Patterico's Pontifications

7/25/2012

Did Obama Publicly Thank A Gay Pr0n Kingpin?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:19 am



The Weekly Standard says yes — and it’s almost too good to check:

“I want to thank someone who put so much work into this event, Terry Bean,” President Obama said as the crowd began to cheer. “Give Terry a big round of applause.”

Terry Bean is, according to the New York Post, a “gay-porn kingpin.”

“ONE of the ‘bundlers’ who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America,” the Post reported in 2008, during the president’s first run the office. “Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama’s National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year.”

“Once controlled”? Hmm. We’ll get back to that part in a second.

The Weekly Standard says the Terry Bean whom Obama praised is the same dude as the foundation trustee. I have not independently verified that, and I wish they’d provide some clear basis for independently reaching that conclusion. But Bean the trustee is from Oregon, and is also an Obama bundler — and so it very may well be the same guy.

Problem is, according to my reading of the New York Post article linked by the Standard, Bean is a former kingpin and not a current one. And Obama is not his only donee:

Bean, a real-estate developer based in Oregon, was the CEO of Conwest Resources, the holding company that owned Falcon, before Holmes died. The company was sold in 2004 but, now called 3 Media, continues to pay off a note to the foundation.

In 2002, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongowski returned a $15,000 contribution from Conwest to avoid the “taint” of the porn connection. Bean told Page Six yesterday, “I asked the company to donate, and they did. To avoid the appearance of anything, he [Kulongowski] returned it.”

Bean also said, “I never had anything to do with running the company . . . Chuck became a friend of mine, and I got him interested in philanthropy.”

An Obama spokesman told Page Six: “Mr. Bean does not own the company [Falcon]. He is a regular contributor to state and federal candidates, including Republican Senator Gordon Smith and Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe, and has even donated to the Log Cabin Republicans – who endorsed John McCain.”

Almost too good to check, but when the checking involves clicking a single link, I guess I can fit that in. Seems like this story might be kind of a swing and a miss by the Standard. Which sucks, because I really wanted to write a “Obama praises gay porn kingpin” post.

Obama may have dodged this bullet.

Give Barry a big round of applause.

UPDATE: Well, now, that’s very embarrassing. Somehow, I got the idea that it was the Daily Caller that had published the piece I mildly criticized in this post, and it just isn’t. At all. I have had to go back and put “Weekly Standard” everywhere I had originally written “Daily Caller.”

I’m flummoxed. I don’t even know why I thought it was the Caller. I really don’t. Weird. Just a total brain misfire. My apologies to the folks at the Caller.

Give Patterico a big round of applause!

101 Responses to “Did Obama Publicly Thank A Gay Pr0n Kingpin?”

  1. Why you gotta hate on the taint?

    JD (b22d65)

  2. Give Barry a big round of applause.

    *golfclap*

    Pious Agnostic (7c3d5b)

  3. There’s a little spelling issue in the headline.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  4. This kind of highlights the asshattery displayed BT the left as to when Romney left Bain.

    JD (b22d65)

  5. Schwing and a miss?

    Icy (fdf16c)

  6. If someone who makes money making porn puts a lot of work into organizing an event, why *shouldn’t* they be thanked? *puzzled look*

    aphrael (24797a)

  7. Schlong and a miss.

    JD (b22d65)

  8. aphrael, ah come on, you know you are looking forward to the Republican bloggers using the label “Crotch Brothers” for Democrat donors.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  9. Painted Jaguar:

    Icy,

    I thought “Prons” were like little shrimp, and “pron kingpin” was an oxymoron like “jumbo shrimp”, then I started to wonder how anyone could tell if a “pron” was “gay” or not, and then I wondered if by “gay” they meant the commonly used meaning of today, or the meaning of the past as “donning gay apparel”, and then I wondered if they had little party hats or something (feets’ suggestion)…

    And then I wondered if I wasn’t getting something, because P writes, “because I really wanted to write a ‘Obama praises gay porn kingpin’ post.” But he just did, unless the presumed error wasn’t an error but a purposeful slight deviation so he can technically (such a lawyer-ey thing) say that he never wrote what we thought/knew he wrote.

    Besides all that, I don’t care if the pron is gay or straight in this situation, I believe a pron is a pron (or “porn is porn”).

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  10. Comment by SPQR — 7/25/2012 @ 7:59 am

    My, your wit is functioning early this morning. Did you have a vent’ with an extra shot of espresso???

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  11. or was that venti with an extra shot of expresso???

    Beautiful day, need to work

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  12. Painted Jaguar, french press today.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  13. Mr. Jag-U-R, I was confuzzled because not only did I NOT know that prawns were gay, but if they ARE gay then should they not have a ‘queen’?

    Icy (fdf16c)

  14. Comment by Icy — 7/25/2012 @ 8:13 am

    Hence, a Queenpin?

    Icy, are you an armadillo?

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  15. Jay Carney knows three Terry Bean’s, but only two of them produce gay porn.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  16. MD,

    I think the shrimp- like crustacean is prawn, not pron.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  17. Icy, are you an armadillo?
    Comment by Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) — 7/25/2012 @ 8:16 am

    — Ahh, that would be ‘telling’ . . .

    Icy (fdf16c)

  18. _____________________________________________

    and has even donated to the Log Cabin Republicans

    I know here in LA, many politicians (and as is typical of urban America, liberalism is the default mindset in virtually all of them) are all hot and bothered because makers of porn movies have not previously been required to make their actors wear condoms. So new laws are being enacted.

    Since the left has banned (or is banning) the smoking of cigarettes pretty much everywhere and the use of free plastic bags at grocery stores — and Big Nanny Bloomberg is running amok in New York City banning what he wants to ban, and the pols in San Francisco are banning things like Happy Meals at McDonald’s — they need as many areas as possible (ie, bad habits) to direct their energies to.

    Mark (672f64)

  19. Too many attempts at tongue in cheek I guess gets tied up in knots.

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  20. You were being sarcastic. I get it now. Sometimes your sockpuppet confuses me.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  21. Sometimes he confuses me too.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  22. In fact, I asked Jaguar to post as he did because I wasn’t sure if P made a typo, or as PJ wrote, P purposefully reversed the letters to say he didn’t really write what he wrote.

    Too much time spent on trying to be humorous, time to get to work and take advantage if the cool day here.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  23. I sold muscle mags, Playgirl, (and I cannot remember the name of the Penthouse gay spinoff), when I was seventeen. Helped put me through three years of college and first year of law school. My only problem with gay porn is muscle and penis envy.

    nk (875f57)

  24. Annie Hall: So I told her about, about the family and about my feelings towards men and about my relationship with my brother. And then she mentioned penis envy. Do you know about that?
    Alvy Singer: Me? I’m, I’m one of the few males who suffers from that.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  25. BTW, if anybody wants to see me naked, I only charge scale.

    nk (875f57)

  26. Another great quote from Annie Hall:

    Alvy Singer: Don’t you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we’re left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  27. So, a Pron Kingpin donates to Jim Kolbe of AZ (understandable), the Log Cabin Repubs (again, understandable); but to Gordon Smith of OR (is there something that I haven’t heard about Gordon?).

    Inquiring minds want to know.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  28. Comment by nk — 7/25/2012 @ 8:47 am

    BTW, if anybody wants to see me naked, I only charge pay scale.

    FTFY!

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  29. Gordon turned out to be quite a quite a Rino, although better than Merkel,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  30. Comment by nk — 7/25/2012 @ 8:47 am

    BTW, if anybody wants to see me naked, I only charge pay scale.

    FTFY!

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  31. Comment by nk — 7/25/2012 @ 8:47 am

    BTW, if anybody wants to see me naked, I only charge pay scale.

    FTFY!

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  32. Sorry for the double comment, there was a webpage glitch.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  33. Dunno where you got that from, AD, but I make allowances that you’re from California.

    nk (875f57)

  34. _______________________________________________

    And then she mentioned penis envy.

    Your tax dollars at work…

    foxnews.com, July 2011: The federal government helped fund a study that examined what effect a gay man’s penis size has on his sex life and general well-being.

    The study was among several backed by the National Institutes of Health that have come under scrutiny from a group claiming the agency is wasting valuable tax dollars at a time when the country is trying to control its debt. This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, “The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men.”

    Mark (672f64)

  35. BTW, AD,

    I have rules of engagement for blogs. One through twelve. One = serious/humorous discussion/banter. Twelve = ignore.

    Adios, amigo.

    nk (875f57)

  36. BootBlack owes him for keeping OBL glued to the srusty screen.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  37. nk, AD was just running with your joke.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  38. This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, “The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men.”

    — It’s like they’re pouring our tax money into a brown hole.

