Extremism | buzz twang

How To White Wash Racism: Revisiting the Tea Party Racists

April 26, 2011 by DJ Lanphier

It’s been difficult for the Tea Party faithful to simply admit that yes, they do have racists among them. Every party does, why should they be any different? It obviously doesn’t mean they are all racist any more than it means that Democrats or Republicans are all racist because they have racists in their ranks. [...]

The Epistemology of a Charlie Sheen World

March 11, 2011 by DJ Lanphier

Over the past 250 years, as the industrial revolution progressed and was then superseded by the modern technological age, an epistemological crisis began to fester and grow quietly in the shadows. Our ability to obtain, disseminate, and – most importantly – apply knowledge, has been severely hindered by our industrial and technological success and our response to that [...]

when the shark bites

June 7, 2010 by DJ Lanphier

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Mayor Vaughn: [to reporter] I’m pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers. But, as you see, it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a [...]

dumber than homer simpson

September 10, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Via my Facebook feed…. From Raw Story: The mother of a Kentucky high school football player is furious over the Christian baptism of her son during what he said was supposed to be a school outing to eat a steak dinner and see a “motivational speaker.” Instead, Breckinridge County High School football coach Scott Mooney [...]

Rep. Joe Wilson’s Lament: the difference between “No! No!” and “You lie!”

September 10, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

It’s come to this: the need to explain the difference between booing during a presidential speech, or shouting “No! No!”, and shouting “You lie!” From the New York Times: It was a rare breach of the protocol that governs ritualistic events in the Capitol. In an angry and very audible outburst, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican [...]

obama’s education speech makes conservatives happy

September 8, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air thinks he’s being clever by putting Obama’s just released speech on education through a word frequency generator and then citing frequency of words as a window into the deeper meaning of the speech. It’s a silly and misleading exercise, since it strips all meaning out of the speech. It is [...]

talkin’ john birch paranoid blues

September 6, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

YouTube vid of Bob Dylan’s banned satirical song about paranoid right wing racists written in 1963 as a response to the popularity of the John Birch Society. It was dropped from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan due to political concerns and remained unreleased until the Bootleg disc in the mid 90′s. Could have been written today. [...]

hate, health care and money

September 1, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

A few links worth reading: Five Symptoms of Republican Schizophrenia – Lots of illogical minds out there… that’s what happens when hate dominates…. Revealing Hate: Inside White Supremacist World – Much of the current political atmosphere in the USA can be traced to the increase in hate based thought…. It’s more common than you think…. [...]

the death of middle america

August 31, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

From Glenn Greenwald – It’s time to embrace American royalty: …all of the above-listed people are examples of America’s Great Meritocracy, having achieved what they have solely on the basis of their talent, skill and hard work — The American Way. By contrast, Sonia Sotomayor — who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in [...]

webuzz: obama, racism, media and other stuff

July 24, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Weekend reading list…. Matthew Yglesias » Bias, Racism, Being a Jerk, and Abuse of Power – Good insights… Peter Daou: White Cop, Black Professor, Bi-Racial President: An Explosive Media Combination Even more good insights… You Hate Journalism? It WAS the Hiring Practice…Stupid. – Good article on how bad media became bad… Feeling the Wrath of [...]

Jon Stewart destroys Lou Dobbs and the “birthers”

July 24, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

The Birther Movement is Racism

July 23, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

The “birther” movement is an extreme right wing disinformation campaign that proffers the idea that President Obama is not a US citizen, and was born abroad in Kenya. Here’s the rub: there are no actual facts to support this claim, rather the disinfo subsists on a form of cognitive dissonance – denial – and is [...]