The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Sunday
Mar292015
The Commentariat -- March 30, 2015
Internal links removed.
CW: My husband, who was Italian by birth and an American citizen, told me once that the only ethnic group that Americans -- in general -- felt comfortable dissing were Italians. His comment surprised me, & I thought maybe he was a bit overly-sensitive. When I was a child I heard people disparaging Italians, but had not heard such remarks for decades, partly, I suspected because of the efforts of the American-Italian Defamation League & similar groups.
Yesterday, my husband finally won his argument. I made the mistake of responding to a comment that bordered on an Italian slur but didn't go over the line, IMO. I should not have done that, as later in the day, the conversation in which I participated devolved into indisputable ethnic slurs. I bear responsibility for letting this happen, and -- as the saying goes -- I apologize to anyone who was offended. If you weren't offended, you should have been.
(If you're not sure you're delivering an ethnic slur, plug in the word "Negro" & see if you would feel comfortable making the remark to an African-American. If the answer is no, don't share your thought here, please.)
In future, I will endeavor to delete all comments that include a whiff of negative ethnic stereotyping. Again, I am sorry I allowed this to happen here, where bigotry should enjoy no privilege.
*****
Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans bolted for a two-week spring recess with the confirmation of Loretta E. Lynch as attorney general in jeopardy, and themselves in a quandary: Accept a qualified nominee they oppose because she backs President Obama's policies or reject her and live with an attorney general they despise, Eric H. Holder Jr.... Lawmakers have found nothing in Ms. Lynch's background to latch on to in opposition, and many are loath to reject the first African-American woman put forth to be the nation's top law enforcement officer. But, they say, their constituents have told them that a vote for Ms. Lynch affirms Mr. Obama's executive actions on immigration, which she has said she finds lawful." ...
... CW: I really find it unpossible that the Senate would not confirm Lynch. The GOP's behavior is despicable.
Tom Keane in Politico Magazine: "'Can Elizabeth Warren be the new Ted Kennedy?' wonders Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi in a recent column. One answer is that she doesn't have to be; after all, Ted Kennedy wasn't always Ted Kennedy either. The second answer is that she already is."
Paul Krugman: Republicans have been forced to think up & disseminate outlandish "facts" to support their anti-ObamaCare mania. "... what we're looking at here is the impact of post-truth politics. We live in an era in which politicians and the supposed experts who serve them never feel obliged to acknowledge uncomfortable facts, in which no argument is ever dropped, no matter how overwhelming the evidence that it's wrong."
Kimberly Railey of the National Journal: "... as [Rep. Aaron] Schock [R-Ill.] departs public office, Illinois Republicans are quietly closing up a political machine that distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars around the state. Schock has pumped money into dozens of races in Illinois ... during his rise up the political ladder. Now, the political network Schock formed is unraveling, leaving some in Illinois — especially downstate Republicans -- wondering who else might get caught up in a wide-ranging investigation and how much they'll miss Schock's help."
Tim Devaney of the Hill: "A high-stakes legal dispute pitting McDonald's Corp. against labor unions is set to enter a crucial phase this week, when the National Labor Relations Board takes up consideration of a case with major implications for franchise businesses. An NLRB administrative law judge on Monday will begin weighing whether McDonald's should be responsible for what employees say are poor working conditions and low pay at many of its franchise restaurants."
... there's a very real chance that the next president of the United States could replace four justices. --Ian Millhiser ...
... This Supreme Court Is a Lot Like Earlier Supreme Courts. Elias Isquith of Salon: "As [Ian] Millhiser sees it, the Supreme Court has spent most of its existence standing athwart history, yelling, Stop! From gutting the civil rights acts of the post-Civil War era to attacking business regulations to weakening protections for children, minorities and immigrants, the court Millhiser describes has much more often than not worked to return power to those in society who need it least, and abuse it most."
Judith Schaeffer, in Slate, notes that at his confirmation hearings, then-Judge John Roberts essentially spoke in favor of same-sex marriage; that is, that he confirmed that the "right to marry" is broader than any historical prohibitions against it, like miscegenation laws.
** Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, takes a look at the big picture & its historical underpainting to conclude that the GOP really does aim to destroy democracy. "... part of what makes things much easier for Republicans in this era is that -- with few exceptions -- they're not going up against FDR-style social democrats, with the full-bodied set of attitudes, assumptions, principles and expectations entailed in that constitutional order, but instead face neoliberal Democrats who desire compromise in a framework of diminished expectations." ...
... CW: Besides the examples Rosenberg provides, you probably can think of others; for instance, the seemingly odd movement to repeal the 17th Amendment, which mandates the direct election of senators.
Brinkman's Strategy. Julian Borger of the Guardian: "There are less than two full days to go before an end-March deadline for agreeing a political framework to contain Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, and the atmosphere in Lausanne has taken on the nervous edge of an endgame.... The negotiations are still stalled within sight of the finishing line. There are still many issues still up in the air in Lausanne, but diplomats here say they believe most would resolve themselves if a couple of obstinate problems could be overcome. Those two issues are the extent to which Iran would be allowed to carry out research and development on new models of centrifuge in the last years of a deal, and -- the stickiest problem by far -- the lifting of UN security council sanctions." ...
... David Sanger & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia, where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday Iran's deputy foreign minister made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that Iran has spent years and billions of dollars to amass.... Western officials confirmed that Iran was balking at shipping the fuel out, but insisted that there were other ways of dealing with the material. Chief among those options, they said, was blending it into a more diluted form." ...
... Simon Sturdee, et al., of AFP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a dire warning Sunday about a possible nuclear accord with Iran as talks in Switzerland towards the outline of a deal intensified days before a deadline. 'The dangerous accord which is being negotiated in Lausanne confirms our concerns and even worse,' Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast on public radio. He said the 'Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis' was 'dangerous for all of humanity' and that combined with Tehran's regional influence, a nuclear deal could allow Iran to "conquer" the Middle East.'" ...
... Juan Williams of the Hill: "Speaker John Boehner[s (R-Ohio) trip to Israel this week is so blatantly political that even the avowedly impartial Associated Press describes it as looking 'like a jab at the White House.' It is worse than that.... The real issue here is the way Boehner is recklessly sowing division along party lines on Israel. He is also -- intentionally or not -- heightening the silent but simmering racial tensions that increasingly divide Americans on the subject. The racial division is the most troubling of all to me, as a black American." ...
... Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "After six years in office, and after repeatedly following the advice of his generals, only to see their predictions fail, Obama is choosing the risks of nuclear diplomacy over yet more war. It is the best of bad options, but it could be better still."
Yara Bayoumy & Mahmoud Mourad of Reuters: "Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad."
Presidential Race
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley said Sunday that the presidency 'is not some crown to be passed between two families,' sounding more resolute than ever about taking on Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. O'Malley, who has been aggressively positioning himself as a more liberal and forward-looking alternative to Clinton, said during an appearance on ABC News's 'This Week' that 'new perspective and new leadership is needed.'"
Ted Cruz Is Still Obnoxious: Evan McMurry of Mediaite: "State of the Union temporary host Dana Bash pointed out to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) Sunday morning that he and President Barack Obama shared notable similarities in their biographies and qualifications before the seeking the White House (an example of the limits of political analogy). Given that the GOP has made so much hay over Obama's supposed 'inexperience,' how, Bash asked, could they nominate Cruz? Cruz argued that his pre-Senate experience dwarfed Obama's. 'Unlike Barack Obama, I was not a community organizer before I was elected to the Senate,' he said. 'I spent 5 1/2 years as the solicitor general of Texas ... I supervised and led every appeal for the state of Texas in a 4,000-person agency with over 700 lawyers.'" ...
... CW: Cruz falls back on a stupid dog-whistle confederate talking point, ignoring Obama's 12-year career as an Illinois legislator & his side-job as a university lecturer. By Cruz's standard, we should describe Paul Ryan as nothing but a one-time Weinermobile driver & Scott Walker as a former McDonald's burger flipper. ...
... So this is hilarious. Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is swearing off negative campaigning as he begins his run for the White House. 'There may be other candidates who choose to throw rocks in my direction,' the GOP presidential hopeful said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union. I'm not going to engage in the personal mudslinging, in the negative attacks on people's character.'"
