20/20
John Stossel's
Myths, Lies and Straight Talk

On the Dec. 30, 2005 edition of 20/20, John Stossel's report
"Myths, Lies and Straight Talk" was surprising, enlightening, and at times made me chuckle. Here Mr. Stossel exposed some commonly held misconceptions. In the process a few "sacred cows" were gored. Among the top ten myths:

10) We Have Less Free Time

9) Money Can Buy Happiness

8) Republicans Shrink The Government

7) The World Is Getting Too Crowded

6) Chemicals Are Killing Us

5) Guns Are Always Bad For Us

4) We're Drowning in Garbage

3) We Are Destroying Our Forests

2) Getting Cold Can Give You A Cold

1) Life Is Getting Worse

As a Libertarian, numbers Eight and Five were my favorites. Gotta love it! John Stossel, you just rock! One might normally think that only the Ultra Liberals would take a hit on this one but, the Democrats and Greens won't be the only casualties here. Republicans often are on the correct side of these busted myths but, oh how they got nailed on Number Eight!

Republicans are always portraying themselves as fiscally conservative. They oppose "big government". Stossel even quotes Reagan and Bush saying such things but, he also quotes the corrections made by Republican Economist Stephen Moore:

"We fought a war against big government and you know what? Big government won." -Stephen Moore

Funny how the enemy of this kind of "war" never goes away!

"You look at what has happened to the government in 10 years since the Republicans took control of Congress, the government is twice as big." -Stephen Moore

It is hard to question Moore on this after viewing Stossel's program. In over 75 years there hasn't been a Republican administration that cut the size of government. Under George W. Bush it actually grew 25 percent. Republicans are likely to try to blame this on the war on terror. Really? Then how about Stossel's point that according to the Office of Management and Budget, EPA spending is up 12%, the Department of Agriculture is up 14%,the Department of Interior is up 30 %, the Department of Labor is up 64%, and the Department of Education is up 70%? Which is the party of big wasteful spenders of our hard earned tax dollars? I'm confused now.

The world has over 6 billion people now. Surely that's too many. Stossel reminds us of how doomsayers such as Paul Ehrlich wrote in "Population Bomb" that 65 million Americans would starve in a great die off in the 80's. Guess not. Starvation in populous places does occur but, it was pointed out that this was due to things like civil war and government corruption that interfere with the distribution of food. Since technology enables us to grow more food in smaller areas of land than ever before, the UN has certified that the world actually overproduces food.

Gun Control....don't get me started. The gun control activists do a lot to exaggerate and distort reality. They advocate the dilution of our 2nd amendment rights and try to pass as many restrictive laws and regulations as possible. I've seen better info than what Stossel gave but, it is still an honest portrayal as things really are at least. He demonstrates that despite the hype to the contrary, the CDC(Center for Disease Control)completed a review of studies and concluded that background checks, waiting periods, bans on certain guns and ammunitions, and the Brady law had no statistical affect on violent crime. You will thwart the occasional fool that goes to a gun shop with checks and then you get the "if just one life is saved" argument from the left. Statistically it doesn't measure up and ignores the fact that criminals don't buy guns from dealers. The prisoners interviewed by Stossel scoffed at the gun laws. They would get guns regardless and didn't buy from dealers. The not knowing if a stranger had a gun put these criminals more at pause than the threat of police force or prison. I'm sure the NRA would gladly show you their stats on how gun ownership saves lives but, let me just close with Stossel's report that 36 states have adopted concealed carry laws but, none have reported an upsurge in gun crime.

I have no intention of summarizing every one of Stossel's points in this post. To be sure though the fact that DDT is finally being financed by USAID to stomp out malaria in the 3rd world, that there is plenty room left to dispose of garbage, and that we actually have more forest in the US than we did in 1920 is quite entertaining to confront misconceptions with. This was on ABC huh? Perhaps the Liberal Media is also a myth after all as well?