Month: April 2012

Easter thoughts

by David Atkins

It’s Easter Sunday, and the New York Times has a story that will surely melt the hearts of every conservative God-fearing Christian out there:

Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit

Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to “end welfare as we know it,” which joined the late-’90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love.

But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged.

Faced with flat federal financing and rising need, Arizona is one of 16 states that have cut their welfare caseloads further since the start of the recession — in its case, by half. Even as it turned away the needy, Arizona spent most of its federal welfare dollars on other programs, using permissive rules to plug state budget gaps.

The poor people who were dropped from cash assistance here, mostly single mothers, talk with surprising openness about the desperate, and sometimes illegal, ways they make ends meet. They have sold food stamps, sold blood, skipped meals, shoplifted, doubled up with friends, scavenged trash bins for bottles and cans and returned to relationships with violent partners — all with children in tow.

Esmeralda Murillo, a 21-year-old mother of two, lost her welfare check, landed in a shelter and then returned to a boyfriend whose violent temper had driven her away. “You don’t know who to turn to,” she said.

Actually, never mind. God-fearing Jesus-loving “Christians” in these red states don’t give a shit.

Sometimes I fervently wish the afterlife they believe in were real. It would be fitting to see all these hypocrites and pharisees who protest their faith loudly in whited sepulchers and houses of stone face the wrath of the God they pretend to worship as they claw desperately at the altar of Mammon, hating their neighbors and kicking against the pricks at even the thought of even a widow’s mite being spent on a stranger in their land, burn for eternity in a lake of fire.

On that note, I also feel compelled to say that the conservative religious mind baffles me. It makes no sense whatsoever. If I truly believed that this life were but a fleeting test against a sea of eternity, it would be stupid beyond belief to store up wealth or engage in politics in this world. I would immediately devote myself to faith and good works, knowing that nothing in this life mattered a whit, and looking intensely toward the hereafter. Putting my position in the hereafter at even the slightest risk by engaging in petty hostility and selfishness, pursuing business and earthly pleasures would be the height of irresponsibility, like playing with matches while standing in a pool full of gasoline.

When I encounter fervent believers, I’m not compelled to attempt to disabuse them of their faith. After all, they may be right; I myself am agnostic on the larger question of universal origins; and disabusing people of their faith is both pointless and potentially quite harmful to them. I do, however, want to sit them down and ask them if they’ve actually read their own damn book and thought about what it means they should do. Consider Matthew 6:25-34:

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or “What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

There is no such thing as a worshipper of business and capitalism, and a worshipper of Jesus. They’re diametrically opposed to one another. Why they’re unable to see this is beyond me.

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Saturday Night At The Movies

One nation, under duress

By Dennis Hartley

And one more thing…

For those readers who have been browbeating me for the last several years regarding the lack of a stand-alone, searchable archive of my movie reviews, I have some good news. I’ve spend the last week culling all of them that I could find and consolidating them on a page I’ve created over on clipboard.com. So now you can visit there and peruse 200+ posts to your heart’s content, at a convenient “one-stop”. I realize that for some, that is analogous to visiting Room 101; but for those who have been clamoring…there you go!

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Where at least we know we’re free

by digby

The next time somebody’s up in your face screaming about American exceptionalism and going on about how their liberty is being compromised by the welfare state, show them this and ask them just how free they really are.

Saturday’s Chris Hayes segment:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I remember reading about stuff like that happening in the Soviet Union. You know, the commie country where nobody could challenge the accepted order.

Unlike here. Where we’re free.

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Derbyshire is conservatism incarnate

by David Atkins

John Derbyshire has received a swarm of very justified righteous anger over his latest horrifically racist piece. A significant number of conservatives have condemned him, even demanding that he be fired from the National Review over it. Derbyshire, they argue, doesn’t reflect mainstream conservative values.

But that’s simply not true. He does represent conservatism. All one need do is go to any random comments section in any major media outlet to discover it. For instance, consider this L.A. Times story about a string of unsolved drive-by killings of black residents in Tulsa by an unknown white assailant. Here are the first two comments to the piece:

Gray_Ghost at 2:47 PM April 07, 2012

Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom! What color were these fine citizens? Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman, and Eric Boyd are now serving time for what crimes and did the media report this nation-wide? Where were Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson? Are they providing counsel and help to the families of the victims? Of course not – the victims were white! Why hasn’t this received National coverage by the news media like the Duke ‘rape’ case? Oh, that’s right – the victims were white!Why hasn’t the NAACP, ACLU, New York Times etc., called for an investigation? Must be because the victims were white!!! Why hasn’t the FBI been called in to investigate this as a hate crime? Oh, that’s right – the victims were white!!! So, if a white radio shock jock uses the phrase ‘Nappy headed’, it gets 2 weeks of constant news coverage. If two white people are tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of black people, it barely gets a blip in the news.

Gray_Ghost at 2:45 PM April 07, 2012

Why would any Police officer show up in their neighborhood when the get accused of violating their civil rights and arrest their off-spring breaking the laws. Today Obama and his followers are demonized the white people and the rich for their short comings!

To take people’s minds off the President’s failures as a leader, they showing his needs as a community organizer are now in greater demand than bring the Nation together. In the meantime crime flash through the neighborhood like a forest fire burning all the hopes for good change.

The only way to restore law and order is allow the Police to do their jobs and fine a place to keep the predators lock up.

Now will Obama get involved in resolving these conflicts or enhance the dysfunctions?

No! he does not like ‘White’ people because his father didn’t do right by his white mother!

Derek Grrr at 2:07 PM April 07, 2012

Why would any Black person live in traditionally White red states? The same could be made of Latinos who flock to states where racism and hate by White residents are likely because Latinos are not welcomed.

I hate to be insensitive about this article but I’m sort of relieved that for once Blacks are being targeted by Whites instead of Latinos.

Sheesh, look at all the hate against Latinos coming out of Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia from both White and Black residents!!

Here are the first and last comments in the ABC News article on the same story:

by Unknown

a WHITE 16 year old shot in neck by 2 black males in new albany, ind. why is this NOT a hate crime. care to answer this SHARPTON, OR JACKSON. well co’mon, how about an answer.

by Steve Whiteson
This shooter is probably another white-Hispanic Democrat, like Zimmerman.

Or the CBS News comments:

by SlackJawedYocal

Aren’t all killings/shooting “hate” crimes? Give me a damn break…I’m so sick of blacks always playing the race card, every damn time theres a white on black crime its racially motivated…but if a black shoots a honky its just a shooting….Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the other racist bigots can all burn in hell.

by ObamasWelfareLemmings

Oh no!!! Another hate crime. If the shooter’s white, it’s always a hate crime. There will be big trouble now because the racist NAACP is involved. Where’s the other racists hate mongers Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? They won’t stand for this. I hope that they show up in time to get their photos taken.

by RobertRogers

So, everytime a black person gets shot, and a white person is suspected to be the perpetrator, the FBI is immediately assigned to the case?

Apparently that is the SOP under the Obama/Holder regime.

In all likelihood it is probably just another crack deal gone bad.

by lofty31

they think its racial because the victims are all black? wow, you guys get the detective of the century award. i got news for you communists. Blacks kill blacks too. i know, i know, its new to you guys , you dont have to thank me for it. If you need help in any other event that gets you baffled, you can email me. geez. unbelieveable.

My own home paper the Ventura County Star has simply stopped allowing comments entirely on news stories with racial overtones because the overt racism has been impossible for them to control any other way.

Far from being outside the norm, this is what a very large portion of America is made of. That’s what conservatism is made of. It’s rampant, extremely commonplace, and by far the biggest driver of conservative attitudes in America. Don’t forget that the Deep South and the Midwest just loved them some New Deal FDR socialism until the Civil Rights era meant that minorities would also be allowed to join in the American economy. In the “conservative” mind, socialism is OK as long as it’s only for white people. That’s not some incendiary remark I’m making: it’s just a historical fact proven by the political and regional dynamic from 1930-1965, and from 1965 onward.

Don’t let them pretend otherwise. Derbyshire is the perfect embodiment of modern conservatism as experienced by regular conservative voters.

Update: Derbyshire has just been fired by National Review. Rich Lowry’s terse statement:

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream,” or any one of his “Straggler” columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. It’s a free country, and Derb can write whatever he wants, wherever he wants. Just not in the pages of NR or NRO, or as someone associated with NR any longer.

Lowry couldn’t even bring himself to say the word “racist.,” largely because he knows what a backlash that would entail from his deeply racist audience. What a coward.

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Here’s a funny little joke from a conservative legislator in Missouri

Due to the large number of jobs moving from California to Texas, Texas has compiled a “Californian to Texan” translation guide,” the post reads.

