[Glanbrok[_2_]]

I'm sure everybody is aware of the farcical goings-on in Texas's
school textbook procurement process. Year in and year out, a certain
group of Lone Star citizens try to influence the state's standard-
setters in favor of this group's nonscientific beliefs. Sometimes they
succeed and sometimes they fail. These activists could be the direct
descendants of the Italians who persecuted Galileo.

The degree to which blind faith can overcome human beings' innate
ability to reason is astonishing. What could motivate these activists
to spurn teaching kids how to search for knowledge? At what point in
their lives do they lose their ability to distinguish between
knowledge and faith? Why does the advance of science frighten them?

These activists' brethren in the Middle East have no problem using
modern technology. Neither do Texans, even if most of them don't
actually want to blow up government buildings. But how do they
reconcile their reliance on cars, television, computers, and
everything else technological with their insistence on shutting down
the search for knowledge?

Last week, there was another surreal episode that involved history
textbooks. Does anybody else hear the chorus of yapping dogs?

http://comics.com/nick_anderson/2010-03-12/