etee's Blog

Oh dear... it appears that the TSA is not the only group who is having problems with getting names straight:

Confused Texas Education Board bans kids' author from curriculum

Yes, it is true: the State Board of Education, those protectors of the public morals and final arbiters of what textbooks will be allowed to pollute program unduly influence the minds of our young skulls full o' mush, whose mission is to ensure that those textbooks allowed into the public school systems in the state present a viewpoint that is anything but "fair and balanced", placed an author of childrens books on the state's "No Read" list because his name is similar to that of an author whose works contain "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system."

Admittedly, the two names - Bill Martin Jr. and Bill Martin - are very similar. Maybe even enough so that had one of those names been on the No-Fly List, the presence of a person with the other name on a flight might have caused the TSA to order the scrambling of jet fighters to intercept the flight and "escort" it to the airport. However, at least they would have done their due diligence better than this:

[SBOE member] Hardy said she was trusting the research of another board member, Terri Leo, R-Spring, when she made her motion and comments about Martin's writing. Leo had sent her an e-mail alerting her to Bill Martin Jr.'s listing on the Borders.com Web site as the author of Ethical Marxism. Leo's note also said she hadn't read the book.

[...]

Leo, however, said she wasn't asking Hardy to make any motions. She said she didn't do any "research."

That is apparent. It is also apparent that Leo hasn't kept up with current events, as she stated that she

...never meant for her "FYI" e-mail to Hardy to be spoken about in a public forum.

Oops. Maybe she ought to, like, actually read some of those history books she is sitting in judgement on.

Because, as we learned from as far back as the Reagan administration, "private" emails between government officials seldom remain that way.