Now, we were just talking about all the trouble Martin Bashir encountered after he went super-dramatic about how despicable it was for Sarah Palin to have used slavery as a metaphor, and I said:
Bashir — if he was ever worth having his own show — should be able to say very clearly that he intended to express the depth of the horror of slavery and therefore why it should never be used as a metaphor. Now, of course, he'd be open to the criticism that he only chose to go where he did because his target was Sarah Palin, but he could confess to that, say that was wrong, and dedicate himself to permanent across-the-board opposition to slavery as a metaphor.So... imagine going Bashir over the use of the term "slave wages." Remember, all Sarah Palin did was use slavery as a metaphor, and she was grilled by Jake Tapper on CNN — here's the transcript — in what to me looks like an effort to make her say something off (as if Tapper wanted to be the new Katie Couric, ruining Sarah Palin all over again).
TAPPER: So, you obviously feel very passionate about the national debt. The other day, you gave a speech in which you compared it to slavery.More at the link. You see what Tapper is doing, playing the old game of Screwing with Sarah. And Bashir just came tripping after Tapper. He can get in there too. They want to tap her and bash her. Rape metaphor intended, because I'm trying to highlight the political use of metaphor and responsive arguments that this metaphor is not allowed. Bashir said:
PALIN: To slavery. Yes. And that's not a racist thing to do, by the way, which I know somebody is going to claim it is.
TAPPER: Don't you ever fear that by using hyperbole like that -- obviously, you don't literally mean it's like slavery, which cost millions of people their lives and there was rape and torture. You're using it as a metaphor. But don't you ever worry that by using that kind of language, you -- you risk obscuring the point you're trying to make?
PALIN: There is another definition of slavery and that is being beholden to some kind of master that is not of your choosing. And, yes, the national debt will be like slavery when the note comes due.
Given her well-established reputation as a world class idiot, it’s hardly surprising that [Palin] should choose to mention slavery in a way that is abominable to anyone who knows anything about its barbaric history. So here’s an example. One of the most comprehensive first-person accounts of slavery comes from the personal diary of a man called Thomas Thistlewood, who kept copious notes for 39 years. Thistlewood was the son of a tenant farmer, who arrived on the island of Jamaica in April 1750, and assumed the position of overseer at a major plantation.
What is most shocking about Thistlewood’s diary is not simply the fact that he assumes the right to own and possess other human beings, but is the sheer cruelty and brutality of his regime. In 1756, he records that a slave named Darby ‘catched eating kanes; had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.’ This became known as ‘Darby’s Dose,’ a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of inhumanity.
And he mentions a similar incident in 1756, his time in relation to a man he refers to as Punch. ‘Flogged Punch well, and then washed and rubbed salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper. Made Negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth.' I could go on, but you get the point....
When Mrs. Palin invokes slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate.I'm asking you to imagine consistency about the use of metaphor, disaggregating it from the lust to get Sarah Palin or somebody else you think is asking for it. Imagine doing the Bashir routine when anyone talks about "slave wages" or being a "wage slave." That's what Bashir would have needed to do to prove his good faith in his outrage over the cheap deployment of the idea of slavery. It's not something you can realistically imagine, and that's why we know it was Bashir, even more than Sarah Palin, who carelessly appropriated the suffering of others to make a political point.
Bonus: Imagine what Bashir — in a quest for consistency — would have to say to Bryan Ferry:
By the way, Bashir's Thistlewood story was about torture, and torture can occur in many contexts other than slavery. True consistency would require him to rage against the use of torture as a metaphor. He ought to lose his cool whenever he sees, say, a headline like "Homework torture for some gifted students."
Be consistent and principled about metaphor or eat shit and die.
पोस्ट्स
९५ टिप्पण्या:
Here's how to understand the rule--it's okay to use the term "slavery" when you're talking about a private employer asking you to work for a certain wage that you agree to, but it is low. That's clearly just like slavery.
It's NOT okay to use the term "slavery" to discuss anything the government decides to do to you, in terms of demanding your money, possessions, toil, or freedoms. Slavery had nothing at all to do with people losing the fruits of their toil, or being forced to do or not to do things, or losing freedom or dignity.
