Both Jessica Huseman at PolicyMic and Jason Stanford at the Huffington Post  report on a controversy stirred up by two right-wing lunatics named Ginger Russell and Janice VanCleave, who claim to have discovered that “for the last seven years students all across the state of Texas have been indoctrinated with a pro communist, pro Islamic curriculum called CSCOPE”.

It all began when VanCleave found she was unable to access details of CSCOPE lessons online. As Russell recounts: “After further research it was discovered the Marxist philosophy behind Cscope and numerous lessons with a bias toward Communism pro Islam content.”

You might think that Russell and VanCleave would be dismissed as a couple of hysterical nutters. Not in Texas, however: “Instead, politicians are giving the conspiracy oxygen, and like a fire it is spreading. The Texas Attorney General is investigating CSCOPE and reportedly promised to ‘shut them down completely’ if he uncovers illegality.”