… because I didn’t want to have to use the “Fuckbrained assholes” tag on the last post.
This is how Michelle Malkin started a screed six months ago against public school teachers in Wisconsin:
They really outdid themselves. In Wisconsin and across the nation, public school employee unions spared no kiddie human shields in their battle against GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s budget and pension reforms.
We all use metaphors that turn out in retrospect to have been distasteful.
But this was beyond the pale even before Sandy Hook. Malkin needs to apologize for this, and she needs to do it now.
The “teachers unions are harming the kids, putting kids in the middle etc etc” seems to be pretty standard fare in teacher labour disputes.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Fuck Michelle Malkin.
She won’t apologize but you can’t expect rational or even civil behavior from self loathing racists.
Isn’t it rather the NRA that will sacrifice kids to protect the NRA agenda? Shame in those who vote for people like Malkin.
Three comments before a reference to Malkin’s ethnicity. How special.
Six educators died many of them protecting children. Malkin is vile squared, possibly cubed.
Margareth:
I note you didn’t come back to the cray cray thread to face up to your fuckwittery there, but you managed to nicely spew your need to other in this thread, I see.
Yes, of course, Malkin can’t possibly be bound up in toxic ideologies which inform her thinking and views. No, couldn’t be. It’s just gotta be tied up in her ethnicity and all that self-loathing, because of course every single racist is self loathing, therefor irrational. Or something.
Sure you don’t want to toss in something about “those women, so unsuited for politics!” crap in there too?
Get a new act, Cupcake. This one isn’t going to last long around here.
Because “fuckbrained asshole” is so much more civil than “self loathing racist”. I’ll leave you to your ivory tower.
I don’t understand, what is the ethnicity issue? (I’m Australian & ignorant here.)
Little hint: “fuckbrained asshole” is what Malkin is. “Self-loathing racist” is what actual racist decides she must be, seeing as her thoughts must be completely determined by being an Asian-Pacific Islander rather than a default white person.
See that you do.
Alethea: Malkin is Filipina-American and ultra conservative. Great thinkers like margareth decide that since people of color are SUPPOSED to be on the LIBERAL side, because of REASONS, that any deviation from that norm must necessarily be the result of hating her true inherent liberal self to which her race destines her.
Civility is not the issue. You bringing up the completely irrelevant matter of Malkin’s ethnicity is.
Besides, you are a fuckbrained asshole, if you want the threads to be more civil, stop.
Margareth:
Bit of an idiot, aren’t you? Anyone can be a fuckbrained asshole – you, me, anyone. (Hint: you’ve been one in a couple of threads.) Exactly what are you basing your judgment of “self loathing racist” on? What would you have said about her if she was white? Same thing? I don’t think so.
A right-winger apologize when factually wrong? But….
I can dream.
Chris, you are merely sounding like a complete dickwad. You may want to refer to The First Law Of Holes.
She’s a racist, for sure.
No particular evidence that she’s self-loathing, or that she has any racism for Filipino people.
Your concern is noted.
gshevlin:
Goodness me. You barge right in and start slinging the gendered slurs. Tsk. You might wish to take your own advice before you pop a monocle.
[meta]
OK, I’ve waited a bit so as not to derail, but being somewhat literal, I really dislike the phrasing “X has to do Y” when this is just rhetorical — it’s literally wrong, and when it’s not, it relies on an ideological context which needs to be provided for it to be a reasonable proposition.
(Yes, I know it’s meant to express ‘I think that X has to do Y in order to achieve Z’ — but too often (see below) the latter part is left unstated)
Clearly, she has no such need (not like she needs to breathe or to defecate).
(I reckon she thinks she’s doing fine with her schtick with which she makes a living, and she would find that action to be counter-productive to her interests and thus the opposite of needful)
I’m hoping to see the teachers’ unions step in and show their worth and compassion by helping the surviving teachers – perhaps sponsoring long-term counseling, etc. The unions do a lot to help teachers and other workers in this country, but have a very bad PR problem.
They need to fix that by very publicly doing good things for communities all across the country.
If people actually see the good that is being done and know which group is doing it, it might begin to drown out some of the faux noise.
They have a PR problem mostly because of misinformation and the selfish greed of right-wingers. Teachers are underpaid, under-appreciated, and blamed for almost any problem you can think of. I say this as a school board member of a district in Wisconsin, where unions are more or less gone. Yes, some unions have made mistakes, and have been too insular and self-protecting, but that is a much smaller problem than the corporate-model foolishness that so many want to instill into our schools.
Oh, and lest I be accused of arguing that one problem means another is unimportant, that’s not what I meant. Teacher’s unions are one of the more powerful organized groups out there, and are getting smeared, and taken down, because of it. Their PR problems are, in my opinion, much more a product of their enemies’ tactics than anything they have actually done.
Unions are dying in the US, and it’s one more reason the income gap is growing, and the country is sinking. Many unions shot themselves in the foot, but much of their decline can be blamed on right wing BS, and middle and working class workers being convinced to work against their own best interests.
magistramarla:
I’m sorry if I went off a bit there, but I work with teachers every day, and if what they are already doing in their communities is not enough, then I see no hope for improving their image by doing what you suggest.
magistramarla:
Last time on this: If teacher’s unions do as you suggest (and they might, and it would not be a bad thing), I can just see them being accused of using it as a self-serving tactic to get people to like them.
that attitude is what is wrong.
as if the teachers are some kind of evil greedy lazy bunch who want to just take a lot of money for doing nothing. “I am not going to pay teachers that much money and forget about retirement! besides your kids are not worth any of my money being spent on educating them. Why should we spend any money on the administration of schools they don’t do anything?”
ghaa!
uncle frogy
Besides what they already do? Union members are teachers – that’s their job. It’s a job that takes all day, every day, notwithstanding any time they volunteer for union activities. It’s a job that, in many areas, requires that if they take a sick day, the money for a substitute comes out of their own salary. It’s a job that requires them to buy their own kleenex and colored pencils and alphabet banners for their classrooms, out of their already piddly salaries. It’s a job that requires they spend time on nights and weekends grading. It’s a job that often requires them to attend a lot of school extracurriculars – concerts, sporting events, PTA meetings. In some areas, public school teachers even have to sign behavior contracts that limit what they’re allowed to do in public, lest they be seen as a “bad influence”.
So what the fuck else do you think they ought to be doing???
Hmm…
I’m going to have to go with carlie and unclefrogy. Teachers are doing too much already for us to expect them to do more to improve their PR.
Paul K,
Well, they don’t need to, but presumably it would be a beneficial thing (for them) to do, were it practical given their admittedly heavy work-load.
(I have a lot of sympathy for those who note it’s not generally the case that it is so)
—
Anecdotally, my wife has a diploma of teaching though she found the profession too onerous to maintain after the first couple of years, and I remember her slaving to generate a new curriculum (new lesson-plans and activities) before each year of teaching in her (ahem) “copious free time”.
(Perhaps it’s easier for teachers who lack dedication and merely recycle their plans yearly, but I suspect such are in a large minority)
Paul,
I didn’t take offense at what you said.
In fact, I’m a (medically) retired teacher myself.
I definitely understand what you had to say, as well as the comments about how much extra time that we teachers put in, just to try to keep up in our jobs.
I meant that the union leaders should work on the PR situation, not the already over-worked teachers.
When I was growing up, there was a TV commercial with a catchy tune – “Look for the union label”.
It worked – even as a kid, I was in the habit of looking for that label in my clothes.
This sort of thing is what I was suggesting – do highly visible things that people notice.
I taught in Texas, where we were “discouraged” from joining a union (right to work, and all that).
My district “opted out” of paying into SS, instead putting our money into a Texas teachers’ retirement fund. In the downturn of 2008, the fund lost a third of our money. I left in 2009, and was able to roll over my 19K into a private account. As a military spouse who had previously taught in other states and paid into SS, I would have much preferred that my money had gone there. I realized this even more when I looked into disability. Thanks to that district, I haven’t paid enough into SS to qualify for disability.
It is difficult for military spouses to maintain a teaching (or nursing, or accounting, etc) career when states have such differing rules and policies. Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden have talked about this and suggested that we need uniform policies in place to make life somewhat easier for military spouses. Of course, the right wing has screamed “states’ rights” and accused them of being socialists – sigh.
magistramarla,
Wow, ‘sigh’ is right. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through.
I feel proud to be on a school board that really does want to do the right thing for teachers. I’m new to it, but I ran for the office in the midst of all that is happening here in Wisconsin because I saw how things were slipping and want to help to at least slow it down.
John Morales @20, I can always count on you for the meta but interesting PsOV.
And I rebut thee thusly:
John Morales,
I worked toward a teaching degree, too, but decided before I ever started that I would not have the wherewithal to do it as well as I would need to. Part of my problem is that I suffer foolishness poorly, and knew I would be driven, well, somewhere, by all the people who think they know better how to do the job than those actually doing it, and who have the power to get their way. I don’t mean the kids, either. Sometimes, new ideas are better, but sometimes, they’re just new. Or not. Or stupid.
Well I don’t know about “self-loathing,” but I do think that someone who writes a book justifying the Japanese internment and racial profiling has invited charges of racism on herself.
PS- great post Chris. The way teachers are characterized as greedy Union Thugs, parasites and people who couldn’t cut it in the private sector, makes me positively sick.
Chris, I appreciate your rebuttal no less than your tolerance, and leave it at that.
