The Rich Male Whiteness, It Burns
A bunch of conservative Texas groups are taking history departments at the University of Texas and Texas A&M to task because they supposedly talk too much about race, class, and gender instead of rich white guys and awesome wars and America Rocks and Let’s Invade Iran! and other such things. Texas has a public school requirement that each college student must take 2 U.S. history classes. So these groups decided to look at syllabi to see what they could see. The answer, too much teaching topics that might make students question the current tenets of the Republican Party.
So I teach a wide variety of courses. Right now, that includes the first half of the U.S. history survey, Civil War and Reconstruction, Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Environmental History, and U.S. West. We have senior people who teach Labor History, but somewhere down the road I’ll be able to pick that up. If you look at my syllabi without any context as to what those classes hold, those classes probably look pretty white, pretty male, pretty middle and upper class. All of those groups are covered plenty, I assure you. On the other hand, you can only teach the Civil War without talking about slavery if you subscribe to the Louisiana Confederate Museum version of history. You could theoretically teach the Gilded Age as the Awesome Age and talk only about how wonderful Jay Gould and Henry Clay Frick were but that would not only be stupid but an incredibly boring class for me and the students. But the idea that we don’t talk about rich white dudes is crazy. Now, we don’t talk about them as heroes. And of course that’s the point for these conservatives, that we should be–John D. Rockefeller was a great man! William McKinley was totally justified in invading the Philippines. As for women, well get back in the kitchen.
My goal in teaching history is to give students a wide range of perspectives. That includes race, class, and gender. It includes nature and sexuality. It includes politics and foreign policy. It doesn’t include too much in the way of military tactics because that bores me, although obviously I have to do a certain amount of it in the Civil War course. It probably should include more on religion, but we all have our weaknesses. It includes talking about the rich and poor, white and black and Native American and Latino and Asian. It is about men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, adults and children, right-wingers and left-wingers. It’s about helping students acquire the tools to make the connections they want to make between the past and the issues they care about in their own lives. It’s about teaching students to read old documents and why that matters. It’s about exposing them to the world of silent film. It’s about teaching writing and critical thinking.
In other words, it’s just standard work in the humanities.
But of course conservatives are outraged by this. The conservative goal in teaching history is to replicate the Republican Party platform in a new generation. Conservatives see history professors as the enemy and they have declared war upon us. The only option we have is to push back, not in favor of a certain leftist ideology, because many historians aren’t leftists by any definition. But rather to push back for a multiplicity of perspectives, for presenting students with information that can help them make connections between the past and the present, whether they become more informed conservatives or outraged feminist activists or they just learn a little more about the history of the television they love so well.
And as for why we should create courses to worship Alexander Graham Bell at the college level, well you’ll have to answer that one for me.
Linnaeus:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:33 am
Wow, the National Association of Scholars is still around.
mattH:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:34 am
Considering I don’t have anything really substantial to say about this, other than to say they just want to make history as boring and forgettable as possible, one of the things I loved about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was the way every chapter started by placing it’s subject matter in the context of European and U.S. history with the quick summaries.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:34 am
You could theoretically teach the Gilded Age as the Awesome Age and talk only about how wonderful Jay Gould and Henry Clay Frick were but that would not only be stupid but an incredibly boring class for me and the students.
Wait, you don’t refer to Gould and Frick as Glorious Job Creators?
Why do you demonize success, Erik?
John D. Rockefeller was a great man!
He did get one thing right. Best biking on the East Coast, with the arguable exception of the Cabot Trail in Canada. If you ever came down off those trails, with the sun on your back and the wind in your face, on a glorious Maine summer day, you might find just a wee spot of forgiveness for him.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:37 am
Cracker, please.
rea:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:47 am
So, they look at the syllibi of the universities’ 85 courses in American History, and determined that too many were too highly specialized?
Must every course be a general survey?
rea:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:51 am
Although that good biking is thanks to John D. Rockerfeller, Jr.–not the man himself
MattT:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:03 am
And since the survey courses tend to be much larger, more total specialized courses (in any subject) doesn’t actually mean that most students are taking specialized courses instead of intro/survey whatever.
LeeEsq:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:06 am
+1.
Major Kong:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:07 am
That pretty well sums it up. There’s not much I can add to that.
JRoth:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:12 am
Whoa, there, fella. That sounds like that fancy math stuff. Next you’ll be claiming that you can’t offset a $400B cut in the estate tax with a $400M cut to SNAP.
BigHank53:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:18 am
I wonder which evil, wretched liberal arts professor forced them to read Orwell, because they certainly seem eager to control the past.
John:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Isn’t pretty much all the philanthropy associated with the Rockefellers due to Jr.?
Tehanu:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:26 am
As long as they’re not the only subjects, I’m all for history about [relatively] rich white males: Robert F. Kennedy. Theodore (and Franklin D.) Roosevelt. William Lloyd Garrison. R. Buckminster Fuller. Jonas Salk. George Soros. Alfred Kroeber. Eugene V. Debs. Samuel Clemens. Mario Savio. Getting the idea?
Sly:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:31 am
I would say that there is an overabundance of social historians within history departments of the United States (and thus courses that use social history as a means of exploring the past), but the answer to that dilemma is not to re-embrace the Great Man Theory. Having more courses on military or religious history is one thing. Reforming the discipline as an exercise in biography is is quite another.
The problem with military history is that it is too dominated by hobbyists who are near exclusively focused on the trivial details of warfare (tactics, equipment, orders of battle, etc.) so a lot of people assume that this is all there is to the field and ignore it. Because you’re right, that stuff is boring.
But try talking about the rise of the modern state without talking about the proletarianization of military force. You simply can’t. This was a phenomena that buried feudal systems in the dust because it made hardened aristocracies superfluous, occurred virtually everywhere on the planet and within a strikingly narrow window of time, and was what largely drove and reinforced industrial capitalism. The hows and whys of this type of phenomena are what military history should be.
JoyfulA:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:40 am
Texas seceded twice in order to retain slavery.
LeeEsq:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:44 am
No, they’ll be fine with course like The Boers: A History of a Heroic People or Glorious Defenders of Southern Honor:A History of the Ku Klux During Reconstruction or White Men Taming the Wild West. These are courses that rich white men could support with pride.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:47 am
“They Don’t Make Movies Like That Anymore: A History of values-Driven Cinema, From Birth of a Nation to Triumph of the Will.”
Western Dave:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:50 am
I don’t think anybody is talking about the New Military History. But somehow, call it a hunch, I think if you have an excerpt of The Rise of American Airpower in your survey, it’s not getting counted. And the complaint is everybody in a college survey should read the Gettysburg Address? Really? Really? Because, why?
Western Dave:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:51 am
Do Texans really want military history taught? Not one, not two, but three failed invasions of New Mexico. Three! I don’t think that’s what they have in mind.
Brien Jackson:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:57 am
Well, my U.S. History II class probably did as much as anything else to turn me into a bona-fide liberal, so at least give them credit for being right that getting a more accurate view of American history than you do in high school (and this is Texas!) makes it unlikely that you’ll support the conservatarian view of the world.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:01 am
Also a failed invasion of Oklahoma in the early 20th century.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:03 am
If you think they hate history, you should hear what conservatives have to say about anthropology. I really am one of their worst nightmares since I teach classes on gender and race and ethnicity.
chris y:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:16 am
with only rare mentions of “Ralph Waldo Emerson, … or the scientists of the Manhattan Project.”
What! That commie Oppenheimer?
Anonymous:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:22 am
Dr. Dick- History’s greatest monster.
MPAVictoria:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:23 am
Bah. That was me.
STH:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:30 am
And remember the platform of the Texas Republican Party? They explicitly come out against critical thinking. So they have a problem with education in general.
bexley:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:41 am
You were history’s greatest monster?
catclub:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:52 am
Lots of other ‘commies’ besides Oppie.
They just want a chapter praising Edward Teller, and skip the rest.
And I am fairly sure they just want the ‘Teller pushed the H-bomb’ part. Which of course was NOT the Manhattan project.
that dude as what do the loomis bot shtick:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:55 am
Pointing out that women and people of color (and dildos) existed in history is a serious dick move. Not cool man.
The Dark Avenger:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:55 am
Nope.
His father did most of the heavy lifting:
Manta:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:58 am
Can there be college level classes on how awesome was Nikola Tesla? http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum
Cody:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:14 am
I thought all you taught was about gay lumberjacks?
Are you telling me all those trolls weren’t right after reading a page of your dissertation!?
Tyto:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:18 am
Oh, well. I guess coffee on my shirt is almost as good as coffee in me.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:32 am
I am willing to bet that many of the conservative groups in question would regard a number of those as not belonging to white people.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:34 am
Says you.
That stuff is incredibly interesting, especially if you combine it with the social sciences.
Logistics especially is fascinating if you compare ‘things learned during wars’ to ‘how those things were then applied to the civilian sector after the war.’
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:35 am
Oklahoma? I believe you mean Occupied North Texas.
LeeEsq:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:41 am
I’d argue that you should go all the way to Gone with the Wind. Do you think American conservatives would watch a foreign, subtitled film like Triumph of the Will?
Dog San Vito:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:43 am
I got my BA in History at the University of Texas. We read Emerson in a couple of classes. And I took a wonderful history of science class that did in fact focus on the physics and politics of the atomic bomb.
Of course, none of my classes spread the triumphalist narrative that the wingnuts apparently want….
RedSquareBear:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:45 am
But not a real dick move.
Sly:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:46 am
That’s pretty much my point. You can’t discount military history, but you can discount what passes as military history in the minds of certain conservatives.
I guess being that the Gettysburg address was only about 200 words and is sometimes regarded as the greatest speech in American history, the lesson one should learn from it is “when making a public address: keep it short.” Other than that, not much.
Sly:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:50 am
In the broader context of historical scholarship, historical facts become interesting only if you combine it with the social sciences. Otherwise we’re simply dealing with trivia.
And military history as a hobbyist pursuit doesn’t do that.
Dave:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:52 am
They are undoubtedly partisans of the No True Honky thesis.
Njorl:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:58 am
You could always dub it. Change all the Seig Heils to Ye Haws, etc.
Njorl:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
The A-Bomb, history’s most awesome anchor baby.
Major Kong:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
I’m pretty sure they read 1984 and thought “Hey! That just might work!”
Incontinentia Buttocks:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Worth remembering that conservative favorite and phony historian David Barton once served as Vice Chair of the Texas Republican Party. The rewriting of history is an old goal of movement conservatism. Those you control the past control the future, doncha know!
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
There are people here in Montana that would not disagree.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Brad moved to Montana?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Don’t tell me you are from Baja Oklahoma.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
Don’t think so, but we have a quantum assload of other libertarians up here.
bexley:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:40 pm
The wingnuts are also waging war on algebra.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Now, I assumed they were hating on algebra because it was Islamic math, but this managed to be even more fucking stupid than the fucking stupid thing I was expecting.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
The wingnuts have always been at war with math. It’s just that now they’re starting to get into the specifics.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:47 pm
Well, that would require them to know things about history first, so it seems a little unlikely.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 12:59 pm
The gun-nuts and Bible-readers of the Midland, commonly called the rednecks, do NOT trust the government not to turn on them as the old USSR turned against to the bourgeoisie.
Let’s face it, the rednecks are increasingly portrayed by the mainstream-media as white racist tea-party terrorists, as the bitter clingers (clinging to their guns and to their Bible). They are the new “class enemies,” the duly appointed scapegoats.
The rednecks fear they are being perceived as a counter-revolutionnary force (against the socialist revolution of the hope & change brigades) — a force not only standing in the way of social progress and liberal utopia, but actively blocking it. This makes them pure Evil, since liberals plan for utopia is pure Good. That could mean that a very liberal Administration (this one, or another one) could come, eventually, to feel totally justified in seeking a “final solution to the bitter clinger question.”
That’s what the rednecks are actually thinking, and fearing.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
That could mean that a very liberal Administration (this one, or another one) could come, eventually, to feel totally justified in seeking a “final solution to the bitter clinger question.”
Could? Do you not know of our FEMA camps in Idaho, and the stockpiles of hollow-point bullets we have for when we line stupid paranoid crackers up against the wall?
Hogan:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:05 pm
The final exam question can be “Was Tesla Serbian or Croatian? Show your work.”
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:06 pm
No I don’t, actually. Please enlighten us. Thanks.
redrob64:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Wow. I just watched part of Triumph of the Will with the sound off and you really can’t tell they’re not actually shouting “Yee haw!” Nice catch.
Hogan:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:12 pm
On the other hand, Pavlov has just been proven right: say “distribute” and “property” within two words of each other and Fox News hosts start to salivate. Salivate more, I mean.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Soon enough, cracker. Soon enough.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
I hope you’re joking. And why do you call me ‘cracker’?
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I’m just going to leave this here.
And this.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Why would I joke? We have plans. All we need is a few cracker heads on sticks, and the plan will be complete.
Linnaeus:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:22 pm
I once taught such a class. Really interesting material to teach, and the students seemed to like it.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Hahaha.
Bill Ayers’s plan sounds better than yours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlN2t0oERHk
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
He calls you cracker because he has no answer to your questioning his authoritah.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
1968 was a dry run. We’re doing planning better now.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:27 pm
You mean like when you run out of arguments and just start screaming at homos until you tire yourself out?
joe from Lowell:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
You know, like Honey Boo-boo, or Duck Empire, or them people wut hunt them gators.
Enemies. Terrorists. Real bad guys.
Yeah, it’s gotten to the point that even Muslims and black public housing residents are feeling sorry for them.
Cracker please.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Christ the rabbit hole of crazy you can wander down if you look at one wingnut youtube clip is incredible.
Of course, this is why my all my video recommendations are now about the illuminati.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Joe, your inability to correctly identify Duck Dynasty betrays your contempt for Real Americans.
redrob64:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Says you. Paddy Griffith’s study of Civil War tactics is fascinating precisely because he addresses how the interaction of poorly applied tactics (“boring”) and new weapons technology (“boring”) affected casualty rates and resulted in the strategic indecisiveness of many Civil War battles. The minutiae of military history may not interest you or Loomis, but the folk beliefs of northern Italian peasants in the 16th and 17th centuries do not particularly interest me and yet I can understand why someone might think it worth writing a book about them.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
this is why my all my video recommendations are now about the illuminati.
I’m more than a bit familiar with that particular problem.
joe from Lowell:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
I owe you a debt of gratitude for allowing me to learn that there was once a governor named “Alfalfa Bill.”
Brandon C.:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
I had an AP history teacher whose guts I hated in Highschool because he was such a hardass. He made sure we all got 5′s on those tests, but I never did so much work for another class again in my life (my entire college career was a joke compared to this class).
If I ever meet him again I’m going to have to shake his hand though. I would never have been liberal without him. At the time I just wanted to learn about battles and wars, and I didn’t understand why all we ever talked about was organized labor and civil rights.
joe from Lowell:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Easiest class of the year:
“They sleep all night and they work all day. Talk amongst yourselves.”
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Thank you for those two links. I knew about the second one; I’ve trained with James Yeager, for whom I have great respect.
James Yeager is totally sane. I deeply respect what he has done. At some point, someone has to step up, man up, and SAY IT. No masks, no anonymity, no B.S. “This is my name,” and “this is the situation,” and “anyone who doesn’t like it can come and try to do something about it”. James Yeager knows EXACTLY what he has done. He is NOT crazy; he is just the FIRST to say it publicly, openly: Stick to your guns, no matter what.
If the government come to take them by force, they have declared war on the Constitution, and on you. At that point, war is joined, just as it was on another big gun confiscation raid on April 19, 1775. If those guns were legal in 2012, it should be legal in 2013 and it will be forever. If they say otherwise, they are liars and traitors and oath breakers and domestic enemies. That’s what Yeager basically said.
Every survivor of every genocide says the same: when they come to take your guns, shoot them. Make them work for it, so that THEIR system would become overwhelmed — because they don’t have 20 million Federal Law Enforcement Agents to do armed battles all over the country, instead of nice polite arrest raids.
Remember Solzhenitzn’s paragraph “And how we burned in the camps later” because they didn’t resist the “KGB” in the lobbies and stairwells with axes and knives.
If you give up your arms, you are placing your entire trust in the permanent future benevolence of the U.S. govt. This trust is invariably fatal, as history teaches us, from Turkey to Russia, from Germany to China, from Cambodia to Cuba.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:44 pm
lol, I despise those crazy conspiracy-theorists à la Alex Jones, blaming everything on humanoid green lizards, Zionists, the Bush Administration, skull & bones or the Illuminati !!
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Oh god I love a good ‘I’m am so too a tough guy’ rant. This is adorable.
wengler:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
When I was in college not too long ago at a Big 10 University, my military history professor often complained that there were only 2 people that taught it throughout the Big 10. It was an interesting, very popular and well-attended class, and he often said things that made right-wingers mad.
The larger universities should all have at least one military history professor, even just for the fact that guys like Victor Davis Hanson don’t dominate the field.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
Blaming everthing on the gubbermint though is just cold vulcan logic.
God, you can’t even wet the bed consistently.
Hogan:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:47 pm
he is just the FIRST to say it publicly, openly: Stick to your guns, no matter what.
Yeah, I’ve never heard of Charlton Heston either.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:48 pm
No, he really will fight off the jack-booted thugs. You can smell his testosterone from here.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:48 pm
Haha, thanks. But be aware that I’m not nearly as awesome as Yeager. I’m still pretty much a coward. Thus my (relative) anonymity. I was just encapsulating his argument.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
Hmmm, I was referring there to Yeager’s last line: “if it goes one inch further, I will start killin’ people”
Henry-Bowman-style.
Sorry for the confusion.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
I am teaching a graduate course on ethnicity and race next semester. I used to teach an undergraduate version of it in Kyrgyzstan. There are some syllabi of the undergrad version up on my blog. But, I will not be covering race and ethnicity in the US. Instead I will be covering the USSR, South Africa, and Palestine. I still have to put the graduate syllabus together, but my current thinking on the subject is pretty heavily influenced by George Fredrickson, Jon Rex, Kennan Malik, and Etienne Balibar.
Hogan:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
No, it was invented by a zebra named Al.
wengler:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Stop talking about that, dammit!
Karen:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
The worst thing about that invasion was the implication that there is any part of Oklahoma worth fighting over.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Cracker, we’re aware you’re “not nearly as awesome” as Battlefield: Earth, or head lice, or even JenBob’s love life.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
We figured that one out on our own, pumpkin.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Us bitterly-clinging Crackers don’t blame everything on the government; it’s more about the God-given right to be armed — in order to deter any funny move by any standing armies, foreign and domestic.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
I’m working on it though! (I note however that you also are anonymous, so… I guess that makes at least two of us, dear.)
joe from Lowell:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:57 pm
The only example I can think of in which a well-armed citizenry prevented the United States government from doing something is the resistance of the Klan and other post-Confederates to Reconstruction.
I have to say, the historical record does not help the “more guns = freedom” argument.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
sorry, the gubbermint and the un. i wouldn’t want to misrepresent your juvenile paranoia.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
I’m also not posturing about all the people I would totes I really mean it now blow the fuck away if I don’t get what I want.
Because I’m, y’know, an adult.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
in order to deter any funny move by any standing armies, foreign and domestic.
Yea, the US Army is quaking in its collective boots at your martial prowess.
redrob64:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
My god, it’s huge.*
*The monumental stupidity, that is.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Let me give you an example, sir. Then I’ll explain something that seems to escape you.
The FBI says that 1 million violent felonies are stopped or prevented with a firearm, and 98% of the time the gun is not discharged. And not one of these events makes the national news!
A girl was going to be raped. She pulled her gun. The thug backs off. She did not have to pull the trigger. The rape never happened. Those evens are virtually never registred: by definition, something that has been prevented does not happen.
It’s the same with an armed citizenry: we can’t know what exactly has been prevented since it did not happen.
Capiche?
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Polly wanna?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:06 pm
My experience has been that the minutiae of anything is usually pretty damn interesting.
The minutiae of piano tuning is interesting because of how octaves work. The minutiae of fire hydrants is interesting because of the way public water infrastructure as it relates to firefighting is designed.
Basically we just live in a really interesting world.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:06 pm
One of my good friends is a southern, conservative dude and when he was stationed in Oklahoma he used to joke that he almost wished Texas would try to secede, just so he could be part of putting them in their place.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Ain’t about ‘paranoia,’ Sharculese. It’s about prevention, about the lessons of history. Go ask Turkish Armenians, German Jews, Russian Kulaks, Chinese, Ugandans, Guatemalens, Cambodians, Cubans, Rwandans, and on and on, what us evil Crackers mean.
STICK TO YOUR GUNS!
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:08 pm
This is the argument that earned us a desert in the desert chasing pretend WMD, fyi.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Oh, christ. Nothing really sells an argument for me like crackers appropriating my people’s history to enable their he-man fantasies.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
And a finer whackjob loon it would be hard to find.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
“now blow the fuck away if I don’t get what I want.”
Ain’t about getting what he wants. Yeager clearly said: it’s only about KEEPING what he has.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
If you are talking my response to those who deliberately act gay by calling another ‘sweetie’ because they think it might intimidate, then they get what they deserve.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
Let me give you an example, sir.
Hey, we have copypasta!
The FBI says that 1 million violent felonies are stopped or prevented with a firearm, and 98% of the time the gun is not discharged
And yet their web site suppresses this not-at-all-made-up statistic.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Guatemalens
To be fair to our troll, Guatemalens (sic) do know something about evil crackers.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Ain’t about appropriating! but about witnessing, keeping the memory alive. And it ain’t only about the Jewish people; the biopolitical project of the Third Reich was about producing a master race from the German volk; they were killing Slaves as well, gypsies, homosexuals, sickos, and so on and so forth.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Cite please.
Then how do you know they’re happening?
Which is why nobody can be charged with ‘attempted murder.’
Well, can you point to a western democracy with a disarmed citizenry where awful things happened precisely because those citizens were disarmed that could have been prevented if they’d been armed?
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Correction: His contempt for only those racial groups that he doesn’t like.
It’s all about race.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Being condescended to for effect is exactly like your raging, barely sublimated homophobia.
Well, you’ve sold me on this one, cupcake.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
it’s more about the God-given right to be armed — in order to deter any funny move by any standing armies, foreign and domestic.
Good luck with that. Given a battle between Bushmaster armed whackaloons and B-52s, I know which way I am betting.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:17 pm
No sharculese. It’s the other way around. Preventive wars are like Gulf War II are about ACTING ON THE FUTURE NOW. Evil crackers just want to preserve NOW thestatu quo in order to prevent any genocide from occuring in the future.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Which is why nobody can be charged with ‘attempted murder.’
Do they give Nobel Prizes for “attempted Chemistry”?
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:18 pm
According to Ghanaian market women race theory if they are not African (that is actually from Africa) or Chinese then they are white (obruni). That includes everybody from the western hemisphere regardless of skin color, people from the Middle East, and people from South Asia.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:18 pm
Murke, link is here:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3096257
I was quoting texto.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:18 pm
We can keep the memory alive without being lectured to by crackers about how not getting to have all the toys you want is exactly the same as genocide. That shit is basically the textbook definition of appropriating.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
ACTING ON THE FUTURE NOW
Your CAPS LOCK has proven convincing, cracker. I now see this is not at all paranoid gibberish.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:20 pm
@Malaclypse
I don’t think the FBI ‘suppresses’ the info; it might be that we don’t search with proper key words. I dunno.
Incontinentia Buttocks:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:20 pm
It’s twue! It’s twue!
