Long overdue thread for football and everything else.
Read a fucking book.
mistermix has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2010.
People Try to Put Us Down
This American Prospect piece on homeschoolers uses the phrase “Generation Joshua”. Here’s a description of what that means from the Homeschoolers Anonymous project:
To my subculture, Generation Joshua means two things. First, it is a Christian youth organization founded in 2003 by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), created to train children to be activists for conservative candidates who support pro-life and otherwise socially conservative platforms. But more importantly, Generation Joshua is a metaphor. It is a rallying cry based on a jumbled amalgam of biblical stories with the purpose of inspiring conservative parents and their kids.
In the Old Testament, the Egyptians held the Israelites in captivity. The Hebrew God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity and into the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But the Israelites and Moses disobeyed God on numerous occasions, so God made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, banning them from ever entering the Promised Land. But God had compassion on them, and chose a member of the next generation, Joshua, to lead the Israelites’ children into that land of milk and honey.
While this story is considered by academics and exegetes to be a straightforward historical narrative, conservative Christians have transformed it into a metaphor for the United States. In this metaphor, the Israelites are U.S. citizens. The U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, but the forces of secularism have held us in captivity as the U.S. progressed. So God — now the God of Republican, conservative Christians — chose homeschooling parents to lead the U.S. away from its godlessness and back to its Christian roots. But the parents were once part of that secularism, so God will not allow them to see the fruits of their labor. God has nonetheless shown compassion towards their efforts, so the parents’ children are the new Joshuas. These children are to be trained in God’s original plan for the U.S. to be a Christian nation, and they will grow up to invade all levels of the U.S. government and society and reclaim the U.S. for Republican, conservative Christianity.
I don’t know much about homeschooling, and certainly there must be a number of homeschooled kids who aren’t taught this way, but this sounds like a Wonder Bread Madrassa.
You Know Who Else Had a Propaganda Outfit?
Here are a couple of things I wanted to post this week but I didn’t get a chance. First, bi-partisan centrist journalist Ron Fournier, appearing on reasonable conservative Laura Ingraham’s show:
[…] Fournier referred to his Monday column on how hard it’s going to be for the administration to “sell Obamacare,” arguing the push to promote the online federal health exchange “could be the nail in the coffin” for the health care law.“But anyhow, they have to sell it, but they can’t over sell it,” Fournier told Ingraham. “They can’t spin, and they have a hard time not spinning. Last week I did a column that just focused on what they do with photos, that shows that this is a propaganda outfit, that they do put out government sponsored propaganda, and they are running a government-sponsored media organization.”
You might think he’s lost the plot, but remember that Goebbels also controlled access to pictures of Adolph’s dogs, just like Jay Carney does for Obama.
And then there’s the lovely Cheney family. In case you were wondering whether gay Mary or straight Liz was the family favorite, wonder no more: Dick took Liz’ side in the fight between Mary and Liz over gay marriage. The shitshow fail parade that is the Cheney Wyoming Senate campaign is entering its Festivus phase.
You Know Who Else Had a Propaganda Outfit?Post + Comments (68)
Think of the Children
I was out on a business trip and I’m still catching up. Reading Soonergrunt’s post about his daughter reminded me of how I felt the day Obamacare passed. I was relieved because I knew that my daughter, who has a serious, lifelong pre-existing condition, will always be able to get insurance. Obamacare saved her, my wife and me thousands of dollars and years of worry.
My dad is a lifelong Democrat because his family felt that Roosevelt and the Democrats gave a shit about their kids during the Depresssion. I’m a Democrat because it’s clear who gives a shit about my kid, and none of them have an R after their name.
They don’t give a shit that hating gays leads to teen suicide.
They don’t give a shit if kids go hungry because food stamps were cut.
They don’t give a shit if teenagers can’t get birth control.
And they certainly don’t give a shit that a kid who has epilepsy, or Crohn’s, will be saddled with a life of worry over whether she’ll be able to buy insurance.
After all the noise over the website dies down, after the Republicans try to shut down the government three more times and vote to repeal another dozen times, this is what’s going to be left for thousands of American families: a man and a party that gave enough of a shit about them to endure a five year temper tantrum from a party that clearly has a broken give-a-shitter when it comes to children.
Frank Gets Press
Pope Francis might be going out at night to minister to the poor. And he might be spouting “pure Marxism”. Both of these reports might be true, but since the latter comes out of Rush Limbaugh’s piehole, I think we’re 1 and 1 here.
They Call It Cyber Monday, But Tuesday is Just as Bad
Racism ended yesterday, and Amazon will drone in your purchases soon. I don’t know how things could get much better. I got nothing, except for Kathleen Geier’s round up of 10 vicious negative reviews. Open thread.
They Call It Cyber Monday, But Tuesday is Just as BadPost + Comments (53)
Open Thread
Lots of stuff going on. Big Metro North derailment. Healthcare.gov is fixed. Pick your poison in this open thread.