cut on the bias

It's a challenge!

Michele says that Lee is one heck of a blogger, but Lee faded into the blogmist of history some time back. She's now considering re-emerging, but she's one canny lady - she says, I'll come back to blog once this post has comments from 100 different people.

Soooo... there were 54 comments when I was there a few minutes ago. You reckon we can post enough more comments to drag her screaming back into the blogosphere? Michele says she's good - let's make her prove it.

Go here now - leave a comment.

Oh, and Michele is right about the bra thing too. But why stop your clothes ripping there?

Bias?! In the media??

Spoons is scooping on bias in the Chicago Tribune today, even finding a double whammy - plagiarized bias! Just think of the possibilities (Jayson, Jayson Blair! Call your office!)

First, Spoons calls bias on a very pointed example of the species, in an article on Bush's recent comments on his own "blame"* for using the information on uranium in the State of the Union speech. He suggests you write the Trib's ombudsman, and I second that.

Then Spoons finds that a veteran Trib reporter seems to have written an article... suspiciously ... close to one by Your Unbiased Central Source, Reuters. He's got the two articles side by side - very illuminating.

* I used the "scare quotes" on purpose, because I don't think there's anything there blameworthy. Perhaps a mistake, but not intentional and not anywhere near the caliber of problem the Dems have made it out to be.

Changed parties lately?

This Just In from WNYC public radio reporter Amanda Aronczyk:

I’m looking for help producing a radio piece for the Next Big Thing, which is a nationally syndicated public radio program. Please let me know if you can think of anyone who might be interested in telling their story.

Here’s the idea:

Phill Gramm did it. Condoleezza Rice did it. Winston Churchill did it -- twice. There are countless reasons why politicians switch parties – convenience, opportunities, ideology, geography… but what about ordinary people? In a country where party affiliations are often life long and handed down through the generations, the change can be huge and divisive.

For a radio piece to be broadcast on the WNYC program, The Next Big Thing, I am looking for unusual stories of people who have switched their political party allegiance.

Whether Democrat to Republican or Republican to Democrat, I’m looking for compelling stories of party hopping.

It's from a mass emailing, so likely you have 36 of them in your own spamorciser, but just in case. Me, I was baptized a Republican at birth and I'll likely die one. But that's just because there's no party further to the right. No sane party - just the freakozoids. I think I'll start my own - the Morality In, Government Out Party - MIGOP. Hey, maybe I will email Ms. Amanda Aronczyk...

(Oh, if you want to write her, send email here: aaronczyk@wnyc.org)

On writing and life in general

I've always wanted to be a mystery fiction writer - that's my deep, life-long dream, and one I've attempted to fulfill a few times (and am again). It's a struggle, especially since I have a lot of other goals as well as a niggling sense that I just don't have what it takes. Sometimes I think I have talent but not perseverence; sometimes I'm sure I have never. But I can't just let it go, which tells me I have to do it and put my work out there so I can find out if I have what it takes to succeed.

So posts like the ones quoted below from writers John Scalzi and Harlan Ellison grab my attention. Basically, a participant at a writing workshop in New England got huffy about the criticism he received for his work from writer Gene Wolfe, and precipitated a mess that's blown up all over that little writerly part of the Internet and world. As Ellison says in his discussion of it, everyone involved turns out to be a Victim with no real bad guys, except some are more Victimized than others.

All that's worth reading if writing is your thing. But on reading what Scalzi and Ellison wrote, I realized that what they both say could also be applied to life as a whole - life is not warm muffins and affirming hugs, but rather a constant competition to get what you want in a world that sucks you in and pushes you away all at the same time. It can be exhilarating, but if you're very thin-skinned it can also eat you like acid. I recommend you read both posts and think about how it applies in your own life. I know that it hits me in many places.

From Scalzi:

So, in short: Workshops -- eh. I'd go for the pros and their comments. Everything else is group-huggy self-affirmation.

Alas for the people at the Odyssey Workshop, many of them seem to have gone for the group-huggy self-affirmation rather than the useful aspect of having their work read and commented upon by a professional -- and to have the exposure to how a professional writer approaches the work, and how the professional world approaches writing as well. One of the most interesting and telling comments came from Ms. Totter, who wrote in her journal about Odyssey, after first being exposed to Wolfe and his critical style: "Since when did writing become a competitive sport? We're supposed to be fostering camaraderie here, not cutthroat one-upmanship."

Anyone who believes professional writing is not a competitive sport needs to take a field trip to any of the major publishing houses and take a long loving look at the slush pile. Professional writing is intensely competitive...

