LAURA AND JENNA BUSH: AGENTS OF SATAN?

I first saw this story a couple of days ago via TBogg, and today Steve Benen wrote about it. From the Tampa Tribune:

The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas' career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about a week after he performed the disappearing-toothpick trick for a group of rapt middle school students.

Pat Sinclair, who oversees substitute teachers in the Pasco County School District, was on the phone. She told Piculas there had been a complaint about his performance at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes....

"She said, 'You've been accused of wizardry,'" Piculas said.

...The trick requires a toothpick and transparent tape. A sleight-of-hand maneuver causes the toothpick to disappear then reappear.

...One student in the Rushe Middle class apparently took the trick the wrong way, Piculas said....

I bring it up because I wonder who's going to be charged with wizardry next.

I'm thinking it really might be Laura and Jenna Bush.

Today there's a review (not a very favorable one) of Read All About It!, their new book for four- to eight-year-olds, in The New York Times. The book is summmarized and, well, this is the part that's deeply disturbing:

...Tyrone Brown, "professional student and class clown," likes a lot about school: math, science, recess. But reading bugs him....

When Tyrone's homeroom teacher, Miss Libro, finally persuades him to pay attention during story hour, he sees a ghost emerge from the pages of a spooky tale; Ben Franklin strolls into the classroom while Miss Libro reads about the founding fathers; a dragon and a pig leap to life when their names are similarly evoked. It's magic time....

When these conjured characters disappear after their stories, Tyrone and his pals go in search of them throughout the school ... until Tyrone, prodded by Miss Libro, boldly goes where he "had never gone before": the library....

What?! This book involves ghosts? And dragons? Characters are conjured?

THESE TWO BUSH WITCHES ARE DESCRIBING THE EVIL ARTS! GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN!!!

I really don't know what's gotten into Laura and Jenna. Obviously, though, they've gone over to the Dark Side.

Please -- ban the Bushes' book from your school library.

Do it for the souls of your children.