Low-Cost Showdown: Clifford the Big Red Dog vs. His Royal Tampon Wannabe

Yesterday, I appeared on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation to discuss tax funding for PBS and NPR. Among the other guests were Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the idjit who gave the "V-Chip" its name and who recently outed himself as a possible furry by appearing with PBS shill Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Let's leave aside the fact the CTBRD existed years before he showed up on PBS and that books featuring him have sold something like 110 million copies worldwide, suggesting that Clifford and other similar characters would flourish absent taxpayer funding of public broadcasting. One of Markey's main arguments for maintaining the status quo was that public broadcasting only costs each U.S. citizen $2 a year.

My question is this: Given that we've recently learned that British public coughs up roughly $1.10US to support Prince Charles, whose most memorable utterance involved a desire to be reincarnated as a tampon, and his ragtag band of Col. Klink impersonators, don't you feel cheated--if not ashamed of your country? In terms of sheer entertainment value, the British Royal family is clearly delivering superior entertainment value--and at a substantially lower cost. Did we win the revoulution only to lose the peace?