So on a daily basis, I find myself interacting with people (mostly on Facebook) who don’t understand racism, sexism, homophobia and other similar concepts. They aren’t really that difficult to understand, I don’t think, but I’ve made it a career choice and a personal interest to understand people who are different from me and the history that has led to the present state of discrimination, prejudice and negativity that affects those groups. I know not everyone has the time to minor in women’s studies or learn the material sufficient to teach black history classes like I did, so I’m going to give you a handy guide to how to avoid being racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and other things that you might want to avoid being if you want to have a productive life in a modern society.

So here you go, if you do any of these things below in connection with your interactions with or discussion of a particular group of people based on their demographic characteristics (race, gender, age, religion, sexual identity, ethnicity, national origin, etc.), then you are entering into territory where you are being offensive and morally wrong. This doesn’t make you a racist, sexist, etc., automatically, but it does push you in that direction and you should examine your actions, words, etc.

1. Directing physical or emotional harm or wishing harm upon the group

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Erick Erickson, who recently left CNN for the nuttier pastures at Fox News, penned his first column for Roger Ailes today, which begins:

The editors of the New York Times often come across as school girls at a Justin Bieber concert when it comes to the Democrats. Thursday, they upped their school girl skirt just a bit more for the Democrats.

Nothing quite like a doughy, middle-aged white dude conjuring the image of a teenage girl lifting up her skirt, is there?

Erickson will fit right in at Fox.

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I know lots of entertainers are conservative these days, but Dennis Miller is not just conservative. He's not funny, and he's not nice. There's nothing even slightly entertaining about this nasty rant. In fact, if I were to speculate, I'd think he was possibly auditioning for Rush Limbaugh's dwindling audience.

At any rate, I'm sure conservative heads are exploding all over the planet, with Rush leading the way, since Sandra Fluke was nominated as Time's Person of the Year. In fact, Rush went into his usual paroxysms of outrage about women, calling for men to marry them or else they'll just be dependent on government.

Here comes Dennis Miller, echoing the same theme, saying that the women's movement has spawned "helplessness" among single women. Calling her "Moan of Arc," he goes on to say she'll probably "only accept the cover if they agree to comp her subscription."

And Bill O'Reilly giggles.

I can honestly say that aside from Rush Limbaugh, I've not heard anything quite as hateful and nasty as this against women in general, and Fluke specifically. These guys have their panties in a bunch because women get their birth control covered? This is worth demeaning over half the population?

I'm waiting for the day when news breaks that Dennis Miller begged his pregnant girlfriend to get an abortion. As hypocritical and puffed-up as he is, you have to know it's coming.

After watching this video I had to resist the temptation to shove the piles of dirty socks here in the house right up John Kasich's nose. What a sexist buffoon. Cry me a river, Johnny, about your poor li'l women having to stay behind and do the laundry while you're all out there getting the applause. Via Raw Story:

“You know, Jane Portman, Karen Kasich, and Janna Ryan, they operate an awful lot of the time in the shadows,” he said in Owensville, referring to the wife of Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, his own wife, and the wife of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, respectively.

“It’s not easy to be a spouse of an elected official,” Kasich continued. “You know, they’re at home, doing the laundry and doing so many things while we’re up here on the stage getting applause, right? They don’t often share in it. And it is hard for the spouse to hear the criticism and to put up with the travel schedule and to have to be at home taking care of the kids. And where is the politician? Out on the road.”

Since I seriously doubt Ann Romney has done any laundry for well over thirty years, I wonder how she felt about having her life as a charity board member, dressage horse owner (small business owner?), and gadabout reduced to doing laundry. As for Janna Ryan, she was an accomplished lobbyist before she chose to stay home and raise the young Ryans while Daddy went to Washington to be a Very Serious Budget Hawk Sometimes. I doubt that she's scrubbing clothes over a hot washboard these days.

Kasich is known for running off at the mouth without thinking, but right now Republicans, and especially Mitt Romney, are not especially popular with women. Women, even conservative women, who choose to be stay-at-home moms should be recognized for something besides doing the laundry, don't you think?

I just cringe every time I think of any of these cretins holding higher office. They should all be retired.

I really try not to pay attention to Rush Limbaugh after his ludicrous, ugly, venomous attacks on Sandra Fluke. Now that he's out of the limelight a bit, he's going straight back at it with a vengeance.

Today's little gem comes courtesy of Media Matters. On the same day that Slimeball Joe Walsh tried to swiftboat Tammy Duckworth, Rush thinks it's just a great idea to say that the country was great until women got the vote.

The segment begins with a caller whipping out his pocket Constitution and arguing that "Obamacare" is really the fault of young people. In his mind, those 18 year olds are the reason we've elected "someone this foolish."

Limbaugh counters with "Nah, I can do one better than that. When women got the vote is when it all went downhill."

That's right, Rush. Women got the vote and women spend the household money, and so you just keep flapping your ugly misogynistic mouth off about how much we've screwed up the country. If you keep insulting women, you'll end up with no sponsors, and then they won't be able to keep your bloviating bad self on the air.

By the way, that's not robbing you of your right to free speech, Rush. You've got the right to say whatever you want. What you don't have is the right to the microphone paid for by people who buy products advertised on your airwaves.

Both of these guys could use a lesson in the First Amendment and the Constitution. But in Rush's case, it isn't the first post-Fluke Moment of Misogyny, and it won't be the last, I'm sure.

Despite Limbaugh's protestations that he was (ha ha ha) just kidding, there's no reason at all to believe he was.

