Ernie and Bert and the meaning of marriage equality
By Michael J.W. Stickings Here's one of the greatest magazine covers ever. In its quiet way, it its expression of love, it explains what the whole fight over same-sex marriage, over equal rights, is all about. I find it deeply moving.
Krazy Bill Kristol hates Sesame Street, liberal education, and the number 44
By Michael J.W. Stickings Mitt Romney may have "won" last week's debate, but the larger takeaway is that he's a liar who wants to kill Big Bird. And in response his supporters are reiterating the lies and taking Romney's anti-Sesame Street line (or, rather, anti-funding for public television, including Sesame Street) beyond even what he intended, arguing that Sesame Street is fundamentally evil, the PBS equivalent to sending your children to an al Qaeda training camp in South Waziristan. It isn't about the budget anymore. Funding for public television accounts for just 0.012 of the federal budget. It's about right-wing political correctness and paranoia. And you can find it spewing from the neocon delusions of Krazy Bill Kristol:
[T]here's something deeply revealing about Obama's blithe willingness to portray Wall Street as an enemy. Wall Street is key to American prosperity -- even to American greatness. Lots of important and impressive Americans have had careers on Wall Street. What Wall Street does is important. Wall Street matters.
I hate to tell the liberals this, but Sesame Street doesn't. It would be nice if life were "a magic carpet ride/Every door will open wide." It would be nice if happiness could be achieved by government telling us, "how to get/How to get to Sesame Street." It would be nice (maybe) if the world of Sesame Street were real.
But it's not. It's fictional. It's childish. It's as fictional and childish as the make-believe world of Obama's liberalism -- a liberalism that scorns Wall Street, and disdains Main Street... but embraces Sesame Street.
This is entirely ridiculous, of course. Obama doesn't think Wall Street is any sort of enemy. And he obviously knows that Wall Street matters. Has Kristol ever taken a look at the president's economic team? Does he remember Obama's tepid treatment of the real perpetrators of the Great Recession? Does he remember Obama's cautious approach to regulation? What the president objects to isn't Wall Street but the sort of destructive avarice that led to Wall Street's all-out assult on "Main Street." What he objects to, that is, is Wall Street run amok.
And of course he doesn't disdain Main Street. What does that even mean? The president's record has focused on salvaging what was left of Main Street from the ravages of Wall Street and uncontrolled corporate greed. The president has supported business, kept taxes historically low, and focused on rebuilding the economy out of the rubble that Republican policy had created.
As for Sesame Street... does it matter? Of course it does. It's an educational institution that without proselytizing teaches children the values that any modern liberal society should value. It's not about government telling you this or that, it's about learning in a fun, entertaining setting. You can fairly criticize its methods, just as you can fairly criticize the use of television as an educational tool, but if you really object to its values you're basically a monster.
Of course it's make-believe! It's a television show populated mostly by muppets! And of course it's idealistic. It presents a comforting world for children away from the ugliness and violence of so much of modern life. (But it's also very much rooted in the real world, and if you don't get that, you've either never seen the show or are an ignorant right-wing bigot. Or both.)
But to say that it therefore doesn't matter is just plain stupid.
And if Bill Kristol, an educated and supposedly smart guy, insists on criticizing "Obama's liberalism," and therefore to such things as marriage equality, access to affordable health care, and dignified care for seniors, what he's really saying is that he objects to the values of toleration, inclusion, opportunity, and hope, which is what you find on Sesame Street and in the hearts and minds of Americans who want a bit more from life than the retrograde dystopia of the conservative -- and neoconservative -- imagination.
The president, at a speech yesterday in Wisconsin:
When he was asked what he would do to actually cut spending and reduce the deficit, he said he'd eliminate public television funding... But I just want to make sure I got this straight. He'll get rid of regulations on Wall Street -- but he's going to crack down on Sesame Street.
Yes, that's right. Because, of course, Romney doesn't want to tell the voters just what he'd cut given how deeply unpopular such cuts would be. Better to talk about offsetting his massive tax cuts for the rich with vague talk about loopholes and deductions and to go after one of the right's usual targets, public television, which takes up a minuscule percentage of the federal budget. And by minuscule I mean 0.012 of the budget. Yes, killing Big Bird is surely the way to go. I mean, it's not like the numbers have to add up or anything. (Right, Paul Ryan?)
(Ed. note: This is a follow-up to Fogg's post from yesterday. See the Fox News clip there or below. It's certainly enraging, but Hannity et al. are also massively stupid. It's hard to know whether to laugh or shudder. -- MJWS)
It's impossible for me to watch a Fox "panel" chew on a story without thinking of an alligator feeding frenzy or a bunch of mean dogs fighting for possession of a bit of rawhide. Actually, it's impossible for me to watch Fox News at all, but for those of a tougher breed, here's a prime example of that ruthless war on reality called Fox.
