"Thank heaven for old white men"

[Bake]

LTTE, Clarion-Ledger:

"I can’t help but notice that Democrats are collectively sounding more and more like an undereducated smartaleck 13-year-old. In fact, Barack Obama often behaves like a bratty child who was raised by wolves. Now Democrats are throwing stones, claiming that the Republican Party is nothing but a party of old white men.

For the record, I have no problem with old white men. Our country was founded by old white men. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written by old white men. Old white men won WWI, WWII and the Korean Conflict.

The last time I checked, the man who freed the slaves was not only an old white man, but also a Republican. Lest we forget, Ronald Reagan, arguably one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history, was, in fact, an old white man."

more at link ...

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121121/OPINION02/311210016/Thank-heaven-old-white-men?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7COpinion%7Cs&nclick_check=1

BTW, the Clarion-Ledger is -- big shock here -- in Jackson, Mississippi.

Bake

[louis-t]

1. On Reagan, key word is "arguably".

[Major Nikon]

22. The Raygun myth is much larger than Raygun himself ever was

If you look at the term average approval ratings of all post WWII presidents, Raygun was below average.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Be honest. He was a professional actor with decades of experience. The man could deliver a speech and

knew how to work a room and the camera. And that my friend, is what matters here in dumbfuckistan.

I have no doubt at all that, if we or somebody could convince him to run, Denzel Washington could be the next President of the United States in a historic landslide. He could run from either party or, if you wanted to make it a real challenge and with sufficient lead time, a third party.

[Major Nikon]

28. Not to mention that he wasn't even that great of an actor

When he couldn't even remember the names of his own cabinet members, it's not to hard to imagine someone was pulling his strings. It just goes to show that even someone with early-onset dementia can be passed off as a great president so long as you're able to fool enough people.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2004/06/not_even_a_hedgehog.html

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. Yeah, but Denzel is a great actor. Do you know if he's a liberal? n/t

[Major Nikon]

35. I have no idea if he's ever declared one way or another

He appears to be a big fan of social justice, which might indicate liberal leanings, but he's also a big on god, which might also put him in the other tent.

[TrogL]

2. Why does this remind me of Kipling's "White man's burden"?

[Scuba]

3. Sorry, asshat, but blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans all fought in those wars.

[liberalmuse]

19. Yeah, but who started these wars?

Could it have been...white men? Jesus Christ, I love liberal white men, but conservative white men are stretching it with their whiny ass arguments on how they're being persecuted.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Really?

Black soldiers were generally restricted from combat, but the realities of war would soon blur the lines of race. One major breakthrough came during the Battle of the Bulge, in late 1944, says Ambrose.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, faced with Hitler's advancing army on the Western Front, temporarily desegregated the army, calling for urgent assistance on the front lines. More than 2,000 black soldiers volunteered to fight.

Similarly, demands in Italy called the Tuskegee Airmen to action. In 1944 they began flying with white pilots in the European theatre, successfully running bombing missions and becoming the only U.S. unit to sink a German destroyer.

African-American women also fought to serve in the war effort as nurses. Despite early protests that black nurses treating white soldiers would not be appropriate, the War Department relented, and the first group of African-American nurses in the Army Nurse Corps arrived in England in 1944.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0215_tuskegee.html

[Taverner]

9. +1000

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. The 442nd was the most decorated unit in the European theater. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

40. Composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese descent

who volunteered to fight in World War II even though their families were subject to internment.

Honor and glory to them.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Yes but let us not forget the young Japanese Americans which helped win WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Japanese: 第442連隊戦闘団 of the United States Army was a regimental size fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese descent who volunteered to fight in World War II even though their families were subject to internment. The 442nd, beginning in 1944, fought primarily in Europe during World War II.[2] The 442nd was a self-sufficient force, and fought with uncommon distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. The 442nd is considered to be the most decorated infantry regiment in the history of the United States Army. The 442nd was awarded eight Presidential Unit Citations and twenty-one of its members were awarded the Medal of Honor for World War II.[3] The 442nd Regimental Combat Team motto was, "Go for Broke".

Thanks for the thread, Bake

[Uncle Joe]

12. Or the women which took care of their families single handedly and/or worked the factories

while the men were fighting overseas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter

Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II,[1][2] many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military. Rosie the Riveter is commonly used as a symbol of feminism and women's economic power.[3]



"We can do it!" by J. Howard Miller.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Or the African American men which made up the Tuskegee Airmen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskeegee_airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen ( /tʌsˈkiːɡiː/)[1] is the popular name of a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Corps (United States Army Air Forces after 20 June 1941).

