Well, I was going to totally ignore this but when a story appears in both the New York Times and the BBC it must be a pretty important international story, or they are both using the same source for their Off-Beat / Strange / Bizarre fillers.

Basically a failed fundamentalist candidate for the state educational authority in Texas is claiming that social studies textbooks are pro-Islam and anti-Christian, and the state must not buy any more of these texts. This guy won’t be satisfied until the only book in public schools is the Bible.

The only reason anyone cares is that Texas buys a lot of textbooks, and publishers tend to pander to their whacko prejudices to make the sales.

If the whacko is looking for “pro-Islam” textbooks, he is in the wrong courses. He should be demanding the state cancel all math and science classes, because much of the basic work in those fields was done by Muslims during Europe’s so-called “Dark Ages”. He apparently missed the clue that we use “Arabic” numerals in math and science, and al gebra is obviously not something he knows about.

It is people like this that make it really hard to go through life with a Southern accent.

Susie Madrak is the story getting the big buzz around blogtopia™, which is a bit unsettling for her. She provides her memory of the event at Crooks & Liars.

She is somewhat taken aback by the reaction, because she really was just being herself. Her background is as a city newspaper reporter, and she continues the traditions of that class. As Finley Peter Dunne, writing as Mr. Dooley, noted around the start of the 20^th century a newspaper “comforts the afflicted, afflicts the comfortable”.

If you look at the interaction between Susie and David Axlerod, it was Axlerod’s reaction that was the problem. He didn’t understand that Susie was attempting to help the White House come up with some way to reach the base they have been dumping on in recent days. Axlerod’s reaction was to essentially have a hissy fit about the left not clapping loud enough for the garbage bills that have been produced.

Susie has taken a number of hard punches, but she gets up and returns to the fight, because that’s who she is, but I really don’t see how anyone can promote the Democrats with a clear conscience. They were given everything they asked for, but have produced nothing that will help anyone but corporations.

Update: Susie talks of Life in the eye of a hurricane.

Position: 15.2N 85.0W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Minimum central pressure: 998 mb.

Currently inland about 125 miles [205 km] East-Southeast of La Ceiba, Honduras.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras, including the offshore islands; and the coast of Belize from Belize City southward.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Belize North of Belize City.

The storm will probably dissipate over land. The trough that was expected to guide the storm to the North didn’t arrive in time.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

No Respect

Gotcha!

[Editor: Ringo was staring directly at the camera, but as soon as I pressed the shutter button she executed an immediate ‘Eyes Right’. There was no flash, she did it to annoy me.

Friday Ark