There, that should clear it up.
Yesterday you posted about "heads rolling". How tasteless (was that from the NYT?). Muslim terrorists actually cut off peoples' heads. That's certainly worse than "targeting" Congressional candidates. Don't we have to ban metaphors entirely?
I suggest that we aim to do so.
I am not required to get all weepy and guilt ridden whenever the subject of slavery is mentioned.
No, the experience of blacks is not a religious rite over which I am bound to genuflect.
No, I'm not required to do that.
I don't do it. I'm a real bad man. So what?
If you want to constantly police my language for use of the word "slavery" in contexts you don't like... well, I'll give you total war in response. You're a declared enemy. I don't have to pretend otherwise.
Would you say that using slavery as a metaphor more or less in the same ballpark as the reductio ad hitlerum? I've certainly been guilty of using absurd, over the top comparisons in arguments (not sure if I've every used the slavery metaphor but I probably have).
Where were these people who get so upset about using slave metaphors when Joe Biden said this about Republicans “Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, ‘unchain Wall Street.’ They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”????
So should someone feed old Joe some crap???
You are assuming they are acting in good faith when clearly they are not. The handwringing is about "shut up!". Your civility bullshit tag applies here.
Brando nails it.
"Dozens Protest ‘Slave Wages’ For Fast-Food Workers In Metro Detroit"
Well, one other difference here: the "slaves" are the ones putting shit in other peoples' mouths.
And yet Bashir earlier used the metaphor of slavery to any opposition to gay marriage. It is not that Palin's metaphor was incorrect; it is the simple fact that she used it.
Slavery is used as a metaphor all the time. In most cases, it's pretty lame. In this case however, crushing public debt imposed by the previous generation's profligate spending, it is particularly apt.
Bashir fell victim to the ever more desperate overreaching by the left to tag their political opponents as racists.
The political gambit by Democrats is to continually up the ante as to what whites "owe" to blacks as recompense for something that conservative whites are supposed to have done to them.
This message goes out mostly to blacks, in an attempt to shore up the black block vote for Democrats.
There's always something else Democrats are promising to give to blacks. Reparations is the new battle cry. There'll be something else after that.
Serfdom would have been a better metaphor, but that doesn't mean that use of slavery as a metaphor is off limits.
Didn't the collective authoritarian neo-fascist left just get done telling us that we are all "terrorists and hostage takers" if we dare disagree with said authoritarian leftists (aka - democrats)?
The pamphleteers in 18th c. England and the English colonies used slavery as a metaphor without pause. Yes, the irony is poisonous when a Virginian planter calls himself a slave to royal imposition. It falls into that small group of pre-contemporary usages that are jarring to read.
I don't pay much attention to Sarah Palin so I don't know how jarring her usage was.
I'm even less interested in the yellow journalism of pretend outrage.
This isn't Bashir's first woman problem.
Speaking at an Asian American Journalists Association gala in 2008, Bashir told the audience that he was "happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes" and joked that he was glad he was behind a podium to cover his excitement. Later he said that a speech should be "like a dress on a beautiful woman — long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to keep your interest — like my colleague Juju's," referring to ABC correspondent Juju Chang. According to New York magazine, some audience members booed Bashir following those comments.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/365060/recalling-bashirs-past-offensive-comments-andrew-johnson
Leftwing men seem to have a real problem treating women who disagree with them with any respect.
I wonder if this would have played out differently if Gov. Palin had referenced Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."
> The political gambit by Democrats is to continually up the ante as to what whites "owe" to blacks as recompense for something that conservative whites are supposed to have done to them.
Conservative whites fought in the civil war to end slavery. They were fighting democrats.
We didn't enslave them and we paid dearly to free them.
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.”
Or, if you prefer, no good deed goes unpunished.
Remember how Obama and the Democrats keeps referring to GOP as hostage takers and terrorists during budget negotiations. Terrorists behead people. They rape and torture them at a level at least as bad as slavery. But Bashir and Tapper have different standards for Democrats.
