Red Headed Femme

"The stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"

2012-02-12T12:57:00.002-07:00

I've often read this quote from John Stuart Mill without really thinking much about it, other than that it seemed so obviously true.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. -- John Stuart Mill

Now we have empirical proof that this is true: a study published by Psychological Science.

Abstract

Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

The full study can be found here. This is rather scary stuff, I think; it means that no matter how you try to educate conservatives, there's not much chance they'll change their minds, because they prefer feeling safe, and sticking to the status quo, over actually thinking.

John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience also has an excellent take on this whole phenomenon. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the conservative mindset.

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart"

2012-02-08T18:34:00.001-07:00

Here's a lovely quote from Charles Dickens.

Making books ... is very much like building houses; and the author is a more or less happy combination of architect and carpenter. A house, when it is properly put together, is a harmonious union of foundation, frame, clap-boards, doors, window, and shingles: and when one comes to think it over, a properly made book is about the same thing. Anybody can collect all these units--these bits of material--but everybody cannot put them together in the right way.

Or put them together at all, for that matter.

I never thought I was a juggler--or a homebuilder--or a worker of puzzles. (Actually, I used to work puzzles, but I don't think I'd have the patience now.) But when you're a writer, you're all of those things and more.

Architect. Carpenter. Hammer-slammer. Puzzle-builder.

Writer.

"Orthodoxy means not needing to think"

2012-02-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

"In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc." ~George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 9

The latest spin on Mitt Romney:

Voters Staying At Home Secretly Support Romney

Really? The sky was such a beautiful shade of green today, too.

Newspeak is alive and well. George Orwell would be proud.

Proof Positive Snark Was Not Invented With the Internet

2012-02-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

This recently discovered letter, dated August 7, 1865, by a former slave to his former master, is a prime example of telling someone how to fuck (or frak) off without ever actually saying the word. It's absolutely delicious. (Via the Huffington Post)

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

Heh heh. That, my friends, is a put-down, and I'm sure it couldn't have happened to a nicer slave owner.

On Cursing, and Other Invented Words

2012-01-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

(Warning: Copious amounts of bad language follows, for those whose eyes bleed easily.)

I'm writing a story where the protagonist is a rock guitarist, and naturally enough, one of his favorite words is "fuck." This got me to thinking about cursing in general, both in the real world and in the pages and on the TV screens of our favorite SFF universes.

One of my favorite examples of the latter is Battlestar Galactica's (reboot version) "frak." (The word has been somewhat co-opted in the real world by the method of drilling for natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing, shortened to "fracking" in the media. Note that I spell BSG's cuss word differently, both to differentiate and because of the fact that "frakking" just looks cooler; the c seems to drag the word down.) BSG's creator Ron Moore obviously used the word as his universe's equivalent to our "fuck," as a way to get in appropriate amounts of military-style cussing without being censored. In spite of the fact that the word got a bit overused in the show's final season (especially when President Laura Roslin said to someone, "You don't know frak"--ugh. That sentence bounced off my astonished skull and fell to the floor in an ungrammatical, suspension-of-disbelief-shattering heap), I'm still quite fond of it.

In the original 70's Battlestar, there were a couple of other invented words. Anybody remember "felgercarb?" As I recall, it was the Colonies' version of "bullshit," although they obviously couldn't--and fortunately, never tried to--twist it into the real-world version of "you're shitting me." You're carbing me, anyone? There was also a little thing called a "centon," which, according to however it was used in a sentence, seemed to be a measurement of both space and time. This led to a memorable moment (for me, anyway) when that week's guest star--if I remember correctly, it was Emergency's Randolph Mantooth, playing a suspiciously human-looking alien recently awakened from a cryogenic sleep--stopped in the middle of a rather tense scene to confront one of the show's stars, his voice boiling with frustration: "Apollo. What is a centon?"

In a particularly ham-fisted bit of editing, the scene cut off right there, so neither Mr. Mantooth nor the show's audience ever got an answer.

I've never watched Farscape, but I've heard it has several invented curse words. The one I've heard most often is "frelling," which I have to say I do not like. To me, it slides out of one's mouth like a dead snake, falls splat on the floor, and just lies there. In contrast, "frak" explodes out of your mouth like an angry bird and wings viciously off to do its damage. Obviously the difference is the final consonant; the authoritative, nasty k is just so much more satisfying than the slippery, weak l.

However, all of these words can be taken too far, as has happened to our real-world favorite, "fuck." It has, unfortunately, been demonstrated that this one word can be used as an adjective, a noun and verb, to wit: "This fucking fucker's fucked." I suppose this would appeal to those who insist that real people do say things like this, to which I would be tempted to reply, "Yes, and real people can be awful goddamn boring. You can't write a book about boring people." (Well, I guess you could write lots of books about boring people, if you like filling up trunks.) There's being simple and smart, a la Hemingway, and there's being repetitive and stupid, a la using the same curse word every other sentence. Which is why I've taken pains to have my rock star use his favorite word, in either dialogue or description, only once per page, if at all. There's plenty of other delightful British euphemisms I can substitute, like "bloody" and "shag" and "sod."

For that matter, there are plenty of ways to insult people without using curse words at all; apparently Shakespeare was a master of this. There are also lots of old-time, backwoods American expressions that do the same thing. "He's as useless as teats on a boar hog," and "you talk like you fell out of a well," are two of my favorites. (I collect phrases like that; I have a book of them, to which I've added others I heard from my parents, aunts and uncles. They would rarely say anything stronger than "darn" or "heck," but they could dismiss someone with a scathing, "He doesn't know his rear end from a hole in the ground.")

But as colorful as these phrases might be, they obviously can't be used by everybody. (And who was the author who came up with "tanj," which I believe was the acronym for "there ain't no justice?" Ouch. That's even worse than "frell." Talk about schoolboys with weak, receding chins.) I don't think cursing necessarily indicates--for either author or character--stupidity or a lack of education (sexist curse words like "bitch" and "cunt" are in a different category, which I'm not tackling at the moment), but as with all things, you can quickly overuse it.

After all, you can say "fuck/frak you" or you can say, "Go play on the freeway." The richness of our language, and the inventiveness of our storytellers, allows for both.

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrement"

2012-01-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother." ~Margaret Sanger

This article is eight years old (one of my Twitter-peeps led me to it), but in many ways it's more relevant than ever. The steady erosion of Roe v. Wade at the state level makes it a nightmare for many women to access a legal medical procedure, and the possibility that it may be overturned altogether is not out of the question.

Not that abortion's legality or lack thereof will stop a woman who has determined in her own mind and heart that she cannot, and will not, have a baby.

The arguments would be endless, but they would be irrelevant to the facts: From the moment I started looking for an abortion, not once did I even consider going through with the pregnancy. Not for one second. It simply was not going to happen. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was going to stop me, and it could have cost me my life. And this is what I had in common with millions and millions of women throughout time and history. When a woman does not want to be pregnant, the drive to become unpregnant can turn into a force equal to the nature that wants her to stay pregnant. And then she will look for an abortion, whether it's legal or illegal, clean or filthy, safe or riddled with danger. This is simply a fact, whatever our opinion of it. And whether we like it or not, humans, married and unmarried, will continue to have sex -- wisely, foolishly, violently, nicely, hostilely, pleasantly, dangerously, responsibly, carelessly, sordidly, exaltedly -- and there will be pregnancies: wanted, unwanted, partly wanted, partly unwanted.

A society that does not accept the facts is a childish society, and a society that makes abortion illegal....is a cruel and backward society that makes being female a crime.

I watched the Republican debate in South Carolina tonight. Close to the end, there was approximately a ten-minute back-and-forth about abortion, with the four rich white guys on the stage (who will never have to worry about an unplanned pregnancy) basically trying to out-pro-life each other. What struck me, though, that throughout all of this freewheeling more-forced-birther-than-thou, not once was the word "woman" ever mentioned.

Not once was the carrier of said holy fetus, a real person with hopes, dreams, wants, needs, and actual human rights despite possessing a uterus, ever brought up.

If that doesn't say something about the deplorable state of the modern-day Republican Party, I don't know what does.

"The willingness to share makes one free"

2012-01-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

"At the heart of my politics has always been the value of community, the belief that we are not merely individuals struggling in isolation from each other, but members of a community who depend on each other, who benefit from each other's help, who owe obligations to each other. From that everything stems: solidarity, social justice, equality, freedom." ~Tony Blair

Another must-read piece from Charlie Pierce, about his nightmare of navigating the health-insurance maze to receive medication for a chronic illness. It ends this way.

I mention all of this because, tomorrow night, the five remaining Republican candidates will get up on stage and they will promise to repeal even the tepid, insurance-friendly reform of the way we do health-care in this country. Willard Romney will do this even though the tepid, insurance-friendly reform is one he virtually invented. They will have nothing to replace it. They will argue for "market-based" solutions. The above — that is a "market-based solution." And, by the way, this is the kind of thing that zombie-eyed granny starver Paul Ryan wants to put elderly people through in place of Medicare. Phone trees. Automated voices. Hours of their dwindling lives on hold, waiting for purportedly live persons who won't be able to help them. And zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan is considered by people in my business to be a serious thinker on these matters.

Every single one of these Republicans will make the argument that, because of the entire morning I spent dealing with the preposterous way we do health-care in this country, that I am a "freer" person than are the people in Canada, or New Zealand, or Germany, or Finland. That I had to spend an entire morning mired in bureaucratic absurdity means I have retained my "freedom" as an American.

I work for the Veterans Administration. For all its shortcomings, people who need care can damn well get it. People who need medication can get it. I see it every day. It is "socialist medicine," probably not at its finest, but it bloody well works.

Republicans want to deny this or any other health-care reforms to Americans, and throw them to the insurance-company sharks, all in the name of profit and "market solutions."

President Obama's Affordable Care Act is not in the realm of VA care, and certainly not comparable to Canadian or European health care, but I'll take it. And if further down the line we can get rid of for-profit health care altogether and institute Medicare for all or VA-style health care for all, so much the better.

It is high time we grew up as a country, put aside our selfish, immature Wild West "bootstrap" mentality, and realize that we are indeed our brothers' and sisters' keepers. As Kris Kristofferson so eloquently stated, "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose."

"Reality bites...and doesn't let go"

2012-01-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." ~Abraham Lincoln

This is just beautiful.

Why I'm Leaving the Republican Party and Endorsing President Obama

The Republican Party refuses to look at what works and what doesn’t — they simply base policy on whether it fits into a rigid anti-government philosophy, whether it is good policy or not. Essentially, the effectiveness of policy is completely and totally irrelevant to Republicans. Additionally, the Republican Party believes more strongly in obstructing anything that President Obama proposes than in real solutions that would create jobs and help the average American.

(snip)

Even worse, the Republican Party has bamboozled the American people by portraying themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility. Any person who can recognize that some numbers are larger than other numbers know the obvious fact that the biggest spending Presidents are Republicans. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush alone are responsible for most of the national debt. Bill Clinton cut government and actually spent less money than was taken in…but George W. Bush quickly changed that.

I believe in smart government that effectively does what it should and leaves the rest to the private sector, while still recognizing the legitimacy of the existence of government. I believe in equal rights for all Americans, whether gay, straight, female, male, immigrant or naturally born. The Republican Party no longer believes in any of that.

This is called "living in the real world," the same place I am proud to admit I also inhabit. I will admit, I didn't always feel this way. Once upon a time, I used to (horrors!) watch Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity--the latter more because I thought he was cute than because I was really into what he was saying.

(Needless to say, that caveat does not apply to Bill O'Reilly.)

But the more I read, the more I followed links on the Internet and basically opened my mind, the more I realized these people--and by extension, anyone on Fox News and at Townhall--were simply not telling the truth. Or at the very least, distorting their "facts" beyond all recognition. The more I stepped back and thought about it, the more I realized the modern Republican "Party" had long ago abandoned the definition of a political party and was, in fact, taking on the mark of a religious cult...with Grover Norquist serving as its Grand High Poobah.

