Political Irony

2013 may have been a new low for Congress, but it was nonetheless a year for breakthroughs. The Pew Research Center has put together a baker’s dozen list of milestones the public passed for the first time in 2013:

1. A majority of the public (51%) now favors same-sex marriage, while 67% (2 out of 3) favor legal agreements like civil unions that give the same rights as marriage.
2. A majority of the public (52%) now favors legalizing the use of marijuana.
3. A majority (52%) says the US should mind its own business internationally, the highest it has been in half a century.
4. 38% of Americans say they do not want their own representative in Congress reelected, its highest point in two decades.
5. For the first time ever, a majority (53%) thinks that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.
6. 36% of the millennial generation (ages 18 to 31) is living in their parents’ home, the highest share in at least 40 years.
7. In a record 40% of all households with children, the mother is either the sole or the primary breadwinner.
8. The number of illegal immigrants has gone down, while the number of legal immigrants has soared above 40 million.
9. The number of Hispanic and Black high school graduates who have gone on to college immediately has gone up, while the number of White graduates has gone down. In fact, for the first time the percentage of Hispanics who are going on to college (69%) is higher than the percentage of Whites (67%).
10. A majority of Americans think the US plays a less important and powerful role in the world than it did 10 years ago.
11. The number of American Catholics calling themselves “strong” Catholics is the lowest in 40 years.
12. A majority of Americans (56%) now own a smartphone of some kind.
13. 50% of the public say that the Internet is a main source for national and international news.

These are just the headlines, you really should go read the whole article for more details and data.

More good news for health care reform. The rise in health care costs has hit a 50-year low, and is likely to stay low for at least the next few years.

Meanwhile, a survey of hospital executives shows that 93% of them believe that Obamacare will improve the quality of US health care (55% believe it will make the quality “significantly better”, while 38% say “somewhat better”). And 91% believe that costs of healthcare will improve.

Despite all the noise about renewable energy sources — solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, and hydropower — not yet being ready for prime time, Yale University points out that all of the additional electricity-generating capacity added in the US in November came from renewable energy sources. Lest you think that was a fluke, in October 99% was from renewable sources.

Over the entire year, natural gas (which has dropped in price significantly due to the use of fracking) has accounted for 52% of added capacity, but solar accounts for 21%. Renewable sources now account for 15.9% of the total US electricity generating capacity, which is more than nuclear and oil combined.

Once again, reality proves that it is stranger than fiction. There is a war going on, but it is not a War on Christmas.

First the facts. A week ago, a satirical website called The National Report printed a fictional piece (designed to look like a real news story) about a (fictitious) school involving one of their (fictitious) teachers. According to the (fictional) story, the school suspended a student for wishing the atheist teacher a Merry Christmas. In the fictional story, the (fictitious) school was named “Argon Elementary” in San Francisco.

Somehow, this story went viral in the conservative blogosphere, and quicker than you could say “Happy Holidays” a school coincidentally named “Argonne” (not “Argon”) in San Francisco became the target of phone complaints, email tirades, and (veiled) threats of violence against the (fictitious) teacher or the (actual) principal of the school. The school had to bring in extra security and the police have increased patrols around the school.

Ironically, another story published earlier in the National Report about (ficitious) “Berkley, Calif.” claiming that a “Berkley Elementary” student was expelled for saying Merry Christmas” to a Muslim teacher didn’t trigger any mass outcry.

And so the myth of a “War on Christmas” continues. And some conservatives get to paint themselves as victims once again.

The GOP has gone off the deep end. There is no other way to report this than with humor, and Jon Stewart is the best.