Do We Have A 'Silly Shit Politicians Say' Thread? If Not, Here We Are

[Plow]

that's why I'm attempting to provide what evidence I can think of...

I'm gonna stop before we get in trouble, my whole point was just that there's really still no place to "get away from" racism in the U.S.

[SamanosukeShiva]

from couple months ago

[Milkster]

that's why I'm attempting to provide what evidence I can think of...

I'm gonna stop before we get in trouble, my whole point was just that there's really still no place to "get away from" racism in the U.S.

This is a forum populated by people that think if you don't talk about something (in public) it'll just go away.

[RKenshin]

I'm bored.

Ignore if you're not.

Spoiler: show

Further, considering the price difference, I don't doubt for a second that there's 3x as many confederate flags in the U.S. than tv's. I don't know a lot of brokeass people that have their houses entirely decked out in tv's.

I like how the price difference suddenly matters for TVs, but it doesn't matter when you compare to desktops.

Heard it here first: Confederate flags, just as cheap as a desktop, and more than 3x as many flags are there are TVs in America.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=...+flag&_sacat=0

130k american flags

30k confederate flags

about 1/4th as common? sounds about right.

Thought ever cross your mind that ebay is a 'somewhat popular' place to buy confederate flags, because they're not as readily available/sold in most stores?

If ebay was one of the few places you could buy an American flag, the comparison might be meaningful, but the listings would likely also be 2-5x higher for American flags.

Here's another example of why this is dumb:
Dell Computer: 8,392 listings
Apple Computer: 11,116 listings

Heard it here first again: Apple computers are 25% more popular than Dell.
(ignore that pesky fact about Dell having twice the market share)

[kuronosan]

To say that people are ignoring an issue that hasn't even proven to be an issue is absolutely ridiculous.

There's no way to know exactly how many Confederate flags out there any more than it is to know how many people use 2GB CompactFlash cards to listen to their Sony hot pink MP3 player.

Saying otherwise is crude speculation and saying that something MUST exist in quantity just because we don't think it does is akin to saying God must exist because people don't believe he does.

The existence of something cannot be discounted because it is not visible but people aren't silly or stupid for believing something must not exist because it cannot be quantified.

tl;dr : This is a stupid discussion.

[Acevalefor]

......is akin to saying God must exist because people don't believe he does.

It's closer to saying God must exist because people don't see him. Stupid argument but fun to read and kill time while waiting for my next production order at work.

[hey]

I can't even recall what a confederate flag looks like, without looking at it. I also don't believe i've ever actually seen one outside of the internet or a history book.

[kuronosan]

I can't even recall what a confederate flag looks like, without looking at it. I also don't believe i've ever actually seen one outside of the internet or a history book.

Clearly you're in denial.

[Kryssan]

I can't quantify such things, so I'll just speak anecdotal. Where I grew up, Confederate flags were the norm. At the same time though, they carried the same weight as an American flag for most people. In explanation: After 9/11, American flags where everywhere. In my hometown in NC, Confederate flags were the same way - anytime a particular racial point would come up, you'd see Confederate pennants / stickers / flags pop up. They never lasted long though, just like the American pennants after 9/11; as soon as it fell off or started looking detracting in appearance it was gone. People's overall public caring / support of such things is rather fleeting.

It was even better when you saw both together. Usually in sticker fashion on the back window of some guy's truck; Confed flag on left, Ami on the right. Like... okay. Even I knew as a kid that made no sense.

However, you could tell when it wasn't just 'support' showings. There were people that took care of their paraphernalia, and were proud to let other people know that they didn't like your kind 'round 'ere. If you saw a mud-dirty lifted truck with clean Confed pennants, in my opinionated experience that became 'do not associate' as I grew older. They cared that much, it was always trouble.

I have to speak from a white privilege point of view, because growing up I was definitely subjected to it. It wasn't until I got to around 6th grade and started doing science outreach stuff ( and band lol, yes we may all laugh ) and 9th grade moreso taking college courses at community, ( ie getting to spend lots of time away from home ) that I could see the bigotry of it all. It also probably helped with the divorce of my parents in 4th-5th grade and their physical separation, as it gave me more area to look upon. Different people to be around. Granted, I had other reasons to dislike my family which assisted in me wanting to leave, but when that shit opened up full force it really is like 'whoa'. I can remember my mother touting at her first marriage that there was one black person at it, and how that was such a happy thing and how they were supporting deseg because there was one black woman at her wedding. Not even participating, that couldn't happen, just as a guest. Mind you, during our 'birds and bees' discussion my mom also shared how my dad had given her crabs when they started dating... so yeah. There's a picture of my family for you.

When the military carried me about and away, I would later learn that one of the places I lived in VA was Klan territory. I never knew while I lived there, but I should have. There was one black in that town, and she was the barber. No other blacks to be seen. Never occurred to me that it might be because of Klan though. You just don't think that way.

I'm sure Miz can provide some anecdotal evidence of his own having grown up in NC. And NC isn't even the 'real' south, just ask someone from MS or AL or GA or hell, even SC. I've actually been spit on for 'thinking aloud' things I *shouldn't* as a teen. And that shit is so fucking disgusting, clean and clean and clean and you still don't feel clean.

Granted, it is all anecdotal. I really only have familial experiences to draw from, which are centered upon particular rural areas. Maybe it was just those areas that were shitholes. But to say there aren't a number of die-hard supporters to this day, with flags a flyin' on their cottages which are conveniently hidden from sight of the road.... at least to me, is living blindly - and I lived that way for too long.

[Kohan]

This is an awful lot of to-do about the Confederate flag. Here, have a thoroughly-researched article that isn't the same "those guys think it means this and that, but I don't!"—in fact, it even goes out of its way to disassociate itself from those, and provide something educational:

Spoiler: show

America's Simple-Minded Obsession With the Confederate Flag

Journalists love to recycle old clichés about the rebel banner. But its days as an official symbol of Southern pride are rapidly coming to an end.

Next month's Democratic National Convention and the nomination of the nation's first black president for a second term in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, will provide an ideal backdrop for those looking to assess the region's progress on the racial front. At front and center for many sits the Confederate flag.

Reports are likely to resemble this recent article from The Charlotte Observer, written by Elizabeth Leland, who believes that "remnants of the Old South linger in our region -- and none as divisive as the Confederate flag." Such articles follow a well-worn pattern that includes interviews with one or two white southern men who fly the flag on their property or pickup truck and believe it represents "heritage, not hate." (As an auto mechanic quoted in Leland's story puts it, "I've lived here since I was a little rascal and my daddy always had an American flag and a Confederate flag, and I do, too.")

This affirmation of benign Southern pride is typically followed by a quote from a local historian who reminds us of the centrality of slavery and white supremacy to the Confederate cause. The author's inevitable plea "that it is time we put it away" leaves the reader with the impression that an inordinate number of white southerners remain preoccupied with the flag. This overly simplistic narrative masks a more complex history, as well as evidence suggesting that attitudes about the Confederate flag are, in fact, continually evolving in the South.

Not all Confederate soldiers fought under the blue St. Andrew's cross (more accurately, the saltire). And apart from its use during veterans events, the flag's visibility was minimal during the decades following the war. At the beginning of the 20th century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy sought to protect the flag's connection to the men in the ranks by maintaining a strict code governing its usage in public. Misuse and alignment with questionable causes, they believed, would not only soil the meaning of the flag, but the memory of the Confederacy and the righteousness of its cause as well.

By the 1940s, however, the flag could be seen at University of Mississippi football games and other popular events, ushering in what historian John Coski has called a "flag fad." That fad eventually extended to the far reaches of the nation, and the flag can now be seen on every kind of trinket and tchotchke imaginable.

However, the flag's most lasting legacy -- and the source of much of the controversy today -- can be traced to its use as a symbol of "Massive Resistance" by the Dixiecrats beginning in 1948 and continuing through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. During that period, the flag became the standard for those committed to defending classrooms, bus depots, and other public spaces (now battlefields themselves) from black encroachment.

In fact, the flag's use throughout the 20th century covered a time span significantly longer than its presence on Civil War battlefields. Its placement atop southern statehouses like South Carolina ultimately reinforced the flag's connection to segregation and racism.