Last night's debate certainly drove home that point. I cannot believe one of those babbling idiots is going to win the nomination. Jon Huntsman sounded far and away the sanest of them all, and as others have remarked, he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination.

Really, what does that say about the Republican Party as a whole?

Any honest conservative should be saddened and dismayed by this turn of events. I would be tempted to feel sorry for them, if it weren't for the fact that if any of these yahoos gets into the White House, the country will crash and burn along with the party.

Be afraid, America. Be very afraid.

"He uses his folly like a stalking horse"

2011-12-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. ~Henry Wallace

I love the articles from the Guardian about American politics.

One can only guess what John Boehner's strategy has been during the past week over the payroll tax cuts. But it looks like he employed the "full bowel technique" with equal success. His Tea Party caucus kept stuffing him with rhetorical bran muffins so that every time he went to a microphone he was full of it.

Poor muffins. I feel sorry for them. It can't be easy being forced into the service of Tea Party nonsense.

Adrenalin could keep the Tea Party going only so long outside the fetid ecosystem of Fox News, talk radio and the internet, before reality intervened and forced some kind of reckoning.

It continues to amaze me how obvious the reality of Fox News and talk radio is to the rest of the world, and how strenuously Tea Partiers and most Repubicans continue to deny it, clinging to their noxious little Roger Ailes bubble.

I don't agree with everything this writer says--he doesn't understand the depth and depravity of Republican hostage-taking, for example, especially over the debt ceiling. See here for an excellent analysis of how the President beat the Republicans at their own game.

The article's got the Tea Party Republicans nailed, however.

The Tea Party keeps thrashing around for someone, anyone, in whom they can invest their zeal and who the rest of their party (never mind the rest of the country) can live with. They've pretty much been through the pack and just when you think they've hit bottom they plumb new depths. It turns out there is no one who both makes sense to the Tea Party and the rest of the world, let alone their fellow Republicans. These are the people who have been dictating the pace and shape of economic reform for the last year. These are the birthers who believe in death panels, hate government intrusion unless it involves a woman's uterus and love wars and tax cuts but hate budget deficits.

Hopefully they'll thrash themselves right out of Washington.

In the meantime, we desperately need a press who will tell the truth about what's happening, no matter the howls and whines from Republicans about "liberal bias." Facts are facts, and if they lean towards liberals, so be it. That's called reality. But if the American press won't provide this, it's good to know that there's someone in the world who will.

"Nothing weighs lighter than a promise"

2011-12-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

"Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them." ~William Hazlett

Cthulhu on a cracker. Now the House Republicans want to gum up the works, after John Boehner gave Mitch McConnell the green light to negotiate an agreement on the payroll tax cut with Harry Reid.

Boehner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the two-month renewal would create added uncertainty for workers, and employers and Congress should delay its holiday break to ensure that a one-year extension was passed.

Well, gee whiz, isn't that what the President demanded in the first place?

By opposing the Senate bill, Boehner is siding with conservative and Tea Party-backed Republicans in the House whom he has had difficulty bringing under control all year, particularly on budget and spending measures.

They defied his leadership in debt-limit negotiations that brought the United States to the brink of default over the summer and cost Washington its prized Triple-A credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.

This just shows what a terrible Speaker of the House John Boehner is. Nancy Pelosi would have these lizards quivering under their rocks by now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, noted on Sunday that Boehner had left negotiations on a compromise deal to Reid and his Republican counterpart Senator Mitch McConnell.

Boehner was also known to have been kept informed of the Senate negotiations that produced a deal on Friday night.

And now he's reneging. This isn't surprising, and certainly not out of the ordinary for Republicans. That doesn't make it any less reprehensible.

Moral of this story: If you want better legislation, don't yell at President Obama. Get off your ass and work to elect a better Congress.

Start with getting rid of all these Tea Party non-Patriots.

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures"

2011-12-16T07:24:00.001-07:00

"To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another." ~John Burroughs

So. Last night I finally gave in to my probably fatal curiosity and watched part of a Republican debate.

Honest to God, I thought I was viewing the Fox News version of the Colbert Report. The sad part is, they're totally serious.

A bigger train wreck I have never seen unfold. If any of these people are elected to the Presidency, it will be an unmitigated disaster for this country and the world.

When Michelle Bachmann declared herself a "serious candidate for President" and asserted that her statements were "factually accurate" (not that Newtie wasn't being condescending, but come on), the planet shook on its axis.

One could wish the multiverse did in fact exist, so I could be spun into a universe far, far away from this madness.

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet"

2011-12-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

"A man without a vote is a man without protection." Lyndon B. Johnson

Charlie Pierce goes ballistic, and righteously so, over the subject of voter suppression.

I admit it: I am a fanatic about voting. I vote in every damn election every damn time. I buy stuff I shouldn't be eating at the bake sale. Pay attention, I tell people. A while back, when nobody was looking, a bunch of creationist fanatics took over the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania and rammed through an "intelligent design" program in the local high school. Parents sued. The fanatics lost, and it eventually cost the local school board over a million bucks in legal fees. All because not enough people paid attention to a school-board election. Don't take an election off, because you never know what the bastards are trying to pull. I say this all the time to young people and, most of the time, they act as though I've asked them if they've heard the new Wishbone Ash album, or seen the latest Pennebaker doc. But things changed over the past 10 years, and especially in the last five. The 2008 campaign was a revelation to cynical old souls like me. It took a lot to break down a generation of apathy about how government works and our place in it. That new spirit is still very fragile. One hinked-up national election and it's gone again, maybe for good. That is what I'm worried about.

The same thing that can be said about the people in Dover could also be said of the people who stayed home in Wisconsin and woke up with Scott Walker as their governor, and Ron Johnson as their senator, and a legislature full of wingnuts whose respect for actual American values doesn't extend much past what fits in their wallets. And this is why they are making it so hard for people to vote there. Not because they're concerned about the "integrity of the process" (Scott Walker? The integrity of the process? Stop me before I bust a rib here) but because they're afraid the basic integrity of the process — one man, one vote, all together — will reassert itself against the inattention that gave them the power to screw with all John Lewis accomplished.

There's also a very telling comment from Barry Friedman.

Just because there are two sides to every story doesn't mean there are two legitimate (and sane) sides to every story.

This Republican canard about "voter fraud" should be rebutted at every opportunity, because It. Simply. Is. Not. True. Period. But by using this fear-mongering myth, elderly people, and poor people, and brown people, and students, are being denied their right to vote. (Hopefully, Eric Holder will put his money where his mouth is and crack down on this odious practice.)

Still, one must ask why this is so popular among certain Republican governors and legislatures. Well, which party do poor people, and brown people, and students, and even a fair amount of elderly people, vote for?

I'll give you one guess: it sure ain't the Gerrymandering Obstructionist Pinheads. (The only useful word Bill O'Reilly ever made up.)

This should be a national scandal. Hearings should be held, and journalists should be shouting this from the rooftops. The Repugs basically hate President Obama so much they are willing to do anything to defeat him, including rigging the game in their favor. Of course, the Republican propaganda machine, Fake Noise, is a big help in convincing people this falsehood is true.

We can't afford to get distracted with this election, folks. The Republican endgame is in sight.

A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools

2011-12-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Wow. The Germans don't mince any words, do they?

A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

Money quote here: "They are also ruining the reputation of the United States."

With the way Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich blather on about "American exceptionalism," you'd think they would volunteer to drop out of the race just on that count alone.

Oh well. One can dream.

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die"

2011-12-01T18:16:00.001-07:00

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." ~John F. Kennedy

"What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class." ~Alexis de Tocqueville

This is a must-read op-ed at Bloomberg, written by a man who founded many companies and last year raked in an eight-figure income (on which he only paid 11% in taxes).

