The 20 people screwing up America

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In anticipation of Bernard Goldberg’s new book, John at Right Wing News asked more than 200 Right-of-center bloggers who made their top 20 list of the same.

I must have a short attention span or something – I could only come up with 13, and in many cases, my choices didn’t come anywhere near the choices of my fellow bloggers. I disagree with some of them, too. Al Gore?

I don’t want to take the hit away from John, so I won’t copy his list here…I will tell you that one lefty blogger and one GOP senator did make the list. Go read it! Then come back and read the list I submitted! :-)

Okay, The Anchoress’ unranked list of 20 people who are screwing up America

1) Whoever decided that Saturday morning cartoons should be used to “educate children” to “be nice” to each other, and that Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, if shown at all, could not be shown being shot, blown-up, erased, squeezed into tiny spaces, sent flying from a cannon, played like violins, dropped into glasses of water, blown to smithereens by Martians, unfeathered unto nakedness, or tricked into playing “Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms)” correctly on the piano, thus being sent to heaven wherein they wear halos and pluck on tiny harps. They can, however, be shown in drag. Whole generations are growing up being thought of as too delicate to watch cartoon characters being shaped into musical instruments, and they’ve lost exposure to thinking outside the box.

2) Mayor Michael “Nurse” Bloomberg, who has decided that a pub owner who wishes to cater to a clientèle of smokers cannot do so, is not at LIBERTY to do so, because people cannot be entrusted to make their own decisions as to whether they wish to be exposed to smoke, or not. A right-thinking Mayor would allow “smoking establishments” to announce clearly that they cater to smokers, and are willing to make suitable recommendations to non-smokers, who can then go sip their white wines elsewhere and leave Christopher Hitchens to his gin and tonic in peace.

3) The specific automatons of “Bush-hate” who long-ago stopped actively thinking and have degenerated into knee-jerk reactionaries willing to believe the man capable of any evil someone can dream up. And the equally mindless Dick Durbins who will speak offensive and destructive nonsense about our troops – comparing them to the Pol Pot regimes, in order to feed their hate.

4) The New York Times. For specifics, see here.

5) Ted Kennedy. Post-Chappaquiddick, his presence in the Senate made it acceptable, throughout our political system, for cheaters, substance abusers, and excuse-makers to run for and remain in office. He lowered the bar for acceptable behavior by a paid “public servant” and now we have the elected leaders we deserve.

6) All broadcast news that is NOT reporting on a breaking story. When something big is going on, the press manages, often to rise to the occasion and present breaking news professionally and even admirably. Left to their own devices, and with too much air-time to fill, they fall into partisan hackery. NOTE: This was written before Katrina and the media’s decision to distort even breaking news, if it serves them to do so.

7) Harry Reid. I’m sorry, but as soon as he told the story about the 11 year old boy with the skateboard who said, “Gee, Mr. Reid, when I grow up I want to be just like YOU,” he should have been stripped of his Senate credentials and sent back to Nevada. There is no place in American politics for that much insincerity, and condescending, cynical disingenuity. Subsequent remarks have only underlined the fact. My son Buster expects Reid to start walking around with a puppy in his arms, any day, because he believes Reid is simply that condescending. “Look…I have a puppy! A PUPPY! Don’t you just LOVE me?”

8) Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Ex-presidents who delight in bad-mouthing a sitting president while they are on foreign soil. Enough said.

9) People who would love almost everything President Bush has done, if only he had a D after his name.

10) Robert (Castro-good, Bush-bad, don’t-even-think-of-developing-land-where-I-live-only-where-anyone-else-lives) Redford Also Arianna Huffington, Norman Lear, Laurie David, Babs Streisand and any other folk who air-condition thousands of square footage each day and take private jets hither and yon, but figure they’re more noble and less wasteful than anyone else because…you know…they drive a Prius. They make stupidity and hypocrisy look acceptable.

11) Teachers Unions. Good teachers should be well-compensated, but teachers who are phoning it in because they have tenure and a sweet benefits package hurt our students and our nation. The Teacher’s Union foments mediocrity, suggests the solution to every problem in education is “money,” and ties the hands of school administrators who would like to eject ineffective “educators.”

12) Hillary Clinton. I hate to be obvious, but the truth is, anyone who is THIS beloved by an adoring, uncritical and unquestioning press should never be trusted or given power. Anyone who “owns” the press the way she does is being handed the keys to a tyrannical reign. The press’s gulping fascination for this woman is enough to warn any clear-thinking person away from electing her as president. Although, in fairness to Mrs. Clinton, the press demonstrated quite soundly, in the last election, that almost any Democrat candidate, running against a Republican, can anticipate an astounding and uniform lack of curiosity about their past, or their thoughts, ideas or solutions from the Fourth Estate. Mrs. Clinton is only frightening because of the extremes to which the press will go to promote and protect her.

13) The Fourth Estate. They remind me of St. Paul’s sad cry, “all that I hate, I am become!” Diverse in everything but thought, they’ve exposed themselves as precisely the things they claim to hate, bigots and purveyors of prejudicial stereotypes. We need a few journalists who have never stepped inside a j-school, and who understand that a “scoop” involves real (not manufactured) evidence that can be proved – that forcing someone else to “prove a negative,” is not reportage, it is slander.

Like me, Betsy Newmark had some difficulty coming up with 20. Goldberg must have a longer attention span or a sharper focus, or something, to come up with 100!