I found a site with a bunch of post cards of "Old Big Spring." Flipping through I found a card I know well, two men on a diving board at "West Texas' Finest Pool." The guy in the back, sitting on the diving board, is my Dad. [Link]
Texas is officially a disaster area (especially since Republicans like Rick Perry are a little sensitive about disaster response these days). This time it's not a hurricane, but more than 70 wildfires across the state, according to CNN. We haven't seen any fires around Austin so far, but we're definitely dry these days – lake levels are 'way down and water conservation is already becoming an issue as we experience one of the driest years on record. Temporarily back in Austin after a year in California, Bruce Sterling blogged about the Austin Statesman's "typical climate change article that numbly fails to cite climate change." Meanwhile cedar pollen's hitting the air, which means that some of us can't breathe even if we're not on fire yet.
Galactic Southwest
Virgin Galactic is building its spaceport in New Mexico, not far from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Spaceport, which will be near Van Horn, Texas. It ain't science fiction anymore... and I suspect the arid desert where I grew up will be crawling with space entrepreneurs in a few more years. I used to have a job painting oil rigs, maybe I can go back and paint spaceships.
Texan named Harper's editorRoger Hodge, a rancher's son from Del Rio who came up through the ranks at Harper's, will be its new editor when Lewis Lapham steps down in April. [Link]
"We have had many talented people here that have gone on to edit other magazines, and I have thought for a long time that Roger was a keeper and that we should make sure that we hang on to him," [Harper's president and publisher John R.] MacArthur said. "And I like the fact that he is from Texas and a ranching family. He was bred to be independent and self-governed, to think for himself, and I think that is a great credential to edit the magazine."Rita
Depending where it hits, Hurricane Rita, now a category 4 hurricane, could devastate parts of the Texas Gulf Coast. A projected landfall at Galveston could flood the city that was slammed once before, in 1900, the infamous "Isaac's storm." Taking no chances in the 21st Century, Galveston's evacuating. Many evacuees are heading for Austin, which will already be crowded with the Austin City Limits Festival happening. Could be a real mess if Rita hits Austin as a strong tropical storm.
Kinky: Why the Hell Not?Kinky Friedman is unhappy that some folks don't take his Texas gubernatorial campaign seriously, thinking it's an excuse to sell books, records, and Kinky paraphernalia. Well, I haven't doubted that he's serious, or that he could win, at least not lately. Texas voters are clearly frustrated, and even if Kinky wasn't serious when he started, he's heard enough by now to feel a sense of responsibility to those who're hoping he can make a difference. The New Yorker profiles Kinky and his campaign, and after reading the piece you'll either be horrified or (like me) hopeful that we'll have a governor that feels real.
The next leg of the campaign was a tour through the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Between fund-raisers, Kinky was dragged from his hotel across the street to the Bullring, a cavernous, mostly empty beer joint. Its owner, Ace Cook, a squat man with a yellowing walrus mustache, wanted to inform Kinky of his political philosophy.Texas Rolls Ever Backward
"I'm for you," Cook said, sitting down to write the campaign a check. "I'm sick of these assholes who don't represent me, or represent people." By now, this sentiment had become a common refrain. "They represent A.T. & T. and Enron. How you gonna come and beg for my vote and then have nothing to do with me? Did Enron elect you or did I? I'm paying your salary, hoss. How'd it be if someone went up to the capitol and did what they said they would?"
"It'd be a first," the candidate said.
"I believe it, hoss," Cook said. "That's why you're gonna win."
Texas textbook controversy rears its gnarly head once again... I often find myself in conversations with my friends from other parts of the world where I defend Texas as a state far more progressive and enlightened than they imagine, a great place to live and work, a state that should thrive economically because of our great natural and human resources etc. It's depressing, then, to find our textbook review panelists approving textbooks that are inadequate, as noted in the press release below, from Heather Alden of Texas Freedom Network:
Books Fail to Meet State Curriculum Requirements on Sex and Health; State Board of Education to Hold Adoption Hearings in July, September
Teens in Texas – the state with the nation’s highest teen birth rate – were the big losers this week when state review panels gave passing grades to inadequate health textbooks submitted for sale in Texas next year.
The textbooks failed to include state-mandated information on barrier protection and other contraceptive methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, said Samantha Smoot, president of the Texas Freedom Network. Smoot said the process for reviewing and approving responsible textbooks in Texas has clearly broken down.
"Publishers have been irresponsible in failing to meet curriculum requirements on barrier protection and other forms of contraception," Smoot said. "But Texas teens and their parents rely on the state’s review panelists to rise above political pressure and ensure that the books meet all curriculum requirements. By not insisting that the books give kids common sense, practical information on sex and health that deals with the real-life situations we face every day, the panels have let the kids of Texas down."
The State Board of Education will hold public hearings on the textbooks on July 14 and September 8. Board members will vote on November 5 to adopt or reject the books.
State review panelists – appointed by the Texas Education Agency – met in Austin this week and rated high school health textbooks from Ohio-based Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and Texas-based Holt, Rinehart and Winston as conforming to state curriculum standards. Those curriculum standards are called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS. Panelists must certify that conforming textbooks meet all of the TEKS standards.
One TEKS standard (number 7I) requires that textbooks "analyze the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods," including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The standard also requires that textbooks discuss the effectiveness of remaining abstinent until marriage.
Textbooks from Glencoe and Holt noted that abstinence is the only completely effective way to avoid pregnancy and STDs. The books, however, included no information about barrier protection and other contraceptive methods.
The textbooks’ lack of medically accurate, complete information recklessly endangers Texas kids, Smoot said.
"Abstinence is the best policy for teens," Smooth said. "But teens also need reliable information to protect themselves from life-long consequences like unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV."
Smoot pointed to a January 2004 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation showing that 93 percent of parents with high school children believe teens should be taught about birth control.
"Parents know that making sure our kids have the most accurate and reliable information is the best protection we have for raising safe, healthy, responsible adults," Smoot said.
In an initial report, panelists rated one textbook, from New York publisher Delmar Learning, as nonconforming apparently because they thought the book’s discussion of abstinence was not strong enough. The Delmar textbook states that "sexual abstinence is the only way of preventing any sexually transmitted infection." In addition, Delmar’s textbook includes a brief discussion of the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of latex condoms. Discussions of latex condoms are missing from the Glencoe and Holt textbooks.
Smoot called this lack of information in the textbooks alarming. Noting the state’s high teen birth rate, Smoot also pointed to statistics showing that nearly half of all new cases of STDs and HIV occur among youth ages 15-24.
"It’s too dangerous to give our young people anything short of information that is scientifically and medically accurate,” Smoot said. “That’s why it’s vital that health textbooks equip teens with sexuality information that is reliable, complete and age-appropriate."
Texas is one of 22 states with a centralized process for adopting public school textbooks. Religious and social conservatives have organized to influence this process for decades, pressuring publishers to exclude from textbooks information they don’t like. In 2003, for example, would-be censors on the far right attempted to water down discussions of evolution in new Texas biology textbooks.
In addition, because the Texas market is so big, the adoption of health textbooks here has a national impact. Publishers often develop textbooks for Texas and sell the same books across the country.
The Texas Freedom Network has been monitoring textbook censorship efforts in Texas since the mid-1990s.
Tumbleweeds and Monster Steaks
