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Are We Past Race in Obama's America? Are We Past the Stimulus Bill Yet?
A few weeks before Barack Obama's inauguration, Slate's Christopher Hitchens attacked the "tsunami of drool" he saw emanating from the pro-Obama media and asked, "Are we not in danger of emulating [Obama's senatorial opponent Alan] Keyes' insane mistake every time we bang on about the senator's pigmentation?" I tend to agree, and have said that one hope for an Obama presidency is that it ends the worst sort of racial discourse in America.
Judging from the mini-flap surrounding economist and Reason.com contributor Arnold Kling, I'm starting to think I've been way overly optimistic. Readers of Kling's work at places such as Econlog know him as serious Ph.D. who comments on all sorts of issues from a free-market libertarian perspective. That is, he generally thinks that people should control most aspects of their lives and be allowed to live however they want.
Readers of sites such as Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, James Wolcott's blog, The American Prospect's Tapped, and Patriot's Quill might know him as either "a race-baiter or 'fatuously clueless.'" Kling's ostensible crime? Figuring the $800 billion stimulus package and ongoing TARP bailout thus at a Heritage Foundation event:
"I think about the stimulus as an economist but I feel it as a father. Barack Obama is destroying my daughter's future. It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs. That's how I feel, now back to how I think."
That was enough to get folks to call Kling a racist—mention a black president, a white daughter, and a home invasion robbery and well, as Wolcott puts it, "If Kling can't comprehend the implication of racial menace encoded in daughter-gang-thugs/home invasion, he's either fatuously clueless—too innocent for this wicked world—or weaselly disingenuous, and a drama queen either way."
I don't doubt that Wolcott is an insightful arbiter of drama queens, but it turns out that things aren't quite what they seem. Wolcott poses the rhetorical question, "Did he picture marauders smashing cherished mementoes when Hank Paulson introduced TARP?"
Well, yeah, writes Kling:
The event was taped, and I hope that Heritage will post the video. Here is what I remember saying:
I complained about Henry Paulson's $700 billion bailout, and I said that I felt as a taxpayer as if my house had been ransacked by a gang of thugs. I then said that we have a new gang of thugs, and there I was referring to the Obama Administration, although I did not cite the President by name.
The original live-blogging transcription of the event was done by Heritage itself, and the blogger has written:
Kling is correct that he did begin his statement by criticizing Paulson before criticizing the Obama Administration. We only left out the mention of Paulson because of space. Believe us, we have had plenty of criticism of Paulson and Bush ourselves. Kling also claims he did not refer to Barack Obama by name but was referring to his administration when he said "like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs." We have corrected the quote accordingly. We apologize for the error.
Kling's real affront was his consistent, thoughtful, and empirically and theoretically informed criticism of the Democrat's stimulus package, which was taken as a sign of overt right-wing hackery. Indeed, Patriot's Quill pointed to a 2000 column by Kling in which he offers incoming President George W. Bush advice on how to properly design a stimulus (advice, it should be pointed out, that Bush manifestly failed to heed in either of his useless stimulus packages):
So this CATO Institute economist who depicts Barack Obama's simulus plan as akin to a gang of thugs ransacking his house, and who worries for his daughter's future, is the same guy who back in 2000 was urging Bush to go on a Keynsian spending spree?
Give me a break, people!
To which Kling himself posted the first comment:
I have changed my views some since the year 2000. But I remain a bit of a Keynesian. I just don't think that Obama's policies are Keynesian. They are not what economists would come up with if asked to design a stimulus.
Kling might as well have been outed for his praise of Paul Krugman's Nobel Prize: "Even for those of us who disagree with his political views and see little value in his recent work as a columnist, this award brings neither surprise nor disappointment." What an asshole!
I really hope that we don't get into a situation where criticisms of Obama's policies are routinely turned into prima facie evidence of racial animus, coded or uncoded. Especially when it comes to the stimulus, which like TARP is genuinely unpopular. In any case, I think conservatives, liberals, and libertarians can all appreciate the fact that Obama's race did not seem to factor into the election in any of the ways that people worried about. That is, there was no Bradley or Wilder Effect.
To bring it back to Kling, a former economist at Freddie Mac, and his view on TARP and Bush and Paulson, I recommend you watch this brief interview Reason.tv did with him during the big bailout brouhaha of last fall:
Atabrat|2.12.09 @ 1:30PM|#
"like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of
half thugs."
