Rand Paul thinks plagiarism gets you detention. I actually believe that this offense generally results in expulsion, Rand. If this is the end for you, I'm not sorry about it, but you probably will be.
Another day, another example of Rand Paul playing fast and loose with rules of attribution. After some digging, BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski found that sections of of a Washtington Times op-ed that the Kentucky Republican penned in September appear "nearly identical" to those found in an essay written by Dan Stewart...
"Gay people exist. There's nothing we can do in public policy that makes more of us exist, or less of us exist. And you guys have been arguing for a generation that public policy ought to essentially demean gay people as a way of expressing disapproval of the fact that we exist, but you don't make any less of us exist. You just are arguing in favor of more discrimination, and more discrimination doesn't make straight people's lives any better."
Rachel Maddow, on Meet the Press, responding to Jim DeMint's argument that marriage between a man and a woman is "better for children."
Ralph Reed said that Maddow's argument would mean that Obama, who first stated his support for gay marriage last May, was a "bigot" until fourteen months ago.
"No one's calling anybody a bigot," Maddow shot back. "You're the only one who's saying 'bigot.'"
Reed also said that the decision would spur Republican voters to action in the mid-term elections. Maddow pointed out that opponents of gay marriage recently challenged gay marriage in three major votes, and lost all three.
popsandculture reblogged
brooklynmutt-deactivated2021090
Let the record show: that you can be a United States senator for 21 years, you can be 79 years old, you can be the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and one of the most recognizable and most widely respected veteran public servants in your nation. But if you are female while you are also all of those other things, men who you defeat in arguments will still respond to you by calling you hysterical and telling you to calm down. They will patronize you and say they ‘admire your passion, sweetie,’ but of course they only deal in facts, not your silly girly strong feelings. It is inescapable, you can set your watch by it.
Rachel Maddow, discussing Senator Ted Cruz’s condescending lecture to Senator Dianne Feinstein during a Senate debate on gun control. March 14, 2013. (via mamaatheist)
He knows it’s offensive. And he knows he’s going to get a gasp from the court room, which he got. And he loves it. He’s like the guy on your blog comment thread who is using the N-word. … ‘Oh, I made you mad? Did I make you mad? Did I make you mad? Did I make you mad?’ — he’s like that. He’s that kind of guy.
Rachel Maddow, talking about Antonin Scalia’s reference of the Voting Rights Act continued renewal by Congress as part of a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”
popsandculture reblogged
If you are against the Violence Against Women Act, what does that mean that you are for?
Rachel Maddow, my queen (via foulmouthedliberty)
We are not going to have a Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade, there will be no more Antonin Scalias and Samuel Alitos added to this court. We’re not going to repeal health reform, no one is going to kill Medicare, and make old people fight it out for health care on the open market.
We’re not going to give a 20% tax cut to millionaires and billionaires, and expect programs like food stamps and kids health insurance to cover the cost of that tax cut. We’re not gonna make you clear it with your boss if you wanna get birth control under the insurance plan you’re on.
We are not going to redefine rape. We’re not going to amend the US Constitution to prevent gay people from getting married. We’re not eliminating the department of energy, or education, or housing at the federal level.
We’re not gonna spent $2 trillion on the military that the military does not want. We won’t be scaling back on student loans because the country’s new plan is that you should “borrow money from your parents.”
We’re not vetoing the DREAM Act, we are not self-deporting. We are not letting Detroit go bankrupt. We are not starting a trade war with China on Inauguration Day in January.
We are not going to have, as a president, a man who once led a mob of friends to run down scared gay kid to hold him down and forcibly cut his hair off with a pair of scissors while that kid cried and screamed for help - and there was no apology, not ever.
We’re not going to have a Secretary of State John Bolton. We’re not bringing Dick Cheney back. We are not going to have a foreign policy shop stocked with the architects of the Iraq war.
We are not going to do it. We had the choice to do that if we wanted to, as a country.
And we said no.
Long live Rachel Maddow.