I Am Not Trayvon Martin

From Ebony:

Can you imagine the outcry if seven White youths had been gunned down by police and security guards in a matter of months? Can you imagine the extensive political interest, the media stories that would saturate the airwaves? Can you imagine Fox News or any number of newspapers reporting about a school suspension for one of the victims or doctoring pictures in an attempt to make these victims less sympathetic? Can you imagine a person holding up a sign calling these victims “thugs” and “hoodlums.”Just think about the media frenzy, the concern from politicians, and the national horror every time a school shooting happens in Suburbia or every time a White woman goes missing...can you imagine if women routinely went missing from your community and the news and police department simply couldn't be bothered?

No, you can't. And you don't have to.

And I just kinda hate thinking that somebody who's probably young enough to be my granddaughter has a better handle on this than I do.


(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Just What We Need

Considering all the shit the world wants to throw in our general direction, I think the US Military should really make an effort to take all those young Americans - you know, the kids we've trained to kill on command and armed with enough lethal machinery to level every city and every farm building on the planet and still have enough left over to go back and "make the rubble bounce" - yeah, what we really need to do is give those kids lots and lots of drugs.

After two long-running wars with escalating levels of combat stress, more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs, according to figures recently disclosed by the U.S. Army surgeon general. Nearly 8 percent of the active-duty Army is now on sedatives and more than 6 percent is on antidepressants – an eightfold increase since 2005.

“We have never medicated our troops to the extent we are doing now. … And I don’t believe the current increase in suicides and homicides in the military is a coincidence,” said Bart Billings, a former military psychologist who hosts an annual conference at Camp Pendleton on combat stress.-- The Spokesman-Review

War is a racket.  Every war - on, for, or against anything - is a racket.  If you don't know that by now, then you don't know anything.

And isn't it so perfectly coincidental how The "War On Terrorism" is now nested perfectly into the "War On Drugs"?

The Nexus

...of politics and race in America.  Anybody who's watched politics knows about "The Southern Strategy" and how it's morphed over the last 8 or 9 cycles.  I'm thinking it prob'ly goes a lot farther back than Nixon and Wallace - the Dixiecrats come to mind.  So I'm trying to dig things up that tell me something about the long evolution of race (and religion) in our elections and power politics.

For now, here's a nice bit of turnaround/parody from Bill Maher - a few years back.

Bill Gates - TED Talk

Innovating To Zero

Say What?

Sometimes, the parade of stoopid is simply beyond imagining.



And why does it seem like The Daily Show is the only outfit taking this on and asking real questions?  Are the Press Poodles so afraid of the Wingnuts that they won't denounce it for the Epic Stoopid it is for fear of being called "biased"?  I've got news, fellas - it doesn't matter what you do, the Nutters will always call you biased because that's what makes a cult work.

And also too, being biased against something that's so obviously Epic Stoopid is a good thing.

My New Favorite Meme

(hat tip = JG)

My Kinda Guy - Kinda

I consider John Cole (Balloon Juice) a fellow traveller - a Conservative In Recovery.  And actually, I don't think of it as recovering from being conservative so much as trying to recover what being conservative should really mean.  But that begs for an attempt to define "conservative", which only turns "conservative" into "Conservat-ism", which is always where it falls apart because nothing fucks up a good philosophy like hanging that "ism" on the end of it.  The purists jump in and start weeding out those who don't conform - all in the name of "inclusion" and "the big tent", of course - which is where I think the Repubs are stuck now.  Eventually, the only planks left in the GOP Platform are Party Loyalty and Anti-Obama.

So "conservative" is a little like deciding between art and pornography - ya get to make that call for yourself, and nobody else.

But there's one thing more to put to rest before we can claim to be fully free of this Dark Side Politics.  We have to recognize this for the utter bullshit that it is:

Republicans might be crazy, but at least they fucking fight. Whether I am right or wrong, I stand up for what I believe.

I hear this a lot when people feel the need to criticize the Dems (usually for trying to play nice with their fellow Americans - which is kinda the fucking point in a democracy BTW).

You might as well say, "George Zimmerman may have goaded Trayvon Martin into a fight so he'd have an excuse to murder the kid in cold blood, but at least he was standing up for what he believed in".

You don't get points for fighting on the wrong fucking side.

The Lie Du Jour

Repubs love to play the Opposite Game.  In one interesting variation, they insist on firing as many public employees as possible while screaming about how Obama has done nothing but increase the size of government.  And they do all that while claiming that only Repub presidents know how to get the government under control.

hat tip = The Atlantic

It's That Time Again

Time to look at who won The Peabody Awards this year.  Lemme see, if I say the phrase "excellence in broadcasting", who comes to mind?  Well, fortunately, the good folks at Univ of Georgia understand that it needs to mean a fair bunch more than just another catchy marketing slogan, so Mr Limbaugh is SOL - again - for something like the 40th year in a row.

And of course, the same goes for DumFux News.  They didn't win a Peabody this year either.  That puts their streak for not winning a Peabody (or any other award they didn't create for themselves) at right about 0-for-their-entire-fake-ass-fucking-existence.

Congrats to Stephen Colbert on his 2nd Peabody.  That makes 2 for Colbert and zero for Bill O'Reilley, and zero for Chris Wallace, and zero for Brett Baier, and zero for that whole sorry crew.  Stephen Colbert.  2 Peabody Awards.  You guys at DumFux got dick.  Again.

Read it and smirk.

Oh yeah, and just in case you need to throw around some numbers regarding "the most watched cable news shows"?  That much is correct - MSNBC has nothing on the air that pulls your numbers.  CNN can't match your viewership.  But you what show beats you?  Sponge Bob.  Y'know what else beats your numbers?  EVERY COOKING SHOW ON ANY NETWORK.  So go suck a pine cone.  Putz.

Naming Rights

I have a ridiculous man-crush on Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Know Your Shit

I hate this.  I hate thinking I need to teach my kids that the cops are not their friends, and are not looking out for them.



(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Guns And Politics

Does the phrase "hoist by one's own petard" ring a bell?

Tampa city managers wanted to put up some temporary rules aimed at keeping the peace during the Repub convention this summer - just a few simple things like no guns in the immediate area of the convention site, and of course, they needed rules against all those troublesome protesters who tend to carry objects such as signs and flags, which we all know can be converted instantly into dangerous weapons since all of those dirty hippies have been extensively trained by the 3 guys in the New Black Panther Party.

Well, it just made some sense to Assistant City Att'y Rodriguez that, "... if we're going to regulate people carrying sticks and poles, why wouldn't we regulate people carrying firearms, because those could pose significant risks to police and other protesters".

But later, city attorneys removed the ban on guns after finding that Florida Statute 790.33 prohibits local governments from enacting any laws on the sale, purchase, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage or transportation of guns or ammunition. --Tampa Bay Times

So, lemme see - Politicians who (likely) are in favor of some kind of Universal Un-Abridgeable Gun Rights because "if everybody's packin' then everybody's bound to be more polite" - these guys decided it would be safer if nobody had guns at a political rally where tempers might reasonably be expected to flare just a bit; but their attempt to bring a little common sense to the street-level application of official policy was blocked by the overarching rule of a powerful centralized government in a place far removed from where the effects of these policies are actually felt.  Hmmm.  Why does that sound so familiar?

For the record, I really hope everything works out well in Tampa this summer, but part of me is also really looking forward to seeing a few chickens heading home to roost.

hat tip = Wonkette

Today's Pix

Spring Break

This week is Spring Break for my high schoolers, so we're gonna hit the road for a coupla days.  Dunno where we're going or what we'll be doing, but I'll try to get something up from somewhere on the road.

Later.

Planned Parenthood

"Pro-Life" is really code for "Government-Mandated Breeding".

(hat tip = Blue Gal)