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The Daily Kos on the Republicans’ loss of momentum:

Now Lott has come and destroyed the last vestiges of “momentum” the GOP had left from November. Whether Lott stays or resigns his leadership post, this whole episode will stain the GOP, and color their efforts over the next two years.

You can forget about racially tainted judicial nominees ever seeing the light of day — like Judge Pickering (whose nomination Bush wanted to revive). And the concept of “compassionate conservatism” will be sorely tested, as Bush will have to answer to his strong support for Lott. And so will just about every elected Republican official.

Counterspin urges the Republican Party to
rids itself from the racists in it:

At some point, the Republican party has to decide if it wants to be the party of racists. Sure…the large majority of its members are not racists. But…a significant voting block, particularly in the deep Spouth, IS. There’s no other way to slice it. The Republicans can’t have it both ways. Either they repudiate neo- Confederate ideology, including such things as flying the Confederate battle flag, or other flags, on government buildings…or they actually start living up to the principles they claim to hold dear. Namely, freedom and opportunity

Calpundit is angry with Glenn Reynolds:

FOOT IN MOUTH DISEASE SEEMS TO BE SPREADING….You know, Glenn, my mother is opposed to war with Iraq. If you want to call her misguided, or perhaps misinformed, or even naive, well, I guess I can suck it up and take it. Sometimes pundits have to play rough.

But “Saddam’s ally”? Back in the 50s Mom had to sign one of those McCarthy-inspired loyalty oaths before she was trusted to teach our impressionable youths, and I spent my entire childhood growing up in Orange County, ground zero for the John Birch Society. My elementary school principal regularly warned us all about the evils of communists, atheists, socialists and their ilk, and he included in his warnings anyone who was merely insufficiently vigilant against their depradations.

Thursday is Cartoon Day!

Top Stories Wednesday 11 Dec

Antidotal on the weird American attitude towards sex and violence:

I’ve always had a hard time figuring out why Americans find sex so taboo. Conservative cultural critics argue that we need to restrict and restrain sexual imagery and references so as to protect our children. But I think that this is just silly. Children don’t need to be shielded from sex; they need to learn to treat sex with respect and a degree of caution. You can’t inculcate a mature attitude toward sex in our youth by dishonestly preaching that sex is indecent, or evil, or intrinsically harmful, or that it doesn’t exist for people until they’re over 21. By the time children reach the age at which they curious and interested enough to ask questions in sex, they’re probably mature enough to begin learning what it’s really all about.

The American attitude toward sex seems particularly weird when one considers that U.S. TV isn’t nearly as restrained when it comes to violence. Aside from the news, between CSI, Law and Order, 24, and the gobs of action flicks that are always on, you can always catch depictions of people being maimed, murdered, or gloriously killed by the Good Guy at almost any hour of the day, and these depictions are treated as relatively unproblematic.

Perspective on Aragorn’s opposition to war with Iraq:

Actor Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings series of films, has come out strongly against the war in Iraq on a US talk show. The reaction of some US fans (see the link above) is pretty funny…”how can he turn on the country that gives him the right to spew his bullshit”. Well, he is Dane, in a New Zealand production of an English book, and I believe that’s what they call free speech.

RC3.org on “liberal media” coverage of Trent Lott’s remarks:

Is it just me, or are Trent Lott’s boneheaded and probably heartfelt comments about Mississippi supporting Strom Thurmond’s 1948 pro-segregation candidacy not getting the outraged response that they deserve? It’s times like this that I get a really good laugh out of the idea that we’re somehow burdened with a liberal media establishment. Shouldn’t we be seeing editorials calling for his resignation, or at least some criticism. You can see the quote itself at Slate, and the Washington Post has a reaction piece.

[…]

By the way, to get a feel for the lack of coverage of Lott’s statements, check out this Google News search. One thing the Republican punditry excels at is viciously punishing Democrats for anything they say that’s percieved as out of line. Where are the liberals here?

Atrios on Trent Lott:

While Trent Lott’s remarks were clearly over the line, it isn’t as if – to many liberals – it was the first time he’s crossed it. While I don’t think all Right Wing/Republican voting types are racist’s, its rare I find one who doesn’t have a tin ear when it comes to racial issues, even when feigning concern. In all fairness this isn’t limited to self-described conservatives – even the relatively liberal members of our not so liberal media see no problem with making a statement like “Jesse Helms isn’t a racist, he just exploited the racism of his constituents to get himself elected.” Still, while the condemnations of Lott by some were clearly genuine, forgive me for thinking that the condemnation from some circles isn’t motivated more by a desire to see a Senate Majority Leader Nickles than any true concern. Hey, nothing wrong with a little crass opportunism I suppose – whatever real outrage I feel is also admittedly accompanied by some schaudenfreude.

Through the Looking Glass on why
George Glider is still an idiot:

But the test of falsifiability only works if you apply it. The hypothesis that particularly Winnick, Skilling, Ebbers, and Waksal are trustworthy individuals has been utterly refuted by events. (That’s why Gilder’s “disgraced former executives” are, in fact, disgraced). The proper Popperian would discard the hypothesis and move on. And the application of this “Popperian” criterion is doubly ironic when applied to Waksal, who went into business after getting bounced out of hard science for lying to his colleagues and fraudulent work.

Alas a Blog on apologies:

And more importantly: why the hell is the leader of the Democrats defending Trent Lott on CNN? Is Daschle thinking, “gee, us Dems haven’t been trounced enough by the Republicans lately. I’d better get on the national news immediately and defend Trent Lott! Otherwise there’s a chance that there might be some infinitesimal part of the Republican agenda that doesn’t get passed right away!”