Krista West's blog

Is there anything that Sarah Palin says that doesn’t get twisted by the liberal media?

In response to a clip of an “Entertainment Tonight” interview with Sarah Palin, the ladies of ‘The Talk’ misconstrue Palin’s response in order to project her as ignorant.

The highlighted interview question was “How does it feel to be one of the most polarizing figures in America today?” Palin replied “I think that that is a bit perplexing, because I think what is polarizing about believing in the United States Constitution and our Declaration of Independence and all those things that it stands for and what our founding mothers and fathers in this country meant for America to keep building upon? Those are the things that I believe in. Wha’s extreme about that? How is that polarizing? So I'm still perplexed by that.”

(Video below the fold)

At times, the Internet can be an information wonderland. At others, it is more like a landfill where people go to dump their poorly crafted opinions labeled as fact. Take this quote for example:

"It's a fact that gay teenagers are about thirty percent more likely than straight teenagers to take their own lives. It's a fact that the vast majority of Christians believe that being gay is a profound moral failing, a foul aberration, a repelling, unnatural offense against God that fully warrants as punishment an eternity spent in hell. Asserting that those two facts have no relationship cannot possibly be anything but intellectually dishonest."

This quote comes from the personal blog of John Shore, contributor to the Huffington Post, which linked to the entry in question. He writes primarily on Christianity and operates under the mantra "Trying God's patience since 1958."

His statements are pretty compelling to the uncritical reader. Unfortunately for Shore, he is the one being "intellectually dishonest." His argument is built upon false premises. Just because two aspects have a common bond does not necessarily translate into a causal relation.

It's not quite "earth shaking," but we can be sure it caused a tremor at the National Education Association office in downtown D.C.

On Sept.27, President Obama admitted on NBC's "Today" show that Washington, D.C.'s "struggling" public schools wouldn't educate his daughters as well as the posh, private Sidwell Friends school they currently attend. That night, NBC Nightly News delivered the second half of a one-two punch at public education.

That night, as part of it's "Education Nation" series, Nightly News highlighted a comment from a young teacher at the meeting hosted the day before by NBC anchor Brian Williams. But unlike predictable calls for more government spending or blaming dysfunctional homes and neighborhoods, she spoke out about the damaging effects that teacher's unions are having on the American education system. 

"I think we don't understand tenure. I don't see a need for it. I don't need a piece of paper to tell me I have to be hired each year. And I think as younger teachers we're seeing a lot of things we need and the union contract is getting in the way," she said.