Nobody Knows What It’s Like to be the Bad Man

I mean, for fuck’s sake, we’ve even got the t-shop ready for this kind of shit.

Richard Cohen, Even the Liberal Washington Post:
Richard Cohen

Richard Cohen has feelings. Feelings of an almost human nature about being lightly criticized for writing one of those easily criticized posts we’ve seen a million times before by those journalists addicted to “he said/she said horse races”. You know the type.

Shorter Wankjob:

  • The narrative of the primacy of the moderate must be upheld. Mean liberals claim that the other side is full of unmedicated psychotic bigots and bullies, but clearly they are misunderstood and not as bad. Also, here’s one who is a proper moderate and therefore better than all the meanie head extremist liberals who actually want to treat the lesser races as people.

It’s a song and dance we’ve seen a million times before. Hell, it’s a Broadway tune we’ve heard a million times before from Richard Cohen, himself.

And usually we’d pass it up because of that…

Until he tried this defense of himself in the Huffington Post.

Cause see, being criticized as a lazy fuck who will gladly hand-wave away oppression against minorities and make apologetics for archaic naked bigotry if necessary to keep alive the pretense that our democracy is always a choice between two equal and indistinguishable parties is the worst thing to ever happen to someone.

“The word racist is truly hurtful,” he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It’s not who I am. It’s not who I ever was. It’s just not fair. It’s just not right.”

Wah! It’s not fair! How dare you peons and lessers call me a bigot! I mean, if I was racist, do you think I would be making the same “being called racist is just as hurtful if not more so than suffering actual racism” argument as those who are undeniably racist?

Oh… Fuck, suddenly I see their point.

But the real meat of his defense has to be this line here:

Cohen has been criticized for his comments on race in the past. When asked why he thought it was that he keeps getting caught up in racially charged arguments, he said that it’s because people view him as a liberal and find some of his positions unconventional. “Every once in a while I take an unconventional stance as a liberal — as someone who has always been called a liberal,” he said. “If someone on the right wrote this, no one would care. No one would make a big deal about it but because I veer every once in awhile from orthodoxy, or maybe more than once in awhile, I get plastered this way.”

Really? No one would care if a right-wing bigot pulled such a lazy bit of racism denialism? Well, gosh, maybe we should shutter the doors seeing as how we here at Sadly, No! (and our sister organizations on pretty much every other liberal snark blog on the planet) don’t fucking exist.

And yeah, more on that, you know why those who want to claim they are nominally liberal are held to a higher standard than those who are nominally conservative on issues of treating others like a human being? Because they are claiming to be better on the issue.

You can’t just claim the mantle of liberal because identifying yourself as conservative is like identifying yourself as infected with syphilis in the middle of the no-condom orgy and you want to look like a human being in your general society.

Or rather, you can, but well, people are going to expect you to be at least responsive to efforts to educate you. I mean, just because people have given up on educating bad-faith National Review dickwaffles about the nature of racism doesn’t mean that people have similar learned contempt for nominally liberal Washington Post writers.

So when you pull one of these, wah, it’s unfair that I am expected to be a human being tactics, it’s just begging for the end of the polite education phase of the response and the beginning of the stage where hacks like me eviscerate your obstinate intentional ignorance.

So yeah, let’s look at some highlights of that “innocent and unfairly maligned post”.

The day after Chris Christie, the cuddly moderate conservative, won a landslide reelection as the Republican governor of Democratic New Jersey, I took the Internet Express out to Iowa, surveying its various newspapers, blogs and such to see how he might do in the GOP caucuses, won last time by Rick Santorum, neither cuddly nor moderate.

The whole setup of this batch of bullshit is that its a puff piece for Chris Christie, selling him as the hard-working moderate who will save the Republican Party with his common sense and affable nature. You know, like the way he affably bullied the teacher’s union of his state in a manner that will nearly guarantee plummeting educational quality in the state. Or his various dick moves with the LGBT community.

Or just the fact that he’s a small-minded and petty bully who is only treated as moderate because he didn’t actively antagonize the people who would be most necessary to get quick and responsive emergency care to his electorate in a natural disaster.

Oh wow, not pissing on aid when you need it, clearly a high bar in the Republican Party has been reached. Sound the bell and strike up the band, Eisenhower is here again!

But yeah, the more interesting question than that is the one we must ask about Richard Cohen.

I mean, the whole “Christie is a moderate unlike the tea party bigots” bad faith sales pitch to the low-information voters of the world is something we see most often of National Review writers who want to “distance” themselves from the “extremists” in their party. Or even the stable of “reasonable conservative” fuckwits writing brainless op-eds for once respected newspapers.

So why exactly is a purported liberal and Democrat trying to do some desperate propaganda for the political opponents in the hopes of making one of the slightly less immediately horrifying bigots somewhat presentable?

Well, we could make an innocent-seeming case, based largely on Richard Cohen having a brain the size of a particularly tiny pea, but that’s before he jumps right off his “this slightly less evil conservative is the greatest man ever because he’s not those bigots over there” to defend “those bigots over there” as just as reasonable and moderate.

Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde.

I mean, sure, one might suspect the pack of braying dogs howling at the moon about the raw injustice of having to accept a black man as president of being just a tiny bit racist, but really, they are just so darn troubled about deep and reasonable worries about just how gosh darn big the government is (but only when the services can be demonized as helping brown people instead of blowing them up), the existence of brown people, cultural attitudes that require them to at least vaguely tolerate the existence of brown people religions, and the mainstreaming of not lynching brown people.

I mean, see, not at all racist, you horrible cruel fascists who would call someone racist.

And since black-washing the Tea Party’s crimes as totally not that bad or unreasonable is one of those opening yourself to excusing the truly horrible exercises, we end up with Richard Cohen defending the common sense of people who still viscerally despise the notion of interracial couples.

Yeah.

People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.

Gosh, it’s such a fucking surprise why he got criticized for this bullshit.

