Let me get this out of the way right at the start.
1. I am not a fan of Mark Twain. I think his writing is lazy and I think his stories are dull. I think that if you want to read American fiction by a white fellow about a journey and the South you should read The Wild Palms by Faulkner.
◊ Or anything by Faulkner.
◊ I LOOOOVE Faulkner.
2. I am not a fan of the word nigger. I am using it in this post because I think that it is important in the context of the discussion but I don’t use it in polite company. I don’t use it in impolite company. I was brought up with a strict “Hit first ask questions later” policy with regard to the word ever being used to describe me. I do not understand the desire to “reclaim” the word and I cringe when I hear people (of any race) using the “softer” version among themselves – particularly as a term of endearment.
So, you might think that I’d be relieved by the news that, because of the work of Alan Gribben, a version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is now being released by NewSouth Books replacing the word with “slave.”
Thankfully I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Indeed, Twain scholar Thomas Wortham, at UCLA, compared Gribben to Thomas Bowdler (who published expurgated versions of Shakespeare for family reading), telling PW that “a book like Professor Gribben has imagined doesn’t challenge children [and their teachers] to ask, ‘Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language?’”
But soon even that academically-supported righteousness wore off and I was left with the hard cold frightened nub of why this move bothers me so.
It important that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (and, indeed any piece of literature) not be neutered for the sake of ease because – especially – in this time of political revisionism art is one of the few things that we have to keep us honest. It is important to keep a record of who are and who we were.
Replacing nigger with slave not only dilutes the text, it dilutes our history. And that scares me.
Sure, people who were enslaved were referred to as slaves. But they were referred to as property, chattel, livestock and (specifically for those who were black and enslaved) nigger(s). The use of the word is about power and privilege and was applied to all black people regardless of condition.
Because let’s be clear. Slavery is a condition. Nigger is a description, a qualifier. This is an important distinction to me. Black people all over our country didn’t hear slave as the last word that was said to them before they were lynched or humiliated and dehumanized in other forms. They heard nigger.
Slavery is something that we abolished. Something that we “overcame.” Nigger is not.
In the novel Jim turns out to be a free man. He won’t be called a slave anymore, but I bet he’ll still be called a nigger.
I accept that it’s difficult for people – especially children – to read novels filled with such an ugly word¹. I dread having to explain the word to my future child. But I am committed to doing it because I am committed to honesty.
It is too easy to remove the words and ideas that offend us from art and history. It is too easy to give in to cowardice and hide our heads and dull our intellects in the sands of political correctness.
It is difficult to accept that our nation with all of its faults and warts and ugliness, its stops and starts and shudders, is the nation the we love; the nation we make every.single.day. It is emotionally wrenching and intellectually challenging to acknowledge that ours is a nation that is as much a reflection of its past as it is its hope for the future. Nigger is a part of who we are. And that is awful. That is horrific. That hurts me. But that is the truth.
We must preserve Huckleberry Finn (and other works) as they are to remind us of the work that we have done and to inspire us to do the work that we still have to do. Especially in these tea-partying days. We must do so because we are America, land of the brave.
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¹I accept that it may have been difficult for some of you to read this post which filled with such an ugly word. It was hard for me to write.
Thank goodness everything I’ve learned about balance I’ve learned from Weebles.
I promise I won't leave you for a Fabergé egg.
I know the question in your hearts: “Wellwellwell, look who’s come crawling back?”
Answer: Me, bitches!
(I mean that in the kindest way possible.)
I had to take some time off because my off-line life became suddenly very therapy inducing real and didn’t leave me with any kind of love or sense of humor to bring to my online life – and that’s just not good for anybody.
So I’ll give a rundown of the past 9 months or so of whatsagoingsons.
I lost a male figure in my life to his own horrific undoing. My sister got married! My nephew slept through the whole thing but later he and RHS blew bubbles. Nephew for the win. (At my sister’s wedding) I saw my father after nearly 12 years of radio silence. It was… static-y. I became a member of the WhoDat Nation. I had to take a break from Dr. Rachel Maddow because she was giving me the blues. A series of horriblenogoodverybadthings began to happen to my friends. I welcomed my new Stepfather to the family. I had a dramatic and possibly final falling out with my brother. I officially became Mrs. RHS. (I’m so lucky!)
Sadie and Sadie, married ladies.
I submitted my application to Hunter College for Fall 2011 as a Philosophy major. I promptly freaked out. I’ve started baking bread and making my own pizza dough from scratch.
And I’ve come up with a plan.
#1 Eat more milk chocolate covered Oreos. #2 Sign up for The Mint and start saving for the honeymoon (to Paris!). #3 Blog more.
Please rest assured that #1 is a lock. I am well on my way with #2 even though entering all of my information into the system and creating budgets has now left me wondering how I afford to live at all.
As for #3 here’s the plan – the plan for the plan. I have decided to give my blog a focus. Writing is difficult for me and it’s easy for me to get bogged down in the not so shiny parts of my offline life and not write. I think that it’ll be a good idea to have one weekly thing to write about that brings me joy. That way, I do at least one post a week – and, regardless of what else is going on in my life I have a bright spot to share.
A happiness anchor.
And, since Barbra Streisand doesn’t have a weekly message – which, uhm, why doesn’t Barbra Streisand have a weekly address? She has a basement mall but she doesn’t have a weekly message. She is full of mystery. A beret-wearing, “I Like To Sing While Looking At the Water” stating, microphone painting, chicken-owning mystery.
Anyhoods, since Barbra Streisand doesn’t have a weekly message I have decided to turn to the other Strong Black Woman in my life, RuPaul.
Oh, Ru you do flatter me with your excitment.
The 3rd season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is green-lighted to begin on Monday, January 24th and I will be using it as my weekly bit of joy. I will recap each episode of the season which delights me because it combines two of my favourite things recapping and fierceness. I know! I’m excited too.
RuPaul will be my happiness anchor and we will set sail from there!
Oh, prettyprettypretty please with prescription drugs on top. We are so close, Democrats… when you’re facing party in-fighting and Stupidak opposition just think, “Two birds. One stone.”
It is Black History Month and boy am I feeling the love.
Just yesterday Rush Limbaugh (or as I like to think of him, the Phantom Menace) derisively referred to the health care reform bill which is swimming its way upstream through Congress as a “civil rights bill” and “reparations.” To be clear, what he means by using “civil rights bill” and “reparations” as a pejorative is “this health care bill is another attempt by the lowly, lazy, complaining Black folk to take bread from the mouths of hard-working honest White Americans. First they took February, what’s next? March?.”
“Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes – they consider Baby Phat to be high class and expensive couture. They also have short, nappy hair, and usually wear cheap weave, usually in bad colors, such as purple or bright red. They look and act similar to Shenaynay, and speak very loudly, while rolling their neck, and waving their finger in your face. Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary, and attempt to make up for it, by forming new words, such as “constipulated”, or simply cursing persistently, or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises, such as “hmmg!”, or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises,grunts, and faces.”
But it was John Mayer (singer, songwriter, Poor Man’s Stevie Ray Vaughn) that got the month started off right with an interview that he did for Playboy where he proved that he doesn’t have the good sense (or graces) that God gave Kanye West.
MAYER: Star magazine at one point said I was writing a tell-all book for $10 million. On Star’s cover it said what a rat! My entire life I’ve tried to be a nice guy.
PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?
MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.
PLAYBOY: Let’s put some names out there. Let’s get specific.
MAYER: I always thought Holly Robinson Peete was gorgeous. Every white dude loved Hilary from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And Kerry Washington. She’s superhot, and she’s also white-girl crazy. Kerry Washington would break your heart like a white girl. Just all of a sudden she’d be like, “Yeah, I sucked his dick. Whatever.” And you’d be like, “What? We weren’t talking about that.”
That’s an official Nice Guy FAIL.
These harbingers of Black History Month can get a girl a little down. But not me. I am thankful that I have a partner who loves and cherishes me for the supreme delight that I am.
I am also thankful for the amazing strong black women that I have in my life as role-models.
Without my mother, Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand, my confidence in my smokingness (both intellectual and physical) might have been dimmed by that young-man whose mother must be really ashamed of him right now and who is actually making me sympathize with that Jennifer Aniston person.
But lately I realize that I’ve been leaving out one deserving woman in my SBW list of might: RuPaul.
Nownownow, I know what you’re saying, “But BPD, RuPaul’s been around since forever how come it’s taken you so long?” Really, I have no excuse.
From the revelatory, Super Model, with its clarion cry that got me through many a grueling show choir rehearsal (damn you mirrored gym) to the present RuPaul’s Drag Race – which is not about cars [but just… can we all agree that if RuPaul hosted a muscle car show with say Joan Rivers or Tina Turner {that pair would be a mother-fucking wig-off} that show would be ridiculously awesome] – RuPaul has given me the balls to get through the tough times. RuPaul has made me the man I am today. And by man, I mean small black lesbian gay-dandy. (2010 is the year of the bow-tie. Look out people!)
When I’m about to do something that seems super important, I think, “You better work, bitch!” I chant, “It’s time to lip-synch for your life!” when it’s time for me to move mountains.
Vodpod videos no longer available. ……….Minute 37 is where the real magic happens.
RuPaul is about knowing who you are and owning your fabulousness. RuPaul is about ripping people’s faces off with your fierceness and leaping in your stilettos over the shit. Most importantly RuPaul is not about some trifling mess of a boy that even Ghandi would slap.
With Ru and the other SBW in my life, I know my worth. I’m not even going to sweat it. Because I know, that despite how hurtful and how hateful what John Mayer said is, it’s not about me. It’s not about any other woman of color (or woman, frankly) in the world. It’s about him and the dick-shrivel that he is. I’m not waiting for the world to change. I am the change that I seek in the world. I am the light that I want to see. I am fabulous. I am fierce. I am magnificent.
I am sure that you will be surprised to learn that I am very competitive. I will take a minute for you to stop chuckling.
…Anyhoods, I’m competitive. With me there is no such thing as a friendly game.
I am ashamed admit that I have ruined a New Year’s Eve celebration by accusing the opposing team of cheating during Cranium (a game, that I’d only just that night started playing again after a 5 year hiatus following a very bitter win over some other friends in another state over their gamesmanship) and yelling about the game being the cause of all of the wrongs in the world. In 1994 I was banned from playing Taboo with my family after I threw the buzzer at my mother and it hit her squarely in the forehead and made the buzzing sound of doom as she – narrowly –resisted killing me. I believe that the way one play’s Monopoly is a litmus taste by which you can measure how they play the game of life (and not that silly game with the pink and blue cars). To be clear, I don’t play to Monopolize, I play so that you can’t. The last time I played kickball, I sent a boy on the opposing team home in tears (he should not have taunted my kicking power without accounting for my superior stratagem and my speed. Ah, to be seven again.). I don’t believe in flag football. I don’t believe that everybody wins. If everybody won, there’d be no need for trophies.
I dunno, maybe it’s because I’m an Aries. Maybe it’s because I like to see people crumpled in defeat. Who knows… what I do know is that my competitive nature is really gratified by sport and there is no greater collection of sport than the Olympics.
I am an Olympics nerd. This weekend alone, I watched 20 hours of Olympics.
RHS: That’s distressing hunny. BPD: I love it! RHS: Hunny, that’s what the kids call overkill. BPD: That’s what you said about the cheese. RHS: And hunny, you had an eczema flair up after you ate that half pound of cheese. BPD: Ah ha! Olympics doesn’t give me eczema.
The Olympics takes precedence over all other TV watching. I like to think of what I do is athletic Olympic watching. I cried when Shen Xue and Zaho Hongbo finally won gold after skating together for 18 years. I was on my feet when Shaun White won gold and unveiled the new Double McTwist 1260.
I cheered when Canada got its first gold medal on home turf. And I introduced RHS to the wonder that is curling. I love it.
And aside from cheering and crying and criticizing the the judges scores what I really love about the Olympics is imagining the internal monologue of the athletes.
Biathlon: We’re skiing with guns!
Alpine Skiing: Uhm, guys, why are they skiing with guns?
Cross-Country: Dudes, we are not sticking around long enough to find out.
Ski Jumping: Flying Squirrel! Flying Squirrel!
Speed Skating: We’re prepared to throw our skates at them in a pinch.
Skeleton & Luge: Puh-lease we’re hurtling down ice-y tubes of doom on our back and stomach. We don’t even flinch at guns.
Snowboard Cross: Ice-y tubes of doom – awesome! Do y’all race four at a time like we do?
Bobsled: Hey, we’ve got tubes too!
Snowboard Halfpipe: Whatever brah, it’s not like they’re doing awesome aerials with the guns.
Hockey: Body check!
Ice-Dancing: The brutes.
Figure Skating: Biathlon has guns and Ice-Dancing has Twizzles. If those two sports got married and had a kid it’d be Johnny Weir.
Curling: Yeahyeahyeah, Johnny Weir. We’ve got the bigger stones.
I love it.
And also, those commercials that Morgan Freeman narrates make me cry.
I could not be more excited about the Super Bowl tomorrow.
[Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true… I would be more excited if my Cowboys hadn’t pissed it away and were playing tomorrow. I would be more excited if I had any confidence in that wanker Tony Romo. No kind of heart. And if you don’t have any kind of raw talent or natural intelligence on the field, heart is really want you need to carry you through. Which is why I am happy, nay, honored even, to shift my Super Bowl XLIV love to Dem Saints and the members of the mightymighty Who Dat Nation.]
I have selected a black and gold t-shirt to wear; I have my growler of Six Point Sweet Action cooling in the refrigerator and I have my beloved stoner food (White Castle Cheeseburgers, Tostino’s Pizza Rolls, Buffalo Chicken Wings [mmmm… food-like product] and Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla Caramel Fudge ice-cream) in the freezer.
It's like Black & Gold ice-cream.
I am psyched.
And I am not alone… Melissa Harris-Lacewell is jazzed (and Dr. Maddow is on a contact high).
Other than watching a good game (or, when my Cowboys were in the Super Bowl, a game in which my team humiliated their opposition [see: Super Bowl, XXVII, XXVIII, XXX] [We miss you Troy!]) I look forward to watching the commercials.
Perhaps CBS actually stands for Complete BullShit.
Anyhoods, choice and two-dudes kissing advocates are all up in arms and are suggesting that we boycott CBS and the Super Bowl. I say, Dem Saints have come too far to let Tim Tebow and his mama steal their thunder. Plus, Scott Fujita would be totally pissed. What I’m going to do is simply change the channel whenever the commercials come on (and I’m going to change to LOGO).
The companies that have paid money to have their spots shown on CBS are hoping to recoup some of that money by converting viewers to consumers. They are counting on me to watch their commercials on CBS during the Super Bowl and buy their product. If I don’t watch their commercials they don’t get to me. Their expensive ploy fails. I mean, this would work better if millions of viewers boycotted the commercials – then those companies would be super-pissed (at CBS) for not getting the boost that they wanted. Then they might think twice about paying CBS money to hawk their wares next year. Then CBS loses.
So I’ve got to be frank y’all… I didn’t really have high hopes for this address. I had, at most, medium hopes for this address because I 1. was (am) still waiting for comprehensive HCR 2. was (am) still waiting for a comprehensive plan to end our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and 3. was (am) still waiting for DOMA to be history and for everyone to be able to ask and tell.
And also, I was all like “What in the Sam-Goody” about this whole spending freeze business.
So yeah, I was more than happy to smart-alack the State of the Union address.
To get me through this I was aided and comforted by the following players:
Heineken Light
Peaco
RHS
And the music of Funny Girl (which RHS started her FIRST viewing of two nights ago].
Let’s get this crack-alacking…
8:57PM Oh, Michelle you are a vision in purple. The hair. The makeup. The Michelleness. I shall call this look Purple Reign.
First Lady of Fabulous
RHS: I like Michelle’s short hair. BPD: I know, right? That is one magic hot comb. I hope that she wears it that way when we get married. RHS: You and I? BPD: Uhm, sure, that’ll work too.
8:58PM I like the that all the Black People have taken to wearing their Church colors to the Chamber since Obama’s been in office.
9:05AM Who are these two old guys? Are these really the two guys you want leading you in?
9:06PM Here he is. Clapter ensues, but with far less rock-star fawning than the last time. It’s hard to separate the sound of the cheers from the sound of the boos. Even Michelle looks bored. That’s not a good thing. She usually gives him at least fifteen minutes before tuning out.
9:07PM Nancy Pelosi: Look at my beautiful mother of pearl necklace. I will choke a bitch with it if necessary. Joe Biden: He’s so beautiful, even with all of the gray hairs. I could cry.
9:08PM Barack Obama: We must answer history’s call. History: I don’t know how. Y’all haven’t paid the phone bill in nearly ten years.
Barack Obama: Change has not come fast enough. Joe Biden: I hope he says, “I feel the need for speed.” It really sends a shiver down my spine. I’m so proud to be his Goose.
