Time Takes Another Cheap, Dismal Shot at Florida

It's funny when it's not so pathetic.

It's actually funnier that it is so pathetic. You just have to get the joke.

In its newest, typically ignorant jeremiad against all things conservative, Time magazine takes aimat Florida for its cultural backwardness, allergy to education, and general religious mania "news pegged" on the passage of the inspirational message -- i.e., "school prayer but we can't call it that because somebody, somewhere might be offended" -- bill in the state Legislature.

The article, headlined "How Florida Is Leading U.S. Politics Back to the Culture Wars," is here, if you've the time to waste, have at it. But since I'm fortunate enough to be paid to read this kind of garbage, I can boil this down for you in a few sentences.

It's lying: The article makes a big deal about how Florida is cutting $300 MILLION from its higher education budget, but makes no mention of the BILLION it's added to its pre-K budget -- at no small cost to other programs. That's not journalism. It's propaganda.

It's hypocritical: The author, one Tim Padgett, comes right out and says "I go to Mass myself on Sundays -- but the right to say prayers and the right to impose them on public school convocations are two very different things." They are, in fact, very different things. And any honest understanding -- or description -- of what the Florida Legislature did in this matter would have made that clear. That's not journalism. It's propaganda.

It's condescending: The article goes to great lengths criticizing the Legislature's passage of a law that would ensure that Florida's courts are governed by Florida -- meaning American -- law. To Time, the "anti-Sharia" law is, well, anti-Sharia and, as such, is "delusional as it is bigoted." Sounds like a five-word description of Time magazine to me.

So, to recap: Lying. Hypocritical. Condescending.

Could Time be liberal after all?

Here's the funny part: The article starts with the line "They dont call economics the dismal science for nothing."