Corrected.
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 1:31PM|#
James Wolcutt is a noted anti-semite, misogynist and
midget-kicker.
Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' evidence.
|2.12.09 @ 1:35PM|#
But I remain a bit of a Keynesian.
How fucking depressing is that. The guy recoils at being called a
racist, but then cops to being a Keynesian. It's a fucked up
society that deems Keynesians less offensive than racists.
God I need a drink. Anybody pick up a jug of that Mt. Vernon
hooch?
Orange Line Special|2.12.09 @ 1:39PM|#
[Kling] generally thinks that people should control most
aspects of their lives and be allowed to live however they
want.
Actually, Kling supports MassiveImmigration - something the vast
majority of Americans either don't want or wouldn't want if they
knew everything involved - through subterfuge, such as misleading
about the impacts. Like Reason, he's "libertarian" in the
only-slightly-hyberbolic "major corporations should be allowed to
dump toxic waste" way.
As for Gillespie's post, he has as little knowledge of how to fight
smears as he does of how to fight the stimulus. He wimped out on
both.
Charles|2.12.09 @ 1:40PM|#
I e-mailed Andrew Sullivan when he posted on this. I still don't see a contradiction between urging, as Kling did in 2000, temporary grants to states to help combat a recession and opposing the current stimulus bill.
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 1:40PM|#
Oh, wait. Keynes was gay wasn't he. That means Warren is obviously a homophobe!
|2.12.09 @ 1:42PM|#
LoneWhackJob,
How I have missed you my EnglishImpaired cousin! Now go crawl back
to your BrownHating website and leave the discussion of all things
higher to the adults.
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 1:45PM|#
Warren, I'm on to your coded messages, you bastard. I bet you
kick midgets, too. Can you prove you don't?
(And what you must do to gay Keynesian midgets -- the mind
boggles.)
And Naga seems just a bit TOO interested in midget kicking. First
rickrolling, now this shit.
|2.12.09 @ 1:49PM|#
Just for the record, Obama, his staff, and his supporters will
get absolutely zero tolerance from me when they raise race issues.
Sorry, dude, you're the most powerful person in the world. We can
say anything we want about you, including implying that you are a
thug. Don't nuke me, bro!
I suppose I might defend Obama if someone came out and called him
some direct racial epithet, but that's about it. Thug, rat bastard,
crook, sleaze ball, whore, etc.--all fair game.
Other Matt|2.12.09 @ 1:51PM|#
Don't nuke me, bro!
"Bro"-Obviously, you're completely insensitive to things. See joe
for immediate correction.
Kolohe|2.12.09 @ 1:52PM|#
I remember some other columnist or blogger saying that they felt like they were getting 'mugged' by some Obama policy, and a lot of people with a cranial-rectal impaction disorder calling this statement racist.
Your Boss|2.12.09 @ 1:53PM|#
you're the most powerful person in the world
Not really. Most of the US power lies in the congress.
|2.12.09 @ 1:53PM|#
Disagreeing vigorously with Obama makes you racist. Welcome to
America in 2009.
By the way, notice how Wolcott faults Kling for the temerity of
having a daughter rather than a son.
"James Wolcott" is the newest synonym for "bleeding anal wart."
Pass it on.
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 1:55PM|#
Approved phrases:
I feel like a yacht just ran me down.
I feel like a case of champagne just fell on my head.
I feel like a ton of cavier has been shoved up my ass.
|2.12.09 @ 2:01PM|#
This super-lame controversy reminded me of a piece by Arnold
Kling on his experience as juror on a hung jury in the case of a
young black male:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=041406C
KKKling, of course, voted for acquittal on all charges.
|2.12.09 @ 2:02PM|#
Bush really helped bring on a whole world of if you disagree
with him you are the enemy type reaction.
People are taking that same zeal and adding it to Obama. The man
can do no wrong, do not dare speak up.
|2.12.09 @ 2:02PM|#
Please, Reason, stop fighting lost battles. The stimulus bill
passed.
What we really need to worry about right now is bank
nationalization. That's the next horror coming down the pipe.
Seriously, the ground is already being prepared.
Naga Sadow|2.12.09 @ 2:02PM|#
Citizen Nothing,
Are suggesting someone can be into midget kicking a little to much?
My mind is wandering away from such a suggestion. Don't make me
post that link again. I'm saving it up for a juicy post.
