Last Call For The Paranoia Bubble

Just a reminder that in the FOX News/AM Talk Radio alternate reality, the real (and only) racism in America is against white people, the poor dears.  Raw Story:

A Christian radio host insisted last week that white people were no longer racist, and even if they were, it’s the fault of racist black people. 

Sandy Rios, of American Family Radio, was offended when a listener suggested she was racist toward black people, who she blamed for inciting white racism. 

“I think the racist garbage coming from the — uh, a lot of blacks right now who are just filled with bitterness and rage is just amazing to me,” Rios said. “It is racism, I am seeing it constantly here in D.C., you know, I think — and it’s causing white citizens to become more racist than they ever were.” 

She continued, referring to white people using the term for Germanic tribes that once dominated England and is now generally associated with British-American Protestants and white supremacists. 

“I think for the most part, the American Anglo-Saxon crew really has moved past racism, they did it quite a long time ago,” she said.

And Sandy's living proof of that, right?

To recap her worldview:

1. Black people are all angry bitter racists.
2. White people aren't racist at all.
3. ...Except for the white people who are.
4. But that's okay because it's caused by the fact that...
5. Black people are all angry bitter racists.

The fact I'm pointing this out is proof of this, right?

Jim DeMented's Job Review

Former senator Jim DeMint left Congress to run the Heritage Foundation in 2013 to give the organization the, ahem, credibility it needed to count as an outside Tea Party group rather than the DC insider think tank that it is, and a year later, it looks like the Powers That Be aren't super happy with the arrangement.

In its first year under former senator and tea party godfather Jim DeMint, there was a growing consensus -- and concern -- that the foundation once renowned for its intellectual rigor might now be more of a political advocacy outlet than a home for scholarly research, albeit of the conservative variety. 

Heritage saw a study on the supposed cost of immigration reform blasted by those within its own ideological sphere as methodologically shoddy. One of its authors was forced to resign after revelations of anti-immigrant views in his earlier work surfaced. Its Obamacare research has come under scrutiny for its inherent bias, as TPM has reported. 

Those unforced slip-ups, and its advocacy arm's growing reputation as a bully toward any kind of moderation, have started to call the foundation's reputation into question on Capitol Hill. Conservatives lamented to the New Republic that Heritage had become a political action group "with a research division," burning bridges with the House GOP, something totally foreign to "the gold standard of conservative, forward-looking thought" that it used to be. The foundation's $82 million budget was reportedly being scaled back, with more money flowing to the advocacy efforts that have so chafed Hill Republicans.

In other words, what passes for the "intellectually rigorous conservative community" is shocked -- shocked I tell you! -- to discover that one of the most virulent anti-science Senators in Republican history hasn't provided them with the gravitas they were looking for.  They're apparently even more shocked that DeMint is using academic research and the studies they produce in a fashion that would make cigarette companies blush with embarrassment, fitting data to ideological means and damn the results!

Further proof that "conservative think tank" may be the biggest oxymoron in Washington DC.

The Church Of The New Masters Of The Universe

The Church of the Invisible Hand Of The Free Market dictates that the most moral of us are the wealthiest, because hard work is rewarded.  So the 85 wealthiest people on earth are collectively better morally that the bottom 3.5 billion of the world's population because they are collectively as wealthy.

So rejoice, the Church says. These people are as Saints among you, if not Gods themselves.  You should emulate them in every way!

If you were disheartened by Oxfam's recent report that the 85 richest people in the world hold more wealth than the 3.5 billion poorest people, it's probably just because you lack the entrepreneurial spirit of Kevin O'Leary. 

O'Leary, the businessman and reality television star, reacted to the report with glee earlier this week on the eponymous Canadian talk show, "Lang and O'Leary Exchange." 

"It's fantastic and this is a great thing because it inspires everybody, gets them motivation to look up to the one percent and say, ‘I want to become one of those people, I’m going to fight hard to get up to the top,’” he said. “This is fantastic news and of course I applaud it. What can be wrong with this?"

Bow before your masters, lowly peons!  If you were worthy, you'd be as rich.  You're not, which means you're just too lazy.  Work harder!

The reaction from O'Leary's co-host, Amanda Lang, said it all. 

"Really?" she said. "So, someone living on a dollar a day in Africa is getting up in the morning and saying, ‘I’m going to be Bill Gates’?”

Why there's nothing at all stopping them from doing just that!  The only reason that person in Africa living on a dollar a day hasn't made as much as Bill Gates yet is because they are lazy and immoral, Q.E.D. and Amen!

[UPDATE] And a new Pew Research poll on income inequality bears out that -- surprise! -- most Republicans are members of the Church of the Invisible Hand, while a large majority of Democrats and a slight majority of Independent voters believe in societal advantages and disadvantages.

Republicans of course can't admit that there are structural economic barriers in place in America that have to do with class, gender, and race, otherwise they'd have to admit they're largely responsible for perpetuating them.

StupidiNews!

• Texas has executed a convicted Mexican national despite the protests of the Mexican government, who claimed the execution was a violation of international law.
• Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling by February 7th, or else the administration will have to resort to measures to pay the government's bills.
• Talks between Ukrainian opposition leaders and President Viktor Yanukovich have broken down in Kiev, with the city facing massive and violent protests.
• A California state Senate committee report revealed engineers knew of hundreds of cracks in Chinese manufactured parts for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, but were told to stay quiet.
• The Supreme Court's first major patent law decision of the year finds a unanimous ruling that the burden of proof for patent infringement rests on the patent holder.