Okay, This is the Last One

For reasons that will forever remain obscure, ABC News decided to put an article up on its website about the now thoroughly-debunked claims of Arthur Brooks. I found this bit pretty hilarious:

[Right-wing douchebag Kellyanne] Conway saw another good side to the story for conservatives.

"It completely demystifies the fact that Republicans aren't having sex," she said. "Unless every Republican is procreating in a petri dish, ah ha, we too know how to have fun."

Someone neglected to tell Kellyanne that it's possible to have sex without having a baby. But then again, her knowledge of human reproduction probably came from Republican sanctioned sex-ed classes, meaning she thinks that kissing boys is enough get you pregnant.

The article is otherwise unworthy of attention, but for two things. First, I find it rather disturbing just how giddy the far-right seems to be over this whole conservatives-are-more-fecund nonsense. Even if there were any truth to it, why would it be something to gloat over? The Ann Coulter wing of conservatism long ago gave up arguing about ideas, and instead argues about people. You're not supposed to dislike liberal ideology so much as you're supposed to dislike liberals. And now that they've finally found one statistic that they believe paints them in a good light, they're running like mad with it. Never mind that this one seemingly good statistic happens to be strongly correlated with a whole slew of bad ones.

The second thing that bothers me is that the assholes at ABC didn't even bother to question Brooks' claims. Couldn't they have run this by a couple of demographers, or maybe some of the people who are involved with the GSS, and solicited a response? You'd think that competent journalists would do this as a matter of habit.