A Reminder From Taverner, or "Not all ducks quack"

1 - Just because you and I don't "get" NASCAR, doesn't mean that its fans are a bunch of drunken hillbillies who go to Klan meetings afterward

2 - Just because someone is from the South, does not make them a racist or stupid.

3 - Just because someone is from California (Blessed be the holy state, amen) does not make them a Liberal

4 - Just because the person can't afford a Prius, Volt or otherwise green car does not make them a blight on the environment

5 - Just because someone likes Country AND Western, does not make them a hick or a racist

6 - Just because someone likes the Grateful Dead, doesn't mean they're liberal (Ann Coulter is a fan of the Dead)

7 - Just because someone is a devout Christian (and possibly even Evangelical), does not mean they are Conservative, or want to legislate taste or morality

8 - Just because a family has more than 2 kids, does not make them selfish or short sighted

9 - Just because someone dislikes cats doesn't mean they are an animal hater (FTR, I like cats and enjoy their attempts to amuse me)

10 - Just because someone does not believe in God, doesn't mean they are open minded and Liberal (Ayn Rand wasn't just an Atheist, she HATED religious folks and wanted them wiped off the Earth)

-------------------------------

On the other hand:

1 - Yes, the Confederate Flag is a symbol of racism. It is to slavery what the swastika was to the Nazis. And yes, the Confederate flag is based on St. Andrews Cross, also known as the flag of Scotland. This is where the concept of a 'klan' comes from. The Scotch-Irish early immigrants to to the Americas.

2 - Yes, Jeff Dunham (the RW Puppet guy), Dan Whitney (Larry the Cable Guy) and of course Michael Richards are all racist, and homophobic.

3 - The Confederates were more than just angry racists, they were traitors to their country, and the Confederate State had all the trappings of a Police State: Domestic Passports, vote based on ownership of land, and of course slavery.

:thumbsup:

(But I still don't get NASCAR)

I have watched folks WATCH NASCAR and they read into the game things I couldn't pick up

Then again, imagine someone who's never seen baseball before trying to make sense of it

It's a soap opera for guys.

are definitely soap operas. The Tour de France is a month long story line. The drama can be very intense. This year's Giro was a tragedy.

I always thought WWE was more so, however. I'm not bashing it. It *has* an actual storyline, back story, etc. It's theater, and even though I don't watch I can appreciate the theatrical nature of it. They borrowed a lot from 80's Heavy Metal too.

The call it entertainment, or sport

It's obvious to me why people want to DO it--I just don't get why they want to WATCH it. I like highlight videos though--they stick to the interesting parts.

and agree with every point expressed in this post. Including the "on the other hand" points.

Trav

Not everyone against the way OBL was taken out is crying for him in sympathy.

It MAY just possibly be a concern over setting dangerous precedents that will come back to haunt the US and its citizens.

So you need to follow your own advice about not dumbing down conversations with strawmen.

If you read carefully, I had noted some people, a very small subset of DUers, were trying to make OBL into a "good guy"

By that I mean there were some posts claiming that OBL had nothing to do with 9/11, that he never had a problem with the US since we left the Arabian Peninsula, and that he was trying to surrender that night in Pakistan.

I was not saying that the folks who thought he should have had a trial, or that the mission should have been 'capture Bin Laden' instead of 'kill Bin Laden' were of this subset. But emotions being as they are, suddenly my subset was blown into a huge dirigible. As I kept saying over and over and over and OVER again - this post is not about you.

I could make some snarky comment about reading comprehension, but people see what they want to see.

I do understand that it is hard to convey subtleties on this board as we tend to flatten everything out to 2 dimensions.

Take care.

:hi:

But I do not think those calling for the rule of law, taking OBL to court, etc are trying to make OBL into a good guy

My take? This is one of those very complicated events in which there are no truly right or truly wrong answers.

My take also.

:hi:

Unfortunately (or fortunately), this is also DU, and we argue about everything!!

:thumbsup:

j/k

:toast:

I did not know that.

Broke the news about Georgia's new law to my ex the other night. Her son is 1/4 White, 1/4 Black, 1/8 Mexican, 1/8 Apache-Mexican and 1/4 Apache-American. She plans to spend a couple weeks this summer swinging through Georgia and Tennessee visiting family.

Since Illinois gives drivers licenses to people who live in Illinois, have proof of id, and can pass a driving exam regardless of their nationality, we have to carry passports to visit half the states in this country now.

I don't have a passport at the moment and own a farm in Indiana. They came close to passing a domestic passport law which would have banned me from travelling to my own property! But the pro-business side beat out the bigots.

Stopped by a "same-day passports" place yesterday. They could get me a passport book, but not a passport card. And I'd rather have something wallet sized. So guess it'll be off to the State Department facilities shortly.


Mentioned this to a raving Rightist the other day. She claimed Arizona did not pass their law (I suspect she got it confused with the Birther "long-form" law the gov decided not to sign). And says that she has not heard of any other states passing the same law! Said she plans to travel without a passport later this year. I would love it if she got locked up somewhere. But as a (fake) blonde, they probably wouldn't jail her even if they did pull her over for speeding or something that required them to check her id.

Within the Confederate States of America, of course

And anybody but white Christians were denied

Sound familiar? I seem to remember this country we were all taught to hate as an 'Evil Empire'