Jon Stewart ran a bit on last nite's show that everybody's been reposting - so why should I be any different:
Here's the Vine Video:
Here's the Vine Video:
(click to pause)
Feb 26, 2015
Feb 25, 2015
Surprise Surprise
Turns out, Racial Bias actually is a thing. Which makes Race-based Privilege into a thing as well.
Not that anybody who needs to hear this will actually hear it - much less put any stock in it because of course it's just more academic mumbo jumbo from people who've spent the better part of their lives studying such things, and who gives a fuck about Australia anyway!?! - but anyhoo.
From Univ of Queensland via NYT:
It's just not enough. We gotta do better.
Not that anybody who needs to hear this will actually hear it - much less put any stock in it because of course it's just more academic mumbo jumbo from people who've spent the better part of their lives studying such things, and who gives a fuck about Australia anyway!?! - but anyhoo.
From Univ of Queensland via NYT:
With more than 1,500 observations, the study uncovered substantial, statistically significant race discrimination. Bus drivers were twice as willing to let white testers ride free as black testers (72 percent versus 36 percent of the time). Bus drivers showed some relative favoritism toward testers who shared their own race, but even black drivers still favored white testers over black testers (allowing free rides 83 percent versus 68 percent of the time).
The study also found that racial disparities persisted when the testers wore business attire or dressed in army uniforms. For example, testers wearing army uniforms were allowed to ride free 97 percent of the time if they were white, but only 77 percent of the time if they were black.
This elegant experiment follows in a tradition of audit testing, in which social scientists have sent testers of different races to, for example, bargain over the price of new cars or old baseball cards. But the Australian study is the first, to my knowledge, to focus on discretionary accommodations. It’s less likely these days to find people in positions of authority, even at lower levels of decision making, consciously denying minorities rights. But it is easier to imagine decision makers, like the bus drivers, granting extra privileges and accommodations to nonminorities. Discriminatory gifts are more likely than discriminatory denials.
A police officer is an out-and-out bigot if she targets innocent blacks for speeding tickets. But an officer who is more likely to give a pass to white motorists who exceed the speed limit than to black ones is also discriminating, even if with little or no conscious awareness. This is one reason the Twitter hashtag #crimingwhilewhite is so powerful: It draws attention to the racially biased exercise of discretion by police officers, prosecutors and judges, which results in whites getting a pass for the kinds of offenses for which minorities are punished.So the discrimination is there; the biogtry is there; it's just behind a slightly less thoroughly disgusting mask. It's about the "positive" of granting a little favor for the White Folk so it looks and sounds a little better, but it's still the same old "negative" of denying that favor (ie: privilege) to Black Folk. I'm willing to call it as having made some progress, but we're still pretty well stuck with a problem of unequal treatment, and having that inequality based on the color of somebody's skin.
It's just not enough. We gotta do better.
Feb 24, 2015
Rudy Rudy Rudy
Rick Ungar at Forbes on Giuliani's fail which turned into a fourple fail when Rudy doubled down twice - most recently by getting space in the OpEd section of Rupert's Vanity Street Journal.
“My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart. My intended focus really was the effect his words and his actions have on the morale of the country, and how that effect may damage his performance.”
Really?
When you boldly and directly state that a President doesn’t love his country, while suggesting that this lack of affection is the result of not being like "us", you have to be something of a fool to imagine that you can return to the fray pretending that what you meant to say was you don’t like how the President speaks on the subject of American exceptionalism.
The Hate Parade
Wanna know what Repubs really really REALLY hate?
Well, it would seem there's enough GOP Hatred to spread a rich and creamy slathering over a pretty good sampling of just about everything.
A user called Scuba at Democratic Underground put together this handy (and partial) list:
ImmigrantsI could add: Public Lands and Clean Water and Breathable Air and Redress Through The Courts and a Livable Wage and and and.
Unions
ACLU
Muslims
Gays
Liberals
Medicare
Harry Reid
NOAA
Professors
Thinking people
Public & Indian Housing
Canadians
Sewer systems
Journalists
Jesus' teachings
Europe
Whistleblowers
Social Security
Progress
Scientists
President Obama
Peace Corps
Lesbians
Social justice
Mosques
Laws
Media
Truth
Creative people
14 year old rapist victims
Housing & Urban Development Dept
Government healthcare
Illegal aliens
United Nations
Diplomacy
Smart people
NEA
Bureaucrats
Postal Service
Empathy
Government
1st Amendment
Any Arabic person
Economic justice
Consumer protections
Artists
Democrats
Social programs
All democratic leaders
14 year old incest victims
Sanity
Public education
14th Amendment
Actors
Wildlife
Federal government
Food stamps
Worker's rights
Change
Student aid programs
Environment
Hate crime laws
The Poor
Department of Education
The vulnerable
Nancy Pelosi
Environmental Protection Agency
Logic
The weak
State government
Unemployed
Food banks
4th Amendment
Progressives
Thinking
Tree huggers
Abortion
Hollywood
Teachers
Census workers
Federal Trade Commission
Endangered species
Reason
Homeless people
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Women's rights
City government
Food & Drug Administration
Intelligence
Environmentalists
Any liberal leader
Movies
College professors
5th Amendment
Regulations
Blacks
Soccer
Compassion
Facts
Dear GOP,
It's more than a little nutty trying to think you 'love America' when you hate so much of what America actually is.
Feb 23, 2015
Feb 22, 2015
Winter Sucks Now
I'm thinkin' I might hafta skip Leg Day tomorrow.
And Cardio on Tuesday? Yeah - that's lookin' a little iffy too.
And Cardio on Tuesday? Yeah - that's lookin' a little iffy too.
Feb 21, 2015
What Bill Said
I'm not much of a Bill Clinton fan anymore, but here's a good one from a few years ago:
"It's arithmetic. The top 25 Hedge Fund Managers made $14.14 Billion in 2012. They pay a 15% tax rate. That's equivalent to 314,222 workers earning $45,000 a year. And they pay a 35% tax rate.
It takes all of the income tax paid by 180,000 of these workers just to pay for the tax loophole for these 25 Hedge Fund Managers.
And that, my friends is only $2.8 Billion of the approximate $660 Billion in tax cuts that go each year to make the wealthy wealthier.Get up on your hind legs and push back - vote against this shit.
Feb 20, 2015
Bando del Diablo
We always tho't the kids in band were a little strange in high school. Took all 45 years since then for me to learn how cool strange can turn out to be.
hat tip = Little Green Footballs
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