Confederate flags no longer enjoy those privileged perches. In fact, over the past few years, white and black southerners have become less tolerant of the public display of the flag, which has relegated its supporters to the sidelines and a much more defensive posture. Last year, the city of Lexington, Virginia, banned the flying of the flag from public fixtures. This past spring, the Museum of the Confederacy opened a new branch at Appomattox that did not include the display of the flag outside its doors. Finally, late last year, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond removed Confederate flags flying on the grounds of the Confederate Memorial Chapel, which the museum oversees.

The museum's decision led to the creation of a grassroots group called the Virginia Flaggers, but despite daily protests in front of the museum and a social media presence, its efforts have met with no success. The Sons of Confederate Veterans utilized their mailing lists and other resources in response to all three events, but they also have little to show for their efforts. These shifting fault lines suggest that while white and black southerners may tolerate the right of the individual to display the flag on private property, its display on public grounds and at other institutions will be met with suspicion and openly challenged.

None of this easily fits into the popular narrative of a region mired in the past that uses a 19th century flag to pit the races against one another. I suspect there will be few, if any, Confederate flags to count during the coverage of next month's DNC, and that should tell us a great deal about how far we've come as a nation.

(Note: There are links supplied in the original article which haven't been included here.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...e-flag/261236/

[AoE]

I never thought I'd see the day Kryssan posted something I could understand.

[Kohan]

I never thought I'd see the day Kryssan posted something I could understand.

It was kind of awkward to put up my post after theirs, as it wasn't meant to be any sort of counter, but I was too slow for anything else.

[zoobernut]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ird/?hpt=hp_t2

(CNN) – Steve Lonegan, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, said in an interview Tuesday that ongoing chatter about rival Cory Booker's sexuality was "weird," and that he personally likes "being a guy."

The response was prompted by an interview that Booker, the mayor of Newark, gave to The Washington Post this week in which he said he wasn't bothered when people speculate whether he's straight or gay.

"I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight,'" Booker, a Democrat, told the paper.

Lonegan said in an interview with the conservative online publication Newsmax that he found Booker's comments "weird."

"As a guy, I personally like being a guy," he said. "I don't know if you saw the stories last year. They've been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at three o'clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure."

Booker, in an August interview with DuJour Magazine, said the nail care regime was prompted by an ex-girlfriend.

"Being a public figure, people talk smack about you, so I found this 24-hour mani-pedi place and go in the middle of the night. It's this guilty pleasure I have," Booker said in the interview. "Look, manis are good, but pedis – there's something . . . transformative."

Lonegan described Booker's routine as a "fetish," claiming his own indulgences were "a good Scotch and a cigar."

"That's my fetish but we'll just compare the two," Lonegan said.

Recent public polling shows Booker the heavy favorite in New Jersey's Senate race. According to a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll released last week, Booker leads Lonegan 54%-38% among those likely to vote in New Jersey's Oct. 16 special election. The survey was conducted following landslide primary victories by both Booker and Lonegan, the former mayor of the northern New Jersey town of Bogota.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted at the beginning of the month, prior to the primary elections, indicated Booker with a 25 percentage point lead over Lonegan. The winner of the special election will finish the term of the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died earlier this year.

CNN's Kevin Liptak and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

I just read this and thought it was funny and worthy to post here. Apparently being gay means you are not a guy? Lonegan 's comments are much more confusing than what Booker said during his interview.

More republican's being republican's I guess.

[chazzyphizzle]

is he a cop? just curious as to why that is in this thread lol

[zoobernut]

is he a cop? just curious as to why that is in this thread lol

Oh crap I clicked on the wrong thread. I thought I was in the politicians say stupid shit thread. If a mod sees this can they move my post or delete it please?

[Kohan]

You missed by a long shot—this thread was on the second page. Fixed, though.

[zoobernut]

Yeah I was busy today at work and wasn't paying attention. Thank you for moving the post Kohan.

[Mazmaz]

I guess maybe I can put this here?

[Waraji]

fkin perfect.

[archibaldcrane]

Goddamn that production value. Nailed it. Hilarious. The black lady in the Superdome shelter looking like she says "Ryan" was the best.