The 31 phrases on the list are:

California to Texas:

• Arsenal of Weapons – Gun Collection
• Delicate Wetlands – Swamp
• Undocumented Worker – Illegal Alien
• Cruelty-Free Materials – Synthetic Fiber
• Assault and Battery – Attitude Adjustment
• Heavily Armed – Well Protected
• Narrow-Minded – Righteous
• Taxes or Your Fair Share – Coerced Theft
• Commonsense Gun Control – Gun Confiscation Plot
• Illegal Hazardous Explosives – Fireworks for Stump Removal
• Nonviable Tissue Mass – Unborn Baby
• Equal Access to Opportunity – Socialism
• Multicultural Community – High Crime Area
• Fairness or Social Progress – Marxism
• Upper Class or “The Rich” – Self-Employed
• Progressive, Change – Big Government Scheme
• Homeless or Disadvantaged – Bums or Welfare Leeches
• Sniper Rifle – Scoped Deer Rifle
• Investment For The Future – Higher Taxes
• Heathcare Reform – Socialized Medicine
• Truants – Homeschoolers
• Victim or Oppressed – Criminal or Lazy Do-For-Nothing
• High Capacity Magazine – Standard Capacity Magazine
• Religious Zealot – Church-Going
• Reintroduced Wolves – Sheep and Deer Killers
• Fair Trade Coffee – Overpriced Yuppie Coffee
• Exploiters or “The Rich” – Employed or Land Owner
• The Gun Lobby – NRA Members
• Assault Weapon Fiscal Stimulus – Semi-Auto (Grandpas’s M1 Carbine)
• Same Sex Marriage – Legalized Perversion
• Mandated Eco-Friendly Lighting – Chinese Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs

Campaign email ‘o the decade

by digby

If you’ve ever gotten a campaign email, you know what this is about:

Hello, I’m Woman Picking Out Fruit In Supermarket. And I’m writing to you today on behalf of Al Franken—a Senator who stands up for real people (including those of us who make a living posing for stock photos).

You’ve seen us shaking hands in business suits, posing together on college campuses, and laughing while we eat salads. You’ve seen us on billboards, in magazines, and on pretty much every political website. We are the people in stock photos.

I know the people in stock photos don’t typically write emails, but Al isn’t your typical politician—he’s a progressive fighter who puts people first. Will you stand with us by making a small contribution to his grassroots campaign right now?

There’s a reason I’m standing with Al. You see, I’m not just Woman Picking Out Fruit In Supermarket. I am also an actual woman worried about the right-wing attacks on my access to health care.

And when Republicans tried to put my boss in charge of what health care treatments I can and can’t get, Al stood up and fought back— just like he did when Republicans tried to destroy Planned Parenthood, and just like he has every time Republicans launch an attack on my rights.

Al’s a Senator I can count on to stand up for all women—whether they’re walking a golden retriever in the park, pointing at a chart in an important meeting, or simply staring into the camera.

Your contribution will help keep Al’s campaign strong so he can keep fighting for us—click here to give today!

I hope I can count on you for a contribution. After all, the rights to stock photos aren’t cheap. And neither is the actual grassroots organizing Al’s team does every day, fighting to keep progressive values — and the middle class — alive and well.

And whether you’re a Tattooed Guitar Player, a Guy Wearing Hard Hat, or an Elderly Couple Sitting At Kitchen Table, there’s no better way to show your support than by making a contribution today.

Thanks for standing with Al.

Sincerely,

Woman Picking Out Fruit In Supermarket

Co-Chair, People in Stock Photos for Franken (PSPF)

Franken’s emails are often good. And really, it’s the least his supporters can expect.

h/t to SB

Centrist fail up

by digby

What Krugman said:

The continuing defense of Paul Ryan is a remarkable phenomenon. He’s still being treated by many pundits as a man deeply concerned about deficits, when the fact is that his policy proposals are all about redistributing income upward, and make no serious effort to curb debt. He’s even given credit for advocating higher taxes on the rich when he has more or less specifically rejected the things for which he’s given credit.

What’s going on here? The defenders of Ryan come, I’d argue, in two types.

One type is the pseudo-reasonable apparatchik. There are a fair number of pundits who make a big show of debating the issues, stroking their chins, and then — invariably — find a way to support whatever the GOP line may be. There’s no mystery in their support for Ryan.

