Patterico's Pontifications

7/22/2009

The Joys of a National Conversation on Race

Filed under: General,Race — Patterico @ 11:52 pm



Here’s why having a “national conversation on race” is a stupid idea: because the liberals are eager to twist anything you say and call it racist. For example, in my post this morning on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, I noted that in his police report, the arresting officer wrote:

Gates then turned to me and told me that I had no idea who I was ‘messing’ with and that I had not heard the last of it.

Based on this and similar comments by Gates, I described Gates as “a high-on-himself Harvard professor.”

When you read that, did you instantly know that I am a racist? If so, then you must be a liberal!

Me, I think “high-on-himself Harvard professor” is an indisputably accurate description of a man who attempts to intimidate a police officer with his exalted status as a Harvard professor. But at Scott Eric Kaufman’s blog, I was quickly set straight. Far from giving an accurate description, I was told, I was simply using “code words” for the deep dark racist thoughts that the clairvoyants over their know I harbor in my ugly racist soul.

As one chuckle-headed commenter named “Rich Puchalsky” said to my commenter JD:

You’re a racist, and so is Patterico, and your reflexive defense of a bad arrest under coded racism disguised as populism is just par for the course.

Never mind that I didn’t defend the arrest, nor did JD — we criticized it. But facts don’t matter to a fella like that. What matters is that Rich Puchalsky just knows that we’re RACISTS!!!!1!!!1! and that he has the courage to call us on it.

Now, you might be thinking: so someone on the Internet is a lunatic. What else is new?

The problem is this: attitudes like this are unfortunately symptomatic of the views held by a distressingly large segment of the self-styled elite. (Many of them, curiously enough, are professors, molding young minds into thinking this kind of crap.) If Rich Puchalsky were just some lunatic popping off on the Internet (OK, he is, but I’m making a point here), that would be one thing. But we had to listen to Barack Obama go on about the Gates arrest, making it sound as if it had been motivated by racism. And if you believe that, it’s a small step to calling bloggers racists because they accurately describe people as high on their own perceived importance in the world.

So can we please continue the national discussion on race? Pretty please? If it’s all like this, I think it will be very productive.

65 Responses to “The Joys of a National Conversation on Race”

  1. As I recall, the incident happend in Cambridge, Massachussetts.

    Since when does that sort of thing happen in enlightened places like Cambridge? Racist police are only in backwards cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.

    Michael Ejercito (833607)

  2. I would like to punch the next person who uses the phrase “code word” in the kisser, regardless of whether s/he agrees with me on whatever is the topic. “When liberals say ‘neocon,’ they mean Jews!” “When conservatives say Obama is ‘a radical,’ they mean he’s black!”

    ENOUGH! Just once, I would like someone on the sharp end of that accusation fire back, “Where did you find a list of these so-called ‘code words,’ because I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and force them to actually explain that they are acting as if they can read your mind despite the fact your own words contradict their prejudices.

    “Code words” are a dishonest debating tool utilized mostly by dishonest debating tools.

    L.N. Smithee (8bfdc7)

  3. We’re going to fundamentally remake this country.
    Thus spake Obuma.

    krusher (791666)

  4. Correction: Gates is not a law professor. He is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

    [I knew that and just made the correction. When I saw your comment I thought: but I know he’s not, so I can’t have written that he was! Sure enough, I had. I’d make a correction in the post if I had really believed he was, but since I knew he wasn’t, I consider it more of a typo/brain freeze type of thing, for which this acknowledgement is sufficient. I think I had just been reading about how he had called Charles Ogletree, who IS a Harvard law professor, and so I simply had the “Harvard law professor” phrase bouncing around in my head. — P]

    sierra (4be1ff)

  5. Since a “national conversation on race” can have only one conclusion, it becomes a monologue, so what’s the point?

    The rational Dana (3e4784)

  6. It was only a matter of time before any criticism of Gates’s behavior would turn into the “uppity negro” schtick. I wonder if lib’s have any idea how boring they are?

    sierra (4be1ff)

  7. The cops responded to a crime in progress and had a duty to investigate it. The term “broad day light”, well thats when the majority of burglaries occur. It is so obvious that Gates baited the officer by not cooperating with simple requests for identification, and to step out of the house. The news keeps reporting he’s a professor, he’s a professor, like that has anything to do with the incident. The term racist is quick to be used, Gates has some serious issues, he needs to look in the mirror, but hey, African Americans can’t be racists too, or can they?

    randy (60853c)

  8. Look, the left uses “racism” as a conversation stopper. The theory is that by calling you such an ugly name, you will back off. Lovely technique.

    Rick

    Rick Caird (0ceb78)

  9. The most disappointing thing for me about Obama is the lost opportunity he had to really bridge some of the gaps in our racially sensitive society. Had he focused on the fact that he is biracial and been willing to acknowledge that all racial groups have bad apples whose behavior is not acceptable he would have won me over.
    Contrast him with Tiger Woods who has been notably absent in the “national dialog” on race because it is just not that important to him. He accomplished his feats through hard work and perserverance and is a good role model for anyone.
    The difference I see is that Tiger clearly reveres both of his parents, while Obama doesn’t seem to have the same regard for his mother or grandparents. That is too bad because, as a literal example of our melting pot, he had the opportunity to be a true role model for all Americans.
    This is not to say that Tiger didn’t encounter boorish people and hurtful slurs as he grew up. I’m sure he did. But I think he saw those people as rude, not racist, and certainly didn’t let them define who he was or would become.

    I am however “Shocked I tell you” that Patterico wouldn’t want a national dialogue on race 😉

    voiceofreason2 (10af7e)

  10. The far left’s chosen vehicle is the Democratic Party. Democrats cannot win without overwhelming support from African Americans. The math is easy. Barrack Obama is the most attractive and articulate candidate the Democrats have produced in decades, John McCain was the worst possible candidate the Republicans have produced over the same period. Yet, if you consider voters who are not African-American, Obama loses.
    Blacks make up about 12% of voters. It is estimated that 95% voted for Obama. That’s 11.4 to 0.6 or a margin of 10.8%. Obama beat McCain by about 7%. Thus the 88% of votes who are not African American gave McCain about a 3.8% edge. That would be close to 45.9% to 42.1%. Voters for minor parties and other exceptions modify the numbers slightly but not to any appreciable extent.

    If McCain gets 4.1% from African Americans and Obama gets 7.9% ( about 66% of the African American vote ), it’s all tied up. That’s right, the weakest Republican ties up the strongest Democrat if he gets just over a third of the Black vote. Democrats know this. Anything which might make African Americans vote as individuals instead of as a bloc is a catastrophe for Democrats.

    Democrats will cry racism because they have to. The lapdog media will reinforce it. Black “leaders”, long since bought off by the establishment, will echo the howls and yammerings of the leadership. All racial progress must be denied. All racial harmony must be upset. The everlasting “dialogue” on race must be made as bitter and divisive as possible. Any progress must be stopped so that it doesn’t damage the chances of Democrats.

    This is not to say that racism doesn’t exist. Or that like the bubonic plague, it isn’t horrible. But, like the plague, it is not central to our existence. Was Gates a victim? I don’t know. But the outrage is manufactured and produced by people with an agenda that doesn’t include racial progress.

    Ken Hahn (d9de97)

  11. Why do the news reports I’m reading assume I should know or care who Skippy Gates is?

    Techie (482700)

  12. As of January 20th, 2009 – dissent became the highest form of racism.

    Perfect Sense (0922fa)

  13. Had he focused on the fact that he is biracial and

    Obama is only half – white when it’s convenient for him, and all – black the rest of the time. He’s the most cyncial bi – racial person we’ve seen yet; anyone who watched him throw his grandmother under the bus understood that implicitly.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  14. The accusation of racism only works as a stopper if the accused believes the accuser believes it, or that others will believe it.
    Memo: Nobody believes it. Everybody knows it’s a manipulative scam.
    So. The accuser doesn’t believe it. More to the point, others (third party or parties involved in a discussion, an implied audience, any other people who might hear the accusation) don’t believe it.
    Thus, it only has its power because the accused thinks others believe it.
    They don’t.
    Everybody’s on to it.
    Response? Don’t fold. Don’t attempt to explain.
    Sneer “Riiiiight.” And smile.

    Richard Aubrey (59cf6f)

  15. LN – That is precisely what I asked him for, a list of all of the codewords. It is also interesting how they get to use their super secret list of codewords to change and distort the plain meaning of what you say, but it is not a 2-way street. Later on in the exchange one of them told me words have meaning, but apparently, only people like Rich and Joshua are capable of determining what others are truly saying. It is a disgusting standard employed by santimonious pricks.

    JD (57d75b)

  16. When I first started surfing the internet, which was sometime around the early 1990s, my reaction then, was that 99 percent of the content was either porn or posts by lunatics. My views have not changed since then.

    509th Bob (58dde3)

  17. Mr Hahn wrote:

    Barrack Obama is the most attractive and articulate candidate the Democrats have produced in decades, John McCain was the worst possible candidate the Republicans have produced over the same period.

    Apparently Bob Dole was so bad you just slept through then 1996 election! 🙂

    The historian Dana (3e4784)

  18. The most entertaining (yet sad) aspect of this is the way the term ‘racial profiling’ is being used. Gates broke (‘jiggered, in the words of The One) into his own house. The cops arrived and he was in the house. He also fit the description given by the citizen who called 911).

    This is not racial profiling, this is proximity and common sense police work. Interesting that the same ‘racist’ police officer is the one who gave mouth-to-mouth to a dying black athelete years ago. I wonder if that athelte’s family asked for his badge number or told him he didn’t know who he was messing with.

    harkin (f92f52)

  19. While I agree with your sentiments, I have to chuckle, given that a good number of those reading your post engage in similar behavior, albeit in different ways and on different subjects.

    You got accused of doing what you didn’t do and being what you’re not by someone who either didn’t bother to understand your point or ignored your point in order to take a cheap shot. Not fun to be on the receiving end. But it is effective, the left long ago discovered that calling someone racist is a great way of discrediting their opponents and not having to defend their arguments on the substance. Why bother to argue the substance of police procedure when you can just yell ‘racist’ and end the discussion? (especially, when unlike you, who stand by your position, most of those on the receiving end immediately cower and try to show that they’re not racist?)

    But it isn’t just the left that has jumped to demonize their opponents. Not to single out this blog or a particular topic, but why argue the merits of Lindsay Graham voting to confirm Sotomayor (which, by the way, I disagree with) when one can just call him a putz and a disgrace? Everybody knows your don’t need to debate the issues with a putz, by definition, being a putz means you’re stupid and not to be taken seriously.

    Granted, being called a putz doesn’t rival being called a racist but it’s the same sentiment and same tactics. And who knows, given enough time, the right might have their own slur that has the stopping power of racist.

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  20. So Obama doesn’t know the facts of the case… but he knows that the police acted “stupidly?”

    Ah… got it.

    What could be driving that surety, I wonder?

    TheNewGuy (114368)

  21. By the way, a photograph of Professor Gates after the arrest is at this link:

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/charges_to_be_d.html

    You can see whether the picture corroborates either story about the arrest.

    W Krebs (c59aee)

  22. Super-cache !!!!!!

    JD (57d75b)

  23. It is amazing the pretzels white folk go through on this issue ….

    1) white liberals trying to prove themselves not just beyond racists but “defenders of” and “glorifiers of” everything black to the point to attacking whites who don’t drink the kool-aid

    2) white conservatives who measure each word as if nitroglycerine in order to avoid the thought police lest they be branded racist. Ohhhh the horror!

    Let me go on record that I am a racist. Proud of it. I got something bad to say about Blacks, Irish, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, Mexicans, et al. All clans have good and bad which is generalizable to them and only them. And I generalize LOTS — most intelligent life form generalizes, it is how we avoided laying next to lions in the savannah.

    I find it hypocritical to talk about an “African American” Culture (Or any other) and yet not assume this culture has not both GOOD and BAD. Just when you speak truth to the BAD part — you are a racist. You speak truth to the GOOD — well now you are a civil rights champion.

    And with respect to Gates, he has so brain washed himself that he ignored all the other facts of the case so as to come to the wrong conclusion. If I was the cop, I would have walked away thinking the guy was benignly crazy or called Psych Services.

    Dude, just give him ID and he goes go away. If that is the worse thing that happens to you my god what a great life. He turned it into a personal armagedon.

    I get cops in my front door asking question the first thing I do is invite them in my home. Come in Officer! Is there anything you want to see? Been there and done that — was he a racist, maybe, but frankly WHO GIVES A SHIT!!!!

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  24. Gates got arrested for being an asshole, not a black man.

    I side with Gates on this one, you have the right to be an asshole (to a point) in your own home. But the only one acting racist is Gates himself.

    Joe (17aeff)

  25. Comment by Dmac — 7/23/2009 @ 5:20 am

    Like I said a lost opportunity. He didn’t have to pander to the black community since most are reliable votes for a democrat regardless of color.
    Tiger is sincere – Obama is not.

    voiceofreason2 (590c85)

  26. The race card is tossed out so often I’m surprised there isn’t a shortage of them by now.

    Oh, how tired I am of the of the race card. It’s only important when someone other than a white person is playing it.

    Karen (996c34)

  27. If being an a–hole gets to the point of resisting, delaying or obstructing a officer in the performance of his/her (pc correct) duties then the above named a–hole has now committed a criminal act! That person is in violation of Penal Code 148(a)(1).

    Brett (5f9a26)

  28. He was arrested for contempt of cop, not burglary.

    Alta Bob (7d5750)

  29. I posted this on the first Gates thread, but I wanted to emphasize how the academic mindset works on racial matters:

    A few years ago, there was a function for new faculty members for my university. So we all drove (separately) to a conference area quite a distance from campus. When I got to the conference area, there were many roads and it wasn’t clear which direction to go. So as I paused, trying to figure it out, three or four guys doing maintenance ran up to me, asking what I was doing, that it was private property. I told them about the university function, and they said, “oh, sure,” and told me which road to take. So I followed their directions, and was soon at the conference center.

    Another faculty member, who happens to be African-American and teaches several courses on “Racism in America,” had the same thing happen: drive to the conference site, have three or four guys run up to find out what he wanted, etc.

    That faculty member, as he was sitting down, angrily related to us all that he had been racially profiled. I didn’t say a word, that the same thing had happened to me. It wouldn’t have done any good. He actually tried to file a complaint.

    It reminds me of that bit in “Annie Hall,” where Woody Allen was telling his friend how everyone in Hollywood was anti-Semitic. His evidence: people would come up to him and say “I haven’t had lunch yet. D’you?”

    Of course racism still exists (and it does exist in Professor Gates, as well). But given the nature of the citizen complaint (and notice how Professor Gates shaded his own situation more than a little), it wasn’t quite as bad as suggested.

    This sort of thing is Professor Gates’ bread and butter.

    Eric Blair (204104)

  30. Are you really surprised at the treatment you got at SEK’s blog? In an era when cutting taxes is a code for racist slurs, I think you got off easy over there.

    Steverino (69d941)

  31. Oh, this has nothing to do with race, but:

    See if you can spot the party affiliation in this story of corruption in New Jersey.

    Steverino (69d941)

  32. If just being an asshole got you arrested, JD, Patterico, daleyrocks, nk and myself would be serving life.

    Gates is an asshole, but it is bullshit to just assume this is racism when it it is about a old cranky guy getting in some cop’s face and the cop reacting. It is frankly chickenshit and Obama was completely utterly wrong for escallating this.

    Unless Gates was violent, just being an offensive asshole should not get you arrested in your own home. But charges were dropped the next day, things happen, be a man Skip Gates and let this one go.

    Joe (17aeff)

  33. My wife occasionally gives me a national conversation on changing the toilet paper rolls when they run out.

    Joe (17aeff)

  34. #31 — Democrats and Jews? Love the part of money laundering and …… did the faithful Democrats pay taxes??

    PRECIOUS!!!!!! That is why I am a racist. So fits the stereotype. Loving it!!!!!!

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  35. Rich Puchalsky, SEK and Charles Johnson are assholes too. But they should not be arrested for it.

    Joe (17aeff)

  36. I guess we’re going to have to mount cams on police officers’ shoulders (like the dashboard cams in their cars.) That’s the only way we’re going to be able to objectively judge incidents like these. But my gut tells me Gates behaved like an asshole; he has surely acted like one since the incident transpired.

    When that Gates question came up last night, I thrashed around looking for something to throw at the TV. I am so sick of this race shit I could spit.

    gp (72be5d)

  37. The sad irony is that there is a sort of ongoing “National Conversation on Race,” but it’s taking place beneath the view of the national media.

    Here’s a story from a recent edition of the HeartWire e-journal.

    Gene variants influence heart-failure risk, response to beta blockers

    July 21, 2009 | Steve Stiles

    Washington, DC – Increasingly in explorations of why African Americans and whites with heart failure seem to respond differently to some drug therapies, genotype rules; race is a distraction.

    A large, prospective study published online July 20, 2009 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that much of the perceived differences in beta-blocker effectiveness, as well as variability in beta-blocker responses among African Americans, may be attributed to a couple of gene variants that affect beta receptors and their signaling pathways [1]. When those polymorphisms are controlled for, the supposed racial distinctions in beta-blocker response disappear, according to the authors, led by Dr Sharon Cresci.

    [continues]

    Boring, and not the right-shaped peg to fit into the pre-existing holes of the racialists’ agendas. Eh–who cares about better management of heart disease? Still, perhaps we’ll see improvements in the FDA’s regulation of companion diagnostics. Despite the news cycle of the past few days.

    For insights into the current state of fundamental scientific knowledge that should underlie a Conversation on Race, see this recent post by Steve Hsu.

    Dr. Steve Hsu.

    AMac (c822c9)

  38. AMac – That appears to be a Dr that I would gladly call Dr.

    JD (1762b4)

  39. joe, at what point is someone’s disturbing behavior sufficient to warrant a disturbing the peace arrest?

    It was creating a scene and it was a crime.

    If you have a problem with the charge, of course, you can vote for legislators to change this very common law. If the cop really did arrest Gates for nothing, then Gates has a Section 1983 suit. Does anyone doubt he’d sue under that section if he had a case?

    Juan (bd4b30)

  40. AMac – Your defintions of racism that you posted over there were/are priceless.

    JD (725e5a)

  41. My Firefox 3.0.12 browser doesn’t think I should be reading recent comments at Patterico, if I’ve already visited a thread. Must be something about the caching function. Anybody else have a similar tale of woe or, better yet, a solution?

    AMac (c822c9)

  42. super-cache is the bane of my existence.

    JD (72046a)

  43. “A high on himself Harvard professor” is an accurate characterization of many academic types. I knew a PhD in Sociology who demanded that her faculty colleagues and her fourth-grade pupils address her as “doctor”. My saying this should not leave me vulnerable to a charge of being either anti-white or anti-female, both of which the lady in question was. The problem many (most?) liberals have is that they do not allow others to make any comment about what they call “people of color” that is even slightly negative. That probably stems in part from their never having known “minority” people well and recogizing that ultimately they are mere human beings. So they become protective of them. I am a recovered liberal and once used the phrase “those people” in the presence of a fanatical liberal. I learned something of the venom tolerant liberals are capable of emitting the instant they suspect they are in the immediate presence of someone they suspect is a racist. They act like avenging angels. I discuss questions of race and ethnicity now only with rational people- never with liberals.

    mhr (156555)

  44. Dana,
    John McCain makes Bob Dole, an admittedly terrible candidate, look like Reagan.

    Ken Hahn (d9de97)

  45. AMac (10:22), I have been having the same problem with Firefox 3.0.11. I don’t have a solution, other than closing the browser and rebooting. Sometimes I toggle back and forth from Firefox to IE to Safari to try and keep current.

    Remember the old conservative joke: What’s the definition of a racist? Someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.

    JVW (b1db51)

  46. @23 HeavenSent

    With all due respect, if you let cops into your house without a warrant you are an idiot.

    Pinandpuller (ac62c3)

  47. voiceofreason2 wrote:

    The most disappointing thing for me about Obama is the lost opportunity he had to really bridge some of the gaps in our racially sensitive society. Had he focused on the fact that he is biracial and been willing to acknowledge that all racial groups have bad apples whose behavior is not acceptable he would have won me over.

    Contrast him with Tiger Woods who has been notably absent in the “national dialog” on race because it is just not that important to him. He accomplished his feats through hard work and perserverance and is a good role model for anyone.

    Here’s what I wrote about Tiger Woods — and tennis’ emerging stars, Venus & Serena Williams — back in September 2000:

    I wasted about a year rooting against Tiger Woods because I thought that if he was as successful as he has turned out to be, he and his father Earl would do for golf what the Williams family has done for tennis: make it a racial battleground on which everyone who doesn’t cheer their in-your-face attitude is suspected — or flat out accused — of being a bigot…

    (snip)

    [Tiger] has gained the admiration and respect of his peers not just because of his extraordinary talent, but because of his classiness … [On] his way up, he never engaged in the Williamsian taunting of the game’s reigning players, and his talk about his chances for winning whatever tournament he was in never seemed like an attempt at chest-beating intimidation — not when he would time and time again back up what he said by winning as he predicted.

    It is my belief that had it not been for Tiger Woods, Obama wouldn’t have become President. I am incapable of proving it, but I am sure that if you hooked up Obama’s mentors and imagemakers to a sodium pentathol drip, they would admit their “high concept” of his candidacy took into consideration the admiration and respect the articulate, tall, half-black, and nearly unflappable Woods has generated for himself across not only America, but the entire planet.

    Here’s the problem: Barack Obama isn’t Tiger Woods. Woods’ raw talent garnered multi-million dollar endorsements which he parlayed into a billion dollar empire (and a $30 million dollar charitable foundation) by first meeting and then far exceeding all reasonable expectations.

    Obama is more like his putative fellow Honolulu native Michelle Wie.

    Since she was ten years old, Wie was heavily promoted as The Female Tiger, bound to shatter gender barriers the way Woods did racial ones. In 2005 — having not won a tournament in two-and-a-quarter years — the statuesque Wie, after turning pro at the tender age of 15 on the strength of her otherworldly 300-yard-long tee shots, was handed an approximate 22 million in endorsement cash. Instantly, she was one of the world’s richest teenagers. But as golf fans know, the game isn’t just about hitting the ball far away, it’s about hitting it into a four-and-a-quarter inch diameter hole far away, which is harder. Compounding her obstacles were her ambitious parents, who allowed her to pursue her folly of entering mens’ tournaments rather than going against other women. She not only never credibly competed for a title in her attempts to beat men, she made a cut only once, finishing at or near the bottom several times. Wie did enter some major LPGA events, but only contended for a win once. Accomplished female pros were either silent or supportive at first, but as Wie continued to blow off women’s tournaments only to bring up the rear battling the men, they grew weary of her sucking all the air out of the small room reserved for them and her treatment of the women’s tour as being almost irrelevant. All of this, mind you, while getting paid more than any female individual athlete in history who hadn’t won a darn thing.

    Now, the irrelevant one is Michelle Wie. While the sports world’s cameras were focused on the supposed future of women’s golf shanking, bogeying, and losing against men, other young ladies were actually, y’know, winning on the LPGA tour. Paula Creamer won a tourney the age of 18 years, 11 days, and Morgan Pressel took a major LPGA event at 18/313. This year, finally concentrating solely on the women’s tour, the improving yet winless Wie will turn 20 in October, too old to be worthy of the years of hype and dozens of millions of dollars. That’s money and attention she’s never going to see again unless she rallies and becomes the greatest golfer in history. But thusfar, she hasn’t proved she’s capable of overcoming her mistakes.

    That’s where Obama is now. He’s been treated as if he’s the Tiger Woods of Presidents. But he’s sliced himself into a trillion dollar sand trap, and will be have to be extremely lucky to save par.

    Who wants to take that bet?

    L.N. Smithee (8bfdc7)

  48. #46

    If you disobey an order from the police and walk into your house, you sir are an idiot.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  49. Is it me or are the majority of Obamas’ appointtees minorities?

    pitchforksntorches (8165c3)

  50. Mr Hahn wrote:

    John McCain makes Bob Dole, an admittedly terrible candidate, look like Reagan.

    Rather the reverse, in my opinion.

    The Dana who supported Dick Cheney for the 1996 presidential nomination, before Mr Cheney dropped out even before the Iowa caucuses (474dfc)

  51. Is the super-cache evilness done for the night?

    JD (0f9c01)

  52. Mr Smithee wrote:

    He’s been treated as if he’s the Tiger Woods of Presidents. But he’s sliced himself into a trillion dollar sand trap, and will be have to be extremely lucky to save par.

    An absolutely great line, which has been stolen as my new blog tagline! 🙂

    The blogger Dana (474dfc)

  53. pitchforksntorches asked:

    Is it me or are the majority of Obamas’ appointees minorities?

    If being evil and dangerous constitutes a minority group, then yes.

    The only partially joking Dana (474dfc)

  54. “If you disobey an order from the police and walk into your house, you sir are an idiot.”

    Because everyone knows what cops will do.

    [note: fished from spam filter]

    imdw (758828)

  55. Regarding Obama’s “stupid” comment, he has been President long enough to know how inappropriate and politically foolish it is to inject himself into a local matter. But what’s disappointing about his comment is that he’s a lawyer so he knows not to publicly prejudge or take sides in legal matters like this. It makes me realize how interested he is in pushing his racial agenda.

    DRJ (6f3f43)

  56. DRJ – What was most stunning with he led with the admissions tat he does not know the facts, and was biased towards one of the parties involved, and then proceeded right on to take a side after saying he would not. It was kind of surreal.

    JD (72046a)

  57. Joe sez:

    Rich Puchalsky, SEK and Charles Johnson are assholes too.

    Oh, now. SEK and Charles Johnson are not assholes.

    SEK just says assholish things now and then.

    But:

    First and foremost, I think everyone needs to realize that it’s possible to say something assholish without being an asshole; moreover, it’s possible to participate in an asshole narrative without subscribing to it.

    Patterico (cc3b34)

  58. Contrast him with Tiger Woods who has been notably absent in the “national dialog” on race because it is just not that important to him…..
    The difference I see is that Tiger clearly reveres both of his parents

    We don’t need a dialogue on race. We need a dialogue on people’s ideological biases, on how much common sense (or lack of such) occupies their brain.

    http://www.desertconservative.com:

    I have never been more proud of Tiger Woods than when I heard his 2-minute tribute to the military at the Inaugural Celebration in Washington DC. [in January 2009]. You know he was greatly pressured to be there.

    Liberals have been mad at him for a decade for not joining their ranks. You know he didn’t want to be there. So instead of paying homage to Obama, he paid tribute to our soldiers.

    Not one time did Tiger mention Obama, the inauguration or the new administration.

    He knew beforehand that his love for America and appreciation for our military men and women could anger them further.

    But Tiger is his own man; his father taught hime to be his own.

    Mark (411533)

  59. @48 Thomas Jackson

    I was referring to a statement that HeavenSent made about letting the cops in one’s house.

    If they want to go fishing they can get a license.

    Pinandpuller (ac62c3)

  60. If you believe a cop responding to a breaking and entry call is on a fishing expedition you really do need help. You remind me of a juror I had to work with who despite FBI provided evidence of ten years of theft from his clients said “he couldn’t be guilty because he look like my nephew and my nephew wouldn’t do such a thing.”

    Truly pathetic. If a cop does not who you are, or what you are doing, its stupid to disobey him and walk away. If you don’t think so I can only hope I get to witness what happens when you pull what Gates did.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  61. Our esteemed host wrote:

    I think everyone needs to realize that it’s possible to say something assholish without being an asshole.

    So, when I saw the long, long line to turn right yesterday, and there was no line to turn left, so I made a quick left turn into the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot and exitedout the front, making my right turn ahead of all of the people in line to do it properly, and the people who saw me doing so yelled, “Asshole!” they were really wrong; I was a nice guy simply doing something assholish?

    Your answer and clarification is very important to my self-=esteem.

    The Dana waiting with bated breath for the answer (3e4784)

  62. In Illinois it’s a traffic offense to detour through private property in order to avoid a traffic signal.

    nk (b6fb1d)

  63. P.S. Scofflaw!

    nk (b6fb1d)

  64. In Illinois it’s a traffic offense to detour through private property in order to avoid a traffic signal.

    Comment by nk — 7/24/2009 @ 6:37 am

    Tru Dat. I’ve been ticketed for that. I called the black cop a racist just trying to get back at whitey. He wasn’t amused for some reason.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  65. I was ordered out of the car and frisked. I had a nickel bag in my pocket.* The officer kneaded it and squeezed it. It did not feel like a weapon so the officer did not reach in to pull it out. I think that’s when my respect, or at least benefit of the doubt, for the police was sown.

    *It was 37 years ago.

    nk (b6fb1d)


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