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
” not getting to have all the toys you want is exactly the same as genocide.”
Guns are not toys, ma’am.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
We get it dude, you want to use whatever the fuck you can dream up as an excuse to act out your ad hoc fantasies of cartoon machismo.
It’s just that we think that’s a stupid way to run a planet.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
In theory, maybe not.
The way you talk about them, yeah, totes.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Does this mean that we can soon expect a wave of Redneck refugees here in Ghana? You can’t have any guns here, but it seems almost everybody walks around with bible all the time.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
I dunno.
Finally an accurate sentence.
L2P:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
I almost feel bad for the “rednecks” who are going to try to try to be a “counter-revolutionnary force.” That didn’t turn out so well for the Confederacy, and those guys were a hella lot better prepared then these knuckleheads.
It’s almost like they don’t realize that virtually all of their actual power and privilege comes from the ballot, and all of their guns don’t mean squat. Do they even REMEMBER what happened to the Black Panthers when they tried to be “counter-reveolutionnaries”?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
You’d have to prove this.
So, they have to be liars? They can’t just be wrong? And traitors? Treason has a very specific definition and wanting to confiscate weapons doesn’t come anywhere near it, even if it were unconstitutional.
This is empirically false.
The British seem to be doing okay. So do the Canadians, the French, the Japanese…
bradP:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
I’m going to New Hampshire.
Plus DrDick isn’t a monster. Just a dick.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:29 pm
Interesting. I assume by Africa they mean sub-Saharan Africa, so as to exclude the Egyptians, Tunisians, etc?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:30 pm
@Murch
“Well, can you point to a western democracy with a disarmed citizenry where awful things happened precisely because those citizens were disarmed that could have been prevented if they’d been armed?”
Yes, the Weimar Republic, with their gun registration laws and limits on weapons. Then Hitler was elected and offered considerable power in 1933. His regime used the registration list to disarm first, and then later to send many in camps– eventually killing millions.
Hitler used the gun registration lists compiled under the non-threatening Weimar Republic, in order to locate the regime’s “enemies.” First, they picked up the weapons. Later, they proceeded to mass arrests; it was easy since the people are disarmed.
When they gave up their arms, they placed their entire trust in the permanent FUTURE benevolence of the German government. Fatal mistake.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
The repeated comparison of genocide to resort to the political process involving open debate and an acknowledgment of the limitations on what can be done shows a contempt for history that is just breathtaking.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
That’s not for you to judge. There is actually something called the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Does this mean that we can soon expect a wave of Redneck refugees here in Ghana?
What are tax rates in Ghana like?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
so far.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Hmm. ‘Murke.’ I kind of like that. It looks a bit classier than ‘Murc.’
That said, you’re quoting… another random guy quoting a statistic. You’re invoking the authority of the FBI here, saying that they say a million violent felonies are prevented a year by gun owners. So, okay. Where are they saying it?
L2P:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
*Checks the alphabet. OK, C-G is screwed, then R-T.*
Ok, Norway. That’s NOT between those letters. They have pretty stringent gun control laws. No totalitarianism!
Let’s look at the Netherlands. Yep, no totalitarianism!
What about Australia? Yep, again, no totalitarianism!
You know what? We should be just fine! The United States is outside of the “Alphabet Line O’ Totalitarianism!” We should EASILY be able to get rid of our guns and not turn into Cambobia, China, Germany, Turkey*, or Russia?
*Whats up with Turkey, by the way? I get they’re an Islamic nation and all, but they’re totally a democracy with relatively free markets and stuff, especially compared to their neighbors. And they certainly aren’t “less free” now then they were in the past. But let’s spot you that one.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
What limitations are you talking about?
Auguste:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
Holy shit.
I mean, really.
I’ve been immersed in conservative stupidity for more than a decade, and I nevertheless just dropped my jaw in surprise. How is it possible that they keep going dumber?
jkay:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
I swear, today’s radical conservatives are more far more Know-Nothing than the actual Know-Nothings were….
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
We should probably not cede power to a charismatic nationalist with a message of transformative restoration, then, but you guys always seem to want to do that, so…
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:37 pm
Which part of the conversation covers ‘criticizing my crazy ideas about how the world works is off limits?’
Because I just checked and I’m not seeing it.
catclub:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
“This trust is invariably fatal, as history teaches us”
But aren’t there other examples: The Philipines 1900-1908, American Indians 1492-1920. These actually give an indication of the level of barbarity that the government in question is capable of. But, sadly, may no longer have the gumption to commit.
I would note that although the Philipines was not a nice place, the result was not eradication.
Maybe the lesson is that the Filipinos were armed.
Didn’t we disarm the Japanese after WWII? I have a hard time imagining Doug MacArthur doing anything less.
Then we butchered the lot of them. except, not.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
– “If the government come to take them by force, they have declared war on the Constitution, and on you.”
– “You’d have to prove this.”
–The Founding Fathers were suspicious of standing armies (foreign and domestic), and intended the able-bodied folks to provide for their own defense.
While undesirable, a standing army is necessary to protect the country; but that does not neutralize or abolish the importance of an armed populace, able to overthrow a tyranny by owning the same basic weapon of any contemporary standding army: now that weapons is a select-fire, intermediate cartridge, detachable magazine carabines.
To make clear that the existence of an actual standing army does NOT abolish the rights of an armed population, the Founders wrote the Second Amendment like this: “while a nation needs a standing army to remain secure, nonetheless citizens retain the right to own weapons of all kinds.”
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:40 pm
The repeat discussion, absent from your delusional persecution fantasy, of the fact that smelting all the swords into plowshares, or pretty much any of the swords for that matter, is not happening.
Seriously, it’s like your not paying attention to the conversation at all and just want any excuse to talk big about how you would totally stand up to the ‘gun grabbers’ (the stupidest term in our political discourse)
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
You understand the difference between stating something and proving it right. I mean, seriously, you’ve demonstrated that your grasp of history is basically fucked, but you get the basics of how it works, right?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Where are they saying it?
Nowhere on their web site. But the number is nice and round, so it must be accurate.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Murc,
Sorry for misspelling your name.
I did not find the source, we’d have to look into this database, as someone else pointed to it: http://www.fbi.gov/fbi-search?q=crime+stopped+by+guns&siteurl=www.fbi.gov%2F&siteurl=www.fbi.gov%2Fstats-services%2Fcrimestats#output=xml_no_dtd&client=google-csbe&cx=004748461833896749646%3Ae41lgwqry7w&cof=FORID%3A10%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&siteurl=www.fbi.gov%2Fstats-services%2Fcrimestats&q=crime+stopped+by+guns
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
The FBI probably hid the data in those Iraqi weapons labs we’re gonna find any day now.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Sorry for not stating the obvious: neutralizing the effectivity of the Bill of Rights without any justification (such as WAR) is akin to a putsh, to declaring war onto the populace. The President and every law enforcement officer have pledged to protect the Constitution.
Going against their pledge is aking to acting as domestic enemies.
Don’t get me wrongl I’m aware the emergencies require the temporary deactivation of the elements of the Constitution, even the Habeas Corpus. But a justification should be provided.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
able to overthrow a tyranny by owning the same basic weapon of any contemporary standding (sic)army: now that weapons (sic) is (sic) a select-fire, intermediate cartridge, detachable magazine carabines (sic).
Do you have a well-edited news-letter to which me might subscribe?
And you do understand that the “basic weapon” of the Army is a tank, right?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
we’d have to look into this database
One of us did look, cracker. It wasn’t there. Now it is time for the person who used the statistic to cite it.
Or we can laugh at your obviously-bullshitted number.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
“If those guns were legal in 2012, it should be legal in 2013 and it will be forever. If they say otherwise, they are liars and traitors and oath breakers and domestic enemies.
So, they have to be liars? They can’t just be wrong? And traitors? Treason has a very specific definition and wanting to confiscate weapons doesn’t come anywhere near it, even if it were unconstitutional.”
– Oh yes, traitors: as in “going against their pledge of allegiance to the Constitution”. That is treason.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
They take 20% of my gross out of my pay check every month. There is also a VAT of 15%. But, you don’t have to file any income taxes if you get a salary. All the income tax is taken monthly out of your paycheck. I don’t know about property taxes.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
not in the context of the populace as per the Second Amendment.
sorry for the typos.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Guns are not toys, ma’am.
Indeed not. In your case they are clearly penile substitutes.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
I was of course, referring to your sweeping declaration about “the Founding Fathers,” the sort of claim that always foreshadows a claim not researched or even fully thought out, but let’s pretend I didn’t. Let’s pretend I was talking about the other gibberish you said.
Do you really not get that all anyone is talking about is doing things through the political process? Is that totally lost on you? I know it’s more fun to make alarmist claims about revolution, but sooner or later you’re gonna have to admit that reality is a lot more boring than your diary, kiddo.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:53 pm
He’s totally gonna be a Wolverine. Stop smirking!
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
I think that smell is coming from where he shit his pants.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
re: Turkey, I was referring to what they did to the Armenians, after said Armenians have been disarmed.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Or the shit stains in his underwear.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Point to the provision in the Constitution where it only means exactly what you declare it to mean.
I mean, I always thought it was emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is, but maybe I’m wrong, maybe the Constitution is a blunt object you awkwardly try to use as a bludgeon against anyone who disagrees with you.
It would require the drafters to have been much dumber men than I imagine them to have been, but I’m open to that possibility. Sell me on your case.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:57 pm
I think he is using the term to refer to the Ottoman Empire and the genocide committed by the Committee of Union and Progress against the Armenians during World War One. Of course Turkey and the Ottoman Empire are not exactly same. The idea of a distinct Turkish nation as it later became constituted developed rather late in the life of the Ottoman Empire. But, one sees these type of errors all the time. For instance people referring to the USSR as Russia. At any rate the CUP government was not typical of most of Ottoman history especially as they basically bypassed the Sultan who was the legal head of state.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:58 pm
And you are going to take on Sherman Tanks, RPGs, 50-caliber machine guns, and B-52s with your fucking popguns? I hope you have a good funeral plan.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
The Black Pantheres were revolutionaries, not counter-revolutionaries.
The Obama régime, if it tries to suspend permanently the effectivity of the 2nd A would act as a revolutionary force, usurping the Law of the Land.
That’s why the gun-clinging rednecks of the Midland are casting themselves as a counter-revolutionary force.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Than nope. They are all headed to Somalia.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
What are the proper rites so ensure a smooth entry into Vanillahalla?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
And much better armed, as wll.
redrob64:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:01 pm
You’d think that at some point brain activity has to be so low the autonomic nervous system would shut down, and yet they continue to breath.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:02 pm
That’s why the gun-clinging rednecks of the Midland are casting themselves as a counter-revolutionary force.
Crackers need to realize that life isn’t a movie.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:03 pm
Not to mention smarter.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Listen wise guy,
It happened on the territory of Russia, by the people of Russia. Russia as the motherland, as in Dostoïevski’s for instance.
A nation can’t be reduced to the modern idea of “imagined community” as described by Anderson, OK. Let’s say I’m using Deleuze’s definition of nation here: a nation = a people + a land — no matter the form of the political power, be it a Kaliphate or a nation-state or a empire.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Good Obama hasn’t shown any interest in doing this.
Believe me, I’d love to scrap the Second Amendment. It is antiquated relic. But if it happens (and it’s not happening, get you undies untwisted), it will be by act of the three fourths of the several States, as is our constitutional right.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Yes, Arabs like members of the large Lebanese and Syrian populations here are considered to be obruni.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Oh god this is even more adorable than the tough guy shit. Please never leave, crazy pretend revolutionary.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Honey Boo-boo doesn’t count; she doesn’t hate gay folks.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:07 pm
By “casting themselves”, I mean: by imagining themselves; that’s how communities are formed and endure. Any community is an imagined community as well as an actual one; there are at least two major folds: a virtual one and an actual one.
