Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

I was promised a recession.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Republicans in disarray!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Things That Upset Wingnuts, Pearl Harbor Edition

Things That Upset Wingnuts, Pearl Harbor Edition

by | 138 Comments

This post is in: ,

You can’t make this shit up:

Apparently Asia = Japan. There are so many things to love about this, starting with the fact that someone is actually spending their time rummaging through school website to find out what Obama’s kids are having for lunch, the conflation of Asia with Japan, the notion that what a school serves is somehow a reflection on Obama, and so on.

BTW- The menu sounds delicious, btw.

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Jeeze, that’s funny. I’m going out for Japanese tonight, and when I discussed this week’s venue with my regular Wednesday night dinner companions last week, I said it was appropriate for Pearl Harbor Day.

    Next week is sushi week, btw. We do sushi every second Wednesday of the month. Last week was authentic Neapolitan pizza. Yum!

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    I also noted the Sozul est French Fries and French Onion Soup.

    What a bunch of dopes with a desperate need to indulge in molehill mountainizing.

  6. 6.

    azlib

    These people have a seriously flawed view of history. Ask the Chinese or the Koreans (which last I heard were in Asia) about WW II and their experience.

  9. 9.

    KG

    Ok, someone explain this to me like I’m a five year old… How is serving Asian (or even specifically Japanese food) on December 7, 2011 wrong? Should we not eat French food on St Crispin’s Day? No Mexican food on April 25? No German beer on July 28?

  10. 10.

    DougJ

    Food fights are the dumbest. We had something around here where the head of dining services (who was African-American and from the south) served collard greens and barbecue for MLK day and that was decried as offensive.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @azlib:

    They have a seriously flawed view of everything. It’s like a requirement to be initiated into the club…they need to score below 200 on their combined SAT to get in.

  16. 16.

    Jewish Steel

    A wingnut student asked me yesterday, “Can you tell me why there’s no Pearl Harbor Day on calendars anymore?” He pulled this shit last year. There is on mine. “Yeah there’s a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on mine but…” Here I was going to ask him what he was really saying, but he changed the subject.

    What was all that about?

  17. 17.

    Satanicpanic

    Just for that I plan on eating at Wienerschnitzel on the anniversary of DDay. Anything to piss off the wingnuts!

  19. 19.

    4tehlulz

    BTW, I just noticed they are serving Cobb salad. Why are they serving a food named after a racist?

  21. 21.

    The Other Bob

    Considering the right started an f’n war against brown Muslims in Iraq because brown Muslims from elsewhere attacked us on 9/11, it isn’t much of a reach for them to consider Chinese people the same as Japanese. Those gawd darn gawdless Orientals are all the same ya’ know.

    Here is the menu- looks pretty Chinese to me.

    MS/US

    Asian Mushroom Soup
    Oriental Noodle Salad
    Classic Spinach Salad
    Teriyaki Marinated Chicken Strips
    Szechuan Tofu & Veggies
    Garlic Roasted Edamame
    Vegetable Fried Rice
    Fortune Cookies

  22. 22.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    It must take a dreadful amount of energy to remain so angry and so hateful all of the time. I can stand approximately 60 seconds of Limbaugh, Savage, et al., before I have had my fill of hearing what “the other side” thinks. The people spending time exploring what Sidwell Friends School students have for lunch remind me of the raging talking heads I mentioned above; they must be frothing with venom.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JWL:

    You are mistaken, good sir. It was not over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

    Other food faux pas:

    French food on July 14th.

    German or Italian food on December 11th.

    No English food on November 5th.

    No Russian food on November 7th.

    No Persian food on November 4th.

    Hell, no food for the entire month of November but turkey.

  26. 26.

    Xenos

    Teriyaki chickenhawk strips? Sounds a bit tough, anyway.

    At least Mitsubishi did not launch their “Mitsubishi, Zero Down!” promotion on December 7.

  28. 28.

    The Moar You Know

    Take a trip to China, or Korea, or Vietnam, or Burma, and let the people there know that they’re the same people as the Japanese.

    When and if you recover from the beating, let the righties know how it went.

  29. 29.

    GregB

    Sounds like the 101st Keyboard Division is about to launch a sneak attack on the Sidwell Schools countertops.

  30. 30.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    So I was at the 7-11 and I was all gonna get the Tim’s Cascade Wasabi potato chips, but then I was all, skroo that, it’s Pearl Harbor Day. So for all those who perished, these Tim’s Dill Pickle chips are for you, ’cause I gotta do what’s only right.

  34. 34.

    Quarks

    Ok, this is the wrong reaction, but that menu is SO MUCH better than what I got stuck with in junior high. Or for that matter, my lunch today.

    On a more relevant reaction, perhaps we need to explain to the “media” again what news is.

  36. 36.

    Brian R.

    It must be horrible to be a conservative, when every single occurrence in the world, no matter how mundane, appears to be an outrageous sin of liberalism.

    How do these people drive to work? “Is that a rainbow in the sky? I knew the atmosphere was secretly pro-gay rights. That’s why we need to destroy the ozone layer! What’s up with that car’s blinker? Probably one of those energy-efficient light bulbs that are a communist plot to corrupt our eyesight. Oh, a bus stop? Lah-dee-dah, look at the freeloaders soaking up my precious taxes. And, look, LOOK! That stop sign is red! What’s that supposed to mean? ‘Red state values need to be stopped’?! Oh, and here comes a jack-booted policeman, probably going to tell me that this accident is somehow my fault. OPPRESSION! OPPRESSION!”

  39. 39.

    Emma

    Yeah because sliders, Cobb Salad, Sezchuan tofu and vegetable fried rice sound SOOOOOO Japanese.

  41. 41.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    Meh. Come on, wingnuttia. I can’t get my outrage on unless this lunch was served by a muppet Kwanza Claus on trays containing sayings from Mao’s Little Red Book.

  45. 45.

    Downpuppy

    The point of demanding unconditional surrender was so that when the war ended, it would end permanently.

    Which is something that has to work both ways. No collective punishment, no spoils, let it go.

    Surely wingnuts can find unlimited outlets for victimhood & resentment without messing up something that was closed, to everyone’s vast relief & benefit, 66 years ago?

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Oh, this is hilarious.

    Google ad for the thread is for rivets. I guess “wingnuts” triggers “advertise hardware here!”

  47. 47.

    The Moar You Know

    Almost as much time has passed since Pearl Harbor as had passed between the ending of the Civil War and December 7, 1941.

    Are there no jobs left for stupid, trivia-obsessed people anymore save that of “pundit”?

  55. 55.

    MikeJ

    @Quarks:

    Ok, this is the wrong reaction, but that menu is SO MUCH better than what I got stuck with in junior high. Or for that matter, my lunch today.

    If your school cost $32,000 per year you expect decent food.

  58. 58.

    beltane

    I guess eating pita bread during the month of September is a no-no. With their obsession with bizarre dietary restrictions, the wingnut may as well start their own religion.

    Anyway, we all know that RealAmercian children should live on a diet of nothing but chicken nuggets and tater tots. Anything else will turn them into JapaneseKenyanMuslimSocal*stHomosexuals.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @Downpuppy: “Which is something that has to work both ways.”

    Nope, sorry. Unconditional means no conditions, we can do whatever we like to punish you. And we did! MacArthur governed them during the occupation.

    I agree that it would probably work best if it went both ways, but that is just the Lincoln talking (Wounds heal better with honey than vinegar. Binding up the nations wounds. Some quote from Shakespeare, I think from Taming of the Shrew, about the gentlest master is the soonest winner.)

  60. 60.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Folks, this is Malkin we’re talking about here. You know, the same woman who brought us the Rachel Ray Scarf of Terrorism?

  63. 63.

    estamm

    Well, I think Teriyaki is Japanese. Even so, geez, it has been 70 years. This is absurd even by wingnut standards.

  64. 64.

    RossinDetroit

    The New York Times is a newspaper. Paper was invented by the Chinese.

    If New York loves China so much why don’t they get married?!

    /wingnut

  66. 66.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    You think they’re up in arms now, wait till the wingers find out that all meals served at Sidwell Friends School are certified halal!

  67. 67.

    catclub

    @beltane: It would be funny if the wingnut ‘thought leaders’ tried to convince their followers not to eat mexican food or pizza. The fact that they do not may be evidence of intelligence.

    Could God convince a People not to eat Lobster? Tough call.

  68. 68.

    RossinDetroit

    @beltane:

    chicken nuggets

    Domesticated chickens are descended from Asian jungle fowl.
    How can you hate America so much and still live with yourself?

  70. 70.

    scav

    @Brian R.: THe SatNav is telling me to turn LEFT! Socialist Indoctrination has infiltrated American CARS! A stop light is a hat-trick: Communism, the Yellow Peril and Environmentalism. Indeed, no wonder they’ve gone Galt: the roadway is littered with subtle menace.

  71. 71.

    beltane

    @RossinDetroit: And the printing press was invented by a German (Nazi). The letters themselves were invented by the ancient brown peoples of the Mediterranean. This means that in order to remain pure, wingnuts should cease writing altogether until they invent their own special alphabet.

  73. 73.

    Mike in NC

    At least Mitsubishi did not launch their “Mitsubishi, Zero Down!” promotion on December 7.

    Back in the 1970s there was a best-selling book about Madison Avenue called “From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front Line Dispatches From The Advertising War”.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @beltane:

    I guess eating pita bread during the month of September is a no-no.

    Wasn’t there a 1950s pop song about A Town Without Pita?

  75. 75.

    Steve Vogel

    There’s no evidence here that anyone has conflated Japan with Asia, nor that anyone has proposed “the notion that what a school serves is somehow a reflection on Obama.” So what is everyone responding to here?

  76. 76.

    Napoleon

    @Mike in NC:

    I recall in the 70s and early 80s seeing bumperstickers on American cars (I grew up in a steel town that had a large GM plant that is still in operation) that said “Mitsubishi, from the people who brought you Pearl Harbor”.

  77. 77.

    fasteddie9318

    This leads me to a thought: since one of the core animating principles of wingnuts is doing whatever they think will piss off liberals, yet they themselves are so fucking easily offended, why not do some simple, easy things that generate howls of wingnut outrage, just because? It’s not productive, but neither is anything else these days, and at least this idea has a high entertainment-to-effort ratio.

  78. 78.

    RossinDetroit

    @Napoleon:

    I recall in the 70s and early 80s seeing bumperstickers on American cars (I grew up in a steel town that had a large GM plant that is still in operation) that said “Mitsubishi, from the people who brought you Pearl Harbor”.

    I don’t know if you’re talking about NC but one of the first things I noticed* there was how many Mitsus were on the road. They’re scarce in MI but seemed common in Charlotte.

    *The first thing was sweet tea. Second: black widow spiders.

  79. 79.

    PurpleGirl

    @Jewish Steel: Stupid parents beget stupid kid(s). I think he should understand that Remembrance Day connotes a sober and solemn observance.

    I heard on NY1 this morning that the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is disbanding; that today’s ceremony is the last one. The last survivors of the attack are now too old to travel to Hawaii for the ceremony and there is no one who can join and take roles as president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, as well as a board of directors as needed to fulfill the requirements of their 501C status.

  81. 81.

    Suffern ACE

    I just find this whole “let’s look at what those kids are eating” a little unnerving. What a small, petty, obsessed, little creep.

  82. 82.

    Schlemizel

    @Sloegin:
    My dads brother joined the Marines in 1940 & was actually stationed at Pearl on Dec 7th. His wife told the story at his funeral that every Dec 7th he would wake up & say “Feels like there’s a little nip in the air today!”

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Brachiator: My sisters and I loved that song and played that song over and over. One day my mother stormed down the long hallway that connected the kitchen to the room we were in, shrieking about how awful the song was, yanked it off the record player and broke the record in half.

  86. 86.

    singfoom

    Meh, par for the course. On the honeymoon with Mrs. Singfoom in Hawaii last year,we went to Pearl Harbor. High comedy point of the trip? Some white guy ranting to someone on his phone about the temerity of Japanese tourists to dare to visit Pearl Harbor.

    Food fights are silly, indeed.

