Favorite poster from NR's "The Corner"

Last night I thought I was watching Barrys Afromerical and realized after a 1/2 hour that I was wathcing Good Times...doesnt barry sound and look alot like JJ Walker???

srsly wtf

xp: hahaha nabisco hi-5

Alfred I feel like the right has spent the past 6 years or so drifting toward the position that anyone who remotely thinks there are issues that need to be addressed re: the situation of Palestinian civilians is either evil or an apologist thereof

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/06/barack-obama-official-small.jpghttp://www.tvparty.com/vgifs13/jjgoodtimes.jpg

MY GOD I'M SEEING DOUBLE

I'm almost tempted to read through their discussion of Obama's Sanford & Son / Jeffersons mix-up, as the slip has shaken my confidence in this candidate to its very foundations

Is Corey Hart a Conservative, Liberal, NDP, or Separatist?

I don't know if I can speak to you if you're going to call yourself "SHAPOOPI!"

s Corey Hart a Conservative, Liberal, NDP, or Separatist?

he's a Celine Dion Songwriter.

when you read stuff like that its hard to understand why people on the left AND the right think that its the socially conservative wing of the party that is gonna be left behind in a new inclusive GOP

tom was pretty otm when he said that having a black commander in chief will have the side effect of making racists even more obvious (and obviously racist)

i think they were always obvious - its just served to marginalize their other, non-race-related interests

(if anything related to GOP politicking can be considered 'non-race-related')

(i do think its brought more of this to the surface media-wise but these biases were always obvious in an electoral sense, 90% of black ppl werent voting dem for nothing)

We may wind up with the paradoxical wash-out of (a) more obvious racism and (b) more people deciding that racism is obviously over everyone is the same now

I think you're on to something, esp. re. b:

The survey suggested that Mr. Obama’s candidacy — if elected, he would be the first black president — has changed some perceptions of race in America. Nearly two-thirds of those polled said whites and blacks have an equal chance of getting ahead in today’s society, up from the half who said they thought so in July.

hey n what do u think of ross douthat's post here:

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/obama_and_the_race_card.php

i think the danger in it is implying that now that this frame is in place that means the issue is 'final' or resolved in some way

'n' stands for nabisco btw

I think you're on to something, esp. re. b:

The survey suggested that Mr. Obama’s candidacy — if elected, he would be the first black president — has changed some perceptions of race in America. Nearly two-thirds of those polled said whites and blacks have an equal chance of getting ahead in today’s society, up from the half who said they thought so in July.

― "John Kerry dissed me, I'm trippin!" (Nicole), Friday, October 31, 2008 2:17 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark

im interested in how this survey breaks down racially too - ta-nehisi was arguing earlier that current black politics is more conservative and inward-looking now than in previous generations as well.

although i do wonder if thats an issue of perception - obviously the ppl advocating for a slow resolution to pressing civil rights issues are seen on the wrong side of history NOW

Here's the thing re: (b); that is not really an incorrect perception. I can only really look at my own experiences but I know for a fact that I've had it much, much easier than even my brothers, who were only 9 and 5 years older than me. I can't think of a single important thing in my life that I wanted that I missed out on due to the color of my skin; these days, I have the impression it's a lot tougher to overcome prejudice based on social class than it is to overcome prejudice based on race.

the problem is that allows space for systemic inequalities like educational disparities, how public schooling is funded etc.

one of the things i think allowed obama to really do well in downstate IL was his pointing out the obvious fact that downstate schools and inner city schools were both underfunded in comparison to the chicago suburbs.

i think spending per pupil downstate is like 2,000 vs 19,000 at new trier high school in wilmette

I don't see why stating that racial issues and class issues are being conflated in modern American society allows space for systemic inequalities like blah blah blah, unless you're assuming I think it's okay for poorer districts to be underfunded compared to more affluent areas.

one of the tricks w/ class though is that by some huge margin, white ppl are more likely to live in economically integrated communities than black people. That is to say that a poor white person is statistically much more likely to live in an area with public schools that are well-funded than a poor black person.

So then you focus your efforts on the schools that aren't well-funded.

I get the "trick" but it seems kind of willful to just throw your hands up and say "oh well, can't do anything due to all the racism!"

haha im not arguing we should do that! my intent in that first post was more about urging caution in celebration than it was saying 'same as it ever was.'

i wasnt trying to argue with you or say you were wrong actually, just trying to add dimension to it for the strawman ilxor reading this conversation

Yeah, Dan, I don't disagree that (b) is far from wrong or delusional -- I agree that we've gotten to a point where most black people as individuals aren't going to be denied anything they'd otherwise have achieved solely on the basis of race. And people are totally seizing that equal level of opportunity, and as I get older I get more and more convinced that, if I'm lucky enough to get nice and old, I'll one day be sitting in a country with a large black middle class that nobody even has to think of as some kind of "achievement."

The only reason I'm tempted to keep an eye on these things right now is that ... this conclusion that racism isn't so actively holding individuals back has to come with some historical recognition that there are large black demographics that are, in the aggregate, starting from a really limiting position, and that the reason they're there isn't because of some failure to seize opportunities, it's part of a broader legacy. Because when there's not that historical recognition, I think there's a tendency for some people to start backsliding into the mentality that there's something wrong with the people themselves. (Something that's occasionally true about white segments of the underclass, but not nearly as true, or true in the same ways.)

Let me also note that the interaction of (a) + (b) depends on individuals and where they're coming from. I think it's possible for a lot of people to be surrounded by bad attitudes about race but not have that actually bar them from a lot of achievements, if only because those bad attitudes aren't organized (i.e., even if two out of ten people you apply for jobs with have bad attitudes, that hurts you, but it doesn't sink you the way across-the-board racism once did). But I do believe there are a lot of people who are surrounded by enough bad attitudes and bad expectations (both internal and external!) that it still actively diminishes their possibilities in life, especially in areas that aren't as open and packed with possibilities/opportunities as urban centers.

Actually let me add a caveat to this:

I agree that we've gotten to a point where most black people as individuals aren't going to be denied anything they'd otherwise have achieved solely on the basis of race

^^ By this I mean in a very loose, aggregate sense -- specific things, maybe, but I do think we're hitting a point where someone's overall life path isn't being radically shifted by external stuff having to do with race in the here-and-now. Economic class, social class, and class-having-to-do-with-race, different story

Yeah, I don't disagree with that very much. I do feel, though, that real headway isn't going to be made unless we (plz forgive me I cannot help myself) call a spade a spade and deal with the classism problem in this country; I often feel people would rather call this a problem with racism so that they can just shrug and say "oh well, that's how people are!"; it seems to me to be a rather blatant and petty divide-and-conquer technique.

I'm not sure I entirely follow. Or, well ... I was going to say that there's a weird part of me that thinks Americans might sometimes be less shruggy about framing things as racism than as classism, because we have a very firm and hard-to-counter national delusion that people's economic turnouts are based on their own actions. But in terms of national politics it's really really hard to separate those things from ideas about race, since our last periods of really talking about poverty managed to be almost entirely about people's perceptions of race!

Personally, I'd much rather the racists in our society wear their prejudices on their nametags than secretly harbor their opinions. It's probably a sign that we're moving past race (or moving in that general direction), that The Corner is no longer keeping their bullshit to themselves but flaunting it. It's desperately overt.

Which is to say - maybe this election is smoking out the hidden biases. It's turning racist subversion into stupidity. (Of course, this is probably just me as an English major talking.)

But in terms of national politics it's really really hard to separate those things from ideas about race, since our last periods of really talking about poverty managed to be almost entirely about people's perceptions of race!

My thesis statement is the inversion of this; we have successfully managed to avoid having a meaningful national discussion on poverty because it has been turned into a discussion about perceptions of race by the people with a vested interest in keeping the problem around (ie, rich folk).

Ultimately I think we are coming to the same conclusion from different angles, though, so I don't think we need to spend all night explaining things to each other.

Two in a row:

Above My Pay Grade [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The Sarah Palin Cabbage Patch Doll on ebay is nearing $4,000; as much as I'd like to help the economy and charity .... Oddly, Joe Biden doesn't seem to be as popular. That one you still might be able to get for your daughter ...

10/31 02:57 PM

A Whole New Timewaster [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The "walls" on the K-Lo and Jonah Facebook pages are slowly becoming a sub-Corner network, like the bar where you go to talk about "The Corner."

they havent responded to my friend requests :(

the bar where you go to talk about "The Corner."

HELL

Hey, we're here talking about the Corner, that means we're Purgatory at least.

Gotcha, yes, totally agreed on that. Actually, over the past few decades, I'd say most of our conversations about poverty that haven't actually been conversations about race have wound up being ideological arguments about the role and size of government -- always with this weird presumption that the only thing government can do about poverty is "handouts" and welfare programs.

I also think that for a variety of reasons, it's near-impossible to get Americans to talk about "poverty" as a social problem, which is part of why I was praising Obama's Reaganesque tone in the infomercial; maybe it's just that the wealth gap is increasing too quickly, but you can now talk about helping the middle class in terms of ideas that are really about preventing poverty!

ahahah its the corner's own 77

shit i'd go to that bar, why not

because it would be awful and full of awful people

http://web.tiscalinet.it/silviodr/Korova%20milk%20bar.jpg

York, Steyn, K-Lo, Goldberg, Lowry, I think.

The vale of tears:

Dishonesty [Mark R. Levin]

This is pathetic. Doug Kmiec, I remember when you came to my office at the Justice Department — where at the time I was serving as associate deputy attorney general under Attorney General Ed Meese — seeking an appointment. I remember processing your papers and sending them to the White House for political clearance. I remember advocating for your appointment to a deputy assistant attorney general post in the Office of Legal Counsel and securing your appointment. And from there, Doug, you became the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the last days of the Reagan administration. You have now used your resume to give cover to perhaps the most radical and unqualified person to be nominated for president. And your arguments on Obama's behalf have been nothing short of dishonest. I am extremely disappointed in you. But my guess is you've earned a judgeship should Obama win the presidency. Frankly, sometimes you think you know somebody when, in fact, you don't.

Said anything over there about Duberstein yet?

the most radical and unqualified person to be nominated for president.

does he really believe this.

It's Mark Levin, of course he believes that.

One of the funniest things I've read was a few years ago when he popped over to the Belgravia Dispatch blog and whined about Greg D. (the blogowner) and his take on things. You could tell Levin wasn't merely annoyed that people might have different views from him, but actually mortally insulted and outraged.

The idea that this guy was once part of the Justic Department is utterly grotesque.

Don't worry -- he had McCarthy for company.

These conservative "defections" raise the question: is this an isolated phenomenon? How many Republicans secretly voted for Kerry in 2004, or for Clinton in 1996?

It's easier to stay quiet when a possible electoral and popular landslide isn't threatening to bury you.