One of my friends of many years was obsessed with extraterrestrials and how they supposedly kidnap people and then conduct sexual experiments on their victims. He would dream about these visitations and put on a public performance of the "Grays" riding their victims to orgasm.
I had a female friend who would call me at odd hours of the night and ask me to talk to her because she had a nightmare where the witches were riding her. Apparently, my voice and a late night visit were the only things that could calm her.
We all have burdens to carry in life.
And we all have our own obsessions.
I would like to thank you for indulging mine these last few days.
Jonathan Chait appeared on MSNBC last night.
His discussion with Salon.com's Brittney Cooper and Chris Hayes on MSNBC was a profound letdown.
There, Chait managed to further the twisted logic of white victimology and excuse-making for white supremacy with his closing comment that yes, racism may be all over the Republican Party's behavior but somehow the public is done a disservice when the media discusses it.
I riddle you that one.
Friday is a semi-open thread salon day here on WARN. I spent time on the Chait fracas because I was mesmerized by the Yellow King. During that moment what other matters of public concern were we not discussing?
15 comments:
Crimea was annexed by Russia after a referendum in the Ukrainian territory.
I heard on NPR that Japan and China are posturing and could escalate into open warfare for use of the South China Sea. China is really advancing in that area.
Mississippi passed the Religious Protection Bill that enables discrimination on the basis of religiously held bigotries (I wonder if it extends to racial bigotries held by the faithful).
Theodore Wafer, murderer of Renisha McBride, had his defense enter in Renisha McBride's "lifestyle" to help defend him for murdering someone on his porch. Renisha McBride's ghost will be defending her decision to seek help after an auto accident on a night when she had been drinking.
Stabbing at the suburban Pittsburgh school. A "well-liked" 16 year old male stabbed 21 people, his fellow students in the hallway for about 5 minutes.
Shooting at Fort Hood that killed 3 people then the shooter killed himself. 16 people were injured. Ivan Lopez was the shooter.
This interview with Chuck D is a couple of years old, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Fight the Power. He says at some point a lot of people called them racist because of the content in their songs. Kind of goes along with the conversation here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSfDMNxTvpQ
The continuing battles amongst Black scholars; particularly between Cornel West and others. Here we go again. http://rollingout.com/politics/michael-eric-dyson-blasts-cornel-west-aint-important/#_
Thank you very much for spending so much time on Chait's nonsense. And it is nonsense, pernicious nonsense all the more because it is getting praised by the usual media hacks.
There were several social-media and other Internet-based things going on that certainly weren't Earth-shattering, but which involved a lot of back-and-forth commentary in various venues, and which I found kind of interesting as these things go:
The #cancelcolbert Twitter war uproar.
Mozilla's hiring, and then unhiring, of Brendan Eich as CEO.
Kate Mulgrew of ST: Voyager and other shows, along with several prominent scientists, were discovered to have been misled and duped into participating in a weird pseudo-science documentary produced by a Christianist, neo-Nazi holocaust denier.
Also interesting to me but not very much in the news:
The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is on a five-day visit to the U.S. where he has made appearances and speeches at Harvard and Yale; he will appear on Saturday at the New York Hall of Science (on Long Island near the 1964 World's Fair grounds) to do his weekly television show from there. Outside local media of the cities he is visiting, this barely seems to have attracted any mention. Correa is a remarkable individual; I could really go on and on about him. Latin America has its own version of White Supremacy, different from ours in some ways and the same in others. Correa's policies are making real inroads into lessening social and economic inequality in Ecuador. Because of this, the U.S. government and the right wing in this country hate him and attack him and lie about his government at every opportunity, and have even tried to have him overthrown and/or killed. Or they just ignore him, although I have heard rumor of a possible Diane Sawyer interview.
Sorry I am being sort of lazy about putting in any links. I can later provide them or more details or comments about any of these if there is interest.
Finally, spring seems really to be here at last and the buds are coming out. Enjoy, everybody!
I've returned to San Francisco and picked up a Monday morning radio gig but, you probably meant something more like Hank Aaron agreeing with us, so there's that, too. Kind of adds some historical perspective and back-up.
Why does this blog continue to ignore the global impact of Mickie Rooney's untimely,and highly suspicious death?!?!!!! WHile you get distracted by trivial issues like RACE, the cover-up is HAPPENEING! WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF CHAUNCEY?!?!!!?!?! Why are there no relevant Google hits when you search for "Mickie Rooney and Conspiracy Theories"? Does THAT even sound plausible?!?? WHO has the POWER TO UN-GOOGLE?!?
Where's Brother X-Squared? He wouldn't be AFRAID!
http://twitpic.com/bdkxyg
Brother X-Squared has been on a covert mission these last few months. He send me a message via carrier pigeon and said to tell you all that he shall return very soon.
Congrats! Where can folks find the show?
I thought chait's interview was perfect.
Transparent truth equalizes the lie and the liar if you thought either might actually be convincing. It/he was not.
From Google today:
Percey Lavon Julian
Britney Cooper from Salon:
For more than a century, the fate of African-Americans has been the pawn in a dysfunctional national family drama played out by whites on the liberal left and whites on the right.
Yes, whites on the liberal left helped elect Barack Obama. And black and brown folk have now endured six years of a straight-up, all out, go-for-broke temper tantrum on the right. Seeing themselves as the paragons of reason, liberal white folks have largely stood idly by reasoning with their brethren and sistren on the right to play nice, even though it is so clear that the right is not interested in a clean game. --It’s not about you, white liberals: Why attacks on radical people of color are so misguided
There's a lot of that going around right now: the radical left vs. the mainstream left. Personally, I stand with Dr. Cornel West and the radical left but it certainly doesn't mean I'm right. West may have gone too far in his personal attacks on Dyson but we only heard Dyson's side of the story in the article. See the article by Britney Cooper that I posted here on the same debate but different players.
Yikes!
It's a good thing you didn't say passenger pigeon, because then I wouldn't believe you.
Thanks for linking to Professor Cooper's Salon piece, which is fantastic. The comments, as usual at Salon -- not so much.
Post a Comment