Behold my people: Second- or third-generation Irish-American rage addicts. (Notice the epicanthic fold; we need those exaggerated eyebrows because nobody can see our eyes.) Rand ‘Thanksdad’ Paul called Pete ‘Mucker’ King (‘and Christie and people like that’) a “tax and spend liberal”. Pete King responded by comparing Rand to Lindbergh during his America First days. As Wonkette‘s Doktor Zoom points out:
… [W]hen we first saw this story, our first thought was “Oh boy, Godwin Of The Day.” But it isn’t, for a change, because unlike all the GOP geniuses who have declared insurance or gun control or traffic stops to be just like Hitler, Peter King is at least comparing apples and apples: when he gets on his “America, I got mine, so fuck you, rest of the world” schtick, Rand Paul really does sound like Charles Lindbergh, only minus the cool flying solo across the Atlantic stuff….
You think nobody remembers the America Firsters’ anti-semitism? Well, old people do, and old people are a significant part of the modern Republican voting base. Old people won’t believe that Pete King is a tax’n’spend liberal — the only allocations he approves are for “deserving” people, ifyouknowwhatImean — but at least some of them are gonna believe that Rand Paul is an anti-semite. Hope you like having your ankles chewed, Thanksdad, because you have made an enemy out of someone whose main joy in life comes from punishing his enemies!
Second exhibit, via Paul Constant:
Bowing to pressure from the outraged parents and after inquiries from the Daily News, the principal of Public School/Middle School 114 in Rockaway Park announced Wednesday that “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” was no longer required reading.
All incoming sixth-graders had been expected to write a graded-essay on the book, parents said.
“It’s about . . . masturbation — which is not appropriate for my child to learn at 11,” said Kelly-Ann McMullan-Preiss, 39, of Belle Harbor, who refused to let her son read the book. “It was like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ for kids.”…
McMullan-Preiss said she didn’t want a school assignment to dictate when she had the awkward conversation about masturbation with her son…
Lady, believe me — if your kid is eleven, he already knows about masturbation. And the only conversation you want to have on the topic is “Don’t do it in front of other people, and be sure to wash your hands afterward.”
MikeJ
Isn’t that book by the moron who refuses to let his stuff be released unless a tree is sacrificed? I’d ban anything by anybody that stupid too.
PeakVT
Not going to watch the video, but the thought of Repukes slagging each other on the airwaves always brings a smile to my face.
piratedan
have to love the imminent intra GOP warfare, hope that there are some serious political casualties before they circle the wagons around the ghey, the blahs and the lawncare specialists (as they like to perceive them, stereotypes make hatred/disdain/indifference so much easier).
Like that lady ever intends on having a chat with their child about masturbation… and they wonder why teens get pregnant…. sheesh.
also too AL – check out this season’s best two anime’s Servant X Service and Silver Spoon (Gin no Saji) – both non traditional titles, civil service workplace hijinks, and city kid goes to college at an AG school
Jerzy Russian
I read the editorial review on Amazon.com, and there is no mention of baloney bopping. This book seems to be highly rated, and I might have to read it to see what the fuss is about.
I remember a doctor coming into our fifth grade class in Catholic school to talk about the birds and the bees, and someone asked about masturbation. The good doctor explained that it was “when you played with your pen1s …”.
Felonius Monk
Makes me wonder whether Anthony Wiener ever washed his hands afterwards. I’ll certainly never ask to borrow his phone.
GregB
Peter, friends call me Heat Miser, King.
It sounds like Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment is dead and buried and the GOP is going to beat the shit out of one another for some time to come.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ: Not quite sure what this means. According to Amazon, the book is available on Kindle as well as in h/c and p/b editions. If
refers to something else, it’s not showing up in the reviews or the Wikipedia entry.
Tim in SF
OK, since this is an open thread, I’ll share a math problem I need help with. It’s a story problem:
Walking home from the grocery store:
I have two full bags, each about twenty pounds. I can just barely handle both bags in one hand.
I have one cup of coffee. This requires one hand. It is hot, and I need to enjoy it while it is hot. So, factor in one sip every eight seconds.
Moby just pooped about three cups (volume) on the sidewalk. I now have a very full poop bag. This requires two fingers.
I cannot put the poop bag with the grocery bag hand, because the poop bag is too near the groceries, which is really gross. I cannot put the poop bag in the hand with the coffee, because I am drinking coffee every eight seconds and I cannot bring the poop bag that close to my nose, or I will throw up. I cannot put the coffee in the grocery bag hand because I physically cannot lift it up to my face to sip because the groceries weigh too much, also it sloshes around and it spills when holding it in that hand.
I cannot set anything down on the sidewalk because it’s Haight Street.
The nearest trash can is one block away. Solve for X. Or whatever.
SiubhanDuinne
@GregB:
Bring. It. On.
Beatrice
@Tim in SF: The answer is 42.
piratedan
@Tim in SF: put down coffee, spin poop bag to a close, loop entrance of bag around dog collar, pick up coffee, resume walk of dog to trash can, put down coffee, retreive bag and deposit, pick up coffee resume life
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jerzy Russian: In Seventh Grade, The Lord laid a burden on the heart of our Bible teacher to talk to us about “tendencies.”
He cried through the whole hour as he told us how terrible “tendencies” were and how we needed to do everything we could to avoid them. It was very emotional for him and we never did specifically find out what tendencies he was talking about but there was a rumor going around that one of the seniors had been assisting a younger student in the bathroom with a stuck zipper so we just assumed it was about the gay.
Violet
@Tim in SF: Make the dog carry the poop. I know someone who does this. Her dog carries the poop bag home every time.
Groucho48
The America First movement started out as a very interesting mix of pacifists, communists, Germany sympathizers, Quakers, unions, and various other movements. Before too long, though, the xenophobic racists drove most of the others out of the organization. Their basic message boiled down to…we shouldn’t be fighting an efficient, well-organized country like Germany…the epitome of western culture and science, when the fast-breeding dark peoples are just waiting to overwhelm us.
Hill Dweller
@efgoldman:
Republicans could burn the country down, but the MSM would find a way to blame the President/Dems.
There was some good article ridiculing the Wingnuts for their attempts to block Obamacare, but they’re already laying the groundwork to blame Dems when the wingnuts shut down the government.
PeakVT
@efgoldman: Fairly sure that’s a malicious edit. It’s uncited and anonymous. I’d fix it but I’ve given up on Wikipedia for the time being.
fuckwit
Keep fucking that chicken.
Yatsuno
@Hill Dweller:
The Village tried that during the Newt era as well (blaming it all on Clinton) but it didn’t work. I highly doubt it will be effective this go round either.
Hill Dweller
@Yatsuno: I hope you’re right, but there are way too many people who think the sequester was Obama’s doing, which is due to the MSM’s refusal to tell the truth. Everything is portrayed as “both sides”.
Hell, just yesterday(Thursday) Boehner shamelessly said Obama forced them to pass the sequester. Steve Benen(Maddow’s Blog) was the only person I saw ridicule that nonsense. I don’t think any journalist in the room pushed back.
Ruckus
@Hill Dweller:
The media isn’t there to ask questions, they are there to report what is said. Anything else would make them involved in the process. It also makes them stenographers but that doesn’t seem to bother the vast majority of them. After all a paycheck is a paycheck.
badjim
@efgoldman: According to Roll Call, he has a B.A. in History. Interesting to note that he was in the National Guard from 1968-73, which suggests a effort to avoid service in Vietnam, something entirely understandable.
The Tim Channel
Awkward? She ought to have had to live like an Indian woman in a crowded teepee while trying to figure out a way to hide the sex from the kids. Enjoy.
Chris
@Groucho48:
So, basically the American version of these German conservatives who brought Hitler to power – they thought he could serve as a safety buffer and hired thug that would protect them from all the filthy unruly masses.
ETA: also sounds kind of like today. There are people who’re noninterventionist for all kinds of reasons, but for some reason Ron and Rand Paul are the public face of that belief.
debbie
“Tax and Spend Liberal” Republicans? Bah! Glenn Beck’s now calling them “Progressive” Republicans, much more of an insult.
IowaOldLady
I listened to “Absolutely True Diary” on audiobook downloaded from my soshalist public library and thought it was great. “About” masturbation? Seriously? She’s a fool. And another shining example of how uncomfortable Republicans are with questions of race.
Omnes Omnibus
Not necessarily true.
beth
@Tim in SF: Is it a handled poop bag? If so, tie it to the dog’s collar and let him carry it.
01jack
@Tim in SF:
I try to remember to wear cargo pants for walkies. Poop bag goes in the ample pocket. But I’m not sure I’d want to do that with a load that big.
And yes, more thann once I’ve forgotten what was in my pockets.
Frankensteinbeck
@efgoldman:
I live smack dab in the middle of an ultra orthodox neighborhood. Man, do they hate Obama Bin Ladin with a seething fury. They are greatly upset that they’ve been stuck between him and Republicans, who they know quite well are the enemy but at least understand that genocide is the only way to deal with Arabs.
(Disclaimer: For those not detecting the snark, I am describing their attitudes, not mine.)
The Moar You Know
@Tim in SF: Throw your coffee and the shit baggie at one of those fucking rich Marin kids squatting on Haight pretending to be homeless and go home and give yourself a medal.
I can’t believe I put up with that city for ten years. The awesome parts are incomparably awesome. The utter refusal of the city to deal with their vagrants, insane, criminal, violent, and yes, legitimately crazy people ruins all of it. Seriously puts people in danger. You don’t read about that too often as it tends to squash tourism, but any longtime SF resident will tell you – they aren’t harmless.
Miss my friends, but don’t miss that city one fucking bit.
wonkie
I’vew read “The Absolutley True Diary Etc.” and i don’t think it is appropriate for sixth graders. Not because of masturbation–I don’t remebmer that. What I remember is the overwhelming sadness of it: a dog dies, the narrator’s sister dies, nearly all of the characters are angy and/or sad people. It has some pretty harsh themes. If I had read it at twleve years old, I would have been both very confused and very upset by the book.
IT’s a good book for high shcool. By that age may of the students are thinking about the same issues as the narrator and have had either some prety bad experiences themselves or know someone who has and have already done some processig of those bad experiences.
IT’s a harsh book to read, even for an adult.
BTW the authro, when asked abut the harshness of the book, said that his real childhood had been much worse. Still the book was not written for children and sixth graders are kids. Its a young adult book.
Ella in New Mexico
@Omnes Omnibus:
Actually, given all the great classic young people’s fiction available out there, I have no problem with the school NOT exploring this stuff in a 5th grade reading assignment. If my kiddo wants to read it, cool, I’ll get it for him or her, but meanwhile, can we keep school a place where they focus on stuff that they may never find the time or interest to read again?
drkrick
@badjim: Of course King didn’t go to Vietnam. He was too busy raising funds for the IRA to fight the real enemy, the English.
Death Panel Truck
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, bullshit. This woman’s kid has probably been beating off for a couple of years now.
Ed in NJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
So true. I hate when people make blanket statements like that. Kids progress at much different rates. My son, who is going into 7th grade, is one of the youngest in his class (turned 12 last week) and hasn’t hit puberty yet. A year ago, he would have been totally clueless reading a book that mentions masturbation and as a parent would have been furious if it was a mandatory assignment. He is obsessed with sports. Girls and sex, not at all. Now my 10 year old daughter, she’s a different story. Schools have a tendency to teach things like sex education with the most advanced students in mind, which is ironic since the actual courses they should be priorities in school often teach down to the slowest kids in the class.
Unless you actually have an 11 year old, perhaps refrain from the blanket statements or risk sounding foolish.
Older
If her kid is eleven … she should be telling him to wash his hands before as well as after.
As to it being a depressing book, I haven’t read it, but pretty much all the books my kids were assigned to read in middle school and high school were depressing. Lord of the Flies? The Pigman?
I had to talk to my kids and reassure them that life is much better than that. I compared “Lord of the Flies” (fiction) with the true story of the lost boys of the Sudan, where the big kids looked after the little ones, and kept most of them alive on a thousand mile (in some cases) walk to a safer place.*
Kids aren’t ready for that level of depressing at that age. When one of my kids’ classmates committed suicide, I asked if anyone had suggested in class that the assigned reading might have something to do with it. My son said, yes, it was mentioned in his class. I asked him what the teacher said. “She changed the subject.”
* The really heartbreaking thing is that some of these groups thought they might be the last survivors of their tribe, and at night when they stopped to sleep, they practiced their traditional songs and stories so they wouldn’t entirely lose their loved ones.
These kids had no choice other than to face the worst side of humanity, but most of our kids have the choice, or they should, not to be forced to face it in school.
Matt McIrvin
I was never a big fan of YA Problem Novels, but I liked Lord of the Flies. It rang completely true to me, thanks to junior-high PE class. Reading the book, I remember being happy that somebody understood.
Paul in KY
@The Tim Channel: I don’t think they generally hid it.