Crazy Talk/Heath Care

Frank Rich had another great article this week digging deeper into the health care vote aftermath. (At the risk of appearing too liberal, Paul Krugman did as well.) Rich argues that the extreme reaction to Obama and minority members of Congress is not really about health care at all but a resistance to the idea of minorities and women (namely, Nancy Pelosi and Sonia Sotomayor with probably a little Hillary Clinton thrown in) breaking out of their subordinate roles, at least as how the Tea Partiers see it. The consequences could potentially be disastrous.
I see examples of this type of black and white reactionary thinking all over the place. In the last year or so as I drive home between 3 and 4 in the afternoon I've taken to listening to AM 990 rather than the Canadian Broadcasting Company's "As It Happens" (no offense to Canada but there are only so many stories about seals and politics in Ottawa that I can handle). There I get to hear Michael Savage, Rusty Humphries, and occasionally Glenn Beck. It is always interesting and informative to get the other side of the debate, but it's also alarming and disconcerting to hear the logical leaps and warping of information. Most of my listening at that time is to Michael Savage who I have made some mental notes about his most egregious rantings.
1) Citing the Internet as his source that the Air France flight that crashed on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris was taken down by terrorists. "Why isn't the mainstream media reporting this?" Actually, why are you trying to drum up fear when there is no credible evidence to back up your point.
2) Bringing on a questionable "scientist" to say that cap and trade won't work because it failed in trying to curb sulfur dioxide emissions from industry in the mid-west that casued acid rain. Last I checked, we haven't heard much about acid rain in the Northeast as that was one of the most successful and least invasive solutions to combining market forces (trading the right to pollute) with an environmental ethic.
3) My personal favorite (so far): during the initial swine flu outbreak in May 2009, Savage referred to Obama as Chairman Obama because of his fiscal stimulus package and not a minute later called for him to follow China's lead and close down the border with Mexico (China had banned all flights from Mexico). Stopping 150,000+ cars from crossing that border would have been devastating to the American economy. Swine flu did not turn out to be as bad as feared so it looks like Obama made the right non-vall on that one.
To counteract this idiocy I used to watch a lot of Comedy Central. I don't get to watch the Daily Show or Steven Colbert as much as I would like to (or even at all these days) but every now and then the buzz about a particular episode or sketch inspires me to look it up. This one is absolutely brilliant.

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