It really is like talking to a dining room table.
These fucking Birthers piss me off. People kept saying they would go away. I stopped writing about them because I figured this nonsense eventually would become a non-issue. But, no. Now, apparently, the Birthers want to see his passports because Obama traveled to Pakistan in the 90s when American citizens couldn’t travel to Pakistan. See? HE PROLLY HAZ A KENYIN PASSPOURT!!! WHY WONT HE SHOW HIZ MUSLIN PASSPORET!!???
The internet gnomes make up stories, disseminate them to their stupid conspiracy footsoldiers, and the footsoldiers make sure that every blog, email box, Facebook wall becomes littered with this crap. Eventually it seeps into the brains of elected officials, thus turning a ridiculous rumor into fact.
I know, I know, we should just ignore them. They’ll go away. But they haven’t gone away. They’ve just gone underground and only surface every so often to spout their crazy, after which they go underground again. I believe there are scads of people in Congress who believe this uppity black anti-colonial KenyoIslamoTerrorist has no business being in the White House. They are fuming about it.
At some point, somebody’s going to Joe Wilson on everybody’s asses; somebody is going to call Obama a nigger before these next two years are over. Count on it. That’s what they’re calling him in their Stupid Ass White People meetings. It’s only a matter of time before someone forgets that they’re only supposed to talk that talky talk in their smoke-filled backroom.
This country is full of idiots, and it’s reaching critical mass.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
arguingwithsignposts
Nice Cavuto mark on the Cooper segment. Or should I phrase that: “Nice Cavuto mark on the Cooper segment?”
TooManyJens
Elon James White had a great post about this:
Apparently Obama Needs to Show Some White Dude His Papers
matoko_chan
the country is only 2/3 full of idiots….
and the demographic timer, salam-douthat stratification on cognitive ability, and hackers are going to fix that problem.
think what wikileaks means.
the right side cannot maintain total information control anymore.
lies and demogoguery are the only tools they have to maintain power.
this is their last stand, and they are getting mighty desperate.
Silver
These are the same stupid motherfuckers who don’t believe in evolution because they didn’t see it.
I hope they all get an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection that kills them.
dr. bloor
If by “reaching critical mass” you mean developing the gravitational pull of an intellectual black hole, yes, I agree.
BTW, my dining room table demands an apology.
matoko_chan
i know it it is evil…but this is actually good news for us. if the TP/GOP can’t suppress birtherism (they made a huge push last year at convention time), they can’t suppress palinism either. this means two things.
1. the TP/GOP will be unable to take the WH for next half century.
2. the TP/GOP will be unable to stop Palin from running.
its a win/win.
Angry Black Lady
@TooManyJens: i’ll check it out. i’ve been out of the loop for a week or so. i don’t know what the hell is going on in the world, but i assume it’s the same old shit.
Betty Cracker
Kudos to Anderson Cooper for politely pantsing that ignorant old fuck.
PaulW
I think we need to start asking every Republican if we can see their birth certificate. Since it’s apparently a necessity that all American citizens carry such papers on them at all times, and if they really are true American patriots they’ll have it laminated for display…
Jody
…and when they DO call him a nigger, the national dialogue will IMMEDIATELY shift to discussion on whether or not it’s an acceptable word to use publicly because racism doesn’t exist anymore because after all we elected a nigger president.
Bank on it.
Sarcastro
No, ignoring them will not make them go away. Relatedly, giving them enough rope will not convince them to hang themselves.
J sub D
No. They should be unmercifully mocked. At every take a swing at the piñata opportunity they present.
eemom
This never would have happened if Obama hadn’t “reached out” to the republicans.
/snerk
Carol
To believe the birthers you have to believe that every alphabet soup agency missed something this simple. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton and John McCain, as fiercely competitive as they are, wouldn’t at least look into this-after all, they could say it was their duty to do so and to show that Obama wasn’t qualified to hold the position he sought.
And there’s no evidence at all. None. You would think somebody from Kenya who saw and remembered the rumor about Obama Sr bringing home a white American would have surfaced by now. If nobody was still around-it has been 47 years, somebody would have remembered what their older folks had gossiped about.
You would have thought that somebody would have at least leaked passport information about Obama’s mother-she would have had to have one to go to Kenya. I remember how the Republicans rifled through Clinton’s mother’s passport file, and I hardly think they would have refrained from such a search on Obama and any close relative of his. But nothing-no picture, no witness, no file. No medical records of any kind. Nothing.
This is a total a blank as it gets. There’s not even cirumstantial evidence, not even rumors. There isn’t even the grassy knoll kind of evidence here.
slag
@Betty Cracker: 2nded. I would love to see more interviews like that one. It’s obvious that Cooper knows this subject, has done the research, and was prepared to bring it. More like this please!
