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You are here: Home / Coke adds life, advertising world

Coke adds life, advertising world

by DougJ|  February 3, 20149:16 am| 201 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes

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Anne Laurie alluded to this in her post….what’s the deal with that Coke ad all the wingers are freaking out about? I think I saw it because I watched the whole game.

I realize it’s explained in some fashion on other internets somewhere but you guys always do the best job of putting it in language I can understand.

Update. Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway? I remember Stevie Wonder doing it instead of the national anthem before a baseball game once. And there’s no bombs in it and whatnot.

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201Comments

  1. 1.

    jonas

    February 3, 2014 at 9:19 am

    Apparently brown, non-English speaking people were featured in a positive light in a commercial for an American product broadcast during an American sporting event. This was a complete outrage as it could be taken to imply that the world does not revolve entirely around young, white, Anglophone men.

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 3, 2014 at 9:23 am

    “America the Beautiful” with portions of the lyrics translated into other languages (apparently not very well) and sung in a total of seven, including American English, the one in which Jesus dictated the Bible. Technical details here http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10142

  3. 3.

    Lee

    February 3, 2014 at 9:24 am

    My wife saw the add and immediately said “The wingnuts are going to go crazy over that”.

    Nail/Hammer

  4. 4.

    kbuttle

    February 3, 2014 at 9:25 am

    He’s not a commenter here, but I’ll let Calvin explain it as he opined to Hobbes: “Everyone should speak English or shut up”.

  5. 5.

    Citizen_X

    February 3, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Um, the video’s actually posted by AL.

    Here’s another view, from some furriners. We’re all living in Amerika/Coca-Cola, sometimes war.

  6. 6.

    rk

    February 3, 2014 at 9:28 am

    I didn’t see it, but let me hazard a guess. Too many non-whites, not enough blondes,not certified by Jesus.

  7. 7.

    Chyron HR

    February 3, 2014 at 9:30 am

    @Lee:

    I demand that your wife be fired immediately and replaced with one who will respect the noble Tea Party and their foaming-at-the-mouth hatred.

  8. 8.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    February 3, 2014 at 9:30 am

    If English was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for Coca-Cola.

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 3, 2014 at 9:32 am

    So freeze, man, freeze.
    Hit the deck.

  10. 10.

    jheartney

    February 3, 2014 at 9:32 am

    It’s been well known for some time that at some point in the next few decades, the U.S. will cease to be majority white. This fills unreconstructed bigots and authoritarians with unease, and the Coke ad just rubs it in their faces. On top of that, the ad was shown at an event that they feel isn’t supposed to be politically challenging. Thus the freakout.

    I already liked the ad (and I usually don’t like Coke ads), but the fact that it’s pissing off the wingnuts gives me even more warm fuzzies.

  11. 11.

    Cassidy

    February 3, 2014 at 9:32 am

    There was also a gay couple in it, but I’m guessing they missed it because brown people.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 3, 2014 at 9:32 am

    Michael Patrick Leahy over at Breitbart was offended, too.

    Not only did Coke use “a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity – in several foreign languages,” but Leahy noted that the “ad also prominently features a gay couple.”

    Via TPM

    Apparently because a song about “unity” should not be used to actually, you know, unify people. I guess.

  13. 13.

    Jane2

    February 3, 2014 at 9:33 am

    Not only did the ad feature Not Real Muricans, but it didn’t have a faux-patriotic military theme, and thus was completely at odds with the rest of the production.

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    February 3, 2014 at 9:33 am

    @Lee: Was your wife fired for that by MSNBC?

    Edit: And I see that Chyron HR got there first.

  15. 15.

    aimai

    February 3, 2014 at 9:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Having just had a similar argument with an internet troll I can assure you that this makes perfect sense in wingnutese. “Unity” means “sameness” in this dialect–sameness and hierarchy in which normal people (i.e. people that the speaker knows or is related to) are at the top and other kinds of people are tolerated in their place. Thats why a unifying advertising campaign is either all white or

    features white people more prominently with simply a token black or other non white person in the background, in a supporting role.

  16. 16.

    TooManyJens

    February 3, 2014 at 9:39 am

    Update. Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway?

    It mentions God, so that means conservatives own it. I mean, duh.

  17. 17.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 9:39 am

    Just watched the youtube of it. Here’s the problem in a nutshel: Mooooslems!

    Probably black and brown people too, but to my jaded eyes, the main problem is Coke acknowledges that women in head scarves are … oh mah gawd … ‘Merikans.

  18. 18.

    Cacti

    February 3, 2014 at 9:41 am

    Not enough gays or brown people were beat up during the commercial. Wingers everywhere disapproved.

    Good thing Phil Griffin apologized for MSNBC for that Tweet suggesting wingers are a bunch of frothing bigots.

  19. 19.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    February 3, 2014 at 9:41 am

    @jheartney:

    It’s been well known for some time that at some point in the next few decades, the U.S. will cease to be majority white. This fills unreconstructed bigots and authoritarians with unease, and the Coke ad just rubs it in their faces.

    It’s almost as if the bigots and authoritarians know they’ve done things that they fear will get them some payback.

  20. 20.

    Belafon

    February 3, 2014 at 9:42 am

    What’s the point of being able to wave your gun around to scare those others off if companies like Coca Cola are just going to make them feel welcome?

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    February 3, 2014 at 9:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: A bit more from the Breitbart post:

    When the company used such an iconic song, one often sung in churches on the 4th of July that represents the old “E Pluribus Unum” view of how American society is integrated, to push multiculturalism down our throats, it’s no wonder conservatives were outraged.

    It truly wouldn’t be complete without a ‘push [whatever] down our throats’ reference.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    February 3, 2014 at 9:43 am

    Jeez Louise, does no one remember 1971?

  23. 23.

    Mark S.

    February 3, 2014 at 9:44 am

    I guess my “It wasn’t in the language Jesus spoke” comment is too late by about five comments.

    If you are offended by that ad, you have some serious psychological problems. Of course, the charge is being led by Allan West, a man who certainly belongs in a mental institution.

  24. 24.

    NCSteve

    February 3, 2014 at 9:44 am

    Just in case anyone doubted that the order of magnitude increase in the crazification factor that began about ten minutes after Obama was inaugurated was the result of the cognitive dissonance that occurs when people who vociferously deny the existence of white privilege experience terror that white privilege may be about to end, the response to this commercial is here to help.

    Oh, and apparently, “America the Beautiful” is a “Christian” song. I guess because it mentions God and, after all, God and Jesus are the same guy.

  25. 25.

    Sly

    February 3, 2014 at 9:45 am

    I realize it’s explained in some fashion on other internets somewhere but you guys always do the best job of putting it in language I can understand.

    For the right, the American “melting pot” means everyone needs to be liquefied into a creamy, white goop.

  26. 26.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 9:45 am

    Languages unfamiliar to Allen West were heard in contexts not involving waterboarding and deportation! Possibly even in contects of tacit approval! “Truly disturbing.”

  27. 27.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 9:45 am

    I didn’t watch Superbowl except for the half time show, since I don’t get football. So I missed the ad. Is the language that wingnuts speak, English? I thought they spoke word salad which only bears a passing resemblance to English.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 3, 2014 at 9:46 am

    @aimai:

    Having just had a similar argument with an internet troll

    Going there so we don’t have to? ;-)

    Generally I go straight to ridicule.

  29. 29.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 9:46 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    /blank/ over at Breitbart was offended, too.

    This is in their job description. Heck, it is their job description.

  30. 30.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 9:46 am

    What languages besides English did the ad feature?

