Good riddance, I say!

A ballista would be good for removing bothering kids from a school.

A Trebuchet would be far more entertaining and get a better range.

He should be worried about his family-- this being so close to 06/06/06, and he has children aged 18 months (6+6+6 months!) to 18 years (6+6+6 years!)

I mean, if you’re going to be this big a Moron, why not go all out, Moran?

Depends on how long you like your clays in the air…

Good riddance, I say!

I disagree. Abandoning kids into an environment of religious nutjob indoctrination doesn’t fill my heart with joy.

The bible also says, among other things, “If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out...” Is Roger Moron going to do that too?

“to exercise their rights to investigate diligently the curricula, textbooks, and programs in our community schools.�

You know that means they’ll be annoying school boards, other parents, writing letters to the paper, etc.

My cousin, who’s an extreme born-again, home-schooled her 5 kids until they reached High School age.  The 2nd child recently reached High School age.  Both kids are in honors classes with straight A’s.  All are fairly well adjusted.  Except I fear for their reality and sanity sometimes, since I distinctly remember my cousin telling the first born when he was 4 or so, when he asked for a piece of candy, “No you cannot have a piece of candy.  Candy is bad.  Jesus doesn’t want you to have the bad candy.  Do you want to burn in hell for having the bad candy?  You will burn in hell forever!  Do you want to burn in hell?  DO YOU?!?!” Which her son responded with bawling in fear of burning forever in hell for wanting to have a piece of candy.  *sigh*

A Trebuchet would be far more entertaining and get a better range.

Some years ago, there was an article in Scientific American about trebuchets (that’s a “Trebok” to you, elwed ).  The authors covered the history, and described how they built their own.  It was not nearly as big as the giant ones the Arabs built in the Middle Ages (when Islam was still supportive of science), but still powerful enough for a memorable SA cover: a compact car flying serenely over the English countryside…

Does anybody know whatever happened to the push from certain fundy groups to get South Carolina mainly populated by their ilk?  I think their ultimate goal was to secede from the union and form a “christian” nation? 

Personally, I would support this as long as we take away all the federally funded things that have been placed there like roads, communication lines and military bases.  I find it amusing that people like Moran here want to seperate themselves and their families from the big bad world, but they never seem to actually go all in on the idea. 

I would think that since there are so many of them that think the rest of society is so terrible, they really would all band together and live seperate from the rest of us.  Maybe they’re not actually interested in being seperated, just hearing themselves speak? 

If it did happen, the only down side I could see is that the state of South Carolina would no longer be any good for tourism (I hear it’s pretty nice there.) Oh yeah, and all the children who would be brainwashed without much hope of ever seeing any alternative to their parents’ beliefs, that would be worse than a hit to tourism.

Yea, close-mindedness is certainly a downside to religion.  My brother met a girl in college that grew up in Kansas, a state that is apparently very religious, and she had a lot of preconceived notions about the world.  One of them being that God makes people poor for a reason, and the usual anti-science beliefs.  He said it was a huge wake up call for her.  She argued teachers in class, and finally did some research and found many interesting things.  One of them being that she thinks he religion is all bunk.  She was almost ex-communicated from the family over the whole ordeal, and was very stressed out.  All due to a belief structure.

Moran, who owns a company that makes construction supplies, is a father of nine children, ages 18 months to 18 years. All have been home-schooled or attended Christian schools, he said.

“Everything that I believe as a Bible-believing Christian is not allowed to be taught in the public schools,� he said.

Sorry—do I want to buy construction supplies from someone who believes that everything worth teaching is not being taught in public schools?  Does the Bible teach of engineering or stress analysis or the making of concrete?  Or does Moran simply make clay bricks (with or without straw)?

The point being that there are plenty of things that Moran has every right and concern to teach his kids at home—including religious faith, God, etc.  Teaching at home is, in fact, an appropriate location to do so, so that the message is one that he can support fully (and not get watered down by all those other religions out there that might be taught in school were it allowed).  But there are also a lot of things that can (and should, but that’s another matter) be taught without any religious pedagogy needed:  math, science, as well as reading, history, art ...

There are religious themes that can be brought into these subjects, particularly the non-numeric ones.  But, again, those can be taught/supplemented from home, it seems to me, should someone feel the need.

Personally, I’ve decided that since “Christian” is such a blanket term, covering everything from snake-handling Primitive Baptists to Roman Catholics to Unitarians to Ethiopian Coptic Christians, that I am just going to call the extremists who want to force their beliefs down your throat UltraChristians.

Perhaps someday we can have UltraChristian ghettos, places where they are safe amongst their own kind, free to be just as ignorant and hateful as they want.  Now, I’d rather they didn’t take South Carolina, as I like to drive from Georgia to North Carolina once in a while and I-85 is awfully convenient for that.  But I’d rather contain them there than have these wingnuts get their way.

I am just going to call the extremists who want to force their beliefs down your throat UltraChristians.

I call them Christianists, similar to Islamists.

My four sisters in law went to public school for the first part of their childhood. Because of horrible experiences they all began to attend a private christian school. Their grades shot up through the roof, their self esteem went up and now they are all in college earning no less than 3.8 gpa’s. Many public schools are a joke. There is no discipline, no structure. You people are funny. You don’t realize that all those “facts” that you learb in school arent worth crap if you dont believe in God. As of right now you will all be going to hell but hey at least youll know your algebra.

Meggi: ... but hey at least youll (sic) know your algebra.

Oh, Meggi darling - I heard Hovind say that. Try to get away from the parrot stuff - you’re giving evolution a bad name. It was ultra-dumb and stupid when he said it too. Anyway, I can’t remember any algebra.
I have two nephews in the state system here in Oz. They get pissed off if they don’t top the classes they attend with 90%+ in everything. Admittedly they don’t carry a religious cross round with them like your SILs did (which is probably why they were treated like shit).

Many public schools are a joke.

I’d have to agree with you that they probably are in America, especially since seeing this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA
During the video there was much talk about the dumbing down of America - IDesign and Godidit isn’t going to help matters.
Just think, you’ll have to import millions of Chinese to do your science research.
Should make you feel warm all over.

As of right now you will all be going to hell

Can’t wait. The weather may be nicer in heaven but in hell, you meet a better class of people … *sigh* if only it was real instead of made up shit to keep you down, conservative and obedient.

Megiddo, Megiddo, Megiddo.  Don’t you get it?  We’re not buying it.  We’re not going to Hell, because there is no Hell.  The Invisible Pink Unicorn has promised me this.  Why should I believe in this humorless Jesus, or in His really twisted Father, when Her Holy Pinkness is so much nicer, and just as believable?

But Zilch! Meg told me that I’m going to meet John in hell, so that’s something to look forward to, right? Party all the time, blaspheme all we want, wine, dine, sex, sex, sex! And Satan’s a pretty hedonistic guy, so I’ll take his company over God’s any time of day. Ol’ Beelzebub is rumored to be bacchanalian in the extreme--my kind of guy. Sort of the original Jim Morrison, if you will.

Speaking of partying, it’s my birthday. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Her Holy Pinkness is so much nicer

And moist?

Well Meg if our public schools are so crappy lets send everyone to your private christian schools.  Oh wait, how will the poor afford it.  Yes, why fix a major problem in this country when we can just avoid it, FUCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS RIGHT!?

Webs, don’t feed the troll.

Just saying.

I apologize, but not to Meg.

No need to apologize. As long as you know you’re dealing with a self-confessed troll, blast away…

We’re all going to hell?  Hell, the music’s going to be finest kind: jazz (as long as they don’t let Chet Baker in, or if they do they should wire his jaws and break his trumpet), blues and rock venues non-stop.  Mozart too: he had a pottymouth on him so he’s probably in residence.  I’ll be the one shuttling between Gerry Mulligan leading his own Quartet c. 1954, guesting with the Dave Brubeck Trio c1970 and the 24/7/eternity Mozart concertos smoking a cored out Havana stuffed with weed.  Heaven.  I mean Hell.