Racism Vs Reason! Fight!

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-situations-that-make-white-people-feel-racist/

For all their dicks jokes, I actually find that Cracked can offer up some very smart articles that have something worth saying a lot more than you'd think for a humor site. This article is a pretty prime example. Now I'm sure just the title of the article is going to be enough to get some people here worked up. And I think that's the point.

No one here is going to say racism is a good thing. It's basically as prime an example of concentrated human stupidity as you could ever ask for. The problem is that even in trying to deal with it people tend to be people and by that I mean idiots. Rather than dealing with problem like mature adults so that we can improve our society for everyone we get bogged down in pretty arguments, make mountains out of the everyday missteps that happen between people everywhere and, worst of all in my book, spend way too much time thinking that we can read other people's minds based on scant to nonsensical evidence.

Language is the worst offender in that last one. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen people try and deconstruct another person's simple comments  that carry no more meaning that just what was said into some manifesto they could go on a screed against I'd have been able to to pay off my student loans before I even left college.

But to bring things around I'll let the article sum up my thoughts on language: You should never let a word control you, intimidate you, or make you uncomfortable, and that applies to people of all races. Intent is where insult lies, and hate. Not in language.

Rendering Unto Caesar: The Clean Parade‏

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Slavery is an institution of inescapable logic. It cannot allow mental freedom because that would result in corporal freedom. A mental prison is an essential aspect of each of the infamous dehumanizing institutions of slavery. An example of this kind of prison marched through my neighborhood this past Saturday leaving very little debris behind. Unlike the massive refuse left in the wake of the Giants' victory parade, the amount of trash left behind by the mental prisoners was minuscule. Take that for what it is worth.

A rally prior to the clean parade at our Civic Center presented an orgy of effigy burning. Obama was stoned metaphorically in abstentia for his rational, humane policies. He was savagely attacked for the sin of failing to kowtow to the despot in the sky or to the slaveholder in Rome. People in the audience carried balloons marking themselves with the sign of beastly life. Others carried placards of relative high production value courtesy of the Knight of Caesar Columbus. Although not all of the folks there professed an allegiance to the Roman Pontifex Maximus, the majority fell into that category of subjugation.

Two thousand years ago it made sense for Caesar to outlaw the trade in prophylactic herbs. Given the high rates of infant mortality and other causes of death, women had to give birth to an average of five infants per person per lifetime in order to maintain the imperial population. (It also made sense from the imperative to enslave people by limiting their ability to control themselves.) Given the state of modern medical technology, such a birth rate would result in a population that exceeds the carrying capacity of the Earth. The only rational explanation for someone supporting such a policy is that she is not using her head. These people are clearly trapped in a prison of primitive precepts. If Jesus were alive today, he would role over in his sepulcher.

Do you see any hope for the liberation of these people from their blind obedience to Rome?

Links: Lifers show their balloons. The event in Washington DC.

church and state

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

fuck arizona
i mean, really.

http://m.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/business/2013/01/proposed-us-loyalty-oath-for-students.html?page=all&r=full

im always shocked that some people think theres no discrimination against atheists.

sure, atheists are usually not part of minority groups--it seems (in the US at least) to largely be educated white guys, though obviously of the millions of atheists worldwide that are of various class and ethnic backgrounds.

it does seem that dumbfuck christians are unable or unwilling to let others be non christian. fucking idiots.

and this is why the GOP, that called itself, hezbollah, er, the party of god, is so fucking absurd.

instead of tackling the education problems in schools, lawmakers spend their time crafting a bill meant to deny a HS diploma to atheists.
fucking pricks.


oh, and lastly, one of the sponsors of the bill responded to a local paper, using the deadline to submit bills to explain that maybe some language might be changed to not rile everyone up.

link: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/01/25/arizona-republicans-propose-bill-that-would-not-allow-atheists-to-graduate-high-school/

quote from rep thorpe is towards bottom of link

the bill is two fucking paragraphs long, you dipshit politician who doesnt think anyone will go find the bill you wrote/sponsored.

http://www.azleg.gov//FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/hb2467p.htm&Session_ID=110

jackasses, all of them.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

How a Meme Begins

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

The headline at MSNBC is "Emotional father of Sandy Hook victim heckled by gun nuts." The folks at Huffington Post and The Daily Beast also ran headlines about the father being heckled. Slate tweeted as such, although the headline was more neutral. If you do a search in Google News, I'm sure many other local, national, and international news sources say the same thing.

The problem is that it isn't true, as evidenced by the full video of the testimony. The testimony isn't easy to watch, but the relevant portion to this discussion begins right at the 15 minute mark, and concludes in less than a minute:

Quite a different situation than what was presented in the media, is it not? Why is that?

This is a continuing problem in the media lately, and one that should be giving us pause. Initial reactions, almost always to the benefit of one ideological side over the other, bear little resemblence to what comes about on further investigation. It was the case with the Benghazi attack with many media outlets clinging to the "spontaneous reaction to a video" meme. It was the case with Sandy Hook and the "mass shootings on the rise" meme, which isn't true. It was the case with the ever-changing story surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, which has gone through numerous permutations even though many still think the initial story is the only one. I'm sure many of us could come up with more.

Some of the blame, many could say, is just a product of the current news cycle, which puts being first ahead of being right. There's something to that, for sure. The problem is when being first almost always seems to become the trend in the media, and the one to take hold. Especially with Facebook and Twitter becoming so significant to the distribution of information, a few bad headlines that never get corrected and never get followed up become the norm. Of course, it leads to the question as to why people find significantly self-serving news, whether it be Alternet or The Blaze, ThinkProgress or FreeRepublic, to be of value as well - people want to hear what they want to hear, and too often, it results in less knowledge.

Any ideas on how to solve this?