I like it when Big Media Matt gets his dander up:
But for all that, I have to say that I am really truly deeply and personally pissed off my the tenor of a lot of the commentary on Sonia Sotomayor. The idea that any time a person with a Spanish last name is tapped for a job, his or her entire lifetime of accomplishments is going to be wiped out in a riptide of bitching and moaning about “identity politics” is not a fun concept for me to contemplated. Qualifications like time at Princeton, Yale Law, and on the Circuit Court that work well for guys with Italian names suddenly don’t work if you have a Spanish name. Heaven forbid someone were to decide that there ought to be at least one Hispanic columnist at a major American newspaper.
Somehow, when George W. Bush affects a Texas accent, that’s not identity politics. When John Edwards gets a VP nomination, that’s not identity politics. But Sonia Sotomayor! Oh my heavens!
This is where I usually attempt to say something clever, but I really don’t know what to say. I don’t understand the law or legal reasoning well enough to have a truly informed opinion about Sonia Sotomayor, and since so much of what they do at her level deals with technicalities and case law I just am not equipped to fully understand, I can really only base my judgments on her achievements as a person. What I see is someone who was the top student pretty much everywhere she went, and who then went on and served for years as a judge, racking up years of service and accomplishment. She’s done much more with her life than I probably ever will, and with a much harder path to success than I had. To then listen that she is somehow stupid or was just given what she earned because of her skin color just doesn’t make any damned sense to me at all. A couple years ago I looked at Sam Alito and John Roberts and saw the same thing- really bright people who had accomplished a lot, worked hard, and made something exceptional of themselves.
Maybe that is what is the basis of so many of the attacks the past 36 hours. She is better than Mike Huckabee, and she had the audacity to do it while having a vagina and an exotic last name.
MattF
An exotic last name that white people can’t pronounce… and shouldn’t.
kid bitzer
“Big Media Matt gets his dander up”
you mean yglesias the cuban ruben–that’s his hot latin blood acting up!
those people get so, so, passionate! ay caramba!
John Cole
@MattF: Did he really just write a long post whining about the fact that people get to decide how their own last names are pronounced?
How am I supposed to spoof these people?
smiley
I don’t remember that happening to Alberto Gonzales. Maybe it did and I just don’t remember. It was only after he proved to be a hack that the ridicule began. And not because of his ethnicity.
Just Some Fuckhead
Who cares what color Sotomayer is. Can we get a fucking protestant nominated? Six Catholics, two Jews and an Episcopalian (Catholic-lite) doesn’t look like the America I live in.
sgwhiteinfla
I think its the twofer thats driving wingnuts crazy.
Had she been just a white woman or just a hispanic man I don’t think you would have seen quite the level of freak out. But what you have is a woman who is also Latina and the result is DefCon1. Of course just recently we heard from conservatives that one of the important reasons gay marriage is wrong is because the men don’t get to
protectown a woman so you can’t be surprised at the sexism. And do we really need to revisit all of the racism involved with the naitivist movement with in the Republican Party? So you put the two together and you have heads exploding. If anything I am surprised that more than a few establishment GOOPers have been able to hold their powder and refrain from the vitriol. But I have a feeling that the wingnut base won’t stand for that too long. I believe whole heartedly that Rush et al will start calling out elected Republicans who aren’t singing along with his song either today or tomorrow. So the question becomes will the GOP finally find the courage to stand up to their wingnut base?Yes that was a rhetorical question, we all know better.
TR
She punctures the right’s assumptions about minorities only getting to the top by affirmative action, and they’re freaking out about it.
Their attacks speak to Sotomayor’s strengths, not her weaknesses. They’re trying to subvert her clear strengths in a Rovian way. She got the top prizes at Princeton and Yale by dint of her intelligence and leadership — the Pyne Prize goes to the student with the best record of scholarship *and* leadership, the Yale Law Journal editor’s chair is pulled out for the student who is extremely bright *and* capable of leading his or her colleagues — and so they’re running around complaining, all evidence to the contrary, that she is dumb as a ton of bricks *and* has a personality which won’t let her work well with others. She’s a brilliant leader, so make her out to be a dumb crank.
Once again: fuck you Jeffrey Rosen, you gossipy piece of shit. You’ve provided the ammunition to smear an accomplished and smart woman, and I hope you never fucking wipe the stench of this off yourself.
AhabTRuler
No, no it’s ok. He said that it wasn’t carping, it’s just part of the assimilationist dream (i.e., act white or we won’t listen)!
Mike S
Some nice comments over at Human Events:
Then there is this very sweet one from your friends at Redstate.
PeakVT
Can we get a fucking protestant nominated?
I see your Protestant and raise you an atheist (it’s the fastest growing identity, IIRC).
sgwhiteinfla
TR
Uhmmm didn’t you hear Pat Buchanan yesterday and this morning? He said Sotomayor IS an Affirmative Action pick.
The new attacks same as the old attacks from your GOP.
LarryB
No one on the left ever said Roberts or Alito were stupid, just that they were lying when they presented themselves as even-handed jurists.
4tehlulz
Moby Newt has surfaced and blew this out his hole:
Per TPM.
Punchy
I like Matt too, but that’s one damn shitty paragraph. Got words wrong, verb tenses all fucked up, etc.
Musta wrote that beeyotch with a purple face and hands atwitter….
BDeevDad
Why was it ok for Alito and Scalia to be proud of their Italian heritage but Sotomayor can’t be proud of her Latina background & experience?
I know, stupid question.
Zifnab
@smiley:
The Bush Admin was crowing about how they were breaking down barriers to Hispanic Americans with the Gonzales pick. They did the same thing when he was put on the Texas SC. And when he was made one of Bush’s lawyers.
Also, Colin Powell was a big deal for being the first black Secretary of State. There was a fair amount of anger by rich white America towards poor black America for voters who did not suddenly all convert to the GOP in response.
And Condi Rice – OMG, did they make a big deal about Condi Rice. She was
God’sBush’s gift to the nation and the definition of what a good conservative ethnic female was supposed to be.But Republicans don’t play identity politics.
Zifnab
@BDeevDad:
(R – Italian) != (D – Hispanic)
It’s really just a spelling issue.
kid bitzer
shorter newt:
if you ignore four centuries of racism and three gazillion years of sexism, then sotomayor is a race-o-sexist and it’s just the same!
totally, exactly the same! no takes back!
actually, a shorter newt would be substantially wider than it was tall.
jake 4 that 1
But in fRightyville, any ridicule of Gonzo and various other Bushites who varied from the general GOP demographic was of course all down to mean nasty racism and sexism (Google Boxer, Rice and Skin). Hell, when Foley Follies first broke they were screaming about the terrible homophobia exhibited by the LIEberuls.
Svensker
I love it that the GOP has this brilliant idea that they aren’t racist because they can say nasty things about non-whites but it’s OK because those things are True! Like Rush saying that McNabb was only getting praise and bucks because he was black — not racist, true! (Oh, wait….) And then they get to believe “liberals” are racist because liberals think people who act like Rush are idiots.
These people are making me tired…but better, now with high blood pressure!
gizmo
Pass the popcorn, please.
Mike S
Mike Allen at Politico
She doesn’t have kids. And if you want to know how much of a hack site Politico is, they have corrected that with no mention of the innitial mistake.
TenguPhule
Not exactly a shining example of your judgement skills, John.
John Cole
@Punchy: Not that I have any room to talk, but that is kind of a standard paragraph for him. At his old site, it was sort of a running joke with several of the commenters, who would get depressed that he would make it all the way through a post with no mistakes and then misspell the next to last word.
Face
I mean this in the nicest way, but wouldn’t this world be a better place 10 minutes after a massive, category-5 Newt Gringrich heart attack in the middle of nowhere all by himself handcuffed to a bedpost watching gay pr0n?
MattF
@John Cole
Why do we spoof them? It’s the business we’ve chosen.
Paul L.
Maybe progressives and the media (but I repeat myself) should stop touting a judge’s race and gender as qualifying points.
John Cole
@TenguPhule: You are going to deny they worked hard, achieved a lot, and made something of themselves? I’d say my judgment on that account is pretty solid.
TenguPhule
Ignorant, obsessed with buying expensive shit instead of doing her job and subservant to her “husband”.
Oh….
TenguPhule
That would depend on your definition of work and making something of themselves.
I won’t challenge achievements, they did achieve a lot, to the detriment of the justice system as a whole.
TenguPhule
Can we get some agnostics on first to water down the religious crazies there?
TenguPhule
Take two beers and call us in the morning.
one two seven
NPR this morning dug up some woman who went to Sotomayor’s high school who was complaining that Sonia got into the school because of affirmative action. Then she whined for what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably less than one, about how Sotomayor got to give the commencement speech because she won an audition when it should have gone to the person with the highest GPA who was – you guessed it – the woman they were interviewing.
NPR – fair & balanced news source that they are – then wrapped up the segment by saying with no hint of irony: “But (person’s name) has gotten over the commencement speech issue since then”. If I was drinking coffee I would have a very dirty dashboard right now.
Face
I now am convinced Paul moonlights as a farmhand, because nobody…just NOBODY….has access to that much straw to build that many strawmen.
Vincent
Which party’s president put O’Connor and Thomas on the Supreme Court again? I’m not saying they were affirmative actions picks, but it’s naive to believe ‘identity politics’ didn’t play a small role in the decision. And even if it did, so what? They’re both bright, accomplished judges (even if I think Thomas is way out of the mainstream in his ideology). So how can the GOP complain when Democrats do something similar?
Oh, I forget. IOKIYAR.
smiley
@Zifnab:
@jake 4 that 1:
Are you suggesting there’s a double standard? I find that hard to believe.
Stooleo
Via GOS. If your wondering what the next attack against Sotamayor will be, The RNC inadvertently released its talking points. heh indeedy.
MikeJ
Stooleo, Henley over at high clearing says the wingnuts are gonna go all Serpent and the Rainbow on her, claim she’s a crazy voodoo witch doctor. For reals.
grimc
@John Cole:
When in doubt, check with Sadly No.
I’d link it, but the comment system isn’t letting me do it. First post on the top of the page, entitled “The commie plot to sap and impurify all our precious English pronunciations”
Anne Laurie
To the fReichtards/Talibangelicals of the GOP (and therefore their courtiers the Media Village Idiots), authoritarian Opus-Dei Catholics are the new “model minorities”. Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas have proven that despite their exotic & untrustworthy cult’s superstitions (75 years ago the KKK was still burning crosses on my Irish Catholic cousins’ lawns), they can be just as bigoted & narrow-minded as Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell or John Boehner. Why, it’s almost as though they were
white peopleHeartland(tm) Americans!kay
I’m glad. Keep talking, jerks. I have no intention of letting them pivot to substance.
They wanted to make this about ethnicity and gender. Okay. Great. I’ll just sit back and watch.
Stooleo
Well sure, cause voodoo witch doctors are from Puerto Rico. Right?..
Llelldorin
@Punchy:
This fits my “sinister blogospheric accretion” theory that the left blogosphere, by playing off one another over the years, has developed a semi-standard “voice” that’s a mix of the best writing of its best players. That Yglesias post might as well have ended “Matt +5,” and the last line of John’s post was vintage Marcotte.
In a very cool way it’s partial immortality for Steve Gilliard. His voice is still used, by a hundred bloggers a thousand times a day.
over_educated
Hilarity incoming:
Sotomayor quoted a soci alist in her yearbook photo (which she is pretty fine looking in by the way).
Expect the volume to be turned up to 11.
