God bless america, land of the pollution-free naps

Terri Leo is a popular villain in the science press right now. She's on the Texas State Board of Education, the second-largest textbook buying body in the country, and she has worked liked a demon to get references to evolution, global warming, pollution, overpopulation, and contraception from textbooks used in her state. Given that her state is the second-largest textbook buying body in the country, that gives her a scary amount of power in deciding what goes into textbooks. She's responsible for the acceptance of a “health” textbook that recommends, as a form of birth control, naps, on the grounds that “it may be harder to make the responsible decision to remain abstinent when you are tired.” (Rc note: Did you know that Texas is the #1 ranked state for teen pregnancy?)

This year, her target is “asexual stealth phrases.” She wants phrases like “married people” replaced with “A husband and wife in a life-long union,” claiming that the original phrase may confuse children into believing that men can marry men or something.

Original blog entry yoinked from elfs