News and Current Events - 2011

[kathy]

**This is so sad about Dal.  You knew him ellen.  I feel bad.**

kathy     

[AZ.bbm]

[janjo]

 

[Cally]

Yes, that's lovely, Stan....

[brokebacktom]

Great work. Thanks

[Paul029]

Well done, Stan.

[Jer009]

Rewrite, Sugarcoat, Ignore: 8 Ways Conservatives Misremember American History—for Partisan Gain

(snip)

Hannity’s is just one example of the selective memory and historical revision frequently on display in the conservative movement. Right-wing pundits, politicians and pseudo-historians are nibbling away at objective historical truths to rewrite history for present-day purposes, and hardly any topic is off-limits: glorifying the “Reagan Revolution” to children, sugarcoating the Jim Crow South and revising textbooks to offer a favorable view on Phyllis Schlafly—among many others.

http://www.thenation.com/article/162875/rewrite-sugarcoat-ignore-8-ways-conservatives-misremember-american-history

[Lyle (Mooska)]

One of the academics quoted in the article says, "A good education involves a search
for truth and understanding. To an extraordinary degree you have to validate what
you say with evidence…. that’s the accepted professional standard.”

I laughed when I read that because the people propagating all the "rewriting,
sugarcoating and ignoring" simply don't care.  We have known for quite awhile
now that things don''t seem to have to make sense to the these people.  And
while many look on in astonishment, they also let them get away with it.  Instead
of saying recently, for example, that Michele Bachmann is wrong--that the meaning
of submission is not "respect" they let her have her own meaning and others can
believe it, too, if they desire.  They let Sarah Palin and her ilk believe that Paul
Revere was out warning the British in some convoluted way that she uttered.
I was watching a program last fall about how some of these things that conservatives
utter become truth and talking points.  A specific example was used -- how a person
on Fox news uttered something that was picked up by others as true and their source
was that it was said on Fox news.  The truth then being that if it was said on Fox news,
it was then true ultimately.  Proving things to this new conservative group using facts and
logic doesn't matter to them.  They seem to only believe what they want to believe if
it suits their purpose, facts and logic be damned.  After all, they are "faith based."  You
used to be able to fight against a lot of these inanities using facts and logic.  How you do
it now when facts and logic are dismissed is a quandry I hope someone can find an answer to.

[doodler]

I understand what you are saying. I will never believe corporations are people no matter how many supreme court justices and presidential candidates say otherwise.
BUT
we ALL believe what we want to believe and each of us believes something or several somethings in spite of what science, common sense, and/or our own previous experience tells us.

[janjo]

Well......................having been brought up on a series of old wives tales from my mother which all turned out not to be true..................I do try not to believe things there is no evidence for.

[Marz]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030942/The-polar-bear-jaws-head--I-thought-I-die-Teen-mauled-lethal-Arctic-attack-reveals-really-happened.html

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

Well......................having been brought up on a series of old wives tales from my mother which all turned out not to be true..................I do try not to believe things there is no evidence for.

ditto -- I wouldn't say we all believe something in spite of zero evidence.

I agree with Lyle -- now that the truth seems not to matter to the GOP -- it's hard to know what's next.  I just keep waiting for some swing of the pendulum, because allthough you can fool a lot of people a lot of the time, it can't really go on forever.  At some point it must implode of its own weight.  Apparently, though, we haven't reached that point.  Weird.

Even a few days ago, I saw a huge billboard in Dallas that said:  Where is the birth certificate?   

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Yes, that "birth certificate" thing is a perfect example about people wanting or
willling to believe something where there is no credible evidence to suggest otherwise.
You think if the same circumstances had applied to McCain instead of Obama that this
would have come up at all?

[doodler]

Wasn't McCain born on a military base outside the US. Or is that something some late night comedian made up?

[beruthiel]

Wasn't McCain born on a military base outside the US. Or is that something some late night comedian made up?

In Panama, I think. But, since he's white, no one cares.