Archive for the ‘Culture Wars’ Category

A Breath of Pretty Air

January 20, 2006

I love to read Peggy Noonan. She is the master of Logic Lite. She is a one woman Cirque du Soleil of reason, spinning her colorful fantasies beautifully through the air. Her artful rhetoric could persuade a lemming to hurl itself from a cliff no matter what its mother said.

Today she expounds on how polarized propaganda machines (as opposed to a free, independent press) are a good thing and all you have to do to believe is accept that a couple of partisan crackpots have actually proven the enormous liberal bias of the mainstream media and that the democrats have “lost their monopoly on the means of information in America,” as if they ever had one.

As is her usual modus operandi, she saves anything that might be construed by the faithful as criticism of the great cause for the end of her flowing postulation, long after her devoted have clicked the “RESPOND TO THIS ARTICLE” link and thrown digital flowers at her feet.

Today she had the temerity to suggest that republicans act like the party they claim to be:

OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan

[...]
That it regain a sense of its historic mission. That it stop seeming the friend of the wired and return to being the great friend of Main Street, for Main Street still, in its own way, exists. That it return to basic principles on spending, regulation and state authority. That it question a foreign policy that often seems at once dreamy and aggressive, and question, too, an overreaching on immigration policy that seems composed in equal parts of naiveté and cynicism. That its representatives admit that lunching with lobbyists is not the problem; failing to oppose the growth of government–so huge that no one, really no one, knows what is in its budget–is. That they reduce the size and power of government. That they help our country.

Like a broken clock, even Peggy is right every once in a while.

Finally, someone notices.

January 13, 2006

Media Matters – Dobson: Republican majority has “very little” to show for “pro-family, pro-moral” agenda; Santorum pushed marriage amendment in response 

During the January 12 broadcast of his radio program, Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson complained that the Republican Party, in control of the White House and Congress, has “very little … to show for it” in terms of accomplishing the goals of “the pro-family agenda, the pro-moral agenda, [and] the sanctity of life.”

And yet Dobson still doesn’t appear to realize he’s we’ve been the victim of a scam. Santorum resolutely continues to not realize anything at all.

Stupid will make you abstinence only?

January 12, 2006

State abstinence overseer lent name to firm seeking business with agency 

The director of Ohio’s abstinence program faces an ethics inquiry and an investigation by her own department because her name showed up on business documents of a Denver firm that was close to finalizing a contract with her office.

It appears that Ohio is becoming so corrupt they don’t even know what corruption is anymore and are the new leaders in third world politics, American style.

Does anyone need to be reminded that Republicans have controlled all three branches of Ohio government since 1994?

Abstinence is a great way to avoid pregnancy and STIs but if you do have sex, please use your brain AND a condom. This message is brought to you by the T.H.Reasoner Campaign for Reality in Education.

File under too much time on their hands

January 7, 2006

PageOneQ | Barbie website changed to appease conservatives 

WASHINGTON (January 6, 2006) Under pressure initiated by a variety of conservative groups, the Barbie website has been amended to no longer include “I Don’t Know” as a choice in addition to “Girl” and “Boy.”

I can imagine how this “outrage” started.

Kid: “Mommy, what do they mean, ‘I don’t know’?”

Mommy: “What do you mean, what do they mean, precious?”

Kid: “It says, ‘I am a Girl, I am a Boy or I don’t know.’”

Mommy: “Well, let’s see. I am a girl, I am a boy or I don’t know. Hmm. I am a girl, I am a … OH MY GOD! I DON’T KNOW! AAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Mommy’s head explodes, fade to black.

In a statement issued by [the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition], executive director Riki Wilchins noted, “Conservative organizations have attacked a variety of cartoon and fictional characters, including Winnie the Pooh, Tinky Winky, SpongeBob SquarePants, Shrek 2’s Pinocchio, and now Barbie for either sex or gender issues,” continued Wilchins. “What’s next?,” she added.

Acknowledging that children are given a neutral or non-response option on all questions on their websites, Mattel spokeswoman Lauren Bruksh called such an option under gender, “just an innocent oversight.”

Apparently, mediocre web design equals vast rainbow conspiracy.