Blatant racism, claiming not to be racist; ignorance, knowing damn well they're a bunch of Eff'ing Idiots; hate, hate & more hate based on innuendo and fact-less Ideology. Makes the boys picking the banjo down on the cabin stoop in "Deliverance" look like Rhodes Scholars. And I'm not saying this just from blogland, but from what I see in some people I meet walking the streets and statements made by those in power who should know better. I can't even begin to imagine what it is like outside of progressive Portland.

Any willing sponsors over in any other nation willing to take in a burnout American?

It's really difficult to live in a country where a man who is educated, raised with a tarnished lead spoon in his mouth [read:no silver spoon of privilege], and couldn't be closer to living the idealized "American Dream" like 95% of the population, now has "assassination threats" enter the daily lexicon of a nation! When a former Presidential Candidate jokes about someone aiming a gun at a "black" presidential candidate completely off the cuff, there is rot in this nation from within and only continues to fester. I am sadly under the impression that there are more people in this cesspool of a nation who would rather see Obama killed than Osama fucking bin Laden dead:!: :!: :!: :!: :!:

I could be loosing my mind, but I'm not, because this is the reality here. :(

These people are sick! And if these are the people who make up a predominance of this Nation, or more importantly those that "lead" and rule over us, Global Climate Change be damned, we'll kill ourselves off well before the planet can do so! Are you Eff'ing people happy yet? Anything else you fucking arrogant, close-minded bastards want?! Arma-fucking-geddon is nie! You win, go meet your fucking maker, take your little Bible-thumping spawns with you, just leave me the fuck out!

Malignant ch___ya

Disease burden

Exact figures are unknown. The RNCCP (Revised National C______ control programme) considers the prevalence to be about 0.1-1% of the general population.

Pathogenesis and risk factors

Malignant retardation is a complex and multistep process which often requires several decades to develop. Only a small percentage of the population is susceptible, but the high risk group shows a very high probability of malignant transformation.
For the purposes of understanding the pathogenesis of malignant retardation, it is convenient to divide people into four groups along the intelligence-hardworking axis. In reality there are no discrete groups and there is a continuity of individuals along both axes.

Group A: The "Golden group" knows what they want and how to get it. They can also work hard when needed to achieve their goals. As such, they are the most successful group of people in this world. No case of malignant retardation has ever been documented in this group.

Group B: This group is stupid, but being lazy, their stupidity affects themselves with little to no damage to others. The vast majority of humanity lies in and near Group B. As such, they are the benign retards. They may convert to premalignant and finally to malignant retards under conditions of stress, as explained below.

Group C: This group is smart, but by being lazy they basically waste their gifts. As such they are benign retards.

Group D: The group is stupid but hard-working and therefore their stupidity can move beyond screwing their own lives and start affecting others. This is the high risk premalignant group.

Malignant transformation: By virtue of his stupidity, if a premalignant retard makes a decision that does not improve his condition at the same time worsening someone else's, he is said to have undergone malignant transformation. He is now diagnosed as a malignant retard.

Diagnosis:

Evidence of one decision within the last six months which:

1. Does not improve his condition but worsens someone else's.

2. This fact should be clearly visible to anyone of normal intelligence.

Further Course

The usual course of the disease begins with the patient being universally detested by everyone he/she comes into contact with. The patient may realize this fact (or not - after all, she is a retard). The further course is complex and depends on the patient's choices and mental state.

Reperfusion injury: Sometimes, after a slight improvement in symptoms, the realization of his/her past wrong choices may plunge the patient into a further bout of denial and lead to reactivation of disease.

The above shown disease process can be interrupted at any point by the death of the patient. Most patients live a full but very unhappy life and die of unrelated causes. A few patients, however are the source of great entertainment and hilarity when they are killed off in highly creative ways by someone who's really, really pissed off.

Treatment

Cure: The definitive treatment has to come from within and there isn't much an outsider can do to "cure" a malignant retard. Spontaneous resolution may take years or even decades and most cases remain untreated until the patient's death. Emotional and psychological support over several years can help speed up remission but this is difficult because the average person can stand only so much bullshit.

Minimising impact on others: The RNCCP advocates simple protocols to minimise the effects a malignant retard has on society.

Simple Excision: Most civilised societies simply don't have the time or motivation to treat a malignant retard and respond by simply ignoring him and excising him from normal society. This has remained the first choice treatment for years.

Traumatic excision: Some malignant retards resist polite efforts to excise them from society and thus warrant a short course of traumatic excision. Beatings are administered in controlled doses until the retard realizes his place in society. This is currently the second choice treatment and is usually sufficient.

Here are the only two ideas I have to improve the quality of Kevin James' thoughts, ideas, and hopefully broadcasts if he's actually allowed to sit behind a microphone.

AND A

Dictionary

 
Technorati Tags: politics, hardball
 

There are two kinds of people in the world: smart, reasonable, thinking people, and well, West Virginians.

It's not Democrat vs. Republican that will determine this race, it's going to come down to reasonable, thinking people vs. racist fear-mongers. I'm very worried that what a colleague of mine says is true - the masses are asses.

Vincent Rossmeier, Salon, May 16, 2008

Matt Taibbi writes with the unfettered rage of a man in a bar fight. Modeling himself as a modern day Hunter S. Thompson, Taibbi has carved out a blunt, provocative style in his political writing for Rolling Stone and the New York Press. Taibbi is notorious for his vicious descriptions: He once referred to Tom DeLay as a "balding incubus" with a "Gorgon's gaze" and called Harry Reid "a dour, pro-life Mormon with a campaign chest full of casino money." Throughout his career, Taibbi has purposely cultivated his image as a journalistic bad boy.

His last book, "Spanking the Donkey," was a scathing diary of the 2004 presidential elections that included his recollection of a stoned meeting with Dennis Kucinich. Yet he is perhaps best known for his irreverent 2005 column in the New York Press, "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope," that seemed to delight in the pope's imminent demise and included such items as "Pope pisses himself just before the end; gets all over nurse" and "Doctor applies fingers to neck to check expiring Pope's pulse. Pope's ear falls off." Several politicians, including Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg, subsequently denounced Taibbi's column. At the time, Taibbi argued that the piece "had almost nothing to do with the pope or Catholics whatsoever, and certainly wasn't hate speech," but the resulting controversy led to Taibbi's departure from the paper and the resignation of the paper's editor.

In his new book, "The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire," Taibbi embarks on a journey through contemporary America, a place that he believes is on the verge of a psychological collapse. Reporting for Rolling Stone, Taibbi goes undercover as a born-again Christian to investigate John Hagee's apocalyptic mega-church. He also documents his contentious experiences with members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, whose conspiracy theories he portrays as leftist parallels to the delusional beliefs of the religious right. Taibbi sees Americans on both sides of the political spectrum reverting to a new tribalism that makes communication and mutual understanding near impossible. In a book that is as darkly funny as it is depressing, Taibbi assails every aspect of modern-day America.

Salon spoke with Taibbi about his book, calling people "retards," and his pessimistic view of America's future.

What does the title of your book mean?

A theme I started to pick up on as I was covering politics for Rolling Stone was this idea that increasingly, we're not really a nation of citizens that have a commonly accepted group of facts that we're debating. Instead we're retreating into these insoluble pockets that have their own versions of reality. In this book, you're looking at, on the one side, the religious right, who sees 9/11 as divine retribution against the United States for sins like being too permissive to homosexuals, and on the other side, on the left, you have 9/11 as this conspiracy that was committed by the United States government against its own people. As people are retreating into these alternative versions of reality, they're unable to agree on anything, and we get this increasingly stagnant form of politics.

Read More Here

Four weeks ago I finalized a process that was a year in the making: I legally changed my first name.

