You Said a Mouthful

• Melissa McEwan on the Republican Party:
  

  Republicans' primary problem with women is, and will always be, this: They think that we're stupid. They think that there's some way they can trick us into not caring or not noticing that their policies are crap.

  This can also be corroborated at Margaret and Helen.
• Zandar Versus The Stupid spots Rand Paul airing his inner fool in Guatemala.

  Remember when the Dixie Chicks were blackballed for suggesting as Americans that George W. Bush's foreign policy on Iraq was wrong? Eleven years later, it's now 100% acceptable for a sitting US senator to go abroad and openly attack the President, with the head of state of a foreign nation in attendance.

  Gee. Ya think?
• Batocchio last week was on fire, and I'm only quoting one paragraph because otherwise I'd end up quoting the entire post, and the one before, and the one before.

  Pushing for gay rights, including marriage and protection from getting fired for one's sexual orientation, isn’t about seeking elevated status, but mere equality. This is a crucial distinction. Yes, the push for gay rights makes social conservatives upset, and yes, it entails a change from decades ago. It is not, however, an assault on their freedom, which has not changed, only a diminishing of their privilege, which they took for granted. Cultural norms have shifted and no longer support what they view(ed) as the natural order. The same thing happened with slavery and women's suffrage and Jim Crow laws – things changed, and frankly, progressed. To quote another old post that can apply to bigotry or cultural narcissism in general, "of course people of faith have a role in the public square, they just shouldn't have a privileged role. They can propose public policies, but they don't automatically get to have their way by citing their religion. They don't automatically get to win."

• Comrade Misfit points up an interesting statistic. Yes, I am thinking about the Michael Brown killing and the police riot in Ferguson. Yes, there is rage. Later.