Yee-haw!
Most of this post was written Tuesday morning before Iowa caucuses got around to doing their thing…
Somewhere out there, right now, as I write this post, Rick Perry is in Iowa. He has dropped to the deck to flop like a fish. And he’s saying inane shit like, “I don’t have any doubt that if it is just me and Mitt Romney who the Republican primary voter is going to pick all across this country. They are going to pick the true, authentic conservative, not a conservative of convenience that Mitt Romney is.”
He also said he feels “very good” about his chances in Iowa today.
Isn’t it cute? It thinks it can win. It puts the lotion on its skin.
So, if Perry doesn’t do well in Iowa today, will his extreme powers of misjudgement be enough to disqualify him from the competition? I mean, just how bad do his predictions have to suck before we wake up and say, “Hey. This dude isn’t qualified enough to run an NFL fantasy football team.”
Of course, Perry is probably still flushed with excrement after he surprised everyone with a Shouts From The Abyss “Douchebag of the Year 2011” victory. So who can blame him?
What can you say? The man loves his vittles and kibbles.
The single achievement that put Perry over the top and clinched his selection as the Douchebag of the Year was, of course, his political ad entitled “Strong.” This is where he lamented that kids couldn’t celebrate Christmas and couldn’t pray in schools.
The latter is one of the crassest lies of all time. All Americans enjoy the right of prayer. 24/7 and 365 days a year. Yes, even on Christmas! They are free to pray any damn moment they choose. Kids already enjoy the right of praying in schools. Just whip the head down, close the eyes, and mentally communicate with that great daredevil in the sky. You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission and you don’t have to make a big deal about it. What you don’t get to do is run up and Tebow it in the front of the class. Just do it.
What the hell. If it floats your boat then more power to ya. Pray all you want. Pray five times a day. Move to an island with a bunch of nuts and pray 12 hours a day.
What you can’t have, however, thanks to a little thing called the Constitution of the United States, is state sponsored religion, which is the real thing that Perry is shedding tears about in his dumbass video.
Sigh. Another politician spewing lies in an attempt to go after something other than what he overtly says. Wow. That is crass.
This all got me to thinking about schools and education. What we teach our kids is one of the most hotly debated and contested battlegrounds in our society. It’s an issue that makes grown adults act like children out on the kindergarten playground.
It occurs to me that one of the pitfalls of a well-rounded education is that, by necessity, it doesn’t delve too deeply into any one thing. Take history, for example. Children are some of it and not all of it is necessarily true, either in fact or by omission.
Outside the classroom adults fight tooth and nail over some aspects of the curriculum. What should that be told about evolution? Human sexuality? Should they be led in prayer? What are they told about the “founding fathers” of our country and the “framers” of the Constitution, and what is left out?
It’s far too easy to generalize that those early Americans were merely awesome dudes in all respects. And they were all devout and wanted this country to be exclusively Christian. Yeah, that’s what they meant about freedom of religion. In your high school history class what contradictory facts to this point of view is taught? Do they mention things like Jefferson and his DIY hacking of the Bible? Do they educate about which ones owned slaves? Or fathered children with their slaves? Or raised crops of marijuana?
Here’s a question. Should we tell kids the truth? Or tell them lies? Or tell them some of the truth and leave the unsavory bits out?
If we want school systems to pump out complete persons, don’t we owe it to them them truth no matter what it might be? No matter how you slice it, unpleasant truths are way better than glorious lies. Why can’t adult humans seem to understand that?
Rick Perry is toast. Ironically that makes the remaining field of contenders STRONG-er. I guess in the end he was almost right about one thing.
A warrior is down and yet the battle rages on…
Shouts from the Abyss 
Willful scientific illiteracy and the “teaching” of propaganda drive me way too near the mouth-foaming stage.
I think by the time kids are into double-digits in years, they can deal with a little unvarnished truth. Of course, some of the truths are that they also need to deal with: a) everyone doesn’t always “get” an A and b) you don’t get a trophy just for showing up.
LikeLike
I did, however, receive a ribbon emblazoned with the word “participant.” FTW!
LikeLike
I dream about my little girl growing up to go to a school where they teach the ‘Curriculum of Apple and Cucumber’. The ‘Apple’ part will be how important good nutrition is and the ‘Cucumber’ part will be all about how to put on a condom.
Apart from that, I guess I can fill her in on that religious, political and readin’ and writin’ stuff while she’s trying to paint a new masterpiece on the kitchen wall.
LikeLike
It’s obvious that school is only part of the puzzle. The rest has to come from parents who are motivated to do what is best for the child.
That isn’t necessarily the same as only teaching what you happen to believe. I think, but doing only that, you are sending a life form out into a vicious world woefully unprepared.
In some school districts the adults fight over things like if even the mere existence of gays should be mentioned. Wow. If schools aren’t going to teach fact what good are they?
LikeLike
Not to change the subject…. (ok..I AM changing the subject. Must be my way of dealing with the traumatic memories of a Chicago Catholic school education during the 60’s)….but…ummm… Is that a corn dog Rick Perry is eating in the first pic? Do tell. I know I am seriously immature in having a little giggle whilst raising an eyebrow at his *ehm* technique. Heh.
LikeLike