There are a to of reasons I despise Obama but by far the biggest reasons is how he constantly divides Americans against one another. It's sickening and shameful. Even on Thanksgiving, a day when families should come together and be grateful for all the good things they have, Obama tried to divide America.
PALIN: There is another definition of slavery and that is being beholden to some kind of master that is not of your choosing. And, yes, the national debt will be like slavery when the note comes due.
Dead on. Of course if Obama had said so, the collective bad-faith left would be all cheers.
Everyone knows if you work for MSNBC, the joke network, you're a world class idiot.
If taxes aren't slavery then why are they compelled? Taxes should be purely voluntary.
I think that what we need now is the same sort of meme that Mike Godwin came up with over two decades ago in regards to Nazis. Maybe we could call it the Althouse effect or rule, and every time that someone says "slavery", or talks about chains, etc, we could just say "Althouse", and that would be the end of it, at least for those who know about it.
The thing about Palin though is that, contrary to what the left seems to think, is quite bright, much brighter than many of them. Remember how quick she picked up on "Death Panels", and then coined the phrase that seems to be sticking to the panels of anonymous bureaucrats that will be deciding who lives and who dies under ObamaCare? I don't think that this use of "slavery" was a mistake on her part, but rather suggest that this may have been an attempt to change the debate on the constant use of racism on the part of the left to intimidate their opponents by claiming such, whenever they start losing debates.
And always remember, for better than 200 years, the Democratic Party has always been the party of racists, from supporting slavery, through opposing the Union in the Civil War, Jim Crow, KKK, resegregating the federal govt, opposing the Civil Rights laws up through the 1960s, destroying Black families through welfare dependence under LBJ's Great Society, etc, and now flipped to some extent for the explicit racism of the Obama Administration, and esp Holder's DOJ. And always keep this in mind, when Dem politicians, and esp white Dem politicians,like Slo Joe Biden there, try playing the race card. They, not us, are representatives and members of the party that defended slavery to the bitter, bloody, end, then spent the time since then trying to keep Black People in their place, through laws, lynching, and finally economic warfare.
What is "wage slavery", or what level of payment are "slave wages"?
A slave tends not to get payment from the master. At least, the slaves in America didn't. And I doubt that slaves in classical Rome did...
There are levels of earnings that leave the employer with the financial/personal freedom that most slaves had. Which might be "slave wages".
But that is too easy to confuse with earns much less than I think they should earn, or not equivalent to the wages of the average office-worker. Which is true of many fast-food workers.
I think the phrase "slave wages" should be banned from discourse, so that we can invent more accurate terminology.
Napoleon was considered an egalitarian who militarized the ideals of the French Revolution. But note that in his travels and conquests he never attempted to free the slaves in Egypt and the French West Indies or the serfs in Russia. He did, however, allow all French male citizens to vote in a plebiscite that granted him plenipotentiary powers. It was Welington who was the abolitionist. It was he who, at the Congress of Vienna, insisted on freeing the slaves in the French West Indies.........Closer to our own time it is instructive to note that Adlai Stevenson said that he supported to Brown vs Board of Education decision but that he would not send in federal troops to enforce it. That was when the Solid South was important to Democratic electoral chances and liberal Dems were quite willing to curtsy and bow with their rabid segregationist dance partners. Eisenhower, in contrast, refused to vocally endorse the Brown decision, but he did send troops in to enforce it. It's also worth noting that Eisenhower dropped the Jim Crow rules that the progressive Woodrow Wilson had imposed on Washington D.C. Further, it was Eisenhower who made sure that the armed forces actually desegregated in accordance with Truman's executive order..........Conservatives actually have a pretty good record of opposition to slavery and segregation. Their support of quotas and affirmative action has been a little spotty though.
"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."
February 9th, 2012 article
Debt Slavery: 30 Facts About Debt In America That Will Blow Your Mind
Ooooo.....sorry for the ‘S’ word but government debt = sl****y
So what does this say about the conduct of our Washington overlords and how they view the masses?
Is the phrase slave to fashion still okay, though, 'cause I like to use that to described my daughter.
