Conservatives Object to Educational Standards

Conservative opposition to Common Core educational standards appears to be growing.

Common Core standards are an initiative, started by a coalition of state leaders of both parties, to establish a gold standard set of educational standards in math and English education.

Rather than look at the facts about where the Common Core standards came from or what they contain, conservative activists are spreading the usual paranoid fantasies about how the standards are a conspiracy to impose liberal beliefs on school children. Perhaps the idea that kids would grow up being able to read facts for themselves and perform basic mathematics is too much for the anti-science brigade.

Americans, Evolution, and What Their Churches Actually Teach

An interesting survey on the MIT web site contrasts the views of Americans who reject evolution compared with the officially stated positions of their churches.

46% of Americans state that they believe that human beings were created by God in their current form sometime in the last 10,000 years. The usual interpretation is that these Americans are blindly following the teachings of their respective churches. In fact, only 11% of Americans belong to churches that openly reject evolution.

The paper lists official statements by the major religions in the US. The current statements on the subject by the Catholic church are fairly typical:

"there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of faith"

"it is important to set proper limits to the understanding of scripture, excluding any unreasonable interpretations"

The Rabbinical Council of America, the group established by the orthodox Jewish community, issued a similar statement in 2005:

In light of the ongoing public controversy about Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design, the RCA notes that significant Jewish authorities have maintained that evolutionary theory, properly understood, is not incompatible with belief in a Divine Creator, nor with the first 2 chapters of Genesis.

There are authentic, respected voices in the Jewish community that take a literalist position with regard to these issues; at the same time, Judaism has a history of diverse approaches to the understanding of the biblical account of creation. As Rabbi Joseph Hertz wrote, "While the fact of creation has to this day remained the first of the articles of the Jewish creed, there is no uniform and binding belief as to the manner of creation, i.e. as to the process whereby the universe came into existence. The manner of the Divine creative activity is presented in varying forms and under differing metaphors by Prophet, Psalmist and Sage; by the Rabbis in Talmudic times, as well as by our medieval Jewish thinkers."

Evil Triumphs

Reuters is reporting that the entire trial against Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt has collapsed. A verdict that was hailed as a triumph for human rights has effectively been vacated. People familiar with "justice" in Guatemala are unsurprised.

Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group, said legal technicalities should not be allowed to derail due process in Guatemala.

"Endless appeals, shopping for friendly justices, and seeking to delay verdicts and sentencing are classic techniques of those seeking to avoid justice in Guatemala," he said in a statement after the Constitutional Court's decision.

It is not surprising that US media has been reluctant to cover this human rights trial. The fact is that after the CIA deposed democratically-elected president Arbenz, one dictator after another waged a genocidal war against Mayan civilians under the guise of "anti-Communism." These efforts were carried out on the US taxpayer's dime by an officer corps trained in the US.

Given that administrations of both parties were complicit partners in a genocidal war against people of Mayan ancestry, neither party has shown much interest in exposing the history behind the civil rights trial in Guatemala.

Did Cleveland Police Dismiss Domestic Disturbance Complaints?

ORIGINALLY POSTED 8 May 2013:

Police response to domestic violence complaints are a subject that has to be raised in the wake of the rescue of the Cleveland kidnap victims.

The BBC is reporting that several neighbors say that they had complained to the police about domestic disturbances, but that the Cleveland police department failed to take the complaints seriously:

Elsie Cintron told the BBC her granddaughter had seen a naked woman crawling in the backyard last year and called police, but they did not take it seriously.

Another resident, Israel Lugo, said that in November 2011 he heard pounding on doors of the house and his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help.

He said he had called police and officers knocked several times on the front door, but left when no-one answered.

The reports were disputed by Police Chief McGrath.

This would not be the first time that a police department failed to take domestic disturbance complaints seriously. Domestic violence is often seen as a private matter, and police are leery of the high risk of injury that can come from walking into an emotionally charged situation. Half-hearted attempts to "contact" residents, like what is reported by Lugo, are all too common.

It is still early days in this investigation, and more facts will emerge. So far, the stories that are emerging are not painting a complimentary story about the level of importance that the Cleveland police place on curbing domestic violence.

