Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Thad]

So is it one of those situations where people agree with a philosophy but don't want to say they're a certain thing because they've internalized the idea that the term in question is a pejorative one? (e.g. feminist)

Yes, precisely.  It's the result of guys like Limbaugh taking a concerted effort over a period of decades to give those words a negative connotation, and largely succeeding.

[Rico]

I kind of have the reverse problem, where I identify as liberal because all government seems to care about is about gays aborting children, which is where I'm liberal, as opposed to the government actually being responsible and doing their real job, where I'm conservative.

*Edited slightly to more clearly carry the subject through*

[Classic]

I don't think that "being responsible" and "doing your job" are uniquely conservative virtues Rico. There's a lot of something to "unpack" there.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, I'm not sure how "liberal" equates to "be lazy" and "don't give a damn". I'm willing to hear a longer explanation if we're just misinterpreting an off-the-cuff remark.

[Rico]

Sorry for the confusion. That is still referring to government. And I think pretty much everyone on both sides of the aisle agree that Congress in general has stopped even pretending to do their job, even if they agree on some of the positions being taken.

[Büge]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/04/1191486/-Republicans-who-didn-t-vote-for-Violence-Against-Women-Act-say-they-did-anyway-because-why-not#

Rrrgh.

[TA]

Sorry for the confusion. That is still referring to government. And I think pretty much everyone on both sides of the aisle agree that Congress in general has stopped even pretending to do their job, even if they agree on some of the positions being taken.

Many of us are able to recognize that Congress is and has been deadlocked by Republican obstructionism for a while, and is being deliberately prevented from doing their jobs.

Again, how does "liberal" equate to lazy irresponsibility?

[Büge]

If they were able to do their work they wouldn't because they're lazy, ergo, obstructionism is giving them something to do.

Maybe that's what they mean when they say they create jobs.

[Mongrel]

So in an rambling argument I was observing (but not participating in) on another board, the subject of Dirty Poor People came up for discussion. Specifically, this side bit

According to Wikipedia, in 1968, the Supreme Court struck down "man-in-the-house" stipulations that required households to demonstrate that they were "suitable to raise children in" because the Court found that those rules were overwhelmingly used to deny benefits to African-American women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_to_Families_with_Dependent_Children

BTW, I emailed the guy who's been working this issue at Census for the last 25 years (Relationships between income and family household structure) to determine whether or not single parenthood in African American households increased or decreased after laws were passed in the 1960s that allowed African American women to be eligible for AFDC payments.

So here's the report:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p70-126.pdf

I was a little wrong and it looks like motherhood DOES jump at 1968 on which is the year that the Supreme Court decided that tests of "household suitability" were being used to discriminate against AA households. It stabilizes again in the early 1980s, and settles at around 20% - Overall it's a 10% jump.

Here's a table of incarceration rates of AA men over the same period (p 157)

http://www.asanet.org/images/members/docs/pdf/featured/ASRv69n2p.pdf

Note that cumulative incarceration rate of AA men 18-34 spikes from 1-2% to 8% over the same(ish) period - So a significant percentage of the difference could be explained by "Suitable black fathers went to prison instead."

EDIT: I was wrong. It went from 1-2% to 4% and then with mandatory minimum sentencing/three strikes you're out went from 4% to 8%. It's still a non-trivial contributor.

Some interesting facts. Nothing earth-shattering but it's neat to actually see primary documentation.

[Disposable Ninja]

Tea Party Patriots - A Movement On Fire!

[Bal]

Thank god rich young white people will finally retake their birthright.

[Ocksi]

My favorite part of that video is the part where the Tea Party is treated like Occupy.

[Sharkey]

It's almost exactly the same thing, though. Minus a few dozen videos of Tea Party Patriots being gassed and getting their heads staved in. Not that I want to see that happen.

... well maybe a little, but that's the asshole part of my brain.

Which is most of it.

Also, you know, "grassroots" vs "funded and organized by unassailable, politically and economically entrenched entities who (not which, they're all people) wear their uncompromising self-interest on their sleeve as though it were a virtue."

But that's less funny to me.

[Büge]

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/17/17798850-obama-condemns-a-shameful-day-for-washington

Wow, Obama's pissed.

[Bal]

It's interesting the way Obama made his formulaic closing statement sound so much like "Go fuck yourselves, everyone".

[François]

Gabrielle Giffords in the New York Times:

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.

This lady may admit to having difficulty speaking, but she sure can write.

[Büge]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/nras-new-president-wants-to-lead-the-culture-war.php

[Disposable Ninja]

I feel... weirdly, grossly responsible for this.

Like, all I did was get the lights ready. At a warehouse.

But knowing I had something to do with it still makes my skin crawl.

[Joxam]

Yeah when I heard about him last week on the radio I couldn't get over the fact that there is still a place where someone can think the civil war should be called "The War of Northern Aggression" in American's political landscape.

[Brentai]

NRA is basically a slightly less dangerous PETA at this point.