Azalin

very well said! and to that, one of my personal favorites:

so you're saying that gays benefit from "a coveted status that confers privileges"?

I deliberately did not try to identify you, other than make an assumption that you are not conservative or libertarian based on the content of your posts. now, am I to take you seriously, as a self-identified progressive/liberal/socialist, who now wants the republicans to assume majority power in congress, win the white house, and hold a majority in the supreme court?

but the stimulus was for improving our infrastructure, or as the president put it, for 'roads and bridges'. here in Austin, the city government has been on a big push to conserve water since rainfall here has been fairly scarce over the last couple of years. as a result, water use among residents has dropped so much that the municipal water authority is requesting an increase in water rates, because they're not making enough money to meet their budget.

then perhaps we should substitute 'stupid' with 'inept'.

like Gator, you seem to think that those who would disagree with you are automatically all republicans, and that none of those who identify as anything other than a democrat/liberal ever take a critical view of republicans holding office. if I was to make as ridiculous an observation based on your post, it would seem as if you prefer having more welfare 'queens', higher taxes, a steady stream of people illegally entering the country, more middle-east violence, and more federal regulation. see how ridiculous that way of thinking is?

who?

a bit of devil's advocate here - I believe they wouldn't even think of education in terms of a 'system', but rather as simply 'schools'; something local and not part of a massive public system. also, by the standards of the Brits, I believe the founders mostly considered themselves to be liberal, believing in strength of government coming from the people themselves, rather than from the top down.

they're all right-wing extremists?

indeed. I believe that's the same explanation they're giving for the other six employees whose email records have vanished.

they claim that her hard drive crashed and was subsequently recycled.

it seems as if most choices are being made from a generational point of view. the first names that came to mind for me were Richard Burton, Richard Harris, and Marlon Brando.

remember the good old days when 2.2% growth was considered to be a sign of a slow economy?

now that the IRS has those 16,000 additional agents to handle Obamacare, the IRS will be even more difficult to do away with, though I imagine that a national sales tax would completely eliminate the need for collectors and auditors. the IRS isn't doing themselves any PR favors in the current hearings, and being the bully insitution that they are, public sentiment for doing away with the agency is likely at an all-time high.

Obama bumper stickers fit that bill as well.

I already said that Will could have used a better example to make his point. instead of acknowledging that point and either agreeing or disareeing with it, you and others choose instead to focus on the example, ignoring the point completely. you can choose to perceive it any way you want, but I don't see any wisdom in diverting yourself from the crux of the discussion. my comment to Gator must have been too subtle. by calling him a 'victim of the public school system', I was using the topic of victimhood applied to the dismal record of most public schools, thereby granting him victim status as a reward for his inability to cogitate.

good lord, you just don't get it, do you? his article is about the creation of a class of victims, and the current tendancy of some to elevate them to a status that (pay close attention here) absolves them of any and all responsibility they may have in anything that negatively effects them, ever. he could have easily made the same point by using an example of someone who grew up in a gang-infested ghetto who got arrested for stealing cars, and the tendancy of many to absolve them of their responsibility by blaming it on his upbringing and environment. you keep trying to argue the definition of rape, but that is not Will's point, and neither is it mine.

he'll have to hear about it in the news first.

you have to be trying to be such a cretin. I'd be better off talking to a muffin.

c'mon, you can do better than that. have you tried any of the insult-generator websites? they're free.

my point all along has been that Will's critics have been accusing him of insensitivity toward rape victims, deliberately ignoring that his point was an observation of our continued cultural acceptance of victimhood as a social status. I think he could have used a better example to make his point, and he's getting grief for it, but the grief is manufactured outrage over ridiculous claims that he doesn't view rape victims as victims.

I should think that you'd understand the meaning of the phrase 'culture of victimhood', since you're apparently a victim of the public school system. let's review the article: 'So Will is making two points here. First, that university culture encourages students to perceive themselves as victims, and those that can credibly claim victimhood are sometimes given higher status.'

no, he was using the Swarthmore case as an example of how the culture of victimhood is out of control. he may have used a questionable example in making his point, but the point is there regardless. if you focus on whether the Swarthmore case is or isn't valid, you miss the point of the column entirely.

the same hole he pulls everything from.