How to Talk to Conservatives

And yes, we have to.

Over there at Christian Conservative recently, Michael made a sincere effort to get his people to hear the liberal voice. How well it worked, I can't say. [I had some hope at first that actual communication was occuring, but it seemed there was a rapid retreat into "those guys don't have G-d in their hearts, so they MUST be wrong, we'll just call them evil and stop up our ears"-- but I might be wrong. Maybe someone/some folks learned something.]

Anyway, the idea -- the effort -- was, nonetheless, a right one. As the Rogerian model points out, we won't progress, as a society, so long as we continue to divide ourselves. We have to seek common ground.

This site

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/howtorespond

suggests ways liberals can speak so that conservatives might hear.

And, may I add, since they're in so much trouble right now? Maybe they might be ready to listen.

One might hope.

Weirdness

You've surely seen this story already -- it's all over the Lefty blogs -- the Levitican Christian Loudmouth declaring that Gay folk ought to be labeled (yes, you know, just like Hitler labeled folks like Jews and gays and Jehovah's Witnesses and gypsies and anyone else that wasn't a white folk like him) to Warn Good Christians -- uh, why, wasn't exactly clear, from the story. Maybe she thought teh gay was catching?

http://www.pandagon.net/archives/2005/06/can_we_please_c.html

Anyway, the more I think about this, and about other things happening over there on the Right lately, like Assrocket and his wild comments about Byrd, and that whole wild spin on breastfeeding a few days back, the more I'm starting to think something's up. It's not exactly sane, the stuff they're saying these days.

Well, yeah, I know. When was it? But at least it was sort of in the ballpark of sanity before. In the range of sensible. Now it's move into tinfoil hat whackaloon raving.

I have a theory.

Okay, a couple theories.

(1) Did you notice that several of the Rightie blogs spoke in favor of medical mj? That's all I'm going to say about that one.

(2) Bush's approval ratings. Oh, my, are those puppies low. That's gotta sting.

(3) Sublimation*. They can't talk about the stuff that matters, because all the stuff that matters is really, really bad news -- the Iraqi war is a disaster, that Downing street memo thing, Bush is tanking so hard even O'Reilly is gagging -- so they just keep spitting out the first stupid thing that enters their heads. Unfortunately, because they are, after all, really thinking about the things that matter (like the rest of us) what comes out is, in fact, really stupid.

(4) Transference. They're really furious at themselves for the mess they got our country into. But they don't want to hate themselves -- hey, who does? So they're going to hate someone else. In this case, gay folk. In other cases, feminists. Or Leftists. Or Iraqis. Hey, they could care less. So long as they don't have to blame, oh, you know, Bush. Or their own damn selves. Because, now, who was it voted for him? Twice? So these things they're saying that look irrational? Oddly enough, it's because they are irrational. And I don't suppose there's any hope that enough of them will wake up any time soon and notice that.

Those are my theories, anyway.



*Apologies to actual psychologists/therapists/psychology folk out there -- I know I'm not using these terms in their correct technical sense. You know how we literature folk are.

Bait & Switch

Here we have Thomas Sowell pulling yet another bait and switch.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050612.shtml

Sowell, in case you aren't familiar with his career, likes to argue that there aren't any poor people in America -- just people working, at the moment, for substandard wages.

But that's just now, he cries, waving his hands.

Only 20% of those people will stay at that level for more than a decade! he cries.

So see! No poor people here! What are you liberal whackaloons yapping about? 80% of the people who start out working for minimum wage/loser jobs quit and move on! So what's the PROBLEM?

Uh...gee, Thomas. What could be the problem?

Says Sowell:

What useful purpose is served by stigmatizing work that someone is going to have to do anyway?

Is emptying bed pans in a hospital menial work? What would happen if bed pans didn't get emptied? Let people stop emptying bed pans for a month and there would be bigger problems than if sociologists stopped working for a year.

Having someone who can come into a home to clean and cook and do minor chores around the house can be a godsend to someone who is an invalid or who is suffering the infirmities of age -- and who does not want to be put into an institution. Someone who can be trusted to take care of small children is likewise a treasure.

Many people who do these kinds of jobs do not have the education, skills or experience to do more complex kinds of work. Yet they can make a real contribution to society while earning money that keeps them off welfare.

Okay. First: us lefties do not criticize this labor because it is "menial." Nor do we, as Sowell is implying, sneer at the people who are doing the work.

We criticize the job because it does not pay those who are doing it a living wage. See, we think that if a job is important enough for someone to do it -- like taking care of my children, or dealing with my great-grandmother in the nursing home -- then we ought to pay the person who is doing it enough that he or she can actually survive, decently, on what he or she is paid for the job.

I know that seems bizarre. But, oddly, it's what we want from work, we liberals.

Sowell then pulls his classic bait and switch:

You don't get promoted from such jobs. You use the experience, initiative, and discipline that you develop in such work to move on to something else that may be wholly different. People who start out flipping hamburgers at McDonald's seldom stay there for a full year, much less for life.
Dead-end jobs are the kinds of jobs I have had all my life. But, even though I started out delivering groceries in Harlem, I don't deliver groceries there any more. I moved on to other jobs -- most of which have not had any promotions ladders.

Uh, no, Mr. Sowell. Dead-end jobs are not the kinds you have had all your life. You might have had them as a kid. You don't have one now.

That's point one.

Point two is, people who are emptying bed-pans, working in day care centers, or -- here in Arkansas, charmingly enough -- teaching elementary school, these people are not, in fact, in the same category as a teen-age kid flipping burgers at McDonalds after-school to earn tuition money for college. (In fact, you might look behind that counter, Mr. Sowell, next time you go to McDonalds: damn few high school kids are doing those jobs anymore. They've all been snapped up by desperate single mothers and laid-off factory workers, at least here in Arkansas; and I saw the same thing driving through LA.) People doing those jobs, Mr. Sowell, are, in fact, in that 20% you dismiss out of hand, as invisible. As not there. As not worth discussing.

Because, well -- I don't know why.

Why would Sowell think that many people living in unrelenting, hopeless poverty to be just no big deal?

Maybe because it destroys his comforting little mythology?

Heh

P.Z. Myers kicks the piss out of the creationists again.

http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/pinkoski_again/#continue

I can't help it -- it's just so much fun to watch.

Monday. Ick.

My tiny migraine has grown into a huge thumping evil demon of a migraine, and also I have to teach Chaucer in about twenty minutes -- the Reeve's Tale, which, discounting the amusement of the North-England accent of the two students, is not all that much fun. We're starting the Wyf tomorrow, so things should get better.

Anyway, I'm grumpy and in pain.

But I spent the weekend writing and in pain and reading Stephen Levitt's Freakonomics, which I highly recommend, if you haven't dipped into it already. Despite the fact that it kept making me get up and walk around the room and go but-but-but, it's a fine piece of work. Also funny. I like smart, funny, and provocative.

Crooked Timber already has a good post up on him, so I'll just link you to that

http://crookedtimber.org/2005/05/23/steven-levitt-seminar-introduction/

and mention that hey, way cool, Steve has a blog!

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog.php

And I'm thinking of using his book in my ENGL 1213 class next semester. (We have to use a book-length piece of work of some sort. I have been using Ursula Le Guin's Dispossessed, because it's complex and has ideas my students have never run into and I can use it to teach about literature, but this might be more fun. Might make them walk around going but-but-but. Heh.)

Oh -- and one thing I found out from Levitt's book? We've given the kid a name that will be a high-end baby name in 2015.

Yep. Ahead of the curve. That's us.

The Rude Pundit

The Rude Pundit is so rude.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005/06/why-neil-cavuto-ought-to-be-buried.html

But so funny.

Here's Why I Love P.Z.

That blog is just so smart.

I can't help it. Smart makes me happy.

http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/whoops_he_did_it_again/

Make sure you read the comments. Even the comments are smart over at PPharyngula -- well, except when the trolls try to argue back. But even then it's fun, because the smart folks get to shoot the trolls down.

Dennis Prager ought to read Pharngula twice a day. Then he could come talk to me about how educated people this and educated people that. Get his head out of his Bible and talk to some educated people once in a while, why doesn't he?

More on Zach

Go here for a blogs that are organizing protests:

Here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/kiwi_grrl/22700.html

And here:

http://www.atypicaljoe.com/archives/2005/06/no_refuge_for_g.php

See Here Now?

