Betcha Didn’t Know

Tags

fundamentalists, GOP, Herman Cain, idleness, psychology, racism, religious right, social justice, sociology, taxes, teabaggers, the Family, unions

I don’t usually make a big point of pointing out blogs you should read. I assume, if you follow the links, you decide which ones you might like to keep an independent eye upon.

But this one, you just gotta start following. I lucked upon it in a round-up blog, I think from Crooks and Liars yesterday, and not only was the linked post dynamite, I read a few other posts and they were excellent as well.

The name is quite the attention-getter: We are Respectable Negroes.  I’ve given you the general link so you can go and peruse the posts. The one that I originally linked to was about Herman Cain, the great black hope for the truly insane right-wing. This is the man who “proves” they ain’t racist. Well, in a word, Chauncey DeVega says, bullshit. DeVega shows how both Cain and Michael Steele, are nothing but bowin’ and steppin’ as the white man’s buffoons.

There is also an excellent post on “Sarah Palin as the New Al Sharpton,” Oprah Winfrey (not complementary) and the Japanese nuclear meltdown. Excellent snappy writing. I’m in love.

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We have been talking about unions a lot these days. And economics, and how the rich just get richer, and the poor get poorer, and the rich have done a fine job of co-opting the working poor but fundamentalistly religious into their camp. The economic arguments offered by the religious far right originate in their very original and idiotic recasting of the bible.

Jesus was no unionist didn’t ya know? Why? Why because in Matthew 20, (the story of the vineyard owner and how he pays the one hour worker the same as the full day worker), Jesus makes it clear that he is about individual “contracts” not unionization. This from pseudo-historian David Barton.

Further, mental midgets of the same persuasion and we suspect a secret desire to keep their hefty wallets closed, claim that most taxation amounts to “theft” thoroughly condemned in the 10 Commandments.

Anti unionism has been part of that whole scene since the early 40’s. Followers of “The Family” were told that God wants unions broken. Further, since we don’t have slavery anymore, the passages in 1Peter which tell slaves to obey their masters, even if harsh, are now translatable to “workers.”

Yeah, ain’t that all so damnably convenient as to make you want to spew? And the poor teabuggers thought they invented all this stuff themselves. Isn’t that nose ring starting to be apparent to you guys yet?

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As if we didn’t know. Bryan Fischer, all around homophobe, and head of American Family Association, dedicated to marriage inequality, is a full-blown racist as well. His latest tweet about the Libyan no-fly zone:

“boy” president?

h/t to Joe.My.God

 

 

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If you have an idle moment or two today, then do stop by and read this exquisite essay on “idleness.” 😉 It’s a bit of a read, but beautifully written. And frankly, there is more than enough bad news everyday that we need to offset it with purely thoughtful things. Do yourself a favor and go read: The Mother of Possibility, from Lapham’s Quarterly.

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I don’t know about you, but I think I probably idolize my own opinions. I try to keep an open mind, and I’ve changed it on a good number of things over the years, but often when I have thought a lot about something, and rationally (at least to my mind) explored the facts, I have a hard time not defending it in the face of criticism. QBlog explores that idea in a post called The Idolatry of our Personal Opinions. It’s not long, but sets out some interesting concepts.

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We all sign our names to things, some of us dozens of time a day. As a practicing lawyer, I had days I might have signed my name to things nearly one hundred times. (We had a secretary or two that became quite good at copying our signatures on the common day-to-day stuff that needed our sign-off for no good reason than because it was habit.

But when did this idea of “authenticating things” by signature begin? Read the article in Slate to find out.

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What’s on the stove: spaghetti with Sherry’s sauce and meatballs, foccacia (home-made),and, salad. (the foccacia is a new recipe. I’ll let you know how it turned out).