At the Atomic Chicken Ranch in the desert north of LA they raise ostriches. I used to drive by it frequently on my way to see my brother. Always thought it was a clever name for an ostrich farm. Enormous mutant chickens. Cute.
It would be an even better name for the White House, wouldn’t it? It works on so many levels. Cowards, cowboys, nukes… And after all, these days it’s not much more than a fancy farmhouse on the world’s biggest ostrich farm.
Ostriches don’t really stick their heads in the sand, but Americans do. They’ve obviously mastered see no evil and hear no evil (they need to work on the other one). How can they remain so oblivious with information coming at them from every direction? How is it possible that 31% of Americans don’t know who the vice president is?
According to the Pew Research Center poll where that stat came from, the most informed Americans watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Comedy shows. For liberals. Hey, whatever works. I guess a spoonful of sugar does make the medicine go down…
I did hear that FOX was planning to launch a conservative news satire show called Watch This Right Now (a Daily Show ripoff). The producer they hired? None other than the guy who produces 24, that torture and testosterone treat starring Kieffer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, a rogue anti-terrorism agent. Several people have suggested that the show is doomed because, well, Republicans aren’t funny. And, of course, they don’t have Jon Stewart (read how he handled McCain)…
But what we really need is a TV show that would appeal to clueless conservatives (and liberals ought to take on the project). Maybe something along the lines of Hee-Haw but with monster trucks and cheerleaders. Subliminally inserting real information so that when members of that demographic see Kazakhstan written on a map of Australia they’ll know something’s not quite right. Or maybe a reality show that sneaks in a little reality here and there.
Something this guy in Arkansas could relate to. He thinks starting Daylight Saving Time earlier in the year was a liberal plot to make global warming seem worse than it is. It’s that extra hour of sunlight scorching the earth, you see…
Here’s a great article on the subject of American ignorance called Imperial Illiteracy. Worth reading.
(The Ostrich Egg painting by Hector Cardenas, Mexican Ambassador to Egypt.)