January 29, 2014
— Ace Mickey Kaus has been writing about the Great Unmentionable in progressive circles, Social Inequality, for a long, long time, since at least the mid 1980s, turning his observations into a book, 1992's The End of Equality.
He wrote about the subject a few days ago at theWall Street Journal, in preparation for Obama's new declaration of War on Income Inequality.
The problem with the Democrats' new war on inequality ("the defining challenge of our time," says President Obama ) is that there are two kinds of growing inequality—and the Democrats are attacking the wrong one....
Harsh Truth No. 2: If it's not enough for everyone to work hard—if you now have to be smart enough to learn—only some people will make that jump.
When we think honestly about why we really hate growing inequality, I suspect it won't boil down to economics but to sentiments. No, we don't want to "punish success"—the typical Democratic disclaimer. But we do want to make sure the rich don't start feeling they're better than the rest of us—a peril dramatized, most recently, in the "Wolf of Wall Street" and its seemingly endless scenes of humiliation and rank-pulling.
"Whether we come from poverty or wealth," President Reagan said, "we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is not enough. We must be equal in the eyes of each other." Worry about this social equality lies at the root of our worry about economic equality.
Social equality—"equality of respect," as economist Noah Smith puts it—is harder to measure than money inequality. But the good news is that if social equality is what we're after, there may be ways to achieve it that don't involve a doomed crusade to reverse the tides of purely economic inequality. As Reagan's quote suggests, achieving a rough social equality in the midst of vivid economic contrast has been something America's historically been good at, at least until recently.
I don't love his policy prescriptions on this score (making most welfare like Social Security an entitlement, to be received without shame or stigma, re-instituting the social-mixer and social-leveler of the general draft for all able-bodied men). But his point is interesting.
Social inequality -- that is, strong caste and class identification, and disparagement of all other (or "lesser," in the eyes of the class-obsessed person) castes and classes -- has gotten more pronounced over the past ten years.
It is weaponized for politics. Sarah Palin quite plainly is not dismissed by the New Class merely because they disagree with her beliefs. Their disdain has a nasty personal edge to it -- they disapprove of her and the class she hails from. The New Class is not to content itself with disparaging Palin. They actively wish to include millions of Americans they've never even met inside the broad circle of their angry, arrogant disdain. The fact that they are not just attacking Palin but attacking millions of other people is not a bug, but a feature. The additional casualties of the attack are not regrettable collateral damage, but rather bonus damage to be celebrated.
I've been interested in how class distinctions form and mutate for a while now. It's not true that class arises only from income levels, of course. That never has been true. I'm not even sure that class distinctions arise chiefly from income disparity. They instead arise from educational and social disparity -- with class-conscious people exaggerating the differences between themselves (the elevated) and the rest (the base) in order to supply themselves with an argument for the proposition most important to the class-conscious: I'm Better. (And of course the corollary: They're Worse.)
Our current class distinctions are similar to those in Victorian England:
[A] Bank of England clerk would be a member of the middle/professional class, despite the fact that what he did all day was hand-write numbers into ledgers and do simple arithmetic and some filing work and the like, whereas, say, a carpenter actually did real thinking, real planning, at his job, with elements of real creativity.And yet it was the Bank of England clerk who was considered a "mind" worker and the carpenter merely a hand-laborer.
Now, of course, there were plenty of middle/professional class people who did work with their minds -- doctors, theologians, professionals, lawyers, nurses and so forth -- but there were an awful lot of such people who didn't, or only did to a trivial degree, and of course there were plenty of working-class people who didn't work much with their minds at all. Low-level factory workers, ditch-diggers, etc.
So there was an element of truth to the mind/hand distinction -- but it was a relatively small element of truth, more disproven by contrary example than confirmed by rule.
And even in terms of wages -- this I thought was interesting -- there really was no distinction between them, except that the working class person usually made a little more money than the average member of the middle/professional class. Sure, what we'd call true professionals made more, but not a huge amount more, and, at any rate, there were comparatively few of those compared to the large number of clerks and such.
Yet, despite there being no genuine distinction between them to demonstrate that one class was "higher" than the other, the distinction nevertheless took root, and middle class girls would marry middle class boys and working class girls working class boys. Which is the real test of a true, defined class -- do they mix enough to intermarry? If not, they're pretty well defined classes. Which is sort of one of the criteria used to determine whether one animal is merely a different variety than another or a whole different species. Can they mate?
At any rate, that distinction has obviously persisted, even in America, with the ingrained sort of idea that a low-level associate producer making crap money and rote choices on an MSNBC daytime talk show was somehow "above" someone making real command decisions in his occupation, like a plumber. And this sort of idea is very important to that low-level producer at MSNBC, because by thinking this way, he puts himself in the league of doctors and engineers.
I quote this as an introduction to another great Matthew Continetti article, Love in the Time of Obama, about two paragons of the New Class, MSNBC bomb-thrower Alex Wagner and Obama chef Sam Kass marrying each other.
This is really a Read the Whole Thing thing, because you can't really grasp the whole without seeing all the details. But I'll quote Continenti beginning to lay out his argument that a truly aristocratic New Class is not merely forming in America, but in fact formed decades earlier (see Bill Ayers' quick career recovery from a youthful dalliance in terrorism and bombing) and is now in its second or third self-perpetuating generation.
The first time he saw her from a distance. She was a reporter, observing his workplace from the outside. He was struck by her good looks, her energy. He mentioned her to a friend, who told him she was out of his league. But he persisted. His friend brought him to a party where he found an opportunity to strike up a conversation with her. One thing led to another. He took her to drinks. She mentioned she liked baseball, rooted for the Washington Nationals. They had that in common. So for their next date he took her to play catch. In Nationals Park. When it was closed to the public.Not an ordinary love story. But then these are not ordinary lovers. He is Sam Kass, executive director of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move health initiative, senior policy adviser for nutrition policy, and food initiative coordinator in Barack Obama’s White House. She is Alex Wagner, host of “Now with Alex Wagner” on MSNBC, weekdays at 4 p.m. Kass’s friend is Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com, a political analyst for MSNBC, and the author of Renegade: The Making of the President, Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House, and The Message: The Reselling of President Obama. The shindig where the couple started talking was MSNBC’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-party, the invitation-only event where Rachel Maddow mixes cocktails to demonstrate her working girl credentials. The bar where Kass and Wagner had drinks was Monkey Bar, in midtown Manhattan, where you can pair a $17 glass of Sauvignon Blanc with a $26 organic chicken paillard. They are planning a summer wedding.
I learned all of these details in the February issue of Vogue, in an article with this stammering headline: “The Talk of the Town: Alex Wagner and Sam Kass—Politics’ It Couple.” The article was written by Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Slate Group. According to his biography on the Leigh Speakers Bureau website, Weisberg is “one of America’s most prominent writers on politics and policy,” which pretty much says it all about the state of American writing on politics and policy.
Weisberg was last spotted in the pages of the New York Times Book Review, screaming at Roger Ailes to get off his lawn. For two decades, Weisberg and his wife have owned a weekend house in Garrison, N.Y., which they love “for its scenic beauty, its peace and quiet, and its old-fashioned sense of community … it’s a refuge from the pace of city life, a place with an easygoing mix of lifestyles and a widely shared ethos about preserving what makes it special.” Putnam County, where Garrison is located, is 94 percent white and has a median income of $95,000. Then Ailes showed up and ruined the place.