I think he knows whereof he speaks.

Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

This is why it's so stupid when Republicans blather on about "job-killing tax hikes." It's not taxes or the lack thereof that create jobs--it's demand for your widgets, or whatever you happen to be offering. No demand=no business=no jobs. (I'm certain all these small businesses they're so hot on protecting just decided one day that x amount of people in their depressed little towns needed a job, so they just up and hired all these people, regardless of whether they thought anyone would actually purchase what the employees were selling. Suuuuure.)

I don't know why Mitch McConnell and his merry band of Nazguls in Congress continue to cling to this ridiculous myth. I suppose it's all of a piece with their sticking to their story of trickle-down economics and denying climate change. They're so terrified that their patently false way of life might have to change that they'll hang on to it to the bitter end, irregardless of common sense or facts.

It is mathematically impossible to invest enough in our economy and our country to sustain the middle class (our customers) without taxing the top 1 percent at reasonable levels again. Shifting the burden from the 99 percent to the 1 percent is the surest and best way to get our consumer-based economy rolling again.

Significant tax increases on the about $1.5 trillion in collective income of those of us in the top 1 percent could create hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in our economy, rather than letting it pile up in a few bank accounts like a huge clot in our nation’s economic circulatory system.

No matter how much you jump up and down and throw a hissy fit, math is still math. Remember the 1950's? That wondrous decade all these traditional types look back on as the nadir of American society (at least for white Christian males)?

What were the tax rates then, pray tell?

Admittedly these are marginal tax rates. The actual tax rate paid, with loopholes and deductions and such, was probably around 50%.

Nevertheless, the country didn't crash and burn, now did it? With the way the Republican Nazguls are screaming, you'd think President Obama is wielding the One Ring and dragging them back to Mount Doom.

One Tax to rule them all,
One Tax to find them,
One Tax to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Socialists where the Kenyans lie.

(back to article) So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.

And capitalism without proper taxation is the country we have today--a godawful, unequal, top-heavy mess.

What I Did (Didn't Do) for Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T10:31:00.001-07:00

Just in case anybody cares--

I didn't cook anything for Thanksgiving. Little Caesar's cooked an Ultimate Supreme pizza for me.

I didn't go to Walmart, or any other store, at Thursday midnight or any other time. If I'm going to buy anything, I'll buy it online. I don't need ANYTHING that bad, to risk being shoved, yelled at, shot and pepper-sprayed.

You know what? I'm a helluva lot happier.

"Only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself"

2011-11-21T18:35:00.001-07:00

"If you think you are good enough, you have just started your decline." ~Unknown

Well. What goes around will eventually come around.

The law firm that had a Halloween party mocking the people they foreclosed on has gone out of business.

After the Times published those pictures of Baum employees gleefully mocking down-on-their-luck homeowners at a super fun Halloween party, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cut Baum off.

Of course, Nocera's column was just the final straw. According to the Long Island Bankruptcy Blog, Baum filed "more foreclosure proceedings against New York homeowners than any other attorney in New York's history." How did he do it? By filing error-filled "robo-signed" documents, and using shady tactics that one Long Island judge likened to something out of the "Twilight Zone." Last month, Baum paid a $2 million fine to settle a Federal case accusing the firm of filing misleading papers to rush along foreclosures.

The scary thing about this is, were it not for their limitless hubris, boasting about their misdeeds and mocking the people they hurt, it might have turned out differently.

The Wolf in Newt's Clothing

2011-11-20T13:50:00.001-07:00

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” ~Philip K. Dick

This is a great article from Crooks and Liars, spotlighting Newt Gingrich's essential nastiness.

Newt Gingrich: 'Child Labor Laws Are Stupid'

I mean, really. Didn't we have enough of this sociopath in the 90's?

It's rather fascinating watching the Republicans dither and flail, frantically searching for somebody, anybody, who's Not Mitt. Of course, what they really want is the Zombie Resurrection of Saint Ronnie (with More Tea Party Braaaaaaiiiiinnns!), but unfortunately that's not going to happen. Still, that must make Mitt Romney's shriveled heart shrink just a little more, knowing how much his party is behind him.

