The Nature of Things

PolitiFact , the self-proclaimed checker of facts in the world of politics has become nothing more than a sad joke. Like so many in the world of journalism, or what passes for journalism these days, they are obsessed with appearing "fair and balanced" and never betraying a "liberal bias." Unfortunately for them, the truth does, in fact, very often have a liberal bias , but you'll never catch them conceding that. If necessary, they will distort the truth themselves in order to protect their credibility with right-wingers. It's a hopeless cause, for right-wingers have never given them any credibility anyway. PolitiFact's latest fiasco was their assessment of President Obama's State of the Union speech last night. In the speech, he made this statement: "In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005." PolitiFact originally rated that statement as half-true! When column...

I've long suspected it and now there is some independent proof: Watching Fox News rots your brain. The University of Maryland has conducted a study of consumers of news from various sources and they found that by a rather overwhelming percentage, the viewers of Fox News were the most ill-informed group that they surveyed. They polled their survey participants on a wide range of topics and found that Fox viewers were most likely to believe things that were demonstrably untrue . Overall, 90% of respondents, consumers from all sources of news, said they felt they had heard false information being given to them during the 2010 election campaign. However, while consumers of just about every news outlet believed some information that was false, the study found that Fox News viewers were "significantly more likely" to believe that: --Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely) --Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen...

Did you hear about President Obama's $200 million a day trip to India ? Or is it, as Glenn Beck said, a $2 BILLION a day trip? Well, actually, of course, it is neither. It's another one of those stories, of which there seems to be an endless stream, that has been made up out of thin air by some right-wing nut and is then repeated 24/7 on the Fox "News" Network as if it were fact. Soon it becomes a part of the "truthiness" accepted by gullible people, and, the first thing you know, millions of people believe it and are repeating it as gospel! It never occurs to them to stop and think about the source of the story or to wonder about that astronomical figure. They heard it on Fox so it must be true. And that is exactly what is wrong with this country. People have lost the ability to reason and to think logically. They are fed a pablum of lies from a source in which they devoutly believe and they never question it. Consider the fact that the war in Afghan...

There is a meme that is perpetuated by every conservative organization, think tank, pundit, and man in the street in this country. That meme states that we are a heavily and unjustly taxed people. That meme is a total falsehood. In fact, ours is one of the lower taxed countries among western nations. Any member of the tea party movement, meanwhile, knows and will be glad to tell you in a very loud voice that taxes have been raised since Barack Obama became president. The fact that this, too, is totally false will never stand in the way of a true teabagger rant. In fact, taxes for most Americans were lowered in 2009. In actuality a USA Today analysis shows that taxes in 2009 were the lowest they had been since 1950 when Harry S. Truman was president. Yes, he was a Democrat, too. So much for the Republicans' constant harping about how taxes are always higher under a Democratic president. The USA Today story stated in part: Federal, state and local taxes — including income, pr...

Did you know... ...that the Health Care Reform proposal will force people to give up their current health insurance and sign on to government insurance which will cost more than $400 per month per person? Plus, everybody will have to pay a high tax in addition to that? ...that Barack Obama is going to put a tax of $50 per gun on all guns in the country? If you don't pay it, your guns will be confiscated and you will go to jail. ...that for the last 20 years or so George W. Bush has been carrying on an illicit affair with Condaleeza Rice? ...that the Obamas regularly host heavy drinking parties at the White House where everyone gets totally soused? ...that if Health Care Reform passes, we will all have to pay MUCH, MUCH higher taxes and health care will be rationed? I know all of these things are true because I heard them all from impeccable sources at my hairdresser's shop today. If I didn't occasionally get my hair done, I'd never know ...