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May 28, 2009

Comments

Truism watch:

"I don't expect better from Limbaugh..."

An obvious phrase, and oddly not said that often.

The Time quote as given appears to be a combination of extreme ignorance and inexcusable stupidity. But let's edit it a bit:

It is perhaps the most potent symbol yet of a 21st century rapprochement between the U.S.'s two largest minorities, Latino Americans and African Americans, who in recent decades could be as distrustful of each other as blacks and whites were."

I expect that's what was meant, and now it's simply the usual pundit idiocy of reducing Obama and Sotomayor to racial symbols.

If ever a civil rights movement was needed in America, it is for the Republican Party. - Rush Limbaugh

Notice the words "ever...in America"

So apparently the Republican Party is suffering worse injustice right now than any other minority in American history.

Also, notice the word "if", which suggests that perhaps the civil rights movement of the 60s was, in fact, not needed.

Interesting perspective. Someone remind me: why is it that minorities arent flocking to the Republican Party?

"It is afraid of the firehouses and the dogs, it's compliant."

Setting aside the rampant insanity of Limbaugh's racist rabble-rousing, I do wonder how many people are actually afraid of firehouses.

Maybe the writer at Time heard that MSNBC is the new "liberal media", and got everything they needed to know about race relations in America from staying up late watching episodes of Lockdown.

If you consider the violence between Latino and AA gangs, which have involved murder, it's not completely outlandish. Though, admittedly, there have been far fewer victims and the root cause of gang violence is usually illicit money.

what i like about Limbaugh's quote is that you can find similar sentiments on any lefty blog when the subject turns to Harry Reid; but it takes a special kind of ignorant, self-righteous, jackass to attempt to mix plain-ol frustration at party leadership in times of electoral troubles with America's shameful legacy of racial oppression. if ever there were two immiscible topics...

but, of course Limbaugh needs to be the victim. without victimhood, he's got nothing. so he's reduced to trying to steal other people's.

but, of course Limbaugh needs to be the victim. without victimhood, he's got nothing.

Exactly right.

I do wonder how many people are actually afraid of firehouses.

Well, for some reason I now shudder when walking by a firehouse here in New Haven.

Why are we even discussing Limbaugh. IIRC, just last year many of the more conservative commenters here were very quick to point out that he is just an entertainer and has no real influence in the Republican Party.

Gary,
Against my better judgment, I followed the link trail and listened to the segment. It's a transcription error. Rush said 'fire hoses' not 'firehouses'. Carry on.

gary farber: "firehouses" was a transcription error. If you listen to Rush he said "firehoses".

always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information. Leave it to the right to do that.

"always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information making a snarky joke in a single comment on a blog."

I only hope this factchecking was quick enough to stop Mr. Farber, as he was just about to ring up MSNBC and accuse Limbaugh of, er, badmouthing firehouses. Or if not Limbaugh, the transcriptionist at TAPPED. Or possibly hilzoy. It's not really clear from the comment. Regardless, we should leave it to the right to point out obvious transcription errors without assigning specific blame. Let's not stoop to their level of spelling pedantry.

I expect that's what was meant, and now it's simply the usual pundit idiocy of reducing Obama and Sotomayor to racial symbols.

The editing makes the passage better...but it still betrays a fundamental ignorance. For one thing, the vast power difference between blacks and whites is a difference of a kind AND degree than between blacks and Hispanics. One is the power structure vs the have-nots and the other is the have-nots squabbling with each other.

Nativist majorities always propagandize themselves as oppressed minorities victimized by those who are different than themselves.

True, Limbaugh is an entertainer.

Mussolini was a clown.

Hitler was a painter.

It seems their followers quietly buy up most of the ammo before liberals, Jews, blacks and Hispanics can find their way to the gun shop.

Each time Limbaugh opens his mouth in this fashion (Beck and Rick Perry, too), the Federal government needs to deploy some dogs and firehoses and the IRS and maybe some vigilante action, too, just to feed their victimhood and flush out their ultimate motivations.

It would be interesting to see if ANY of these demagogues have the courage to do more than just shoot their mouths off.

But back to entertainment: it's amazing how much money can be made off of low-I.Q. dumb-sh-ts in this great country of ours.

It's as if the contemporary Republican Party placed a picture of the Bell Curve on the bedroom walls of each individual in the Limbaugh/Palin/Pence Republican base with a happy face at roughly 68 on the curve ---- the sweet spot.

It's about that level of intelligence that succumbs to hating the elite.

"always best to verify sources (especially readily accessible ones) before spreading false information making a snarky joke in a single comment on a blog."

It is best to be aware of all internet traditions. In this case: DNFTD (Do Not Feed The Droll)

"gary farber: 'firehouses' was a transcription error."

Well, of course it was.

It wouldn't have been very funny to have bothered to point out the obvious, though.

LMAO! Rush is so funny! LOLz!

Coates might also have mentioned the 1921 Greenwood riot in Tulsa.

There's no shortage of evidence to support his point without it, of course, but this was perhaps the worst race riot in US history, and it was largely forgotten, deliberately, until recently. It destroyed a prosperous black community, left hundreds dead, and burned most houses in the neighborhood.

When something like that happens to a group of Republicans, let me know.

"It wouldn't have been very funny to have bothered to point out the obvious, though."

Gary does Emily Litella impressions. Who knew?

"Never mind."

I just bought season 1 of SNL -- Amazon had a sale. I am so looking forward to seeing once again that there is no pizza in Sweden.

Off-topic, but if anyone has read Dennis Lehane's recent The Given Day, I'm curious whether you think that the Greenwood riot Bernard links to a description of is intended to be an ominously looming event or not. I admit I have no idea, but its past and present obscurity at the national level is certainly an ironic contrast to the then prominence of the much less violent Boston police strike riots.

A very interesting take on lynching, in the U.S.:

-----------------------------------------
Human sacrifice to a vengeful deity conjures savage and exotic images that distance us from the practices they represent as being strangely inhuman. Just as savage but sadly less exotic are images of lynched African Americans in the Southern United States. The word, "lynched," rips from reluctant memories shame, guilt and anger at white atrocities. The stark reality behind the word is an historical presence that haunts heedless patriotic celebration and belies professions of national innocence; its condensation of white peoples' fury and black peoples' anguish is as intensely malevolent as human sacrifice. The reality suffuses recent work by scholars who have turned their imaginations to explaining it as something other than calculated terror in service to the powerful. Recent publication of essays edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage in Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South joins his previous work and that of Stewart E. Tolnay and E. M. Beck together with earlier books by Jacquelyn Hall and Joel R. Williamson to prepare a solid base upon which to fashion an understanding of lynching in the American South.1 Since the early eighties, scores of scholars have turned their attention to specific, dramatic incidents of violence,2 or to patterns within geographical areas or in relation to associated issues such as gender.3 The achievements have been impressive; but few have noticed what a few African Americans such as Gwendolyn Brooks understood when she observed that "the loveliest lynchee was our Lord."4 Few have wondered why it made sense to imagine a lynched black man as Christ upon the Cross,5 that is, to imagine lynching as a human sacrifice. Yet it is just this compound of sacrifice, crucifixion, and death and its association with the predominate religion of the lynching-South that begs discussion.

More:

The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice

"It would be interesting to see if ANY of these demagogues have the courage to do more than just shoot their mouths off."

Rush would step right up, of course, but regrettably he has a painful cyst on his hind end.

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