Tax Analyst
“Krikorian”. Isn’t that pronounced “Jerk” in this context?
jake 4 that 1
@one two seven: Nothing says Mentally Stable like nursing a grudge about something that happened in high school for nearly four decades. I say hats off to NPR for putting this loon on the air.
Tax Analyst
Hey, Antonin Scalia resents that last remark. Sotomayor is nothing like him at all.
Tsulagi
You can’t. Apparently that brilliant NRO writer can’t grasp or learn how to pronounce her name (not that difficult, dipshit), and would be pissed off that anyone suggest he extend her that courtesy, yet no doubt has no qualms calling her not competent.
Damn I wish she were also Muslim. That would be popcorn gold.
schrodiger's cat
He is an anti-immigration absolutist, all his posts make one single points immigrants (skilled, unskilled, legal, illegal) are bad for the US. period.
Colette
@Stooleo:
You mean Latin America isn’t one big undifferentiated mass of brownness?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@John Cole:
You can’t. These jackasses have drowned satire in the bathtub.
My last name is only four letters long, yet people consistently trip over it because the trailing ‘e’ is not silent. I’m about as white as you get (Hill Country German), my family’s been here for 5 generations, and if Krikorian or any of these other jackasses can’t deal with it, it’s their problem, not mine.
schrodinger's cat
Not just in this context. He is an anti-immigration absolutist, all his posts make one single point immigrants (skilled, unskilled, legal, illegal) are bad for the US. period.
anonevent
@Vincent: Actually, GOS has a post about how Reagan picked O’Connor because she was a woman.
EEH
What the hell? That has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve read lately.
I grew up on the border in Arizona and can pronounce all those Spanish surnames just fine, there’s nothing unfamiliar or weird about them at all. I went to school with several Sotomayors, all pronounced their name the same way that Sonia does hers. I’m surprised that I can get unnaturally pronounced names like Tucson, Patagonia or Tumacacori past my lips.
omen
A couple years ago I looked at Sam Alito and John Roberts and saw the same thing- really bright people who had accomplished a lot, worked hard, and made something exceptional of themselves.
even broder recognized these two were bad news.
gex
@smiley: That’s just because the rules only ever apply to the Democratic party. Duh. IOKIYAR.
Joshua Norton
It’s obvious that the paunchy, pale male Republicans are just sensitive about all this because of our country’s long history of forcing white people to drink from different water fountains or having them sit in different sections of buses.
EEH
Now there’s a case of self-fullfilling prophesy if there ever was one.
gex
What I like is how the insane right has rigged the game. Anytime anyone other than a straight white Christian male is nominated, it is clearly affirmative action.
This behavior not only makes clear that:
1) The right truly believes that all brown people and women are inferior -(They couldn’t possibly be qualified!)
and
2) This behavior shows that affirmative action is still very much in need.
superking
i’m new around here and read Yglesias occasionally at best. Why do you call him Big Media Matt?
Aspasia
Why don’t liberals ever point out that if gender and ethnicity affect, say, judicial decision-making, this is as true of white males as it is of anyone else? This is of course why conservatives want white males running everything–they legislate and rule in favor of their gender and ethnicity. I get so tired of the assumption that everyone’s identity is marked “different”–except that of white males, who are somehow unmarked, and thus “the norm.” Meh.
slag
@superking: Yglesias used to write at the Atlantic. Now he’s Big Think Tank Matt over at CAP.
MikeJ
That nickname goes back six or seven blogs ago. He was one of the first in the liberal blogosphere to actually get paid by a media outlet.
Tony J
Or maybe it’s because she’s Obama’s first pick for the Supreme Court, and apart her being Hispanic, female, and not the pick of a Republican President (in which case those would be obvious plus points) she’s basically a politically middle-of-the-road choice, if a very, very smart and capable one.
So if they don’t turn the BS cannon up to eleventy right now, and blast away from first sight of enemy sail, they can’t respond to Obama’s next pick by claiming, regardless of who they are, that it’s simply outrageous that Obama would ask them to confirm yet another under-qualified crank. He’s spent his electoral capital already, this time they’ll really fight back, etc, etc.