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It's a start. But where is Meg Whitman? She's sending big money off to the Republican party but has nothing to say about the de facto leader of her party trashing a law student as a "slut," or calling for her to make sex tapes to prove she needs contraceptives? Really?

And what of Sarah Palin, who should really be furious that her Fearless Leader called her daughter a slut and contraceptive payments "thievery"? Bristol, after all, could have saved Palin some embarrassment if she'd bothered to use birth control back in 2008. I'm betting that Alaska-paid health insurance helped Bristol (and Sarah) out with the expenses of her baby's birth, but of course, that's not thievery. Right?

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Y'know, we were all pretty hard on Issa and the House GOP for having one-sided, inherently misogynistic hearings on birth control. We, as a progressive community, kvetched that having a panel of men testify on a women's health issue was a mistake born of political gamesmanship and intolerance.

Boy, is the egg on our face. Recently found footage, seen here, suggests that there WAS an attempt at balance in these hearings--a chance for turnabout, fair play, and justice.

So, our apologies to Issa, Walsh, and all the other gentlemen of the House GOP. You guys clearly know how to treat women. Maybe that will help with this little problem.

Thanks fellahs!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This "little girl" gaffe ended up as fodder for the Rewrite of Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word Monday night. Basically a journalist did some gumshoe reporting on Governor Nikki Haley's French vacation:

Gov. Nikki Haley's weeklong trip to Europe in June in search of "jobs, jobs, jobs" cost South Carolinians more than $127,000. But the governor and her entourage of more than two dozen returned without any finished deals to bring new employers to the Palmetto State.

Haley, who captured the governor's office preaching fiscal restraint, spent the cash so she, her husband and the rest of the state's contingent could stay in five-star hotels; sip cocktails at the Paris Ritz; dine on what an invitation touted as "delicious French cuisine" at a swanky rooftop restaurant; and rub elbows with the U.S. Ambassador to France at his official residence near the French presidential palace.

Instead of asking for a correction (which is what's done when a newspaper gets something wrong), Haley went after the reporter on Laura Ingraham's radio show:

HALEY: God bless that little girl at the "Post and Courier." Her job is to try and create conflict. My job is to create jobs. In the end, I`m going to have jobs to show for it.

Yeah, the jobs created in France. Oui!

What Lawrence didn't cover is how horribly sexist and dismissive this is. This is perhaps the most deplorable thing you can say about a professional woman who challenges you. I'm immune to being called a dude, drag queen or tranny. When I say something funny, I'm often called a lesbian - a compliment to lesbians, for sure. The c-word, the b-word, and the w-word. Calling me ugly, fat, old, stupid, bimbo, ditzy, over-Botoxed etc. etc. etc. I don't even notice anymore. I write under my real name. I have a column that runs in over 85 newspapers and all over the Internets. If I didn't want to be personally insulted by technology empowered strangers, I'd go live in a cabin and tap out my manifesto on a word processor.

But the phrase "little girl," (I've gotten, "silly little girl" twice in my professional career) its like no other. It's hard to think of anything more condescending than calling someone a feckless female child.

Yes, Republicans like to cry "feminist" when its suits them, but Haley sure loves the language of the "get back in the kitchen" crowd.

The great thing about her using the phrase is now her vacation is national news. Good going, Haley. It's a proud moment for "little girls" everywhere.

Full transcript of the clip above after the jump.

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Looks like the cat's out of the bag: Campaign operatives already know this. That's why they like to use these comments in code; it's a good way to peel off votes without leaving obvious fingerprints.

I know. I worked on a $15 million campaign, and I sat in on those kinds of strategy meetings with the same consultants Obama used. And if you think their campaign didn't deliberately use sexism against Hillary Clinton, you're naive.

By the way, I had the hardest time finding a video to post, because most of them included such vulgar language and imagery, I couldn't use them. I'd forgotten the sheer volume of sexist and sexual bile spewed at Clinton:

WASHINGTON — Calling a female candidate such sexist names as "ice queen" and "mean girl" significantly undercuts her political standing, a new study of voter attitudes finds, doing more harm than gender-neutral criticism based solely on her policy positions and actions.

Harder-edged attacks, such as referring to her as a prostitute, were equally damaging among voters, according to research commissioned by a non-partisan coalition of women's advocacy groups.

The survey said the advice often given to women — to ignore the attacks rather than risk giving them more attention or legitimacy — turns out to be wrong. In the study, responding directly helped the female candidate regain lost ground and cost her opponent support.

"I was stunned at the magnitude of the effect of even mild sexism," says Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who conducted the survey. "Right now campaigns tend to be silent and try to tough it out, and this really opens up a whole new strategy of responding."

The groups that sponsored the research are the Women's Media Center, the WCF Foundation and Political Parity. Thursday, they will announce a joint initiative called "Name It. Change It" designed to monitor and respond to sexism against female candidates in the media.

[...] Among the findings:

• The female candidate lost twice as much support when even the mild sexist language was added to the attack. Support for her initially measured at 43% fell to 33% after the policy-based attacks but to 21% after the sexist taunts. The drop was significant among both men and women, those under 50 and over 50, and those with college educations and without.

• The sexist language undermined favorable perceptions of the female candidate, leading voters to view her as less empathetic, trustworthy and effective.

• Responding directly helped the women candidates' regain support. The rebound occurred both after a mild response — the female candidate calling the discussion "inappropriate" and "meritless" and turning back to issues — and after a more direct counterattack that decried "sexist, divisive rhetoric" as damaging to "our political debate and our democracy."

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