From Philly's own Susie Madrak by way of Fred Clark comes the strange saga of Texan Cynthia Dunbar:
[...] In a book published last year, Dunbar argued the country’s founding fathers created “an emphatically Christian government” and that government should be guided by a “biblical litmus test.” She endorses a belief system that requires “any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern.”
Also in the book, she calls public education a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.”
The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even “tyrannical,” she wrote, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.
So what's so newsworthy about that? Lots of people have extreme views, especially in Texas, right? Except that Dunbar, who hates public schools (and home-schools her own children), is leading candidate to become chairwoman of the Texas Board of Education. Unbelievable. If Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who's tacking to the far right to win 2010 primary votes, wants to reform education, fine, but try to find someone who thinks that schools are constitutional, at least...no?
What else has Dunbar accomplished? Well, there is this:
AUSTIN — State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar isn’t backing down from her claim that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is plotting with terrorists to attack the U.S.
I wonder what the reaction would have been to a school board member who claimed that George W. Bush was behind 9/11? It probably would not have been a promotion.
Total whackjob. Will probably do a better job than Ackerman, though.— Mr. Smith
Even in Texas, where I once traveled to defend evolution in a high-school biology textbook, this seems totally beyond any sensible explanation.
Another candidate from the "LUNATIC FRINGE", of the Republican Party. It must be all that OIL in the Drinking water down in Texas. Gov. Perry must be drinking that water by the "BUCKETS".— austininc457- Yes she is a lunatic. At least we can be proud to have our very own lunatic in Will Bunch. Takes one to know one.— Phillyrussian7
- 9/11 was an inside job vs. this....I'll take this!!!!— sarah89
"Lots of people have extreme views, especially in Texas, right?" There are extreme views everywhere in this country with the exception of Berkeley and San Francisco, they all seem pretty normal.— jmc- Perry is catering the far right fringe of the Republican base. The same group that vote in Republican primaries. The same group he needs to win the Republican nomination to run for US Senator. He is a true Republican . . . . Political power above the welfare of the people.— Continuum
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Is it just me or has this country lost any shred of common sense? Putting a woman who wants to destroy the public education system in charge of Texas schools is like making Michael Jackson the head of a state's child services department.— Captain Awesome
- "Putting a woman who wants to destroy the public education system in charge of Texas schools is like making Michael Jackson the head of a state's child services department." Isn't that SAINT Michael Jackson yet, Cap'n?— legatus
- Legatus, I believe they're casting the gold statue of him now.— Captain Awesome
"Putting a woman who wants to destroy the public education system in charge of Texas schools" Apparently you slept through the entire Bush Administration, Captain. Putting the sworn enemies of government agencies in charge of them became so common I actually started ignoring the appointments (feeling that The Nation’s fake cover of Time magazine that they sent out to subscribers – the one with GWB looking like Alfred E. Newman – was dead on). This IS the Republican Party of today.— Hamlet- Comment removed.
- So if someone thinks this nut is unfit for the TBE chair they are therefore against home schooling? Did you drink an artificially flavored fruit drink today, dude?— Hamlet
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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