The Texas Republican Party is backtracking from the Party platform plank, "Knowledge-Based Education", (that's one for the family archives) which opposes critical thinking skills and has already been approved by a state convention. A party spokesman said the language made it into the platform by mistake, adding that "...the plank should not have included "critical thinking skills" after "values clarification". I'm guessing Texas Republicans will not spend much time thinking about that correction.

Having spent a great deal of time in Texas and doing business in the state, the overall Platform seems well out of step with the many moderates in the state and perhaps even with the more religious and conservative wing of the Republican party.

Apparently it is the hard core element who show up at the platform writing exercise. In the case of these writers, I think as a group they were given uniforms. As individuals they are probably not bad people. 

The plank on "firearms" is food for thought. The Platform squadron (perhaps wearing NRA uniforms) urges the passage of legislation whereby "...law abiding citizens that (who?) possess firearms can legally exercise that (their, perhaps) God-given right to carry that (those?) firearm firearms as well (as well as other God-given rights?) (eye-talics mine). 

Now, this "firearm" plank is one which suggests the need for critical thinking skills.  Even if you think the world is only 6000 years old (personally, I don't get the fuss, I'd rather think of God as a crap-shooter throwing a dollop of DNA into the oceans five million years ago than as an engineer sitting at a drafting table, but maybe I shouldn't go that far in my thinking)---or even if you are an "intelligent engineer" advocate---ask yourself if God included in man's rights a technical invention which only occurred in the second millennium A.D. All right, off course He could have---will you stop being critical!

Included in the Platform is a laundry list which includes abolishing the EPA, the Department of Education, and the TSA. Airport security should be implemented by local officials---an idea with which I can almost agree.

Also, overturn the Fed Act of 1913, go onto the gold standard, and privatize Social Security. 

In the social realm, corporal punishment should continue to be allowed in public schools---in other words, spank their breeches. And, by the way, all prisoners should be required to pass the GED before getting out of jail. Apparently, there are no GED requirements for anyone else.

As far as folks up North are concerned, Congress should reclaim its constitutional authority for Declarations of War, and "...any breech (eye-talics mine) of this power by the executive branch is an impeachable offense." 

There is a rule of thumb about the use of the words "breech" and "breach", (breech referring to the rear of something and breach meaning, roughly, breaking or rupturing)---just think of breech as breeches. 

I don't think people should worry about "rules of thumb", they are not to be classified as part of "critical thinking", although if you think about it, rules of thumb might "...essentially be programs which focus on behavioral modification and challenge the students' fixed beliefs or undermine parental authority". 

As for the prospect of children challenging parental authority, it appears to be a God-given right, or in the least it is a universal behavior. But perhaps the behavior is an aspect of evolution which must be reversed, or is the Devil himself. A minister once told me, "When your teenage kid kicks you in the shins it's an indication that you've done a good job as a parent." Of course he was a minister from up North, and he was an Episcopal Episcopalian.  

Along the line of thought of breeches, there is this: "...incarcerated juveniles should not be confined with adult criminals". That is by far the most socially charitable plank in the document.  

Some of the planks I heartily agree with---for example, that legislation should be enacted to mitigate the impact of regulations on small businesses and to insure that they are represented in the regulatory process. Yeah, yeah, how many times have I heard this from both Democrats and Republicans alike. They are all a bunch of blowhards. 

Truthfully, I am turned off by the social engineering of a Platform like this one, which in structure might not be all that different from the Democrat Democratic platform. Can't we all just become a little less strident and focus on jobs, and not rant and rave about things which are not going to happen, like abolishing the Fed or magically eliminating the use of critical thinking skills. Or am I not thinking straight?