  31. 31.

    jibeaux

    February 3, 2014 at 9:47 am

    My favorite detail was the bigots on twitter complaining that either “the national anthem” or “my country tis of thee” was being sung in Not English. Why are the people most paranoid about threats to their constitution, country, language, always the ones who could not possibly within current laws of physics know less about those institutions?

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    February 3, 2014 at 9:47 am

    Seattle Seahawk’s Richard Sherman tells fans to stop ripping Peyton Manning on Twitter
    By NJ.com
    Monday, February 3, 2014 3:24 EST

    EAST RUTHERFORD — Hours after Richard Sherman’s Seahawks beat the Broncos to win theSuper Bowl, the outspoken cornerback was asking Seattle fans to stop tearing into Peyton Manning.

    “There is no reason to bash him on here please Seattle let’s just enjoy this one!!!! He is still a Future HOF player,” Sherman tweeted.

    Moments before, Sherman had nothing but kind words for Manning.

    “Peyton is the Classiest person/player I have ever met! I could learn so much from him! Thank you for being a great Competitor and person,” he said in another tweet.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/03/seattle-seahawks-richard-sherman-tells-fans-to-stop-ripping-peyton-manning-on-twitter/

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    February 3, 2014 at 9:47 am

    What it says to me is that Coca Cola is convinced that the wingnuts are in the minority and that the majority of people in this country, who may also enjoy a carbonated beverage, are diverse and happy about it.

    I also think that on the left we should just do our diverse thing joyfully and leave all the anger to the wingnuts. They will turn off so many people by being angry all the time.

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    February 3, 2014 at 9:48 am

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What languages besides English did the ad feature?

    Well, going over to youtube, I saw versions in Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin, and one from a country in the far east.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 3, 2014 at 9:48 am

    @dmsilev: Yeah, but that doesn’t apply to their religion so it’s all OK.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    February 3, 2014 at 9:49 am

    If only Christie hadn’t coned the lanes leading from the gated communities to the filming site…

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    February 3, 2014 at 9:49 am

    @dmsilev:

    It truly wouldn’t be complete without a ‘push [whatever] down our throats’ reference.

    They seem to fantasize about things being pushed down their throats- a lot. Hmmmm.

  38. 38.

    dmsilev

    February 3, 2014 at 9:50 am

    I see NewsMax’s Outrage of the Hour is “Obama: It’s All the Fault of Fox News”.

    Boring.

  39. 39.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 9:51 am

    I hope Coke is paying attention and gets the correct message. This ad was no doubt passed through the chain of command and approved by many functionaries who are, first and foremost, keen to defend the brand and do no harm.

    That this add offends the right should strongly suggest to Coke to stop fucking giving money to the Chamber of Commerce et al. who fund the ever-rightward shift in politics.

  40. 40.

    monkeyfister

    February 3, 2014 at 9:51 am

    So the wingnuts are boycotting Coke now. Chik-Fil-A only sells Coke products. Dilemma!

  41. 41.

    Napoleon

    February 3, 2014 at 9:51 am

    @jheartney:

    On top of that, the ad was shown at an event that they feel isn’t supposed to be politically challenging.

    Hence all the militaristic bull shit that it starts with that would make Caesar blush.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    February 3, 2014 at 9:52 am

    Donald Trump rants: Obama ‘sloppy’ for not wearing a tie on Super Bowl Sunday
    By David Edwards
    Monday, February 3, 2014 9:25 EST

    Reality TV star Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at President Barack Obama as “sloppy” and “not appropriate” because he had chosen to not wear a tie in a Super Bowl pre-game interview.

    While speaking to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in an interview which aired during the Super Bowl XLVIII pregame show, the president opted for dress casual, wearing a jacket and a white dress shirt without a tie, just as he had in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

    “I definitely think he should have worn a tie,” Trump complained to the hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday. “You know, he’s the president of the United States, let him put on a tie. Bill was wearing a tie, not that he has to follow Bill. But Bill was wearing a tie. He’s the president. It’s a formal position, I think he should wear a tie.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/03/donald-trump-rants-obama-sloppy-for-not-wearing-a-tie-on-super-bowl-sunday/

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 9:52 am

    @MomSense: Their dirty, secret fear is that they’ll be Schaivoed.

  44. 44.

    Belafon

    February 3, 2014 at 9:53 am

    I think I need a new t-shirt that says “I speak Arabic every day: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,…”

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 3, 2014 at 9:53 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: English, Spanish, Keres Pueblo, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese French, and Hebrew.

  46. 46.

    Mark S.

    February 3, 2014 at 9:54 am

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What languages besides English did the ad feature?

    Brownish and Foreignese.

  47. 47.

    catclub

    February 3, 2014 at 9:55 am

    “Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway?”
    Might have been, but it was THE song to do in the 7th inning stretch in Major league Baseball
    after 9/11/2001 And is very tiring. This is also why the wingnuts hate the multicultural version.
    If it gets them to stop doing it during the 7th inning stretch it is a double win.

  48. 48.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 9:55 am

    @rikyrah:

    Shorter Trump: I got nothin’.

  49. 49.

    AliceBlue

    February 3, 2014 at 9:56 am

    @monkeyfister:
    “Bring your Pepsi to Chik-Fil-A” Day!

  50. 50.

    monkeyfister

    February 3, 2014 at 9:56 am

    @rikyrah: That’s funny. Did Trumpster complain about his sloppy friends at newsmax, too? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bfg5C8FIEAAn-QY.jpg

    Sure Trupwore a tie last night. I that the new dress code?

  51. 51.

    monkeyfister

    February 3, 2014 at 9:57 am

    @AliceBlue: Dilemma narrowly averted!

  52. 52.

    Napoleon

    February 3, 2014 at 9:57 am

    @MomSense:

    What it says to me is that Coca Cola is convinced that the wingnuts are in the minority and that the majority of people in this country, who may also enjoy a carbonated beverage, are diverse and happy about it.

    I would put a bit of a finer point on it. I suspect the ads are primarily aimed at the young to get them in the habit of buying Coke. If you consider that demo more important then that weighs even heavier in favor of this ad and to ignore what Bill O’Reillys viewers care about.

  53. 53.

    geg6

    February 3, 2014 at 9:58 am

    @Mark S.:

    Of course, the charge is being led by Allan West, a man who certainly belongs in a mental institution on trial as a war criminal at the Hague.

    Fixt.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    February 3, 2014 at 9:58 am

    Paul Ryan perceives ‘lawless presidency’
    02/03/14 09:39 AM
    By Steve Benen

    When congressional Republicans began pushing back last week against President Obama’s use of executive orders, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) helped lead the charge. The Wisconsin Republican, who’s memory has often been suspect, apparently forgot what an executive order even is, complaining that Obama is trying to “write laws.”

    Ryan took this even further yesterday on one of the Sunday shows.

    “It’s not the number of executive orders, it’s the scope of the executive orders. It’s the fact that he’s actually contradicting law, like in the health care case [when Obama delayed provisions of the Affordable Care Act], or proposing new laws without going through Congress, George, that’s the issue,” Ryan told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

    “We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through Congress. Presidents don’t write laws, Congress does,” the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee said

    Ryan added that Obama’s approach to governing is “dangerous.”

    To be sure, we’ve all grown quite accustomed to members of Congress using aggressive, sometimes caustic, rhetoric when presenting an argument, but this is something rather specific. In this case, Paul Ryan – an influential House member, the chairman of a powerful committee, a former candidate for national office, and a possible presidential aspirant – told a national television audience that the Obama presidency is “increasingly lawless.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-ryan-perceives-lawless-presidency

  55. 55.

    catclub

    February 3, 2014 at 9:59 am

    I think I read at LGM: “If Chevy does, ‘A Man, and A Truck, Sitting on a Bridge for four hours,’ I will buy a Silverado.”