Speaking of slave wages, isn't it fast-food strike day?
Does no one remember the term "wage slave?"
Its rarely a good idea to broach the topic of coprophagia, voluntary or otherwise, unless you are in a strictly academic setting or seeking medical advice.
Martin knows that now.
The political gambit by Democrats is to continually up the ante as to what whites "owe" to blacks as recompense for something that conservative whites are supposed to have done to them.
Of course, it was never the "conservatives" who did this to them. It was almost exclusively Democrats. The push for emancipation came primarily from people we would now consider religious fundamentalists. Sure, the monied interests in the NE looked at it economically, but they weren't the ones marching into battle singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic. And after that, it was the Dems who implemented Jim Crow, joined the KKK, lynched blacks, voted against Civil Rights laws, and then forced Blacks into welfare dependence.
Robert Cook, the difference between a "wage slave" and an actual slave is that the "wage slave" can quit.
SJ, even a slave is paid with food, clothing and shelter. Kind of like an indentured servant. Slaves in Rome got bread and circuses. Do I need to go on?
Wage slavery is Marxist dogma: "Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains."
Let's look at the definition of slave:
noun
1.a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.
2. a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person: a slave to a drug.
3. a drudge: a housekeeping slave.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slave
Palin used the term correctly. By implication slavery implies coercion of some type, but the abuse Bashir described is not part of the definition of slavery anymore than the definition of the word wife implies forcing a woman to perform sex acts against her will including violent sex. That type of abuse does occur but is not a typical feature of wifeliness.
Bashir like all leftists was abusing the language to promote a lie. His attack on Palin was revealed what a truly depraved soul he has become. This depravity destroys any argument that the left is acting on genuine moral grounds.
Given Bashir's past history and his fan base, I maintain that he just has a personal vendetta against Palin.
It's really that simple.
Get over it Bashir. Your attack on Caribou Barbie as someone with a well established reputation as a world class idiot is so 2008. That particular train left the station 5 years ago---but you lefty morons keep playing with it. Sorta of like 3 year old boys playing with their own feces and making mud balls of it.
Palin is not an idiot. Certainly in terms of intellectual heft she surpasses Slow Joe Biden. And based on Obama's performance recently she may even be smarter than our President.
But Bashir has had his interesting little "conversation" with the MSNBC honchoes, and I suspect his backside is still smarting from the slap of the door on his way out. Karma indeed.
Debt slavery is essential for modern political control, so it's no wonder that Bashir defended his political ideals against Palin speaking truth and highly likely that he will do so again.
Martin Bashir has a Third World soul and outlook in which we all owe an unpaid debt. He champions the debt status quo in that sense. Thus the lashing out.
The Italian word "ciao" derives from the Venetian phrase s-ciào vostro or s-ciào su literally meaning "I am your slave". link
Now excuse me as I tend to my slave wage job.
Ciao!
"...the difference between a 'wage slave' and an actual slave is that the 'wage slave' can quit."
Not if their only option is to go to another similar job...which is becoming more and more the only option for many Americans. One might not be a "wage slave" any longer at McDonalds, but one will be at Hardees or Pizza Hut or whatever other jobs--if any--are available.
@JackWayne,
You're right, slaves (and indentured servants) got clothing and shelter.
Thus, a "living wage" which provided only clothing and shelter could be considered a "slave wage" equivalent, with the exception that there is no legal condition of slavery attached.
The other point: "bread and circuses" described what the plebes of the city of Rome reputedly cared about, during the period that the Republic decayed and strongmen like Caesar took on multiple, powerful offices.
Slaves didn't get bread and circuses, the citizens got them...and were apparently not disturbed while the Republic decayed into an autocratic regime run by Caesar.
"Not if their only option is to go to another similar job..."
To improve your options, improve your skills.
Slavery is not all black slavery.
Muslims enslaved whites (and still do in some lands.) And there is sex slaves to.
I suspect the only reason their is outrage over the term slavery is because Palin said it.
If a liberal (and do remember the Democrats, as in Dixie Democrats) were all KKK members) uses the slavery term, it ok, at least in the NAACP.
"To improve your options, improve your skills."
Tell that to all the Masters and Doctorate degree holders unable to find jobs that match their educations or skill sets...or, who do, but find those jobs also pay shit. Tell that to all the skilled laborers out of work due to declines in the construction trade. Tell that to the people working 2 or 3 slave wage jobs who don't have the time or the financial means to "improve their skills."
It's easy to be glibly dismissive about the tough lives and difficulties of others, isn't it?
Frankly, I don't understand why people work for slave wages either. It's so much easier to receive a welfare/disability check. No work, no withholdings, no getting out of bed in the morning, free Obamacare. Pure heaven.
Btw, slaves don't get wages. That is why they are slaves, not no skill low wages workers.
A well researched table of wages actually paid to slaves through history would be helpful. Anyone have that information?
This is supposed to be a free country, if you don't like your no skill, low wages job, get another. You were told since childhood that you could be whatever you wanted to be. Aim high, be a CEO. Invent something, be a billionaire.
"Btw, slaves don't get wages. That is why they are slaves, not no skill low wages workers."
You have a naively narrow--or willfully literal--view of what constitutes "slavery," just as you naively assume all low wage workers have no skills.
Robert, all of your examples can be laid at the feet of the moribund Obama economy. I'm only pointing out the only out available to individuals (you do know that word, right?) until we throw off these shackles.
Aim high, be a CEO. Invent something, be a billionaire."
Gee...why don't they think of that?!
I have to assume you are being highly ironic here, and are actually on the side of poorly paid workers and favor their getting better pay through an increase in the minimum wage.
It's easy to be glibly dismissive about the tough lives and difficulties of others, isn't it?
They need people below them to feel their own self worth. Why on earth would they care if a fast food worker is asking for a raise?
>> "To improve your options, improve your skills."
> Tell that to all the Masters and Doctorate degree holders unable to find jobs that match their educations or skill sets...or, who do, but find those jobs also pay shit.
You seem to be under the impression that Masters and Doctorates are evidence of useful skills, aka the sort of "improve[d] skills" that lead to "improve[d] options".
You're wrong. Degrees are certificates of competence wrt a subject. That doesn't imply that said competence is valuable.
"Why on earth would they care if a fast food worker is asking for a raise?"
I've got no problem with a fast food worker walking in and asking his boss for a raise.
"Robert, all of your examples can be laid at the feet of the moribund Obama economy."
This is not a "moribund Obama economy." This is the new American economy, brought to you by several succeeding administrations and Congresses who have worked in service to and hand in hand with the powerful financial interests, rewriting or repealing old laws and drafting new ones that favor the economic practices and interests of the wealthy few at the expense of the not-wealthy (and poor) rest of us.
We will not see a return to the prosperous middle-class society, an America replete with well-paid, substantial jobs with benefits for all who want them, such as we saw in the post-WWII decades...ever again.
At least, not without a wrenching political change. Merely changing the names of those who hold the offices or seeing swaps of occupancy in the White House and majorities in Congress back and forth between the two parties will not do it.
> Tell that to all the skilled laborers out of work due to declines in the construction trade.
Are you opposed to allowing more construction workers to immigrate into the US?
How do you feel about penalizing employers who employ construction workers who aren't legally in the US?
The answers to those questions tell us whether you actually care about US construction workers.
It's easy to be glibly dismissive about the tough lives and difficulties of others, isn't it?
Yes. What are they planning on doing for me?
It is the "moribund Obama economy". It must suck to see all your cherished economic ideas crumbling before your eyes.
"'Why on earth would they care if a fast food worker is asking for a raise?'"
"I've got no problem with a fast food worker walking in and asking his boss for a raise."
How magnanimous of you.
Robert Cook said...
Tell that to all the Masters and Doctorate degree holders unable to find jobs that match their educations or skill sets...or, who do, but find those jobs also pay shit.
This betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of fairness or reality. Because someone has a skill someone else is responsible for hiring him? It just shows the left as whiners who can't engage life.
The world as run by its Robert Cook's would be a horrible place abounding only in misery.
It must suck to see all your cherished economic ideas crumbling before your eyes."
I wouldn't know; they haven't been tried in decades. When they were, they worked. Obama, of course, is just an extension of presidents who preceded...a tool of the financial elites.
Well now, Marshall...for those paid poorly because they are perceived to be "low skilled" or "no skilled," the prescription is for them--magically--to "improve their skills."
For the very many skilled workers who languish in shit jobs for shit pay, the answer is: "tough shit; who said life is fair?"
It seems you and your ilk are inclined to damn the the poor or poorly paid regardless of their circumstances, efforts, skills achieved or potential. As was always apparent, your ilk's view is, simply: "I've got mine; fuck you."
Well, a society cannot long survive with that as the prevailing ethos, and we won't.
I believe Palin is miles smarter than Obama as evidenced by the history of their last 5 years of statements. Obama is a dunce in real world actions and results. He is a perfect embodiment of ivory tower "thinkers". " As I speak , let it be done".The student council president. Affrimative action to boot!
I believe Palin is miles smarter than Obama as evidenced by the history of their last 5 years of statements. Obama is a dunce in real world actions and results. He is a perfect embodiment of ivory tower "thinkers". " As I speak , let it be done".The student council president. Affrimative action to boot!
Yeah, my comment was off target. You don't think Obama's gone far enough. I get that.
"How magnanimous of you."
You miss the point.
Robert, you can't improve the lot of low-paid workers by raising their pay by fiat.
You can improve their lot with a vigorous economy which increases abundance.
Robert Cook said...
Well now, Marshall...for those paid poorly because they are perceived to be "low skilled" or "no skilled," the prescription is for them--magically--to "improve their skills."
A tip: most people don't find it either surprising or unfair that they must work to acquire skills. Further people with skills spend a long time acquiring them, and the surest way to drive skills out of our society is to remunerate those who don't work to acquire skills the same as those who do.
It seems you and your ilk are inclined to damn the the poor
It seems you don't have any idea what people think despite them telling you a thousand times.
As was always apparent, your ilk's view is, simply: "I've got mine; fuck you."
I don't doubt this is the level of your thought. But there are some words in there for you. Fight your way to the end and you'll find them.
Robert Cook said...
It must suck to see all your cherished economic ideas crumbling before your eyes."
I wouldn't know; they haven't been tried in decades. When they were, they worked.
We're watching them in Venezueala right now. Let's see how that turns out.
Neo-liberal Obama is like a socialist in Venezuela. Good God that is so dumb.
garage mahal said...
Neo-liberal Obama is like a socialist in Venezuela. Good God that is so dumb.
What's dunb is believing my comment had anything to do with Obama. Rather it dealt with Cook's preferences, and he believes Obama is on the right.
Have you ever understood anything at all?
"Neo-liberal Obama is like a socialist in Venezuela. Good God that is so dumb."
Ahhh, garage? He compared Venezuela to Robert's policies "that haven't been tried in decades", not to Obama's policies.
Just trying to help, buddy.
Slave wages?
I thought the whole point of slavery was, (1) The wage was $0, and (2) you can't look for a better deal because you're not fee to leave.
Peter, you just beat me to it. Slaves (at least American slaves) got no wages.
Anyway, I blame the geeks: "Master/slave is a model of communication where one device or process has unidirectional control over one or more other devices. In some systems a master is elected from a group of eligible devices, with the other devices acting in the role of slaves." (from Wikipedia)
Sort of like the Obama administration and CNN, for example.
Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender"
This is very very old wisdom literature. Any anger about using the word "slave" with reference to wealth and debt is stupid.
Unfortunately I have to agree with Robert on this. Skills do not equal opportunities if the economy is structured in such a way as to not support such things. For instance, while most people would consider the ability (and a diploma to certify that ability) to program computers a worth while skill, it doesn't translate into an opportunity if it's cheaper for businesses to outsource their programming. You can create a system where skills don't matter much and acquiring them (through massive student loan debt) can have an adverse economic impact on people.
