Reading

I remember the first time I ever saw a Harry Potter book.  I was in a book store in upstate New York, and my mother was pushing me to find my "Beach Book" - something funny, something silly, something different from my usual reading material.  She picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and said "this looks like fun - and you love magic!"  I didn't find out it was part of a series for another two years.

If you've got 2 and a half hours to spare, and you want to hear for yourself (rather than the summaries provided in my previous posts) you can download the RealPlayer file.
McElroy's part begins at about 1:20:00, and the skewering by Senators Shapleigh and Watson beings in earnest at about 1:56:15. It goes on for a couple of hours more after that...

After the lengthy questioning, it was time to take testimony from those who'd registered to speak. In some ways, what followed was a microcosm of past Board meetings: six witnesses, including perennial testifiers Texas Freedom Network's Kathy Miller and SMU's Ronald Wetherington decrying the Board's refusal to heed scientific experts and Chairman Don's role in particular; and Board Member Ken Mercer and Free Market Foundation's Jonathan Saenz speaking long and hard to defend the Chairman.

Then, Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) picked up where Shapleigh had left off, continually pounding the point home that whether intentional or not, McElroy had created so much controversy that he was unlikely to be an effective and believable leader, and that the Board could get "de-fanged and de-clawed" because of him. Senator Shapleigh returns at the end of this post to utter ominous threats. The lash-by-lash details of the punishment of Chairman Don follow for those who relish such intricacies...

As the hours of the hearing wore steadily on, the Democrats took over the questioning, and became progressively tougher on McElroy. Leading the first charge was Elliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso), who seemed to enjoy the game of taking quotes from McElroy and asking him to explain himself...

SHAPLEIGH: Perception is that you have a point of view, and you're using this bully pulpit to promote this point of view. Reads quote from McElroy "I was totally convinced that biblical account was true, and that it could be scientifically accurate."