It’s just a variation on Obama being the most liberal senator since Kerry, because some wingnut pseudo-academic ‘study’ said he was. Drawing a line in the sand and saying “See? That’s a line. Lines are scary.” Except they’re really not. They’re just lines.
Legalize
This is certainly way off topic, but the surrogate slap-fight between Frum and Mark Levin going on at Teh Riehl Wurld is comedy gold worth observing and even trolling.
Jay C
So then “Krikorian” must be an Algonquin Indian surname meaning “sunshine in the nether regions” or something, and its similarity to Armenian usage just a coincidence?
Maroon.
omen
An exotic last name that white people can’t pronounce… and shouldn’t.
it’s not that hard.
click play for audio:
http://www.slate.com/id/2219047?nav=wp
oy, just read the national review column that was referenced. who the hell are they to dictate how to pronounce her name? bunch of WATB insisting on having everything their way. this is the same instinct that drove the republican lawmaker to suggest asians change their name to something americans could pronounce. what century are these people living in?
TenguPhule
Luckily for us all, they’re shooting at a 90 degree angle.
smiley
@schrodiger’s cat:
Fixed. There were bunches of Kirkorians at St. Augustine, Jamestown, and on the Mayflower, don’t you know.
Tax Analyst
Cool, I’ve always thought crazy voodoo witch doctors were under-represented in our judiciary system. Dissenting opinions may include putting curses on those holding the with the majority position.
I think we should all welcome what this increased diversity will do for the Supreme Court’s give-and-take case discussions. Maybe she’ll turn Scalia into a frog or something.
gex
@EEH: What’s funny is that, for many languages, simply knowing the letter tells you how to pronounce it. Spanish is one of those languages. A *tiny* bit of knowledge and *boom* you know all you need to know about pronouncing Spanish words and names.
Which, of course, is why this jerk can’t be bothered. Who needs to know anything? Knowing things is for elitist crypto-Islamo-fascist-soc!alist-bulldykes.
omen
@MikeJ:
Henley over at high clearing says the wingnuts are gonna go all Serpent and the Rainbow on her, claim she’s a crazy voodoo witch doctor
about time. we need somebody to put a hex on clarence thomas that’ll make him go crazy and drive him off the bench.
AhabTRuler
Haven’t amphibians suffered enough?
Mnemosyne
@schrodiger’s cat:
Too bad his Armenian ancestors didn’t feel the same way and stay home in Eastern Europe where they belonged. Also too bad that he’s unwilling to do the right thing and return to his home country like he thinks immigrants should all do. Wait, let me guess — it’s only the immigrants who arrived here after him that are a problem, right?
Not to mention that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, dumbfuck, and has been since 1908. Sotomayor has a much stronger right to be here since her family has been citizens for several generations than your immigrant ass does.
jake 4 that 1
@Aspasia: That would be racist and oppressive and not fair at all.
Bill E Pilgrim
Don’t you understand? She’s going to enslave us and take away our rights, and now she’s coming after the way we SPEAK for Pete’s sake!
It’s all part of her whole liberal-fascist-commie-rightist-leftist agenda!
Excuse me, my keyboard is now out of hyphens so I have to go reload.
Comrade Darkness
Maybe progressives and the media (but I repeat myself) should stop touting a judge’s race and gender as qualifying points
Shorter Paul L: representative democracy should go Vaffanculo itself.
These guys are scared shitless that there may suddenly be more than one valid point of view (Manly White Male) and boy are they fighting tooth and nail to demonize anyone who so much as suggests otherwise. Last gasp syndrome.
eric
Liberals can’t stand the fact that there affirmative action harlots like “Maria” only succeed because some other tree hugger (in this case B. Hussein Obama) wants to see the white man “put in his place” for succeeding throught out history while other places (see still primitive Africa) can only aspire to our greatness. A greatness brought about by Founders that succeeded becuase of merit not simply because they were white.
/eric
schrodinger's cat
More enlightened opinions from Krikorian, his website and blog
Roger Moore
@Stooleo:
Those are some primo talking points. I like how points 2 and 3 are about how they going to wait until all the facts are in before they trash her, and then start trashing her in point 4. Cognitive dissonance, thy name is wingnut.
@Tax Analyst:
Sadly No! is suggesting that it should be pronounced “Crackwhoreian”. What a great suggestion.
Bill E Pilgrim
@one two seven:
Ah, but the Nice Polite Republicans hadn’t gotten over it. Clearly.
“Over Machu Picchu?”
“No, I don’t think I’ll ever be over Machu Picchu”
I love how they mine those nuggets to find any small glittery object that will fulfill the obligation to always tell both sides of the story. Remember, in any situation, the far right position, no matter how fringe, gets exactly half.
mingo
hey, EEH, so did I (grow up on the AZ/Mexico border), and I can pronounce things like Nogales, Ajo, Baboquivari and Chiricahua just fine (as you, and probably most others here can, too). It doesn’t take a huge intellectual effort, and I cannot see why it is such a burden for these idiots.
Sadlies have decided that this bozo’s name is pronounced “Crackwhoreian”, which seems about right to me.
Tony J
So not only poorly documented illegal immigrants looking to sponge off the resources of the average American, but anti-Establishment radical fundamentalist killers to boot?
I think it would be irresponsible not to speculate on what kind of extremist mentality you could hypothetically expect to emerge from that kind of heritage, if you really wanted to, or there was maybe some money in it?
kay
@Paul L.:
No, Paul. That’s not true.
Conservatives and the media are touting her ethnicity and gender, as proof that she’s not qualified.
This isn’t hard. There’s a list of accomplishments. Years racked up on the bench, as a prosecutor, as a lawyer. Honors. Prestigious schools. The regular measures.
Compare. Put up Alito and Roberts and we’ll put up Sotomayor. We can put this to rest in 15 minutes.
I want to know what measure you’re relying on to determine that she’s unqualified. There better be one, or you’re exposed as knee jerk bigots.
mingo
kay –
Paul L is relying on the fact that this one guy totally heard some other guys saying what a dumb bitch she was. The this guy wrote about it in a totally “liberal” magazine, so QED, bitches!
Roger Moore
@Bill E Pilgrim:
That’s “Macho Grande”. Check your quote, damnit!
Comrade Darkness
@kay: Compare. Put up Alito and Roberts and we’ll put up Sotomayor. We can put this to rest in 15 minutes.
I’ve noticed with much amusement that NO ONE, right or left, bothers to hold up Thomas as some kind of metric of qualifications.
Two years on the bench at nomination time, baby! His qualification of interest was wingnut, period. And cognitive dissonance seems to be taking its toll on the man: hasn’t asked a question since 2006.
Martin
So, the court is 89% Christian and 11% Jewish. Don’t be bringing your interfaction issues here. Jesus is held in high enough regard on the court. At a minimum we’re due one atheist, closing in on two, and a Muslim at the outside. Not to mention one should be gay, one in foreclosure, one should be on the court and yet out of a job, and three should be under 18.
Jager
This pick is a huge problem for Republicans if my wife’s workplace is any indication. Her assistant, a 22 year old Latina, was so excited she couldn’t concentrate all day same with the 3 other Latinas in the office. Mrs Jager said the big test was going to be her friend Jesus, the warehouse manager…late sixties, ultra conservative Catholic, a really buttoned up, religious guy. Old Jesus had tears in his eyes when he and my wife talked together about the pick at lunch…he has voted Republican for years and he loves that a Latina will be on the court.
If they rough her up or get the least bit racist, they lose Jesus and millions like him for ever!
Notorious P.A.T.
Thank you. There’s more atheists in America than Episcopalians. We’re coming for you next, Unitarians!
