Comment of the Day
Today’s Comment of the Day goes to some random guy with a Tumblr blog who reblogged yesterday’s post about the White History Month tweets:
I used to parrot this kind of crap as a teenager. These people need to make a list of ways Black History Month antagonizes them specifically before they start antagonizing Black History Month. Maybe consider having a word with some of the many people still alive from the Civil Rights era. They’d soon learn that it’s a victory for people in general, not just one specific group.
These comments reminded me very much of thoughtful comments made yesterday in the Facebook thread on this topic by my friend Chad Ellsworth:
I think it is one of those things that will be interesting to watch with this generation. In some ways, they’re growing up in a public sphere, a la the child stars of the 1980s, and those “growing pains” are occurring in places and ways that all of us can see …. We have been told we are living in a “post-racial” America, when in reality, power, privilege, and racism are alive and well. I love the analogy from the book
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Tatum. She compares racism to a moving walkway at the airport, with the direction of the walkway being the perpetuation of power, privilege, and racism. You can either walk in the direction of the walkway (actively perpetuate racism), stand still (passively perpetuate racism), or you can walk in the other direction (actively resist racism).
Comment of the Day
My old friend Drew Taub really took the sarcasm to a new level in replying to my post about their predictions for the 2016 election: Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Campaigns!
I have Barack Obama. You don’t really think he will peacefully hand over power, do you?
There you have it, wingnuts; Drew gets exactly what you were going through yesterday. Look for Obama 2016 campaign merchandise soon. Not Obama/Biden, mind you. By 2016, we won’t need to have two people on the ticket; it’ll be a one-man show, just like you’ve feared all this time.
And then you can call Drew and give him a big “I told you so!”
Comment of the Day
Over on Facebook, my friend Scott Basinger digs deep into the ancient Israelite prophets to reply to my post: Chuck Hagel Anti-Israel Charge Is ‘Extremely Stupid,’ Nebraska Rabbi Says:
Breaking news: Senate GOP also labels the prophet Micah anti-semitic for his criticisms of Israel.
Comment of the Day
My old friend Dennis Rasmussen, whose reply reminded me that he occasionally uses the internet, replied to yesterday’s Comment of the Day about Bizarro John Rawls:
Sorry, you’ve been beaten to the punch.
It turns out that Rasmussen’s frighteningly encyclopedic knowledge of the entire history of Western political thought turned up the 2005 article “Libertarianism at Twin Harvard” in Social Philosophy and Policy [gated]:
In this essay Loren Lomasky wryly proposes that the views of Rawls and Nozick might not be as radically divergent as is conventionally supposed. To demonstrate this proposition, Lomasky invents “Twin Harvard” counterparts of Rawls and Nozick. The twist is that Twin Rawls turns out to be a leading libertarian theorist while Twin Nozick endorses a regime of sweeping redistribution. In each case the position follows from familiar elements in the theories of their respective, real-world counterparts. Lomasky concludes that Twin Rawls actually makes better use of familiar Rawlsian themes-such as the veil of ignorance, strains of commitment, and the priority of liberty-than does Rawls himself. Moreover, Rawls’s own attempts at combating libertarianism are seen to be weak, sometimes embarrassingly so. Libertarianism is a specter that he devoutly wishes to exorcize, but cannot. Conversely, the rejection of libertarianism by Twin Nozick (and Nozick?) is striking but shallow.
So much for my book idea.
Comment of the Day
My good friend Scott Hammond replied to my post about Senator Ted Cruz’s ill-conceived name-checking of John Rawls:
He’s actually talking about Bizzaro Rawls, who said that permissible social and economic inequalities should be to the most advantaged. That’s from Bizzaro Rawls’s Theory of Bizzaro Justice.
I’m going to immediately begin work on my next book, A Theory of Bizarro Justice. I think its subject would find a large, receptive audience amongst Tea Partyers.
I hope to find a publisher for it before the lawsuit from either the estates of Otto Binder and George Papp or the estate of John Rawls shuts the whole project down.
Comment of the Day
Today’s comment of the day, from Patrick Barney, is a solution to the problem of leaving your fully loaded handgun in a movie theatre:
Findmygun, a new app idea.
And this was my favorite apologist for the guy who left his loaded handgun in a movie theatre:
He probably went right back to the theatre first before making a call and wasting the officers time.
The real focus here should be on how well the kids handled the situation. Their guardians did a good job explaining gun safety to them.
Yeah, that’s probably right.
Because if he did race right back there rather than calling the police, it’s probably not because he feared losing his concealed carry permit but instead because he’s super-responsible.
… And there’s your Comment of the Day for today.
Go ahead and file under things no one ever says about Wordpress.
This arrived in my inbox yesterday morning, without my having done anything … apart, I suppose, from having ordered pizza from Papa John’s in the past.
Apparently the financial difficulties brought on by the Affordable Care Act — which he claimed would surely result in raising the price of each pizza by something on the order of fourteen cents — are not so great that they preclude sending out coupons good for two million free pizzas.
Snarking about it on Facebook occasioned a lively discussion, with the Comment of the Day coming from Tumblr’s own Jeff Miller:
Maybe he was going to originally give you a coupon for a free pizza and fourteen cents, but now he can only give away free pizzas and no cents.
Comment of the Day
Responding to yesterday evening’s post about the ridiculous secession petition craze, my friend Chad Brick wrote:
We should let all the red states go, and split into three countries: Cascadia, Atlantia, and Koch Brothers’ Real America brought to you by Monsanto and Exxon Mobile (affectionately known as KoBRA). $10,000 says KoBRA invades a neighbor within five years of being cut off the blue-state dole.
I know it’s still early in the day, but — c’mon! — I challenge anyone to beat that comment.
KoBRA!
Comment of the Day
Lateral Symmetry replied to your link: Not News, Not Journalism, Not Anything of Value
Re: “an accent he almost never adopts in public” - it’s interesting/disappointing/sad, that speaking before a large, predominantly African-American audience apparently doesn’t qualify as “public.”
Yep.
Comment of the Day
There have been a lot of strong comments already today, but when Reuters picks a date in the Baby Birthday Pool you just know that’s going to be the Comment of the Day:
Reuters replied to your photo: Thus far, October 11 is a very popular date in the…
October 12
I’m choosing to assume that it’s the entire staff of Reuters throwing their collective weight behind October 12, that they all sat down and discussed which day to pick, “Newsroom”-style.
Incidentally, this is one of those things I absolutely love about using Tumblr as my blogging platform.
Comment of the Day
Michael Tofias replied to your photo: There’s a website tracking the usage of homophobic…
I like this new thing where you are tracking the responses to the people who are tracking hate speech.
Seems like a good idea for a new blog ….
Comment of the Day
Mohandas Gandhi replied to your quote: The overall sense has been that, creatively,…
When I heard about the cancellation, I immediately thought of you.
This is what I’ve been aiming for, as a blogger, lo these many years: To be immediately associated with MTV’s “Jersey Shore” in the minds of as many people as possible.
Comment of the Day
LateralSymmetry replied to your photo: At Friday’s news conference, Heineman said…
I have this very uninformed hunch that, if all the current state governors embodied previous US presidents, Dave Heineman would be Calvin Coolidge.
Comment of the Day
Squashed replied to your photo: No evidence of mermaids, says US government
I’m not sure how our lack of a mermaid Science Program makes me feel. On the one hand I pay taxes. On the other hand, we must not allow a Mermaid Science Gap!
There have been some real contenders today since I published a piece about Slavoj Žižek — which always brings out the trolls — but this comment about the mermaids is the winner.