Also, 27%. WTF? I know this number has been remarked on repeatedly, but really, I can’t see how we can continue to be a functioning democracy without that number going down. That’s a whole lot of crazy that we’ve enabled.
Quicksand
Yeah yeah, whatever. BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ED KAIN?
Allan
The Orly is strong with this one.
ricky
@eemom:
Based on comments made on other threads I am hopeful a spirited discussion will break out here over whether we should trade Obama’s original birth certificate for DADT.
But most of you gave up hope over___________(fill in your blank)
The Other Chuck
Cooper was devastating, but still far too deferential to this nutbar. If I were him, I would be asking him over and over “So how far does this conspiracy reach? There was a birth announcement in the paper. Was that falsified? Was that part of the conspiracy? Is the entire state government of Hawaii in on it? How deep and wide does this conspiracy go?”
Oh well that’s why I’m not a TV anchor. That and I’ve got a face for radio and a voice for mime.
You gotta love how the guy is spewing on *CNN* about how the “mainstream media” won’t cover it. Frankly the best thing we can do to out the kooks is to keep them coming on to AC.
Jody
Quicksand has his hand on the pulse of the blogosphere.
edwin
Perhaps the real question should be not whether Palin can win, but can Obama and the Democratic Party manage to lose?
martha
@matoko_chan: I hope and wish you are correct, I really do.
slag
Also, I really don’t blame this on the internet. Before the internet, it was talk radio and the Wall Street Journal editorial page. And it’s still talk radio and the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Plus the internet gnomes.
The reality is that we have a massive Critical Thought Deficit that transcends race, class, occupation…you name it.
martha
@matoko_chan: I always caution people to be careful what you ask for, but I hope the R/TP can’t stop Sarah, I really do. They let Fox and the crazies take over their party, they pay for it.
Hunter Gathers
I’ve got my money on that nutball Allen West doing it during the upcoming State of the Union address.
MattF
Right-wing craziness is nothing new. Birthers are the same people who said that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, dealt drugs, etc., and so forth. And, btw, believed that John McCain had a black child. Once upon a time, the Republican party managed the trick of getting their votes without also swallowing the pig. But that was then…
slag
@edwin: For fuck’s sake. Can we please stop viewing our egregious social problems solely through the lens of whose party they benefit most come election time? Please!
YellowDog
Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t a plot to make the right look incredibly stupid. How else can you explain Taitz, O’Donnell, Angle, and now Berman? Somebody said that Ann Coulter has to be a liberal performance artist because no one could be that ignorant and offensive otherwise. The same could be said of these clowns.
Oh yeah, you know that particular word is on the tip of some tongues. It will come out; my money is on the next Congress, with all those new wingnuts in the House. They’ll get comfortable, perhaps a little too comfortable, looking at the sea of white on their side of aisle (except for Allen West, but he may be one of the bigger wingnuts) and BANG. If and when that happens, expect to hear that it is reverse racism to point out the idiot who said it.
curious
i think steve king came uncomfortably close yesterday when he questioned why the “very, very urban” obama (while he was still a senator) supported compensating non-white farmers who had been discriminated against by the usda. the implication being that only “urban” people could care about righting wrongs against non-white farmers? or that illinois doesn’t have potential claimants who might have lobbied their senator?
Corey
Haha! Yeah! Those birthers sure are dumb!
bkny
and after all that mr hopey changey has done for his republican pals:
The Department of Justice has dropped its investigation of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Ensign’s office announced today.
Karen
@ABL
Like next year perhaps? To be honest, when they were going to KKK level before the FIRST YEAR was up it made me wonder how long it would go to N level.
Also, how much do you want to bet that there are people in his own party saying the same exact slur?
PUMA didn’t come out of nowhere.
Now with this kind of environment and the media following right along, how the frick can he ever be anything but calm because if he showed anger, he’d be the ABM.
Hilary Clinton said Obama was unelectable (though didn’t say why, we all knew what she meant). That’s wrong. What she should have said was “Obama is electable. But no one will respect him.” Because that’s what’s happening isn’t it? That’s what this whole Birther issue is about. That’s what the sudden double standard is all about.
Isn’t it?
It’s almost like President Obama is Sheriff Bart and the Congress and the firebaggers are the citizens of Rock Ridge who want to send the Sheriff back because he was too dark for them.
Of course, Sheriff Bart won out in the end so hopefuly, President Obama will too.
TooManyJens
@Corey: Yes. And?
Gin & Tonic
@The Other Chuck:
What they’re afraid of, I think, is if they call him the ignorant asshole he is, he never comes back. The CNN’s of the world have to extend at least a modicum of civility, otherwise nobody shows up.
TooManyJens
@Gin & Tonic:
You say that like ignorant assholes not going on the air is a bad thing.
Allan
@curious: Interesting fact from the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture website: IL ranks second among the states in agricultural exports, at around $4B/year.
Very, very urban indeed.
David Hunt
ABL,
I wish that I could disagree with any piece of what you posted above. I especially wanted to argue that even the Republican birthers in Congress aren’t stupid enough to call Obama the n-word in public. Afterall, they make their living talking and making public speeches. And I still think that most of them are too smart to say it out loud…but only most of them. However, we’ve got people in DC like Michelle Bachmann, Joe Wilson, and Jim DeMint. Bachmann especially seems to actually believe her own nonsense. Therefore, I can’t even disagree with this. I don’t think the odds are quite as high as you do, but I’d go even money.
GregB
I propose that this song become our new national anthem.
Green Day’s American Idiot.
It is also true that trying to argue with people that don’t allow facts to alter their opinions is pretty fucking worthless.
I still try, but I’m getting tired of it.
Sasha
The sooner the better.
One thing I knew Obama’s election would do is drive a certain segment of Americans absolutely bugfuck. It would lance a boil that long needed it, and I imagined a good amount of pus would need to drain out.
I did not realized the infection was that severe.
Citizen Alan
@eemom:
Well the fact that he spends half his time “reaching out” to them — or perhaps just offering them a “reach around” — certainly hasn’t stopped them, now has it?
Corey
@TooManyJens: I mean, what ground is there to be covered about birthers that hasn’t been covered about one zillion times before?
licensed to kill time
I saw this segment when it was on AC the other day, and the two things I kept thinking were #1: WHY even give this idiot Berman a forum to talk about his deranged ideas and #2: Anderson Cooper, while well-meaning, is a terrible interviewer. He stumbles and stutters and visibly strains to get his thoughts out. He’s no Rachel Maddow, that’s for sure.
Someone here on Balloon Juice once described him as a “dense child” and now every time I see him on the TV I see him as a tall toddler. It makes me laugh.
I’m glad he’s calling out the crap but he’s just not very good at it, IMHO.
sukabi
@TooManyJens: “Ignorant Assholes ” make for good ratings, and that’s what it’s all about ratings… so yes, they’ll be deferential and make nice, lest they lose the very monsters that make good ratings.
Alex
The only thing that is reaching critical mass, ABL, is my frustration at your inability to make a coherent point. Even by the standards of the blogosphere, your posts have distinguished themselves by their muddled grammar, lack of syntax, and general inarticulacy. I scoff at the commenters who try to treat ED Kain as the latest iteration of the AntiChrist while giving a free pass to someone who seems to be trying out to become the leftwing version of Kathryn Jean Lopez.
Gin & Tonic
@TooManyJens: Not a bad thing, for me. A bad thing for CNN. Their objective, after all, is to stay in business.
They don’t realize that in the long run they are doomed. The idea of a neutral, balanced media has run its course and is now dead, or close to it. That’s why Sarah Palin is a genius: she can stay in the news without ever having to answer a question. The rest of the political class is just too slow in catching up with her.
Citizen Alan
And while we’re on the subject, if some Republican did stand up in the State of the Union and yell out “n****r,” would Obama at least have the dignity to respond to it? Or would he just bow his head and take it?
gnomedad
@The Other Chuck:
The LIEbural media refuses to drop everything they’re doing and INVESTIGATE whatever he pulls out of his ass. It’s a violation of his First Amendment Rights, I tells ya!
theturtlemoves
@Allan: Having spent quite a chunk of time in central Illinois this year, I can assure you Illinois consists of Chicago and corn fields, with corn fields being the largest in terms of area by a vast margin. Interestingly enough, the Children of the Corn struck me as being pretty amenable to the TP crowd. Lots of scary, dumbass talk radio and Jeebus music on the air and redneck bumper stickers on the domestically produced vehicles.
sukabi
@gnomedad: and censorship, gotta remember he’s being censored…
BeccaM
What got me about this moron was how openly he resorted to ignorance and flat out denial as the basis of his arguments.
“I don’t know.” “I wish they’d tell me.” “I wish someone would show me.” “How do I know this is true?”
When Cooper hit him with facts, he just switched gears to spout some other Intertoobz-generated bullshit.
I haven’t seen arguments and debate this idiotic since the irrational sophistry of college freshmen stoned out of their minds for the first time and insisting the entire universe was a projection.
geg6
@Hunter Gathers:
Steve King. No doubt, it will be Steve King.
curious
@Allan: should only be a few years until dr. laura gets fired for screaming the u-word at a caller while steve king et al. search for a new dog whistle.
zmulls
I had to check my safe deposit box today and I saw that my original birth certificate is still there. Tattered around the edges, taped up the middle and across, yellowing and practically falling apart.
But with REAL signatures! In PEN!
(No embossed seal, though).
So, thankfully, I still quality as a real citizen. Too bad for you suckers who only have reprints of yours.
Omnes Omnibus
@curious: “the u-word?”
geg6
@GregB:
HA! I’ve been proposing that for years. It is as relevant today as it was back in ’04. In fact, I’d argue even more so.
Chyron HR
@Omnes Omnibus:
“Upwonga”.
[USER HAS BEEN BANNED FOR THIS POST.]
curious
@Omnes Omnibus: urban.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chyron HR: Is that an actual ban?
geg6
@Chyron HR:
????
I’m confused. I don’t have a clue what that word is and someone is getting banned for it?
gnomedad
@Chyron HR:
To borrow one of my favorite lines from The Big Bang Theory, I know you think you’re explaining yourself, but you’re really not. :)
gwangung
@Alex: Yawn.
Omnes Omnibus
@curious: Ah hah.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Untermenschen?
geg6
@Alex:
As we keep being told in the EDKain threads, don’t read them then.
Jeebus, what an asshole you are. You and Kain are made for each other. Neither of you are the AntiChrist but you both are pretty damn stupid.
The Moar You Know
@Sasha: I have to admit to my chagrin that I had NO IDEA that this country was this full of virulent racists. No fucking clue. And I was born in the South, you’d think I’d know better. But I’m white, and I’m sane, and I thought most other white folks were too.
Boy, was I fucking wrong. And those are words that I hate to say like you wouldn’t believe.
Joseph Nobles
@Alex: LOLWUT.
It’s not like ABL doesn’t put her point in freaking bold print at the top of her post.
WyldPirate
@geg6:
He’s gotta be fucking with y’all.
Omnes Omnibus
@WyldPirate: As I mentioned on another thread, I am running on fumes right now, so I wasn’t sure if my legs was being pulled or not.
gnomedad
I’m not racist, I think white people who were secretly born in Kenya are just as bad.
Larv
@curious:
Yeah, that Steve King quote was pure race-baiting. There’s simply no way to parse that where “very, very urban” doesn’t mean “very, very black”. Because I can’t see how actual urban americans, where that means, y’know, “people who live in cities”, would be expected to care about the plight of black farmers more than rural americans would. Maybe Anderson Cooper can get him to explain the link, because I has confusion. There’s also his nonsense about it being “slavery reparations” even though the Pigford claims are based on events that happened 100+ years after the end of slavery. Because everyone knows that governmental discrimination against blacks ended with the 13th amendment, right? What a fucking despicable excuse for a human being he is.
So yeah, my money’s on King. At the very least, I expect him to pull the reverse Kanye and claim that Obama doesn’t care about white people.
geg6
@WyldPirate:
I hope so, but there was some real and quite sexist (and possibly more) hate being put on ABL in last night’s EDKain emofest thread, so it’s possible that it’s totally serious. When people felt fine talking in quite hostile terms about getting rid of all the female posters here, I don’t take that as a joke.
Citizen_X
Want moar stoopit? The Governor of Kentucky–A DEMOCRAT–announced the construction of a Noah’s Ark museum in Kentucky, which would probably receive $37.5 million in tax incentives.
I guess they don’t need that money for skools or sumthin.
Joseph Nobles
@Citizen_X: On that, I think it’s more about the 900 jobs and the tourist revenue that the governor is looking at, plus not hacking off his constituents. People do have the right to be as ignorant as they want to be…
…but we can still have them on Anderson Cooper and laugh at them.
asiangrrlMN
@gwangung: Seconded.
In a way, I would prefer if a congress person just called him a nigger and got it over with–with the addendum that they would stop wasting time on stupid shit like this.
@TooManyJens: Thanks for the link. It’s pretty much what I think, too. If enough Republicans push this forward, then lets just make it a requirement across the board. Whatever they ask to see from Obama, they all have to show themselves.
@geg6: I agree with you. It was quite informative to see who the white men wanted to ditch. Gave me pause.
curious
@Larv: as one of the commenters on wonkette put it, “urban” = the arts district, “very, very urban” = MLK blvd.
Ozymandias, King of Ants
@Alex: There are some examples of asshatry that just make your jaw drop and leave you speechless: this is such an example. Sometimes res ipsa loquitur.
Also, too: I wouldn’t be holding the writing of EDK as an example of clarity. Speaking personally, it is not often easy to follow his tortuous reasoning and his penchant for ridiculous phrase like “very unique” remind one of nothing more than a college freshman padding out a term paper.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
And just think, this IS the same group that will be running the House. Thanks, voters.
Lysana
@geg6:
Nor do I. Let’s face it, having both male and female bloggers on the same site is going to discomfit some people because they are being forced to read voices that aren’t like them mixed with the people who are. Add in race to the formula, and it gets worse. Yes, I am meaning “straight cisgendered white males” when I say “some people,” as we who are not in all of those categories have been seeing that set serve as the default voice of all people for all our lives. The people who most resemble the ones in power get scared sometimes when they’re reminded there are other faces to take into consideration.
jaime
I get the feeling since they can’t shout “But, he’s a N*****r!!!!” like they do outside of polite company, the only logical step is to attack his birth status. It’s the hood that covers the hood.
Carnacki
@Karen:
Bart: Excuse me while I whip this out…
[People cringe back and a woman faints —he pulls out a letter—people sigh, almost sounding disappointed]
Bart: By the power invested in me by the honorable William J. Le Petomane—
[People start cocking guns and pointing them at Bart]
Bart: —I hereby assume the duties of sheriff in and for the township of Rock Ridge.
Reverend: Gentlemen, gentlemen, let’s not let anger rule the day! [waving Bible] As your spiritual leader, I implore you to pay heed to this good book and what it has to saaaayyy!
[A hole is shot through the Bible; the Reverend turns to Bart]
Reverend: Son, you’re on your own…
Midnight Marauder
@slag:
What are you, an ass?
geg6
@asiangrrlMN:
@Lysana:
Exactly. Just another reminder that just because some people call themselves liberal and say they support liberal causes, it doesn’t mean that they’ve evolved. In fact, if Mr. Cole is looking to add some diversity to the FP opinions around here, a feminist sure would be a breath of fresh air. And, in all likelihood, illuminate exactly who we’re dealing with here.
Linda Featheringill
@Alex:
I think it is a style feature.
gnomedad
@jaime:
There’s a nigger-shaped hole in their invective. They’ve called him everything but.
Lysana
@Alex: When you’re the only one who doesn’t understand what is said, the problem is not with the speaker.
gene108
You know the sad part is there’s no getting through to these folks. You can’t win by trying to reason with them, because they aren’t being at all rational and at some level they probably understand it, which is why they build such elaborate conspiracy theories and when you shoot down one talking point, they jump to another.
The best thing to do is realize 25% of this country still thought Bush, Jr. was doing a good job and these folks aren’t going to vote for Democrats, no matter what.
Ignore them. They are loud, but they are not representative of most Americans.
Unfortunately, because they are loud, in modern America this gives them a large platform to blast their craziness across the country.
I really don’t know how to counter it.
It’s like the people, who went and bought up all the ammo on November 5, 2008 because they were and probably still are convinced President Obama will ban their right to own firearms and buy ammunition or maybe slap a 1000% tax on bullets.
Some folks just have their crazy preconceived notions (we all do to some extent), but these guys are having it focused onto politics, as evidenced by the “death panels” debate during the summer of 2009 and most Fox News nontroversies over the past 2 years, and the continued notion of birtherism.
This isn’t new, (why else do many people consider the Great Society welfare programs to be reparations for slaver?) but it’s gotten louder over the last 10 years and no one is bothering to tamp it down, rather people are encouraging it because it helps their short term political goals.
TooManyJens
@geg6: I’m thinking that Anne Laurie, inventor of the “Vagina Outrage” tag, probably identifies as a feminist.
BR
@asiangrrlMN:
Yeah, I agree with everything you said. The signal to noise ratio here is dropping like a rock…
Redshift
@The Other Chuck:
I disagree. If you start delving into the conspiracy theory, it only increases the chance that you’ll hit something you don’t have a response for, because you can’t possibly research it as obsessively as they have.
And more particularly, it’s beside the point. The entire system of citizenship is based on the fact that there are authorities that everyone trusts to assert things like the time and place of a person’s birth, not that anyone has the right to demand that they hold the original paper in their hands. The root question, because it reveals the real source of the insanity, is “why do you reject trust in that system in this one case, but not in any other?,” not “what fairy tales can you construct to fit your perceived facts once you’ve decided to reject it?” Or more simply, “how many other presidents’ birth certificates have you personally examined?”
Linda Featheringill
@geg6:
Good idea!
kgus
What hasn’t been addressed is: was there ever a ban on travel to Pakistan for U.S. citizens? The answer appears to be no. Any sane evidence to the contrary would be greatly appreciated.
Carnacki
@geg6: Funny, I was thinking his comment was the stupidest thing I’d read since Kain’s last post.
MobiusKlein
@Chyron HR: Wow, that’s the first use of upwonga according to google.
http://www.google.com/#q=%22Upwonga%22
Congratulations.
Midnight Marauder
@Citizen Alan:
Come on now. This is just ridiculous. What is he supposed to do if someone calls him a nigger (no really, it’s okay to spell it out. Everyone knows what you are saying. This isn’t fucking Wheel of Fortune) in the middle of the State of the Union? Drop the rest of his speech and say “Which one of you ignorant bastards called me a nigger? Joe Wilson, are we doing this again?” I mean, think about what you are gaming out here. You are speculating on how the first black president of the United States would respond to being called a nigger during his State of the Union speech, and you honestly believe a possibility is that he would “just bow his head and take it?”
What the fuck is wrong with some of you people?
Corner Stone
@Karen: There’s the Karen I expect. Everything fits again.
Gin & Tonic
@Carnacki: That movie is still just as funny. For a while I thought it wouldn’t age well, but I was wrong.
Culture of Truth
Well the fact that he spends half his time “reaching out” to them—or perhaps just offering them a “reach around”—certainly hasn’t stopped them, now has it?
Those who think you can stop Republicans from acting like Republicans are – not Obama – hopelessly naive.
I find reports, whether in the conservative media or from liberal bloggers, essentially saying “Republicans are being mean – looks like Obama has failed again!” to be bizarre.
The Moar You Know
@gene108: No joke, for almost two years straight I haven’t been able to buy ammo as the hoarders would hit it all before I could.
It’s only been in the last four months that the places I go for ammo have it consistently in stock. Kinda scary. This means there’s a lot of folks sitting on a fuckton of ammunition and they’re not nice, decent or friendly people – they think the niggers are coming for their women, they’re terrified, they’re listening to Glenn Beck and they’ve proven themselves willing to swallow any bullshit foisted on them by anyone who meets their bona fides. All it’s gonna take is one person to get on the mic and say the wrong thing at Radio
RwandaLimbaugh and it’s gonna be bad news.geg6
@TooManyJens:
Yeah, probably she does. But we don’t get any posts about feminist subjects. I don’t think it’s the thrust of her interests even though some of the men around here talk to/about her like she’s Andrea Dworkin. We need an Amanda Marcotte or something. I love her stuff.
Joseph Nobles
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s the construction of that movie that’s aging. The humor will be evergreen.
TooManyJens
I don’t have words sufficient to convey the full-body shudder I experienced upon reading the words, “We need an Amanda Marcotte”. No offense to you, geg6, but I cannot fucking stand her.
I do agree that I’d like to see Anne Laurie or any other feminist FPers posting more on feminist topics.
geg6
@TooManyJens:
She’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but, leaving out all the ’80s music lovin’, she’s right on about shit like “nice guys” and the religious right’s agenda against women. I like her a lot better than anyone I read on Feministe.
TaMara (BHF)
No doubt about it. I spent Thanksgiving with a Limbaugh worshiping mother who had no problem explaining how them black people think, and none of it was good. I challenged her bigotry and, well let’s not go there because it was not pretty and I’m trying to live in denial here. On the plus side, at least I’ve been told I don’t need to take care of her in her dementia filled elder years.
TooManyJens
@geg6: I’ve had bloggy run-ins with Amanda Marcotte that left me entirely unimpressed with her intellectual heft or honesty.
I’m pretty out of touch with the bigtime feminist blogosphere these days, but I like What Tami Said and BlagHag and flip flopping joy. Used to like Shakesville — off hand, I can’t remember why I stopped reading there.
TooManyJens
Oops, too many links in that last comment. I’m going to put in another feeble request for a better comment spam-detecting system. Akismet, Akismet, Akismet!
slag
@Midnight Marauder: Quite probably.
And
@gnomedad: HAHAHA. So true.
Corner Stone
@The Moar You Know:
I almost passed out the other day in Academy. Looked on the ammo shelf and saw a box of 20 Remington 7MM for…$54.
One box of 20 for $54.
Almost started looking for the candid cameras secretly taping me.
Maude
@TaMara (BHF):
You can pick your friends but not your relatives.
I’ve always found that to be a comfort.
Midnight Marauder
@Maude:
Relatives are overrated.
