Mike, MHP was using the term to do a grandstanding thing
about the victim status of blacks. . pure and simple. -- j

p.s. and, of course, hard work occurs in labor and creative
endeavors of all types. . the best cotton pickers were creative
in the ways they did their job, as the best Von Mises and Rand
quotation-citers are creative and work hard at what they do.
.

So work = physical labor? I'm not following.

Hear, hear +1
(grin)

Michael, I agree that politicians do not come to mind when the term "hard work" is involved, but then, if you were Speaker of the House, and it is full of complete, totally disconnected idiots whose main job is to pander to a special group...well, that could be "hard"...

Hmmm... ' I keep a picture on the wall of someone picking cotton". Well, why not a picture of YOU picking cotton? What does a mother without health care have to do with hard work? And didn't the Obamanation fix health care with Ms. Sleazeosi? John, you need to stay out of the whack job Liberal Porn sites. That was sick....ening

to give me a chance to upvote a fine contributor whom we call
freedomforall. -- j
.

And then there is a matter of grammar: "...suggested that the use of this term for someone like Ryan is insulting to people who once picked cotton or mothers without health care." This gives me an image of a crop of small plants with 'mothers without healthcare' growing on them. A line of calico-clad workers move down the furrows, picking mothers without health care..

Jan

So...he can't be hard-working because there are single mothers who need Obamacare and we used to have slaves? I listened to her comments and couple times and this is what she was saying - that we have to be careful because there are single moms and people who used to pick cotton. If you didn't pick cotton then you aren't hard working. Who says that kind of stuff? Really strange...

I am now retired but I worked hard for 44 effing years and never picked any cotton! Not that there is anything wrong with that. Everyone knows what is meant by saying someone is a hard worker and parsing words to take offense is the work of a professional, victim which is one of the more lucrative professions today.

Well, it is a matter of context. We enjoy supermarkets loaded with fruits and vegetables because other people still work by hand in fields. No one in Congress works that hard -- nor do many others of us...

By analogy, on the "Rebirth of Reason" board, I got flak from one of the computer programmers because I quoted Ludwig von Mises on "creative work." Von Mises said that the creative genius is outside the marketplace because he (she) works without regard for pay, but is motivated by an inner calling. That is the same thing that Ayn Rand said in Roark's "Courtroom Speech." Of course, my colleague from dev-ops thinks of himself as "creative" -- and he may well be. We all are, really, to some degree or another. But that was not the point that Von Mises and Rand were making.

And in this case, I believe that Melissa Harris-Perry was correct. Imagine if it were Glenn Beck objecting to someone calling Nancy Pelosi hard-working because pioneers and farmers from 150 years ago really worked hard. The consensus here would be Thumbs Up praise.

I would like to know what richrobinson's heavy equipment operator
thinks about this. . MHP is a half-black snob like BHO and wears
her black half on her sleeve, it seems. . creating crises out of hiccups
appears to be her current occupation. -- j
.