Rob's House

I'm not making a 1st amendment argument, I'm making a cultural observation and criticism.

Because the comment wasn't about Mexicans. It was about illegals. Unless we're saying that all illegals are Mexican and all Mexicans are illegals it's a false statement.

I don't take his Presidential run seriously, and I'm talking about his initial comments, not subsequent backtracking. My issue is this insane political correctness gone wild. I've also noticed that whenever it's been mentioned this morning in a radio blurb it's "x dropped Trump because of his comments about Mexicans." Apparently truth, honesty, and accuracy in reporting don't matter any more.

Regardless of how anyone feels about Trump, it's hard to deny the absurd and destructive effects of political correctness that are apparent in this situation. When speaking the truth can make you a pariah, society is clearly moving in the wrong direction. When you look at what he actually said in context, it's undeniably true. He basically said (a bit inartfully) that we have a lot of dangerous people entering the country illegally through the Mexican border. That's undeniably true. He even clarified that it wasn't just Mexicans, that he loves the Mexican people, and that not all illegals are bad people (he assumes). His words have been mischaracterized to the point of defamation where now he's accused of labeling Mexicans and even immigrants in general as bad people, which really isn't even close to what he said. But hey, this is the new America where outrage and political correctness reign supreme while truth, logic, and honesty can take a back seat.

+1 The only good I see in denying kids vaccinations is the darwinistic benefit to the gene pool.

You've been deprived of one of life's great pleasures.

Back to the flag, I've been trying to wrap my mind around all this. I understand why some people find it offensive (black southerners in particular; I honestly don't give a !@#$ how any Yankee of any race feels about it. It's a southern thing, you wouldn't understand) and I'm even okay with taking it down from a state building if the majority, or even close to a majority don't like it because it's a government building that's supposed to represent everyone. What I'm not okay with is the wholesale demonization of it. That symbol means different things to different people. To some maybe it represents racism, but to others it means something else entirely. There's something uniquely "southern" about the south that has nothing to do with race. Just like people in southern California have their surfer dude culture, New Yorkers have their pretentious, artsy, avant garde culture, and people in Jersey have their greaseball culture, the south has it's own culture. The rest of the country sticks their noses up at the south. Southern kids are told To be ashamed of their culture. To a lot of people that flag's a way of saying !@#$ what those guys think. To some it's about the traditions that have been handed down like southern farm life, Baptist upbringing, and being neighborly. To others it means something else. To me it's about the Dukes of Hazard, 20th century country music, bonfires down by the river on summer nights, pretty girls with cute Carolina accents, rednecks in Trans Ams, southern hospitality, country stores, weeping willows, hot humid days with the sun beating down, rope swings, front porches, and fishing holes. And also about !@#$ those other guys, being southern's badass. I don't have much tolerance for self-righteous Yankees and their hypocrisy. It's not enough to have conquered our people but they still have to stomp our culture out of existence with their anti-southern bigotry while simultaneously advancing a multicultural ideal and "celebrating diversity." If you don't get that then that's fine, but know what and who it is you're condemning before you speak up.

I have an old computer I very rarely use to access some torrent sites, but those things are so full of malware I'm afraid to !@#$ with them with anything I still use. Plus it's harder to find what You're looking for now.Demonoid was back up in December but no one was seeding much. I mostly use YouTube now.

If you frame it as a woman's right to murder her baby it helps with that conundrum.

You just can't argue with that logic.

I did not feel a scintilla of anger when writing that post or reading yours. I was amused by how impressed you were with yourself for pointing out the obvious.

To common ground

That wasn't what I was referencing about Bill Maher, and plenty of people get this treatment who aren't running for office. Maher himself lost his job on Politically Incorrect for saying muslims who were willing to die for their cause weren't cowards. That wasn't really about political correctness per se, but it's the same principle. He said something that offended people on an emotional level and so he had to be punished...and silenced. It's a concerted effort to punish unpopular speech. It may not be protected by the first amendment because it's not the government doing the silencing/punishment, put it ultimately has the same effect. FWIW, I thought it was bull **** that ESPN fired that black guy for calling RGIII a "cornbread brother" which was really an anti-white racist comment. I thought the suspension of Bill Simmons was bull **** too even though I thought he was an idiot. Juan Williams was fired for saying that he gets nervous when he's on a plane with muslims. Paula Deen was destroyed just for admitting she'd used "the N word" over 20 years ago. The list goes on and on. It's a little tangential, but this article talks about how a girl made an off color joke, probably in poor taste, but without much thought, and was ruined for it. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0 I think when people are confident in their beliefs they're comfortable with open discourse with the belief that when all the ideas are out on the table that reason will win out. That may be idealistic, but I think it's preferable to the alternative. There's a reason we nearly universally agree that freedom of speech is a good thing. The way we're allowing political correctness to stifle unpopular speech has the same chilling effect on open discourse that we were trying to avoid.

It doesn't hold a candle to your penchant for being a sanctimonious prick. And 1. this didn't happen in a vacuum, and 2. no one would have held NBC responsible for Trump's comments. And I'm consistent on this regardless of who the speaker is. It's an area where I agree with Bill Maher. This business of pulling the plug on anyone who says something you don't like is just an end around to silencing unpopular speech. It's no different from book burnings. It really doesn't hurt Trump because he's rich enough that this is just a small speed bump to him, but this has become the new norm whenever someone says something politically incorrect. But as a disciple of political correctness I don't doubt you support it.

Pepsi made with real sugar. I'm not one who thinks high fructose corn syrup is the poison it's made out to be, but the real sugar is so much crisper and more refreshing and it doesn't leave that fully syrup residue behind.

Sorry, I'm not privy to all the new ****. So now taking whatever action you can to silence those whose views you disagree with is no longer fascism, but rather, it's the heroic act of standing up to bigots? I learn something new every day.

Do you realize how patently retarded it is to keep throwing that out at people who are openly stating that they disagree with the Supreme Court?

Why don't we skip the foreplay and jump straight to calling me a bigot? Oh yeah, you already did that in the other thread. You know what, you've been trying to draw me into an argument I never started, attributed comments to me that I never made, accused me of dodging questions you repeatedly refuse to present (why is the condescending tough guy too big a pu$$y to say what these supposed questions are?), and then you talk **** because I don't take the sucker bait, then you whine when I make fun of you by accurately describing your ridiculous behavior. And then to top it off, despite the fact that I've said absolutely nothing that a rational man could construe as racist you call me a bigot? Go Fu©k yourself.

Trolling me now? That's too cute. Typical though. Call anyone who disagrees with you a racist or a bigot. Or like NBC and the fascists that support them, do whatever you can to silence anyone who disagrees with you.

Happy little fascists support this.

Social conservatism is gay.

Sure Sparky. I still have no idea what your "intellectually honest" questions are. I must have missed them. Feel free to present them. I'll be happy to answer if they're remotely relevant. The only thing I find interesting about whatever it is you're trying to do here is that you already agreed with my point (said everyone knew it to be true since 7th grade in fact) And yet here you are, still arguing. So far you've used a lot of words to establish that Lincoln opposed slavery and that he (arguably) had constitutional footing to invade due to TN putting down a pro-union insurgency and the attack on Ft. Sumter. That's all fine and dandy, but it has absolutely dick **** to do with what you were responding to, so I'm still wondering what your point is. And FTR the girl analogy was spot on. And if "childish" and "weak" are all you got we should wrap this up because your routine is getting tiresome.

How could it be your jacket when everyone knew that EJ was a project?

How is this related to any of the arguments of mine you responded to? Arguing with you is like arguing with an angry girlfriend who just keeps on changing the subject so she can be right. And then when I don't discuss your new topic you claim it's because you were right all along and therefore, because I won't discuss that time last year when I got too wasted to drive home and crashed at my friend's house it must mean I was !@#$ing that other girl last week. You win, dude. I concede. The Samurai were the greatest swordsmen the East has ever known.

I'm still skeptical about McCoy's viability. I don't mind the trade because I think K.A. was overrated and a huge liability against the run, but McCoy's got a lot of miles on him and may be a questionable fit as the every down back. We just locked him up with a lot of guaranteed money so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but if I had inked him to that deal I might be feeling a little nervous right now.