Still Flat-Lining

This Washington Monthly post by guest blogger Hilzoy pinning all the perils of derivative deregulation on Phil Gramm was dumb when it was written and hasn't gotten any smarter.

And no, I don't consider this post - happy black people make Maguire angry, but that doesn't mean I think he is a racist - an adequate response.  Dishonest?  Sure.  Gutless?  Absolutely.  But responsive?  No.

Comments

[sbw]

I wrote:

My first comment on Tom Maguire was as a result of a critical comment on my blog I made on I point where I thought he was mistaken. I spelled his name wrong and he kindly pointed out.

Since that happened years ago I have visited his blog community every single day, learned much, added some, and shared entertaining and enlightening times.

Hilzoy, your shallow, drive-by shooting is unwarranted. And your missing a good thing.

[Jerry J]

Check on this ABC video regarding Obama's "Bottom 10" VP picks:

ABC: Obama Bottom 10 (youtube)

[MayBee]

Hilzoy knows her way over here, she has commented here in the past. Tom has also been quite complimentary of her in the past, so her drive by is in especially bad form.

[kim]

Gustavson? Racism? Geddoudaheah.
======================

[BumperStickerist]

fwiw, I think Tom dipped Hilzoy's pony-tail in the inkwell and she's punching him in the arm and calling him a doo-doo head.

Odds are that they'll be attending the Blogger Ball together.

-

[Rick Ballard]

MayBee,

When you take a job as low level propagandist (vide her Gramm garbage), I believe there must be a requirement to engage fully in the low tactics which the position requires. I never found her worth reading in the past (I find loghorrea distasteful) so I really can't say that not reading her drivel in the future will cause any discomfort.

It's like Jeff's disappearance from comments here - a gain rather than a loss.

[kim]

Careful with the 'low-level', Rick. Look how it incensed Joe Wilson.
=============================

[MayBee]

I never found her worth reading in the past (I find loghorrea distasteful)

I'm so glad you said that, Rick. I don't understand what drives people to say the Greenwaldian style is beautiful writing. I want someone I disagree with to write in a way that draws me in and invites me to really think about what they are saying. I'm a good thinker and a bad writer. I don't want to read someone that says, "I'm writing I'm writing I'm writing. See what I'm writing? Aren't we so right about this stuff I'm writing about?"

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Not good news.

http://tinyurl.com/6kw5cp

---
Saudi Arabia oil revenues are predicted to hit $16.6 trillion by 2030 with prices at $150 a barrel, according to IEA production assumptions. Oil income for the UAE is expected to reach $4.6trn over the same period and for Kuwait this figure is $4.5trn. In total, by 2030 all three countries will command $25.7trn in revenues with oil priced at $150 a barrel. Sama is Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund responsible for investing government surpluses.
---

[MikeS]

What race were Gustavson and DeLuca?
Why would it be racist to criticize their judgment?

Why would anyone purposely read what Hilzoy writes?

[bgates]

Saudi Arabia oil revenues are predicted to hit $16.6 trillion by 2030
Since it's race day -
who's going to win the Belmont in 2030?

[kim]

'Arabian Princess', in a walk.
================

[Rick Ballard]

"and a bad writer"

Not in my book, MayBee. You don't write at length but your clarity is right up there with crystal. I have never equated length with "good" wrt writing. In fact, I consider "length" to be, in many cases, an attempt to obfuscate muddy thinking through sheer volume. There are certainly subjects of such complexity that longer expositions are required. JMH, Cecil and CathyF provide excellent examples of how to go about achieving clarity in long form wrt such subjects on a regular basis. Hilzoy suffers greatly in comparison.

Greenwald, Hilzoy and Jeff are all obfuscators of mediocre skill. A sparrow which lived only by acquiring new knowledge would starve to death pecking out seed enough to live upon if its only susistance were the piles of horse manure which they generate.

[MayBee]

Wow, Rick. That is a huge compliment, coming from you. I agree with all the rest of what you say. And laugh.

[bad]

OT

Fox News is using some interesting terminology to describe what is happening as Hillary tries to make her way to the venue of her scheduled speech. Apparently her mother is "loaded" in the car and Hillary is getting "hammered."

[Bill in AZ]

Saudi Arabia oil revenues are predicted to hit $16.6 trillion by 2030 with prices at $150 a barrel..

No problem - oil will quietly drop back to normal right after the election, just like it did in 2006 - with nary a comment by the drive-by media.

