brainiac conspiracy

Today's Worst Person

Dear Jeff Bezos,

Can you make sure that Ruth Marcus is only making 77 percent of what E.J. Dionne makes?

Thanks if you can help! Your pal,

---Baron V

Bigots, Sexists and Homophobes

They deserve to be publicly shamed and humiliated, and when appropriate, boycotted.

Enough with all the "reverse racist" and "religious liberty" false equivalencies. The only way the Republic will ever be able to liberate itself from the belligerent racist perverts who drive our public policy discussions is to push back and remind them that there's a price to pay for the courage of their convictions because freedom isn't free for anyone. Just ask the Dixie Chicks and Phil Donahue.

---Baron V

Dude-Bros

Sometimes they say dude-bro things. Which, often, are demeaning to women.

Not that they intend this, mind you---if you ask a guy like Chris Matthews, he'd probably swear up and down that he's never uttered a sexist remark in his life, that you're just taking him out of context. But we should remember that a lot of men who achieve lofty positions of privilege and power in this country tend to be very ambitious, competitive Type-A alpha males, and a lot of guys with this personality type still think of women as the "fair sex" in an unintentionally condescending way. Things are getting better on that front, but old habits die hard. If a Hillary Clinton candidacy can ignite a fresh debate over gender the way Barack Obama's candidacy ignited a fresh debate about race, the Republic would be well served should she choose to run for President. (Not that she's my favorite Democrat, but there would be a positive social utility to her candidacy either way.)

---Baron V

Plessy v. Hobby Lobby

We've been there before, it could happen again. It all comes down to how much damage the Chief Justice wants to wreak on the commonweal. In this case, I am guessing plenty. Would love to be proved wrong!

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

No.

And no, it doesn't matter. Most white men in America are insane, bigoted racists. The good news is, they are slowly dying off as a percentage of the population. That fact alone may yet save our Republic.

---Baron V

Good Times

Since I had a rental car to drive around in yesterday, I thought I'd tune into some dingbat radio to see what kinda chatter is coming out of the noise machine. Anyway, there was some woman who was guest-hosting for Hannity, and she was chatting with some Tea Party woman, and the gist of their exchange was that Republicans need to go after Hillary Clinton for "attacking" Monica Lewinsky after her affair with Bill was exposed because it proves that liberal Democrats are the people who really wage war against women. Listening to minute after minute of this incoherent babble, I first thought, man, if that's all they've got, the election's in the bag for Team Democrat. But then . . . I remembered all the other equally insane stories they peddled about the Clintons twenty years ago, and how the uncritical members of our Beltway media refused to let any of them die---they even peddled some insane stories of their own!---and I thought, more realistically, that the next three years are going to be hell, now, aren't they.

---Baron V

Nobody Knows Anything

Three years is the same thing as forever when we are talking about presidential elections, and anyone who allegedly "knows" that we are going to see a Warren Insurgency™ or a Clinton Coronation® the next time around is patently full of shit. Sure, pundits are expected to punditize endlessly, but the only way they can punditize for three long years over shit they don't know about is to recycle lots of stale, tired clichés that tell us more about the pundits' personal prejudices than they do about the candidates. Okay, I assume Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2016. And while I wish her no ill will, what happens if, say, she gets sick? She'll be 68 then, and while that's not super-old for our times, hey, sometimes people over 65, they get sick. And I suppose Elizabeth Warren has entertained a presidential run---just about every US Senator has, at one time or another---but who's to say she won't have some religious epiphany, convert to Buddhism, shave her head and retire to a monastery? Anything is possible between now and then, and for that reason, nothing should surprise us. But the whole "populist" versus "pragmatist" horse-race bullshit is, of course, utterly devoid of meaning.

----Baron V

Men Who Are Assholes

They share many detestable traits, and one of the worst is the irrational hatred for/desire to dominate women, and some of you may know, it has become an epidemic of the Twittertubes. Personally, I think a spell of prison life would be the best corrective, though there are some legal considerations to take into account since free-speech issues can be invoked. While social media sites could do a better job of policing themselves, it might be smart policy if our lawmakers revised our assault, slander and defamation-of-character laws to include online content. Because some men will always be misogynist assholes, and the only way to deter them is to deprive them of their money, their freedom, or both. Counseling men for "anger management" only goes so far toward solving the problem.

---Baron V