Men in Black

[paft.livejournal.com]

Here is a picture from today's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing about the Obama administration's birth control mandate:



The first row are the allowed witnesses.

All those people a couple rows behind them? Well... those witnesses just don't fit in.

That's why most of the Democratic women on the committee walked out of the room.

Just now, Oklahoma GOP representative Jim Lankford implied that these men in black were being "berated" by the committee. In fact, they've mostly been getting strokes just short of full-body massages from most of the remaining committee members. This hearing is such a transparent and over-the-top, right wing extremist attack on the administration (one Representative invoked those dastardly laws against smoking in public buildings as a sign of the slippery slope the administration has set up) that clips from it should be used by Democrats in the upcoming election.

I cannot imagine any reasonable and honest person watching this hearing and not being appalled.


Partially crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

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Comments

[paft.livejournal.com]

No. Trolling involves deliberate attempts to derail a conversation. Merely posting a sincerely held statement in an OP -- even one some may consider "inflammatory" -- is not trolling.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

Well trolling involves different things at different times. But I'll take you at your word when you say you were not trolling. But I'll also extend the same benefit of the doubt to allisnow

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Now that we've settled this, could we get back to topic pls?

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

It seems not. Am I allowed to answer their latest comments to me?

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I can't forbid you anything, and since I was told I'm overmoderating this, be my guest and do whatever you deem most appropriate. You're both adult people, you can handle this. I'm out before I've done something stupid. Pfft.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

No, out of respect for you I will let it go.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Why, given that allisnow was actually trolling, i.e., deliberately trying to derail the conversation into nonsense?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

While I've explained what I understand by "trolling" (above), I do believe that the occasional light-hearted off-topic tends to help lighten things a bit. When it gets creepy and annoying, it's up to the one doing it to sense where tact ends and trolling begins.

[paft.livejournal.com]

I have no objection to the "occasional light-hearted off-topic" comment.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

And yet there are instances when trolling is very clear-cut (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1351189.html?thread=107552789#t107552789), especially when put in context.

[ofbg.livejournal.com]

But she began this conversation and when it didn't go to your liking, you signed on to the troll tag instead of just ignoring it.

Afterward, you defended yourself poorly.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Uh, no, actually as the writer of the OP, I began the conversation. And no, it's not "to my liking" when someone begins talking deliberate nonsense in what's intended to be a serious conversation.

Yes, when I see trolling I call it what it is.