Via Glenn Reynolds, ladies and gentlemen: your tax dollars at… actually, “waste” doesn’t have the right connotation of “bizarrely surreal.” Essentially, Democratic legislators have mainstreamed the antiwar Left’s Giant Puppet People by bringing the cartoon aardvark Arthur to a budget discussion.
Now, here’s the thing: I try to regulate what my kids watch. I’m assisted in this by the fact that my wife is, frankly, too cheap to pay for cable; so we buy and rent videos. Arthur was on our list of stuff to maybe buy when the kids were older; it is abruptly no longer on that list. It’s nothing personal, but if the Other Side is going to be using cultural icons as partisan weapons then it’s perfectly acceptable for me to respond appropriately.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: I see that PBS & NPR seem to have enough money in their budgets to play partisan political games, which I believe is not a concept enshrined in the mission statement of either. Why am I paying for Democratic partisan agitprop, again? – That’s a rhetorical question, by the way: I know that the answer is “Because they’ve always gotten away with it before.”
But I’m a fair-minded man. They can keep their funding; just as long as the Democrats tell us what we can cut from entitlement spending in exchange – and that’s going to be independent of whatever cuts that we make anyway. Call it a… practical exhibition of the concept that elections have consequences.
Moe Lane
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
I always thought he was a rat.
blooch Thursday, February 17th at 9:12AM EDT (link)What’s next… a parade balloon of Clifford? No, wait…a giant red object looming over the Capitol is not the sort of symbolism they want. Bring out Caillou to whine a little instead.
“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”
We're getting a negative return on PBSKids.
Uma Richie (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 9:51AM EDT (link)Sesame Street for at least the last 10 years has been 45 minutes of touchy-feely rubbish with about 8 minutes of numbers and letters thrown in. If they would halt new production and rerun the 1970s learning-bombardment episodes, the children might actually benefit from the show again.
Like Moe’s and his wife, we’re raising our family without cable or dish. I won’t be sad to see PBS lose its funding.
It made me sick to hear about the Muppets...
Melody Warbington (rwm52) (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 11:36PM EDT (link)singing “Forget You” on the Grammys, not to mention the other lyrics of that foul song.
I’ve started asking people I do business with if they support the liberal agenda. If they do, they don’t get my business. For example, I had a heart-to-heart with my doctor not long ago. I asked her straight up what she thought about Obamacare. She was a little hesitant to answer at first but was truly in a rant by the time she finished. Thankfully, she was against it.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. (John 4:25)
He was on Capitol Hill anyway...
meepman Thursday, February 17th at 9:52AM EDT (link)…to testify before a Senate committee. (On what I’m not sure, but does it really matter?)
They are experiencing a food shortage . . .
rickbull Thursday, February 17th at 10:51PM EDT (link)and he’s there to petition for block grants for aardvarks so that they can invest in ant farms.
WE ARE THE 53% (who actually pay taxes).
First a comedian ...
frankieb (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 10:08AM EDT (link)Now a puppet? Sounds like the Dems are getting desperate.
Books … the most exotic, least expensive vacation: www.DelphiBooks.us
www.DaughterOfTheGreatDepression.blogspot.com
Claire McCaskill goes in so many directions, it’s amazing she hasn’t drawn and quartered herself. www.TruthAboutClaire.com
Buh, bye Arthur
WarEagle01 (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 10:37AM EDT (link)I’m tossing the few Arthur videos we still have. I always thought they were kind of creepy anyway. Especially that rabbit character.
“A wise, doughy leg with rich tingly experiences will always reach better conclusions than will a more tanned, muscular leg that hasn’t felt those thrills.” –Chris Matthews’ Leg
“The alternative to the awful extremity of abortion is the indispensable joy of introducing this flawed world to someone who might make it better.”–John Hayward (AKA Dr. Zero)
Why does PBS need funding anymore?
blogan2 Thursday, February 17th at 12:01PM EDT (link)Go to the toy aisle at a store. Plenty of merchandise with Elmo, Big Bird, and others. They’re on a ton of clothing. Does PBS license their characters for free? I would think with proper business management, all of PBS could be funding by Sesame Street merchandise.
I read somewhere that they get 1/3 of their funding
earlgrey (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 12:09PM EDT (link)from product licensing.
I didn’t have Sesame Street on for my kids. I wathced it with my son a few times, and it is not like a remember it at all. They have dumbed it down, and theire are a lot of other choices for kids programming. We prefer boomerang.
Exactly. Big Bird is subsidizing the other stuff.
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 9:51PM EDT (link)The popular shows and their derivatives will do fine.
When I was a kid, there was CBS on 2, NBC on 4, ABC on 7, CBC on 9 on VHF, and on UHF there was 20 (Spiderman, Super Heroes), 50 (Three Stooges and Gilligan’s Island reruns) and PBS on 56. I suppose you could make the case for public TV filling a void.
There are a gazillion channels today. There’s no need to subsidize one more.
Click to see full size image
Moe, you evil, evil man...
congressworksforus (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 12:01PM EDT (link)You are clearly depriving your children of an incredibly important indoctr, errr, educational opportunity by refusing to buy these marxist propaga, errr, impressive educational videos.
Shame on you!
Remember, if the left wins, abortion will not only be legal, it will be mandatory.
Actually, defunding PBS could be a huge win
runner12 (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 12:21PM EDT (link)for shows like Sesame Street. Can you imagine the bidding war that go on between Disney and NickJr. for that show? Sorry, but the children’s shows like Clifford and Sesame Street would actually fare better on a private company’s payroll.
Ahh, capitalism, it works every time.
As it presently stands, PBS has no claim on licensing fees
Adjoran (Diary) Thursday, February 17th at 4:03PM EDT (link)Sesame Street and Bill Moyer have made millions in private sales of taxpayer-subsidized productions. They are hardly alone, the guy who did the Civil War and Baseball documentaries also got rich, and Arthur’s creators don’t need food stamps, either.
It’s always been a scam on the taxpayer. Time to stop it now.
Caillou is satan incarnate
oblio Thursday, February 17th at 9:56PM EDT (link)I think 90% of my kids unacceptable behavior they picked up from him. The rest was from me