The Maher-Trump Smackdown. If you were to rank buffoons on a scale of 1 to 10, Bill Maher would probably merit a 1.9 and Donald Trump a 2.6, and what direction that scale goes in is for you to decide. I guess I'd take the Donald over the skeevy HBO host, but really, I wish they'd both go away.
Still, on some level, I have to admire Trump just a bit. On Monday night, Maher, a guest on Jay Leno, demanded that Trump prove he is not the result of "his mother having sex with an orangutan." If the billionaire did so, Maher promised to pay $5 million to the charity of his choice, cheekily suggesting Hair Club for Men. First off, this may well be the oldest line in the book where Trump is concerned, and does little to prove that Maher is in fact a "comedian"; secondly, everyone ought to have known by now how he would react. Within 24 hours, Trump's lawyer (or one of them; I'm assuming he has an entire branch of the legal service on retainer) had sent Maher's office a copy of the Donald's birth certificate, showing that his father was in fact of the Homo sapiens variety, and demanded payment of the aforementioned $5 million. Probably to rub it in, Trump's requested charities (he asked that the money be divided among several) did not include Hair Club for Men, but did include Hurricane Sandy Victims, the March of Dimes, and the American Cancer Society. That should teach Maher not to shoot his mouth off for a while. Like, a week.
Crap California Does, Volume 18. If there's any part of the U.S. thoroughly immune to reality, it would of course be the Golden State. I could write a whole blog post just about that, but let's stick to one aspect of it--their tax silliness. Back in 2011, Sacramento passed some substantial tax increases, which naturally hit businesses and the rich the hardest. Presumably chortling to themselves, "Those people threatening to fold their companies and leave the state! They wouldn't dare!!!" Governor Brown and company made plans for increased spending from the new revenue--only to find that the new revenue wasn't appearing, which simultaneously caused the state's budget deficit to rise from $9 to $16 billion. The Democrats' response to this was to heroically pass Proposition 30 this past Election Day, raising taxes in the state yet again.
I trust you can guess what's coming next.
Yep. In the first five weeks following Election Day 2012, California saw a drop in tax revenue of roughly a billion dollars. This, while state agencies increased their spending even further, in expectation of the dollars Prop 30 was going to magically produce. As a result, California's deficit has increased to a nasty $27 billion.
Feel free to laugh for as long as you can forget that all those idiots are leaving the state in droves and screwing things up for the rest of us in our own homes.
Guns, Guns, Guns! Ever since the ghastliness of Newtown, Connecticut, the Left has been shamelessly beating the drum on gun control, proposing everything from an assault-weapons ban to universal background checks (never mind that none of this would have prevented the massacre). The much-demonized NRA has been
The Association revealed Thursday morning that it has gained 100,000 members in the past three weeks, raising total membership to 4.2 million. A spokesman expressed the hope in a press release that they hoped to cross the 5 million threshold before this "debate" has run its course. And given that a membership costs $25, this influx means that, from several viewpoints, the NRA may well emerge from it more powerful than before.
All of which is meant, not only to amuse you (hopefully), but also to encourage you a bit. As we look for ways to beat the liberals, keep in mind--they may end up beating themselves. Thanks, liberals.
I actually saw an article today in which they claimed that California now has a budget surplus and fiscal hawk Jerry Brown is trying to keep the Democrats from spending it. I haven't dug into it, but it sounds like horsepoop to me. This sounds like totally fake projections.
ReplyDeleteI project that said horsepoop will be golden horsepoop, thereby raising the California budget surplus even further! (Who needs goose eggs?)
ReplyDeletetryanmax, They do call it the Golden Horsepoop State, I believe.
ReplyDeleteReally? A budget surplus? I think the state Comptroller might have a thing or two to say to that article's writer.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, It's apparently what Jerry Brown is saying, but it sounds like utter garbage to me. Even under an ideal scenario, I can't see how they can close that big of a gap so suddenly. I think it's all fake assumptions.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting caveat thrown in the back end of the article was that they need to hope that Washington doesn't mess things up for California. That made me think they're using something like 18% growth or they are planning something like a $25 billion transfer of funds from DC.
maybe Texas is going to do a bailout?
ReplyDeleteOh and BTW, Maher is an incredible d- (no I won't use that word in this fine family blog.)
You guys don't live next door to those loons(as far as I know).
ReplyDeleteWe refer to California as the land of fruits and nuts. It's to bad they keep proving us right.
I think Gov. Brown needs a visit from those nice young men in white coats.
Well, they can't use the new prop 30 tax increases because they've yet to collect them - the law just went into effect.
ReplyDeleteThey're also starting to seriously attack prop 13. I'm not surprised because between the huge immigrant population and the government unions, the state is now entirely in the hands of the Democrat machine - they no longer need to fear the wrath of the ghost of Howard Jarvis.
