It must be very strange to be [Mitt Romney]. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
This is a job for the free clip-art dancing leprechaun.
Conservatives are not just morally bankrupt, they're also incredibly lazy. Their whole raison d'etre is to figure out how to justify cruelty...so they won't have to lift a finger to help people who are less fortunate. If it weren't so disgusting, it would be amusing.
I’m not merely saying that “bad behavior is bad for you.” I’m saying that bad behavior is a major cause of poverty. If I’m right about this, there is a great, neglected remedy for poverty: Poor people should stop engaging in bad behavior. If this seems flippant, that’s not my intention. Poverty: Who To Blame will largely be a work of economic philosophy. Part of my project is to provide intellectual foundations for what I perceive as Americans’ justified frustration with welfare recipients.I think such meritocratic moral intuitions are sound, and ought to guide public policy as well as private conscience. If people are poor because they’re behaving irresponsibly, they should be far down our queue of people to help – if they belong on the queue at all. That said, I also happen to think that reducing the generosity of the welfare state and making assistance conditional on good behavior will (eventually) reduce bad behavior. Whether I’m right or wrong on this point, though, the fact that poor people are often the authors of their own destitution is morally significant and sadly neglected.
This reasoning is almost adorably childlike. Unfortunately, it's backwards thinking. Poverty is not caused by bad behavior; instead "bad behavior" is caused by poverty, which tends to become institutionalized after a generation or so. Horrible people like Caplan like to point to people who escape from the institution of poverty as proof that these are the good folks who just--by god-- pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.That ignores the fact that these people are not just extraordinary, they're often extraordinarily lucky. Why are the poor the only class of people we demand be extraordinary?
I agree with Scott on the silliness of attempting to deny the rights of disgusting fast food corporations to do business simply because they are run by dipshit bigots.
If you want to hear the cynical me, in the instance of Rahm Emanuel (and Andrew Cuomo), the calculation has been made that if you really want to bust public unions but not look like an utter dick to a lazy progressive base, offer shite symbolic support for gay rights with legally pointless but loud and gaudy PR gestures.
I wish I had a Space Rocket so that I might attain the lofty height from which it would be necessary to properly shit upon this Churchill Bust idiocy. But alas! I am devoid of Space Rockets.
So we shall instead examine a smaller instance of nonsense.
One as a rule does not admire the American Right, except in one regard: the inventiveness these individuals demonstrate when attempting to convince themselves that they are indeed the World's Most Aggrieved. Here is some crap that begins here.
Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail -- for Collecting Rainwater on His Property
A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater.
Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.
“The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.
“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
Gracious! Big Govenment Runamuck! Can the man put you in the can for putting rain in a can? Damn! Outrage! Socialism!
While I agree the government is a bully, I suspect there’s more to this story than what we’re reading here …. like he was probably warned in the past about collecting rainwater.
Now, some may think he should be able to do so. But imagine if everybody did that. And you’re a farmer – who has senior water rights – and your crops are drying up because the aquifer isn’t be recharged … because everybody is hoarding the rainwater.
A single rain barrel for personal use is one thing. Three reservoirs is quite another.
I myself do not claim to be an expert about water fights in the American west, but I do know why laws like the "silly" one picked up by CNS (for chrissake) exist: they are a rare instance of individual property rights getting mashed up against environmental reality, and anyone giving a shit.
But then, SOCIALISM! An Internet Warrior responds to the comment just above:
Rain that falls on my property is mine, and I’ll do what I want with it. On the same token, I’ll do what I want with my land, too. If the government green police give me too much grief, I’ll cut all the trees down and line the ground with black plastic.
Seriously, if you want an education on right-wing cognitive dissonance, the comments threads on all the wingnut posts from the above Memeorandum link are all quite wonderful. Or you could just enjoy some Jamesons and this Neko Case performance of "Buckets of Rain." Choose wisely.
Every day, try to learn a fun new fact to know n' tell.
The Boston Red Sox pay Carl Crawford a lot of money to not hit very well and to get injured. During a rehab minor league game in Manchester, New Hampshire, an off-duty Manchester cop decided to heckle Crawford -- and now that cop has been fired.
A Massachusetts mayor on Thursday fired a white police officer accused of using a racial slur to taunt Boston Red Sox< outfielder Carl Crawford, saying the officer had "brought discredit" on himself and the department.
"You have demonstrated through your racist comments that you cannot continue as a patrol officer," Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella wrote in his termination notice to officer John Perrault.
Mazzarella's decision comes a day after Police Chief Robert Healey recommended during a disciplinary hearing that the mayor fire Perrault, saying he'd used racial slurs at least twice before.
So what did Perrault call Crawford?
Perrault had been on paid leave since he called Crawford a "Monday" before a July 5 minor league game in Manchester, N.H.
I hadn't heard this one before, and quite frankly, I grew up around a lot of racists. So I admit to some skepticism, along the lines Perrault's lawyer took:
He said Perrault's alleged remarks at the bar were hearsay because the city relied on a written statement and never produced the witness for questioning. Also, Sandulli said, almost no one at the hearing, including Perrault, was previously aware that Monday can be used as a racist term.
But I'm not nearly arrogant enough to assume I know everything about asshole white people. Just because I didn't know "Monday" is a racial slur, doesn't mean it isn't. This was a job for the Internet!
a word that can be used to describe a black person without insulting them with them knowing. This word is relativley close to nigger.
That's a 2007 Urban Dictionary entry; unlike most reference sources, the awful grammar and the misspelling of "relatively" only decreases my hesitency in granting it credibility.
So, yeah, it's a racist slur.
A few points:
(1) The clever idea that black people won't know what "Monday" means seems to be predicated on the belief that black people cannot operate Google, which may perhaps be incorrect. Likewise, it appears to be predicated on the idea that black people don't know when they are being insulted, which, however, just may possibly be a skill they developed even before the invention of the Internet.
(2) I am a bit put out that certain white people are not allowing me to share in their hip-guy lingo. Yes, yes, yes, these are horrible racists, but they probably only didn't tell me their slang because they thought I wasn't "cool" with it. I mean, sure, they are head-up-the-ass gobshites, but nobody likes to be excluded. My Self-Esteem has taken a Blow. Ochone!
(3) The example given of this cop talking previous racist shit is pretty damn pig-fucking ignorant.
In the termination notice, Mazzarella cited previous alleged racist remarks by Perrault, including when he repeatedly used a racial slur in a bar while watching black NBA players. In another instance at Leominster's St. Patrick's Day celebration, Perrault saw a black man wearing a shirt displaying the name of the Irish beer Guinness, and commented to him, "I didn't know they serve Guinness in Africa."
I also went to look this up, but I knew it, couldn't remember the exact figure; about 40% of total worldwide Guinness volume is in fact consumed in Africa. (I hope you didn't think this is the sort of thing I wouldn't at least have a hazy awareness of.) Guinness is a worldwide brand -- and has been for almost a couple of centuries. MollyI & I went to grad school with a Jamaican guy (he was black!) who once worked for the Guinness brewery in the Bahamas, as a taster, who quite often used to wonder just exactly why he quit, as well he fucking might.
(4) The attempt to come up with racist "code" that will Baffle... That seems to me the idiot flip side of the often-expressed resentment on the part of many a dipshit that "They" get to say "nigger" but nobody else (who is white) is allowed to.
Do you know why They get to say "nigger" and you don't? Because it's cheaper than pennies on the dollar for reparations, and also fuck you.
(5) From the ESPN story comments. Submitted as found.
Via mark f, who always manages to make me click and immediately regret it, comes this odd tidbit, wherein Powerline's Steven Hayward creepily stalks and photographs Jesse Jackson. And what does this Seal Team 6*-like recon get him? Confirmation that Jesse Jackson behaves exactly as one might expect Jesse Jackson to behave.
