StrangeSox

I admit that I read about half of one of y2hh's posts before responding, I haven't really been following the conversation.

Doesn't that assume a desire to cheat in everyone, though? That doesn't seem right.

Actually support grabbing four kindles if they're going to be gifts for all of her kids. There are barbies and stuff in the cart, too, so it wasn't all about one kid. That stack of Acer tablets is pretty funny though.

Communication can bring issues to the surface before they fester and rot, but that doesn't mean every issue is resolvable.

Reading articles years removed from the incident, that doesn't really sound like what happened. It sounds like there were some protests over some unnecessarily harsh punishments, that Jackson eventually alleged racial bias, but that it was ultimately resolved and led to a better outcome than outright expelling students for two years. It doesn't seem like Jackson was ever saying that they didn't start the fight and didn't deserve some disciplinary action but that the discipline given was unjust. Was the community really "torn apart" by that? Or were there some minor inconveniences due to protests for a few days/weeks, things calmed down, and a fair solution was worked out with the help of Gov. Ryan supporting Jackson's position? Jackson and Sharpton have lived through decades of serious and severe racism. Jackson marched with King in Selma and Montgomery. Maybe they're a little more primed to recognize a racial bias behind an injustice than someone who hasn't ever really had to deal with it.

First, you're focusing on one particular issue with Jackson/Rainbow PUSH, which doesn't justify either yours or alpha's casual dismissal of racism or numerous minorities groups as "nothing but rabble-rousers." QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 10:04 AM) Those kids deserved to be punished like that. That wiki article explains they were s***ty students before this event, the zero tolerance policy was enacted BEFORE the fight, and Jackson made it a racial thing when it was simply stupid kids getting a much deserved punishment. I remember watching the video - which was the end of the fight - and they literally were in the stands punching and kicking without regard for anyone. Edit: and pointing to the fact that more blacks were expelled than whites doesn't really prove there's racial bias. How do you know it wasn't justified based on each specific case? A two-year expulsion is an amazingly dumb policy pretty much regardless of circumstance and all but guarantees that they'll be drop-outs. Instead, some went on to be losers while others went on to finish college with the help of Rainbow PUSH. So, instead of being nothing but race-baiting rabble-rousers, they managed to get several students to graduate high school and some to go on to college who otherwise wouldn't have. The students still faced discipline. Sounds like a better outcome in the end, and that requires drama sometimes. You don't always have to agree with or support those tactics, but they can be effective. Really, what good would a two-year suspension have done for anyone? It also brought more scrutiny on zero-tolerance laws, which is also a good thing regardless of racial discrepancies in their application. Here's the actual AP review that the quote references, which notes that, like just about every other facet of our justice systems, minorities and particularly blacks face disproportionate punishment. http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/zero-tolerance.pdf

Conservatives block a UN treaty in the Senate (61 yes, 38 no, 2/3's needed for a treaty) that was negotiated under Bush and makes US Americans with Disabilities Act the model for the world, because 'sovereignty' Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Oh. Right.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 07:57 PM) You know the answer to this. Because any restriction on where people can have a gun and use a gun is evil socialism, because guns are *always* good. Take a year and live in a state where they want to put guns on your college campus and force employers to allow people to carry guns onto their property whether they want it or not. That's where this comes from. I honestly see the gun part as secondary in this case.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 07:56 PM) As long as our political priorities are set by the people who have the most money. Nothing. The answer is going to be we're going to keep paying $100 billion to repair from the next Katrina, $60 billion to repair from the next Sandy, $100 billion to cover the next dust bowl, and we'll pretend that the people raking in piles of cash off of fossil fuels aren't making that money and leaving the taxpayer with that bill. Externalities, how do they work?!

The Fox News Effect: Republicans Still Think ACORN is Alive and Stealing Elections I'd call this a dry British sense of humor if PPP were British. In other news, they found that 39 percent of Americans claim to have an opinion about the Simpson-Bowles deficit plan, while 25 percent claim to have an opinion about the Panetta-Burns plan, which they just made up. Fun times.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 04:10 PM) And yet, I find that much less concerning than black teenagers getting killed because they are automatically viewed as a threat. that works too.

Rainbow PUSH, theNAACP and the BCC are not "rabble-rousers and nothing more." Reading the quick wiki, the school had expelled them for two years. That is an injustice and a terrible policy. Zero-tolerance, three-strike laws, etc. are dumb and disproportionately affect minorities. Reading through this article, it sure seems like the school administrators did their share of "rabble-rousing" as well, with dubious gang accusations and releasing school records to the public. A ten-year look-back on the incident notes this:

Seems odd to have a bunch of 4-8 and 5-7 teams fighting for a playoff spot

Scientific racism was more of a late-19th, early-20th century thing, but Corey Robin's comments on Jefferson talk about his ties to the late 18th century 'founders' of the movement. What was so ironic about David Post's Volokh "So What?" post is that it was immediately preceded by another blogger warning against whitewashing some of the ugly beliefs and policies of the early 20th century Progressive movement.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 01:41 PM) Haha, we're at the opposite ends of the spectrum then. In fact, last night I was just telling the roommate I mentioned in the previous post that I just don't like Brown Ales. I'm in the wheat beers, pilseners, pale ales, and IPAs side of things. Stouts, brown ales and porters are just not appealing to me. I only recently got into stouts after having The Poet Oatmeal Stout at New Holland Brewery. A good chocolate stout at ~50 degrees is always good, too, but I can do without porters and brown ales. I love IPA's but I tend to get terrible headaches with only one or two

I'll bet she'd do a damn sight better job of it than a majority of the Senators, but my politics are not oriented to maximize my own personal interest. Are you familiar with her prior work at all? *That "but my politics are not oriented to maximize my own personal interest" sounded pretty douchy, I didn't mean it holier-than-thou.

There was substantial opposition to the creation of the CFPB, which she basically created, and to her appointment as head of it. That was circa 2010, this was about her being appointed to the Senate Banking Committee. I see no reason to believe in shadow conspiracy theories in the face of the loud, frequent and expensive efforts to block her and the CFPB at every turn. She didn't make her $14M by taking advantage of the banking system but in academia and the legal world fighting against banks, including fighting against the disastrous 2005 bankruptcy reform bill.

Being from the 1% doesn't mean you can't seriously believe that the system is rigged and needs reforming. It's not uncommon for someone privileged in the current system to champion populist reforms. Yeah, she's wealthy, but she's not part of the banking industry. If her populism is 'feigned,' why such the effort to block the CFPB and her appointment to head it?

Warren to Senate Banking Committee! http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/bank...-senate-banking

Animated Infographic: Watch As America’s Stadiums Pile Up On The Backs Of Taxpayers Through The Years http://deadspin.com/5964116/animated-infog...n=recirculation

Yeah but there's a lot of racism on the part of the white man out there. The way I phrased it was unintentionally snarky, but I honestly would recommend reading someone like TNC to at least understand where social-justice types are coming from. Because nobody, not JJ or Sharpton, especially not the BCC or NAACP are calling each and every action taken by a white man racist. That's just a silly dodge to avoid discussing or understanding racism and racist attitudes and actions or why others might perceive something as racial even if you don't.

I don't know how many people are actually screaming that versus that being a strawman to avoid actually addressing racism. Go read some Ta-Nehisi Coates. He touches on this subject frequently and is far from shrill or quick to jumping to accusations of racism.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 3, 2012 -> 01:52 PM) That's a good start, thanks. Though I don't think there needs to be an filed exemption process to prove those things - just base it on asset type, and therefore liquidity. Makes the process more fair and more efficient. And you have to pay interest - I don't like that part. It is a penalty, and I don't feel there should be a penalty for this, since they were basically given a situation and did not do anything wrong. I don't know what the rates are, but an inflation-level of interest seems fair. Otherwise your debt lessens naturally over time. And it's still important, imo, to make the distinction between inheritance taxes and estate taxes. The estate is responsible for these taxes, not your heirs. Maybe a national inheritance tax would be a better way of doing it, but in our current system, the burden falls on the estate.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 10:14 AM) Make that death metal instead of Brad Pailey and it could happen. Racism is also jumping to race as the first and only reason that anythgin happens. Black kid gets shot by a white guy? Racism. Hispanic denied a house loan? Racism. Muslim group denied a mosque building permit in the middle of a residential area? Racism. Too many race hustlers out there screaming at the top of their lungs to defend the victim, if they are a minority, simply because they are a minority. I also never read the comments at the newspaper sites and so on. Made that mistake a few times, doesn't matter the story. A$$holes on parade, both sides of whatever issue it is. See, the thing is, there's a pretty good history of blacks getting violently assaulted because of racism, of hispanics and other minorities getting f***ed by banks and realtors because of racism (Wells Fargo just settled a huge case about that this year!), of people opposing mosques being built simply because they are mosques and that'd be "letting the terrorists win," not anything to do with zoning. Too many people out there screaming at the top of their lungs that racism isn't really a problem in this country anymore. In this case, there's really no doubt that the victim was completely innocent. The guy's story is complete non-sense--a group of teens had a shotgun and pointed it at him, but in the time it took for him to fire off 8 rounds, they never bothered firing once? And then they managed to ditch the weapon? Or maybe this dumbass had a racial bias and was pre-disposed to see them as a threat.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 10:07 AM) Yet it's abhorrent for Zimmerman to think that Martin was up to no good? GMAB. You can't have it both ways. It's either acceptable to stereotype or it's not. Yes, it was abhorrent for Zimmerman to assume a black kid wearing a hoodie was a criminal. That's exactly the attitude that parallels in this case. I'm judging this guy based on the actions he took, which was telling a group of black teens to turn down their music and then shooting them. Here's some expansion on what I'm saying: http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/01/if-you-are-...-threat-enough/ edit: also this from Ta-Nehisi: