I don't know why I bother to listen C-SPAN on the weekends. Some days the level of lunacy provides a strange sort of comfort (good to know some things never change) and other days it just depresses me. Someone will be on there, carefully lay out all the facts, explain that even though the common perception might be one thing, the reality is something else. Like crime. The common perception is that crime is rampant, lots more violence, and so on, when statistics show that simply isn't true. Even when when statisticians correct for factors like underreporting, there is not as much violent crime per capita today as there was 30 years ago. Then, after the expert has carefully laid out the facts, someone will call in to rant about the U.S. being soft on crime (even though this country has the highest incarceration rate in the world now and some of the most draconian sentencing laws) and that if we'd all just agree that it's okay to beat the crap out of kids -- okay, they don't say that. They advocate for spanking or using a paddle -- the streets would be full of unicorns. I guess this is one of the mornings when my tolerance for willful ignorance is close to nonexistant.
Or maybe I'm just depressed because I actually found myself agreeing with Frank Lutz a time or two.
OMG - you agreed with Frank Lutz (a time or two)??? Now I'm worried. I refuse to watch C-Span on weekends - and I was less than impressed with John Boehner and Lyndsey Graham on Meet the Press this morning also. On.....to football.
ReplyDeleterd verification: juking (Oh really?)
Damn, lady! That's harsh!
ReplyDeleteAround here there is a method of keeping any correction away: state a slogan. Stand glassy eyed, staring into the distance and repeat that slogan in ever increasing volumn until whoever is confusing you with facts goes away.
I only listen to C-span when I know Gibbs is doing a briefing, or the Pres is talking, or Howard Dean.
ReplyDeleteTwitter is the place I'm hanging out when not rewriting the novel. I may never finish, but it might be really good for whoever finds it after I've gone batty. Or battier.
My word verification is "painked" A lovely combo of Punked and pained.