Barack Obama: “It is because of this spirit, this great decency and great strength that I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight. Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit. In this new decade, it’s time the American people get a government that matches their decency, that embodies their strength.”
Chamber: This is the part where we clap. Pelosi: Do it! Joe Biden: The clapping keeps me from crying.
Barack Obama: We all hated the bank bailout. Well, not you Citibank, or you Goldman Sachs, or you, JP Morgan. “But when I ran for president, I promised I wouldn’t just do what was popular — I would do what was necessary.”
BPD: I don’t feel like writing that line on my dry-erase board when you unveil this spending freeze crapscape. I need to go to my happy place. Babs: Nicky Arstein. Nicky Arnstein.
BPD: Thanks Babs.
9:20ish Barack Obama: “So I supported the last administration’s efforts to create the financial rescue program… As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks. To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn’t keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.”
…We cut taxes.
BPD: I’m eating ramen.
Barack Obama: Let me repeat: we cut taxes.
BPD: Let me repeat: Spicy Chili Ramen.
Barack Obama: We haven’t raised taxes on a single person. That’s why we can’t afford the shit you want like healthcare.
9:26PM Barack Obama: The stimulus worked. Sort of. “That is why jobs must be our number one focus for 2010” (not HCR, you just put that out of your pretty little heads) and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.
Also “…tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit — one that will go to over 1 million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.”
How ‘bout them apples?
BPD: How small, does the business have to be? Like, for example… this being a smart-ass thing is sort of my business. Does that count.
Michelle Obama’s bob: Glare. BPD: You’re right, I shouldn’t have asked.
Barack: We lost 7M jobs over 2 years.
RHS: Holy shit. Michelle Obama’s bob: Language.
9:32PM Barack Obama: “From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious — that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.
For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:
How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?”
BPD: It looks like we’re going to wait until we get rid of the misuse of the filibuster.
Barack Obama: I don’t want to pick on the banks… but I will because that’s kind of all that I’ve got going for me right now, and I want you to remember this when I tell you about the spending freeze I want to enact.
We need clean energy jobs. “…We need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies.”
BPD: This all sounds very dirty.
Barack Obama: And I’m sure that if I say the word bipartisan enough, it will be come real.
BPD: Oh, Barack, I bet you still believe in the Easter Bunny, too.
Barack Obama: We will double our exports over the next five years…
Peaco: He’s just fattening them up for the slaughter.
Barack Obama: Trade shmade.
The Chamber: Beatlemania. Rahm Emmanuel: Rahm Emmanuel stands for no man.
9:40PM Barack Obama: “In the 21st century, one of the best anti-poverty programs is a world-class education. In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than their potential.
When we renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we will work with Congress to expand these reforms to all 50 states. Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job. I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families. To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans. Instead, let’s take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. And let’s tell another 1 million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years — and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service. Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college. And it’s time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs — because they too have a responsibility to help solve this problem.”
BPD: Oooh! That sounds super sexy. Peaco: You always were a soft touch. RHS: Christ, Nancy Pelosi, sit down. BPD: Nancy just got these new hips, she wants to take them for a spin.
9:47PM
Barack Obama: I know that I’ve fucked up HCR y’all… but you need to give me just a little more time.
Babs: People, people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.
9:50PM Barack Obama: Remember all the shit I inherited? Doesn’t that distract you from my failures and short comings? Bush was worse than I was! You all still hate his mess more than you hate mine.
Republicans: BOO! BPD: Booing the truth doesn’t make it less true.
9:51PM Barack Obama: SPENDING FREEZE. Just think of it as the Big Chill, or alternately, the reason why your Grandmother hides her money all around the house and doesn’t trust banks.
Babs: Is motherfucker trying to rain on my parade? Michelle Obama’s bob: Language.
Peaco: This guy sure does look a lot like the scalpel guy you voted for. BPD: That’s just want I was thinking.
9:54PM Barack Obama: I know some (that’s you Rachel Maddow) have said that we can’t address the deficit by freezing deficit spending when so many are still hurting. That’s why you won’t get really screwed until next year.
Dr. Rachel Maddow: Oh, BPD you’re so dreamy! RHS: Hunny you’re talking to yourself out loud again.
9:59PM Barack Obama: You think that I’m screwing you with the spending freeze… the Supreme Court REALLY screwed you. “Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well, I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”
Supreme Court Justices: Remember people, this is just like those bear drills we do. Sit very quietly and very still and the danger will pass.
10:00PM Barack Obama: Shit is still really gritty in Washington DC because y’all can’t get along. And you’re killing America.
Yes, YOU.
Democrats, grow a pair. Bo has bigger balls than you do.
Bo knows politics
“And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let’s show the American people that we can do it together. This week, I’ll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans. And I would like to begin monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership. I know you can’t wait.”
BPD: Oooh, you’re in trouble.
10:05PM Barack Obama: Security. Uhm… we’re kind of secure. We could be more secure but … uhm… Quick! Everyone, clap for Michelle!
BPD: Clapping for Michelle does in fact distract me from Pakistan and the spending freeze and the whole gays are second class citizens thing.
10:13PM Barack Obama: This year I will work with Congress to end DODT. Or, maybe next year.
“In the end, it is our ideals, our values, that built America — values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe, values that drive our citizens still. Every day, Americans meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers. Time and again, they lend a hand to their neighbors and give back to their country. They take pride in their labor, and are generous in spirit. These aren’t Republican values or Democratic values they’re living by, business values or labor values. They are American values.”
Joe Biden: This is the good part. I love him. I wonder if I can discretely get my hanky out without Nancy noticing. Nancy Pelosi: I bet Joe doesn’t know where his hanky is and he’s going to end up snotting all over me. I have got to switch chairs.
10:18PM Barack Obama: I am still eloquent. And also, I love Newsies! Arise and seize the day. “Let’s seize this moment — to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.”
Peace out homies.
~~~
In the end, I think that it was a great return to the rhetorical highs of candidate Obama but you know. Spending freeze. And Wars. And DADT. And DOMA. And HCR. And ramen has become a major staple of my diet.
But, all of that aside, I haven’t erased the dry-erase board yet. Because still have hope.
I just hope the Obama administration has got hustle.
As usual, Dr. Maddow does a fine job of breaking down how the ruling on Citizens [insert derisive chortle here] United v. Federal Election Commission is a giant crock of step-on-the-little-guy shit and I will pretty much use any excuse to link to her Doctorate of Awesomeness here. She’s all smart like and I’m all: This totally sucks y’all.
But there’s something even more than just the Oh, Great, Now Coca Cola will have not only my soul but my vote too that’s getting to me. It’s that suddenly, Coca Cola is a person now. It has taken me nearly thirty years to become a person. And yet in ten months with some clever legal maneuvering Coca Cola is a person now too. Only, more of a person than me. I’m not fantastically wealthy (yet). I’m not international (yet). I don’t rot your teeth right out of your head. I’m not locked in a bitter battle against Pepsi Co. for the wallets and gullets of the world. [yet] But more than that. Coca Cola (and that bastard Pepsi Co.) is a regular first class citizen. Unlike the gays. Coca Cola’s rights are protected and upheld under the law. Unlike the gays. Hell, Coca Cola and Pepsi Co. Can even marry if they’d like. Corporations do it all of the time. Unlike the gays.
There’s not much that I have to add to Ambassador Raymond Joseph’s complete schooling¹ of Pat Robertson on Dr. Rachel Maddow’s show. It was glorious.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
But what really struck me – apart from the blunt force blow of his insensitivity – was the extension of Pat Robertson’s “logic”. If we follow his statement to its natural conclusion we find that he is making the argument that we should not be moved to great sorrow over the tragedy in Haiti because they brought it on themselves (what with their slave ancestors rising up from brutal bondage to free themselves and defend their freedom against empires) – staying in bondage would have been the Christian thing to do.
This is a despicable thing to believe.
This is a despicable thing to say.
This is an especially despicable thing to say to and about the descendants of a people who were stolen from their home land, language and religion and were forced into conditions and status lower than that of chattal. Who were, in fact, exhibited, and bought and sold like so much livestock.
The idea that Haitian slaves rejected Pat Robertson’s God and that their descendants are paying for it now wounds me in a place that I didn’t even know existed.
Pat Robertson’s God is almost as dirty a bastard as Pat Robertson is I reject him too. Wouldn’t you?
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¹Honestly, I don’t think that anyone has been schooled this hard since they stopped putting dunce caps on children and making them sit in the middle of the class room while everyone else in the class recited the lesson to the offending idiot.
Journal of a Power Dyke in Training 