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    February 3, 2014 at 9:59 am

    O’Reilly vs. Obama
    02/03/14 08:52 AM
    By Steve Benen

    President Obama doesn’t sit down for many cable-news interviews, so Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly was the beneficiary of a rare opportunity: a one-on-one White House interview with the president to be aired shortly before the Super Bowl. If mainstream viewers tuned in, hoping to see Obama’s answers on the major issues of the day, they were probably disappointed.

    Literally a few seconds into the interview, O’Reilly told the president, “I want to get some things on the record.” And so he did – over the course of 10 minutes, O’Reilly, in this order, pushed for Kathleen Sebelius’ ouster, talked up the 2012 attack in Benghazi, spent on the non-existent IRS controversy, and read a question from a viewer: “Mr. President, why do you feel it’s necessary to fundamentally transform the nation that has afforded you so much opportunity and success?”

    And then the host asked for a Super Bowl prediction.

    This, however, was the part that stood out most, at least for me.

    O’REILLY: I’ve got to get to the IRS –

    OBAMA: Yes.

    O’REILLY: – because I don’t know what happened there and I’m hoping maybe you can tell us. Douglas Shulman, former IRS chief, he was cleared into the White House 157 times, more than any of your cabinet members, more than any other IRS guy in the history, by far. OK, why was Douglas Shulman here 157 times? Why?

    This is what happens when someone gets stuck in an impenetrable bubble.

    The IRS story came and went quite a while ago, so let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane for those who may not remember why the question was so misguided.

    On May 30, 2013, O’Reilly told his viewers that there may be a “smoking gun” in the IRS controversy: former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, the host said, visited the White House 157 times between 2009 and 2012. This proved … something nefarious. O’Reilly didn’t say what, exactly, the problem was, but the statistic was supposed to damning of evidence of something.

    A day later, The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta discovered that the “smoking gun” was shooting blanks: Shulman had been cleared for a series of routine White House gatherings, but only attended 11 events over the course of four years. The “157 times” story wasn’t all that interesting on its own, and upon closer inspection, it wasn’t true, either.

    And at the time, it seemed like a mild embarrassment for O’Reilly, but these things happen. He reported a claim on May 30, which was debunked on May 31, which meant the Fox News host would have to simply move on to something else.

    Except, he didn’t. Even after the “157 times” story had been discredited, O’Reilly kept repeating it, over and over again, apparently unaware of the fact that it’s wrong.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oreilly-vs-obama

  57. 57.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    February 3, 2014 at 10:00 am

    @rikyrah:

    “I definitely think he should have worn a tie,” Trump complained to the hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday. “You know, he’s the president of the United States, let him put on a tie. Bill was wearing a tie, not that he has to follow Bill. But Bill was wearing a tie. He’s the president. It’s a formal position, I think he should wear a tie.”

    “And you clouds, you know who you are! Stop following me around…”

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    February 3, 2014 at 10:00 am

    @catclub:

    Might have been, but it was THE song to do in the 7th inning stretch in Major league Baseball after 9/11/2001 And is very tiring. This is also why the wingnuts hate the multicultural version. If it gets them to stop doing it during the 7th inning stretch it is a double win.

    You’re thinking of God Bless America.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    February 3, 2014 at 10:00 am

    Since the Super Bowl is streamed all over the world, I thought it was a great ad. Conservatives should be proud.

  60. 60.

    PurpleGirl

    February 3, 2014 at 10:01 am

    @Belafon: Make that Aramaic. Jesus mostly spoke Aramaic in his daily life.

  61. 61.

    jibeaux

    February 3, 2014 at 10:01 am

    I think there is, or was, a little bit of a lefty push at one time to make America the Beautiful the national anthem, although I wasn’t really on board with it. It’s a pretty song, but I find it a little prosaic and it’s really just about scenery. I don’t love the national anthem either and it’s hard as hell to sing, but there’s something more stirring about it. Land of the free and home of the brave is just more the sentiment I want the national anthem to project. /sappiness out

  62. 62.

    catclub

    February 3, 2014 at 10:02 am

    @Cacti: I sit corrected. It has also apparently melted my brain.

  63. 63.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 10:03 am

    @catclub:

    “Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway?”

    I think this confuses This Land Is Your Land with America the Beautiful. This Land is Yerz is most definitely lefty. Am the Beau, if the wiki is credible, does have a church basis.

  64. 64.

    boatboy_srq

    February 3, 2014 at 10:04 am

    Update. Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway? I remember Stevie Wonder doing it instead of the national anthem before a baseball game once. And there’s no bombs in it and whatnot.

    Dollars to doughnuts the wingnuts who aren’t offended by Teh Brownness or Teh Gheyness or by other languages than Gawd’s Own English™ will be frothing over Amber Waves of Grain, Fruited Plains and either the Sea or the Shining Sea – all registered trademarks of ADM, ConAgra, Monsanto or some other Corporate Pershonood-imbued citizen. Freedom™ is the freedom to take the public sphere, reengineer it and sell it back to the consumer for a profit, after all, and nothing showcases Progress or Development like the stripmined MTRd wastes of Appalachia.

    (“Have you no idea of Progress, of Development?” “I have seen them both in a egg: we call it Going Bad in Narnia.”)

  65. 65.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 3, 2014 at 10:05 am

    @JPL: The Super Bowl is streamed all over the world, but its adverts aren’t. A few years ago I watched it in Europe, and saw none of the American ads (and didn’t have the American announcers, either.)

  66. 66.

    Belafon

    February 3, 2014 at 10:09 am

    @PurpleGirl: I was talking about numbers, but that would be funny.

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 3, 2014 at 10:12 am

    Until now, I have entertained doubts that maybe racism is only part of the current right wing freakout. This puts those doubts to rest.

    Racism, Doug. The freakout is about racism. The video shows non-white, non-English speaking people being patriotically American. Conservatives are losing their shit over that. This is textbook racism. No code words, just ‘America for white people.’ Some of them are adding ‘American for fundamentalist Christian white people.’ That is definitely not less racist.

  68. 68.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 10:13 am

    @rikyrah: Did George Sycophantopolis point out that the Congress has passed virtually no new laws and has abandoned doing the country’s business, thus it may be a necessary consequence to expand presidential power?

    Mmmm?

    Of course he didn’t. That would be journalism.

  69. 69.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 10:17 am

    They really have become such low-hanging predictible squirts that ad agencies know exactly where and how to poke to drive up buzz. Now, corps may have second thoughts by different layers of management with different tolerences for sound and fury, and back off in an inglorious pander, but. But. That screaming lot really is an islet of predictable in the digit sea of why did that just happen?

  70. 70.

    slippy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:17 am

    I had several responses:

    1. Well this all seems depressingly familiar. I certainly hope Coke doesn’t issue some kind of pathetic apology for making non-white people look like they can be American too.

    2. Whatever happened to “give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses?” The people throwing a shit-fit about all this should look up their ancestors, who passed under that very legend on their way to turning out their own anchor-babies.

    3. The far right seems determined to leave as shitty a taste in this nation’s mouth as they can, in advance of the already wildly-racist and stupid 2014 election campaigns they appear intent on running.

  71. 71.

    Cluttered Mind

    February 3, 2014 at 10:17 am

    America the Beautiful may mention God over and over, but it also includes this line:

    “God mend thine every flaw, ”

    This alone makes it a lefty song by default, as wingnuts begin to froth at the mouth the moment anyone suggests that America has any flaws, let alone flaws that God might need to step in for.

