I saw this story yesterday on the Free Press’ most-popular list and — teachable moment! — asked Kate if she could tell my why it happened, how a man who had just hit a utility pole with no injury to himself could be found dead just moments later, with evidence suggesting he’d decided to pass the time by urinating into the ditch near where his car had crashed. She needed more information than that, so I told her there was a live electrical wire in the ditch. That closed the circuit, to to speak:
“Because of the water?” Ding ding ding ding ding. It’s not exactly an SAT essay-question answer, but she’s only in seventh grade. We’ll leave the appreciation of life’s cruel ironies and the question of the universe’s perverse sense of humor for senior year.
I needed that story yesterday, which was not a very good one. Nothing catastrophic happened, just one of those comedy-of-errors 24-hour periods you’re issued every so often. I’m working on a book project, a custom-publishing job, i.e., writer-for-hire work. It requires historical research downtown, at the Detroit Public Library. I found a parking place on Woodward Avenue, right in front of the place, which I chalked up to my prompt arrival in the first hour after opening. Win! Got out, paid in advance for two hours, went to the door — locked. Wouldn’t open for 90 more minutes. No catastrophe; I’d find a quiet place nearby to spread out my materials and get organized. That turned out to be an Einstein’s bagels on the Wayne State campus, which was not quiet, but did have a big overstuffed armchair free. Win! The armchair was free because it was right next to a malfunctioning door, which stayed wide open to the 35-degree elements if not pulled shut, something only every 10th customer realized.
After a few minutes of this, I moved to another overstuffed armchair, far enough from the draft that it wouldn’t bother me. Win! The one next to me was soon taken by a guy who was enjoying a hot sandwich and a conversation with his friend on the other side of me, which I normally don’t mind; I love to eavesdrop. Unfortunately, all they could talk about was how good their sandwiches were.
But I got a little done, and headed back to the library at 10 ’til noon. My paid-for parking place was full; at least someone was having a lucky day. I got another, paid for two hours. I had an OMG moment when I found a letter from 1938, the writer announcing he was coming to Detroit with “a moving-picture newsreel from the German Foreign Office…showing the ceremonies, indoors and outside, in connection with the National Socialist rally at Nuremberg last September. I do not believe anything of this kind has ever been shown in America.”
My heart soared, thinking I had found a contemporaneous description of what were perhaps “Triumph of the Will” outtakes when I thought to check the dates. Um, no. Leni Riefenstahl shot the 1934 Nazi party conference, not 1937.
Trudged out to the car and found a $20 parking ticket. It was that kind of day.
I wonder if I can deduct it.
Came home, and heard about the guy who died with his weenie out, which was a useful reminder that one’s own bad day is almost never the worst bad day anyone ever had.
I wish I could have seen that newsreel. I wish more I could have heard what people said about it.
This project has been a useful reminder that there are two kinds of history — the kind you live through day-by-day, and the kind you didn’t. Go through old newspapers on microfilm for a while, and before long I guarantee you’ll find someone is being accused of leading the youth of America down the path to ruin and socialism. Yesterday I saw a column from the last week of October 1963, by Max Freedman. Dateline Houston:
One of the most surprising discoveries of this visit to Texas is the depth of feeling against the so-called Kennedy dynasty.
In Washington this complaint has dwindled to a pleasant little joke. Out here men swear angrily and women edge their speech with hardness as they denounce “the Kennedys.”
Don’t worry, Mr. President. I hear Dallas loves you.
OK, back to work. Lord knows what will turn up today. And I’ll remember to feed the meter.
MarkH said on March 3, 2010 at 10:42 am
Starting off strictly OT —
Pilot Joe: any relevant comments on this?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35683779/ns/travel-news/
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john c said on March 3, 2010 at 10:49 am
The poor guy peeing himself to death reminded me of an old sailor’s tale, namely that when the Coast Guard finds the bodies of drowned sailors who have fallen overboard, they always have their flies down. Can’t imagine this is true, of course. But it’s offered as a cautionary tale on overnight sailboat races every time someone stumbles sleepily past the helmsman, steps up onto the transom, leans against the backstay and arcs one into the deep.
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Joe Kobiela said on March 3, 2010 at 11:05 am
I would imagine that he had dad telling him what to say. I suppose they will give the guy a little time off, but really not that big of a deal. Unlike the aeroflot pilot that let his kid fly, kid nocked off the autopilot and before dad could recover the plane was out of control,crashed and killed all onboard.
Pilot Joe
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 3, 2010 at 11:19 am
Nancy, have you had a chance to read Liebling’s Library of America collected WWII articles? It’s a walking pace look through the Blitzkrieg and Sitzkrieg and how Vichy became Vichy, making me look at the beginning of WWII differently (and watch “Casablanca” with whole new perspective, too). And his angle on D-Day makes you think of those events (and Andy Rooney) in a whole new light.
Re: the JFK tower incident — I have no major issues with what happened, or that he will be punished. But I hope not fired. We’re setting up a world where it is literally legally impossible for almost any youth to experience any work environment other than fast food before they actually enter the field, and it’s got it’s own dangers, like making playgrounds and equipment so boring no kids want to play, and then seeing obesity and inactivity rachet up. What’s worse, a few cracked tibias, or youthful incipient high blood pressure?
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coozledad said on March 3, 2010 at 11:21 am
There was some maniac who used to hang out at a stationery store where I worked in Chapel Hill, who claimed he was stationed in the Dominican Republic at the time of the Kennedy assassination. He was driving a bulldozer when someone signaled him to shut it off, and told him the president had been shot. He was still pissed off that the army reprimanded his Ozark ass for dancing around in celebration.
That reaction appears to have been common across much of the South, and it’s ultimately Grant’s fault for not continuing radical reconstruction while the US had the federal army in place with their guns pointed at the crackers.
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LAMary said on March 3, 2010 at 11:46 am
Speaking of crackers, has the news about the frat boy racism at UC San Diego made its way out of my state?
And here’s a nice error from the NYT:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/03/best-nyt-photo-capti.html
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coozledad said on March 3, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Hillary needs to give that wand back to Obama for a while.
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Joe Kobiela said on March 3, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Captain Sully flew his last flight today, retires at 59 and also one of the stews that was on the ditched plane retired today also. Eveyone on that crew is a hero.
Pilot Joe
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moe99 said on March 3, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Someone here a while back posted a youtube video here of Stephen Frye debating the issue, “Whether the Catholic church is a force for good.” Here’s the story about the full debate:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100014133/intelligence-squared-debate-catholics-humiliated-by-christopher-hitchens-and-stephen-fry/
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Jeff Borden said on March 3, 2010 at 1:44 pm
There is nothing funny about the death of the killer whale trainer last week at Sea World in Orlando, but someone sent me a link to this story posted on the website of the American Family Association. I would tend to think this is a parody, but apparently, it is not. You will either laugh or groan at the following story of why the trainer died because Sea World did not follow Scriptures.
STORY FOLOS
You are aware by now that a 12,000 pound killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau yesterday by pulling her into a pool and dragging her around until she drowned, in front of a crowd of stunned guests.
Chalk another death up to animal rights insanity and to the ongoing failure of the West to take counsel on practical matters from the Scripture.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, “SeaWorld Orlando has always know that Tillikum…could be a particularly dangerous killer whale…because of his ominous history.”
The Sentinel then recounts that Tilly, as he was affectionately known, had killed a trainer back in 1991 in front of spectators at a now defunct aquarium in Victoria, British Columbia.
Then in 1999 he killed a man who sneaked into SeaWorld to swim with the whales and was found the next morning draped dead across Tilly’s back. His body had been bit and the killer whale had torn off his swimming trunks after he had died.
What about the term “killer whale” do SeaWorld officials not understand?
If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone’s misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives.
Says the ancient civil code of Israel, “When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable.” (Exodus 21:28)
So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death. You have no moral culpability in the death, because you didn’t know the animal was going to go postal on somebody.
But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, “the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:29)
If I were the family of Dawn Brancheau, I’d sue the pants off SeaWorld for allowing this killer whale to kill again after they were well aware of its violent history.
SeaWorld is apparently, however, unrepentant. Chuck Thompson, its curator in charge of animal behavior, says Tilly continues to be “a valuable asset not only from a breeding standpoint but from a behavior standpoint, too.” Chuck might want to ask Dawn’s Mom what she thinks about that.
Thompson did add, helpfully, “I think we need to evaluate his behavior and everything that’s happened up to this point.” You’re about 19 years too late, Chuck, and the blood of Dawn Brancheau is on your hands.
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Rana said on March 3, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Scary stuff:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/spring/rage-on-the-right
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coozledad said on March 3, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I always love it when fundie whackadoodles go all litigious. It’s almost as funny as when the daughter gets knocked up and they invoke the special case clause for choice.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 3, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Rana — piffle. I speak moderately in using that word. This is why SPLC has become a joke: conflating the Tea Party folks & Glenn Beck with a map of Nazi & Klan organizations, and inferring that we’re all equally “hate groups.”
Piffle.
On the other hand, I thought Palin was cringe-inducing last night. But you can ask my wife: I turned to her when Bill Clinton put on shades and played sax with Arsenio Hall’s band, and said “Well, I guess his campaign for president is about over.” So don’t go by me for political forecasts.
Time to go bury another friend this afternoon. When did not quite fifty become so d4mn old, anyhow?
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Rana said on March 3, 2010 at 2:45 pm
“We’re”, Jeff?
Really? You’re openly affiliating yourself with these people? Good gad.
I grant you that not all of the groups are equivalently dangerous, but, yes, any group that uses eliminationist rhetoric is, indeed, a hate group, and I’m disturbed at your willingness to not only excuse and overlook their behavior, but to place yourself on their side.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 3, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Lots of Tea Party folk on my block, in my town, among my relatives. Should I cringe at the thought of being thought one of them? Nah.
Eliminationist? Tea Party-ers? (Partiers? Huh.) You’re gonna have to draw me some lines, because I’m not seeing it. Now Beck, I gather he draws lines connecting all kinds of stuff (I’ve only seen him secondhand on SNL doing his chalkboard bit), so he who lives by the chalkline dies by the chalkline.
Wait — was that eliminationist of me to say? Oh wait, it was about a FoxNews personality, so it’s probably OK. Seriously, someone explain to me how the Tea Party folk are “eliminationist” unless it has to do with evacuating one’s bowels using Metamucil, which is what most of them look like.
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Sue said on March 3, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Jeff, pardon us if we don’t take someone seriously when he aligns himself with hate groups while ALSO using the word “piffle”. And yes, I know that the Tea Party folks pride themselves on not being a ‘group’, but their signs put enough of them in hate territory to classify as a subgroup of the larger movement. And when Glenn and Bill excuse murderous behavior, (Holocaust Museum killing, Tiller murder), that’s directed at a portion of the population that groups itself around a certain fair and balanced station every day. Oh, yeah, and then we have the Cheneys’ most current foray into Nazi-style behavior; whipping up a certain portion of the masses in an effort to intimidate.
Hate groups. Hate speech. Intimidation tactics. The Southern Poverty Law Center came into being precisely because of this stuff.
You can embrace conservatism without embracing that.
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4dbirds said on March 3, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Jeff B,
Although I don’t agree with the precise punishment, the bible’s rules on animals actually make some sense to me. If you have a domesticated animal and you know it has a violent personality, you are obligated to put it down. If you don’t, and it does it again then you have committed murder.
Of course a killer whale is not and will never be a domesticated animal. Why people think they can make friends with predators always amazes me.
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Rana said on March 3, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Hmm, Jeff, let’s see. Calling for the death of Obama isn’t eliminationist? Calling for the removal of progressives by any means possible isn’t eliminationist? Stirring up angry people and aiming them at anyone who disagrees with them isn’t a problem?
That you’re sitting here tittering and laughing and making light of this shit, as if it means nothing, is really appalling. So you have neighbors that believe these things, and you think that makes them and these beliefs harmless. Of course you’re not worried, because you agree with them, so you’re not a target.
Do I smile smugly when thugs on the left blow up bulldozers or talk about shooting everyone who drives a Hummer? Do I smile benignly when people wish prison rape on people like Cheney? Do I blow these things off as “piffle”? Fuck no. I have principles, and one of them is that violence and hate speech are flat out unacceptable, regardless of source, regardless of target.
I had assumed that you shared those morals. Even if you, yourself, agree with their larger worldview, and aren’t at risk for the more extreme variants, I’d hope that you’d at least stand up in defense of those of us who are the targets of such nastiness.
I’m white, so I’m not in the front row of the firing line, but everything else about me puts me – and my friends and family and neighbors – squarely in the cross-hairs, and I’m damn offended that you think this is just some joke.
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Jenine said on March 3, 2010 at 3:31 pm
@ 4dbirds: They think they’re special and the predator will recognize and respect that. See the folks who breed half wolf dogs. They have forgotten that they have a rank on the food chain hierarchy.
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paddyo' said on March 3, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Whoa, slow down, Jeff (TMMO), the SPLC piece was reasoned, calm-eyed and in no way equated the Tea Party movement with hate groups or Nazis. Read it again:
“The ‘tea parties’ and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism.”
Written by a fellow former newspaper journalist who has researched, reported and written on this issue for a long time now. Then and now, I’ve found him and his work to be careful, deliberative and free of hysteria and hype. I encourage you to read the piece again, in context.
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Jeff Borden said on March 3, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Well-said, Rana.
While conservatives and teabaggers are always howling about being attacked by the dirty fucking hippies, they’ve yet to suffer any casualties. Has a liberal walked into a Southern Baptist church and opened fire because they are conservatives? A self-proclaimed conservative did it to a Unitarian congregation in Tennessee simply because he knew they were liberals and he hated them for that. Has a liberal ever walked calmly into a church and assassinated the leader of an anti-abortion group in front of his wife? A self-proclaimed conservative killed abortion provider Dr. George Tiller that way in Kansas. Has a liberal, sick of the thousands of gun deaths every year in this country, ever loaded up a Ryder rental truck with explosives and set it off outside the offices of the National Rifle Association? A sniveling, cowardly far right-wing neo-Nazi fanatic named Timothy McVeigh killed more than 160 innocents in Oklahoma City including dozens of little children in the building’s day care center.
Rana is right. The rhetoric of the right-wing in this country has been toxic for a very long time, but now it is dangerously deranged. It cannot be dismissed with a joke.
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Dexter said on March 3, 2010 at 5:25 pm
SPLC was the topic on “The Ed Show” last night, interview was conducted on the topics of Rana’s link.
It all made sense to me as I think I know what a hate group is; I saw the KKK blossom here a few years ago when the Klan were holding courthouse demonstrations. SPLC has a wonderful record of being on-target in their accusations and claims.
On the other hand, only a moron could not see that when a teabagger shouts “we want to take our country back!” he or she means “no more ni66e*z in the White House!”
Mitt Romney was on with Dave Letterman last night and Mitt was praising the teabaggers as some class of supreme patriots, but to me the teabaggers are just a hateful bunch,
Sarah Palin was indeed on with Jay Leno, but she didn’t make me cringe, and that’s the first good thing I ever typed about her that was not disparaging.
Actually, Palin was very good, funny as hell with her stand-up, she didn’t slip up or stutter…she was very good. She is where she belongs, over there with the wackos on Fox News, she fits in well I am supposing , because I never would watch her. Jay asked her if the teabaggers would hurt the repubs more than the dems would be hurt, and at least she had the decency to admit that the teabaggers are predominantly repubs, and she did not perpetuate the myth that many former staunch dems are flocking to the teabaggers.
anybody believe this may be true?
http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=0k4lsi1dql
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coozledad said on March 3, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Remember girls. It’s all about the show…of Force!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMoJNMbQfjs&feature=player_embedded
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andy said on March 3, 2010 at 7:44 pm
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100303
What do you think of Bill Simmons’ (the Sports Guy) claim that Woods will have a tougher comeback than Ali (after his 4 year absence)? An interesting article, but I think it drastically short-changes the genuine danger Ali faced from the right. And being a black man in the racist 60s certainly outweighs any inconvenience from modern-day tabloid coverage.
Also, I found it interesting that Rubin went for Condi’s “no one could have predicted defense.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/robert-rubin-virtually-no_n_484130.html
If only we’d had some sort of economic meltdown in the 20th century that necessitated a host of regulatory reforms we could have learned something.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 3, 2010 at 8:51 pm
So this first link in the story – http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map – is relevant to Tea Party folk? Who can safely be linked to wanting to assassinate sitting officials in the administration? Who are deranged, racist, and smugly smiling thug supporters?
Sorry, I hadn’t seen myself quite clearly enough. Or perhaps not seen clearly enough how you see me. Conservatives are all mockable, contemptible, vile scum. Got it.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 3, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Dexter, when you work with enough Down’s Syndrome adults and their interesting memory retention abilities, you find this less unbelievable. I just wish I could remember a phone number 30 seconds after I looked it up, but I’m supposedly a smart guy, so I can’t, darn it.
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brian stouder said on March 3, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Jeff, for the record, I like you and respect your unfailingly civil approach in all things.
I do recall when you trafficked the Sarah Palin “Pal’in around with terrorists” thing, and the theory that some nutjob extremist actually penned the books supposedly authored by President Obama.
And what was the impetus (or the point) of those political opinions? They struck me as sincere (if exagerrated) concerns that you were expressing, at the time.
Honestly, truly, and with all respect – all these masses of angry white people concern me; I was in a barn full of them at IPFW at our member of congress’s “Town Hall Meeting” (wherein he smiled and nodded silently at the most outrageous attacks upon the president, and zealously responded to each and every aspersion cast upon him – no matter how slight or fleeting!)
By way of saying – I think you understand exactly why folks are not letting this tea-bag yipping and yapping about “nullification” and “secession” and “states’ rights” and “take our country back” go by without serious (serious as a heart attack) responses.
Talk like this, when it is wide spread enough, tends to end badly.
Really.
Was the airborne domestic terror attack in Austin a climax, or a prelude?
Seriously.
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Deggjr said on March 3, 2010 at 9:17 pm
If anyone does have a perfect day, I recommend ‘Perfect Day’ by Hoku, 99 cents on iTunes. I think it was also used in the ‘Legally Blond’ soundtrack.
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andy said on March 3, 2010 at 9:24 pm
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2010/03/03/santelli-on-predatory-lending-you-cant-cheat-an-honest-man/
I think this is a great article on the Tea Party movement.
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beb said on March 3, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I’d heard before that Dallas did not like JFK but I never quite understood why? Had he tried to so something to piss them off, like civil rights,, or did they just hate a Boston liberal?
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alex said on March 3, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Andy—
Last year had to suffer through a financial advisor quoting from a Ben Stein screed about how the ni99az lobbied for mandating that lending institutions to give loans to unqualified borrowers causing the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting real estate bust. This was at a luncheon about what to do with your 401K etc. hosted by a professional organization I used to belong to. I gave the sumbitch a piece of my mind and have been persona non grata ever since.
beb—
There was a documentary some time back about how Kennedy (with the help of Lyndon Johnson) had to go to great lengths to prove to the Texas Dem delegates that the Vatican wasn’t taking over the U.S. government. They weren’t exactly sold.
And speaking of the perfect day—
I capped mine off with a real drink at Henry’s after spending $9-plus times two on drinks that looked like what got caught from a fine mist out of an atomizer at the bottom of a clear glass thimble at the new, revamped Acme Bar in the Fort, recently reopened. I wasn’t a regular before tonight, and if this is the way they were doing business before, it’s no fucking wonder they closed. Wussy drinks. And an indifferent waitress who didn’t even bother to ask if we wanted more. (Probably afraid we’d eventually go ballistic over the bill, I’m guessing. We didn’t. We paid up and left fifteen percent, a small price really for a lesson on where not to waste money in the future.)
I had the pulled pork sandwich (dry with a too-small dollop of barbecue sauce). And I had to go up to the bar myself to get something to wash it down with, although a single drink itself wasn’t even a decent gulp.
The waitresses kind of reminded me of the old-school wizened Miss-Kitty types at Biassetti’s in Chicago, who were a blast because they were personable, bawdy old bags who probably blew da Mayor and had autographed Polaroids of it. Our server, however, didn’t live up to her overdone eyeliner and was just a surly old bitch who didn’t really want to be bothered serving us.
All in all, I’d have to say it was a subpar experience and not one of the first places that would come to mind when deciding where to go out. It wouldn’t even make the second or third tier of choices (i.e., being the only thing open on the Fourth of July or Labor Day). Hope the new owners are listening, because I spend my hard-earned dollars dining out and support local businesses, and you’ve got competition that’s wuppin’ yer sorry ass bigtime.
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LAMary said on March 3, 2010 at 10:19 pm
He was a liberal Catholic from the north with an ivy league education that showed in his speech and manner.
On the tea baggers…I work with one. She worries a lot about Obama taking her family’s guns away and is politely racist. She’s younger than I by about ten years, but the way she speaks about black people is exactly the way my grandmother did. She can always come up with one example of a black person she knows who is clean and polite.
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Bob Johnson said on March 3, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Off subject… but ever wonder how much can be said in a small video clip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWEwelb2QZo
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moe99 said on March 3, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Ok, Bob Johnson, that had me in tears. but the good kind.
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Dexter said on March 4, 2010 at 12:05 am
beb…the headlines of The Journal-Gazette (FWA) read “Huge Throngs Greet JFK in Dallas” on 11-22-63.
I had that edition and the next day’s papers for 40 years until the squirrels got into my garage and ripped those newspapers to shreds. I should have had them in the old trunk. But whoever killed JFK just used Dallas because the itinerary suited their needs. I had never heard of any Texas angle, only the mob, the CIA, the lone gunman, all the fringe theories…but never specific Dallas-oriented hatred for Kennedy, not enough to warrant JFK’s murder.
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Denice B said on March 4, 2010 at 1:47 am
The guy peeing on the live wire is a good candidate for the Darwin Award. Those who remove themselves from the gene pool thus improving it.
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Rana said on March 4, 2010 at 3:49 am
Honestly, Jeff (tmmo), you put your foot in that shoe; I didn’t shove it on for you.
I linked to a piece about rising numbers of hate groups in this country, a piece that did express concern that the tea party folks might get caught up in that, and your reaction was to say, essentially, that the author was full of shit because you and your neighbors aren’t like that, and to imply that I was over-reacting for caring about such stuff.
Did I accuse you of belonging to a hate group? Did I accuse your neighbors of belonging to one? No. I simply provided the link with the comment that it was “scary stuff.” But you reacted as if I accused you of something, and was overreacting, and made a point of allying yourself with those you saw the article attacking. Given that the article isn’t really attacking anyone, but making an observation about the rise of hate groups nationally, you shouldn’t be surprised then if I connected the dots you laid out and assumed that you were in some sort of sympathy with those hate groups.
If you linked to a piece about the violent loony left (which, last time I checked, wasn’t growing a hundredfold like those groups), I, personally, wouldn’t think that it was about me, or had anything to do with me. I certainly wouldn’t bust out with “we’re not all like that.” I have no interest in allying myself with violent terrorists, even if they are purportedly of my ideological stripe, and will take pains to avoid implying that I have.
You didn’t. Forgive me for assuming that you were endorsing those groups, but, honestly, they are nasty enough that apologia for them is not appropriate, let alone claims of common ground and shared pronouns. When you slough off an article about groups like the Klan and Aryan nation as “piffle,” that just says to me that you simply don’t get it, and it’s disrespectful to those of us here who can’t simply shrug off those bastards as having nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with us, because we’re the targets of that hate, along with Obama and black people more generally.
Don’t want to be lumped in with members of hate groups? Then stop acting as if they’re fellow victims in some great pogrom at the hands of liberals, simply because they claim to be “conservatives.” I mean, really. I thought you had better skills of discernment than that.
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Deborah said on March 4, 2010 at 7:39 am
Nancy, Have you read Eberts journal post about micro-payments? Might be a way to make some money on internet content.
I’d be willing to pay a membership fee to the Nancy Nall Club.
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moe99 said on March 4, 2010 at 10:19 am
Jeff tmmo: I’m with Rana on this and I am saddened by your childish reaction. It is very similar to something that happened to me yesterday. I am a member of a private attorneys’ forum and I posted the Stephen Frye youtube video of the Intelligence Squared debate that someone had posted here. I thought it was a well done piece of argument and, hey, lawyers appreciate good argument but this is one of the responses I got verbatim from one of the other members:
Look, Regina, let’s strip away all the formalities, lift all the pretense of academic intent, and distill this down to the bare essentials of your real point for this and all your posts that have the word “Catholic” in them.
Agreed: All non-“recovered” Roman Catholics should be slowly tortured, killed, and gibbeted, all their books burned, All their artifacts melted down or ground to dust, all their buildings dismantled, all their land salted, so that now and forever all evidence or memory of their existence will cease to defile this world.
There, are you happy now? And can we talk about something else?
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