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: Chris Christie was a big promoter of wind energy -- until he met the Koch boys. His "enthusiasm for wind energy appeared to flag around the time he began exploring a run for the Republican presidential nomination. Political opponents say the turning point was a series of meetings in 2011 and 2012 with key Republican donors, including billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, oil-industry magnates who have bankrolled campaigns against renewable energy."
Alina Selyukh & Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "Former Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) Chief Executive Carly Fiorina said on Sunday the chances she would run for the U.S. presidency in 2016 were 'higher than 90 percent' and that she would announce her plans in late April to early May." ...
... CW: Fiorina has never held elective office & "frequently has been ranked as one of the worst CEOs of all time." So. An excellent presidential candidate.
Beyond the Beltway
Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "Indiana's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act will not be changing despite critics saying it allows business owners to discriminate against members of the LGBT community, state Gov. Mike Pence said [Sunday] during an exclusive interview on ABC's 'This Week.' Pence described the media coverage and opposition to the law as 'shameless rhetoric,' saying it strengthens the foundation of First Amendment rights rather than discriminates. 'We're not going to change the law,' he said, 'but if the general assembly in Indiana sends me a bill that adds a section that reiterates and amplifies and clarifies what the law really is and what it has been for the last 20 years, than I'm open to that.'" With video. ...
... David of Crooks & Liars: Mike Pence refused to answer George Stephanopoulos's repeated question: "And so yes or no, if a florist in Indiana refuses to serve a gay couple at their wedding, is that legal now in Indiana? Yes or no?" CW: So I'm pretty sure we all -- including Pence -- know what the answer is. ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice: Pence is "stuck, and he doesn't know what to do, so he will keep denying and deflecting while Indiana loses millions of dollars in business and travel and tourism. It is always important to remember, that when discussing Mike Pence, that he is really, really, stupid...." ...
... Sarah Parvini & Nigel Duara of the Los Angeles Times: Hoosiers are mystified & dismayed that a discriminatory law is upsetting people. ...
... Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in a Washington Post op-ed: Among the states, "In total, there are nearly 100 bills designed to enshrine discrimination in state law. These bills rationalize injustice..., go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality."
News Ledes
New York Times: "On Monday, the [U.S.] government charged that in the shadows of an undercover investigation of Silk Road, a notorious black-market site, two federal agents sought to enrich themselves by exploiting the very secrecy that made the site so difficult for law enforcement officials to penetrate. The agents, Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun W. Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service, had resigned amid growing scrutiny, and on Monday they were charged with money laundering and wire fraud. Mr. Force was also charged with theft of government property and conflict of interest."
Guardian: "The personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not consider it necessary to inform those world leaders of the privacy breach.... An employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament."
Washington Post: "One person was killed and another was injured Monday morning when police with the National Security Agency opened fire on a vehicle whose driver refused commands to stop at a security gate, according to a statement from the agency. The vehicle slammed into a police cruiser after shots were fired." ...
... ABC News: "Sources say the two inside [the vehicle] were men dressed as women. Preliminary information indicated the two men were partying at an area hotel with a third individual when they took that individual's car without permission. However, it's still unclear how or why they ended up at the NSA gate."
New York Times: "Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister who was forced from office under a cloud of corruption, was convicted on Monday of fraud and breach of trust in a retrial of a case involving an American businessman, whose sensational testimony in a Jerusalem court in 2008 was instrumental in Mr. Olmert's downfall. The American businessman, Morris Talansky, said at the time that he had provided Mr. Olmert with about $150,000 over 13 years, mostly in cash stuffed into envelopes, an assertion Mr. Olmert vehemently denied. Mr. Talansky, known as Moshe, had said that much of the money was earmarked for election campaigns but that some was for Mr. Olmert's personal expenses."
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Reader Comments (24)
Marie, I grew up in Maine. We told/tell French jokes; the preferred ethnicity jokes around this state. They were the last to arrive, after the Irish and Italians. I think the joke is on us now; we' re saddled with LePage.