Elie
In the time of content free celebrity, everything is ok to talk about… we do not expect accountability or gravity…just noise to fill our heads so we don’t have to really think about who we are and where we are…
There is a term, actually terms for that — decadence and decline.
We watch shows about nobodies doing nothing that are fascinating enough to us to continue week after week — airing the vapid nothing of superficial, sometimes low intelligence and awareness individuals as though they are some sort of models.
I am generally a live and let live person — less interested in judging my fellow traveler through this life than being a friend, but honestly — HONESTLY. When the people who are trying to save our asses, or even trying to move in that direction, get completely destroyed in public opinion — when we make it harder for them and us, to do anything by undermining sentiment for fucking TRYING with nick pick asshole kneecapping towards perfection… well then I know, there is nothing you can do except step back and let it rip.
I am no longer in clinical nursing (though I miss it). Sometimes, going back to centuries of knowledge about medical treatment, you just have to wait it out, and tough it out.
We have to talk to each other and ourselves, maybe, like the severely brain damaged. They say that through the haze of the trauma, the voices and messages of loved ones get through. Maybe that is what we must do with each other and all of us through here…
Was riding in an elevator at a museum and there was a print by Martin Luther King — paraphrased… “you can’t fight darkness with violence and more darkness. you can only fight darkness with light — with love (or if not love, something like opennesss and acceptance is how I read it)
I went to a presentation at the National Geo society in WA DC. One of the attributes most associated with societal happiness was “tolerance” and “trust”. Well, you certainly don’t or won’t get one without the other — but it has to start somewhere…
We cannot continue with this and hope to survive emotionally, culturally and politically. Risky? Yeah.
Always risky to approach the apes swinging sticks with nothing but your brain and heart.
Brachiator
@Karen:
No.
It’s about legitimacy. The birthers, and others, cannot accept Obama as the rightful president of the United States. So they cling to fantasies about his birth certificate, or worse they remake him into someone who either secretly seeks to betray them (stealth Muslim) or rule them as a dictator (elitist, aristocratic stealth Marxist).
Or they see him as a spectacular failure, and this includes some liberals who, strangely might accept him if he came across as a stereotypical revolutionary Black Panther firebrand.
Yeah, racial anxiety is at the core of this, but there is nothing that Obama could do to gain the “respect” of these people who believe that an ignorant, barely educated white woman like Sarah Palin is Obama’s superior.
Hillary Clinton would probably have faced a similar problem from people unable to accept a woman as president. People who could respect her as a First Lady, a senator or even a secretary of state would still go nuts to think of her as president. Oddly, Palin seems to be acceptable because she appears to be an avatar for white conservative Christian male privilege.
Martin
Gotta give these guys credit for coming up with increasingly innovative ways to say ‘nigger’. Who says that Americans can’t launch new markets?
DFH no.6
@Lysana:
I’m a straight white male Boomer, and I just want you to know, not all of us are like that. Way too damn many are, though.
As Moar You Know put it back there at #65:
“I’m white, and I’m sane, and I thought most other white folks were too. Boy, was I fucking wrong.”
I still say it’s no more than half of us white folk who are bugfuck crazy, but point taken.
I work in the whitest, malest industry of them all (engineering/construction) here in the very depths of Mordor (Phoenix, AZ) and there is no doubt that most of these folks are, indeed, teabagger-nuts (especially the older ones). A fair number of them have no problem dropping the N-word, and are insulted in equal measure that the White House is demeaned not only by a socialist (Democrat) but by a black one, to boot.
Sure, they make shit work, and quite well, I might add, while making a good buck at it in the process, but you know who else made stuff work real well?
Karen
@Carnacki:
At least I know you’re a Blazing Saddles fan…awesome!
Genine
@geg6:
I like Amanda Marcotte as well. I don’t always agree with her, but I can see where she’s coming from and I respect her.
@TooManyJens:
I will check those other blogs out. I’ve been looking for some cool feminist blogs. I used to read Shakesville a lot, but it’s been in decline (to put it nicely) for quite a while. I haven’t been on that site in months.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Fix’t. :)
Karen
@Brachiator:
The fact that she’s a “babe” as I heard one wingnut say, doesn’t hurt either.
Elie
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
This country is also and importantly filled with people who are working damned hard to make things better and to be open to each other. Somehow, in this day and time, that comes across like Pollyanaville — but Lordy, I hope it saves us.
Lots of folks braving all kinds of shit to stick it out there — and with no notoriety or other payback. We cannot forget them and truly celebrate the obscene violence and hate makers because they get the press….
I have not idea when we will get over this hump — but I aint gonna go down whispering the names and message of these creeps – the Palins, Becks and others. Not evah, not evah…
Don’t ever let them break us like that… please. If we have to say “la,la,la,la” to that — better that – but better yet to celebrate our peeps and our vision for what we want.
Karen
@Corner Stone:
To be honest Corner Stone, that was my shout out to you. I knew if I let another week go without a “PUMA” comment that you’d wonder if I was a pod person.
Zuzu's Petals
@PaulW:
And hilarity ensues when they can’t produce their “long form” because the state will only issue them a copy of the Certification of Live Birth.
Dick Move
I attend a mandatory Stupid Ass White People meeting at the beginning of every weekday, and I can tell you that not a whole lot gets done (at least in our local branch). Most of the official meeting time is devoted to reaching a group consensus on who we should direct our bitterness, resentment and anger toward on that day. The actual rules of being a Stupid Ass White Person are rarely discussed openly–a practice which leads to much confusion, I might add
Nevertheless, I believe I have identified at least one unofficial rule, through observation and logical deduction. Apparently, black people who have a higher level of authority than the speaker and everyone within earshot are niggers, while those who have the same or lower level of authority are good folks who just happen to have the misfortune of being black. I’m not endorsing the rule, I’m just reporting the facts on the ground from the smoking area behind the building.
JMC in the ATL
question for those discussing the anti-female thread – was that one of the ones Kain started, or Doug’s thread in the middle? They all filled so quickly I didn’t have time to read them, but I’d like to see who said what.
Anya
@
: And while we’re on the subject, if some Republican did stand up in the State of the Union and yell out “n****r,” would Obama at least have the dignity to respond to it? Or would he just bow his head and take it? This took my breath away. Some of you are so outragiously invested in your hateret and disrespect of Barack Obama that you continuously cross the line into Harriete Christi “inadequate black man”. territory. Did you really speculate about what would Obama do if some racist fucker calls him nigger? All I can say is fuck you, asshole!
Anya
@Citizen Alan:
Some of you are so outrageously invested in your hatred and disrespect for Barack Obama that you continuously cross the line into Harriet Christi “inadequate black man” territory. Did you really speculate about what would Obama do if some racist fucker calls him nigger? All I can say is fuck you, asshole!
eemom
mine too. It was made by good Amish people and wants nothing to do with this shit.
eemom
@Anya:
you’re absolutely right. That is some pretty mind-blowing racism right there.
Unless, as you point out, his head is so far up his asshole he has no idea what he said, which of course is a distinct possibility.
Either way, permit me to heartily second that “fuck you.”
Elie
@Anya:
Its pretty amazing Anya — but don’t let it distract or demoralize. It is for the purpose of outrage and that only. It is without depth. It is the darkness.. even the whites who espouse this stuff can’t get anywhere they want with it. Hating the black man — hating blacks — doesnt make you better. It just leaves you a supplicant, a cut out, clawing for something just beyond reach. And nature always wins anyway — all of us, our faces covered with dirt, seeking transcendence in the next life or in our fleeting illusions
DaddyJ
I sometimes wonder if we could schedule a national Racist Epithet Moratorium day. Anybody who wants to can travel to the floor of the Senate, shout “Nigger Nigger Nigger” non-stop at the top of their lungs into a microphone until they run out of spit. Epithets only. No rhetoric. The deal is it’s consequence free. You can’t lose your job for it, your committee chairmanship, or your radio show sponsors. Run it on C-Span. Maybe some of the idiotic pent-up rage could be earthed.
Mrs. Sixx
@Elie:
I love your comments. You have a beautiful way of expressing yourself. Well done.
Kobie
Honestly, I’m almost rooting for an Allen or someone to call Obama a “nigger.” Could that be an easier card for the Dems to play once it happens?
Kobie
@Anya: True that. Obama’s put up with a lot, but I think a “nigger” remark would unleash the fury. Something has to, for fuck’s sake.
Darkrose
@geg6: I was over Amanda when she got mad and pulled a “How dare you call me racist!” maneuver after being called on the racist imagery in her book.
gelfling545
@dr. bloor: I, too, took offense on the part of my dining room table which is at least attractive and serves a useful purpose.
Bob
Obama went to Pakistan in the early 1980s when Americans could freely travel there. Some dumbass writes a blog about his going there, assumes that travel to Pakistan was/is restricted without checking the facts and makes a big deal about it. Right wing morons read that and believe it because it’s not from that evil, Obama-loving “mainstream media.”
Blogging is a wonderful tool. I myself have a blog. BUT, not fact-checking was worth a failing grade in high school English and should be a reason to discount what a blogger writes.
BTW, blogs are so prevalent that they are just as mainstream as newspapers, radio and TV.