I went to the TIRCC breakfast this morning, which was very interesting, informative, and thought-provoking. It may sound weird, but I think I understand what the $250,000-$700,000 empty condos in my neighborhood are accomplishing.
I want to pull my thoughts together on it a little more, but let’s talk about it in the morning.
p.s. Someone should buy TIRCC their own domain. Just saying.
Listen, I’ll admit that we liberals do stupid things and that sometimes the things we think are going to help don’t. But, just because someone like Clarence Thomas gives voice to ideas that you think back up the notion that liberals do stupid things and something the things we think are going to help don’t, that’s no reason to throw common sense out the window.
So, here’s my suggestion. If someone, anyone, says something that seems contrary to common sense, would you please consider that either a.) that’s because it is contrary to common sense or b.) that person is misunderstanding the story she or he is telling you.
Consider this post from Nathan Moore.
Moore describes an interview with Clarance Thomas as follows, “In short, it is his view that progressives are more dangerous to blacks than southern racists, that their demand for ideological segregation is worse than the past policies of physical separation.” More describes this point of view as “Most compelling.”
Sadly, Nathan Moore is not an idiot, so I have no idea what his excuse is. But I’m dying to hear one.
Does Nathan Moore actually believe that there’s any validity to that notion?
Nathan Moore, I’m calling you out. Here are my questions for you:
1. Do you believe black people are unduly influenced by progressives? What do you think accounts for that? Are progressives trickier than conservatives? Can black people not think for themselves? Or are their minds just a hair weaker than the minds of white people?
2. Are you aware that southern racists used to kill black people? Beat them up? Rape them? Run them out of towns? Destroy their property? Racists right now beat up black people, rape them, and destroy their property. They still, occasionally kill people. I’m curious to know, when you hear Thomas say that progressives are worse than that and you find it most compelling, what do you mean? Are there progressive policies towards blacks that you think are worse than murdering them?
3. You are aware, are you not, that Judge Thomas is a Supreme Court Justice, which makes him one of the most powerful men on the planet? Doesn’t the fact that he sits on the highest court in the land suggest to you that the idea that progressives are keeping him down is a little weird?
4. I know it didn’t occur to Thomas, but did it occur to you that Thomas’s grandfather may have said, “The water’s exactly the same.” about drinking from a segregated water fountain as a coping mechanism? The separate fountains were designed to be a constant, humiliating, reminder of black people’s place in society. Finding ways to undermine that humiliation were crucial for a person to survive with his soul intact. Do you really believe that Thomas’s experiences in life–going from one high powered political position to the next–is somehow analogous to what his grandfather went through?
5. Or are you, perhaps, using “most compelling” to mean “very strange, considering the facts”?
I’m going to just admit it–it’s pretty easy for me to oppose the death penalty right now. I don’t believe that the State should have the right to take the life of a person just because he killed some folks.
But if the Death Penalty were on the table for folks like this? I’d have no qualms about it.
I don’t guess that makes a whole lot of sense, but in my head, it seems wrong for the State to take the life of someone who could be made to see the errors of his ways. But there are folks who are clearly just wired wrong–child molesters, serial killers–people who commit crimes and who are never going to get why its wrong and never going to stop.
It’s very hard for me to understand why removing them from humanity is so wrong.
For if we don’t find the next sex toy shop
I tell you we must die.
I tell you we must die.
Oh, moon o’er Alabama,
We now must say good-bye
We lost our case before the Supreme Court,
But I must have sex toys or I must die!
Doo-doot-do. Doo-doot-do.
Can you believe there are folks out there who don’t like The Doors?
Anyway, via Rachel comes the sad news that our fellow cootered Americans cannot buy sex toys in Alabama. Alabamans, if you need some kind of underground dildo smuggling, I’m free most Saturdays.
Tiny Cat Pants 