Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

We will not go back.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Petty moves from a petty man.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Fight them, without becoming them!

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / That Word, Libertarian…

That Word, Libertarian…

by | 161 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Sen. Rand Paul is the small-government civil libertarian who respects the Constitution, individual freedoms and choice and…what’s that you say, Rand?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday introduced so-called “fetal personhood” legislation that would completely outlaw abortion in the United States.

The Life at Conception Act would declare that human life began at conception, providing fertilized eggs with the same legal status as born persons.

“The Life at Conception Act legislatively declares what most Americans believe and what science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception, and therefore is entitled to legal protection from that point forward,” Paul said in a statement. “ The right to life is guaranteed to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence and ensuring this is upheld is the Constitutional duty of all Members of Congress.”

Huh.  Guess those individual freedoms don’t apply to Vagina-Americans.  I’m sure he’s really terribly sorry about that whole Roe v. Wade thing not mattering after all.  Perhaps another 13-hour talking filibuster, this time on how women don’t need control of their own reproductive systems, would suffice.

But totally worth it because of his “principled stance on civil liberties” right?

Do tell.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    He’s only libertarian when it comes to guns, giving corporations what they want.

    When it comes to MY WOMB, he’s very comfortable being all up in it…

    Leave my and every other woman’s womb alone….asshole.

  3. 3.

    dr. bloor

    Anything he says that will get him the Republican nomination and a landside loss in the general is OK by me. I hope these loons never shut up.

  5. 5.

    NobodySpecial

    What happens if the Vagina-American is inhabited by a Vagina-American? Do any of them have rights?

    …cuz this is kinda like the default condition…

  6. 6.

    Soonergrunt

    “But totally worth it because of his “principled stance on civil liberties” right?”
    Paging Glenn Greenwald! Misogyny wrapped in Libertarianism available at 50% off!

  9. 9.

    gene108

    Republican civil libertarians are all for making sure people have the liberty to promote Christianity anywhere, in any form and at any time and to make sure the fetus has the individual liberty to be delivered 9 months after conception; assuming of course the fetus survives the lack of prenatal care a Republican libertarian world would inflict upon women, who cannot afford to go to a OB/GYN for care.

  10. 10.

    dollared

    You guys just don’t get it. It is completely consistent and principled. Libertarianism is protection of the liberty of white, male property owners (and their wholly owned subsidiaries), just as the Founders intended.

    And with that adjustment, everything Rand Paul says is fully consistent.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    So Rand wouldn’t even leave it up to the states, which I think was his father’s dodge stance.

    I’m sure libertarians are howling at this betrayal.

  12. 12.

    Chris

    @patrick II:

    That’s what separates him from hus dad. Papa Paul found himself a nice comfortable niche as the speaker for a variety of people on the fringes, where he can stay in the news and keep getting reelected but never gain enough power to have actual responsibilities. Junior, though, seems like he actually wants to be one of the People Who Matter, via the teabaggers.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    I can’t remember who originally said it, but I’ll steal it: Paul wants to shrink government down to a size that will fit inside a woman’s uterus.

  14. 14.

    chopper

    science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception

    lol, when i want to know what ‘science knows’, i ask rand paul. maybe he created his own scientific society just like he made up his own opthamology board.

  16. 16.

    chopper

    so i guess the 20-some-odd percent of pregnancies that naturally end in miscarriage are going to end with manslaughter trials?

    some right wing christian choad burning down a clinic that happens to have a freezer full of fertilized eggs for IVF will be tried for mass murder?

  18. 18.

    Wag

    If Americans really believe that human ledge begins at conception why has the “Personhood Armendment” been soundly defeated every time it’s brought up in a general election? Including twice in that liberal bastion called Mississippi.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I thought Santorum would be the far right spoiler for the GOP in 2016. Maybe they both will. Rand&Rick could be The New Two Pats.

  20. 20.

    Josie

    @patrick II: This is the key. He thinks that, because he won his state’s senatorial election, he is a shoo-in for the next presidential election. He is operating in the same bubble that the rest of the right wingers inhabit – if they just nominate the right person, they can win. They will not learn the truth until they lose over and over and over…….