Both those poles are real and materiall one is abstract, and the other is concrete.
If you don’t understand the role and function of imagination in the information and deformation of communities, then you don’t sh*t about politics. Sir.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Let’s hope you’re right, darlin’.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Yea, J Otto knows nothing about the history of Russia under Stalin, or about genocide in the former USSR. You need to enlighten him.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:09 pm
There is actually something called the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights.
That’s not a winning argument here at LGM, Dagney. None of these people really care about any of that.
It’s only important to them if they can use it to promote a particular agenda. But in the abstract…not so much.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
Given that there’s no evidence outside the fever swamps of your paranoid imagination that I’m wrong, I’d say it’s a good bet.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
We most definitely understand the role of your imagination in your politics, if that helps?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I’m a conservative, fighting against revolutionaries forces. I am not a revolutionary.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Please tell me you are here to stay in our little community. We like you.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
This Obama? Nothing terrifies the crackers more.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Too bad we’re not on intrade.com
Substance McGravitas:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Boy, I can remember those halcyon days of constitutional shredding when “the constitution is not a suicide pact” was right-wing wisdom.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Jenny, did they teach irony in whatever home-school hellhole you crawled out of?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Evil Crackers fear nothing but Our Lord !!
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Whatever you wanna call your Walter Mitty school of politics is cool. Just never stop being you.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
See, their fear is all in their imagination!
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Well thank you. John Protevi banned me rather quickly from newsappblog for islamophobia and homophobia and generally being rude. I don’t know how long this blog will *tolerate* me.
Yog Sothoth, Devourer of Souls:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Your little thunder-godling is nothing to fear. Pray I do not notice you further.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
It’s always the right time for CB4.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
If you give up your arms, you are placing your entire trust in the permanent future benevolence of the U.S. govt.
Every dictator wants your guns. Then you are a subject, not a citizen. Arms are the difference.
And the difference between this red headed idiot you’re arguing with is you’re not asking her to change her behavior. If she doesn’t want a gun…..fine.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Well Jenny’s on what, his 20th incarnation, and we haven’t stamped out that infection, yet.
And you’re way more fun than him.
Njorl:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
If I had to grade a bunch of papers written by undergrads, I’d want them to read the Gettysburg address first, even if I were teaching Russian literature.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
If you give up your arms, you are placing your entire trust in the permanent future benevolence of the U.S. govt.
Every dictator wants your guns. Then you are a subject, not a citizen. Arms are the difference.
And the difference between this idiot you’re arguing with is you’re not asking her to change her behavior. If she doesn’t want a gun…well OK.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
Imagine, a conservative gun nut who’s also a homophobe and xenophobe. SHOCKING!
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
So, you’re asserting that if the tiny Jewish minority in Germany had been armed with personal weapons, the pogrom against them, which had the enthusiastic support of much of the populace and was being orchestrated by a guy who had command of a modern army, it would have made a difference?
Well, maybe.
An armed insurgency, guerrilla war, can be effective against tyrants or invaders. But it usually depends upon there being widespread discontent; insurgents need a sympathetic populace to move around in, or they’re just a criminal gang and rather easily dealt with.
That notwithstanding, you are basically contending that we should always act like the possibility the government is going to round us up and put us in camps, all the time, forever, and that any price living in a heavily armed society might exact on us is worth paying because this eventuality is so terrifying.
That’s no way to live. Part of living in a civilization is so you don’t HAVE to be scared and paranoid and armed all the time. I participate in a collective government and pay my taxes for precisely this reason.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
‘
Lol. Jenny, do we need to do remedial lessons on How the Internet Works.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Apology accepted. No harm done.
‘We?’
You were the one who was using the statistic to make a point. You go find it.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:19 pm
And you’re way more fun than him.
Seriously. Jennie never name-checked Gilles Deleuze.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Every indication says ‘sharculese’ is a dude.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
I was only responding to his criticism re: methodology:
“Of course Turkey and the Ottoman Empire are not exactly same. The idea of a distinct Turkish nation as it later became constituted developed rather late in the life of the Ottoman Empire. But, one sees these type of errors all the time.”
I was not referring to Turkey or Russia in the sense of a nation-state. The people of Turkey and the land of Turkey existed way before Ataturk. I was using the concept of nation as defined by a unity effecting from land+people.
The people of Turkey did it, no matter who gave the order, no matter the structure of the (fast-declining) Kaliphate.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Isn’t this what’s he’s been saying explicitly?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Wait, does this mean vacuumslayer does not really have big pink bunny ears?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
It’s not, actually. Treason is very clearly defined in the constitution. It’s the ONLY crime defined, actually.
Also, I don’t believe either legislators or executives pledge allegiance to the Constitution. They take oaths of office, which are slightly different.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
Second Amendment is very clear, darling. Evil Crackers don’t need no black robe to tell us what is says.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
That was my Favorite Part.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
To be overly fair to Dagney, a few million people with automatic weapons who decided to conduct an armed insurgency (as opposed to trying to shoot it out with a tank in the middle of the street) would in fact be a very serious threat.
But they’d also need a sympathetic populace to support them, and by the time we got to that point our system of governance is already breaking down pretty badly.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
dude…and a really infected gay dude at that.
Homosexuality is nothing more than a defective libido. It’s really hard to have a true phobia about that. It’s more pathetic than fearful.
You seem to be this years poster child.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
And Dagney’s not a heavily armed panda either.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Their oath is a pledge to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
What are the proper rites so ensure a smooth entry into Vanillahalla?
“I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet.”
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
“Homophobia” is just another meaningless leftist rent-a-phrase that’s hurled as a term of abuse to shut down debate.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Also notice how leftists always classify differing political positions from their orthodoxy not just as wrong, but as some kind of mental disorder (“phobia”).
You know what country used to throw it’s political opponents in mental hospitals and classify them as mentally ill? None other than the USSR.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree here, folks.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
Which is of course why Heller was a two-line opinion that said “We don’t have to explain this shit.”
The wignut obsession with writing nuance out of the Constitution is a serious disrespect to a brilliant if flawed document.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
How many names are you going to play with, Jenny?
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Who is Jenny?
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
One pseudonym per thread, Jenny.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Second Amendment is very clear, darling.
So are Amendments 4-8, and I don’t see you getting your panties in a twist over them, sweetie.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Some of the Founders were. Others were not. A bunch of them had no real problem with standing armies at all.
Never conflate what made it into the constitution, or what some of the more well-known founders wrote, with what ‘The Founders’ as a group monolithically believed. They started arguing over what the Constitution meant as soon as the ink was dry. A number of the drafter admit freely they fudged clauses in order so that they could tell different stories about them in different states.
The Second Amendment says nothing of the kind. It doesn’t refer to, or deal with, the army in any way, shape, or form.
And a number of the Founders would disagree with you that it guaranteed citizens a right to own weapons ‘of all kinds’.
The whole amendment is worded badly. It almost certainly does guarantee a certain limited right to own guns as individuals. But that’s about as far as it goes, and like the first amendment, reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions may be put onto that right.
What’s that, you say? You disagree with all of us here over what time, place, and manner restrictions on your 2nd Amendment rights you find reasonable? Why, we have a whole legislative branch and a court system that is ultimately staffed by all voting citizens!
Win your battle there. Based on the last twenty or thirty years, people arguing for a robust interpretation of the 2nd Amendment have been very successful.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
So that’s a no on the irony question from upthread, then?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Who is Jenny?
Someone with a really obvious dumbprint.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
It’s not about tolerance, btw.
Tolerance of homosexuality (namely that it’s none of our business what two adults do in the bedroom, which I agree with) is not enough for them.
Nope.
You MUST approve of sodomy. The Left doesn’t do tolerance–it demands approval of defective behavior. It’s the totalitarian temptation, yet again.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Dagney,
Because you have a different opinion than you should here at LGM, there will be an attempt to shut you down. They will try to block your IP address and if you are successful in changing that (which is pretty easy), then they will try to block your MAC address. This, too is easy to change and there’s lots of software out there that will help you do that. And if all else fails, they will tag the name of your computer that you have in the hardware manager.
They are frustrated by those who don’t share the hive-mind. They cannot allow you to speak.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, but violating that oath isn’t an act of treason, necessarily. Again, treason has a real specific definition.
For that matter, I’m not even sure it’s legally actionable. In the case of a President and many Governors, their legislative counterparts can impeach them if they feel they’ve violated said oath. But legislators… that’s tricky.
I guess their fellows could expel them from their governing body, but I don’t know you could bring legal action against them.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Subtext remaining text, Jennie.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:33 pm
Exactly Speak Truth.
The Leftist cannot tolerate a political opinion different from the current PC Orthodoxy.
You. MUST. Approve.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:33 pm
You know who else hated the political process?
…
People who use overly-broad historical analogies as a rhetorical crutch.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
It’s a DUDE
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Jenny, why are you talking to yourself?
BigHank53:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
You do realize that most folks in New Hampshire, having been exposed to scads of presidential candidates, a hands-on legislature, and for-real town meetings are possessed of excellent political bullshit detectors, right?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
So far you haven’t said anything islamophobic or homophobic here.
This blog is pretty tolerant of people whose politics we consider crazy when it comes to, say, the economy, or climate change, or in this case gun control. I mean, we’ll say nasty things, but we haven’t banned a ton of people for it.
Out and out racism or sexism will get a hammer pretty fast, tho.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Why is Dabney Coleman ranting in this thread, he after all worked 9 to 5
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
When the application of justice ain’t legally actionnable come the guns.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
I’m going to New Hampshire.
Are you really? If you are near the MA border, we should celebrate our disagreements with the opening of fermented beverages.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
You MUST approve of sodomy. The Left doesn’t do tolerance–it demands approval of defective behavior. It’s the totalitarian temptation, yet again.
The left is not a tolerant bunch. You can see that when they discuss religion. And every “solution” to any problem is a ban or some federal law…
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:38 pm
Wow, who knew calling Texans a bunch of uneducated hillbillies would bring a bunch of uneducated hillbillies ranting about how “Libs” are trying to control them by not thinking like clowns
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
This is of course why BradP and David Nieporent never post here any more.
The fact that we think you’re dumb and boring is only a reflection you Jenny.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Or classify political opinions as “hate speech”.
The Left’s long-term goal is repeal of the First Amendment. It will happen eventually.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Jennie, Jennie – you are less convincing at sock puppetry than Scott Adams. I’m actually embarrassed for you now. Show some self-respect, dude.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
I guess that’s better than your sudden obsession with my gender?
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Gonna make Ms. Rosh jealous!
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
The bottom line is Leftists cannot accept that still, in the vast, vast majority of the world (an even vaster majority if you include all humans who ever lived) homosexuals have been a despised, tiny minority, and only in the last two decades, in a very small section of the world (western Europe, New England, and Canada) has this changed.
Uncle Ebeneezer:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
I love that just underneath Tesla sits the controversy of porn actress Raven Riley. The internet is so awesome.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Yes calling you a bunch of ignorant douchebags when you act like ignorant douchebags is exactly like repealing the First Amendnent, I’m a Canadian and even I understand your constitution better than you
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
By ‘tolerance of homosexuality’ we usually mean ‘gay people should be treated exactly the same as straight people’ as opposed to ‘it’s none of our business.’
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
No, no – our goal is to liquidate the
kulakscrackers as a class.olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
So you admit to being a hate-filled bigot, thank you for clarifying
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
You cannot treat homosexual behavior the same as heterosexual behavior because, it is, in fact, not the same.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
Seriously, dude is not even trying to switch is writing style up when he changes names.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
Blah blah blah, more hurling of abuse.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
sez u
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:45 pm
@Murc,
1) Well, as probably know, it was not about a ‘tiny minority’ of Jews. It was about all the diverse people (a multiplicity) left besides the Volk. And even the volk would have been sacrificed later on upon the altar of the master race.
I suggest you read Agamben on ‘sovereign power and bare life’ to learn more about the biopolitical fracture.
2) It ain’t about living in fear neither. Only about being armed. It acts as a deterrent. A very powerful deterrent.
A free people is an armed people. It’s a predicate of individual sovereignty. Sovereign individuals form a free people.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
The insertion of a penis into a vagina, which can lead to new life, is not equivalent to either the insertion of a penis into a mans colon or the insertion of electrical equipment or sex toys into one woman’s vagina by another.
It’s just not the same. It is objectively not the same..
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
Actually yeah, I find that shit unacceptable. Blind squirrel, nut, etc., etc.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
What do you think about Islam’s position on homosexuality?
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
says you
L2P:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Oddly enough, the American Indians actually were armed.
Didn’t help them much, though.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
careful mal. you know jenny rock relationship with sarcasm. someone has to remove that load from his diaper.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Says nature.
Anal sex has never lead to reproduction.
Never. Never in the history of the entire world has ejaculation of semen into a man’s large intestine led to anything other than new diseases.
Warren Terra:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
It is worth keeping in mind that Lincoln’s first great appearance on the national stage is the Lincoln-Douglas Debates – at each of which the first speaker spoke for a full hour, followed by the second speaker for ninety minutes, followed by the first speaker returning for thirty minutes. The Gettysburg Address is short and is a masterpiece, but it’s absurd to learn from Lincoln that public speakers should keep it short.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Subtext still text, Jennie dearest.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Canada is a perfect example.
Canada has criminalized certain political opinions (those that differ from Leftist Orthodoxy) as “hate speech”. Just ask Mark Steyn.
It will come to America eventually.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Who cares?
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
The imaginary version of Islam where every Muslim is jacked straight into the hivemind, or the version that exists in reality?
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
Many shiny objects, some of them complex. No wonder I can’t get any work done.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
I’m pretty sure nature can’t talk?!?
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
I care because it makes heterosexual sex objectively different than homosexual activity.
Therefore, because heterosexual sex can lead to new life, it should be privileged over homosexual activity–i.e., marriage should be reserved for it and only it.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Or is this like “The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke” but with more weirdgross rage?
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Take a gander at the map of the world and find me one Muslim country with gay marriage, or hell even legalized homosexual activity.
Just one.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
BTW, Islam prescribes the death penalty for sodomy.
There’s no debate.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
says you
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
So, you’re saying that heterosexuals do not engage in anal sex or oral sex or use sex toys.
You’re also going beyond a privileging of heterosexuality in marriage and moving to your preferred position of despising homosexuals.
Give it up. You’re a bigot. Own it, Jenny.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
@Malaclypse
I’ve got from Brian Massumi a digital version of the chapter on War Machine from ‘Mille Plateaux,’ and let me tell ya, the evil Crackers of the Midland LOVE it. They understand militias from the perspective of a nomadic war machine against the state apparatus.
They dig also Deleuze’s text on the unfolding Society of Control. They understand that ‘gun control’ is more about control than about The Gun.
The real inheritor of Deleuze, Agamben and Foucault are the rednecks of the Midland, not the academics of the Coasts.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
Canada has criminalized certain political opinions (those that differ from Leftist Orthodoxy) as “hate speech”. Just ask Mark Steyn.
Mark Steyn is in prison? Who knew?
Barry Freed:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
What exactly are we talking about here? Voltage testers or maybe even Tesla coils? Because, ouch.
BigHank53:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
It has led to fun. Remember the ‘pursuit of happiness’? That’s from another one of those founding document thingies you’re all hot over.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
And I mean, even if that logic made sense, what would it have to do with your creepy obsession with labeling homosexuality as a ‘defect’.
It’s almost as if you have a ‘phobia’ w/r/t ‘homos’
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
No, I’m saying that two men or two women cannot reproduce as a result of their sexual activity, while heterosexual couples can.
Therefore, heterosexual couples should be privileged in law over homosexual couples. Full stop.
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
So, you’re saying that heterosexuals do not engage in anal sex or oral sex or use sex toys.
Well there goes my plans for the weekend.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Who cares?
L2P:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Really? A blow job by a man is fundamentally different than a blow job by a woman? And what about cunnilingus by a woman and a man? What if the man has long hair and uses a really, really good razor?
And what about anal? Is there really a difference if the bottom’s a man or a woman?
Let’s not even get into truly kinky stuff. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go there.
When I see you guys spending millions to start a nation-wide movement to ban everything except the missionary position, maybe, just maybe (no guarantees here), I’ll stop openly mocking these “it’s just different” arguments. Until then, get outta here, you silly thing, you.
BigHank53:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
Man, for someone who thinks male-female penis-in-vagina sex is the only tolerable kind, he’s a bit of an expert on deviancy, eh?
Warren Terra:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
Short version: they’re OK.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Good thing no member of any religion has ever selectively chose the things that they like and discarded the fucked up shit (or selectively chosen the fucked up shit they like).
Otherwise this would be a terrible argument.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
The ignorance about Canada is, in fact, central to his point
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
So do Judaism and Christianity. It’s right there in Leviticus.
And….
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
Heterosexual couples can reproduce. Notice I said “can” not that they “will”, but they CAN.
A homosexual couple cannot, no matter what they do.
Is this really so hard to understand?
Barry Freed:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
They usually are. I wonder how many wetsuits he owns.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
You’re gonna break Jenny’s heart if you take his protestations too literally.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Hurling of abuse? I”m merely stating facts
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Nobody tell Jenny about IVF.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Islam doesn’t even debate it.
Death penalty. Hands down.
It’s on the books in the majority of Muslim countries–though some to reduce it to life imprisonment.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Your envy of Islam is showing.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
You should share your ideas earlier in this thread about why homosexuality is bad with an Ayatollah, you two would get along just Jim Dandy
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
IVF requires a member of the opposite sex.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Take a gander at the map of the world and find me one Muslim country with gay marriage, or hell even legalized homosexual activity.
Just one.
Indonesia.
God I hate pig-fuckingly ignorant crackers who think they know jack about shit.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Of a country that isn’t the US.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
What, are you saying that the Ayatollah is intolerant?
What are you some kind (OMG) ISLAMOPHOBE? *voice rises* *GASPS!*
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
That’s not for you to judge. There is actually something called the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights.
True and in Article 3 section 3 it addresses your proposed actions quite explicitly.
You propose armed resistance against the government elected by a majority of Americans enacting policies favored by most Americans.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Now how many prescribe the death penalty or life imprisonment?
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
You didn’t say they had to do it on their own Jenny. My brain doesn’t make the weird leaps of logic yours does, you have to spell these things out.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Up next”Carbon Man” on the evils of misegination
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Oh here’s a little fun fact from that very article:
Classified as mentally ill. Taste the tolerance!
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Islam can’t talk either!?!
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Like Canada is even a real place. Please.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
You’re just proving my point.
Heterosexual activity can lead to reproduction.
Two men can’t reproduce. Period. Full stop.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Who cares?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
@Murc
re: there’s two things I genuinely don’t understand. I’m shy to ask, but since you seem very affable and well-tempered, I will dare, here:
– why is islam being conflated with a race among lefties? criticizing a political ideology has nothing to do with racism. I genuinely don’t get it.
– why do they assume that someone criticizing sodomite marriage is phobic, as in “homophic”? It has very little to do with fear; it’s not only about affects (there are affective forces in play, here, of course, but fear ain’t remotely among the most relevant ones), it’s also about percepts and concepts. And those percepts and concepts can be debated rationnaly, I should think.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
So… you’re outraged that they’re doing a thing you did less than half an hour ago?
I don’t get you Jenny. I take great comfort from that fact.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
Murc -
Despite all the big talk and macho posturing the number of people who would actually do anything like that is tiny (sort of like Dagny’s wee-wee).
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
And Jenny’s other mask comes off.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
NO I’m saying you’re intolerant
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Miscegenation was widely practiced and accepted for all of human history except one short period in one part of the western world.
Doesn’t even come close to the status of homosexuality.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
But they can! They just need a little help from science. Science, it’s pretty fucking cool!
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
You forgot to stop copying after the first sentence, cracker. If you had stopped then, you would almost have a point.
Kind of like pre-school art – the trick is to stop the kids before it becomes a brown smudge.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:07 pm
I’ve lived in Canada, and I can attest it is not a real place.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
Nope, they can’t.
If it’s IVF, it’s a man and woman reproducing. The kid will have one biological father and one biological mother.
No amount of science can make sperm+sperm=life.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
So what of the Ayatollah?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
Yes it is, but y’all keep deleting the first half about the “well regulated militia.” Nothing there at all about inbred yahoos getting to have as many weapons of whatever type they want. Even the reactionary fuckwits on the Roberts Court have agreed we can regulate and restrict firearms.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Miscegenation was widely practiced and accepted for all of human history except one short period in one part of the western world.
Pig-fuckingly ignorant.
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Okay, that was funny.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:10 pm
That’s talking about interreligious marriage. Not interracial marriage.
In fact Moses’s wife was (wait for it) an ethnic Egyptian. So, fail yet again.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
But you will always be a sad little shit stain, Jenny.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
It’s all about advantage and shutting down honest debate. The first they can label as ‘racism’ and the second, they can label as some kind of mental problem. Either way, they don’t have to discuss these issues.
Good Luck with that here at LGM. They do not tolerate anyone that’s not in their Borg.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
He’s not commenting on this thread.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
So is Islam homophobic? Because if you say so, aren’t you then being Islamophobic?
(This is so much fun!)
Barry Freed:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
I just came down here to say that this is one of the wingnuttiest threads I’ve seen around here in a while. That walrus is going to be sore. And stuffed full of pancakes.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
It’s kind of funny to have to explain to liberals over and over again how babies are made, but I guess it’s necessary, because apparently they don’t know.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:13 pm
Hell the Catholic Church outright advocated miscegenation in Latin America.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:14 pm
Or classify political opinions as “hate speech”.
Yep. Thanks…forgot about that one.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
They do not tolerate anyone that’s not in their Borg.
That’s why BradP remains banned, and you are still around.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Zipporah was a Midianite. Fail again.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
CarbonMan,
Just know that the queer lifestyle, while lawful, is a dangerous one. There is a reason why deadly diseases are associated with it. And then there’s the depression and the high suicide rates.
And this board is full of ‘em.
You can’t change them. And, in their defense, it’s a free country. Free to be as stupid as you want.
MPAVictoria:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Very interesting Otto. Is there somewhere I can read your thesis to gain a better understanding of your background?
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
She was not a Hebrew, hence even in the Bible Moses is in an interracial (or at least interethnic) marriage and nobody bats an eye.
The prejudice against miscegenation in 19th Century [Protestant] Europe and America was cultural, not religious, and of a very recent vintage.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
The point is who gives a shit
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
In a world of nearly eight billion people, why is reproduction such a priority?
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
The point is, it makes heterosexual relationships objectively privileged over homosexual relationships, and therefore, such relationships should be privileged in law.
Full stop.
Is that so hard to understand?
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
no, it doesn’t
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
So the comparison of homosexual relationships to interracial relationships fails on several levels–opposition to and prejudice against miscegenation is very much the rare exception in human history and not the rule. Nobody much cared about it until the 19th Century.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
One relationship can lead to the couple reproducing.
The other cannot.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
who cares?
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
I must admit, Mr. Malaclypse, that this subject is “right up your alley” and to you I defer. You probably know more about ass-fucking than anyone I know.
You are, truly, in your element.
Carbon Man:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
It’s been fun guys, but I’m going for now so I’ll leave you with this quandary:
Is Islam homophobic? And if someone says Islam is, in fact, homophobic, does that make the person Islamophobic?
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
So who cares
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
@ Murc
“we have a whole legislative branch and a court system that is ultimately staffed by all voting citizens!”
Many of us evil Crackers have no choice but to admit that the Republic is dead, that there is no effective Rule of Law anymore. Cf. MF Global for instance, and the $1.6 billion theft. Cf. Fast and Furious. Cf. Benghazi.
