"what's your problem numbnuts?! Your daddy not love you enough!"
]]>it appears that in about a week people will be able to log in without one the big four as they implement AuthO.
]]>And I would agree the left, including TPM, has been pushing a narrative for a LONG time that the Tea Party, the GOP and conservatives more generally are motivated by irrationality, hate, racism, bigotry, nativism, xenophobia, and a variety of other ailments stemming from "fear of the other." The problem is that too many of the front people for these folks play right into it. When terms like "feminazis" and "self-hating faggots" get thrown around, at the same time there is open opposition to progressive movements like same-sex marriage, when emails fly around with images of a watermelon patch in front of the white house, the birthers run amuck with talk of Kenya, when people bring guns to rallies where the president is at, when people lose jobs because the jobs are sent over seas and they blame government and not the corporate free-market entities that sent the jobs over seas so the executives could go from six figures to seven figures, people yell to have the socialist government stay out of the medicare and panic over death panels, etc etc. it is hard to fight such a narrative from gaining speed.
So if you based the left reaction to those on the right as stemming from just the right's call for lower taxes and less spending, then maybe you need to listen to what the right is actually saying out there.
]]>"The problem is both sides have their heels dug in the dirt to the point that they actually believe neither side could have a good idea, I am not one of those people." The more we can begin to undig our heels and open up some quality dialogue without resorting to the bullet points of attack both sides have done very well at crafting, the more likely we will be able to make some progress.
]]>And it is true one doesn't have to look far on sites such as this to find someone posting something that if applied as illustrative of the Left would make the Left not look too nice. And the same is true of the Right. It takes only a few seconds over at Red State to find someone posting something that fits the worst images of conservatives that are painted at places like TPM.
I mean imagine imagine my surprise when I learned from someone's insightful post yesterday on Reich's blog that not only I but everyone here are "self-hating faggots" (that is if we aren't head chopping islmo-fascists). I mean I never knew.
And as I pointed out to you up the thread, it is an error to characterize Michael Enright as a leftist. Rather he appears to be neither left or right, but more apolitical. But in your rush to make a point, he threw that out there because it fit your narrative about the Left regardless of its accuracy.
The reality is that it is human nature to rush to judgement. I remember when the OK City Bombing occured. I was driving a taxi at the time and just about all of the other cabbies were coming over the dispatch radio talking about how it was those "damn Arabs." Imagine their surprise when the saw the lilly white face of Timmy.
And for future purposes I think it probably a fair assessment to say that for many who post at TPM - "tea partier" has become a term to represent anyone on the far right of the political spectrum regardless of whether the person actually is an offical member of a Tea Party. Maybe you can think of it as term like "self-hating faggots" by which the person doesn't mean literally that we are all homosexuals who hate ourselves but rather we're kind of closely related.
]]>But because he is Muslim he must want to cut somebody's head off because all Muslims want to cut the head off of people with whom they disagree. As the information in this blog demostrates, things like honor killings are cultural products that are infused into the interpretation of religious texts. Just like there was a time when good Christians burned woman at the stake for being a witch or an astronomer because he questioned the Church's view of the universe.
You are just another example of why this nation has so far to go.
]]>At best one can do is associate him with Intersection, with which he was a "freelancer" by most accounts, and who worked with them because his story of soldier dialogues he was pursuing aligned enough with Intersection's mission. This hardly makes him a left winger. In fact most of the evidence tends to point to someone who was for the most apolitical.
]]>If it raises the cost of energy, then maybe we are paying a more accurate cost of that energy based on fundamental principles as the right to expect a relatively (to the type of job) safe work environment.
Part of the problem is that people such as yourself propose going to these extreme libertarian places such a massive deregulation in work safety. Since that is not going to happen, you never have to see the reality of your proposal and therefore you can wallow away in your idealism of the free-market where unfettered companies bring us a wonderous paradise.
The reasons the unions rose to such power was because it used to be such a "paradise," and workers were treated like less than dirt. They didn't have the term sweat shops because they all were sweat shops. As one can clearly see from the jobs going overseas, large businesses tend to be motivate almost solely by the financial bottom line. There is no loyalty to the good of the nation, or the local communities and employees within.
There was a brief moment I beleive in the beginning of the 20th century where small manufactoring companies and others rose up where the owners did put their workers and local communities up there with profits. Sure they could have made 8% growth in profits, but 2% was good enough as they spread the wealth amongst the workers. It was good for the commmunity, the employees and the company. But it was also the right thing to do.
Now it is all about 10% or more every quarter, and to do what it takes to make that happen. Without regulations that drive would lessen the quality of life in every way. Are there silly, unneeded, and badly formed regulations out there? Sure there are, but this doesn't justify a position that the fundamental idea of deregulation is in the best interest of the country.
]]>But as I've said i can't ignore an intellectual train wreck. Sorry.
]]>Washington, D.C. looks, like, super-depressed about having to host this weekend’s Glenn Beck’s Lard-Baby Rally & Hate Festival, you guys. When it saw that junky “Restoring Honor” stage banner thingie go up, it felt really embarrassed and even kind of distraught, you know? So it went all gray and overcast. Didn’t feel like sunshining. Seemed so … pointless.
Sigh.
Because it’s land, Washington can’t just pick up and, like, hitch a Chinatown bus to New York City to escape for the weekend, do something cool like that. It has to stay right where it is, and watch all the big ol’ lard babies shiftin’ and jigglin’ around inside their flag-festooned sweatpant-sacks, and listen to the screeches and horror sounds. Poor thing. Hope it doesn’t get too PTSD’ed.
]]>I think, too, that given the realities of what the modern Congress can accomplish, it is hard for many to get motivated by more of the same, even if that more is the same is realistically all one could hope for. In some ways we have such ideal standards about what Congress and the Presidency could accomplish that no matter what is achieved, people are disappointed.
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