A hat trick for the CBS “Early Show” this week: fear-mongering, Bush-bashing, and Christmas consumerism all in one story.
The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission is under fire because of the recent spate of recalls of consumer products, especially toys. While Democrats say the Bush administration is endangering children by refusing an increase in the agency’s budget, the administration retorts that what Democrats really want is a shift away from product testing toward a concentration on litigation against companies. Not that it would benefit a big Democrat constituency like trial lawyers or anything.
But the creme de la creme of the piece on CBS was how co-host Julie Chen turned Bush into the Grinch in an accusation leveled against Acting CPSC commissioner Nancy Nord:
American parents are upset, they’re frightened, they feel like their Halloween and their Christmas is now ruined. They don’t know what to buy. Members of Congress are calling for your resignation. Are you going to resign?
Yes, because Christmas (and Halloween? What do you need to buy for Halloween?) is all about the stuff parents buy. Typical.
You need “ugly teeth” (?) which I heard today were one of the recalls for too much lead. They sound like something designed to go in the mouth…. ‘Course if you just made your own costume….
Whatever did we do or did our parents do way back into the dawn of time, say the 1940s when we had toys that now would be considered not only dangerous but perhaps subversive to the liberal establishment? Even more radically, we actually made toys using whatever was at hand plus our very own children’s imaginations that far outshone the tacky engineers with all theie bells and whistles of today. There was a time, a sacred time in fact, when kids were actually kids and not just empty hands waiting to be filled with the latest crap to pop up on the boob tube.
Nuts! I shouldn’t have come to Bettnet.com today! I didn’t know my Halloween was ruined. And here I thought we had a great Halloween.
Well, I guess we’ll avoid trying to celebrate Christmas this year. It’s good we have Julie Chen looking out for us. How can we celebrate Christmas if a bureaucracy like the CPSC isn’t helping us with toy selection? What else is there to celebrate but buying toys?
Maybe we can resume celebrating Christmas once Hillary Clinton is elected president. Not only will the CPSC be able to tell us which toys are safe for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc., etc., but maybe Hillary can create an Office of Happy Holidays. It will tell all Americans what we must buy if we want want to enjoy these special shopping opportunities.
Hey, wait a minute! Julie, where is your sensitivity? What about Kwanzaa? Didn’t George Bush and the CPSC also ruin Kwanzaa?? I smell a coverup, or could it be just Julie’s reporting that smells?