Joseph Farah
From RationalWiki
Joseph Farah is another in a long line of conservative pundits, who is most well known for starting WorldNetDaily (an online conservative "news" site) and his work with Rush Limbaugh, writing parts of his books for him. Farah has also written books himself, including Taking America Back.
[edit] Taking America Back
Taking America Back is one of the most trite and unimaginative titles one could come up with for a book, but appropriate, as the contents are trite and unimaginative as well. The book in interesting only for some ridiculous claims it makes. Probably the best is his assertion that Hollywood longs for the days when the church had to approve all its scripts. Apparently Quentin Tarantino would love to have members of the clergy edit his scripts for him, but the clergy refuses. "Is there anyone who doubts Hollywood would be better off, making higher profits, is it was still providing movies as it did in its 'golden age'?" asks Farah. Yes, there is. Perhaps Joseph Farah would love nothing more than to see Gone With the Wind II or Mr. Smith Goes to the U.N. but things have changed since Farah's days. Conservatives need to learn they are not living in the 1950s.
[edit] 1950s or 1890s?
Farah also claims that people do not receive education in schools, and is a huge proponent of homeschooling. No matter how godawful stupid a parent may be, Farah thinks they would be a much better teacher than any professional. As "proof" that schools don't provide as good a quality of education as they did 100 years ago, Taking America Back provides some samples from an 1895 8th grade final exam from Salina, Kansas. While much of it would prove difficult even for most adults today, Farah fails to take numerous factors into account. For one, the students for whom the test is geared had just been taught the material; it was still fresh in their minds and they presumably had studied for it. Even if adults had been taught much of the same material in the 8th grade, they would be unlikely to remember large portions of it if they hadn't used it in the last 20 years. Furthermore, Farah completely ignores the major differences between 21st century America, and 19th century rural Kansas, and how curriculum for one might not be appropriate for the other. Among the 8th grade questions you can't answer because you were educated by a system geared towards keeping you dumb is "A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 ft. long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?" This may have been useful to a resident of Salina, Kansas in 1895, but today the dimensions of a bushel of wheat are not in the realm of useful information for urban residents who buy their wheat pre-ground in five-pound paper bags. Furthermore, Farah ignores advances in education that make some lessons from the past unnecessary. Nor does he take into account that 8th graders today are served much better by studying subjects such as basic computer science rather than wheat bushels. The advances in science in the past 100 years are also lost on Farah, which is hardly surprising as his kind aren't huge fans of science, at least not when it contradicts the Bible.
[edit] Other priceless quotes
- "Why did the church abandon Hollywood? Because social activists who had penetrated the church as part of that long-range startegy...engineered the move. There is simply no other explanation."
- "If Roe v. Wade is...the law of the land, then the U.S. Constitution is null and void. There is simply no other interpretation."
- "What's happening in government schools today is nothing short of child abuse."
- "We cannot ignore that a libertarian society devoid of God and a biblical worldview would quickly deteriorate into chaos and violence."
- "America will never again be a free country until it ends the income tax. I'll bet you agree with that statement. I'll bet a referendum on ending the income tax would be approved by 75 percent of the American people -- maybe 90 percent." (see also Schlafly Statistics)