Listen carefully and you'll spot the message that Sesame Street aims at lower income, urban kids and you'll smell the racism and you'll hear the Republican anthem that the fraction of a cent per taxpayer that this show costs is "on principle" too much and especially because it tries to elevate the underclasses in direct contravention of Divine Law and Ayn Rand, whichever is the more powerful.
Does anyone really believe that Big Bird is a Communist or that Sesame Street is ruining America and the morals of its children? (Perhaps Doctor Spock fans can sigh with relief now that they've moved on to a new chew toy.)
Perhaps you do, perhaps you watch Fox anyway. Perhaps you're a malicious idiot with delusions of persecution, but here it is again:
Did you know that not only is Sesame Street "liberal," not only is Big Bird a bigot, watching it could lead to a totalitarian state and undermines morality and the destruction of the American family. It sets up an appetite for "governmental largesse" and prompts high schoolers to nominate homosexuals to host the junior prom.
No, not only could you not make this up, you couldn't be paid millions to rave like a lunatic. It's getting to the point where you couldn't pay me to admit I'm American.
Kermit the Frog. Bert & Ernie. Big Bird. Grover. Elmo.
I mention those names, and what image appears in your head? Soft, fuzzy puppets, the Muppets, who teach pre-schoolers and elementary schoolchildren, some of whom cannot afford books and can't get to the (now shut) libraries of the inner cities and rural counties, how to read, and how to do basic math.
Oh. And give them tools and teach them good Judeo-Christian messages of peace and harmony, of getting along in your community. Of how you don't need to fear differences, because underneath it all, we're all just people.
For forty years, these messages have been brought to you courtesy the Children's Television Workshop.
You think, "How can anyone find fault with the basic messages inherent in any church service?"
Our tax dollars by the $tens of millions$ have been redistributed to the CPB/PBS for decades to ‘help’ its social change agents reach into our homes and preach the gospel of multiculturalism.
It is both ironic and hypocritical that the folks producing and airing such socially conscious segments for “Sesame Street” would certainly be among the very first to intolerantly decry the holy leftist “separation of church and state!” political canard.
In fairness to Alec Baldwin and that family, this is not a family member, but is desperate to hang onto the coattails of his in-name-only family.
Baldwin goes onto to point out that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is never sung on Sesame Street, nor is God Bless America. Nevermind that the message it teaches, without referencing any church, is precisely identical to the secular messages he received while wearing his "big boy panties" in Sunday school at Our Lady of Whateverthehell.
Nope. Sesame Street, because it is publicly funded, MUST be part of the Islamofascistcommiepinkohippiefaglesbowymnist movement.
Well, Bert & Ernie DO live together, after all.
I guess Ol' Adam missed this while wearing his (faux) uniform, filming Independence Day:
And indeed, I pointed this out to him in comments and challenged HIS patriotism, since Sesame Street has been to military bases around the world.
But I digress...
Not every patriotic effort has to be borne in with flags waving and guns blazing, or morons in red, white, and blue clothing shouting "USA! USA!" at a sporting event or concert.
Sometimes, a patriotic effort is a matter of teaching a fellow countryman a fact he did not know before. How to count. How to read. How to look at the family down the street wearing yarmulkes and understanding that it's no different than the cross your daddy or older brother wears.
I admit, when Sesame Street started devoting a portion of its show to teaching in Spanish, I got a little uneasy.
Until I thought about it: how do you reach a kid who's parents may not even speak English, yet have thrust him into an English language school system?
And notice, this isn't about illegal immigration. Foreign language students have been in school systems for the past century and more. And we're fortunate here in America that much of the world, much of the wealthier parts at any rate, teach English in their school systems too.
But it's the poor that need our help, it's the poor that need to be given the tools to compete in society, to fully engage in the American dream of getting a job and paying taxes and buying a home and building a life.
It's sad to think that Baldwin, himself just one or two generations away from being a "filthy Irisher" doesn't understand this. A chicago native, a truck driver, and a representaitve of the target audience of Sesame Street, an inner-city working-class kid, he apparently has forgotten the lessons of the street: pick on someone your own size.
It even appears that in his cups, Baldwin has forgotten the lessons of his own movie debut My Bodyguard. Sometimes, kids in scary situations need a hand from a friend, no matter how tough they think they are.
A blog on politics, philosophy, science, sports, and the arts -- featuring news, commentary, and analysis by Michael J.W. Stickings and the Reaction team.