Guns: Sooner or later the leftroids are going to get a mole into the NRA to hack it's membership database and put it online. Which is why I always contribute cash money to them on a yearly basis rather than joining. Cash is more cost effective anyway because they don't have to send you the magazine.
California is a study in liberal idiocy. All the money in the world and they still manage to screw up their finances.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the Trump thing as particularly clever on either guy's part. Maher wasn't seriously suggesting a biological impossibility, he was just insulting Trump's mother.
The fact Maher and Trump exist as public figures is intensely depressing to me. Maher (who shortly after 9/11 praised the courage of suicide bombers) would have to go to college for four years to rise to the level of idiot and Trump is embraced by conservatives soley because of his nutty conspiracy theory.
As for the NRA, I don't think for a minute that the Obama administration went before the gun industry or Hollywood or the game industry expecting anyone to fall on their sword, they just want to be able to say they 'consulted' affected parties before they announce whatever it is they have planned.
Also, while I haven't heard anything about their membership numbers in years, Obama's 2008 election greatly increased the pace at which guns and ammo have sold in the US so I would be surprised if their membership hadn't seen a similar jump in the past five years.
I'm not big on guns, but its academic because they are here in massive quantities and many people love them. Gun control is like Prohibition and the War on Drugs, ineffective at best and harmful at worst, because it seeks to restrict access to something that is widespread and popular.
The NRA needs to get a better spokesman than LaPierre. While he's sharp as a tack, it's all about image these days. They should hire a professional spokes"person" like a Sarah Palin, Condi Rice, etc. Have them be the go-to person whenever the media starts baying at the moon. This person could turn it right back at the media and start making statements such as "I heard one the proposals the President is considering is regulating the media in order to reduce gun violence."
ReplyDeleteAs far as Trump and Maher et.al., remember the old saying along the lines of "any publicity is good publicity as it puts your name in front of millions." Their goal as media whores.
California will continue its slide into 3rd world status. I'm sure they are expecting a bailout/stimulus from DC as they are too big to fail. "As California goes so goes the nation." Remember those old bumper stickers in Denver area in the 80's?....."Don't Californicate Colorado" Loved it.
It sounds like there is serious momentum building toward breaking up the "too big to fail" banks. If we can break up banks on that basis, why not states?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Democrats would dare try to break up Texas?
Andrew, if Jerry Brown is saying it, I think it can be automatically disregarded. Besides, his own cabinet officials are contradicting him.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if DC tries to go for a bailout of California, even if it's only an under-the-table one.
Jed, it wasn't Maher's politics that antagonized me so badly (although those are pretty bad, too). What really disgusted me was when, less than two months after the death of Steve Irwin--"The Crocodile Hunter"--he went to a Halloween party dressed in khakis and with a fake bloody stingray barb lodged in his chest. Someone who would do something like that is beyond sick.
ReplyDeleteMax, thankfully I do not live within a thousand miles of the "land of fruits and nuts," and I hopefully never will. I'd go to visit, but I don't think I could stand living there.
ReplyDeleteHas your next-door state considered building a moat? Or maybe a minefield along the border?
Why do y'all keep havin' to drag Texas into this!!??!!?? Keep your stinky California hands off our money, out of our state, and away from our borders. Dang commie-lovin, tree-huggin', tax-raisin' freaks - And GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
ReplyDeleteAs for Maher - responding to idiotic things like this is the one reason I am glad Trump's parents begat.
K, what's Prop 13? I must have missed that one. What is it with California and propositions?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the revenue from Prop 30 isn't forecasted to come in for a while, but the fact that tax revenue, especially from businesses, took such a sharp drop after it was passed does not bode well. And yet the state agencies are already raising their expected spending for the fiscal year, because of course if the state orders more money to come in, it shall come in.
Also K, I take it you heard about Gawker posting the addresses of all the gun owners in the Greater New York area? What a piece of @#$% that website is. Yeah, come to think of it, a cash donation seems safer.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, I looked for the article again this morning and if you read between the lines, it is indeed Jerry Brown's projections and not any sort of reality. But the AP is certainly trumpeting the idea that this is reality.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, LOL! California is too big to fail! Nice. The problem with breaking them up though is that they will get more votes in the Senate. Maybe we can hand the conservative hinter-lands to Nevada and leave California as just the coast?
Anthony, it wasn't clever of Trump, I agree--I don't think he's physically capable of refraining from a taunt like that. Which makes Maher even more stupid not to have realized what was going to happen.
ReplyDeleteAs for Trump and conservatism--don't get me started. I heard him on talk radio several years back, saying he was "centrist" or whatever on social issues; then he turned around and claimed on Fox News a year or so ago that he had always been very pro-life, anti-gay marriage, etc. How can anyone trust a man like that? What really upset me was when I heard a few conservative friends of mine seriously talking about him as a possible nominee to oppose Obama, because he was such a brash figure and all. It was the one time I seriously worried that conservatives were developing an Obama Derangement Syndrome, comparable to liberals' Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Patriot, what annoyed me about LaPierre was his recent statement that guns were not responsible for the Newtown shooting--which is true enough--but that violent video games and movies from Hollywood were. Maybe there's an argument to be made there, but you really shouldn't say that. For one thing, it's not that amenable to the conservative position that people are responsible for their own actions. For another, it makes the NRA look like a finger-pointing interest group. Hollywood admits there's a problem but denies all culpability and scapegoats gun owners; LaPierre arguably did the same thing, only in reverse. It's arguing in circles, and it only muddles the issue.
ReplyDeleteTrump may drive us all a little crazy but I give him credit for knowing how to play the game. He is not afraid to fight back. His ego is big enough he doesn't care what people think about him. Don't want him for president but I like that fact he continues to really bug the left.
ReplyDeleteJust like the GOP continues to hold on to the idea that maybe some day they will get a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, the left gets all froathy at the mouth when it comes to gun control. The commerce clause give congress the right to control the sale and trafficing of guns but the 2nd amendment prevents the government from blanketly limiting the owning of guns. That second part seems to confuse them.
tryanmax, I think even the liberals know better than to talk about breaking up Texas. That's the one thing which might actually trigger an armed uprising. And I don't see them doing it for any other state, either.
ReplyDeleterla, that's telling them! "GET OFF MY LAWN," indeed! ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf they do start infiltrating the state in large numbers, maybe y'all could find a way to confine them to Austin? I'm sure they wouldn't mind.
Sounds like Gov. Moonbeam is off his meds.
ReplyDeleteOn the NRA, I don't like them. I really don't. I am a firm believe in the Second Amendment, but the NRA always seems to be fighting over things that make me shake my head. Maybe it's just the way they present themselves?
Andrew, that's the Associated Press for you. It's shilling, but it's respectable-looking shilling.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I like the old idea of South California (minus L.A.) forming its own state. It would be rather reliably red, and finally free of Sacramento's leftist meddling. And the rest of the state could sink into oblivion that much faster.
T-Rav there is a moat, it's called the Colorado river. Unfortunately nobody has had the wisdom to limit passage.
ReplyDeleteOT: Rockefellar is retiring in West Virginia. It's possible the GOP could pick up that seat, but we'll see. I'll believe it when I see it, but it's possible.
ReplyDeleteKosh, very true. Those qualities must endear Trump to some people, otherwise he wouldn't be a big deal.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing there will be any tangible results from this gun-control "debate." Whatever legislation is proposed will take months to get voted on, if at all, and it will probably be amended to death. The Left might get an assault-weapons ban if they play their cards right (never mind that the Newtown shooting was carried out with pistols), but I'm not holding my breath there either.
Methinks the gun issue is business as usual. The left slips sometimes and lets it be known their goal is disarming Americans, but for the most part, we will hear a lot of blather. I like what Ben Shapiro said to Piers Morgan on the topic...."Why do you stand on the graves of Sandy Hook and state that if you disagree with my position it's because you want little children to be killed?"
ReplyDeleteWe need more people to give it right back to the leftist media. Our repub politicos surely won't/can't. It makes for watchable TV doesn't it?!
I can't help but have at least a modicum of respect for Trump. I have no idea why but I just can't hate the guy, even if he is publicity whore who loves spinning conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in NJ/NY, I temped for a week in one of the Trump Company offices. If this had been a movie, he would've seen me toiling away and said, "I like the cut of your jib - how'd you like a corner office?"
That didn't happen. :-)
Ellen, I don't have a lot of experience with the NRA, so I can't say a lot about them. My main problem with them is that they're a single-issue group: they can't see the forest for the trees. For example, when elections come around, they always endorse a candidate strictly on the basis of how firm that individual is on gun rights. They pay no attention to party affiliation, or how that party overall stands on the issue. Thus, you see a lot of red-state Democrats wave around their pro-gun credentials and get elected to Congress, only to become part of a caucus that is overwhelmingly anti-gun. It's a total exercise in futility.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the NRA isn't the only such group guilty of this--most single-issue organizations are to some extent.
Max, maybe you should look into blowing the bridges. Or announce that the only means of access is through the Grand Canyon, on pack mules, without a saddle. Something like that.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the biggest indication that nothing or next to it will happen on guns is that Obama appointed Biden to head a blue-ribbon panel. Blue ribbon panels are a classic maneuver for when you want to make it look like you're doing something while you don't really want to do anything. And the more prominent the guy you put in charge, the more blue-ribbon the panel is. VP is about the bluiest you can get.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I had the same thought. The moment he appointed Biden, that was the end.
ReplyDeletePlus, they'll never get anything through the House. So I'm not worried.
"I wonder if Democrats would dare try to break up Texas?"
ReplyDeleteNow, I am sure rlaWTX can back me up on this, but like secession, Texans are always threatening to break up into 5 states. We will swear that it is in our original charter with US when we became a state whether it is true, and we live by the possibility! So, the Dems wouldn't have much trouble getting Texans on board. However, it would be a fight to the death HOW it would be broken up. And Dems may lose much more than they will gain. Just sayin'.
As for Bill Maher, it is not what he says that bothers me as much he when he hides behind "Oh, I am just a comedian" when he makes obvious political and mostly hateful statements and is called on it. Like when he calls Sarah Palin a ....well we all know what he calls her. It's not comedy. But, then NOW takes his excuse and let's it go.
Bev, I don't think it's fair to call Maher a comedian either. I think the best word for him is "earsore."
ReplyDeleteNow you're just being unfair to earsores. Even the void of space has more substance and is less vacuous than Maher, which I say at the risk of offending the void of space.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, just put aside your hatred of West by God Virginia and dare to dream. :-)
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, I shall dare to dream, but I kind of doubt it will turn out right... I'm a realist.
ReplyDelete(And I'm not giving up on the Tourettes monkeys.)
Patriot, I have little use for Ben Shapiro, but when even the Washington Post is saying that Morgan had his posterior handed to him in that exchange....well, credit where credit's due.
ReplyDeleteAlso, apparently Morgan's gun policy consists of saying "How dare you" over and over again. Sure.
tryanmax, I apologize to earsores. :P
ReplyDeleteScott, I get what you mean. The way Trump acts sometimes, it's almost as hard to hate him as it is to take him seriously.
ReplyDeleteSorry temping for Trump didn't work out. At least you didn't have to hear those famous two words from him. "You're fired!"
Andrew and tryanmax, I'm really not worried either, and as usual, probably the only one taking Biden's appointment to the panel seriously is Biden.
ReplyDeleteBev, I'm well aware of that. I kind of suspect, though, that it's one thing for Texans to propose breaking up on their own, and an entirely different one to be pressured to do so from outside. You know, one of those insider-outsider things. Plus, Texas' reputation is largely built on "bigness," so why would they want to replace that with smaller units?
ReplyDeleteAs far as Maher and his status as "comedian" goes, I can only say what Red Eye's Andy Levy once said of Joy Behar: "What I do object to is your use of the descriptive term 'comedian.' It's my understanding that a comedian is supposed to be funny."
HEY!! Leave us out of it!
ReplyDeleteThe one (of many) things that bothers me about this whole "Blue Ribbon" panel thing - Why does every issue with the Obama Administration have to be a panicked declaration of "WE WILL DO SOMETHING! WE WILL DO IT NOW!! EVEN IF IT IS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER!!" That is the most polarizing way of doing anything. It raises everyone's hackles and makes everyone run for the barricades! Seriously, can we not have a mature, rational discussion anymore where our government is concerned?
ReplyDeleteIt's making me a little crazy...
Bev, The things Obama wants to do are things rational people don't accept. So he wants to make these issues as irrational as possible. He wants to whip up his side with talk of "crisis" and "emergency" and he wants to get the right to act like they are insane so that the public thinks the right is the one playing politics. That is what's going on.
ReplyDeleteBev, Bev, Bev, you don't get it, do you? Discussion is what is divisive. Obama wants to end divisiveness, and the only way to do that is to end discussion. That is the mature, rational way of dealing with things. You must be some kind of obstructionist.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, blowing them up wouldn't be a good idea. You forget Californians can swim. As far as sending them through the Grand Canyon, lets not get Nevada involved. They got enough headaches up there. How about Calf. adopt a departure tax(I've heard they are considering one), make it so high nobody can leave. Thus saving the country from further disaster.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of foolishness, if you haven't read this, it's kind of funny: LINK
ReplyDeleteApparently, the taught the supercomputer Watson, which won Jeopardy, the Urban Dictionary so that it would learn how to engage in small talk. The results of this should have been foreseeable to everyone except apparently scientists. They've now had to wipe its memory because it began answering "bullshit" to questions. LOL!
Does the same thing work on 3-yr-olds?
ReplyDeleteBev, are you really that surprised? There's a problem, therefore the government must solve it. That's been the thinking of liberals since, forever.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - That is hysterical! I guess they had to wash its microprocessors out with virtual soap!
ReplyDeleteT-Rav - What surprises me is the adolescent way they go about it in this Administration.
ReplyDeleteA perfectly reasonable essay on guns by Sam Harris (hardly a rightwing gun nut).
ReplyDelete"As a consequence, we routinely hear the terms “semi-automatic” and “assault weapon” intoned with misplaced outrage and awe. It is true that a semi-automatic pistol allows a person to shoot and reload slightly more efficiently than a revolver does. But a revolver can be reloaded surprisingly quickly with a device known as a speed loader. (These have been in use since the 1970s.) It is no exaggeration to say that if we merely had 300 million vintage revolvers in this country, we would still have a terrible problem with gun violence, with no solution in sight."
I personally don't have a dog in this fight but as a son/nephew/cousin of gun owners, I err on the side of ownership, so long as the nutjobs can't get access.
