Yesterday, outside a restaurant I went to..there were newsstand/vending machines for two papers in Texas. One was a Dallas paper (Dallas Morning News) and the other was for a smaller city.

The HEADLINES of both were interesting. They were not about Fallujah, not about the Economy, not about Arafat...they were about Texas schoolbooks.

The Dallas Morning News article was proclaiming that the textbooks would now carry a strong message about the importance of abstinence from pre-marital sex. The other paper had a headline about major textbook publishers such as Holt Rhinehart Winston, agreeing, apparently under pressure now, to change their definition of marriage, to one which specifically states that marriage is relationship between a man and a woman.

From:
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_ item&" title="http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_ item&" target="_blank"http://newstandardnews.net/co...;itemid=1203
Nov 7 - The Texas Board of Education has approved new health textbooks that specifically define marriage as between one man and one woman and focus on abstinence only sex education. The decision comes after the board pressured the publishers to change what one board member referred to as "asexual stealth phrases" in favor of more gender-specific language, reports the Associated Press.

At the Board’s request, publishers Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and Holt Rinehart & Winston, changed the phrases "married partners" to "husband and wife." According to the AP, Holt Rinehart & Winston included the definition of marriage as a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife," while Glencoe/McGraw-Hill changed "when two people marry" to "when a man and a woman marry" and "partners" to "husbands and wives."

The Board also chose textbooks that all but leave out contraception as an option for preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. According to Reuters, three out of four approved texts fail to mention contraception at all, while one only mentions condoms in passing.

The Board’s critics said that in addition to putting teens at risk, the decision may violate state regulations, which require sex education curriculum to include information about contraception. Board members countered that the books were satisfactory because information about contraceptives is included in teaching supplements or teachers’ editions."

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Look, we are headed for scary, scary times as a result of the Bush election (not re-election
because in  my opinion, he was SELECTED by the Supreme Court, not ELECTED).
Wrap the McCarthyism of the 50s, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Spanish Inquisition into
a nice slimy ball, and you have a small sampling of what we are in for during the next four years.