  72. 72.

    raven

    February 3, 2014 at 10:17 am

    @rikyrah: Please please please learn to use the quote and link function for these endless posts of yours.

  73. 73.

    gene108

    February 3, 2014 at 10:18 am

    @Belafon:

    I think I need a new t-shirt that says “I speak Arabic every day: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,…”

    Those are actually Sanskrit numbers. The West got introduced to them from the Arabs, who were trading with India.

    I’m all for the preservation of “true American (i.e. European)” values by all the right-wingers having to do their tax returns in Roman numerals.

  74. 74.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:21 am

    As a former ad agency guy as I saw this ad unfold I think I might have said out loud:

    Cue 3, 2, 1 …. right wing freak out.

    I might note the firm Interbrand (along with Businessweek) does a global branding analysis each year of the brand value in dollar amounts of each firm. Almost always Coca Cola is #1. Ahead of Apple. VW. Samsung. In fact I think there are only like 3-4 countries in the entire world where you can’t legally buy Coke. Heaven forbid they present themself as a global brand.

  75. 75.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2014 at 10:23 am

    @raven: Yes, please, rikyah!

  76. 76.

    Nylund

    February 3, 2014 at 10:24 am

    English, Spanish, Keres Pueblo, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese French, and Hebrew.

    OK, so there’s English, no wingnut problem there. Then there’s three languages by people that have been, at some point or another, conquered by America, singing about how awesome America is, promoting an American product. Then there’s the language of India, and Israel, probably the two countries that are closest to the wingnut’s anti-Islam views out of any countries in the world.

    So I guess that means it’s the Senegalese French that pisses them off. Maybe they’re upset that the French ended Senegal’s role in the Atlantic slave trade?

  77. 77.

    LAC

    February 3, 2014 at 10:25 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: except when you want to unite illiterate angry white folks on twitter. My god, you wanted to take a red pen to some that shitty writing.

  78. 78.

    slippy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:26 am

    Literally a few seconds into the interview, O’Reilly told the president, “I want to get some things on the record.

    I sure wish Obama had said “me too, BIll. Let’s start with the farrago of lies you’re about to spew, which are all crap.”

  79. 79.

    Ash Can

    February 3, 2014 at 10:26 am

    Dear Reince Priebus:

    The right wing is racist. Also, by your own tacit admission, the right wing and the GOP are synonymous. This makes the GOP racist. This is the truth. If the truth hurts, it’s not our problem, it’s yours. And if you don’t like it, then grow the hell up, take some responsibility for once in your life, and fucking deal with it.

    Up yours,

    America

  80. 80.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 10:27 am

    @gene108: Do we let the Jebus bugs use the letters as numbers system used in Hebrew as a pious alternative? And if so, do we insist they drop all use of vowels in written text like that old time religion they so pine for?

  81. 81.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:30 am

    @scav: How about it. It never ceases to amaze me now little I know. A few years ago I read the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. I had no idea zero is a fairly recent concept in the grand scheme of things. And well Muslims promoted it. The Vatican was AGAINST its use.

    Imgaine 2014 without the number zero.

  82. 82.

    dmsilev

    February 3, 2014 at 10:32 am

    @Tommy:

    Imgaine 2014 without the number zero.

    214?

  83. 83.

    Ash Can

    February 3, 2014 at 10:32 am

    @raven: What’s the big deal? Rikyrah always gives links. More important than that, s/he is one of the few most informative commenters on this blog, if not the most informative. Who gives a fuck about the aesthetics? And if rikyrah’s posts are too long for you to read, then skip them. No one’s forcing you to read them.

  84. 84.

    LAC

    February 3, 2014 at 10:34 am

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Trump is like the Denver broncos in the third quarter- fucking useless and wasting airtime. That constipated anus pucker faced comb-over needs to take a seat already.

  85. 85.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 10:35 am

    @Nylund:

    Then there’s the language of India, and Israel, probably the two countries that are closest to the wingnut’s anti-Islam views out of any countries in the world.

    Hindi is just one of the many languages of India, and in what way is India closest to the the wingnut’s anti-Islam views? After Indonesia, India has the most Muslims in the world. Yes India has their own version of rabid wingnuts, but Muslim culture is interwoven in the Indian fabric for centuries. Not everyone buys into the hateful BJP ( India’s GOP like party) lies and neither is that the official Indian policy.

  86. 86.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    February 3, 2014 at 10:36 am

    @dmsilev: MMXIV

  87. 87.

    Roger Moore

    February 3, 2014 at 10:38 am

    @jibeaux:

    I don’t love the national anthem either and it’s hard as hell to sing, but there’s something more stirring about it.

    It also happens to be one of the few patriotic songs that doesn’t mention God, at least in the verse that’s generally sung at public events. And for all the bombs and stuff, it’s about withstanding an attack rather than making one.

  88. 88.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:38 am

    @dmsilev: LOL. It is a wonderful book. Short and too the point. I like to think I am good at a lot of things, math isn’t one of them. So not normally a book I’d read, but math was such a small part of it. Literally a history of the number 0.

    The summary on Amazon says it better than I can:

    The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity’s twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.

    In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers—from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today’s astrophysicists—who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

    I just hate folks seem to slam Muslims as some backwards people, when the exact opposite is true. Maybe they are not at their best now in some nations, but you can’t forget history. And at least IMHO from a math, science, and language point-of-view they gave a lot to humanity.

  89. 89.

    raven

    February 3, 2014 at 10:41 am

    @Ash Can: Was I talking to you? And what the fuck does “few most informative” mean?

  90. 90.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 10:42 am

    @Tommy: It was first used by Indian mathematicians, as a number not just a concept. Shunya, is the Sanskrit word for zero, which means nothingness. Arab traders took those ideas of zero and the decimal system and made them more widespread.

  91. 91.

    Roger Moore

    February 3, 2014 at 10:43 am

    @Nylund:
    There’s a key problem with your analysis: it requires knowing and caring what the languages are. For wingnuts, there’s English and foreign, and that’s the only distinction that matters.

  92. 92.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 10:45 am

    @Tommy: Zero, ah yes, dangerous dangerous. Pretty sure I have that Zero book. My gateway into numbering systems was From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers by George Ifrah. I love the bit about the original Indo-Arabic numbers getting rotated about because Europeans wouldn’t use them as designed but wrote them on the chips of the abacus-like counting boards (dept of the Exchequer!) they used to make calculations. Well, that and the sheer variety of bodyparts could be used in counting systems. Ten digits? Inevitable? HA!

  93. 93.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 10:50 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: As an addition, Mayans had a zero too. See here, randomly chosen. If I remember correctly, place based numbering systems require it, but something about societies really being into astronomy seems tied in.

  94. 94.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 10:50 am

    @Tommy: Cultures are not static, they evolve, they go through phases where they are open to the outside world, open to new ideas, they can also go through phases where they think that they are the best and the outside world has nothing to offer, the next phase is usually calcification of orthodoxy and a decline. History is littered with examples of once great cultures usurped by upstarts.

  95. 95.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 10:51 am

    @scav: Many cultures had the concept of zero but Hindu mathematicians were first to use it as a number, had rules governing zero in mathematical operations and such, all these rules agree with rules for zero that we use today except for division by zero.

  96. 96.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 3, 2014 at 10:52 am

    @catclub:

    “Isn’t “America the Beautiful” kind of a lefty song anyway?”
    Might have been, but it was THE song to do in the 7th inning stretch in Major league Baseball
    after 9/11/2001

    Pretty sure that was “God Bless America,” not “America the Beautiful.”