UPDATE, 12 May 2013:
The Washington Post reported on the previous allegations along with another time that Cleveland police were alerted about a problem at the Castro house:

...Israel Lugo says, a group of elderly women who were exercising in the area called police. According to Lugo, the women and his sister had all seen a naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck in Castro’s back yard. Cleveland police say they have no record of the calls.

NCoV Confirmed Capable of Human to Human Transmission

The most recent coronavirus to emerge has been confirmed to be capable of human-to-human transmission. The virus is known as NCoV, or Novel Coronavirus.

This virus is related to the SARS virus, but is distinct from it.

Out of 33 confirmed cases so far since 2012, 18 have resulted in fatalities.

Conservative Reality Warp: Impeach Obama for "Wrecking" Record-Setting Stock Market

Conservatives are suggesting an impeachment proceeding against Obama on the basis of his having wrecked the stock market. Reality appears not to have any impact on their proposal, which was unveiled on the day that the stock market hit new record levels. During the Obama administration, the stock market has risen by 90%. Perhaps there is some new definition of the word "wreck" that I am not familiar with?

3-d Printer Gun Hysteria

Quite a few people have been flipping out over the 3-d printing pattern that is available to print out a gun.

I'm not sure that I see the reason for all the excitement. Basically, this is a new manufacturing method for producing a makeshift firearm from otherwise easily available materials. This isn't even a particularly good gun, since it appears to only be usable for a single shot.

Simple, easily manufacturable guns have been around for quite some time. One of the more interesting historical examples is the Sten gun manufactured in small, improvised machine shops during the Battle of Britain after the British army lost a significant portion of its armory during the Dunkirk evacuation.

This is not the revolution in gun availability that is being proclaimed by gun nuts nor is it the catastrophe that is feared by gun control advocates. It is just another improvised firearm, like those that have been available for a very long time.

Domestic Terrorist Arrested in MN

A person characterized as a "domestic terrorist" was arrested in Minnesota with a large cache of arms and explosives that were evidently targeted at fellow Americans who disagreed with him.

While little information is available, news reports have pointed out that he had displayed an upside-down flag earlier this year, which was associated with right-wing protests against Obama's re-election. I guess this is what the 44% had in mind.

Finger Pointed to Heaven = Excessive Celebration?

A Texas high school relay team was denied the chance to participate in the state track meet when a team member pointed to heaven after anchoring his team to an impressive victory. In what has to be considered a bizarre interpretation of the excessive celebration rule, officials ruled that pointing a single finger to heaven was a "hand gesture" worthy of barring the team from the state championships.

While I can think of some hand gestures (eg flipping off the other teams) that could be considered as poor sportsmanship, I don't see how you can go so far as to interpret something like pointing to heaven (or even crossing oneself) as excessive celebration.

I also don't see a "separation of church and state" issue here, as long as the school is not requiring or encouraging kids to engage in a particular ritual.

These are kids, for crying out loud. If they did something remarkable, like getting a new personal best, they should be allowed to celebrate within the bounds of good sportsmanship. As long as they aren't taunting the other teams or engaging in a prolonged celebration that is keeping them from shaking the other teams' hands in a timely way, I just don't see what the big deal is.

Kansas Takes Science out of Science Class

The new Kansas state science guidelines have significantly watered down portions of the science curriculum in response to public comment.

If we were talking about comments by people who actually know what they are talking about (eg, scientists), I would have less of a problem. Instead, a lot of the comments appear to be coming from ignorant people who believe stupid things.

Mario Molina, deputy director at the Alliance for Climate Education, told The Guardian that 35 percent of the sections devoted to climate change were cut in response to public comments.

Heaven forbid that we teach kids in science class that the way to examine the world is through the scientific method. We could just let the wacky wing of the conservative movement get their way by telling kids to get their science from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

The Absurdity of Zero Tolerance

Officials here in Florida have decided once again to demonstrate just how absurd it can be to enforce a principle where it really doesn't apply.

Kiera Wilmot, a student in good standing, decided to mix some "chemicals" in a soda bottle, which resulted in an explosion. No word on exactly what got mixed, but I have to imagine it is something pretty easily available to a student. There are a lot of choices here, from Mentos and soda to vinegar and baking soda. (Googling "How to make a soda bottle bomb" this morning got me 2,060,000 hits.)

Please, please, do not try this at home! As Kiera discovered, the resulting explosion is quite a bit stronger than you think it is going to be. People get injured fiddling with these.

This was stupid and dangerous, and deserved a response. I'm thinking a suspension, calls to the parents, maybe a misdemeanor rap with some community service in an extreme case with a repeat offender. But Florida firmly believes that nothing succeeds like excess.

Polk County officials have expelled the girl and charged her with a felony firearms charge. They're going to ruin this girl's life for a stupid teenager trick inspired by approximately 2 million online videos (by actual count).

Kelly Welch, a criminal justice professor from Villanova University, describes this action as:

just another example of schools handling normal acts of juvenile misbehavior with extraordinarily harsh measures that more closely resemble the exclusion inherent to criminal justice rather than restorative discipline in school.

A change.org petition calling for charges to be dropped has already received 29,000 signatures.

There are unfortunately a lot of stories about children being caught between inflexible school officials and police departments and the reality of childhood. You may remember that a Pennsylvania kindergartner was threatened with a terrorist threats charge for telling a classmate that she was going to shoot her with her Hello Kitty bubble gun. (I don't think there is any truth to rumors that al Qaeda is stocking up on pink plastic bubble guns.)

I'd have to say that the real terrorists here are school officials who appear to forgotten that they are dealing with children.

Barry West is a Bigoted Pinhead

Coffee County Commissioner Barry West from Tennessee is the latest bigoted pinhead to display his ignorance and prejudice to the world. Perhaps he had an urge to demonstrate that Democrats could be bigoted pinheads just as well as Republicans can.

In his latest exploit, Barry posted a picture of a man aiming a shotgun with the words "How to Wink at a Muslim." When this went viral, he was so kind as to take it down, but he didn't understand what the problem was:

I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody.

As it happens, Mr West, I am prejudiced against bigoted pinheads. No offense intended, of course.

44% of Republicans Believe Armed Revolution Needed

A PublicMind Survey recently found that 44% of Republicans think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the near future.

Evidently, they are so distressed that people disagree with them that almost half of Republicans feel that the only solution is to shoot everyone else.

I've posted before on the counter-intuitive and ridiculous things that people believe. It isn't entirely clear to me why such a congregation of these people is occurring in the GOP, which I remember from my childhood as a party that valued common sense and fact-based analysis.

A recent Scientific American article discussed conspiracy theories and how people could believe in them. One of the more interesting phenomena discussed in the article is how people could believe in two contradictory conspiracy theories at the same time, for example believing both that Bin Laden was dead before the "Zero Dark Thirty" raid, and also believing that the raid had failed and Bin Laden had escaped. The authors suggested that the key factor was the level of distrust that the conspiracists had for traditional authority figures.

This distrust has certainly been well-earned by politicians of all stripes, but I would think that would lead people to look at actual facts from multiple sources and to think critically about them. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.

Things Stupid Americans Believe

Public Policy Polling released the results of a poll on widely-believed conspiracy theories. The key takeaway here is that there sure are a lot of really stupid Americans.

Here are a few gems:

• 58% of Republicans believe that global warming is a hoax. Evidently, Republicans don't know scientists very well. Getting three scientists to agree on where to have lunch would be a feat worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Pulling together 99% of scientists into a coordinated hoax would be an undertaking worthy of a James Bond villain. Then again, maybe they don't realize that James Bond is fiction. After all, look at the channel they watch for their "news."
• (As far as I know, the only people who are trying to pay scientists to have a specific opinion on global warming are on the other side of the argument.)
• 36% of Republicans believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. This is an old chestnut we've discussed here before.
• 22% of Republican voters believe that Obama is the Anti-Christ. Maybe they should take a closer look at Ann Coulter.

Book Review: How to Break a Terrorist

This book is a lively read about the experiences of an interrogator who does not believe in the effectiveness of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (aka torture).

Alexander was effective at extracting more accurate data more quickly than other interrogators using more questionable techniques.

Certainly the author has a point of view, but his years of experience in the field and his history of successful interrogations give him much more credibility than a bunch of blowhard chickenhawk politicians.

Wherever you stand on the issues of national security and the importance of human rights, you should read this book. It is a quick read, and the information is well worth the time.

Book Review: A Colossal Failure of Common Sense

If you are looking for a good, comprehensive history of the financial crisis, check out Sorkin's "Too Big to Fail." If you would like a good trader-level history of derivatives or the crash, check out Lewis's "Liar's Poker" or "The Big Short," respectively.

"Colossal Failure" is somewhat interesting as an exploration of the mind of a typical Wall Street trader, but it certainly fails to provide the sort of analysis or history that is promised in the title and the marketing.

This book claims that the whole problem was caused by Roberta Achtenberg, the assistant secretary of HUD who pressured banks to explain why they were failing to lend to qualified minorities. The authors breathlessly inform us that no less a luminary than Jesse Helms had fought against her confirmation and referred to her as "that damn lesbian."

The insertion of that sentence into a brief 7-page explainer of the causes of the crash is a good example of the complete lack of depth shown in this book. The problem was those darned poor people who borrowed money, not the mortgage processors who failed to check backgrounds, the lenders who wrote predatory mortgages that were designed to fail, the investment banks who bought and securitized those mortgages and sold them under false pretenses, and certainly not the fault of people like the author who overleveraged the entire tottering enterprise by writing insurance policies (in the form of CDSs) against the default of mortgages that were always doomed to fail.

That's right, the authors believe that the fault for the crash belongs to minorities and their lesbian champion. No wonder Fox News spent so much time drumming up sales for the book.

In case I'm being too subtle here, let me try being just a bit more clear. This book is a self-serving paean to the career of a Wall Street trader who failed to take his seat before the music stopped.

NRA Resorts to Favorite Tactic: Lying

In the runup to the vote on the Manchin-Toomey amendment, the NRA resorted to a favorite tactic, outright lying, to try to sway the last few swing votes.

The NRA's press release after the amendment's defeat explicitly referenced this lie:

This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution.

In fact, the amendment's actual language protected private transfers (ie, transfers that are not preceded by advertising in venues like publications or the Internet). Let's look at what the language actually said. The following is a specific exemption for transfers to family members:

the transfer is made between spouses, between parents or spouses of parents and their children or spouses of their children, between siblings or spouses of siblings, or between grandparents or spouses of grandparents and their grandchildren or spouses of their grandchildren, or between aunts or uncles or their spouses and their nieces or nephews or their spouses, or between first cousins, if the transferor does not know or have reasonable cause to believe that the transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under Federal, State, or local law

So you'd have to be speaking about someone who is at least a second cousin before this exemption did not apply. Is the NRA really going to the mat to protect gun transfers between second cousins?

How about transfers to friends or neighbors? Politifact rated that claim "mostly false." Their opinion states:

The amendment specifically exempted family and friend transfers from the requirement to conduct a criminal background check. But it did extend the requirement to Internet and gun show sales. So only if a friend or family member purchased a gun in one of those settings would the background check requirement kick in. That’s a limited circumstance, to be sure.

Gun Wing-nuts Win Day

Despite the best efforts of Senators Toomey (R-PA) and Manchin (D-WV), a compromise bill representing a sliver of common sense was denied an up-down vote on the Senate floor.

This bill represented an effort to require background checks for gun show and internet gun sales. Some public polls show 90% of the public supporting this type of regulation.

GOP Defends "Socialist" Pork

One unexpected reaction to Obama's budget proposal has GOP legislators opposing privatization of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

This is ironic because the GOP has repeatedly criticized the TVA program as "socialist" and called for its privatization. But Obama's proposal to save $25 billion by privatizing the program is being opposed by Republican legislators from several Southern states.

Stephen Smith, an advocate for alternative energy, notes the irony.

"For the first time that I'm aware of, you've got a Democratic administration proposing the sale of TVA and simultaneously you've got significant, conservative federal representatives in the House and Senate defending their local socialist project. There's a lot irony in it and little bit of humor actually."

Senate May Approve Some Gun Background Checks

Some gun groups are coming on board a compromise firearms background checks bill.

The compromise was reached between Senators Patrick Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). It requires background checks for purchases at gun shows and Internet sales, but exempts private sales. (Some gun groups had objected that a stricter background check would make it illegal for a father to give his son a heirloom gun.)

