art pope

If you're like me, you'll have a mighty struggle trying to make sense of the Big Debate between dueling experts on air quality in North Carolina's mountains. On one hand, you have the conclusions of expert witnesses working for Attorney General Roy Cooper. On the other other hand, you have a "scholars" hired to carry water for the free-market extremists in the JLF Puppetshow.

John Hood, stage manager at the non-profit Art Pope Puppetshow, is at his free-market best today with a selective nod in the direction of accepting reality.

The reality here is that most people act with regard to their self-interest most of the time. They work in order to feed, clothe, house, and otherwise take care of themselves and their families. They’ll also gladly give of their time and money to causes they deem worthy, but that’s not their primary motivation to work, save, and invest.

Fortunately, another reality to accept is that intentions don’t determine results. When governments use coercion to force people to act contrary to their personal choices, the results are often disappointing regardless of how well-intended the government program may have been. And in a market economy, individuals freely transacting business to mutual advantage tend to advance the common interest by promoting innovation, lower prices, better service, and economic opportunity.

How can you disagree with that? Individuals freely transacting business to mutual advantage. Of course in some cases, that mutual advantage means you're a kid who doesn't get the crap beat out of you. Sounds like heaven to me.

This was covered in the open thread comments, but in the interest of throwing a bit more light on the subject, let's take a closer look.

Rep. Joe Boylan has been charged with driving while intoxicated. Highway Patrol troopers charged the Pinehurst Republican after he swerved off the side of the road, hitting a tree, in Cameron on Thursday, the Southern Pines Pilot reports. He was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital.

Map now updated with Myers Park Pat!

I admit to spending less and less time worrying about the "reports" and political activities spewing steadily from the Art Pope Puppetshow. Funded to the tune of $3 to $4 million annually by the knight of the right, the increasingly irrelevant John Locke Foundation and Civitas appear to have attracted all the converts they're going to get.

But as our handy-dandy (and updated!) map of the Show suggests, the Puppetmaster has infiltrated major media outlets and at least one major university, so they are definitely worth keeping an eye on. Which is why I was so pleased to see this post by Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch yesterday. It's a doozy.

A couple of items of interest today.

First off, Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch smacks Rick Martinez (News Puppet at WPTF-AM) upside his wooden head with a great column on public education.

The market fundamentalists are relentless in their crusade to privatize public schools and don’t mind ignoring facts and social science if they have to. They are even willing to temporarily put aside their normal demonization of the poor.

Today's New York Times contains a well-written piece that dissects the fantasies of free-market extremists quite handily. The author is Peter Goodman, one of my favorite reporters at the Times.

As we move into the year ahead, the tension between proponents of the so-called "invisible hand" and those of us who prefer to deal with reality will escalate, and the divisions will sharpen, especially around health care issues, where the "invisible hand" mostly picks taxpayers' pockets so the money can be transferred to the corporate elite.

But now the invisible hand is being asked to account for what it has wrought. In this country, many economic complaints — from the widening gap between rich and poor to the expense of higher education — are being dusted for its fingerprints.

I've been reading a lot of right wing blogs lately, including a fair amount free-market stuff like Cato. I have to admit, those guys are good at weaving Libertarian threads into magical nirvana carpets.

There's only one problem. Their magic carpets don't fly right now. They only fly eventually.

That's how it is with free markets. Everything is eventually.

One place where this awkward adverb comes painfully into play (no pun intended) is in the area of health care. The full-market extremists argue that all we need to do is cut regulation, cut taxes, get government out of health care and all will eventually be right with the world. They might be right, who knows? But my question is this: what happens between now and eventually? Do millions of poor people suffer because they don't have the access rich people have?

Of the many ironies swirling around the Art Pope Puppetshow, their non-profit (and presumably non-partisan) status is among the most amusing. For a bunch of guys who can't string ten words together without saying "free market," the organization is bereft of leaders who know anything about making business in general and making a profit in particular. The Patron Saint of the Puppetshow himself inherited all his money from his daddy, and he happily passes it along to the John Locke underlings, all relying on other people's money (OPM) to fuel their crusade.

So imagine my surprise today when John Hood, Stagemanager at the Puppetshow, gets all gushy and philosophical about fighting for freedom. Even more exciting, you too can fight for freedom right alongside the Puppets, simply by clicking on this page and contributing some of your hard-earned money to their cause.

Lately, I've mostly ignored John Hood, Stagemanager at the Art Pope Puppetshow. Hood is a hard-core proponent of free-market extremism, whose disdain for government knows no bounds. So why am I acknowledging Hood's unfortunate existence today? Because I want you to understand the utter lack of integrity with which the Puppetshow operates.

As prelude, there is one thing you should know. The Stagemanager and his not-for-profit minions are part of a political operation dedicated to helping the Republican Party grow in North Carolina. Each and every action and "report" produced by the Puppetshow is designed to prepare the ground for Republican electoral victories. Which brings me to John Hood's sad little column today. Here's the teaser:

By blithely ignoring common sense and essentially accusing the majority of North Carolinians of bigotry, immigration-rights advocates are doing their charges no favors.

Ah yes, the magical sleight of hand made possible only through the use of the word "essentially." Without a shred of evidence to support his assertion, Hood drives the latest Republican wedge, pushing it deep into the heart of North Carolina's electorate. In doing so, he accuses both Erskine Bowles and Mike Easley of calling their opponents bigots. That opening insult is but one among many misrepresentations of truth in Hood's column today. None of us should be surprised. Mr. Hood is, after all, essentially a liar. To my knowledge.

Rob Christensen's December 2 column has an analysis of what he considers the state of civics education in the United States, based on a test created by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Christensen's column wraps with a link to this test, which I found hard, somewhat bizarre, and dramatically tilted in favor of knowing all about the kind of dead white men these people adore.

And what does Christensen have to say in the interest of full disclosure?

ISI is a conservative-leaning organization founded in 1953.

If you follow my link to the ISI website, you will discover that "conservative leaning" describes ISI about as well as "objective reporter" describes Christensen himself. The website features The Conservative Mind as part of its top-level navigation, Clarence Thomas, as an honored lecturer, with links throughout the site to Townhall.com.