Tearful apology not needed, and the evolution deniers.

I must say that it's nice to be home. I always enjoy my vacations, but I enjoy coming home after a long time away even more.

Anyway, I caught Melissa Harris-Perry's tearful apology about her comments relating to Mitt Romney's (adopted) grandchild, and I have to tell you that I was incensed.

I know that I was one of the people saying that the panel on her show should have just left the issue of this child alone, but the right has blown this thing way out of proportion, and they are now using it to try and revive Mitt's political fortunes.

I have said this before and it is worth repeating: Nobody plays the victim card like these wingnuts. Sarah Palin has made a career out of it. (I see you Mr. Bashir)

The sad thing is, of course, that the right will vilify their political enemies and their children and they will never have to apologize for their actions. This is called a double standard.

Now quoting my man, Jason Easley:

"Harris-Perry took responsibility for the segment, even though she never said what the right accused her of saying. Her apology was heartfelt, intelligent, and insightful. It was typical of what viewers see on her program every weekend. What it wasn’t was necessary.

MHP brought up a great point about families being off limits, but that is something that the same critics that have called for her to be fired have ignored when it comes to President Obama and his family. The fact that Harris-Perry has now apologized multiple times raises the question why do those on the left have to apologize multiple times for things that Republicans get away with daily?
Please spare me the argument that the left is somehow morally superior to the right, and thus held to a higher standard. The left, right, and center are all the same. Partisans like to think that they are morally superior, but each are still human being expressing political views that should be held to the same standard.

The problem is that there is a basic hypocrisy in the media that allows the right to not be held accountable bad behavior. Not only is the right allowed to get away with worse things than the MHP segment on a daily basis, but no one on the left is ever cut the same slack.

Harris-Perry turned her apology into a teaching moment. She demonstrated once again why she is one of the best on cable news. However, the apology was unnecessary. The left should resolve to only apologize when the right is held to the same standard of accountability for their behavior. The only way that the media will ever treat them fairly is if it is demanded. "
 [Source]

Amen!

Finally, there is a new poll out showing that most republicans do not believe in evolution. Yes, the majority of them indeed believe that man has been in his current form since creation.

To them, evolution, like climate change, is a liberal creation. It is not to be believed because the scientists who come up with these ideas are leftists. They have a hidden agenda. Science is not to be believed. It is your preacher and local Tea Party person who has all the answers. No wonder we keep hearing crazy stories about people like this.

"That's what makes the evolution survey extraordinary: The Republican Party is achieving the seemingly impossible feat of becoming even more theological. Democrats and independents haven't moved much in their views, while Republicans took a sharp turn toward fundamentalism.

As a matter of political Darwinism, the Republicans' mutation is not likely to help the GOP's survival. As the country overall becomes racially diverse and more secular, Republicans are resolutely white and increasingly devout. If current trends persist, it will only be a couple of decades before they join the dodo and saber-toothed tiger."

Now now, apparently there was no "dodo" or "saber-toothed tiger" to begin with.

 

Quoting Lincoln?

It's nice to see Melissa Harris-Perry apologize for making fun of Mitt's (adopted) black grandchild. The high road is always good.

Of course she could have just doubled down and said that she was joking like Megyn Kelly of Fox News, but she didn't.

Sadly, we will never get an apology from folks like Rush and others of his ilk for all of the reprehensible things that they have said about people of color and other marginalized groups in the past, but we don't expect any more from them. Folks like that have not yet fully evolved as human beings.

Finally, you just can't make this stuff up.

The republican party is the "party of Lincoln", so this guy should have known better.

"Not everything you read on the internet is true.”- George Washington

Too often we’ve seen the embarrassment that comes with random people on Twitter sharing around inspirational quotes from famous people that they never actually uttered in the first place. It’s one thing for the layman to do it; quite another entirely for a public official to misquote Abraham Lincoln, but that’s exactly what happened to Arizona Republican state senator Al Melvin when he tried to share the wisdom of the former president.
Here are the two tweets in question (which, by the way, are still up as of this posting):


Well, it turns out Lincoln never actually said those words. When the Arizona Daily Star asked Melvin about the misquotes, this is what he had to say.

Melvin said he got the quotes from a Republican club newsletter.
“It sounded good,” he said. “It seemed like it was something that he would say.”
Told of the misattribution, Melvin said, “That’s news to me.”

But it’s all good, because as Benjamin Franklin once said, “It’s all water under the bridge now.” [Source]

It's New Year's Eve, and I am heading out for a nice quiet dinner with the Mrs.

Happy New Year everybody! And please be safe out there.