I figure TX will get serious about secession when we find a big enough donut-hole-cutter-outer that will allow us to leave Austin behind... Luckily, so far, we Red-Staters still out number the Travis County, Houston, South Texas Blues.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I double-dog-dare CA or Feds or anyone else to come to the Texas Legislature and ask them to bail out California in some way!
Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!
Maher vs. Trump? I really detest both! But Trump gets some points from me for getting under the skin of Libtards! Like Hummers and deep fried Twinkies and I hate Hummers!
ReplyDeleteDon't get me started on Jerry Brown... My father loves him, though. My dad used to be a bartender at Jack London Square, he said that Jerry always gives generous tips. He even saw him drunk, several times!
On CA. Yeah, it's sad seeing be my state getting stupider and stupider by the day. But it's still home and I will never surrender it and just hand it over to the enemy! OVER MY DEAD BODY!
-- "I figure TX will get serious about secession when we find a big enough donut-hole-cutter-outer that will allow us to leave Austin behind... Luckily, so far, we Red-Staters still out number the Travis County, Houston, South Texas Blues."
ReplyDeleterlaWTX, I'm actually surprised to learn that Texas (with the exception of Austin, of course.) has other blues areas. You better keep up the good fight then! Keep those blues areas in their place! Or else Texas will end up like CA!
Severus - Like any state, the urbanized areas of Texas can be just as blue as any other - Houston, Dallas, Austin. But what saves Texas is Texans. They (We) are neither Red nor Blue, We are Texans...that should explain it all. Or that maybe nobody really lives in the urban areas - more live in the suburban areas and they are very Red...
ReplyDeleteHere we go again...
ReplyDeleteGOP Rep. Phil Gingrey speaking about Todd Akin:
"...he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He’s partly right on that. I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight, because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right, wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down, because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”
1. Shut up.
2. Shut the f*ck up.
Is there some reason these people can't stop themselves?
Andrew, Even putting aside the stupidity of this whole thing, why would anyone want to go back and talk about this? There is no reason to ever talk about Akin again. This is what I don't get, why are so many in the GOP so ready to keep re-opening self-inflicted wounds? They do this all the time.
ReplyDeleteAgain? I wonder if attacking rape victims is going to become the new favorite pastime of the sorts of geniuses who rallied behind Akin?
ReplyDeleteEllen, I have no idea, but the GOP has done it for years. They are the masters of shooting themselves in the foot... over and over.
ReplyDeleteAnthony, I'm at a loss to explain this. But you could be right, this could be an attempt to revive a theology that the public just declared unacceptable. Or he's just an idiot, which is possible too and doesn't have the sense to know what he should and should not talk about.
Andrew, I've often wondered how four-letter words read in binary code. Okay, actually I've never wondered that, but I am now.
ReplyDeleteBev, they often seem to have the rational capacity of teenagers, so I'm not.
ReplyDeleteScott, having been through a gun training course, I know that any cop or gun expert worth his salt will tell you that a semiautomatic should be your primary weapon and that a revolver should remain your backup. But it's certainly true that six-shooters account for a much larger proportion of gun crimes in the country than anyone realizes.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, one pundit has quipped that suggesting a ban on "semiautomatic handguns" is like suggesting a ban on "gasoline cars." Not going to happen.
rla, all I can say is make sure you stamp out those Houston/Austin/South Texas counter-revolutionaries before pushing ahead! :-)
ReplyDeleteI suspect a lot of states will have the same reaction if asked to bail out CA. Maybe we can form a League?
T-Rav, I have no idea, but I think it's hilarious that this was all it took to make the computer start cursing... and it couldn't stop. LOL! What does that say about the Urban Dictionary?... and us?
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, On your gun point, Biden is in trouble with leftists now for saying they'll "shoot for Tuesday" and saying "there's no silver bullet" solution. The world has gone insane. Maybe we should ban all expressions.
ReplyDeleteEllen, I'll tell you why we shouldn't dismiss that. The left has been playing the political correctness game against us for decades now, but they've been letting their own off the hook. We should be pounding away on every one of their "gaffes" like this and make life as intolerable for them as they've tried to make it for us. Never let the other side have exclusive use of a weapon.
ReplyDeleteSeverus, I wish you all the best in trying to save your state. I'm not that optimistic, though. :-(
ReplyDeleteIf Maher and Trump mutually annihilated, the world would probably benefit. But on this occasion, the Donald is a tad bit more palatable.
Is there some reason these people can't stop themselves?
ReplyDeleteThey probably have the same disease that I have, which is a compulsion to try and make people to understand exactly what it was I was trying to say after it's been misunderstood. The problem is, these Republican politicians don't seem to realize that the opposition doesn't want to understand what was meant.
Is there a discussion to be had about what happens to a woman's body when she is raped? Of course there is. If nothing else, the want of the best possible medical response demands it. But that conversation does not need to held by politicians nor could it even be done.
To underscore that point, what Gingrey said is no different than what several doctors pointed out in interviews for various media outlets in the wake of the Akin kerfuffle. But because Gingrey is a Republican politician, the parity will be ignored.
Andrew, Oh Lord.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, does anyone know if this is actually true? Because I keep hearing people make these claims. Second, even if it was true, why would anyone feel the need to re-open this wound? Aren't they aware by now this will only be interpreted one way? (sigh) I don't understand politicians.
Hrm. Apparently you and I are sharing brain waves, Ellen.
ReplyDeleteAs for the shooting expressions, I'm happy to let Biden and his scolders tear each other apart. I can't possibly take the latter's side, but I won't defend Biden, either, so a pox on both their houses.
tryanmax, I don't even care what the issues is... when you see someone ripped to shreds from all sides for saying something or doing something, most sensible politicians try to avoid delving into that.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, he had a 0% chance of changing any minds. The best case was that people would roll their eyes and tell him to shut up before someone noticed. The worst case was Akin II Electric-Moronaloo. Those aren't good odds.
And since there was no reason whatsoever to talk about this, it was just a stupid thing to do.
Andrew, it definitely says more about us than it does about anything else.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, Several news sites are reporting it and I haven't heard any denials at this point.
ReplyDeleteI doubt this one will be as big as Akin because there's no election at the moment, but it just isn't smart to keep picking at open wounds.
tryanmax, I get that, and I have a hard time knowing when it's time to stop. Truth be told, I shoot my mouth off too much to hold public office. Thing is, though, I'm not looking to hold public office. I would have hoped that the people who are would at least know the difference between good press and bad press. Isn't that the main job requirement for a politician?
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, Let me add in your response to tryanmax, that as you get older and go through the corporate environment, you actually learn when to keep your mouth shut. You see how certain things just aren't said or done because they aren't appropriate in a professional setting.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, a lot of politicians (particularly on our side) never seem to learn those lessons. They seem to think that whatever thought hits their mind is worthy of discussion and they have no filter.
All I can assume is that these people have no real experience engaging the world at large and probably came up through a very small group of people.
I agree, Andrew. Just STFU about Akin, alreadly! Everybody was starting to forget about him, but no, that retard had to bring it up, MONTHS after that whole debacle happened! Dammit, the libtards are going to have a field day with this...
ReplyDelete-- "Severus - Like any state, the urbanized areas of Texas can be just as blue as any other - Houston, Dallas, Austin. But what saves Texas is Texans. They (We) are neither Red nor Blue, We are Texans...that should explain it all. Or that maybe nobody really lives in the urban areas - more live in the suburban areas and they are very Red..."
*sigh* I wished Californians were more like Texans, but minus the cowboy hats and the pick-up trucks! ;)
And just what is so wrong with the cowboy hats and pickup trucks, Severus???????
ReplyDeleteThat's all I'm saying. Nobody wants any better understanding than they already have of what Akin said or anything related to it. So there's no point in trying to give it to them. Pearls before the swine, it's called.
ReplyDeleteThe silly thing is, the more I reflect on it, it's not even that the subject is off-limits for Republicans. The evidence that conservatives are winning the abortion debate is that the only ground liberals have left is the rape-pregnancy scenario. Heck, TIME just ran a cover-story lamenting that reality.
T-Rav said...
ReplyDeleteAndrew, Oh Lord.
First off, does anyone know if this is actually true? Because I keep hearing people make these claims. Second, even if it was true, why would anyone feel the need to re-open this wound?
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T-Rav, the only people making the claim that real rape victims don't get pregnant are guys. Maybe these guys really have discovered a process unknown to women throughout history, but I strongly doubt it.
As for why they would reopen the wound, all of the guys who have felt a deep need to rubbish the notion of pregnancy resulting from rape have been big government pro-lifers.
Telling oneself 'I don't want to let a woman too lazy, drunk or stupid to use birth control to punish the innocent that was the result' is one thing, telling oneself 'I want to force a woman who got raped to have a baby, because it isn't guilty of its father's sins' is something else.
If one believes life begins at conception, it makes perfect sense, but there is no getting around the fact that it is forcing a woman to live with a decision she had no part in, something even many people who don't believe in abortion are reluctant to do.
That is why these guys seek to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of pregnant rape victims.
What the latest genius seems to be talking about is ovulation. As he stated, when ovulation happens can be impacted by stress (and nutrition) once the ovulation starts, it isn't something that can be cut off even by severe stress. So Akin is still a complete idiot who was totally wrong.
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Stress can affect your ovulation which ultimately determines when your period will come, but stress around the time of an expected period will not make it late—it was already determined when it would come 12-16 days earlier!
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/gettingpregnant/understandingovulation.html
*sigh* I wished Californians were more like Texans, but minus the cowboy hats and the pick-up trucks! ;)
ReplyDeleteHey,Severus, I have never owned or operated a cowboy hat! And the pick up truck...well, it was only that once and I was moving and it wasn't even mine! It was my brother's. AND it was a Toyota, NOT a Ford. So there! What next? Do you think we park our horses outside on the hitchin' post too? :-P
Actually, my Yankee Dad did have a sweet 1949 red Ford pick up truck to use at our lake cabin to haul stuff. It was cool!
the only people making the claim that real rape victims don't get pregnant are guys.