A similar insularity and self-satisfaction, a stubborn refusal to ascribe rationality or good faith to those outside the circle of friendship, can be found in Weisberg’s article in Vogue. The pages of Democratic donor Anna Wintour’s magazine provide him sturdy journalistic ground. Unlike his Times review, or indeed the book in the Times he was reviewing, Weisberg in Vogue actually had access to his subjects. And such access: a perfume of casual friendliness, of smarmy knowingness, sticks to these glossy pages, making them indistinguishable from an ad for Quelques Fluers. Weisberg likes these people. He finds them intelligent, accomplished, sophisticated, current, fashionable, tasteful, humble. “I’ve been a guest several times” on Wagner’s show, he tells us in an aside, but it’s not like he wants to be invited back or anything. “On good days, the conversation just clicks.” Conversation does click when no one disagrees, when no one is disagreeable. Click is a good word to describe the old “Now,” where five liberals sat around a table attempting to out-snark each other.
Click may be a good word for the show, but “clique” is a better one for the world described in Vogue.
You will not be surprised to learn that Alex Wagner, who is praised for making it on her own, in fact made it because of her family connections and then the celebrity connections her family connections afforded her (she was George Clooney's assistant at one time, for example).
In case you're not fully on-board with Continenti's thesis of a self-perpetuating, reinforced-by-marriage-within-the-class New Aristocracy, you can read this James Pethokoukis piece on the steep decline of high-status people marrying relatively low-status ones, what Pethokoukis calls "Cinderella Marriages."
He notes this is a reason for increasing income inequality -- after all, a lower-middle-class pretty girl who marries a richer, higher-class man will experience significant income mobility (and so too, to a lesser extent, will her family members, who will suddenly be in possession of very useful set of family connections).
But it's also, of course, primarily a strong reinforcement of class inequality. Only true equals can form a stable marriage, after all. And in earlier times, it was not so remarkable that a higher-income, higher-status man might find a lower-status, lower-income woman to be an equal.
But not so much anymore.
Alex Wagner, I'm sure, will be cheerleading her little heart out for Obama's heroic efforts to reduce income inequality... while remaining silent about the increasing class inequality that propelled her from "Assistant" to "TV Personality" to "Celebrity Bride" in just a few short years.
And it's important to note that this isn't just about politics for Wagner, or any other members of the New Class. It is standard human behavior to exploit one's competitive advantages to the fullest, while simultaneously working to undermine or reduce one's rivals' competitive advantages. People like Alex Wagner are filthy rich in social capital, but only very very comfortable when it comes to income. I mean, they just barely crack the lower levels of the upper class. They're not really rich, you know. (One wag noted that the media defines unnecessary wealth (which should be subject to confiscatory tax rates) as "one dollar more than a double-income marital team with top jobs in the media field could conceivably earn by age 45.")
Other people are richer in income, which gives them certain advantages-- the houses, the Caribbean getaways, the corporate jets (hey... they talk a lot about those!). The New Class doesn't like the truly wealthy having those advantages -- they want all advantages to come from educational and social capital, you know, the thing they have -- and so seek to reduce the rich's income while, noticeably, never so much as acknowledging about their own very significant, unfair competitive advantages.
Why, it's totally unfair that some rumpled-and-déclassé - hedge fund manager should be able to just swagger his way past the line at Nobu and get a table immediately, just because he's so rich and spends a ton.
That sort of privilege should be restricted to the truly worthy -- you know, people on TV, people that Vogue writes about. People that Jacob Weisberg is friends with and finds fashionable.
Posted by: Ace at
11:47 AM
| Comments (423)
Post contains 2357 words, total size 15 kb.
Posted by: Chevy "watching my stumble as Ford again" Chase at January 29, 2014 11:48 AM (B498E)
Posted by: Dang at January 29, 2014 11:49 AM (MNq6o)
Posted by: AllenG (DedicatedTenther) Ah, F It. at January 29, 2014 11:50 AM (PYAXX)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 11:50 AM (aDwsi)
Posted by: Dang at January 29, 2014 11:51 AM (MNq6o)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 11:51 AM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 11:51 AM (POpqt)
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 11:52 AM (POpqt)
Posted by: Dang at January 29, 2014 11:53 AM (MNq6o)
Posted by: ace at January 29, 2014 11:53 AM (/FnUH)
Posted by: George Costanza at January 29, 2014 11:54 AM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Flatbush Joe at January 29, 2014 11:54 AM (ZPrif)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 11:54 AM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: AMDG at January 29, 2014 11:54 AM (t7OO0)
Posted by: --- at January 29, 2014 11:55 AM (MMC8r)
After Truman desegregated the armed forces, there was a generation of American men who discovered that Negroes were pretty much like everyone else.
I think that the draft would be a tremendous boon for this country, as long as there were no exemptions.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 11:55 AM (QFxY5)
When someone pulls that, remind them that Megan McCain graduated from Columbia. (spoiler alert: the New Class doesn't handle it well when they duly present their credentials and you laugh at them).
Posted by: Ian S. at January 29, 2014 11:55 AM (B/VB5)
*****
We need to go back to making people wait in line for the big purple monopoly money food stamps again.
Posted by: Lemmiwinks at January 29, 2014 11:55 AM (z+4T3)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 11:55 AM (aDwsi)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 11:56 AM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: AllenG (DedicatedTenther) Ah, F It. at January 29, 2014 11:56 AM (PYAXX)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 11:56 AM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: taylork at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (BDss3)
Posted by: AllenG (DedicatedTenther) Ah, F It. at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (PYAXX)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (aDwsi)
Posted by: Flatbush Joe at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (ZPrif)
The Left talks about income equality, but you will never hear one of their cohorts proposing to do something about it such as:
(1) Academics getting rid of tenure and taking a pay cut so that the adjuncts can get a better wage and maybe some benefits.
(2) Media/Entertainment people deciding to take much less on their contract so that those further down the ladder can receive a benefit.
Income Inequality is just another ploy by the Left and it is all Fen's Law.
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (hLRSq)
Posted by: DaveA[/i][/b][/s] at January 29, 2014 11:57 AM (DL2i+)
They crave royalty, they encourage dynasties. It's so un-American.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 11:58 AM (POpqt)
Posted by: Flatbush Joe at January 29, 2014 11:58 AM (ZPrif)
Posted by: AMDG at January 29, 2014 11:58 AM (t7OO0)
Posted by: @JohnTant at January 29, 2014 11:58 AM (PFy0L)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 11:58 AM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: taylork at January 29, 2014 11:59 AM (BDss3)
Posted by: Waterhouse at January 29, 2014 03:56 PM (RUvjp)
Jill graduated from NCSU. She's a Wolfpacker!
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 11:59 AM (GQ8sn)
Posted by: McCool at January 29, 2014 11:59 AM (nCSwS)
Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at January 29, 2014 11:59 AM (eHIJJ)
If I had a vagina
I'd hammer it in the morning
I'd hammer it in the evening
With the palm of my hand
Posted by: Pete Seeger, Dead at January 29, 2014 11:59 AM (8ZskC)
Posted by: Teddy Kennedy at January 29, 2014 12:00 PM (aDwsi)
Eeeew.
Posted by: noone, really [/i] [/b] at January 29, 2014 12:00 PM (5ikDv)
Which is a remarkably close proxy for what we know about TFG's Harvard career.
Posted by: Ian S. at January 29, 2014 12:00 PM (B/VB5)
Posted by: Flatbush Joe at January 29, 2014 12:00 PM (ZPrif)
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 03:59 PM (GQ8sn)
Barry: I'm a fudgepacker!!
Posted by: TheQuietMan at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (1Jaio)
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (8ZskC)
Posted by: Minnfidel at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (C3Wjb)
Posted by: Rachel Maddow at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (R7Lcy)
It is that way for a reason, part of which is the societal tension and thus basis or mover it provides for redistributive, socialist or communal thought.
Capitalistic thought does not lend itself to such class distinctions because it is based on a progressive equality of opportunity. It allows everyone to prosper based on individual effort, determination and ideas. Each person has the same opportunity and they are progressive and match individual effort.