Civil Discourse|2.12.09 @ 2:08PM|#
"Not really. Most of the US power lies in the congress"
You mean Afirmative Action House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
Because if you do, I just gotta say I really don't like how all of
this affirmative action shit is playing out.
¢|2.12.09 @ 2:10PM|#
Welcome to ten years ago, Nick. You won't like what happened
next.
I really hope that we don't get into a situation where
criticisms of Obama's policies are routinely turned into prima
facie evidence of racial animus, coded or uncoded.
When they weren't (or were, but not in his favor), he was just some
suspiciously white outside agitator getting creamed by Bobby
Rush.
"Script got flipped, yo," as they said back in your day.
Cool Cal|2.12.09 @ 2:11PM|#
I would like to say that most liberals already assume the worst
of libertarians' racial politics. While this may be uninformed, it
is nevertheless very common.
Upon learning my political leanings, a liberal I knew, a Yalie (so
not abjectly ignorant in a broad sense), responded after a little
heated group debate on health care where I was in the minority (of
one), in a condescendingly reassuring tone "I see where you're
coming from. You're generally into smaller government, more
personal freedom, the free market, and with a little latent racism
mixed in there."
The fucked up thing is, while he was trying to be clever, he meant
it. He believed that the political philosophy upon which my
positions were based was engendered from a subconscious racist
imperative.
The fundamental dilemma for liberals is that libertarianism
undermines and subverts the concept of the group identity, which in
turn invalidates the politics of victimhood, which, while having
some very real predicates, are more often pretense for legislation
that on the whole restricts liberty.
The point is, we're already racists categorically (who happen to
loath the idea of a powerful executive) to liberals. Now that
there's a powerful black president that liberals love ... start
growing a thick skin.
|2.12.09 @ 2:15PM|#
I really hope that we don't get into a situation where
criticisms of Obama's policies are routinely turned into prima
facie evidence of racial animus, coded or uncoded.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, that was priceless.
We were there a fucking year ago.
|2.12.09 @ 2:17PM|#
Other Matt,
Indeed. But I couldn't let the joke go, even though it proves me an
out-and-out evil, racist, Nazi, Dark-Side-of-the-Force-Wielding bad
dude person.
As to power, I didn't say the most powerful entity. I said most
powerful person. I originally typed "most powerful single person",
but I edited that to avoid anyone asking who the most powerful
married person was or pointing out that Obama is, in fact, married.
Considering that Obama can nuke people at will, can propose and
veto bills, has the use of the bulliest of bully pulpits, and
exercises a high degree of control over the millions of
administrative agencies, I'm hard put to come up with an individual
who has more power. Except maybe Scarlett Johansson.
|2.12.09 @ 2:17PM|#
I'd say something like "I can see right through Obama," but
somehow that'd be taken as a racial insult.
I fucking hate Obama. I fucking hate his glassy-eyed
supporters.
Today's a good day to fucking hate liberals and hope they
die.
Take your life, joe. Fucking just take your life.
Naga Sadow|2.12.09 @ 2:25PM|#
Does this mean I can't use cool black slang anymore? Cuz I call people brother all the time. More importantly I use the explitive SHAZAMM! frequently. Am I a rascist or simply insensitive?
Warty|2.12.09 @ 2:26PM|#
in a condescendingly reassuring tone "I see where you're
coming from. You're generally into smaller government, more
personal freedom, the free market, and with a little latent racism
mixed in there."
And then you backhanded him across his smug fucking face, right?
Good work.
Barney|2.12.09 @ 2:28PM|#
"Does this mean I can't use cool black slang anymore? Cuz I call
people brother all the time. More importantly I use the explitive
SHAZAMM! frequently. Am I a rascist or simply insensitive?"
SHAZAMM!? That would make you Gomer Pyle.
Other Matt|2.12.09 @ 2:32PM|#
I'd say something like "I can see right through Obama," but
somehow that'd be taken as a racial insult.
No, that would be his "White" half. If you said he was opaque, it
would be like calling him articulate, and we all know how horrible
that is.
Paul|2.12.09 @ 2:33PM|#
That was enough to get folks to call Kling a racist-mention a black president, a white daughter,
Kling's daughter is white? I didn't get that Kling said he wanted
to protect his white daughter from the black president? What am I
missing here?
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 2:34PM|#
Much of the slang found used by young urban blacks today
originated with gay hillbillies.
And Obama has yet to provide evidence that neither of his parents
were translucent.
Doctor C|2.12.09 @ 2:35PM|#
Hell, they voted for him because he's black. Is it okay to only be racist for the good things?
Chad|2.12.09 @ 2:35PM|#
"Much of the slang found used by young urban blacks today
originated with gay hillbillies."
Links, please...
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 2:37PM|#
"link, please."
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/131660.html#1209573
Naga Sadow|2.12.09 @ 2:47PM|#
Citizen Nothing,
I didn't know you had your own blog. Anyways, you're suggesting
that in all possible aspects, people from the ghettos are rednecks?
Hmmmmmm . . . I think there was a book on that by
Sowell.
Kolohe|2.12.09 @ 2:48PM|#
Ska @2:22
That's similar, but I want to say the one I'm thinking of was after
either the election or inaguration. But most of what I can find
with 'obama mugging' is the backwards B girl.
However, there's also this
|2.12.09 @ 2:54PM|#
Jamie,
You give the man some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.*
* Pointing out that he hasn't earned our respect is racist. You
have been warned.
JB|2.12.09 @ 2:55PM|#
Hell no. The backlash is just beginning.
Obama could end up being the worst thing that has happened to black
people in this country.
Having the first Affirmative Action president end up as a total
disaster does not bode well for them.
The South|2.12.09 @ 3:01PM|#
yep this is how national politics works now. Any opposition to the Democrats means you're a racist. It doesn't get better it gets worse. Welcome to hell.
|2.12.09 @ 3:04PM|#
What do you call an articulate, Harvard-educated, black man who rose from obscurity to become the first African-American president of the United States?
|2.12.09 @ 3:07PM|#
"You're generally into smaller government, more personal
freedom, the free market, and with a little latent racism mixed in
there."
Warty beat me to it, but that guy needed an ass beating.
JB is exactly right, Obama is going to destroy race relations in
this country. Black people are too insecure to criticize the first
black President in front of white. Hard core liberals are fucking
depraved and call everyone who disagrees with them a racist.
Eventually a large part of the non-black community is going to get
sick of watching Obama destroy the country and being called a
racist every time someone points that fact out and start resenting
the fuck out of black people in response. It is going to be
ugly.
Other Matt|2.12.09 @ 3:11PM|#
Having the first Affirmative Action president end up as a
total disaster does not bode well for them.
Well, you know, he could always claim that the bitch set him up. It
seemed to work for Mr Barry.
|2.12.09 @ 3:11PM|#
Naga, because that's what you "call" him -- quotation marks for someone saying it.
|2.12.09 @ 3:12PM|#
SAdly,
Things like what Kelly is saying will be more popular. But, hey
that is what liberals want. They last thing they want is for people
to get along and think for themselves. If that happened liberals
wouldn't be able to look down their noses at the entire population
black and white. Liberals look at all nonliberal white people are
depraved racists and all black people as helpless children unable
to succeed without the help of enlightened white people. The modern
liberal is the final expression of white supremacy. If people
actually got along and treated each other as human beings, liberals
would have to do the same thing and they are not about to do
anything that doesn't involve smug condescension
Other Matt|2.12.09 @ 3:15PM|#
Speaking of modern liberal tolerance, I will admit that this guy does seem to be of an urban planner kind of bent to me.
JB|2.12.09 @ 3:22PM|#
Jamie Kelly, well after years of people calling Bush worse than
Hitler there is pretty much nothing that people could call Obama
that would shock or surprise me.
The abject hatred of Bush did not bode well for anyone following
him, but in particular it doesn't bode well for Obama.
|2.12.09 @ 3:25PM|#
"The abject hatred of Bush did not bode well for anyone
following him, but in particular it doesn't bode well for
Obama."
Especially because everyone is being told by the media and every
other self appointed "better" that merely disagreeing with him is
racist. People are going to hate his guts before it is over and
that is going to be as much the fault of his more derranged
supporters than anything he will do.
|2.12.09 @ 3:30PM|#
I don't doubt that Wolcott is an insightful arbiter of drama queens
See, there? You made my day.
It's sad to see the new administration act with the economy like a
bunch of third graders in a 747 cockpit, flipping switches and
moving controls to see if they can get it to fly (paraphrase of
Philip Greenspun, all rights reserved). But as long as you keep
skewering the bumbleheads behind it all, at least we can extract
maximum entertainment value.
This is going to be way better than the '70's. (The entertainment,
I mean, not the economy.)
|2.12.09 @ 3:32PM|#
Like nobody saw this coming. Crank up your wayback machine to last summer and fall, and you saw lots of regulars here predicting exactly this: criticize Obama, and you'll be tagged as a racist.
|2.12.09 @ 3:43PM|#
I am a libertarian who already feels MORE sorry for the average
black person. I can hear the jokes in 2018 ~~~~
"We got the worst damn luck, I knew it, the first black muthafucka
thet we get to be president and he don't even finsh his term before
the white folks decide that NOW they gonna have themselves a
revolution...Fight the power...Hell I get the feelign that it was
some old white dudes smoking cigars in a backroom 'well shit David
it looks like the country is crumbling apart, we will be bankrupt
in three years...what do we do? I say we put a black guy in and
blam it on him when the shit hits the fan"
|2.12.09 @ 3:56PM|#
Billy! nailed it: I prefer my thugs from back in the 90's
when they were jack booted.
Yeah, Kling (being from Maryland) would have done better to say
that he felt the new Administration was like a SWAT team rolling up
to his house and shooting his dogs. Of course, someone would have
connected such a statement to Michael Vick and conjured up racist
intent.
But seriously, I have been an Arnold Kling fan since I encountered
him on the old Cluetrain list way back in 1999. It has been very
interesting to see the evolution of his thinking and his politics,
and he has been very generous in sharing his thoughts over that
time. He is a true Internet treasure.
|2.12.09 @ 3:57PM|#
Who is Ron Paul?
Hey, we all know how the stimulus is going to turn out. Sure, it's
a home invasion. The thugs are going to take the money we're
foolish enough to leave in plain sight. They are going to sprint
out to the getaway car, drive down the street and head right over a
cliff. And, yes, it's going to burn my ass to pay for the destroyed
guardrail, the totaled car and the funerals for the miscreants...
but there will be a moment while I'm sipping my bourbon watching
the car plummet over the cliff when I feel a fleeting sense of
satisfaction. The pleasure in life, my friends, is where one finds
it.
cornshucker|2.12.09 @ 3:57PM|#
"like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of
half thugs."
Corrected.
damn, atabrat wins the thread with the very first post!
Tim Cavanaugh|2.12.09 @ 3:58PM|#
Kling could have avoided this trouble if he hadn't referred to a
daughter. He should have said, "It's as if my son were made to
shower alongside monstrously endowed manchildren in one of our
failing 'multicultural' public schools."
Good post by Nick G., but the idea that an Obama presidency would
end the worst sort of racial discourse is itself vapid. There's no
evidence that the Leon Blum administration reduced anti-Semitism in
France, or that Tito advanced Serb-Croatian understanding. The
problem has never been just that people don't like each other. It's
that they don't want to like each other.
|2.12.09 @ 4:02PM|#
You can't say that Obama himself is all about race. If he were, then this stimulus package would include reparations for slavery. Of course, maybe that'll come later. Right now, I'd like reparations for the last hundred years of unconstitutional government.
Curious George|2.12.09 @ 4:10PM|#
Its so much easier to smear someone and resort to feeces
flinging than to marshall the evidence and analysis to demonstrate
your opponent wrong. Unfortunately the Leftwing knows it cannot do
this anymore than a snake oil salesman. Elmer Gantry had nothing on
these trolls.
But to defeat them one has to realize what they are and mock their
ignorance and arrogance. You'll never convert them until they
realize everyone is laughing at them.
Its amazing how no one would ever admit to voting to Carter or how
Clinton never managed to win 50% of the vote. I wonder how many
will admit to voting for Obama in two years, let alone four.
Isee oil keeps dropping while gold is moving upward. This is
Obama's present to America. Inflation and a wrecked economy.
I'd like to see one job the government has created that wasn't a
government job.
DannyK|2.12.09 @ 4:37PM|#
I didn't find the "thugs" comment offensive, it's the same old
rhetoric that you hear around LP types.
On the other hand, his reference to "reparations", combined with
the immediate clarification that he's talking about German
reparations after Versailles, seems like a blatant racially charged
dogwhistle. The only reparations that are relevant in U.S. politics
are for the holocaust and slavery.
That seemed like a Goldwaterish wink towards the haters in the
audience.
Citizen Nothing|2.12.09 @ 4:40PM|#
"The only reparations that are relevant in U.S. politics are for
the holocaust and slavery."
Say what, dogwhistle boy?
Average Middle Amerikkkan|2.12.09 @ 4:51PM|#
Kling's daughter is white? I didn't get that Kling said he
wanted to protect his white daughter from the black president? What
am I missing here?
So jewish people are considered white? Well, I'll be damned.
|2.12.09 @ 4:55PM|#
That wasn't connected to my joke about reparations, I hope. I'm most assuredly not a racist or an anti-Semite, whatever I may think of Obama. The rat.
Heir of Russert|2.12.09 @ 5:08PM|#
Tim
Cavanaugh, circa 10/29/08:
I'm probably going to vote for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) this year, and my reason is particularly indefensible. It's a straightforward case of reverse racism. For most of my life (beginning, I think, with a broadcast of that paean to racial harmony Brian's Song), I have figured that America should have a black president, and that if such a candidate ever came along who wasn't a complete disaster, I'd vote for him.
cunnivore|2.12.09 @ 5:11PM|#
Hard core liberals are fucking depraved and call everyone
who disagrees with them a racist.
Not that it makes this behavior by Obamaniacs OK, but I seem to
recall but a few years ago that hard core "conservatives" labeled
anyone who opposed invading Iraq as "terrorist sympathizers",
"objectively pro-Saddam", "cheese eating surrender monkeys", and
the like.
It's not a liberal problem. It's a general partisan hack
problem.
nonPaulogist|2.12.09 @ 5:26PM|#
Maybe Nick can explain how Kling's speaking in code to his secret Nazi minions is different that which he accused Ron Paul of doing.
|2.12.09 @ 5:27PM|#
Those racists are sneaky. They'll spend years constructing some
elaborate alternate universe intellectual framework, just in case a
black man ever gets elected President, so they can "analyze" his
policies and disagree with him.
Fuckers
|2.12.09 @ 5:29PM|#
Maybe nonPaulogist can explain why his cult of personality is any less imbecilic than the Obamatrons'.
|2.12.09 @ 5:35PM|#
"I have figured that America should have a black president, and
that if such a candidate ever came along who wasn't a complete
disaster, I'd vote for him."
Tim had a good idea. The problem is he forgot that whole "who
wasn't a complete disaster" part.
cunnivore|2.12.09 @ 5:37PM|#
Maybe Nick can explain how Kling's speaking in code to his
secret Nazi minions is different that which he accused Ron Paul of
doing.
You are aware that Ron Paul himself admitted that the comments
published in the Survival Report were racist and despicable,
right?
economist|2.12.09 @ 5:38PM|#
"Today's a good day to fucking hate liberals and hope they
die."
Jeez, calm down, Jamie. Joe pisses me off, too, but you've got to
take it in stride.
Shadow of the Past|2.12.09 @ 5:38PM|#
I have figured that America should have a black
president, and that if such a candidate ever came along who wasn't
a complete disaster, I'd vote for him.
F I X E D
economist|2.12.09 @ 5:40PM|#
"I have figured that America should have a black president, and
that if such a candidate ever came along who wasn't a complete
disaster, I'd vote for him."
The whole "not a complete disaster" thing is a pretty high
standard. I would personally settle for someone with a compulsion
to veto everything that comes to his desk.
cunnivore|2.12.09 @ 5:42PM|#
For most of my life (beginning, I think, with a broadcast of
that paean to racial harmony Brian's Song)
Your parents must be some kind of twisted if you were conceived
during a broadcast of Brian's Song.
nonPaulogist|2.12.09 @ 5:44PM|#
"Maybe nonPaulogist can explain why his cult of personality is
any less imbecilic than the Obamatrons'."
Because Dr. Paul, God bless him, doesn't have much of a
personality. It's his ideas that are exciting.
"You are aware that Ron Paul himself admitted that the comments
published in the Survival Report were racist and despicable,
right?"
I'm afraid not. I do recall him admitting that they were
regrettably offensive and that he as publisher made a judgment
error. If you can send me the quote where he called them "racist
and despicable", I'd be better informed.
OTOH, if you CAN'T find the quote, maybe you should show the same
class he did and apologized for exercising poor editorial
control.
|2.12.09 @ 5:48PM|#
"Little bit" keynesian, libertarian democrats are racists?
Jesus Christ!! Then what sort of monster am I?
Tim Cavanaugh|2.12.09 @ 5:51PM|#
The problem is he forgot that whole "who wasn't a complete
disaster" part.
I know, I know. The one thing that kept nagging me was a comment by
Reason's own Mike Flynn, to the effect that Obama will listen
patiently to the opposition, make a lot of fiscal-responsibility
noises, then vote left. I wish I'd paid more heed to that nagging
voice. Or actually, I don't wish it, because my vote didn't make a
damn bit of difference, and because I'm still not sure Obama after
a few weeks can be declared a complete disaster. (Certainly not
more disastrous than the alternative. I've never known McCain to be
shy about taking bold, decisive action during times of campus
emergency.)
Orange Line Special|2.12.09 @ 5:52PM|#
I'm sure the Fearless Leader will bring fame and luster to whatever race it is he belongs to, let me see now, dwarfish, elfish, orge, Reidish, Pixie, Namblaish.
|2.12.09 @ 6:02PM|#
see!
We would be much better off if you guys just stuck with my plan of
calling Obama a socialist from the start.
cunnivore|2.12.09 @ 6:11PM|#
nonPaulogist, the point is that even Ron Paul himself doesn't buy your argument that the stuff in the newsletters was just taken out of context and blown out of proportion by the deodorant-using cosmos at Reason.
B|2.12.09 @ 7:45PM|#
These same morons think Sarah Palin's inocuous use of the of the term "Real America" is some sort of KKK secret greeting, so it should come as no surprise they are hyperventilating over such nonsense, These people see racism absolutely everywhere. The way they see it, the more we accuse people of racism the less likely the accused, or anyone else, are to criticize Obama, even if said criticism is substantive. To hear Andrew Sullivan talk, you would think Arnold Kling is George Lincoln Rockwell.
Gil|2.12.09 @ 8:16PM|#
Actually, the fact that Kling changed his mind since 2000 is
Keynesian in a way.
Wasn't it Keynes who said:
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do,
sir?"
Orange Line Destroyer|2.12.09 @ 9:16PM|#
Personally I think Obamie is Helen Thomas in drag. You'd have to be racist to attack Obamie for cross dressing.
wayne|2.12.09 @ 9:18PM|#
I really hope that we don't get into a situation where criticisms of Obama's policies are routinely turned into prima facie evidence of racial animus, coded or uncoded.
Your hopes are dashed on that issue. Those who see everything
through the lens of race, I am thinking mostly of liberals here,
will twist EVERY criticism of BO's regime into an ugly racial
context.
economist|2.12.09 @ 10:12PM|#
You know when I said that it was stupid to think that Obama's election signaled a "post-racial" America? I'm still waiting for the people who claimed I was just cynical to own up.
economist|2.12.09 @ 10:13PM|#
"but there will be a moment while I'm sipping my bourbon
watching the car plummet over the cliff when I feel a fleeting
sense of satisfaction."
Gotta make the best of a bad situation.
economist|2.12.09 @ 10:16PM|#
"People are going to hate his guts before it is over and that is
going to be as much the fault of his more derranged supporters than
anything he will do."
Yeah, I think I could tolerate the McHopey Presidency if it weren't
for the rabid supporters screaming OBAMA! OBAMA! HOPE! CHANGE!
nonPaulogist|2.13.09 @ 12:02AM|#
"nonPaulogist, the point is that even Ron Paul himself doesn't
buy your argument that the stuff in the newsletters was just taken
out of context and blown out of proportion by the deodorant-using
cosmos at Reason."
True, but the stuff WAS taken out of context and blown out of
proportion by the cosmos at reason. Why is Paul's error in judgment
unforgivable when Reason's is?
It's the double standard that is the reason why I brought all this
up in the first place. Paul did nothing worse than what Kling did,
yet Matt and Nick seems to think Kling is worth defending after dog
piling on Paul.
Could it be that there willingness to believe the worst in Paul is
similar to the willingness of Wolcott to believe the worst of
Kling? Nobody has a monopoly on bias.
..|2.13.09 @ 12:58AM|#
Obviously, the answer is to create even more opportunities for ethnic strife. Open the borders!
|2.13.09 @ 12:26PM|#
Yes, we'll fight what we feel are unfair insults with more
unfair insults directed back at them. That'll show them.
//Playground logic'd
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