IT WAS A TIME WHEN RIGHT WAS RIGHT AND WRONG WAS WRONG. IT WAS A TIME WHEN BOYS AND GIRLS COULD PRAY IN SCHOOL. IT WAS A TIME WHEN MEN WERE MEN AND WOMEN WERE WOMEN. IT WAS A TIME WHEN PLANNED PARENTHOOD MEANT WAITING UNTIL YOU GOT MARRIED TO START A FAMILY. IT WAS A TIME WHEN THE LIFE OF AN UNBORN CHILD WAS TREASURED, NOT ABORTED… THOSE WERE THE VALUES OF THE NINETEEN FIFTIES… AND THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE.
—
Todd Starnes, Fox News Radio commentator, on the great values of the 1950s.
Pretty sure people had abortions and children out of wedlock in the 1950s, but men were men and women were women, ya’ll!
(via reallyfoxnews)
He’s right, the 1950s were a great time for white, cis, straight, Christian men.
I feel so bad for their loss. </sarcasm>
Maddow’s EPIC Romney takedown, catalogs history of SKETCHY lies (by orangecountyfldems)
Brilliant!
Conservatives often have a better read than liberals do on how macro politics affects micro politics, which is to say, they really do get how oppressed people can see progress in the larger political world, and that boosts their self-esteem and makes them feel more entitled to demand better treatment in daily life. Liberals see no co-pay contraception and think, “That’ll help women save money and lower the unintended pregnancy rate.”
Conservatives see it and think, “That’ll suggest to women that being able to have sex while retaining control over your body is your god-given right that the President went out of his way to protect. That’s going to make those bitches uppity.”
Once upon a time, way back in the stone ages, when Noam Chomsky was first writing about these propaganda techniques in Manufacturing Consent, our leaders felt the need to conceal – or at least sugar-coat – these Orwellian principles. It was assumed that the American people genuinely needed to feel like they were on the right side of things, and so the foreign powers we clashed with were always depicted as being the instigators and aggressors, while our role in provoking those responses was always disguised or at least played down.
But now the public openly embraces circular thinking like, “Any country that squawks when we threaten to bomb it is a threat that needs to be wiped out.” Maybe I’m mistaken, but I have to believe that there was a time when ideas like that sounded weird to the American ear. Now they seem to make sense to almost everyone here at home, and that to me is just as a scary as Ahmadinejad.
—Matt Taibbi (via soupsoup)
Edward Davies, Mitt Romney’s militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as “hogwash.”
Mitt Romney has been a dick since at least age nineteen. For reals. From The Daily Mail:
A newly-unearthed photograph showing Mitt Romney demonstrating in favour of the Vietnam War draft might leave the presidential candidate feeling somewhat embarrassed.
The veteran Republican, then 19, can be seen picketing an anti-war sit-in at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1966.
Romney received a draft exemption based upon his status as a “minister of religion” - basically, an exemption for having been a Mormon missionary. He received numerous deferments after that for educational reasons. Romney portrays his mission in Paris as a time of humbling poverty, but The Daily Telegraph has a different story:
The Republican presidential hopeful spent a significant portion of his 30-month mission in a Paris mansion described by fellow American missionaries to The Daily Telegraph as “palace”. It featured stained glass windows, chandeliers, and an extensive art collection and was staffed by two servants.
For most of 1968, Romney lived in the Mission Home, a 19th century neoclassical building in the French capital’s chic 16th arrondissement. “It was a house built by and for rich people,” said Richard Anderson, the son of the mission president at the time of Romney’s stay. Tearful as he described the house, Mr Anderson, 70, of Kaysville, Utah, said Romney aides had asked him not to speak publicly about their time together there.
Romney said of his French lodgings: “I don’t recall any of them having a refrigerator. We shopped before every meal”. Anderson said that as well as a refrigerator, the mansion had “a Spanish chef called Pardo and a house boy, who prepared lunch and supper five days a week”.
Romney added in his comments that “most of the apartments I lived in had no shower or bathtub”. He said: “If we were lucky, we actually bought a hose and we stuck it on the sink.” He said he was forced to use a hole in the ground and a bucket for a lavatory and said, “I lived in a way that people of lower middle income in France lived, and said to myself, ‘Wow, I sure am lucky to have been born in the United States of America.’”
Sounds rough, no? Perhaps it was this time of strife that led him to make his most recent housing decision:
It recently emerged that Mr Romney has plans to quadruple the size of his $12 million California home. The 64-year-old filed an application in San Diego, California, to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot oceanfront mansion in La Jolla and replace it with an 11,062-square-foot property.
A campaign official said that the GOP hopeful was planning the expansion as the home he bought three years ago ‘is inadequate for their needs’.
Mitt Romney: Representing the 1% since 1966, lying about his poverty since at least 2011.
Mitt Romney (center) and his Bain colleagues in a 1980s photo used by Americans United for Change.
So this isn’t sexist, but it is honestly so fucking unbelievable and jaw-droppingly ridiculous that I had to spread the rage.
HOW IS IT EVEN HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO BE OUT OF TOUCH IN EVERY SINGLE DECADE YOU’VE BEEN ALIVE, I CANNOT EVEN
It’s time for candidates and politicians to stop the God talk and start acting like true representatives of the people—all of the people. It’s time for the 45 million Nones to demand both respect and representation no less than any other American, and for presidential candidates, when asked about their religion, to reply something along these lines:
‘I understand why you are curious about my religious beliefs, but I am not running to represent only Americans who happen to believe what I believe about God and religion. I am running to represent Americans of all faiths, and even the tens of millions of Americans who have no religion. If elected, my allegiance is to the Constitution and my duty is to uphold the laws of this great land, which are to be applied equally and without prejudice to all Americans no matter their color or creed. I realize that some candidates and politicians pander to their religious voting block in hopes of gaining support by tapping ancient tribal prejudices, but that is not my way. I get why other candidates are tempted to appeal to those deep emotions that are stirred by religious unity against those who believe differently, but I am trying to do something different. If elected I fully intend to represent all Americans under my jurisdiction, not just those Americans whose beliefs I happen to share. I am trying to build a better America for all Americans, not some. The original motto of this country is E Pluribus Unum. It means “Out of many, one.” It means that we are stronger together than separate, united by our common belief in liberty and the freedom to believe whatever you want as long as it doesn’t harm others. As a candidate for the highest office of this noble nation my faith is in its people—all of the people—and what we are able to do together to make the world a better place to live.’
—Michael Shermer, E PLURIBUS UNUM FOR ALL FAITHS AND FOR NONE
(via The End Of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell | Progressive Political Cartoon by Barry Deutsch)
As the author of this cartoon says, “the work ain’t done.”
Penn Jillette is awesome. Take 10 minutes to watch this and share it please. Take that extra step.
Some interesting insight into the use of the word “christian” in the last 50 years.
I suggest all females watch this.
I suggest EVERYONE watch this.
100% in favor of this.
Every single human on the planet needs to be aware of this.
(Source: dave-bowman)
Ron Paul’s Uninsured, Dead Campaign Manager (by TheYoungTurks)
The party that started out fearing death panels has become one!
—Al Madrigal (The Daily Show) on the Tea Party
John Steinbeck understood the bootstrap myth is just that - a myth.
Love this quote.
