Thu 15 Oct, 2009
Meghan McCain has the right idea.
Yes dear readers, I am giving something away for free. Why? Because I want to show you how much I enjoy you stopping by and reading my awful shit. Does that make me a kiss ass? Perhaps. But who cares? You’re getting something for free.
And what is that something? Why it’s a book. Yes, a book. What book? Why the book Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth by Joe Conason. What’s it about? Here’s Amazon’s description:
Conservative talk show hosts and newspaper columnists have made an industry out of incessantly deriding the American left, citing liberals for everything from moral decay to bad economic policy to a soft approach on terrorism. Often these accusations are bound in book form and sell quite well. Only one problem, according to Salon.com and New York Observer writer Joe Conason: the charges they’re leveling just aren’t true. In Big Lies, Conason dissects 10 of the most persistent, and–according to him–glaringly incorrect, arguments made by conservatives. Each chapter begins with a quotation (“Liberals control the media and misuse their influence to promote left-wing politics,” “Conservatives are the only true champions of free enterprise”), which is then picked apart using statistical evidence and detailed historical research and rejected. The modern right wing, in the opinion of Conason, is not the bastion of virtue and defender of the common man it claims to be. Rather, it is a calculating and shrewdly efficient group of propagandists fueled by revenues generated by a system that rewards cronyism. Granted, it doesn’t take much to deflate the bombast of shrill political talk show hosts whose very living depends on making shocking accusations about public figures, a couple of raw facts usually does the trick, but Conason offers more than simple refutation, going deeper to challenge the presumptions that generate such platitudes. And he navigates a highly readable and informative writing style that feels more substantive than Molly Ivins and Al Franken but still a lot wittier than Noam Chomsky. Many of Conason’s arguments, like those of his foes, naturally come down to matters of opinion, and published material can readily be found to back up nearly any perspective. Nonetheless, he presents clear and logical points, and his thinking is well supported by both the historical record and empirical data. Accusing Joe Conason of lies (of any size) would certainly be a difficult task.
So how do you get this amazing book? Just leave a comment (with your email address) about which conservative lie you hate the most, and you’re entered to win. (The number of times you comment doesn’t mean your chances of winning goes up.) I’ve leave this post up on the front page until Sunday 8:00 pm est. Then I will randomly select a winner (via a midget, a hat full of numbers, and some scotch) and announce it after I finish watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s that simple.
So good luck.
16 Responses to “I’m giving something away
”
Leave a Reply
Tags: Also enjoy Meghan McCain's tits, Enjoy it, Free Prize, They are amazingComments (16)
Tai Nguyen says:
Most hated lie: “I’m right because I’m a christian, and you should be, too.”
willsenior at gmail.com
Laci the Dog says:
Gnn control was the cause of the Virginia Tech Shootings.
ZIRGAR says:
I hate the lie they try to pawn off on the rest of us where they keep insisting that they are human beings.
allen says:
The lie I strongly dislike the most, God/Religion > Evolution/Natural Selection.
Laci the Dog says:
I’ve already entered, but I wanted to say that I supported the Bimbos for McCain Caucus and Meghan McCain was its chairperson.
Blanca DeBree says:
I don’t think there are any right wing lies. I just wanted to comment how jealous I am of Meghan McCain. She has a bigger rack than me!
Matt Oxley says:
“if evolution is true then there shouldn’t be any monkeys around…since we evolved from them and all”
cft says:
I usually thumb my nose at this kind of thing, but I like Joe Conason’s stuff in Salon, so I may as well play along.
Uh, how about this: The reigning cadre of plutocrats saying that American economy consists of a “free enterprise system” and repeating this enough times that a bunch of sorry fat-asses believe them.
These sorry fat-asses, of course, are the people that the plutocracy is screwing over most of all. Their hometowns are decaying. Their children are not receiving decent education. They can’t afford decent health care. Thanks to GOP economics, they’re leading hopeless existences. And yet they remain indefatigable in their support for the GOP.
nahummer says:
I’ll play too. It would have to be something along the lines of all taxes are bad, therefore all tax cuts are good. Well, as long as it’s mainly the rich that benefit from said tax cuts.
OHHH says:
Whats funny, and undeniably true, is no one wants to listen to liberals. Except Stern, because he’s not political and has retarded midgets fucking horses – the kind of shit libs dig!
So instead, these frustrated liberals angry that society knows how fucking stupid they are, write books and create blogs pretending they know what’s up while crying themselves to sleep while they shit their diapers…
S.H.Kang says:
“America is founded upon Judeo-Christian values.”
Alan Eisenberg says:
America will become a socialist state by having Big Government taking over health care like some Nazi! Fox news does provide balanced reporting. Sitting on toilets will give you aids. Jesus rode into Jerusalem On his ass on a Brontosuarus that hated liberal Jews that are the root cause of Obama being elected and turning our country into a Nazi slave labor camp run by the Kennedys (alive or dead)and conspiring with the UN to allow the Chinese to fuck our daughters and hunt down Rush and Glen and take GOD out of our schools and teach about Darwin , who was an English homo loving fag with horse teeth and should all be shot because it is our god given right to do so!And if you don’t like it here go to fuckin’ Canada cause the Canadians come here to get medical treatment , you mosquito raping Demahomocrat!
rory says:
Jeez,where to begin? Probably the belief that all conservative parties the world over possess,and that is the snotty ‘born to rule’ mentality.
mikeb302000 says:
The lie that Bill O’Reilly tells the truth.
This was brought home in a humorous way the last time my father visited. We’ve been arguing about this stuff since Nixon and Viet Nam, except for the last 10 years or so I just don’t engage any more and we get along better. At a certain point in the visit, my father asked me if I know of Bill O’Reilly. I sensed danger and resolved to hold my tongue. He then said, in a sort of challenging way, “I believe everything he says.” After that I couldn’t resist.
MrAtheist says:
MrAtheist at Gmail dot com
The lie that pisses me off the most? It would have to be the assertion that a certain normalcy is required for the nation to run effectively. That normalcy being defined, of course, by narrow-minded fundamentalists. It seems to be beat into us, at least in rural areas and through certain media outlets, that anything out of this expected white-christian normalcy is to be shunned. I think Bill O’Reilly really summed it up for so much of his party. “They want to break down the white male christian power structure.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARBzAKSJOWw
Fay Cowell says:
I am against most of what Obama stands for, but on this he is right. When we begin to disregard the basic principles of our constitution, we are handing the terrorists a major victory. We must understand that the vast majority of Muslims are good moral people. The extremists are the ones causing the damage and they are a disgrace to most Muslims. Christians have had their extremists as well…..think of the loonies who protest at soldiers funerals, the KKK, and other Christian Militant groups. It would be ashame to let these fringe groups define the Christian Identity. We should not let that happen to those of other religions either for it will, eventually, come full circle!!!