Uppity-Negro.com

Like I'm listening to Christopher Priest:

This nation has had a lot of experience with leaders who put saving face above saving the nation. Bill Clinton put this country through enormous pain and turmoil and, indeed, set the stage for this very scary man to succeed him, by simply not admitting, waaay back during Paula Jones's suit, that he'd had inappropriate conduct (if not quite legally provable sexual intercourse) with a White House intern. George Bush before him spent billions of dollars to bring us to Saddam's door and then turned and went home, and then proceeded to squander a 90% public approval rating to be beaten by an Arkansas governor we'd never heard of.

Richard Nixon sentenced tens of thousands of teenage boys to die in the jungles of Southeast Asia because he wanted to win reelection in 1972 and because he didn't want to look bad, or be the first president to "lose" a war. We fought in Vietnam for a principle, to protect our values and our way of life from a tiny, impoverished nation that we pretended was the linchpin to Soviet world dominance so General Dynamics and Bell Helicopter could make a fortune.

The piece is about our current President, and titled, "OJ Stupid." Nice shorthand phrase, that.

I am suggesting that they [the current administration] are stupid. Very stupid. Or perhaps they are OJ Stupid: pretend to look stupid, leave blood trails, drop gloves, low speed Bronco chase, so the defense goes, "You can't possibly think he's that stupid? It's a frame up!" which makes OJ Stupid a very smart maneuver. The public loves a good mystery. While most police officers will tell you, the most obvious criminal scenario is often exactly what happened, the American public has been conditioned by Matlock to look for complexity where none really exists. So Clinton was the victim of a vast right wing conspiracy, OJ was set up, and this Iraq business can't possibly be about the 2002 elections because that possibility really is just too ridiculous and obscene.

Which, to me, means the Bush White House is either Stupid Stupid or OJ Stupid. Stupid Stupid if they are genuinely protecting vital US interests while not muzzling Rove and Card (and not hiding a clearly uncomfortable Colin Powell). OJ Stupid if all of that chaos was meant to make us suspicious of the administration's motives, while dismissing the obvious because it's just too skeevy to be contemplated.

He's a cool guy. I don't agree with everything he says -- can't think of anyone I do feel that way about -- but he makes it clear that he's just writing his informed opinion, and that there's the distinct possibility that he's wrong.

Don't do that nearly well enough myself.

I'd also say his opinions fall well within the mainstream of African American politics, and might even be a wee bit on the conservative side of 'em. That's a dangerous thing to say, though.

After all, I didn't think Harry Belafonte's comments were way out of line either, and David Horowitz is taking up a collection to send him out of the country.

Harry Belafonte doesnt speak for Black Americans. He speaks for the radical left. [. . .] I am planning to run ads in college papers across the country with this Message to Harry. The Message To Harry campaign is going to expose his thinly veiled attack on America. It will also challenge the lefts ongoing cynical appeal to American Blacks to betray their American birthright.

Thanks (if that's the right word) to Horowitzwatch for pointing that out. I try to avoid Front Page Magazine unless I'm looking for something extremely stupid to make fun of.

Y'know, like taking up a collection to send someone out of the country for expressing an opinion. Or yet another example of kindly coservative/libertarian white folk explaining what we believe, and what our best interests are. So good of them to take time out of their busy schedules to do that, really. I should send them a gift basket.

The name of this little crusade, by the way, is, "Message to Harry: Respect African-Americans Who Love Their Country Or Leave It."

I can think of several messages I'd like to send to David (we're on a first-name basis here, apparently), but they may not fit on that little card that comes with the basket. . .

Well, ok, he's raising money for the ads, not a plane ticket. This obviously needs work. It may vanish and be replaced with Hello, Kitty animated gifs. Please stand by.

Posted by Aaron at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (34) | TrackBacks (0)

Actually, I'm not sure where Longview/White Oak are. Ain't never been to Texas, and although I love Dru like a stepsister I got no plans to visit any time soon.

11-21, local: Police find 17 sex toys in local woman's car during DUI traffic stop

A Longview woman who sells sex toys has been charged with felony obscenity after White Oak police found some of her wares in her car during a traffic stop

The arrest report describes the 17 items as "obscene materials and obscene devices," but Police Chief Charlie Smith said the items were mostly lotions and objects defined in a dictionary as having the shape and often the appearance of the male genitalia, used in sexual stimulation.

Only saw the story this morning, in the blogdex feed in Straw. Many thanks to Team Murder for pointing the program out, and to Michelle for adding a syndicate link when I whined about it.

The sources page on blogdex shows this was actually discussed on MetaFilter yesterday. Haven't really been there since I moved.

Skimming the comments now, I see that Longview is in East Texas. But any time's the right time for Ani, so the title stays. Management apologizes for any confusion.

Posted by Aaron at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Which is a bit difficult for me when I'm reading fucking Right Wing News.

It's Time For The GOP To Go After The Black Vote:

I've always thought that we in the GOP have not worked hard enough to pull in the black vote. That rational has always been "why spend all kinds of time and money trying to convince blacks to vote for us when we know that they're going to go 90/10 for the Democrats no matter what we do?"

[. . .] Most polling data I've seen seems to suggest that roughly 1/3rd of all blacks are Conservatives. It's crazy for them to be voting for anyone but the GOP and we need to work hard to show them that's the case and make them feel welcome in the party.

Uh-huh.

Reading the comments made me feel really welcome.

The problem is there is so much crap being fed to inner city blacks that our message is ignored.

Blacks as blacks see themselves as adversaries of civil society and look to big government to be their ally against the rest of us. It should not be this way, but it is. We may hope that conversion will occur one black man or woman at a time, but we cannot outbid the other side to pay off the professional black leadership. What could we possibly offer them? More affirmative action? Slavery reparations? There are no ducks to be hunted here.

I agree, even if the # of votes gained appears to be miniscule, quite a bit can be gained just by reducing black turnout and the effectiveness of Dem GOTV efforts.

Anyone want to tell me what GOTV stands for, by the way?

There's also a Trackback link from UnFossilized titled, "The GOP In The Ghetto?"

Because, you know, that's where those people live.

And again I say, I've lived too long.

Posted by Aaron at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh, that wacky Darmon Thornton.

Jesse Jackson doesn't speak for all black Americans, and many blacks (including myself) are fed up with his fraudulence.

A new group is kicking it up a notch by suing him.

This new group he speaks of "includes a former head of the Kentucky Republican Party," and the suit was actually "filed on behalf of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny."

BOND's statements about themselves:

BOND Mission Statement
“Rebuilding the Family By Rebuilding the Man”

BOND Vision Statement
To Help Men and their Families, Particularly in Major Urban Areas find Spiritual and Personal Freedom through our Personal Development Programs and Community Outreach and Renewal Efforts.

And here I thought I got wacky with the random caps. Silly me.

Anyone wants to translate those into English, please feel free.

Oh, and that new group? They call themselves "African Americans Against Exploitation." Again, I cannot satirize material like this. It's like kicking a puppy.

BOND, according to their FAQs page, isn't new:

Q: How long has BOND been around?

A: Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the Founder and President of the organization, started BOND twelve years ago. At that time, the purpose of the organization was to help black men, as they have had disproportionate problems since giving up their position as leaders in their families years ago. However, all races and both sexes were drawn to BOND as the problems encountered by the black man were and are common to all people. Now the organization is open to men and women of all races and ages.

Uh-huh. And the last white guy to get shot by the NYPD because they mistook a wallet for a gun would have been. . . sorry. Couldn't resist.

Darmon's post, incidentally, was titled, "Hit Him Where It Hurts."

And here I thought I was immature and needlessly hostile. Silly me.

Bonus Round: Daniel T. Griswold on Immigration Politics on National Review Online:

Second, Hispanics are "up for grabs" politically. Despite their Democratic leanings, they are not monolithic the way black voters unfortunately are.

I'm certain Darmon sent a note informing Mr. Griswold and the editors of the National Review of black Americans' un-monolithicness.

Bonus Round (extended): From the July 9, 2002 O'Reilly Factor transcript linked in Darmon's entry:

WALTER FIELDS, THENORTHSTARNETWORK.COM: Well, I think the lawsuit's a little silly. It's akin to me suing the Christian Coalition, that, as a Christian, I don't believe they represent my views. So I think the lawsuit on face value is a little silly.

On the larger question of credibility of black leadership, perception is everything in politics. Jesse Jackson is perceived to be a leader, not just a black leader, mind you. Jesse Jackson got 30 percent of the vote in 1988 in the Democratic primary. So there's a question of whether or not Jesse Jackson has ever described himself as a black leader.

Clearly, if this group has issues with Reverend Jackson's leadership, it has every right certainly to criticize Reverend Jackson, but to file a lawsuit on this basis, in my opinion, is very frivolous.

Darn. Guess I don't have to satirize this particular piece of stupidity after all.

Update: edit for clarity. Where "clarity" means "so it maybe makes sense this time."

Posted by Aaron at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (1)

Ronn continues to follow the Central Park 5/Jogger case far more closely than I. Well, he's getting assistance from Ray these days. . . Any road up, there's a new(ish) piece up at The Village Voice: Features: A Journey Through the Tangled Case of the Central Park Jogger by Sydney H. Schanberg:

Every now and again, we get a look, usually no more than a glimpse, at how the justice system really works. What we see—before the sanitizing curtain is drawn abruptly down—is a process full of human fallibility and error, sometimes noble, more often unfair, rarely evil but frequently unequal, and through it all inevitably influenced by issues of race and class and economic status. In short, it's a lot like other big, unwieldy institutions. Such a moment of clear sight emerges from the mess we know as the case of the Central Park jogger.

All of which applies to other cases equally well, but I think you can mention these issues in this context with less hysterical shrieking from the right-wingers at this point.

I could confirm this by checking, say, InstaPundit or one of them other fools, but it's getting harder to even feign interest in what they have to say. . .

Posted by Aaron at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Giles hit the locktician yesterday, but (apparently) declined to add color. How am I supposed to know how it would look on me if he doesn't do it? So inconsiderate.

Can't really use my sister for comparison, she's all peanut-butter-colored. . .

The Good Twin also makes with the link to Nerve.com - Babes, Beer, Gadgets, Hair Color by Mark Morford:

   Oh yes. Say it like you mean it. Maxim. Hair color. For Men.

   Maxim — as in the thick glossy winkingly sexist wildly successful men's magazine, as in the beer 'n' sports 'n' cars 'n' dumb airbrushed chicks-you-will-never-ever-attain publication no one you know actually admits to reading — recently launched its first major spin-off male grooming product. Because it's just that kind of a world.

   Maxim for Men is over-the-counter hair color in a bottle, the very same insanely popular scalp-boiling Agent Orange byproduct normally sold to untold billions of women for twelve bucks a pop at the twenty-four-hour Wal-Mart at two a.m. Usually this occurs after you and your girlfriend had a whole lot of cheap tequila and your girlfriend decides she's sick of being a dishwater blonde and has always wanted to try life as a neon Goth redhead porn star — or maybe just, you know, an ash blonde.

. . .

Nah. Too easy.

Update: kd comments, and kd posts. Because she's just That Damn Cool, in case you hadn't noticed.

There would be something here about gender differences in marketing hair dye, cosmetic surgery rates and body image issues, but the coffee is wearing off. Remind me to write something up later.

And remind me to try to meet up with überchick while she's in Chicago. Think she's here until the 16th.

Oh. Right. Coffee.

Also, work on developing basic social skills.

Posted by Aaron at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

Understandable in a way, since it came out in the late '80s, and I've not re-read it since, but normally I'd remember at least the plot. . .

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, "As pretty as an airport."

Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only known exception to this otherwise infallible rule), and their architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs.

