A former candidate for Alabama lieutenant governor Gene Ponder is in hot water after his “summer reading list” for his Spanish Fort High School class got passed around online.
According to Gulf Coast News, the reading list for a high school AP government/economics course distressed Spanish Fort High area residents so much that the list has been pulled.
Spanish Fort High teacher Gene Ponder’s summer reading list for his class included a number of texts from a majority of conservative and right-leaning authors including Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Ron Paul, Thomas Sowell, Chuck Colson and Ronald Reagan.
Some of the titles of the books included “Trickle Up Poverty: Stopping Obama’s Attacks on Our Borders, Economy and Security,” “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” “48 Liberal Lies About American History,” “Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America,” “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder,” and “The Land of Fair Play: American Civics from a Christian Perspective,” to name a few.
Also on that list: Climate of Corruption: Politics & Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax and Race & Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination. In the latter book, author Walter Williams, who has always been a free market proponent, also argues that it should be okey dokey for private businesses to discriminate against black people.
To give some context to Mr. Ponder’s thinking, we can remember this ditty from a few years back during his run for lieutenant governor. His platform at the time was based on a classic idea that states’ rights are being threatened by the Obama. However, Ponder’s tone suggested that he was a tad bit bananas and made his fellow right-wingers wonder if he wanted to actually secede from the Union.
State Sen. Hank Erwin, a Montevallo Republican also running for lieutenant governor, said he's supported 10th Amendment resolutions in the past, but Ponder's may go too far.
"We're not trying to secede from the Union," Erwin said. "I don't think you need to use ... language like that to try to get the point across."
The Miami Herald reports that the school’s superintendent Eddie Tyler confirmed that the reading list had been pulled down.
“Mr. Ponder’s reading list that is going around on social media has not been endorsed by the school system,” Tyler wrote. “The list has been removed by the teacher. Baldwin County Public Schools has a process to vet and approve reading lists so that a variety of sources are used. I expect all employees to follow our processes, procedures and policies.”
There are also books by popular libertarian bullshit artist Neal Boortz and Christian ideologist Geoffrey Parsons. Now you know why Gene Ponder says the crazy stuff he says.