Via Daily Kos, I came across this astonishing, mind-blowing quote from Texas Governor Rick Perry:
I am concerned that some the highly diverse Magnet public schools in this city are becoming hotbeds for liberalism. Do we really need free school bus service, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, ESL, special needs and enrichment programs like music, art or math Olympiad? I think we should get back to the basics of the three Rs, reading writing and arithmetic. I mean when is the last time a 6th grade science fair project yielded a cure for a disease?
I mean, that's just so buggered that my first reaction is that it's a joke. What sane public official could utter such lunacy? But I kept reading the post and come across this equally whacked Perry quote:
I really don't see why high schools should have to teach college level courses like calculus, economics, physics, chemistry or biology. Not all children go to college anyway. Texas has plenty of on the job training programs that teach skills and trades. Oil field workers need to know how to operate machines that extract oil. They don't need calculus to do their job.
Evidently, Perry was speaking to conservative business leaders at a luncheon in Houston and the press corp is mentioned as being there. So that's it, I figure something like this has to be covered in bold print by the Houston Chronicle and other Texas publications. Nada. Now I'm suspicious. So I scroll down to the comments at Daily Kos and see that the whole post is a joke and readers are pissed. Lots of people, including PZ Myers, got fooled, which I find amusing. I guess atheists can be just as credulous as believers.
