no. 480

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

John Galbraith (1908 - 2006)



Pretty sure I've posted this before, but it's a good one, so...

no. 412

Conservative, n - A person who believes that the poor are to blame for their problems while his own problems are the fault of the government.

Gin And Tacos

no. 402

"If you are a complete fucking asshole, Rush Limbaugh tells you exactly what you want to hear. He says that all the Others are stupid, lazy, cheating, inferior, and most importantly that any way you hurt them is their fault and they have no right to expect any sympathy or self-control from you whatsoever. That latter is particularly important. It’s the reasoning of the domestic abuser, and the reasoning of the cultural conservative."

Frankensteinbeck, commenting on Balloon Juice

no. 398

"Debate is impossible because American Conservatism is a cult. Period. Full stop. Its main trait is now nothing more than broad-spectrum reality denial and its main weapon in the fight to keep reality at bay is THE DECIBEL."

Driftglass

no. 318

“In science, ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent’. I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.”

Stephen Jay Gould

no. 304

no. 282

My mother had three pregnancies, and two children. She had a miscarriage, between my brother and I, in that four year span between our births, there was another pregnancy, another child desperately wanted, who didn’t live to term.
My mother had her pre-natal care, and her post-miscarriage care, at Planned Parenthood.
Because it was the best place for her. Because at the time, she had a two year old child and a bike and they were living just around that nice little sweet spot between ‘desperately poor’ and ‘almost have enough to consider a savings account.’ And when you are poor, and female, and need health services, Planned Parenthood is there.
And my mother walked past the protesters, walked past the people who screamed at her about not killing her baby, about how she was a whore, and she was going to hell. My mother, in mourning for a child that she had lost, blaming herself, hating herself for failing at this most feminine of things, walked through that, to care for herself, to get the medical care she needed. So that someday, two years later, she could have me.
I cannot speak to the courage that must have taken. But that path is walked by thousands of women. Every single day.
She donated to Planned Parenthood until her death. And she said to me, that the people who screamed at her saw her only as a vessel for a baby. They didn’t care about her, they didn’t care about her baby, either. They were pro-birth, not pro-life, because none of them would be there after her baby was born, to offer help and support and care.
The protesters didn’t care about her. And the medical professionals inside did. It is the right of every woman to have access to safe, affordable, quality health care, no matter where she comes from, what her income is, or what choices she makes with her life. And that is what these kind of bills are attempting to take away.

scifigrl47

via

no. 273

"Republicans muscled a pared-back agriculture bill through the House on Thursday, stripping out the food stamp program to satisfy recalcitrant conservatives but losing what little Democratic support the bill had when it failed last month. It was the first time food stamps had not been a part of the farm bill since 1973."


House Approves Farm Bill, Without Food Stamp Program

To which Wil Wheaton (or somebody) comments: "Corporate welfare for Big Ag, nothing to actually help real people who are suffering. As Dan Gillmor says, it’s a perfect description of GOP priorities".

no. 229

"The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it."

Lawrence Krauss

no.193

"Think about it, the conditions are perfect. You have the attention of millions of people, you have your liberal, atheist opponent in front of you, and your goal is to make them all rage, while making your oafish, unimaginative supporters hoot and holler behind you. Bill O’Reilly unleashed the perfect storm of internet trolldom. He didn’t just invoke the god of the gaps. He won it. He won God of the Gaps. Don’t ask me how. You can’t explain that."

Maki, refering to a interview of David Silverman by Bill O'Reilly.

Go to the page, read the comic, watch the video the quote is about.

But really, if you've ever watched much Bill O'Reilly, you know exactly what he's talking about

no. 177

"Some people abuse and misuse the social safety net, so conservatives think we should get rid of it.

If we could only get them to apply that logic to guns."

Gin And Tacos on Facbook

no. 160

“Regular” marriage and “Gay” marriage are like bikini tops and bras. The exact same thing, but only one is allowed in public.

"Mouse"

no. 158

no. 102

"One of my favorite (I think original) quotes is to say that...
When you argue with a Liberal, he'll tell you why you're wrong; while if you argue with a Conservative, he'll show you why you're Liberal.

I post that (or some variant of it) on MMFA a lot. And the best part of that?

If a Liberal is arguing with a Conservative? Using this reasoning? THEY'RE BOTH RIGHT!"

"Niceguy" Eddie

no. 74

"But in rejecting one set of knowledge-limited meddlers -- 100,000 civil servants -- libertarians and conservatives seem bent on ignoring market manipulation by 5,000 or so aristocratic golf buddies, who appoint each other to company boards in order to vote each other titanic "compensation packages" while trading insider information and conspiring together to eliminate competition. Lords who are not subject to inherent limits, like each bureaucrat must face, or rules of disclosure or accountability. Lords who (whether it is legal or not) collude and share the same delusions."

David Brin, discussing the change (and failure) of American Conservatism.

no. 63

"People that are pro-life and pro-capital punishment, tell me, does it hurt being so stupid?"

wentzpete

no. 16

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

John Kenneth Galbraith.

no. 3

"Conservatives built this monster. It didn’t just wander out of the woods one day, or land here from another planet. The Wingnut Base—whatever teabagger, Colonial Williamsburg camouflage they’re sporting this week, and however hard the media tries to pretend they aren't who we know they are—was manufactured by the Conservative Movement to win elections. Made right here in the U S of A out of spare parts left over from the Segregationist South, Right-wing fundamentalism, Bircher paranoia and general Archie Bunker pig-ignorance. Conservatives built the unholy thing, programmed it, wounded it up and sent it out to do their bidding. And everyone knows it."

Driftglass (via)