Currently
Recent Comments
Re: “Pryor and the politics of provincialism”
Maybe. Depends on who his oppostition will be on the GOP side. I usually vote GOP, but a more moderate Dem I could vote for if he respects the Second and he is fiscally responcible.
Whether I, myself, would vote for him is really irrelevent. I can laud his one good decision, even if he makes other bad decisions.
Re: “Father's day line”
LaRock, who shit in your punch bowl? Jeez! Did anyone here write something on this thread to earn an idiot responce like that?
I am sitting here, after reading such excellent posts from Sista, and Olphart and CBB, and then there is yours. About militant feminism. On Father's Day.
And why, some wonder?
I will let you in on a couple of dirty secrets. Part of the rise of militant feminism was a result of really, REALLY crappy treatment by men, in general, upon women, in general. There was a time, within our lifetimes, when a husband could have his wife put into an insane asylum, merely because she didn't please him. In spite of being able to tough out the Great Depression, many women were ill treated by men with crappy pay, crappy jobs, limits on what they could do.
Mom was a child of the Depression. She and her sister were orphaned, and they had to run away from the orphange and start working in Chicago when mom was 15, or so. She got pregnent, then wound up raising a mixed race child in the 50s. Life was hard enough for any woman, let alone a single Mexican mother with a black child. She never, EVER complained. She just worked hard, and defended her son from abuses. She hooked up with my dad later.
Dad was a good dad. Not great. Being Spanish, he still had that patriarchal mentality where women were supposed to be submissive. Mom was anything but, and the fights they had later were epic. Mom never backed down. When dad started beating my older brother (very Latin, they do not accept the kids of other fathers gracefully), mom had left, taking us boys with her.
Mom was very strong, though you wouldn't always know it to talk to her. Her voice was always gentle, lyrical and her manner was ever friendly. Push her, though, and she would dig in her heels, and her tone of voice would change. Once it dropped in a growl, people knew better than to push their luck.
Even divorced and apart, dad would help us boys. He made a point to always metnion that he wasn't there to help mom, but when we needed money for school, or the dentist, or health insurance, dad was always there. Mom went on with her life, dad didn't. She made friends, and had a man in her life that became a great inspiration to me. Dad, always mistrustful, never got involved with another woman, nor did he make friends. Towards the end, he and mom started hanging out again. It was funny who they would look at a resturant, he asking her what on the menu he liked.
Dad died March 29, 2011. Mom and my brother were the only ones there for him. I was not able to make the trip. I miss him. He was not the greatest example of fatherhood that I had, but I did learn vital things from him that made me a better man and a better father.
Mom is still around. She thinks about dad with some sadness. In spite of all that went to horrible, true to her spirit, she cannot be angry. Now, in her 80s, she is attending college full time. That was something not offered women back in the 40s and 50s. True to LaRock's backward time, women were not considered a good investment in education. Most of that resentment from male stupidity helped create the militant feminists, the angry women who have, in some cases, swung the pendulum too far to the other side.
But who can blame that vast switch, when the oppression of male society was so patently unjust. It took women like my mom, who were smart, canny, and grimly determined to gain their freedom that men were forced to admit they had been unjust.
Here is another secret for the LaRocks of the world. The family was a shared responcibility. The woman wasn;t any less of a worker if she stayed at home. Her job was every bit as important as the men's job. It isn't so much of a fall for men to be the stay at home dad if his wife brings in the money. I never understood the shame some men try to inflict on other men because the wife is a doctor and the husband takes care of the house and kids. Men and women working as a familial team have been the backbone of family, and it doesn't really matter who bring home the bacon, so long as it gets to the table.
A lot of this bullshit idea of the home run by the man has crippled a lot of men with really stupid ideas of the imporntance of men and women in the house. Dad thought mom's place was to be subservient to him, though as an equal they could have accomplished so much more than they did. But dad was crippled by the ideals LaRock holds dear.
I was not. I had it all, but only because I shared so much with my then wife. I did bring home the bacon, but so did she. I was father and mother to my daughters, and I never, ever, demeaned any of the women I was involved with.
LaRock, you want to know why you have some of the excesses of militant feminism? Look at all the bullshit attempts to show the perfect family with such bullshit shows as Father Knows Best, or Leave it To Beaver. Shows that didn't show anything close to the real family of America, but were touted by the male oppressors as what the ideal would look like if women just 'accepted their place".
Re: “Hysteria over leaks”
It wasn't a matter of surrendering, Gene, it was a matter of theft and deception about the theft.
You can call it a purist view, but I am quite sure Frnaklin, being the keen observer of human nature would excoriate you on your craven kneeling before the state's desire to know everything and do anything in the pipe dream of security.
As seen with Boston, there are other ways to stop terror attacks that would not involve secret warrants on scant rationales. Some of them onvolve common sense without a need to tap phones.
Re: “The NRA has Mark Pryor's back; Bloomberg group keeps up pressure”
Considering that the NRA is far more representative of folks than Bloomberg's monolithic group, Pryor has every rational right to tell Bloomberg to go back to banning large soft drinks and cooking oils.
Bloomberg is a control freak, and is the guiding member of his own group. It is funded by Bloomberg, and it is lead by Bloomberg, with no citizen or volunteer feed back. Meanwile, the NRA is made up of millions of members which resent Bloombergs bully tactics.
Pryor made a good vote on a bad law. There are those who have since touted it as some vote against 'common sense' gun laws, but most of those folks have not read the law. Those that care to know about the law would realize it was convoluted and had some glaring problems with the health record side of it, which was the whole point of the law.
Give us someting sensible to vote on, and it will pass. This background check law was 49 pages of crap, and Pryor will not suffer from his vote on that, no matter how many emotional nerves Bloomberg sinks to touching.
Re: “Pryor and the politics of provincialism”
I note with amusement the haranguing by the intellectual toads over Pryors rightful vote against the supposed background check. Most of those that are howling about how a wonderful law was given short shrift have never read all 49 pages.
Pryor did absolutely right to vote against this excrement. Bloomberg, and his millions should not have any say in Arkansas. The NRA is far more representative of Arkansas than Bloomberg and his paid bully pulpit.
There are values that are inherently Arkansas that cannot be shared with New York or California. The reverse is true, too. That is part of the beauty of the nation and the fifty states, that while there is a foundation document that ties us together, we still have fifty different ways of doing things across this country. They aren't inherently bad simply because they are different. Respect the differences.
Re: “Obamacare navigator contract with Planned Parenthood delayed”
At what point, CBB, is a fetus a baby? It can be removed from the womb one or tow months early, and stil be viable. Is it then a baby? If it is not, by your definition a baby, then is it okay to simply abort it by smashing its head on the nearest sink?
I cannot agree with Saline's anti-science screed about life beginning at conception, but then I don't buy the other lie, which you tell so often, that a fetus is not a baby. Biology and science is against you, CBB. It is a baby, it is a life and maybe your hatred of acknowledging that fact is why you feel comfy with abortion at any and all stages.
Re: “Open Line”
Sure works for the elderly, when they are allowed the right.
http://news.yahoo.com/grandma-72-shoots-in…
Some of you would say she is in more danger from having it for self defense, but it looks like it worked out as it should have.
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
suspended in confuzzlement