I wish I had something clever to say about these stories from the past few days:

Barbara Bush insisting that a portion of her Katrina gift be spent on Neil Bush's education software.

(Via Atrios.)

A music teacher in Colorado who was placed on leave after showing clips from a video of the opera Faust to her class, after "[s]everal parents complained that the video ... contained references to abortion and Satan worship."

(Via Sisyphus Shrugged, where Julia adds, "Look upon your works, William F Buckley, and despair.")

The Washington Post's list of Christian conservative organizations that have received generous outlays of your tax dollars during the Bush leaders -- including Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing, a couple of "pregnancy crisis centers," and at least one "pregnancy crisis center" that, thanks to federal government largesse, has now metasasized into a multi-state organization that provides abstinence "education" materials.

(That last outfit is Heritage Comunity Services of South Carolina. I see that the state of Rhode Island has just decided that abstinence curriculum materials from an affiliated group, Heritage of Rhode Island, are inappropriate for the state's public schools, so they've been banned: "Lawyers at the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union first complained last year that a now-abandoned textbook used by Heritage of Rhode Island taught students that girls should wear clothing that doesn't invite 'lustful thoughts' from boys. The book described men as 'strong' and 'courageous' while women were called 'caring.'" Good for Rhode Island for standing up for blue-state values.)