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Post by poetinahat on Mar 8, 2017 19:58:46 GMT -5
Sure. And fair's fair - at least on the face, and removed from their contexts, the Carson and Obama comments aren't much different. It seems to me that both are uncomfortably "look on the bright side" about the plight of captive slaves. And the quotes look so similar to me that, if one suggested that Carson took his cue from Obama's quote, I wouldn't argue.
If I were to put a fine point on the differences between the quotes, I'd say that Obama explicitly acknowledged the involuntary migration slaves were forced to make - and he posited that they could be seen as immigrants in a certain way. And he describes a hope for a better life for their descendents as a matter of faith, that something great might come from a horrific turn of events.
Carson's quote treats them as a standard class of immigrant, and he describes an explicit, garden-variety American dream - as though having been captured, shipped as cargo, and sold into slavery was really just a career setback.
Well, I guess I am putting a fine point on it. I'm biased, and the differences I see are in rhetoric of quotes removed from their origins. But in the end, the similarity between the quotes is illuminating - and I find it surprising. It tells me more than anything else about my own bias in reading news. So thanks, michaelw and rob.
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Post by poetinahat on Mar 7, 2017 0:52:32 GMT -5
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Post by poetinahat on Mar 1, 2017 21:40:01 GMT -5
So very pleased for you, Christine! Welcome home.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 28, 2017 0:16:44 GMT -5
Trump always looks like he has more important things to do. Trouble is, he always looks like he has no idea what they are, much less having any intention of doing them. He looks like the undergrad who's been partying all semester, and on the eve of the final exam, he's headed out to another massive kegger. He knows his getting away with it pisses you off, and you're going to judge the hell out of him for it - and that amuses him, because he knows exams don't matter for him. He's going to get away with it, and you're not. But, back to business: These bits from the Wikipedia entry for WHCA seem especially juicy right now (bolding mine): ETA: Because it's Wikipedia, I looked at the revision history; this entry's been edited fifty times in the past three days! However, the quotes I cite were there on October 31, so I presume they've been there all along since then.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 21, 2017 18:56:57 GMT -5
Agreed.
(Then again, many, many people and institutions, who never did draw that line, are now being exposed. So maybe we are getting better, but it feels worse.)
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 21, 2017 18:46:33 GMT -5
Question of the day: How many events could take place where Breitbart actually comes out looking *better*?
I'm not sure that actually happens here, but it did make me wonder.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 21, 2017 18:33:32 GMT -5
Would they have paid if he'd been eating a pastie? (No, not one of *those*...)
Sounds like a publicity stunt, and I kind of like it -- as much as I can like anything associated with bookies. The only thing that would've been better was if is name had been Jack Horner, or if they'd found a bottle of rye in his pocket...
ETA: Side note, I love the idea of the English FA setup, with promotion and relegation. Meaningful late-season games at the top AND the bottom end of the table. Imagine if it happened in American baseball; the Toledo Mud Hens playing in the World Series?! :roll:
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 16, 2017 21:41:22 GMT -5
Cheer up, Cass -- maybe it isn't all down to Trump. It can't happen with out all his governmental enablers. So, really, it isn't the single flap of one butterfly's wings; there's the denuded rainforest where it couldn't find a leaf on which to rest.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 10, 2017 0:55:24 GMT -5
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 7, 2017 17:09:18 GMT -5
"I keep clapping, and nothing happens!" (maybe this explains the hired applauders at the press conferences?)
"Should've gone to those intelligence briefings."
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 5, 2017 18:48:13 GMT -5
So the asylum-seekers are essentially equivalent on both sides, and it's the holding conditions that purportedly differ. And, once again, the Australian arrangement is awful; I already said that. It's a national shame, and Australians have been protesting it and railing against it for years. I know nothing of the Central American processing arrangement.
Interesting about the timing, but the article also cites "months and months of careful planning". So this isn't something Obama decided to do once the election was over.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 3, 2017 1:33:55 GMT -5
Trying to pull him in for a photo-op hug?
Man, intimacy looks awkward on him.
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Post by poetinahat on Feb 2, 2017 19:17:14 GMT -5
Absolutely. Australia's treatment of asylum seekers stinks to high heaven. Turnbull didn't invent it, but his government, that of his predecessor, and that of the opposing party have all persisted with it. It's awful. That said, I give Turnbull high marks for sticking to his guns. I hope others here in Australia do the same, and I think it's possible. They like America a whole lot, but they don't like being pushed around. And it was not a one-way bargain; it was a swap. Which seems weird to me, but it's not at all a case of the US simply taking Australian castoffs. It was a two-way deal. Given that Bannon is setting the expectation of war with China, I hope the American government remembers this moment when thinking about asking Australia for military support. And I hope the Australian government remembers it when answering.
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Post by poetinahat on Jan 23, 2017 23:40:17 GMT -5
Hey, there's no reason you can't do the steps in reverse order, right?..
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Post by poetinahat on Jan 23, 2017 22:30:31 GMT -5
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