ReplyDeleteThat's like arguing that a person cannot learn Spanish from a native English speaker. Reproductive biology is not esoteric to women. It's just these guys who are speaking out of their depth.
That is why these guys seek to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of pregnant rape victims.
I disagree. That is precisely what Akin and this new guy are trying not to do. But they are doing it in a stupid way based on faulty information. I might also add that they are not rare in their wrongness. Like I said, in the weeks after Akin, there were doctors on TV saying just what Gingrey said--the only difference being, it was being spun to make Akin look even stupider, i.e. using wrong info to refute wrong info.
But their opponents are spinning ignorance into villainy, which is why they should let it go. There’s no way out of this particular battle, especially when the facts are already against you.
If one believes life begins at conception, it makes perfect sense,
What’s odd is that you know the perspective from which it makes sense, but you don’t give these guys the benefit of the doubt that they come from that perspective. They’re either fools or scoundrels, but not both, and the evidence is pretty heavy on the "fools" side.
The major problem with the pro-life movement is that they really are misnamed. (It's a good name, though. They should keep it.) They really are the anti-abortion movement b/c they routinely fail to make the case that life does begin at conception. (I disagree with that concept, BTW, believing instead that life begins at implantation. Of course, the terms need to be sussed out a bit; conception can refer to either fertilization or implantation.)
Where they have made gains is in convincing most people that life does begin before birth, which is a major stride for their cause-- restrictions on third trimester procedures are generally popular--they just don't seem to realize it. If they were savvy operators, they'd now focus on the second trimester instead of skipping all the way to conception--work on the definition of "viability" and accept the word "fetus" but get people to understand it differently.
Anthony, not really. I know several conservative women who were quick to defend Akin, for example, in the wake of his comments--not that that necessarily means they're any better informed.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I personally do oppose abortion in cases of rape or incest, precisely because of what you put in quotation marks--it is nonetheless a human life, and one that did not have any say in how it was created. Sorry, but if you believe that abortion is murder, then logically, there's nowhere else to go but to that proposition. And I, like many pro-lifers, recognize the horror of the position these women are in, having become pregnant against their will. I simply can't condone the murder of an innocent third party.
As for Akin, I don't think he was trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of pregnant rape victims--although that is definitely how it sounded. I think he just said something very stupid. As tryanmax said, you can be a fool or a scoundrel very easily. It's a bit harder to be both.
tryanmax, I commented on Facebook last night that pop culture kind of bears this out. If you turn on the TV, all you have to do is click around for a few minutes to find a show with a positive portrayal of homosexuality. But to find something similar on abortion--certainly not impossible, but it's a lot harder to find. My thought was that maybe we're not "losing" the culture wars, we're reaching a split decision.
ReplyDeleteWhich I could live with--my disgust for both notwithstanding, abortion is for me a much greater moral crime than gay marriage. So.
T-Rav, I think a sure sign that conservatism, if not actual conservatives, has gained ground in the culture wars is that the conservative talkers have had to become more extreme in order to continue triangulating against the culture. That isn't to say that the left hasn't gained ground in other areas--gay marriage for example, as you say. And, of course, some things just make conservatives look silly--I'm convinced that self-appointed culture warriors would hate rap music even if it was about prom night and rumble seats.
ReplyDeleteBack to comparing abortion to gay marriage, I think on both issues, you and I see largely eye-to-eye. However, I think homosexuality is only a moral issue--and not something for politics--whereas abortion is bigger. From an individual freedom standpoint, there isn't really any case to be made against gay marriage. Conservatives would have done better to mock the idea as ludicrous rather than legitimize it with falsifiable claims that it collapses societies.
On the other hand With abortion there is a very real if not sticky individual freedom issue involving two individuals at odds with one another. Now, conservatives have largely misunderstood the Roe v. Wade decision, which make it difficult for them (us) to state a case. What RvW did was essentially say that no government will take sides in this conflict of interests--i.e. that which exists b/w mother and unborn child--for the first two trimesters.
Obviously, that decision gives one party an incredible advantage over the other. That dispairity isn't widely appreciated, though, because a large number of Americans have accepted the notion that fetuses aren't people. That's an popular conception that can't be changed legislatively. It has to be changed in the culture first. The abortion lobby hated the movies Juno and Knocked Up, but both were very popular with audiences. We need more of that message, probably in TV show form.
Tryanmax,
ReplyDeleteOpposing abortion is all instances is morally defensible, casting aspersions on rape victims who get pregnant is not.
A sane, moral person should say 'I oppose all abortions because I believe all life is sacred' (your argument) rather than 'If she got pregnant, she wanted it'. The latter is the sort of argument I should hear only when listening to an interview from a rapist serving a life sentence, not a Congressman.
T-Rav,
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity did the women defend Akin by saying that 'He's a wonderful guy who didn't meant it and his loss would mean an abortionist continues to hold the Congressional seat' or did they say 'Yeah, we women can turn off our reproductive systems whenever we want!'?
Anthony, I agree with all of that, but the implication with that statement is that Akin or Gingrey or Mourdock said something to the effect of "if she got pregnant, she wanted it." That trio has certainly expressed a lot of inarticulate, ill-informed ideas, but that certainly wasn't one of them--no matter how much the left spins it that way. So I'll do you one better: not only shouldn't you that sort of argument from a Congressman, you aren't.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, The problem is that they are part of group that has a history of attacking rape victims and women generally.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same group who openly speculate about the things a rape victim was wearing and whether or not she brought it on herself, they freaked out about laws allowing husbands to be charged with rape, they are constantly suggesting that rape victims are liars, and Akin began with a suggestion that some rape shouldn't really be considered rape (something Gingrey actually defended before the quote above).
You can't belong to a group that consistently says those things without the public thinking you are attacking rape victims.
What Maher is most downtrodden about regarding Trump not being the progeny of an Orangutan is that this destroys any hope that the two are long lost cousins so be easy on Bill, he must be having a hard time.
ReplyDeleteAnthony, it was a little of both. Mostly the former, to be sure--kind of "Yeah, he's a blockhead, but he's our blockhead"--but I did see a few arguing that while the argument he made is wrong, the science is inconclusive enough that he could be forgiven for believing it.
ReplyDeleteMake of that what you will. After weeks of hearing about it endlessly in the local press and listening to interviews with Akin after the fact, I personally have no doubt that he was being sincere in what he said, and that the obvious implication of his statement went right over his head. He's not a monster, he's just far too stupid to be holding public office.
And like I said previously, this is the corner that the pro-abortion lobby has been backed into. They can only seem to make their case on the rape-pregnancy scenario, and then they aren't even talking much about the pregnancy side of it anymore.
ReplyDeleteSo let them have their little corner for now. If the right is to drum out Akin, Murdoch, Gingrey and their ilk, drum them out to the beat of "rape is bad" and nothing else. They way it's being handled presently, the entire pro-life movement is being aspersed.
As to laws regarding rape, there are some conversations that need to be had there, but they should not be conflated with abortion beyond what is unavoidable.
tryanmax, I think there is a case to be made against gay marriage on the basis of personal freedom (don't ask me to make it at the moment, though), but at the very least, I would agree with you that it's not an obvious one. Where abortion is concerned, it's much easier to argue that this is hurting someone. As you point out with Juno and Knocked Up, even Hollywood has a hard time touching this issue (though they sometimes can--Coach Carter, if you've ever seen it, portrays a teenager who's just had an abortion in a very positive light).
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you can oppose rap as a cultural warrior. I do know you can and should oppose techno music as a human being.
Leave techno alone!
ReplyDeleteDoes club music count as techo? Because I love club music. I may not be human. I may be a Cylon.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav,
ReplyDeleteI like rap and techno. I don't buy techno or know any of the artists, but it pops up in a lot of movie and videogame soundtracks and I think its quite good. I really love the intro music of the original Blade (which accompanied a beautiful fight scene).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNOP2t9FObw
Dammit, I'm going to go watch that movie right now.
Techno as it was once known is long gone. It was best when it was underground, back in the late 80's early nineties. I have a friend that was a producer of a variety of styles of techno back in the day. He remixed singles for names most of us know.
ReplyDeleteTrance was my favorite style, BR soundtrack was done by Vangelis he is considered new age.
Tryanmax it depends what club music your referring. Today not no much, back in the day there were clubs that catered to that style of music. They had a club in Scottsdale called, "The Works", it was something. I used to tell people to go, because it was like going to the zoo. But don't make eye contact with anybody. Kinda scary for heteros.
If anybody is interested I can post links to some the old stuff.
Indi, I consider that an insult to orangutans.
ReplyDeleteAll right! Fine! Forget I said anything about the techno! Jeez, didn't realize we had so many androids around here....
ReplyDeleteMoby, I may not oppose techno, but I do oppose your music. I don't care what it is, it's bad. Except "Southside." That's okay. You should collaborate with Gwen Steffani more often. It can only help.
ReplyDeleteFor those who are interested, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that Gingrey is wrong and that adrenaline has nothing to do with ovulation.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some pro-life groups are now considering sensitivity training to keep these idiots from wandering into these things. I don't think it will help. These guys just have no judgement and they feed that with bad "science" and a sense of self-righteousness.
P.S. Moby sucks.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone here asserted that Gingrey was correct. I mentioned that I heard doctors interviewed on TV saying nearly the same thing as Gingrey did to make the case that Akin was stupid. So it was apparently correct a couple months ago.
ReplyDelete