It started as a fluke. I worked as a waitress for about 8 months and had a knack for knowing all my customers' names. They complained that they couldn't remember mine, so I tried to think of nicknames they could use...

...but my name didn't lend itself to any easy-to-remember nicknames. Oh, what to do? I found myself wondering what name I would want if I had a different name?

Surprisingly, the thought of a new name lingered after I left that job. I spent much time seeking within my heart what might this be all about?

Time spent in quiet reflection, introspection and heaven-gazing revealed my need to go a bit further in my quest for significance and identity.

In my young years I heard daily just about every racial slur one can imagine for African-Americans, the Japanese, Chinese, Jews, Italians...you name it, I heard it. My father had lived in the deep south from the age of 13 and fully embraced hatred for people of all colors. Having spent my first 13 years in a small town in Colorado --- where I remember only one or two "black" students --- I knew no more about "them" than what I heard around the house.

Then we moved to Las Vegas with our dad, where we found ourselves in classrooms with students of many different races. I was confused that what my dad taught me about other races didn't seem to hold true. "Non-whites" were no less intelligent than I; they were neither monsters nor deserving of a superior attitude from the likes of me!

It was a humbling reality check to the Nth degree; I accepted what I saw as a personal challenge to become a better person.

At 13 years old I decided to reject those values of hatred and ignorance, yet it took years to reformat my brain to where I no longer first identified people by skin color or race.

I guess it worked. I married a man of Mexican descent, after all. And I know more Spanish than he does. ; )

Now a mother of five Hispanic earthlings and one Hispanic heaven-dweller, I found that I owed it to myself to take one more step toward distancing myself from the childhood filled with hateful language.

In changing my name, I have blended the unique, in honor of my mom, with my deceased daughter's name, in honor of her and her siblings' Hispanic heritage.

In changing my name to include her middle name, I have detached myself from the ignorant, hate-filled language that flooded my youthful ears and connected myself to my Hispanic husband and children.

The newness I feel is inexplicable. I have finally...symbolically...left behind the cruelty that defined my early perceptions of people who were not like me.

I guess I have my customers to thank for the first steps of a year-long journey that led me here.

© Alexa Lopez

okay so when i worked at sally's beauty supply my manager takes all of us out for our christmas party. well she takes us to red lobster...there were only four of us, the manager, whom was a hispanic lady (she always told me "i'm not mexican, i'm hispanic, my momma's from mexico!!), then there are three of us who work there, a black lady, (upper middle aged, black lady, whom was nice but outspoken) then there's two of us teenage girls, me (asian obviously) & another girl (white, blonde hair nice but really ditzy).......& no this is not a joke....

so the waiter comes to take our order...i order last. when everyone else orders they say what meal they want & the waiter is just like okay. well i order last & the waiter is like "okay, do you want any extra sides with that?" & i am like "no thanks". so then he says "are you sure you dont want anything else?" & again i say "no thankyou" (now i am starting to get some weird vibe). so then the waiter pauses again & is like are you sure? & i say "yes i'm sure" (now i'm kinda pissed like why does he keep asking me) & then he just blurts out "we have sides of rice" & i just look at him like are you shitting me? & he just stares at me & then walks away....

no i'm not kidding! this really happened & i couldnt believe it!! but then i am like what the hell & all the other girls are like "what"?? & i am like "seriously!!" you dont go to red lobster for rice!! i mean if he asked the black lady if she wanted some greens then she probably would have slapped him!! but when it comes to us asians its like we should just take the shit lying down. whateva!!

New name for the old party.

I just realized that the damn food-stealer (see previous post) could possibly become the damn beer-stealer after tomorrow evening.

See, we work across the street from a mixed-use center. You know, you can live, dine and shop there type place.

This mixed-use place has free music on Friday nights, coolers welcome. This is great, because I can go buy my glorious imported Belgian ale [it's called Lambic. try some.] and drink it on the lawn instead of paying five bucks for a cup of warm Bud Light or something [nothing against all domestics, but there is some NASTY shit out there].

Today, I made a major mistake: I told the damn food-stealer about this glorious beverage and that I was probably going to get a couple of bottles to bring to the music thing.

I can see it now:

"Hi Freshcracker. Ooooh that looks good! Can I have a sip?" OR "What are you drinkeeeen?" (Yes, she says her gerunds like Kelly Kapowski)

GULP GULP GULP.

I think, starting early early tomorrow morning, I'm going to have the beginnings of a pretend cold.  One with a fake very sore throat included. My feigned symptoms will probably reach their not-for-real peak between 6pm and 7pm, which is prime time for the damn food-stealer to start her mooching.

*cough*

En bruger af youtube.com havde tilføjet følgende sætninger til videoen, som jeg synes er enorm tankevækkende.. Jeg kan kun sige: det er syndt for disse personer, som uafbrudt forsøger at bekæmpe sådan en storslået og velsignet dag ...
Må Allah swt retlede og vejlede os alle fra al ondskab, amin ya Rabbil alemin..

Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:" On the day of the birth of the Prophet (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) Shaytan cried a lot."
[Ibn Kathir, Sirat an-Nabi, 'Birth of the Prophet']

From Ibn Kathir's narration we can see that to feel unhappy on the birthday of the Prophet (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the way of Shaytan, not the way of a Muslim!

Undertegnede sidder midt i skriftlige eksamensopgaver, men jeg må ærlig talt indrømme at jeg ikke altid kan koble mine tanker fra ham, Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam... Til trods for at jeg sidder midt i en skriftlig opgave, så kører det i baggrunden med poesi, anasheed, breve skrevet til ære for den elskede... Jeg føler at mit hjerte hører til et sted, hvor jeg var i år 2004... Jeg føler at han kan redde mig ud af denne verdens lidelser, som er enorm utåleligt, og det er netop derfor jeg ikke kan lade være med at mindes ham i form af poesi, anasheed, ahadith og diverse beretninger som beskriver vores rose af byen Medina... Han er Universets ideale menneske..

Kan ikke sige andet end: YOU ARE STILL ALIVE IN OUR HEARTS YA RESULALLAH!! :((:::::::::

Mawlid 2006

The rose of Madina

By
Larry Houle
www.godofreason.com
intermedusa@yahoo.com

ISLAM IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY BOGUS, A SHAM AND A FRAUD

Islam is not a religion but an evil, political, military ideology.
it's too bad you think that way and how about doing some research? you will find out cool stuff about. 

The ten commandments teach: Thou Shalt Not Kill.

The Koran teaches: Thou Shalt Kill Infidels.
have you even read whole the Qur'an? i dont think so...

In Islam, it is a holy religious duty to murder infidels.
i didnt even know the word infidel until very recently and i am a muslim...

The Quran is written in the language of terrorism.
oh and you think the bible was orginially written in English, huh? it was written in aremric, how would you know if its translated in the right way? i am not trying to attack the bible, i am trying to show that its not the langauge of the terrorist. well the christians were persecuted, a long time ago, when christian was first introduced. and if i am correct, they were persecuted when the bible came out, so the Qur'an was introduced how many years ago, and they are attacking it right now? doesnt really make any sense to me.

It is filled with numerous verses urging the Muslims to terrorize the non Muslims, kill them, and take possession of their lands and properties.
which are actually twisted by, ummm who do we listen to for the news? OMG! its the media, so if they twist the verses, i wonder what else they twist...

The important points to remember is that whatever Muhammad did to terrorize the infidels was actually the actions of God.
did you even live back then to even know? if you did, then you must be very very very old and then you would break the guiness world record for the oldest person on Earth, and last time, i checked i didnt see your name on there. 

Among the many verses which exhort Islamist terrorism, the following verses stand out as naked aggression of Allah/Muhammad on the unbelievers: 2:63, 3:151, 8:12, 8:60, 8:59, 9:29, 9:50 9:55, 11:102, and 17:59
and omg they are all out of context, right?

 These are the Eternal Laws of Allah authorizating murder and extermination as a holy duty. THIS IS THE EVIL INSANITY THAT IS ISLAM.

Islam is murdering infidels, raping their women and little girls, selling and breeding them as slaves,
looting and pillaging their property and keeping 80% of the proceeds from the looting and selling slaves, and distributing the women not sold into slavery as sex slaves.
so if you did some research, you would probably find out, our prophet saw actually married to get the women out of slavery... so how the crap would we still have slaves? if we did have slaves, where are they then?

Murder, rape, looting, slavery are all ETERNAL LAWS OF ALLAH in the KORAN. These LAWS OF ALLAH are divine and can never BE CHANGED.
i am muslim and i am 20 and i never heard of them, so please enlighten me here, and tell me what they are...

All Muslims believe the Koran is the Eternal divine word of God ��" the Eternal laws of God. All Muslims believe that God authored the Koran and a copy of the Koran is in heaven. The Koran remains for all Muslims, not just "fundamentalists," the uncreated word of God Himself. It is valid for all times and places forever; its ideas are absolutely true and beyond all criticism. To question it is to question the very word of God, and hence blasphemous. A Muslim's duty is to believe it and obey its divine commands without question.
well if we start to question God's existence, we come back to the same place...

Muslims can be killed (beheaded) for doing any of the following:

Reviling Allah or his Messenger; (2) being sarcastic about 'Allah's name, His command, His interdiction, His promise, or His threat'; (3) denying any verse of the Quran or 'anything which by scholarly consensus belongs to it, or to add a verse that does not belong to it'; (4) holding that 'any of Allah's messengers or prophets are liars, or to deny their being sent'; (5) reviling the religion of Islam; (6) being sarcastic about any ruling of the Sacred Law; (7) denying that Allah intended 'the Prophet's message . . . to be the religion followed by the entire world.'

This means exactly what it says. ALL MUSLIMS BELIEVE that the Koran is the ETERNAL word/teachings of God to be followed without question. If a Muslim challenges or questions the Koran, HE IS NO LONGER A MUSLIM BUT AN APOSTATE OF ISLAM and can be killed.
if we start to question, we see how complex things are and from human experience, we know that complex things just dont come out of nothing... so we can question... but we are always brought back to the same thing... 

The Koran can never be changed not even one word. When you are reading teachings of the Koran, you are reading the word of God himself and you must OBEY. THERE IS NO CHOICE. There is no exercising free will, no employing logic, reason, rationality, morality. These teachings are for all time FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.
if you read the qur'an, you will find out that there is rationality and morality.
so i encourage you to read it, and try to write a book like it.

This is the most important insanity that ALL Muslims believe THAT MEANS ALL MUSLIMS. This belief in the KORNIC ETERNAL LAWS OF GOD is a disaster that has the potential to destroy humanity and civilization as we know it.

Again all the teachings of murder, rape, slavery, looting, sex with little girls etc are FOREVER.
there you go with the slavery again...

They are Islam.

Islam is not a wonderful religion of peace and love that has been hi ��" jacked and perverted by a few bad apples of evil Islamo Facsists, Islamic militants, Islamic Fundamentalists, jihadists, Wahhabism, radical Islam, political Islam, Islamists etc There has been no hijacking. There has been no perversion. These demented souls are following exactly the teachings of the Koran and in the footsteps of the Prophet - Muhammad. ITS ALL ABOUT ISLAM STUPID INFIDEL
ouch that really hurt me here.

The reality is that Osama bin Laden is a true Muslim, a holy man of the book who is following exactly the teachings of Islam as recorded in the Koran.
dont you think its very funny how the dont know who killed martin luther king, but they quickly blame osama for sept 11, 2001? and it's been like 40 or 50 years ago since the death of mlk and his death happened in the US, not outside the US and we still after about 40 years dont know who killed him... 

By not exposing the perverted teachings of Islam, those who use the term Islamo Fascism etc are elevating Islam to an equal footing with Christianity and other world religions.

so you think islam teaches violence, 5 to 8 million muslims live here in the united states. if islam really taught violence, then ask yourself, "WHERE IS THE VIOLENCE?" so all that kill all the infidel stuff is nonsense, because if it was true, then HOW WOULD THE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS LIVE GENERATION AFTER GENERATION FOR 1400 YEARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? AND THEY STILL LIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST! THINK ABOUT IT! THINK ABOUT IT! THINK ABOUT!

and you give israel and palestine as an example,
well people in palestine think that israel is not a country and that its occupation from israel that makes you mad and want to fight back. now put yourself in that place. say canadians started to come in gradually and then they started to take back the lousiana purchase that was made back in 1803, and they started to say that this is their land and they want it back, and started occupy the land, and i dont think we still have the document of the purchase, and since we have no proof of that purchase they are going to take in back anyway, and even if we did have it, they would go after it and try to destroy any proof. wouldnt you go fight them? because its your land and they are occupying it. i mean they gave it to us, right?
same thing happened with the palestines and israel....

I've been hiding.

I've been hiding from reality while convincing myself I was somehow efficient & achieving life balance.

Ego & MO
Realistic or not, something in me thinks I can solve 'the universe'. Yet at the same time, I want to solve the universe my own dang way. I want to solve the universe with community building, social tech, long-term thinking, a chance to join & build teams with optimistic people. Let's solve the world. Let's get results.

But it's gotta be fun.

Let's pile on the fun while I'm saving the universe with fun people. I'm eager - thrilled - to take on tough issues when a sense of fun abounds. Who cares my husband and I have millions to go before we make our millions. If we crack eachother up during the quest, it's all good (why? cuz we're havin' fun!).

I've walked away from projects, from clients, & from a few friends because their lack of fun & joy. Maybe that's rude or short-sighted or relational suicide. Or maybe it means I'm not the Mahatma.

Bottom line, bring on the fun challenges. With them, life is good, balanced, & something I can handle. With this paradigm of fun, I can build, conquer, & transcend.

BRING IT!

When life lacks fun or balance: a jack ass takes a beat
So my fun, high-horse philosophy is not only 'high' but as of late - morally blind.

I do not know what to do with China's earthquake in Sichuan Province. Or Myanmar & their government & starving thousands.

It's not fun. It's one big dose of hard, complex devastation. And I haven't known what to do except ignore it & have fun thinking about my projects, my life, my work, my 401k, my mission, my man, my quest, my bad jokes.

From this sunny, peaceful, in-tact-with-plenty-of-food cafe in Northwest DC, I'm realizing my not knowing what to do with these tragedies is irrelevant. What matters is my decision to care and act on a conscious level - even though it's not fun or toward a clear-cut solution for the people in those countries.

I feel compelled, in all my imperfection, to do something more than hide.

What matters is understanding I have the gigantic luxury to decide to act at all. It's a humbling thought that inspires humility & nausea all at once.

Since vomiting on myself out of shame proves useless.

Since social tech is a powerful thing - ready to connect & empower the many.

Since it's never too late to look beyond one's self-absorption.

And out of respect for those who have feared and lost yet still try to recover...this jack ass offers below:

• In China, he drives (10) trips a day;
• On Myanmar, Laura Fitton (@pistachio) shares her ownership & tremendous information;
• On Myanmar farmers, replacing their water buffalo, & CARE's ongoing effort in the region;
• From ReliefWeb, on humanitarian efforts for both countries;
• On underground channels used to transport help.

UPDATE

• For some photoblog beauty & inspiration on how to help relief efforts in China.
  ]]> http://helloabsurdistan.wordpress.com/?p=4 Wed, 14 May 2008 23:53:42 +0000 zuckerfrei http://helloabsurdistan.wordpress.com/?p=4 I've never really kept up with this blogging thing, but as I seem to have an increasing desire to not do any of the things that I should be doing, maybe this time it'll stick. Well, absurdity.