    [I denounce myself]

    Icy (fdf16c)

  39. BTW, if anybody wants to see me naked, I only charge scale.
    Comment by nk — 7/25/2012 @ 8:47 am

    — If you’re charging by what the scale reads then I probably can’t afford it.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  40. nk has demonstrated his studied thinness of epidermis previously, and it is not something I take seriously.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  41. It was not a joke. It was a serious statement, in satirical terms. About freedom of looking at things and what harm does it do.

    nk (875f57)

  42. 41.nk has demonstrated his studied thinness of epidermis previously, and it is not something I take seriously.Comment by AD-RtR/OS! — 7/25/2012 @ 9:12 am

    It is not something you take seriously. So you pick on me just for the sake of picking on me? Since there is no serious object? Just to pass the time? Sort your socks, to better uses.

    nk (875f57)

  43. nk, dude. Lighten up, I’m sure he thought he was playing along with your joke.

    SPQR (387207)

  44. With all of this talk about naked Greeks going on, I knew it had to be an Olympic year!

    Icy (fdf16c)

  45. I understand Bill Clinton occasionally gave a shout-out to those who helped him arrange a hook-up, too.

    Rob Crawford (6c262f)

  46. Dude bashes Bible thumpers reading material and yet scruples to proactively protect Larry Flynt.

    Whoa, Trigger! Whoa dammit.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  47. No problem. Never happened.

    As far as “porn” goes, some people might say Sam Pechinpah’s bullets bursting out the chest, back and throat wih fountains of blood is worse.

    nk (875f57)

  48. The political manscape is changing.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  49. _____________________________________________

    My only problem with gay porn is muscle and penis envy.

    FWIW, there apparently is a relationship between the anatomy of a male and another aspect of him. Many guys (although probably not someone like Terry Bean or Jerry Sandusky) would therefore want to categorize the matter under the heading of “be careful of what you wish for.”

    ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:

    The relation between sexual orientation and penile dimensions in a large sample of men was studied. Subjects were 5122 men interviewed by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction from 1938 to 1963. They were dichotomously classified as either homosexual (n = 935) or heterosexual (n = 4187). Penile dimensions were assessed using five measures of penile length and circumference from Kinsey’s original protocol. On all five measures, homosexual men reported larger penises than did heterosexual men.

    Mark (672f64)

  50. bursting out the chest, back and throat wih fountains

    — Sounds like porn to me.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  51. How did Kinsey find 935 queers in 1938? Or in 1963? You do know that this is fiction, right?

    nk (875f57)

  52. Greeks just disqualified their gorgeous blond long jumper because she’s a Golden Dawn supporter and retweeted:

    “There are so many West Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitos will be getting home cooking.”

    BTW, Japan’s corpse is beginning to stink.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/amid-energy-shortages-a-record-first-half-trade-deficit-for-japan/2012/07/25/gJQA0cpK8W_story.html

    What does one do to fund a public debt of 240% of GDP when the latter goes away?

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  53. If there’s anything Greeks, those still in Greece, know how to do well is to be beggar losers.

    nk (875f57)

  54. What aphrael said. Who the hell cares.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  55. Who the hell cares.

    Well, you can see how upset it’s made all of us.

    Pious Agnostic (7c3d5b)

  56. 🙂

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  57. Good enough for the Daily Caller, but not good enough for Patterico.

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  58. 58. Good enough for the Daily Caller, but not good enough for Patterico.

    It would definitely be good enough for the DCCC. They called Sheldon Adelson a pimp of Chinese prostitutes based upon less of a connection.

    And unless they publicly apologize he’ll sue the DCCC for defamation. And he’s got the billions to do it. While the DCCC needs its money for the campaign.

    Beauty.

    Steve57 (386607)

  59. Oh, just clicked the link. Awesome.

    In 2002, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongowski returned a $15,000 contribution from Conwest to avoid the “taint” of the porn connection.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  60. __________________________________________

    You do know that this is fiction, right?

    Perhaps someone like Obama, who reportedly was a member of a bath house in Chicago, would have a better idea about that. But based on the following, other physical traits do appear to correlate with a person’s homosexuality.

    However, I’d say that nothing else comes as close to being a good indicator of such behavior as a person’s political slant, since surveys indicate that over 80% of gays are liberal.

    latimes.com, June 2008: Some inborn traits might be expected if homosexuality is — as most scientists believe — rooted in biology, and they might provide clues about the biological origins of sexual orientation.

    Finding and solidifying these links isn’t easy. Studies contradict each other, and some promising paths don’t pan out. (A link between male homosexuality and finger lengths isn’t holding up, and a claim that gays have distinctive fingerprint ridge patterns is largely discredited.)

    * Big brothers. Study after study — including one of 87,000 British men published last year — has found that gay men have more older brothers than straight men do. Only big brothers count. Lesbians don’t show such patterns.
    The numbers: Each older brother will increase a man’s chances of being gay by 33%, says Ray Blanchard of the University of Toronto, an expert on the “big-brother effect.” That’s not as dramatic as it might sound. A man’s chance of being gay is pretty low to begin with — perhaps as low as 2% (lowered from 10% by researchers in the early 1990s). So having one older brother ups the chance to only about 2.6%.

    * Left hand vs. right hand. The hand you use to sign your name might have something to do with what gender you are drawn to. The numbers: More lefties — or at least more somewhat-ambidextrous folks — crop up in the gay population than among straight people, several studies have shown. An analysis of more than 23,000 men and women from North America and Europe in 2000 found that being non-right-handed seems to increase a man’s chances of being gay by about 34%, and a woman’s by about 90%.

    * Hair whorl. How does your hair grow? This might reflect your sexual orientation. The numbers: A 2004 study of nearly 500 men — 272 on Delaware’s Rehoboth Beach, popular with gay men, 200 on a beach without that reputation — found that hair on the heads of men on the gay beach was 3.5 times more likely to grow in a counterclockwise direction. (Scalp hair typically resembles a clockwise-rotating typhoon.)

    Mark (672f64)

  61. _____________________________________________

    BTW, Japan’s corpse is beginning to stink.

    I was under the impression that they at least weren’t a heavily taxed nation, since their version of generally right-leaning governance has been in power for most of the past several decades—-until 2008, when they too went to the left as the US did. Then I saw an article recently that indicated Japan is actually the highest-taxed society in Asia. So the Japanese are in much more of a big bubble of taxing and spending than I originally believed was the case.

    I don’t know if such stories are going to end too well.

    Mark (672f64)

  62. 56. We’ll just placate the Nation of Islam with all the jobs for pole dancers and cameramen ibn Dunham is securing via stimulae.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  63. Wait, having older brothers causes gay panic? Who knew?

    How’s that supposed to work, as a biological mechanism? Assuming all siblings have the same parents, is it a factor of aging eggs, sperm, or wombs? Has any independent study indicated that as a parent ages their gametes are fundamentally different from their youthful predecessors?

    This doesn’t pass the smell test for me. (Pardon my imagery).

    Pious Agnostic (7c3d5b)

  64. Ah, the age old question: Nature, or Nurture?

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  65. Mark drives be batty. I usually manage to not say anything.

    JD (b22d65)

  66. _________________________________________

    How’s that supposed to work

    Apparently based on this…

    latimes.com: Psychological influences are probably not at work, because the pattern holds even for gay men who weren’t raised with their older brothers. Instead, the mother’s womb might be key. After giving birth to a boy, her immune system might create antibodies to foreign, male proteins in her bloodstream. Subsequent sons in the womb could be exposed to these “anti-boy” antibodies, which might affect sexual development in the brain.

    Accordingly, you’d expect the percentage of gay men in a society to vary depending on demographic differences in family size: One study calculated that a one-child-per-family law would reduce male homosexuality by about 29% from current levels.

    Mark (672f64)

  67. 65. Indeed, ‘spose Barky ever paid for pictures of Mom?

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  68. _____________________________________________

    Mark drives be batty.

    Why? You’re not interested in the sciences, of both biology and, for that matter, the social one too?

    Mark (672f64)

  69. 61. Lucky me, oldest sibling, right-handed, whorl-at least when I had one-clockwise.

    I can sleep tonight.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  70. Mark drives be batty. I usually manage to not say anything.
    Comment by JD — 7/25/2012 @ 10:46 am

    — I usually manage to skip reading (or just skim) his posts.

    The line helps.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  71. That hair-whorl study was super-sciencey:

    The study, although intriguing, suffers from a lack of scientific rigor. The author walked around while on vacation, collecting hair-whorl observations on men from a discreet distance. He didn’t know anyone’s sexual orientation for sure, and didn’t objectively examine any scalps up close. Rahman’s group is attempting to replicate the results in the lab.

    Good enough for the LA Times!

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  72. What is it about trolls with the letter “T” that can’t write coherent comments?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  73. Painted Jaguar:

    Maybe ya’ll should have stuck with prons, or prawns, after all…

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  74. Comment by Timb — 7/25/2012 @ 11:06 am

    This mornings Laugh-In Winner, who will accept his prize upon exiting – along with his 37 friends – from that Crossly Hot-shot.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  75. 72. Oh Gawd, Mark is a moderate.

