Never The Twain Shall Meet

Worth reading: Americans 'disgusted' with debt ceiling fight; wealth gap between whites, minorities widens

deathby2 appears to believe that the gap between "rich" and "poor" is analogous to the divide between Brahmins and Dalit within the Hindu caste system. Those born poor cannot hope to rise from the squalor of their upbringing; those born rich are magically protected by lion-mounted goddesses. What's worse, the poor are still burdened by the gold standard, leaving them with a fixed pool of available funds. The rich have no such limitations.

So what I want to know is how I can get my hands on some of this "rich people money." Does it look different, or feel different? Or is it one of those things that you can't describe, but you know it when you find it? Has deathby2 ever seen any?

On a side note, deathby2's comment may be linked to the perennial complaint that white women aren't having enough white babies, but it's difficult to say exactly how.

You Should Also Stop Breathing Air, Parasite

Julie Mack column: American attitude on health-care spending is unhealthy for our economy

I remain convinced that Charles Weyland wears sunglasses in his profile picture to conceal his cold reptilian eyes.

Apparently the only real taxes are income taxes. Sales taxes and license fees and such are more like tipping for service. It follows that as a non-taxpayer I should refrain from burdening the system. It won't be easy. Just today, I've selfishly taken advantage of city roads, municipal sewers, streetlights, sidewalks, interstate highways, non-contaminated food, clean tap water, and smog-free air. Not to mention the government-regulated radio spectrum and government-subsidized electrical grid built on public lands! Tomorrow I plan to make unfair use of the post office and the library.

Tick Another One Off The List

Shooting of probationer by Lenawee County sheriff's deputy was justified, police said today

Textbook example of eugenics: check.

Three Quick Hits (Okay, Four)

Update: Evening shooting results in Saginaw's sixth homicide

Like knock-knock jokes, but racist!

The only thing missing is pseudo-urban dialect. Oh, wait.

Your Personal Waybac Machine

Two-year old son of child murderer Jeffrey Malmberg will not be reunited with his mother

Sometimes a commenter produces a screed so vile that someone actually flags it for removal. I know, crazy, isn't it? Such is the case with the comment below.

A nod towards "Mooslems," or perhaps unions, would really take things to the next level, but Chetdroman runs out of steam. When challenged, he returns with rationalizations, but the magic is gone.

Covering All The Bases

Michigan Senate approves tighter 48-month welfare limit

Sometimes, I stumble across comments that blend multiple forms of hate into a perfect storm of ignorance. This is one of them. Sluts, forced sterilization, demonization of poor people, calls for personal responsibility, positioning of self as a lone truth-teller: he's got it all

Strangely, rightside's vision of personal accountability involves eliminating the right of self-determination, not to mention establishing an intrusive fascistic nanny state.

Advanced Threadjacking 201

Column: Gays won't destroy marriage, but they deserve the right to try

We find your fluffy human-interest blog insufficiently fluffy:

He seems positively offended that Heller had the temerity to offer his perspective on a major national news story. Why isn't this headline "Area woman dry-cleans dead uncle's regimental flag"? He would even accept "Cub Scout troop makes huge mess baking American flag cake."

Just like opposite-sex couples get premarital counseling, same-sex couples get certified to perform abortions. It's not clear if they are to abort their own babies, or the babies of liberal couples they meet on craigslist.

And Lo, It Comes To Pass [UPDATED]

Dark Past: Michigan sterilized more than 3,000 people from early 1900s to 1970s

Indeed, commenters do not disappoint.

FlintRobber appears to have read neither the article nor any of the other comnents.

[Updated with more commenters calling for the sterilization of people they don't like, with no apparent sense of irony.

I particularly like this appeal to nostalgia:

I need not remind readers that the past few decades saw vast cultural shifts, one of which being a general movement away from medical paternalism and towards a crazy vision in which everyone, not just straight white middle-income men, deserves basic autonomy and freedom to make informed choices. Of course, absentlyric would conclude that our society is the result of rampant breeding by the unfit.

In this utopia, abortion is free, but consists of ninjast4r beating you in the abdomen until you pass out. Birth control is also free; women below a predetermined income level will be issued a Dick Cheney rubber mask which either they or their partner must wear while engaging in any sexual contact. Also, he really should get in touch with mushmorton. They're a match made in heaven!

I Don't Think That's What She Meant

Concord woman accused of driving while under the influence of methadone with two children in car

If, when you hear the phrase "IQ test," the first words that pop into your head are "Charles Murray's groundbreaking magnum opus The Bell Curve!" then yes, this is a racist statement. If you already believe that everyone who is not Of The Color Of The Angels is born stupid, ditto.

If not, this statement probably strikes you as run-of-the-mill eugenics.

Non-Ironic Use of Ironic Punctuation

E-cigs: No smoke, but some areas are banning them

Old Man Mushmorton is in fine form today, but the content of the article is irrelevant and content of his comment is almost beside the point.

It's thrilling to come across this particular typo in the wild, as it were.

I Can See The Future, And It's Better Without You

Victim from deadly shooting at Evergreen Regency Apartments on Sunday identified as Shaquille Vickers, 18

goobus has either been reading a different article; the piece doesn't offer any details about Vickers beyond his age. fuigb3 is correct, by the way. There's no Shaquille Vickers listed in OTIS, and an MLive search on his name turns up only a few references to the story about his death.

Thought experiment: take a person on Medicaid. Say she gets cancer. Her treatment won't be cheap, and it's on the taxpayers' dime. Why not just shoot her in the head? If there were a roving vigilante shooter with long-range precognition and a passion for reducing government spending on social programs, who among us would be safe?

And to My Left...

One day after the Rapture's no-show, some of the faithful are wondering what happens now?

Clearly, right-wing racists do not have a monopoly on eugenicist sentiment.

Shape Up Or Ship Out (Or Both)

Dan Rather on 'National Disgrace' of Detroit Public Schools: Time to start listening to kids

No, it's time to listen to me. I'm Old Man Mushmorton!*

Note that the starting salary of of a Michigan money-grubbing teacher averages $31,753. I can't imagine that metro Detroit weighs in at the high end of the spread.

The commenter appears to have modeled his vision of early childhood education on reservation boarding schools. You know, "Kill the Indian, save the man," rampant physical and sexual abuse, etc. And locating this new school in Standish Prison will save taxpayer dollars and cut down on resistance efforts on the part of the newly-minted orphans.

This comment was flagged for removal but remains accessible via his profile page. It's not clear if he proposes involuntary surgical sterilization, or if his "program" involves contraceptives sprayed from crop dusters or released into the water supply. People who breed themselves into one's wallet must be very small, like gnomes or pixies. Maybe I could keep one as a pet!

For consideration: if "Between the Thieves and the Breeders" were a band lineup, would you attend their show?




* This is my new favorite screen name.

Civil Rights Are Only for People We Like, Part II

Saginaw man accused of killing Bay City woman no longer facing federal drug charges

At least he only has to answer to state court. That's some kind of improvement, sort of.

No, not good enough. We have the internet. We will decide who lives and dies! Let him fight Tim Allen to the death!*







* And my attempt to rid the world of "Pure Michigan" ads fails again.

No, Your Comments Are a Waste of Space

Woman who gave man heroin hours before he died sentenced to 18 months to 40 years in prison

To clarify, she isn't charged with delivery of heroin causing death. The man definitely overdosed, but had so many different drugs in his system no one can tell which ones directly caused his death. Oh well, too bad!

Everyone knows that rehab is only for famous people (and previously).

Death to All Cocktail Waitresses!

Bar employees healthier in year since Michigan banned smoking in bars and restaurants, study finds

It's nice to see eugenicists branching out. Not content to eliminate The Coloreds, drug addicts, the poor, etc., they've moved on to the service industry. korea6913 frames the service industry as comparable to coalmining or working at a meatpacking plant. When that woman  decided to bartend her way through grad school, you know, she must have known about the giant meathooks on ceiling conveyor belts, or that she'd be working with volatile compounds underground. You gotta take responsibility, man. I'm sure she had nothing to offer the world anyway.

A Link-Free Interlude

I often wonder how many of the commenters advocating forced sterilization of parents on welfare, mothers of criminals, women of a criminal bent, etc. are anti-abortion in private life. I've actually scanned pages and pages of certain commenters' posting history for incidence of the words "abort" or "abortion." Do they regard abortion as a valid, ethically neutral choice, or do they consider it a tool of social control to be wielded against those deemed undesirable?

I haven't yet found a clear instance of a single commenter declaring that welfare mothers should be sterilized, then turning around and condemning abortion. I'm not looking for hypocrisy, exactly. Hypocrisy requires a coherent political and ethical worldview, which few enough commenters display. I'm looking for confirmation that they truly hold eugenicist views.

Likewise, I wonder how many commenters who demand license to micromanage and impose intrusive regulations on people receiving public assistance are small-government conservatives in private life. I've quoted Anne Lamott before, and her aphorism has become my watchword: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do."

In this world, there are the fit and the unfit, composition of such groups to be determined by any idiot with a screen name. The fit may be allowed to reproduce, seek happiness and prosperity, etc., under circumstances dictated by an elite composed, naturally, of MLive commenters. The unfit aren't even granted a guarantee of bodily autonomy. Permission to reproduce may be doled out, if they are well-behaved, at the sufferance of the elite. And this constitutes the totalitarian nanny state the very same commenters profess to abhor.

Here's the rhetorical question: is this doublethink? Do they skate over the cognitive dissonance? Or do they recognize the dissonance yet believe that they will somehow, through great moral and financial rectitude, retain their privileged position?

That's "Armpit of America" to You, Buddy

Man shot twice while trying to urinate outside of Flint liquor store

Eliminationist rhetoric at its finest! This type of comment is extremely common on Flint crime and public-safety stories.

Dateline: Flint

As far as I can tell, the Flint Journal's MLive feed is now a crime blotter with human-interest articles lightly interspersed.

Police identify second victim in Sunday's double homicide as Devon McCaskill, 17

Northside Flint business owners, residents to protest discrimination of police protection

Dialect is funny. Social Darwinism is funnier.

Woman arrested outside bus station for stabbing her baby's father in arm

Have I mentioned that minstrel-show dialect is hilarious?

We Only Favor Retroactive Abortion

Both of these posts are a day old. Sadly, the comments I'm highlighting are still up.

Mother who had baby in car with mobile meth lab pleads guilty to felony

Apparently rehab is only for the rich and famous. Another police-blotter story, a little farther north:

Homicide suspect could be responsible for several Flint shootings this year, Chief Alvern Lock says

The people in these articles have done horrible things, but they are not animals. Furthermore the kid's parents are not mentioned at all, and without information any attack on them is baseless.

 I'm always disturbed by how easily people can reclassify others as subhuman, and how often they assume that [fill-in-the-blank undesirables] constitute a static group that can be eliminated with no effect on nice people like them. Eugenics: Now that's Pure Michigan.