  21. 21.

    Chris

    @dollared:

    Libertarianism, despite the fancy freedom-sounding name, is essentially the ideology of noblemen in feudal Europe fighting to keep their privileges and curtail the monarchy’s authority over them, transplantated to a modern context. Read up on some of those civil conflicts in the old days between the Crown and the aristocracy – the Fronde in France is the one that comes to my mind, but other countries had it too (heck wasn’t the English Magna Carta the result of one such conflict?)

  22. 22.

    the Conster

    Yeah, I’ve gotten into this a bunch on FB with young men whose knickers are in a bunch about drones and the surveillance state and the Fed, but abortion is murder, and that’s that. The discussion ends when I insist that women won’t care about drones until we control our bodies like they do, but now here we go with Paultard II, The Randening.

  23. 23.

    Alison

    I don’t even have any snark.

    Fuck this motherfucker and all his motherfucking supporters, including those fauxgressive “stand with rand” pieces of scum.

    Rawr.

  24. 24.

    McJulie

    @dollared:

    the liberty of white, male property owners

    Don’t forget able-bodied.

    I will never understand why people who claim to hate !!!COMMUNISM!!! so much are actively working to force the state to seize control of the means of production known as my uterus.

  25. 25.

    Suffern ACE

    @Josie: they have to lose over and over. But they won’t. They only have to win once. That’s why I don’t like our long term odds.

  26. 26.

    Todd

    To the conservative, the only right to privacy is in whether a man has obtained a public permit to carry a concealed weapon, or in his communications necessary to further criminal conspiracy to commit mass violence against liberals in government. It is laughable to them to apply it anywhere else.

    To the failed pro-choice messaging advocate, Roe v Wade wasn’t about privacy which could be extended to all (including LGBT folk), but was instead about a sacrosanct “right to choose” which cannot be applied to men, so men better shut up.

  27. 27.

    Alex S.

    Paul is making some clever moves. His filibuster ensures that the press will always call him a ‘libertarian’ conservative, no matter what else he does. He’s definitely going to be a contender among republicans.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mark S.:

    But how is this any different from Obama not aborting his daughters?
    /greenwald

    It’s only Sunday, but the Internetz are yours for the week if you want them.

  31. 31.

    NobodySpecial

    @McJulie:

    I will never understand why people who claim to hate !!!COMMUNISM!!! so much are actively working to force the state to seize control of the means of production known as my uterus.

    They can’t get control of your uterus on their own, now can they?

  32. 32.

    Candia

    “ The right to life is guaranteed to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence and ensuring this is upheld is the Constitutional duty of all Members of Congress.”

    Funny, though: if it’s about guns, being able to shoot what you want when you want is more important than the right to life of the victims of gun violence.

  33. 33.

    Davis X. Machina

    It’s Joe “He’s with us on everything except the war” Lieberman, in reverse.

  36. 36.

    jon

    I’m okay with life beginning at conception. That’s kind of obvious, biologically. It’s alive. It’s not going to be a dog or an octopus or a cherry tree. If things turn out, that’ll be a baby human.

    But does the right of that fertilized egg trump the right of its host? Fuck no. In contract disputes where two rights are in dispute, the easy thing to do is to look at who had the right to that uterine real estate first. In these instances, as inconvenient as it is for the embryo, the grown woman doesn’t have to let the lodger stay.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    @Todd:

    Though conservatives will often find reasons to support abortion in “extreme circumstances.” Conservative women who suddenly find themselves in need of one. Racist families discovering that their precious daughter’s baby-to-be will have an unacceptably different skin tone. Etc, etc, etc.

    It’s really not possible to determine what conservatives believe about personal liberty by looking at it issue by issue, because they don’t make those distinctions issue by issue, they make them person by person.

  38. 38.

    Suzanne

    Shit like this makes me want to menstruate all over Rand Paul’s front lawn.

    If something like this ever came to pass, perhaps we could force Rand Paul to donate his organs while alive? Right to life, aye?

