Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

So, this week, the Republican Part of Texas released its Report of Platform and Rules Committees which can be found here. If you're too lazy to read the whole thing and find out why it's newsworthy, I'll quote the two biggest gems that came out of this report:

You read that right, Texan GOP is against HOTS (which includes critical thinking, analysis and problem solving), one of the most important aspects of education alongside the basic skills of learning, memorizing and applying notions. And it's not because they're defending traditional education, it's because HOTS challenges the student's beliefs and parental authority. in other words, the GOP thinks education should be about pandering to what mommy and daddy believe their child should believe instead of, you know, educating future citizens to be responsible ones.

For those unaware of what this Voter Rights Act is about, it was the act that allowed Afro-Americans and other minorities to vote freely, without any discrimination or voting frauds to undermine the minorities' votes. There are controversial parts, like Section 5 that demands certain counties and even states with history of racial discrimination to do a pleclearance of their voting methods to see if they meet the standards of this act and some politicians think they shouldn't pay for their predecessors' sins, or a later amendment that says counties with a big enough Hispanic community should have a bilingual voting ballot. But the thing is, it doesn't mention any particular section or amendment, it's the whole act, so they want to take away the rights so many people fought for in 50's and 60's.

There are many other little gems of awfulness, but they're the usual GOP stuff, so I recommend reading the whole report and have some happy pills nearby. So my question is who the hell comes up with those things and who the fuck votes on them?

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

And to think that Romney is pandering to these motherfuckers.

Nothing the GOP does surprises me anymore, not after using bible passages to justify the multiple wars in the middle east.

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

Didn't the amazing atheist do a skit on this?

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

I didn't know he did, I simply got it on my newsfeed, but I'll check it out as soon as possible.

Edit: Watched TAA, he pretty much said what everyone is thinking. This report simply caters to the religious fundamentalists and people ignorant enough to vote for it and tries to build a future where Texans are only composed of these two communities.

To be perfectly honest, future US voting ballots should be composed of two sections, the first to vote on the party you want in office and the second to if you agree or not with the propositions of the party you chose (so every party's proposition should be in every ballot, with indications like putting a warning next to the party you vote saying "if you voted this party, please fill section X).

I know it'd require much more time in the voting process for both the voters and the people behind ballot counting, but at least people would know what their party pretends to do and what the voters want them to do, so instead of sneaking up homophobic propositions along with much more logical financial ones that more responsible Republicans might vote for, each proposition would be voted separately and hopefully the stupid propositions would be voted out.

But there's a difference between the GOP focused on the presidency and the Texan GOP. While the former can say shenanigans but aren't in power to actually validate them and they probably won't in these elections, Texas has been Republican since 1980, so the chance of these particular shenanigans being passed is much higher.

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

After doing a little research...
From what I've found thus far... the education thing is beyond me (and this is coming from a fundamentalist Christian, too).

But the voting thing is more about getting around preclearance. Don't blame them for that. I don't think any state should have to get federal permission for any form of election.

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

But that's in a single section of the Act, section 5. If they wanted to repeal only that, shouldn't they simply refer to said section? They clearly said that the Act is the thing they want repealed (and not reauthorized to boot), but that means African-Americans and other minorities would be discriminated in the voting act, since their right to vote freely is part of that Act.

I'll try to see if there's any update by the Texan GOP about that part, just to be sure.

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

There are several articles out about it:
The Huffington Post
The Washington Post
The Wall Street Journal


And just to clarify, I do agree with what you're saying. I think that if they are truly against the "preclearance", they should look for ammendification, not repeal.

Re: Texan GOP against teaching critical thinking (and no, it's not from the Onion)
 

The GOP is against HOTS? That explains a lot of what's wrong with the candidates right their.