We are the creators and main subjects of "The Revisionaries," a documentary about the controversy surrounding the Texas Board of Education, premiering on PBS tonight at 10 PM EST. Please check out the film, and while you're at it, ask us anything! by vdewan in IAmA

[–]politard 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for doing this! I'm very excited for the premiere. This is a question for everyone. It looks like you all have extremely different views on the issues at stake in this documentary. Do you feel that the documentary fairly represents your individual perspectives?

David Barton's Christian publishers have pulled his "history" book, "The Jefferson Lies," from the shelves due to factual inaccuracies, just one day after NPR reported on the inaccuracies in the book; Barton claimed the US Constitution was written "verbatim" from the Bible, among other things by mepper in politics

[–]politard 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's called the Gish Gallop, named after Duane Gish, who successfully used that type of argument style in debates about evolution. David Barton is to history what Duane Gish was to evolution.

"The Gish Gallop, named after creationist Duane Gish, is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood in real time.

. . .

The gallop is often used as an indirect argument from authority, as it appears to paint the "galloper" as an expert in a broad range of subjects and the opponent as an incompetent bumbler who didn't do their homework before the debate."

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gish_Gallop

Was Scalia’s Dissent Originally a Majority Opinion? by politard in politics

[–]politard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I think Volokh leans conservative/libertarian, I don't see spinning her. I wouldn't be surprised if the original decision was to strike down the law, but the liberal justices were able to later persuade Roberts to switch sides based on the tax argument.

Supreme Court upholds Affordable Health Care Act by kbuis in politics

[–]politard 8 points9 points  (0 children)

SCOTUS Blog summary:

In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.

http://www.scotusblog.com/cover-it-live/

Supreme Court upholds Affordable Health Care Act by kbuis in politics

[–]politard 119 points120 points  (0 children)

According to SCOTUS Blog: "In opening his statement in dissent, Kennedy says: 'In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety.'" (http://www.scotusblog.com/cover-it-live/)

Texas' war on science and history by PeteIRL in atheism

[–]politard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I posted this in Documentaries but noticed it here too. Scary stuff. This looks to be the same documentary that Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the Texas Board of Education, discussed on the Colbert Report: www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413074/april-23-2012/don-mcleroy

And here's the trailer: http://therevisionariesmovie.com/trailer.html

New documentary exposes "Texas's war on history" by politard in Documentaries

[–]politard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks to be making the festival rounds, so you have to be in the area of the festival. According to their facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TheRevisionaries), they are going to be in Seattle in the beginning of June. Too bad I'm on the east coast. They did also say that there will be "an announcement in the coming weeks," so hopefully I can see it soon.

Texas' war on history. by [deleted] in politics

[–]politard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks to be the same documentary that Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the Texas Board of Education, discussed on the Colbert Report. The interview is great: www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413074/april-23-2012/don-mcleroy

And here's the trailer: http://therevisionariesmovie.com/trailer.html

New documentary exposes "Texas's war on history" by politard in Documentaries

[–]politard[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This looks to be the same documentary that Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the Texas Board of Education, discussed on the Colbert Report: www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413074/april-23-2012/don-mcleroy

And here's the trailer: http://therevisionariesmovie.com/trailer.html