  39. 39.

    aimai

    What “legal protections” are afforded the homeless guy dying of exposure under a bridge because he’s got no job? I’m curious. If you “gave fertilized eggs” the same rights as adult persons that still would not require the woman housing the egg, or the infertility clinic, an affirmative duty to house/support the egg. Rand’s ok with a world in which we owe no duty to other human beings to get them housing or food or health care so what does he think his law should do for a fertilized egg?

  40. 40.

    Hungry Joe

    Since I watch little to no TV news I haven’t actually seen much of Rand Paul, but the few times I have he came across as an annoying twit. Saw Cruz for the first time in his confrontation with Feinstein, and he seemed like a cold, nasty, son of a bitch. Hard for me to separate the politics from the man, so all this may be projection. But if they strike a lot of other people that way, they’re going to have a tough time taking the Big Prize.

  41. 41.

    scav

    @jon: And snowflake super-rights mean that stand your ground rules and protecting your life don’t apply to those with womb-squatters, even ones forced upon you. Nope, not even if you’re afraid, much less actually threatened with death by snowflake.

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    @PeakVT:

    Only he’s not really against those either–he just doesn’t want hellfire missiles targeted at the local militia training.

  46. 46.

    Todd

    @Baud:

    The means of production should remain private; the means of reproduction belong to the people.

    Awesome homage – completely gets the tone.

  47. 47.

    Mandalay

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday introduced so-called “fetal personhood” legislation that would completely outlaw abortion in the United States.

    This legislation therefore prohibits the usual exception scenarios of life of the mother, rape and incest, and prevents a victim from getting an abortion if raped by a family member.

    That proposed legislation – invoking state control, and the suppression of individual freedom – is the complete opposite of libertarianism.

  48. 48.

    Gex

    This will essentially outlaw IVF won’t it? Or will the extra embryos have to be stored forever?

  49. 49.

    jl

    I’m sure Rand will make sure the early miscarriage detective squads will protect every woman’s civil rights. Probably won’t include a public defender for a woman who thought she may have been pregnant and may (or may not) have had a fertilized egg in her at some point. That would be socialism. Then she has the same rights as the hobos under the bridge.

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    This post is soooo close! It has the requisite GG trolling, and I’m going to give it bonus points for some aspect of religionism so it ties the RCC angle in as well.
    But where’s the Boomer hatin’?

  52. 52.

    Mark S.

    @aimai:

    Letting the homeless guy die is compassionate in their world. If you feed him and give him somewhere to live, he might breed and create more flawed specimens who can’t succeed in this society like John Galt or Rand Paul. You’d just be creating more general misery.

    For conservatives, Darwinism is a philosophy of Satan, but that Social Darwinism is fantastic.

  53. 53.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937

    It was stupid for anybody on the left (or center) to be all ‘look at brave Rand Paul. He’s asking about drones, and utilizing a real filibuster’. He’s always been a self centered preening asshole. His stupid concern about drones was idiotic. ‘Can the President authorize a drone attack on a non-combatant in the U.S?’ No, dipshit, he can’t.

  55. 55.

    Bob In Portland

    I don’t get it. Since when are sperm dead? There should be a constitutional amendment banning masturbation and every wet dream should be investigated. We’re talking about billions and billions of Americans snuffed out in their infancy.

  56. 56.

    McJulie

    @aimai: I’m totally borrowing this the next time I run into a “libertarian” pro-lifer. That fetus can pull itself up by its own bootstraps, by golly! That fetus will never learn to take care of itself while all its needs are being met by my body!

  57. 57.

    Warren Terra

    At least this law will put all those damn IVF clinics in their place. Meddling doctors, helping less fertile couples have children. They’ll be severely constrained once every fertilized oocyte is a gun-totin’ Amerkin.

    Also: I’m totes gonna bring an equal-protection case under this law to defend the rights of Teratoma-Americans. Totipotent is totipotent! Cancerous cells are people too!

  61. 61.

    Warren Terra

    @Gex:
    I don’t know what subsequently happened, but quite some time ago Italy passed a very, very Catholic law on IVF stating that all fertilized oocytes must be implanted. It makes the procedure less likely of success, and so more expensive, and probably increases catastrophic birth defects. But there’s still IVF, sort of. I suspect wealthy Italians now go abroad for the procedure.

  63. 63.

    aimai

    I’m waiting for Rand etc… to offer to subsidize guns for my fertilized embryo so it can defend itself against attack.

  65. 65.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Oh yeah, well what if I want to use GUNS to do an abortion? Bet you haven’t thought that out, Mr. Fancy Principle Senator-man!

  66. 66.

    Tokyokie

    I’ll believe a shitheel like Rand Paul is sincere about this sort of crap once he starts celebrating his day of conception rather than his birthday. What’s that? You can’t determine exactly when that was? That’s sort of the point. If this prick’s name were Rand Ringo, he’d be trying to eke out a living selling reading glasses to the illiterate (provided he even finished high school).

  68. 68.

    Cacti

    Rand Paul supports the individual right of white men to exclude women and people of color from their place of business.

    That’s overriding “libertarian” principle of the Paul family.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    This Vagina American requests a college basketball thread.

    The Rand Pauls, we shall always have with us. (Although in disappearing numbers. Yea.)

    Basketball, please. Now.

  73. 73.

    Suzanne

    @Corner Stone: That way, there’s disgusting, squishy proof that I failed to do my duty as a broodmare that month. All over his lawn.

    Yes, I think my idea is a fine one.

  76. 76.

    White Trash Liberal

    So…

    The senator discovers he can propose legislation. Is it about curtailing the AUMF and creating specificity about drone policy?

    No? It’s about controlling women’s bodies?

    Interesting

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @scav: Speaking of demographic outreach, did any of the Gasbags on this fine Sabbath morn deign to notice the grassroots uprising in favor of segregation at the nutter assembly that elected Prince Rand its prom king?

  82. 82.

    mk3872

    Rand Paul:

    science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception

    O’Rlly? What scientific research shows that a zygote that is not implanted in the uterus is the equivalent of sustainable life ??

  83. 83.

    Yutsano

    @Howard Beale IV: They’re still trying to do that? Lawd. I wonder who they conned the seed money out of and how they’ll feel when Uncle Bill takes their work product with no compensation because they have no patent laws.

  84. 84.

    mk3872

    This is the same Ron Paul that faux-Liberal Liebrtarians like Glennwald will pump-up for POTUS in 2016.

  85. 85.

    danielx

    Rand probably figures that with Fat Tony Scalia and his whole “precedents, schmecedents” schtick waiting in the wings, overturning Roe v. Wade is just a shot away. After all, precedents only count when applied to legislation Tony likes.

    I’d be thinking Paul/Cruz ’16, except that I don’t think Ted Cruz, obnoxious little shit that he is, is ever going to be content with vice-anything.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @danielx: Cruz, praise the lord and pass me the ice cream, was born a Canadianite, and can’t be on a national ticket. Cruz is a boor and a bully and will make politics ugly, but I don’t imagine anyone trying to change the Constitution for him. Remember when Orrin Hatch wanted to do that for Ahnold?

  92. 92.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Sorry, he said one thing that resonated with one facet of what single-issue anti-drone activists want, therefore he’s a hero no matter what else he does.

  96. 96.

    22over7

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’ve read that people are saying that, because he was born to an American mother, he’s an American citizen. Like McCain, who was born in Panama, or Santorum, who was born in the Phillipines, or Obama…oh wait.

  98. 98.

    Richard

    Corpro-Christo-libertarianism:
    Absolute freedom for old rich white men and their corporations, a boot stamping on the faces of everyone else— forever

  99. 99.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @MomSense: So why don’t they declare maximum punishment for Onanism? But the prisons would be filled with cheeto-stained fingered Randites instead of those people of color.

  100. 100.

    Ben Franklin

    So if Greenwald can be conflated with Rand, why is it so difficult to see how similar Portman and Obama are wrt to coming out….Really the sophistic discipline is top-drawer.

  103. 103.

    Suzanne

    @Ben Franklin: Portman only decided he was for gay marriage when it directly affected his own family. Obama, though he certainly was too slow for my liking on this issue, didn’t need to be personally affected before pulling his head out of his ass. The end.

  104. 104.

    Todd

    Obama is conservatively progressive when it comes to making policy, which actually makes things more likely to stick. He sends the signals, and the grassroots are supposed to be educating the educable. Ironically, his impulse in each area is to be progressive, but because he moves in measured increments, Firebaggo-Americans squeal like stuck pigs.

    Firebaggers (like their more ignorant doppelgängers, the teabaggers) are authoritarians who expect to be led and to have reversals of policy by decree.

    That’s because they’re lazy or dishonest about their real motivations.

  105. 105.

    Ben Franklin

    @Todd:

    That’s because they’re lazy or dishonest about their real motivations.

    The Salvation we all enjoy is because the conservative progressives (wha?) are adept at reading hearts and minds.

    Please continue….

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Suzanne: look at the previous two GlennWald threads. There is no end.

    Imagine how hysterically devoted his drones would be if Greenwald ever accomplished something.

  109. 109.

    Todd

    OT – I don’t even know what to call this abomination from Steven Pearlstein. I guess it is easy to say from the vicinity of a chair, desk, climate control, nobody really acting like a boss….

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/15/yes-raising-the-retirement-age-would-be-bad-for-the-poor-no-that-doesnt-mean-its-unfair/

    Another reason for the correlation between income and life expectancy is that lower-income people lead less healthy lives – they are more likely to smoke, drink and take drugs, their diets are less healthy, they get less exercise and they don’t take advantage of the health care that is available to them. This raises a different sort of moral question that conservatives are quick to raise and liberals prefer to ignore:
    …
    Why should the rest of the country be prevented from making a needed, common sense reform to its retirement program because some people refuse to take personal responsibility for their own health? Where is the fairness in that?
    …
    Rising income inequality is a big problem, no doubt about it, but it seems to have encouraged some people to view every public policy issue primarily through a distributional or class prism. A carbon tax, a soda tax, higher energy and fuel-efficiency standards, tougher enforcement of criminal and immigration laws, tax breaks for alternative energy and college-savings and long-term investment, public investment in airports and high-speed rail, residential zoning restrictions, revenue-neutral corporate tax reform — all of these have, or would have, the unintended effect of disproportionately helping those with more money or hurting those with less. Does that mean we should reject them out of hand?

  111. 111.

    ? Martin

    @Ben Franklin:

    why is it so difficult to see how similar Portman and Obama are wrt to coming out

    Why didn’t Portman sign onto the Prop 8 amicus brief when it went around 3 weeks ago. He didn’t need to and he didn’t, even though it wouldn’t have made any difference to him politically but it might have helped the cause a bit to have a sitting Republican Senator in the court record.

    Obama requested that the administration participate in oral arguments in support of overturning Prop 8. He didn’t need to, but he did anyway because it would significantly help the cause.

    See the difference?

  112. 112.

    Todd

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Imagine how hysterically devoted his drones would be if Greenwald ever accomplished something.

    Well, he did do some work for neonazi Matthew Hale (failing at the task), argued for excluding brown immigrants more forcefully (failing again) and sang the praises of antisemite racist Ron Paul, so there’s that.

    Am I onto a trend?

  114. 114.

    Cacti

    @Hill Dweller:

    Portman voted against adoption rights for same sex couples in DC, showing fairly conclusively that if it doesn’t affect his immediate family you can GFY.

  115. 115.

    Ben Franklin

    @Hill Dweller:

    You really want to re-litigate the comparison? OK. Portman was selfish in his conversion.

    AFAIK, he did nothing to advance SSM, but I think he did read the tea leaves on the polling which took him 2 years to address.

    Obama, otoh, is better and quicker at reading the tea leaves, and he unselfishly made his move, out of conscience borne of his self-sacrificial wish to be re-elected.

    Selfish/unselfish……big diff.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Todd: The notion that poverty is the result of a moral failing is spreading rapidly in our political discourse over the last few years. Sam Donaldson may have had his buffoonish moments, and Mark Shields’ devotion to Catholicism makes EJ Dionne look like Charlie Pierce, but they were old school Roosevelt/Kennedy Democrats whose places at the Gasbag roundtables have been taken Totebagger “centrists” who basically buy in to everything Republicans have been saying about economics for the last thirty years. And to the inevitable “who cares what those people think?”, the answer is “elected Democrats”. Democrats seek the approval of the Gasbags, the Gasbags seek the approval of Republicans. Tim Russert thought it was a badge of honor that he was Rush Limbaugh’s favorite broadcaster, I easily imagine Williams, Gregory or Brokaw saying the same thing.

  119. 119.

    Hill Dweller

    @Ben Franklin: Again, you are focusing solely on public support for SSM.

    I’m talking about Obama actually enacting policies to advance LGBT rights/benefits before publicly supporting SSM. There is a reason people were saying he had done more for the LGBT community than all other Presidents combined before he publicly supported SSM.

    Portman had done nothing to support the advancement of LGBT rights. Nothing.

  120. 120.

    Ben Franklin

    @Hill Dweller:

    In the end, I think it would be fair to say that Obama’s motives slanted toward doing the right thing. But matters requiring principled decision-making lose a little when political expediency is the linchpin. That is the essential difference. It’s hard to ascribe good motives to Portman.

  121. 121.

    jl

    @Todd: Oh Lordy have mercy on me. I read that Pearlstein piece; it is a mess.

    He seems to be thinking about Medicare problems and laying them onto Social Security, which is more confused or dishonest, or both, that conflating the two.

    Does Pearlstein realize that big differences in life expectancy (which exist at birth, in children adults and the elderly) start at well above the median income? The big comparisons you see are for top and bottom half of income distribution. But significant differences start above the median.

    I don’t know if this is ignorance of malice. Pearlstein wants to solve a crisis that doesn’t exist, by punishing at least half of the population.

    And how does he know how much is due to limitations in access to care, personal health habits that are independent of income, and how much is due to differences in personal habits that are encourage or forced by differences in income. Doesn’t say. Just assumes and throws it out there. I guess it’s irresponsible not to speculate.

    Loathsome irresponsible piece by Pearlstein.

    Edit: To be charitable, Pearlstein probably doesn’t know what he is talking about and thinks the income differential is just in (what he considers) worthless underclass poors, in, maybe brown people ghettos and meth havens out in the white trash boondocks.

  122. 122.

    Emdee

    @mk3872:

    science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception

    O’Rlly? What scientific research shows that a zygote that is not implanted in the uterus is the equivalent of sustainable life ??

    Marco Rubio used this same line in his CPAC speech this weekend. It looks like the forced birth crowd has decided to repeat this lie until people think it’s true. We must combat it now, full strength.

  124. 124.

    hells littlest angel

    At least Rand Paul has the stupidity of his convictions. Because this will not get him into any office higher than he’s in now.

  125. 125.

    Hill Dweller

    @Ben Franklin: Obama has done more to advance LGBT rights/benefits than all the other Presidents combined. Regardless of motive, at the end of the day that fact remains.

  126. 126.

    scav

    @Davis X. Machina: Is that CPAC proper or the off-broadway production of those too crazy for the main decorous event? Because being shouted at by the 1 sd of the fringy sub-population is icing.

  127. 127.

    PurpleGirl

    @Todd: So the asshole writer doesn’t know any rich women who eat so little to maintain a size 1 body and will break a hip when they fall because there is no cushioning, or he’s never walked along Wall Street a few years ago when all the hot-shot young financial types were smoking or doping to relax (you could smell the pot when you passed them); and they drink (don;t know about right now, but who had the 3-martini lunches famous of olden times…

    As far as I can see it, the rich live longer because they have medical care and it makes life more liveable. A lot of poorer people do live to older ages but they don’t live well or comfortably.

  128. 128.

    Sir Nose'D

    If a threatening zygote person appears in the vagina of Lady Nose’D, is she protected under the stand your ground legislation?

  131. 131.

    Ben Franklin

    @PurpleGirl:

    Once upon a time obesity was a sign of wealth and prosperity. I think there is some biological basis for this. Skinny people don’t last as long with a debilitating illness.

  132. 132.

    ? Martin

    @Ben Franklin:

    I think coming out, publicly, trumps all the window dressing.

    No. It doesn’t, not when you are unwilling to make any effort to use your power as a Senator to actually implement the thing you are talking about.

    What the fuck is the difference between Portman’s change of heart and then doing fuckall to actually improve the lives of LGBT and Boehner standing there saying that Congress needs to focus on creating jobs, and then doesn’t do a goddamn thing about jobs.

    Fuck, this is why I hate firebaggers. You don’t fucking care about actual progress – about legislation. You just want your lip service. You just want to be told what you want to hear, to know that you’re in the club, and if nothing comes of it, no biggie. Coming out is not only the same to you as passing legislation, it’s BETTER – by your own goddamn admission.

  133. 133.

    scav

    @Davis X. Machina: Well, there are multiple options.

    A member of the fringe can have bangs. (easy and cheap, even if one tips the scissor wielder.)

    One can take the unravelled bit on the edge of a sweater or rug and unravel even further the edges. (more time consuming and fiddly but with fewer dangers from sharp edges.)

    One can take a sub-population, define it as a population of interest and Bell’s your uncle. (rather dull and mathy but can be done at a safe distance.)

    There are also a few involving hiring peripheral venues during off-hours at a certain Edinburgh-based comedy fest, but those are for specialists.

  135. 135.

    Ben Franklin

    @Yutsano:

    Congratulations. That was the best simple declarative sentence you’ve written,fmp.

    And the unequivocal, non-snarky post was also new.

  137. 137.

    Ben Franklin

    @Yutsano:

    It’s always fun when I can manipulate a condescending asshole into revealing his true nature

    Too funny. Have you heard of Socrates?

    “The unexamined life is the one not worth living”

  138. 138.

    Ben Franklin

    @? Martin:

    You just want your lip service.

    No, I want my leaders to stop giving me lip service. I refuse to enable their reluctance to stand up for what’s right. I think that’s the core difference between Obots and FBr’s.

  139. 139.

    grandpa john

    @jl:

    Loathsome irresponsible piece by Pearlstein.

    Hey its the WaPost what else would you expect

  141. 141.

    ? Martin

    @Ben Franklin:

    No, I want my leaders to stop giving me lip service. I refuse to enable their reluctance to stand up for what’s right. I think that’s the core difference between Obots and FBr’s.

    You:

    I think coming out, publicly, trumps all the window dressing.

    The ‘window dressing’ you are referring to is legislation, executive orders when Congress (including the guy you’re praising) can’t be bothered, and arguing on the right side of the issue before the Supreme Court.

    But no, coming out trumps it. Yet you’re the ‘lip service’ crusader.

    Got it.

  142. 142.

    Ben Franklin

    @? Martin:

    Uh, Portman is not my leader. But I think it is significant that he came out, alone. Let’s see what he does now. I understand that you want legislation, not lip service. Is that correct?

    Then allow the process to continue, rather than dismissing his participation in the legal process because he was a bad guy on this issue.

  143. 143.

    ? Martin

    @Ben Franklin:

    Let’s see what he does now.

    Why? His kid came out 2 years ago. He publicly changed his position on March 15. On February 28, amicus briefs were due to SCOTUS on the Prop 8 case. He had a chance to sign – opportunities were circulated to everyone in Congress. He didn’t sign. That was 16 days prior.

    He had a chance to help in a meaningful (if small) way. He passed it up. On Feb 11 he voted in favor of an amendment that would have stripped LGBT rights from VAWA. So he wasn’t there a month before either. But you don’t acknowledge these events. One was to stay out of a fight that he, just a few days later, pledged to back. The other was to actively oppose rights expansion to gays a month earlier. And then he voted against VAWA itself on March 5, just 11 days earlier.

    Lip service is the only thing Portman’s provided (and we don’t need to go more than a month back to find that evidence), and yet you seem optimistic. Yet Obama, who advanced every facet of gay rights including 250 openly LGBT appointees, is undeserving of any optimism even though, where Portman stayed silent on Prop 8, Obama asked that the DOJ speak in favor of overturning it in oral arguments.

  145. 145.

    jshooper

    @? Martin: You must understand Firebaggers.

    When Obama gives speeches publicly supporting a policy, firebaggers stick up their noses and say…”It’s just words…where is the action?”

    And when Obama quietly works behind the scenes to enact liberal policies without publicly tooting his own horn they say…”He doesn’t know how to use the BULLY PULPIT…he’s not a true progressive hero!!!”