—
Paul K, as you note, teaching is neither easy nor suits everyone.
—
And, to be on-topic, I too find Michelle Malkin not just despicable, but also hypocritical* and perverse for her characterisation of public-school teachers as esurient, self-interested leeches hiding behind their charges.
—
* Her “shield” is American Patriotism.
Ugh…Sorry for the excessive italics. HTML, how does it work?
Oh, Malkin is absolutely a racist, there’s no question of that. Excepting perhaps in her own mind. But probably not even there.
I actually had someone argue with me a few years back that the pro-internment thing proved Malkin was “self-loathing” because Pilipinos and Japanese people were both Asians by white standards, and therefore etc.
As someone who then had aunts- and uncles-in-law who had survived the Japanese occupation of China as children, and whose views of cultural equality were greatly informed by their childhood suffering, I could only laugh at that “self-” thing.
Morales, you are predictably tiresome.
Chris:
*facepalm*
No.
*double facepalm*
<tide>, </tide> — You can’t explain that!
That SOOOO needs to be on a tee-shirt!
Her race and/or racism aren’t relevant except for the part where she’s the child of immigrants, and is anti-immigration.
But this is no worse than any of the other words that fall out of her mouth, really. And that’s not meant to minimize, but rather the opposite – how the fuck does she say shit like this, ALL THE TIME, and still have a viable income? Failing upwards. They always fail upwards, all the while kicking and spitting and flinging shit at anyone who dares question them.
comfychair:
Because she’s not alone in her beliefs or thinking. A whole lot of people agree with her views. And as Chris pointed out, she’s all about jingoistic (toxic patriotism) Americanism, which way too many people are on board with also.
Yes, sure, but I guess I mean in a bigger-picture sort of way. How did we end up here? Is this just a normal stage in the fall of a civilization when infinite growth runs headlong into a finite planet, and how much longer can it be until we’re burning corpses to stay warm in the winter (of course, assuming there will be such a thing as winter in the near future)? How far down this rathole will we go, or, how far down will we let them drag us? All the way to the bottom? :[
Failure is celebrated and rewarded (“impeachment is off the table” – thanks, Nancy – that bit of kindness has surely paid off!), cruelty isn’t really cruelty because ‘it’s for your own good, after all’, pointing out bigotry is infinitely worse than bigotry itself, etc., etc., etc.
Maybe it’s just the holidays and/or lack of sunlight that’s got me down… or being stuck here in the Bible States of Teabaggistan…
Believe me, I ask myself that question every single day.
I think the problem is that there is a significant number of people who don’t like conflict, regardless of how well it’s warranted. They act like children in a dysfunctional family: it doesn’t matter if mommy is sleeping with the pool boy or daddy has spent your college fund on day trading, if anyone dares bring it up problems, they’ll scream “STOP IT! STOP IT! I HATE IT WHEN YOU FIGHT!!!”
Alethea H. “Crocoduck” Kuiper-Belt (#9)
People take exception to Malkin’s position on ethnicity and immigration, and call her hypocritical for it. Her family benefitted from legal and open immigration policies, while she defends slime anti-immigrant types (so-called “minite men”) who attempted to justify committing violence against people.
One of the “minite men” is Shawna Forde, who has been convicted of murdering a father and daughter. Her victims were US-born citizens, not “illegal immigrants”. Malkin openly defended Forde’s actions and those like Forde, even after the facts were known.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Raul_and_Brisenia_Flores
Okay, but that’s not what happened in this particular thread.
hypocrite ≠ self-loathing
*coughs* Not all such people are non-white, even the ones from “less desirable” countries of origin. Just saying.
(Not anti-immigration, child of an immigrant.)
Chris, I may not have mentionned it before, but I feel compelled to do it now: I like you very much.
…
I don’t know what hurts the most, the reflexion itself, or the fact that I’m really not surprise that someone told you that.
I’m still a little baffled though that people who rail against the conservative argument “We’re not racists, look! We got one on our side!”, usually reply with “Well yeah, but that’s the wrong kind!”.
A common argument.
The evidence would suggest that rather than being self-loathing, Malkin has an all together inflated opinion of herself.
Late now, but thanks for the explanation. I hadn’t heard much of her before, and I was mixing her up with Michele Bachman. Oops.
strange gods before me ॐ ($47)
I was taking the coward’s way out and striving for accuracy in my explanation, rather than get involved in a heated (and heating) argument. I don’t deny that she’s repugnant as well as republican.
In fact, they’re kind of opposites, aren’t they? The way to be a hypocrite about it is to separate yourself entirely from thinking of yourself as being at all like them. Immigrants are bad, but my people are different. It’s not self-loathing because you don’t think of yourself as being in that category of people you loathe at all.
Stop degrading the word fuck by associating it with cruel and evil people.
No.
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Newtown-Church-Evactuated-183704271.html
Newtown Church Evacuated After Threat
A noon mass was being held at St. Rose of Lima Church when police entered the building.
Only In The USA
Clue to harvardmba: No one is impressed by your claimed credentials.
Clue to pompous puffball: You don’t do yourself any favours vomiting bilge all over our carpet.
Gosh, Chris’ efforts to fool the world with his fake outrage have been exposed. Next time he should strive to make his arguments harvardtroll-proof.
Oh, I don’t know. I think that’s a perfectly glamorous rabbit harvardmbunnya posted.
Okay, that is definitely way worse punishment than disemvowelling.
Dammit!
I’m too late!
urm
Chris, ckitching, Caine
Did you know that Harvard granted MBAs?
Wow Chris, that bunnination was fast!
Chigau:
You can get one from Harvard Business School, not Harvard proper and all that. ;D
Aaaw, an adorable puffball replaces the pompous puffball. Excellent.
Dang, better get a new zip the Redhead can plug into the DVD player and watch the files (converted to basic mpeg4).
MBA: The foosball of postgraduate degrees.
I think that since I tend to post that silly question about Harvard MBAs everytime harvardmba posts anything, I may be in violation of PZ’s reset rule.
I should be punished.
Chris, do you have any cute cougar videos?
Well I know what I’m going to have stuck in my head for the rest of time. Thanks a lot harvardmba! *glares*
You mean like this?
Or like this?
No. No, I don’t believe I do.
Chigau, as you may be in violation of PZ’s rules, you should be punished, nay, flogged with a cephalopod video.
‘Tis only logical.
giggles I`m thoroughly enjoying this bunny video thing ^.^
Yesyes.
I feel thoroughly chastised, possibly even chastened.
♥♥♥
Chris # 69:
Ouch. :-(
I worked my ass off for mine, and it wasn’t at Harvard. Just a Canadian university.
Silomowbray @76, My apologies for the splash-damage cheap shot.
Chris, thank you.
I consider myself fortunate I didn’t pursue a law degree as I had once planned. Lawyers seem to fare far worse than MBAs in the eye of the average North American (despite law degrees being brutal to earn).
Testing to see if I’ve removed the ‘sans frottage’ part of my username successfully. Apologies if this is a breach of etiquette.
Silomowbray:
Oh, yours is good. You see, you aren’t using yours for pompous puffballery. :D
One side uses pointed rhetoric against people they disagree with, the other side uses high-cap mags and body armor. See? Both sides are equally to blame! /ohforfuckssake
Exactly, comfychair, and the important thing right now is that the side using pointed rhetoric need to shut up so that they don’t make the other side using high-capacity magazines and body armour feel bad. Because the only thing worse than dead children is someone with lots of guns feeling bad.
One day, foosball will become a lucrative spectator sport. There will be grand tournaments, televised across the globe and the winners will be as gods. Showered in millions, with hordes of screaming groupies of both genders clamoring to offer sexual favors of all kinds.
Someone will invent a new super bouncy ball. And someone else will develop a three fingered underhanded spinning technique that will crush the competition. Both will then be outlawed.
Performance enhancing drugs that alter the chemical composition of the sweat to change the coefficient of friction of the player’s palms be come into vogue, and then be quickly phased out. Then they too will be made illegal.
Foosball gambling will by the lynchpin of a billion dollar black market.
And when this happens (and it will, if the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true), what will you have left to cheap your shots then? Hmm?
Amphiox@83: Skee-ball.
Well, it’ll definitely make it harder to distinguish you from the other silomowbrays lurking about.
Amphiox
Does lotsandlotsandlots of beer count as “performance enhancing” in foosball?
’cause y’know where foosball tables tend to be …
I love where this thread went. Especially the cougars. As an Australian I am mildly allergic to bunnies. EVILFERALVERMINKILLTHEMALLNAO!!! oops sorry it got away from me. *ahem* I’m OK now.
Wow those are some gorgeous cougars. Hmm, bunnies and cougars…I can only imagine the ads that are gonna start popping up!
Although I can already see Intelligent Design advocates pointing to the cat making biscuits as proof against evolution, cuz you know biscuits haven’t been around long, natural selection, etc. ;)
#88 ^^^ Hey, at least nobody hotlinked pussycloseup.jpg or manwithabigcock.jpg
(Don’t anybody get upset, they are early internet classics and not at all what the filenames would lead you to believe which is the whole point and why they are funny and now I’ve just completely RUINED THE JOKE by explaining it, sheesh)
…what? Where do you take that from? ~:-|
“We appreciate your concern, it is noted and stupid.”
Seconded!!!
I don’t think so. Patriotism has thoroughly fallen out of fashion in much of Europe.
Bingo.