[whoops, premature posting. to continue…]
- Obviously, Barbour’s hidden agenda is that kids take up a musical instrument.
OK. Now I’m done.
And this is all the deconstruction the staement in question needs. To say that Barbour was suggesting that kids need to be molested is disingenous and ignorant.
Egads, this liberal just agreed with december. Shoot me now.
Barbour is obviously a child hater, suggesting that kids be exposed to sax and violins.
Oh, and 2 guffaw points for moriah.
Guin, I did read about the life of the Phelps children.
Why is it “fucking stupid” and “silly” (not your words Guin) to state that I feel that Barbour chose his words poorly, and why I feel he did? I think that “offhand colloquialism” is irresponsible. If he’s concerned for the well-being of the children, he should speak of his plans to help them, not use such outrageously out of touch phrases to “get our attention” and let us know a problem exists.
I personally feel that to imply that kids would be better off in a whorehouse is unrealistic to say the least, many kids already are. Have you read what became of some of the people who grew up in that enviroment?Her mother was a prostitute. That’s just one kid, other male kids grew up to be serial killers, their moms were prostitutes. Do you really want to compound the burden already on these kids by putting them in danger of abuse again?
Read what happens to kids who grow up with a prostitute for a mom. Read what else they are exposed to, then tell me that ANY kids would be better off in a whorehouse.
They are exposed to drug use, violence, degradation/objectification of females, they could be molested, or given drugs, beaten or killed. I doubt that the whores would take the time to feed and clothe the kid, they are too busy turning tricks and trying to survive themselves. (Some of these endangered kids have mom’s who are prostitutes.)
If the kids are in that much danger, get them out of the house. If it’s just that the parents have no clue, educate them about how to be a parent. Help them find work so they can feed,clothe and house themselves and the children.
On preveiw, I see your post december. Headstart is a program for underprivledged/disabled kids aged 3 to kindergarten. They come into your house and work with the child to get them ready for school. Sometimes the child can be helped in a Headstart building, but often one worker travels hundreds of miles a week to service many different children. Every once in a while, the child and caretaker can attend a special function at the Headstart building. It’s a wonderful program, and should get more funding.
Too late.
Get a grip. The guy was employing hyperbole. Yes, it was a bad choice of words, but I don’t think he was actually saying that kids should be sent to brothels.
Reality check, aisle four.
Ok, let me clarify. I think that some topics should not be brought up even as hyperbole. (Yeah, only MHO, no I don’t think I can control other’s actions.) I think it ruins the person’s credibility. Because Harbour employed such hyperbole, IMO, his credibility has dropped. That is all.
Except some posters said they really thought some kids would be better off in a whorehouse than their own home. Thus my posts content.
Classic case of dangling modifier. where they are now in this sense was meant for children’s homes, and if the phrase was understood as such, the hyperbole would be factually and politically undisputable. But Barbour was discussing Head Start in the preceeding sentence, thus inadvertently creating the confusion.
I’d just like be sure everyone in this thread has heard of expressions containing the phrase “piano player in a whorehouse.” The man wasn’t saying children would be better off literally brought up in a house of prostitution, by prostitutes, while witnessing acts of prostitution. He said “up on a piano bench in a whorehouse,” which takes the phrase out of the literal and relates it to a well-known turn of phrase. For instance:
“My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.” - Harry S. Truman
“Don’t tell my mother I’m {a lawyer, in advertising, a lobbyist, etc}; she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse” - many bumper stickers
“One gets tired of the role critics are supposed to have in this culture: It’s like being the piano player in a whorehouse; you don’t have any control over the action going on upstairs.” - Robert Hughes
It’s one of those, you know, sayings. Lord.
Yes, InternetLegend, however some people took what Barbour said literally, and posted that they agreed with this thought. I saw this, and decided to speak my veiwpoint on the matter, which immeadiately got attacked, called “fucking stupid” and “silly” among other things.
If you go back and re-read this thread you will see that I was not the first poster in it to respond as though what was said by Barbour was not hyperbole. However, I was responding not only to Barbours irresponsible comment, but to Bricker and later Neurotik, and Guinastasia who all stated that they thought that some kids would be better off in a whorehouse than their own homes. (To me that’s an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” type of situation.) This is what I addressed in the rest of my posts in this thread. Get it? I was addressing fellow SDMB’ers who thought that the phrase/hyperbole was actually a truth.
I still think it was a poor choice of phrasing, and would like to see him at the least put forth plans to increase funding to help underpriveledged children, if not apologize for the words.
So you’re suggesting we burn the kids instead? 
AAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!
Will this never cease?
By the way - how was his comment “racist”?
The remark is perfectly in keeping with traditional Republican values.
Head Start is a government program and as we’ve heard from the GOP for years, there’s no government program that can’t be done better and cheaper by private enterprises like the aforementioned whorehouse.
And if the kid learns a trade in the process - in this case, playing the piano - then hopefully the taxpayer won’t have to foot the bill for that kid’s welfare. Whenever he needs to go to the doctor, he can just reach into the tip jar and pull out a handful of bills! Managing his money so intimately at such an early age will teach him the importance of limited government and lower taxes.
Asshats like to throw ‘racist’ around, not really knowing, or caring, what it means.
Add me to the list of people who can’t figure out what’s upsetting, here. Poor choice of wording, certainly. And I’m sure some enterprising souls on the DNC have already filed this away for use in their get-out-the-vote campaigns in poor black neighborhoods next year, where it’ll have its intended effect. But Barbour’s dead on.
Right now, I’m reading George Pelecanos’ Soul Circus. There’s kids in that book who really would “be better off sitting up on a piano bench at a whorehouse than where they are now.” Pelecanos writes fiction, but the world he writes about is all too real. And while Pelecanos’ beat is the side of DC that the tourists never see, I’m sure there’s kids living in situations almost as bad in Mississippi, too.
Pardon me, RTA, but how do you derive that from Barbour’s remarks?
I know there are a few Republicans who’d like to shut down Head Start, but Barbour’s calling the program “a godsend”.
That the statement was made by a Republican who is running for office against a Democrat. Which is why the Jackson paper misquoted him as it did.
Barbour was saying that some kids have it so bad that practically anything would be an improvement. Does anyone deny that this is true? Or that Barbour was saying that Head Start would be an improvement as well?
Regards,
Shodan
Pot meet kettle.
What exactly are you so upset about Payton? The guy is for Head Start. What was racist about what he said? Are only black children allowed in Head Start? I don’t know what it is like in Mississippi but in my part of the south all lower income children are allowed in Head Start.
Normally I eschew gimicky ‘in phrases.’ However, when an old tease at anality provides a subtext for a similarly anal rant then I indulge.
And speaking of being anally controlling…