I mean, seriously? Seriously? You thought you could hand-wave away people who are literally throwing up in their mouths when they see an interracial couple in 20-fucking-13 and people wouldn’t criticize you?

Did you also expect your post to receive a free unicorn and an untreated nymphomaniac riding atop it?

Also, apropos of nothing, but Chirlane McCray didn’t “used to be a lesbian”. She is bisexual.

I mean, fuck, no wonder bi visibility is in the toilet and so few people feel comfortable adopting the label. What with the hordes of people who wish to treat sexuality as a matter of one being wholly attracted to whatever sex they might be in monogamous relationship with. Oh, are you a woman with a woman? Clearly you are all lesbian? Are you now dating a man? Well, guess you left that “lesbian phase” behind and are now completely straight.

And since this crap is pulled so often, it ends up painting bisexuals as only being polyamorous because that’s the only time people actually acknowledge all aspects of their sexuality.

And don’t even get me started on the Kinsey Scale or how those who are mostly one thing or the other but have exceptions are treated as being that one thing or the other and a betrayer when they drift.

But I’m going on and on about this, so just check out this awesome bi-dyke’s comics about falling in love with a man.

Back to Cohen.

Yes, you got the shit stomped out of you.

And it’s because you deserved to get the shit stomped out of you for that post. Because anyone who tries this lazy and hackneyed of an attempt to soften the crimes of the right-wing in order to make slightly less conservative assholes look “sensible” and fetishize the moderate over the lives and experiences of those who aren’t lily white and straight as an arrow that sneaks off to truck stop bathrooms, deserves to be called out on it.

So stop your fucking whining and grow the fuck up and actually be the sensible liberal you want to be treated as.


‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. Second rule of holes: Don’t beg people to help you dig. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™


 

Comments: 168

 
 
 

Foist.

 
 

Richard Cohen falls for the jolly fat man.

 
 

I think he might have given himself away a little:

 I get plastered this way.”

In vino veritas, and all that.

I also notice he seems to be very carefully not-really identifying himself as a liberal:

“Every once in a while I take an unconventional stance as a liberal — as someone who has always been called a liberal,”

Of course, the money quote is the last one, the one Cerb bolded. Really. In 2013 this bozo (apologies to clowns everywhere) even considers vomiting at the thought of a bi-racial couple a common (or acceptable) enough reaction to use it behind the flimsy cover of a variant of the old “some people might” dodge. And the added-it-because-he-couldn’t-help-it “she used to be a lesbian” using the I’m-going-to-tell-you-while-pretending-I-have-reservations-about-doing-so dodge teenagers learn doesn’t work to emphasize how much of a not-person he considers De Blasio’s wife to be …

 
 

Fuck Richard Cohen.

::scrolls back up to read the actual post::

 
 

Mean liberals claim that the other side is full of unmedicated psychotic bigots and bullies

That’s not true! They’re also unmitigated racists, neo-confederates and religious extremists.

 
 

Isn’t this the guy who thinks he’s hilarious? I’m guessing he has no gauge for determining how actual human beings might respond to things.

 
 

“The word racist is truly hurtful,” he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It’s not who I am. It’s not who I ever was. It’s just not fair. It’s just not right.”

This gets me every time something like this happens.

People who make comments like this want to be edgy, provocative, countercultural (countercountercultural?) superheroes speaking truth to the power of the Liberal Multicultural Elite (“I know this isn’t politically correct, but I don’t care!” and the like). Which, okay. But they want to be edgy and countercultural and provocative and still get a big cookie and a round of applause for it. And not just a round of applause from the people around them, or the people like them, or even the majority. Nothing less than absolute unanimous validation will do.

Otherwise, it’s “hurtful.” Well hello, brainiac. Being edgy, provocative and countercultural is supposed to invite “hurtful” things. People who do this for a living know that going in, and often “welcome their hatred,” actually (FDR) – it’s how they know they’re making an impact.

Maybe the reason he calls himself a “liberal” is that he still has enough self-awareness to realize he doesn’t have what it takes to live up to the tough-guy image that comes with “conservative.” Hence “liberal,” a word that’s supposed to describe effete, soft, weak sisters. Good an explanation as any.

 
 

Mean liberals claim that the other side is full of unmedicated psychotic bigots and bullies

That’s not true! They’re also unmitigated racists, neo-confederates and religious extremists.

Just to be fair, liberals also include psychotics, bullies, and other nasty people. I think one of the big differences, though, between “liberals” and “conservatives” (to divide the world into two named groups) is liberals usually have the grace to be ashamed of our psychotics and bullies, while conservatives usually celebrate theirs. Leading to another difference – the relative numbers of psychotics and bullies in the two groups.

And Richard Cohen is not a liberal, no matter what the Wah!Poo calls him.

 
 

The whole setup of this batch of bullshit is that its a puff piece for Chris Christie, selling him as the hard-working moderate who will save the Republican Party with his common sense and affable nature. You know, like the way he affably bullied the teacher’s union of his state in a manner that will nearly guarantee plummeting educational quality in the state. Or his various dick moves with the LGBT community.

Or just the fact that he’s a small-minded and petty bully who is only treated as moderate because he didn’t actively antagonize the people who would be most necessary to get quick and responsive emergency care to his electorate in a natural disaster.

Oh, don’t get me started on Governor Jabba.

You know… everything you just listed is totally valid. But really, if you want to put a stake through the whole “Chris Christie is a liberal” argument, you don’t even need to look at contemporary arguments. Look no further than the fact that he thinks civil rights should’ve been put to a referendum in all the relevant states. Yep; a grown ass man in the year 2013 still believes that black people’s right to have rights should have been put to a vote in which only their white betters could cast a ballot.

This is what passes for “moderate” on the other side of the aisle.

 
 

Just to be fair, liberals also include psychotics, bullies, and other nasty people. I think one of the big differences, though, between “liberals” and “conservatives” (to divude the world into two named groups) is liberals usually have the grace to be ashamed of our psychotics and bullies, while conservatives usually celebrate theirs. Leading to another difference – the relative numbers of psychotics and bullies in the two groups.

We drove our racist psychos out of the party. They took them in.

That’s pretty much all anyone needs to know about the two parties.

Also, fuck Ricard Cohen.

 
 

Yep; a grown ass man in the year 2013 still believes that black people’s right to have rights should have been put to a vote in which only their white betters could cast a ballot.

So it’s conceivable we could be seeing this guy proposed for a SCOTUS vacancy. He’d fit right in with the conservative majority (sorry, but Kennedy walks, talks, and quacks like a conservative).

 
 

I have a slight disagreement here. I don’t think this was a puff piece for Gov. Crisco.

For those of you who didn’t read the original article, here’s an accurate summary:

The Republican governor of NJ isn’t radical enough for Iowa Republicans.
The Republican governor of NJ isn’t radical enough for Iowa Republicans.
THE DEMOCRATIC MAYOR ELECT OF A CITY IN A STATE THAT ISN’T NJ IS A MISCENEGATOR WITH TWO MULATTO PUPS!!!! P.S. HE DOES THE MISCEGENATION MAMBO WITH AND EX-DYKE WIFE BECAUSE THE CONCEPT OF BISEXUALITY IS TOO MUCH FOR MY BIGOT BRAIN
The Republican governor of NJ isn’t radical enough for Iowa Republicans.
In conclusion, the Republican Governor of NJ isn’t radical enough for Iowa Republicans.

As Cerb notes, he had to stop, pivot 90 degrees and reeeeeeach to get the paragraph in there.

Which leads me to conclude it wasn’t a puff piece for Christie, it was a racist attack job on BDeB’s family with a big splash of homophobia thrown in there to hit three bigot targets all at once.

 
 

If someone on the right wrote this, no one would care.

Which is why you never see Krauthammer or Will getting their asses nailed to the floor in the comments section. Oh wait, you do see that, regularly.

Well, when the Post had Bill Donohue as the guest columnist for its Religion section, no one objected to the article or Donohue because people expected the outpouring of bigotry.

Oh wait, that happened too.

Gosh, it is almost as if Cohen is a lying sack of shit.

 
 

The Republican governor of NJ Atilla the Hun isn’t radical enough for Iowa Republicans.

Fixed.

 
 

This has to be the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever heard.

Imaginary weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Imaginary centrifuge tubes? Imaginary yellowcake sales? Curve Ball’s imaginary Winnebagos of Death? Ahmed Chalabi as Charles de Gaulle?

 
 

At Bunk Sandwiches pre Sherlock Holmes at OMSI. HIPSTER BEARDS! HIPSTER BEARDS EVERYWHERE.

Pork Belly Cubano and a Meatball Parm coming up.

 
 

The fact is, conservative blogs are never bigoted or mean or disrepectfiul. Conservatrive commenters on concervative blogs are known for their polite discurse.

 
 

People who are not radical enough for Iowa Republicans:
Vlad Dracul
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Jim Jones…

 
 

Okay, I’ll admit I was feeding a troll. So sue me.

 
 

Okay, I’ll admit I was feeding a troll.So sue me.

Depends on what you were feeding him to……

 
 

The sammiches come wif kettle chips. Some people order fries or tots as well. It just now occurred to me that fries and tots are nearly universally eaten with ketchup (in Murca anyway) yet chips – an essentially identical food – is NEVER ketchupped.

/Jack Handey

 
 

Ahmed Chalabi as Charles de Gaulle?

Someone said that?

1) What the fuck

2) WHAT the FUCK

3) Wouldn’t that be a bad thing if you’re an American nationalist waiting to be greeted as a liberator? Wouldn’t that have meant Chalabi would dedicate his entire time in office to making Iraq self-sufficient and out from under America’s wings, at least as much as possible?

4) Seriously! What the fuck?

 
 

If someone on the right wrote this, no one would care.

You know, if “if a member of a group known to harbor racists said this disgusting, racist thing people wouldn’t even notice” might not be the strongest defense of the whole “not racist!” angle.

 
 

Ahmed Chalabi as Charles de Gaulle?
Someone said that?

Wolfowitz.

 
 

In his defense, Wolfowitz is stupid enough to believe in the Official Neocon Revised History in which de Gaulle was a complaisant puppet of the US and UK, who spent his time in exile merely marking time while he waited for them to install him in power.

 
 

What a maroon.

 
 

A bisexual cannot by definition be in a monogamous relationship. If you are currently in a monogamous relationship with someone of the same sex, you are a homosexual. If you are with someone of the opposite sex, you are a heterosexual. When you break up with someone, you drop your previous orientations and become asexual until you can find someone else. It’s simple and perfectly logical.

 
 

I agree with the simple part. Logical then that Cohen would have that notion.

 
 

When you break up with someone, you drop your previous orientations and become asexual until you can find someone else. It’s simple and perfectly logical.

I would like to be a sexual. Right now I’m pretty much a non-sensical.

 
 

Actually, it might be nice not having any sexual desires until you entered a sexual relationship with someone. Save on a lot of sexual frustration, no dangerous one-night-stands, no rushing into a relationship just because you want sex. A high libido is overrated.

 
 

I thought bisexuals were just greedy?

 
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
 

Weirdly, he’s only the second most horrifying person named Richard Cohen. The “ex-gay counselor” who murders pillows with a tennis racket still wins.

 
 

A high libido is overrated.
In terms of personal happiness, perhaps. But how would society and the economy function if people were not maintaining themselves in a state of permanent frustration?

 
 

Yeah man, a high libido is what I got, yeah.

 
 

A high libido is overrated.

Gee if only if critters such as human beings were equipped to enjoy the state of anticipation and the actual search for fulfillment of desires.

 
 

A high libido is overrated.

I’m pretty sure mismatched libidos (mom’s high, dad’s low) was a cause of the breakup of my parent’s marriage.

 
 

Libido Oh-oh-OH-oh-oh
One more time oughta get it
One more try ‘fore we quit it
On more fooooor the road.

 
 

The fact is, its the liberals and the black people who are racist, against white people. That is OK in Obamas Biased America and why he needs to be inpeached.

 
 

Maybe the reason he calls himself a “liberal” is that he still has enough self-awareness to realize he doesn’t have what it takes to live up to the tough-guy image that comes with “conservative.” Hence “liberal,” a word that’s supposed to describe effete, soft, weak sisters. Good an explanation as any.

That argument fails because the biggest WATBs are ALL on the right. Every time someone on the left offers the tiniest criticism: “Hm, saying that “conventional people” gag at the thought of a mixed-race couple is a pretty racist thing to say” or “Advocating the torture of people captured on the Afghan battlefield is really unconstitutional” causes these fuckers to immediately flop to the floor and throw a tantrum about how hurtful those nasty liberals are.

Also, who the fuck thinks Cohen is a liberal?

 
 

Also, who the fuck thinks Cohen is a liberal?
Rafael Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Sarah Palin. Of course, Sarah thinks that Pope Francis is a liberal (a PINO perhaps?).

 
 

That argument fails because the biggest WATBs are ALL on the right.

You know what they say: “Twist a pigs ear, watch him squeal.”

 
 

(Apologies if this is a double-post. It’s not FYWP this time, it’s FYGC*, or possibly FYCL**.)

The Real DA® (often imitated, never duplicated) skrev:

You know what they say: “Twist a pigs ear, watch him squeal.”

Will that internets be carry-out or delivery?

(* Google Chrome.
** CenturyLink.)

 
 

Who’s a good boy he’s a good boy yes he is oh yes he is

 
 

Labs and Dalmatians are both breeds with ADD, which is a little more precise than saying that they’re “energetic”.

 
 

Cohen, like Juan Williams before him, is now due for a Fox News Hire, where can play the house liberal for the massas.

 
 

Cohen, like Juan Williams before him, is now due for a Fox News Hire, where can play the house liberal for the massas.

It’s possible this might be the bit of truth that makes the lie stronger. If all you watch is FAUX, and the people representing as “liberals” are people like Richard Cohen, is it any wonder the FAUX-watchers are convinced liberals are lying, screwed up hypocrites?

 
 

house liberal for the massas.

As a formula 1 fan that took me a minute.

 
 

It’s possible this might be the bit of truth that makes the lie stronger. If all you watch is FAUX, and the people representing as “liberals” are people like Richard Cohen, is it any wonder the FAUX-watchers are convinced liberals are lying, screwed up hypocrites?

I don’t know if Richard Cohen fits the bill, but I think there’s a demographic that’s especially strong in the MSM (and among Fox News “liberals”) who are antiliberal as hell but who also aren’t huge fans of the heartlanders. Call it class prejudice against the inbred yokels and Jesus freaks, plus fear that their silly crusades about the wrong things are going to jeopardize the work of the Very Serious People in Washington who understand How Things Ought To Be. Tends to be a popular sentiment among East Coast Republicans and Blue Dogs, and East Coast elites in general.

The heartlanders sense that, but because they live in a binary universe, they misinterpret it as these elites being “liberal” and plotting with the blacks, and the Muslims, and the unions, and the poor, and the immigrants, and the Intellectual Left, and [insert Emmanuel-Goldstein-of-the-week-here]. When in reality, they’re all getting screwed in equal measure.

 
 

OT: The Bears-Ravens game is delayed because a tornado, which formed during a freak 66-degree-F. spell totally not caused by global warming, is chewing up little towns south of Chicago as it heads for the city.

 
 

When Jesse Jackson was caught referring to “Hymietown,” and some of his fans tried to dismiss it by saying Jackson wasn’t an anti-Semite “at heart,” our boy Richard was ALL OVER that shit, sneering at “the CAT-scan theory of anti-Semitism.” But now it’s suddenly unfair that people are insisting Cohen be held accountable for his actual words, as though he’s some sort of journalist who uses words for a living and is expected to know what they mean.

 
 

OT: The Bears-Ravens game is delayed because a tornado, which formed during a freak 66-degree-F. spell totally not caused by global warming, is chewing up little towns south of Chicago as it heads for the city.

That’s a nasty line of storms, currently stretching from Indiana through Michigan.

This is what the aviation weather is saying:

WWUS30 KWNS 171617
SAW2
SPC AWW 171617
WW 562 TORNADO IN KY MI OH LH LM 171620Z – 180100Z
AXIS..90 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF LINE..
40SE BMG/BLOOMINGTON IN/ – 55NW MBS/SAGINAW MI/
..AVIATION COORDS.. 80NM E/W /45NNW IIU – 46SE TVC/
HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..1.5 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..70 KNOTS.
MAX TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24055.

LAT…LON 38728776 44088668 44088305 38728443

THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
FOR WOU2.

 
 

>’…maybe more than once in awhile, I get plastered this way.’

Now, I’m taking this entirely out of context, and purposefully misunderstanding it, but:

Does he mean that he wrote that racist stuff in one of his drunken stupours?

 
 

Chris: November 17, 2013 at 20:24 :

I think that he’s showing an élite prejudice against heartlanders in assuming that they ‘conventionally’ hold that bigoted view. There is likely projection at work here, and it’s also reminiscent of W.J. Cash’s observation (c.1940, when he was working on “The Mind of the South”) that the white Southern upper classes used the (very real) overt and physically brutal racism of the white lower classes as yet another way of feeling superior to them…’good’ people know how to keep the coloured in their places with only minimal recourse to beatdowns and Judge Lynch.

I think it especially important that those of us who speak against bigotry retain a noticeable dose of ‘I, too, am a sinner,’ both because it is very likely accurate, and so that we don’t use our beliefs as a way of feeling better than other people, which is both a self-indulgent trap that reduces our incentive that the others change, and makes us less effective because this attitude will usually smell even stronger than fear.

 
 

Does he mean that he wrote that racist stuff in one of his drunken stupours?

He’s using the Rob Ford defense.

 
 

Shit one of my closest friends is in Bloomington and the in-laws are in northern Hoosierstan.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

Does he mean that he wrote that racist stuff in one of his drunken stupours?

He’s using the Rob Ford defense.

I’ve got to add that to my standard Doug Heffernan defense: “I could have, but then—in my defense—I didn’t!”

P.S.: Shouldn’t it be the Rob Ford defence?

 
 

it’s also reminiscent of W.J. Cash’s observation (c.1940, when he was working on “The Mind of the South”) that the white Southern upper classes used the (very real) overt and physically brutal racism of the white lower classes as yet another way of feeling superior to them…’good’ people know how to keep the coloured in their places with only minimal recourse to beatdowns and Judge Lynch.

Wait.

On the topic of which social class did which kind of racism… wasn’t the Ku Klux Klan upper class as hell? I thought the whole “we’re better than them because they’re more racist” thing was all revisionist. As in, something Good Southern Society came up with after the fact to offload all of its sins onto the rednecks (not that there wasn’t plenty of racism there too) and sweep under the carpet all the mayors, governors, senators, et al who were also into burning crosses and lynching people.

And yes, agree completely with that last paragraph. (Heck much of the white backlash of the last fifty years comes from people who didn’t care about desegregation as long as it was in that weird far off country “the South,” but where aghast when it turned out to apply to them too).

 
 

Not defending the South, but the KKK was very strong in parts of the Midwest as well, especially Indiana.

 
Rob Ford, channelling Howard Devoto
 

I have to admire your ingenuity.

 
 

Yes, the rise of the KKK in the 1920s was blunted by a sex scandal involving a Grand Dragon:

During the 1920s, the KKK’s heyday, Michigan reportedly had more Klansmen than any state in the country — as many as 800,000, according to some estimates, though historians today believe a figure in the range of 80,000 to 120,000 is more plausible. Roughly half lived in metro Detroit. Prospective members — many of whom were white factory workers originally from the South — had to swear to be a “native born, true, and loyal citizen … a white male Gentile person … a believer in the tenets of the Christian religion, the maintenance of White Supremacy, and principles of pure Americanism.”

In 1925, the Klan movement was stopped dead in its tracks by a sensational sex scandal involving its most prominent leader. David Curtis Stephenson, the Grand Wizard of Indiana and 22 other states, including Michigan, was convicted of rape and murder in the case of a woman whose body bore so many bite marks she was described by a witness as looking as if she had been “chewed by a cannibal.” Upset over not receiving clemency or a commutation of his life sentence from the Klan-backed governor of Indiana, the vengeful Stephenson took several public officials down with him. The series of exposés caused a meltdown in membership, from an estimated peak of 6 million in the mid-1920s to about 30,000 a few years later.

http://www.hourdetroit.com/Hour-Detroit/March-2009/The-Dark-Days-of-the-Black-Legion/

 
 

If you check your manuals I think that you will see that only CONSERVATIVES are called out for racism. In fact, did you know that Bull Connor was a Democrat?

 
 

As in, something Good Southern Society came up with after the fact to offload all of its sins onto the rednecks

Impressive how quickly homophobia has always already been the fault of poor rural folk and brown people.

 
 

html fail 🙁

 
 

I have perfected my newest get rich quick scheme. I will advertise that “this one simple trick will curb your appetite”. Then after they’ve sent me their money I will instruct them to watch an episode of Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods before each meal.

 
 

Not defending the South, but the KKK was very strong in parts of the Midwest as well, especially Indiana.

Oh, yeah. I was just responding to Gerald’s comment which was about Southern elites specifically. Yeah, the Second Klan was pretty much nationwide. Probably the high point of American fascism, too.

 
 

@Thread Bear: the ‘lunch special’ scene from eXistenZ also works for that.

 
 

@Thread Bear: the ‘lunch special’ scene from eXistenZ also works for that.

Someone else admits to seeing that flick?
.

 
 

No, but I’ve seen that clip. 🙂

 
 

Ha ha ha. Very funny. Because us Canucks like yo stick u’s into words seemingly at random. It’s spelled “stupor” – even here in the Great White Nourth.

 
 

Could someone try to open Dependable Renegade, please ?
It won’t open and I want to know if it is just me it hates.

 
 

http://derenegade.blogspot.com/ is giving me a malware warning.

 
 

Yikes! It’s a nasty bugger too. DO NOT OPEN THAT PAGE

 
 

Could someone try to open Dependable Renegade, please ?
It won’t open and I want to know if it is just me it hates.

Dependablerenegade.com looks like the domain name needs to be renewed. And from Gazoogle, it looks like the last blogposting was about 3 days ago.

 
 

BTW, today’s Rob Ford news is being liveblogged.

 
 

WRT Rob Ford: On the weekend, I saw part of something Ford was saying, which was something along the lines of “I’m just an average regular guy!” Thanks to DKW, my mental response was “Average folk don’t have your obvious substance abuse problems (I hope), and a ‘regular’ guy would have been locked up long ago.”

 
 

I’m betting Rob Ford could use some crack right now.

 
 

Although to be fair, coked up Ford seems to be doing a much better job as Speaker than Nunziata usually manages.

 
 

i’m still agog over his ‘i have enough to eat at home…’ remark…

 
 

Thanks for the warning, Pup. Not going there.
V, that’s what I usually use but, as you say, Dead To Me.
Sigh.

 
 

Giorgio Mammoliti is attempting the “Rob Ford’s not as racist as Mel ‘All Africans are Cannibals‘ Lastman” defense. Followed by the accusation that Fillion tried to get support from his other fellow councillors for his motion.

 
 

Despite holding Nunziata to her scheduled 5 minutes, Rob Ford is now going overtime with his questioning of Fillion (the councillor who moved today’s motions).

 
 

Okay, RoFo DoFo have goaded the gallery into chanting “SHAME”. Not sure what set them off, but it’s today’s first cooling-off recess.

 
 

Councillor Cho saves teh day. Chaos is contained when he points out that there is a typo in the motion. Angry mob settles down and it is back to the very serious work of neutering the crackhead mayor.

 
 

Rob Ford unstable? You’re the one that’s unstable.

wtf? why was he running around in the first place? the shenanigans you canucks get up to!

 
 

He learned that from his days as a football star – so really, it’s teh fault of you yanks. Well at the very least, I blame Obama.

 
 

Are y’all ready for a burst of e-diarrhea from “Justiceisnolongerserved”?

 
 

I’m a bit torn – Rob Ford is back in the Speaker’s chair, which is totally inappropriate. But OTOH, Nunziata is so terribad that even our drunken coked up crack mayor is a substantial improvement. Although in Nunziata’s defense, having Rob Ford in the Speaker’s chair reduces his opportunities to derail the meeting by running over other councillors.

Oddity – protocol requires councillors to address the Speaker, i.e. “Madame Speaker, I believe the esteemed councillor who just addressed the floor can go suck it.” But with Rob Ford as Speaker, Mammoliti (Sweet IPU, why do they let Mammoliti speak?) just got away with “I think you have an addiction to substance abuse.” Which is weird on so many levels.

 
 

This must be zombie Chris Farley, one last extended joke, until he collapses into a heap of decaying flesh and bone like a character from a Clark Ashton Smith story.

 
 

You’re the one that’s unstable.

Holy shit.

The other day I was talking to a furriner about some other crazy maniac and in answer to “how do they get away with it” I thought we were just unprepared for that level of kookiness.

I mean, what else has been more exciting in Canadian politics EVER?

 
 

LOL Deepak Chopra random fictional quote generator.

http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/

 
 

look what i got!


“The secret of the universe is reborn in infinite farts”

 
 

Also POOP-related:

Your movement is the path to infinite mysteries

 
 

Mine was as dull as Deepak. AUTHENTIC!

 
 

“Your movement opens subtle joy”

Damn straight it does!

 
 

“Your movement illuminates universal love”

I think the generator has a poop fixation.

 
 

“God expresses infinite space time events”

I suppose that could be considered vaguely POOP-related.

 
 

You mean Portlandia is NOT a documentary?!

 
 

You’re the one that’s unstable.

Ah, the good old “I know you are but what am I?” comeback.

Always nice to see someone who appreciates the classics.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

Hey Pennis/justiceisserved: Your boy George Z. has been arrested again!

 
 

Why is it always the other person who’s being defensive?

 
 

oh RoFo don’t ever go away.

 
 

Given all we know now about Zimmerman and all the additional evidence he’s provided us with post-acquittal, there’s simply no reason to doubt the worst case scenario of how Trayvon Martin died. The only real question is whether Zimmerman shot him in cold blood or killed him during the confrontation he himself forced to happen.

Those who supported the Martin family and were outraged by the verdict and the whole case have every right to grim ‘I told you sos’ and even snark aimed at Zimmerman’s dead-ender defenders. But speaking for myself it is more a sense of being sick to my stomach. Yes, it’s an injustice we already knew about. But this just makes it all the more clear who Zimmerman is and by whatever mix of details what happened. And I can’t help but think of that kid lying dead on his back.

One can only hope that this latest incident will end up as Zimmerman’s OJ moment, where a less serious offense becomes the hook the revisit an earlier injustice.

Who can say this man isn’t a public menace?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/sick-to-my-stomach-about-zimmerman-2

 
 

My theory on Zimmerman, after learning in his trial that he did not learn much or show any competence in the courses he took on law enforcement and self defense, is that he never learned to fire a gun properly either. I suspect that he was not holding his weapon properly when he fired and the gun kicked up and hit him in the nose which knocked him over backwards where he hit the back of his head on the concrete walkway. Of course, this is all speculation but it would explain his injuries and I could totally see this clown doing that.

 
 

I would like to see shootings, “accidental” and accidental, go the way drunk driving seems to be going.

I remember when the reaction to an accident in which the driver was drunk was pretty much a shrug and a “what are you gonna do?” Now, being a drunk driver is an additional charge, not an excuse (mostly).

I’d like to see a similar change happen with shootings – the death (as it were) of the “I didn’t know it was loaded” defense that is allowing so many people to get away clean with shooting other people, sometimes fatally. You shot off a firearm and someone was killed, injured, or had the shit scared out of them – you get a permanent ding, so people can tell if this seems to be a pattern with you.

Also, World Peace, a magically restored climate, and the 1% suddenly finding themselves on the bottom of the heap. All of which are, sadly, probably more likely.

 
 

Or “the gun just went off”………..

So much for “guns don’t kill, people do”.

 
 

You’re the one that’s unstable.

zomg. My humblest apologies. In my haste to bring you timely Rob Ford news, I linked a video before teh Intartrans had a chance to work its magic.

 
 

I’m pretty sure that with Zimmerman’s history, anybody can legally shoot and kill him and claim self defense. You just have to claim that he looked at you funny and reached under his jacket

 
 

I’m pretty sure that with Zimmerman’s history, anybody can legally shoot and kill him and claim self defense. You just have to claim that he looked at you funny and reached under his jacket

This would only work in a “stand your ground” state.

 
 

Now, let’s not get too judgmental. Who hasn’t wanted to break their girlfriends’ glass table, and point a shotgun at her when she’s pregnant at some time in their lives?

Bueller?

 
 

Hell of an echo wherever Zimmerman goes.

Scheibe was pregnant, Zimmerman told the dispatcher, and had decided to raise the child on her own. He wanted the parting to be peaceful, he said, and began packing, including a bag in which he had placed guns, but Scheibe then went out of control, he told a dispatcher.

I was just minding my own business when suddenly this black thug I mean pregnant bitch went crazy on me!

 
 

Black thugs wearing hoodies be crazy.

Preggo bitches be crazy.