[sbw]

Maybee, "I don't understand what drives people to say the Greenwaldian style is beautiful writing."

I agree. Rick said it well, and clearly. What I thought was that beautiful writing absent content is like amyloid plaque in the brain. And who asks for Alzheimer's?

[kim]

Content, son, is in the mind of the beholden.
============================

[TexasToast]

1.The always interesting 'Hilzoy', normally found at Obsidian Wings, is guesting at the Washington Monthly and promoting the Texas Observer piece. I haven't the will to engage all of her misconceptions, so let me tackle the central ones:…
2. Hilzoy goes on:
….[quotation]…
Well, in reality….
3. Wrong again….

4.…After they stopped laughing.

Was her post a response to this as you suggest? Perhaps – I really don’t know. I would have thought she had thicker skin, but maybe she really doesn’t like getting ridiculed and laughed at? Yours was not a “gentle correction”.

As to the racism thing – I don’t think she intended to call you a racist just as I don’t think you intended to call her stupid. Apparently, however, she read it that way just as you read it that way.

[kim]

It isn't the being called stupid that is resented, it's the mirth at the delusion.
==============================

[bgates]

It is possible to say stupid things without being stupid. It is not possible to dislike people based on skin color without being racist (except for Democrats, who are not racist by definition).

How did you read Hilzoy, TT?

[TexasToast]

...it's the mirth at the delusion.

Perhaps its the assumption that Hilzoy's misunderstanding of the effects of gamma rays on man in the moon marigolds (or credit default swaps) was the result of "delusion" and not simple error multiplied by "mirth"?

I'm sure Tom was laughing with Hilzoy and not at her - except she wasn't laughing.

[MayBee]

Has Hilzoy readdressed her Gramm post?

[bgates]

I don’t think she intended to call you a racist
Maybe I'm being dense, and you're being sarcastic here. Is that it? Or do you think she intended something else? If so, what?

[kim]

Well, yes, TT, but by delusion I meant the interpretation of motives and results, and I think she correctly sensed she was being derided, not for ignorance, but for fabulism.
=======================

[kim]

bgates, TT is suffering the usual fate of premature peacemaker. Order in the court. Monkey wants to speak. Speak, Monkey, Speak.
======================================

[PeterUK]

Racist is the worst epithet in the lexicon of leftist criminality,it trumps Nazi and is on a par with heretic of the 16th and 17th centuries.
It can lose people jobs,land them in court and get them ostracised.Using the word racist as casually as hilzoy did,is frankly,stupid.

[TexasToast]

Ill answer that BGates, but it will take a little time and my connection is squirrly today.

Ah Kim, sweet as always. I read nothing in Toms post suggesting "fabulism" - "misconceptions" "In reality" "Wrong again"
not "liar liar"!

[Sied]

Hilzoy makes money in compassion and international relations. This is a very important person who might one day get a job at USIP on the mall or Climate Security with Air Force Geo spacial intelligence Agency or Global Poverty and Farm legislation or with Mike Honda in Electoral College redistricting - UN voting system or Public Land Community Transition and the drug trade/FARC counter intelligence or socialism in South America or running the carbon global tax or the poverty global tax or supporting women's rights with loans only for females or investigating all commodities for prices because oil and food just can't get together or term limits for Kerrys who do what Obama does or extending all government bills and foreign policy budgets to five years until it's 20 because some employees have a five year limit instead of 2.

Why care how much the Saudis make? Air cars are available in France and can be modified and imported. Maybe if they refined and shipped gas. They can't because US refineries are national security.

Hillary quit. Health and Human Services. Maybe her daughter won't get the NY seat. When I'm not worried about seeing, hearing or being pained; I'll tell you what I think.

[Jane]

Hilzoy makes money in compassion

Good gig.

his is a very important person

Aren't we all.

[Jane]

Uh "THIS" is a very important person.

[Porchlight]

I get Hilzoy mixed up with Michael Hiltzik. I know they're not the same person but who cares?

[Danube of Thought]

I don't care about either one of them, and won't bother to read anything they write.

[PeterUK]

A shame "Hilzoy's Complaint" is supposed to be quite droll.

[BOATBUILDER]

Mr. Maguire: The people at Washington Monthly are preening idiots. You would do well to ignore them.
I made the mistake of wading into the comments. Wow.
Kim and SBW smacked them around some. But please don't make them spend any more time over there. I like them better over here.

[BOATBUILDER]

On second thought--she did call you a racist, which is unforgivable and cannot be ignored.
But really--the idiocy is mind-boggling.

