As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the blogosphere, including our own corner of it, has been abuzz with discussion of The Daily Show’s “Evolution-Schmevolution” week. I’ve certainly been enjoying it, although I feel the interviews could have been done better.
The segment that made me laugh the most though has got to be from a couple of nights ago when Jon Stewart laid into hypocritical, wackjob Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn.
It’s interesting and frightening to visit Coburn’s website and to take a look at his right-wing positions on every subject under the sun. For example, take a look at his unbiased, scientific poll:
Do you support federal funding for destructive embryonic stem cell research or do you support ethical alternatives that have shown the same potential for treating disease?
Poll Answers:
Destroy embryos for research
Ethical alternatives
Both
Neither
So much bias and scientific misinformation it’s hard to know where to start. One might like to try to educate Coburn on some of the issues about which he’s ill informed. But don’t bother. As The Daily Show’s segment demonstrated, he’s just a phony.
The segment shows his statement at the Roberts hearings, beginning with his heartfelt plea for unity
….my heart aches for less divisiveness [at this point he chokes up and is almost crying] less polarization, less finger pointing, less bitterness, [more choking up] less mindless partisanship which at times sounds almost hateful…
Stewart then showed a couple of quotes from this uniter (not a divider)
“The gay community is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today”
and
“Consider the death penalty for abortionists”
If “real” news shows cut through the nonsense and hypocrisy of people like Coburn in the same way, we might get some better politicians, some better laws, and things might actually get done. Can you imagine?
September 15th, 2005 at 10:08 am
aside on Coburn: I also caught Coburn the other morning on day 2 (?) of the Roberts hearings claiming that his “skills as a doctor” allowed him to read Roberts’ body language to the extent that Coburn was certain, as a medical doctor, that Roberts was telling the truth and should be immediately confirmed. He said it in the same way that other lunatics might speak of their secret ninja skills.
September 15th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Apparently Coburn asked Roberts yesterday: “Would you agree that the opposite of being dead is being alive?”
Deep.
September 15th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Don’t forget how the Daily Show demonstrated Coburn’s true concern about the hearings when they showed a still of him working on a crossword puzzle during questioning.