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pandagon.net - it's the eye of the panda, it's the thrill of the bite
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src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://www.gaypoliticsblogads.com/beliricogpb.jpg"/></div> <div class="sideads3"><!-- Pandagon_160 --> <script type="text/javascript"> GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_160"); </script></a></noscript></div> <div class="sidecredit"></div> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.pmachine.com/expressionengine/">ExpressionEngine</a><br/><br/> </p> </div></div> <div id="main"> <div id="blog"> <div id="headnav"><a href="/web/20110127195338/http://www.pandagon.net/"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://www.pandagon.net/images/title.gif"></a></div> <div id="features"> <!-- Pandagon_728_ATF --> <script type="text/javascript"> GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_728_ATF"); </script> </div> <div id="content"> <div id="header"><h1></h1></div> <div class="date"> Thursday, January 27, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thomas_jefferson_is_a_sometimes_scholar/">Thomas Jefferson Is A Sometimes Scholar</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C13/">Batsh*t Crazy</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>Remember, young Pandagonians: when Thomas Jefferson said “separation of church and state”, it was just some part of a letter that’s nowhere in the text of our Constitution. </p> <p> When Thomas Jefferson said “nullification”, it was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110126/ap_on_re_us/us_health_care_nullification_3">a deeply ingrained part of our Constitutional structure</a>, despite never actually becoming effective law anywhere in the United States. </p> <p> See? SEE? </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/114/">Jesse Taylor</a> at 08:56 AM • (19) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thomas_jefferson_is_a_sometimes_scholar/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thomas_jefferson_is_a_sometimes_scholar/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/noble_warriors_vs_imaginary_demons/">Noble warriors vs. imaginary demons</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C13/">Batsh*t Crazy</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C42/">Environment</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C155/">Paranoia</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/26/new-mexico-environment/" title="Looks like the wingnuts have taken hold of New Mexico">Looks like the wingnuts have taken hold of New Mexico</a>. Here’s the new head of the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department on Alex Jones’ show, ranting about how environmentalists are just undercover communists conspiring to create false alarm over the environment. </p> <p> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="425" height="349" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/gCOquGMpUUQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> New Mexico is one of the most beautiful states in the country, but the leadership now will happily wipe their asses with it to show the imaginary commies in their minds who’s boss. That’s where we’re at as a country. What’s scary, too, is this sort of thing doesn’t even stick out anymore, since so much Republican leadership is engaged in hysterical rants against imaginary enemies, and spinning conspiracy theories so they don’t have to face reality. What makes this stick out from the herd is that it was done on Alex Jones’ show. I remember, in college, one of the ways we used to get cheap, adolescent laughs was call into Jones’ show and challenge him, just to watch him get even crazier. He was the leader of the black helicopter guys, and, if you can believe it, it’s gotten even uglier and weirder since then. It was always alarming to me how popular Jones was, but I rationalized that a lot of it was folks like me, who found his “nothing I believe in is real!” act to be amusing and, at times, endearing. But who fucking knows? It appears that a lot of people take this shit seriously, seriously enough to elect these folks to offices where they can do real damage. </p> <p> In the many years since then, though, Jones has gone from an out-there kook to the role of a front runner in where the mainstream right is headed. He complains regularly that Glenn Beck steals his act, and he should, since Beck totally steals his act. Which means that we’re probably going to get some intimations that enemies are suffering from demon possession from Beck any day now. (Do Mormons believe that? I have no idea, but I don’t think Beck is constrained by something as simple as the actual teachings of his church.) </p> <p> Fred Clark is a man of remarkable insight when it comes to the inner workings of the wacky right, since he’s basically made the transition from being in the thick of it to being a sensible person who lives in the real world. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2011/01/fantasy-role-playing-games.html" title="He recently wrote a post about anti-choicers">He recently wrote a post about anti-choicers</a>, and their fantasy that they’re doing something important and noble and brave, when in fact they’re basically being petty little cowards. I think his thoughts are relevant when discussing the conspiracy theories of anti-environmentalists, as well. </p> <blockquote><p>Let’s pretend that our unremarkable lives of quiet desperation are actually epic quests in the service of something meaningful. Let’s pretend our lives are driven by some purpose. Let’s pretend we are engaged in the great moral struggle of our time—that we are opposing some massive and twisted evil. Let’s pretend that this struggle requires courage and commitment and let’s pretend that we possess those things. Let’s pretend that we are all that stands between this country and brutal chaos—that we and we alone are the ones keeping it all together. </p> <p> Let’s pretend we are not who we actually are. Let’s pretend that our lives are not what they actually are. Let’s pretend.</p></blockquote> <p> It’s one of the best and most telling posts I’ve ever read, especially since Fred has lived it from the inside. I think his observations really apply here. Conspiracy theories and fantasies proliferate on the right because the right is basically about stalling progress, and putting up roadblocks to a better world. But saying out loud that you don’t want a better world is intolerable. The ego cannot handle admitting to itself that you oppose feminism and environmentalism because you’re petty, vindictive, or selfish. And so imaginary enemies are created. Fantasies like the ones Fred describes are lived in until reality feels less real than the fantasy. You don’t oppose abortion because you’re a petty person who can’t stand the idea that other people are living their lives without your control or even input. Oh no! You’re like an abolitionist! And you’re not an anti-environmentalist because you’re petty, hostile to change, and don’t want to be bothered to think about how wasteful you’ve been all your life and why that needs to change. You’re fighting a worldwide conspiracy of communism that just happens to involve the vast majority of scientists in the world! </p> <p> Obviously, there’s liberal fantasists, as well. Anti-vaccination types and 9/11 Truthers come to mind, though it’s well worth pointing out that both subcultures have more than their fair share of right wingers, whereas most right wing conspiracy theory subcultures have few, if any liberals. And these folks have similar motivations---there’s a truth they can’t handle for some reason (in my experience, they’re highly privileged people who cannot accept the basic reality of bad luck, and bad luck is both the main reason for autism and the Bush administration being poised to take political advantage of 9/11), and so fill in a fantasy where they’re noble, brave people speaking truth to power. But generally speaking, this stuff hasn’t taken off with liberals and I think it’s because we have real problems to deal with, and are familiar with how tedious and un-noble it can feel to grind at these on a day to day basis. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:38 AM • (21) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/noble_warriors_vs_imaginary_demons/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/noble_warriors_vs_imaginary_demons/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, January 26, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consumer_discovers_taco_bell_not_as_bad_for_you_as_expected_sues/">Consumer discovers Taco Bell not as bad for you as expected; sues</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C42/">Environment</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C73/">Food</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C43/">Legal Issues</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://foodbeast.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/tacobell-baconcheddargorditacrunch.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>File under one more reason this country has brought its troubles on itself---<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/fl-taco-bell-suit-20110124,0,3088351.story" title="a California woman is suing Taco Bell">a California woman is suing Taco Bell</a> because she says their beef doesn’t have enough beef in it. </p> <blockquote><p>[The lawsuit] says Taco Bell’s ground beef is made of such components as water, isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate, as well as some beef and seasonings.</p></blockquote> <p> Wheat oats? <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2009/07/07/what-is-soy-lecithin-and-why-is-it-found-in-so-many-products/" title="Soy lecithin">Soy lecithin</a>? Oat product?! It seems that if you eat these tacos, especially if some cornmeal sneaks in through the tortilla, you run an alarming chance of having a bowel movement within a month from the scary amounts of fiber your body has absorbed through these poisonous plant products. No wonder she’s so upset. Taco Bell’s products are not destroying the environment fast enough. There’s 70% more room there to create more demand for cheap beef that could help usher in global warming while reducing clean water supplies and arable land available for farming direct to consumer vegetables. And where does this all end? Will fast food joints starting putting actual <i>green</i> vegetables in their food? Horrors. </p> <p> I’m sorry that America learned today that you learned you actually like the taste of soy products. I know how traumatic that can be. I’ve seen small children, greedily eating a food they claimed to dislike but that has been served to them in disguise, only to be told what it was, which required spitting it out and saying, “Gross!” We, as a nation, are this small child, or at least that’s how it seems from the breathless coverage this scandal has been given in the news. We can’t see ourselves as people who eat soy. It’s gross. No matter how much we like it. </p> <p> I’m not actually even defending Taco Bell’s alleged ingredients, many of which break the basic rules about telling “food” from “non-food” laid out by the likes of Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, and Marion Nestle. But the issue that’s driving this is that there isn’t enough beef in the tacos, and no so much that there are all these non-food chemicals in them that are used ostensibly to make the food more appealing. The only real surprise is literally that the tacos don’t come with as much beef and its accompanying saturated fat as assumed. The betrayal runs deep; apparently we hope to be clogging our arteries with haste when we eat there. I’m not sure there’s any way to see this other than as another sign of the decline of a once-great nation. </p> <p> Plus, it’s not like you can’t add cheese if you’re falling a little short of your saturated fat goals for the day. </p> <p> What’s fascinating is that in all the alarm over this, there has basically been no discussion over the fact that places like Taco Bell have this disgusting, bad-for-you food, and then they price it so low that it becomes extra appealing, particularly to people who don’t have the privilege of living in a place with better access to healthy food. And that, in turn, contributes to our massive health problems that are killing people and driving up health care costs. Instead, everyone’s just going to be appalled for a day that it’s got a little more vegetable matter than they initially supposed. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:37 PM • (80) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consumer_discovers_taco_bell_not_as_bad_for_you_as_expected_sues/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consumer_discovers_taco_bell_not_as_bad_for_you_as_expected_sues/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/that_general_winding_down_feeling_youre_getting_is_not_an_illusion/">That general winding down feeling you’re getting is not an illusion</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C53/">Democrats</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C75/">Obama Administration</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C6/">Republicans</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://paulbuckley14059.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/decrepit-house.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>So, that speech sucked. The prior sentence could refer to all of the speeches last night, but obviously the one in question is Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Last night, the emptiness of it pissed me off, particularly how he talked a big game about innovation and moving forward and education, and then proceeded to concede the argument to Republicans that we really shouldn’t do any of those things because they cost money. But this morning, I’ve mellowed out on it a bit and basically feel like I saw a man who has given up. And I can respect that; it’s not like anything can be done with the den of wingnut weasels the country just elected to Congress. All he’s got left is admonishing us to try harder, while knowing we totally plan to fail and fail hard. Until people who <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/" title="care more about the possibility that women are having unauthorized orgasms">care more about the possibility that women are having unauthorized orgasms</a> than about the state of our economy and our future, we’re going to continue this slide downhill, and that’s basically all there is to it. </p> <p> We are a country that’s basically given up. The Republican rebuttals just drove this home. The theme of Paul Ryan’s was “I have a Bible and can talk shit like a motherfucker” and Bachmann’s was “I think my audience is really stupid, though I enjoy the hell out of taking them for everything they’re worth”. Even wingnuts seem to be going through the motions lately. I see conservatives dutifully ranting online about the latest villain they’ve been instructed to hate---government workers---but you can tell they long for the days when they could rail about “welfare queens” driving Cadillacs. The country’s lost its spark. The President mentioned Facebook in his speech, and we had to admit that it was the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time. </p> <p> Just one example of how we as a nation have given up is this story in the NY Times about how legislators have <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/26runners.html?_r=1&hp" title="decided to go after pedestrians who use headphones">decided to go after pedestrians who use headphones</a>. This is in response to a slight uptick in pedestrian deaths, one that strikes me as small enough to be statistically insignificant. This is after there was an attempt <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/20/first-ladys-anti-obesity-campaign-could-be-causing-more-pedestrian-deaths/" title="to use some really silly quotes">to use some really silly quotes</a> from the Governors Highway Safety Association to blame Michelle Obama for pedestrian deaths because of her evil plot to get people moving. The common theme here is to focus all attention on pedestrians, and none on the people who are actually doing the killing, the drivers who run over them. In some cases, pedestrians are the parties at fault in these accidents, but anyone who actually walks around can tell you from experience how much drivers can act like you have no right to the road, and thereby will speed, pull into intersections without looking, treat traffic lights geared at pedestrian safety as suggestions that are safe to reject, etc. But doing something about that would be hard work, and it would also offend drivers by suggesting, gasp, they have to share the road. And god forbid we do that. Next thing you know, we’ll be suggesting they perhaps cut down on gasoline usage so that we don’t burn our planet up with global warming. </p> <p> This is just the essence of giving up. Everyone knows that it would be better if more people walked, and that in total, it would save more lives---there are way more traffic accidents involving one or two or more cars than involving pedestrians. Plus, just increasing the amount of exercise people got would improve the health of this country, saving money and lives. Knowing all this, we should prioritize making it easier and more appealing to walk whenever we can, even if that means we burden car drivers more with things like---horrors---having to pay more attention or concede more of the road to pedestrians. But we’re a nation that’s given up. At the end of the day, we’re a country where people will circle a parking lot for 15 minutes to avoid 2 more minutes of walking. Facing up to that sort of thing while making public policy requires spine, and that’s something we’ve got on short supply. So, instead we concede the argument and let the worst instincts of the country take over, while kicking the hippies that have the nerve to want something better. </p> <p> Sometimes I feel like America is just in a holding pattern. We’re basically waiting for all the people who are still bitter about modernity to pass away in large enough numbers that those of us willing to move into the future can actually capture the electorate. I never felt that so keenly as listening to Obama speak last night. It’s like living in a house where a cantankerous patriarch won’t let you fix anything up or clean anything, and you’re sitting around watching the house fall apart while waiting for him to die. (Vague memories of “The Secret Garden” surface.) And that’s pretty much exactly what’s going on, right down to our crumbling infrastructure and cannibalistic economy. The problem with this is that not cleaning up the house means that we’re seeping poison into the air, and that may not be something we can clean up when we get the signal to go ahead and actually start fixing things. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:14 AM • (203) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/that_general_winding_down_feeling_youre_getting_is_not_an_illusion/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/that_general_winding_down_feeling_youre_getting_is_not_an_illusion/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, January 25, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/setting_records_in_terms_of/">Setting new records in the art of callousness towards women</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C32/">Reproductive Justice</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/AP_Photo/2011/01/24/1295907061_9711/539w.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Some of you may not know, but James O’Keefe---sleazeball, professional liar, attacker of teachers who provide special ed, and totally not at all creepy guy who tries to trap women on boats to film them being terrified of “seduction” involving refusing to let someone go---got his start doing anti-choice stuff with a woman named Lila Rose, who has continued to be single-minded in her attempts to shut down Planned Parenthood. Her main form of attack is to try and catch them being overly kind to sexually active minors, which she then distorts, O’Keefe-style, in videos that mostly end up scandalizing anti-choicers who can’t believe teenage girls get to have sex without going to jail these days. (She once tried to get me to debate her, but when I tried to set conditions that would make it impossible for them to edit my comments to make me say things I didn’t say, they ceased communications.) The excuse for this is they’re trying to expose Planned Parenthood as some seedy pro-statutory rape organization because they.... well, it’s hard to say, actually. The charge is usually that Planned Parenthood employees don’t immediately call the cops as soon as they discover a minor is sexually active, thought it’s unclear if they’re supposed to also handcuff the <s>dirty little slut</s> victim, or just lock her inside to prevent her from escaping now that what little trust she put in them has been violated. </p> <p> Anyway, having gotten nowhere with that tactic, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/01/24/ap_exclusive_planned_parenthood_seeks_fbi_probe/" title="it seems Lila Rose and her people have shifted gears">it seems Lila Rose and her people have shifted gears</a>. </p> <blockquote><p>Planned Parenthood, a perennial protest target because of its role in providing abortions, has notified the FBI that at least 12 of its health centers were visited recently by a man purporting to be a sex trafficker but who may instead be part of an attempted ruse to entrap clinic employees. </p> <p> In each case, according to Planned Parenthood, the man sought to speak privately with a clinic employee and then requested information about health services for sex workers, including some who he said were minors and in the U.S. illegally.</p></blockquote> <p> It is true that sex trafficking is a problem, and that evil pimps do control young girls, teenagers, and immigrants and force them to be raped repeatedly by men who pay the pimps for the opportunity. This is indeed horrible, and something should be done about it. </p> <p> But all that Lila Rose and company care about is the horrible, horrible, horrible prospect that an underage trafficking victim could get some antibiotics for an STD picked up from one of her rapists. The horror! God, next you’ll be saying that it would be okay if a 14-year-old that’s been raped by grown men for the last year of her life not also be forced to bear a rapist’s child! </p> <p> Seriously, guys, Rose and her friends are such good Christians. Remember that part in the Bible where Jesus said that prostitutes should be shunned from society and left to die penniless and alone? I’m sure it’s in there somewhere, right after he railed against raising taxes on the rich and he spoke about the importance of an electrified border fence to show immigrants that he was serious when he said he hated them. </p> <p> Not that there’s anything unusual about Rose’s targets. Anti-choicers and opponents of public sexual health initiatives in general are pretty smart, and they know to start by attacking the access of the weakest and most vulnerable. Targeting prostitutes as people unworthy of health care access is pretty standard, as is targeting minors, and of course the poor. But once they’ve been successful on those fronts, they do expand. Look at the way that success with attacking poor women’s abortion access turned into a larger attack on the abortion funding for all women who rely on health insurance to pay doctors’ bills. The end game is always restricting reproductive health care for wealthy women, and throwing everyone else out into the show (though, in some cases, not before relieving them of the babies they’ve been forced to have, and giving them to rich women struggling with infertility). There’s sadly nothing new here; Lila Rose is just particularly obnoxious about it. </p> <p> Oh, and in case there’s any part of this story that doesn’t make you want to puke at what horrible people these folks are, think about this: they attacked the Tucson Planned Parenthood just a week after their pro-choice congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a raving misogynist. It’s that sort of good taste and decency that really sets anti-choicers apart from the pack. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:11 PM • (41) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/setting_records_in_terms_of/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/setting_records_in_terms_of/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_real_state_of_the_union/">The Real State of the Union</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C57/">Congress</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C53/">Democrats</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C22/">History</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C51/">Homeland Insecurity</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C21/">Music</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C75/">Obama Administration</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C61/">Progressivism</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C25/">Television</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C47/">We Support Your War Of Terror</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>I’ve been angry for days about what we won’t hear from the President tonight. Together, Talib Kweli and Thom Yorke say everything he won’t: <br/> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="560" height="345" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/0BioQbfzp94?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> You can download the mashup by popping the little down arrow <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://soundcloud.com/marcfaletti/state-of-the-union" title="at Soundcloud">at Soundcloud</a>. <br/> </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/5876/">Marc</a> at 12:51 PM • (7) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_real_state_of_the_union/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_real_state_of_the_union/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/earnestness_attack/">Earnestness attack!</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C74/">L-O-S-E-R-S</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C6/">Republicans</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>I’m sure you’ve all seen Tim Pawlenty’s jaw-droppingly silly ad, but if not, here it is: </p> <p> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="560" height="345" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/YfkNEq1XioE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> I found this ad fascinating, for one major reason. Right off the top, it invokes a bunch of cliches that we are used to getting from action film trailers. Which is the intention, of course, but is a really strange thing to do, because aping the cliches of film trailers is something that is done frequently in our culture, and, until Pawlenty made this ad, it was done every single time as parody. Even when people are goofing off with friends, you know that when someone starts to intone, “In a world where....”, whatever comes next is a joke. If it’s a video that makes use of film trailer cliches for any reason other than to be a straightforward film trailer, then it’s a joke. </p> <p> I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, but this happens so often examples are easy to come by. There’s the amateur versions: </p> <p> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="425" height="349" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/KmkVWuP_sO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> Then Hollywood got into the game, mocking itself: </p> <p> <object width="480" height="203"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x4r79k?width=&theme=none&foreground=%23F7FFFD&highlight=%23FFC300&background=%23171D1B&start=&animatedTitle=&iframe=0&additionalInfos=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338oe_/http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x4r79k?width=&theme=none&foreground=%23F7FFFD&highlight=%23FFC300&background=%23171D1B&start=&animatedTitle=&iframe=0&additionalInfos=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0" width="480" height="203" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br/><b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4r79k_tropic-thunder-trailer_shortfilms">Tropic Thunder Trailer</a></b><br/><i>Uploaded by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.dailymotion.com/jirony">jirony</a>. - <a target="_self" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Full seasons and entire episodes online.</a></i> </p> <p> And so have politicians: </p> <p> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="560" height="345" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/T5aJAyBp_S8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> Film trailer cliches, I thought, had exactly two meanings to Americans: you are about to see a film trailer, or you’re about to see a joke. The earnestness that Pawlenty brings to this is baffling. It’s like he’s only speaking to people who never have read the Onion, never have seen a comedy made after 1960, think the word “camp” only refers to places you go for vacation, and only watch YouTube when someone sends them a video of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9pxOT9BC1U" title="a kitten licking a puppy">a kitten licking a puppy</a>(which is, admittedly, the best thing ever in the Video, Just Cute Not Humorous category). This video says, “Are you obtuse? Completely out of touch? Unable to understand even the most primitive of jokes? Completely devoid of any appreciation for irony? Then vote for Tim Pawlenty.” </p> <p> It was confusing until <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/shakin-not-stirring-tim-pawlenty.html" title="I read Digby's take on it">I read Digby’s take on it</a>. Don’t get me wrong; she’s as bemused as I am. But she shook my brain awake with this: </p> <blockquote><p>Between this and his constant references to his “red hot smokin’wife”, I don’t know if he’s running for president or auditioning to play James Bond. There is such a thing as protesting too much.</p></blockquote> <p> At what point, I thought, “Not really for teabaggers and the Christian right.” Just think of the epic amounts of cultural garbage exhibiting a distinct lack of self-awareness they’re capable of generating. Even that Christine O’Donnell ad, which tries to be funny, is off. But, more to the point: wingnuttery is an American subculture with a high tolerance for utter humorlessness. Dressing up as revolutionary era soldiers, crying in church, talking about the gold standard, using the word “homosexuality” as if it’s dirty, and putting decals of crying bald eagles on your car? <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://tattoo.about.com/cs/tatart/l/blgal911.htm" title="We live in a country where some people think it's appropriate to get 9/11 tattoos">We live in a country where some people think it’s appropriate to get 9/11 tattoos</a>. You or I might think, “What kind of morons is Pawlenty trying to rope in with this weirdness?”, but your answer lies right there. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:33 AM • (52) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/earnestness_attack/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/earnestness_attack/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, January 24, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/round_up_and_thoughts_on_this_personhood_silliness/">Round-up and thoughts on this “personhood” silliness</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C32/">Reproductive Justice</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="425" height="349" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/U0kJHQpvgB8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p> A number of great responses out there today to RedState’s threatening and hyper-offensive, not-a-little-racist anti-choice post discussed below. Here’s a sample. </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/once-you-get-your-position-sorted-out-perhaps-we-can-talk" title="Scott Lemieux dismisses">Scott Lemieux dismisses</a> the whole “fetuses are persons” argument as right wing nuttery, nuttery that was basically concocted as a rationalization for a pre-existing anti-women’s right belief: </p> <blockquote><p>If the problem with Roe is that fetuses were not declared persons, then the dissenters were just as wrong as the majority, Scalia and Thomas just as wrong as Stevens and Ginsburg. As far as I can tell, no federal judge has ever made such a claim, for the obvious reasons that 1)only a vanishingly small minority of people believes it (or, at least, is willing to act as if the belief were true) and 2)it would require legal policies whose unworkability only begins with the fact that all 50 states would be constitutionally required to prosecute women who obtain abortions for first-degree murder. Unlike the position of the Dred Scott dissenters — which took all of three years to be vindicated in a national election — the idea that fetuses are constitutionally protected “persons” is a fringe if not crackpot position.</p></blockquote> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=01&year=2011&base_name=redstates_bizarre_civil_war_hi#123499" title="Adam Serwer runs the risk of being told he can't read English">Adam Serwer runs the risk of being told he can’t read English</a> by understanding RedState a little too well: </p> <blockquote><p>As Mark Kleiman writes, the Confederacy seceded because they were afraid that Abraham Lincoln’s victory might lead to slavery being abolished; they weren’t seceding in defense of the personhood of slaves. To the extent that “mass bloodshed” was necessary, it was because the Confederates refused to hew to the potential outcomes produced by democratic institutions, which is precisely what the editors at RedState are threatening. The abolitionists would have been perfectly happy to have gotten the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments without 600,000 thousand Americans giving their lives on the battlefield. </p> <p> The reason for this bizarre reading of history is that conservatives both lionize the Confederacy’s treason in defense of slavery and they want to usurp the moral legitimacy of slavery abolitionists by drawing a direct comparison between the personhood of black people and embryos. This is an impossible task. </p></blockquote> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-pro-lifers-and-pundits/70002/" title="Ta-Nehisi Coates draws out objections ">Ta-Nehisi Coates draws out objections </a>to the argument that if black people get to be considered people, so should fetuses without functioning brains, drawing on historical realities: </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/round_up_and_thoughts_on_this_personhood_silliness/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:30 PM • (73) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/round_up_and_thoughts_on_this_personhood_silliness/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/round_up_and_thoughts_on_this_personhood_silliness/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/great_now_they_have_license_to_get_even_nastier/">Great, now they have license to get even nastier</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C36/">Terrorism</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/assets_c/2011/01/bag-tshirts-fbi-file-cropped-proto-custom_2.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>I <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/close_reading_of_redstate_sorry/" title="made fun of RedState's anti-choice post">made fun of RedState’s anti-choice post</a> from this weekend this morning, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://search.twitter.com/search?q=redstatehistory" title="started a hashtag with Jesse">started a hashtag with Jesse</a> for those who want to continue to do so on Twitter. The pomposity RedState brings to their brazen misogyny and their attempts to rewrite history to justify their reactionary tendencies are funny. </p> <p> But there’s something more troubling about all this, and it’s that they were so blatant in their willingness to threaten violence if they don’t get their way on abortion. I hate to say it, but I think the aftermath of the Tucson shooting is that there’s even more fear of speaking out against right wing hate speech, incendiary language, and paranoia. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/24/washington-state-martin-luther-king" title="I wrote about this for the Guardian's Comment Is Free today">I wrote about this for the Guardian’s Comment Is Free today</a>. A sample: </p> <blockquote><p>Despite the facts on the ground, the right was able to quell discussion about the role that their paranoia and violent rhetoric likely played in this event, particularly with regard to the political figure whom, among others, Loughner chose to shoot. Sarah Palin started shouting “blood libel”, and it was all so unpleasant that many in the mainstream media decided it was better to let important questions lie than to provoke her into worse assaults on decency and good taste. </p> <p> Unfortunately, the effect of the successful rightwing freakout has been to scare most of the mainstream media from talking about domestic terrorism honestly at all. </p></blockquote> <p> Please read the whole thing, which includes analysis of RedState blatantly using inciting language on the anniversary of Roe, and the threats against an elderly college professor that have been inspired by Glenn Beck’s rantings. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 01:34 PM • (15) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/great_now_they_have_license_to_get_even_nastier/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/great_now_they_have_license_to_get_even_nastier/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/close_reading_of_redstate_sorry/">Close reading of RedState (sorry)</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C155/">Paranoia</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://www.friendshipbookstore.com/files/old-stack-of-books.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>The anniversary of<i> Roe v Wade</i> is a big deal for both the supporters and detractors of the belief that women are people, as I’m sure you’re aware. RedState.com decided to commemorate the anniversary by competing for the first prize in the contest of who could write the most tasteless, ignorant, and offensive post ever in support of forced childbirth. I think you’ll agree that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.redstate.com/the_directors/2011/01/22/we-have-drawn-a-line/" title="what they came up with is a contender in what is a crowded field">what they came up with is a contender in what is a crowded field</a>. It’s a post that manages to assert that embryos are people, but women are nothing more than “physical locations”. It suggests that black people have equal claim to be considered persons as multi-celled entities that, unlike black people (or women, or children, or gay people, or whoever else conservatives care less about than the initial evidence that a male orgasm has definitely occurred in the recent past in a bona fide vagina), do not have brains, emotions, rationality, consciousness, relationships, desires or ambitions. They tried to gross you out in lieu of making a real argument. They compared themselves to abolitionists while also trying to trumpet the Confederates as noble insurrectionists against federal tyranny. </p> <p> But all these things are par for the course when it comes to wingnuttery. What really made this post stand out was this passage: </p> <blockquote><p>Here at RedState, we too have drawn a line. We will not endorse any candidate who will not reject the judicial usurpation of Roe v. Wade and affirm that the unborn are no less entitled to a right to live simply because of their size or their physical location. Those who wish to write on the front page of RedState must make the same pledge. The reason for this is simple: once before, our nation was forced to repudiate the Supreme Court with mass bloodshed. We remain steadfast in our belief that this will not be necessary again, but only if those committed to justice do not waiver or compromise, and send a clear and unmistakable signal to their elected officials of what must be necessary to earn our support.</p></blockquote> <p> Yep, they threatened armed revolt if they don’t get their way on this. I guess they figured that Gabrielle Giffords was being moved from the hospital to rehab, so it was okay to loosen the tie a little and get back to business. This was pretty stunning all the same, so I did what I’m accustomed to doing in these situations, which is leaping to Twitter to make fun of these golf pants-wearing nimrods with fantasies of armed revolution in their heads. This was not, as you can imagine, well-received by said wingnuts. Josh Trevino, especially, decided to start arguing with me in that tone that’s unique to very stupid men who have bought into the cultural lie that their penises make them smarter than all women. It was kind of entertaining for awhile to argue with him (particularly asking questions he refused to answer, mostly in terms of who actually started the Civil War by seceding in defense of slavery, and whether or not people who shoot abortion doctors feel strongly on the subject of banning abortion), but I did hit my fool-suffering limit and dropped out after awhile. There are Brussels sprouts to roast and toilets to clean, you know For all I know, he’s still ranting about how I’m illiterate because I believe the insurrection that started the Civil War was in defense of slavery. </p> <p> Nonetheless, I’m always up for a challenge, and Josh challenged my ability to read English, so I figured we’d have some fun doing what those of us with degrees in English lit call a “close reading” of the passage above. For funsies. Also, because I, you know, take domestic terrorism very seriously and don’t think it’s all that cool for RedState to deliberately provoke would-be anti-abortion terrorists. And I like believing that my four years of college gave me a useful skill beyond obsessive pop culture list-making. We’ll start with “The reason for this”, because that’s where shit gets really interesting. </p> <blockquote><p>The reason for this is simple: once before, our nation was forced to repudiate the Supreme Court with mass bloodshed.</p></blockquote> <p> It’s clear from both the wording of this and the squawking on Twitter that this passage is supposed to be ambiguous enough to both allow the readers to read whatever they want into it, and create plausible deniability for the editors at RedState. The Supreme Court decision that’s being referenced is the favorite one of anti-choicers, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933.html" title="which is the Dred Scott decision of 1857">which is the Dred Scott decision of 1857</a> that held that slaves or even free people whose ancestors were slaves could not be considered U.S. citizens. As part of the offensive project of comparing black people to literally brainless clumps of cells that could become people but are not yet people, anti-choicers really like to linger on this one. They also like to compare themselves to abolitionists, even though abolitionists by and large thought black people had more claim to personhood than brainless clumps of cells. </p> <p> The problem with borrowing the abolitionist legacy is not just that it was a liberal, progressive movement (that gave birth to the anti-racist movement and the feminist movement) is that conservative sympathies usually run not towards the Union, but towards the Confederacy, which gave them the “states rights” arguments they’re so fond of and a flag they often like to use for decorative purposes. Also, with all this Tea Party talk of insurrection, the Confederacy---the largest and most successful (in the sense that it took four years to put it down) insurrection in American history---is a natural precedent to look towards. And that’s what they’re doing here, drawing on a previous insurrection that was, as they note, national in scope. Indeed, over half a million people died in this particular insurrection. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/close_reading_of_redstate_sorry/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 07:06 AM • (102) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/close_reading_of_redstate_sorry/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/close_reading_of_redstate_sorry/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Saturday, January 22, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/i_guess_we_have_to_call_them_sharia_tomatoes_now/">I guess we have to call them “Sharia tomatoes” now</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C83/">Judges</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C65/">Liberal Fascism</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C155/">Paranoia</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C6/">Republicans</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C47/">We Support Your War Of Terror</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/christie2.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>I’ve been told that Chris Christie is too imperious and too much of a bully to win the Republican nomination, and my feeling on that is that Republicans like imperious bullies (see: John McCain), so I don’t see how that could hurt him. I mean, it will in the general, but not so much in the primary. But he hasn’t learned the most important lesson of being a Republican favorite, which is that no matter how sure of yourself you may be, if you refuse to pander to bigots, you’re screwed. McCain knew this; he changed his position on immigration to the one that most appealed to people who flip out if they hear someone speaking in Spanish in public. But Christie’s gone and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/nyregion/14christie.html?partner=rss&emc=rssl" title="appointed a Muslim to the state bench of New Jersey">appointed a Muslim to the state bench of New Jersey</a>, and the wingnuts are freaking out, sure this is a sign that sharia law is imminent. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=01&year=2011&base_name=chris_christie_joins_the_steal" title="Adam Serwer">Adam Serwer</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>The case against Mohammed—if you care to tumble down that rabbit hole—is that he’s represented people accused of ties to terrorism. The “stealth jihad” crew, despite ostensibly being concerned about the secular rule of law being subverted by Islamic fundamentalists, don’t actually believe in the presumption of innocence, or in providing legal representation to Muslims accused of crimes. </p></blockquote> <p> Sohail Mohammed defended some men who were caught up in post-9/11 secret sweeps looking for potential terrorists, and most of them were innocent of the accusation of having ties to terrorism. “Innocent” is a key word here when understanding how completely ridiculous the wingnut reaction is, though grown-ups have to also point out that even if they’re not innocent, they have a right to a legal defense, like anyone else accused of a crime. Basically, the tattered remains of the once-powerful 101st Fighting Keyboardists don’t believe that there is a difference between “Muslim” and “terrorist”. </p> <p> So now, according to the warbloggers, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/20/christie-muslim-judge/" title="New Jersey is about to turn into Iran">New Jersey is about to turn into Iran</a>. </p> <blockquote><p> – In a widely linked post, “Governor Christie’s Dirty Islamist Ties,” blogger Daniel Greenfield writes that “New Jersey, the Garden State, has just taken its first step toward becoming the Sharia State,” and criticized Christie for being “willing to stand up to the teacher’s union, but not to the terrorist’s union.” </p> <p> – Hate blogger Pamela Gellar, in a post titled “Governor Christie’s Hamas Pick for Superior Judgeship,” declared Christie’s political career over: “Governor Christie looked and sounded like he could be presidential. He’s not. He’s in bed with the enemy. All the other stuff doesn’t matter if you don’t have your freedom.” </p> <p> – At Commentary magazine, Jonathan S. Tobin wrote a post about Christie’s “troubling appointment,” and charged that Christie’s “appointment of Sohail Mohammed to the court shows that his judgment on the issue of support for terrorism is highly questionable.” </p> <p> – The Investigative Project on Terrorism warned Christie’s appointment of an “Islamist” to a judgeship “betrays either naivete or calculation. Either is troubling.” </p> <p> – PowerLine blog took extra pains to note that “The attorney’s name is Mohammed, first name Sohail — Sohail Mohammed.”</p></blockquote> <p> I, for one, cannot wait for the farmer’s market to have the crescents to indicate which tomatoes are sharia tomatoes. All that radical juiciness! </p> <p> I think it’s time to start a Republican nomination index. Measure all the potential candidates against each other, see who is ahead which week, etc. My money is still on Christie getting it, but this has weakened the case, and I feel Pawlenty is now ahead. But watch out for dark horse Huckabee. </p> <p> Who should be on such an index? Maybe creating a graphic for it would be a good idea. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 12:34 PM • (72) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/i_guess_we_have_to_call_them_sharia_tomatoes_now/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/i_guess_we_have_to_call_them_sharia_tomatoes_now/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, January 21, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_non_random_ten_ch_ch_ch_anges_edition/">Friday Non-Random Ten “Ch-ch-ch-anges” Edition</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C20/">Illicit Sex, Friday Random Ten, and Cat Pictures</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://distillery.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2011/01/17/186a0a579c184749a251a62a69cb9c9c_7.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>Bowie-holic <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.ohyouprettythings.net/about.html" title="Sarah Jaffe">Sarah Jaffe</a> was gracious enough to invite us out to an annual event called Oh You Pretty Things!, which has two bands (one a big band with multiple singers, some dancers, and an accordion) doing Bowie covers all night, with DJs pumping up the dance floor in between sets. People <i>really</i> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.nickydigital.com/index.php?%2Fgallery%2Falbum%2FC2173%2FP288%2F" title="dressed up">dressed up</a>, and the general feeling of the night was camaraderie of queers and weirdos who really love David Bowie. In other words, awesome. The picture above is the lead singer of the first band, who was almost uncanny in his vocal impressions and had a twist on a couple of Bowie images all his own. </p> <p> In honor of that, I thought I’d reposition a question I asked everyone that night: If you were in a Bowie cover band, what three songs would you do? But I’m going to ask you guys a slightly different question: <b>What artist or band would you want to cover, and what ten songs would you do by them?</b> Put together your ten song set, and leave it in comments. Here’s my fantasy Bowie ten song set for my imaginary cover band, in the order I’d play it. <br/> <b> <br/> 10) “Quicksand”</b> “Man Who Sold the World” gets all the love since the Nirvana cover, but this is my favorite of the slow, pensive songs in that style. <br/> <b>9) “Be My Wife”</b> Preferably done as campy as possible. <br/> <b>8) “Sound and Vision”</b> Which is a song I have a new appreciation for after the cover show. <br/> <b>7) “Putting Out The Fire”</b> In honor of “Inglourious Basterds” <br/> <b>6) “Andy Warhol” </b>One more pensive song, before things get wild. <br/> <b>5) “Fashion”</b> This song is a fun dance song. <br/> <b>4) “Under Pressure”</b> To kick off the grand-standing portion of the evening. <br/> <b>3) “Rebel Rebel” </b>Doesn’t need an explanation. <br/> <b>2) “Suffragette City” </b>Required if you’re a feminist Bowie cover band. <br/> <b>1) “Rock and Roll Suicide”</b> Which has fresh meaning in this It Gets Better era. </p> <p> Again, leave your ten songs by whatever artist or band you’d love to have a cover band for in comments. Videos below the fold. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_non_random_ten_ch_ch_ch_anges_edition/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:29 AM • (51) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_non_random_ten_ch_ch_ch_anges_edition/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_non_random_ten_ch_ch_ch_anges_edition/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Thursday, January 20, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gun_nuttery_leads_to_bad_analogies/">Gun nuttery leads to bad analogies</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C71/">Guns</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><object width="420" height="245" id="msnbc90c92e" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338oe_/http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640"/><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=41146169&width=420&height=245"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed name="msnbc90c92e" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338oe_/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" flashvars="launch=41146169&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/">breaking news</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">news about the economy</a></p> <p> So, I caught this clip of Lawrence O’Donnell arguing with Rep. Trent Franks about gun control. Franks looks really, really stupid in this clip. It’s hard to pull out the stupidest thing he says, but one particular item jumped out at me as something I could see taking off with the wingnutteria, and so I thought I’d deal with it right now. Franks opposes even the teeniest measure of gun control proposed after this shooting, which is to limit the number of bullets you can put in a magazine, because the NRA has determined this is like lopping inches off your symbolic cock instead taking the whole thing, and that’s almost as bad. And Republicans are just as owned by the NRA as by big business, though I suppose it’s worth pointing out that gun manufacturing is big business, and the NRA basically stands in for the financial well-being of the gun industry. (For the gun industry, mass shootings are good business. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/glock-pistol-sales-surge-in-aftermath-of-shooting-of-arizona-s-giffords.html" title="Glock sales shot up after the shooting">Glock sales shot up after the shooting</a>, and the cynic in me has to point out that an incident where a man hit 19 people with 31 bullets is a good advertisement for the gun’s accuracy. Sad, but I’m not the one running out to buy a Glock after hearing this story.) Anyway, O’Donnell shouted Franks down, but it’s not like Franks had an argument. Letting the ban on 30 round magazines die, as per the NRA’s wishes, meant the death toll is probably twice what it would have been. Them’s just the facts. It’s truly pathetic seeing people who only shoot guns at the range kick their heels like wee infants at the possibility that they may have to waste precious calories reloading more often so that future mass murders have fewer victims. We’re not even talking about stopping mass murders at this point. We’re just talking about minimizing the casualties. And yet, whining. </p> <p> Franks says that requiring a limit on magazine sizes like this is like trying to stop drunk driving by limiting the size of fuel tanks. I realize this asinine analogy makes emotional sense to his intended audience---big trucks, like big guns, being penis substitutes that are clung to like infants clinging to well-worn teddy bears---but it’s a crappy analogy. As O’Donnell makes clear, this is about limiting the damage that can be done once the horrible thing has happened. So, really, the proper analogy is safety features and both cars and roads. If someone gets behind the wheel drunk, the fact that we have seat belts, airbags, cars that are designed to crumple in the safest way they can, glass that shatters instead of breaks, speed limits, wide lanes, clearly marked roads, cars that drift right instead of left if someone passes out at the wheel, rails on bridges, medians, and traffic lights are all things that can reduce the chance that the drunk driver is going to kill someone, even if he gets into an accident. It dramatically reduces the chance he’ll kill someone else. These things are technically impositions on our freedom. They mean we can’t just drive around like wildcats, figuring out how to manage each other without any set rules. But the benefit of safety far outweighs any theoretical gains from having no rules of the road and no safety features on cars. Same with this high capacity magazine ban that’s being proposed. There’s just no reasonable argument for why having to reload a little more often is an imposition that’s worth multiple human lives every year. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:56 PM • (117) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gun_nuttery_leads_to_bad_analogies/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gun_nuttery_leads_to_bad_analogies/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/hiding_behind_the_free_market_is_just_cowardly/">Hiding behind the “free market” is just cowardly</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C28/">Economy</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C22/">History</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C4/">Race</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://www.freewebs.com/centralhistory/Moviie%20Segregation%20Seating.bmp" width="300" align="right"/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.postbourgie.com/2011/01/19/14084/" title="G.D. takes a look at the argument">G.D. takes a look at the argument</a> that the “free market” would have neatly solved the problem of segregation if those impatient civil rights people had just waited it out. G.D. tackles a writer at Human Events for this, but this argument is sadly more mainstream than that. It was Rand Paul’s argument for why he wouldn’t have supported the Civil Rights Act, for instance. Most Republicans wouldn’t go on the record saying this, but this argument is made so often in conservative circles that I actually think it’s a matter of faith at this point. Jay Nordlinger, as I noted yesterday, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/257281/mlk-american-hero-laureate-jay-nordlinger" title="suggested that Martin Luther King ">suggested that Martin Luther King </a>would have regretted badmouthing the radical right that pushed Barry Goldwater to win the 1964 Republican nomination, and the reason in Nordlinger’s mind is that Goldwater’s rejection of federal laws against segregation were “classic liberalism”. This comment makes no sense on its face, but it does make a little bit more sense if you understand that “the free market would have forced desegregation eventually!” is the rationale at work here. </p> <p> G.D.’s reply to this nonsense is well worth reading in its entirety, so click the link. A sample: </p> <blockquote><p>It actually is a pretty abstract proposition, since this is never the way American life, and the crushing racism of the Jim Crow South in particular, actually worked. Flynn’s example assumes a past in which Negroes had economic leverage with whites and their institutions, that some white business owner would have graciously accepted black patronage because, well, money is money. But even the most mundane transactions between blacks and whites in the Jim Crow South were proscribed by custom and law, and backed up by the prospect of bloodshed. So who was going to complain that the white renter was gauging him, or that the white foreman cheated him out of a day’s work? And to whom would that person appeal? Which white business owners were willing to risk the loss of their white clientele (or a melee) for suggesting that they dine or watch movies next to Negroes? In this world, the competitive advantage actually lay with the people who never paid their sharecroppers a cent for their labor, who didn’t sully their store’s reputations by selling to niggers.</p></blockquote> <p> It is this last point that I want to talk about more, because the people who are making this “free market solutions” argument are ignoring, I think in most cases deliberately, that the “classic liberals” (which is a euphemism for “reactionaries that dress their assholery up in fancy pants language") of their time were supported by the Tea Partiers of their time, and the latter were under no illusions about why they preferred “free market” solutions. And that reason is they wanted to keep black people out of their stores, neighborhoods, etc. And their rationale for this was.....economic. They believed and argued strongly that black customers are bad for business. They did <b>not</b> believe black money spends as good as white money. </p> <p> A couple of years ago, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/meaning-box-722" title="historian Rick Perlstein put up a post at Our Future ">historian Rick Perlstein put up a post at Our Future </a>where he talked about the letters that poured in from white Chicagoans to Senator Paul Douglas when Martin Luther King came to town to help organize for open housing laws that would make it illegal for a someone selling a house to reject a customer based on race. If the free marketers are right, then this shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place, since surely a person selling a house would sell it to anyone buying, right? </p> <p> Wrong. On the contrary, white people in Chicago saw it as a matter of their own economic interest to keep black people from buying houses. </p> <p> Rick has a lot of letters he collected, one of which likens MLK to Hitler, but one theme strongly emerges, which is that the white letter writers saw open housing as an assault on their economic interests. A sample: </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/hiding_behind_the_free_market_is_just_cowardly/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 10:19 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/hiding_behind_the_free_market_is_just_cowardly/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, January 19, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/utterly_completely_thoroughly_unbelievably_shameless/">Utterly, completely, thoroughly, unbelievably shameless</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C57/">Congress</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C6/">Republicans</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/gop-discovers-filibusters-are-wrong-as-a-matter-of-principle" title="Via LGM">Via LGM</a>, it seems Republicans are whining about procedural roadblocks that are getting in the way of them failing to repeal health care reform, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47799.html" title="doing so with a level of hypocrisy that is dazzling to see">doing so with a level of hypocrisy that is dazzling to see</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>But a bill to repeal the health care law drew the full force of both parties Tuesday as debate on the measure opened in the House, launching a two-year battle over President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. </p> <p> Ahead of the vote Wednesday, House Republican leaders pressed a new line of attack, accusing Democrats of thwarting the will of the people by not committing to give the bill an up-or-down vote in the Senate...... </p> <p> “We are here because we heard the American people in the last election,” Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on the House floor. “We said we’d do a straight up-or-down vote to repeal this health care law and that’s what we’re doing here today.”</p></blockquote> <p> Here’s a chart measuring the rise of the filibuster after Democrats got the majority in the Senate: </p> <p> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338im_/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/assets_c/2010/12/breakingthefilibuster-thumb-454x283-31546.jpg"/> </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/breaking_the_filibuster_in_one.html" title="As Ezra notes">As Ezra notes</a>, this chart actually <i>underestimates</i> the number of bills killed with the mere threat of a filibuster. The House passed over 400 bills that died in the Senate because they never reached the floor for an up-or-down vote. </p> <p> Conservatives have ceased speaking English nowadays, and speak only in Bullshit. I get that. I read Roy Edroso and see things like, oh, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2011_01_16_archive.html#8847658157906738135" title="wingnuts claiming if MLK had lived">wingnuts claiming if MLK had lived</a>, he’d now wish he’d voted for Goldwater and objected to the Civil Rights Act. But this was such a swift heel turn that it leaves me breathless, especially since I imagine the filibuster as usual will continue in the Senate. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 05:37 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/utterly_completely_thoroughly_unbelievably_shameless/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center"> <!-- Pandagon_300 --> <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="paginate"> <span class="pagecount">Page 1 of 281 pages</span> <b>1</b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P15/">2</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P30/">3</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P15/">></a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P4200/">Last »</a> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110127195338js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-4601490-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body> </html><!-- FILE ARCHIVED ON 19:53:38 Jan 27, 2011 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 18:20:18 Nov 26, 2024. 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