A belated article has appeared rebuffing Pullman's “Common Sense Has Much to Learn From Moonshine” (from January 2005). AM Siriano claims at The Reality Check that “what [Pullman] is really saying is that traditional values are not based on facts. Conservatives don't think, says Pullman, and their loyalty to the superfluous study of syntax and parts of speech is a case in point. Conservatives, especially the ones who actually believe a fairy tale like Christianity, are all about those nasty things called rules, and God knows—er, the Eternal Now, the Great Otherness, or Gaia knows—that we all have had way too much o’ that!” Read more.