Also: The Republic, mind you, ain’t a democracy ; it was a representative democracy. And guess what?, this system of governance can not work anymore. How come?
Well, 21 of 22 incumbent senators were reelected in November, 353 of 373 incumbent Congress(wo)men. The people have reelected 94% percent of the running incumbents even though the legislative branch had an approval rating of 9%.
This indicates that we are a nation of idiots, too stupid and too degenerated to self-govern, to elect proper representatives.
In this context — a stupid populace and a dead Rule of Law — it seems unwise to depend on the judiciary and the legislative to neutralize, to counter-check any abusive executive power.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:27 pm
Jennie, I know more about pretty much any topic than anybody you know.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:27 pm
But, you were leaving, weren’t you, Jenny?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
This indicates that we are a nation of idiots, too stupid and too degenerated to self-govern, to elect proper representatives.
And that is why we can be trusted with, and need to have, lots and lots of guns.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Jeff, Dagney may be a bigot and a troll, but he isn’t Jennie. Jennie can’t manage a gravatar.
olexicon:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
“Hey, hey! I may ugly and hate-filled, but I… uh… what was the third thing you said ?”
Moe summarizes Carbon Man
FLRealist:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Would you prefer “gay-bashers” instead? Or “homo-haters”?
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
There are eight billion people. Why should we privilege relationships because they lead to reproduction? Seems we have plenty of reproduction.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Too much work running two sock puppets at once, Jennie dear? Did you tax your wee abilities?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
Among the Indians of the Southeastern US during the early Colonial Period, African slaves were classed together with Europeans (by the late 18th century they had adopted a classification similar to that of the Europeans). Among the Cheyenne, blacks are “black white men.”
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Pretty much any of it (except the Panhandle) beats the hell out of West Texas.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:36 pm
“And that is why we can be trusted with, and need to have, lots and lots of guns.”
I understand that point, BUT it is not applicable in practice. Because nobody, nothing and noone can take away the people’s right to defend themselves, their families and properties.
Who’d establish the fracture between those who can own arms and those who can’t?
The government has not authority to disarm a sane citizen.
Erik Loomis:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
Baja Oklahoma should be a band name.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:39 pm
The government has not authority to disarm a sane citizen.
I urge you to act on this belief should anyone ever yell out “Drop your fucking weapon, now!” Stand tall! Fight the Power!
In fact, you should exercise your right to bear arms publicly, now. Anybody can troll the web. Real men walk downtown armed.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:40 pm
“, but y’all keep deleting the first half about the “well regulated militia.”
The militia includes any trained able-bodied citizen that is not a certified mentally insane individual or a convicted criminal.
Erik Loomis:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
If I teach that Julius Rosenberg was a hero, does that count?
Thlayli:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
The Vietcong?
Erik Loomis:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Strap-on move?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
The militia includes any trained able-bodied citizen that is not a certified mentally insane individual or a convicted criminal.
Better-educated trolls, please.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Nah, Jennie is more of a butt plug.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
But I am really and truly an actual 19th century Choctaw ballplayer painted by George Catlin.
Erik Loomis:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
When reading the first 100 comments, I thought this was going to be the longest troll-free thread in LGM history.
And then I was proven wrong. So very, very wrong.
CJColucci:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Are you sure it isn’t?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
That’s no way to live. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.
You need a powerful moral justification for violence, because it’s so awful. There’s never been a society in the world in which perfect justice has been provided, and advocating individual citizens take justice into their own hands using dangerous weapons as a commonplace matter is just crazy. You’d be forever living in fear that someone who thought you’d wronged them would come after you.
More to the point, this seems slightly hypocritical. You keep invoking the Founders as an authority, but then turn around and indict principles that don’t just derive from them, but were baked in by them. They felt it necessary to narrowly define treason and many of them wrote words going into further detail on that clause.
You could argue they got it wrong, of course. They got a lot of stuff wrong.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:47 pm
You know, you will really be much happier if you can purge yourself of all this self-hatred and just admit and embrace your feelings.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
Debate over what? That your are a hateful bigot? That you have no idea what the fuck you are talking about? Nothing to debate there, as those are demonstrable facts. We just like calling fuckwits what they are.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
@MAJeff
I’m doing my best to be as up-front as I possibly can in the context of anonymity; I will unveil my identity eventually If the mods here don’t change my comments or play other unfair tricks. I also try to be as straightforward as possible, without hurting too much the anxious frailty of well-intentionned but often misguided lefties. I try not to be rude, since I’m genuinely interested in rigorous debate about gold, guns and the law (natural as well as positive).
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:53 pm
If you think I am troll, I am willing to provide you my identity and cv. No problem.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Factually and historically false, but why would that stop you? In reality, about 2/3 of the cultures in the world accept homosexuality.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Is this done a lot? I haven’t really seen it happen.
I’ve seen people conflate hatred of islam with racism, of course. But that’s different from what you just said.
Well, first of all, Islam isn’t a political ideology in the accepted understanding of the term. It’s a religion. It does include precepts for how to order a society in it, of course. But a lot of religions do. We don’t refer to Quakers as possessing a political ideology; we refer to them as possessing a religion.
Second of all, criticizing a religion can have a lot to do with racism, especially if you make sweeping indictments of it. Race, religion, and class have been bound together for a very long time. Racism against the Irish was bound together with hating on Catholics for a long time, for example.
‘Sodomite’ isn’t really a term that’ll get you a lot of respect around here. It’s inaccurate and pejorative.
To answer the question: two reasons. First, people railing against homosexuals often use the language of fear; that they’ll destroy society, morality, culture, our great nation, etc. That sounds like fear talk to me.
Second of all, while the term may not be accurate, it’s a convenient catchall. I’d be the first to admit that someone who simply hates, rather than fears, homosexuals and/or their struggle for equality isn’t really homophobic. But the term is convenient for use in this manner. We use a lot of words like this; they don’t really apply to their referential if we’re being hyper-accurate, but we do it anyway for convenience.
What term would you suggest for people aren’t afraid of homosexuals, but oppose their formal and practical equality and participation in society?
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:57 pm
What about heterosexual couples who can’t reproduce, due to sterility or other medical conditions on the part of one or the other?
Should their relationships be less privileged than others?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Hell, my cat knows more about the world than Jenny does.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:58 pm
Why would Scarculese’ gender matter to you, Jennie? If I’m sure of anything, it is that she’s never gonna fuck you.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:58 pm
“Bigots” works.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Yes, but cats are the Paws of God.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
What about most schizophrenic thread in LGM history? Can we win that prize.
And I don’t think Dagney is a troll. If he were, he’d be an EXCELLENT one, far and away the best we’ve ever had. But I don’t think he is.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
Speaking as a cultural anthropologist who just taught this section today, you are wrong again. Marriage is about the assignment of legal rights and privileges. Period. Full stop.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:02 pm
far and away the best we’ve ever had
Rick Veneema of CRACKER HEIGHTS, VIRGINIA sits alone, in his fucking big Arbys, crying softly.
DocAmazing:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
M-m-m-my Venona!
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:09 pm
Win.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Ummmm……because one is natural and the other is a product of defective libidos?
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:13 pm
The Rich Male Whiteness, It Burns
Outing racism wherever it is
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
Canada Sucks.
Blame Canada
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Jennie, it doesn’t matter what your daddy beat into you as a child – you are not defective, and God loves you just the way you are.
(the other) Davis:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Why should the law give a shit whether a couple can have children?
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:21 pm
@Murc
Ah, thank you. I followed you very well.
That’s what I meant. Being accused of being a racist as I criticize islam.
As per the point of islam being a religion: It’s not the place for that debate, but one could argue that islam ain’t a religion if, like Walter Benjamin, we differentiate a religion from a political system by the element of GRACE (charis), which islam lacks thereof, since it punishes apostates by death and converts mainly by the threat of the sword. But let’s no go there here; it’s way off topic. I appreciate and understand your answer however; thank you.
That’s a good question; and I have no clue. I would however oppose that we, opponents of homosexual marriage and of sodomy, oppose the homosexuals’ “formal and practical equality and participation in society.” We don’t. We don’t want them to be second-class citizens or something. As individuals, we want them to have the same individual rights as any other individual.
Speaking here from a Catholic perspective, we really, really want to immunize the institution of marriage (which precedes the institution of the disciplinarian family) from homosexuality — in order to keep within marriage the important dimension of natural fertility (the fact that particular married, heterosexual couples are naturally sterile does not abolish the general point).
And also, many Christians feel that it is their charitable duty to help individuals inclined to perform homosexual acts from enacting their burning desire; we genuinely believe doi so would be putting their eternal souls in jeopardy; and thus we might feel it is our charitable duty to HELP people with same-sex attractions carrying their cross in chastity, rather than sticking our foot in their back and pushing them down the road to perdition. Again, I apologize for going off-topic and thank you for your valuable answer.
In short: many lefties see us as haters of muslims and homosexuals, when in fact we love them, and seek to liberate them from evil; that’s all. LOL
Linnaeus:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Some outstanding examples of old-school “begging the question” in this thread, courtesy of Carboniferous JenBob. If I ever need to refresh my understanding of the concept, I’ll just come back here.
Erik Loomis:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
It’s true. That was the greatest troll in all history. Performance art really.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Speaking here from a Catholic perspective, we really, really want to immunize the institution of marriage (which precedes the institution of the disciplinarian family) from homosexuality — in order to keep within marriage the important dimension of natural fertility (the fact that particular married, heterosexual couples are naturally sterile does not abolish the general point).
Oh, so you want to promote Biblical families. Cool. Today’s discussion is even germane.
Vance Maverick:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Is your last name…Taggart?
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Your “love” is a worthless fraud.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Gary Ruppert gives respect to Rick Veneema. You can trust me on that.
MAJeff:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Actually, calling it “worthless” is giving it more credit than it deserves. It is actively harmful.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
when in fact we love them, and seek to liberate them from evil; that’s all. LOL
PROTIP: When you type LOL after a blatant lie, you do not, in fact, improve the plausibility of the lie.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
@Malaclypse
It ain’t a lie, sir. I suggest you read Foucault on pastoral power as exercised by the Church: the goal of the government of the Church is to guide the flock towards the salvation of each individual soul. This is the cybernetics of the Churchl; and the meta-value of economy that regulates this form of government is the blood and flesh of Christ. That value of all christian values operates in a way analogous to gold in the economy of monetary currencies.
Murc:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
I actually disagree with this, Erik.
There are three of troll greatness; the ability to start shit, the ability to be entertaining, and the ability to go completely unrecognized. The best trolls would be those who nobody even thinks or considers for one second to be a troll. I don’t think, say, Brad Potts is a troll, but if he were he’d be an amazing one.
Rick was enormously entertaining and he was okay at starting it. That’s it.
If Dagney were a troll he’d have him bear hands down.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
wink wink — I am Dagny !!
The Dark Avenger:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:39 pm
The Rich Males, an Endangered Species?
I’m sorry some of us don’t have the urge to tug our forelock to the rich like you do, Jenny.
Anonymous:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Hold up, so you’re saying if a man and a woman have sex while she’s not ovulating it’s homosexual sex because she won’t get pregnant from it?
Ohhhh, now I understand why there’s such opposition to the pill! We’ve turned into an entire nation of inferior homosex-havers. :(
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:42 pm
The militia includes any trained able-bodied citizen that is not a certified mentally insane individual or a convicted criminal.
Which still omits that “well regulated” bit, which seems pretty essential here. Your ability to comprehend simple English seems pretty limited.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:46 pm
I was not aware that wealth and maleness were races.
rea:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:47 pm
VDH is in classics, not history.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:47 pm
I think you mean “buggering the question” in this case.
rea:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:50 pm
My mother had old pictrues showing her dancing with Klaus Fuchs . . .
