It's a faint, it's sputtering, but there may be the flame of some hope for Texas. Some. First, there are bills going through the process of creation (haha) in the Lone Star State that could strip the State Board of Education of its powers to warp the minds of children with creationism. Incredibly, too, the effort is bipartisan! Also, I'm hearing rumors that the extremely awful BoE chair, avowed creationist Don McLeroy, is having some trouble at his confirmation hearing to be re-upped as the Board's top Denier of Reality. Gee, that's too bad. PZ comments on this, and the Texas Freedom Network has this priceless quote from the dentist-cum-evangelist:
My purpose has never been religious indoctrination.
Wow. Now we can add "liar" to his list of adjectives. I am loathe to use that word unless there is strong evidence, but that's the biggest whopper I've heard in a long, long time. He has done nothing but try to wedge creationism into the state standards while weakening real science. So, in fact, religious indoctrination is precisely what his purpose is. Texans: you may wish to contact call your legislators. In reality there's probably little chance McLeroy will be tossed out -- Texas politics generally have little enough to do with the voters -- but this is as good a chance as you're likely to get.