Ms. Lincoln, in describing her reaction to Mr. Wolfe's critique wrote: "Wolfe's critique didn't give me anything the rest of the class couldn't deliver, only more tactfully." Ms. Lincoln, with no disrespect to her follow workshoppers, is probably wrong on this: Mr. Wolfe has published a couple dozen novels across four decades, as well as innumerable short stories over a longer span of time, many of which have been nominated for (and on several occasion have won) the various top SF/F awards. This means he has an excellent combination of overall writing skill and commercial savvy; no one gets continuously published over four decades if he doesn't know what he's doing in both departments...

Had I been in Wolfe's shoes, I would not have quit. I would have gone into that classroom and told them (those who would listen) that if they thought he was being rough, that they should just wait until their first batch of book reviews rolled in. The professional writing life is not for people who need to be affirmed. It's 98% rejection on a good day.

Writers also need to learn to stand their ground in the face of withering criticism. If your response to being slagged is to run away and write whiny letters about how your critic was unfair, man, are you ever in the wrong line of work. If you believe in your work, you fire back and you give as good as you get. You take your fight to your critic and make him or her back up the criticism. When your critics have a point, you learn and you move on. But when you think you're right, you argue it, tooth and nail, and you win or die trying.

From Ellison (scroll to his Saturday, July 26 2003 15:43:5 - Clarion and Odyssey are writers workshops):

And this brings me to what little good this unfortunate matter may evoke. Workshops have lost their bite. The people in charge, it seems to me (get that: IT SEEMS TO ME) are frightened of their own students. They hire instructors who are timorous, who need to be loved, who want to be "pals" and squirt-gun buddies with the kids they have been hired to whip into shape.

I may be utterly alone in this, but it was the reason I absented myself from teaching at Clarion (before there was an East and a West) years ago. Because I saw it was turning into a Cult of Personality, and the instructors were loath to upset anyone ... staff, students, university administration. They were pale and proper, politically-correct poseurs; like characters out of a novel of Victorian manners, like The Late George Apley. And in my revulsion I perceived that they were taking money under false pretenses, the students were being treated patronizingly, dishonestly, with kid gloves, like the little old bluehaired ladies with support hose who infect most "writers' workshops" with their astrological poetry and their New Yorker-manque fiction. Clarion was founded off the template of Milford, to be, goddamit, a BOOT CAMP for writers. Not to make it easy, but to make it a reflection of the REALITY of what it is to work in the public marketplace. the only thing that's "easy" is mediocrity. End-result? Today, colleges are not permitted to discuss "failure" as a life possibility. Not to upset the ego-drenched little parvenus surfeited with their 21st Century self-pity, pointless rebellion, need to deconstruct and ridicule, not to mention their rodentlike feeling that everything and anything they want, they deserve, and they don't need to work to get it. It should just come to them, sans discomfort, because as advertising tells them, they are the noblest demographic that ever was, or ever shall be.

I fully understand why Odyseey would never have me back, why Clarion East and West feel I am no-price, that I "scare" potential money-units (aka "students") away, that they're afrighted of me. I bask in that knowledge. I know how to pull the plow, how to do that job, how to make it as rough and gritty and as close to the reality of the toughest job in the world as I can when I teach. It's been proved in the fire, because dozens of the people now doing the workshop instructing were people I helped beat into shape. I only wish they'd retained their passion! To instruct otherwise is to cheat, to take pay under false pretenses, to succor the talentless and time-wasting and self-indulgent, and to short-change the ones who look on the job as Art, as a Way of Life, as a responsibility to themselves, their talent, and the rest of the human race.

The basic message here, to me, is: Do your work, do your very best work, and realize that constructive criticism from people who are much further along in your craft or profession than you may hurt a lot but you'll be a better (whatever you are trying to be) if you listen and use what makes sense. But really listen, don't reject it because you don't want to hear you're not wonderful. Face it, at some point in our lives all of us, no matter how talented, really sucked at what we wanted to do. And don't be a whiner!

As for writing, I always remind myself of the people who took years to perfect their craft or get their work published. You've heard of them - they sent their manuscript to 40 publishers before it got accepted. And you know why you heard of them? They didn't quit. And they didn't whine.

I've got a lot to think about.

He didn't pass the smell test

Is there such a thing as an odor-glove? I'm sure it'll be developed soon, when this new test becomes a forensic staple:

Scientists working for French police have perfected a technique for "bottling" smells at the scene of a crime to identify suspects by the odour they have left behind.

After conducting a two-year-long programme of tests on a method of detection known as "odourology", they have concluded that smell can be as effective as using fingerprints or DNA samples to link a criminal with a crime...

The smells gathered can come from tiny droplets of sweat or skin-oils.

Forensic investigators leave strips of a special type of tissue paper at the crime scene to absorb smells, which are then sealed inside a sterile jar. Scientists believe they can retain the smell for up to 10 years.

An arrested suspect is told to hold a clean tissue of the same kind for up to 15 minutes, and this and other samples are then presented to a sniffer dog, to be matched - or not - to the odour from the crime.

The scientists found that, in strictly-controlled experiments, sniffer dogs correctly picked out the suspects' smells from samples collected at the crime scene, and were successful even when the samples bore the odour of more than one person.

How amazing. I love this kind of thing - my television watching consists of 30% home decorating shows and 70% crime related shows, including everything from all the Law & Order shows to a full panoply of Court TV and Discovery channel crime shows like Forensic Files; The New Detectives; I, Detective; The System; and others. I do watch CSI fairly regularly, although I can't do so without scoffing at the role the crime techs play in solving a crime on the show. Let me assure you it does not happen that way in real police investigations. And most crime techs don't wear belly shirts or look like they just stepped off a GQ shoot, at least not while at work. But I digress.

It will be interesting to see how the forensic odor collecting and matching plays out in the US - you know it's going to be used here soon if it hasn't already. And who knew the French were good at something?

[Link from Mike at Interested Participant]

UPDATE: Mary Beth of Finder Creations is on the ball - she's located another article on forensic scenting in this month's issue of Popular Science. Should've known the French wouldn't stand up to the smell test.

Movie classics, blogger style

John Hawkins at Right Wing News asked a whole slew of bloggers to list their nominees for the best movies ever, and here is the result. I'm sure it'll stir discussion, because that's something not many agree with. I meant to respond but didn't - I'm claiming fogginess after surgery, although it was more likely forgetfulness.

Anyway, I'll give you my top five, then you can go see what the others thought. And just to let you know that I'm totally movie-challenged, I confess that I haven't seen nine of the top 16 listed on RWN (or 7 of the 9 honorable mentions - although I've seen bits and pieces of some of those 16). I need to get to the video store...

My five, in no particular order:

The Sound of Music
Silver Bullet
LOTR (I can't choose - both of them, so far)
Wizard of Oz
Alien

And yes, some of those would change depending on when you asked me. I want to include Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea, the set with Megan Followes, and I also love Ken Burns' Gettysburg, but those were made for TV movies. I fear I'm not a cinema connoisseur.

How cool is that?

I love art with a sense of whimsy, especially in functional settings. That's why this made such an impression on me. I would love to have a fireplace along those lines in my home, although I don't know that I'd choose Poseidon. Tom and TJ Moberg, who did the fireplace, also do a lot of other three-dimensional art that at times moves into trompe l'oeil and (it seems to me) a touch of surrealism. After looking at this, this and this, what occurred to me is just how awesome it would be to have a whole room done this way. Maybe a bedroom, or a small sitting room - done to be a Elvish glade from Tolkein, or a scene from a fairytale. It's beyond the money I'll ever make, but such a beautiful dream.

Here's where to find more of the Mobergs' work: their studio, and an exhibition site.

Inquest ruling: Golden committed suicide

Yesterday I posted about an inquest in Florida into whether Feraris "Ray" Golden committed suicide or was murdered. The judge has ruled the death a suicide, a verdict accepted by at least some of his family.

Race was an issue in the questioning by the community, so that makes this interesting:

The assistant medical examiner, the inquest's star witness, is black. So are several police officers who responded to the death, the psychologist and one of two prosecutors on the case.

I don't think we should have affirmative action or any kind of forced racial quotas. At the same time, I do think any profession - including policing - is going to be done better when a wide range of the population is represented. Given the history between police and minorities, it's a good thing to make an effort to make sure local police departments (and other criminal justice agencies) to some degree reflect the population mix - it can help reduce fears about racism or other forms of prejudice. No one should ever be hired because of their race if they aren't qualified for the work, because that is unfair to those who are qualified; to those who are being served; and especially to those of that minority who are qualified but will be under some cloud that they got where they are through affirmative action. However, proactive efforts to attract minorities into all professions is wise, and this inquest is a good example of why. Not that any of the people involved, regardless of race, were less than honest in their behavior in the case, but just that it removes one potential and unnecessarily distracting source of tension.

No, no, no!

