Democratic Debate
After the Georgia primary, PG is trying to ignore the presidential circus. He no longer has a vote. The contestants are beyond ugly. Thursday night, however, was the car wreck that you cannot look at, and cannot look away from. With the aid of a transcript, we can focus on the gory details.
@joshuafoust I dunno. I think Bernie Sanders would come off better if he smiled more and wasn’t so shrill. And didn’t seem to ruthless and ambitious.@chamblee54 BS comes across as a 66.6% jerk of course, this is compared to HRC , DJT, REC, who are off the scale
The Candidates interrupted, and shouted down, each other. They saw questions as cues for a planned speech, rather than an attempt to elicit information. And then, sometimes they gave an answer that just made no sense at all.
“(Moderator Wolf) BLITZER: But Senator, experts say that no matter the means to bring back these jobs to the United States, prices of goods for consumers in the United States would go up, which would disproportionately impact the poor and middle class. So how do you bring back these jobs to the United States without affecting the cost of goods to America’s middle class and poor? (Bernie) SANDERS: Well, for a start, we’re going to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour.”
The jobs have left the country. The primary reason they have left is the lower cost of labor abroad. The BS answer to lower wages in Bangladesh is to raise the American minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The debate was a lesson in rhetoric. You repeat the talking points that are helpful to your cause. You ignore the talking points of the other side. You give a reason for your actions that may be true, but which does not address the overall issues. “SANDERS: Now, I voted against this gun liability law because I was concerned that in rural areas all over this country, if a gun shop owner sells a weapon legally to somebody, and that person then goes out and kills somebody, I don’t believe it is appropriate that that gun shop owner who just sold a legal weapon to be held accountable and be sued.” Apparently the concept of liability insurance hasn’t spread to Vermont.
HRC and BS are democrats, so they think that racism is the worst boogeyman that ever ravaged the planet. They were obligated to discuss the dreaded r word. “(Hillary) CLINTON … especially I want — I want white people — I want white people to recognize that there is systemic racism. It’s also in employment, it’s in housing, but it is in the criminal justice system, as well. (Errol) LOUIS: Senator Sanders, earlier this week at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, you called out President Clinton for defending Secretary Clinton’s use of the term super-predator back in the ’90s when she supported the crime bill. Why did you call him out? SANDERS: Because it was a racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term.” (To her credit, Mrs. Clinton recognized the “systemic” nature of racism, rather than focusing on who said what forbidden word.)
Whatever decency points HRC earned in that exchange were squandered a few minutes later. Her remarks on the slaughter in Gaza might have… probably were … written for her by AIPAC. “They do not invite the rockets raining down on their towns and villages. They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas aided and abetted by Iran against Israel. … So, I don’t know how you run a country when you are under constant threat, terrorist tact, rockets coming at you. You have a right to defend yourself. … just let me finish. The rights and the autonomy that they deserve. And, let me say this, if Yasser Arafat had agreed with my husband at Camp David in the Late 1990s to the offer then Prime Minister Barat put on the table, we would have had a Palestinian state for 15 years.”
HRC did not use the term “illegal settlement” in her tirade. A few minutes later, she did not use the word “abortion,” when discussing a woman’s choice to murder her baby. BS agreed on that issue, and even worked in a gratuitious mention of LGBT issues. Is this something to be proud of? Pictures by “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Dr. King And Mr. King
PG stumbled onto a blog post about a speech. It was delivered August 28, 1963, by Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. You have probably heard the money quote many times, but how many have heard the entire 881 words. PG had not, and decided to take a look.
The speech is really a sermon. It is delivered with the cadence, and rhetorical flourishes, of the church. Dr. King was a minister. The Jesus worship church is a huge player in African America. The fact that slaves were introduced to this religion by their owners seems to be forgotten.
The term used is Negro. This was the polite word in 1963. The custom of saying Black started in the late sixties, at least partially inspired by James Brown. Negro began to be seen as an insult, along with the infamous N-word … which is really just a lazy way of saying Negro.
As the speech is working up to the climax, there is a line “But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!” Today, Stone Mountain is a middle class black community. DeKalb County is mostly black, and the political leadership is African American. This was a long way from happening in 1963.
Twelve weeks after Dr. King gave his speech, President John Kennedy was killed. Part of the reaction to this tragedy was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The next year saw the Voting Rights Act, and escalation of the war in Vietnam. It seemed that for every step forward, there was a half step back. People lost patience with non violence. America did not implode, but somehow survived. It is now fifty three years later.
The other day PG stumbled onto a blog post, about a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This address was deemed “the singularly most-important speech on race in the history of this country.”
PG admires Dr. King. He is also suspicious of superlatives. There were some comments made by Rodney Glen King III. The comments by Mr King were briefer, and tougher to live up to.
While thinking of things to write about, PG realized that he had never seen the actual quote by Mr. King. It is embedded above. When you see this video, you might realize that Mr. King has been misquoted. The popular version has him saying “Can’t we all just get along.” He did not say just.
Mr. King was known to America as Rodney King. His friends called him Glen. His comments, at 7:01, May 1, 1992, went like this: ““People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? . . . Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it.”
The circumstances of the two comments could not be more different. Dr. King was giving the sermon of his life. There was an enormous crowd, both in person and on TV. His comments were scripted, rehearsed, and delivered with the style that he was famous for.
Mr. King, by contrast, had just seen the officers who beat him acquitted. Cities from coast to coast were in violent upheaval. Mr. King was speaking to reporters without benefit of a speech writer. What he said might be more important. This double repost has pictures from The Library of Congress.
Thomas Jefferson Said What?
PG was wasting time with facebook when he saw a friend say “Damn I love this quote”. The passage being praised was “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Desmond Tutu. The rhetoric alert started to flash. These days, the wolf and the sheep buy their clothes at the same Walmart. To hear some oppressors talk, they are the ones under attack. It is tough to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Often you can make things worse by getting mixed up. Sometimes the best thing to do is mind your own business.
Ok, now that is out of the way. Some lines sound good, but don’t hold up to a bit of thinking. As for the veracity of the quote, Desmond Tutu may very well have said it. (or maybe one of his rivals said it, and Mr. Tutu copied it.) The quote has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Burke, Patrick Henry, and probably others. Almost no one has a source, for the quote, from the dead white guys.
A post called MISQUOTING THE FOUNDERS did not mince words. “The only problem with this scene that has been repeated many times across the country is that Thomas Jefferson never said that, never wrote that, and quite possibly never thought it. Our aspiring politician had fallen victim to the perils of popular misattribution. You could fill a book with misquotes and misattributed quotes we hear repeated regularly today. Right now if I Google “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent” the entire first page of results wrongly attribute it to Thomas Jefferson. The quote and its many variants have been attributed in the past to Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, but no record exists of the quote in any of their writings or contemporary accounts.”
On November 13, 1787, Mr. Jefferson wrote a letter to William Smith. The letter is full of zesty quotes. “What country before ever existed a century & a half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
A few lines above that, Mr. Jefferson said “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” Twenty years after he wrote this, Mr. Jefferson was President. He probably did not want to deal with a revolution when he was President.
Getting back to the quote about tyranny, Martin Porter wrote an entertaining essay, A study of a Web quotation. He gives credit, or blame, to Edmund Burke. First, a list of different versions is presented. This is a clue that something is awry. The conclusion: “There is no original. The quote is bogus, and Burke never said it. It is a pseudo-quote, and corresponds to real quotes in the same way that urban legends about the ghost hitch-hiker vanishing in the back of the car and alligators in the sewers correspond to true news stories.”
Mr. Porter wrote a follow up essay, Four Principles of Quotation. These principles are: Principle 1 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with an author but no source assume that it is probably bogus. Principle 2 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with a full source assume that it is probably being misused, unless you find good evidence that the quoter has read it in the source. Principle 3 (for quoters) Whenever you make a quotation, give the exact source. Principle 4 (for quoters) Only quote from works that you have read.
If these principles were to be used, then there would be a lot less hotheaded talking on the intercom. Those who are trying to influence you to the justice of their cause will not want you to read this. Pictures for this feature are from The Library of Congress. These pictures are Union soldiers, from the War Between the States. When war is discussed, all inspiring quotes are in doubt.
This is a repost. It is written like James Joyce. In the past year, doing due diligence on alleged quotes has become a hobby. Many people don’t care who said it, if they agree with the thoughts expressed. The prevailing thought is that an idea becomes more true with a famous name at the end. If the famous person is deceased, and cannot defend his/her reputation, that is not a problem. People do not like being told that Santa Claus does not exist.