When the Rev. Jesse Jackson sat down in the row just ahead of me on yesterday’s connecting flight from Chicago to Las Vegas (where I am today), what does he read? Why, the editorial page of the New York Times, of course.
No. Fucking. Way. A black liberal activist reads The New York Times? Hang on, let me alert The New York Times. Where's your broccoli now, Michelle? WHERE'S YOUR PRECIOUS BROCCOLI NOW?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But at least Jesse’s choice in cuisine is reassuring. Here’s his bag dinner, brought on board in preference to the first class meal United was offering (which wasn’t bad, by the way). Now, what would fast-food deploring liberals say?
Well, I can't speak for all fast food-deploring liberals. Nor can I confirm that all liberals, to a person, deplore fast food. But I can tell you what this fast food-deploring liberal thinks. I think that even fast food-deploring liberals often eat complete shit when they're "on the road," as it were. It's unfortunate but a sad fact that often your choices for healthy cuisine while traveling are often close to nil, unless you pack your own food, which, DUH, a liberal is not going to do, because we're all so goddamn lazy.
Granted, I'm betting a first class meal would be more healthful than Mickey D's, but I don't know if it would be any more tasty. Furthermore, I don't necessarily object to fast food existing; I'd just prefer that people eat it infrequently. Since I don't often stalk and photograph Jesse Jackson, I'm not familiar with his normal eating habits, and so I'd feel silly admonishing him for this single incident.
*Full disclosure: I have no idea if Seal teams do reconnaissance work.
Now, if only we could get rid of the goddamn NANNY STATE GOVERNMENT that prevents the stuff from even being sold in the first place.
There are lots of dumb reasons to buy guns. But buying them out of spite may be the dumbest of all. A very special commenter-who I can only imagine smells like whiskey, bullet smoke and rich Corinthian leather- named jGordon farts out:
"All this speculation is pretty much pointless. We have a Constitutional right to bear arms here in the US, and we will bear them. In fact, I’m thinking of exercising my civil liberties and and buying another this weekend–as the Supreme Court has frequently affirmed that I have the right to do. If that gnaws at the heart of some paranoid government bureaucrats and media propagandists, then I only feel so much the better about it."
Does there exist comic conservative comedy? Who knows!
Here is something I don't think is funny: jokes about prison rape. If in our democratic society we have decided that rape is an appropriate punishment for criminal offenses, then we should say so by making that an official thing. "You have dealt heroin. You will thus be raped." But we don't do that; we have prison rape jokes! So it's funny that in our advanced democracy, rape is a tacitly accepted mechanism of state punishment and coercion.
And Tosh’s “Web Redemption” segments dare to do something all good little grad students are taught to avoid: judge and shame miscreants and morons.
So anyone attending one of Tosh’s live stand up gigs has got to know what they’re in for, right?
They have no right to complain about being “offended” by his act.
You might almost say they were asking for it…
Conservative cultural criticism is perhaps in a period of decline. Also, I dare to ponder why snapperhead racism is popular... perhaps because there exist a lot of snapperhead racists? Could be. I learned that in grad school.
Ergo, if you show up at a Tosh gig you should be pleased when he says you ought to be gang raped.
Punchlines that are no longer easy-funny: Nigger. Kike. Chink. Fag. Slut. Mick. Wop. Bitch. Fairy. (Any of these could be also funny now; the point is that they once were just easy bigotry.)
Comedians do not get some sort of "just a joke" pass that means they are immune from all possible criticism. Nobody gets that.
Also, the Chapelle Show was, uh, funny, and Rough Crowd was fucking woeful.
Oh and rape victims are more victims of rape than smug-ass comedians are victims of getting comedy smack, usually.
I never see the Red-spotted Purple near any flowers. My photo opportunities come when one lands on the asphalt or dark gravel. Here's a poem by May Swenson.