Fireworks for the 4th.

If anyone is unfamiliar with Kenneth Tomlinson’s claims that PBS and NPR have a liberal bias, there is a good article with good links here. The conservative media is having a field day “proving” liberal bias on the part of Public Broadcasting by quoting admitted incidents, and liberal-slanted reporting outside of the context of the balancing opinions that were also included in the news story. What’s behind this crusade, and the Republican majority government’s attempt to cut funding? Excerpt from Wikipedia, “Patriotism and recent US history.”

“It has been claimed that patriotic fervor has decreased the ability of Americans to obtain objective information about the world situation. In particular, the journal Political Science Quarterly published research showing that those who obtained their news from outlets that appear to make a concerted effort to be patriotic were more likely to have factual misconceptions about the Iraq war. These misperceptions were: that weapons of mass destruction had been found, that evidence linked Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda, and that world public opinion favored the war. Respondents that received their news from public broadcasting, conversely, were far less likely to hold these perceptions.”

Ooops! Looks like Public Broadcasting is far too likely to tell us things that might embarrass the US Government! What a shame! Kill the messenger!

On a lighter note, Justice Souter might be reaping on his family farm what he has sown in the courts Press Release. Ok, so Logan Darrow Clements is one of those folks that takes a highlighter to “Atlas Shrugged” (the basis of one of my worst nightmares), but sometimes one can set aside ideological differences in the spirit of good, clean fun. Hey, if I see a neighbor stuck in a ditch, I don’t ask what his politics, sexual orientation, or religious ideology is before I try to help, I probably don’t want to know. If you really want to play, the Right-wingnuts have a petition you can sign here at Rightmarch.com. Be careful to uncheck the box for hate mail, unless you want it. For any conservatives reading this blog, I call them wingnuts because they seem enthusiastically in favor of every last plank in the conservative platform. That makes them fanatics, or donation junkies.

I’ve read “Atlas Shrugged” by the way. Aside from the gross oversimplifications (aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln...), the biggest problem I have with Ayn Rand’s magnum opus is that I believe that she misidentified the antagonists. Anybody notice any fiscal conservatism in the Republican party lately? Which ideology, liberal or conservative, would you most expect to enforce its agenda at gunpoint? Which is better, “Tax and Spend”, or “Don’t tax, bury the next generation in debt and Spend?” Good Science Fiction, bad Manifesto. BTW: John Galt