I remember hearing about this story a while back, but it didn't get a whole lot of media attention. Lee from Right-Thinking just blogged about it, which is the first I've heard of this story in months.

Homer Never Nods - The Importance Of The Simpsons

Culture/Society Opinion (Published) Keywords: THE SIMPSONS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SATIRE
Source: National Review Online
Published: April 15, 2000 Author: Jonah Goldberg

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.” Is this the sort of lesson we want Homer Simpson to be teaching our kids? That’s the question people who don’t understand The Simpsons have been asking, for a very long time. Indeed, The Simpsons is now the longest-running sitcom on television, and it recently became the longest-running cartoon in television history, surpassing The Flintstones.

In 1990, drug czar William Bennett picked a fight with Bart Simpson, the show’s spiky-haired brat. Visiting a Pittsburgh drug-treatment center, Bennett saw a poster of Bart with the caption, “Underachiever and Proud of It.” Bennett responded, “You guys aren’t watching The Simpsons, are you? That’s not going to help you any.” The firestorm caused the normally intractable Bennett to back-pedal, saying he really didn’t know anything about the show. (His wife, however, told the New York Times in 1998 that their kids still weren’t allowed to watch the program.)

Many conservatives still share this negative view of The Simpsons—and that’s regrettable, because it’s possibly the most intelligent, funny, and even politically satisfying TV show ever. The Simpsons is unique among sitcoms. First, it is a cartoon, which allows it to do and say things unimaginable for other shows. Second, of all the successful programs to make serious political points, it is the only one that is reliably funny when it does. All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show were excellent shows in their prime, but it’s fair to say that when they were funny they weren’t political and that when they were political they weren’t very funny—and they were, invariably and predictably, liberal.

The Simpsons, however, is never predictable; and its satire spares nothing and no one. In one episode, for example, we see signs inside the Republican convention that read, “We want what’s worst for everyone” and “We’re just plain evil”; but we also see signs at the Democratic convention that read, “We hate life and ourselves” and “We can’t govern.”

This even-handedness is noteworthy. Against the backdrop of conventional sitcoms, it makes The Simpsons damn near reactionary; if 50 percent of the jokes are aimed leftward, that’s 49.5 percent more than we usually get. At the end of an episode originally aired in the spring of 1992, Sideshow Bob is hauled off to prison for attempted murder. He declares, “I’ll be back. You can’t keep the Democrats out of the White House forever. And when they get in, I’m back on the street! With all of my criminal buddies!” The mayor of Springfield, Diamond Joe Quimby, is a corrupt, womanizing lush who met his wife when she worked at “La Maison Derrière,” the local brothel. When the Rush Limbaugh character accuses Quimby of being an “illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking Spend-o-crat,” Quimby replies, “Hey, I’m no longer illiterate.” Did I forget to mention that Quimby has a distinct Kennedy accent?

When Grandpa Simpson starts receiving royalty checks for work he didn’t do, Bart and Lisa ask, “Didn’t you wonder why you were getting checks for doing nothing?” Grandpa responds, “I figured, ’cuz the Democrats were in power again.” The episode dealing with gun rights—“The Cartridge Family”—makes The Simpsons the only sitcom in memory to treat gun control with any fairness:

Marge: Mmm! No! [pulls gun from Homer] No one’s using this gun! The TV said you’re 58 percent more likely to shoot a family member than an intruder!

Homer: TV said that . . . ? But I have to have a gun! It’s in the Constitution!

Lisa: Dad! The Second Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today!

Homer: You couldn’t be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn’t have this gun, the king of England could just walk in here anytime he wants and start shoving you around. [pushing Lisa] Do you want that? [pushing her harder] Huh? Do you?

Lisa: [quietly indignant] No . . .

Homer: All right, then.

But the satire of The Simpsons is not primarily aimed at political figures. It is aimed at all of society’s false pieties and therefore works at many more levels than other TV shows. Serious issues like environmentalism, immigration, gay rights, and Christian fundamentalism get the full treatment. But so do comic-book and science-fiction nerds, Jerry Lewis, the French, you name it. Many jabs are highbrow and well hidden, making them all the more rewarding. For example, in one episode the Simpsons put baby Maggie in the “Ayn Rand School for Tots,” where we briefly see a banner that reads “A is for ‘A.’”

What should dismay liberals about this is that so many of today’s pieties are constructs of the Left. Conservatives are accustomed to being mocked constantly in the popular culture. But the experience must come as something of a shock for hothouse liberals. For example, Homer Simpson’s mother is a ’60s radical still on the lam. How did she dodge the feds? “I had help from my friends in the underground. Jerry Rubin gave me a job marketing his line of health shakes. I proofread Bobby Seale’s cookbook. And I ran credit checks at Tom Hayden’s Porsche dealership.” Some important pretensions are being punctured here—but not the usual ones.

If Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Indian manager of the local Kwik-E-Mart, were portrayed—with his outrageously stereotyped accent, religious oddities, bullet scars, and unapologetic price gouging—as a character in a live-action television show, there would be riots. In an episode dealing with immigration, “Much Apu About Nothing,” Springfield is overcome by anti- immigrant hysteria. Protesters swarm around the Kwik-E-Mart bearing signs that read, “The Only Good Foreigner is Rod Stewart” and “Get Eurass Back to Eurasia.” At first Apu forges a new identity. Reporter: “Apu, is the rumor true that you’re actually Indian?” Apu: “By the gods of Vishnu, that is a lie!” But he thinks better of it. He explains, “I cannot deny my roots and keep up this charade. I only did it because I love this land, where I have the freedom to say, and to think, and to charge whatever I want!”

In a wonderful essay in the December issue of Political Theory, University of Virginia English professor Paul Cantor makes a strong case that The Simpsons celebrates many, if not most, of the best conservative principles: the primacy of family, skepticism about political authority, distrust of abstractions. For example, as Cantor points out, the residents of Springfield are more religious than almost any other cast on television today. Springfield residents pray and attend church every Sunday.

Many detractors look at Homer Simpson, the oafish father, or at Bart, the proud underachiever, and assume—partly because the show is a cartoon, partly because it is on Fox—that the program is a cheaply drawn version of Married . . . with Children. The reality is that virtually every episode ends on an uplifting note (a distinct contrast with, say, the more nihilistic hits of the 1990s like Seinfeld): Homer’s authority is affirmed, albeit tenuously, and family bonds are tightened. Many think the show is anti-family values (Homer: “Oh, my God! Space aliens! Don’t eat me! I have a wife and kids. Eat them!”), when in fact the show is vastly more honest about family life than most other programs—and is therefore more affecting. Homer: “Wait, that’s it! I know now what I can offer you that no one else can . . . Complete and utter dependence!”

Indeed, Homer is probably the greatest parody of them all. Because he is a fool, he offers a perfect way to mock the shortcomings of the increasingly soft American male. “To alcohol,” he toasts, “the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” At the same time, because he is a fool, when he is right about something he is the perfect foil against elite received wisdom: “The information superhighway showed the average American what some nerds think about Star Trek.”

Sadly, the show has declined somewhat this season, partly because there are so few issues left for the writers to tackle. Still, its impact on an entire generation can’t be overstated. And it gives proof of the axiom that if you think there’s nothing good on TV, you’re not looking hard enough.

The president has called dissenters unpatriotic...

If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong.

How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live in tyranny. How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes.

Oops, wait. That was our last president, good ol' B.J. Clinton, who said that. Where is he to defend the government of the "freest nation on Earth" when people are comparing our current administration to that of Adolf Hitler?

Oh, and I'm still looking for a single example of anyone in the current administration calling dissenters "unpatriotic". If memory serves, I seem to recall Dubya saying the exact opposite on several occassions.

I wrote you all (and by "all", I mean you, my only friggin' reader) a little haiku...

This is my Haiku
Yes I know it sucks badly
I did try my best

An expedition to find Noah's Ark is currently being planned. Some snow on top of Mount Ararat apparently melted, and some satellite photos show something that appears to be the appropriate size, and in the appropriate general area as the Ark is described in the Bible. On previous occasions explorers had been denied access to that area because by the Soviet and Turkish governments, but a apparently now a U.S. - Turkish teams is being permitted to travel up the mountain.

Now if this pans own (though I wouldn't get my hopes up) I don't think I'll be able to restrain myself from walking up to every atheist I can find and breaking out my Jesus dance. Aw yeah.

If there is a big ol' ark up there, and there seems to be a general agreement that it is the ark, then it seems the only question left to resolve is which Judeo-Christian religion is in fact the one true faith. But we can probably just flip a coin over that or something.

I've already had my brand new blog mentioned twice on Free Will. Total hegemony of the blogosphere can't be far behind.

Of course, I should probably credit Curmudgeonly and Skeptical, from whom I copied my "Fun With Facts" post almost word for word.

Muchos gracias to Aaron from Free Will who showed me how to create a random quote generator. Check out his blog, it's excellent.

Anyway, the quote generator is definitely the best thing my crappy blog has going for it. So far most of the quotes are just Winston Churchill and P.J. O'Rourke, but I intend to add many, many more.

UPDATE: I'm up to 100 different quotes on my random quotes generator, and I've still got more coming.

It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian "compound". That was a 51 day operation.

We've been looking for evidence of WMD's in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick (with Mary Jo Kopechne in the passenger seat).

It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida.

From Fox News, by the CATO Institute...

On April 1, Hernando de Soto (search), the Peruvian economist who has devoted his life to bringing real property rights to the world’s poor, became the second winner of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.

That prize is awarded every other year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advancing human freedom.

The prize is a rare honor, but then de Soto is an extraordinary individual. It’s not every economist who finds himself the target of terrorist bombings and assassination attempts. Because of his scholarship and activism on behalf of the world’s poor, in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, de Soto was repeatedly targeted by the Marxist terror group, the Shining Path (search).

It’s not hard to understand why Marxist (search) radicals found de Soto’s ideas so dangerous. They threatened the monopoly the political left (Marxist and non-Marxist) held over solutions to the problems of the world’s poor. For years, statist development experts had sought top-down solutions, operating under the implicit assumption that poor people in the Third World were largely incapable of entrepreneurship. De Soto utterly rejected that patronizing viewpoint, and, beginning in his native Peru, focused on the lack of formal property rights as the source of poverty in poor countries. As an author and an activist, and later as adviser to Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (search), de Soto worked to bring impoverished Peruvians out of the shadow economy, and unlock their potential for wealth.

Read the whole thing. Here's a man who spent his life fighting to help the poor in third-world countries, people who most of the civilized world have all but given up hope for, to realize their full potential and achieve better lives for themselves on their own merit. We are truly lucky to share a world with people like Hernando de Soto.

While we're in the spirit of giving, I highly recommend donating a little something to Spirit of America. It's a really great charity for helping the military in Iraq purchase toys, building materials, and charitable goods for the Iraqi people. This charity has the potential to be the most worthy cause you've ever spent your hard-earned dollar on. I donated $20 a few months ago, and they've been keeping me up to speed on their progress via e-mail. Give whatever little bit you can.

Okay, I just set up a comments section for my blog. Now you can make fun of me.

-MA

UPDATE: Okay, I don't know what's up with my 'comments' set up. I can't reach HaloScan's website right now, so I'm guessing that has something to do with my missing comments. Not that I've had any comments yet anyway.

UPDATE: My comments are back! Like magic, they appear! Now if only I could trick someone into commenting...

Okay, everybody already talked about the death of former NFL star, Pat Tillman yesterday, but since I didn't have a blog then, I'm going to comment on it now.

In this country the notion of personal sacrifice has been seriously undermined. Instead of putting our own time, efforts, or resources towards a noble cause, all that a person feels compelled to do nowadays is go to a voting booth once or twice a year and vote for politicians who claim to support those noble causes. Old geezers I've talked to tell me that, back in the day, civilians would go running into a burning house to rescue people. Today, you don't see that kind of willingness to risk it all for something besides yourself very often.

That's what makes Pat Tillman, and other men in the military just like him (but not as famous) so amazing. This man walked away from a $3.6million contract with the NFL to do something he believed in. When was the last time you saw some self-righteous, left-wing millionaire (of which there seems to be no shortage) volunteering even a quarter of their own vast fortunes towards one of the many causes they are so fond of advocating before any TV Camera or public forum they can get their hands on? I won't hold my breath while I wait for you to come up with one. But more than giving up a lucrative contract, he gave up his own life.

I could never be the kind of man that our boys in uniform are. I'd like to believe that, should I be confronted with such a situation, I would willingly give my life for something bigger than myself, but men like Tillman jumped at the opportunity to do so. These are the type of men who wouldn't hesitate to jump on a grenade to save their fellow soldiers. Here I am sitting at home, worrying about my own problems, whining because I have to go to work today or I don't feel like doing my homework, while there are people around me like Pat Tillman, who go completely unnoticed.

Thank you Pat, and all the other men and women who risked or lost life or limb, while the rest of us sit safely out of harms way, in the 200+ years that we have been a nation (or fighting to become one).

-MA

So... I guess I'll take this moment to Christen my new blog. I don't really have much to say of any importance. Here's what you can probably expect from me: irreverent humor, conservative/libertarian political rants, and lots of pointless, incoherent babbling. This is pretty much a vanity project for me and I really don't care if no one is reading anything I write. But hey, if you want to read my blog out of pity, go right ahead. If you happen to be a personal friend of mine, and you're reading this out of loyalty to me or as a result of my constant begging, I apologize in advance.

-MA