joe, beta

I found this crazy shit at Digg, posted about a month ago, but the TV clip and WSJ story are over a year old.

Signs of narcissism among college students have been rising for 25 years, according to a recent study led by a San Diego State University psychologist. Obviously, Mr. Rogers alone can't be blamed for this. But as Prof. Chance sees it, "he's representative of a culture of excessive doting."

This vilification of a man that had died long before this piece ran is beyond comprehension. I love how they pretend like they have empirical evidence for this, and that they talk about "Asian students" taking whatever grade they're given and moving on.

Like, every Asian student? That's not a racist generalization based on no facts.

Not at all.

I don't mind when Fox News rambles on about factually tenuous right-wing crap: I think it's good, and it balances the far lefties, many of whom are equally unhinged.

But when they run out of even what Fox considers "news" and turn to disingenuous dissections of deceased childrens' advocates, it makes me really want to believe in heaven and hell, so these people get what they deserve.

At least the doc at the end equivocates and says Mr. Rogers didn't help or hurt.

The entitled children and adults I've known may or may not have been spoiled by Mr. Rogers, but more often than not, they were raised by parents who financed every move they made and otherwise kind of ignored their kids.

Wealthy ignorant people do more damage to young children than Mr. Rogers. And guess where wealthy ignorant people get their news...

(See, Fox News, crazy lefties can make unfair generalizations, too)

Organizations that benefit from Industry Canada's 16-year-old Community Access Program began receiving letters last week informing them that sites located within 25 kilometres of a public library would no longer be eligible for cash.

There may be more to the story than the woe-is-the-common-man presented in the article, but it seems pretty simple to me.

Budget cuts from the bottom up, that reduce funding for programs that give the internet to those who otherwise may not have access to it, seem to fly in the face of everything the world's major powers are saying about the future of society and the importance of connectivity.

But what do I know?

Palin's outrage prompted not an apology but a smackdown, from Andrea Fay Friedman, a Family Guy voice actress — who actually has Down. "My parents raised me to have a sense of humor," she said. "My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes." Ouch. Cartoon 1, Politician 0.

This article is about Sarah Palin's outrage at Family Guy's February 14, 2010 episode wherein Chris has a date with a girl who has Down Syndrome.

Time's Poniewozik ends on a balanced note, but his palpable disdain for Palin's "identity politics" is explicit.

I agree with him that Palin's use of her personal roles and appropriation of the roles of those around her to manipulate misguided citizens into identifying with her is a cheap tactic.

There are plenty of people who may go Palin's way if presented with simple and fact-based policy positions instead of autobiographical footnotes. I, of course, am not one of them. But I could certainly respect her, if only her approach wasn't so disingenuous.

Maybe not so serious as a singularity, but still worth a watch.

CORRECTION: I linked the wrong "Part 2"--this is the right one. Sorry about the mistake, folks. -- Ed.

I'll be posting the PDF of the full, 183-page opinion later.

When the polls show America is a center-right leaning nation — 76 percent of Americans identify themselves as either conservative or moderate — but you continue to seize control of businesses, threaten to control wages of private business executives, tax, spend and redistribute wealth with a daily barrage of Karl Marx-inspired class warfare, well then you haven't just lost direct touch with the American people, you were never in touch, in the first place.

Oh, Glenn.

I'm not often overtly political, but I know Beck's job is to say silly things to fire people up.

"76 percent of Americans identify themselves as either conservative or moderate . . ." -- Via, oh, wait, there's no source?

C'mon, Glenn, cite your authority.

Why did that "center-right leaning" majority allow Barack "Bush-Basher" Obama to snag 7% more of the popular vote than Senator McCain in 2008? They couldn't muster up a slimmer difference than that? (CBSNews Election Results)

Just sayin'.

Also, for the record, something tells me the Prez is better with logic than claiming voters went for the big R to teach Bush a lesson.

Perhaps he was instead referring the rampant partisanship that dominated Bush's terms. The same partisanship still exists, but Obama wants it gone, and maybe thinks it's dissipating.

Of course, it's not, or silly people like Glenn Beck wouldn't be illiciting this kind of response from silly people like me.

Note: This post was brought to you by the Posterous bookmarklet. It rocks.

State Sen. Scott Brown won a stunning victory over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley Tuesday night, handing Republicans a 41st seat in the United States Senate and endangering health care reform by bringing an end to the Democrats’ 60-seat majority.