They have sought to highlight the tiredness and crossness motif with brutal shapes and nerve-jangling colors, to make effortless the business of separating the traveler forever from his or her luggange or loved ones, to confuse the traveler with arrows that appear to point at the windows, distant tie racks, or the current position of Ursa Minor in the night sky, and wherever possible to expose the plumbing on the grounds that it is functional, and conceal the location of the departure gates, presumablu on the grounds that they are not.

From The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams.

Posted by Aaron at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

So Gunn tries to show more love for kd than me, including a link to Hermann Goering, on war. Which sent me off looking for selected excerpts from Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem -- you can follow the logic here, yes? -- which search brought me to Reid Collins on Banality of Evil:

If Adolf Eichmann's "absence of critical thinking" led Hannah Arendt to her famed conclusions about the "banality of evil," then John Muhammad and his sidekick Malvo provide supporting evidence. Their leisurely death-sweep of America demonstrates a lack of focus more difficult to deal with than any hard-etched ideology. Barring some further evidence of deeply rooted intent, some formed philosophy, their casual commitment to homicide also represents far more of what has happened to America than the hard-core beliefs of, say, an al-Qaeda. It may be that they have no hard-core beliefs, that they are members of a vast militia floating on the social scene, whose anonymity makes them as dangerous as they are ubiquitous.

It was this formlessness, plus a generous dose of cupidity on the part of authorities, that made them so difficult to catch. Instructive is the swiftness with which the "task force" of federal state and local officers attached themselves to one eyewitness who gave them the celebrated "white box truck." Another witness would later help them morph the box truck into a "white van." A growing class of "profilers" imprinted the belief that the perpetrator was a white male, acting alone, an angered loser in search of recognition. This made it simple for two black men to drive unmolested from slaying scenes in a dark blue sedan, perhaps inconvenienced only by the long lines of traffic produced by police roadblocks scanning the public highways for a white-truck-van.

And it had to be made simple for them to do this, because you know those people ain't none too bright.

Not quite what I was looking for.

It was as though in those last minutes he [Eichmann] was summing up the lessons that this long course in human wickedness had taught us - the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

That was the one. I don't think Collins got the point, but he would probably say the same about me.

Oddly, M.W. Guzy at TomPaine.com uses almost the same title ("The Banality Of Evil") for a piece on the same topic (the snipers).

I still haven't looked up zeitgeist. Good thing, that.

Posted by Aaron at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (1)

In a parallel universe where Marxists rise to high positions in the US military and government, Family.org declares:

Powell Creates Stir Among Christians Again

During a recent speech to a gathering of Muslim Americans, Powell said, "We must not listen to the siren song of the bigots, extremists who cloak themselves in false spirituality in an attempt to divide and weaken us."

Powell seems to be taking on social conservatives like the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Dr. Pat Robertson, who have spoken out against the dangers of Islam.

Bill Lind, of the Free Congress Foundation, isn't surprised by Powell's remarks, but he is disappointed. He believes it's Powell's vision to essentially wipe Western culture off the map.

"What we're seeing on Powell's part in these lies is cultural Marxism, and Powell is very much a cultural Marxist — using any other force, however poisonous, that is itself an enemy to our traditional western Judeo-Christian culture," Lind said.

Spock has a beard on their Earth, too.

Funny thing is, I was looking on Google news for a story about Bob Woodward's claim that Mrs. Powell prevented Colin from running for the Republican nomination back in 1996, due to fears for his safety. Hardly new(s), that, but I thought I heard something on the radio about it.

Oh well. More Negro paranoia, if it's true. Everyone loves him.

Especially Christians. But they love everybody. It's part of their beliefs, after all.

Posted by Aaron at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not sure how I ended up at PopPolitics.com. But this resulted in Cynthia Fuchs goodness, namely The Race Reason:

As antic as the images [in an animated sequence in Bowling for Columbine] may be -- crowds of little white folks running from one section of the cartoon map to another, waving their weapons, with stricken looks on their flat little faces -- the point is made. Much fear in the United States is racially based. Moore goes on to point to a variety of examples, some more clearly related than others -- "Africanized" killer bees, racialized designations of the "evildoers," Willie Horton, Susan Smith (who accused a "black man" of carjacking the children she killed), Charles Stuart (who accused a "black man" of murdering his pregnant wife), and the ongoing fear of perps "of color" inculcated and promoted by the long-running series Cops.

and also "Breaking News" - Reflecting on black men as snipers:

Still, several major newspapers (among them, the Washington Post, The New York Times, the Baltimore Sun) have run stories on reactions of "black community" members to the news that the suspects are black. Black call-in radio shows (like Tom Joyner's) were inundated with responses, as was BET.com (read the messages here); Tavis Smiley plans to do a show on the subject, and it's a good bet that Ed Gordon will do so as well. (Johnny Cochran, however, has already begged off the case, telling Donahue that he felt "fear" when in D.C. during the period of the attacks, so he's no longer objective.).

This is a discussion that "white community" members will never need to have. They don't feel that a Timothy McVeigh, an Eric Harris, or a Ted Bundy represents them, that others will perceive them differently because someone of their race commits atrocities. Rather, white folks tend to see these criminals as "evil," deviant or otherwise not like them. 

So that's a plus.

Got to the Saturday Night Live Transcripts by way of digital down low. Specifically, this entry, and naturally I went straight for the Racist Word Association Interview transcript. Which I have a feeling I've either linked or at least mentioned before.

And I have a horrible feeling I'm forgetting something, and will look very rude for having done so.

No, other than thanking Inez for the link. I'm quite consistently rude about neglecting to do that.

Posted by Aaron at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (1)

See, I got the link from Giles, and. . . aw, skip it. From The Atlantic | December 2002 | Interracial Intimacy:

Over the years legions of white-supremacist legislators, judges, prosecutors, police officers, and other officials have attempted to prohibit open romantic interracial attachments, particularly those between black men and white women. From the 1660s to the 1960s, forty-one territories, colonies, or states enacted laws—anti-miscegenation statutes—barring sex or marriage between blacks and whites, and many states ultimately made marriage across the color line a felony. Such laws crystallized attitudes about interracial intimacy that remain influential today, but all were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, in the most aptly named case in all of American constitutional history: Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia.

Be nice if the story ended there. No such luck, of course:

The great but altogether predictable irony is that just as white opposition to white-black intimacy finally lessened, during the last third of the twentieth century, black opposition became vocal and aggressive. In college classrooms today, when discussions about the ethics of interracial dating and marriage arise, black students are frequently the ones most likely to voice disapproval.

I could break this down by class, gender and orientation, but that would involve research, since Randall Kennedy didn't bother to do it. There is quite a bit of background for those utterly unfamiliar with the subject, but it's all very old news to those of us who've lived it.

There's also a bit (well, a paragraph) on Native American/white and Asian-American/white marriages, but like Giles (and a while back, Laura) points out, that's a rather limited view. . .

In actually interesting news, the Ripper category at WHEDONesque links to an article saying the show is still possible.

And everyone remembers Olivia, right?

Posted by Aaron at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

You know, if I read blogs that I'd de-linked, and am never, ever going to link to again, I'd note that Scottie-Too-Hottie is still running off at the mouth.

But I don't read AMCGLTD anymore. Because it's not linked.

Which reminds me, Martin Wisse, for your failure to properly appreciate Buffy, consider yourself officially de-linked.

Know I never linked you before because I suck, but now it's official.

Update: And I'm officially, retroactively de-linking BlahStuff as well, since he asked nicely.

Anybody else want some of this?

Posted by Aaron at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Coincidence, I'm sure, but there's an interview/article up at Bitch with/about Jessica Abel and her current series, La Perdida:

“I wanted to do something that was well outside the area I’d been working in before in Artbabe, where I was writing about sort of middle-class, mid-20s/mid-30s hipster people in Chicago worrying over their little lives,” Abel says. “I felt like people were starting to identify me with that milieu, and they long had thought of my work as ‘hipster stuff.’ I had always felt like I was working on portraying relationships, not on portraying hipster life. I just happened to create those characters because those are the kind of people I hung out with. I definitely wasn’t trying to say anything in particular about being a hipster or being into rock or any of that sort of stuff, but that’s the milieu I was used to, so that’s where I set my dramas.

“After awhile, it was limiting because some people, I know, dismissed me out-of-hand, thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t identify with that milieu, therefore I won’t like these comics.’ And even if they were wrong—in a lot of cases people would write me and say ‘I thought that these comics were just for hipsters and I read them and I was wrong,’ and that’s very flattering—it means a lot of people aren’t picking up the book in the first place. So although that’s a sort of audience-oriented way of making a decision, it really felt like I wanted to prove to myself and other people that I could do something that felt less specific.”

If you hit the link to the article, you'll see why I tried to tie the first actual sentence -- that bit I quoted appears a bit further into the piece -- into a reference to Erika. Couldn't make it work, though, and worried that it sounded vaguely insulting.

Most things sound vaguely insulting when I post them here, apparently. I'd like to think it's the domain name, but it's probably me.

I'd also like to say I'd give it another go after more coffee, but why lie?

Since, as linked over at die puny humans, the brilliant Justine Shaw has Nowhere Girl Part 2: Better World up. Meaning I'll be off reading that rather than editing old posts or creating new ones for a while.

Which is why there's nothing really tying this entry to the zeitgeist one a few days back, which is what the title refers to. Coffee. Right.

Posted by Aaron at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems like many moons and memes ago people were talking about BlackPeopleLoveUs.com:

Chelsea Peretti, 24, a struggling stand-up comedian who is one of the site's creators, said: "It really shocked us how quickly this site took off. We were expecting a huge response, but not this huge."

Ms. Peretti, who wrote all of the site's content, and her partner (and brother), Jonah Peretti, 28, who designed the site, describe blackpeopleloveus.com as a form of social activism, a way of examining the infinitely complex subject of race relations.

"Because the site is funny, we knew it would reach people who might not ordinarily think about these issues," said Mr. Peretti, an adjunct professor of digital design at the Parsons School of Design and the director of research and development at Eyebeam, a nonprofit arts organization in New York. "We wanted to promote dialogue, to get people talking about these issues."

So the New York Times article on the site and site creators, Black-White Harmony: Are You Kidding Me?, may not be of interest.

Plus, y'know, humor is idiosyncratic. And some people do get touchy about racial issues. Hard to believe this, coming from me, but it's true. Really.

But many visitors to their site will probably wonder what gives the Perettis the authority to speak on behalf of African-Americans. Not having actually experienced the frustrations they ridicule, are they qualified to spearhead this discussion?

Yes, the siblings argue. "There is a mistake that people have made about the division of labor," Mr. Peretti said. "It's like racism is something only people of color can think about. Feminism is something only women can think about. But it's important for white people to get involved in the critique too."

A friend of the Perettis featured on the site, José Germosén, a black Dominican, insists the siblings aren't suffering from a case of white liberal guilt. "I don't think they set out to defend the Negroes; they just had a genuine interest in sparking dialogue," said Mr. Germosén, 26. "A lot of white people of the hip-hop generation are a lot more sophisticated about how this game got started and they're just as interested in freeing up the blockage as we are."

There would be some pseudo-intellectual justification here for me liking this site, but despising that "How BLACK Are You?" quiz, but I really don't see a contradiction. . .

Update: Laura asked about Black Folk linking to the site a while back, and I failed to comment, because I suck.

Giles, who does not suck, did chime in. I'd encourage others to do so, but seeing as I still haven't myself yet, um, I'm thinking about not posting this. . .

Posted by Aaron at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

So, the search function is working again at blogdex. And, fool that I am, I looked up this place.

The fuck was I thinking?

Back in early August, Eric Olsen wrote:

"Say It Loud, I'm Black and Hateful"
Aaron really is a nightmare: an intelligent black man who somehow still buys into the "identify with our suppressed brethren in the Middle East via the American Black Muslim door because they are Muslim and Black Muslims are Muslim [of a sort] and I am black so when they are done with my Palestinian and Iraqi brethren they may come after me."

You are an American, that's all that counts. No one else would identify you with any non-American unless the term "African-American" ties you to that continent. This race to identify with the "suppressed underdog" anywhere on earth regardless of heinousness of ideology went out with the Black Panthers. Let me guess: favorite poet - Amiri Baraka?

Let us not be blind to victims but let us also not seek victimization as a shield from personal responsibility. Lastly, how dare you imply Dawn is racist when racism oozes from your every pore? So much to offer, so little to say. Were you beaten by your white keepers as a child? Fight the power, fool.

UPDATE
No, it isn't the site name (which I thought was funny), it's the mixture of self-pity and contempt dripping all over everything. And you can quote George Wallace and David Duke and it wouldn't mean squat. View people as people and drop the race card.

Somehow I missed this at the time. Probably best for all concerned, really, and I'm not certain bringing it up again now is a good idea.

My keepers might start beating me again, after all.

And then there's an update, as I realize what I found annoying about this.

Not the arrogant whiteboy bullshit. I've grown quite accustomed to that over the decades, thanks. It's the second person bits. Like I said, I only saw the thing this morning.

I suppose Rebecca covers the proper way of addressing an entry to someone. Emailing the entry itself, or a link, to the person you're supposedly speaking to?

I just wrote Eric, at the address given at Blogcritics. We'll see what, if anything, he has to say about this.

Don't hit the archived/comments link on that entry at Tres Producers, by the way.

We should all try to remember the good things about Daily Pundit.

You know, like. . . well, there's. . . help me out here, people.

Posted by Aaron at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

Trust me, this is as odd as Alan Keyes doing it.

From Minority report: Marvel series tells 'The Truth' :

Marvel's president, Bill Jemas, says the comic is more about honoring contributions made by countless African-American men and women in the war effort than it is about Tuskegee or the iconic character of Captain America. Still, Jemas admits the company has suffered a minor backlash. Some comic book stores are refusing to carry the book and Marvel continues to receive angry e-mails denouncing the book.

"I can't tell you how many e-mails I've gotten recently that begin with 'I'm not a racist, but ...' What they really should be saying is 'I'm a racist, and ... ' Damn it, let America react to this the way they will. Yes, Captain America is an icon and it's worrisome to some that we would monkey with an icon. An icon has got to be relevant, though," Jemas says.

Not that I plan to buy the thing, despite the Kyle Baker artwork. Don't think I've bought a comic since the last issue of Transmetropolitan. . .

Want to know more?

That's nice.

Update 11/22: My apologies. If you want to know more, Jason makes with the review and the links, and Dru makes with the observations.

They'll be handling the comics section at wimmenandminorities.com, you know.

Posted by Aaron at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (2)

The Stars Our Destination is easily the best science fiction, fantasy & horror bookstore in. . . well, it's in Evanston now, but they used to be on Belmont in Chicago proper. And if you remember the location on Clark, you're old. . .

The Stars My Destination is a novel by Alfred Bester.

As their newsletter announces, you can order The Computer Connection by Mr. Bester as an eBook from Fictionwise. Unfortunately, it's only available for Microsoft Reader, which I've never been able to get working under WINE. Not that I've tried very hard. . .

Luckily, the Mary Soon Lee stories I've bought from them come in platform-independent flavors, as do the ones from Harlan Ellison.

I really don't read that much SF, though. Or watch it, seeing as I quite deliberately missed Firefly on Friday.

Along with the overwhelming majority of the viewing public, apparently.

Update: which last, just-added link points to the descriptively-titled article, "'Firefly' Cancellation Looming."

Start your petitions now, children.

Posted by Aaron at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

And I'm too distracted by the snow to look it up. Or read through The Princesses of Porno Power: Women's Erotic Comix over at Scarlet Letters, or A Lady's Guide to Reading Comic Book Porn over at Sequential Tart.

I'll just mention that I kind'a liked the chapters of Lost Girls I read way back when, when it was serialized Taboo, and look for a link to a better review.

Where "better" just means "more in tune with my personal tastes," that is.

Want to know more? There's a few panels of Melinda Gebbie's art for the series up here and there. Images.Google.com is your friend too, y'know.

Update: Oh good, the snow is melting.

Navigating the typical comic book store, complete with trolls, trivia fiends, teenage boys, and two-dimensional gigantic tits, is intimidating for those lacking an X chromosome. It's rare to find a store that carries many, or any, comics by women or independent publishers. The marvel of generic superheroes carries limited excitement for females who don't identify with damsels in distress or submissive secretaries.

Writes Kara Maia Spencer in that first link. Some shops are worse than others, of course.

In the second article, Colleen Coover explains:

I had thought, when asked to write this article, to give a list of recommended adult comic titles, or maybe a brief history of pornographic comics. I am not a comic book historian, so I'm not really qualified to tackle the history. I decided that a list of my own favorites would be not very useful, and would be a rude imposition of my personal tastes. Instead, I'm going to offer up some opinions, give some advice, on what makes for quality comic book adult reading. I'm going to start out with some basic assumptions: that lust is a naturally occurring human state of being; that variations of sexuality exist, so what may be good for some, may be bad for somebody else; and that pornography is a valid sexual entertainment.

If you disagree with any of those, you should probably avoid the article.

And try therapy.

Posted by Aaron at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (25) | TrackBacks (0)

Sorry, the logic kicked in again. InstaPundit tells us:

WHY COLLEGES ARE SHORT ON MALES: It's a "hostile environment" for men.

The link is to a piece titled "Why Males Don't Go to College."

