Indeed.

Hope you caught the genius VD clip at 10:34 am. Now that was true genius.

Much obliged for the carte blanche, not that I need it, of course. I’m not so Blunt (rimshot!) as to flog the same metaphor endlessly.

Blunt’s been using the story of golf course monkeys since well before Obama was a candidate.

As others have pointed out, this is hardly exculpatory. All it means is that the same fable can have different morals in different contexts.

The point he was making then is the same as the point he’s making now: things don’t always go the way you planned

Well what would you expect the punchline to be this time? “So we gotta get the monkey off the fairway green of the white house before he torques our golfballs into the sandtrap of socialism!”? That ain’t how the game is played.

Whatever. I guess we’ll just have to disagree over whether this “qualifies”. Tell you what – I’ll rant about it and you don’t and between us in aggregate maybe the appropriate response will emerge. However…

forget about the indignant Dennises and what they will and won’t concede. It doesn’t matter.

True that our little Dennis here doesn’t matter much, but the army of Dennises out there do matter. They’re the ones running bawling to the media in great number crying “waaaa, he called me racist and I didn’t even say the word n-g—!!”, and our media, our lovely lobotomized castrated media that are like the ben-wa balls in the asshole of the god of false equivalence, lap it up like their own vomit.

Uh, no. No you don’t. As I make very clear in my previous posts, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that in Rep. Blunt’s case, the “monkey” reference seems unrelated to race. I’m also saying that monkeys are funny. See, I’m agreeing with you! It happens sometimes, when you’re dealing with people who don’t automatically disagree with you even when you’re right just because you’re wrong most of the time.

Wilbur: Felix, I’m not going to torque your balls over this one. This isn’t like that Pastor Anderson thing where you were totally off your meds.

You’re not going to…what now? Torque my balls while I oil my kazoo? Um. That’s good. I’m married and stuff. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your kind restraint.

Oh, and I’ve been off my meds for a year and a half because I can’t afford health insurance and even if I could, I have a pre-existing condition that would prevent coverage for said meds. Feel free to use that as a cavalier explanation for any future opinion I’ll have with which you might disagree.

I agree completely about the existence of the right-wing meme that says there’s no racism unless a white guy is saying “kill all n-ers” while dressed in a hood, and I agree completely about the need to push back. Context matters a great deal. For example, monkeys can signify many different things. I don’t think Clint Eastwood is a racist because he drove around in a truck with an orangutan in that movie. I don’t think Curious George is a racist icon. I do think that a man bringing a Curious George doll to a McCain rally, with a sign saying “Obama” on the doll’s forehead, is racist as hell.

Context.

Blunt’s been using the story of golf course monkeys since well before Obama was a candidate. The point he was making then is the same as the point he’s making now: things don’t always go the way you planned, and you have to deal with it the best you can. That’s not racist. If he’d just started using this story now, I’d be pretty skeptical given the context of the present administration — but the larger context indicates that it’s just a standard stump speech for him that’s got nothing to do with Obama.

We’ve got to push back against racist bullshit. We can’t do that effectively if we push back against things that don’t qualify. And here’s a tip that’s both strategic and good for your health: forget about the indignant Dennises and what they will and won’t concede. It doesn’t matter.

I do think, though, that we do have to push back a bit at this meme that the right is pressing: that there’s no racism unless someone says explicitly “I hate blacks”, or uses the n-word in an unfriendly manner, or fires a black person or denies him an apartment lease because of his race; that context never matters; that words like “monkey” can only mean one thing – a funny furry critter – and never has other connotations in different contexts; that a picture of Obama with a bone through his nose would be no different from a picture of Clinton with a bone through his nose; that a white man calling a black man n–er is no more troubling than a black man calling a black man n–er; that white-on-black racism is no bigger a problem than black-on-white racism; that the racist problem on the right is no worse than the racist problem on the left.

All of this serves provide cover for a deeply encoded discourse of racism that has developed over the past several centuries on this side of the Atlantic. When I saw the video I immediately knew what it meant. If you’d spent a lot of time in the barbershops and dairy queens of the black belt of Alabama and Mississippi, as I have, you would know it instantly as well. I’ve been there and heard the exact same code words and the same snickers and seen the same in-on-the-joke smirks. You ignore this and you’re not just ignoring part of the problem, you’re ignoring probably the biggest part of the problem. It’s like thinking the tip is all there is of the iceberg.

Make no mistake about it: the goal of the right here is to make it as politically incorrect to utter the word “racism” as it is to utter “n–er” or “k*ke”. They will keep pursuing that goal because the life of their party depends now more than ever on coddling the racists within them.

So I know what you’re saying about crying wolf, and you’re right, there is a danger there. But there is an equal danger in defering in our thoughtful and peaceful and integritous (?) and turn-the-other-cheeky way to the indignant Dennises of this world who would obfuscate and equivocate anything to avoid having to concede that there’s a serious problem on their side of the aisle.

Oh, Frank knows, Wilbur. He knows that the liberal Democrats actually all secretly don’t think the Holocaust happened. Hell, I’m not even secretive about it. I have a shirt that I wear every day around Los Angeles that reads, “Fuck you, Jews! Suck it, matzoh-eaters! Oh yeah, and the Holocaust never happened! Deal with it!”

It’s a little long for a t-shirt slogan, but I get plenty of compliments from the other godless heathen liberals around SoCal.

How many holocaust deniers are leftist, and how many are rightist?

How many holocaust deniers are members of the democratic party, and how many the republican party?

Answer: I don’t know, but I has my suspicions.

Monkeys! Monkeys! Monkeys! Monkeys!!!

Ha, made ya laugh.

Haven’t you learned by now, after 138 years on Earth, Frank? Haven’t you learned to not bet on anything, because you’re always, always, always fucking wrong?

You would hit on a 19 in Vegas because you thought a 2 was forthcoming.

…he says, drooling on the keyboard and adjusting his diaper. “Hee hee monkeys is funny uh oh I go boom boom in my pants! Waaaaaah!”

You are not seriously trying to say that this is pervasive throughout the Republican Party based on 6, or even a dozen such incidents? How many leftist Holocaust deniers show up at pro-Palestine demonstrations? More than 6 a year , I’ll wager.

Comparing black people to monkeys: not funny.

You still haven’t answered my question, Frank, which is, in case you’ve forgotten, “do you laugh every time you hear the word ‘monkeys’?”

That’s got to be the weirdest metaphor I’ve seen all year. Are we playing Yackety Sax? The “Leave it to Beaver” theme song? I have no idea what this means, and rather than attempt to deconstruct it, I’m just going to hum a few bars.

Decent, well-meaning people like Felix and Wilfredo will say, you know, maybe we really shouldn’t make any charges before we have conclusive proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Fine, very noble. Meanwhile the right will continue their lies, slanders, distortions and craftily worded race-baiting without compunction.

OH NO YOU DI’INT just call me well-meaning! Them there’s kazoo-brandishing words!

It’s not about nobility. (Can’t be noble while you’re playing kazoo. Try it sometime.) It’s about integrity. For me, being thoughtful and fair is more important than being victorious. That’s not to say that I’m always successful at being thoughtful and fair, but that I try. It’s also not to say that one cannot be thoughtful and fair and victorious; last year’s election is proof of that. It’s just that I’m not willing to sell out my principles for the sake of a temporary triumph.

Making charges without concern for accuracy or fairness is what right-wing pundits do. I refuse to sink to their level. Besides, it wouldn’t stop their lies, slanders, distortions and carefully worded race-baiting if I did; all it would do is lend legitimacy to the “both sides are crazy” approach that the MSM likes to take in order to appear nonpartisan.

Given the proliferation of undeniably racist behavior since the 2008 campaign got underway, I think it’s totally legitimate to take notice of things like Blunt’s anecdote in which racism may play a part. Maddow didn’t jump on any race-baiting bandwagon, and neither did Oliver. To quote Dennis: Look at this. Hm. Discuss amongst yourselves. That’s all we’re doing. And if, in the course of discussion, the facts of the matter indicate that the anecdote was not racist in nature — then for FSM’s sake, have the integrity to acknowledge it. Otherwise, when the real racism comes around, no one takes you seriously.

(Of course, some people will never take you seriously no matter what you do or say, simply because you don’t share their point of view. That’s fine. Whatevs. They deserve, at most, a moment of contempt before returning to the discussion with people who are capable of participating in one.)

You say I can’t read minds, fine, I’ll admit that too. Just as long as you realize you can’t either, so when you impute motives to people, as for instance you did to Oliver in the Gateway pundit thread, you are being equally odious.

Charges of racism can, and are, bandied about too freely, and can sometimes be a way to unfairly characterize criticism that comes from less dastardly motives. It’s also true, however, that one can run interference for true racism by complaining constantly that racism charges are bandied about too freely.

Now, THERE was a journalist.

But it wouldn’t have been as funny given the venue. That is the point Indeed was making.

NOW you’re gettin’ it.

Jessus. Wilfredo hands you a victory and you smack it out of his hand.

The genius Victor Davis Hanson…

OH MAN!. XD.
I’m gonna giggle about that all day.

Remember?