Welcome New Visitors
Our server statistics the past few days have been very good, thanks to links from several of the bigger blogs: AmericaBlog linked us first, and then Pandagon and Pam's House Blend noticed and linked to us. They were interested in my discovery of James Dobson's plagiarizing in Time magazine.
Because we have so many new readers, I'm going to talk a little bit about this web site and why we're here.
It's easy to explain. TeachTheFacts.org exists to support the Montgomery County, Maryland, public school district in implementing a new sex-education curriculum.
That doesn't sound like much, does it? The state told them to include a section on "sexual variation," and so they did, in 2004. And then all hell broke loose. The anti-gay element, taking their marching orders from groups like Dobson's Family Blah Blah, tried to recall the entire school board. They held meetings, they sent out press releases, they went on TV and talk radio. They misconstrued, they lied, they slandered, they twisted the truth. The only thing that worked for them was a lawsuit, where Jerry Falwell's lawyers came in and did some smooth drive-by lawyering and ended up getting the curriculum thrown out and a new one developed.
Which is where we are now, there's a new curriculum and the nuts are still screaming about it.
For two years we have stood here fighting to keep this noisy minority from disrupting our peaceful suburban county. They don't have much gas these days, it's just a couple of them, but you still have to fight them.
This blog documents our particular little battle in the culture wars. It seems like a pretty narrow focus, but it's a microcosm, our fight is just like hundreds of others around the country. They're not all about sex-ed, of course, but it's the same thing, extremists trying to take over in communities across the country. Yes, they got the White House, but they're going to have to fight for City Hall.
Dobson's Time article got more attention on this blog than most things like that, because it is so much like what we have seen in our local fight. The nuts cite scientific articles, pulling one little sentence out or twisting the whole thing, or they cite fake science, claiming that it's valid. They'll do or say anything as long as they win, because they know, they just know, that God Himself is directing them.
Dobson's plagiarism is not the most important thing in the world, but I was shocked to discover it. You'd think that if you had a writing assignment from a major publication like Time you would at least put a little effort into it. At the least, he could have said, "As writer Glenn Stanton has said ..." Instead, he just passed on the guy's writing as if he had written it himself. Changed a couple of little words and used it.
We hope you'll check back occasionally. The idea is that some local families have banded together to stand up for what's right, and if groups like ours can all learn from one another, we just might get the country back on its feet.
Because we have so many new readers, I'm going to talk a little bit about this web site and why we're here.
It's easy to explain. TeachTheFacts.org exists to support the Montgomery County, Maryland, public school district in implementing a new sex-education curriculum.
That doesn't sound like much, does it? The state told them to include a section on "sexual variation," and so they did, in 2004. And then all hell broke loose. The anti-gay element, taking their marching orders from groups like Dobson's Family Blah Blah, tried to recall the entire school board. They held meetings, they sent out press releases, they went on TV and talk radio. They misconstrued, they lied, they slandered, they twisted the truth. The only thing that worked for them was a lawsuit, where Jerry Falwell's lawyers came in and did some smooth drive-by lawyering and ended up getting the curriculum thrown out and a new one developed.
Which is where we are now, there's a new curriculum and the nuts are still screaming about it.
For two years we have stood here fighting to keep this noisy minority from disrupting our peaceful suburban county. They don't have much gas these days, it's just a couple of them, but you still have to fight them.
This blog documents our particular little battle in the culture wars. It seems like a pretty narrow focus, but it's a microcosm, our fight is just like hundreds of others around the country. They're not all about sex-ed, of course, but it's the same thing, extremists trying to take over in communities across the country. Yes, they got the White House, but they're going to have to fight for City Hall.
Dobson's Time article got more attention on this blog than most things like that, because it is so much like what we have seen in our local fight. The nuts cite scientific articles, pulling one little sentence out or twisting the whole thing, or they cite fake science, claiming that it's valid. They'll do or say anything as long as they win, because they know, they just know, that God Himself is directing them.
Dobson's plagiarism is not the most important thing in the world, but I was shocked to discover it. You'd think that if you had a writing assignment from a major publication like Time you would at least put a little effort into it. At the least, he could have said, "As writer Glenn Stanton has said ..." Instead, he just passed on the guy's writing as if he had written it himself. Changed a couple of little words and used it.
We hope you'll check back occasionally. The idea is that some local families have banded together to stand up for what's right, and if groups like ours can all learn from one another, we just might get the country back on its feet.
posted by JimK at 3:17 PM
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