There are occasionally moments that make you smile. They are hard to explain. We shouldn’t smile in these moments and we often feel guilty about not feeling guilty about someone else having a hard time. The Germans came up with a name for it. They called it schadenfreude. The closest English translation I have heard when describing this uniquely German word is “shameful joy.” It seems the notorious MTG was wielding the gavel for some stupid reason and she was trying to bring the House to order. As you might suspect, it went about as well as any of us could imagine.
I’m usually not one to laugh at other people’s misery. It’s like watching someone stumble down the stairs. You want to make sure they are okay first. After all, none of us really aims to be that big of an asshole at the end of the day. We aren’t rooting for bodily injury here. However, if someone just has a bruised ego we find ourselves unable to suppress at least just a tiny chuckle at their expense. The beauty of schadenfreude is that others feel it about us in equal proportion. Paul McCartney once said, “the love you take is equal to the love you make.” In this case, the bad vibes you take are equal to the bad vibes you create.
MTG is the kid in the back of class that heckles the teacher every day and makes his or her life a living hell. Then, suddenly when the teacher is gone the assistant principal gives her a dose of her own medicine and puts her in charge for a day. Suddenly, she gets to feel the way that just about every other adult in that room feels when they have to deal with her performance art. Normally, I wouldn’t condone this kind of behavior from anyone. Normally, I would say you need to rise above it all and show the world you are the adult party. That would ignore the fact that these are not normal times.
I couldn’t tell you how all of this ends. A part of me wonders whether this is just the natural course of things. I have to wonder if my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents felt the same way about their elected leaders. Did they see a few statemen mixed in with a whole group of performance artists that couldn’t care less about doing actual good? Was it always like this? Were we always somehow represented by the worst among us? Deep down, I know this isn’t true, but I keep holding out hope that we can somehow bypass these idiots to keep this thing going. In the meantime, enjoy a good laugh.
And logic. And coherent reasoning. And trustworthiness.
But, she really good at being damn silly.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO): “I left a prescription at a pharmacy once. I went to get birth control … The price was very, very high … And I said, 'It’s cheaper to have a kid.' And I left it there, and now I have my third son.” pic.twitter.com/5aUut9DBg8
I remember, way back in 6th grade (1963), a lot of stuff happened. Mrs. Libby was our teacher. I really liked her. She was strict but she would let me do extra science experiments from the big box when I was getting too far ahead in my reading program. Most of my classmates don’t remember her so fondly. Probably the biggest bad thing that happened was JFK being assassinated. The biggest good thing (to me) was when daily recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was halted, thanks to Madelyn Murray O’Hair.
The Most Hated Woman in America was My Shero. I hated having to recite this every morning, after the Pledge of Allegiance (which I did not hate). It was bad enough that this was my PUBLIC school, but it was extra bad because we Catholic kids were not supposed to say the last phrase (“for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory …”) because that was the PROTESTANT version. Oh no. Way to divide tweens when all they want to do is blend in, right? Say The Lord’s Prayer in Church? No problem. At home, or during the rosary with Cardinal Cushing’s mumbling drone? We were ready. But NOT in school, in the rules of life according to young Fenway Fran.
Today’s article in the WaPo about the latest shattering of the line between Church and State brought it all back to me. I believe the Texas Lege has drunk too much holy water. Pop those 10 Commandments in every classroom! Replace those trained school counselors with ‘chaplains’! These hypocrites have forgotten what Matthew said about loudly praying in public. They’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do when they meet their Maker.
The advisory comes as a direct response to what the Board says is an “aggressive attempt to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools” by Governor DeSantis.
Equity Florida reminded everybody that Florida ain’t safe for LGTBQ people either. Or women. Or children.
The Governor of Florida quickly issued his usual statement.
“We aren’t going to waste our time worrying about political stunts. We will continue doing what is right for Floridians.”
Oh Honey, check your self-awareness. You know Disney has offered you your own new character: Mr. Political Stunt. Nobody can ever challenge your right to that crown. The good news is that your stunts are never very good – even a mouse can beat you.
I’ve talked about scale before. Yet, the thrust on that day was the impressive math skills of Majorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. In that case, somehow dozens had turned into millions and millions had turned into billions. I suppose we can call that the politics of hyperbole or exaggeration. Numbers are confusing you know. They tend to point to facts and facts are so useless when you are crafting an alternative narrative.
In this case we have seen two news stories that are obviously related. First, Ken Paxton has launched yet another investigation into Texas Children’s Hospital. This is not the first time. It’s usually at this point where we would remind the studio audience that gender affirming care is not illegal in Texas…yet. However, that is about to change. We can easily go down the rabbit hole and debate this issue back and forth. I suspect that most of the readers here are on the same side. Why is the party of “personal responsibility” and civil liberty somehow in favor of taking away autonomy and limiting freedom? It’s obvious that the GOP is no longer conservative in any traditional sense.
Yet, that’s not the question for today. The question for today is why we are even bothering in the first place. Lost in the maze of cruelty, drastic overreach, and religious zealousness is the fact that this impacts so few people. I have been on my current campus for nine years. We graduate between 300 and 400 students every year. That’s eight graduating classes (the first year we only had up to 11th grade). We have three more classes right now of the same size. Basic math tells me that we have had between 3500 and 4500 students roll through this campus. Let’s make it an even 4000. I know of only a handful of students that have been openly transitioning. That’s one hand. That’s 0.1 percent of the students that have rolled through this campus. I have no idea if we are indicative of the entire population or not, but I can’t imagine it is that different.
I will grant that there are any number of students that are privately grappling with their identity. Obviously, the state of Texas and those that govern it aren’t helping. Still, we aren’t talking about a lot of people. It’s the same thing as those conservatives that want to fondle girls because they want to make sure that some girls are actually girls when playing sports. Beyond the abject horror of these ideas is the extreme impracticality of it all. Are you to tell me that there is nothing else going on Texas or your state that you need to spend time on this? How many girls are we talking about here? My daughter played junior volleyball from the age of ten to the age of 15. I counted one boy that played and no one cared.
The cruelty is the goal. It’s a feature and not a bug. Beyond that is the ridiculousness of it all. We aren’t solving problems. We are inventing them. There isn’t a whole hoard of boys dressing up like girls and going into the girls bathroom. There isn’t a hoard of girls dressing like boys and going into the boys bathroom. Of course, no one has a problem with that for some reason. I don’t know anyone that has even seen a drag queen story hour being advertised much less attended one. Yet, this is what we spend time on. These have become our legislative priorities.
They have also become the battle lines we fight with family and friends over. We don’t fight over whether we should keep our democracy. We don’t fight nearly enough over military grade weapons killing our kids. We don’t fight to save the environment, pass true educational reform, overhaul the health insurance system, or combat the wealth gap. Nope. We fight over stuff that affects less than one percent of the population. Don’t get me wrong. We all know people we love and respect that deserve to be protected. They deserve to be themselves. They deserve their dignity. Sadly, many don’t agree. However, what we can all agree on is that government shouldn’t be spending time on any of this. Whether you think a girl should become a boy or vice versa is certainly a personal preference. Spending valuable time and resources litigating this in the public sphere is just proof the GOP isn’t serious about addressing any actual problems
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
