And They’re Off … No, Seriously, There’s No Races. They’re Just Off.
Bless their hearts.
You know there is a God and you know she has a great sense of humor when the poor Republicans keep having things like this happen.
The Republicans are having a retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia this week.
Reporters quickly noted that a session for lawmakers called “Discussion on Successful Communication with Minorities and Women” will actually take place in the “Burwell Plantation” room at the resort where the retreat is being held.
It turns out, according to NBC News, the room “is named after the Burwell Family, a wealthy family that owned many slaves in 18th century Southern Virginia.”
And when one reporter tried to ask the GOP leaders about the irony of that, they didn’t get it. Which made God giggle more.
And then there’s women.
The New York Times reports the panel discussion on how to communicate with minorities and women included three white lawmakers. Walden had to note that the panel would include several women, whom he identified as “a woman from CNN” and “Sean Duffy’s wife.”
Sean Duffy’s wife? That there is some feminist credentials, Honey. (They won’t get that either.)
Remember that Mittens used Anne as his “woman expert”, because she knew all about how to talk to us. Sean Duffie’s wife and a CNN pundit ? Same thing as Anne.
1Here’s my guess on what those white boys will advise politicians to do while talking to women and minorities: talk slow and use small words.
2Cheryl, you said it all!
3Jon Stewart and all his writers and the whole crew of The Onion can’t make this stuff up.
4You would. Honestly think that in order to get elected to office in America, in 2013 you would have to have at least a smattering of knowledge about how to talk with & about minorities and women without managing to offend pretty much everyone within hearing distace. But no, Republicans seem to need lessons about why it’s a bad idea to equivocate about a woman being raped and why making all your House committee chairs white men goes beyond bad optics.
Of course, the fact that they chose to have these discussion in a room named after a famous Williamsburg plantation, located in the tony Kingsmill Resort, which itself is on the site of another plantation pretty much says it all doesn’t it?
While we are at it don’t forget that the moderator’s claim to fame came as a cast member of Real World San Francisco, which is where she met and married her husband – now that is what I call street cred! I’m sure she was fine they had three men up there with her to rein her in!
5This morning I was watching Turner Classic Movies. The in-between piece was called “I love my wife – BUT”
6There were several types of wives profiled: The perpetual primper who could never get dressed in time, the constant chatterer, and the “nuh-uh.” The poor, beleaguered husband who had to wait, and wait, and… Then he had to listen to inane blather (had to be a Republican). And when he came home at night wanting to relax after a hard day, he could not lean his greasy head against the doily (Slight digression. It’s an antimacassar, meant to protect furniture from the greasy head), couldn’t move the table lamp so he could read better, etc.
I was fascinated. Though it was Classic 1950s, it would fit right into this conference session of the Republicans. I hope they got to watch it!
Reminds me of that panel of all white men–talking about birth control. How’d that work out for youse, Rethugs?
7The women of the GOP have announced that contraception isn’t a real women’s issue–it was invented by the Dems–but that energy costs are. In other words, women don’t have any real issues of their won, but they are allowed to tag along on men’s issues. Way to outreach, Girls.
8It’s an antimacassar, meant to protect furniture from the greasy head
Specifically, to protect the permanent fabric from Macassar oil, once popular with men as a hair conditioner.
9At Ted: I was trying to use layman’s language. 🙂
10Thanks for keeping me straight!
Several years ago I was “surfing” to find examples of an antimacassar to use in class, just clicking down the list. One of the sites turned out to be a porn site that took over my (office) computer. The IT guys had to re-image it and really razzed me about it. Since then I’ve tried hard to practice safe computer sex.
This has nothing to do with the subject at hand, just saying.
… site that took over my (office) computer.
If something like that happens again—e.g. more things keep popping up each time you try to leave a page or close a browser tab or window—see whether you can bring up your Preferences dialog. If you are able to, use it to turn off Javascript. The simpler attacks, at least, rely on Javascript being enabled. If/when you get all the junk (pun intended) cleared off your screen, you can turn Javascript back on, as long as you’re sure you don’t have any windows or tabs still pointed at the site.
11@Cheryl,
I think I would add to your list, “and lie.”
I wanted to say, “and obfuscate the truth” but know better then to use them $5 words on penny-ante Repubs.
12@Ted: I just turned it off finally. Then IT ran several kinds of programs to clean it out, but to no avail. They just wiped it and started over. It was annoying and scary, but kind of funny in a way. It’s amazing what some people will do with their clothes off!
13@Cheryl: When I took the GRE exam a guy showed up with a T-shirt that said “Eschew obfuscation.” It’s been one of my favorite phrases ever since. But then, I’m not a Republican.
Dang, those weird Other People– women and minorities.
Or should I say Not Quite People?
HOW does this party keep getting as many votes as it does?
14Well ~ Burwell has a very long British-USA history.
Virginia plantations were all owned by British aristocrats who settled in the 1600’s. The Burwell men were wealthy landowners before they arrived, with villages & bays in England named after them. They married daughters/widows of other wealthy British aristocrats & combined huge plantations – all worked by slaves, many of whom were sold to other plantations in the South.
Burwell is also a small town in Nebraska that was named for Miss Ada Burwell of Wisconsin, allegedly because she was engaged to the brother of the town’s co-founder, who died from a falling tree. As of the 2010 census, 99.4% of residents are white, up from 98.4% in the 2000 census.
Other Burwell trivia: A US Navy destroyer named “H.M.S. Burwell” was one of 44 ships with names of towns common to both England & the U.S. that was loaned by the US Navy to Britain for 3 years of active service in WWII. The British Admiralty sent the ship’s logs to the town of Burwell in 1950.
15Would that “woman from the CNN” be the one at the Republican Convention who had peanuts thrown at her and was called “animal?”
Because that woman might actually tell them what they need to know. If she bothered to come, which I suspect she’s too smart to do. Never know what those white boys will be inspired by, sitting in an old plantation.
Needing lessons on how to talk to women and minorities is hilarious. “Like they were people,” you dimwits. “Like they’re your equals. Like they have a right to the same privileges you have. And if you don’t think they are people (that animals thing again) and you don’t think they’re your equals and have a right to the same privileges, your insufferable arrogance will drip through whatever words you use to try and hide it, like blood dripping through the ceiling from a fresh corpse in the attic. And that corpse, you deluded time-warped perverts, is the corpse of your Elephant mascot, that you killed rather than recognize that Elephants thrive in the fresh air of today, munching on facts and not rotten old fantasies of white supremacy and power.”
Hmmm…I didn’t think a bowl of high fiber breakfast cereal would do THAT to my writing.
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