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:50 pm
@Macalypse
“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
— George Mason, in Debates in Virginia Convention on Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June 16, 1788
@DrDick
Self-Regulation is a cybernetic phenomenon; it is largely endogenous. That’s why I neglected to include it my answer; it belongs to auto-organization, more so than to a top-down imposition of rules and regulations.
Linnaeus:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
Even better.
Uncle Kvetch:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
The trolls here show a greater fascination with anal sex than any gay man I’ve ever met.
Linnaeus:
January 11th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
The fact is, we can’t trust left-wing socialists like you on anything.
SatanicPanic:
January 11th, 2013 at 6:06 pm
This means nothing of the sort. Until it’s possible to vote in other peoples’ districts, the overall approval rating of Congress shouldn’t matter in any given individual’s vote.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 6:22 pm
A Catholic traditionalist who cites Foucault? My life is complete. Protevi banned you, knowing this? Now I really am shocked.
You do understand that Foucault does not believe in an individual soul separate from that called into existence by pastoral power/knowledge?
And if you dislike sodomy in all forms, how do you reconcile yourself to the practices wherein Foucault found the limiting experiences he believed to be constitutive of his true self?
And however much you fancy up “I love gays, and want to save them from hell,” you are still one small step removed from Tomás de Torquemada. He was well-read, too.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Sorry, petunia, but Mal just isn’t into you like that.
Dog San Vito:
January 11th, 2013 at 6:49 pm
It was a really good class. When all this nutism blew up yesterday, I thought of my professor, and sent him an email telling him what I thought of his work twenty or so years ago. I hope I teach as well as he did….
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 6:53 pm
I don’t care what Mr Foucault believed or not, nor do I care about his private sexual life in sodomite land and magical fists; his analysis on pastoral power are still accurate and relevant. I love reading his work.
One’s private life and one’s public work do not coincide.; there is often a junction, never a coincidence.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
This indicates that we are a nation of idiots, too stupid and too degenerated to self-govern, to elect proper representatives.
Please do not extrapolate from yourself and your fellow mouth breathers to the nation as a whole.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:08 pm
One’s private life and one’s public work do not coincide.
Believing this, you do not seem to have understood Foucault, nor his project. You can no more separate the works of Foucault from his sexuality than you can separate the trolling of JenBob from his.
And I really am stunned Protevi banned you. What the hell did you pull?
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Oh goody! Now the troll spouts gobbledegook in a failed effort to seem erudite and informed. Sadly reveallng complete ignorance of human behavior and social science in the process.
bgn:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Yes, yes, this is all very well, but what does it have to do with the teaching of American history at the college level?
djillionsmix:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:12 pm
“If those guns were legal in 2012, it should be legal in 2013 and it will be forever. If they say otherwise, they are liars and traitors and oath breakers and domestic enemies.”
If something is legal in 2012 and are illegal in 2013, it means the law was changed.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:12 pm
re: Tomás de Torquemada
He was right about islam, wrong about the Jewish People. Like Agamben and Ratzinger (the actual Pope) have written. the Jewish People are the Chosen People, elected by God to be the representative of mankind. Their Covenant still stands; it has not been abolished. Anyone able to read St. Paul should understand the difference between abolition and deactivation. The Old Covenant between Israel (not the State, but the people) and God still stands from the Jewish perspective; the nomos of the Law, however, has been deactivated from the Gentil’s point of view, since via Christ, the non-Jews by the flesh can have access to the Promise. So the Law dividing between Jews and non-Jews has been deactivated from the non-Jews’ perspective; but the Abrahamic still stands between the Jewish People and God.
We should infer, from his persecution of the Jewish People, that Torquemada did not understand this.
djillionsmix:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:16 pm
“it’s none of our business what two adults do in the bedroom, which I agree with”
“The insertion of a penis into a vagina, which can lead to new life, is not equivalent to either the insertion of a penis into a mans colon or the insertion of electrical equipment or sex toys into one woman’s vagina by another.”
Yeah you sound like you think it’s none of your business.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:17 pm
“Believing this, you do not seem to have understood Foucault, nor his project. You can no more separate the works of Foucault from his sexuality than you can separate the trolling of JenBob from his.”
Like I said, there is a junction, not a coincidence. I don’t want to virtualize Foucault’s life from his actual work; but I want to be able to use his concepts and think along the problems he did formulate without having to anchor those concepts and problematics into his actual live. And that’s perfectly from a methological point of view, isn’t it?
The concepts he did create are autonomous on the plane of immanence.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:19 pm
Speaking here from a Catholic perspective, we really, really want to immunize the institution of marriage (which precedes the institution of the disciplinarian family) from homosexuality — in order to keep within marriage the important dimension of natural fertility (the fact that particular married, heterosexual couples are naturally sterile does not abolish the general point).
Except that the early church did in fact consecrate same sex unions.
djillionsmix:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
“The point is, it makes heterosexual relationships objectively privileged over homosexual relationships, and therefore, such relationships should be privileged in law.”
great moments in non sequitur
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
Except that same sex sexuality has been reported for every animal species for which we have adequate data and is quite common among all primates. Indeed, all primates routinely engage in wide range of non-reproductive sex.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:28 pm
I have noticed that as well.
Brandon C.:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Same thing here. My professor complained about the same thing. I loved that class too. Ironically percisely because it was entirely about the societal/economic effects of wars and military institutions. I picked up the class thinking it was all about battles and left with far more knowledge about how militaries shape and are shaped by their cultures than I ever thought existed.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
I think the principle is the same as teenaged male virgins – Jennie is rather pent up, I fear.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:40 pm
Again, sorry for the typos. I’ll have to sign off soon, since a bunch of horny, thirsty yet friendly barbarians are storming our place.
Re: Protevi banning me. It was in the context of a thread on guns. I was making the point that we should differentiate between the concepts of ‘mental illness’ (a psychiatric concept), ‘dangerous individual’ (a concepts of criminology) and the ‘insane individual’ of the judiciary. I was arguing for another concept, let’s call it the ‘Evil Cracker,’ — another concept which does not coincide with the dangerous individual, the mentally ill, nor the legally insane (although they could overlap, they don’t necessarily do so): this concept of the Evil Cracker would be a result of biopower in action by the Obama régime: aiming to separate the bible-clinging gun-owners from civil society. I was trying to think about it in the context of that proposition to mandate the finger-printing of every gun-owner, as some kind of biopolitical tatoo.
At one point, I gave the example of honour killing (among a few other examples of murders not related to islam) to demonstrate that we can have a murderous individual that can’t be reduced to mental illness or individual psychopathy/sociopathy.
Then the writer of the head-thread (Roberta something) replaced that part of my comment on honour killing with something like “we have no patience for quasi-racist B.S”, implying that I wrote something racist, which is a nasty accusation.
I replied that we should not conflate islam with a race.
They deleted my reply.
I replied this:
They deleted my reply and asked me not to post for 1 week.
I asked them to remove the nasty accusation of me being a racist if they don’t provide me the opportunity to defend myself.
Then I wrote something a few days later on another thread; not masking my identity; not changing my style; and Protevi banned me forever and ever, and ever, lol.
I asked him afterwards on Twitter if he’d know about an active right-wing blog with Deleuzians; he replied elegantly KMRIA.
Classy guy.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:49 pm
I know DrDick. It’s a disgrace. The Church has been infiltrated by socialists and homosexual activists; it’s rotting from the inside, especially since Novus Ordo. Nonetheless, I shall never leave; it’s still the Bride of Christ.
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
re: Tomás de Torquemada
He was right
When you find yourself writing these words, it is perhaps time to evaluate the many wrong paths you have taken in life. Or at least reflect upon how little you differ from the fanatics you condemn for worshipping a slightly different version of your imaginary sky wizard.
John Protevi:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:03 pm
What a lying sack of shit. You were banned for trying to evade the one-week cooling off period. But instead you changed names from the original “Kateshon” to “Paul Moran” and to “Tony Palacio” within the one week ban period, spewing vile homophobic trash. But your real banning offense is the intentional stupidity of confusing “quasi-racist” with “racist” and “homophobia” with only “being afraid.”
I do admit glee at erasing all your comments so that your work was wasted. I also liked replacing your last one with a pancake recipe. Loser. As for asking me to do your research for you? Find your own right-wing Deleuzean blog, FFS.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:10 pm
@Malaclypse
“reflect upon how little you differ from the fanatics you condemn for worshipping a slightly different version of your imaginary sky wizard.”
That’s a very wise and good advice. And I did, and I do.
From a conceptual perspective, the main difference is between two different kinds of violence. Have you read Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘On Violence’? If so, using his concepts, I’d say the difference between islam and Christianity is the same as between mythic violence (islam) and divine violence (Christianity).
Let’s take a very clear example, the use of the SWORD.
The warning Our Lord gave about the sword in the Garden of Gethsemane when the Jewish Guards came to arrest Him, after Peter attacked one of the guards with his sword was a warning, a prophecy about islam. Islam teaches that the way to convert people is to put a sword to their neck and give ‘em a choice: convert or die (cf. the “Sword of islam”). (Note that this is also how socialism operates: be re-educated or die.)
In addition to a prophecy about islam, Jesus is telling us that Christianity does not and will not convert with the sword. It converts only with charity, with love.
Jesus is also telling us that Christians do not and will not punish apostates with the sword. With the phrase “shall perish with the sword,” Jesus is saying that those who “take the sword” and try to convert people to, and hold people in, their evil systems by force, will in the end be killed WITH THE SWORD. The Army of Christ will be the one wielding the sword, according to Scriptures. It’s obviously a ratification of self-defense and just war.
That’s the main difference: the same as a threatening mythic violence and charitable, divine violence. Did I make it clear? Does it make sense?
Malaclypse:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:17 pm
Did I make it clear?
From the moment you said Torquemada was right, yes.
Speak Truth:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:26 pm
I like cartoons.
Cartoons are funny!
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:32 pm
There: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wLr9wN6_xeA/UO2XCRdQWPI/AAAAAAAAA-M/8-aw_RemgL0/s1600/Soldier+of+Hope.jpg
source here
Darkrose:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Baby, I’m not from Havana!
Darkrose:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:51 pm
Insert joke about lesbians and power tools here.
Darkrose:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:54 pm
Since “homosexual” as an identity is a late 19th-20th century invention, I don’t have to accept any of your ridiculous premise.
Darkrose:
January 11th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
Same reason homophobes are so concerned about big, throbbing homosexuality being forced down their throats.
Bruce Baugh:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:12 pm
Sterile men and post-menopausal women are gay, then.
Aaron Baker:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:36 pm
This made me think of Carlo Ginzburg’s The Night Battles. Before I read it, I wouldn’t have imagined that Northern Italian folk beliefs could be so fascinating.
Aaron Baker:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:42 pm
And I want to say, on behalf of Classicists everywhere, VDH is a never-ending embarrassment.
JAtheist:
January 11th, 2013 at 9:57 pm
Trolls aren’t exclusively defined by their anonymity, so I don’t know what you think you’d gain by doing so.
DrDick:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:12 pm
The Church has been infiltrated by socialists and homosexual activists; it’s rotting from the inside, especially since Novus Ordo.
I did not realize that there were socialists in the first millennium AD, which is when this took place.
Dagney:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:19 pm
the ratification of sodomite marriage (the fact you were pointing to) is a very recent development, a devolution that began in the 1960s.
sharculese:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:36 pm
Not any more you’re not.
The Dark Avenger:
January 11th, 2013 at 10:44 pm
http://static1.fjcdn.com/comments/This+is+Thomas+Jefferson+fighting+gorillas+while+teaching+them+the+_d9c82c8dcff936b1d452247373c6e48b.jpg
Anonymous Won:
January 11th, 2013 at 11:04 pm
You’re absolutely right that I can’t accept that kind of bigotry and intolerance. It is frankly immoral. As a straight ally I speak against it wherever I can.
STH:
January 12th, 2013 at 12:29 am
Nice of him to make it clear that his guns are more important than other people’s lives.
