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DeMint Watches Money like a 'Jew'
We suppose it’s better than accusations of stealing money like a Jew. Still, your daily dose of prejudice: Two South Carolina Republican Party country chairman wrote a letter to a state newspaper praising Senator Jim DeMint for “watching our nation’s pennies” like “the Jews who are wealthy.” "There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves," Edwin O. Merwin and James S. Ulmer, chairs of the Bamberg County Republican Party and the Orangeburg County Republican Party, wrote. "By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.”
connie47
Isn't there some way to get South Carolina to secede, along with Texas?
WestVillager
Terrible idea. We need their tax dollars.
debbieqd
They're big welfare states. We give them more money than we get. Let 'em secede.
Utaneus
Texas is a big welfare state, South Carolina is not. California is by far the biggest welfare state, but also the biggest contributor in tax revenue. So you can't equate the number of welfare states inversely to the tax contribution.
While we may not 'need' South Carolina as bad as we need Texas, it's all still America, and I'm pretty confident the majority of folks in even the most backward states are not this crazy.
Honchos
Can't we just give them Alaska and so the rest of us can get on with the 21st century?
ieuuwz
We tried that once, and you wouldn't let us.
By the way, Daily Beast, when did Jews become a "race"?
jheightsgirl
ieuuwz, I don't see the word "race" in the DB's article but I do see the word "prejudice".
roadhunter
To jheightsgirl: The link to the story on the Beast's home page says "That's Racist".
Utaneus
So would you say that antisemitism is not a type of racism?
diskipulo
From Nature Magazine:
"The Jewish communities of the world constitute no pure race, and in their features and physical characteristics represent no single uniform or even average type."
That said, there can be a blurring of the lines between Racism and Ethnocentrism, but "That's Ethnocentric" doesn't' have the same ring. I blame the editor.
djanimaequeen
Since there is really only one race, the human race, the argument is mute. The term race has been used incorrectly from the beginning. It's just as incorrect to consider blacks as separate race then it would be to consider Jews as being a separate race. So it doesn't matter if one terms antisemitism as racism.
hithere3
that's a nice argument, but that's not how most people would define "race."
what we SHOULD be able to agree on is that the definition of race is not simply "another kind" of human being. that's truly ridiculous.
hithere3
Utaneus: of course it isn't. Religion is an acquired behavior, and is something any person can adopt or refuse at will. Anti-semitism is no more racist than prejudice against fat people is racist.
Utaneus
hithere3
Then what would you call the hatred for people who have Jewish ancestry but do not practice the religion?
hithere3
it is anti-Semitism, of course.
the prejudice would be based on a person's associations with the hated thing (in this case, judaism), rather than a judgment of a specific person's attributes. the prejudice is EXACTLY THE SAME as if the hypothetical person you've created DID practice judaism.
the only difference here is that the person you've imagined is not actually a jew.
it seems paradoxical, i know, but it isn't. it just seems to make no sense because prejudice itself makes no sense.
Utaneus
It's ignorant to deny that there is a Jewish race of a sort. Yes, it's a religion, but if it were only a religion and not also a population of people that share similar physical traits and genetic ancestry you would be right. But that's just incorrect. It's both a religion and an ethnicity.
hithere3
really? it's ignorant?
oddly enough, from my JEWISH vantage point, you sure look like the ignorant one to me.
Utaneus
So you deny that many Jewish people share a common ethnicity. Just because you're Jewish does not make you correct, and how do you know I'm not a Jew too?
hithere3
you're too stupid to be jewish.
Utaneus
okay, you're right, I'm the stupid one who has to resort to name calling.
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n--Y--JAsMomLAGranite
We should let the South secede again--but only if they agree to take Alaska with them. And maybe Montana. Utah's useless. Oh Hell! Let's just become The Divided States of America!
Trunk-Monkey
What exactly do you have against Montana?! Democratic governor, two Democratic Senators, a 50/50 split in the State House, legalized medical marijuana, etc, etc. It must be sheer ignorance on your part to toss Montana in with the religionists, racists, and other assorted ignoramuses.
Maybe you got 'em confused with the Aryan-supremicist, Dick Cheney-loving, wolf killing in-breds down in Wyoming....
Utaneus
Man I love Montana, it's a great state
AuntBarb
Oy. In this day and age, such talk.
johnwr3
DeMint didn't say those comments. It's ridiculous to attach comments of others to him in the same way some of the anti-Semitic and ignorant comments on this page should be attributed to the Daily Beast. The weird thing was they were trying to compliment DeMint...very sad.
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n--Y--morecowbellDeliaK
If that's true, I'm going to start voting for the new political party - JEWS!!! Do any of these people think BEFORE they open their mouths?
allonfla
Are these people racist or just brain dead? Seriously, you would have to be living under a rock to not know this statement was offensive. Let's leave that stuff to Family Guy.
WestVillager
I was gonna comment separately, but I have to agree with you that these two are ridiculous. Thing is folks who honestly see no trouble with the comment probably think Peter Griffin should be president.
oliverckerr
Rascist.
roadhunter
Jews aren't a race, folks. They're members of a religion. Yes, throughout history they have traditionally married within their faith, but that doesn't make them a race. Heck, Sammy Davis Jr. was a Jew!
citivas
Not really. There are plenty of atheist and non-practicing Jews who are Jewish by birth and there are people who were not born to Jewish families who converted and are not ethnically "Jews." Hitler didn't care if they were practicing Jews or not when he tried to commit genocide against them, nor have most of the other cultures that have discriminated against them. Judaism is a religion. Being a "Jew" is an ethnicity.
Honchos
Race is social construct anyway that doesn't have any real scientific basis. Jewish is an ethnicity and stereotyping someone because of their genetic heritage is, according to the common usage of the word, "racist".
Also ignorant, backwards and shallow.
djanimaequeen
Honchos is 100% correct.
nortonclybourn
Yeh yeh and you can say you're not antisemitic because some of your best friends are Arabs, but you know damned well what the issue is.
citivas
Agreed, Honchos is correct. Scientifically there is only one race.
FatFreddy
"praising Senator Jim DeMint for "watching our nation's pennies" like "the Jews who are wealthy."
So, I guess it's only fair to say that George W Bush and the Republican Congress spent the Federal budget surplus, when he took office, like they were:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nigger%20Rich&defid=12186 25
connie47
LOL, goodness, you can't say that out in the open.
FatFreddy
I guess that would be racist?
winston1
Do any of you blogger's realize that your blog's are posted on google if you type in the name Michelle Plantkin. There is a person on this blog who uses this name on their post which makes know sense, but it serves as a code word to be picked up on google.
If you google this name you will see some of the post's that belong on The Daily Beast, and hidden posts too.
I'm sure some on this blog are aware of this because at one time I read a post where someone made a comment that "we are not the only one's reading this, if they only knew"..
hithere3
your tin foil hat seems to be a little tight, winston. it's cutting off blood flow to your brain.
roadhunter
Cool. Does that mean if I post using "Michelle Plantkin" that my comments are more likely to be read? If so, thanks for the tip!
connie47
winston just discovered that the internet isn't private, so he's posting this info on as many articles as he can today. The tin foil hat seems particularly apt here.
DocHumboldt
Winston- ALL of your posts are out there in cyberspace at the Famous Nuts of The New Millenium blog. Now peel a layer off the hat and have some more coffee.
bobj72
"wince 1"; You've "Cut-N-Paste" this meaningless, mundane, paranoid alarm on almost EVERY TOPIC offered on TDB today? If this becomes a habit, THEY'LL be coming after you!
Honchos
You didn't know that? We can also turn on your webcam and see what you do while you post here. You should be ashamed.
hithere3
to the teaser writer: this isn't "racist" because jews aren't a race.