  97. 97.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 10:55 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: but there does seem to be evidence for independent discovery of the concept on the two hemispheres as I understand things.

    Eta: maybe I,m using concept wrong? They had a clam shell symbol the used. Not place based fully but an explicit symbol for zero.

  98. 98.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 10:58 am

    @scav: AFAIK Mayans did not have a decimal system. From your link, this is what it say about the Mayan numerals;

    Despite the use of zero in the place value system, it was never used for calculations.

  99. 99.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 10:59 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yes they do and I don’t want to comment on what happened with Muslim nations. I think I might have an idea, but it would most likely be wrong. In my little rural town a Mosque was built about 15 years ago. A housing development went up across the street.

    One of the more wealthy areas by me, and mostly but not all Muslim. Teachers. Doctors. Lawyers. Engineers. I don’t live in the most diverse areas but I am not sure there are many folks that don’t view this as a “win-win” for where I live.

  100. 100.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 10:59 am

    @Ash Can: Is “Please please please” not adequately supplicant? I’d say it is. Wouldn’t you?

  101. 101.

    slippytoad

    February 3, 2014 at 11:00 am

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    It’s almost as if the bigots and authoritarians know they’ve done things that they fear will get them some payback.

    Well, you have to understand intellectually, emotionally, that is the level they’re stuck at. They for whatever reason were raised to the emotional age of about 12, and then validated in their immature, hateful behavior whenever it was displayed. So they think like young, impulsive, socially immature junior high school kids. Think back to the immature petty who’s better than who behavior that we all endured, and then if you really listen to how the racists talk that is where they are stuck. 12 year olds with impulse control issues and a chip on their shoulder. They are ALL ABOUT revenge, and they’re just projecting their own hateful impulses and telling the rest of us what they would do, if they could.

  102. 102.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 11:02 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: Exactly, but they did do astronomy, and needed the symbol there, they needed to explicitly write out the equivalent of x degrees zero minutes, so many seconds. There, that’s the tie-in I couldn’t remember. They needed it there.

    EtA: so I think we’ve just got slightly different criteria for what having zero means. I’m satisfied with it’s explitic use in

  103. 103.

    dmsilev

    February 3, 2014 at 11:04 am

    @Tommy:

    Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

    I hope that’s just some blurb-writer’s misinterpretation of what the book actually says, because it’s nonsense.

  104. 104.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 11:05 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: What Indian mathematicians invented was (1) the idea of zero as a number that you could do operations with; and (2) the decimal place-value system that we use to this day.

    You’re also right that ancient Indian division by zero was not the impossibility we take it to be today.

  105. 105.

    slippytoad

    February 3, 2014 at 11:06 am

    @Tommy:

    I just hate folks seem to slam Muslims as some backwards people, when the exact opposite is true.

    I think the Muslim religion has the exact same proportion of deplorable savagery and an earnest passion to fix it that any other does, and like every religion on earth it is flawed and serves solely to hold back their cultural progress and impose authority without question.

    The Arabic culture hit some very high points and it’s telling that a tremendous number of the stars have Arabic names, and that we use the Arabic numbering system. The problem that these cultures pose is that they are currently dominated by authoritarian dictators, and the parts of the Muslim world we find detestable are all really the authoritarian parts. The language with which American right-wing authoritarians speak is identical to their Muslim counterparts, the only difference is we don’t live in a bloody-minded dictatorship that takes them seriously.

    Other than that, when I hear right-wing Christians shrieking about the savagery of Islam, all I see is a savage looking in the mirror and howling with fear at his own visage.

  106. 106.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 11:07 am

    @Tommy: I can’t speak to what happened to Islam everywhere in the world but in India, the last powerful Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, was an austere religious zealot, his reign was dominated by constant war against the other. After his death, the Mughal Empire declined and made it easier for the East India Company to take over large parts of India.

    P.S. 1) I am simplifying a great deal. 2) I fear that the Wingnuts want to take us the way of Aurangzeb.

  107. 107.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 11:08 am

    @Cervantes: For once we are in complete agreement!

  108. 108.

    Laertes

    February 3, 2014 at 11:09 am

    @raven:

    @Ash Can: Was I talking to you? And what the fuck does “few most informative” mean?

    Who gives a shit who you were talking to? And if you can’t read perfectly simple English, who’s fucking problem is that anyway?

    Spoiler: The answer to both questions is “you and absolutely nobody else.”

  109. 109.

    Ash Can

    February 3, 2014 at 11:10 am

    @raven: It means that rikyrah contributes more to the comments here than 99.8% of all BJ commenters, including you and me, and I don’t like seeing that kind of quality discouraged.

  110. 110.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 11:11 am

    @scav: Missed the window, anyway, I think I’m just satisfied with a less than comprehensive use of a the properties of the concept, they’d started the ball rolling. Would they have further elaborated if given more time? Not a clue.

  111. 111.

    jonas

    February 3, 2014 at 11:13 am

    @dmsilev:

    When the company used such an iconic song, one often sung in churches on the 4th of July that represents the old “E Pluribus Unum” view of how American society is integrated, to push multiculturalism down our throats, it’s no wonder conservatives were outraged.

    If these white, neo-Confederate cretins actually knew history and/or Latin, they would know that “E pluribus unum” means “from the several, one” referring not to race or ethnicity, but to the “several states” at the nation’s founding that came together to form, ahem, “one” united country.

  112. 112.

    bluefoot

    February 3, 2014 at 11:13 am

    @NotMax: Yeah, exactly. That was the first thing I thought of too. And didn’t Coca-cola update those commercials in the early 90s too? Wingnuts will be wingnuts, I suppose.

  113. 113.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 11:15 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: @scav:

    You have a book about the Mayas and numbers you would recommend? I live not that far from Cahokia Mounds. I am stunned there was a civilization a few miles from me that in like 1500 was larger then London or Paris. They keep uncovering stuff and now much of it seems to indicate the same level of Mayan numerals and astrology knowlege.

    Try this video if you don’t know about the Cahokia Mounds. Fast forward to 2:00 or so and wow, wow, wow.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzHmDQlFNWk

    It will make you feel “small.” I go there a few times a year for many reasons. The top of the list are (1) we don’t even know the name of people that built earthen structures larger then the pyramids and (2) what happened to them.

    BTW: If I could go back to college again, I’d be an archeologist :).

  114. 114.

    Freemark

    February 3, 2014 at 11:17 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: I should point out the evidence is strong that the 0-9 decimal system was first developed in China. The Hindus made the symbology better and then the Arab traders spread it around the world. It was a true multicultural effort.

    Considering this, maybe we can get wingnuts to start using Roman numerals as someone in an earlier comment suggested.

  115. 115.

    scav

    February 3, 2014 at 11:18 am

    @jonas: That jarbly bit of christian-to-lions oppressing letters must be a language Allen West recognizes and thus licit. And they repented–or something.

    To the point, NYT bit on Jacob Bronowski seems apropos: The Dangers of Certainty. Many can probably guess which bit is meant.

  116. 116.

    Corner Stone

    February 3, 2014 at 11:19 am

    @Laertes: Hey fucko. I’ll thank you kindly for leaving a “Spoiler Alert” next time for those of us who like a little surprise in our lives.

  117. 117.

    Keith G

    February 3, 2014 at 11:21 am

    @raven:

    And what the fuck does “few most informative” mean?

    Knows how to cut & paste.

  118. 118.

    Corner Stone

    February 3, 2014 at 11:24 am

    @Ash Can:

    and I don’t like seeing that kind of quality discouraged.

    So I’m clear, are you referring to actual commentary and analysis/opinion? Or the news aggregator aspect?

