One of John Cole's patented rants: If A Christmas Carol was written today..

[Fumesucker]

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/09/07/dickensian/

<snip>

You can’t make this shit up. If a Christmas Carol were written today, Tiny Tim’s crutches would be used by Scrooge to beat him before sending his whole family into bondage and giving Scrooge the proceeds, and David Gregory would lead a roundtable with the different ghosts where they would all explain that the lump of coal left in the Cratchit household would be better used by the producers in society.

[xchrom]

1. 'better used by the producers...' & yet we have defenders of that kind of status quo

Here on DU.

As long as dem does it ... It's better than BachmanPallinRomneyEtc doing it.

[Fumesucker]

3. You probably know this already but Cole is a former wingnut..

He had his Road to Damascus moment during the Terri Shiavo brouhaha.

Now he's like an ex smoker, he hates wingnuts with the fire of a thousand suns.

He was a good writer as a wingnut, I read him back then because his commenters were pummeling the hell out of him and he didn't ban people even for being nasty to him but he's a lot better now he's on the side of truth and justice.

[xchrom]

5. I did know that.

Usually I'm not big on people who've had their 'road to Damscus' moment.

But I can take A point & get it & run w/ it.

So far I've been liking him - but I'll have to see if he sticks w/ it.

[Fumesucker]

6. I've been watching him move leftward ever since Shiavo..

He has the authoritarian streak but he fights it hard in himself.

I certainly don't agree with him on everything but he at least tries to be honest.

[Morning Dew]

2. Scrooge was a job creator,.

Cratchit was a lazy ass who wanted the whole day off on Christmas - really, the whole fuckin' day.

I bet Scrooge would have liked to outsource that job to someone who appreciated it and would maybe use his own coal instead of expecting Scrooge to provide.

[surrealAmerican]

4. Scrooge would have had his dream, and tried to make changes, but ...

... his board of directors would have fired him and demanded Cratchit take a pay cut to keep his job.