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces. During World War II, African Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws.[N 1] The American military was racially segregated, as was much of the federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen were subjected to racial discrimination, both within and outside the army. Despite these adversities, they trained and flew with distinction. All black military pilots who trained in the United States trained at Tuskegee, including five Haitians.

[Uncle Joe]

15. Or the Native Americans which fought and/or died in the Pacific including the Navajo Code Talkers,

Ira Hayes and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Code_Talker#Use_of_Navajo

Philip Johnston proposed the use of Navajo to the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of a missionary to the Navajos, and was one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Because Navajo has a complex grammar, it is not nearly mutually intelligible enough with even its closest relatives within the Na-Dene family to provide meaningful information, and was at this time an unwritten language, Johnston saw Navajo as answering the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Navajo was spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest, and its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that at the outbreak of World War II fewer than 30 non-Navajos could understand the language.[12]

Early in 1942, Johnston met with Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and his staff. Johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions which demonstrated that Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds, versus the 30 minutes required by machines at that time. The idea was accepted, with Vogel recommending that the Marines recruit 200 Navajos. The first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp in May 1942. This first group then created the Navajo code at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California.[13] The Navajo code was formally developed and modeled on the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet that uses agreed-upon English words to represent letters. As it was determined that phonetically spelling out all military terms letter by letter into words—while in combat—would be too time consuming, some terms, concepts, tactics and instruments of modern warfare were given uniquely formal descriptive nomenclatures in Navajo (the word for "potato" being used to refer to a hand grenade, or "turtle" to a tank, for example). Several of these portmanteaus (such as gofasters referring to running shoes, ink sticks for pens) entered Marine corps vocabulary and are commonly used today to refer to the appropriate objects.[citation needed]

A codebook was developed to teach the many relevant words and concepts to new initiates. The text was for classroom purposes only, and was never to be taken into the field. The code talkers memorized all these variations and practiced their rapid use under stressful conditions during training. Uninitiated Navajo speakers would have no idea what the code talkers' messages meant; they would hear only truncated and disjointed strings of individual, unrelated nouns and verbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Hayes

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a Pima Native American and an American Marine who was one of the six men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II.[4][5] Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 24, 1942. He trained as a Paramarine and saw action in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. On February 19, 1945, Hayes participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima and fought in the subsequent battle for the island. On February 23, Hayes, together with fellow Marines Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank; and Navy Corpsman John Bradley; raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi, an event photographed by Joe Rosenthal.

[Uncle Joe]

16. I hope to be an old white man one day but I also try to remember

Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall"

[Xipe Totec]

41. Or Squadron 201, the Aztec Eagles from México

The Escuadrón 201 was a Mexican fighter squadron, part of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana (FAEM — "Mexican Expeditionary Air Force&quot that aided the Allied war effort during World War II. The squadron was commonly known, apparently coined by members of the squadron during training, by the nickname Aguilas Aztecas, or "Aztec Eagles".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escuadr%C3%B3n_201

[Uncle Joe]

61. Or the Aztec Eagles from Mexico

Thanks for the catch, Xipe Totec.

[Hoyt]

6. Reagan an old white guy who chose Philadelphia, Mississippi to kick off his run for Prez.

Like all republican candidates, he had to cater to the racist/bigoted vote. What better place to speak about so-called "states' rights" than a town full of bigots known for murdering civil rights workers in 1960s.

[Taverner]

7. What??? Old white men fought WWII?????

Um, no YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN fought it. White, black, hispanic, female, native american, japanese american - they were all there.

They may be old now, but they weren't then

[BlueJazz]

8. "Ronald Reagan, arguably one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history"

AAAAGGGHHH!! My brain starts having spasms when any idiotic ugly bag of water says that.
Reagan was the Godfather of slime-worms.....the king of dunces..

[DollarBillHines]

20. Oh, give him a break, he had Alzheimer's when he was first sworn in.

I hated that motherfucker and his slut wife with a passion.

[Flashmann]

10. Ronald Reagan, arguably one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history

Huh...I was there...I lived it.......I remember it......The position that Ronald Reagan, arguably one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history,just does not jibe with my experiences and recollections.....In fact,I distinctly recall ronnie raygun as an out of touch,barely lucid,Union busting shit sack.......

[Major Nikon]

38. Here's a funny about Raygun

If you check dates you'll find that Nancy's first kid with him was conceived out of wedlock. It seems that Nancy managed to wind up on the blacklist and Ronnie as the head of SAG was the man to see about such things. After a bit of quid pro quo Nancy managed to get a bun in the oven and the rest is history. Around the same time Ronnie was rolling on his fellow union brothers to the CIA. Shitstain manages to describe him pretty well.