    Once in a while a real conservative like Hitchcock passes thru but this is a moderate/libertarian crowd.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  76. Meanwhile, who woulda thunk the Daily Caller would be wrong about something? I mean, anyone who reads them knows they are clowns, but who ELSE woulda think?
    Comment by Timb — 7/25/2012 @ 11:06 am

    — Speaking of people with “special” whorl-patterns . . .

    Icy (fdf16c)

  77. ____________________________________________

    – I usually manage to skip reading (or just skim) his posts.

    I confess to doing pretty much the same thing to many posts here, certainly after returning to this website several hours after the fact and finding — because of this forum’s graphic interface — a huge wall of undivided text. And also often being too lazy to click on most people’s links. My bad.

    Mark has a lot of problems.

    From you, timb, I take that as a compliment. I’d be worried if someone like, say, Obama or Biden, etc, came up to me and said “hey, I admire your logic and way of thinking!!”

    Mark (672f64)

  78. I actually agree with a lot — probably most — of what you write, Mark.

    Your tendancy to analyze nearly every issue raised — at length — in terms of left/right politics, not so much.

    Icy (fdf16c)

  79. So Bean, who is the trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation has said, according to the NY Post, that he had nothing to do with the running of the organization. Remarkably similar to what Romney said when he was C. E. O. during Bain’s outsourcing period. So, why do we let Romney off the hook and vilify Bean?

    Fred (0853ae)

  80. There’s a little spelling issue in the headline.

    A deliberate one.

    Idea is to keep the spammers away. “pr0n” is kind of generally accepted Internet-speak for, you know, that other thing that if you mention it gets your thread overrun by disgusting spammers.

    Patterico (feda6b)

  81. Comment by Patterico — 7/25/2012 @ 6:00 pm

    Painted Jaguar: Aha!!! There was a purpose, not a simple mistake. But it was much more reasonable than the tricky lawyer reason I thought of at #9.

    I guess I’ve read too many CIA press releases on Valerie Plame.

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  82. UPDATE: Well, now, that’s very embarrassing. Somehow, I got the idea that it was the Daily Caller that had published the piece I mildly criticized in this post, and it just isn’t. At all. I have had to go back and put “Weekly Standard” everywhere I had originally written “Daily Caller.”

    I’m flummoxed. I don’t even know why I thought it was the Caller. I really don’t. Weird. Just a total brain misfire. My apologies to the folks at the Caller.

    Patterico (feda6b)

  83. I actually clicked on your link and read the whole thing and never noticed it was the Weekly Standard and not the Daily Caller.

    Is this a test? Because I’m too old for a pop quiz.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  84. Mark,

    I like your comments but I find your dividing lines so tiresome that (and I’m not kidding) sometimes I skip your comments just to avoid the lines. I know you hate this format but it’s really all how you look at it.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  85. I don’t fully understand this post or what the “message” is. A clever tongue in cheek game of some sort from Patterico to remind people to be mindful and question things I guess– but why? This post is a rare “fail” as far as I am concerned.

    elissa (dfda4c)

  86. elissa,

    I view this post as criticism of conservative media for making a big deal out of something that isn’t — who cares how this guy made his money? It’s also criticizing the premise as wrong and/or hypocritical. Not only is it possible that the donation to Obama is not actually from the “gay pron kingpin” … even if it was, Republicans have taken money, too.

    But maybe you were joking or being sarcastic. If so, ignore my comment. I’m having a real problem spotting sarcasm today.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  87. I actually clicked on your link and read the whole thing and never noticed it was the Weekly Standard and not the Daily Caller.

    Is this a test? Because I’m too old for a pop quiz.

    It’s not a test. If anything, it shows how a guy who complains the link wasn’t scrutinized properly, didn’t scrutinize his own damn link properly. Sure, there’s irony there, but it’s not intentional and it’s at my expense.

    Which is fine.

    Patterico (feda6b)

  88. Thanks, DRJ.

    Yes, I got the broad “let’s not be so hypocritical regarding the same sorts of things we criticize our opponents and Brian Ross for doing”. But was Patterico’s writing maybe a little too clever by half to succeed in fully making the point he hoped? Seems like there was real floundering in the comments. I dunno. Was the flub with the DC and Weekly Standard mix up intentional or a mistake? Oh, never mind me.

    elissa (dfda4c)

  89. You answered one of my questions in your reply to DRJ. Thanks for clarifying that, Patterico

    elissa (dfda4c)

  90. Obviously, I’m not doing well reading this post and comment section. But I enjoyed it!

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  91. _____________________________________________

    in terms of left/right politics, not so much.

    Icy, I think making a person’s political slant as clear as possible is important and very telling, if only because much of the public (and certainly the media) often instead hones in on a person’s race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, income level, amount of education, general religious affiliation, etc.

    Or, in other instances, because of the existence of unformed, wobbly reactions of folks like George Bush and their belief that “conservatism” somehow needs to be qualified with the word “compassionate.” Or Bush’s father having an apparently blase attitude about a blank slate along the lines of a David Souter, and therefore shrugging off wariness about someone like that being nominated to the Supreme Court.

    Or, based on people like someone who I’ve casually debated on occasion (and who’s very much of the left), the assumption that because, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Republican, his true, actual ideological nature therefore really isn’t all that different (or meaningful) from that of any other Republican.

    I find your dividing lines so tiresome

    DRJ, that really shows how the human eye is sort of like the human fingerprint: no two are alike. You say tomato, I say tomahto.

    I insert what I call visual handrails (or sort of like lines on a map), if only because my eyes otherwise start to become lost when I go back and try to wade through dozens of postings in this forum. It’s similar to a hiker in the forest leaving tags on trees so as not to get lost on his way back.

    This is the ONLY message forum that I’ve ever come across in several years of web surfing that has the type of interface it does. So I think more people (or at least web designers) also favor the existence of visual handrails or, to be precise, clear-cut separators that distinguish one post from the other.

    Mark (1e7702)

  92. I don’t fully understand this post or what the “message” is. A clever tongue in cheek game of some sort from Patterico to remind people to be mindful and question things I guess

    — Don’t say “tongue in cheek” in a thread about gay prOn!

    Icy (f7bae5)

  93. Icy, I think making a person’s political slant as clear as possible is important and very telling, if only because much of the public (and certainly the media) often instead hones in on a person’s race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, income level, amount of education, general religious affiliation, etc.

    — And I agree, WHEN the political slant of the person-in-question is known.

    When it is not known (for instance, in the case of the Walker-Kimberlin judge) then I have a problem with it.

    Icy (f7bae5)

  94. Fred (a.k.a. “Dad”?) has things backasswards.

    Icy (f7bae5)

  95. Racist Homophobic Bigots!

    mg (44de53)

  96. _____________________________________________

    When it is not known (for instance, in the case of the Walker-Kimberlin judge)

    But if I had to bet the Million Dollar Lotto on Cornelius Vaughey’s likely political biases, I’d say they were of the left. And I’d have greater confidence than not that I’d win the prize.

    With a few exceptions, whenever basic common sense is no where to be seen, invariably — invariably — that can be traced to some person’s or some policy’s liberal orientation.

    Mark (1e7702)

  97. A quick read of the New York Post article and you get the info that Terry Bean is not currently or ever has been a “king-pin” in the adult entertainment industry. The Weekly Standard deserves criticism for not reading the whole article before cutting and pasting.

    Amy Blue (832999)

  98. From you, timb, I take that as a compliment. I’d be worried if someone like, say, Obama or Biden, etc, came up to me and said “hey, I admire your logic and way of thinking!

    You know what’s cute, besides your 1750’s views on civil rights and sin and so forth? That you think “logic” is partisan.

    I agree with Patterico on almost nothing politically, but his legal reasoning is generally speaking, very logical. A flows to B which flows to C.

    You, Mark, in dividing the world between good and evil and telling everyone how you would judge them according to your understanding of your religion, are practicing faith, not logic. And, since faith is subjective, let me just assure you, you’re doing it wrong and you’re a bit of a twit.

    timb (449046)

  99. _______________________________________________

    understanding of your religion, are practicing faith, not logic. And, since faith is subjective, let me just assure you, you’re doing it wrong and you’re a bit of a twit.

    Timb, just as long as you realize that (1) your own religion — whether you want to admit it or not — is liberalism or leftism, and (2) that your biases don’t therefore mean you’re a more humane, wonderful, generous, sophisticated, and tolerant person than the average human is, and than certainly your political opposites are, I’ll give you some slack.

    Mark (7b2cc7)

  100. Secular faith is faith all the same, timmah.

    Listen to Ronnie Reagan — pragmatism trumps dogmatism. With such diverse and extreme opinions flying around, it is often the only way to get things done.

    Icy (5ef891)


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