Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Let it also be noted that I'm open to disagreement about which link I associated with silly and which link I associated with scary.

Decius wrote:

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Let it also be noted that I'm open to disagreement about which link I associated with silly and which link I associated with scary.

Here's your scary. And as this keeps going on, I can't dismiss it out of hand anymore.

Mike the Usurper wrote:

Decius wrote:

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Let it also be noted that I'm open to disagreement about which link I associated with silly and which link I associated with scary.

Here's your scary. And as this keeps going on, I can't dismiss it out of hand anymore.

Oh, no - thats silly. States are not going to leave the union. People aren't interested in that. California is not going to fall under the influence of China - standing on its own California would be a top global economic power. This paper imagines notions of identity which do not exist in our culture.

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:

Decius wrote:

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Let it also be noted that I'm open to disagreement about which link I associated with silly and which link I associated with scary.

Here's your scary. And as this keeps going on, I can't dismiss it out of hand anymore.

Oh, no - thats silly. States are not going to leave the union. People aren't interested in that. California is not going to fall under the influence of China - standing on its own California would be a top global economic power. This paper imagines notions of identity which do not exist in our culture.

While I think the scenario he gives isn't all that good, let's not put the scary back in the box just yet.

Mike the Usurper wrote:

When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

Decius wrote:

I can't decide whether that's silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Let it also be noted that I'm open to disagreement about which link I associated with silly and which link I associated with scary.

Upon following these links, I found myself oddly fascinated by the concept of the "self-professed former atheist" and went forth in search of them. Apparently the species is severely endangered, or perhaps just extraordinarily reclusive. Aside from James Perloff, Google's world-wide search seems to have spotted only one other SPFA in the wild -- fortunately for James, the evidence suggests we have here a female of the species:

Et-tu is a blog by Jen. a self-professed former atheist.

I link here to the search results page, because the actual blog is access-restricted, which only lends further credence to the insular theory.

noteworthy wrote:
Upon following these links, I found myself oddly fascinated by the concept of the "self-professed former atheist" and went forth in search of them. Apparently the species is severely endangered, or perhaps just extraordinarily reclusive. Aside from James Perloff, Google's world-wide search seems to have spotted only one other SPFA in the wild -- fortunately for James, the evidence suggests we have here a female of the species:

Et-tu is a blog by Jen. a self-professed former atheist.

I link here to the search results page, because the actual blog is access-restricted, which only lends further credence to the insular theory.

But the search text is simply another blogger referring to Jen as an SPFA. Jen's blog is open and even has its own domain name: Conversion Diary

Out of curiosity I decided to dig back to her first post. The original blog was called the Reluctant Atheist. The post is prophetic:

I was raised to believe that God does not exist. When I was about 11 years old, for the first time, I realized what that meant....

About two years ago I decided to actually do my own research and try to come to my own conclusions about God. I realized that despite my mantra of being "open-minded" about religion I was actually quite closed to ideas that didn't fit with my atheist worldview.

So here I am. Two years and a lot of research later I'm still not sure what I think. I've uncovered a lot of information and philosophical perspectives that I certainly was not told about as a kid and am still trying to process it all. After educating myself more about physics and biology I now believe intellectually in some sort of intelligent design, but my heart has yet to catch up. To be totally honest with myself, I'm still functionally an atheist. But I want to believe. My logical mind tells me some sort of creator exists. Some deep gut feeling tells me God exists. But I have a long way to go.

I wonder where this young woman's philosophical journey might lead her? Perhaps the second post is worth a look? Hrm. Although Jen is not sure whether or not she wants to become a Christian, she is apparently quite taken with the political ideology of religious conservatives.

The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, I-know-it-when-I-see-it value system of the atheist left leads to convictions that are as strongly held as the most devout Christian's, the only difference being that they're based on individual opinions rather than time tested scriptures...

Judicial activis... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
When people are spoon fed years in high school and college of anti-American history?

I can't decide whether thats silly or scary. I really can't see conservative whitewashing of history becoming a divisive political football - if they started trying to push new text books in schools no one would know enough about history to oppose them.

Remember, it's HIS story and is always open for interpretation. It's no different than the "creationism" vs "evolution" in schools debate. But it will be applied to everything.

Besides, we all know that this is what we really want.