And of course it’s just more elitist horseshit. When they have a bake sale letting students whose parents were alumni get first pick of the cupcakes, or giving out free glasses of milk to students from privileged backgrounds, get back to me; then they might have a point about how higher education gives more benefits to certain groups. Until then, they’re like a sprinter who says nothing while their opponent has 50-pound weights tied to his ankles, and then throws a hissy fit when to offset the weights he’s given a quarter-second head start.

So I’ll add something shallow:

While you’re celebrating tonight, an entertaining party game is “Write __________’s Column Tomorrow”, where ____________ is your favorite chattering-class right-winger. They have to write something bad about Obama, because he’s an uppity a Democrat and not the President they wanted, but he got bin Laden! And then there’s the late-night announcement. You can just see them, sleepy and blinking, huddled over their gin-and-tonic or their expensive Scotch, staring at the monitor and hoping the words will come.

If I were more of a gambler I’d start a betting pool on the range from “grumble gah good job now stop doing everything else wrong” to “all credit for this goes to the previous administration” with some conspiracy-theories about PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN/THAT LOOKS SHOPPED throw in around the fringes.

Certainly, one would expect them to condemn the shooting of people other than Giffords, in much the same way that the military expresses regret when a strike on a military target kills innocent civilians. But why are they condemning his shooting of Giffords? Why aren’t they doing what politicians usually do when something they support comes to pass – rushing in to get a camera-op and claim all the credit, even when nothing they did actually cased the result?

From Sarah Palin’s crosshairs map and urging her supporters to “RELOAD” to Shannon Angle’s suggesting “Second Amendment remedies” to “take Harry Reid out” if she lost the election to Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck openly exhorting people to violence, reactionaries expressed their wish quite clearly, and they got it. Why are they now having second thoughts?

I can think of only two possibilities. Either they were so stupid and immature before (hurr, look how much this upsets the libruls) and never gave a moment’s thought to what would happen if, in fact, some disgruntled nutjob decided to put the “four boxes” into action, as if they were immature teenagers rhapsodizing about the “cool” violence in their favorite video-game shooter suddenly getting a look at real-life violence. If this is what’s going on – they were just so in love with their own imaginary tough-ass self that it didn’t occur to them for a second that, like, shooting at people just because you’re mad at then is bad – then they have no place in public discourse, and need to slither back under their rocks with the rest of the simple, muck-dwelling lifeforms, and leave political interaction to the humans.

The other possibility is that they’re pleased as punch that Giffords was shot; but they know that a lot of people who used to chuckle over their imaginary gun battles are really in group number one there. That is, it’s not a popular viewpoint to say “We deeply regret and condemn the killing of innocents, but as we said before this incident, if Congress continues as it has been, people are going to shoot Democrats, so take Giffords as a warning.” So instead of proudly standing behind a “crosshairs” political map or leaping into the photo-op to prattle about how right-thinking Americans will come out shooting if the wrong Senator gets elected, they trip over each other to pretend they probably never said any of that stuff and certainly never meant it.

Which is to say, they’re wormsucking cowards who care about nothing but their own political and financial futures, and are too craven to take the credit they’re owed. Unsurprising.

There are many subjects on which reasonable, well-meaning people can disagree, often with no clear ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on either person’s part. Birthright citizenship is not one of those subjects.

(h/t unusualmusic)

I’m hoping they do not suddenly remember their traditional methods of improving the country’s GNP.

Look at who is supporting what. Also known as, “follow the money”. If an environmental ballot measure is heavily funded by an Astroturf industry group, chances are it’s not really a pro-environment measure.

If you don’t know a candidate on the ballot or don’t know much about the office, don’t vote. This is the universe’s way of telling you to be better prepared next time.

You can get time off to work if you cannot vote during normal working hours.

You have to live with these choices for anywhere from four to infinity years. Choose wisely.

Yesterday, The Queen mentioned something she was doing as part of her LGBT Alliance club at school. I didn’t know she was a member. She hadn’t thought it such a big deal that she needed to make a big deal about it. It is.