The Center for American Progress has updated their list of Bush's policy reversals. Print out a copy and keep it handy for your next encounter with a wingnut.
Speaking of such encounters, this weekend I was at the house of a friend of a friend, a graduate of West Point and a conservative. We had a respectful, if spirited, discussion, but one that I still found somewhat disturbing. Most of it was typical "liberal media bias" theories, which I attempted to knock down with some success. I wish I had more facts at my fingertips when it comes to these things. Maybe I'll start printing out The Gadflyer's Ammo Dumps on these issues and carrying them around with me.
Anyway, when I mentioned NPR as one of our more reliable and balanced news sources, he scoffed as if I had cited the Xinhua News Service.
I didn't have this at the time, but lo-and-behold, a report by FAIR on the perception and reality of bias at NPR.
Citing comments dating to the Nixon administration in the 1970s, the report said, "That NPR harbors a liberal bias is an article of faith among many conservatives." However, it added, "Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR."
--snip--
Overall, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 61 percent to 38 percent, a figure only slightly higher now, when the GOP controls the White House and both houses of Congress, than during a previous survey in 1993, during the Clinton administration.
So there ya go. Take that.
This is pretty typical conservative boilerplate, though. The most disturbing and shocking point made by my conservative host was certainly this: Islam is a religion that specifically advocates the killing of all non-Muslims.
Boing! Eyes bug out of head, jaw drops to floor, brain struggles to find response other than, "Are you fucking nuts?!?"
When regained my composure a bit, I tried to explain that Islam is a religion very much like Christianity and Judaism, and in fact derives from the same texts and that radical militants are no more a commonplace part of the Muslim faith than doctor-killing pro-lifers are a mainstream part of Christianity.
It turns out he was referring to Prophet of Doom, a book which argues that the Koran "orders the faithful to wipe infidels out to the last, to deceive them, to ambush them, to enslave them, to torture them, and to murder them. This is not [author Craig] Winn's opinion; it is the only rational conclusion that can be drawn."
Sounds reasonable.
What was this post about? I forget.
