The Don Henley Lyric-Quoting Edition (with a dash of Hitler!)

I guess the Supreme Court threw down some rulin' a few weeks ago about the Affordable Health Care Act and surprised many people by upholding the law.  More surprising was that the deciding vote came from Chief Justice Roberts, often viewed as a staunch conservative.  Not-shocking-at-all-in-the-least was the rush to right-wing hyperbole as a response to the SCOTUS decision.

 

Dammit, we may have let a bonafide Agent of Rome infiltrate our court system!  And of course, no hyperbole-greatest-hits would be complete without going full Hitler.:

Maine Gov Compares IRS Under Obamacare To Gestapo

When I first heard about Chief Justice Roberts, I thought maybe he experienced something North Carolina State Representative Becky Carney experienced a week after the Supreme Court decision.

What The Frack?  North Carolina Lawmaker Accidentally Votes To Legalize Fracking.

It's 11:30pm, the legislature is trying feverishly to get through all their business, that a vote comes up to attempt to overturn the NC Governor's veto blocking fracking.  Red keeps the veto in place, green votes to overturn it.  Rep. Carney accidentally hits green and immediately panics, realizing what she's done.  When she tries to correct her error, she's told that NC House rules prevent her from doing so.  Why?  Because her vote was literally the deciding vote, and that prevents her from changing it.  So if the vote doesn't really matter, go ahead and get it right.  But when policy is on the line?  Tough shit, you exhausted loser.

Apparently Chief Justice Roberts did mean to vote the way he did, however, and the social media toilets exploded with activity, such as the following people who will now move to Canada because of Obamacare.  Which brings us to the Don Henley portion of the program.

I've been trying to get down... 
to the heart of the matter...


I have to admit, I guess the political hyperbole still shocks me.  Will the world end when the Mitt Romney's signature political achievement as governor of Massachusetts blows up nationwide?  No, of course not, but that's not the vibe I got from the right.  While thinking these things over, I came across this article on Google+.

Texas GOP's 2012 Platform Opposes Teaching Of 'Critical Thinking Skills' 

According to the article, here's the Critical Thinking bit was part of the Knowledge-Based Education plank:

We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

Ha ha ha, stupid Texas!!!  This reinforces all of my northeast, liberally-informed stereotypes of you.

Wait, what's that?  Turns out the inclusion of the phrase "critical thinking skills" was a mistake, and like North Carolina's voting rules, there's no recourse to correct the error (until the next state GOP convention in 2014). All the platform wanted to hammer home was the desire to revert back to old-school teaching methods and it shouldn't be shocking that the Texas GOP wants things old-school.

It's the "challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority" phrase that reminded me of more Don Henley lyrics from The Heart of the Matter:

The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again

The thing about Outcome-Based Education is that the outcome is king.  Teachers use varying tactics to help an individual child find the path toward knowledge.  The Texas GOP sees it as behavior modification that could directly oppose parental authority, and a child's fixed beliefs which are most likely going to be an extension of parental authority.

So maybe I'm missing something, but is the Texas GOP's platform stating that the rights of parents to keep their kids stupid are more important than the rights of kids to not be as stupid as their parents?  Is it well-known that allowing students different paths to achieving knowledge equals behavior modification, and isn't any form of discipline behavior modification?  What makes the GOP old-school approach less of a behaviorally-modified approach?

I honestly don't know.  It all feels like a continuation of the small government logic somehow, preventing schools from overriding parental efforts.

Of course, that small government logic evaporates just a few planks later in the platform:

We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle, in public policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values.

Regardless, I feel that the Texas GOP reminded me of something, even if they didn't mean to.  Critical thinking seems pretty far down the list when considering politics, from the local Facebook thought-puking to the higher levels of Congressional debate.  I'm not sure where the breakdown in critical thinking began, but I feel it needs to make a strong comeback as soon as possible.

So I'm begging you, Critical Thinking... if you have a sex tape buried somewhere, now's the time to drop it big time, swing that into a reality TV series, sell People magazine the photography rights to your nuptials, and be a real presence in American life again.

Please.