The MSM: Getting Dumber & Dumber By The Minute

Yep, this time its Michael Kinsley who actually attempts to get people to take the following premise seriously:

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn’t a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey.

Yes, that's right. Being akin to the majority of Americans who A) Don't live in one of the 20 biggest metropolitan areas, B) Have never lived in Washington, DC, C) Are not journalists, and D) Take pride in the accomplishments of their children, all of that makes you "an elitist."

Kinsley's opening sentence has to be the dumbest thing I've read all year, and I'm the guy who read a paper where a student said Nietzsche caught syphilis because he was working as a prostitute. (Talk about an "eternal recurrence!"!)

QandO picks up the story, because Kinsley's piece doesn't get any better. Kinsley sneers:

Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska’s government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

If you listen closely, you can hear the muted shuffle of the don’t-judge crowd sneaking over to my side of the room.

Contrary to what Kinsley calls "reality," Alaska is not No.1 in per capita taxes, nor in the top ten. Heck it’s not even in the 25 states for that category. In fact, Alaska’s residents are the least taxed in the nation:

Since 1990, Alaska’s state and local tax burden has consistently been the nation’s lowest. Estimated now at 6.4% of income, Alaska’s state/local tax burden is well below the national average of 9.7%. Alaskans pay $2,871 per capita in state and local taxes.

Before the Trans-Alaska pipeline was finished in1977, taxpayers in Alaska bore the second-highest tax burden in the country. By 1980, with oil tax revenue a certified bonanza, Alaska repealed its personal income tax and started sending out checks instead. The tax burden plummeted, and now Alaskans are the least taxed.

Wow. You have to admire someone who can bravely make a claim that is not just demonstrably false at the present time, but going back every year for the last 18 years. That takes talent.

It takes something, that's for sure.

Would someone like to tell the MSM to stop digging?