A personal tipping point?

Mr. Bookworm is one of the smartest people I know. He’s also someone who gets his news exclusively from the New York Times, NPR and The New Yorker. He’s fond of repeating in a loud voice that President Bush is the worst president ever, that he’s an idiot, and that all his policies are wrong. When he takes time to get to the nitty gritty, though (something he avoids so as not to interfere with his cherished biases), he often finds himself unable to disagree with conservative ideas.
Even in his liberal media bubble, ideas are percolating.

This morning, as he was reading the times, he hollered out to me, “Are the people who blew up the trains in India Muslims?” (I think this is the NY Times article he was reading as he asked that question, and find his confusion unsurprising. The Islamic connection doesn’t precisely leap out, and the article, by focusing on the fact that one specific Islamic group might not have been the culprit, implies no Islamists had anything to do with the bombing.) I answered that, yes, it was Muslims who blew up the trains, possibly in concert with Al Qaeda.

My response was followed by a ruminative silence. Then, the man well-marinated in Leftist political correctness asked “What are these Muslims doing? They’re blowing up people all over the world? People are going to get sick of them? These are really bad people.” It’s small, but it’s a start. My next move will be to expose him to this Mark Steyn article, in which Steyn takes on, not only Iran itself, but the Iranian connection to the resurgent Islam that is terrorizing the Western world today.

UPDATE:  Laer has more about the press’ obfuscation about the Indian bombers’ true identity.