Other than a ritual mention of "the problems of low-income and minority males," we forget the silly notions of class and race, and get to the actual thesis:

[R]ampant anti-male feminism has made college campuses a place where many males feel unwanted and unwelcome. To use a feminist term, our universities have become "hostile environments" for young men.

There follow stories of man-hating, castrating militant lesbians ritually slaughtering innocent men on the Quad of several universities nationwide.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

There follow stories of "bigotry." "sometimes subtle, sometimes slap-in-the-face prejudice," and how the author "did sometimes protest in Ms. Smith's class and others, but a 6'2" male confronting a female educator about her bigotry, however politely, is quickly perceived as a sexist bully."

Brings a tear to the eye, don't it?

Want to know more, you glutton for punishment? Have a look at GlennSacks.com:

Glenn Sacks is the only regularly published male columnist in the US who writes about gender issues from a perspective unapologetically sympathetic to men and fathers.

You can come back and explain to me what the fuck "unapologetically sympathetic" means.

Update: Sweet creeping zombie Jesus.

October is Domestic Violence "Awareness" Month

Feminists use Domestic Violence "Awareness" Month as an opportunity to demonize men in the media and pretend that domestic violence is synonymous with wife-beating. In reality, a mountain of evidence shows that women are as likely to be violent towards their male partners as vice versa, and that women use weapons and the element of surprise to compensate for their smaller size.

I mean, true, VASpider quoted an article saying the same things a few days back, but somehow the one she chose didn't have the sinister undertones.

Perhaps if they'd tossed in the odd "pretend," "mountain of evidence," "demonize" and sneer quotes.

Posted by Aaron at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (2)

Oh, I see what time it is.

Because I see that Scott at AMCGLTD.COM (which will never, ever be linked here again) mentions that, um, he's still linked here. Well, I tell you, brother, if wasn't busy taking my vitamins, saying my prayers, and trying to get Debian working again (big thanks to Team Murder for the heads-up on a simple fix), I'd hack that JavaScript referral script to remove him! In fact, I guarantee that by the end of Survivor Series this Sunday (order the webcast, or check with your cable provider), that link will be gone!

(Aa)Ron Simmons, formerly known as Faarooq Asaad
(likes vowels)

Posted by Aaron at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ici
il ne s'est rien passé

Well, the blog didn't exist then. Neither did I, if it comes to that.

Warning to j. brotherlove, George and Jason:

Joe Boxer dancer to return

Joe Boxer's boogie guy is making a repeat appearance in Kmart Corp.'s new holiday marketing campaign. Vaughn Lowery, who danced in the first round of Joe Boxer ads for Kmart, is back again as the discount retailer focuses on getting consumers to "Get More Gifts, Spread More Cheer." Kmart, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, is hoping the marketing campaign will help boost much-needed sales during the crucial holiday season.

Happy Holidays!

Exhibit A, courtesy of VASpider:

"[The upcoming television show Mr. and Mr. Nash] is a murder mystery show and these guys are going to be smart and will hopefully be doing some stereotype-busting," [Scott Seomin, GLAAD's entertainment media director] told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network. "Stereotypes are based in truth and humor. We as a community can laugh at ourselves and others better than any other minority."

Exhibit B from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago would have its first openly gay alderman under a political deal in the works that has touched off a civil war in the gay community.

Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th), who has already announced his political retirement, is planning to resign from office before the Feb. 25 aldermanic election. That would pave the way for Mayor Daley to appoint Hansen's handpicked successor, Tom Tunney, and give Tunney, the owner of Ann Sather's Restaurants, a leg up on his opponents.

The problem is, Lake View's gay activists have already pledged their support to another openly gay candidate, attorney Richard Ingram.

They call the Hansen-for-Tunney swap a backroom deal that has the potential to divide and conquer gay voters and pave the way for a straight candidate to claim the 44th Ward seat.

"He's being looked upon as an Uncle Tom,'' said Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, one of the largest gay and lesbian rights groups in the Midwest.

Emphasis added. Because there might be a joke in there somewhere, but I'm not capable of coming up with anything right now.

And I liked the vegetarian chili at Ann Sather, for what it's worth.

Posted by Aaron at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Not exactly unprecendented, this.

Death threats to Dalai Lama blamed on rival Bhuddist sect

In the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile has its headquarters, posters threatening to kill the Dalai Lama have appeared. They say he and his followers in India will face death if they do not leave the country.

Police suspect a Tibetan cult, Shugden, is behind the threats against the Dalai Lama, who fled to Dharamsala from Tibet in 1959, and have tightened security around him.

The article goes on to describe Shugden, in terms which may be perfectly accurate but sound just a wee bit sensationalist to me. It also includes this bit:

Kelsang Gyatso and his followers in NKT accuse the Dalai Lama of selling out Tibet by promoting its autonomy within China rather than outright independence, of expelling their followers from jobs in Tibetan establishments in India, and of denying them humanitarian aid pouring in from Western countries.

Some context, if you're confused about this:

Dalai Lama Wants Self-Rule for Tibet

The Dalai Lama denied Chinese assertions that he seeks independence for Tibet, saying during a trip to neighboring Mongolia on Thursday that he would settle for autonomy.

The exiled Tibetan leader made the comments during an appearance at Mongolian National University to accept an honorary degree. About 200 academics and Buddhist monks were in the audience.

``I am not seeking independence. I am seeking self-rule. I think that benefits both Chinese and Tibetan people.'' he said in English. He did not elaborate, but has previously appealed for greater Tibetan cultural and political autonomy.

Which covers the autonomy vs. independence notion, anyway.

And the answer to the question posed in the title is yes.

Update: Linked unprecendented above to a previous entry. As I'd meant to do before posting this.

Attention conservation excerpt:

On July 18, the 13th Kundeling Tagtsha Jetung, who the Dalai Lama refuses to recognise as the head of the Dorje Shugden sect, accused the Dalai Lama of committing atrocities against rival Tibetans and with carrying out anti-China activities in Nepal.

I'd check to see if the Chinese are bankrolling the Shugden, but that seems far too obvious.

Posted by Aaron at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Since Mozilla let me visit Lileks dumb ass:

Bin Laden needs to do something big, something bold. I think he should go to Cuba. Set himself up as Fidel’s successor. Shouldn’t be hard; they both have famous beards; they both hate America; they both hate gays - Osama would have them stoned, Fidel puts the AIDS-infected gays in barbed-wire camps.

Clearly, there's nothing in the browser keeping me from seeing certain sites.

Oh, and not that it matters:

In Cuba, HIV Entails Quarantine No More

St. Petersburg Times Online (01/27/98); Payton, Jack

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Cuban government quarantined HIV-positive individuals, crediting the measures with keeping the country's AIDS rate lower than that of any other country in the region. As of 1997, Cuba had registered less than 1,700 HIV cases, despite having a population of more than 11 million. The country has extensive HIV testing measures, routinely screening pregnant women, blood donors, hospital patients, government officials, and "risk groups" for the virus. Meanwhile, due to the expense of isolating HIV-infected individuals and the possible influx of other infected persons from tourism, the nation began reexamining its HIV policy several years ago. Today, Cuba no longer quarantines HIV patients, offering treatment and counseling instead. Part of the new strategy includes a Health Ministry effort to distribute condoms free of charge and increased cooperation with international groups like Doctors Without Borders.

But the fuckhead got it wrong.

Coincidentally, VASpider has an entry about folks who really hate gays:

Their sexual orientation was more important to the U.S. Military than you being safe from terrorists. During a shortage of translators, these valuable servicepeople were dismissed for their orientation and their orientation alone.

God, I hope I run into Lileks when I'm back in Minneapolis visiting.

"Run into" has multiple meanings, mind.

Update: Say, you don't think Lileks was suggesting that only gays contract HIV up there, do you?

Nah. He couldn't be that fucking stupi--

Ok, that's what he was saying. Somebody better help me get the dents out of the Focus afterwards, that's all I'm saying. . .

Posted by Aaron at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Not much of a trick, that. And it is Mojira, after all.

Darmon Thornton's blog breaks down into line noise after a few screens, not unlike a small victory. Anybody else getting this, or did those wacky open source developers finally perfect the "you probably don't want to do that" function?

Ronn's place comes in just fine, even with the redesign. And he continues to follow the Central Park 5 case far better'n me.

On, and <Vinnie Mac Voice>I'm serving notice, right here on Google Smackdown!, that AMCGLTD.COM -- Where Cats, Science Fiction, and Anger Come Together! will never. . . will never. . . will never be linked from this site again.</Vinnie Mac Voice>

Now play my damn theme music.

And ignore the referral script links.

Oh, and I take it back. Since InstaPundit still comes in:

UPDATE: Reader Laurence Rothenberg writes: "What would happen if someone painted, 'Self-portrait in Blackface?'"

Clearly, the "dumb shit you probably don't want to read if you want to retain what precious shreds of your sanity remain" filter ain't quite got all the bugs worked out.

Couldn't work this into the WWE-style trashtalking: My results from Googlism.com are utterly unimpressive.

Some of the people who drop by here, though. . . y'all scare me.

Posted by Aaron at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Hanne ponders a switch to Movable Type. Seeing as I use only a fraction of the Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Personal Publishing System, I'm hardly the person to persuade her to do so.

I'll just resort to peer pressure instead.

Changed the link over yonder to the current page of her journal, for mysterious reasons of my own.

And removed Ginger, with regret.

And removed non-Buffy watching scum with extreme prejudice.

Why should Jason be the only one who gets the de-linker drama in his life?

Posted by Aaron at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Which line makes no sense when used for a story from a print publication, but the coffee and two cups of tea are wearing off. Perhaps I should try sleeping instead.

Picture swiped from Web used in porn ads

A 26-year-old graphic artist from Chicago got a surprise after posting her picture on an Internet personals site.

She found that someone had lifted her mug and attached it to dozens of ads with pornographic descriptions.

In one ad, she was a Denver 23-year-old who expected "breakfast in bed" after the first date. In another, she was "Chocolate--Starfish--0" who asked men to "send me your e-mail and a pic of yourself. Who knows, maybe I'll make you explode."

"You have no control," said the woman, who did not want her identity revealed. "That's the hardest thing to deal with. You have no idea who's seen it."

Not that the Chicago Sun-Times is a tabloid or nothing. I mean, it is, in form, but that doesn't mean the content is. . . aw, skip it.

Elsewhere, they report that Belafonte defends 'slave' comment in Chicago visit:

Entertainer and longtime human rights activist Harry Belafonte told a gathering of Chicago liberals Wednesday he would not back down from his criticisms of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell for being ''house slaves'' doing the bidding of President Bush. ''I didn't say anything you haven't been saying,'' Belafonte told the gathering, who responded with chuckles and applause. He spoke at a private breakfast at the Gold Coast penthouse of Bettylu Saltzman, former chief of staff to Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.).

More than 50 like-minded people paid $100 to hear Belafonte at the gathering, which was a fund-raiser for the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. Guests included former alderman and radio talk show host Cliff Kelley, DuSable Museum founder Margaret Burroughs and activist and media consultant Marilyn Katz.

And to think.

I used to avoid reading the Tribune because the bias was so evident.

Posted by Aaron at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Dru links to Your Negro Tour Guide, but do I have one? No. Because I suck.

I use humor. I use it to diffuse the stereotype of the angry black bitch and to stunt my hate-filled, presumptuous and bigoted growth. I guffaw to keep from screaming.

Seth wanted to rub my head. He should've asked first. The answer still would've been a hell no. But I deserve the option.

Kathy Y. Wilson, on the other hand, rules.

This has nothing to do with the discussion of sexism going on over at Dru's place, by the way.

Oh, and there should be some Shakira lyrics here, but that gag's been done to death, I think.

Posted by Aaron at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Everyone who's interested has seen The Gift by now, right?

Ben lies there, gives a pained cough and smiles painfully but still doesn't move.

BEN: I guess we're stuck with each other, huh baby?

He breathes painfully. Giles comes over and kneels beside him.

GILES: Can you move?
BEN: Need a ... a minute. She could've killed me.
GILES: No she couldn't. Never. And sooner or later Glory will re-emerge, and ... make Buffy pay for that mercy. And the world with her. Buffy even knows that... (reaches into his pocket, takes out his glasses) and still she couldn't take a human life.

Shot of Ben listening.

GILES: She's a hero, you see. (Giles puts his glasses on) She's not like us.
BEN: Us?

Giles suddenly reaches down and puts his hand over Ben's nose and mouth, holding them shut. Ben struggles weakly as Giles keeps him still. Giles keeps his calm expression throughout.

George is back, by the bye, with a link to

Business Week Online, Alexandra Starr, "Playing the race card -- over and over" (a September writeup of Jeremy D. Mayer's "Running on Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns, 1960-2000" that claims that Richard Nixon was once a card-carrying member of the NAACP.)

Interesting selections of word and fact throughout the piece, starting with the first few sentences:

The divide between black and white America is nowhere more evident than in Presidential elections. In 10 of the past 11 showdowns for the White House, Republicans have won the majority of white support, sometimes by vast proportions. Blacks, in contrast, are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party.

[. . .W]hen Martin Luther King Jr. was briefly incarcerated in Georgia, Kennedy telephoned King's wife to express sympathy. This calculated gesture motivated a majority of blacks to vote Democratic.

[. . .] Such cynical maneuvering left the Democratic Party ripe for an internal or third-party challenge. . .

Emphasis added, of course.

I won't blame the author for the title of the piece. I'm feeling charitable.

I also won't blame the Business Week copyeditor/web lackey, since Giles gets touchy about stuff like that, and he'll kill your ass in a minute.

Right after he calmly, rationally explains why it's necessary for him to do so.

Posted by Aaron at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Anyone else having trouble reaching Giles' place at the moment? Figures this would happen right after Jason finally realized what's up with the nickname.

This means I can't check if he quoted the following bit of A New Light on Skin Color:

One of the important implications of Jablonski and Chaplin's work is that it underlines the concept of race as purely a social construct, with no scientific grounds. DNA research has shown that genetically all humans, regardless of skin color and other surface distinctions, are basically the same. In an April 2001 article titled, "The Genetic Archaeology of Race," published in the Atlantic Monthly, Steve Olson writes "the genetic variants affecting skin color and facial features are essentially meaningless —they probably involve a few hundred of the billions of nucleotides in a person's DNA. Yet societies have built elaborate systems of privilege and control on these insignificant genetic differences."

Jablonski and Chaplin view their work as relevant to how we get along with each other. According to Jablonski, many people are "happy and relieved" when they hear about this research. "All of a sudden their own coloration isn't something that was just handed to them," she says. "It isn't a social stigma. It's something that evolved in their ancestors for a good set of biological reasons. And it takes the wind out of racism and bigotry. It's a fairly simple and beautiful explanation for one of the most obvious characteristics that distinguishes humans."

Like I said, not news. Not especially interesting for me, at this point, either.

Now the 25th Anniversary of the Muppet Show?

It's been more than 20 years since Kermit, Missy Piggy and company have appeared regularly on TV. But that's about to change. A new special, "It's A Very Muppet Christmas," is scheduled to air on NBC the day after Thanksgiving; and there are plans for a new Muppet show on Fox.

News. And interesting.

Or my priorities are fucked.

Right, back to Debian stuff. . .

Posted by Aaron at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Don't add unstable or testing to your sources.list if you aren't prepared to face the consequences.

Current consequences:

error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

When running apt-get or dselect. And there was that funny thing a few minutes ago, when X locked, and the Caps and Scroll Lock lights on the keyboard started flashing. . .

So remember, kids, if someone offers you libstdc++2.10-dev_1%3a2.95.4-14_i386.deb or libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2_1%3a2.95.4-14_i386.deb, do like Nancy Reagan said and Just Say No.

At least I'm guessing, in my own uninformed little way, that one of them is the problem.

I shall research this. Which means ignoring politics for the time being. Darn.

Posted by Aaron at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

I'm not the target audience for Thomas Sowell's little pearls of wisdom.

Democrats know that one of the reasons for their disappointing showing in this year's elections is that they failed to get out the black vote in the numbers needed, especially in the South. Since Democrats have nothing to offer blacks, now that they do not control any branch of the federal government, their only way to get out the black vote in 2004 is by arousing fears and resentments.

The race card was played recklessly and shamelessly during the 2000 elections -- and successfully, with 92 percent of the black vote going to Al Gore. One television ad even tried to somehow connect George W. Bush with the dragging death of a black man in Texas.

The Democrats couldn't pull that kind of smear this year, with the president's approval ratings so high. But they have two more years in which to come up with something else, and they have long demonstrated fertile imaginations, unhampered by the truth.

Republicans, of course, would never, ever think of arousing fears and resentments, and couldn't imagine playing the race card. It would be beneath them.

Like the interview in the previous entry, this link was found at BlackElectorate.com. Not sure if I only visited them because I was in a foul mood, or if the mood came afterwards.

Long as I'm at Jewish World Review for Sowelll's piece, may as well check out some of the other towering intellects of our time, like Walter Williams:

Let's look at the recent election campaign. Whether it was a Democratic or Republican candidate, for the most part, they won votes by promising to spend the money of their constituents "on the objects of benevolence." They promised to violate the rights of some Americans for the benefit of other Americans. They promised to take money from younger Americans to buy prescription drugs for elderly Americans, take money from non-farmers to give to farmers and take money from wealthier people to give to poorer people. In a word or two, politicians campaigned on an unstated promise to ignore any oath of office to protect and defend the United States Constitution and instead go to work on undermining it.

Yep, that's gonna cheer me up right quick.