procrastinate, or be lazy (same thing?) and get some content rolling.

Please enjoy this random picture of a Koala from my computer’s sample photos file.