STH:
January 12th, 2013 at 12:39 am
Isn’t it interesting how this Dagney person switches between the “aw shucks” writing style with no capitalization, frequent use of “aint” and “sir,” and the more academic tone with full capitalization and none of the “down home” tics? Hmmm . . . .
Pestilence:
January 12th, 2013 at 12:42 am
or at least the Cliffs Notes to it
STH:
January 12th, 2013 at 12:59 am
Yep, I guess the only relationships that count are the ones that keep pumpin’ out the kids. My partner’s had a vasectomy, so I guess it’s the back of the bus for us.
What I don’t get is what is so special about having kids that it privileges some relationships over others? Some animals have recreational sex, like we do, and don’t seem too concerned about whether kids come out of it.
STH:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:07 am
Cripes, that was some killer argument they had, wasn’t it?
“Look at the lefties, calling us scared of homos!”
“Them homos, they’re just wrong and icky, because they are, that’s why!”
Yes, you are completely rational beings.
Alan in SF:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:10 am
Every day, in every way, American conservatives are the 21st century’s Trotskyites.
Alan in SF:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:11 am
And with thinking in general.
grouchomarxist:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:30 am
To be fair, if the lesson had been titled “Corner All the Wealth” they probably wouldn’t have had a problem with it.
Sly:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:31 am
The Texas Association of Scholars is criticizing A&M’s history department over their undergraduate course offerings. Post-graduate scholarship of the kind that leads to books is another matter.
In that context, I would no more expect undergrads to take a course that extensively covered the folk beliefs of 16th and 17th century northern Italian peasants than I would expect undergrads to take a course that extensively covered the development of the trace italienne. I doubt there are many undergraduate courses at American universities that cover the folk beliefs of 16th and 17th century northern Italian peasants, but if there are, I’d wager that they use that topic as nothing more than a historiographical case study.
Minutia in the service of a broader historical narrative is all well and good, but I seriously doubt that that’s the kind of thing that A&M’s conservative critics have in mind by recommending more courses in, among other things, military history. They want a decontextualized study of minutia, because that’s one of the more effective ways of not talking about bad stuff that white people did.
Dagney:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:34 am
You here? LOL.
I did not lie. I tried to logged in with my twitter account (@Kateshon) but was unable to; I tried with Katechon; it did not work; then instead I went for Paul Moran (standing for Moron); and you know that I did not change my writing style, which is quite recognizable, even to you. I really could not resist asking this woman why should the U.S.A. and Canada respect treaties made with the Native Americans when they, the Natives, had no concept whatsoever of individual rights and thus no respect for individual rights when they made those treaties? Then Paul Moron was banned.
On a subsequent thread (another day, on the subject of homosexuality) I (again) could not resist quoting St. Catherine of Sienna. I did not “[spew] vile homophobic trash,” I was quoting a saint patron of the Catholic Church !! — herself allegedly quoting the very word of Christ…
And my comment about conflating the Catholic criticism of homosexuality with an alleged phobia still stands; you claim to understand affects, yet, judged by the VOCABULARY you were using, you reduce criticism of homosexuality as a phobia, which is incredibly grotesque.
And yes, there was a conflation of islam with race, which is also far from astute.
Now stop accusing me of lying. Thanks.
Pestilence:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:39 am
no, he was Dr Dick
(the other) Davis:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:40 am
Dipshits like you use the word “natural” when you have no actual argument.
Shitting in a toilet is unnatural. Washing your hands with soap afterward is unnatural. Yet most people see these as *good* things. I wouldn’t be surprised if you do neither, but you’re also typing your ignorant nonsense on an unnatural computer, connected over the unnatural internet.
Pestilence:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:55 am
I feel bad for the Somali, at that point
Anonymous:
January 12th, 2013 at 3:45 am
That was, in fact, what I was thinking about. My wife read it and found it fascinating, but I just couldn’t get into it the one time I tried — it’s on my to read list in the “you really should try again” section, but…
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 5:12 am
Leave an e-mail on my blog and I will send you a pdf of the thesis if you really want.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 5:26 am
What happened in Russia? Most of the Armenian genocide took place in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian population of eastern Anatolia now in Turkey was deported to what is today Syria and Iraq. About half of them died as a result.
As far as dekulakization, some of it happened in the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic), although that included a lot of non- Russian territories like the Kalmyk ASSR, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, and the Crimean ASSR. Some of these territories like the Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR become full scale republics in 1936 and later independent states. I guarantee you nobody thinks that Kyrgyzstan is part of Russia and they haven’t since 1924 or so when the Soviet government delimited the borders of Central Asia.
But, the greatest suffering from collectivization was the later famine or Holodomor which certainly did not for the most part take place in Russia, but rather Ukraine. It is true that Ukraine was once part of the Russian Empire. But, in 1932-1933 it is impossible to argue that Ukraine was part of Rossiia. It certainly was not Russkie. If you want to test out your theory you should go to Lviv or even Kiev and start telling Ukrainians that they are really part of Russia. Let me know if they leave you with any teeth.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 5:37 am
Neither the Ottoman Empire or the USSR were nation states. The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state formed long before nationalism existed. The term “Turk” was considered an insult in the Ottoman Empire for most of its existence. The official Ottoman language had a lot of Arabic and Persian influence that made it completely different from modern Turkish. It even used Arabic rather than Latin script. Also the language of poetry remained Persian and religion Arabic. It is only in the 19th Century that a Turkish nationalist movement arises.
The CUP did advocate Turkish nationalism. But, that hardly makes the Ottoman Empire a Turkish nation-state. That goal was still a ways off. The “people of Turkey” is an odd phrase. First there is no such administrative territory at the time. There is Anatolia and Thrace which later become the Turkish Republic. But, a lot of people in Anatolia are not Turkish at this time or even today. In fact a great deal of the massacres of Armenians were carried out by people that were distinctly not Turkish by ethnicity. Most notably the Kurds, but there were also Circassians. Neither of which speak languages even remotely related to Turkish.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 5:48 am
Now you have done it. You got that stupid Tommy Tutone song stuck in my head.
867-5309
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 6:19 am
The Apaches held out against the armed forces of the US and Mexico for decades. That is pretty good. The only comparable 19th century indigenous resistance where such a small group held such a larger adjacent power at bay for so long was Shamil in the Caucasus. Given the resource imbalance it is hard to imagine any circumstances in which the Apaches could have done better militarily against the US than they actually did.
J. Otto Pohl:
January 12th, 2013 at 6:54 am
The Somalis are pretty good at holding their own. After all they have not been disarmed or emasculated by any liberal governments. So they are ready for the Red Neck invasion.
B4:
January 12th, 2013 at 7:25 am
I blame you and your ilk for chuckling when he was writing about how difficult it was to uproot grape vines. Your scorn drove him out into the larger world.
John Protevi:
January 12th, 2013 at 8:25 am
Lying sack of shit.
As for “quasi-racist,” it means “like” racism, not “racism.” What is like racism in your treatment of Islam is the essentialism.
As for homophobia, it is clearly not meant in common English to be exclusively driven by fear, so quit trying to pretend it is.
As for me being here, I’ve been at LGM for going on 8 years.
And as for St Catherine, she sure does love her some pancakes!
Malaclypse:
January 12th, 2013 at 9:33 am
And as for St Catherine, she sure does love her some pancakes!
I’d have pegged Dagney’s patron saint as being Tertullian. Credo quia absurdum indeed.
Aaron Baker:
January 12th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
He was probably right about the inefficacy of crop-ravaging. No one would have minded if he’d stuck to scholarship; but his transformation into the world’s most passive-aggressive political hack, combined with his constant reminders to anyone who’ll listen that he’s a classicist–that I cannot abide.
Dagney:
January 12th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
Mr Protevi,
You accuse me of lying again; I did not.
When I say I was unable to login to comment via my Twitter account, I meant (as you probably know): I was not able to comment using my T-account. I was logged-in, but unable to comment.
Then I logged-off and commented as Katechon. It worked. As you know. The next time I tried, it did not work; the comments were not going through. They were not. Then I tried with another username, using Paul Moran instead of Katechon or @Kateshon, and it worked. So there you go, sir. Repeat your fecal forked-tongue mantra as long as you wish now, I won’t care.
‘Quasi’ also could mean ‘almost’. And as for me essentializing islam, well, this place ain’t the appropriate forum to discuss it. But I am not, I take the same phylogenealogical approach to islam as to other political institutions, using Foucault’s methodology.
The vocabulary one is using, especially if he calls himself a philosopher, does matter. You used the word ‘phobia,’ sir. Sorry.
Take care, and don’t eat too much of ‘em buttery pancakes. And yes, I’m sure she does love ‘em too. She is a very graceful lady, and I am sure she loves you too.
Speak Truth:
January 12th, 2013 at 8:37 pm
Believe me, I’d love to scrap the Second Amendment. It is antiquated relic.
Hey while you’re cleaning out antiquated amendments, you’ll probably want to scrap the thirteenth. There’s no slavery for 147 years.
Certainly qualifies as ‘antiquated’, doesn’t it?
Scott Lemieux:
January 13th, 2013 at 1:38 am
Needs more zircon-encrusted tweezer.
Sunday Reads Number Two: Rain go away! « Sky Dancing:
January 13th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
[...] becoming one place to avoid (sorry Ralph)…if you are anything other than a wealthy white man: The Rich Male Whiteness, It Burns – Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money A bunch of conservative Texas groups are taking history departments at the University of Texas [...]
Pseudonym:
January 15th, 2013 at 1:52 am
How exactly does one block a MAC address? Are you on the same ethernet segment as LGM’s server?
Richard Fonte:
January 29th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
I know I risk a lot of “hate” email by posting here, but as one of the writers of the NAS report, I would suggest that most of you have an inaccurate understanding of the study. First, the purpose of the study was to try to determine how two Texas universities were meeting a 1971 law requiring two courses in American History to graduate (By law, Texas History can be substituted for one of these courses). The overwhelming majority of institutions in Texas fulfill this legal requirement by a two-part survey course. We looked at University of Texas and TExas A&M since they were the flagships. The results from A&M and UT were actually quite different. First, UT had 35% of its courses as “special topics” rather than Survey or Texas History. A&M had only one special topic course and used Survey courses and TExas History to meet the legal requirement.
The NAS was critical of the use of Special Topic courses because they are focused on narrow topics. We were equally critical of the one special topic course in Military History at A&M as we were of those at UT which focused on Race and Gender Themes including several non-history department courses in American Studies.
We would expect that any survey course would have a signficant set of readings that focused on Race, Class or gender. Obviously, you cannot teach the pre-Civil War course without a full discussion of race, slavery, class, etc. We do not advocate a triumphalist interpretation of history. We want a U.S. history narrative that includes Warts & All. I say posted a lot of jokes and assumptions to the contrary, but yes–we want the total story, not just one side.
What we found missing, however, for the most part were intellectual history readings.
Many of those commenting seem to think we only classified a reading into one classification, such as Race or no other such as political or economic. This is actually not true, we did classify the overwhelming percent of reading assignment into more than one classification. For example, Abgail Adams writings are classified as both gender related and political.
Yet, notwithstanding this double and triple classification we found under represented, economic history, diplomatic history, intellectual history, religious history and yes, Military history.
We found that A&M was more comprehensive in its assignments in the survey courses than UT.
So what is the magic mix or formula–there obviously cannot be a exact number, but given the importance of social history topics involving particularly race, class or gender, I would think it would range between 33% and 40% assuming that there would be possible overlap among these. Yet, there still would some (probably the majority of) assignments which as simply outside the realm of social history that should be assigned and read in a survey course. For example, works by Bernard Bailyn, Pauline Maier or Gordon Wood would fall clearly into intellectual history and would add much to an undergraduate survey course. Yes, there is more to history than Social History, but yes Social History must be included.
Richard Fonte, NAS report writer