Yesterday I abused the Yakima School District for canceling a student production of The Laramie Project, a play that explores the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, WY, and the impact the ensuing controversy had on the community. Like the media reports at the time, the play largely portrays the murder as a hate crime… a vicious, premeditated attack on the openly gay Shepard.
District administrators halted the production out of concern that some in the community might perceive the play as promoting homosexuality… you know, in the same way a recent broadcast of the movie Mississippi Burning caused so many of Yakima’s youth to suddenly turn black.
Well apparently, (un)Sound Politics contributor Matt Rosenberg agrees with the district’s decision. Rosenberg suggests that such a “pro-tolerance” play might be inappropriate subject matter for a high school production, stating that “there is a legitimate question of whether we want public schools instead of families teaching tolerance.” Yeah, because we wouldn’t want to offend the values of those anti-tolerance families, I guess.
But Rosenberg’s biggest complaint is that the details of the incident as portrayed in the play — which was based on over 200 interviews conducted in the immediate aftermath of Shepard’s 1998 murder — differs from those presented in a 2004 segment of ABC TV’s 20/20. Rosenberg writes:
The reasons for his killing are highly disputed, in fact. There is no certitude to it whatever. True, the play’s script echoes dubious claims by the killer’s girlfriend and the killer himself that his rage about a purported gay come-on from Shepard led to the fatal attack. However, an in-depth report on ABC-TV’s “20-20” casts that claim as likely manufactured to aid the killer’s defense and pegs drug-money robbery and a methamphetamine-induced rage as the likely motivations in the killing.
Uh-huh.
Okay. Let’s just forget for a moment that the play’s hate-crime premise — a premise based on extensive, year-long interviews starting just 5-weeks after the murder, on contemporary news accounts, and, oh yeah… on the courtroom testimony of both the killer and his girlfriend — is so dismissively rejected by Rosenberg simply because it is contradicted by a single TV newsmagazine segment produced six years after the fact. Forget all that. It’s entirely besides the point.
The point is, Matt… it’s a fucking play!
It’s not a documentary. It’s not a history book. It’s not even a Wikipedia entry. It’s a play. A work of art. It’s theater.
The Sound of Music by comparison is a grossly inaccurate portrayal of the real von Trapp family, yet high school productions run nationwide without protest. The Miracle Worker? An historically iffy stage adaptation of an autobiography of a deaf and blind girl, for chrisakes. Amadeus? A complete and utter load of bullshit. And Shakespeare’s much lionized histories? Each and every one a work of fiction.
If Rosenberg had bothered to see the The Laramie Project before criticizing it he might understand that it doesn’t matter what the primary motivation of the killers really was, for the play isn’t about Shepard or his death, it’s about the people who survived him. The play is about the Laramie community coming to grips with the possibility that two of their own committed a brutal hate crime, and about how this experience changed their lives. The play is about how intolerance can tear communities apart, and about how unspeakable tragedy can sometimes bring communities together.
And whatever the truth about Shepard’s murder, the undisputed fact is that hate crimes do occur, and that in America — like all over the world — people are indeed discriminated against, ostracized, brutalized, even killed because of their race, their religion, their politics and their sexual orientation. Thus in its heart, The Laramie Project would be a truthful play, even if it were a total work of fiction. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand art.
So when I read a piece like the one Rosenberg posted to (un)Sound Politics yesterday, I have to ask myself: what the fuck is wrong with these people? Why would they go so far out of their way to trivialize a play that does nothing more than dramatize the tragic consequences of intolerance? What are they defending?
If the students of the Davis High School drama department had elected to perform The Diary of Anne Frank, and the production was halted out of concerns that some in the community might perceive the play as promoting Judaism, would Rosenberg jump to the defense of district administrators? Would he criticize the play for its historical inaccuracies? If 20/20’s Elizabeth Vargas were to deny the Holocaust, would Rosenberg insist that any staging must include a post-production discussion forum to fully air the differences between Frank’s diary and that of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf?
An absurd analogy?
Rosenberg closes by writing about “the Leftist meme of ‘politically constructed realities,'” a hefty turn of phrase intended to dismiss the very notion of hate crimes as some sort of lefty political construct. Whatever. I suppose I understand the legal arguments of those who insist that hate crime laws are unnecessary. But I simply can’t comprehend how a fellow Jew like Rosenberg could deny that hate crimes exist at all. Still… I’ll try to be tolerant.
UPDATE:
It turns out that David Neiwert over at Orcinus thoroughly debunked the 20/20 segment, way back around the time it first aired. Neiwert also debunks Rosenberg’s apparent opposition to hate crime laws in general:
This myth arises from one of the realities about hate-crime laws: they only exist on the books as laws dealing with a special category of crimes with which we already are well familiar (murder, assault, threatening, intimidation, vandalism, etc.) — that is, a hate crime always has a well-established “parallel” crime underlying it, upon which is added the layer of motivation by bias (racial, ethnic, etc.). Thus, opponents argue, the laws for those parallel crimes should be adequate for punishing perpetrators. (If this argument sounds familiar, it is; the identical points were raised in the 1920s and ’30s by opponents of the anti-lynching legislation that was the NAACP’s raison d’etre during its early years.)
Are hate crimes truly different from their parallel crimes? Quantifiably and qualitatively, the answer is yes.
The first and most clear aspect of this difference lies in the breadth of the crimes’ effects. Hate crimes attack not only the immediate victim, but the target community — Jews, blacks, gays
Does uSP ever surprise us. Since Sharansky came to our Pacific Northwest he has continuosly been on the wrong (or losing) side of all debates. Why should his ‘blind’ flock of frogmarchers be any different?
“What’s wrong with these people?” It’s an essential part of the snake oil the right peddles to the rubes to get votes and power. The standard spiel to Joe Six-Pack America goes something like this: “Whatever’s wrong in your life as you see it, whatever you want that you don’t have, however you’re disappointed with your life, it’s all because some of the stuff that should be coming your way is going to someone else, someone….different, someone who’s less worthy. And you know what? The big bad lib’ruls are making it all happen by taking what’s rightfully yours and giving it to those other, inferior beings. Put us in power, and we’ll go kick their asses for ya, take your stuff all back and put it in your oh-so-deserving hands.”
There are a couple of problems with that. First, the Republicans are lying through their teeth, and they’re really going to take it all from “them”, AND from “you” and keep it for themselves. Secondly, convincing people that all they have to do to get a step up the ladder in life is to work up sufficient hatred for someone else. Then when your heeeeeeroes don’t deliver on what they promised, people get get frustrated and go try and do it themselves. So if the gubmint isn’t putting up enough gun towers and razor wire across the Mexican border, well then let’s call ourselves “minutemen”, jump in our pickups and kill some of those dirty little wetbacks ourselves. Your old lady doesn’t seem to be puttin’ out? Couldn’t possibly be that maybe you ought to shave and brush your teeth…nah, just have a few more brewskis and go beat up a fag or two to “defend your marriage”.
If you don’t believe that’s what the other side is all about, just come back in a few hours and read all the crap JCH and MTR fill this thread with.
Matt Rosenburg:
I would post this at (un)SP, but the censors there would not allow this kind of opinion or free speech.
You are an ignorant fuck. Your parents should be ashamed. You should be too.
Now, back to your corner and continue fucking yourself.
Carl Grossman
Liberal, Democrat, Jew and Tolerant, well not so much.
Carl–
Expressed as only a Jew-hater such as yourself could spew.
Your chronic potty mouth leads me to believe you are a Jew in Name Only.
Matt Rosenberg articulates a position and supports that position.
You spew.
When was the last time you talked with your Rabbi or visited a Synagogue??
You disgust me.
The right. Ever vigilant. Reality, and truth shall never see the light of day! Must stay in cave. Must keep children in cave. Must stay in denial, must stay in denial, Jesus hated gays, Jesus hated gays…..
Conservative used to mean conservative, not retarded.
I feel sorry for the righties. They have to keep their hands over their eyes, and their ears full time these days….. Must look kinda funny.
By the way. Should the schools be teaching “tolerance”?
Only if the parents don’t….
What if yer dad is a David Duke type?
Dobson type?
Worse yet a Coulter type?
The schools should damn well be teaching tolerance.
“There is a legitmate question of whether we want public schools instead of families teaching tolerance.”
Not really. “Tolerance” is not “respect.” And it is very much the school’s role to explain what is proper and legal and which must be accepted & left-alone, even if one doesn’t like it.
For example, I rarely agree with anything Matt Rosenberg says and I do not often “respect” his opinion. But I certainly “tolerate” his right to offer them.
And it’s that line which schools are supposed to teach — between tolerating something because the law & social custom requires it and respecting something based on your own assessment of the merits Tolerance is not a matter of personal taste and preference.
re 4: “… articulates a position….” Rubbish! Rosenberg hears and sees what he wants to. And if he can find something even as thin as an ABC blurb to support , he’ll site it. If there is no support, he’ll make it up or cite his own opinion as manifestly true in and of itself.
Carl Gross-Man
I must truly thank you for your consistent vulgar & viscious posts. I copy them and share them frequently with fellow Jews….who by the way live by faith, lean Democrat and are disgusted by Jews like you.
Keep up the vulgarity Carl.
It gives me good debate material.
Sadly, we have come to a spot where school districts will often shy away from any subject where there could be dissension. Rather than stand up to a few vocal parents (or even non-parent members of the community) they will take the “safe road”, knowing that they are safest if they avoid all controversy.
Not all schools do this, but too many take that approach.
This isn’t a liberal/conservative thing. We “liberals” bear our share of the blame for the current state of affairs here. I put “liberal” in quotes there because at least some of us are only tolerant when people are agreeing with us.
Unfortunately, homosexuality is a subject that strikes very close to home for some, and many of these folks will not look beyond the fact that the victim was a homosexual. This somehow gets twisted into a “support of the homosexual agenda”. (Considering the fact that all of the homosexuals I know just want to be allowed to live peacefully and have the same rights as everyone else, the critics may actually have a point there.)
This is where parents, teachers and students in Yakima should peacefully petition their school board. Say, about 100 of them, presenting a long list of signatures in front of the school district headquarters, with a few news cameras recording the event.
Wish I could help, but I don’t live over in Yakima, and having a bunch of folks come in from out of the area would just make matters worse. (If the Peninsula School District ever does anything like this, I’ll ask for moral support, but it will be up to us to actually do the work.)
So, is anyone over in Yakima listening?
It’s just part of the deal with these assholes. For them EVERYTHING, ever single one of life’s moments, is a chance to spread their HATE for freedom and America. For the right EVERYTHING is political. Every trip to the market, every play, every TV show, every book, hell even the way the grass grows, is political.
They are the reason why America is in trouble. And it’s clear from recent polls that America finally gets it. If these turds ever had to face the light of day, 90% of the shit they make up would never be printed.
I’d like to challenge this right wing dick sucker to a debate on this issue IN PUBLIC
It’s just part of the deal with these assholes. For them EVERYTHING, ever single one of life’s moments, is a chance to spread their HATE for freedom and America. For the right EVERYTHING is political. Every trip to the market, every play, every TV show, every book, hell even the way the grass grows, is political.
They are the reason why America is in trouble. And it’s clear from recent polls that America finally gets it. If these turds ever had to face the light of day, 90% of the shit they make up would never be printed.
I’d like to challenge this right wing dick sucker to a debate on this issue IN PUBLIC. Say this shit in front of an audience in downtown Seattle from a podium on a mic where people can see you and hear you – fucking shithead coward. I’ll pay the bill for the debate.
Poll Shows Strong Shift Of Support to Democrats
By David S. Broder and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 10, 2006; Page A01
Democrats have regained a commanding position going into the final weeks of the midterm-election campaigns, with support eroding for Republicans on Iraq, ethics and presidential leadership, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00868.html
We must protect our children from catching teh gay!!!1one.
G.O.P. G.ay O.ld P.edophile
ABBA @ 4
HI,
The last time I checked, this is still America (Bush’s attack on the Constitution, notwithstanding) and I am entitled to my opinion.
Abba, you and Matt and Stefan are assholes in my opinion. Just because I use “colorful” language, I am not any less articulate than the three of you. I choose my words carefully. They are designed to elicit a reaction. A reaction that your sanctimonious proclivities are only too fond of giving.
As for being a Jew hater, well you are entitled to think whatever you choose. My relationship with God, the Torah and my temple, is, quite frankly, none of your fucking business. I expect more from a fellow Jew. Matt should know better. The fact that he doesn’t speaks volumes about his relationship with God. I am sure that siding with the Christian Right Wing zealots is not leaving him in good stead with God.
Thanks for proving my point.
Funny how that works.
Wow. Just a few minutes after trying to make the point that many “liberals” are only tolerant when dealing with people that agree with us, someone comes along to make the point better than I ever could.
Commentby Let\’s Go Left— 10/10/06@ 7:37 am
“I’d like to challenge this right wing dick sucker to a debate on this issue IN PUBLIC. Say this shit in front of an audience in downtown Seattle from a podium on a mic where people can see you and hear you – fucking shithead coward. I’ll pay the bill for the debate.”
First, let me say that I disagree with Mr. Rosenberg’s position on this topic.
But for an anonymous poster to call him a “fucking shithead coward” in a post full of expletives is ludicrous, along with adding absolutely nothing to the debate.
For good or ill, Mr. Rosenberg’s posts tend to be written in careful terms, and he is willing to put his own name on them. I believe that he has made statements in public, where people could see and hear him.
I suggest that if a debate is ever actually considered, that someone other than Let\’s Go Left do the debating. I think that Mr. Rosenberg would eat Let\’s Go Left’s lunch.
The only really appropriate quote I can come up with to end this is from Tom Lehrer. “there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that!” If the irony in that quote is not immediately apparent, then perhaps you could use a little tolerance training yourself.
ABBA @ 9
Such a sad life you have to actually print my posts and share them. On the other hand perhaps I should be flattered that my writing affects you so.
I read this blog daily. I don’t copy anything, I just read and comment, then go about my day. I don’t take these threads too seriously.
In my experience, no true Jew could be a Republican. It does not mix well with our history at all.
Now, why don’t you and your friends take a long walk off a short pier. You are already all wet.
Funny how that works.
Oh, fuck you too.
ABBA,
If you are offended by the language used here at HA I would suggest reading something else. You can turn off your computer, read Disney.com or go outside for a walk. No one is forcing you to read this blog. That is what freedom is all about.
Freedom of speech is a two way street. I can say whatever I wish, you have the choice whether or not to listen and respond. It is, in the estimation of many, the most important freedom that our forefathers bestowed upon us. Your intolerance of the speech of others, is reprehensible. I guess you learned it from Rummy when he suggested that contradicting the administration meant I was morally and intellectually confused. I am neither.
I am however tired of RightWingNuts, such as yourself, telling me what is right and what is good for me. I know a lie when I hear it, I know when I am being bamboozled by slick politicians with their soundbites and photo opps. Two thirds of this country now agree with me.
Where does that leave you? In the sad 1/3 who will blindly follow, incapable of independent thought or expressing an opinion that is not formed for you by the RightWing leaders.
This message was brought to you without any “colorful” language by Jews for a Democratic Controlled Congress.
My name is Carl Grossman and I approved this message.
ABBA,
Are you perchance related to proudofherlyingthreateningass?
I am just asking.
ABBA,
When you are willing to put your name behind your words, let me know. Until then, leave the childish name play alone. It is unbecoming. It does however open a very wide window into the immature being that you are.
Funny how that works.
Please just protect the children from the G.O.P.
Hi Johnboy. Are we supposed to believe that because you pretend to be a liberal and post under a name that appears to be normal you’re who you say you are?
Prove it!
And no one here really thinks you’re a liberal.
I don’t care how many times I hear it, I refuse to believe that significant numbers of conservatives will stay home in November and thereby assist the Democratic Party to regain control of Congress. Democrats and the Old Media have been working hard to create this perception for several months, citing poll after poll to support their claims. It reminds me of the exit poll manipulation orchestrated by the Old Media and Democrat operatives in 2004 to create the GOP-deflating perception that John Kerry was winning big. Gore lost……….Kerry lost………..And the polls were wrong.
Here’s part of the Snopes.com debunking of a similar spew of right-wing justification for the Iraq invasion (ref=24 JCH above). THere is a great deal more detail, and many quotes IN context, at the site.
They never learn, do they?
Return with me now to those days of yesteryear, the days when Bill Clinton was in the White House and the Democrats controlled the House and Senate.
The date: October 22, 1994.
The headline in the liberal bible, the New York Times, read as follows: “U.S. and North Korea Sign Pact to End Nuclear Dispute: Many Details are Kept Secret.” Said the story confidently: “Under the broad agreement concluded here late Monday, North Korea will freeze its nuclear activities, [and] renounce any ambition to become a nuclear power…” In addition, the Times trumpeted what the North Koreans would get in return for these two concessions. “In exchange, an international consortium will replace North Korea’s current graphite nuclear reactors, which are considered less dangerous because they produce little weapons grade plutonium.”
Said the North Korean chief negotiator of the deal: It is “a very important milestone document of historic significance” that would resolve his country’s nuclear dispute with the United States “once and for all.” Kang Sok Ju went on some more about this new agreement he had negotiated with the Clinton Administration, and it’s worth reprinting in full. Reports the Times:
He said the agreement, once put into effect, would resolve “all questions of the so-called nuclear weapons development by North Korea” that have raised “such unfounded concerns and suspicions. We have neither the intention nor the plan to develop nuclear weapons,” Mr. Kang said.
And Bill Clinton believed him. The Times reported it this way: “At a news conference in Washington, President Clinton said the treaty ‘was a good deal for the United States.'”
There was one other player in all of this as well. The Times took care to say that “former President Jimmy Carter held talks in Pyongyang with North Korea’s dictator Kim Il Sung, that defused the crisis and led to new negotiations with the United States.” For his part, Carter went on record earlier in the year in meetings with the North Koreans to say that “I personally believe the crisis is over.” What did the North Korean leader (the current dictator’s father, Kim Il Sung) think of Carter’s efforts? “He told me,” said Carter, that “he was very grateful I had gone [to North Korea], and thought it [Carter’s effort to make peace and help give the North Koreans light-water reactors] was a very fine accomplishment.”
The Times concluded that “Bill Clinton will be the biggest winner, a master negotiator on a critical security issue.” Five days later, when the North Koreans expressed skepticism the United States would really give them what they wanted, the Times headlined this story: “Clinton, in Letter, Assures North Koreans on Nuclear Reactors.” Said the President in a letter to Kim Jung Il: “I will use the full powers of my office” to assure that the dictator got what he wanted.
Clinton, the “master negotiator” of “a good deal” did just that. And on October 8, 2006, the world learns that in spite of everything that Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and their respective Democratic national security teams believed, the North Koreans have just exploded their first nuclear weapon.
A right-wing editorialist at the NY Post thinks it’s about time to leave Iraq:
How about it. Should we?
27 JCH
Amazing. It’s as if Bush doesn’t exist, for you.
Still, GOP leaders privately said that Democrats are edging much closer to locking down a majority of House seats because a small but significant number of conservatives are frustrated with Republican governance, while independent swing voters are turning against GOP candidates.
“If you are a Democrat, you have to like the atmosphere,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), a top campaign strategist for the GOP. Davis said Republicans could lose as many as 30 seats if conditions worsen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....rrer=email
Good Job JCH. Let’s blame Clinton for something that happen six years after he left office. Especially when his deal was working until Bush backed out of it. Great diversion.
Hey, if we are smart, maybe no one will realize that Bush has even been President. Then we would have a chance at holding the House. [hehe]
And I like how you are trying to blame them for Iraq. Never mind that the CIA kept telling Bush that when they got in there with the weapons inspectors that they could not find a damn thing. The war is all the Dumbocrats fault!!!! Yeah, that will work.
Well, it better, as you have made clear, we have nothing left but lies.
Aren`t you junior high folks supposed to be in class or something ?
Time to head back to the class room ABBA and friends
Another crushing blow to the right. Man it’s been a bad month for inbred turds.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/....._Cano.html
27 JCH
Do you even know what you’re posting? Perhaps you don’t realize who was president in 2006.
First, Clinton’s 1994 “Agreed Framework” was a godsend that made it uneccessary to bomb the Yongbyon reactor (instead they shut it down), which we were prepared to do. And it got NK back into the NPT and out of the business of reprpocessing fuel rods (which is the fast way to weapons-grade nuclear materials). Also, at the time the consensus intel was that NK’s government would soon collapse due to the death of Kim il-Sung.
But the Republican Congress after 1994 did not provide sufficient funding for the promised fuel oil (that was supposed to make up for the enrgy the lost from shutting down Yongbyon), so that some of the agreed transitional oil supplies were delivered late. Also, North Korea agreed to the freeze primarily because of the U.S. agreement to phase out economic sanctions that had been in place since the Korean War, but because of Republican Congressional opposition, the U.S. refused to deliver on this part of the agreement. So who broke faith on the deal first?
Yes, NK admitted to enriching uranium in 2002 (the slow way to create weapons-grade nuclear materials). But as your own quote notes: “It is unclear at this time whether North Korea has actually built such a plant and if so, whether it has produced any highly enriched uranium.” We didn’t know. I don’t think we know now.
What we do know is that on Bush’s watch, NK has again withdrawn from the NPT, kicked out IAEA insectors, and grabbed their nuclear fuel rods to reprocess into plutonium (again, the fast way). They have also test fired a Taepo-dong 2 rocket (unsuccessfully) and demonstrated a nuclear test (unclear on success). Bush’s reaction? He goes to China and says” “Please, please help us with NK.” Weak. Ineffective. Incompetent.
There’s always room for Mr. Hankey at the Christmas Pageant! So cheer up, everybody. Some wag once noted that now we have “gay clubs” in highschools.But in his day they only had the Chess Club. He didn’t think there could be anything gayer than that.
As I pointed out on Matt’s post- even if you accept the 20/20 report as gospel truth, consider that some defendants thought “gay panic” would sound better to a jury as a defense than being hopped up on meth.
And oddly enough, Matt reaches the conclusion that because of that, there’s no need for teaching tolerance in our school system. Mmmm-hmmm. Wow, the logic’s simply stunning.
The self-declared party of moral values does not think tolerance is a moral value. What’s THAT about?
NK Q for wingnuts
Here’s the NK situation. North Korea, like other nations, wants things. So do we. We trade them something they want for something we want. What do we want? We want them to shut down the weapons factory. What do they want? A bunch of stuff, including more normalized relations and trade, and an end to the Korean War.
Question for you: Why can’t we negotiate a deal?
Oh no JCH, we have been found out:
Republicans have only themselves to blame for this scandal. House leaders permitted homosexuals to infiltrate and manipulate the party apparatus while they publicly postured as friends of family values and traditional marriage. The facade is now in ruins. The press can’t be blamed for seizing on a real and legitimate story.
In the case of Foley, a 52-year-old man, what cannot be disputed is that House leaders knew that he was a homosexual but permitted him to remain in Congress despite the emergence of emails he sent to a 16-year-old former page asking for a photo and other personal information. The boy called the messages “sick,” and he was right.
http://www.aim.org/aim_column/4923_0_3_0_C/
I guess we won’t be able to take a nice young page and make “Atlas Shrug” any more. [hehe]
ABBA,
Almost two hours and no response from you. yaaaaaaaaaawn.
The field of scientific research in the DPRK [“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”] successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation. [Kim Il-Daddy Love]
41 JCH
Question for you: Why can’t we negotiate a deal with NK?
They give up the weapons and submit again to IAEA iunspections. We give them something they value. Why not?
Question for you: Why can’t we negotiate a deal with NK?
Commentby Daddy Love [Daddy Love, Come pet the cobra! He won’t bite you! Honest!!]
JCH:
You said that I was the only one that could pet your Cobra!
JCH:
Don’t you want to make Atlas shrug?
Speaking of ff Broadway flops, what was the name of your play Clownstein?
Free Speach:
You can play with my cobra anytime. Let’s see if you can make Atlas shrug! [hehe]
“Gay Panic” That would be a good band name.
“Hi Johnboy. Are we supposed to believe that because you pretend to be a liberal and post under a name that appears to be normal you’re who you say you are?
I’m not that hard to find. You looking to buy some real estate? Google “barelli real estate”. You’ll find me.
Commentby Barelli Posing As Barelli— 10/10/06@ 9:25 am
“And no one here really thinks you’re a liberal.”
Guess that depends on your definition of “liberal”.
I’m old enough to remember when balanced budgets and smaller government that stayed out of people’s personal lives were conservative values. I’m also old enough to remember when Democrats were calling for “segregation forever”.
I was in California when Governor Reagan signed the bill legalizing a woman’s right to choose, well before Roe v. Wade. He said it was a privacy issue, and the government had no business getting involved.
Times change, as do the lables. Now, being in favor of small government that respects the values of the Constitution, stays out of people’s personal life, and doesn’t spend our great-granchildren’s tax money today makes a person “liberal”.
Sometimes it seems pretty weird to me, too.
43 JCH
The cowardice of you Republicans never ceases to amaze me. You want to be afraid of one of the smallest and poorest nations on earth, whose only claim to a dangerous reputation has been one failed long-range missile test and one failed “nuclear test” that we can’t yet verify happened, go ahead, but don’t expect the rest of us to join you shivering under the bed.
Winter car care: Winter car care
jerseys waterways.crossroad emerge Burnham,seditious.gravitational photocopiers
bungled diggings dispense formalizations Rinehart subclasses.rejoining:funerals