  87. 87.

    eyelessgame

    Hey. My kids’ public school is also serving teriyaki chicken today – which amused my wife when she saw the menu.

    Fortunately, they’re also serving bean burritos — no doubt for the Real American kids.

  88. 88.

    Anya

    I am very bad at understanding wingnut logic; so I’ll appreciate it if someone explains the logic behind getting angry about a school lunch? Are they claiming President Obama or maybe Michelle Obama, personally selects the food? Also, too, what do we eat on Hiroshima day.

  89. 89.

    Surreal American

    During my youth, on every VE-Day, my meals were prepared by a German-speaking person. From Germany!!!

  90. 90.

    RossinDetroit

    Actually, I think scanning school lunch menus for cultural conflicts is an excellent job for Malkin. She should do that full time, and Tweet about it. That job and nothing else. Her niche and contribution to political discourse.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    My sisters and I loved that song and played that song over and over. One day my mother stormed down the long hallway that connected the kitchen to the room we were in, shrieking about how awful the song was, yanked it off the record player and broke the record in half.

    Ah, but you can’t break the InterTubes.

    Great line in the song about “little minds.” Fits the dopes who need to make a big deal about school menus.

  95. 95.

    Ben Cisco

    Wow, I went to the site referenced in the screenshot, it’s just – wow:
    __

    WASHINGTON (WUSA) — What are President Obama’s kids eating at school on Pearl Harbor day? Asian food, of course!
    __
    Sidwell Friends School’s website shows the menu for Wednesday December 7th, 2011, the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, as an Asian food day.
    __
    Pearl Harbor Day is usually a time of remembrance for Americans. On December 7th, 1941, thousands of Americans died in a sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor Navy base in Hawaii. An attack that thrust the U.S. into World War II.
    __
    It was the bloodiest foreign attack on U.S. soil in the modern war era, until the September 11th attacks in 2001.
    __
    Here are the options for Malia Obama and her sister, Sasha on the “Day that will live in Infamy:”

    They then list the menu and follow that up with a call to arms an invitation to comment on the site’s Facebook page.
    __
    I especially like how none among them had the stones to put their name to the byline but rather opted for the innocuous “WUSA9 Web Staff.” Nice and cowardly, that’s how we likes our wingnuts!
    __
    Looks like somebody conflated the frack out of something, then left it bleeding to die by the side of the road!

  97. 97.

    Citizen Alan

    @catclub:

    I agree that it would probably work best if it went both ways, but that is just the Lincoln talking (Wounds heal better with honey than vinegar. Binding up the nations wounds. Some quote from Shakespeare, I think from Taming of the Shrew, about the gentlest master is the soonest winner.)

    For what it’s worth, Lincoln was completely and utterly wrong on this point, as the last 150 years of American history attest. America would be a much, much better place today if every Confederate politician and every Confederate officer above the rank of lieutenant were hanged for treason and, where appropriate, war crimes. Instead, today Mississippi is contemplating putting Nathan Bedford Forrest on license plates to commemorate the Sons of the Confederacy even though the murderous fucker wasn’t even from this state

  100. 100.

    RossinDetroit

    @Citizen Alan:

    Mississippi is contemplating putting Nathan Bedford Forrest on license plates to commemorate the Sons of the Confederacy even though the murderous fucker wasn’t even from this state

    Nathan “Negro Mart” Bedford Forrest on a license plate? Please say this is a joke.

  101. 101.

    fasteddie9318

    That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. It would be a simple thing for a very blue state to put John Brown on a license plate, and it would cause entertaining squeals of outrage to come out of the wingnuts for months if not years after. Why not do it?

  102. 102.

    Snowball

    I feel sorry for these people. If its not the school menu on Pearl Harbor Day, it is their made up war on Xmas.

    It can’t be easy to wake up every day and make up some stupid and irrelevant thing to be angry about all the time.

    It is nice that they have the time to worry about these things. The rest of us have to worry about less important things such as the job market, housing market etc etc.

  103. 103.

    Bill

    I would have though eating Japanese food (which ironically the listed menu clearly isn’t) on Pear Harbor Day would appeal to wingnuts.

    They seem like the “to the victors go the spoils” types.

    Also too, this is the dumbset shit to be pissed off about since Murphy Brown.

  106. 106.

    Keith

    Delicious indeed …

    I remember a song, sung to the tune of “Out of Town” – clearly this is not the Sidwell dietary anthem.

    Say what you will, school dinners make you ill,
    And Davy Crockett died of shepherd’s pie,
    All school din-dins come from pig bins,
    Out of Town

  111. 111.

    Paula

    Fvck me, I drank soy milk today and will have Tofurky Italian sausage in my dinner pasta tonight.

  116. 116.

    BDeevDad

    BTW, China officially joined the Allies after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941.

  117. 117.

    Nutella

    @Greg Loiacono:

    Nope, I think the last president’s child who went to public school was Amy Carter.

    Chelsea Clinton and Tricia Nixon also attended (the very expensive) Sidwell Friends School.

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Napoleon:

    I lived in Flint (big GM town for those who don’t know) during the late ’70s/early ’80s, and the “from the folks who brought you Pearl Harbor” was a common meme in that community. Bumper stickers weren’t as bad as the vandalism that was occasionally visited upon Japanese cars, though. I know this to be true; I drove a Datsun 510 at the time.

  120. 120.

    Renie

    tried to read some of the comments on the wusa9 page for this story; couldn’t get past a dozen without wanting to throw up.

  122. 122.

    Lysana

    @Nellcote: That image alone would motivate me to send my kids to private school if I were President and had children.

    And I am off to find a recipe for garlic roasted edamame thanks to that menu. Two of my favorite things in the world together as one? Where do I sign up again?

  124. 124.

    Stranded Northerner

    @Anya:

    I am very bad at understanding wingnut logic; so I’ll appreciate it if someone explains the logic behind getting angry about a school lunch? Are they claiming President Obama or maybe Michelle Obama, personally selects the food? Also, too, what do we eat on Hiroshima day.

    Tempura Mushrooms, duh!

    Excuse me now, I’ve got to go bleach my brain after trying my hand at conservative “humor”…

  125. 125.

    mclaren

    “Asian” food probably means Chinese food. Damn those dastardly Chinese for sneakily attacking us without warning at Pearl Harbor!

  126. 126.

    Busy

    They shoulda’ had some good Germ-am food, because all good wingnuts should know it was Nazi Germany that attacked the Exceptional United States of Hawai’i on December 7, 1941.

    Brats and beer, and loosen up dat lederhosen, ya?

  128. 128.

    RickD

    It’s 70 years later.

    It’s OK to not be dicks to the Japanese just because it’s December 7th.

  129. 129.

    The Oracle

    Is there a dumbness gene specific to conservative Republicans? Scientists should really look into this. Of course, anti-science conservative Republicans will deny any evidence that scientists find, but all the rest of us will at least have confirmation. We can name this conservative-specific dumbness gene the fauxnewsrushlimbaugh gene. I know it’s there. There’s too much evidence for it not to be.

  130. 130.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Oh wait, British and food don’t go together in the same sentence..

    Admittedly, if you’re not in the habit of showing up late to world wars, your culinary skills do suffer a bit.

  131. 131.

    El Cid

    @pseudonymous in nc: BTW, it’s been refreshing for me (not having traveled there and not reading much about it) to watch a variety of British cooking shows featuring British dishes — bearing in mind the waves of internal migration and immigration changing the nature of that cuisine. I’ve cooked a number of nice such dishes.

  132. 132.

    gaz

    @Sloegin: Thanks. I lulled, then felt guilty.

    Keep it up, and I’ll break out my congo jokes.

    (What is the sound of one hand clapping) etc…

  134. 134.

    JT

    I guess the wingnuts think the government should mandate the lunch menu, even for a private school. I always thought they wanted to stop that sort of thing from happening (unless it gives them what they want)

  135. 135.

    Mike G

    For jerks who wail about ‘political correctness’ at every opportunity, wingnuts are certainly assiduous at politicizing and policing for ‘insufficient patriotism’ or ‘hatred of Xtians’ every single social activity and action. Authoritarians just aren’t happy unless they’re crying victim, judging everyone and bossing people around.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks