In Which The Devolutionist Finds Yet One More Reason To Never Watch Network News

In reaction to this news, can we lay to rest this idea that the mainstream media has some sort of liberal bias?

The networks are so determined to pretend to be impartial, they won't take five seconds to ask if maybe the right-wing nuts they are inviting onto the airwaves are in any way going to contribute to meaningful discourse.  Thus we have CNN now employing Erick Erickson of RedState, a man who once called a sitting Supreme Court justice a "goat-fucking child molester."  In the last year the Sunday show This Week has invited both Michelle Malkin ("Interning the Japanese during WW2 was the right thing to do") and Meghan McCain to participate in panel discussions.  Meghan McCain, it should be said, got schooled on Bill Maher's show last year, and ABC invites her to sit at a table with Christiane Amanpour?  You might as well have had a lightbulb sit in Meghan's chair.  A burned-out one, as that's the only kind of bulb that would be dimmer than Meghan McCain.

But then, Breitbart has been schooled on Maher's show too. Apparently looking like a fucking ignorant moron on freewheeling HBO is now a pre-requisite to being invited to participate in political forums on ABC.  There was a time that would have been considered failing upward, but given the recent trend I'd say Bill Maher has the upper hand.

Now that I think about it, Maher was once fired from ABC for saying something controversial and wound up on HBO a couple of years later. So there you have it: liberal says something controversial on ABC and gets fired, conservative proves himself not smart enough for an HBO audience and goes to ABC instead.  Somewhere Ted Koppel is laughing into a bottle of schnapps.

In Which The Devolutionist Pitches An Exciting New Reality TV Series

Well, not exactly new.  Your Devolutionist stumbled across a blog called WingNut Comments the other day and it gave him an idea for the next season of Survivor.

Survivor: Blog Commenter!

Here's the idea: lock a dozen people in their own small room with a four-pack of Red Bull, some of that dehydrated food astronauts eat, and a dedicated DSL line.  Each person must spend a certain amount of time reading and engaging with the commenters at certain sites: Free Republic, Hot Air, Red State, WND, Newsmax,  Reason, just to name a few off the top of my head.  You could rotate it, give each person particular sites on particular days and have them engaging each other on the comment boards without knowing it.  One person could secretly be designated as the Imposter Wingnut, writing the most outlandish shit he or she can think of and trying to drive the other contestants completely nuts.

There could also be challenges like the Troll Challenge, where an individual has to play Imposter Wingnut on the comment boards of some of the more earnest liberal sites: HuffPo, DailyKos, Firedoglake.

Contestants would be eliminated as they crack and beg to be let out of their room, smash their computers, put their heads through the wall, curl up in the fetal position under their beds while crying and muttering gibberish to themselves, and so on.  Maybe we even put them on Suicide Watch and take away all belts, bedsheets, and shoelaces for a time before elimination.

Hey Mark Burnett: call me!

In Which The Devolutionist Cannot See Reason

It's no surprise to anyone who follows our always-devolving political discourse that one theme always running through libertarian/conservative thought is that of Victimhood.  All those Tea Party folk?  Victims of liberal elitists, the lamestream media, racial politics, Jon Stewart, activist judges, big government, Alinsky tactics, George Soros, illegal immigrants, puppies, kittens, what have you.

The Devolutionist will now break out the world's smallest violin and play a rousing rendition of "My Heart Pumps Purple Piss For You."

Over at Wonkette tonight a Reason reader implored your Devolutionist to read this smarmy post but replace the word "Teabagger" with the word "n*****" and then tell him if it still seemed satirical.  Apparently in Teabagland "Teabagger" is an epithet on a par with a word used to dehumanize an entire race of people for at least the last three or four hundred years.  Apparently we're supposed to respect a bunch of shouting anger bears with no coherent set of beliefs, no respect for a progressive viewpoint, really nothing but high BMI and a shitload of tricorn hats, even when they compare their struggle of the last eighteen months to the centuries-long struggle for civil rights for blacks.  Apparently, according to this guy, "dehumanization is dehumanization."

Meh.  Your Devolutionist does not need a psychology lecture.  Really, it's not about dehumanizing anyone.  He's just sick of the whining.

In Which The Devolutionist Tells Arthur Laffer Where He Can Put His Famous Curve

Your Devolutionist does not make a habit of reading the Wall Street Journal, mostly because he assumes it is written for one (admittedly large) demographic only: wealthy and selfish assholes.  Today's editorial by "economist" Arthur Laffer does nothing to dispel that impression.

Laffer is of course the man who thought up the infamous Laffer Curve, which we're not even going to try to sum up here.  Suffice to say that it has always sounded to your Devolutionist like magical thinking, and the results of the Reagan and Bush tax policies, which cited Laffer, have borne out this contention.

In his WSJ editorial Laffer rails against Bill Gates and his father, who have been pushing an initiative in Washington state to impose a 5% income tax on individuals making over $200,000 a year and couples making over $400,000 (the state currently has no income tax.)

In Which The Devolutionist Makes Reading Recommendations

The Devolutionist is not a huge fan of Matt Taibbi.  He's got passion, but sometimes he does not seem to have a clear handle of his subjects (his writing on the Wall Street bailouts, for example, came off, in the Devolutionist's opinion, like a college paper written by someone who had given up understanding his research even as he continued to cite sources.)  He should stick to writing articles like this one.  It doesn't break any new ground, but it does put insightful context around the Tea Party:

Tea & Crackers

As a complement, this article from the Village Voice works nicely.  VV writers have a habit of not pulling punches, so it's refreshing to read a piece in which the author begs people to "stop believing a word this pus-bucket, Breitbart, utters."  The Devolutionist has the same thought every time he sees Andrew Breitbart in any forum:

White America Has Lost Its Mind

One wonders if the media coverage of the Tea Party and "humans" like Breitbart and Palin and their ilk has less to do with their importance and more to do with that same urge that causes people to rubberneck at accidents on the freeway.  It's as if the media is collectively saying "What a fucking mess, are you kidding me?"  It's a theory, anyway.

In Which The Devolutionist Throws Up In His Mouth A Little

When oh when will this douche noodle's fifteen minutes be up?

Levi Johnston Makes Gross Porn Video With Some Old Lady