[Egalitarian Thug]

48. You're really being too kind to him. I'm not sure which is more insulted, shit or stains. n/t

[demhottie]

11. White men "freed the slaves", but also enslaved the slaves

C'mon, it's just too easy

[Bake]

13. Posting this was like throwing a steak to a pack of ravenous hounds ...

But I had to share the stupid with you!

I too found it amusing that the letter writer thinks only white men fought in various wars, when nothing (surprise, surprise) could be further from the truth. And of course, the Reagan arguability ...



Bake

[Cleita]

17. "Old white men won WWI, WWII and the Korean Conflict."

Really! My knowledge of history tells me that men of all colors and some very brave women helped win those wars. If you want to rate Reagan as President, he was only a little better than the Bushes, who were the worst Presidents in history.

On edit to add: Also, much of our Constitution was based on Iroquois Confederacy rules for their nations.

[maveric56]

23. We didn't win the Korean Conflict!

In fact its still ongoing.

[Cleita]

24. Technicalities. Yes, I know we still have troops on the DMZ.

Probably a more accurate statement would be "fought in".

[liberalmuse]

18. Aw, poor old wrinkled white men.

They are so abused!

[DavidDvorkin]

21. I don't think that the white men who did good things were all that old at the time

And Ronald Reagan was inarguably one of the worst presidents America has ever had.

[Egalitarian Thug]

29. Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was 71,

Last edited Wed Nov 21, 2012, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

John Hancock was 40, John Adams 41, Sam was 56, Thomas Paine 39, Caesar Rodney 49, George Washington 44, how many would you like?

And this was in a time when the majority of people (commoners) died in their 40's. The average life expectancy was 35.

[DavidDvorkin]

34. Proving my point

Franklin was the only old one.

Life expectancy at birth is a very misleading number in an era. High infant and child mortality drives that number down. Those who survive that part of life have a much higher expectancy. Men of the higher classes, such as those you listed, were not going to drop dead at 35.

[Egalitarian Thug]

39. So, you're saying that anybody that isn't venerable is young? And Franklin wasn't the only

really old one, he's just the only one I listed. The point I believe, is that wisdom in the actually young is a rarity. The young members of the 2nd Continental Congress composed the majority of the opposition to the declaration.

And your statement about life expectancy in the 18th century is entirely fallacious. Benjamin Franklin was notable for, among so many other things, living so long.

Excluding infant mortality, the average was early 60's. A man in his late 40's or early 50's that can expect to die in his early 60's is old. You also fail to consider that this was a time before we had created the concept of adolescence, you were a man at 13 - 15, but were not considered mature until you had reached your 30's. There are a number of very good books regarding the societal/cultural differences of this time. Perhaps you would like some recommendations?

[brush]

55. Franklin's age

Are you sure about Franklin's age of 71? Didn't he go on to serve as an ambassador in Europe for several years after that/

[Egalitarian Thug]

57. Yes he did.

Benjamin was born January 1705 and lived to 84 or 85 (they changed the date system, you can look it up if it matters). He was exceptional in almost every way a person can be.

[krispos42]

26. Wars are won by young men, first of all.

The footage of American GIs during WW2 showed this for a fact. Also Korea, Vietnam, WW1, etc.

Second of all, the reason only white men were able to do it was because... they didn't allow non-whites or non-men to do anything. If they tried, they were killed. By white men.

[Egalitarian Thug]

30. Average of a GI in WWII was 26. In Vietnam it was 19. n/t

[Cleita]

36. Many older guys even in their thirties enlisted to fight in WWII because

this war was viewed as a just war. I remember a street full of mothers and children with fathers and uncles who were away fighting in the wars. Some came back to resume their lives with their families. Others died. We lost two on our block.

[drm604]

27. Hey!

Some of us are pretty cool, just no more so than any other race, gender, or age.

[brush]

56. I like that sentiment

Now that sounds like a grounded, down to earth, confident man who respects all men, and women. A perfect post for Thanksgiving Day. Thanks, drm604.

[upaloopa]

32. What the hell does all that got to do with it?

I would ask him. We are not talking about the past. The future for rethugs is a party of old white men no matter what they did in the past.
Their intolerance and fear of a changing demographic dooms them. I am an old white man but I don't share repub's visions.