Thanks for clearing up the Meerkat mystery, Marie. Yesterday Maureen Dowd used the word "meerkatting" as a verb; I had no idea what she was talking about.
Re: Krugman's piece on Republican's post-truth politics. A sterling example is Kathy McMorris Rogers (a perennial favorite here on R.C.) who posted on her FaceBook page a request for her constituents to weigh in on their bad experiences with Obamacare. Instead she got hundreds of positives and the few negatives were the ones she choose to read at a press conference calling for once again an end to that horrible health care system. I listened and my teeth hurt from grinding.
An end note from yesterday's comments: My husband, a second generation Italian, suffered periodically from ethic slurs when he was a lad growing up in a small New England town. He's told me how he always felt that minority status until he entered university and blended in. Yet he and his cousins have a grand old time making fun of their fellow Italians––guffaws of laughter over scenes in "The Sopranos" –––seems we can criticize, even use those ethic slurs within "the family" but verboten by outsiders.
P.S. I have just read aloud to my husband what I wrote about him. He tells me despite the pain he felt he learned to confront, stand his ground, and forever be assertive which has carried him in good stead.
To go along with the McDonalds piece today, Amazon strives to be the worst corporate hellhole for temporary employees. I personally choose boycott and minor inconvenience than feeding that machine.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/26/8280309/amazon-warehouse-jobs-exclusive-noncompete-contracts
Marie,
When I was in junior high school in the 1960's we made fun of a mentally-challenged person with whom we rode the bus. We were happy kids who considered ourselves moral and went to church with our parents every Sunday. No one confronted our supposition that we could verbally abuse Joe without hurting his feelings, and we certainly didn't figure that out on our own.
My father and mother were Irish-American, but after my father died when I was 2 my mother remarried a Sicilian-American. I used to say that I was the only Irish kid I knew who was adept at talking with his hands. Nonetheless, ethnic humor was directed against both the Irish and the Italians. During my 20's, I thought that as long as I told a lot of Irish jokes I could tell jokes about other ethnicities as well. I told jokes about African-Americans that now make my toes curl.
Ethnic and racist humor support the worldview that people who are weaker in any way (often by constituting part of a minority) are fair game. We tell jokes to support our rationalizations, to cushion the blow to our consciences of our cruelty.
Now I understand that I was brought up in a racist, homophobic society in which other ethnicities were routinely lampooned. I never thought of myself as a bad person when I took part in making jokes at the expense of others who might suffer hurt feelings.
And then one day I did. It was hard to give up my ethnic patter, but I managed to. Like Wild Turkey and cocaine, telling insulting jokes became part of my past, banished (I hope) from my future.
I know that I will never be free of the racism with which I was imbued as a child. Unlike Stephen Colbert, I see race all too clearly. However, I try with all my might to acknowledge my flaw and do my best despite it.
Jack,
I think your experience mirrors that of quite a few Americans. The good thing is that many of us, as you mention, were able to overcome inbred, unquestioned, and even invisible bigotries, and the United States as a social construct, has striven to address such bigotry through both legislative and social solutions through laws that make discrimination illegal.
But the forces of darkness and hatred never sleep. The Republican Party and their media dogs have been tearing away at the legal and social impediments to discrimination. They have made racism safe again in social settings. Republican politicians and their staff routinely circulate pictures of the White House with watermelons growing on the lawn and of Michelle Obama as a gorilla. It used to be considered very bad form to use racial slurs publicly, at least, but not anymore.
It's not like political correctness eradicated racism and bigotry, it didn't. But at least it made it clear that such attitudes were not socially acceptable (another reason political correctness has earned such enmity from the right), a reasonable first step to trying to drain that particular swamp. But the right-wing in this country has made it their goal, even up to and including the Supreme Court, to subvert any attempts to overcome racism or to even mention its existence.
Whether the underlying reasons have to do with, as you suggest, a predilection for picking on those of lesser stature in society, or if it stems from their abiding sense of victimization at the hands of non-whites and non-Christians, I don't know. That's a question for sociologists. What I do know is that we have taken some mighty big steps backwards and I don't see that changing any time soon.
And Democrats can be blamed for some of this. An earlier iteration of the Democratic Party was instrumental in attempting to address these problems but since Reagan helped usher in Racism Again in America, too many Democrats have shied away from the liberal label, trying to hide in the shadows lest Newt Gingrich or some Fox asshole point at them and scream "UNCLEAN!"
I remember a lot of those jokes from years ago. Some of them are just as appalling now as they should have been then. But many of us are more than a bit stupid when we're kids. The problem comes when those kids grow up and are stupider still.
Bigotry is Big Business!
Or maybe not.
Take a gander at the John Cole piece on Mike Pence Marie links above.
Pence is a microcosm for the catastrophic mess we find ourselves in as a nation. He isn't particularly well known as a firebreathing asshole like Santorum or Huckabee or Cruz, but he, and the multitude of GOP Confederates running local, state, and national business, is more dangerous because of that. The big mouths you see (and hear) coming. The Pences sneak up on us. At least they used to. It used to be that idiots like Pence had to climb through a hole in the backyard fence. Now they are invited in through the front door with fanfare and hordes of adoring media figures and low information (or bigoted) voters waving banners. You do know that there has been talk of Mike Pence for president, right? And, yes, I know that all kinds of screwballs say they're going to run for president, but this guy was the third most influential Republican in congress before becoming governor.
Cole, in the linked article, refers to a Matt Yglesias piece from a few years ago in which he offers details about Pence's jaw dropping ignorance. Read it and then think about this: Pence is just one of thousands of Republicans who have no idea what the fuck they're talking about or what the fuck they're doing. They operate on ideological talking points. No more. You try to dig below the surface and there's nothing there. Nothing.
But these people are in charge now. And there are more out there.
I blame Newt Gingrich for much of this. And Fox. They came together as a package deal. The idea is that it doesn't matter what you do as long as it appeases your ideological base. It doesn't matter if what you say doesn't make sense or is a complete lie as long as it serves to attack your enemies and provides some emotional support for the base.
And that base has been shown by their "leaders" that it's okay to indulge in your worst, most primal, animal instincts. International problems? War! Local problems? More police, more guns, more jails. Social disputes? Make laws outlawing the other side. Oh, yeah, and did I say more guns?
The fact that Pence has painted himself into a corner doesn't mean shit in Right-Wing World. He's doing what he's supposed to do: stick it to anyone who isn't a member of the tribe. For that he's guaranteed more support from the oligarchs, some of whom could care less about bigotry--they just want to fuck things up enough to provide cover for their machinations--and those, like the Kochs, who are dyed in the wool Confederate bigots and haters.
Add to this the startling possibility that, as indicated by the Ian Millhiser quote above, that the next president could be appointing almost half the court. If you consider that the next president could be in office for eight years, that gives us 10 years. All of the justices except Kagan would be in their 70's or older. Scalia, Kennedy, Breyer would be in their late 80's and Ginsburg in her 90's. Even chatterbox Thomas would be in his mid 70's. That's at least four justices. Should a wingnut inhabit the oval office, we can pretty much kiss the American Experiment goodbye. With the court in the hands of the Confederates and the country largely being "run" by imbeciles who couldn't find the bathroom without a Sesame Street map, we would be on life support.
Oh, and because Republicans would have repealed the ACA by then, life support will be unavailable to all except the rich.
CW: Comment deleted for serial ethnic stereotyping.
Good to see that everyone eschews ethnic jokes.
But ... Aggie jokes are still OK, right? Gov. Goodhair and Rep. Gohmert are Aggies (once an Aggie, always ...) and they sort of inhabit the genre, so I'd hate to see those jokes go the way of perdition.
Aggie dad: Son, I want you to have my A&M drinking mug, for when you go out on weekends. But you have to drink from only this side of the mug.
Freshman Aggie: What side is that, Dad?
Aggie dad: This side (points to rim nearest his lip). Because if you drink from the other side (puts lips to side away from his lip) and tilt it up, all the beer pours down your shirt.
OK. let me add my take. I presented facts about my experience about the culture in science and government in Italy (southern Italy BTW). It has nothing to do with the word 'Italian' in the context of ethnicity in the genetic sense. Some of my best friends and colleagues are Italian-Americans, a totally different group. Yes, the FACT that I saw behavior that led me to seriously doubt the Italian legal system affects my view of the Knox case. None of this is in the vaguest way a racist rant. If that is believed to be the case then clearly any negative comment about Israel is anti-semitic, any negative comment about Obama is racist. I understand the fact that those of us who have been subjected to real ethnic slurs can be hyper-sensitive. I've been there myself.
I'm deleting JJG's comment, so let me paraphrase it for you:
I'm sorry if I offended anyone.
BUT.
People in other countries are nationalistic bigots, too (which kinda makes it okay if I am). There's something wrong with the characters of the people of every country I've visited. Everybody in those countries shares these negative attributes. Even within this country, entire large states & major cities are populated by Stepford wives adhering to regional cultural stereotypes.
JJG/as read by Marie
@Marvin Schwalb: What you wrote -- in two posts -- was:
"... my personal experiences from my numerous visits and interaction with Italians in science and medicine has put Italy on my anti-bucket list.... And of course to be fair, it is not everyone in Italy but unless I was really unlucky, it was a high percentage."
Today you wrote, "None of this is in the vaguest way a racist rant."
So, in addition to deciding that "a high percentage" of Italians are undesirables, based upon your anecdotal experience, you suggest I accused you of making "a racist rant." What I said is that your comments constitute an ethnic slur, not that you went on a racist rant. Most people know the difference.
You should have tried this, as I suggested in the body of today's Commentariat: "I know several black people, & they are two-faced. A high percentage of black people are two-faced. I won't have anything to do with black people." No, that's not a racist rant, either. But it's damned offensive and screams logical fallacy.
Marie
@Patrick: The trouble with Aggie jokes is that they target farmers & perpetuate the "dumb hicks" stereotype.
In fairness, I expect most of the students at the school in College Station, Texas, are not ag majors, & that popular Aggie jokes are the same kind of jokes that college rivals interchangeably tell about rival schools. So if you're an LSU Tiger or a Razorback fan, I'd say Aggie jokes are okay.
But when I went to the University of Wisconsin, which had an ag school, aggie jokes were told at the expense of the "dumb hicks." I didn't think they were very nice, & I hope I never told one or laughed too loudly when somebody else did.
Marie
Well kids, we're just about a week away from the next pair of clown shoes to stumble into the Confederate presidential big top.
Li'l Randy will be making his BIG announcement on April 7th (will he sport a clown nose or a fright wig? Inquiring minds want to know) and the battle for evangelical haters will begin. Anyone who considered the Bewigged One a serious or even semi-demi-halfway-almost-maybe serious candidate because of some half-baked libertarian mewlings about the war on drugs, militarization, nation (attacking, then) building, can put their Li'l Randy Libertarian T-shirts back in the drawer.
He's courting the bigots and the Bible thumpers in a big way, even, apparently, writing not one but two books (count 'em, collect 'em all!--early word from the publishing community is that less than half of these new books will be plagiarized. A step up!) to gin up his run for legitimacy. One will be about uniting America, 'cause Confederates have always been so good at that. The other, sure to warm the cockles of the Jesus Wrote the Constitution crowd will be about Our Presidents and their Prayers"". Awwwww...how very....religiocious.
In order to bolster his Jesus cred, he's been palling around with David Lane. You may not have heard of this guy, but Rightwing Watch has been keeping tabs on this his extremist ass:
"David Lane, an anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-Mormon, Christian-nation absolutist" who has declared war, not only on secularism and separation of church and state, but also on establishment Republicans who don’t embrace his vision of an America in which the Bible serves as “the principle textbook” for public education and a “Christian culture” has been “re-established.” He decries Supreme Court rulings on prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and says, 'It’s easily defended that America was founded by Christians, as a Christian nation.'"
So this is the guy the Little One is bowing and scraping before. I guess he's trying to round up votes from evangelicals who, according to the Atlantic, made up about 27% of the electorate in the last election. 79% of them voted for the Romney Mechanism, aka the Quadrennial Loser (TM) and it wasn't near enough and may not be so for whichever Confederate gets the Clown Award this time around.
Even so, Li'l Randy is checking whatever motley principles he had at the church door for the duration (fans of the old Doonsebury strip recall regular reminders in the mid 80's that Poppy Bush had put his manhood into a blind trust during his years of kissing Reagan's ass. Something similar here with Paul, although I'm not sure I could define anything he's done thus far as a good example of manhood) and aligning himself with the wackos.
The good thing, of course, for the future of the country, is that the wackos don't do very well in national elections. Bush stole two elections so those runs don't count, and the Rom Bot got his ass kicked despite their support. Plus, I think (or hope) that millions of Americans see these people and their agendas as too extreme and too anti-American to be allowed to put their favored boy into the White House (sorry girls).
Keep those books and prayers comin' Li'l One. You gonna need them.
On a different subject that I think Marie touched on a couple of weeks ago with her remembrance of when "under god" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
This morning I listened to most of the interview on Fresh Air with author Kevin Kruse about his book "One Nation Under God - How Corporate America Invented Christian America."
A professor of history at Princeton, Kruse states the push to religiosity began in the 1920's and 30's by corporate leaders' resentment against the New Deal, saying that "Christianity and capitalism are both systems in which individuals rise and fall according to their own merits" and "they argue that the New Deal and the regulatory state violate the Ten Commandments. It makes a false idol of the federal government and encourages Americans to worship it rather than the Almighty. It encourages Americans to covet what the wealthy have; it encourages them to steal from the wealthy in the forms of taxation; and, most importantly, it bares false witness against the wealthy by telling lies about them. So they argue that the New Deal is not a manifestation of God's will, but rather, a form of pagan stateism and is inherently sinful."
Saint Ronald is also mentioned as being the one responsible for presidents ending their speeches with "God Bless America" in some form or another.
Sounds like an interesting book, but it may be enough to make me want to vomit before I finish it.
Would appear we're got a bit unwarranted censorship going on here. Too bad. Used to be a great site.
Re: Realitychexed out. Marie, I'm ok with your censuring my post. It's your football and you can take it and go home anytime you like. But blanking out what I wrote and then paraphrasing it seems, well, Hillary- like. Perhaps others might have had a chance to make up their own mind about my comments. Too bad they did not get a chance. Instead they got your paraphrasing.
@JJG: As I wrote this morning, "In future, I will endeavor to delete all comments that include a whiff of negative ethnic stereotyping." Yours contained not a whiff, but a feast. You dared me, then double-dared me, & I accepted the challenge.
And I'm not slightly sorry that other readers don't have a chance to make up their own minds. It shocks my conscience enough to know that some readers think national stereotyping & slurs are appropriate on a site which I had hoped would serve, if nothing else, to remind us to try to follow some version of the Golden Rule.
Marie
@Unwashed: A couple of weeks ago, I linked to this NYT op-ed by Kruse on the same topic.
Marie
@James Singer: Maybe you'll find some of the neo-Nazi sites more to your liking. I'll bet they're GREAT at bashing all kinds of "undesirable" groups.
Marie
@ Marie "And I'm not slightly sorry that other readers don't have a chance to make up thsir own minds" right, add the goose step and you've arrived.
CW,
My apologies. I must have missed it at the time. His op-ed appears to be a good synopsis of his book. I may still pick it up for additional ammunition against my red-state bible-thumping colleagues.
Re: UW Aggies. I am one and never realized there were jokes about us "dumb hicks" of which I was neither dumb nor a hick, getting accepted graduating from a suburban high school with a high enough ranking in my class so taking the SAT was not necessary. Perhaps the joke makers were just jealous that they didn't get credit for courses in Weed Science.
Saudi Arabia accusing Russia of hypocracy. Ha!
@Unwashed: I was tremendously grateful to the ag school because the students produced the delicious dairy products & meat that we privileged dorm residents enjoyed at every meal. I think we were jealous of more than the subject matter: rumor was that ag students' courses ran only 8 weeks & that students could come & go as their professional obligations permitted. Eight weeks on, 8 off, whatever.
Marie