"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Idiot du Jour

Steve King (R-Somewhere), who is vying for Louie Gohmert for stupidest sitting congressman:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) offered an unusual defense of the racial homogeneity of his party during a panel on MSNBC Monday evening.

The group, led by Chris Hayes, was discussing the first day of the Republican national convention and Donald Trump's history of racially-loaded comments and behavior. King told Hayes that he thought Trump had "modified" his behavior in that regard, but Esquire's Charlie Pierce said he didn't see much diversity reflected in the gathering itself.

"If you're really optimistic, you can say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican Party's attention, its platform, its public face," Pierce said. "That hall is wired," he continued. "That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people."

King objected.

"This 'old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie," King said. "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"

"Than white people?" Hayes asked, clearly amazed.

"Than, than Western civilization itself," King replied. "It's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That's all of Western civilization."

Well, yes, if you're talking about Western civilization, who would you expect to contribute? And what did white people contribute to, say, Chinese civilization? Or the civilization of India? Or of the pre-Columbian Americas? Or pre-colonial Africa?

Aside from destroying them, I mean.

And let's not talk about the "footprint of Christianity". Let's just not go there.

One of the best reactions from Twitter:
اليگسيس
‏@lexi_kenney

اليگسيس Retweeted Shaun King

He must not remember "western civilization" literally living in its own filth until"sub groups" taught them plumbing😒

And math -- including a usable number system. And astronomy. And writing. And agriculture, without which, no civilization.

No comments: