XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, rec.arts.tv   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.global-warming, can.politics   
   From: soetoro@excite.com   
      
   Conservatives: The New Taliban   
      
      
      
   The Republican Taliban has offered its budget. Taliban, you say? Really?   
      
   How does the Taliban work? They keep people stupid. Women are witches.   
   Jews are another species. Westerners are degenerate. Only the "wise and   
   powerful" Taliban leaders know what the Koran really says, because they're   
   the only ones who can read, write, or tell everybody else what's real.   
      
   There was a time when the Muslim world was enlightened. They invented the   
   writing and math that we use today. They were the center of the world for   
   science. But then, in some places, the Taliban took over.   
      
   And don't for a minute think that it's really all about religion. Religion   
   is just used to manipulate the useful idiots. It's really about money,   
   power, and control. And that can only be held by thugs like the Taliban   
   when the people are kept poor and stupid.   
      
   Here in America, there's a new Taliban rising. They fetishize guns, just   
   like the Afghan Taliban. They fear women and education. They want to keep   
   the people stupid and in chains.   
      
   They're the plutocrats and the billionaires who rose to power on the heels   
   of Reagan's trickle-down economics. And now, what's trickling down to us   
   is their stupidity.   
      
   As Mark Morford wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle's blog SF Gate, "Six   
   percent of Americans believe in unicorns. Thirty-six percent believe in   
   UFOs. A whopping 24 percent believe dinosaurs and man hung out together.   
   Eighteen percent still believe the sun revolves around the Earth. Nearly   
   30 percent believe cloud computing involves... actual clouds. A shockingly   
   sad 18 percent, to this very day, believe the president is a Muslim. Do   
   you believe in angels? Forty-five percent of Americans do. In fact,   
   roughly 48 percent – Republicans and Democrats alike – believe in some   
   form of creationism."   
      
   So why do Americans believe in such absurd things? Because they're being   
   taught these ridiculous beliefs in our nation's schools, and hearing them   
   from our corporatized media.   
      
   All across America, our children are learning from the curriculum of the   
   plutocrats and billionaires. In Louisiana for example, children learn   
   about how hippies were dirty, rock musicians worship Satan, and climate   
   change is one big lie.   
      
   But America's new Taliban isn't just controlling what's being taught in   
   our classrooms. They're also dictating what's being shown on America's   
   billionaire-backed corporatized media.   
      
   That's where the likes of Rupert Murdoch come in.   
      
   Thanks to Murdoch, millions of Americans are subjected to the mountains of   
   misinformation and half-truths that pour out of Fox So-Called News on a   
   daily basis.   
      
   There used to be a time in our country when the mainstream media actually   
   had to report on the "news". But times have changed.   
      
   In 1986, Reagan ended the FCC doctrine that required radio and TV stations   
   to actually carry "real news" as a "public service," and within two years   
   the money-losing news services had come under network entertainment   
   divisions and all news decisions since then have been made based on   
   ratings.   
      
   Oh, and, the following year Rush Limbaugh started his radio show.   
      
   And now, plutocrat extraordinaires the Koch brothers are looking to buy   
   several major American newspapers, so that they can dictate what Americans   
   read in their morning paper.   
      
   The Kochtopus is interested in buying the Tribune Company newspapers,   
   which includes the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles   
   Times. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Kochtopus is "interested   
   in the clout they could gain through the Times' editorial pages."   
      
   Now, I can talk about all of this openly here, because most of the people   
   who will vote for the new American Taliban don't bother to inform   
   themselves with real "news", don't engage in critical thinking, and don't   
   want to know what's really going on in the world.   
      
   They love their ignorance, their bigotry, and most of all, their Fox News.   
      
   From Thomas Jefferson to John F. Kennedy, we have always, as a nation,   
   held high the ideal of a quality education for everybody.   
      
   As Jefferson wrote in a letter to George Wythe, his mentor, in 1786, "I   
   think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the   
   diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be   
   devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness... Preach, my dear   
   Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for   
   educating the common people."   
      
   Today, America faces a choice.   
      
   We can hand our country over to the new Taliban, and watch as the   
   plutocrats and billionaires consolidate even more wealth, power and   
   control over information in this country.   
      
   Or, we can fight for a progressive America, where there is a universal,   
   high quality education for all, a strong social safety net and a broad and   
   strong middle class.   
      
   This choice looms large in the current budget debate. The Republican   
   budget cuts funding to education, the social safety net, and makes the   
   rich richer while making the poor and middle class poorer.   
      
   Meanwhile, the Democratic budget requires the rich to pay something a   
   little bit closer to their fair share, and uses those funds to strengthen   
   education, the social safety net, and the middle class.   
      
   So America, it's up to you.   
      
   Your choice: Do you want the billionaire-backed Republican Taliban in   
   control, or a Democratic America, where unicorns and dinosaurs are only   
   talked about in children's fantasy books?   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Rightists are spineless and obedient, void of critical thinking and reason   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)