Republicans, american press & the active destruction of education
Offline *Sigh*
...I do not know why I occassionally attempt to see if the major news networks have anything of interest to report. Such ventures only end with my infuriation.
Every major network ran this story from a negative angle, so I cannot even excuse it as more blathered nonsense from the bloated & uneducated gas-bags that run that particular network (in fact, Fox - if anything - deserves a little more credit than their peers. Fox at least had the balls and gall to name the 'pet projects' in question, gleefully boasting of their opposition to specific areas of intense study to their hardly literate base of loyal viewers. Most networks just propped-up the '9,000 earmarks!' figure for shock value); this is the fault, if anything, of the much broader problem that everyone must have 'balanced' reporting - the repulsive notion of teaching 'both sides' of an issue that continues to try and bore it's way into rationality.
What is this apparently 'wasted money' being appropriated to? Well, amongst the 'pork':
- Fruit fly research
- Honey bee research
- Fishery research
- Grape reseach
- Etc (Name a pressing ecological field of study. It was likely included in the Obama administration's omnibus bill; I don't suppose I'm the only one who recalls Obama promising to increase government funding in these areas?)
Things like the impeding extinction of one of the biosphere's premiere pollinators through a mechanism that is not at all currently understood (Colony Collapse Disorder) is not a fucking joke, and it will be a damn shame if the only way we figure this out is through massive agricultural failure. How can we expect the general public not to react with incredulity when attempts are made to inform them of subjects like evolutionary theory when the press is telling them that scientific research is just a dumb waste of money?
Here. Listen to this asshole professor that CNN decided to give a supportive interview to:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/03/16/griffin.high.speed.rail.cnn
'If it was a good idea, it would already exist.'
Yeah! Just like every good idea, right? All of our good ideas have always just existed; we crawled right out of that primordial ooze into technical civilization!
This motherfucker is supposed to be teaching shit to people, for fuck's sake!
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
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~sigh~
If this was new, I'd be alarmed, shocked, and pissed off. As it is, I'm just sad.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
OK, I am confused. I saw your great thread title and expected that I could get down and dirty about politics. What I find is mostly a rant about the media. Heck but you even seem to be claiming that Fox did a better job than the other, traditionally liberal outlets.
Well, if that is what you are on about, then sorry but this is just business as usual in America. Someone always has to get demonized. And if the slime that you throw will not stick to your preferred target, then you throw slime at the target that it will stick to.
=
I thought Colony Collapse Disorder had finally been tied to pesticides in the last couple of months. I could be wrong. I think I was just skimming headlines.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I did not say Fox did a 'better job' (they did not); I said that they were the most honest about their motives.
By all means, get down and dirty with politics if the Republicans are your party of choice, given that McCain is busy spreading his igorance on Twitter over the bill and a large number of Republican frontrunners are smiling into TV cameras and telling the world about investing in fruit fly or mormon locust research is a waste of money.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Hi.
I have lived long enough to have learned that there is nothing positive to be gained from even paying attention to Repugs any more. Period. If I am watching cable news or anything andany Repug comes on, I change the frakking channel and carry on with my life, not missing anything. We live in a country (the US) with an attention span of zero, no memory to speak of, and an embarrasing inability to critically think our way out of a soaking wet paper bag.Don't get me wrong, the Repugs are not the only walking genetic horrors in my country... quite a few Dems have exactly the same job description. I guess I have become inured to the terror-filled realization that the American Idiocracy has arrived.
I had the same reaction after the first video. Fucking Hell... I'm too young to be giving up on humanity...
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
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In my experience, giving up on it completely allowed me to start picking up reasons not to.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.