[Rick Ballard]

Boatbuilder,

Careful about going there too often. No one knows if the drop in IQ which occurs when you click on the site is permanent or temporary.

[Pofarmer]

I agree with Rick.

I used to go to Washington Monthly some, but the blood pressure increases coupled with the IQ loss couldn't be ignored.

[BOATBUILDER]

Rick--I'm staying here. It's way to scary over there.

Pofarmer--It's the NYT and the mainstream media (and, unfortunately, the Republican National Committee) that get my BP going, because they actually have power. Those people at Washinton Monthly just frighten me with their complacent idiocy. I come here for reassurance in the darkness. That and Dewars.

[BOATBUILDER]

Or this and Dewars. It's not Dewars time yet, just hot as hell outside, so I'm dropping in early.

[TexasToast]

Bgates

OK. Here is a quotation from Tom

Littlest darling, because of the Obama Ascendancy, you will never have to endure the institutionalized racism in America that I never actually endured either, seeing as how I was born in a different country in 1970. But after I arrived from never-prosperous Ghana the race hustlers here in America assured me it was awful, and I have no reason to doubt them. But let's not look backwards - let's look towards a brighter future, in which you have a great shot at being accepted into a top school or getting preferential treatment in hiring because you, too, are a once-oppressed minority. It's a wonderful world.

And another
“’Not that we’re so distraught, but our children need to be able to see a black adult as a leader for the country, so they can know we can reach for those same goals,” said Wilhelmina Brown, 54, an account representative for U.S. Bank in St. Paul. “We don’t need to give up at a certain level.’
How Japanese kids, Chinese kids, or Jewish kids ever make it out of bed in the morning, and why they bother, is left unexplained.”

Here is Hilzoy’s response:

But I do not mean to imply that Tom Maguire is a racist. (I really don't.) As I have said before, I have no interest in figuring out what counts as racism and what does not. What I am interested in is the question: when does race play a role in people's thinking that it should not play?

Does race play a “role” in the above quotations? Well, it appears so – specifically the black race:

1. The quotations imply that the “institutionalized racism” against blacks that has “ended” (and was therefore “never actually indured” is the sum total of all racism that blacks experienced and still experience in this country;
2. The quotations imply that “race hustlers” are the reason that blacks (from Ghana or domestic) still claim to experience racism (ie, it isn’t really there, but is invented for political or other reasons);
3. The quotations imply that blacks get preferential treatment because of institutionalized reverse discrimination (affirmative action) fueling white resentment while ignoring non-institutionalized racism in hiring, promotion, etc.;
4. The quotations denigrate the importance of a successful role model for black kids with a false equivalency to “Jewish kids, Japanese kids, Chinese kids” who, incidentally, already have successful role models.

It is not racism to recognize that there are different races and that different races face different challenges in our society. It is not racism to recognize that black people in this country, for historical reasons, are a special case. Hilzoy’s question is why does Tom’s post refuse to recognize this? Why does it imply that black resentment is unearned - having no merit? And finally, why does it “ … assume that [only black] parents' concern that their kids have good role models stops looking completely normal and starts looking like the work of ‘the race hustlers’’?

In other words, Hilzoy’s criticism is not that Tom’s post is racist – it is that the post seems to refuse to recognize that racism against blacks in this country still exists and that blacks are justified in resenting it. Moreover, the post goes on to suggest that
blacks are, in fact, on the whole, advantaged by their race. Thus, we have reached a “wonderful world” of black/white race relations. This is patently false.

Why does the post find it necessary to imply that racism against blacks, specifically, no longer exists and that blacks, specifically, have no justification for continued resentment? That is the question

I don’t think Tom is a racist – or I would have stopped posting here long ago. I can’t speak for Hilzoy, but I don’t think she does either.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
The people at Washington Monthly are preening idiots
---

Idiots on the Internet? You don't say.

Unfortunately Republicans nominate their idiots for public office; the vast majority of the posters on this board would have been better presidents that our current chief executive.

And hold the Dewar's; make mine a Springbank.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
It is not racism to recognize that black people in this country, for historical reasons, are a special case.
---

Maybe 'Strange Fruit' belongs on Tom's playlist.

[sbw]

TT, I advise anyone who attempts to make an argument using the word "moral" to try to express what they want to say absent that word. If one can't make the point without that word, the argument can't be made.

The same is true with the word "racist". To use it is to wield a club, not make a point. To say that racism still exists in this country is to tell me nothing. It is the bahavior that is the problem and the word racism fails to express it clearly.

Furthermore, there are opportunists who make a living simply attaching their star to that word. Opportunists isn't strong enough -- call them slugs and politicians.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
Furthermore, there are opportunists who make a living simply attaching their star to that word.
---

Terrorism has equal utility for others.

[kim]

You miss my point, TT. The skin differences accentuate the need to use evolved judgement. The subject of race is so controversial because everyone has a unique perspective. It is a truism to say that everyone has a unique perspective, but the multiplicity of experiences make the 'individual perspective on race' a much more complex matter than many other matters, such as climate, or War on Terror.

And again, perspective; I think I answered Hilzoy's Honey with as much Sweetness and Light as possible. Same for you. You don't speculate from ignorance to the extent Hilzoy does, though, at least from my experience with you.
===============================

[kim]

Hey, BB, ssshhh. Don't tell 'em we pumped up Obama. Now they're gonna blame us. And that was a pretty strong blow about 'colorblind'. They're gonna resent that crack for awhile.
==========================

[ben]

www.meetbarackobama.com

lots of good stuff, the resume section is really good

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Keating Five

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

[bgates]

This seems like something no one could take exception to. People are happy, and happiness is a good thing, right?

Not for Tom Maguire....When the fact that people are black makes you respond to their happiness not with a smile, but with disdain
Hilzoy is saying that TM responds to people based on race. Are you really saying she doesn't mean to call him racist? Are you saying she is that bad of a writer?

1) The quotations imply that the “institutionalized racism” against blacks that has “ended” (and was therefore “never actually endured”) is the sum total of all racism that blacks experienced and still experience
If I want to say "racism has ended", why wouldn't I say "racism has ended", as opposed to "institutional racism has ended"? Do I get more points for the extra letters?
2) How much have you donated to the Right Revered Al Sharpton? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, TT.
3) The quotations imply that blacks get preferential treatment because of institutionalized reverse discrimination - do you disagree that happens? while ignoring non-institutionalized racism in hiring, promotion, etc. Why, there oughta be a law! And an enforcement mechanism!
4) The quotations denigrate the importance of a successful role model for black kids besides Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, Oprah, Denzel Washington, Doc Rivers, JC Watts, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Chris Rock, Jay-Z, Sean Combs, Allen West, off the top of my head with a false equivalency to “Jewish kids, Japanese kids, Chinese kids” who, incidentally, already have successful role models. None of whom are running for President (if I assume, as you do, that kids can only have role models of the same ethnic background - or, for black kids, continental - Ghana is closer to Italy than Kenya, but it would be absurd for a black kid to look up to Giuliani, wouldn't it?)

[boris]

Making fun of some hyperbole falls rather short of denigrating "the importance of a successful role model for black kids". Sounds more like a new Beau Bama rule, any criticism or ridicule is either racism or pretty damn close to it so STFU!

Given the treatment accorded Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, and Colin Powell this all rings pretty hollow. TT may not believe TM is a racist but seems to want him to STFU anyway.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
as opposed to "institutional racism has ended"
---

We don't have institutionalized rape in this country; do we ridicule and minimize the suffering of rape victims?

[clarice]

Except in the nether precincts of womens studies programs and psych wards (and the offices of soon to be broke and disbarred prosecutors), we also don't pretend that every woman suffers from rape and that therefore they are entitled to special treatment.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

And would it be reasonable to label those who ridicule rape victims as misogynistic?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
we also don't pretend that every woman suffers from rape and that therefore they are entitled to special treatment.
---

If 60% of women suffered rape we very well might; what about 40%? 20%?

[clarice]

It would be reasonable to label them insensitive. Nevertheless, I don't see where you are going with this.
Is it fair to label women who falsely claim to have been raped liars?
Must one glue one's lips when women and minority members who clearly have not been discriminated against claim they have been?
Shall we decline to defend white males who are being falsely accused of wrongdoing or, in fact, being discriminated against?

[PeterUK]

"And would it be reasonable to label those who ridicule rape victims as misogynistic?"

Ever been in prison?

[clarice]

89 you are really stretching.

[Rick Ballard]

Cool, straw men made to order - no waiting.

Dumber than Hilzoy? Quite possibly, there's still a bit of room out on that left tail.

[PeterUK]

"If 60% of women suffered rape we very well might; what about 40%? 20%?"

I don't know about Institutional,but the word congenital comes to mind.

[Tina]

No triple crown winner again this year.

[sbw]

See how little time they spent with the Belmont winner. The result didn't fit their frame. So go with the frame anyway. Sigh. Television journalism at its best regular.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
89 you are really stretching.
---

By your response I can tell that you understand my basic point: focusing on institutionalized injustice is at best an artificial restriction of the experience of racism, and seems a rather lawyerly construct in service of a poorly conceived joke.

[sbw]

89, you know spit about the Keating Five and don't care. It doesn't fit your frame. 89 at its best regular.

[clarice]

We can and have passed legislation to deal with institutionalized racism . To deal with whatever residuals remain would require the most draconian measures and a departure from our constitution. And in the end with those protections gone, history tells us that far worse things--generally affecting the poor hardest--would follow as the day the night.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
To deal with whatever residuals remain would require the most draconian measures and a departure from our constitution.
---

May be true at its current levels; I can't say with any authority since I'm white.

But I recognize that it was not always so, and make no assumption that future conditions might warrant more aggressive enforcement of the current law, which obviously requires no constitutional modification.

[clarice]

If you have any evidence of a failure of enforcement, share it..otherwise I assume you have stepped out on a rhetorical limb and are hanging on to a broken parasol to keep from falling on your behind.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

And when I ask about rape joke and making fun of rape victims, PLEASE do not bring up California Democrat Bill Lockyer joking about Ken Lay getting raped in prison, or any of the hundreds of Democrat mouthpieces like Carville and Stephanopoulous who used the "nuts and sluts" slander against the various women that Bill Clinton raped and harassed.

Those are off limits.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Just out of curiousity...

Mr. Maguire defends his lampooning of Obama as role model; if, after 4 years of an Obama administration we see matriculation/graduation rates for blacks increase in relation to the white portion of their cohort, would he admit to his error?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
If you have any evidence of a failure of enforcement
---

We have enforcement failures for all crimes; do you believe otherwise?

[Rick Ballard]

Only if they've come through the sewers of the Chicago Machine and own a piece of land purchased from a scumlord friend who then goes to the pen.

That would provide a strong enough correlation for an inference of causation to be accepted.

Extra points if they still have their first Red Diaper of course.

[clarice]

89, I feel certain that if the law or its enforcement in this area were inadequate we'd hear from the many people working in the vineyard to keep racial grievances alive and the wounds still bleeding.

[Barry]

if, after 4 years of an Obama administration we see matriculation/graduation rates for blacks increase in relation to the white portion of their cohort, would he admit to his error?

Apparently, if you believe that is possible, you are off your medication.

[JM Hanes]

89: If Tom is lampooning Obama as role model, the question of error is an irrelevance. Politically correct satire is a near contradiction in terms -- although inadvertant PC self-parody is all too common on the humorless left.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
nuts and sluts
---

Of course you know that this was used by David Brock to describe Anita Hill in 1992.

http://tinyurl.com/4h83fl

---
While these two sections were skewed, they were plausible interpretations of the written record. As is always the case with sexual harassment, there were weak spots in the story told by Hill and her witnesses, and I portrayed them as intentional lies. But I still had a problem that caused me to overreach. If Thomas was completely innocent, Anita Hill would have had to be insane to go on national television and tell a lie under oath. Grasping for an explanation of the inexplicable, doing everything I could to ruin Hill's credibility, I took a scattershot approach, dumping virtually every derogatory—and often contradictory—allegation I had collected on Hill from the Thomas camp into the mix. Hill was an ambitious incompetent passed over by Thomas for a promotion. She was "kooky." She was a man-hater. She had a "perverse desire for male attention." She had a "love-hate" complex with Thomas. She made "bizarre" sexual comments to students and coworkers. She sprinkled pubic hairs in her law students' term papers. She was, in my words, "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty."
---

[PeterUK]

"If you have any evidence of a failure of enforcement
---

We have enforcement failures for all crimes; do you believe otherwise?"

Answer the question,do you have evidence?

[clarice]

Dr Helen points us to a false rape allegation, suggesting the victim should be allowed to sue the liar who accused him.
http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2008/06/when-false-rape-allegations-ruin.html>Make liars pay
I think it's a fine idea. I'd like to see it expanded to cover false claims of racial discrimination which today carry the same level of opprobrium.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
self-parody is all too common
---

Presumably you are passing familiar with our own Mr. Bush, an ardent and accomplished practitioner of the same?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
Answer the question,do you have evidence?
---

How about illegal immigration?

[Jane]

Gawd is this a dumb conversation - time to ignore the loser.

[PeterUK]

"How about illegal immigration?"

Are you saying illegal immigrants are rapists?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
suggesting the victim should be allowed to sue the liar who accused him.
---

Don't we have defamation laws? Or are you claiming that they are under-enforced? ;-)

[Rick Ballard]

"How about illegal immigration?"

You're out on a teeny tiny wing - got a big prayer parachute?

Clearance rates for immigration offense are among the highest for any criminal offense - even using the phony estimates peddled by PEW regarding the number of illegal entries. Violent crime has the highest clearance rate at 44.3% while Immigration Enforcement actions run at about 66%.

You're sitting on your hat and taliking out of it at the same time.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
Clearance rates for immigration offense
---

Out of curiousity, do you have supporting data for that?

[Rick Ballard]

It exists and I know where it is - why don't you go fish for it for awhile and if you catch something, report back.

Take every bit of time you need with plenty of rest and breaks - maybe take someone along to interpret, too.

[BOATBUILDER]

OK--Tom snarks about the phoniness of the whole "Obama is our saviour" phenomenon, and he's "not really racist," but it's time for an inquiry into "when does race play a role in people's thinking that it shouldn't play?"
Apparently, the role that it shouldn't play in people's thinking is to wonder whether a candidate's race is being used as a means of getting people to ignore the substance of his positions and a club to silence any substantive criticism.
If you are an American, you have been thinking about race for most of your life. You know that the issues involved are hardly "black and white" (sorry) and that those who are not bigots are trying like hell to follow Dr. Kings admonition that we measure people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin (That's an approximate quotation--everybody calm down). And anyone who approaches the issue in good faith will acknowledge that asking whether race is playing a role that it shouldn't in someone's thinking is poisoning the waters.
(Which is why we have references to "Strange Fruit" on this thread and are arguing about rape).

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
t exists and I know where it is - why don't you go fish for it for awhile and if you catch something, report back.
---

If it's the same as the fbi data you posted, it's useless since it only tallies up 'Offenses Known'; the problem with that metric is the vast majority of illegal immigrants are *not* known.

Which rather proves my point about under-enforcement.

[Rick Ballard]

"Which rather proves my point about under-enforcement."

Hardly. Sophistry "proves" nothing except that the practitioner has the ability to try and bluff without so much as a pair of deuces. My time spent on dueling with idiots is used up for the evening. I believe I'll take Jane's advice.

[PeterUK]

The subject was race digit.

[clarice]

Charlie sent me this link to the incredible speech J.K. Rowling delivered at this year's Harvard commencement. It really is extraordinary.
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.05/99-rowlingspeech.html>Failure and Imagination

[Paul Zrimsek]

Hilzoy is giving passive aggression a bad name.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Thank you for not pressing me on the subject of the tons of Democrats (including Democrat now-favorite David Brock) making fun of rape victims, and making jokes about prison rape.

By not holding me account for my lies and half-truths, it makes it easier for me to build on them later.

And to think, you guys don't even get paid for this... suckers.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Germane to the topic at hand; JKRowling:

---
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.
---

[PeterUK]

Just for a change to Digit Boy,a little song,to the tune of Buffalo Girls, in a high whiny voice.

"I've got a song that'll get on your nerves,get on your nerves,get on your nerves.

I've got a song that'll get on your nerves,get,get ,get on your nerves."

One more time!

[Rick Ballard]

It sure is. McCain's support of the regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq of spared millions from the tyranny which Rowling described.

Then there's the community organizing influence peddler who opposed liberating those with their necks under the tyrants boots.

Tough choice.

[PeterUK]

Open Society Institute ? Your're the janitor Digit?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
It sure is. McCain's support of the regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq of spared millions from the tyranny which Rowling described.
---

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

http://tinyurl.com/2a654b

---
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Mr Maliki thanked Iran for its "positive and constructive" work in "providing security and fighting terrorism in Iraq".
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[PeterUK]

"According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Mr Maliki thanked Iran for its "positive and constructive" work in "providing security and fighting terrorism in Iraq".

It's called dip;omacy.

[clarice]

Maliki just beat the carp out of the mullah's butt boy Sadr and is now gobbling up his remaining men and weapons. He can afford to use some diplomatic words to downplay his victory.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

I see al-Bushi's Jedi mind-tricks are quite powerful among your people.

Better get that looked at, pronto; it could leave quite a welt.