IntenseDebate - ancientdame

9 years ago @ The Toast - "A'ghailleann": On Lan... · 2 replies · +55 points

"It would be easier to preserve Gaelic, my tutor notes with some resignation, if it weren’t so fiendishly difficult."

My grandfather's first language was Irish. He did not speak it at home with his children, but they learned it at school. They would make the mistake of going with some small question about their Irish homework to him, and he would find everything wrong with their attempts and insist on them spending hours working on it, as they were not thinking in Irish. Thinking in Irish is very different from thinking in English. (My dad and his siblings, lamentably, never got very good at thinking in Irish.)

This piece was lovely.

9 years ago @ The Toast - Aunt Acid: When Friend... · 1 reply · +8 points

Oh god, conservative media actively stokes the fires of fear, definitely. The ideology/pragmatism binary is a simplification, sure, and there is more at work in constructing and maintaining political beliefs. I like it as an explainer, though, because it makes sense without relying on dismissing conservative beliefs as irrational in the face of evidence. That doesn't mean there isn't irrationality and fear at work, and I don't see your understanding of your mother's thought process as dismissive, but there is an intellectually justifiable rationale at work behind economic conservatism (even if not everyone supporting specific policies cares or agrees). Recognizing that ideology and its incompatibility with my belief in economic policy interventions that produce demonstrable human benefits has helped me understand the gulf between the left and the right in this country.

Also, when I was younger, before I thought about it in this way, I would have just yelled more and been like "these idiots don't get it!" So on a personal note, it feels good to let this go a little and focus my righteous anger places where it might be useful.

9 years ago @ The Toast - Aunt Acid: When Friend... · 4 replies · +11 points

Re: LW2 and conversations that may be productive or not across the political spectrum, I find it useful to recall Jonathan Chait's thesis that, for economic policy in particular, conservatism is fueled by a free market ideology in which outcomes are unimportant, while economic liberalism is outcome-oriented, rather than ideologically driven. Chait quotes Milton Friedman, "[F]reedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself." (article here: https://newrepublic.com/article/61829/fact-finder... )

This isn't a tool for changing anyone's mind, but it helps me in thinking about why people who can be otherwise lovely (like my boyfriend's parents) don't support things like universal health care. I also use it to guide me in what political discussions are worth having, and who I want to have them with. (Never with my in-laws, but with my own parents, with whom I agree on everything except abortion, it is worth it to appeal to their liberal pragmatism. Is getting them on the side of "safe, legal, and rare" the same as "abortions on demand"? Not exactly, but recently my mom schooled my dad on the need for late term abortion access, so I'm going to take that.)

9 years ago @ The Toast - "We would have paid he... · 2 replies · +25 points

"You're so beautiful, it hurts to look at you." "Where would it hurt?"

I think of "hard to look at" in an Angela Chase, deep longing felt by an emotional teenager, overwhelmed by the possibility of one's own emotions kind of way.

9 years ago @ The Toast - That "More Than Brains... · 2 replies · +67 points

Agreed on all these points. This commercial instituted a "mute during commercials" policy in my home - and so, I have become my mother.

My boyfriend pointed out that none of the things in this terrible song indicate any measure of intelligence or educational achievement. It's anti-intellectual, anti-education bullshit.

9 years ago @ The Toast - On Money, Anxiety, and... · 0 replies · +39 points

Well, once you're married, you're not allowed to get mail!

But seriously, that is revolting.

9 years ago @ The Toast - On Money, Anxiety, and... · 8 replies · +91 points

Once when my mother was in the process of buying a car, the dealership tried to put the title in my dad's name.

And that's why my family doesn't drive hondas!

9 years ago @ The Toast - Cocktail Hour: Open Th... · 0 replies · +4 points

The mechanics of muggleborns as they are identified and assimilated into the wizarding world have never made sense to me, and make even less sense in the vision of Colonial America that Rowling has provided.

Slavery, and the questions of enslaved or slave-owning wizards, further complicate and challenge the simplicity of Rowling's world. It points to how little Rowling has considered American history that she doesn't even acknowledge slavery and the ongoing effects of institutional racism that shape the US.

9 years ago @ The Toast - Cocktail Hour: Open Th... · 4 replies · +18 points

I found them incredibly lazy. To add to the points already made in this thread, I objected on basic historical grounds. I found the idea of “Scourers” to be ridiculous - why wouldn’t the existing ministries of magic (English, French, Spanish, Dutch) establish colonial governments when their non-magical counterparts chartered colonies? American colonies didn’t lack systems of law and order.

These writings also expose the problem with Rowling ignoring religion when considering history. The Salem witch trials don’t make sense outside of their setting within a Puritan colony. Why would anyone magical go there, given the fundamental religiosity of the Massachusetts Bay Colony? Rowling offers no explanation, but could have considered what opportunities religious sectarianism may have held for witches and wizards. She could have made Rhode Island a haven for witchcraft, as it was for religious dissenters, or explored colonies founded for economic interests instead of religious ones. It seems like she doesn’t know anything about Colonial America other than Thanksgiving and the Salem witch trials.

And what about Canada? Or Mexico? Why would the MACUSA be limited to what became the USA? The more I think about these the more I hate them.

9 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +5 points

I agree with what you are saying, but I would add that whether or not you personally find Tony sexy (I do, obviously - but life is a rich tapestry etc etc), within the show, he is considered to be a charismatic and magnetic figure whom women find attractive (look at Melfi). In comparison to King of Queens or Modern Family, where the couple itself believes in the attractiveness gap, I don't think Tony and Carmella saw themselves as mismatched appearance-wise.

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