Advice Goddess Free Swim
It's Friday night, and I'm wiped!
You pick the topics. I'll try to post a piece in the morning.
P.S. One link per comment or my spam filter will eat your post.
Advice Goddess Free Swim
It's Friday night, and I'm wiped!
You pick the topics. I'll try to post a piece in the morning.
P.S. One link per comment or my spam filter will eat your post.
Do we care that Trump banged a supermodel? I don't. There are many things I hate about the man, but FFS I wish everyone would stop freaking out whenever a president has an affair.
That said, I do appreciate presidents who don't run around being squalid and I see it as a point in their favor but not a deciding factor.
But can we please, please, stop worrying about the sex lives of presidents?
NicoleK at March 10, 2018 4:05 AM
FIFY. You're welcome.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 10, 2018 5:43 AM
Naw; sometimes you can tell whether or not someone should be on our payroll.
Besides, Nic, aren't you the one who doesn't even live in our country?
Crid at March 10, 2018 6:04 AM
https://almatcboykin.wordpress.com/2018/03/09/pick-one/#more-7039
I R A Darth Aggie at March 10, 2018 6:06 AM
Orgies. The sex kind!
Crid at March 10, 2018 6:17 AM
Yes, let's not worry that presidents who have affairs can be blackmailed. Let's not worry when they commit perjury trying to cover up said affairs. Let's not worry when they send their Cabinet officers out to lie for them, covering up the affair. Let's not worry when they're sleeping with a mobster's mistress, a mobster their own attorney general is trying to take down - 'cause she won't tell her other boyfriend anything she learns during pillow talk, will she?
That said, do I care about Trump's affairs? No. Did I care about Bill Clinton's? No, not until he committed perjury. Did I care about Kennedy's affairs? No. I was born a year after his assassination (my parents were married 8 days after his assassination) and I had other concerns in the immediate aftermath of all that.
I respect a man who stays faithful to his wife more than I do one who philanders. But, we have this idea that other peoples heroes have to be perfect and cannot have any flaws while blindly ignoring the flaws of our own heroes. As I've said before, we demand perfection of those other people admire.
Sometimes someone who is very good at one job is a terrible person in other regards. Is Bing Crosby's virtuoso singing lessened by his emotional abuse of his children? Is Einstein's genius in any way lessened by the emotional abuse he directed toward his wife?
Columbus sailed off into the unknown and broadened the world's knowledge, but his lust for glory corrupted him. Should we honor his courage, or denigrate the avarice that motivated him to risk his life sailing into the unknown?
Nathan Bedford Forest was a slave trader before becoming a private in the Confederate army. He was also a military genius and quickly rose to the rank of general. After the war, he was associated with the first incarnation of the Klan. His tactics during the Civil War, over 100 years ago, are still studied at military academies worldwide. Should we not consider his genius because it was encased in an ugly package?
Likewise Stonewall Jackson whose "foot cavalry" held off three enemy armies in the Valley, a maneuver even the great Napoleon failed to pull off at Waterloo. But he fought for the Confederacy. Hero, or goat?
And Napoleon? Military genius or ruthless dictator? Or both?
George Patton was no doubt racist. Nonetheless, he played a significant role in the advancement of African-Americans in the US military. Perhaps his willingness to use "colored" troops was due to his relationship with "Black Jack" Pershing (Patton served under Pershing and his sister almost married him). Do we honor Patton for being the only officer willing to have a "colored" tank unit in his command or denigrate him for his racist comments?
In the battle against polio, several experiments and vaccine trials were held using human subjects from mental hospitals, subjects who could not give informed consent. And yet, we celebrate these scientists for defeating a disease that, until a successful vaccine, left hundreds of thousands crippled (including a president and future Senate Majority leader). We, today have the luxury of looking back and condemning those who lived in mortal fear of iron lungs, leg braces, and withered limbs.
Sometimes it's Solomon Grundy who comes to your rescue, and not Superman.
Is Trump's private life squalid? Certainly. Is he presidency chaotic? Decidedly so. Could we have done better if we'd elected Hillary? Not likely. Do we need to love Trump to accept his presidency? No.
Trump is a buffoon. But, he may be the president we need right now. Unfortunately, he may also be the one we deserve right now, if La Rochefoucauld is right about a people getting the government it deserves. Encased in Trump's buffoonery may be a significant presidency. Only time will tell.
Conan the Grammarian at March 10, 2018 8:15 AM
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/view/articles/2018-03-09/what-trump-can-learn-from-madeleine-albright-about-north-korea-talks
What sane person could imagine that a 2nd-tier, multiply-bankrupted real estate developer will overpower such a monster with a "deal"?
Crid at March 10, 2018 8:24 AM
> March 10, 2018 8:15 AM
Yeah but *twelve* question marks is a lot of question marks for one blog comment.
You should let those who would challenge you interrogate your [detailed] position as they see fit. First of all, it'd demonstrate sincerity and the courage of your convictions. You will always, in due course, be told what you have forgotten to consider.
Secondly, this ain't a TV talk show.
Crid at March 10, 2018 8:33 AM
A student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been barred from attending a religious studies class required for graduation after pointing out that there are only two genders…
According to Lake Ingle [the student in question], the class was forced to watch a Ted-Talk on February 28 featuring Paula Stone, a transgender woman, who gave examples of “mansplaining,” “male privilege,” and systematic sexism. Following the video, Ingle wrote that the instructor “opened the floor to WOMEN ONLY. Barring men from speaking until the women in the class have had their chance to speak.”…
“The floor was opened, and not a single woman spoke. Thirty seconds or so passed and still no woman had spoken. So, I decided it was permissible for me to enter the conversation, especially because I felt the conversation itself was completely inappropriate in its structure,” Ingle told Campus Reform. “I objected to the use of the anecdotal accounts of one woman’s experience to begin a discussion in which they were considered reality. It was during my objection that Dr. Downie attempted to silence me because I am not a woman.”
https://theralphretort.com/alison-downie-leftist-professor-trying-to-destroy-kid-309018/
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 8:33 AM
When Two Tribes Go To War
http://quillette.com/2018/03/09/two-tribes-go-war/
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 8:34 AM
Former executive editor of New York Times says, 'I carry a little plastic Obama doll in my purse.'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/primaries-democratic-wave-2020
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 8:37 AM
Possibly.
I will freely admit that, even while defending it, I'm nervous about Trump's presidency - equally about his grasp of the nuances of policy and his command of his own temperament.
But knee-jerk anti-Trumpism also makes me nervous. It's an unthinking reaction that if Trump's for it, we're agin' it. And, equally as unthinking, it's dangerous in governance. Especially when coupled with a casual disregard of the weaknesses of the proposed alternative.
Blind idolization or demonization should always be avoided. Careful consideration of the whole of a person is the better course. Some will be found wanting in the balance while others will come out ahead.
When someone demands blind obedience, you'd be a fool not to peek.
Conan the Grammarian at March 10, 2018 8:55 AM
Obama broadcast a public persona of carefully considering both sides of any policy decision ("No Drama" Obama), which too often led to indecision and halting half-steps, especially in foreign policy. And the winners in all of his deliberations were in line with progressive policy - never was the conservative alternative the winner in his "careful" deliberations.
Trump uses a public persona of bold, even reckless, decisiveness with little visible consideration of the alternatives. Yet, in some cases with him, the more left-wing alternative comes out ahead - e.g., gun confiscations, age limits on firearms purchases, and banning bump stocks.
So, who's the more deliberative president? Both were expert at the use of a public persona, so that may not be the way to judge them.
Conan the Grammarian at March 10, 2018 9:24 AM
Better chance to survive a heart attack if the doctor is away at a conference -
http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/7/6/e008230
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 9:25 AM
“Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ms-13-is-taking-over-the-school-one-teen-warned-before-she-was-killed/2018/03/09/93ed7c9c-2083-11e8-86f6-54bfff693d2b_story.html
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 9:28 AM
"I wish everyone would stop freaking out whenever a president has an affair"
Trump wasn't president when he had the alleged affair unlike Clinton and Kennedy and god knows who else.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 10, 2018 10:25 AM
OK if the President is sleeping with mobsters then I guess that's a story I want to hear about.
Yes, I am living the ex-pat life these days. But I'm still American according to the IRS!
NicoleK at March 10, 2018 11:12 AM
On a more useful note, since we're all so woke, here's how to determine exactly what sort of SJW you are.
Just combine your birth month with your shirt color and the first letter of your name, and voila!
Follow the yellow brick link
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 10, 2018 11:21 AM
Also.
Crid at March 10, 2018 12:00 PM
#calexit - 'New California' begins battle to become 51st state
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2018/01/17/new-california-begins-battle-become-51st-state/109541402/
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 3:28 PM
“Let them call you racist. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor,” he told the crowd at the party congress.
https://apnews.com/740d0fa0f0cc41bb8e97ec2e8193a4b2/Bannon-to-French-far-right-party:-'Let-them-call-you-racist
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 3:29 PM
“there is a war on, and except for the low level of actual killing, it is a real war, not an allegorical or metaphoric one.”
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/03/06/a-quick-battle-field-guide-to-the-new-culture-wars/
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 3:32 PM
> “Let them call you racist.
Dude, you call yourself racist. Then, as if to salve loneliness, you accuse the rest of us of being just like you.
We are not.
You shouldn't pretend your condition of wretched desperation was cast into your heart by others. You both seeded and nourished it within yourself. Pretensions of lonely courage are explicitly pathetic, not poetically inspiring.
> it is a real war, not
> an allegorical or
> metaphoric one.”
Because you've been waiting your whole life for someone to say that to you, you will ascribe historical & noble insight to the one who said it. But there are people out there who will tell you you're Batman in a cape, too... You ought to pick your demon rhetors with tools beyond pouty self-affirmation.
But if you're certain that you're blossoming into the kind of asshole who picks a quibbling fistfight with someone you regard as an offending minority, you should probably just swallow a tall Scotch and go out and get it out of the way. Your family and community (including police & prosecutor) would then be able to execute your fines, imprisonment and paperwork, and then file it away.
...And the rest of us would be spared the transparently needy rhetoric.
HOBBIES, okay?
LEARNEDNESS.
Crid at March 10, 2018 5:10 PM
He must be drinking lots of diet coke -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTWx42YMkbA
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 5:27 PM
"We can't say Make America Great Again, because I already did that!"
Snoopy at March 10, 2018 5:28 PM
"What sane person could imagine that a 2nd-tier, multiply-bankrupted real estate developer will overpower such a monster with a "deal""
What sane person could expect a second rate haberdasher with no college education whose business went bankrupt to have a defining role in overpowering fascist and communist monsters?
causticf at March 10, 2018 9:11 PM
Hmm, I would have expected a North/South split but an urban coastal/rural inland makes sense too
NicoleK at March 11, 2018 12:32 AM
> a second rate haberdasher
> with no college education
> whose business went bankrupt
Born humbly, with service and leadership in World War; a lifetime of political participation and achievement; robust and essentially faultless engagement with loving family across a lifetime; and the regard of thoughtful men even in the early hours of his administration during spectacularly bloody hours on our globe.
In short, Truman was admirable in every specific way that Trump is a cowardly failure. If you're offering the comparison to flatter this orange fucktard, you've fucked it up.
Crid at March 11, 2018 5:36 AM
What sane person could imagine that a 2nd-tier, multiply-bankrupted real estate developer will overpower such a monster with a "deal"?
I'm sure we understand that your matchless wit and wisdom has enabled you to observe mass media and derive meaning unreachable by mere mortals. How did you assess Lil' Kim a superior leader? WTF makes you think real-estate dealing is comparable to inheriting a police state ?
You're not distinguishing yourself from the ignorant masses this way. It's like claiming Bush was stupid - ignoring his pilot's licenses, including his rating to fly an F-102, and his outpointing the similarly unimpressive Gore and Kerry at college. I'm sure you noticed.
Lemme see. I'll venture that the ruler of North Korea has a personal cell phone as well as an official one, and that it has security features on it which are comparable (do we know what happens to people who disappoint Mr. Jong-un?). This probably means I am a vehement fan-boy of his, right?
"Secondly, this ain't a TV talk show."
Bah. You don't recognize how Bill and Barack got elected.
Radwaste at March 11, 2018 10:40 AM
> How did you assess Lil'
> Kim a superior leader
I never did. Why would you think otherwise?
> WTF makes you think
I don't. Why would you think I do?
And what's with you and the cell phones?
Crid at March 11, 2018 9:09 PM
"What sane person could imagine that a 2nd-tier, multiply-bankrupted real estate developer will overpower such a monster with a "deal"?"
Maybe not. On the other hand, if Madeleine Allbright says it's impossible, then it is probably fairly likely.
Cousin Dave at March 12, 2018 7:14 AM
What sane person could imagine that a 2nd-tier, multiply-bankrupted real estate developer will overpower such a monster with a "deal"?
What sane person thought he would make more progress than any president since the 50s?
lujlp at March 12, 2018 11:02 AM
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