BUH

[filkertom]

The Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, at a town hall meeting Friday, saying poor parents of students who eat free or reduced-price meals in school cafeterias should be required to attend parent-teacher conferences, or the students should go without:

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, according to the Greenville News. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

I could've sworn at some point in my life I lived in a rational country.

Comments

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately we stopped being a rational country quite some time ago... :-(

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

You aren't responsible for certain parts of South Carolina. I'd never go there without a passport.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

You did; you still do, if you don't live in certain parts. Notable at the state level (and I apologize to individuals who are sane but live there) are South Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. (I in a state that's schizoid: there are strong divides between sane and utterly nuts, both in NYC and upstate. No middle ground, which is, I fear, becoming the story of the US.)

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

No nod to CA for repudiating the idea of gay marriage on multiple occasions?

[littlesammy.livejournal.com]

Even worse, these days my country has developed a habit of copying yours in a fannish sort of way.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

This is so offensive, especially since, if you know the code phrases, he makes it blatantly obvious that he's talking about black people in particular.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I'm 100 percent certain of that.

[hyrkanian.livejournal.com]

*retch*

I'm so glad I don't live in SC any more, and never will again, and that my kids don't attend SC schools any more.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

I guess he was tired of being a politician?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

What makes you think this will hurt him in any way at all?

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Is it too late to let the south form the confederate states?

[lariss.livejournal.com]

No. Too early. You see, if the South forms the COnfederacy, then moving north would mean emigration for me...passports, visas, re-citizenship.

Ugh. Messy.


Wait 'til we've moved.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Yes, clearly Grandma was an ignorant individual. And so is he...and all the yahoos who elected this sorry excuse for a human being.

I say we stop feeding him and his offspring. Wouldn't want that gentic mutation to continue.

[dragonmakr.livejournal.com]

Is the position of Lt. Governor an elected one in SC? Or is it the same as Vice President?

[lariss.livejournal.com]

Well.. yeah...animals with food will breed. That's true. And humans are animals. That's true, too.
But parent-teacher conferences have never been studied as a method of birth control.
Logic fail.


Also compassion fail, humility fail, classism fail (or win, depending on your perspective), and, I'm HOPEFUL, that it's a massive political fail, too.


OH!!!

And Malthusian Theory Use attempt and FAIL! The children of the poor use fewer resources than the children of the wealthy. THEREFORE we don't need to stop the poor people from having kids...it's those RICH who're sucking off of society and the global community.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

I think that kind of comment is the true heritage of Rush Limbaugh. Long after his bloated, Oxycontin-soaked corpse is feeding the worms, his real contribution to the destruction of America will live on.

Limbaugh discovered that by making a stupid, outrageous statement, barely concealing racism or cruelty, you get a lot of people to agree with you. If you're ever called on it (as this lieutenant governor will) you can always claim "I was just kidding!", wait a minute, then say something even more racist and cruel.

Whether Limbaugh created this technique, or whether he stole it and simply refined it, he proved it's a way to make money and gain very rich friends. Sadly, it'll be used from now on by all kinds of awful people.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you go back to the original news article, you find that the lieutenant governor did backtrack- but only long after the speech, and only to reporters:

Bauer later Friday told The Greenville News he wasn't saying people on government assistance "were animals or anything else."

Yes you were, you arrogant, ignorant bastard.

[pabsungenis.livejournal.com]

Really, ALL parents should be required to attend conferences, not just those who get food aid.

But his logic and reasoning otherwise is beyond stupid.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind that a lot of working poor can't get off work to attend conferences. I know of quite a few employers here in Texas who would basically say, "If you go, don't come back."

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. "If you offer assistance to people with limited means, that just encourages them to remain in that situation."

Apparently we've gone from "welfare queens" to "stray animals". I almost admire the more honest, naked hostility.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I actually like the unvarnished hostility people like the lieutenant-governor have been throwing around lately? I want that crap all out in the open.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

In our district, ALL kids get free lunches. On our side of town, most parents do parent teacher conferences. We're wealthier, we have more flexible schedules. On the poor side of town (our old school), where you have 2 adults working 5 jobs between them, they aren't so well attended. On that side, you wait for maybe one parent. On the rich side, you wait through 3-4.

I've been hearing stuff like that all my life in the midwest. And there is so much privilege tied up in it: assumption of work schedule. Assumption of transportation. Assumption of parents. (Some kids in my husband's district couch surf)

on the other hand, how many geeks grumble about "There must be a way to stop stupid people from breeding?" The only real difference is that this guy said it in front of a microphone with racial codewords thrown in.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

...how many geeks grumble about "There must be a way to stop stupid people from breeding?" The only real difference is that this guy said it in front of a microphone with racial codewords thrown in.

In my opinion, there is one other difference. This guy assumes that people are stupid without having any evidence of stupidity.

I conclude that people are stupid when they provide evidence of it. Then I keep track, to see if it was just a case of temporary stupidity (a trait common to everybody I've met so far, including me), or if there is reason to conclude that the person is permanently stupid.

I can't say whether or not all geeks evaluate stupidity the way I do, though.

[mockingbirdq.livejournal.com]

God, how cut off from reality is he? As a teacher, the huge majority of my students' parents (our school is labeled socio-economically disadvantaged) CANNOT attend PTA meetings and conferences. My kids live with single parents who work, or aunts and uncles taking responsibility for them short term while parents are in jail or working in other states. I've even learned to make phone calls home on Sundays because it is the only day most parents are likely to be home and not working. I have kids who who only see their parent briefly each morning as their parent comes in off a work shift while the kids are getting ready for school.

Most poor kids don't have a parent or grandparent who lives with them and stays at home all day. They and their parents are just trying to earn enough money to keep their household going. Almost every student I teach over 14 has a job after school, legal or not.

I was trying to explain this concept to an administrator at our school who had the brilliant idea for a mentoring program after school each day. 2 months later, not a single child has stayed after for it - for the simple reason that they have no way to get home afterwards and no family member to pick them up. Yet this administrator keeps blaming the failure of his program on "parent apathy". Right...

Heck, I'm middle class but my son has two working parents and it is a major loss of income for us if my husband or I has to take off work for a parent conference. We do it, but I know a lot of parents don't have the option.

[elf]

God, how cut off from reality is he?

He's a bachelor with no children. And as far as a quick websearch turns up, an only child. 'Nuff said.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I could've sworn at some point in my life I lived in a rational country.

You can't possibly be that old.

[tommytoony.livejournal.com]

I kinda agree in principal with the idea; trying to insure that parents are actively involved in the kid's education is a good idea....but wow, that reasoning? That's a whole new load o' stupid.

Then again, I've always felt that stupid people shouldn't breed...guess we know one guy who needs to be snipped.

[elf]

trying to insure that parents are actively involved in the kid's education is a good idea

1) It shouldn't be limited to poor parents; wealth is not an indicator of good parenting.

2) Cutting off kid's food--or anything related to school, really--based on parental involvement is... an amazing way to hobble our own future. (I remember several forms the school sent home that my dad wouldn't sign for political reasons. They tried to threaten my grades for them. That was pretty much the end of my belief that school grades had a direct connection to a child's education or behavior in school.) (I was 9.)

3) If "parent involvement" were important on its own, it'd be scheduled between 5 and 8 pm, with options of weekend meetings, and weird flexible other options for those parents for whom neither of those work.

Right now, PTA & parent conferences are built on the assumption that every child lives in a nuclear family with a factory/office-employed dad and a stay-at-home mom who's always available for school contact, only they've had to adapt that model a bit.

They haven't adapted it enough to deal with the reality of two working parents or single parents, or military parents, or parents who work nights, or many other types of families.

If there are two parents, the assumption is that mom is dealing with the schools, and is available for various meetings, all of which are scheduled between the hours of 8am and 5pm.

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

WTF?

As Sheldon would say -- "EPIC FAIL!!!!"

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it: I read about it over at Talking Points Memo.

Not at all surprising in South Carolina, though; I figure the only reason he didn't outright use the N word in the speech was, the man has hopes of a national career someday.

[batyatoon]

I would like to think that this man's grandmother would have been horrified to see him apply the 'quit feeding stray animals' doctrine to human beings.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

As long as it was clear that he was only referring to the poor (and especially poor blacks), she would probably have approved.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

What's just as sad in this case is that he will not get called on the carpet for saying this. He will not loose his job, he will not be publicly shamed, he will not be reprimanded. He will not be remembered for saying this in a year, and in fact he will be quietly praised in the short term. There will be nobody who, when he says 'I wasn't comparing poor [colored] people to stray animals,' will reply 'YES YOU DID, ANDRE! YES! YOU! DID!' There will be no negative consequences for him saying this. He will carry on as he did, spreading the toxic memes in his head and happily going on with his life, which will be long and comfortable and filled with well-paying political jobs and, later, consultancies and lobbying.

He will get away with saying this, and nothing will be done to him. Justice is dead.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Um, dude? This is South Carolina.

He WILL be remembered for saying this stuff- and it will HELP, not hurt, him.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the drug tests; he thinks their ability to eat should be contingent on those as well. Ugh.

(And of course that's without going into the whole "poor children = stray animals" part.)

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

See, my take on this is that it illustrates something I say over and over again. Caps for emphasis:

ANYTIME YOU TAKE STUFF FROM THE GOVERNMENT, IT ENCOURAGES THEM TO THINK THEY CAN CONTROL YOUR LIFE.

The folks getting these lunches should send them back and tell the State of South Carolina to go screw itself. No "stuff", no problems of this sort.

Tom Trumpinski

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Er. Yes. Because having ten year olds spend seven hours a day doing extensive brainwork with NO FOOD makes perfect sense. Particularly when their more affluent peers will be able to afford food. That will cause absolutely no problems at all, and will clearly lead to high academic achievement at all levels.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

Fuck that guy.

And fuck anyone, here or elsewhere, who said "well, he kind of has a point."

I'm tired of arguing welfare with people who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

She shouldn't have said what she said, that said, I wish that there was a way to get more parents of low income families to show up for parent teacher meetings. Even as a TA I get the frustration of little to no feed back from home, it's way more frustrating with special needs kids, and when you add economic issues in it just becomes really difficult. Teachers want to help kids learn, parents know their kids best, teachers do a better job when there is more input from home. Idiots like the LG from South Carolina however clearly don't get the bigger picture however. That's not the way and program I've helped with has worked ever. I've helped set up and fund breakfast and lunch programs. Hungry children do not learn well.

[kayshapero]

I suspect the way to get more parents of low income families to show up is to first be sure that they aren't scheduled against working hours (those jobs are usually the ones where at best time off is lost from your salary, at worst you get fired) and second to provide child care. Including for babies.

The idiot, of course, is of the embarrass the hell out of recipients of aid so they won't come back variety and has no IDEA what he is doing.

[mathmuffin.livejournal.com]

Andre Bauer's words are old-fashioned Social Darwinism, created by Herbert Spencer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer#Social_Darwinism) in 1857. Though Herbert Spencer's version was not as cold-hearted as Andre Bauer's version, many people embraced the excuse that helping the poor is bad for human evolution. As the Daily Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/24/829587/-LtGov-of-SC:-Dont-feed-the-poor.Theyll-breed.") article said, this notion was "oft-repeated around the dinner tables of the wealthy."

Herbert Spencer published Progress: Its Law and Cause three years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, but Darwin's credibility got attached to Spencer's idea. Adding Darwin's Theory into the mix made it sound rational. I am afraid that asking for rationality does not get rid of classism and racism, it merely makes people dress them up in rational guise.