Personally, I wouldn't conflate the two. It creates an existential fallacy.
Posted by: Marcus T at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (GGCsk)
Not more than Obama is busily achieving as we speak.
Small professional army....large adequately trained adjunct where basic skills are taught, like how to fire weapons accurately, how to maneuver, etc.
I understand that there are significant, rational objections to this, but as social engineering I think it would be unmatched in reforming our country.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:01 PM (QFxY5)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (aDwsi)
Posted by: Sandra Fluke at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (hpgw1)
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (fWAjv)
Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (wL/ra)
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings and the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.---- W. Churchill
And they forced me to do this one. They being the evil that lurks in Republicans hearts.
Obama and Michele walk into the Monkey Bar.
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: spongeworthy at January 29, 2014 12:02 PM (r5w1L)
Posted by: Alex Wagner at January 29, 2014 12:03 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: Bob Dole at January 29, 2014 12:03 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Flatbush Joe at January 29, 2014 12:03 PM (ZPrif)
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 12:03 PM (XUKZU)
Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at January 29, 2014 12:03 PM (wL/ra)
Posted by: BlueStateRebel at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (7ObY1)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: Adam Smith's Invisible Pimp Hand at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (WdbF7)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: Angel with a sword at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (hpgw1)
Let's not be too hasty. You get half a dozen Morons drinking on the New Class's tab and suddenly they can't afford to attend those $45,000 a plate fundraisers TFG likes to hold.
Posted by: Ian S. at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (B/VB5)
Posted by: Death at January 29, 2014 12:04 PM (B498E)
I always had to resist the temptation to respond, "if I was black, I would have gone to Harvard too."
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (8ZskC)
Posted by: Pete Seeger, Still Dead at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (7ObY1)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: prescient11 at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (tVTLU)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (aDwsi)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:05 PM (lUXJH)
---liberal douchetwats everywhere
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: mister krugman at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (aDwsi)
Posted by: Confused in Brisbane at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (8nhHB)
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God
We have had class distinctions in this country for a very long time, and it used to be much more rigid.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (QFxY5)
Posted by: JEM at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (o+SC1)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:06 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: © Sponge at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (xmcEQ)
Posted by: Paranoidgirlinseattle at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (RZ8pf)
Posted by: awkward davies at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (WK8VM)
Serious question: What is Mickey Kaus?
I love his anti-amnesty rants. But does he come at this from a point of view of nativist socialism or is he really backing a conservative limited govt solution to these problems.
From Ace's post, it seems the former is more correct.
Posted by: prescient11 at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (tVTLU)
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (hLRSq)
Really, I'll be honest. I don't believe any republic should ever depend on the draft.
If a republic cannot be defended by those citizens who would lay down their life to save her, its not worth saving in the first place.
Posted by: Jollyroger at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (t06LC)
Posted by: Lauren at January 29, 2014 12:07 PM (hFL/3)
Can you imagine if the leftists really believed any of the things they say what they would have done to her?
In reality, they all want to be courtesans in the New Court of the American Monarchy.
That shit-shoverler who heads your local Democrat Party?
She/he thinks that one day they'll be swept away from all the ordinary stench of their lives and you people to the Grand Ball of the Good People.
No one--and I mean no one--in the Democrat Party cares about the poor. Not in the way of Christ, to make the lives of the poor better or less miserable. No. Their care is a care of "how can I use this prop to advance my selfish desires."
Would that there was a party that thought itself an opposition . . . .
Posted by: RoyalOil at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (VjL9S)
Now, PORTERHOUSE, WHERE ARE MY GOLF SHOES!?!?!?!?!
Posted by: Judge Smails at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (TM1p8)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (RJMhd)
Yeah, except the services DO NOT WANT draftees again.
Whole bunch of reasons for that, but the all-volunteer-force model has proven much easier to train and retain.
Also: if you define "able-bodied men" as those who (a) aren't obese or asthmatic and (b) don't have a felony criminal record and (c) can pass a surprise piss test, the potential percentage of today's US young male population who are draft-ready absolutely plummets into the basement.
Posted by: torquewrench at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (gqT4g)
Posted by: Uriah Heep at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (jhI6f)
Posted by: SAM COOKE at January 29, 2014 12:08 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: BlueStateRebel at January 29, 2014 04:04 PM (7ObY1)
This blog is falling apart.
For God's sake...we have eye-ties here!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (QFxY5)
When you meet a girl who wants to go somewhere, can you call up your pilot, have him get the plane ready and hop over to where you happen to be, and take her there?
That's it.
Posted by: JEM at January 29, 2014 04:06 PM (o+SC1)
Story:
When my wife and I were on vacation down in the Caribbean, we met a couple at the resort we were staying at. He was English, living in NYC, and his wife as a Uraguayan national. I gathered from the way he talked, that he must have been one of those upper crust types because he asked my wife and I where we "summer-ed".
Ummm...at home???
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (GQ8sn)
Posted by: BlueStateRebel at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (7ObY1)
Rush has a good phrase for it. Incest within the media and the political classes. If one looks at the relationships these people have over and over again, one can see that he's right. They will not go outside of their social or political bubbles.
The rest of us are just mutts, rutting in the woods with anything on two legs.
Posted by: Soona at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (XrYtg)
The surviving Seegers had what you might call a family business. Mom and Dad were both federally-funded ethnomusicologists. The kids didn't have to go hiking up the holler like Bradley Kincaid to learn the last variant of Bab'ry Allen or Old Smoky. It was right there on the kitchen table. Pre-approved by the Department.
Somebody had a great memoir on Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston showing up to sing at a patriotic labor rally in 1940 in a government-issue limousine. The whole folk movement was an FDR sham.
Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (xq1UY)
Jill Wagner >>> Alex Wagner
Posted by: Waterhouse at January 29, 2014 03:56 PM (RUvjp)
Jill graduated from NCSU. She's a Wolfpacker!
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 03:59 PM (GQ8sn)
Plus, JW is a gun nut who shoots 1911s.
*4 hour boner*
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at January 29, 2014 12:09 PM (TIIx5)
Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at January 29, 2014 12:10 PM (wL/ra)
Posted by: tmitsss at January 29, 2014 12:10 PM (7Rx8v)
Posted by: BlueStateRebel at January 29, 2014 12:10 PM (7ObY1)
Fine...keep a well-trained professional army, but rotate the rest of the scum through a six-month basic training that teaches them how to take direction from those professionals.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:10 PM (QFxY5)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: The Armed Forces at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (9F2c1)
*4 hour boner*
Whatwhatwhat?!?!?!
*looks around for anything oily*
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (GQ8sn)
So, uh, that took away a chunk of upward mobility options for women.
Then, of course, who can ignore the effects of divorce and "free love" on men forestalling marrying women in the first place?
Posted by: RoyalOil at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (VjL9S)
Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (B498E)
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (XUKZU)
Posted by: AMDG at January 29, 2014 12:11 PM (t7OO0)
Posted by: Alex Castellantos at January 29, 2014 12:12 PM (38LLM)
Posted by: Angry in the Valley at January 29, 2014 12:12 PM (8nhHB)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:12 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:13 PM (fWAjv)
The new money guys try to be their friends anyway, by donating heavily to Dems.
Posted by: Ian S. at January 29, 2014 12:13 PM (B/VB5)
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 04:11 PM (XUKZU)
Wish we could be modern and up-and-coming like that...