[Initech]

33. Think the guy that wrote this was a racist?

[Downtown Hound]

42. Actually our constitution is partly based off of the Iroquois "Great Law of Peace"

Who were then slaughtered by old white men out of gratitude. As for the rest of his idiotic dribble, I just thank God and hope that all these backwards ass, fearful, old white men will all be in heaven soon, and then the country can really move forward.

[Avalux]

43. The "us vs. them" mentality has got to stop.

Yes, plenty of old white men have done great things (minus Reagan), just as plenty of the have done awful things (add Reagan). Just as in every race, religion, age group and gender, there are people who have done great things and people that have done awful things.

We are all PEOPLE. If we can all somehow come to understand that and accept it, the world would be a different place.

[Union Scribe]

53. It'd be nice, wouldn't it? nt

[upi402]

44. On Reagan's watch we went from biggest lending nation - to biggest debtor nation

I'd argue Raygun's greatness if I thought facts would matter.

[7wo7rees]

45. I am done listening to bitching from old white men.

[Downtown Hound]

46. I just read the whole LTTE

And noticed that he pointed out how Lincoln was a Republican and freed the slaves. I could go on and on about how the Republican party was the liberal party of its day, but it's pointless with these people. Usually when Republicans bring that up I just say to them, "Uh huh. And can you point to a single civil rights accomplishment that Republicans have made that occurred within, I don't know, the last hundred years? I love it how you have to go back to the 1800's to find an achievement you can boast about."

I've never heard an answer from a single Republican that I've asked this to.

[Aerows]

47. LOL

You think Jackson Mississippi is a bastion of old white men? LOLOLOLOLOL It might be for this election, but it is changing, and all of MS is, too. The coast is the thriving element of MS and it's not nearly as in the dark ages as 2 miles north of I-10. This state will move like GA will also before too long, because there simply aren't enough old white men living in it anymore to control it forever. White women, old and young, are fed the hell up with them, as the personhood amendment failures have repeatedly shown.

Republicans rely upon certain Southern states as strongholds at their peril; they have pissed off a number of white people, including women and men that have a clue. The Coast had a Democratic Congressman from Mississippi up until 2010 when he didn't even make a credible campaign. That can change in 2014, and I will do everything I can to make sure that it does change from the Republican butthead that currently holds the seat.

[Matariki]

49. Republican modus operandi is to frame themselves as adults and Democrats as rebellious children.

This it utter and complete bullshit that should be countered at every opportunity.

[Matariki]

50. "Ronald Reagan, arguably one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history"

Yes, that is very very arguable. He arguably fucked up the country badly for the last 30 years.

[bluestateguy]

51. Whatever

In due time we will out-immigrate and outbreed such people.

[Deep13]

52. Old, white men have a habit of dropping dead.

And those replacing them are often not white. Now, I'm not wishing for anyone's demise, but the simple fact is there are no longer enough angry, white men in this country to allow the Republican party in its present, reactionary form to be viable.

[Hekate]

54. Jeez. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written by YOUNG men

Mostly. Franklin was a silver fox, but Jefferson, Washington, and others were notably much younger.

The country was founded by young men and women. Old ones couldn't make the voyage, clear forests, bust sod, or trek across the plains. Young men fought our wars -- now young women do too. It's always the old who send the young to fight and die.

Sometimes what happens is that the old forget this -- and so do those around them. John McCain had his day -- when he was younger. Now he is a bitter old man (ghostly white, but that's not his fault) -- bitter and angry and he wants that young Obama fella to get off his lawn and go to Hell.

Bob Dole had his day, too, and we might have chortled over his decision to take up advertising for awhile after he lost the Presidential election, but I have to say now that he handled losing with a lot better grace than McCain was ever capable of doing. He doesn't curse the young, the way McCain is doing.

With age comes wisdom -- or so we hope. The problem with "old white men" is that unfortunately the ones who have pooled in the Republican Party are too often the ones who have aged without gaining insight or wisdom....

We should count ourselves lucky that more people of all ages and colors were moved to vote for the one with real insight and wisdom this time.

[lunatica]

58. Some old white men are actually progressive and visionary

Except for Reagan. He was a troglodyte who could deliver a nice speech and had a protective wife who told him what to do and say.

[Enrique]

59. whoever wrote this needs to relax

no one is hating on old white men.

[Amaril]

60. I just think it's funny.......

......when they start prattling on about Obama acting like a bratty child.

I've heard people say this before, and I just don't understand where they get this stuff. I have never seen Obama behave in any way other than dignified, gracious and thoughtful. Are they maybe confusing Shrub with Obama? Talk about somebody who acted like a spoiled rotten 12 year old..........