Jim Crow in Wisconsin

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's recall was defeated, some good friends expressed their relief that now they wouldn't have to leave Wisconsin and move to Tennessee.  My reaction was that they didn't have to move to a poor southern state because Walker and his Koch Brother cronies were going to do their best to turn Wisconsin into one.

Much of what has happened has borne that out.  Their ridiculous mining law would make Mississippi proud.  But the most telling development to date is the passage of their racist voting law, trying their best to keep what they regard as the wrong kinds of voters away from the polls.  Jim Crow may have been invented in the south but it is alive and well in Wisconsin.

I am very sad for my home state.

History Lessons

There are quite a few theories about history and just what it is and what it means.  Here's mine:

Guiding Axiom:  History is the story of the powerful oppressing those less so. 

Corollary 1:  The powerful have always been able to convince one or more subsets of the less powerful that another subset of the less powerful--rather than their actual oppressors--is the source of their problems.

Corollary 2:  Throughout much of history (or at least the last 1500 years or so), the church has been in bed with the oppressors rather than the oppressed.

Overly simplistic?  You bet.  But pick a time in history and this dynamic is probably playing out.

Another Questionable Ally of Christian Life Resources

From Michigan Right to Life:  Democratic Senate Candidate Gary Peters "wants to make sure abortion is accessible and cheap for his daughters".  First of all, Peters never said that.  And secondly, it's a hateful statement in any case.  I want to remind everyone that this hate group is an ally of Christian Life Resources.  Just another one to add to the list of questionable friends of that organization.  Their standard of conduct is very low for any group as long as their politics are in agreement.  Can you spell "moral relativism"?

Al Gore and the Internet

Snopes.com has a very good "Flashback" write-up of the Al-Gore-Invented-the-Internet fiction.  (Here's the link to the whole write-up).  If you are informed at all, you already know that Gore never said it.  Most people who claim he said it think they are being clever or funny, and that somehow it helps prove something about their argument because Ihearditsomewhere.  In reality, it makes their ignorance brightly shine.  Conservatives whine that there are no conservative comedians.  This is a good example of why: ignorance isn't funny.  To be funny, comedy needs to have at least a kernel of truth.

The entire write-up is worth reading (it's not that long).. But this passage is a good analogy:

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while president, "took the initiative in creating the Interstate Highway System," he would not have been the subject of dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while president, "took the initiative in creating the Interstate Highway System," he would not have been the subject of dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp#rhJcYFoBFAOXo4VH.99

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while president, "took the initiative in creating the Interstate Highway System," he would not have been the subject of dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp#rhJcYFoBFAOXo4VH.99

Quote of the Day

From Kevin Drum's blog at Mother Jones:

[...] I don't know anything about Julie Boonstra, but it sure seems as if she's been bamboozled by a bunch of fanatic Obamacare haters who have caused her a ton of pain and misery. Boonstra had some genuine problems with the rollout of the exchanges, just as many people did, but once that finally got straightened out, she ended up with coverage that was both better and less expensive than her previous plan. There's no reason for her to be so anxious about her continued care.

But she never really learned that. For purely venal political reasons, AFP found itself a woman fighting cancer and proceeded to stoke her fears of her new health coverage in order to get a TV ad made. A TV ad. These are people who, if there's any justice, should not be sleeping easily at night. They are swine.

Quote of the Day

From The Daily Show:

Fox News:  We read the chain emails your grandma gets in her inbox out loud like they were true.

Phrase of the Day

From Kevin Drum's blog:

"Michelle Malkin, whose picture is used to illustrate the phrase 'over the top' in the dictionary...."

In the category of "Things I Wish I'd Said".

Snowbird Reading List

One snowbird's reading list while staying warm in Perdido Key for January and February:

    Thomas McGuane,  Driving on the Rim

    Ursula Hegi,  Floating in My Mother’s Palm

    Jason Turow, with Michael Duca,  The Baseball Codes

    Doris Lessing,  The Golden Notebook

    Thomas H. Cook,  The Last Talk with Lola Faye

    James Salter,  A Sport and a Pastime

   William Kennedy,  Ironweed

   Tahmima Anam,  A Golden Age
   William Boyd,  A Good Man in Africa (almost done)

Also throwing in the Netflix movies we watched:

   In the Valley of Elah
   Robot and Frank
   Salmon Fishing in Yemen
   Killer Joe