Posted by: Greece and Egypt at January 29, 2014 12:13 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: soothsayer's really innacurrate Biblical wisdom at January 29, 2014 12:14 PM (MiLnO)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:14 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at January 29, 2014 12:14 PM (B498E)
Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at January 29, 2014 12:14 PM (wL/ra)
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:14 PM (hLRSq)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (fWAjv)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (aDwsi)
Posted by: irright at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (Ze8oh)
Posted by: Lauren at January 29, 2014 12:15 PM (hFL/3)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:16 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 12:16 PM (z4WKX)
Posted by: Aviator at January 29, 2014 12:16 PM (DI+ja)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 12:16 PM (0HooB)
It was just a blob of tissue...
So I sucked it out of my womb...
I said, "I won't even miss you"...
And threw on my uterus costume...
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:17 PM (GrtrJ)
==========
The elite of the day sneered and were horrified at the supporters of Andrew Jackson because they climbed aloft the velvet chairs in their muddy boots so as to get a better view at his inauguration.
Funny that, the Party of Jackson is now quite comfortable openly sneering at the working class.
Posted by: RoyalOil at January 29, 2014 12:18 PM (VjL9S)
Posted by: Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather at January 29, 2014 12:18 PM (TB/3z)
So you're both shit-kickers to my northern, Tuscan family!
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:18 PM (abZxN)
The Sadducees were the snobs.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:18 PM (QFxY5)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:18 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: ace at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (/FnUH)
Posted by: and irresolute at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (RqHWH)
*4 hour boner*
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at January 29, 2014 04:09 PM (TIIx5)
http://tinyurl.com/phg7ryf
SFW
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 04:15 PM (fWAjv)
Smith ampersand Wesson E Series? Can't quite tell.
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (GQ8sn)
Posted by: Plumber, Making Commanding Choices! at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (TM1p8)
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:19 PM (ZkzmI)
Also, a big part of the reason that the draft fell into such general disrepute is that it was in no way, shape or form a "social leveler". It actually reinforced class divisions in many ways.
What class stratum you came from had a huge effect on whether you were drafted or not, and if you were drafted, where you went and what you did once in the grip of the Big Green Machine.
Oh, you come from a prominent well connected family? We'll route you to OCS.
It worked that way from the Civil War years pretty much up until the draft was done away with.
Hazy romanticized memories of what people imagine the draft to have been in theory, rather than a cold-eyed factual assessment of what it actually was in practice, do public policy a grave disservice.
Also, this:
"[The draft was] one of the drivers of support for desegregation, then integration. After Truman desegregated the armed forces, there was a generation of American men who discovered that Negroes were pretty much like everyone else."
Well, actually, taking off the rose-colored glasses, the last years of the draftee force were absolutely notorious for volcanic levels of internal dissent and self-segregation by black servicemen. There were entire barracks taken over by black draftees where white NCOs literally dared not enter.
Posted by: torquewrench at January 29, 2014 12:20 PM (gqT4g)
Posted by: artisanal 'ette at January 29, 2014 12:20 PM (IXrOn)
"Meh. This is just more Community Organizing Division, driving a wedge into American society in order to divide and conquer."
That, and looking for something, anything that is going to distract people away from the ObamaCare Impact Crater. This is an election year and the Democrat troops need a battlecry of some kind and soon.
AtC - I think SMOD hit only it was a metaphorical SMOD and it came from Washington, not the asteroid belt.
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:20 PM (hLRSq)
"Aah ain't no ways taard...."
Posted by: Hillary! at January 29, 2014 12:21 PM (POpqt)
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 04:18 PM (QFxY5)
Yeah they were more political, but the Pharisees were more religious.
Posted by: Adam Smith's Invisible Pimp Hand at January 29, 2014 12:21 PM (WdbF7)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:22 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (fWAjv)
Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (oFCZn)
When a Profesional man was looking for a wife in the 60s and before. She was going to be a stay at home mom/homemaker. Now if a man is looking for a wife she is likely to contribute to the household income. So the choice of mate for men and women includes earning potential more now than it did in the past.(disclaimer we all know men don't really pick so this is really about women's choices)
Posted by: The Hickster at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (TI3xG)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (aDwsi)
Two thousand years ago, the Italians conquered the world. Since then, nothing.
-
As we used to say in history class, Italy hasn't won a battle since Carthage.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:23 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: artisanal 'ette at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (IXrOn)
Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (ZEvg7)
Posted by: soothsayer's really innacurrate Biblical wisdom at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (MiLnO)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: The Poster Formerly Known as Mr. Barky at January 29, 2014 12:24 PM (OPzNA)
Posted by: Bob Cobb at January 29, 2014 12:25 PM (R7Lcy)
Sure, there are a lot of jackasses out there in all classes. I can also attest that those who might be considered "low class" have their prejudices as well: "Look at Miss Hoity Toity and her $10 words!"
I'm not saying that one must be insincere or that one should abandon their principles, but the ability to adapt goes a long way.
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 04:16 PM (DmNpO)
------------------------------------------------
This is true to some extent. What I've found interesting though, is, in some of my travels, people have made a special effort to talk to me so that they can listen to an Oklahoma accent. And they always enjoy the y'alls. And what's even stranger, is that they think that some kind of profound wisdom comes from people with slightly southern accents.
Posted by: Soona at January 29, 2014 12:25 PM (XrYtg)
One of my grandmother's brothers was a caretaker on the Rockefeller Hudson River estate. I don't think I'm belittling the man or letting out any family secrets to say he drank a little (that's Connecticut for "alcoholic"). Thing is, one of the Mrs. Rockefellers was a drinker, too. And the two became well acquainted.
There was an extensive collection of rare European statuary on the grounds of that estate. Over the years, the Mrs, my great-uncle, some quarts of whisky, and a Smith and Wesson shot the balls off of every one of those statues.
That was social equality as it functioned in the early 20th cent.
Note the Oxford comma.
Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 29, 2014 12:26 PM (xq1UY)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:26 PM (RJMhd)
Nice.
And that Playboy interview is all kinds of awesome.
"After this show wraps, I'm going back to North Carolina...."
*runs around looking for pants*
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 12:26 PM (GQ8sn)
Posted by: Sphynx at January 29, 2014 12:26 PM (OZmbA)
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 29, 2014 12:26 PM (dfYL9)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:27 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:27 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Judge Pug at January 29, 2014 12:27 PM (E4MKN)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:27 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 04:23 PM (ZkzmI)
Haile Selassie on the plane out of town: I'd beg to differ
Posted by: TheQuietMan at January 29, 2014 12:27 PM (1Jaio)
Well the Persians have not been so hot to trot since Alexander plowed them under.
Getting nukes will fix that
Posted by: Ayatollah Khomenei at January 29, 2014 12:28 PM (nCSwS)
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 04:23 PM (ZkzmI)
Technically, the conquest of Gaul came after that. Leave it to the French to start their military history by losing to the Italians.
Posted by: The Lost Dutchman at January 29, 2014 12:28 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at January 29, 2014 12:28 PM (ZEvg7)
Posted by: zombie ray boyer at January 29, 2014 12:28 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:29 PM (R7Lcy)
Haile Selassie on the plane out of town: I'd beg to differ
-
I always loved that they managed to take down Italian strafing planes with spears.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:29 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:29 PM (659DL)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 12:29 PM (z4WKX)
Posted by: ace at January 29, 2014 12:29 PM (/FnUH)
Social inequality -- that is, strong caste and class identification, and disparagement of all other (or "lesser," in the eyes of the class-obsessed person) castes and classes -- has gotten more pronounced over the past ten years.
The New Class confuse status for class. They are aspirants, and they believe that by controlling the means of perception they can be perceived as having attained that magical floaty existence where everything is marvelous and conversation sparkles.
The old money Yankee caste hides and downplays its wealth. In Bill Weld's novel he tweeks the Somerset Club (Beacon Hill) by having an member sneered at because her family joined in the 40s. "Not the 1940s, my dear". In one of my few peeks into that world I've been in the Somerset Club. It has ratty furniture. It doesn't call attention to itself.
It used to be horrifying to the right sort of people to have their name in the paper at all, whether for good or ill. The New Class publishes everything and gushes about the Hamptons and who is seen there. They look down on the Kardashian sort, but only slightly, because being written about, being observed, being perceived is the new currency and they can't afford to devalue it.
Also, how does anyone comment on a 2,000 word post three minutes after it's published?
Posted by: Frumious Bandersnatch at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (A0sHn)
Posted by: soothsayer at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (MiLnO)
Posted by: CaliGirl at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (KU72u)
Posted by: Inspector Cussword at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (FApZx)
Leave it to the French to start their military history by losing to the Italians.
-
In 1940, the Germans invaded France. The nation fell in six weeks. In week five, the Italians attacked from the southeast, and were repulsed.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:30 PM (R7Lcy)
-
And by "center" he means Pol Pot center.
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 12:31 PM (XUKZU)
This is a great piece, ace. Whether conscious or not, the modern American Left is intent on preserving this social inequality.
The best example of this is the American Public School System. If you are a homeowner, than you know how much the elementary, middle school, and high school your house will feed to affects the price of your home.
Want to go to a highly rated high school? Well I hope you are rich, because only rich people can afford the houses that are allowed to send children to that school. Otherwise, it is either a lousy public high school, or a private school (again, better be rich!).
Do you get that? Only certain houses are allowed to send kids to the good schools, and those are the expensive houses.
And which school your kids go to really does matter at this level, and it isn't just the educational aspect. In the rich-kid public schools, the kids are very competitive about studying. In the poor-kid schools, drugs, truancy, pregnancy, delinquency, etc. are common.
The public school system is the foremost element of American society that prevents upward social mobility. It is a travesty. And frankly it needs to be talked about more. Why don't we make the Left defend this awful arrangement?
Posted by: dan-O at January 29, 2014 12:31 PM (D0bIN)
Posted by: dogfish at January 29, 2014 12:31 PM (nsOJa)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:31 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 03:51 PM (POpqt)
Don't discount bisexual, ala Spacey's character on House of Cards or Diblasio's wife. There is a certain sector of the elite political class and those riding their coattails that are just powersexual, I think; will sleep with anyone securing or elevating their status.
Kass could be that but who knows. Don't really care, except for the fact that it is these courtesans that control where the ship of state steers, degree by degree, and thus butt their way into my life.
Posted by: LizLem at January 29, 2014 12:31 PM (BF+2f)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (RJMhd)
If someone is truly doing something loathsome and morally wrong, then they SHOULD be treated as a paraiah. But they aren't worse than us AS HUMAN BEINGS, only by their behavior.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (zfY+H)
Posted by: 13times at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (fGPLK)
Posted by: Bob Cobb at January 29, 2014 04:25 PM (R7Lcy)
We'll just have to rent houses in Calabria and eat whatever the Italian equivalent of Kaboom is. 
Posted by: The Lost Dutchman at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (fWAjv)
Should we start calling you "the Maestro", garrett?
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at January 29, 2014 04:28 PM (ZEvg7)
Nice ass too.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (QFxY5)
In 1940, the Germans invaded France. The nation fell in six weeks. In week five, the Italians attacked from the southeast, and were repulsed.
-
They had no elephants to cross the Alps.
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (XUKZU)
Was she the scrunt sneering about needlepoint on Twitter last night, disparaging every woman in America who has a creative hobby?
Posted by: HR at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (ZKzrr)
Posted by: hello, it's me also a creep-assed cracka.. at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (9+ccr)
Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) No Really! at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (GaqMa)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:32 PM (659DL)
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 12:33 PM (8ZskC)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:33 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:33 PM (R7Lcy)
I moved to NYC after college in Louisiana.
No they didn't look down on me or my accent on bit. not one bit. Maybe a million bits but not one bit.
That's okay though , I gave as good as I got. Regionalism did throw me for a loop one morning though on my first visit to a deli and I orders a tuna sandwich and they asked me if I wanted it on a hard roll.
I said , ' what? no , give it to me on a fresh roll.
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:33 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 29, 2014 12:33 PM (zfY+H)
If someone is truly doing something loathsome and morally wrong, then they SHOULD be treated as a paraiah. But they aren't worse than us AS HUMAN BEINGS, only by their behavior.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 29, 2014 04:32 PM (zfY+H)
+1
Posted by: EC at January 29, 2014 12:34 PM (GQ8sn)
Posted by: naturalfake at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (0cMkb)
SCOAMF et al are already on that: That's why they're putting Section 8 housing in middle-to-high-income neighborhoods.
Posted by: HR at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (ZKzrr)
Posted by: BEASTIE BOYS at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: I need a cool new sig at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (q177U)
1. Parboiled,
2. Skinned,
3. Pulled behind a truck down a gravel road for three miles (slowly),
4. Poisoned with an overdose of Metamucil,
5. Hung from the neck until almost dead,
6. Forced to eat the asshole out of a dead rhino,
7. Subjected to 14 hours of Obama speeches about Obama,
8. Stretched on a rack,
9. Hung again, until dead, this time, after watching his loved ones hauled off to North Korea where they will enjoy a limited number of years eating grass to survive,
10. Drawn,
11. Quartered,
12. His remains mixed with human fecal matter, then burned,
13. And his ashes combined with Kim Chi (in keeping with the NorK theme herein),
14. Then encased in Amber (the sap-like substance, NOT Amber Heard [http://tinyurl.com/mo2wauk]),
15. Then eaten by pigs and subsequently shat,
16. Then repacked into tritium and then fired out of an electromagnetic mass driver into space and thence into the fiery furnace at the center of the sun.
Posted by: Complicated Yet Oddly Satisfying Execution Method Guy at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (TM1p8)
The Greeks beat the Italians in 1941. Greeks, with tassles on their shoes! The Germans had to bail them out.
-
The Italians were stunned by the elan of the tassles - their fashion designers had not thought of that ecoutrement.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (B498E)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (659DL)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 12:35 PM (0HooB)
Posted by: dan-O at January 29, 2014 04:31 PM (D0bIN)
==============
You're entire post was excellent.
Posted by: grammie winger at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (P6QsQ)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 04:27 PM (g1DWB)
----------------------------------------
For that, even we Oklahomans go to the TX/OK border. There's towns there you'd swear had never seen an inside toilet.
Posted by: Soona at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (XrYtg)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (ZEvg7)
Posted by: Frumious Bandersnatch at January 29, 2014 04:30 PM (A0sHn)
Reading comprehension is not a requirement here.
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (hLRSq)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (g1DWB)
Cargo Cult Social Engineering: Give the poor the outward appearance of a middle class lifestyle and the middle class lifestyle will follow.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 12:36 PM (8ZskC)
Listen to comedians when they put on the voice of a stupid person (especially Robin WIlliams) - they almost always put on a Southern accent.
The exceptions are usually when they're in the middle of a bit about a certain region (such as the Bronx or whatever), but if there's no context - generic dumb American - it's a Southern accent. Happens a lot in TV and movies too: dumb character = Southern accent.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (POpqt)
-
Been there, done that, bought the T shirt. Or veni, vidi, Visa.
Posted by: Julius Caesar at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (XUKZU)
Posted by: ManWithNoParty at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (ojnk6)
I see you're new here.
Posted by: HR at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (ZKzrr)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: Paranoidgirlinseattle at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (RZ8pf)
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 29, 2014 12:37 PM (nzKvP)
Can you work a 2 pound bag of Sugar Free Gummi Bears in there?Posted by: RWC at January 29, 2014 12:38 PM (fWAjv)
Help people complete their 80% lowers.
It's a simple job for someone skilled such as yourself.
