Displaying comments 150 to 200 of 9542
Some Of That Soul Searching That We Were Told Was Called For
The point is, up until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democrats never did jack for black Americans aside from some big-city-machine patronage jobs.
Truman integrated the military in 1948; at that year's Democratic National Convention the party added platform plank in response to Hubert Humphrey's call to "get out of the shadow of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights." In response the Dixiecrats... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 1:38 PM on November 28, 2012
we choose to have an election thread and and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard
Obama bomaye!
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:06 AM on November 6, 2012
We voted at 8:15 this morning in Alameda, CA. Roseanne Barr was the first option on the ballot. It was tempting, but I voted for Obama once again.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:16 AM on November 6, 2012
I just want to tell you all good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 11:43 AM on November 6, 2012
Four more beers! Four more beers!
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:59 PM on November 6, 2012
MSNBC says that Mr. Romney has not written a concession speech. Uh, so if he loses, it'll be off the cuff.
Well, if we learned anything from the debates it's that he's great at improv, so no worries there.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 3:52 PM on November 6, 2012
So, Dixville Notch. Who's got the skinny on why turnout dropped 60% from 2008 (27 to 10)?
Zombie apocalypse.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 4:24 PM on November 6, 2012
If the right wing noisemakers can convince everyone the loss was because Romney was a crappy candidate and not because the message isn't what Americans by and large want to hear, they live to fight another day.
He only got positive movement in the polls around the first debate, after he abandoned the message and became Moderate Mitt.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 8:16 AM on November 10, 2012
I'm still irritated by Romney's graceless, perfunctory concession speech. Knowing that he was too arrogant to prepare one in advance doesn't help.
McCain's concession speech in 2008 was a model, and one of the high points of McCain's career.In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:07 AM on November 10, 2012
A Republican official in Texas called for his state to separate from the United States
The Supreme Court has already said, in a case involving Texas specifically (Texas v. White, 1869), that leaving the Union is unconstitutional.The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:12 AM on November 11, 2012
I do understand that the right of secession is not enshrined in the Constitution, and accept that the federalists certainly did not believe in it and no right was passed, but I don't see that the absence of a right is a positive statement against said right.
The Constitution itself by its existence prohibits secession. The original constitution of the United States was the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The Constitution was enacted to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 10:27 AM on November 12, 2012
It doesn't mean we are endorsing slavery if we say we should not have gone to war with the South, and should have found another way of dealing with them.
Yeah, we tried. Between Lincoln's election in November 1860 and the beginning of February 1861, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded. On March 2, 1861, the US Congress passed the Corwin Amendment, which would have prevented Congress from abolishing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 4:05 PM on November 23, 2012
There were 4 million slaves in the south. There wasn't enough money to compensate southern slave owners for their 'property loss'....in 1860 American slaves, as a financial asset, were worth approximately three and a half billion dollars — that's just as property. Three and a half billion dollars was the net worth, roughly, of slaves in 1860. In today's dollars that would be approximately seventy-five billion dollars. In 1860 slaves as an asset were worth more than all of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 4:19 PM on November 23, 2012
The Mad Bomber
The mad bomber didn't stay out of trouble after that incident.
"Wearing a grotesque mask, through which his beady eyes shifted with maniacal furtiveness, Warr entered the office of Chief Sebastian carrying a strange, accordion-shaped contraption filled with sticks of dynamite."
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:44 AM on November 21, 2012
In his own voice
He was a cynic, no, a nihilist to the end.
Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:45 AM on November 16, 2012
Whitewater investigation: Six-plus years, $60 million.
9/11 Commission: A year and nine months, $12 million.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:22 AM on November 19, 2012
No reason. I just had the links handy from previous comments and think the comparison is interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:24 PM on November 19, 2012
The Problem With Innovation
Imagine if they completely changed the rules of Major League Baseball every year, using different balls, spacing the bases further apart, adding a fourth outfielder.
Forget it Jake, it's Calvinball.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:19 PM on November 19, 2012
Romney's Technical Foul
The Romney campaign was bragging before the election about how great Orca was. Their unearned hubris--from the project name on down--is pretty sweet considered how badly they bungled this.
Meanwhile I don't remember hearing of Obama's IT team until they delivered on Election Day (and I'm a high-information voter that followed the election closely, read dozens of politics blogs daily, and is interested in the intersection of politics and technology).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 11:30 AM on November 19, 2012
The Republicans lost the election because they have a shitty product, not because they had a shitty salesman (which they also had). The longer they point fingers at Romney the happier I am.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:04 PM on November 19, 2012
I'm not a scientist, man.
On the other hand, opposing gay marriage is important, despite its irrelevance to the economy, because 'a significant percentage of Americans feel very strongly about this issue.'
"The Williams Institute at UCLA Law reported Monday that wedding spending by same-sex couples in [Maine, Maryland, and Washington] to approve gay marriage may generate more than $166 million over the next three years."
Gay marriage boosts... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 11:49 AM on November 19, 2012
TV show recaps, recappers, and TWoP
Lately the AV Club has had a couple of shows recapped by people who explicitly don't like the show (they say as much in the recaps), which makes for crappy recaps.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:53 PM on November 18, 2012
Modern doublethink?
The use of acronyms and backronyms, i.e., the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act).
posted to Ask Metafilter by kirkaracha
at 9:43 PM on November 12, 2012
George Carlin on "shell shock" > "battle fatigue" > "operational exhaustion" > "post-traumatic stress disorder."There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap.
In the first world war, that condition was called "shell... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kirkaracha
at 2:30 PM on November 18, 2012
With A Million Stars All Around
Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends
The secret ingredient is Waddy Wachtel.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:17 AM on November 16, 2012
I'm listening to Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 right now. Yes, partly out of spite. And I'm loving it.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:37 AM on November 16, 2012
If at first you don't secede...
Funny how the calls for secession seem to coming loudest from those who, months before, were quickest to inform us that theirs is the Party of Lincoln.
"How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?" -- Samuel Johnson, 1775
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:52 AM on November 15, 2012
Holy crap they already have made and distributed bumper stickers in South Carolina.
"South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum." -- James Petigru
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 3:16 PM on November 15, 2012
I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War.
Female agent in opening sequence, first characteristic we see = 'bad driver', breaking side mirror
I don't remember the setup for breaking the first side mirror, but she clearly broke the second one intentionally, making her an excellent driver.
By end of film she's demoted to secretary
She chooses to take an office position, she isn't demoted. And her boss is the head of the entire organization.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:22 PM on November 12, 2012
Otherwise, my biggest problem with the scene was how the hell did Bond get on the boat?
Inside a fake alligator, natch.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 5:40 PM on November 13, 2012
there was definitely a nod to Bond having had sex with men there
I didn't take it quite that way. To me it seemed like Silva was using same-sex physical contact as a psychological weapon to try to unnerve Bond, and Bond turned the tables on him by demonstrating that it didn't bother him. I don't care and Bond's response was badass either way, I just read it differently.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 12:28 PM on November 14, 2012
Do you have a flag?
The British have gone a thousand years without anyone sacking their capitol
No one has ever sacked the British capitol; there isn't one. The capital has been sacked.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:07 PM on November 12, 2012
"I am done making excuses for the pro-life movement."
I think the medical fact that at eight months gestation a 'fetus' is physically indistinguishable from a 'baby' and quite capable of surving outside the womb (they usually do, when delivered early) is a very strong, rational argument for treating them the same under the law.
According to Fox News statistics from 2003, 91 percent are of abortions in the US are performed during the first trimester, 9 percent are performed in the second trimester, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:25 PM on November 8, 2012
56% of self-described moderates voted for Obama
Lindsay Graham has always been remarkably sane for a Republican.
Not when he was an impeachment manager.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:38 AM on November 8, 2012
I'm a lefty and I'm a total fan of having a huge and awesome military.
I'm a lefty, and we should cut our military by 25% at least. We could cut it by 50% and still spend more than anyone else, and we could still have nice things.Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:15 PM on November 8, 2012
Sasha Issenberg: the new science of winning campaigns
It's seemed to me that there's only been one well-run campaign in each presidential election since 1992, and the candidate with the better-run campaign has won every time. Clinton's 1992 campaign inspired a documentary, so Bob Dole could've adopted some of the best practices, but didn't. Bush ran better campaigns than Gore and Kerry, and Obama ran better campaigns than McCain and Romney. A key example of the Obama-Romney campaign is when Romney announced the Ryan VP pick on a Saturday (!) and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 3:32 PM on November 8, 2012
The two guys that have beaten incumbents recently--Reagan and Clinton--were both charismatic and their campaigns had positive, upbeat messages. Romney was uncharismatic and had no real message (or certainly not a positive one at least).
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 3:34 PM on November 8, 2012
I hope they keep whining about Sandy throwing the election, because it completely misses what happened. The polls were already moving in Obama's favor, and Romney was already increasingly likely to lose.
Time was running out in the fourth quarter with Obama leading by a touchdown, then Romney threw an interception that Obama ran back for a TD. Romney was going to lose anyway; Sandy was just icing on the cake.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:54 PM on November 8, 2012
Prop 34
California has 727 people on death row and has executed 13 people since 1976. The majority of them will never be executed. Death row inmates "already are more likely to die of old age, other natural causes or suicide."
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:35 AM on November 5, 2012