Cymatic
Incorrect. Racism is the belief that people are divided into inferior and superior races. This belief system makes all sorts of distinctions. Japanese racists believe they are a separate race than Koreans, German racists persecuted Jewish people in WWII, and historically Irish people were thought of as a separate and inferior 'race'. If these aren't racism, then what is?
hithere3
you make up your own definition of race, that has nothing to do with what other people understand it to mean, and then proceed to argue everyone else is using the word incorrectly. must be nice to live in a world where you set all the rules.
see the rest of my response below.
Jswift
Well, they are...and they aren't. Jews kind of occupy some racial gray area in my opinion. While yes Judaism is in fact a religion and should therefore be no more a race than Christianity or Buddhism, there is justification in referring to it as a race. Judaism can, in fact, be something someone is born with. According to their faith, if you are born to a Jewish mother, you are a Jew. There is, to a certain extent, a genetic component tied to one's jewiness. Just as one can be born Asian, one can also be born Jewish.
Really it's just semantics. Whether or not it's racism is beside the point. It's just something an elected official should be smart enough not to say, but then again, we don't exactly have a high caliber of elected officials in this country.
hithere3
see my response below.
djanimaequeen
Cymatic is right. There is only one race. So to argue over what particular group is and is not a race is pointless. We all know what someone means when they call someone a racist.
hithere3
"race" refers to groups of genetic (vertical) lineages, and, truth be told, is of dubious utility in that regard. judaism is a religion and is acquired horizontally through cultural transmission.
you will realize how idiotic your (cymatic and jswift's) points of view are when you consider that there are white, asian, and black jews.
words mean things.
to jswift specially with regard to "if you are born to a Jewish mother, you are a Jew":
would you also consider a child born to a postmodernist mother a postmodernist child? or perhaps you'd consider a child born to a keynesian economist a keynesian child? no, of course you wouldn't. that's ridiculous. christianity, islam, and judaism are philosophies -- agreed-to set of values and behaviors, and are not something a child ACTUALLY inherits the same way genes are inherited. children are indoctrinated into religions behaviorally by their parents and their religious communities.
to misunderstand the difference between horizontal and vertical transmission is to misunderstand WHY it is wrong to judge someone for something he/she cannot control, as opposed to something he/she CAN.
GregsPoint
Poor analogy!
DocHumboldt
Poor comment!
hithere3
Poor readers!
oliverckerr
Wear this gold star, Jew
So we can see who you are
Board this rail road car,
Your campaign for president
Is goin' to Babi Yar.
michaelslevinson.com
Michelle Plantkin was not the original inspiration for this poem, inspired by an FCC fascist bureaucrat, a bureau chief who was inserted into the Agency by j. edgarina, gascist cross dressing pervert of dirt
WestVillager
Not sure why but your posts make me uneasy. Just sayin.
oliverckerr
The poem was inspired by an FCC bureaucrat. Visit michaelslevinson.com. Why should a poet with a program for world peace and food chain harmony make you uneasy? Well, your imagination gets challenged - that much for sure. Visit the web site and play the second video as you scroll down. Visit youtube.com/poetprophet
michaelslevinson.com
hermese
Maybe it's because he's a damn looney who posts self-aggrandizing ideas that don't even make sense, and it seems like he could go off the deep end at any minute?
Martyz42
The religious, right wing, Confederate Republican is without a doubt RACIST. The strange thing is that so many of the NeoCons (Should all be CONS) are Jewish. I am waiting to see if people like Bill Crystal will say about this JERK... Sadly in the State that elected this guy his views are like so many others that I am sure he will be re-elected...
This whole movement is a product, proof really of how well the Republican party with it's own money management has "DUMBED DOWN AMERICA"... The whole of the right wing other then the people running it are products of stupidity & are totally unable to think for themselves or have a thought that is not put in their empty heads by right wing millionaires who make a living feeding these stupid sheep like people with garbage.....
Take a look at the Tea Parties, the Town Hall Meetings, look at the way these people look & dress & speak... You are looking at Websters definition of WHITE TRASH"... This whoile movement is made up of high school drop outs who are so ignorant they don't have the common sense of how to vote for their own best interest... They are angry at anyone with an education, anyone with a real job, anyone with an education, anyone that is black, brown, Jewish, Muslim & anything else that is not exactly like them... 80% of the Confederate Republican party is made up of this group of idiots who stand in line to see Sarah Palin, need I say more about dribbling idiots!!!!!!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Trunk-Monkey
dabeall, hear hear and well said!
I'm a 'leftist' myself (in that I lean socially liberal) and I cringed when I read "Marty's" badly written, poorly punctuate, ungrammatical diatribe of drivel...
DocHumboldt
"Poorly punctuate"?
Trunk-Monkey
yeah, yeah...one little 'd' misplaced and that negates everything else.
Desertpenguin
I get what you're saying, Martyz42.
Many followers of the right-wing are ignorant. They lack education that stressed tolerance.
But I'll save my strongest criticism for the modern right-wing leaders.
They are vampires.
They suck all the life-blood out of everything they come in contact with.
Their contributions to humanity are a coincidence.
The right-wing will destroy the USA if not stopped.
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n--Y--JAsMomLAlsg280
I think there are a lot worse things that people have said about us then we are careful with money. I think people asserting that we are responsible is not something to take so offensively. In a country where people think its acceptable to live way out of their means and climb furthur and furthur into debt, I hope that we can be a good influence.
slmpirate
Well stated Isg.... I learned alot from my dad, who was not Jewish, but taught me fiscal responsiblity and often said what DeMint said (without citation to its origin) that if you "watch the penneys' the dollars take care of itself"...He was a penney pinching Scottsman...... I had always thougt this was a Scottish saying..?
lsg280
Americans in general used to be very careful with money. I do not know what happened, but it is scary. I am in my mid twenties, and I know so many people who are massively in dept. They take out horrible school loans and then they don't study professions that can adequetely pay them off. I don't know how they plan on giving their children a decent standard of living.
Yeshujacob
Historically speaking, any nation that protected and promoted the safety of the Jewish people, has prospered (even when they were a captive people in Babylon). Also, they have been viewed as a people of education and philosophy. Therefore, the financial institutions have been run VERY WELL by Jews for hundreds of years . . . (which is why German and Swiss Jews held so much power and fear over their non-Jewish counterparts).
So many rants about this being racist, and how ignorant the "Rep. Party" is . . . Funny how you only demonstrate your own ignorance of history.
This is actually a very positive use of a correct historical stereotype. Not all stereotypes are bad . . . (ie If you see a car full of Mexican men, you have to say, "they must be going to work", because Legal immigrants work harder than anyone else).
Maybe he could have said "Like a Jewish Banker" to be more clear. But anyone who knows their own history well, would see the positive implication of such a statement and not make assumptions.
debbieqd
All stereotyping is dangerous. Let's just stop doing it.
unclelew
That's a really stupid rationalization. Sorry.
The problem with bigots is that they just can't see they're bigoted.
djanimaequeen
Exactly. Just like how stupid people think they are smarter than everyone else.
goldsteinm1
I can't believe I'm reading Yeshu Jacobs comment. First of all the Banking system in the US would not employ Jews. It was a bastion of anti-jewish hiring practices. That's why you find so many in financial firms. But the "jewish banker" stereotype morphs easily into "jewish money lender" which while having some historical significance (they were "forced" into that occupation in England of the 11 and 1200's - ref: Max Dimont - before their expulsion in 1215) has been one of the major anti-semitic threads.
This "penny pinching jew" stereotype is no more positive than congratulating us on our bargaining ability by saying someone "jewed someone down."
I live in SC and thank goodness the majority of people here recognize the prejudiced nature of that statement (I avoided "racist" to avoid an argument)..
I was tempted to write a letter to the editor asking if those crackers were chasing their female cousins around the barn when they thought of that statement but felt the subtlety would have been lost on them.
jsdc007
Oh my! DeMint's a Joo and Lindsay Graham's a ghay! South Carolina's about to go pray to the spirit of dead Strom Thurmond and ask for both to be struck down by lightning!
Thank you.
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