By Brad Friedman on 7/16/2014, 9:50pm PT  

We covered too much on the KPFK/Pacifica Radio BradCast this week to go into great detail here, but the common thread seemed to be: Stamping out Zombie Myths.

In other words, those popular lies and deceptions that never seem to die on everything from e-cigs and vaping to the death penalty to Ann Coulter's voter fraud to Fox "News" propaganda on global warming and polling place Photo ID laws (too many of those to link here) to the fight for marriage-equality in Mississippi.

In other words, there was a lot packed in to this week's 58 minutes, including a lot of bullshit to dispel, a bunch of great callers, and even one who totally disagreed with me on e-cigs and children. That was fun.

Check it out. I think you'll enjoy it...

Download MP3 or listen online below...

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P.S. During the show, a caller questioned the facts of a quote I read on air from a press release issued today by the Freedom to Marry organization, citing the first Mississippi mayor to call for marriage equality in the state. The quote in question was from the group's President Evan Wolfson, who said in the statement: "More same-sex couples are raising children in Mississippi than in any other state."

The caller, appropriately, challenged the veracity of the statement, and I promised I'd look into the details, since I had just received the release prior to air time and didn't have the details handy. Now I do. Here's where that claim comes from...

As the Jackson Free Press explains, in citing a 2011 study by UCLA's The Williams Institute:

Although Mississippi ranks 42nd in the nation for the number of same-sex couples per household, it leads the nation in the percentage of same-sex couples raising children ... Using 2010 U.S. Census data, The Williams Institute, a gender orientation and identity public-policy organization based at the University of California, finds that 901,997 same-sex couples live in the United States. Nationally, 22 percent of same-sex couples are raising children, but in Mississippi 33 percent are raising children. Mississippi has a total of 6,286 same-sex couples.

While I couldn't find the specific 2011 report referenced by the Jackson Free Press at The Williams Institute website, another one on "LGBT Parenting in the United States" from February 2013 notes: "States with the highest proportions of same-sex couples raising biological, adopted or step-children include Mississippi (26%), Wyoming (25%), Alaska (23%), Idaho (22%), and Montana (22%)."

So, as surprising as it sounds, Wolfson's quote would seem to be, essentially, correct, though he should have been more precise by saying "a larger percentage of same sex-couples are raising children in Mississippi than in any other state", rather than simply "More same-sex couples..."

As I did during the show, I again thank the caller for holding my feet to the fire on that quote, and my apologies that I didn't have the source details at my fingertips on air, as I received the release just prior to airtime. The complete list of Mayors now signed on to Freedom to Marry's "Mayors for Marriage" initiative --- now including Mayor David Garcia of Waveland, MS --- can be found here.

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Article Categories: Ann Coulter, Fox 'News', California, Mississippi, BRAD BLOG Media Appearance, Rights And Freedoms, U.S. Constitution, Photo ID Laws, Death Penalty, Marriage Equality, KPFK, BradCast, Vaping/e-cigs