Hyperbole

From Politico:

In a closed door House GOP meeting Thursday, Indiana congressman and gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence likened the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Democratic health care law to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to several sources present.

As I previously mentioned on this blog, I lost two people on 9/11, a relative and a professional colleague, so I of course appreciate the Congressman’s sensitive remarks.

One can only suppose that nowhere will the tragedy be greater than in Texas, which has the dubious distinction of having the largest fraction of the population without health insurance of any state in the Union:  25%.  So what are they doing in Texas?  Well, I am happy to tell you that the Republican Party in Texas has announced a bold new plan for education:

We oppose the teaching of higher order thinking skills, 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.[…]  Every Republican is responsible for implementing this platform.

I think we can all agree that higher order thinking skills and critical thinking skills should absolutely be abolished.  Thanks, Texas Republican Party, for leading the way.  We all eagerly anticipate watching every Republican implement that platform.

PS:  Mike Pence apologized.  The Texas Republican Party said that its platform “was a mistake, but it will remain in place until 2014.”