Archive of entries posted on 31st December 2008

Driving your own car is racist

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In Russell County, Alabama, (just across the river from Columbus, Georgia, for the geographically impaired) there was a discussion last week about using county vehicles.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer has the story, but here’s a summary:

One county commissioner — one of the four white ones — brought up for a vote a policy saying that county commissioners could use the county-owned Ford Explorer only when traveling outside the local counties (Russell County, Alabama and Muscogee County, Georgia).

Commissioners would have to use their own personal vehicle when driving in the local counties, and could be reimbursed at the standard rate.

Another commissioner — one of the three black ones — called the proposed policy “racist.”

The vote was 3-3-1. That broke down to three whites voting “yes,” three blacks voting “no,” and one white abstaining.

They finally ended up agreeing to research what the policy has been, since nobody remembered.

Without knowing what the previous policy was, assuming there was one, it seems to me that a county vehicle could be used for county business, regardless of where the business is. A policy that says you can’t use a county vehicle for county business in the county is … stupid. Not racist, just stupid.

Calling it “racist” is … racist. And stupid.

At least it’s nice to know that stupidity is color-blind.

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The Jokes Stupid People Laugh At

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Christopher Hitchens puts a nice little capper on the “Bush is dumb” jokes (language warning).

It always seemed to me that the people who honestly believe that one politician or another is really stupid are the dumbest people out there (e.g., Joy Behar). It makes sense, because they probably go through their lives with the desire to feel smarter than someone.

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Keep Poking the Tiger with a Sharp Stick and See What Happens

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So is the point of the Palestinians to see how much you can push a civilized nation until it finally just flips out and kills everyone who even looks at it funny? Can you imagine in any other era a smaller weaker group pointlessly attacking a stronger one and not getting wiped out? We all know how this is going to end, and though the whole world will condemn Israel — U.S. included — no one is going to do anything about it in the end. If the headline writers wanted to be more accurate, the stories about the current conflict would be entitled “Israeli warplanes continue strikes on Gaza, millions spared”.

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Who Says There’s No Good News?

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Got this from MorOn.org and just had to share my schadenfreude:

You’ve probably heard about how Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff scammed investors out of at least $50 billion.

But you may not have heard that his victims included the foundations that support some really important progressive organizations. Groups that fight for human rights, fair elections and racial justice are getting hit hard—just in time for the holidays. We’ve worked side-by-side with many of them.

If these groups can’t replace the funding that came from investment accounts that Madoff stole, they may be forced to start cutting important projects or, in some cases, even lay off staff.

I’m smiling like the Grinch after he got that wonderful, awful idea.

Anyway, click here for a list of the objects of their sympathy.

For the record, there’s a tiny little cynical part of me that can’t help wondering if these organizations really DID lose money to Madoff, or if this is just a fund-raising scam by MoveOn.

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