Privy Privilege
California is like a really bad version of Florida ~ @realprettydude One of my favorite things in the world is talking to people until they realize I’m an idiot. ~ Signup today to our awesome weekly newsletter and get our free 9-page PDF text messaging guide for free ~ That man is prejudiced. Videos like this do more harm than good. ~ How do you know this? ~ @Pig_Vomit @AZEALIABANKS Palin has accomplished so much her life- vp candidate, gov, author, tv, etc. What have you done?sang shitty songs & fucked. ~ Sarah Palin Hey Female Rapper – listen up, little darling. No one has any idea what you’re wigging out about in these bizarre, violent rants against me, but you’re obviously not exercising enough intelligence to acknowledge you’ve been sucked into believing some fake interview in which I supposedly offered comments representing the antithesis of my truth. ~ Result: You’re woke! You get woke every morning and stay woke all day, but are never so woke that you can’t fall asleep when your head hits that pillow at night. ~ That? Several issues are being juggled now. Like a juggler keeps several items in rotational air through practice and efficiency, a rhetorician keeps issues flying in a circle, careful not to let anything fall to the ground before its usefulness to the circus has expired. Just as juggler is similar in sound to jughead and jugular, the internet wisdom monger wallows in the same ethical pigpen as Joseph Goebbels, planned obsolescence,@Nero. ~ in today’s cruz news, assisted anagrams into ted is ass ~ I would be happy for people to know that y’all is plural – singular they is a nuisance singular ya’ll is an abomination ~ @bigmacher Dad will use as many words as he wants. No one tells the dad how many words to use in his household!!!! #FamilyValuesIn5Words ~ I suspect that RuPaul would not be pleased to see her image used like that. ~ alt right rat light ~ @pooroldkilgore 1- i follow @AlysiaAbbott I initially thought it was her making the comment about @ponifex tweet Ms. Abbott has a severely autistic son and may have an informed opinion about “People with disabilities are a gift … ” ~ @chamblee54 @Flyswatter Necrotizing Fasciitis is my new stage name ~ @mbsycamore Trying to decide whether maximalism is minimalism at its best, so I must be getting tired. @chamblee54 the issue is not mini vs maxi it is mal vs bueno as in minibuenoism (spell check suggestion minibus) or maxibuenoism ~ @Stopfamousquot1 hasn’t tweeted yet. ~ lull ~ Milo Yiannopoulos: Breitbart’s star provocateur, Gamergater, and Trump champion, explained ~ TRANSCRIPT: Bernie Sanders meets with News Editorial Board ~ this is the transcript we are waiting on the ciscript ~ 9 things Bernie Sanders should’ve known about but didn’t in that Daily News interview ~ Watching the Woke Olympics ~ Quiz: How Woke Are You? ~ Stop: You Are Not A Machine ~ 10 reasons whatshisname is better than you ~ 20 Christianese Phrases We Really Need to Stop Saying ~ words ~ transblog ~ Being blocked is not the same as being censored ~ REMARKS CONCERNING THE SAVAGES OF NORTH-AMERICA ~ One man’s 100 interviews to find out why his flings failed ~ divide and conquer ~ pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ selah
Driving While Human
What follows is a repost from a few years ago. The thoughts are current. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
This is written as the Sunday morning worship hour winds down. In church facilities across America, preachers scream about sin. Very few will consider the sin of dangerous driving. And yet, this is the sin that can change, or end, your life in an instant.
There is a lot of label mongering in public spaces. Liberal, conservative, and racist are three of the most popular. None of these labels deals with driving courtesy. The SJW and the KKK are united in their lack of concern about safe driving. With that in mind, here is the top nine.
1- Find another way to show how bad you are. This is mostly a masculinity thing, but it just might apply to a few ladies. Driving hard and fast is the easy way to prove your toughness. All you do is push the gas pedal. You don’t have to go to the gym, have lots of sex, or go into battle. Just drive fast, and with no concern for your neighbor.
2- Slow down. There is no need to go so fast. When you go somewhere, allow yourself enough time to get there. The faster you drive, the less reaction time you have in an emergency.
3- Stay far enough behind the car ahead of you to stop in an emergency. This will be less stressful for the person in front of you.
4- Pay attention to the road. This is where cell phones, and texting, becomes a problem. You should be focused on the road ahead of you, and not what your phone mate is telling you. Your minutes will be just as good when you get to your destination. Are people really brainless enough to text and drive?
5- The three rules of the workplace apply here…. show up, stay awake, and don’t kill anyone.
6- Keep your car in good condition. The tires and brakes are key items, but also keep the engine running smoothly. Sometimes you need to accelerate.
7- Keep your temper. Driving while angry is a cause of many accidents, especially when combined with alcohol or religion.
8- Use your turn signals.
9- Show concern for the well being of your neighbor. Use common sense.
Chamblee54 
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