If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Given that any reasonable person can plainly see that our president is in fact trying to lead us to ruin, here's the good news: he's really, really bad at it.
Yeah, I'm talking about everybody's favorite Christian nationalist history revisionist David Barton. It seems this paragon of lies and propaganda has been invited to speak at the Annual National Prayer Breakfast at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
With technology continuing to ramp up our ability to transmit news at breakneck speed, along with the public's insatiable need to know something ASAP, the media has been painfully susceptible to rapid-fire misfiring in the race for "breaking news" and ratings.
It's all yet another case study in how the Republicans too often comport themselves in the wake of a disaster -- these self-proclaimed "patriots" are merely selective, fair-weather patriots, only willing to lend their unified support when the president is from their own party.
I hate to break ranks with my liberal brethren, but there is a clear pattern in the mass killings that this country has suffered over the past 10 years. If, as the evidence strongly indicates, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev took part in the mayhem in Boston, then that pattern extends right up to the moment.
Whatever your personal reaction to the song "Accidental Racist" may be, the immediate controversy that followed is a reminder that voices appearing to call for unity are subject to intense scrutiny. And that's a good thing.
O'Reilly surely is quite cognizant of keeping his ratings high as he sees support for gay marriage rise rapidly in the polls. But if the debate over marriage equality now needs to move into the Fox News audience, it's certainly not a bad thing to have O'Reilly taking on the anti-equality crowd.
One year ago today, on April 10, 2012, a new book hit the shelves -- David Barton's The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson.
The one thing a Texas Republican is afraid of these days is drawing a tea party-backed primary opponent. So when a conspiracy theory whips up fear among the electorate, legislators are less likely to calm voters with facts and logic.
The people I work with have real problems and are yearning for real solutions -- and our politicians are failing them. The Republican Party needs to begin to address the needs of people like them if it wants to become relevant again. And yet, despite my current disillusions, I still consider myself a Republican.
See how much a story can change in just one retelling? A gunman from San Francisco in the 1860s became a gunman from New England in the 1850s. How much might the story have already changed from whatever incident L'Amour based his novel's version on?
Barton claimed on his radio show to have "searched" and only found two gun accidents in the founding era, but his claim became even more incredible on Beck's show. Now it's two gun accidents in two hundred years!
There will no doubt be people who take great pleasure from the latest fracas between Ron Paul and his grassroots activists. It just goes to show when money is involved out goes the concept of "liberty" and "grassroots" activism.
The notion that simply acknowledging Jackson's absurd statements lends them credence is a valid one. Granted, her lunacy doesn't deserve any additional attention. However, it's important to note that Jackson is, for better or worse, a public figure with a following.
So, did Barton get his piece of 'history' from Bendigo Shafter? Only Barton can prove that he didn't. I therefore challenge David Barton to provide a source for the story he told on Beck's show.
Like many a good Christian, pseudo-historian David Barton likes guns and, of course, thinks that every person in America has an unlimited constitutional -- and biblical -- right to own and carry them.
