Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Even if they turn out to have had no direct impact on him, over the last few years these people have mainstreamed and legitimised the same paranoid beliefs that Loughner displayed.
I'm also enjoying the usual suspects, who were chickenhawk Rambos to a man a few short months ago during the election season, now claiming that nothing they do or say has the slightest influence on anyone.
If that's true, then I've got to say Fox News and the Tea Party have been running an enormously profitable Ponzi scheme that makes Bernard Madoff look like a noob. There's also a not-so-small army of campaign parasites, professional fundraisers and K Street lobbyists who should be facing fraud charges.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to giovanni tiso,
The point of the digitally removed Maori is not that evil Peter Jackson does it, is that it's how we are happy to be branding ourselves for the sake of the tourist dollar, to the point of subsidising a whole industry.
I just found it a rather distasteful snark from a nation whose film and television industries still have a rather nasty whitewash habit of their own, and distributors and cinemas that used to take a punt on foreign films are folding at a scary rate. Who needs to "digitally remove" Maori when Boy (as far as I'm aware and am happy to be proved wrong) couldn't even find a distributor in the US. Then again, according to the review in Variety it lacked that "arthouse-ready anthropological edge" which I guess is provided by meth-head hillbillies and Mr. Darcy with a stutter.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Danielle,
He needs to lighten up.
I wonder whether he means mood or melanin? With Holmes it's so hard to tell.
After a sixteen year hiatus, some of us are rather enjoying having a tenant in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who is as smart as his wife, and noticeably more mature than his children.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
And, not incidentally, is not involved in personally hunting down Osama Bin Laden with their bare hands.
There have been times when I've wanted to slap John McCain while screaming "Why? Why! WHY!!!" Then I remind myself that elder abuse is NOT OK, especially when McCain seems determined to destroy his own reputation in the mother of all sulks.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
So, yeah, it's a pretty big fraking "what" that the executive branch knows a little something something about the judicial one, its role and effects.
Silly me -- any judge who hands down a tightly argued judgement you don't approve of can just be dismissed as a "extremist liberal judicial activist". Even if you happen to be a conservative Regan-nominee who confirmation was opposed by the Demoness Nancy Perlosi.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
And, by the way, now that I think about it, so what if she doesn't know her Supreme Court cases?
Oh fucking hell -- does Holmes realise that the President of the United States not only effectively appoints SCOTUS justices for life but swears an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution? So, yeah, it's a pretty big fraking "what" that the executive branch knows a little something something about the judicial one, its role and effects.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Gareth Ward,
I guess the likely unanswerable question is would the nutter have done this anyway under a different political climate? Or was it a tipping point factor?
I take your point, and its well made, but I'd like to throw out there this from Andrew Sullivan on 'Palinspeak and Violence':
One of the constants in Sarah Palin's worldview is violence. You see it in her reality show where most wildlife is immediately identified as a threat to be guarded against or killed. You see it in her inflammatory language, and the ways in which she corrals supporters to sometimes shockingly violent threats. You see it even in completely innocuous Facebook postings on sports.
[...] The point here is not that there is any connection between this random post and political violence. The point is the worldview Palin holds. It is zero-sum. It expresses itself in clear and stark violent imagery. It is constantly about attack, conflict, combat, "enemy territory", "Big Guns", battle. This rhetorical background is so deeply part of the narrative we barely notice it any more. But it is not truly the language of politics; it's the language of war.
Now, before I'm accused of being a holier than thou hypocrite, I'm perfectly well aware that I'm no stranger to the "carpet bomb with napalm" school of political discourse. But you can't turn politics into an apocalyptic holy war against evil itself, day after day, year after year, cycle after cycle, and pretend it doesn't have an effect on the culture at large.
FFS, as I alluded to up-thread, eleven members of the GOP caucus are co-sponsoring legislation questioning the President's citizenship -- and the very legitimacy of his office -- and the newly elected Speaker of the House doesn't care. Think about that for a moment; because whatever I thought of her politics, I'd never question the legitimacy of Helen Clark's government. Like it or not (and I didn't), Helen Clark lead her party to victory in three free, fair and legitimate elections. End of story.
You can respect the institution, while having none whatsoever for the incumbent. The Party of Palin doesn't -- they only respect institutions (not only the Presidency but Congress, the judiciary and the Constitution itself) when they like the outcomes. That's dangerous.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to giovanni tiso,
The beautiful landscape of New Zealand, digitally enhanced by the removal of the aboriginal Maori.
Jesus fuck, is Armond "District 9 proves Peter Jackson is a racist" White moonlighting for The Onion?
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Sacha,
Severe mental illness, on its own, is not an explanation for violence,
No it isn't -- the only violence I ever did while severely mentally ill was to myself. Still, it's a nice distraction tactic. As someone acidly observed in my Twitter feed today, isn't funny how mass murder/terrorism committed by white people is the work of a "lone nutter". When it's the work of Muslims, over a billion other human beings are guilty by association?
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Neil Morrison,
It might be worth holding off making a causal connection between Jared Lee Loughner's actions and Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement until the guy's motives are better known.
Neil: If you're read my comments on the subject that way, I'm sorry. Of course I don't think Sarah Palin is some Antoinette Soprano, but I'd like to think nobody standing next year for the party I've supported for twenty years would even think about being associated with shit like this. I see Palin and her PAC have been busy trying (and failing) to sanitise the internet, but they don't get to wash their hands of the toxic political environment the Tea Baggers have carefully cultivated.
I was also perfectly serious up-thread: I know good people who are firmly on the center-right but want nothing to do with the GOP. Now, I may be in the minority around here but I actually think a strong, reality-based conservative Republican Party is a good thing. The Tea Baggers don't, and that makes them even more dangerous while they merrily drive moderates into the sea.
Finally, as someone who is living with mental illness myself, I'd also suggest Jared Loughner should have his psych assessment performed by someone qualified, and in a position, to do so.
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