Ted Cruz vs Terry Gross, Krugman vs WTO, and other news bits

NPR's Fresh Air host Terry Gross said today,"I don't think Ted Cruz is that connected to Christian conservatives."

That's despite this piece showing just how much he and his dad are plugged into dominionist theology.

Mad yourself? Fresh Air's Twitter account is here. And webmail is here.

I mean, along with a few true liberal friends of mine, I've long said NPR stands for Nice Polite Republicans, but that's just ridiculous. Especially when Gross's webpage claims:

Gross, who has been host of Fresh Air since 1975, when it was broadcast only in greater Philadelphia, isn't afraid to ask tough questions. 

Yeah, right. Like that "tough" statement above?

Note: This isn't an opinion/commentary issue of whether one agrees with Cruz, or dominionist theology, or not. It's a straight news issue of being informed, or not.

NPR, if it's not just for Republicans who want to think they're liberal, is also for neoliberal Democrats, the Volvo-driving, latte-sipping, Meyer-lemon squeezing ones, who also want to think they're liberal.

Beyond NPR in general, I just listen to Gross on the Waco NPR station when I'm driving. (I can't quite pick up WRR, the Dallas classical station, until I get closer to Waco itself.) But, she's never floated my boat. In fact, I find her, again along with some of my friends, an easy object of parody.

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Someone bigger-named and better-known than me touts my idea of carbon taxes domestically, plus carbon tariffs on imports from places like China, to address the "free rider" issue on global warming. And, like me, says he thinks WTO regulations allow it. And, like me, says, the hell with the WTO if it doesn't.

That "someone"? Paul Krugman, in this book review. The review is in depth, and the book itself sounds good. And, in my opinion, carbon cap-and-trade's been a failure in Europe. Business knows that carbon taxes are a better way of addressing this, and, businesses who don't import cheap crap from China know that carbon tariffs on imports is a way to force other countries to play along.

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If you missed it last night, PBS' "Frontline" had a good episode on multiple-antibiotic-resistant germs. It promises a spring follow-up on how CAFO agriculture and its antibiotic use play into this. It's scary, as is news that came out during the government shutdown that we may have salmonella bacteria that now resist 165-degree meat temperature on properly-cooked (theoretically, at least) chicken.

I may, at some point, contribute money to PBS again. But, I doubt I'll ever contribute to any local NPR station, nor the specific affiliates that produce most of its programming.