(Previous article on this subject: Nobody Plays Politics Better Than The NRA)

The FAA, Bananas, and Computer Security: Hacking Planes with Cell Phones

Hugo Teso recently reported on some pretty serious flaws in the security for airplane flight systems and pilot displays. He reports that using an Android device and some custom-written code, he was able to provoke actions by the flight systems and feed the pilot incorrect information. The Register has a pretty good summary of what Teso discussed.

In an interview with Forbes, Teso reported:

“You can use this system to modify approximately everything related to the navigation of the plane. That includes a lot of nasty things.”

Fortunately, The Register tells us:

Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Administration have both been informed and are working on fixing the issue.

That would seem to be an appropriate response to a flaw like that. You would really hate to think about al Qaeda sending a bunch of wackos with cell phones onto flights. And I don't think the FAA would seriously be able to take away peoples' cell phones on flights. Dealing with Alec Baldwin alone would stretch the resources of most Federal agencies.

Fortunately, the FAA has taken swift action to alleviate any concerns the flying public might have about some new-found sense of competency in that agency. The FAA reports that there is no real problem because the hack did not work when they tested it against a "flight certified" configuration.

The idea of "defense in depth" appears to have soared right past these people. If there is a problem in a component of an overall system, FIX IT.

Here's hoping that the FAA manages to stumble across a clue in between meetings about whether or not to allow people to bring fully-functioning bananas on planes.

Update

The app that Teso used is only effective against simulators. That does not mean that there is not an issue that needs to be resolved. The H Security reports that:

Teso says that the ACARS communication with a plane can be implemented locally via a software-defined radio system or globally via one of the two major ACARS providers, ARINC and SITA. The researcher added that a vulnerability would need to be found with the providers.

The manufacturer, Honeywell, is investigating to see to what extent the vulnerabilities in the PC product used in simulators are also applicable to hardware-based implementations used on planes.

Other media outlets, like Computerworld, are reporting on the differences between the PC simulator hardware and the hardware-based implementations. My opinion remains the same as it did earlier; problems need to be fixed. Working exploits depend on chaining problems together; a good security posture depends on removing as many links from the chain as possible.

Barton, Climate Change, and the GOP War on Science Continues

This week's shot from the GOP War on Science came from Texas representative Joe Barton. In a statement full of both confusing analysis and an even more confusing metaphor, Barton explained that the Great Flood was an example of climate change as well as an example of why there was no need to manage climate change.

Leave aside the whole question of the historicity of the Great Flood and the Noah legend. Assuming that the flood was historical, and assuming that it was an example of what happens under climate change, wouldn't that be an argument to try to avoid global warming? Unless he is proposing that we start building really big boats.

Now let's go back to the question of the historicity of the Great Flood. There is an interesting hypothesis that the Great Flood legend comes from the flooding of the Black Sea basin during the global warming at the end of the last ice age. Maybe Barton heard this story and assumed that there was actually scientific evidence for the whole legend, including the giant boat that still wasn't big enough to hold the dinosaurs.

Just for fun, here is another classic bit of "scientific" evidence regarding climate change. Lunar volcanoes, anyone?

Social Security, Chained CPI and the Obama Budget

The Obama budget appears to mirror the proposals that Obama had previously put forward for a so-called "Grand Bargain" to reduce the deficit. It includes proposals for closing tax loopholes, increasing taxes (mostly on wealthy individuals), and it includes some proposals for spending cuts.

One of the centerpieces of proposed cost reductions in Social Security, probably by limiting cost of living increases to a less generous definition of inflation, known as the "chained CPI."

The current measure, known as "CPI-W," calculates inflation by following the increase in a "shopping basket" of common purchases. Chained CPI is similar, but it takes into account the sorts of substitutions that consumers might make in response to increasing prices.

Other measures of inflation are also possible, such as indexing Social Security payments to growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measurement of the overall economy. Or payments can be indexed to the growth in the median worker's wages.