This is what I like.

A guy who can think.

http://lancemannion.typepad.com/

In Case Any of You Think You're Having a Bad Week

This 16 year old named Zack, in Memphis, had the incredible guts to come out to his parents, despite the fact that they were Levitican Christians, apparently, last week.

This week, they have clapped him in a Christian Reform School Slash Boot Camp, where the aim is to either "fix" him (because, after all, he must be broken -- this despite the fact that no one except fundie Christians and fundie Islams and fundie Jews thinks being gay is an illness or evil anymore) or -- get this -- kill him.

"I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle. In a physical death you could still have a spiritual resurrection; whereas, returning to homosexuality you are yielding yourself to a spiritual death from which there is no recovery.”

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2005/06/memphis-gay-kid-imprisoned-in-gay.html

Hey, that's some healthy therapy for you.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Levitican/Fundie Christians are some sick, sick, sick bastards.

Although I Don't Actually Like Memes...

I found this one over at Ol'Cranky's and it looked like fun.

http://cockamamieideasinc.blogspot.com/

You copy it into your blog, and then you bold all the stuff that is currently true about yourself.


Bad Meme sinking: crap you probably don't want to know about me
01. I miss somebody right now. (The kid is with her grandparents. She'll be there until the end of June. It's very nice and quiet here, but what do I do without the kid?)
02. I don’t watch much TV these days.
03. I love olives
04. I own lots of books.
06. I wear glasses or contact lenses.
07. I love to play video games.
08. I’ve tried marijuana. (Ooops. Don't tell the Chancellor.)
09. I’ve watched porn movies.
10. I have been in a threesome.
11. I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.
12. I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
15. I curse sometimes. (Heh -- SOMETIMES?)
16. I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.
17. I have a hobby.
19. I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.
20. I’m TOTALLY smart.
21. I’ve never broken someone’s bones.
22. I have a secret that I am ashamed to reveal. (Yeah, about sixteen, and you're not getting them, either.)
23. I hate the rain.
24. I’m paranoid at times.
25. I would get plastic surgery if it were 100% safe, free of cost, and scar-free.
26. I need money right now.
27. I love sushi.
28. I talk really, really fast.
29. I have fresh breath in the morning.
30. I have long hair. (Sort of.)
31. I have lost money in Las Vegas.
32. I have at least one brother and/or one sister.
33. I was born in a country outside of the U.S.
34. I shave my legs (females) or face (males) on a regular basis.
36. I have worn fake hair/fingernails/eyelashes in the past.
37. I couldn’t survive without Caller I.D.
38. I like the way that I look.
39. I have lied to a good friend in the last 6 months. (Well, I mean, who hasn't? Does this look good on me? Ooo, yeah, baby. S-e-xy! No serious lies, though.)
40. I know how to cornrow.
41. I am usually pessimistic.
42. I have a lot of mood swings.
43. I think prostitution should be legalized.
44. I think Britney Spears is pretty.
45. Slept with a Suitemate.
46. I have a hidden talent.
47. I’m always hyper no matter how much sugar I have.
48. I have a lot of friends.
49. I am currently single.
50. I have pecked someone of the same sex. (Does this mean smooched or kissed on the cheek or what? I have no idea what this means.)
51. I enjoy talking on the phone.
52. I practically live in sweatpants or PJ pants.
53. I love to shop. (For books.)
54. I would rather shop than eat. (Uh...are those my only choices?)
55. I would classify myself as ghetto.
56. I’m bourgie and have worn a sweater tied around my shoulders.
57. I’m obsessed with my Xanga or Livejournal.
58. I don’t hate anyone. I dislike them.
59. I’m a pretty good dancer
60. I don’t think Mike Tyson raped Desiree Washington. (I have no idea who this is.)
61. I’m completely embarrassed to be seen with my mother.
62. I have a cell phone.
63. I believe in G-d.
64. I watch MTV on a daily basis.
65. I have passed out drunk in the past 6 months.
66. I love drama. (In movies and on stage, where it belongs).
67. I have never been in a real relationship before.
68. I’ve rejected someone before. (Christ. Who hasn't?)
69. I currently have a crush/like someone. (Someone fictional counts, right?)
70. I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.
71. I want to have children in the future.
72. I have changed a diaper before.
73. I’ve called the cops on a friend before.
74. I bite my nails.
75. I am a member of the Tom Green fan club.
76. I’m not allergic to anything.
77. I have a lot to learn. (Who doesn't?)
78. I have been with someone at least 10 years older or younger.
79. I plan on seeing Ice Cube’s newest “Friday” movie.
80. I am shy around the opposite sex.
81. I’m online 24/7, even as an away message.
82. I have at least 5 away messages saved.
83. I have tried alcohol or drugs before.
84. I have made a move on a friend’s significant other or crush in the past.
85. I own the “South Park” movie.
86. I have avoided assignments at work school to be on Xanga or Livejournal.
87. When I was a kid I played “the birds and the bees” with a neighbor or chum.
88. I enjoy some country music. (Not the sappy crap, though. Steve Earle!)
89. I would die for my best friends.
90. I think that Pizza Hut has the best pizza. (Ick.)
91. I watch soap operas whenever I can
92. I’m obsessive, anal retentive, and often a perfectionist.
93. I have used my sexuality to advance my career.
94. I love Michael Jackson, scandals and all.
95. I know all the words to Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”.
96. Halloween is awesome because you get free candy.
97. I watch Spongebob Squarepants and I like it.
98. I have dated a close friend’s ex.
99. I like surveys/memes.
100. I am happy at this moment (Eh, about 90%. I miss the kid and I've got a tiny migraine at this VERY moment, but I'm writing really well right now, I've got two excellent classes, I just got another raise, I love my job, I love mr. delagar, who's the perfect guy for me, the kid is such a fine kid it's like we ordered her on spec or something, it's true there's the whole hideous Bushco thing and the Levitican Christian nighmare that won't go away, and the nerve-wracking issue of pharmacists who have started refusing to give women birth control pills and what that might mean for the future of women's rights in this country, not to mention the Iraqi War and how it's going to kill off my students and maybe my nephews, also the scary way the divide between the really rich and the really poor keeps deepening, and shit I'm down to 86%, I think I might shut up.)
101. I’m obsessed with guys. Nah. I mean, you're okay and all. And when I see one of you who's really pretty, I notice, don't worry. But obsessed? I'm afraid what I'm obsessed with is words and literature and books and blogs. Sorry.
102. I am bisexual. No. But I like books about bisexuals. What do suppose that means?
103. Democrat. Oh, yeah.
104. Conservative Republican.
105. I am punk rockish.
106. I am preppy.
107. I go for older guys/girls, not younger
108. I study for tests most of the time. I don't NOW, of course, because I don't have to take them anymore, but when I was taking them, I studied FOR EVERY SINGLE TEST I EVER TOOK AND I STUDIED OBSESSIVELY. You damn straight. And I got the highest score in the class or I knew the reason why. (Over-achiever? Me? Why do you ask?)
109. I tie my shoelaces differently from anyone I’ve ever met.
110. I can work on a car.
111. I love my job.
112. I am comfortable with who I am right now.
113. I have more than just my ears pierced.
114. I walk barefoot wherever I can.
115. I have jumped off a bridge.
116. I love sea turtles. Sure. They're pretty. Or...er...does this mean sexually?
117. I spend ridiculous amounts of money on makeup.
118. I believe in prophetic dreams.
119. I plan on achieving a major goal/dream.
120. I am proficient on a musical instrument.
121. I worked at McDonald’s restaurant.
122. I hate office jobs.
123. I love sci-fi movies.
124. I’ve never been in love.
125. I think water rules.
126. I am going to college out of state.
127. I am adopted.
128. I like sausage. (is it me, or is this a loaded question??)
129. I am a pyro.
130. I love the Red Sox.
131. I have thrown up from crying too much.
132. I have been intentionally hurt by people that I loved.
133. I love kisses.
134. I fall for the worst people and have been hurt every time.
135. I adore bright colors.
136. I love Dear Abby.
137. I can’t live without black eyeliner.
138. I think school is awesome.
139. I think pigtails serve a purpose.
140. I don’t know why the hell I just did this stupid thing.
141. I usually like covers better than originals.
142. I don’t like multi-textured ice cream
143. I think John Cusack is adorable.
144. I f**king hate chain theme restaurants like Applebees and TGIFridays.
145. I watch Food Network way too much.
146. I love coaching youth sports.
147. I can pick up things with my toes
148. I can’t whistle.
149. I can move my tounge in waves, much like a snakes’ slither.
150. I have ridden/owned a horse.
151. I still have every journal I’ve ever written in.
152. I can't stick to a diet. (Diets are evil and I have refused to do them since I wised up when I was nineteen. See this month's issue of Scientific American or Alas a Blog if you want more confirmation. How do you stay so skinny, people ask me, a question that shocks the bejeesus out of me every time I hear it, since my family programmed me to believe I was an utter cow. I'm not skinny, first off -- I'm a normal sized woman. This is the size women are meant to be. It ain't skinny. It just looks skinny next to women* who have spent their lives dieting and gaining weight and dieting and gaining weight back, and ending up, after every diet, about ten pounds heavier than they were before the diet, where was I? Oh. No. I don't "stick to diets." I just live like a human being. What a concept, huh?)
153. My step-dad is a psycho-bastard. (No step-dad)
154. I have been known to buy "herbal supplements" I know can not have the effect they promise and try to will myself into having a placebo effect.




*And it looks fat next to my anorexic students -- the ones who are living on diet pills and diet Mnt Dew, and wondering why they can't read their Milton assignment.

This Too

More on Impeach Bush Now

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/index.php

(Via P.Z. Myers over at Pharyngula: http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/)

Something Good

There is an excellent article about David Hockney in this month's Harper's.

Just brilliant, about what he's painting now -- which if you've been keeping up with his stuff is really good -- and also what he's been thinking about art. I love to read about what artists think about what they're doing, as well as see what they're doing, so I love the article. Not to mention it gets into Chinese/Dutch cross-cultural influence, you know how I love that stuff.

It's not online, you'll have to buy it, but since it's got like six Hockney repros in it, who wouldn't want to?

http://www.harpers.org/MostRecentCover.html

(If you don't know Hockney, you want to:

http://www.saltsmill.org.uk/david.htm

http://art-meets-art.net/art/hockney-pool.html)

Sigh.

Rebecca Hagelin dances as rapidly as she can here to keep her nimble little mind away from the point -- we Liberals, she claims, we NOW members, we Feminists, we just can't take men who pray, fathers who believe in Jesus.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/rebeccahagelin/rh20050610.shtml

She's so confused about what our problem might be.

What's wrong with a daddy on his knees, praying to his Lord?

Yeah. Cause that's what troubles us about the Promise-Keepers, that they might make guys pray or something.

The Promise-Keepers descended on Arkansas yesterday -- were given a public stadium to descend into, funded with State money, in other words, at the University of Arkansas, because, you know, in Arkansas there is no separate of Church and State and Jesus is the State -- where was I? Oh, yeah, anyway, Rebecca, the problem is not that Daddy might pray.

(http://nwanews.com/story.php?paper=nwat§ion=News&storyid=28233)

The problem is those other things you talk about: gender traditionalism, and how nice it is that these "Evangelical" dads are "stricter" with their kids. (You don't mention that they're stricter with their wives too. Must have slipped your mind.)

Luckily, s.z. over at World'O'Crap has just done a lengthy and well-put together review on these "strict" daddies, so I'm able to simply refer you to her post:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002874/2005/06/10.html#a1748

Head on over there, and you can see, Miss Rebecca, exactly what we're objecting to in the Evangelical slash Promise-Keeper tradition. It ain't the Praying. And it ain't the Jesus either.

It is, in some respects, saps like you, who keep on believing that so long as people stick the word God on it it's all good.

Speak Up Now

"The invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused the deaths of over 1,600 U.S. military personnel, as well as untold suffering and tens of thousands of civilian dead in Iraq," said David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004 candidate for President of the United States. "The Downing Street Memo confirms what we already knew -- that a conspiracy to deceive the American people led us into the war, and that this conspiracy constitutes 'high crimes and misdemeanors' according to the U.S. Constitution."

http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_06_09.html

(Via DED Space: http://www.dedspace.blogspot.com/)