What’s a bro sposed to do besides get out the gun and calm the situation down?

 
 

It is true that even lying jackasses with rage issues and an unhealthy fascination with firearms can use a firearm in self defense. But many people would take this latest incident as a confirmation that Mr. Zimmerman is in fact a lying jackass with rage issues and an unhealthy fascination with firearms, who, as a lying jackass with rage issues and an unhealthy fascination with firearms may have misrepresented the facts of the matter in his most famous episode of violence in order to keep his lying ass out of jail. Which confirms in the minds of many that he is, the exact last person you’d want carrying anything more deadly than a beanie baby. Of course even lying jackasses with rage issues and an unhealthy fascination with firearms have 2nd amendment rights, so we as a society get to watch as this jackass bounces from one violent episode to the next praying that no one else gets hurt. I’m guessing your support for Mr Zimmerman doesn’t extend to offering to let him sleep on your couch until he finds a job and a place of his own in the spirit of conservative solidarity?

 
 

he got incredibly lucky that his lies for the most part comported with eyewitness testimony Florida law makes it almost impossible to disprove self-defense in a case like this.

Fixed.

 
 

Well, see, you guys just don’t get it. I’ve seen numerous bumper stickers that prove that armed society is a polite society.

Apparently you can’t read good.

 
 

Lawrence O’Donnell ran the two 911 calls uncut back-to-back last night (aside — gawd he’s an insufferable twit). It was really interesting how the two calls contrasted. The girlfriend was clearly freaked out. Then in Zim’s call he’s just this unnaturally calm dude reciting stuff obviously designed to cover his ass — even mimicking things the girlfriend had accused him of. It was fucking creepy.

That is one screwed up dude.

 
 

even mimicking things the girlfriend had accused him of

That was unclear — accusing her of things she had accused him of on her call, which he had heard.

 
 

So yesterday, Rob Ford gave the CBC an interview. In it he told Peter Mansbridge that he has not touched a drop of alcohol in three weeks. Then he reiterated that claim on his brand new teevees show (so much for Talk Radio).

Rob claims he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol in three weeks. However, he was spotted at the LCBO a couple of days ago. He also claims that he has never missed a day of council, which is false.

Speaking of his long lost radio show, the last one was two weeks ago.

Doug Ford, the mayor’s number one enabler: “You’re going to curb your drinking, especially in public. No one is saying, Rob, don’t have a drink ever again. Curb the drinking, not out in public. Stay in your basement, have a few pops. That’s it.” Rob says he couldn’t agree with Doug more.

 
 

I urinated in a parking lot … what does that have to do with anything?

 
 

He paved paradise
And peed in a parking lot.

 
 

(aside — gawd he’s an insufferable twit)

No shit. That is one snotty, arrogant fucking prick. He’s usually right about everything, but the superior attitude is far from necessary.

He might want to take some lessons from Maddow in how to be likable and not convey bitter condescension.

 
 

He put it in a pee museum.

 
 

In other news, I was shocked SHOCKED I TELL YOU to realize that pandering to half witted booger eating hillbillies is more important to Liz Cheney than her own sister and sister in law.

Keep it classy, Liz. You rock.

 
 

No shit. That is one snotty, arrogant fucking prick. He’s usually right about everything, but the superior attitude is far from necessary.

I don’t know how often he’s right, because I change the channel/turn the TV off immediately after Maddow, to reduce my exposure to the smarmy so-and-so. Every now and then I’ll watch to see if he’s improved his people skills, but sooner or later he just can’t control it, and that self-satisfaction just comes oozing out.

 
 

I love and respect my sister and her … um, … notwife. I just don’t respect their civil rights.

 
 

I don’t know how often he’s right, because I change the channel/turn the TV off immediately after Maddow, to reduce my exposure to the smarmy so-and-so. Every now and then I’ll watch to see if he’s improved his people skills, but sooner or later he just can’t control it, and that self-satisfaction just comes oozing out.

Yeah, that’s my normal routine too. He teased the Zimmerman thing so I listened to the 911 calls. And then he started talking about it with some guests and I couldn’t stand it and watched the F1 race I’d recorded instead.

 
 

I found a really classy picture of Rob Ford.

 
 

Rob Ford. Murderer of millions of hot dogs and donuts.

 
 

Rob Ford. Getting crack off the mean streets of Toronto. One vial at a time.

 
 

Rob Ford. Making crack the best new fad diet since the Jane Fonda workout videos.

 
 

Well he did say he’s spending two hours a day in a gym. And he vows to lose 30 pounds in the next five months. Maybe they could set up a giant novelty scale and do weekly weigh-ins.

Then again, he also claims to have saved “The Taxpayer” a billion dollars so you can appreciate that math is not one of his strengths.

 
 

He’s usually right about everything

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that although I think he’s got the big things right. However, condescending to and browbeating your guests isn’t the way to convince me that your arguments have merit.

He must have some redeeming qualities though to have snagged Norah. I’d lots rather she was hosting his show, because she’s clearly smarter than he and besides, rawr!

 
 

Guffaw. Was doing a NYT Saturday crossword from a while back (I save them up then have a marathon). In the northeast:

13D – One in a kindergarten? (I put “eins”)
14D – Three tme All-Pro guard Chris (Snee)
which crossed at the end of
21A – Part of DuChamp’s parody of the Mona Lisa

Took me a moment to figure out it should have been “eine.”

 
 

It is truly a credit to the focusing abilities of the liberal mind that Rob Ford never gets old to them. In a way I’m jealous.

Yeah. Only lie-berals and their dumby-dumb dumb dumbs care about Rob Ford. It is totally uninteresting to everyone else.

 
 

DKW, someone has to stand up for urinating-in-public, crack-using, binge-drinking public servants who get vilified on a librul snark blog.

 
 

I had a friend with ADHD and she couldn’t ever focus on anything so she bought contacts even though it was a sort of metaphysical nonfocusment but literality who knew and while she was trying to figure out a rorschach test or maybe one of those things you stare at and it slowly turns into two walruses fucking and one of the contacts slipped behind her eye and now she is physically unfocused although since she doesn’t finish her sentences anymore its hard to tell if she is ADHD or like Drew Barrymore in that movie Firestarter where merely through thought and the effect of bales of Argentinian push-up powder she can start fires so Firestarter and I’d have dated JoBeth Williams even though I suspect she would have broken my 12 year old body and I don’t think she was in ET.

 
 

Good football teams

gee, tell me more. goody.

 
St. Pupienus of PENIS
 

Still at zero enrollees here in Oregon.

Not true.

Though the Oregon’s health insurance exchange is not yet up and running, the number of uninsured is already dropping thanks to new fast-track enrollment for the Oregon Health Plan.

The low-income, Medicaid-funded program has already signed up 56,000 new people, cutting the state’s number of uninsured by 10 percent, according to Oregon Health Authority officials.

Though the new exchange called Cover Oregon was originally intended to be used for Oregon Health Plan enrollment, the online marketplace doesn’t work yet. Instead, new Oregon Health Plan members are being enrolled using a fast-track process that was approved by the federal government in August.

Also, it is true that no one has enrolled via the web site, which could possibly have something to do with the fact THEY DELIBERATELY DIDN’T MAKE IT LIVE, old fashioned paper applications are being processed, people are getting enrollment packets, AND FUCKING ENROLLING.

Why oh why do idiotic conservatives LIE SO MUCH?

 
 

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that although I think he’s got the big things right

He gets the major stuff right, yes. I get stabby angry when he starts the slow diction, like he’s explaining why 2 + 2 = 4 to someone who should already know that. I was, however, glad that someone finally explained it to me in a way I can understand, so there’s that, I guess.

 
 

Norah. I’d lots rather she was hosting his show, because she’s clearly smarter than he and besides, rawr!

Also, Alex Wagner CRUSHES Norah. But Norah’s aight.

 
 

Why oh why do idiotic conservatives LIE SO MUCH?

It’s all they got!

 
 

Maybe they could set up a giant novelty scale and do weekly weigh-ins.

Never has “Biggest Loser” been so correct on so many levels.

 
 

That is one snotty, arrogant fucking prick.

Which may be why he did such a good job playing Martin Sheen’s horrible father in The West Wing.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I would like to do a survey among wingnuts—show them a bunch of mugshots, mostly random guys, but two of whom are Dzhokhar Tsernayev and George Zimmerman—and see which they would pick out as being a suspect in a terrorist attack.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

Sorry, I romanized one guy’s first and last names wrong—three guesses!

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

From brettvk at Balloon Juice:

And he’s hardly a POC — Fox Nation has granted him honorary honkiness.

“Honkiness” is the most awesome coinage I’ve heard in a while.

 
 

Another representative, another arrest…

This was kinda funny:

Somewhat ironically, Radel is the cosponsor of H.R. 1695, Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013, which would give judges more flexibility on sentencing in cases involving mandatory minimums. He’s also gone on record as citing his favorite vacation spot as Cartagena, Colombia, which as of 2004 accounted for 80 percent of the world’s cocaine production.

FWIW, he’s a Republican, former talk show host.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

FWIW, he’s a Republican, former talk show host.

Anybody willing to take one for the team and watch Faux Noise to see if they put a “(D)” next to his name?

 
 

Sad news. The RoFo DoFo TeeVee ShowShow has been cancelled after one episode despite amazing ratings. I suspect a right wing conspiracy trying to demonstrate how useless government is by highlighting how easy it is for private enterprise to dump a crack smoking drunk.

 
 

Anybody willing to take one for the team and watch Faux Noise to see if they put a “(D)” next to his name?

I’m having a bit of sympathy for the guy, as his mea culpa sounds reasonably sincere and because of his support for doing away with (or at least cutting back on) mandatory minimums.

 
 

I am sad.

It took the Ford brothers five hours on Sunday to tape Monday’s episode, the report said, and Sun staff another eight hours to edit.

I guess the lawyers have to watch it first too, and those guys aren’t shy about billing…

 
 

Don’t anybody pretend they don’t understand the trolling impulse…

What do the Bible, “The Hunger Games” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” have in common? All three are works of fiction, according to the booksellers at Costco.

Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made that shocking discovery last Friday as he was shopping for a present for his wife at a Costco in Simi Valley, Calif.

“All the Bibles were labeled as fiction,” the pastor told me. “It seemed bizarre to me.”

Kaltenbach is the lead pastor at Discovery Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in southern California.

He thought there must be some sort of mistake so he scoured the shelf for other Bibles. Every copy was plastered with a sticker that read, “$14.99 Fiction.”

Also The Ten Commandments is not in the documentary section.

There were times when working retail was fun…

 
 

Looking forward to the actions of a few assholes being trotted out by the George Zimmerman Fan Club for the next few days now.

 
 

FWIW, he’s a Republican, former talk show host and RoFo wannabe.

 
 

Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made that shocking discovery last Friday as he was shopping for a present for his wife at a Costco in Simi Valley, Calif.

“All the Bibles were labeled as fiction,” the pastor told me. “It seemed bizarre to me.”

Huh. I don’t recall my Costco putting anything other than the price on their labels. I smell … excitability. Also, he was shopping at Costco, presumably their book table, for a present for his wife? Christmas or birthday? Costco has some pretty cool stuff, and I admit to buying bulk presents there, but isn’t that a little bit … cheap … for a spouse?

 
 

Yo. Did Crooked Timber inherit the cloak of invisibility?

 
 

Yo. Did Crooked Timber inherit the cloak of invisibility?

I see it fine. Latest entryis dated Nov. 20.

 
 

What do the Bible, “The Hunger Games” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” have in common?

Lotsa eroticised violence?

 
 

Lotsa eroticised violence?

{pulls up chair}
Go on?

 
 

New post. And it’s on young people being accused of being too lazy to be employable, because apparently that shit is edge play to me.

 
 

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