Social Security Trust Fund

A common refrain by the AARP and others is that Social Security is "solvent." By this, they mean that the money in the "Social Security Trust Fund" will continue to fund benefits to the 2030s or so. In fact, the "trust fund" consists of what amounts to IOUs, as the Unified Budget allowed the Federal Government to mask the true size of the budget deficit by borrowing agains future taxpayers' payments.

In effect, the next generation of taxpayers will need to be double-taxed, to pay both the normal pension payments and additional taxes to pay for the deficit that was financed by raiding the trust fund.

The realization that the Baby Boom generation effectively financed deficit spending at the cost of the generation that will have to pay their social security is sometimes referred to as "generational theft".

Other Options

There are other options for achieving Social Security savings.

One is to adjust the so-called "primary insurance amount" (PIA) formula to give less of a benefit to upper-income earners. Social Security payments are progressive in the sense that payments are not proportional to taxes paid into the system, but further adjustments to the formula can result in cost savings that disproportionately affect upper income earners.

Another is to use so-called "progressive price indexing" (PPI), in which upper income earners are indexed differently than lower income earners.

Nobody Plays Politics Better than the NRA

The Week reports on how the NRA's political mobilization has succeeded even in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook.

Most Americans support common sense types of gun control, such as background checks at gun shows. But bolstered by the cash and cutthroat reputation of the NRA, gun expansionists have beaten off all attempts to expand federal gun regulations. In many cases, like the riders to the budget to reduce the Federal Government's ability to track gun violence, the NRA has actually decreased controls on gun sales.

NOTE (10 April 2013): An deal may be in the works to allow increased background checks during gun show sales and gun sales through other venues.

What does it mean to be Christian?

Lost Christianities book is one of my favorite books about religious history. The author integrates information from several different sources in an engaging tour of what it meant to be a Christian in the first few centuries AD.

New techniques and new document finds have completely re-written what we thought we knew about the history of Christianity. It turns out that the Christian ecosystem was much richer and more diverse than most people understand. The variety of different beliefs held among people who called themselves "Christian" is staggering. Fortunately, new documentary evidence illuminates what these people believed, and what sorts of books they considered to be scripture.

Ehrman also explains the history of the more traditional books in the canon. The New Testament takes on additional life once you understand the history behind each of the books.

GOP Efforts at Voter Suppression Continue

The GOP is continuing its efforts at voter suppression with the recent veto override in Arkansas. Governor Beebe correctly called this law an expensive solution to a non-existent problem.

Nobody is fooling anybody. These laws have nothing to do with stopping voter fraud. There have been no reputable results showing a problem with voter fraud by people who come to the polls on voting day. Everyone admits that fraud is much easier to carry out with mail-in ballots, but the GOP has made no moves to tighten up on absentee balloting, because they believe that they have an advantage among those ballots.

Book Review: "Bailout" by Barofsky

Barofsky has a unique perspective on what unfolded in the series of bailouts following the 2008 economic meltdown. He had the responsibility for overseeing the disbursement of an unprecedented amount of money at a phenomenal velocity. In this extraordinarily readable memoir, Barofsky explains some of the roots of the financial collapse and doesn't hesitate to call out powerful interests for their part in destabilizing the financial system.

Given the urgency of the situation and the speed of the response, it would have been impossible for anyone to prevent fraud. And fraud did occur, as Barofsky points out in this book. But with all the handicaps Barofsky's team faced, they did a remarkable job keeping the bailout as clean as they did.

Barofsky also points out the importance of reform in our financial institutions, how little has been done, and the role that money played in influencing the lack of response. His criticism is on point when pointing out the weaknesses in our financial infrastructure. And since the "too big to fail" companies have continued to grow larger while engaging in the same risky behavior as before, we will be condemned to repeat our recent history again.

Don Young is a Bigoted Pinhead

Every now and again, a politician lets his mask slip. Then you get a glimpse of what really lives under the carefully presented public image.

Alaska Representative Don Young's latest gaffe included his referring to hispanic migrant workers as "wetbacks."

He assures us that he "meant no disrespect" and explains that this was a term in common use when he was growing up.

It turns out that when I grew up, we referred to racists as "bigoted pinheads." I'm sure that Don will understand that I mean just as little disrespect as he did in his original quote.

The Atlantic Wire posted an interesting history of GOP attempts to reach out to people who weren't "stuffy old white men."