Cook - or maybe the problem are the close to trillion dollars spent on "stimulus" every year, much of it flushed down the toilet. Federal govt spending has increased maybe by 5% of GDP, while the economy has stagnated. Keynesian economics has never worked, and hasn't worked over the last 5 years, and even if it did, it is supposed to be short term, which 5 years is not.
To see what has been going on, you only need to watch Pelosi, who apparently isn't smart enough to keep her mouth shut. She has repeatedly said that the important thing is to spend money, and where is not important. And shoveling it to friends and family is just as effective as intelligently targeting it. So, that is what has happened, with one of her Senators' husbands' company becoming prime contractor on multiple multi-billion dollar govt contracts. And, indeed, likely views the award of healthcare.gov contract to CGI as just more stimulus spending.
Blogger Tim said...
I believe Palin is miles smarter than Obama as evidenced by the history of their last 5 years of statements. Obama is a dunce in real world actions and results. He is a perfect embodiment of ivory tower "thinkers". " As I speak , let it be done".The student council president. Affrimative action to boot!
Tim, I agree with you 100%. It is so funny to me to hear how intelligent Obama is, and the same people saying that are claiming Sarah is dumb. Funny, how Sarah gets proved right all the time, and Obama keeps lying and blaming other people for things he has said or done!!!!
I have a feeling that Sarah Palin is being "protected" and those that try to slime her, end up in a bad place.I am watching this with pleasure.
or the very many skilled workers who languish in shit jobs for shit pay, the answer is: "tough shit; who said life is fair?"
It seems you and your ilk are inclined to damn the the poor or poorly paid regardless of their circumstances, efforts, skills achieved or potential. As was always apparent, your ilk's view is, simply: "I've got mine; fuck you."
What I like about you , Bob, is that you never let your ignorance get in the way of your narrative.
A "skilled" worker isn't 'stuck" anywhere unless he wants to be. Skills are extremely salable commodities.
I watched a bit of the Tapper interview with Palin, and I thought he looked rather uncomfortable putting those questions to her. Seems to me he was bending to the CNN ethos. A pity because when he was at ABC he was usually the only one who asked even semi-tough questions of the Obama administration, and he's one of the very few who've been looking at Benghazi since it happened.
Anyway, the whole get-Palin thing that's held the MSM in its grip since 2008 is disgusting, and anyone no longer in junior high who’s taking part should be ashamed of themselves.
Sarah Palin says she accepts Martin Bashir's apology
Will be interesting to see if the Bashir incident puts MSM Palin bashing at an end.... or just a prolonged inhale until they get a second wind.
Idiots like Bashir should just be honest that leftards like himself can say whatever they want and the rule for conservatives is simply: shut up. They don't want to hear opposing views because then they have to defend their own intellectually, which they can't do or aren't capable of doing.
It's why the President says stuff like there's no solid evidence that raising the minimum wage costs jobs. Really? That's blatantly false. They simply cannot even concede that the criticism is legitimate and the other side makes arguments in good faith. It's why every criticism is met with calling the other side racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted in some way, etc.
Intellectual lightweights like Bashir and the President and most leftists simply can't win the battle of ideas, so they seek to stifle the other side with their PC bullshit rules for conservatives, which, as I said, amounts to nothing more than "shut up".
> This is the new American economy, brought to you by several succeeding administrations and Congresses who have worked in service to and hand in hand with the powerful financial interests, rewriting or repealing old laws and drafting new ones that favor the economic practices and interests of the wealthy few at the expense of the not-wealthy (and poor) rest of us.
Bush must not have gotten the memo, as unemployment through most of his administration was under 5% and the fraction of folks employed reached all-time highs. (If we count previously employed folks who have given up, unemployment under Obama would be over 10%.)
Clinton didn't get the memo either. He didn't do as well as Bush but he did much better than Obama.
During Obama's "recovery", median family income, in both inflation-adjusted and raw dollars terms has gone down. (Yes, that's including all of the increased social spending.) That's a first.
It's amazing how everything came together to thwart the light-bringer.
Robert Cook said...
Well now, Marshall...for those paid poorly because they are perceived to be "low skilled" or "no skilled," the prescription is for them--magically--to "improve their skills."
For the very many skilled workers who languish in shit jobs for shit pay, the answer is: "tough shit; who said life is fair?"
It seems you and your ilk are inclined to damn the the poor or poorly paid regardless of their circumstances, efforts, skills achieved or potential. As was always apparent, your ilk's view is, simply: "I've got mine; fuck you."
Well, a society cannot long survive with that as the prevailing ethos, and we won't.
12/5/13, 12:39 PM
What a crock of self-righteous crap. What, people can't change careers? If your highly skilled individuals are making crap wages then its pretty obvious they are highly skilled in crap. You get paid what you are worth.
You are right. I got mine and fuck you, especially since your solution is to redistribute-or to be blunt, confiscate my money.
Robert Cook. You do know that the halycon days of American labor and the growth of the middle class were enabled by the fact that America had no, zero, competition? The happy post war ears were happy because the "workers" in Germany, France, Japan, Italy had no work to do, their factories having been destroyed. There were no Govt. programs that enabled that prosperity unless you include the preceeding years of war production.
Imagine consistent outrage over the use of slavery as a metaphor...
Master/slave (technology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Examples:
In database replication, the master database is regarded as the authoritative source, and the slave databases are synchronized to it.
Hydraulic and pneumatic systems may use a master cylinder to control one or several slave cylinders.
Peripherals connected to a bus in a computer system.
Railway locomotives operating in multiple (for example: to pull loads too heavy for a single locomotive) can be referred to as a master/slave configuration - with the operation of all locomotives in the train slaved to the controls of the first locomotive. See - Multiple-unit train control.
Duplication is often done with several cassette tape or compact disc recorders linked together. Operating the controls on the master triggers the same commands on the slaves, so that recording is done in parallel.
In parallel ATA hard drive arrangements, the terms master and slave are used but neither drive has control over the other. The terms also do not indicate precedence of one drive over the other in most situations. "Master" is merely another term for device 0 and "slave" indicates device 1.
On the Macintosh platform, rebooting into Target Disk Mode allows one computer to operate as a dumb disk enclosure presenting its storage devices to another via SCSI, FireWire, or Thunderbolt, essentially a slave mode bridge.
Rmpi[4] package in R is a standard master/slaves programming model.
Anyone notice the thing about how Melissa Harris-Perry dressed down some white feminist who was annoyed that the FLOTUS was making full time mom her most important job?
"But when she calls herself mom-in-chief, she is rejecting a different stereotype–the role of Mammy. She is saying that her daughters–her vulnerable, brilliant, beautiful black daughters–are the most important thing to her. The first lady is saying, “You, Miss Ann, will have to clean your own house, because I will be caring for my own.” Instead of agreeing that the public sphere is more important than Sasha and Malia, she buried Mammy and embraced being a mom on her own terms. "...
i don't get that. Who thinks of Michelle O as a "mammy" anyway?
But maybe what MHP is doing is calling white feminism a slave owner that is trying to coopt the FLOTUS as white feminisnm's mammy. If so it wasn't very clear, unlike Bashir's slavery analogy.
thoughts Ann?
Dixie_Sugarbaker said,"It is not that Palin's metaphor was incorrect; it is the simple fact that she used it."
Simpler than that, it was that Palin said anything at all.
Yes I lust after Sarah Palin.
"Slaves didn't get bread and circuses, the citizens got them...and were apparently not disturbed while the Republic decayed into an autocratic regime run by Caesar."
While you are right about who got the bread and circuses, Juvenal, who coined the phrase, did so about a century after the death of Caesar.
Robert, let's go over what would be needed to return to the "good old days".
1) A massive war that levels the productive areas of Europe and Asia.
2) Dictators in the conflict,on both sides of the war, who killed 20M+ people for no reason.
3) The US being unscathed.
4) The War must kill ghastly numbers of people.
A person can feel he is a slave, even if well-paid. As Curt Flood wrote in 1969,
After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.
Letter to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, December 24, 1969
I've been looking for an idea for a one joke blog for a long time now:
http://notmartinbashir.blogspot.com/
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