News Roundup

While Japan deals with the aftermath of the largest earthquake in its history--a disaster that has left over 22,000 people missing or dead in 22 countries and thousands more homeless--we in the U.S. have problems of our own.

Across the nation, red-blooded, patriotic Americans are up in arms over being required to buy light bulbs that will lower their electric bills. Oh, the tyranny...

And Rand Paul can't have the toilet he wants, which means he has less freedom than women who want an abortion. If you're too busy to click on the link Rand Paul's specific complaint is that he can't get a "super toilet," one of those monstrosities with industrial flushing capacity. Money quote:

"I think there should be some self-examination from the administration on the idea that you favor a woman's right to an abortion, but you don't favor a woman or a man's right to choose what kind of light bulb, what kind of dishwasher, what kind of washing machine."

I don't know much about abortions, so I don't know if his analogy is flawed or not. He can still get a toilet, just not a super-toilet. Is he saying that women have a choice between abortions and super-abortions?

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has been the scene of angry recriminations as Peter King held his hearings on radicalization in the American Muslim community. As usual, the mainstream media has completely ignored the issue on everyone's minds: have the hearings made John Boehner cry yet?

The Way We Live Now

Or rather, the way they live in media-land: an hour of this morning's On Point was devoted to Republican efforts to eliminate federal funding for PBS and NPR. I usually enjoy On Point, but the devotion of an hour to this topic was typical of the media's absorption in non-issues. The Republicans tried to pull the plug on public broadcasting in 1995 and it didn't work. And that was when they controlled both the House and the Senate.

Bottom line: no Republican wants to go home at election time and find out he's known as the guy who killed Elmo.* Of course, the fact that NPR & PBS are even being discussed illustrates Republican unwillingness to tackle actual issues. They claimed to be concerned about the deficit and they waste time on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which takes less than 1 % of the federal budget?

And then there's the other "issue" of an NPR fundraiser being taped by Operation Veritas saying the truth about the Tea Party and making nice with people he thought were donors. Calling a bunch of racist fanatics racist fanatics and schmoozing with people who might give his employer money? Clearly this is a man who doesn't deserve employment.



*Well, maybe Rand Paul does.