The other type is more interesting: the professional centrist. These are people whose whole pose is one of standing between the extremes of both parties, and calling for a bipartisan solution. The problem they face is how to maintain this pose when the reality is that a quite moderate Democratic party — one that is content to leave tax rates on the rich far below those that prevailed for most of the past 70 years, that has embraced a Republican health care plan — faces a radical-reactionary GOP.

What these people need is reasonable Republicans. And if such creatures don’t exist, they have to invent them. Hence the elevation of Ryan — who is, in fact, a garden-variety GOP extremist, but with a mild-mannered style — to icon of fiscal responsibility and honest argument, despite the reality that his proposals are both fiscally irresponsible and quite dishonest

Could it be that Krugman’s also referring to the avatar of journalistic malfeasance, James B. Stewart in the New York Times yesterday morning?

This week, President Obama called him a social Darwinist. The conservative Club for Growth criticized him for wimping out on Medicare and military spending, and Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican, blasted him for not cutting tax rates more deeply.

I figure Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is head of the House Budget Committee, must be doing something right.

And to think they have the gall to call his column “Common Sense.” I’ll let you read the whole pile of compost for yourself if you are a masochist, but I think you get the gist. Paul Ryan is the “reasonable center” with his plan to completely destroy the country. I’m guessing they’re printing up the Paul Ryan for President 2016 bumper stickers already — and Stewart’s got himself a volume discount.

While we’re here, let’s take a look back at James B. Stewart, shall we? Just to remind ourselves how slow minded centrists get used by conservatives and fail up in the mainstream media:

[C]elebrated journalists continued to predict the first lady’s probable indictment as the election year began, most notably Pulitzer Prize winning author James B Stewart. Published by Simon and Shuster in 1996 to the accompaniment of a multimedia publicity campaign, Stewart’s book Blood Sport claims to be the inside story of “the president and first lady as they really are.” Set forth as a sweeping narrative, it includes dramatized scenes and imaginary dialog purporting to represent the innermost thoughts of individuals whom the author had in some cases never met, much less interviewed.

“Scenes that Mr Stewart could never have observed first hand,” complained New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani, “are recounted from an omniscient viewpoint. Mr. Stewart rarely identifies the sources for such scenes not does he take into account the subjectivity and oftens self-serving nature of memory. The reader never knows whether the quotes Mr Stewart puts into the mouth of an individual… are from a first or second hand source.” —The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton

Here’s Gene Lyons from his earlier book, Fools for Scandal: How The Media Invented Whitewater:

But then came Stewart’s big book tour. For a while, you couldn’t turn on a TV talk show without seeing Mr. Pulitzer Prize. Nightline, Washington Week in Review, Charlie Rose, National Public Radio—the man was everywhere. And just about everywhere he went, Stewart made the same pitch. Blood Sport uncovered no big crimes in Whitewater, just a lot of deceit, bad character, and political opportunism. But surely, Ted Koppel urged during Stewart’s March 11, 1996 Nightline appearance, there was something. “What is it you would say,” Koppel asked, “if you were obliged, in fifteen or thirty seconds, to summarize what is troublesome about Whitewater and what will come back to haunt the Clintons?”…

My favorite Blood Sport blunder happened during the publicity tour. Asked by Ted Koppel on Nightline what was the worst thing he’d found in Whitewater, Stewart replied gravely. “It is a crime to submit a false financial document,” he said. He accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of filing a false financial statement to renew a Whitewater loan in 1987. He added that the First Lady’s guilt was “a question for a prosecutor and a jury to decide.”

The insinuation was as smug and false as the book, and as easily disproved. Joe Conason at the New York Observer noticed something at the bottom of the document, reproduced in Blood Sport. It was this little notice: “BOTH SIDES OF THIS STATEMENT MUST BE COMPLETED.” So Conason got a copy of the original statement. Guess what? All the stuff Stewart accused Hillary of fudging was right there. Mr. Pulitzer Prize had neglected to check the second page.

This is the fellow who’s doing deep analysis of the Ryan plan for The New York Times these days. Let’s just say everyone should be a tad skeptical of his conclusions.

And, by the way, this fellow’s latest book is all about how lying is ruining our culture.
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Mommy Dearest

by digby

I see why they’re doing this and it’s actually quite humanizing. (Say what you will about Mitt, his family is very attractive.)

I don’t know. It’s hard enough to think of Mitt Romney as a some kind of kooky cut-up but is it really a good idea for Ann Romney to refer to Mitt as her 6th son? It creeped me out a little bit, although I have to admit it also rings a little bit true. Mitt strikes me as a bit — incomplete. But maybe that’s just because I still always think of him as George Romney’s kid.

But when I think about what people said about the Clinton marriage — the “two for the price of one” thing had their heads spinning on their shoulders — I can’t imagine what they would have said if Hillary had infantalized him in a campaign video. On the other hand, Mitt is the most awkward presidential candidate since Richard Nixon, so maybe they figure anything that shows him as a person is to the good.

And they do have a bit of a problem with women so maybe Ann can soften his image up a bit. But I’m guessing that’s not really going to do it. This is a deep philosophical/ideological divide at this point and Mitt’s not going to be able to bridge it with some cute pictures of his family. Some women may be suckers for those images, but they won’t let them override their own liberty.

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The importance of death with dignity

by David Atkins

By most standards, I have been very fortunate in terms of the health of my family and friends. My parents and a majority of my grandparents are still alive, as are most of my immediate circle of relatives. Few friends close to me have passed on. Still, I have experienced the slow decline of a few, including an aunt from breast cancer. And every time I see the process of dying, I am amazed at the attitude people take toward the inevitable process of death in the United States.

What brings the subject to mind is fairly immediate. A friend and a couple of her family are staying over at my place for few days to visit a relative of theirs in hospice. The relative is in the final stages of ovarian cancer and has only a few days to live. Here is what happens in the final stages of this awful disease:

Ovarian cancer cells also spread to multiple places on the surface of the intestine, leading to the formation of adhesions. These surface adhesions, made up of fibrous scar tissue, bind together loops of the intestine. This impedes the normal muscle contractions of the intestines, which propel contents along, and movement slows. Adhesions also produce complete intestinal obstruction, meaning that food and fluid cannot pass.

Also causing intestinal obstruction, the ovarian cancer cells spread to the small or large intestine and grow. Multiple large growths of cancerous cells lead to blocking the intestines such that contents cannot pass.

Intestinal obstruction and decreased movement of the bowel content lead to distention and consequent severe abdominal pain. Further symptoms include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, fatigue and constipation. In a 2004 publication of the Journal of Supportive Oncology, physicians from the Mayo Clinic report that this type of intestinal obstruction causes death in the majority of women who die of ovarian cancer.

The individual in question is going through exactly this, and has been released from the hospital to her home, with a supply of painkillers that will only serve to dull the increasing pain and discomfort that will fill her final days.

I do not know this woman’s situation or her specific desires on this front, but I do know this: it is cruel and deeply inhumane to force a human being to waste away like this, experiencing convulsion after convulsion until the last one that mercifully ends her suffering. It is abominable. It is one of my greatest fears that one day it will be my turn to know that my end is inevitably at hand, and that due to a misguided religious taboo it will not be within my power to make a graceful, dignified and painless exit on my own terms, rather than those of a wracking disease.

This isn’t a theoretical question for me. Many years ago I suffered from kidney stones too large to pass through my ureter. I had to undergo a procedure known as lithotripsy, which essentially involves blasting the stones into pieces with shockwaves, aided by a stent from the penis through the bladder and into the kidney. Unfortunately, the stent wasn’t put in right, and it rubbed up against either my upper ureter or kidney wall, leaving me in bedridden excruciating pain for about 10 days, in addition to the pain of passing the series of blasted stones. I remember thinking constantly at the time that if this were the pain of the final stages of my life rather than of a temporary condition, I would not hesitate to request a morphine overdose after saying my final goodbyes. It was then that I began to read more and become passionate about this issue.

I understand if individuals have religious convictions that prevent them from making the same decision, or if they wish to experience this natural process in the same way as any other.

But it should be a human right to choose otherwise as well, and to take matters into their own hands with the help of a medical professional without the need to resort to messy, painful, or potentially ineffective alternatives. If my end is gradual and predictable, I hope to be able to make the same choice. And I hope that when and if that time comes, this country will have become enlightened enough to allow me to make that choice legally without risk to myself or others.

It’s a question of dignity.

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Late night cuteness break

by digby

A rescued baby otter gets put into the water for the first time:

In case you’re worried that he’s squealing because he’s unhappy, don’t. It’s just how they sound. In fact he’s probably squealing with delight.

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