Lott's Talking Privileges Should Be Suspended For At Least A Week.

Trent Lott: "The job is to find the best qualified individual - man, woman, or minority - who understands the proper judicial role."

pic of Lamb from Prussian Blue

Look at those ROOTS! Blonde hair my pale white ass!

And that's sister "Dresden." Something tells me mom has never really been to Dresden, Germany.

Berliner Blau

People are saying that this stupid Prussian Blue nonsense is a great example of what's wrong with America. While a thirteen year old "racialist" band is really disturbing, I still think it's symbolic of one of the best damn things about America - the right to say really stupid things (and name your children stupid things, like 'Lynx' and 'Lamb').

Also, I'm tired of people saying they want to "strangle" them, or "kick the shit out of" them. They've never known anything different, and that's what's a crying ass shame. Sure, their parents have a right to teach them whatever they believe, but I think they should also allow them to form their own opinions when they are able and be careful of exposing them exclusively and incessantly to ideas they don't have the maturity to evaluate.

But, I hate to hear of anyone giving Frederick the Great a bad name.

Oh, great.

Okay, so far as I can tell if Dick Cheney's Teflon wears off and he actually gets indicted over all this mess, he'll be only the second VP to have been in this position - the second after Arron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel (although I don't know why he was indicted - I thought they crossed the river into Weehawken, New Jersey, where dueling was legal. Ironically, now in NJ they just play WWIII on the streets.)
I'm glad that he and others from this admin. have chosen to follow in such noble footsteps.

Closer to educational equity than I thought?

I read today that 51% of high school seniors from families making less than 10,000 dollars a year go straight to college, which is really pretty amazing. I know that educational quality is still widely disparate, but maybe we're closer to equality of opportunity than I thought.

worries.

I've been thinking about female body image issues a lot lately. It does seem to be all around me, after all. I'm starting to feel like it really is a legitimate problem.
I just don't know what to do or even who to blame.

go team!

Also, TheStateOfThings has joined this blog. Yay!
Now our hearts can bleed as one too. *snicker* Yeah, right.

You keep using that word. I'm not sure that it means what you think it means.

Recently, a story has hit the news about a mother from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn so her children could experience "diversity." Apparently, the boys were bullied mercilessly, subjected to racial slurs, and even chased into traffic by the students from the almost exclusively minority school. The real shocker is that when the mother attempted to take action, the principal would not even take her calls.

If this same situation had happened to black students in an almost exclusively white school, Jesse Jackson would be on the scene, the principal's head would be on a pike, and all this might be big news. But alas, that's not what it's about around here.

Racism is the belief in the superiority of a race over any other. I believe that in order to combat racism (a very worthy task) in any meaningful way, it cannot be addressed selectively. We cannot continue to send mixed messages about race in this way.

More Tim Wood, yay!

I also really wanted to publish this quote in here, because it's so obvious yet no one seems to have the nuts to just say it. There is something terribly wrong with this system, but no one seems to really want to change it, perhaps because of possible allegations of racism, honestly buying into the ideas of entitlement that justify this and other policies, or a pandering for re-election.

Those who have been through the legal immigration process know that you dare not leave a mark out of place on your application forms, or you're history. But as an illegal, every accommodation will be made for you.

The message is clear. Your best and most convenient shot at residence in the USA is via a border late at night. Once you're in, driver's license, welfare entitlements, medical insurance, workers comp and more ad infinitum will be secured for you by special interest lobbies tied to politicians courting votes and funds.

Immigrant Impact on Economy

I'm really intrigued with this quote from Tim Wood, a legal South African immigrant:

"There is concerted effort led from all branches of government to ensure that wage prices at the lower end of the market do not rise and they do that by allowing the importation of vast quantities of illegal immigrants who suppress what would otherwise be a market price."

I think that there may really be merit to this argument. When discussing this particular facet of the illegal immigration issue, I think it's important to remember that the guv'mint itself is a consumer of such labor. For example, the state hires contractors to do construction projects such as road work to keep costs down. The contractors then hire illegal immigrants, largely to keep costs down and remain competitive in the low-bid game.

Supreme Court Nominee Alice Cooper

Questionable choices regarding makeup, no judicial record . . . Looks like I may be as good a nominee for the Supreme Court as any.
Seems like fun with lots of job security. I'm in!

Starbucks Cup - A Threat To American Values!

According to BP News, Baylor University has asked Starucks to pull the coffee cup containing the "The Way I See It" quote #43: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too short."
This really gets under my skin for a number of reasons. First, I thought that the point of higher education was to expose students to ideas of all kinds of ideas, not to shelter them from the way other people outside their community (and inside, I'm sure) live their lives. Also, I really doubt that reading this coffee cup is going to make students suddenly just start plugging one another in the butt.
But what if they do? I don't understand how this affects my life with my opposite sex partner, or my parents marriage, or any other part of my life. But then again, I'm not just terrified that my values and lifestyle are going to die out.

"I hate it when people whhiiinnne"

I wrote this back in May, but I'm going to go ahead and post it as a part of my (and maybe soon our) blog restarting effort.

I went to the library the other day, and happened across a small stack of copies of AdBusters, or as it should probably be known, The Whiney Liberal Digest.
Let me be forthright in saying that I've realized just how much I hate AdBusters, although it's kind of a moot point for me because like most Americans, I can't afford to pay eight dollars for a magazine.
The main problem that I have with AdBusters is the fact that it points out and whines on about a myriad of problems with American society (not Canadian, although the publishers are Canadian, and contrary to popular belief, Canada is not a socialist worker's paradise, either). But it offers few solutions other than the boycott method, which history shows us has rarely met with success unless a large segment of the general population or the great majority of the product's minority market participate. Therefore, I really doubt that the smug folks who publish and write to AdBusters have the potential to get much done. Do they know?

SCOTUS

I've been hearing a lot of liberal squawking lately about John Roberts. While I'm not pleased with his record on a few issues, but his personal convictions bother me a lot less than his approach to the interpretation of the laws.
For example, I don't think that a career record of, say, fighting abortion necessarily goes hand in hand with striking down Roe v. Wade. Why? Because his job isn't to decide if he likes the conclusions of Roe personally, but to evaluate it's validity within the Constitution. And so far as I can tell, Roberts seems to "get" that.
Based on what I know, I am impressed with the choice of John Roberts for Supreme Court justice because it seems unlikely that he will stretch the laws in order to decide what we are and are not allowed to do in this country.
Or maybe I'm living in a dream world. Don't ask me.

Long time, no blog.

Lots has happened since I started this little blog in earnest. Lynndie England will finally be enjoying the view from Ft. Leavenworth, although for only three years. I always heard that it was an extended stay kind of resort. Well, I suppose it's only fair in a way. She's very young and she and her illegitimate child by Charles Graner have got their whole lives ahead of them.

Also, the EU is apparently preparing for talks with Turkey. (Mmmm, turkey.) While I understand the economic impetus for this, it doesn't really make sense to me. It's good that Turkish guest workers will be able to cross the border into Germany with a minimum of hassle, but it's bad that I might have to hear about the EU as "One World Government" some more. Also, are the Turks ready to do things the EU way?