This is the sort of thing that might come back to bite the GOP in the ass (assuming Romney gets the nomination).

I tell ya, it's the Greatest Reality Show on Earth.

"Instant Karma's gonna get you"

2011-11-16T19:10:00.001-07:00

"Karma isn't fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day." ~Tulku Thondup

Looks like Newtie's chickens are coming home to roost.

What Freddie Mac Was Paying For

Karma is a bitch, isn't it?

(By the way, if you haven't bookmarked The Politics Blog With Charles B. Pierce, you need to do so immediately.)

"Feminism is hated because women are hated"

2011-11-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

“[I]f you seek in every way to minimise my firm beliefs by your anti-feminist attacks, please recall that a small dagger or knife point can pierce a great, bulging sack and that a small fly can attack a great lion and speedily put him to flight.” ~Christine de Pizan

This actually happened to me once, several years ago.

Women bloggers call for a stop to 'hateful' trolling

I received the usual threats of rape and such, which I promptly deleted--Blogger (and Livejournal) is good for controlling your comments. I don't remember much about it, so it didn't particularly affect me. If I got it every single frakking day, however, like so many female bloggers do, I imagine I would feel quite differently.

I don't want to come down on anyone if they decide to stop blogging because of it. Everyone reacts differently, threat levels may escalate, and you may have a husband and children to protect, or just become sick of the abuse. However, I have made a decision that I am not going to shut up, threats or no threats.

Giving in to a bully only encourages them.

"The function of intellect is insufficient without empathy"

2011-11-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want." ~Jonathan Swift

If I lived in Massachusetts, I'd vote for Elizabeth Warren in a heartbeat.

Know why?

Unlike the current crop of Republicans/conservatives, she still possesses empathy.

Even when someone calls her a "socialist whore."

“I actually felt sorry for the guy. I really genuinely did,” Warren later told the Huffington Post. “He’s been out of work now for a year and a half. And bless his heart, I mean, he thought somehow it would help to come here and yell names.”

She also added: “I’m not angry with him, but he didn’t come up with the idea that his biggest problem was Occupy Wall Street. There’s someone else pre-packaging that poison — and that’s who makes me angry.”

Smart? Well-spoken? Knows what she's talking about? You betcha.

I hope she wipes the floor with Scott Brown.

"The problem with political jokes is they get elected"

2011-10-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

This is just great. I usually don't link to Huff Post, but this is worth it. A sharp reminder that in many cases today's comedians are doing what used to be called "journalism."

How to Speak Republican

Some samples:

Bible: A sacred text that provides incontestable answers when thumped.

Christmas: A holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, now rarely celebrated due to persecution by atheists.

Deficits: 1) Fiscal shortfalls incurred by Democrats that threaten to bankrupt the country. 2) Fiscal shortfalls incurred by Republicans that don't matter.

Extremist (Liberal): Espousing or adhering to political beliefs that are held by only a majority of Americans.

Fact: Information that has been verifiably posted to a RedState comment board.

Jesus: Charismatic religious leader and son of God; born in Bethlehem in the year 0; beliefs include love, charity, enhanced interrogation, privatized healthcare, elimination of the estate tax, and the right to carry concealed semiautomatic weapons.

Ronald Reagan: A fictional character based loosely on President Ronald Reagan.

I mean, really. How can sincere conservatives/Teapugs not read this and realize they're turning into a national joke?

"I have no spur, but only vaulting ambition"

2011-10-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

"That's a hubris that, if he had paid attention to what happened to himself and other presidents, he wouldn't have made that mistake. It was a very predictable mistake." ~George Edwards

This is one strange dude.

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.

"I found it odd,” said a former staff member who liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

I suppose if he gets elected his constituents (meaning you and me) will have to start referring to him as "Your Royal Hermanator."

Pizza, anyone?

"Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong"

2011-10-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." ~Phillip K. Dick

So. Herman the Barbarian has backpedaled on his idea of killing people for the crime of attempting to cross the border, claiming his plan is not serious, and blaming everyone who heard him for thinking it was.

At two campaign rallies in Tennessee on Saturday night, the Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.

But by Sunday morning, in a dramatic change of tone, Mr. Cain, a former restaurant executive, said he was only kidding. “That’s a joke,” Mr. Cain told the journalist David Gregory during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he was asked about the electrified fence. “That’s not a serious plan. I’ve also said America needs to get a sense of humor.”

Actually, Mr. Cain, you need to get a sense of decency.

You also need to brush up on the founding document of this country--I think it's called the Constitution?--and one of the first Amendments--the Eighth, I believe?--which reads in its entirety:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

If the notion that someone should be murdered just because they're trying to secure a better life for themselves and their families isn't "cruel and unusual punishment," I don't know what is.

Only a sociopath could think of such a thing.

"Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization"

2011-10-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win. ~Thomas Sowell

So. Herman the Barbarian wants to run this country? Gods help us.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.

The remarks, which came at two campaign rallies in Tennessee as part of a barnstorming bus tour across the state, drew loud cheers from crowds of several hundred people at each rally. At the second stop, in Harriman, Tenn., Mr. Cain added that he also would consider using military troops “with real guns and real bullets” on the border to stop illegal immigration.

Of course, his lickspittle followers ate it up.

There are no words to describe the depths of my disgust with this murderous asshole, along with a political party that lets him anywhere near their Presidential nomination.

The Last Chance Saloon

2011-10-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

"I thought this must be obvious to everyone else, as it seemed obvious to me; and that, if once it became apparent that we were on the edge, all the Great Powers would call a halt and recoil from the abyss." ~Edward Grey

Paul Krugman has peered into the abyss, the abyss has peered back, and his pants have turned brown.

And since economic policy has to deal with the world we live in, not the fantasy world of the G.O.P.’s imagination, the prospect that one of these people may well be our next president is, frankly, terrifying.

The Great Recession should have been a huge wake-up call. Nothing like this was supposed to be possible in the modern world. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should be engaged in serious soul-searching, asking how much of what he or she thought was true actually isn’t.

But the G.O.P. has responded to the crisis not by rethinking its dogma but by adopting an even cruder version of that dogma, becoming a caricature of itself. During the debate, the hosts played a clip of Ronald Reagan calling for increased revenue; today, no politician hoping to get anywhere in Reagan’s party would dare say such a thing.

It’s a terrible thing when an individual loses his or her grip on reality. But it’s much worse when the same thing happens to a whole political party, one that already has the power to block anything the president proposes — and which may soon control the whole government.

I've been saying for a while now that if the Republicans take the White House in 2012, or (Gods forbid) the Senate, the country as we know it will be gone. Bye-bye, United States of America. Welcome, the United Theocratic Oligarchy, of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%. Where (white) men rule the roost, women are little more than reproductive slaves, and the Civil Rights Act is eviscerated because of concerns over "property rights."

Where the barbarians not only have taken the gates, they sit upon the thrones.

Under such a scenario, it does not matter if you don't like President Obama or the Democrats. You need to quit whining, get off your ass and work for them anyway, because the alternative is too horrifying to contemplate.

Personally, I think there's far more and better reasons to re-elect Obama than that, and this site has a list of some of them. (This is the PG-rated version of the site, which I linked to only because I get tired of hearing effity effity eff all the time. The curse word "Battlestar Galactica" used, frak, is a lot cooler anyway.)

Nevertheless. The country made a huge mistake in the 2010 midterms. One wouldn't think so many people would be so mind-bogglingly wrong, but one can't underestimate the power of an ill-informed, pissed-off voter paired with the propaganda of Fake Noise. (I'm not going to explain that--if you don't know what it is, you must also figure the moon is made of green cheese.) Electing so many Republicans to office has crippled Congress, as Steve Benen so eloquently explains.

I think we've got one more chance to get it right. Otherwise, this noble two-hundred-year-old experiment will go down the tubes.