  119. 119.

    Mnemosyne

    February 3, 2014 at 11:24 am

    @Ash Can:

    I usually like rikyrah’s links, but there have been a couple of days recently when there were 10 or 15 different ones in a single thread, which is why I think people are expressing some exasperation.

    The links in this thread have been targeted to what people have been talking about in the thread, which is good, but there have been some recent days when we’ve been flooded. Maybe if she (?) has a ton of links on a particular day, it might be better to post a short Hey y’all I have a roundup of some interesting stories on my blog including ones about X, Y, and Z, and link to the blog so people who are interested can go over there.

  120. 120.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 11:24 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: It happens more than you think, obviously. (I know this because you said “For once.”)

    Cheers.

  121. 121.

    West of the Cascades

    February 3, 2014 at 11:25 am

    Evidently the Collective warned all the drones that they were not allowed to freak out about the Cheerios ad, and so they found the Coke ad against which to direct their outrage. It still proves the point of the hapless MSNBC tweeter.

    Also, re: Coke’s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” ad from 1971 … wingers wouldn’t have been upset because Coke wanted to teach the world to sing in English.

  122. 122.

    boatboy_srq

    February 3, 2014 at 11:28 am

    @Roger Moore:

    there’s English and foreign

    Most deliciously succinct. Especially considering their (not so distant) ancestors most likely spoke (one of) French, German, Russian, Polish, Italian, or a host of other not-English tongues.

  123. 123.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 11:29 am

    Stupid question. Can folks here, well long time members, explain why you get a “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

    I saw a few get held where I talked about P Riot and I spelled out the P word. I get that. Totally get it.

    But the last comment held was, I can’t imagine a single thing to be flagged about. About Mayans and numbers. No cuss words.

    Just curious.

  124. 124.

    Corner Stone

    February 3, 2014 at 11:31 am

    @Tommy: Like the true inventor of zero, it’s a mystery.

  125. 125.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 11:32 am

    @Tommy: If you try to edit your comment more than once after it has been posted, lands your comment in moderation, also if you have more than 2 links. As for other things only Tunch knows.

  126. 126.

    Roger Moore

    February 3, 2014 at 11:34 am

    @Tommy:
    Did you accidentally include a bunch of citations? FYWP dumps any post with more than 3 links (including links to previous posters) into moderation.

  127. 127.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 11:35 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: One link no edits.

  128. 128.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 11:38 am

    @slippy:

    2. Whatever happened to “give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses?”

    Not to mention “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

    Whatever happened to all that sentiment, you ask? I can find no reason to believe these clowns have actually read the poem, let alone thought about it.

  129. 129.

    Freemark

    February 3, 2014 at 11:38 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: @Freemark: Made a mistake on one thing, the Chinese did not have an explicit 0. But the Chinese developed the base-10 system and the add/sub/mult rules that are used today including negative numbers. The evidence indicates that the Indian system was ‘built’ on the Chinese system.

  130. 130.

    Cluttered Mind

    February 3, 2014 at 11:39 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: You are correct. It is STILL going on, and it is the second most aggravating part of watching playoff baseball. The most aggravating, as always, is Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

  131. 131.

    Cluttered Mind

    February 3, 2014 at 11:39 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: You are correct. It is STILL going on, and it is the second most aggravating part of watching playoff baseball. The most aggravating, as always, is Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

  132. 132.

    Tommy

    February 3, 2014 at 11:40 am

    @Roger Moore: This is what I wrote:

    You have a book about the Mayas and numbers you would recommend? I live not that far from Cahokia Mounds. I am stunned there was a civilization a few miles from me that in like 1500 was larger then London or Paris. They keep uncovering stuff and now much of it seems to indicate the same level of Mayan numerals and astrology knowlege.

    Try this video if you don’t know about the Cahokia Mounds. Fast forward to 2:00 or so and wow, wow, wow.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzHmDQlFNWk

    It will make you feel “small.” I go there a few times a year for many reasons. The top of the list are (1) we don’t even know the name of people that built earthen structures larger then the pyramids and (2) what happened to them.

    BTW: If I could go back to college again, I’d be an archeologist :).

  133. 133.

    MCA1

    February 3, 2014 at 11:43 am

    @DougJ – “I remember Stevie Wonder doing it instead of the national anthem before a baseball game once.”

    This may have happened, but I’m guessing you’re thinking of Ray Charles before the All-Star Game in Houston a few years ago, instead. His rendition of that song really moves me, and no 4th of July is complete for me without hearing it. I’m sure they went on to sing the national anthem at that All-Star Game, as well. It’s sort of become de rigeur, I think, to do both now at big sporting events, in addition to now singing “God Bless America” at Yankee Stadium during the 7th inning stretch post-9/11. I’m thinking part of it is that “America The Beautiful” is just a better tune than “The Star Spangled Banner,” and people enjoy singing it (and can cover the range of it, as well).

    Anyway, I thought that Coke ad was the best one I saw during the Superbowl, and 10 seconds into it I thought “I bet a lot of people are going to freak out about this. How dare someone who doesn’t sing exclusively in English also love America!”

  134. 134.

    raven

    February 3, 2014 at 11:49 am

    @Ash Can: And it’s very hard to differentiate between the posts and the comments which is why I asked, asked, you know.

  135. 135.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    February 3, 2014 at 11:51 am

    @monkeyfister: I was gonna say. Where is somebody supposed to eat if they hate gays AND foreigners?

  136. 136.

    Origuy

    February 3, 2014 at 11:58 am

    @Tommy: I think you’d be interested in 1491, by Charles Mann. It’s about the civilizations that were here before Columbus. It’s very well written and covers the entire hemisphere. His sequel, 1493, is also very good. It talks about how the Old World changed as a result.

  137. 137.

    J R in WV

    February 3, 2014 at 11:58 am

    @PurpleGirl:

    You Lie~!~~!~!~!~!!~!

    Everbody knows that Jesus wrote the King James Bible in Engblish!!!!!

  138. 138.

    KXB

    February 3, 2014 at 12:00 pm

    Well, to be fair, it showed an attractive Muslim woman wearing a hijab and not blowing something up. Come on! Does that ever happen?

  139. 139.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 3, 2014 at 12:00 pm

    @Freemark: Advancement of knowledge is a collaborative effort and it has always been. As I pointed in an earlier comment, thinking of oneself or one’s heritage/culture/country as the bestest evah is usually the beginning of the end.

  140. 140.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 3, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    I wish Obama would get off his thin black ass and open up the FEMA camps to process these reactionary assholes into something useful.

  141. 141.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 3, 2014 at 12:04 pm

    @Cluttered Mind:

    Well, for the Super Bowl we got Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

    So, pretty much “same difference”.

  142. 142.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 3, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    @Tommy:

    FYWP hates you. As it hates every commenter here.

    Welcome to the club!

  143. 143.

    lgerard

    February 3, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    I wonder if the wingnuts realize that the lady who wrote the lyrics liked other ladies in a way that Jesus does not approve of?

  144. 144.

    blondie

    February 3, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    I’m naively astonished that people who are no more than 2 generations removed from immigrant ships, who are proud of their forebears coming to America to make their way, who get choked up at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, who save copies of their parents’ and grandparents’ certificates of citizenship, whose speech retains vestiges of an accent and non-English words, cannot see the beauty of that ad.

  145. 145.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    February 3, 2014 at 12:07 pm

    @slippytoad:

    …every religion on earth … is flawed and serves solely to hold back … cultural progress and impose authority without question.

    Well, now, hang on there. Martin Luther King was a minister, and a lot of his most steadfast backers were also ministers, both Black and white. Desmond Tutu is a bishop. Religion, like most things, well, people can twist things to their own ends. Sometimes it’s good, and other times it can really harm an awful lot. I go to a church that’s fanatical (in a good way) about telling people to ask and ask and ask. If something doesn’t make sense or if it seems wrong, then maybe it is. Even the Bible.

  146. 146.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    @Freemark:

    The Chinese did not have an explicit 0. But the Chinese developed the base-10 system and the add/sub/mult rules that are used today including negative numbers. The evidence indicates that the Indian system was ‘built’ on the Chinese system.

    What evidence? (Also: earlier you said this evidence is “strong.”)

  147. 147.

    doctoromed

    February 3, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Has anyone mentioned that the author of America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates, was a lesbian English professor at Wellesley? Who spent 25 years in a committed relationship, until the death of her partner? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/07/04/224538/-OH-BEAUTIFUL

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    February 3, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    @Tommy:

    FYWP has a long list of words banned because of the likelyhood of the words being used in spam, like V1agra, c0dine, cas1no etc. I’ve misspelled these words here totry to avoid the FYWP spam filter.

    No one knows all the banned words, and it may be that the list changes automatically as spam evolves. There is much mystery surrounding the decisions FYWP makes.

  149. 149.

    jon

    February 3, 2014 at 12:14 pm

    Tim Tebow had a better night than Peyton Manning.

    Not a good night for football.

  150. 150.

    Howlin Wolfe

    February 3, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Oh beautiful, where old white guys
    Want all to look the same,
    Go purple in majestic rage
    When foreign words obtain.

    America, America, it’s not how it should be!
    I frown upon ones in the ‘hood
    Who aren’t all white like me.

    Dagnabbit! and get offa my lawn!

  151. 151.

    g

    February 3, 2014 at 12:47 pm

    @aimai: “unity” means sameness. White sameness, that is.

  152. 152.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 3, 2014 at 12:47 pm

    @jon: How does your second sentence follow from the first?

  153. 153.

    Tokyokie

    February 3, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Actually, nine, if you include English: Spanish, Tagalog, Senegalese-French, Hindi, Madarin, Hebrew, Arabic and Keres, an unwritten Native American language. At least that’s what Coke recorded. A couple might have been excised.

  154. 154.

    boatboy_srq

    February 3, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    @blondie: I’m cynically unsurprised at that same thing. All one has to do is look at the history of immigration in the US and the same behavior occurs regularly with each new wave of immigrants. Each wave treats the following waves as somehow inferior: unclean, diseased, unintelligent, Other in a variety of ways. Thus did the Anglo-Franco-Spanish group treat the Irish and Italians, and did the Irish and Italians treat the Slavs, etc etc. It’s ugly, it’s hypocritical, and it’s predictable. There are two sides for each wave: the instinct to slam the door of opportunity as soon as they’re through, and the struggle to prove to the preceding settlement’s descendants that they are just like those already settled folk and not like those Other people.

  155. 155.

    vtr

    February 3, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    For once I agree with the right wing; “America the Beautiful” should be our national anthem. And I think its performance was far better than Renee Fleming’s overly operatic performance of the “Star Spangled Banner.” I thought the whole anthem presentation was jingoism kitscht that would embarrassed Leni Riefenstahl. And yes, I am the music and theatre critic for our entire house.

  156. 156.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 12:55 pm

    @Tokyokie: Right.

    Here’s a “behind the scenes” version. It includes many outrageous statements.

  157. 157.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 3, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Someone may have made this point already but I think this is a sign we’re winning, and maybe a lot faster than we think. I guarantee Coke saw the potential for this backlash but aired the commercial anyway. It’s almost as pinko as their 1970’s “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad campaing. If their marketers, who are generally pretty good at marketing, think they’ll sell more product with this message than they’ll lose via the wingnut freakout, then that means we’re winning in the sense that the multi-culti left is again the mainstream.

  158. 158.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 3, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Someone may have made this point already but I think this is a sign we’re winning, and maybe a lot faster than we think. I guarantee Coke saw the potential for this backlash but aired the commercial anyway. It’s almost as pinko as their 1970’s “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad campaing. If their marketers, who are generally pretty good at marketing, think they’ll sell more product with this message than they’ll lose via the wingnut freakout, then that means we’re winning in the sense that the multi-culti left is again the mainstream.

  159. 159.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 3, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Someone may have made this point already but I think this is a sign we’re winning, and maybe a lot faster than we think. I guarantee Coke saw the potential for this backlash but aired the commercial anyway. It’s almost as pinko as their 1970’s “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad campaing. If their marketers, who are generally pretty good at marketing, think they’ll sell more product with this message than they’ll lose via the wingnut freakout, then that means we’re winning in the sense that the multi-culti left is again the mainstream.

  160. 160.

    MazeDancer

    February 3, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    @MomSense:

    Completely right on about Coca-Cola would not have made that ad if they didn’t have demographic studies showing Americans the Beautiful Who Drink Coke Are Not So White Anymore.

    You can now teach the world to sing without leaving the country.

    And how cool about the Keres Pueblo and gay couple!

    It was a lovely, lovely ad. Picturing actual America. Well, very nicely styled and expensively shot actual America. But still, lovely. (And I may be practically Bloomberg-esque on the poison of oversweetened carbonated beverages.)

  161. 161.

    Corner Stone

    February 3, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    @Cervantes: My God. So many brown people in that clip. I could only take about 45 seconds before I had to shut it off.

  162. 162.

    Anna in PDX

    February 3, 2014 at 1:05 pm

    @LAC: Wasn’t that the only quarter they actually scored in?

  163. 163.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 1:09 pm

    @Corner Stone: Don’t forget to wash down your computer.

  164. 164.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    February 3, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    @raven: This.

  165. 165.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 1:11 pm

    @Mark S.: Oh, you scamp!

  166. 166.

    Jay C

    February 3, 2014 at 1:26 pm

    @gene108:

    I’m all for the preservation of “true American (i.e. European)” values by all the right-wingers having to do their tax returns in Roman numerals.

    Yeah, I’m sure they’d love to have fill out their Form MXLs, attaching all their MXCIX’s, and making that XX% contribition to their LI(c)(III)….

  167. 167.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    @Jay C: DI(c)(III)

  168. 168.

    karen

    February 3, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    Perhaps Coke should try “If I Had A Hammer” and really freak the righties out.

  169. 169.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 3, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    @MomSense: Is it fair to say that I hated the ad because a) the Coca-Cola organization is completely full of shit, pimping sugar water to kids aggressively in the US and Canada and blaming parents/schools when kids get obese or diabetic because they weren’t physically active enough and b) I hate these fucking kumbaya selling America ads. I just about died waiting for the US Customs hell line after my last overseas vacation… no other country I’ve ever entered shows you a 3 minute smarmy, Disneyesque tourism/immigration ad while putting you through a Customs & Immigration process that would have made officials in the old Austro-Hungarian empire blush. As a US Citizen waiting in the interminable line of doom it was a double shame, first that my government foisted that ridiculous ad on the line, humiliating, and secondly that, no matter how badly I and my wife were about to get treated by the officer at the head of the line (and oh yeah, it’s been bad) we weren’t in for the anal probing that the overseas tourists were, geez, what a fucking start to your vacation. Italy didn’t fucking take my fingerprints. The UK only made me sign a piece of paper stating I wasn’t going to try to get a job or collect benefits. United Kingdom of Murdoch, just like at home! The UK does grill you before boarding an airplane, but as a phomelaninic Irish person I do know that some of us (looks askance) gave them reason to be paranoid about that.

  170. 170.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 3, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    @RaflW: Contrawise, if CoC didn’t exist corps like Coke would have to invent it. More likely the CoC will withdraw support from GOPers deemed too teaparty and not malleable enough to corporate interests.

    They want culture warriors who will stay bought, not socons on a mission from God who will go rogue.

    eta: wow, I can’t spell without my daily espresso. dammit!

  171. 171.

    brantl

    February 3, 2014 at 1:51 pm

    The wingers are convinced that there is a line in it about love it or leave it, somewhere, even though it isn’t. This is a song that everyone can fit into their own ideology, which is why it bugs the shit out of them, to hear the majurity of it in other languages. When you couple that with the fact that this is the song that made the big impression on you as a kit, as it most neatly integrates little-kidly values into a nice package, it hits them viscerally, in a bad way, just as it hits us viscerally, in a good way. They hate “West SIde Story”, guess why?

  172. 172.

    LAC

    February 3, 2014 at 2:03 pm

    @Anna in PDX: yeah… But they managed to outdo their safety clusterfuck with “here’s the ball dude. Run it up the field. I’ll watch. ..” performance at the beginning of the third.

  173. 173.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 3, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    @Cervantes: Whoa, whoa, division by zero is not impossible. You just have to define the context. For example, in an infinite series where you are dividing 1 by 1/N where N–>countable number infinity and therefore 1/N –> zero, then the limit is positive infinity-sub-one, not an undefined or unknowable expression at all.

    However, if you attempt operations while stripping out the limits you can create sophistic “proofs” that any number equals any other number by dividing both sides by zero. The trick is in concealing the zero through some other chicanery. Schoolkid stuff, really.

  174. 174.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 2:08 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: Sure, except that I didn’t say it was impossible. I said we take it to be so.

  175. 175.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 3, 2014 at 2:16 pm

    @Freemark: Link, please?

    Even today, Chinese use the Arabic 0 for zero (although I think there’s also that dot thing?) and the Chinese had developed a notation more equivalent to writing, say, 1961 as 1×1000+9×100+6×10+1. Completely mathematically valid and undeniably decimal but not the convenience of just saying 1961[base10].

  176. 176.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 3, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    @Cervantes: Who’s “we”?

  177. 177.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: “Strong evidence” was mentioned. I asked about it, too.

    I think Freemark is referring to Oon Lay Yong’s work, but I’m not sure, hence the question.

  178. 178.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 2:21 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: The general public, per usual.

  179. 179.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: Also, you might want to be careful about drinking espresso.

    Cheers.

  180. 180.

    Maxwel

    February 3, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    The lefty song is (from Wiki): “This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent.

  181. 181.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    @Maxwel: There’s also a verse that Pete Seeger added:

    This land is your land, but it once was my land,
    Until we sold you Manhattan Island.
    You pushed our Nations to the reservations,
    This land was stole by you from me.

    Never forget to sing this verse.

  182. 182.

    MCA1

    February 3, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    @MCA1: Aaaaand I was wrong in my own recollection, too. Just looked it up, and it was the 2001 World Series. In Phoenix, not Houston. At least I had the right blind guy!

  183. 183.

    Fort Geek

    February 3, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    How long before MSNBC apologizes?

  184. 184.

    Gretchen

    February 3, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    My favorite part of this story is that one of the singers was a Pueblo person singing in Keres. So we have English speakers telling a Native American to go back where she came from.

  185. 185.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    @Gretchen: Nice point, but most of them are hardly English-speakers.

  186. 186.

    Gretchen

    February 3, 2014 at 3:33 pm

    @Cervantes: true, but they think they are.

  187. 187.

    Cervantes

    February 3, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    @Gretchen: Yes, that’s why it’s a nice point. Have you seen (or initiated) any attempt to use it? I’d love to know what happens in that case. (Thanks.)

  188. 188.

    Mnemosyne

    February 3, 2014 at 4:29 pm

    @Maxwel:

    Meh. I can see why Irving Berlin — who was Jewish — might have felt he needed to come up with something uber-patriotic to release in 1938.

    ETA: From Wikipedia —

    In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a “peace song,” and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show.

  189. 189.

    Julia

    February 3, 2014 at 4:40 pm

    Put me in the “liking Rikyrah posts” column also. She writes about items I rarely see, and I don’t have to click and spend more time finding them. Plus, our views are extremely simpatico. I, too, do not want Rikyrah to feel unwelcome as a valued Balloon Juice commenter.

    BTW, I enjoy Raven’s posts most of the time also, although he can be a bit cranky occasionally!

  190. 190.

    Corner Stone

    February 3, 2014 at 4:51 pm

    @Julia:

    She writes about items I rarely see

    She doesn’t write or analyze anything. She spams threads with someone else’s work. Over and over and over.
    I scroll past, usually. But sometimes I just jump to a different thread because I’m tired of looking for one or two sentence comments by actual people, as opposed to paragraphs of external journalists.

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    February 3, 2014 at 5:26 pm

    @Julia:
    although he can be a bit cranky occasionally!

    I think that line applies to most of us.

  192. 192.

    DRN0001

    February 3, 2014 at 5:56 pm

    the good folks at PublicShaming have gathered many racist tweets here:
    http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/post/75447787843/speak-english-racist-revolt-as-coca-cola-airs

    The ‘wingers seem most outraged that this lovely hymn was sung in languages other than english

  193. 193.

    DougJ

    February 3, 2014 at 6:07 pm

    @MCA1:

    I think Stevie did it in the 1986 World Series.

  194. 194.

    Lurking Buffoon

    February 3, 2014 at 6:09 pm

    I haven’t had much chance to follow the news this year so I haven’t even been lurking, but when I saw the Coke ad last night I laughed my ass off. Coke has trolled Wingnutistan. It’s glorious.

  195. 195.

    LAC

    February 4, 2014 at 12:29 am

    @Corner Stone: yeah, pretty much what I do with your shit except when you had a few and need to do your one man show of “who’s afraid of Virginia Wolfe ?” Then it is comedy gold.

  196. 196.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 4, 2014 at 6:42 am

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Rush Limbaugh’s repeated “what? you think that was racist? Then YOU’RE the racist” incidents are a kind of trolling designed to get liberals worked up so that his fans can become more and more convinced that he’s under constant attack from people who just want to play the race card.

    I’m starting to think that things like the Cheerios ad and this Coke ad, pointedly showing a multiracial, multilingual society, are the reverse. These companies know they can get some easy progressive cred by scaring up an outraged response from bigots with something completely inoffensive.

    The ads themselves aren’t necessarily noble, but their existence is a sign of something better.

  197. 197.

    misti

    February 4, 2014 at 11:43 am

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: @Certified Mutant Enemy:
    um Jesus didn’t speak English. English wasn’t even a language then.

  198. 198.

    Justin

    February 4, 2014 at 5:50 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Did you really just say that Jesus dictated the bible in American English? Wow, not too bright there, eh?

  199. 199.

    Jebediah, RBG

    February 4, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    @misti:

    um Jesus didn’t speak English. English wasn’t even a language then.

    Oh yeah? Then how did Jesus write the Bible, which is IN ENGLISH?

  200. 200.

    jebediah

    February 4, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    @Justin:

    Wow, not too bright there, eh?

    did you seriously not understand that was sarcasm? G&T is actually not some cognitively impaired teabagger. Lurking a while helps one to get to know what’s what and who’s who.

  201. 201.

    JJ

    February 4, 2014 at 9:48 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: @Certified Mutant Enemy: oh that’s original.. a moron quoting another moron.. good for you!

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