Shorter Deep Thought: November 22, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, language and lit, wingnuts.8 comments
He writes: “I visited a number of quiver full sites online. You can see many of them for yourself and a search can find you more. I searched pretty carefully and I found that these sites have quite a bit in common; they tend to advocate large families (no surprise), they love kids (no surprise), and they don’t talk about race. At all.”
From Deep Thought’s blog. Unfortunately for him, not talking about race doesn’t keep one from being a racist. If you read the post, you’ll notice he later mentions talk of a “subtext” of race suicide, which he rejects. But his “evidence” is that the quiverfull movement <I>says</I> they aren’t racist, but the left, who points out that the lilly-white complexions of the movement’s “big guns” and their big-families-as-advancing-a-religious-and-cultural-worldview, is in fact projecting it’s values upon the right.
Memo to the right: not mentioning race or claiming not to be racist doesn’t make it so. Lots of White Supremicists do the same thing. But trying to advance your worldview by convincing those who share it to have as many kids as possible is at very least ethnocentric in the extreme, especially when that worldview is an odd mix of Christianity, manifest destiny, and patriarchy. Okay, maybe that mix is exactly what I would expect from American Christians.
Templating censorship stories November 22, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in language and lit, wingnuts.2 comments
The always-insightful Pat Hayes points out that the most recent incident of book-burning includes a phrase that could be used in any such story.
I know many of my readers care about such things, so I’ll ask you: what other stupid comments do we always hear in censorship stories?
The End Is Near November 18, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in Uncategorized.add a comment
If there’s anything funnier than the idea of a collaboration between Stan Lee and Jack Chick, I don’t know what it is.
I don’t see how this is any less probable than any other theory about the eminent end of the world. And probably a good deal more likely than whatever the fuck Scientologists believe. I’m more inclined to say Cthulu will consume the world. And as a follower, I get a great boon: I’ll be eaten last!
While we’re no the subject, poetry:
Robert Frost
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
We’ll breed ‘em out November 16, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, wingnuts.4 comments
Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon has weighed in on the issue of “race suicide”: the fashionable position among the right wing that says we need to have more babies to keep brown people from taking over. As usual, she does an excellent job, and you should check out what she has to say. Go ahead. I’ll still be here when you get back.
Okay, now that you’ve returned, I have a couple things to add on this point. The “plan” the right outlines, besides being extremely fucking racist, is also the equivalent of the mutually assured destruction position on nuclear armament. The only difference between the two is that while it’s at least theoretically possible that we may never nuke each other to death, a breeding war between various races definitely results in a future with too many people and not enough resources.
But as Marcotte points out, that’s half the point. These people can’t imagine a world where we might not be willing to rush to use up our limited resources in order to advance a racist agenda. No, it’s better that we “win” than that we find actual solutions to our problems, right?
What no one one the right wants to admit is that the best way to deal with terrorists and extremists is to create a world where people have their basic needs met. When people don’t need to worry where their next meal is coming from, when they have access to medical care and education, is a world where extremists will find precious few friends.
It’s not an easy solution, of course, and there are lots of geopolitical complications. But if we actually give a damn about the future of this planet, it’s the only workable solution. Fascism, unrestrained reproduction, and eye-for-an-eye violence will only continue to destabilize the planet and put everyone at risk.
Sure, but who knew they’d be so up front about it? November 10, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, Religion, wingnuts.add a comment
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that under the leadership of the esteemed Ratz, the Catholic church is giving up most of the gains it had made in being anything other than completely disgusting. What does moderately surprise me is that they’re so up front about it, as Ed Brayton notes.
“The Holy See has reiterated on many occasions that the right to freedom of expression… is subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of this right would offend the religious sentiments of believers,” the Vatican said.
Oh God no! Let’s not offend the religious sentiments of believers. And of course the Catholic church is a bastion of tolerance for other’s views. They are nice and sneaky, though, using the term “believers”–which means just people who believe what they say to believe.
But you’d think they might hesitate in trying to claim that people shouldn’t be allowed to say things Ratz doesn’t like. Then again, what would you expect from organized religion? Without it, how could you even make a case that people shouldn’t be allowed to hold a parade? You’d need another authoritarian institution that demands unquestioning respect. There are a few of those, of course, but none with such broad pull as religion. So don’t expect to see this pattern change any time soon: after all, nothing threatens a monolithic institution quite like other points of view. And for God’s sake, we can’t have that.
Democratic to-do list November 8, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, Uncategorized.add a comment
Democrats will control at least the House, and possibly the Senate as well, in 2007. I’ve long decried the Dem’s lack of backbone in standing up to the Republican spin machine, but recently we’ve seen that begin to change: Democratic candidates made great gains by clearly linking their opponents to Bush’s extremist agenda. Now will they learn their lesson, realize that Americans are with them on many social and almost all economic issues? I hope so. If they don’t, the best we can hope for in Washington is Gridlock, and I sincerely hope they plan to do more to roll back the travesty that is the right’s political policy than simply keep the status quo.
Marc at Punkass Blog has a plan for making 2007 the Year of the Liberal, and I couldn’t agree more. I’m going to chip in as well, and make my case for a Democratic agenda, one which combines already-popular positions with wise use of political capital:
- Push hard for serious reforms in Washington. Make Republicans who want to keep their ties to lobbyists come out and actively fight to do so.
- Raise the minimum wage. Not only is it the right thing to do, but there is wide voter support for it.
- Begin a phased withdraw from Iraq, on a schedule.
- Use the money we won’t be dumping into Iraq to secure our ports and airports.
- Aggressively work to implement all of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. Take the terror high-ground away from Republicans who have so badly botched the job.
- Work for a single-payer healthcare system. The Republicans will block it, but it still needs doing, and voters want to see it happen.
- Pass legislation that guarantees habeas corpus rights to every American, and that guarantees that prisoners cannot be held indefinitely without trial through an indefinitely long and ill-defined war.
It’s time for the Democrats to press the advantage, and illustrate to voters exactly why their vision is better than the Republican’s failed theocratic regime. And they need to start now, immediately, before Rove and company find another way to terrify the country into submission.
Reasons to be pleased November 8, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, wingnuts.1 comment so far
Yesterday’s elections, like most elections, were a mixture of good news and bad, but the good news in this case was quick in coming. I don’t mean the Democratic control of the House, though certainly they can’t do worse than the Republicans have, or even the general gains made by centrist and left-leaning candidates, though those too are heartening.
No, what really strikes me as the best news is how rough the waters have become for extremists, people who would abuse their power, meddle with our rights, and force their religious views upon the rest of us. Rick “Fetus Fondler” Santorum was sent packing by voters who’d had enough, as was Ken Blackwell in Ohio, Jim Ryun and Phil Kline. It looks like George Allen will likely be exiled from Washington as well, and even if he is not, it is clear that being a racist doesn’t get you as far as it used to even in the South.
In Kansas and Ohio, moderates will control the school board, and ID has never been a bigger political black mark for candidates than it is now. And in South Dakota, when voters were faced with a chance to follow the extreme right’s lead and ban basically all abortions, they had second thoughts and rejected the measure.
It seems that Americans still do care about their privacy, their children’s education, and the integrity of those who lead them. Now it’s time for the Democrats to stand up and make a stand. More on that in my next post.
Dumbest post ever? November 6, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in wingnuts.3 comments
Fine Dry Wit has a number of posts in the running for that title, but this one is particularly noteworthy: it seems that religious tolerance is only acceptable when it’s Christianity being tolerated. But then, we knew that already, didn’t we?
Whether true or not, I heard yesterday that pagans who identify themselves as pagans in Britain can have Halloween off with pay, as this is a religious holy day for them. As most pagans also grumble but accept a paid day off to not celebrate Christmas, this is known as being religiously correct. I guess if a few Anastazi Indians stood up in Britain and demanded the right to practice their religion, including the human sacrifices, the Parliament would bow down and give their blessing, as who wants to be known as a religious bigot? Can’t get re-elected with that on your name.
So let’s count the fallacies: first, he basis his whole argument off an anecdote he’s not sure is true. Then he assumes this is wrong because they also get Christmas off (in point of fact, it should be the Christians who get criticized for this, since Christmas probably exists to subvert Yuletide). Then he makes one of the Right’s famous “if we allow people to practice their religion, we must allow them to catch and murder others for their own purposes” arguments. Brilliant! Finally, he assumes that all this is true–despite beginning by saying it might not be–and then saying it’s because politicians are afraid of not getting reelected. Yup, it’s that huge pagan turnout they’re concerned about. Or is it the “Anastazi Indians” they’re really worried about? You or I might not know, but FDW has it covered.
Phil Kline probably breaks the law, definitely an asshole November 6, 2006
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, reproductive rights, wingnuts.5 comments
Phil Kline, Kansas’ hatefilled, useless, and generally despicable AG, is at it again. Many of you will remember that he fought to make Abortion clinics release their medical records so Kline could make sure they weren’t performing abortions on underage girls. At least, that’s what he said. But now it’s increasingly clear that Kline probably illegally leaked that information to Bill O’Reilly, thus combining two of the biggest assholes in America into one giant asshole.
Of course it is no surprise that Kline’s real campaign was to force his values on the rest of us, breaking the law to do so, and to punish women for believing they had the right to make medical decisions for themselves. But now that there’s no denying his real agenda–leaking private medical records to the “press” when it suits his political purposes–I hope Kansans will finally kick him to the curb.
Kansas has made great strides recently in demonstrating that voters in the Great Plains have had enough of politicians who put their agendas above their jobs. I hope they’ll continue this trend with Kline. And don’t fear for the man’s wellbeing: if he loses, I’m sure there’s a cushy job waiting for him in a right-wing “think tank.”
Vote Paul Morrison for AD tomorrow.
