Fear-Based, As Usual
The big problem I have with organized religion is that, like the Conservative movement, it relies on fear to succeed. You know, Praise the Lord - but just in case your heathen ass is too far gone for that to help, fill the collection basket, too.
Yesterday I wrote about the American Family Radio Network’s wacky, wacky interview with Steve Forbes, and promised this follow-up about the network’s top-of-the-hour “news” report.
It’s bad enough that a pungently religious radio network would hire an anchor calling himself Rusty (as in “corroded from lack of use”) Pugh (or is it “Pew”!? Dual meaning intended…).
Worse, however, is that AFR apparently sinks no resources - or common sense – into confirming the veracity of the stories it airs. One which ran at noon yesterday, from a correspondent whose name has since escaped me, carried audio of a spokesman for the Liberty Institute yammering that changes to textbooks used by Texas schools are nothing more than a liberal plot to rewrite history. He repeated oft-repeated-already claims that the Texas schools are considering approving texts which “leave out” Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, among others, in favor of “more diverse” figures.
The Texas curriculum story has been called important (mostly by Conservatives) because Texas is a huge purchaser of texts, and as it goes - Righties would like us to believe – the nation goes as well.
What a load of crap.
One minute of checking online (it literally took me 60 seconds) turned up the truth: The omissions were in an early draft, as this story- from a FOXNews affiliate, no less – makes clear. And while the omissons survived in later drafts, the notion that these men would be left out of a student’s history curriculum across the breadth of their education is ludicrous. And Conservatives know it.
But that’s what one does when one is out of ammo: They begin throwing things.