vjack reported an Alliance Defence Fund “alert” about one of his posts. It’s cheering that the ADF actually read and worry about atheists’ arguments, although I reckon few bloggers would welcome that kind of attention.

This led me to look at their site, follow a few links, and wander around the reaches of the Christian right.

• Quietly giggle at the argument that the self-styled “pro-life” movement is the true inheritor of the 1960s new left. Which in this context is somehow a “good thing”, flying directly in the face of the values expressed in this stuff. (I don’t understand it either, unless the objective is to trick people who don’t assume the New Left represented the lead horseman of the apocalypse) This, erm, unusual argument was put by Richard John Neuhaus, who turns out to be a Lutheran-pastor-turned-Catholic-priest, described in Wikipedia as:
  

  A close, yet unofficial, collaborator of President George W. Bush, Neuhaus advises Bush, who simply calls him “Father Richard”, on a range of religious and ethical matters, including abortion, stem-cell research, cloning, and the defense of marriage amendment

• Laugh out loud at the Reagan Ranch. This seems to be Graceland for people who would find the living quarters of a 1950s singer to be too interesting. It’s run by the Young America’s (sic) Foundation (motto: “The Conservative Movement Starts Here.”) I initially assume it’s a parody site, on the basis of some seriously mind-numbing content.. This is a typical press release, ffs:
  

  The President and Mrs. Reagan had breakfast together this morning at their residence at Rancho del Cielo, where the weather is sunny and warm. After breakfast, the President attended to routine paperwork and is now getting ready to go horseback riding. After riding, the President will have lunch with Mrs. Reagan and this afternoon, will clear brush on the ranch property. The Reagans will have dinner together this evening.

• Stop laughing rather swiftly when I bump into The Young America’s Foundation National Journalism Center Internships in Washington DC This Journalism Center seems to specialise in getting its conservative-by-definition students placed in major news outlets. For instance, here’s the 2008 tally of placements
  

  .. media outlets around the Washington, D.C. area, including Fox News, CNN, BBC, Comcast Sports Net, Roll Call, The Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Human Events, Evans & Novak Political Report, The Michael Reagan Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, National Review Online, News Max, London Daily Telegraph, and Doublethink Magazine.

  Aren’t rightwingers continually bleating about the “liberal media” and its bias against them? Well, this is part of their fightback strategy. From the FAQs.:

  Q: What are you seeking in a candidate?
  A: The National Journalism Center seeks candidates that are dedicated to becoming a better journalist, becoming more responsible reporter, and combating media bias.

  (How many grammatical errors are there in that answer? Yeah, ok, pot/kettle, but they must have had enough time to check the FAQ pages surely. And I’m not a journalist, let alone a journalism training centre.)

Being from the UK, I have only the haziest idea what “interns” do and I suspect this idea is not 100% accuarate, based, as it is, on the Clinton/Lewinsky saga. But I guess it’s work experience, for a $1000 a month stipend, apparently. I look at the list of articles published by the Fall 2008 alumni (Let the Americanisms run riot 🙂 tr: “people who did the course this Autumn”)

I naturally assume it’s News Biscuit link when I see:

‘Bridge to Nowhere’ leads nowhere

But it’s a real article in the American Spectator. By an alumnus.

(Here’s a gratuitous link to Apathy Sketchpad’s fine News Biscuit Annual post anyway)

Young Catholics share similar political and social views

(Yawn.)

A handful more in the same vein. Straight reports of not very interesting topics but professionally done. The site shows the optimistic fresh faces of the student alumni. Imagine getting the opportunity to work for the Washington Post and to get paid for doing it. They must feel pretty grateful to the Young America’s Foundation. I start to feel churlish about mocking the project. Then I turn to the page showing Books and Articles by NJC graduates.

I’ve heard of some of these graduates, such as Ann Coulter. (Hmmm.) Here are a few titles from the alumni’s publications. I have only picked out about one in four and I stopped at the letter K in the alphabetical list., in order to retain the will to live. So you can take it that there are plenty more where these came from.

• The Writing Christian
• Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terror
• Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right
• Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church
• Robert E. Lee on Leadership
• Polluted Science: The EPA’s Campaign to Expand Clean Air Regulations
• The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS
• Enemies of Eros: How the Sexual Revolution is Killing Family
• Economic Casualties: How U.S. Foreign Policy Undermines Trade, Growth, and Liberty
• The Age of Reagan: The Rebirth and Triumph of the American Spirit
• The Rise of the Nanny State: How Consumer Advocates Try to Run Our Lives
• Fostering Environmental Prosperity: Multinationals in Developing Countries
• The Heroic Enterprise: Business and the Common Good
• Investor Politics: The New Force That Will Transform American Business, Government and Politics in the 21st Century
• Global Taxes for World Government
• Global Bondage: The U.N. Plan to Rule the World

Not only are these books apparently so uniformly US-style-rightwing that you wouldn’t be surprised to find this was the Unabombers’s reading list, they sound so far beyond dull that the concept would have to be reinvented. Liberal, left-leaning media, indeed. 🙂