Bill E Pilgrim
@kay:
It’s not that long ago that we went through this in the election. Barack Obama, editor of the Harvard Law Review, Harvard graduate, Columbia graduate, successful practicing attorney, outstanding law professor at a prestigious university, Senator for Illinois, then United States Senator —– was “a community organizer” and nothing more, a gig he had in his early 20s just out of the undergraduate program.
Nothing less than admirable that he did, but Sarah Palin et al reduced his entire set of accomplishments to only that. And people bought it.
Not enough of them, of course, but my point is that this is all entirely predictable.
Tony J
Have you tried firing a cannon while wearing two ribbed plastic suppositories, a pair of wetsuits, and a period-accurate recreation of the uniform Bobby Lee wore at Appomatox?
It’s not as easy as you think.
Still, the fact that what they’re actually doing is firing off flares to get the attention of the crew of the USS Liberal Media, which is already sinking, by the way, and incapable of coming to their aid or influencing the battle beyond reach of its own, badly handled, guns, makes it kind of fun to watch.
Martin
Hey, when I’m sitting in a meeting and don’t know what the fuck is going on, not asking questions is my first strategy. It’s hard for people to think you’re an idiot if you don’t say anything.
Adrienne
@omen: These people are idiots. In Wingnutterworld, she has an individual right to own an automatic streep sweeper Uzi, but she does NOT own the individual right to her own last fuckin name.
I tried to come up with something, but these people are un-spoofable. Seriously, I got nothing. Everytime I think I have something, they jump in with something crazier and Mock-Block my efforts.
Ramalamadingdong
I liked a letter from one of Andrew’s readers that describes what happens when sports teams of different races compete:
Just replace black with Hispanic.
Martin
Actually, we should be supporting the UUs. Atheists are terrible at forming committees, and we could make good use of the UUers.
(My wife is a UU, and yes, she heads up a committee…)
Adrienne
Dude, when you always copy the answers from your buddy Scalia on the exam, you don’t need to ask questions in class now do you? Ha.
Martin
Or diet, apparently (courtesy of TPM):
Tax Analyst
I like it. Alternate suggestion: “Crapholean”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Roger Moore:
Oh excuse me.
That must be why I’m always getting those looks in Starbucks when I order a “Picchu Latte”.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Martin:
The pastor of our local Unitarian church is an atheist. (And gay, too- not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
gex
I like Krikorian’s (pronounced “dik-wahdz”) idea. Let’s apply this to Boehner, shall we? Now remember, regular old murkin pronunciations only.
Tax Analyst
I don’t know, have they?
Wasn’t there a rumor that young Dubyah once sodomized a frog with a firecracker and then lit him up as a demonstration of his patriotism?
If there wasn’t I’d like to start one now.
Adrienne
Or even her first name, courtesy of Mike Huckabee who called her “Maria” yesterday. For some reason, that pissed me off nearly as much as them deriding and dismissing her accomplishments by implying that she’s dumb. It just really overcooks my grits.
Ash Can
@Martin:
Any day now, The Onion is going to run an edition with nothing on its front page but its name, the date, and a big white flag.
EEH
@mingo:
Yeah, I can pronounce them just fine, especially Nogales because that’s where I grew up.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Jager:
I think “that ship has sailed” would be the five-masted square rigger of understatements at this point.
Notorious P.A.T.
That’s great )
Here’s how I see it: Even if we could find a middle-class white guy who knew all about what it means to be a woman or Hispanic in America, don’t those communities desserve to have someone like them on the Court? Otherwise we’re telling them they have to pay taxes to support it, and live according to its rulings, but have no representation on it. The American colonists in 1776 wouldn’t stand for that; why should anyone else?
Notorious P.A.T.
You just blew my mind.
Author’s Note: I have nothing against Unitarians. I was just grasping for the next-highest denomination after Episcopalians for my little joke.
Comrade Darkness
@Martin: …suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo—pigs’ tongue and ears—would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench.
Oh come on, the Muslims are all cringing at that. That must count for something these Old Boys.
Hob
People who are worried about having another Catholic on the court: yeah, it’s a little weird demographically, but I don’t think counting denominations is of much use. American Catholics are not all one thing, any more than Protestants are. If Sotomayor is anything like the kind of hyper-conservative, “down with Vatican II” reactionary that Scalia and Alito are, or even the devoutly observant and doctrinaire kind that Roberts and Thomas are, she’s hidden it awfully well; the reports I’ve read so far say she only goes to church for family occasions, and she’s divorced.
Also, any liberals who are at all interested in having some Hispanic representation on the court [cue Paul L. yelling that that’s all we’re interested in] should know that in the U.S., Hispanic and Protestant generally means Pentecostal.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Yeah, I had the same reaction. It seems like the pastor of a church – any church – oughta at the bare minimum believe in a sky god or two. Otherwise, what is the fucking point of calling it a church? It may as well be a reading circle.
MNPundit
Haha, he’s angry but he’s culturally as white as I am.
Suck it down Matt Churches!
Says the guy with a FUCKING WEIRD SPANISH LAST NAME.
Comrade Darkness
Personally, I predict her diverse experiences outside of race to be more meaningful: that of growing up with a single mother in the projects in the bronx, and living with a chronic, (and currently epidemic) illness that requires regular monitoring from health professionals.
Comrade Darkness
@Just Some Fuckhead, We spent a brief stint in our town at the local UU. Same thing. The newly hired pastor was suspected of (gasp) actually believing in God. Having grown up catholic I found this revelatory to say the least.
That particular UU church exists (and this is just my take) for people with families but no strong religious bent a place to give their kids the structure and community they had within a religious institution when they were growing up, but absent the religion part. Take your average church community, switch the CCD for classes on civics and social well adjustedness, throw in some secular songs and a lecture on being a good human being from the pastor, and you have UU.
It was too much like church for me, so we never joined.
Martin
Pretty common, actually. My wife’s church is sort of an even split of atheist, massively watered down Christian, and pagan.
Well, it’s a community of people with similar attitudes that are supportive of each other. Other than the sky-god thing, it sounds just like a church to me. They have a hymnal, they sing, etc. They do all the major holidays, perform weddings and funerals. The pastor and church reaches out to people that have had tragedies, lost jobs, etc. Just because you don’t believe in fairies doesn’t mean you don’t desire the same kind of community safety nets that everyone else has.
Martin
My wife’s church has a nice religious education component for kids. It’s basically a survey of all major religions and where everyone is coming from, in addition to the civics, etc.
Adrienne
@Martin: I agree. I’ll have to look into this UU thing. Nothing at all wrong with seeking out a community where you can be comfortable and where people genuinely care about you and your well being.
omen
@Comrade Darkness:
Personally, I predict her diverse experiences outside of race to be more meaningful: that of growing up with a single mother in the projects in the bronx, and living with a chronic, (and currently epidemic) illness that requires regular monitoring from health professionals.
another sign that signals change:
her mom was a nurse at a methadone clinic.
http://jusiper.blogspot.com/2009/05/sonias-mom.html
omen
@Jager:
it is so nice to have a role model based on intellect as opposed to some movie star. when is the last time that’s happened?
Anne Laurie
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Yeah, well, Ben Franklin warned us about you ignorant Germans swarming all over Heartland America(tm), refusing to learn English or even pronounce your immigrant-alien names correctly…
Jager
Just talked to Mrs Jager…one of the lovely, smart Latinas* apparently watched some Fox News last night and she was pissed…she told the the ware house manager and he was heard to mutter, “chinga tu madre” in reference to Hannity!
These dickheads have sunk their ship at the dock, as the Hispanic community is just becoming aware of the shit being slung.
Has anyone watched Univison or Telemundo, what is their take?
*The wife’s assistant looks like a young Selma Hayek, even Mrs Jager thinks she’s hot!
Robert Schumacher
@Comrade Darkness
That line about Thomas not asking a question since 2006…brilliant. I’ve been wondering for a while if he’s even still alive…or if they just forgot he was there…