Wisconsin will get 89% of an eclipse today, if it isn’t cloudy. Eh. I can’t get excited about it, but if you still have doubts about Einstein, you could use this event to prove to yourself that he was right.
On the other hand, the ending of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” represents the total eclipse of my heart.
Let’s see what happened last week.
More NPR bias. I listen to NPR because I’m a fallen away Catholic who still has a nagging need to do penance for his sins. NPR is my five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys. Some days it’s more like a hair shirt. NPR always had a liberal bias, but in recent years they’ve stopped even pretending to be objective. Their report on Wisconsin’s “uninstructed” vote in last week’s April primary was a classic example. Their headline was, “Wisconsin’s “uninstructed” voters send Biden a strong message on Gaza.” They led with (unchallenged) activists’ claims that the 47,000 votes for uninstructed, interpreted as opposition to Pres. Biden’s support for Israel, “blew away” their expectations. What actually happened was that the activists set up a paper tiger goal of 20,000 votes, that they knew they could easily exceed. Other media outlets didn’t even report that goal. In fact, I can’t find any evidence that they actually established any goal before the vote. They may have simply invented a goal after the fact. In any event, NPR let them get away with the ruse. Only at the bottom of the story did NPR report, without making the obvious comparison, that other states had much higher “uninstructed” results. Neighboring Minnesota and Michigan had 19% and 13%, respectively. Rhode Island held a primary on the very same day and uninstructed got 14.5%. It was 29% in Hawaii. In fact, Wisconsin’s 8% uninstructed vote was the lowest of any state except Iowa. So, it’s actually the poor performance of this campaign in Wisconsin that was the news here, but NPR was always going to tell the story that would support its point of view.
The hard-left annoys everybody. Speaking of Gaza, hard-left activists are doing what they always do: alienate everybody. According to a Sunday story in the New York Times, they’ve been making themselves obnoxious by disrupting a fundraiser featuring Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden in New York, making early morning racket outside the homes of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and various congressmen and shutting down city council meetings, leaving alders and mayors to wonder if they missed something and actually do make foreign policy afterall. They did the same sort of thing after the death of George Floyd, taking a moment when their cause had a chance to be widely embraced and pushing people away with calls to “defund the police” while they tore down statues and smashed windows. And, of course, all this insanity is directed at Democrats, who are sympathetic to their cause, if not 100% in agreement with what they want them to do. They give Trump and Republicans a pass.
Did Republicans just put Florida in play? Last week Florida’s Supreme Court upheld a six week abortion ban. But they also allowed pro-choice forces to move ahead with a November referendum on a state constitutional amendment that would restore abortion rights until viability at about 24 weeks. Abortion has proven to be a big winner for Democrats even in red states and Florida isn’t as deeply red as many other places. Democrats and independents might be lukewarm on Biden, but they’ll be motivated by this issue. If this pushes Florida into Biden’s column, it’s pretty much game over.
A good idea, but a bad bill. I’m with about 70% of Americans who think transgender women (i.e., erstwhile men) shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports. But I think Gov. Tony Evers was right last week to veto a Republican bill to that effect. I just don’t think this is the sort of thing that we should be making laws about. Let the NCAA and WIAA work it out. Only a handful of these situations have come up in any event. So, I think Evers is right that laws are passed on this subject to fan voters’ unease about transgender people. So, while I might agree with keeping transgender women out of women’s sports in principle, I also agree with Evers’ assertion that the bill was on his desk to make a rather ugly political point. I’m glad he vetoed it.
Moderates live longer. The world’s oldest man, John Alfred Tinniswood, age 111, says that moderation is key to his longevity. He never smokes, drinks rarely and follows no special diet. He enjoys fish and chips (the British answers to Wisconsin fish fry) once a week. “If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much — if you do too much of anything — you’re going to suffer eventually,” Tinniswood told Guinness World Records, which awarded him with a certificate. This is one record you really, really want to hold onto for as long as possible. By the way, the world’s oldest woman is 117.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Like you, I listen to NPR almost every day. I typically check out the headlines, learn about what happened yesterday, then turn it off. I’ve found that silence is a good companion in the morning.
I definitely agree that they are biased, and so I take their political coverage with a grain of salt. Very few Republican politicians agree to NPR interviews, so their work obviously skews toward a leftist doctrine.
One thing that has clearly hurt Wisconsin Public Radio is that their best local political reporter, Sean Johnson, seems to have either quit or significantly cut back on his work. He was excellent – he had institutional knowledge of the state and did his best to provide balanced coverage. His coverage is missed.
Finally, while NPR is a mouthpiece for the left, they occasionally try to offer fair perspective. I’m not sure if you’ve listened to the commercial radio alternatives in Madison, but they are Trumpian mouthpieces. Given the choice, even with its flaws, I’ll take NPR every time.
LikeLike
I agree. I never listen to other radio stations, except for sports coverage, but I’m not surprised that they skew right. I suppose I listen to public radio because there simply isn’t much alternative and, when they do cover things objectively, they do an excellent job.
LikeLike