    LMAO

    These people twist themselves in knots trying not to give proper credit to the black man in the White House…No matter what he does they “want” the opposite

    Of course it has nothing to do with race…it’s all about “policy”. That’s why they show so much love for real progressives like Ron/Rand Paul.

  146. 146.

    PurpleGirl

    @Maude: Maude, if you are still reading… Some of them don’t go down quite that small, but do you remember the term “social x-rays” from Bonfire of the Vanities. I’ve know a number of upper-crust women who became social x-rays and/or worked to get or stay smallish. They just picked at their food and worked out a lot at the gym. It didn’t necessarily make them any more healthy than anyone else. (An aunt of mine who stayed at like a size 3 in the 1950-60s also ended up in the hospital with anorexia.) But the rich ladies will have doctors to help stay seemingly healthy. (This is getting muddled, but I hope you know what I mean.)

  147. 147.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Go for it, Paulie. You’re gonna be awful busy fixing all the unintended consequences of this kind of bullshit.

    What are they gonna do when women start claiming all 12 “lost” pregnancies a year they could conceive but “miscarried” on their taxes? After all, they don’t have to survive to qualify as exemptions.

    Seriously, if I were still able to claim I could get pregnant, I’d cash in on the TANF and Food Stamp benefits and laugh all the way to the bank. With a family size like this, my daughter’s college Financial Aid package alone would fund her a car and a condo.

    Oh, the Moranity.

  148. 148.

    Pat

    Okay, so I propose a certificate of personhood naming both parents when pregnancy is confirmed. Father publicly named and financially responsible. If mother waives custodial rights father is responsible. (exceptions in cases of rape or incest, where gthe state stands in for father financially.

    Both parties should share consequences. Current proposals are punitive to women, and seem to assume she conceived all by herself. Enough!

    Only men have choice in the current right wing world.

  150. 150.

    CarolDuhart2

    @PurpleGirl: There’s also a whole bucketload of environmental factors that also get overlooked as well that the Perlsteins don’t get. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to work in professions or live in places that have toxins. I’ve had my share of dusty factory jobs, run for buses belching out fumes, lived in older apartments with mold and dust. The 1% have country homes, ride in limos, have houses that are well maintained and cleaned, and in any event, situated well away from toxic dumps, rotting abandoned buildings and streets clogged with fumes from the heavy traffic.

    It could well be the largest factor in the health gap that’s not even being discussed, let alone addressed. One reason is that it’s not sexy to talk about the barely noticed superfunds sites located among the poorest and most powerless. It’s also because it doesn’t lend itself to a “blame the poor” strategy.

  151. 151.

    KrisWV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No, Cruz’s parents, both American citizens at the time, were in Canada working when he was born. The idea that an someone born into American citizenship is not eligible for the presidency is an anti-Obama “innovation” in thought. It’s birther nonsense. Cruz is eligible to be President. God forbid!

  152. 152.

    Pinkamena Panic

    @Hart Williams: Sorry, can’t understand you through all that pie.

    Maybe if you’d stop shoveling it in as you attempt to blogwhore, you’d be understood better.

  153. 153.

    AxelFoley

    @Suzanne:

    Shit like this makes me want to menstruate all over Rand Paul’s front lawn.

    I’m sorry, but I think Suzanne just won this thread and the whole internets for the month with this line.

    Damn good thing I was drinking anything when I read this.

  154. 154.

    Russell M

    @Ben Franklin:

    I think the link between GG and RP is much closer than the link between the President and Sen. Portman.

    see both glenn and rand are small minded “libertarians” who have a tendency to say something stupid right at the five minute mark.

    The president has helped the LGBT community by actually doing things to make it more normal to be whatever in america. portman is an ex-bushie who only discovered that teh gayz were people when he found out his son was gay(on a two year delay, even). The only link between them is that they now both support gay marriage. but only one of them has done a damn thing about it.(and not the ex-bushie)

  156. 156.

    Chyron HR

    @NR:

    Shorter NR: I’m too chickenshit to express my views in a current comment thread where they might actually be seen.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks