Thursday, April 10, 2014

CONSERVATIVE MINORITY OUTREACH CONTINUES.

Shorter Aaron Goldstein: I apologize to readers of The American Spectator -- when I celebrated Hank Aaron's baseball career, I didn't realize that he was black.

96 comments:

  1. Bigby9:36 AM

    The comments are already Classic Projection. Yeah, Bill the Butcher
    would be a modern New York City Liberal Democrat. Why he was practically Bill
    DeBlasio with a hipster mustache!

    "And God Bless that non-uppity Negro, Jackie Robinson. Sure, people who think and act just like me sent him death threats and he couldn't stay in the same hotel as the rest of the team, but, mumble mumble Robert Byrd! If only The Blacks Today were as "mellow" and "conservative" as JR they wouldn't suck so much and we could cut social services 100% (which we're going to do anyway, but, you know, Al Gore Sr!)".

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  2. Hank Aaron said "...President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country... The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”

    Aaron Goldstein calls that "a swing and a miss." But is it really?

    When Hank Aaron said "back then," he was referring to 1974, when he received hate mail for trying to break the home run record. He received death threats. Have those racists from the 70s disappeared? Have they changed their ways?



    Some may have, but I don't think that it's any stretch of the imagination to think that those same people are with us today, holding the same warped beliefs. Hank Aaron's view of this may make Republicans uncomfortable, but he has a point.

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  3. Chris Anderson9:39 AM

    From the comments there:

    "Look at the highly entertaining but profoundly, deliberately dishonest movie Gangs of NY, which twisted its way around the central fact that Democrats of NYC lynched and terrorized black people for political purposes. Then imagine the same movie if it accurately reflected the truth."



    I didn't see Gangs of NY, so correct me if I'm wrong, but WTF?

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  4. Tehanu9:45 AM

    I got out of the boat, which I rarely do, and actually read the comments over there. No doubt if there was actually such a thing as "the Democrat Party", and if we were still living in the 19th century, some of their remarks might have some validity. As it is, they absolutely refuse to admit -- even to themselves -- that the moment the Democratic Party embraced civil rights was the moment the entire South turned Republican. Makes me wish General Sherman had been fifty times rougher on them than he was.

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  5. balconespolitics9:48 AM

    Posted a comment on the original, noting that when blacks see a black man of great accomplishment being completely disrespected by conservatives - some simple tit-for-tat type criticisms that many revel in as political mudslinging (eg - criticizing how much the President spends on vacation) ... some really unprecedented (eg - "You Lie" being screamed mid-SOTU, or Bill O'Reilly feeling it's appropriate to continuously interrupt the President during a TV interview) - they consider it to be racially motivated. It's not about whether Republicans vote for Obamacare or a jobs package, or approve a nominee - it's all about tone and perception. I doubt they'll get it.

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  6. redoubtagain9:51 AM

    1973-74--Henry Aaron surpasses a white man's sacred record, receives death threats
    2008-09--Barack Obama surpasses a white man's highest elected position, receives death threats

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  7. I like how out of the list of Hank Aaron's complaints Goldstein addresses only the one about there being fewer African-American players in the major leagues now and doesn't touch the Zinnemann case or or the fact that there are very few African-American CEOs with a 10 foot pole. He says "no one is telling blacks they can't play in the major leagues instead of the NBA or NFL!"

    What he fails to say is that people ARE telling blacks they can't play in the league of CEOs.

    Or walk safely in Florida without risking getting shot by some yahoo.

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  8. If Aaron Goldstein can't see the common element between those two things, he's fooling himself.

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  9. Halloween_Jack10:00 AM

    After all, George W. Bush bestowed Aaron with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Is Aaron telling us that Bush's suit and tie represented a hood?


    What a sad excuse for a head fake. Aaron didn't name W. specifically, of course, and does Goldstein really want Aaron to name names?

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  10. dstatton10:02 AM

    Did he think that Aaron was some nutty black conservative like Herman Cain?

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  11. randomworker10:03 AM

    ...and that blacks are the real racists. It blows my mind.

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  12. randomworker10:05 AM

    I did see it. That comment makes zero sense.

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  13. During the draft riots of old 1860s NYC. Yeah, and Lincoln was a Republican, dammit - 150 freaking years ago.

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  14. XeckyGilchrist10:22 AM

    Those dumbass racists from the 70s have not disappeared, indeed. What amazes me is to see the old 50s pics of wingnut protests where they're holding signs that say that interracial marriage is the devil or "Long hair is communism!" and realize that not only haven't the attitudes changed, some of the people screeching about it in tricorne hats are the very same individuals as those in the pictures.

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  15. Derelict10:26 AM

    Shorter Rightwing-o-sphere: The fact that blacks and libruls keeping pointing out all the racist things we do and say just proves that THEY'RE the real racists. And it's totally intolerant of them to not tolerate our intolerance because freedumb.

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  16. Derelict10:29 AM

    Head fake? More like traditional conservative debating tactic. "Because X did something nice, all your evidence showing that Group XY is racist is invalidated."

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  17. Mark_B4Zeds10:30 AM

    The Republicans try to get a lot of mileage out of the fact that the Democrats were the pro-segregation party in the south from the reconstruction until about the late 1960s to early 1970s, when the civil rights act and the made white racists in the south switch parties. They always forget about that last part. This may be the only time I've seen a conservative commentator reach all the way back to the 1860s to make their point.

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  18. Shakezula10:32 AM

    "Racist? We're not racist! How dare you call us racist you filthy porch monkey!?!" [Swoons]

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  19. Mark_B4Zeds10:33 AM

    The strength of character demonstrated by Hank Aaron is great to see. Having to go through what he had to go through makes him one of the most qualified human beings alive to comment on racism. If the Republicans don't listen to what he's saying, they'll never escape their racism. Not that I think they want to.

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  20. What does Hank Aaron understand about people expecting someone to fail based on his race, anyway? This is another one of those issues that should be the province of people who are neutral on race - white people.

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  21. M. Krebs10:39 AM

    Hammerin' Hank has always been a hero of mine, now even more so.

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  22. Well, consistency of belief IS a conservative value after all.




    I like the way Stephen Colbert put it when he said of President Bush: "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will."

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  23. XeckyGilchrist10:50 AM

    True, but the part that amazes me is how these folks manage to live to be 137. I begin thinking that some of the neo-Confederates were actually around for the first attempt.

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  24. Geez, you could understand those comments? AmSpec's readers are seriously weird. I'm still parsing through a comment by "Wojciehowicz" - he's either calling black people lazy or else he's postulating a corollary to Timecube. Hard to say, the way these guys write.

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  25. M. Krebs10:59 AM

    I guess Scorsese was suppose to have Daniel Day-Lewis affix a Stephen Douglas or George McClellan button to his stove-pipe hat.

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  26. 2014-- Aaron Goldstein outraged by Chappaquiddick

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  27. I apologize to readers of The American
    Spectator -- when I celebrated Harriet Tubman's achievements, I didn't
    realize that she had violated the law by escaping from her legal owner.

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  28. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

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  29. She disrespected property rights, which are sacred!@!!!

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  30. Daniel Björkman11:38 AM

    Admittedly, I am starting to get the impression that anyone who does anything the least bit unusual or controversial in this world will promptly receive death threats. It's like some sort of natural reaction. Lie down with dogs, get fleas. Walk through a swamp, get muddy. Stand out in any way, get letters from foaming-at-the-mouth nuts screaming about how they'll kill you.



    The fact that black people achieving stuff is still "unusual and controversial," on the other hand, does say something about our society.

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  31. zencomix11:42 AM

    Hank Aaron was number 44, too.

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  32. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps12:28 PM

    It's all symbology to them; Aaron mentions a suit and tie and they all start rolling around on the floor in pain because they, too, wear suits and ties!

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  33. BigHank5312:28 PM

    when Aaron likens Republicans, conservatives, and anyone who disagrees in good faith with President Obama with the KKK

    My, that "disagrees in good faith" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, as it covers up 43 doomed votes to repeal the ACA, a pointless government shutdown, and a thousand hours of dimwits squealing "Benghazi!"

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  34. montag212:35 PM

    Which is kinda funny, since most of `em behave--ties and starched shirts notwithstanding--as if they're still in short pants.

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  35. bmaccnm1:09 PM

    I saw Gangs of New York. The movie took place years before the civil war. The comment makes no sense. Is it possible that the writer lacks comprehension skills?

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  36. Glock H. Palin, Esq.1:24 PM

    Is that a willful misrepresentation of what Aaron said, or is the writer just that obtuse?


    Yes.

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  37. Glock H. Palin, Esq.1:32 PM

    The Left is totally aware that the Democrat Party history of hatred for
    black people is a potential game-changer if the non-Left ever wakes up
    and recites that history day in and day out, in movies, books, blogs and
    every other type of media.

    "If only the blacks weren't too ignorant and lazy to understand the history of this country they'd realize that Democrats are the real racists!"

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  38. Gromet1:37 PM

    Ah, but it's NOT unusual for black people to play baseball -- why, Goldstein names TWENTY black people who play it! And if you insist that is not very many, he will A) concede your point and also B) bolster his own point by describing the twenty as "begging" for your permission to disagree. Ha ha, you blacks, get up off your knees! This is 2014 -- you have every right to disagree with anyone you want to! As long as the person you disagree with is saying that black people have a harder time than white people due to institutionalized racism.

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  39. redoubtagain1:38 PM

    Three assumptions here, none true:
    1) The "Left" includes Republicans
    2) Black people don't have choices, or agency
    3) Black people don't know that the current President is a Black Democrat

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  40. ChrisV821:42 PM

    Shorter Aaron Goldstein: "Not a lot of blacks play baseball? What about [lists 18 names out of 800 players on 2014 MLB rosters]."

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  41. But liberals are the real racists!

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  42. Gromet1:47 PM

    That Goldstein column is pound-for-pound one of the stupidest things I've ever read. I mean it's brief, so it is like a bantamweight fighter, but it is an all-time bantamweight champ.


    no one is keeping African-Americans out of baseball except African-Americans who find the NFL and NBA to be more lucrative career options.


    Blacks are so good at sports, they all turn 18 and just pick one to sign with I guess.


    I wasn't named after Hank Aaron, but naturally I have long felt an affinity for him and will continue to do so.


    What? Naturally? What?


    But when Aaron likens Republicans, conservatives, and anyone who disagrees in good faith with President Obama with the KKK, he swings and misses.


    Well "in good faith" is our problem, isn't it. When was the last time the party of "Obummer apology tour death panel Alinsky" said anything in good faith? I'd place it around 1987, and even then it was an endangered species.

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  43. M. Krebs1:54 PM

    Wikipedia: "The film begins in 1846 but quickly jumps to 1862. "


    Not that it matters.

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  44. tigrismus1:55 PM

    Southern Strategy? That's an SEC thing, right?

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  45. redoubtagain2:00 PM

    See, I'm old enough to remember when Ebony Magazine used to put pictures of the Black (and Latino) players in its June issue. (Example from 1969: see page 136 ff. I always managed to get the June issue.)
    And the NFL and NBA were just as prestigious, and lucrative, as they are now.

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  46. XeckyGilchrist2:21 PM

    I'd place it around 1987, and even then it was an endangered species.

    It definitely didn't survive Gingrich's speakership, even if it limped along to the beginning of it.

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  47. XeckyGilchrist2:54 PM

    Oh yes. Cf. Orrin "18 years is long enough" Hatch.

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  48. ThomasNMurray3:51 PM

    It's like some sort of natural reaction. Lie down with dogs, get fleas. Walk through a swamp, get muddy. Stand out in any way, get letters from foaming-at-the-mouth nuts screaming about how they'll kill you. http://qr.net/tr4Y

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  49. The draft riots, which included but were hardly limited to racial violence, are depicted near the end of the movie. I presume the commenter is unhappy that the rioters were not wearing DEMOCRAT signs, and that the movie didn't include a lecture on how the racial politics of the Civil War were somehow the "central fact" of life in New York.

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  50. It was a power grab by the SPLC.

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  51. Shakezula4:46 PM

    Aaron is a very common first name. Why would anyone think Canadian parents named their child after Hank Aaron? Is he trying to establish some sort of bond with Aaron or just a really shitty writer?

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  52. Maybe he grew up thinking he was a schvartser, or Hank Aaron was a yid?

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  53. tigrismus4:54 PM

    They'll be sorry once they have to play Auburn.

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  54. smut clyde4:56 PM

    So Hank Aaron observes that the KKK dress better now than they used to in his day, and everyone complains that he's talking about them?

    If the douche-hat fits...

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  55. Shakezula5:09 PM

    I was born a poor black child...

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  56. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person5:53 PM

    When Hank Aaron said "back then," he was referring to 1974, when he received hate mail for trying to break the home run record

    Probably was, but I have no doubt he was also reaching back to his early baseball days, too. Robinson may have "integrated baseball" in '46, but the Negro American League for some odd reason was still around in '52, and Aaron played there before he went to the Braves, so you can imagine the reception he got from some of the fans. The real loud ones with short little vocabularies...
    In those days, and back when he was a kid, the sheets and hoods were probably taken out of the closet a lot more often than they are today.

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  57. Yes, I'm sure he has vivid memories of those times.


    I was born and raised in the South myself, and I've seen plenty of outright racism firsthand. There's no denying that it exists, despite the efforts of Aaron Goldstein and his ilk to try to cloud the issue.


    I hate that good people like Hank Aaron have had to suffer because of this blight on our society.

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  58. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:07 PM

    What? Naturally? What?


    A favorite winger turn of phrase. "why I just naturally..." "And so naturally I assumed...". Limbaugh used it a lot on his radio show (back when I listened every day. I'm better now). I suspect they all know, or at least have a vague feeling, that whatever they're about to say is a bit off, and seek to immunize themselves from criticism. Hey guys? It don't work...

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  59. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:14 PM

    And propeller beanies...

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  60. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:21 PM

    Comparing the Ds and Rs of even 50-60 years ago to today's is a stretch. Going back to the 19th century and doing the same thing is just stupid.

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  61. JennOfArk7:17 PM

    Go back and check out his latest. I couldn't resist posting a response.


    His basic shorter is "one day all those stupid niggers, wetbacks and feminist sluts will figure out that we're the ones who have their backs!"

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  62. Smarter than Your Average Bear7:21 PM

    OMG they had that rigged from his Kenyan birth.

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  63. Exactly. People know when they are being disrespected; they know when they aren't liked by somebody. Actions stink higher than false words.


    It matters not one whit if Lincoln was a Republican or even the Buddha; modern-day republicans are a disgrace to Lincoln's legacy and a blot on the whole idea of American democracy.

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  64. "All you ever… think… about… is… me…hitting…you! You are the most violent dork I've ever beat up."

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  65. redoubtagain7:57 PM

    In 1953, he played for the Braves' organization in Jacksonville, Florida. In the Sally (South Atlantic) League. Which he helped to integrate. Wikipedia: . . .one sportswriter was prompted to say, "Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations."

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  66. smut clyde7:58 PM

    there are very few African-American CEOs with a 10 foot pole
    Wait, what?

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  67. M. Krebs8:30 PM

    Wow. There's so much awesome in that one issue, my head is spinning.

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  68. Derelict8:33 PM

    That's it! He's trying to make The Idiot into a documentary. Retroactively.

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  69. Derelict8:39 PM

    Remember that illiteracy is a BFOQ for the majority of conservative writers. Remember, also, too, that Sarah Palin is considered by many in the conservative base to be freakin' Cicero in drag.

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  70. JennOfArk8:39 PM

    You mean The Jerk?


    "Waiter, there are snails on her plate!"

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  71. Derelict8:45 PM

    Thanks!

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  72. AGoodQuestion11:32 PM

    If I wrote for the American Spectator I'd apologize to readers too, just on general principle.

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  73. AGoodQuestion11:35 PM

    Goldstein's repudiation of Hammerin' Hank comes just a couple of days after the John J. Miller/W.S. Merwin travesty. Conservatives prostrating themselves to others conservatives for shameful acts of wrongthink is getting pretty common. Hallmark really should have a line of cards for the occasion.

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  74. AGoodQuestion11:42 PM

    As well as elevating George Zimmerman to national hero status because Obama made the unforgivable error of expressing sympathy for the Martins.

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  75. davdoodles11:42 PM

    "the part that amazes me is how these folks manage to live to be 137"

    If you were their God, would you want them hanging around whining about the heat and the celestial buffet and all the "coloured" angels any earlier than you absolutely had to?
    .

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  76. AGoodQuestion11:46 PM

    Is he trying to establish some sort of bond with Aaron or just a really shitty writer?
    Having gotten out of the boat, I can vouch for choice # 2.

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  77. Tehanu12:06 AM

    Would it be rude to point out that many on the liberal side also consider her to be Cicero in drag -- just not the Roman one?

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  78. freq flag12:51 AM

    They always forget about that last part.


    Yeah, They get a lot of practice at that selective memory trick with the first four words of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

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  79. freq flag12:55 AM

    I'm sure the Orly Taitz Brigade is all over this.

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  80. anonymouse2:27 AM

    No faction has ever lost a civil war on such good terms. If the Union had been British, whistling Dixie would have been grounds for mysteriously dying in police custody right up until 1988 and you would only have just removed 'nailing to a tree' as the official sentence for displaying any confederate paraphernalia.

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  81. William Miller8:07 AM

    Followed closely, I think, by white liberal Americans helping to elect that loser, Barack Obama, to the presidency as a way of expiating our lingering white guilt over slavery and Jim Crow. White conservatives have no such guilt, so it's definitely not racist for the Republican party to hamstring Obama at every turn; it's just politics. I could almost believe that except for the part where pretty much everything they do is designed to screw poor black people, along with, well, everybody else. So in that respect the Republicans really are equal opportunity pricks. In other words, it's not racism if you hate blacks, poor people generally AND white liberals.


    "We're not racists. We're just pricks!"

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  82. calling all toasters8:11 AM

    Still, what I wouldn't pay to have a Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short version of The Brothers Karamazov

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  83. William Miller8:17 AM

    P. 137: "38, [Ernie Banks] may yet get chance to play in World Series." The dream never dies.

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  84. William Miller8:26 AM

    I think we can stipulate that racial epithets are still a part of many white people's working lexicon. I recently encountered a white senior citizen who told me he set the combination on his padlock to N-I-G-G-E-R. Sound like a white liberal to you?

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  85. William Miller8:43 AM

    Since we're talking about racial prejudice in sports, I thought you meant this one.

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  86. Derelict9:17 AM

    "For but a moment I was generously disposed,
    But by my conservative brethren I was generously hosed.
    So sorry!"

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  87. J Neo Marvin2:10 PM

    No. They do it All. The. Fucking. Time.

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  88. ckc_not_kc3:44 PM

    ...and then he wrote the combination on the back ('membrin' is hard!)

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  89. the butcher is shown in league with Tammany hall. And during the draft riots a lot of lynchings are portrayed. Greely - depicted mostly positively is a republican. So what?

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  90. Mooser5:57 PM

    "Still, what I wouldn't pay to have a Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short version of The Brothers Karamazov"


    Let me guess, it's about three male siblings who open a bakery for Pesach?

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  91. Lurking Canadian10:20 PM

    That's what The Three Amigos was. They just buried the subtext a little more deeply than usual.

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  92. David_LloydJones4:11 AM

    Here in Canada we remember Tubman as one of the stalwarts of Canadian conservatism. The Chatham community of American refugees, of which she was a main founder, has been economically and intellectually successful over the past 150 years, and while they send the occasional socialist to the Federal Parliament they tend to be conservative and Conservative.

    One of the high points of that community's history was when my friend Bill Davis was Premier, and he had Lincoln Alexander, a grandson of slaves, named Lieutenant Governor, i.e. the Queen's representative, for Ontario.

    I am probably the only person irreverent enough to point out that this was almost a necessity: Alexander was Chairman of the Workmen's Compensation Board, and was convinced that no workmen were entitled to any compensation. For anything. Making him Lieutenant Governor at least got his interfering fingers out of the wheels of government.

    -dlj.

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  93. gainsayer8:40 PM

    The Chicago suburb?

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  94. Tehanu3:46 PM

    Not what I was thinking of, actually, but works just as well!

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