New Developments III

[Sabin]

Romney is saying that A) he's sorry for the incident, B) he doesn't remember the incident, and C) nobody was thinking about who's gay and who isn't in the 1960s. The last comment strikes me as especially problematic because it speaks to a special kind of homophobia. Romney saying that he didn't do it because he knew the kid was gay is the same thing as saying "I didn't beat him up because he was homosexual! I just did it because he was talkin' funny! In a lispy way!" Romney coded this guy as "Other" and lashed out in mean-spiritedness.

Now in no way should this overshadow the more pressing problematic decisions of Romney's adult career, but there is a desperation in all three of these defenses combined that speaks to Romney's character. The good ol' Mitt Romney I will say whatever I have to say to make all of whatever I did go away without having to stand by my choices.

[Mister Tee]

Normally I'm inclined to snort at stories that go back in time like this. I know I did things at grade school/high school age of which I'm not proud, and I presume that's true of most. But a few things about this story are different:

First: Most of those things of which I'm not proud were things i went along with/didn't try to stop. Romney was by every account the instigator here. That carries a higher level of culpability.

Second: Romney claims not to remember the incident (even while being sure it didn't happen because he thought the victim was gay). Everyone else involved -- Romney's buddies, the perpetrators -- say it sticks with them as an incident of which they're intensely ashamed. Seems to me there ar only two possibilities for this dichotomy, equally bad: either Romney's a lying sack of shit, or this incident of which everyone else has horrible memories truly didn't strike him as memorable...which would put him in sociopath range.

Had Romney just said, Yeah,it happened; I was a young jerk, and I'd never do anything like that today...I believe he'd have skated free, maybe even gained in public assessment. But the hard-to-credit denial just reinforces, as flipp says, all the other lack-of-empathy incidents in the Romney narrative: the dog on the roof, liking to fire people, making fun of the local cookies he's served. The guy guy seems to be, at heart, a dick.

What a dilemma for the Log Cabin republicans, who bent over backwards this week to complain about Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage, and are now in the position of advocating for a guy who used to harass them in adolescence.

[Sonic Youth]

Mitt Romney just apologized for bullying a supposedly-gay student when Romney was in boarding school. The boy dyed his hair blond; and, Romney pinned him down and forcefully cut his hair while the boy cried for help.

This just speaks to the rottenness that's at the core of Romney's character—his profound lack of empathy for others and the belief that he thinks he can terrorize people that he perceives as weaker than him. This story, the one about Seamus, his Irish Setter, the tricks played on the blind, his utter glee at firing people—it all accumulates to paint the picture of a man utterly lacking in compassion. That's certainly not someone I'd like to be President of the United States.

Well, yes he did say this:

"I'm not going be too concerned about their piece. They talked about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school and they describe some that you just say to yourself, ‘well, back in high school I did some dumb things.’ And if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize," Romney told Kilmeade.

But he also said this:

"I don’t remember that incident," Romney said about the Washington Post piece accusing him of clipping a gay student's hair.

"certainly don’t believe that I, or I can’t speak for other people of course, thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furtherest thing from our minds back in the 1960s," Romney told FOX News Radio.

Such a politican.

[criddic3]

Mitt Romney just apologized for bullying a supposedly-gay student when Romney was in boarding school. The boy dyed his hair blond; and, Romney pinned him down and forcefully cut his hair while the boy cried for help.

This just speaks to the rottenness that's at the core of Romney's character—his profound lack of empathy for others and the belief that he thinks he can terrorize people that he perceives as weaker than him. This story, the one about Seamus, his Irish Setter, the tricks played on the blind, his utter glee at firing people—it all accumulates to paint the picture of a man utterly lacking in compassion. That's certainly not someone I'd like to be President of the United States.

Well, yes he did say this:

"I'm not going be too concerned about their piece. They talked about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school and they describe some that you just say to yourself, ‘well, back in high school I did some dumb things.’ And if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize," Romney told Kilmeade.

But he also said this:

"I don’t remember that incident," Romney said about the Washington Post piece accusing him of clipping a gay student's hair.

"certainly don’t believe that I, or I can’t speak for other people of course, thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furtherest thing from our minds back in the 1960s," Romney told FOX News Radio.

[flipp525]

Mitt Romney just apologized for bullying a supposedly-gay student when Romney was in boarding school. The boy dyed his hair blond; and, Romney pinned him down and forcefully cut his hair while the boy cried for help.

This just speaks to the rottenness that's at the core of Romney's character—his profound lack of empathy for others and the belief that he thinks he can terrorize people that he perceives as weaker than him. This story, the one about Seamus, his Irish Setter, the tricks played on the blind, his utter glee at firing people—it all accumulates to paint the picture of a man utterly lacking in compassion. That's certainly not someone I'd like to be President of the United States.

[Greg]

Mitt Romney just apologized for bullying a supposedly-gay student when Romney was in boarding school. The boy dyed his hair blond; and, Romney pinned him down and forcefully cut his hair while the boy cried for help.

[OscarGuy]

I'm sure most of that 41% were republicans

[Greg]

Yesterday had some interesting primary results. North Carolina passed an amendment barring benefits to same-sex and non-married-heterosexual couples. Dick Lugar, Indian Senator and senior Republican member of the U.S. Senate lost renomination to a Teapartier by 20%. Also, President Obama won the West Virginia Democratic Presidential primary, with 59% of the vote. The remaining 41% went to some guy serving a 17-year sentence in a Texas prison.

[Greg]

French vote out Sarkozy:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/ ... AR20120506

[Greg]

Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin case:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-574 ... rtin-case/

[Sonic Youth]

MILWAUKEE – President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation’s dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side…In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.

The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney’s support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/s ... 53930684/1

Considering all that led up to today, this was totally expected.

[ksrymy]

Well, Democrats might be lonelier in red states.

e.g. Lawrence, Kansas.

[Greg]

Even if it's true, not everyone who lives in the mid-West is a Republican, you know.

Ah, so more Democrats watch porn in Red states than they do in Blue states. Got it!

Well, Democrats might be lonelier in red states.

[Sonic Youth]

Funny enough, some research just came out saying the Midwest United States consumes the most porn and, also, the most gay porn. Hooray GOP. Party against hypocrisy!

Research from where?

I don't know what study he's specifically talking about, but there's this from a few years ago:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Busine ... 202&page=1

But we're not judging...

Even if it's true, not everyone who lives in the mid-West is a Republican, you know.

Ah, so more Democrats watch porn in Red states than they do in Blue states. Got it!

[criddic3]

Funny enough, some research just came out saying the Midwest United States consumes the most porn and, also, the most gay porn. Hooray GOP. Party against hypocrisy!

Research from where?

Even if it's true, not everyone who lives in the mid-West is a Republican, you know.