Rhymes with Right has a great post about an all too typical situation in our crappy ass public schools (read his post for a better telling and analysis of the situation, I'm just going to rant here). A teaching assistant is falsely accused of inappropriate behavior with a female student. That's bad enough, but it turns out the dad sought out the accused and socked him - and is being praised by all the neanderthals.
But here's the kicker: even after the evidence has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that that teaching assistant was nowhere near the daughter at the time of the alleged incident, right wing neanderthals are still issuing macho maxims about how "if anybody touches MY daughter...". Facts are completely immaterial to some of these reactionary loons - what matters is kicking ass. The dad is making the rounds on the talk show circuit and even being praised as "Father of the Year". Because, as we all know, being a father means getting angry and violent.
In other news, another bunch of right wing hotheads ignored the facts to start a fight.
P.S. Alli praises the dad for being involved in his daughter's life. Uhh... I'm not sure where to begin. Apparently getting in a brawl means more than knowing your daughter well enough to be able to trust her? How does somebody with a criminal record and a temper translate into a good dad? We need parents to care enough about their kids to pay attention to them even when there isn't a good fistfight to be had. Moreover, we need parents - hell, even adults - who get to the bottom of a situation and don't simply go into kneejerk offspring defense.
It's shit like this that made me vote for Kerry.
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