sanctuary

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Antichrist is Among Us

Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.
(Horace Mann, 19th-century educator)

How well informed are you? Which state has proposed the following changes to its school textbooks: (1) remove any reference to the “Age of Enlightenment,” (2) demonstrate the positive contributions to America of the late senator Joe McCarthy and the enlightened leader of the confederacy Jefferson Davis and (c) take Thomas Jefferson off the list of revolutionary 18th century thinkers. Jefferson of course made the profound mistake of talking and writing about the separation of church and state.

If you said the Texas Board of Education you are clearly well informed. You'll still get some points if you said Mississippi, Alabama or even Utah. Shame on you Texas, not for not knowing that a collection of fruit flies took over the Board of Education, but letting it stand now that you do know the fifteenth century is in charge of your state's education. For the rest of us … how Texas textbooks go, frequently goes the rest of the country.

Perhaps the city of Austin, Texas will secede from the state and declare itself an independent city-state like ancient Athens. Of course it will need to acquire solid alliances in order to avoid being overrun by barbarians. Perhaps Germany would be interested or even China. Of course the United States could declare war on Texas and send in the Special Forces to round up all the white primitives and lock them up in the FEMA concentration camps, even though my militia informants within the Department of Homeland Security cannot determine the exact location of these camps.

Tom Friedman wrote an interesting piece in the NYT on 21 March entitled “America's Real Dream Team.” In his piece he mentioned names like Sunanda Sharma, Yale Wang Fan, and Otana Agape Jakpor. Yes, of course ex-political hacks like Tom Tancredo might declare that these aren't American names. But of course they are.

These are some of the American high school students who were among the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Talent Search, which identifies some of the best math and science high school students in America. Thank goodness we still have immigration.

A recent Harris poll declared that 24% of Republicans believe President Obama may be the Antichrist. Oh well, that's better than the 57% who believe our president is a Muslim or the 75% that believe he's one of “dem” socialists.

Dear Progressives, there is no sideline for you to stand on and hope it will all go away. Nor can you merely wait for the Democratic party to possibly turn itself into an instrument of enlightenment. Get busy. Demographic changes are slow and plenty of damage can be done in a short period of time. Do you really want the Texas Board of Education running the country?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Exploring the Word

What are the sounds that words make? How do they all tie together? Where will this journey ultimately lead us? I have no idea. But that's the fun in trying. Not that sustainability and the environment have become any less important, if anything, they loom even larger in significance, especially with the depth of denial and apathy that has spread across our planet.

So are there words to get us to think in other ways? Do you have something you want to say? We're exploring radio dramas, podcasts, interviews, videos and of course the written word. Come visit us at gumbeater.com and tell us what you think. Better yet, what do you have to contribute?