  Today we were studying forms of poetry — lyrical, free verse, and so on. There was a rather interesting poem that I rather liked — especially compared to some of the others selected for discussion — called After A Heated Argument by Kaneto Tota. Goes like this:

   

  After a heated argument

  I go out to the street

  and become a motorcycle.

   

  I like the idea of becoming a motorcycle, I kind of see them as being these seething, steaming machines that compared well with the heated argument of the title. The poem makes sense, and although it gives you an interesting image to ponder, it's not that difficult to understand. Or so I thought.

  There were several other students in my class, who had been dutifully reading the poem and trying to analyze it [in the most vanilla, routine way possible], who thought that motorcycle was a typo. Another girl and I said that of course it wasn't, that the motorcyle was the whole point of the poem. The other students clearly didn't get it, and we had a minor disagreement over whether one could write about becoming a motorcycle. The idea of the whole thing completely missed them.

  It worries that my peers' minds seem to be so closed. Subtlety and anything that doesn't conform precisely to their way of thinking [so very very linear!] goes right over their heads. And they're missing so much! This other girl and I tried really hard to explain the concept of the motorcycle, and it was such a foreign concept that they ended up ignoring our efforts to communicate. I remember reading somewhere that when the first ships from Europe came over to North America, the First Nations people couldn't see them. Because the ships were so out of their realm of understanding, their minds rejected the mere possibility that these structures could float on the water. I see this sort of protective ignorance too much in people my age. Perhaps the motorcycle is not the largest problem my generation faces, but it is certainly a symptom of a more distressing truth. We are supposed to be questioning things, rebelling against the norms, challenging the way we speak — not disregarding a new way of thinking because it is foreign to us.

  Where has that gone? How do I get it back?

  ]]> http://redrising.wordpress.com/?p=22 Wed, 14 May 2008 22:35:13 +0000 redrising http://redrising.wordpress.com/?p=22 A long-standing trend in the anti-racist far-left is to advocate for the "cultural autonomy" of minorities. That is to say, each cultural group has the inalienable right to express their way of life as they see fit.

  Personal issues that I have had with this particular philosophy revolve around a reservation I have for the idea of separatism. I abhor the idea of allowing any sort of divisions to manifest into a sociological or geographical apartheid. It is my conviction, backed up by scientific evidence, that ethnicity and race in particular are virtually negligible genetic factors in an individual's personality.

  Thus, the meaning of cultural autonomy must be made mutually exclusive with any form of separatism.

  Cultural autonomy means the right to express one's culture with other members of that culture. Complications arise in geographical regions wherein there co-exist many cultures, a case-in-point of which could be Anglo-Franco North America.

  It is a part of the world where cultures converge. Although dominated by Anglo-European culture in the United States and English Canada and Franco-European culture in French Canada (and parts of Louisiana and New England), it is common to find a Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown and Little India in many cities, not to mention enclaves of African-American, Jewish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish/Hispanic, Japanese, Korean, Middle Eastern and Native American culture.

  To offer cultural autonomy is easiest when a definable geographic region belongs almost or completely homogeneously to a distinct cultural group. I often use the Frisians of northeastern Germany and northern Netherlands to illustrate this. It is conceivable that the remaining Frisians could call for autonomy within the German and Dutch states, or outright independence, as long as their national self-determination were respected by the German and Dutch states. The same could be said for the Tatars, Chechens, Ossetians and Bashkirs of Russia; the Basques and Catalans of Spain and France; the Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish and Manx of the United Kingdom; and any of the 56 distinct ethnic groups recognized by the People's Republic of China.

  However, the situation in North America is a textbook example of the difficulties of universal cultural autonomy in that, often, the cultural groups all live within the same geographical boundary. Major North American cities like Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, Miami and San Francisco all fit into this phenomenon.

  The contention regarding cultural autonomy is not based on whether all cultures have an inalienable right to express their cultures independent of another: they do. The question regards how best to implement it in all situations so that a global condition of universal cultural autonomy emerges.

  To suggest that the division of all cultures into distinct nation-states is the best solution is simply ridiculous. Examples, primarily in Europe, show that it is both impossible and impractical. It is impossible because nation-states necessarily require territorial boundaries, almost never of which correspond 100% with a homogeneous nation, trapping nationals outside of the boundaries and non-nationals inside them. It is impractical because the nation-state is an inherently nationalist institution, causing arbitrary national divisions by uniting dissimilar communities against often similar communities.

  Without the nation-state, a new social order must emerge that allows for cultural autonomy but also undermines separatism.

  Take, for example, African-Americans in the United States. Historically an oppressed minority, they have yet to break free from the bonds of the damage of slavery, institutional discrimination, and contemporary racism. Calls for black nationalism have met with varying degrees of success.

  The solution cannot be nationalism. There can be no creation of a distinct, independent nation-state for African-Americans. This is so for two reasons: one, African-Americans are not completely geographically concentrated, forming enclaves in cities and towns, meaning that no African-American nation-state would have continuous boundaries; two, while forming enclaves across the country, African-Americans also live in communities that are dominantly European-American or Hispanic-American, while non-Africans also live in their communities.

  Nevertheless, African-Americans have formed a distinct culture, characterized by such things as jazz, hip-hop, rap, some distinctive cuisine, a unique form of comedy and entertainment, artistic and poetic styles, and even a dialect of American English (commonly known as "Ebonics").

  To allow African-Americans, and all other cultural minorities, to fully express their culture is absolutely necessary for the full development of each individual African-American's identity.

  The first step in doing so is to immediately remove all legal barriers to this. This includes clamping down on racial profiling, leveling out laws that unfairly single out African-Americans*, retrying black prisoners when there is evidence of a breach of justice, etc.

  Once the minority in question has achieved absolute equality under the law, they must use their organizational power to create a visible presence for themselves in society, using this presence to normalize relations between their community and all others. They must actively seek to educate members of other communities and cultures about their way of life, for it is ignorance that leads to hate.

  The most important manifestation of cultural autonomy must be a political structure that allows for culture-related issues to be decided by members of that culture. This does not entail political sovereignty: that would be separatism. It is the right of a cultural community, like any other community, to decide their direction without interference.

  Simply, cultural autonomy is the right of all cultures to flourish by their own means while co-existing peacefully with other cultures with stipulations based on human and civil rights.

  * An example of this is laws regarding cocaine and crack cocaine. An ACLU report documents that “distribution of just 5 grams of crack carries a minimum 5-year federal prison sentence, while for powder cocaine, distribution of 500 grams – 100 times the amount of crack cocaine – carries the same sentence.” For more, see http://creativedestruction.wordpress.com/2006/11/15/crack-cocaine-sentencing-systematic-racism-at-work/

  ]]> http://sweetangel16175.wordpress.com/?p=40 Wed, 14 May 2008 19:13:44 +0000 sweetangel16175 http://sweetangel16175.wordpress.com/?p=40 here it is, the hopefully soon to be famous speech by moi!

  I still believe! Oh God Almighty, I still believe!

  I believe God does everything for a reason.
  I believe there’s a reason I am here.
  There’s a reason God put me on this Earth.
  There’s a reason God put you on this Earth too.
  But I believe I have found the reason I am here.
  I believe here is the reason God put me on this Earth.

  “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

  The “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. is about 50 years old!

  And yet, the dream still hasn’t come!
  Even though we think it did...

  We still judge people by how they look on the outside,
  and we don’t take time to get to know them on the inside.
  I don’t think it’s fair. I really don’t think it fair.
  There’s so much more to a person than what they look like.
  There’s intelligence and wisdom.
  There’s kindness and there’s personality.

  But people become so blind and they can’t look past the looks.
  And if they look good, we tend to associate them with a good personality. I mean it is sometimes true, but most of the time it isn't.

  And there IS still so much racism in the world today...
  and discrimination and prejudice too!

  The only reason: We already have this image set in our heads of what they would be like if we ever talked to them because, God forbid, getting to know them past their looks is a sin, right?

  But I have the same dream!
  Martin Luther King’s dream.
  The dream he introduced to us fifty years ago.
  The dream of hope and equality.
  The dream that was fought against the Jim Crow laws.

  But that same dream, even after all his hard work and all that time between then and now, still hasn’t come.

  After three hundred and sixty years, we still have same stereotypes.
  After three hundred and sixty years, we still have same prejudices.
  After three hundred and sixty years, we still discriminate against people.
  After three hundred and sixty years, some people even support it.
  After three hundred and sixty years, we still use violence to get the word out.
  After three hundred and sixty years, we still hate the people who are not like us.
  And after three hund and sixty years, we still haven’t made much progress.

  And we think racism just disappeared because nobody talks about it anymore.

  I still believe in this dream!
  I still believe we can achieve this dream!
  I still believe! Oh God Almighty! I still believe!

  Yes! I have the same dream, the same dream of hope, the light at the end of the tunnel! And yes I too also see it! Dr. King saw it fifty years ago, and I see it too!
  Yes! I have the same dream, the same dream of true equality, where everyone, and i mean everyone around the world, is treated in the same way, no one lesser, no one better!
  And yes! I have the same dream, the same dream of our true liberties, where we have all of our liberties and they are not taken away from us!
  Yes! I have the same dream, the same of honesty, a day when saying the truth and fighting for your rights and your true liberties will be rewarded, not punished.

  Oh! But I still believe in the dream! One must have faith in humankind! I still do!

  Yes! I have the same dream that one day all the people around the world would come together as one species, as one human race, and we would not be judged whether we are African, Asian, Indian, or Muslim,
  A day when white and black are considered the same,
  A day when African and Indian are considered the same,
  A day when Muslim and Asian are considered the same!

  Yes! I have the same dream that one day we will see that we are all the same in the eyes of God and no one superior,
  A day when we stop categorizing people into groups,
  A day when we know we are all different and learn embrace and celebrate those differences
  A day when all the anger in world will be gone,
  A day when we see that there’s no right religion or right color of skin or right way to look beautiful,
  A day when one day when we find out that beauty is in everyone,
  A day when one day we won’t have to look for it.

  Oh I still believe! Oh God Almighty! I still believe!

  Yes! I have the same dream that one day, people will learn and to listen to each other and teach each other to listen with all their hearts,
  A day when we will learn to speak and teach each other to speak with all their hearts,
  A day when one day we the people won’t be weakened or destroyed by our concept of race but be strengthened by the concept of listening with our hearts!
  A day when we won't be weaken by the facts that our eyes say, but be strengthened by listening to our hearts
  A day when we will finally abandon what our eyes say.
  A day when we use of eyes to find good in all people.

  I have the same dream that one day we the people will not categorize ourselves into "races" and people will see who the others really are,
  A day when the saying, "The eyes are the window to the soul." would be on everyone's lips,
  A day when people will look into each other eyes and truly see their soul.
  A day when love is taught and to hate someone is be punished,
  A day when there’s no concept of racism and the concept of identifying against,
  A day when the miracle of hope is present in every heart and mind
  A day when we have time and take the time to get to know each other

  I still believe in the dream! One must have faith in humankind! Oh I still believe!

  I still have the same dream that one day people will abandon stereotypes and not act on their prejudices and not support the discrimination,
  A day when we will be respected for who they are and not hated because we dont support who the other people support,
  A day when discrimination will be truly punished and put to jail for,
  A day when true hope will shine in the hearts of little children,
  A day when they are and we are truly happy to be who we are,
  A day when we abandon all the anger and hate
  A day when we know that these stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination will only lead us to go round and round in a vicious cycle.

  Oh I still believe in the dream! Yes! I do believe!

  I have the same dream that one day we will finally see that race is not based on the biological aspects,
  A day when we finally see that race is a social concept
  A day when we finally abandon it, and see each other for the way we truly are.
  A day we won’t be too busy fighting to see the real problem on the earth.

  But I have the same dream that one day people will not be judged by the clothes they wear or how fat or skinny we are or how much make up we put on,
  A day when we are all considered beautiful in our own way because everyone is different,
  A day when the outside will not become a barrier to look what is really inside the person,
  A day when a person will show true happiness inside and outside.

  Oh yes! God Almighty! I still believe!

  I have the same dream that one day we will all teach our children to love all "races" and teach them to love themselves too,
  A day when we teach our children that you dont have to look skinny to be beautiful,
  A day when we don’t teach our children the poison of hate of the “others” and the hate toward their bodies,
  A day when our children could be truly free to express themselves without being judged by their friends or classmates
  A day when we teach our children that they dont have to fit in or be popular to be themselves, or to be liked by other people,
  A day when people will see that standing out is not the worse thing in the world,
  A day when we wont conform with people, even though we know they are wrong,
  A day when there's no jocks, and cheerleader, and punk, and goths, but there will be just children in our school,

  I have the same dream that one day people will see though other people and look past that other people are different from them,
  A day when we are not consumed in what a person looks like,
  A day when we still have hope for people,
  A day when we see something wrong being done, we do something about it,
  A day when we stand up for what we believe is right,
  A day when we say that we are sad, we truly mean and when we say that we are happy, we truly mean it.

  Oh yes! God Almighty! I still believe!

  I have the same dream that one day we will teach our children that you don’t have to look a certain way to be beautiful and that the word “hot” really doesn’t biologically exist,
  A day when people will judge other people and other people judge us by the character they and we have,
  A day when people will realize that we are flawed and we can’t be perfected, no matter how hard we try,
  A day when we realize we don’t need to be perfected,
  A day when people won’t be so blind to the media!

  I have the same dream that one day we will all finally break free from these chains, break free from the chains of discrimination, break free from the chains of prejudice, break free from the chains of the hatred and anger that is in this world right now.

  I have a dream that one day we will get to understand why God made the world the way he did!

  And that will be the day when people are going to be truly happy and the people won't be so blind anymore.

  One must have faith in humankind! And oh! I still believe!

  ]]> http://onecryinginthewilderness.wordpress.com/?p=59 Wed, 14 May 2008 17:38:20 +0000 Town Crier http://onecryinginthewilderness.wordpress.com/?p=59      I wish to post a copy of an excerpt from a letter I wrote concerning the wrongful conviction I underwent and previously wrote about.  It is my hope this excerpt will shed light on the plight of anyone who has suffered an injustice that affects every aspect of that person’s life unlike the bad hair days most people think qualify as an injustice.

       “…Lastly, in your stated understanding of my dilemma about being in Missouri you said that there were many people in my situation.  You may want to rethink saying such a thing to others you are trying to sell your program to as it is an obvious falsehood to anyone in my situation.  You see there are not a lot of people in my situation.  The vast majority of people (well above 90%) I have spoken to about their convictions unequivocally state that they were guilty of the crimes they were convicted of whereas my situation is that I was wrongfully convicted and am suffering the penalties of not just losing the valuable time I had (and needed) to try to build my dreams but all the penalties that follow a felon throughout their lifetime.  My situation is not like “a lot” of others and most people, like you fail to understand this and instead just lump me in with everyone else who have no issue of being a victim of injustice.

       As far as any issues of anger, I do not usually get angry at anything anymore as I’ve pretty much given up hope for anything good and just in this now meaningless life however I have been and still am angry about the wrongful conviction and all the injustices it entails but that is because I was/am a person who devoted several years of my life and was/am willing to die to defend the freedoms this country’s constitution guarantees to all its inhabitants yet those same freedoms which I willing served to protect are denied me by people who similarly vowed to protect those very same freedoms (namely the judges and other government officials).  I do not expect you nor anyone else to understand and I say this because as I have learned from some of my classes that the generations of younger people today have no real idea of the meanings behind the freedoms provided in the constitution.  For instance one student believed the first amendment guaranteed the right to keep churches from meddling in government rather than its intended guaranteed freedom of keeping the government from meddling in an individual’s right to worship in whatever manner they wish.”

       Is it any wonder why it is possible for people to suffer such atrocities by the very government they love and willingly die for when seen in light of each successive generation’s ignorance of those valued rights, freedoms and entitlements.  Time and again we hear our court’s administrators say that their rulings are meant to reflect the changing values of our society.  How can such atrocities be avoided when those we assign to protect our right to justice are ingenuously placing the blame for injustice on our societies changing values?  What these courts need to be doing is providing the justice guaranteed by our constitution in spite of societies ignorance to those freedoms.

       I recently read an article in The Wall Street Journal which castigated our judicial system for allowing foreign individuals from South Africa to file law suits against companies and/or individuals who supported the apartheid South African government which allowed the continued violation of those human/civil rights which are recognized and purportedly guaranteed by the international community in which we now live.  This right of foreigners to utilize our court system is provided by the Alien Tort Laws and the article claimed that we need to rethink our judicial system and remove such laws because we would not like to have a court in another country (I believe it stated Switzerland) to allow actions against the U.S. for the injustices and harm incurred by its past policies on slavery.

       I on the other hand would ask that such a law be expanded to require that such judicial forums be adjudicated by an international panel of judiciaries because as the article has pointed out many of our government officials try to pressure the judges hearing those cases to dismiss the suits to protect the entities targeted in those suits.  I firmly believe that law suits are needed to balance the injustices brought about by industries, individuals, and other entities that cause harm.  While I do not agree with excessive monetary awards I strongly oppose tort reform and such reform is not necessary as our Supreme Court has shown an equally strong belief that they are capable of minimizing such erroneous judgments by placing limits such as limiting punitive awards to ten times the amount of actual damages incurred unless the plaintiff can show that the defendants intentionally, willfully and egregiously committed the atrocities which led to the harm the plaintiff incurred.

       Well I will end by praying that no one else will ever have to go through what I have been through nor feel the emotional upheaval such an injustice can put a person through.  I shall end here with the further prayer that love and peace be yours always.  Amen.

  ]]> http://elberry.wordpress.com/?p=1325 Wed, 14 May 2008 09:46:01 +0000 elberry http://elberry.wordpress.com/?p=1325 i am wary of ignorant do-gooders. There is something very dangerous about rosy-tinters who think the best of everyone, who, indeed, think that everyone is a precious wonderful snowflake, but who have little experience of life beyond the cloisters of the upper middle class. i'm sure that such ignorant rosy-tinters occasionally do some good, more or less by accident, but i am nevertheless deeply suspicious of ignorance. Ignorance can take many forms. An intelligent and educated man, judging things he has never, even in the most distant way, experienced, will be as ignorant as a chav dismissing Shakespeare as 'shite, innit'.

  My battle against the rosy-tinters has been long and gruesome. It's not that i even have much experience of the grimmer side of life, having spent most of my 32 years living in relatively quiet areas. But i seem a magnet for violent crazies; i only have to sit in public - in a bus station, say - for half an hour for (to take one example) a man to sit next to me and advise me that he's just been released from a 9-year prison stretch, hasn't slept in 3 days, was fighting the night before, and will almost certainly go back to prison soon. i guess that whereas my more typically middle class friends would instantly get up and leave, or sit there frozen with terror, i always enjoy talking to the crazies, and i assume they are far from unique.

  Some of my friends automatically dismiss my gorier anecdotes as so wildly implausible, betokening such a dark and cynical view of humanity, that i must be lying. Indeed, they so take this for granted that they don't even need to accuse me, they just smile forgivingly, as if any tale of human violence or meanness is a priori unrealistic. We do not, after all, live in Somalia.

  So Theodore Dalrymple, having drawn his knowledge of humanity from his work as a psychiatrist in a prison and an inner city hospital, writes of a posh literary dinner:

  On my right sat a man in his late sixties, intelligent and cultivated, who had been a distinguished foreign correspondent for the BBC and who had spent much of his career in the United States. He said that for the last ten years he had read with interest my weekly dispatches—printed in a rival, conservative publication—depicting the spiritual, cultural, emotional, and moral chaos of modern urban life, and had always wanted to meet me to ask me a simple question: Did I make it all up?

  i wonder how anyone could live in the west, and not nod at Dalrymple's seemingly inexhausible fund of appalling anecdotes.  But, it seems, there is no one as capable of living in their own private dreamworld as a good liberal. Later, at the same party, on the subject of punishment (which all of the good liberals were opposed to, of course, on the assumption that a murderer or serial rapist or child abuser needs counselling sessions and kindness, and will then miraculously transform into the shining beautiful being we all truly are, praise God! - rather than, for example, using their liberty to go out and kill again):

  I said we should look closer to home, to the fact that, with the single (and admittedly important) exception of murder, crime rates in Britain were now higher, and in some cases much higher, than in the United States: and that the chief failing of our criminal-justice system was not its excessive harshness or its liability to wrongful imprisonment but its patent failure to enforce the law or to protect citizens from the most blatant lawbreaking. The result was that for untold numbers of our compatriots life was a living hell.

  I briefly outlined my reasons for saying so: the vast numbers of people—thousands and possibly tens of thousands—who have told me about their lives, which are dominated by the possibility, or rather the high probability, of violence and other criminal acts being committed against them, and who quite rightly felt themselves to be totally unprotected by the police or by the courts.

  Opposite me was a well-known pacifist, a man of the highest principle, who was by no means a puritan, however, at least with regard to food and wine. His shiny cheeks radiated bonhomie and self-satisfaction at the same time, and he spoke in the plummy tones of the English upper middle class.

  "You know funny people," he said, leaning slightly toward me across the table.

  i find the self-righteousness, pomposity, and utter ignorance of such people both bewildering and despicable. i have no objection to someone choosing to know nothing of vicious ghetto life, but to then make a career out of pontificating about the evils of the police and the prison system, and the essential goodness of all criminals, is a shameful and base parasitism. i have as yet met not a single liberal who has any experience of life outside of their safe middle class world, a world safeguarded by the police.

  Certainly, one reason England has gone to the dogs under Nu Labour is to do with the systematic assumption that criminals need kindness - preferably by just letting them go free - and that the police are fascist oppressors whose powers must be severely curtailed with bureaucracy (an average of 40 forms must be filled in for each arrest made; the police,  understandably, are now reluctant to even record a crime, let alone make an arrest), piffle about Human Rights (which seemingly extend to the criminal but not the victim and certainly not to future victims), and all the fashionable and worthless notions that have seeped like slow poison out of academia, from the 'teachings' of cretinous filth like Foucault, and have now infected society as a whole.

  i loathe liberals. They do not care about human beings. They care about the glow of self-righteousness they enjoy when pontificating about oppressed minorities. i despise Feminists, who are without exception grubby career-whores and apple polishers desperate to climb the corporate ladder, while mouthing the usual Party Line about patriarchy and 'social constructs'. They regard, say porn or erotica, as a great evil, worthy of their red-faced screaming, but not the quite genuine mistreatment of women in Saudi Arabia. These people are staggeringly ignorant, because ignorance is the only way to maintain their posture of perpetual arrogance, in which they are the great defenders of humanity against 'patriarchy'. They know nothing and their posturings are likewise of no value.

  So, another gory anecdote from Dalrymple. Read this and think of the pacifist drawling "you know funny people":

  Her life had been that of the modern slum dweller: three children by different fathers, none of whom supported her in any way and the last of whom was a vicious, violent drunk. She had separated from him by fleeing with their two-year-old to a hostel for battered women; soon afterward she found herself an apartment whose whereabouts he did not know.

  Unfortunately, sometime later she was admitted to the hospital for an operation. As she had no one to whom she could entrust the child, she turned to Social Services for help. The social workers insisted, against her desperate pleas, that the child should stay with his biological father while she was in the hospital. They were deaf to her argument that he was an unsuitable guardian, even for two weeks: he would regard the child as an encumbrance, an intolerable interference with his daily routine of drinking, whoring, and fighting. They said it was wrong to pass judgment on a man like this and threatened her with dire consequences if she did not agree to their plan. So the two-year-old was sent to his father as they demanded.

  Within the week he and his new girlfriend had killed the child by swinging him against the wall repeatedly by his ankles and smashing his head.

  ]]> http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/?p=817 Wed, 14 May 2008 02:53:49 +0000 skepticalbrotha http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/?p=817

  Democratic Primary Results Tuesday, May 13 Real-time Race Results: Updated May 13, 2008 - 10:41 PM (all times Eastern Standard) Precincts Reporting 61%
  Candidate	Votes	Vote %	Delegates	Projected Winner
  Clinton	144,518	65%	17	Winner
  Obama	61,400	28%	8

  Riding on an unprecedented wave of ignorance and fear, Hillary Clinton claimed victory over Barack Obama in West Virginia’s Democratic Primary tonight. The specter of the Safe Negro scared the hell out of a great many of West Virginia’s working class white voters and that is all right by her.

  She has won a pyrrhic victory and another reason to continue her futile quest for imperial power by pandering to fearful white voters in all 50 states.

  Trailing in the popular vote, pledged delegates, super delegates, and in popular opinion, the only reason to continue at this point is to exacerbate Democratic Party divisions and doom Obama’s general election viability.

  ]]> http://disinter.wordpress.com/?p=1173 Wed, 14 May 2008 02:46:11 +0000 disinter http://disinter.wordpress.com/?p=1173 Clips of Bill O'Reilly in melt down.
  ]]> http://seoulnotes.wordpress.com/?p=14 Tue, 13 May 2008 21:11:39 +0000 seoulnotes http://seoulnotes.wordpress.com/?p=14 okay first of all mom if you have managed your way to this turn around & dont read this if you do then it's your own fault & i dont want to hear about it.

  okay so you may or may not know that i am korean as is my younger sister, we were adopted as babies, our parents & whole family are white.

  well i have known for quite awhile that my parents are somewhat racist. but it seemed to me that they, for the most part, tried to hold it in. but in the recent years it seems to have gotten worse & my mother holds her tongue less & less. i always knew growing up that my mom would not like it if i brought a black guy home but i still knew it was my choice & figured she would just deal with it. it never happened for me (not for any particular reason) but my sister did date a black guy for awhile & my mom ends up telling her that she needs to "find someone closer to her skin color" wtf?!!?!! okay well not only that but i was outraged & talking to my other sister who says "well she's her mom so she has a right to tell her that" wtf?!!??!! again!!

  okay well after that my younger sister would only date other asians. & is now married to a guy from laos. well thats fine & all but now my mom still makes comments about his family like they should learn to speak english & whenever my niece goes over there & comes home she asks her "what did you eat? rice?" "i know thats all she ate because thats all they eat, they eat rice everyday" wtf?!?!? okay so i am like of course they eat rice everyday!! that is their culture! & what do you care? & why do they have to learn english? they came here for a better life for their kids & their kids do speak english...& by the way they do speak some & understand much more. but they also live in a place where their community speaks their language so its not a necessity that they speak great english.

  okay so not only are there those comments but shes always talking shit about "mexicans" & their supped up cars & how they need to learn english & blah, blah, blah.

  well now i find out that she doesnt like obama (i know not a big surprise but still). her reason is that she thinks that he is a terrorist!! & that she doesnt believe that he is an american born citizen & that we are supposed to be keeping terrorists out of the country!! i know i mean she's crazy!! he couldnt even run for president unless he was an american born citizen!! i just cant believe it!! my own mom, who adopted two korean babies is a racist!! i mean seriously she thinks we are white or something. i mean she acts like her prejudice excludes us, but how can it? she has no logic behind her reasoning, its just how she thinks & there is no talking rational to her or reasoning with her. once her mind is made up thats it, even if she is totally wrong. i mean God himself could come down from the heavens & tell her shes wrong & she would argue with him.

  UUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! how can this be? it's so illogical!! plus i dont want my kids growing up hearing what she has to say about people!! its so insane!!

  the sad thing is she is always talking & always has to find something to say about everyone & anyone, if its not their race or culture or religion then its the fact that she thinks they are "slow" or rude or whatever. its so annoying! & she wonders why i rarely call or visit!! its because she drives me mad!! i mean i love her because she's my mom but i do not feel that she should have a pass because of that. but of course you cant tell her anything!!

  oh yea, & no matter how many times i try to tell her that "oriental" is not so p.c. & has a bad connotation even if she doesnt mean it that way she's like "why you are orientals:....uggh!! i'm like hello its asian!! its just annoying...& rude

  ]]> http://redrising.wordpress.com/?p=20 Tue, 13 May 2008 19:49:15 +0000 redrising http://redrising.wordpress.com/?p=20 Seven out of ten whites think that blacks face no inequalities. Yet 50 percent of blacks say they have been discriminated against in the past month. How can whites be so blind?

  Just a few years ago, a public opinion poll indicated that only 6 percent of whites in the U.S. believed racism was still a "very serious" problem facing African Americans. While larger percentages believed racism to be somewhat of a problem, only this anemic share of the white community saw it as an issue of great importance.

  When you consider that twice that number -- or as many as 12 percent -- have told pollsters they believe Elvis Presley is still alive, it becomes apparent that delusion has taken on a whole new meaning among the dominant racial majority. Apparently, it is easier for whites to believe that a pill-popping, washed-up lounge singer faked his own death and is playing midnight gigs at some tropical resort, than to believe what black folks say they experience every day.

  It makes me think that if ignorance is indeed bliss, then my fellow whites must be among the happiest folks on the planet.

  So it was no surprise to read that once again a poll has been released, indicating that whites by and large don't think racial discrimination remains a big problem, and that whites and blacks continue to view issues of racial equality far differently.

  According to the recent Gallup Survey on "Black-White Relations," seven out of ten whites believe that blacks are treated equally in their communities: an optimism with which only 40 percent of blacks agree. Eight in ten whites say blacks receive equal educational opportunities, and 83 percent say blacks receive equal housing opportunities in their communities. Only a third of whites believe blacks face racial bias from police in their areas.

  Despite the fact that half of all blacks say they have experienced discrimination in the past 30 days, whites persist in believing that we know their realities better than they do, and that black complaints of racism are the rantings of oversensitive racial hypochondriacs. Blacks, we seem to believe, make mountains out of molehills, for Lord knows we would never make a molehill out of a mountain!

  That white perceptions of the extent of racial bias are rooted in a stupendous miasma of ignorance is made clear by a number of salient facts. First, as will be shown below, there is the statistical evidence indicating that equal opportunity is the stuff of fiction, not documentary; and secondly, the simple truth that white perceptions of racism's salience have always been splendidly naive. Indeed, as far back as 1963, before there was a Civil Rights Act to outlaw even the most blatant racial discrimination, 60 percent of whites said that blacks were treated equally in their communities. In 1962, only 8 years after the Brown decision outlawed segregation in the nation's schools (but well before schools had actually moved to integrate their classrooms), a stunning 84 percent of whites were convinced that blacks had equal educational opportunity. In other words, white denial of the racism problem is nothing new: it was firmly entrenched even when this nation operated under a formal system of apartheid.

  Of course, this ignorance of the lived realities of black people is no surprise. Rather it is in large part the result of our isolation from African Americans in daily life.

  More than 80 percent of whites live in virtually all-white neighborhoods, and nearly nine in ten white suburbanites live in communities with less than 1 percent black populations. What's more, only 12 percent of whites in law school today -- who by historical standards have had more opportunity to mix with people of color than any generation before them -- say they had significant interaction with blacks while growing up.

  One can only expect this degree of isolation to lead to a skewed perception of what other people experience. After all, if one doesn't know many blacks, or personally witness discrimination, it is all the more likely that one will find the notion of widespread mistreatment hard to digest. Especially when one has been socialized to give more credence to what members of one's own group say, than what the racial "other" tells us is true.

  Of course, I'm not suggesting that every time a black person says they have been discriminated against that they are, in fact, correct. Individuals, after all, can misperceive certain situations. But the reality of individual misperception should not lead to the widespread white belief in mass black delusion, which is virtually the only way one can read the Gallup figures.

  For so many whites to believe that blacks have equal opportunity, is not only to discount a few claims of discrimination that may be without merit: rather, it is to reject the broad swath of claims that virtually every African American can bring forth from their personal mental rolodex. Fact is, if even one-tenth of the black claims of discrimination were accurate, this would translate into well over 1.75 million instances of anti-black racial bias every single month, based on survey data. Unfortunately, it is doubtful the numbers are this small.

  Though the Gallup survey didn't address racial discrimination in the labor market, there is little question that when whites say blacks are treated equally, they are also assuming this to be true for the world of work. But what is the reality? According to a recent study by the Russell Sage Foundation, even though blacks search for work longer and often more aggressively than whites, they are between 36-44 percent less likely to be hired for jobs in mostly white suburbs, even when their experience and qualifications are equal to their white counterparts. White males with a high school diploma are just as likely to have a job, and tend to earn just as much as black males with college degrees, and on average, even when age, experience, education and other relevant factors are considered, blacks average at least 10 percent less pay than similar whites.

  As for education, the picture is much the same. Although formal segregation is illegal, de facto segregation remains a reality thanks to "ability tracking," which has less to do with actual ability, and more to do with racial and class bias against children of color and those from low-income families. Beginning as early as kindergarten, teachers and counselors separate students based on so-called cognitive skill levels, despite evidence that the tests used to determine these skill levels are inaccurate predictors of ability and terribly biased against students from non-dominant cultural backgrounds.

  Even when black students show potential that is equal to or above that of whites, they are 40 percent less likely to be placed in advanced or accelerated classes, according to the head of the College Board. Despite evidence of ability, blacks are 2.5 times more likely to be placed in remedial or low-track classes, where they will typically be taught by the least qualified teachers, be given less challenging material to learn, and receive on average nearly 40 hours less actual instruction annually.

  So too is educational inequity fostered by unequal discipline, meted out in a racially disparate manner. Even though black and white rates of school rule infractions are roughly equal, black students are twice as likely as whites to be suspended or expelled. Blacks are half of all students suspended or expelled for weapons violations, even though self-report surveys indicate whites are just as likely to bring weapons to school, and white males are actually twice as likely as black males to do so. Since blacks are more likely to be suspected -- thanks to common stereotypes about violence and delinquency -- they are the ones who get searched and caught, but this hardly means they break the rules more often.

  According to studies by the Applied Research Center, the disproportionate rate of black suspensions is the result of greater punishment given for subjective infractions like "defying authority," or "attitude problems," both of which are perceived as more threatening when coming from black students than whites.

  As for housing, white confidence in equal opportunity makes for nice wishful thinking, but hardly comports with reality. Virtually every study on housing bias in rental and mortgage markets for the past three decades has found evidence of substantial ongoing discrimination. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there may be as many as 2 million instances of racial housing bias each year, and as many as half of all blacks may face discrimination when trying to rent an apartment or purchase a home.

  According to the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, blacks are 56 percent more likely than whites to be rejected for a mortgage loan, even after controlling for 38 factors that could explain higher rejection rates for blacks -- including issues of credit history, collateral, and income. Nationwide, mortgage loan rejection rates for the highest income group of blacks is roughly the same as the rejection rates for the lowest income whites.

  Finally, white protestations that blacks receive equal treatment from police in their communities, is nothing short of laughable. A look at police prosecution of the war on drugs alone gives the lie to white claims of equal law enforcement. Though blacks are only 14 percent of illegal drug users, they are 35 percent of those arrested for possession. In many communities, including some of the ones where whites claim there is no bias in policing, blacks face arrest rates for drugs that are five, ten, even twenty times higher than the rates for whites, despite roughly equal rates of drug usage.

  Though a slim majority of whites admit that racial profiling -- one clear example of unequal treatment -- does happen, apparently few believe it happens where they live. Yet in state after state, studies have found a disproportionate rate of highway and surface street stops of vehicles driven by blacks, and searches of cars driven by blacks, above and beyond the rates of black traffic infractions, which otherwise might create reasonable cause.

  In New York City, from 1997-1998, the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit stopped and frisked 135,000 people: 85 percent of whom were people of color. Only 4500 persons were ultimately arrested and prosecuted, meaning that over 95 percent of those harassed were innocent. Interestingly, whites who were stopped were significantly more likely to be found with drugs or other contraband, indicating that not only was this policy of racial stops and searches a biased one, but it failed the test as valid crime control on its own merits as well.

  Of course, I hardly expect the facts to matter much, as an awful lot of white folks seem impervious to them. When it comes to racial realities, the levels of ignorance are so ingrained as to be almost laughable. Perhaps that's why 12 percent of whites actually say blacks are a majority of the nation's population, and why most whites believe blacks are a third of the nation's population, instead of the thirteen percent they actually represent. We seem to see black people everywhere, and apparently we see them doing quite well.

  Apparently, we even see them as our buddies. 75 percent of whites in one recent poll indicated that they had multiple close black friends. Sounds great, until you realize that 75 percent of white Americans represents about 145 million people. 145 million who say they have multiple black friends, despite the fact that there are only 35 million black people to go around.

  Which means one of two things: either whites are clueless about black people, friendships, or both; or black folks are mighty damned busy, running from white house to white house to white house, being our friends. In which case, we can put away all that nonsense about blacks "taking our jobs." After all, how could blacks have time to work at all, what with all the backyard barbecues they're attending at the houses of their white pals? Hell, maybe Elvis will even invite them all to Graceland when he makes his triumphant return to Memphis.

  ]]> http://newdefender.wordpress.com/?p=328 Tue, 13 May 2008 14:41:47 +0000 Godefroi http://newdefender.wordpress.com/?p=328

  Hezbollah's power grab in Beirut has once more plunged that city into violence and chaos. This effort to undermine Lebanon's elected government needs to stop, and all those who have influence with Hezbollah must press them to stand down immediately. It's time to engage in diplomatic efforts to help build a new Lebanese consensus that focuses on electoral reform, an end to the current corrupt patronage system, and the development of the economy that provides for a fair distribution of services, opportunities and employment.

  In other words, because their current elected officials aren't providing enough of an opportunity (the good jobs), they (Hizbullah) are BITTER, and they're going to CLING TO GUNS AND RELIGION, and ANTIPATHY TO PEOPLE (Christians and Sunnis) WHO AREN'T LIKE THEM.

  Makes sense to me.

  Nod: Gateway Pundit

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