I would pay well for that assistance.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:38 PM (QFxY5)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:38 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:39 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:39 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:39 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: naturalfake at January 29, 2014 12:39 PM (0cMkb)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:39 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (RJMhd)
Italy has only been a nation for about as long as Germany has, 1870's. Not really a lot of old countries in Europe. Just old names for them.
Rome never thought of itself as the big game in town. The Persians were always over there, and you tried to avoid their attention. Finally, they couldn't, and got their clock cleaned. Please, look it up.
Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (xq1UY)
Posted by: irright at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (Ze8oh)
You should have seen the looks I got when I went into the Sack O' Suds for some snacks.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (8ZskC)
Posted by: Jean at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (4JkHl)
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (dfYL9)
Posted by: Ian S. at January 29, 2014 03:55 PM (B/VB5)
I've personally encountered three Harvard graduates in my professional life. How did I know they were Harvard graduates? Because they brought it up. Was the discussion about college life and alma maters? No. Appropros of nothing, one of them made it a point to show me his Harvard ring. How nice.
Mind you, I have nothing against Ivy League types--no burning class resentments (although brought up as a trailer court kid), no envy at their good fortune, no deep, late-night regrets that I didn't try harder, study harder to get that Ivy League sheepskin. I do all right. What I do mind is the mindset possessed by some of them that they leave those hallowed halls believing themselves suddenly, magically endowed with special skills, abilities, and insights far beyond those of lesser men. Fortunately for me, I've been lucky enough to meet (or be in the presence of) truly superior men and women, people who were/are genuises or war heroes and the like, of near-perfect character and an almost magical charisma. Insofar as I know, none of them were from Harvard or Yale or whatever--which isn't to say, of course, that extraordinary people can't be Ivy Leaguer-types, but one is no guarantee of the other.
Posted by: troyriser at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (2jF2B)
Hey, we have better taste in food than that.
Posted by: Pigs at January 29, 2014 12:40 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: Andy Bernard at January 29, 2014 12:41 PM (X3GkB)
Posted by: [/i]andycanuck[/b] at January 29, 2014 12:41 PM (abZxN)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:41 PM (g1DWB)
These people make my teeth ache. They're like screeching fingernails on a blackboard, like channeling Cate Blanchett in that movie where she had to march across the desert with a bag of sand in her mouth and her mouth taped shut. Nasty little pieces of work.
But the thing is, they aren't worth working up too much irritation over. Now, if there were only a way to score an invite to that party where Rachel Madcow bartends, life would be perfect.
Posted by: RM at January 29, 2014 12:41 PM (fRppw)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 12:41 PM (z4WKX)
Very few men who are not deadbeats looking for a sugar-mommy wish to court women who can out-earn them.
Posted by: HR at January 29, 2014 12:42 PM (ZKzrr)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:42 PM (lUXJH)
I've always found talk of "classes" in the USA to be distasteful as hell. I'm not dismissing its usefulness in understanding some people's motivations, though.
-
We don't have classes like Europe, where one is born to a class and never leaves that class. Our classes are based on income, and a surprising number of people move from class to class every year.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 12:43 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: WalrusRex at January 29, 2014 04:38 PM (XUKZU)
We got some real class - the place smells like rich mahogany!
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:43 PM (hLRSq)
Hmmm Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 04:39 PM (DmNpO)
This. Add Boston as well. Ugh, those accents just hurt my soul.
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:43 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) No Really! at January 29, 2014 12:43 PM (GaqMa)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:43 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 04:36 PM (g1DWB)
Both my parents are from NYC . They never had a problem and in fact my father owned a bar in Lake Charles , LA.
In my job interviews in NYC I could see them tune out immediately. No big deal. It was what it was.
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:44 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:44 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: JEM at January 29, 2014 12:44 PM (o+SC1)
.Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) No Really! at January 29, 2014 12:44 PM (GaqMa)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 12:44 PM (0HooB)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (659DL)
Ever heard of it?
Posted by: Andy Bernard at January 29, 2014 04:41 PM (X3GkB)
Did you study Ag with Keith Olbermann?
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (hLRSq)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:45 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (dfYL9)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (lUXJH)
Well, anyone from the NY metro area with an accent is sort of low class to being with.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (QFxY5)
I can imagine.
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: grammie winger at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (P6QsQ)
Oh, I love a Boston accent! When I lived in the Boston area I could tell the difference between Boston, South Boston, north shore, south shore (and then there's RI, ME, NH and the broguey backwoods VT/upstate NY).
It's funny that so few people can fake the Boston accent(s), especially actors (which is just painful).
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (POpqt)
Posted by: AMartel at January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (6EuOK)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 04:45 PM (R7Lcy)
I live with a Boston girl and beg to disagree.
Posted by: troyriser at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (2jF2B)
Posted by: Sen. Clay Davis at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (X3GkB)
Posted by: Adam at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (Aif/5)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (659DL)
Posted by: sans_sheriff at January 29, 2014 12:47 PM (Lljg2)
I didn't know real people in the real world actually talked like that. Surprisingly, the guy did not have a piece of straw hanging out of his mouth.
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:48 PM (GrtrJ)
If you are talking a small town bar. They don't start staring because you are a Yankee. They stare because they know the face of everyone that goes to that bar and they are trying to figure out what family you are related to.
Posted by: The Hickster at January 29, 2014 12:48 PM (TI3xG)
Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) No Really! at January 29, 2014 12:48 PM (GaqMa)
You're a saint, they bring it up, I hammer them.
Posted by: Jean at January 29, 2014 12:48 PM (4JkHl)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:49 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: logprof at January 29, 2014 12:49 PM (X3GkB)
Hmmm
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 04:39 PM (DmNpO)
This. Add Boston as well. Ugh, those accents just hurt my soul.
I took that test that generates a map of which parts of the country talk most like you a while back (the one that was going around Facebook). I live in central PA, but it said I sound less like New York and Boston than anywhere else in the country, even the Deep South.
Posted by: The Lost Dutchman at January 29, 2014 12:50 PM (9F2c1)
Posted by: steevy at January 29, 2014 12:50 PM (zqvg6)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:50 PM (DmNpO)
===
The history of our country records several episodes of the rise and fall social-political classes (and their political affiliates). The NE Federalists, the antebellum Democrats (North and South), The Gilded Age Republicans, 1920s Republicans, 1930s Democrats, etc, etc. This bunch is a bit of a hybrid with inside the Beltway Pols is unique with its Wall Street-international affilates. They're about to go down, hard, just like their predecessors.
Posted by: mrp at January 29, 2014 12:50 PM (JBggj)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:51 PM (R7Lcy)
*
This boils it all down, Libs have inferiority complexes and small weenies.
Fact is, rich people are often smarter and better at what they do and even smarter that they can capitalize off their acumen. There also rich people out there that are dumb as a box of rocks..that's just how life goes.
Libs are always looking for a participation trophy.
Posted by: dananjcon at January 29, 2014 12:51 PM (NpXoL)
Posted by: AmishDude at January 29, 2014 12:51 PM (T0NGe)
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:51 PM (m2CN7)
The Greeks beat the Italians in 1941. Greeks, with tassles on their shoes!
OT-ish. I was involved with an Italian girl and one day in Rome we found a museum exhibit called "Armi e Uomini", 'arms and man'. I was thinking it was going to be a good old-fashioned trebuchet and crossbow sort of thing, but it turned out to be an exhibit of Italian military stuff in the history of the modern state, which is to say since Garibaldi in the 1860s.
So we walk chronologically through WWI bayonettes and such and everything is nicely labeled and the guns look cool and then there's a gap, and then it's 1943 and there are artifacts from "la guerra antifascista". What be that, I ask. The anti-fascist war, she tells me. When Italy and the Allies chased out the Hun.
The whole part where the fascisti and the Hun were in cahoots? Not there. I chuckled.
Posted by: Frumious Bandersnatch at January 29, 2014 12:51 PM (A0sHn)
Also, it's never, "Where are you from?" it's "Where do you stay?"
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:52 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:52 PM (RJMhd)
My favorite example:
Palo Alto, California.
The west side, "Palo Alto" proper, is stuffed with enormously wealthy tech yuppies from Google and whatnot. Overwhelmingly white. The schools are superb.
The east side, EPA, East Palo Alto, is poor, black and Hispanic. For a while there this tiny burg had more murders per capita than anywhere else in the USA. Gentrification is slowly pushing out the poor blacks, but still, EPA is a _far_ cry from PA socially and economically and ethnically. The schools are horribly underperforming shitholes.
Now, you would think that because Palo Alto is full of rich Google and Yahoo exec who would adore getting an invitation to give Barack Obama analingus in Macy's window at high noon, that they might have "progressive" views on education to match their supposedly "progressive" political outlook. Say, enough so to contemplate unifying their school district with that of East Palo Alto. So the poor black kids can have the enriching, superior educational experience enjoyed by rich whites on the other side of the freeway. And affluent white kids can get some "diversity" in their otherwise monochromatic lives.
Absolutely no fucking chance in hell that the well to do liberal techyuppies would EVER agree to anything like that. No. Simply unpossible.
Posted by: torquewrench at January 29, 2014 12:52 PM (gqT4g)
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:52 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: steevy at January 29, 2014 12:53 PM (zqvg6)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:53 PM (RJMhd)
"Shat" really is the past tense of "shit." There is also a participle, "shitten," and somebody did read Chaucer, didn't they?
Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 29, 2014 12:53 PM (xq1UY)
Posted by: irright at January 29, 2014 12:53 PM (Ze8oh)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:53 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (0HooB)
Posted by: CaliGirl at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (KU72u)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (z4WKX)
This is why the increasingly prohibitive cost of college is important.
Without the draft, the only real place where kids from all social classes and races can meet as equals, and relationships and marriages occur across class and race lines, is college. When college becomes available only to the wealthy, we have a biiiiig problem in achieving social equality. And we are pretty much there now.
I grew up in a not-very-wealthy town, and went to the crappy public schools on the wrong side of that town. Most of my high school friends never went to college, and none of them got out of the working class where they started. But almost all of my classmates who went to college did. And when I went to my State U. in the 1970s it cost all of $500 a YEAR. Now even in-state tuition there is $17,000. Hell, when I went to grad school at Harvard it was only $8000 a year and I borrowed all the money and paid it back over 10 years at about 100 bucks a month. Easily affordable. Now a Harvard education costs $250,000.
I was the daughter of a doctor and a nurse, very priveleged for the side of town where I grew up. I married the college-educated son of a working class couple from working-class Waterville, Maine, whose kids were the first in either of their families to go to college. The hometown private college my husband went to, Colby College, now costs $45,000 a year. Nobody from Waterville goes there anymore, it's the playground of rich snobs from Boston and New York.
This is a big damn problem, and nobody is talking about it. This was one thing I absolutely loved about Rick Perry, who proposed creation of a college degree that only cost $10,000. That would do more to foster both social and economic equality in America than any more-progressive tax code or government program any Washington bobo think tanker could come up with.
Posted by: rockmom at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (Q4elb)
I would never stop working but I don't have a problem with a woman I'm in a relationship with making more money than me.
If work came before me though I would have a problem.
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:54 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 12:55 PM (hLRSq)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:55 PM (659DL)
Heh. When I dated a guy from Boston and bring him home, family and friends would ask him to "say something" so they could hear his accent. So he would say something off color. Now that's a Bostonian. As he'd say, "We're not rude, we're just more honest."
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 12:55 PM (POpqt)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:55 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: JoeyBagels at January 29, 2014 12:55 PM (REdii)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (DmNpO)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (GrtrJ)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (659DL)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (RJMhd)
Also, it's never, "Where are you from?" it's "Where do you stay?"
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 04:52 PM (GrtrJ)
I found that to be mostly southern black venacular. YMMV.
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (m2CN7)
Is is going to be 2008 all over again? Huckabee, add Santorum and Mitt too?
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 04:54 PM (z4WKX)
Hi there!
Posted by: Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann, and n00t at January 29, 2014 12:56 PM (9F2c1)
Today when I told my boss I am so happy that president Obama gave everyone a raise last night he said I was an idiot
So I sent an E-Mail to president Obama today with my bosses name and phone number stating that I am not getting a raise after he ordered everyone to get one. I got even with my stupid boss and he will remember me next year...
Posted by: Dorcus Blimline at January 29, 2014 12:57 PM (ZxqjT)
If that's the case, a tax on productivity is probably the best way to reinforce class distinctions. It makes it a lot harder to work your way into another class.
Posted by: JohnJ at January 29, 2014 12:57 PM (TF/YA)
Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (659DL)
Really? It seems everyone I work with uses that phrase.
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (GrtrJ)
fixin to
The correct pronuciation is: fidtin to.
Yall aint fom aroun heyah.
Posted by: RolandTHTG at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (QM5S2)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: Teleprompter Feed Crew at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (RJMhd)
Posted by: rickb223 at January 29, 2014 12:58 PM (lUXJH)
Posted by: thunderb at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (zOTsN)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (g1DWB)
=====
Probably more fear than a celebration. Public service unions are taking a shellacking with a Dem in the White House. Polls are trending strongly against the ruling party. Academia is restructuring.
Typing of Palin, Roll Call posted an article today detailing SarahPac's 4th quarter 2013 activity: LINK: http://preview.tinyurl.com/n7fk4at
Excerpt:
[SarahPac' had receipts of $717,264 and disbursements of $713,551 during the last six months of 2013. The PAC had $1,117,684 cash on hand at the end of the year.
Posted by: mrp at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (JBggj)
Posted by: Mikey NTH - Buy a Hissy or Coniption, Get a Free Fitting! at January 29, 2014 04:55 PM (hLRSq)
Mimicking the habits of the ruling class by those who aspire to the ruling class is an old outer circle/inner circle phenomenon, but I never thought I'd see it play out in the United States. That we now have a ruling class bothers me no end.
Posted by: troyriser at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (2jF2B)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (R7Lcy)
Posted by: Sean Bannion[/i][/s][/u][/b] at January 29, 2014 12:59 PM (yz6yg)
Posted by: Drc at January 29, 2014 01:00 PM (3CYJH)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 01:00 PM (0HooB)
Posted by: JoeyBagels at January 29, 2014 01:00 PM (REdii)
Posted by: DangerGirl at January 29, 2014 04:56 PM (GrtrJ)
And if it's REALLY great it's "wicked pissah!"
I married into a New England family 30 years ago. It's been a blast. I'm from Kentucky and I've taught them all to say Y'all.
Posted by: rockmom at January 29, 2014 01:00 PM (Q4elb)
Posted by: seamrog at January 29, 2014 01:00 PM (hN5Vb)
Posted by: JL at January 29, 2014 01:01 PM (tS9nb)
Posted by: garrett at January 29, 2014 01:01 PM (R7Lcy)
And what's with the "wicked" everything in New England? My cousins are always commenting about how this is "wicked good" and this guy is "wicked smaht"
I believe -- without evidence, I just like the theories I make up -- that "wicked" is a Boston-area descendent of the Salem Witch era when people were serious about things that were literally wicked, bewitched, and the word hung on and its meaning morphed.
I have lived about half my life in the area, but since I don't have two generations of Boston before me I don't trust myself to do the accent. They do let me say wicked, though.
Posted by: Frumious Bandersnatch at January 29, 2014 01:01 PM (A0sHn)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 01:02 PM (z4WKX)
Posted by: Granny Jan (Jihad Kitty) at January 29, 2014 01:02 PM (UC678)
of other people is not a bug, but a feature.
Yes! The message was: don't get too uppity, outsiders.
While Obama had a "compelling life story" (how many times did we hear that phrase in 200
, Palin doesn't. She's just a nobody from a flyover state who went to a non-name school and then rose up without any connections. Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 01:03 PM (POpqt)
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 01:04 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: shredded chi - If the river was whiskey, I'd be a diving duck at January 29, 2014 01:04 PM (TwyVT)
I laughed through the whole thing.
That's wicked pissah.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 29, 2014 01:04 PM (8ZskC)
How is SS welfare? There's a reason stuff like that and Medicare are popular in a way actual welfare isn't, including among GOP voters.
-
You aren't getting back what you put in. It is a tax, and the more money you make, the worse the deal is for you, so yes, it is essentially welfare.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at January 29, 2014 01:04 PM (ZkzmI)
Posted by: Carol at January 29, 2014 01:04 PM (z4WKX)
Mike Rowe has been all over this - how we no longer value hard work, instead pushing people who into college as if these are the only valuable skills.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 29, 2014 01:05 PM (POpqt)
Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) No Really! at January 29, 2014 01:06 PM (GaqMa)
You have to admit he's done a hell of a lot of compelling of the rest of us in the last five years.
I'm starting to run low on my list of things that are not now either forbidden or compulsory.
Posted by: torquewrench at January 29, 2014 01:07 PM (gqT4g)
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 29, 2014 01:07 PM (dfYL9)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b] at January 29, 2014 01:08 PM (0HooB)
Posted by: Nip Sip at January 29, 2014 01:09 PM (0FSuD)
Social inequality? Excuse me? I'm supposed to think that variation in the human population - its tastes, desires, accomplishments, pet peeves, favorite color - is an issue? Ridiculous.
I don't care. The idiotic, control freak, ignorant, freedom-killing bad ideas of the liberal "elites" are to be rejected because they are idiotic, control freak, ignorant, freedom-killing bad ideas. The social status or blah blah blah of their exponents are irrelvant and uninteresting.
Ace, you've said it before and well - our "elites" are mostly not elite at all. In fact my alienation from the country is largely based on the fact that the top ranks of governance are now almost exclusively populated by people of very limited ability and low character. One often assumes/hopes the military is different, and it is, but a look at the brass over the last few years shows parallels with the ascent of the jaw-droppingly unfit on the political side (prez, VP, AG, SecDef, hell the whole cabinet and most of the Congress, and it seems most of the judiciary as well).
Kaus? Take your naive social engineering idiocy and stuff it.
Ya know what, public education was at one time a successful and freedom-expanding example of social engineering. In a very different culture, with a completely different educational establishment (hardly one, really). California public education in the 60s was fantastic, in general, and not only achieved its educational objectives but did a fair amount of benign soft social engineering as well by mixing people who otherwise wouldn't have mixed.
But almost everything has changed - the culture, the collapse of standards and shame and accountability and its replacement by liability, of course the demise of the educational establishment through unionization and adoption of idiotic cretinous left-wing nonsense as the core ideology. So now public education is often a disaster, and you see people fleeing public schools. Friends and relatives who themselves (like me) literally never met anyone who went to private school when they were young, and who did spectacularly well by the very good CA public school system themselves, almost all send their kids to private schools.
People shouldn't confuse actual social engineering successes (which weren't conceived or desgned as such, notably) from past, completely changed circumstances (WWII draft, 30s/40s/50s/60s public education) with what's possible today.
Posted by: non-purist at January 29, 2014 01:10 PM (afQnV)
Posted by: Meremortal at January 29, 2014 01:12 PM (1Y+hH)
Posted by: artisanal 'ette at January 29, 2014 01:16 PM (IXrOn)
Posted by: Fritz at January 29, 2014 01:34 PM (UzPAd)
I'm not buying the vocational school thing. All that does is create a separate-and-very-unequal system where the working class kids are shuffled off to vocational school and the upper classes go to college. We need to have actual COLLEGE that is affordable for working class people without either massive government subsidies or crushing debt. It works. I've seen it in my own hometown and family. Talk to anyone who went to CUNY back in the days when it was FREE, or any graduate of UCLA back in the days when the UC system was cheap and cost about $1000 a year for California students. (It's $25k and up now.) These free and cheap state/city colleges created a vast melting pot for kids from all backgrounds, while offering working class kids a legit way up and out into the middle and upper class.
College costs are bloated beyond belief because most colleges are too big, too focused on fancy buildings and plush dorms, have way too many useless administrators, and pay tenured professors too much.
Posted by: rockmom at January 29, 2014 01:36 PM (aBlZ1)
Posted by: JackStraw at January 29, 2014 01:43 PM (g1DWB)
Posted by: rockmom at January 29, 2014 05:36 PM (aBlZ1)
Where do you propose kids who do not want to go to college learn a craft?
Posted by: polynikes at January 29, 2014 01:46 PM (m2CN7)
Posted by: theBuckWheat at January 29, 2014 02:52 PM (nmcha)
Posted by: toby928© at January 29, 2014 02:58 PM (QupBk)
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sQuidProQuo at January 29, 2014 06:34 PM (OqeDl)
The third and last Punic war ended in 146 B.C. with Rome the victor. The western half of the Roman empire fell in 476 A.D., that's 622 years. It did not survive those centuries by never winning a battle after the third Punic war.
A few examples:
Flavius Aetius, Battle of Catalaunian Plains, 451 A.D.
Julian, Battle of Strasbourg, 357 A.D.
Vespasian and Titus, Jewish war, 66-73 A.D.
Marcus Aurelius, Marcomannic Wars, 166-180 A.D.
And there are plenty more. If you wish to only include battles in which only Italians formed the Roman legions, you might be correct, (I don't know), but it seems unimportant.
What we are talking about is Rome, a political entity that existed from ca. 750 B.C - 1453 A.D. Italy was not unified as a country until the second half of the 19th century. Rome began as a city, became an empire, lost half of its empire, and died as the city of Constantinople.
Posted by: jbarntt at January 29, 2014 09:21 PM (UNFot)
Posted by: Anonymous Tipper at January 29, 2014 10:00 PM (LmEvg)
Those so afflicted have picked years of schooling and professional proximity to the truly talented as the criteria for their supposed superiority. So the guy or girl who slugs through 5 years in pursuit of Peace Studies degree and then finds marginal employment running errands at a TV studio, or some other media outlet, is more exalted than the person who owns a dry cleaning or landscaping business.
The errand boy sometimes runs into people who are genuinely gifted, sometimes overhears bits of conversation among intelligent people, and therefore feels that he or she is part of the club, even if a junior member.
Nothing terrifies such a person more than the grim reality that they're a hanger-on, and are in fact far inferior to someone who has worked and struggled to create a successful business providing "menial" services.
So they invent and embrace notions of class, artificial criteria by which people are sorted, with themselves naturally sorted into the preferred group.
Posted by: Lee Reynolds at January 30, 2014 02:59 AM (0bC+U)
Posted by: Slapnutz at January 30, 2014 03:55 AM (vVSAz)
Obama's friends are doing all right. To name a few - Bill Gates,Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, Jay Rockefeller, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Hugh Hefner, Ted Turner, Steve Ballmer. Mark Zuckerberg. I could name more, but these are the ones you know (billionaires).
Posted by: burt at January 30, 2014 06:56 AM (1+kJ5)
Posted by: oic at January 30, 2014 09:54 AM (Bqzx8)
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Posted by: @JohnTant at January 29, 2014 11:47 AM (PFy0L)