SQ,

I came to Texas (from Louisiana) to go to college 30 years ago, and I sympathize. A little OT, but my major contention has been that the “Southern Strategy” was directed as much towards Archie Bunker as it was towards Gomer Pyle. And Archie lived in Queens, not Mayberry.

So you’re exactly like Strowbridge on this point: “It shows that you resort to name-calling when you can’t do anything else.”

Thanks for clarifying that.

You’re a Texan, now! All right! Listen to Alan, he’s a very smart man.

I’m a Hick
(Formery JSA, Houston)

And in my case, it’s because there really isn’t anything else to say. You’ve already made my points for me.

J.

You calling me a Klan member reflects more on you than me, Strowbridge. It shows that you resort to name-calling when you can’t do anything else.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/03/17/hey-look-dishonest-instapundit-is-dishonest/#comment-143591

Today, Jay Tea wrote:

But you’re still an asshole. Take pride in that.

…

Strowbridge, you should submit your photo to a proctologist’s textbook. You are the perfect, ideal asshole.

So, Jay Tea, are you being “accusatory” or “exculpatory” and what does it say about you, when you resort to name calling?

(and I am SOOOO not bored by pie fights!)

1. The history of fundamentalist opposition to science is long in Texas. In the 20s, they succeeded in getting the Bible taught in public schools, barring public schools from hiring anyone who was agnostic or atheist, barring the University of Texas from hiring any faculty who were “infidel, atheist, or agnostic,” and banned any mention of evolution from state science textbooks with explicit provisions for any teacher caught using evolution-containing textbooks to be fired. During the 1970s and 1980s, a Texas fundamentalist activist couple succeeded in having textbook after textbook banned on the grounds that they conflicted with Christian teaching. The current “controlled” approach to the teaching of evolution in Texas public schools, wherein, “strengths and weaknesses” are discussed, is in fact a move FORWARD from the science-hostile approach that prevailed up until the 1990s;

1. The current president of the Texas state school board, Don McLeroy, is an outspoken extreme creationist (in his glowing review of Robert Bowie Johonson Jr.’s masterwork, “Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Science’s Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children That They’re Descended from Reptiles,” McElroy declared that “natural selection” is “nothing more than a figure of speech”) who has advocated that the state require school districts continue to discuss the “strengths and weakensses” of evolution as a way of back-dooring creationist theory. The rejection of his attempt two months ago to preserve this language means that the science of natural selection can now be taught openly in Texas schools for the first time ever;

2. The board itself is currently composed of 7 creationists, 7 people committed to scientific accounts, and 1 peerson who hasn’t decided about the subject, which was settled among biologists oh, say, a century ago;

3. A bill before the Texas state legislature now, filed by one Wayne Christian (R – Center), would prohibit teachers from grading science exams and essays based on students’ statements about scientific matters (say, the theory of relativity or plate techtonics) on the grounds that people disagree about these matters;

4. Over 94% of Texas school districts offer NO instruction on the topic of human sexuality other than just-say-no “abstinence” advocacy and in 10% of districts, explicit Christian teaching is the key component of these programs, with three Ft Worth school districts offering a homegrown curriculum advising youth that “we can be born again of the Almighty Himself” and that “you will be amazed when the ‘sperm’ of His Spirit connects with the ‘ovum/egg’ of your spirit and you become a ‘new person’ with his characters;”

So generalizations about Texas, science, and religion are probably far from unwarranted. Texas has a stronger-than-usual fundamentalist presence, they are nutty, and they are powerful. We have a strong racist presence here, which embarrassingly showed up in the numbers from the last election, with many rural Texas voters supporting white Democratic candidates while voting for McCain, or leaving signs for other Democratic candidates sitting out but ripping up the signs for the presidential campaign (Obama signs), or loudly and vocally telling racist Obama jokes at local diners in places like Sherman and Bonham.

We are not the only state with these problems. We have them, however, and to pretend we don’t or that every other state has them to the same degree is to hide from reality.

Alan from Texas

You misunderstand me. I was hoping they’d step it up from pies to seltzer bottles.

Haw!

I agree. And as one who’s had more than a reasonable number of prolonged bouts with CSS, that’s saying something.

J.

Not many Klan members in Canada. Not a lot of Republicans either.

Coincidence?

“So, make up your mind — when you said (falsely) that I had been fired from blogging, which statement is true…”

I realized I only had your word that you were not fired. And since you are not reliable, it was wrong for me to say I knew you weren’t fired.

Hey!

Quit that!

You wanna get sued?

They have some amazing scientists in their group.

More power to them

http://www.icr.org

The ones I’ve met were drooling idiots.

I can’t imagine a conversation with you that doesn’t involve my wiping your spittle off.

Given the choice, I’ll settle for talking with those who keep their saliva to themselves.

I give you points, however, for managing to omit my explicit condemnation of the Klan and their ilk. I’d be curious to find out just how many Klansmen you’ve met up in Canada, and how much is just you stereotyping.

And at last, the “Southern Strategy” — I KNEW that if you kept talking, you’d have to bring it up. You’re positively Pavlovian in that respect.

So, make up your mind — when you said (falsely) that I had been fired from blogging, which statement is true:

“The most casual diligence would have revealed that (I had not been fired), and I would not be a bit surprised if you did know that…”

Actually, I did know that.

Versus…

Actually, I don’t know if you were fired or not, so it’s not a lie.

Hmm… I seem to recall numerous occasions when someone asserted something that was not true, you called them a liar. And when someone says something definitively that they don’t know to be true, that seems to be a lie, as well.

I’ll repeat my prior point, which you chose to ignore: the Klan, while only a pale shadow of its former self, is still a greater danger to society than you are or ever will be.

But you’re still an asshole. Take pride in that.

J.

Actually, I don’t know if you were fired or not, so it’s not a lie. My intent was not to deceive, so it was not a lie. The fact you freaked out so much leads me to believe you were fired. Fired, laid off, involuntarily retired, etc.

“And having dealt with a few actual Klan members in my life…”

No comment.

“I can say this: you come across as a bigger asshole than they do.”

That’s probably because you sympathize with their racist beliefs. Why else to you think the Southern Strategy policy doesn’t come into play when it comes to the number of racist Republicans?

Hmm… this could be a good time to poke through the records of bills filed in Massachusetts and California…

Strowbridge: spin all you like. You knowingly and willingly made a defamatory lie about me, was caught, and had to admit it.

And having dealt with a few actual Klan members in my life, I can say this: you come across as a bigger asshole than they do. They’re more dangerous, overall, than you are, as they have the courage to be an asshole in person and not just play one on the internet, and tend to lack the tech savvy to pull it off as well as you do, but the similarities are there.

In 1992, I confronted some Pat Buchanan supporters over their candidate. The discussion ended with one of them “offering” to throw me through a plate glass window for pointing out that he was a fascist and a Nazi supporter. (The irony of their responding to those observations with threats of violence escaped them.)

What are you credentials in the area of confronting those types, Strowbridge? Did you ever threaten to give their movies a bad review?

J.