Fox Nation's Ten Core Axioms

Heard anyone decorate the phrase "politically correct" with an audible sneer lately? Sensed it when he or she said "PC" and wasn't referring to a personal computer? Then you've met a resident of the vast conservative echo chamber that calls itself Fox Nation. You know, cable-news junkies who get all their (mis)information from Rupert Murdoch's version of spin city, Fox News - or as some like to call it, Faux News.

We spent a few minutes not long ago listening to them slap each other on the back and compare horror stories about regulations run rampant and socialists in control of the country. Never mind that most of them couldn't pick out socialism on a two-choice multiple choice question... But anyway, we decided that they do have core principles (if you can call them "principles"), which require mindless adherence. By "mindless," we mean that any contradictory statement, no matter how well documented, is "a lie." 

Without further ado, here are ten (there are probably more, but thinking about them made our head hurt):

1. Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is secretly a Muslim
2. Al Gore claims he invented the internet
3. The mainstream media has a liberal bias
4. Snow in April proves global warming is a hoax
5. Actors have no right to talk about social issues, CEOs have every right to talk about social issues
6. A rising tide lifts all yachts
7. Ronald Reagan was a saint and the greatest president of all time - of any country!
8. The three most beautiful women in the world are Ann Coulter, Megyn Kelly and Sarah Palin.
9. The most evil billionaire in the world is George Soros. The rest of them are just peachy.
10. It is possible to deport every undocumented person in the country, and it won't cost the taxpayers a thing.

Know anyone who believes all of those statements with all his heart? Well, you've just met a resident of Fox Nation. 

The Idiot Report: September 30 2010

The Idiot of the Day for September 30, 2010 (Houston Chronicle Edition), is Michael Johnston of Humble, Texas. In response to Nick Anderson's editorial cartoon of September 29th

Johnston says in his letter to the Houston Chronicle that he'd "like to see a similar sketch called '2012 DNC platform' and showing Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman standing on a platform labeled MSNBC."

WTF, Mike? Are you saying that MSNBC is paying Maddow, Mathews, and Olberman salaries while they campaign for the 2012 Democratic nomination for President? I may live in Texas, but I'm pretty sure I have yet to see any of the three's name on a bumper sticker, like the "Palin 2012" sticker my neighbor's monster pickup sports (right next to that "SECEDE" sticker). Do you not GET IT, Michael? It's not that Fox employs these four, it's that these four are running for office and Fox News happily provides them a soapbox - a "platform" if you will - from which they can spout their campaign rhetoric at will. That is the point, to which you're apparently blind.

Johnston's apparently just one more example of someone who was never taught critical thinking skills in school - probably a victim of a "no child left behind" education system, which Texas implemented in 1994 .

Sure was cold in Indiana this summer...

Recent opinion polls have indicated that the American public has apparently decided that all this “global” warming stuff is pure hokum. Given the scientific illiteracy of the general public, I guess it’s no surprise that while climate scientists – you know, professionals who actually know something about the topic – remain firmly convinced that the Earth is warming and that anthropogenic CO2 is contributing; the sort of folks who find “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader” challenging are all certain that the theory is rank bullshit. Guess that’s what happens when the RNC’s talk machine (aka Focked-up News) gets a free ride.

In truth, I could smell this coming months ago. You see, my sole sibling and all her family members are slavishly devoted to the FNN talking heads in all their many guises: bogus books, reactionary radio, and tawdry television. When last I saw Sis late this past summer, at least two of that arm of the family tried pretty hard to convince me that global warming was obviously not happening. Their evidence was simple and surprisingly clear: after all, it was unseasonably cool in the upper Midwest this summer…

I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people whose worldview is limited to the street outside their windows just can’t seem to understand that global means the WHOLE DAMNED WORLD and not just their hometowns – and it doesn’t help much that the pro-business community (aka the GOP) and its mouthpieces kept on sniping even while fomenting revolution with those tea parties of theirs.

I say let ‘em have Florida… and make certain they don't have any SCUBA gear.