Because “Bring It On” has become a 21st Century topical meme, I read this every day and today The Bastard suggested I follow a Psychotic Patriot’s musings.

I've come to realize something about America recently, and it's disturbing not just because it's out of the mainstream media, but because it by definition is caused by the mainstream media. I offer this dark scenario: If you read, the terrorists win. What I mean by this is that fewer and fewer people read, for any reason, and fewer CAN read, for any reason. So you have a continuous dumbing-down of the populace, and an equally continuous rise in wingnuttery and incredibly simplistic concepts offered as fact.

Over here on the left side of the bipedal spectrum, we oxygen breathers on Planet Earth tend to judge our winger brethren by their works: Fox News, Rush, Sean Hannity and his unfortunate sock puppet Alan Colmes, Ken Mehlman and the Magical Mystery Talking Points tour, The Free Republic – the list continues…..

We watched, astounded and flummoxed as the never-ending cascade of inanity and twisting logic and excuse inundates a populace that seems to sleepwalk through the End Times of America.

So the more I read, the more I disbelieve Bush and his minions. Wait. I didn't believe him before he became the resident. Anyway. The more I read the more I refuse to accept the glowing bullshit frothing from Iraq. Insert anything intellectual, or GASP! (Liberal) after "The more I read." So, in the parlance of conservative evangelical mindlessness: if I don't unquestioningly devour the smallest sound-bites of Hannitian and Limbaughistic logic, leaving any curiosity at the curb, I'm Osama's butt-buddy. It's just that simple.

It’s vital, from an intellectual point of view, to examine what you read or hear. It’s also a sort of survival skill because bad advice leads to bad results. Remember when your useless brother-in-law suggested you invest in that new company making mittens for dogs?

Now I'm talking about what is called "Critical Literacy." Not skimming the newspaper headlines, not squinting to see the scroll at the bottom of Fox News, but the kind of critical reading done in books, as well as thoughtful reading in any format done in pursuit of a serious intellectual or educational premise. If you've gotten this far, you know what I mean. The kind of reading which examines an issue deeply, and dredges up information to add to an informed mind, to expand said mind, to enhance it, or, perchance, to throw the issue the fuck out.

Sometimes I listen to talk radio. Here’s an interesting experiment: Take your antibiotics and spend an hour or two listening to Rush on the radio, and then listen to a progressive station, such as Air America Radio. If you don’t have an AAR outlet in your area, you can listen on the internets on that computer thingy. You’ll hear the same stuff from the callers, almost word for word, that you heard from Rush. If you listen to dittoheads call Randi Rhodes, you can listen to her demolish their frothings point by point. There’s no critical thinking on the other side. They just swallow the bullshit of the day without chewing and then later regurgitate.

The Psychotic goes on, discussing reading levels, several studies about reading, comprehension, and critical thought. He brings up divided and shortened attention spans, the stupidity of abbreviated and misspelled words in text messaging. and how they affect life in general. I’d write more but I think I’m losing interest.