This is just ridiculous:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A new rape law in Illinois attempts to clarify the issue of consent by emphasizing that people can change their mind while having sex.

Under the law, if someone says "no" at any time the other person must stop or it becomes rape. The National Crime Victim Law Institute (search) said it believed the law is the first of its kind in the country.

Lyn Schollett, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (search), said the law was important to make it clear to victims, offenders, prosecutors and juries that people have the right to halt sexual activity at any time.

"I think it will empower prosecutors in charging cases where the victim and the offender have a sexual history," she said.

I don't have time right now, I'm almost late for an appointment, but I'll look into this more later. Specifically, I want to see the text of the law to find out at what point they consider the act to be done and thus saying "stop!" is too late. It seems to me that if she says "yes yes yes!" until penetration is accomplished, and then starts saying "no no no!", that's a problem. Certainly there are issues of roughness, etc., that could be addressed as assault but... this is just scary. Rape is a horrible crime. Yes, they should be able to stop at any point, but at the same time men are not automatons with an "off" switch. And intent is a big part of this too, in my judgment.

So you tell me - is there a point where you just can't say no anymore? I know what I think.

UPDATE: Here's the article in the Chicago Tribune from yesterday. Still no exact wording, but according to this article the new law is a "clarification", not a new standard. Hmmm. It's based on a California case:

The law follows a high-profile court ruling in California in a case in which a young woman changed her mind about having sex but the boy she was with did not respect her wishes and stop. He was charged with rape and ultimately found guilty under California law, but it took three years of court battles before the California Supreme Court finally reached that conclusion.

State Sen. Dan Rutherford (R-Chenoa) introduced the measure in the General Assembly shortly after that, and passage now makes Illinois the first state to codify the essence of the ruling into law.

"It was illogical to think that a person could not have control of their body and withdraw consent," said Rutherford. "You have to prove the facts, just like you did before this became law, but you have the legal right to say no."

I'm still not getting where the line is drawn. More digging is in order.

UPDATE: Okay, here we go - this is the relevant part of Public Act 093-0389 of the Illinois legislature:

(c) A person who initially consents to sexual penetration or sexual conduct is not deemed to have consented to any sexual penetration or sexual conduct that occurs after he or she withdraws consent during the course of that sexual penetration or sexual conduct.

This is just too open ended. While I recognize the intent of the law, it just is unrealistic. You wait. There's going to be a case where he's almost done, she's been willing up to that point, she (for whatever reason) says "NO, STOP!", he doesn't, and she says he raped her. It seems to me that men are totally screwed by this law.

And yes, I meant the pun.

Interestingly, the governor of Illinois - Rod Blagojevich - approved the change in the law on Friday, then got out of Dodge before it was announced on Monday. Why wasn't it announced when it was signed, on Friday? Maybe for the same reason that I can't find a press release about it on his website.

Heh

The Rolling Stones are holding a SARS benefit concert in Toronto, Canada today. Curtis Sliwa was talking about it on the radio this morning and called them "The Rolling Bones" and "The Touring Cadavers". Heh. Michele was noting earlier that it's a bit startling when your teenage idols turn out to be almost the same age as your parents. I must say my dad looks better at 66 than Mick Jagger does at 60.

Journalist vindicated

Remember back in April, when Boston Herald journalist Jules Crittenden was stopped by Customs as he returned to the US from a tour as an embed during the Iraq War? They confiscated a bunch of things he was bringing back, and Poynter Institute's ethics guy, Bob Steele, got all huffy about it - condemning Crittenden with much stronger words than he used about CNN's Eason Jordan's winking at Saddam's atrocities. I covered it, with quite pointed words about Steele's lack of judgment and proportion.

Well, fast forward a couple of months - Customs has returned most of Crittenden's things:

U.S. Customs officials last week returned most of the 55 items confiscated from a Boston Herald reporter who covered the Iraq war.

The items were withheld from reporter Jules Crittenden at Logan Airport on April 19 while U.S. officials investigated their origins.

In a decision dated July 17, U.S. Customs forfeiture specialist Susanne M. Cain wrote that except for a painting of Saddam Hussein, Crittenden's ``request for relief from forfeiture has been granted.''

There were no fines or penalties of any kind. Herald attorney Jeffrey Hermes of the Brown Rudnick law firm said: ``The return of these items to Mr. Crittenden reflects a determination by the U.S. Customs Service that Mr. Crittenden did nothing wrong in bringing these souvenirs back from Iraq.''

...Customs officials refused to return a 4-foot-by-6-foot color canvas of Saddam, which they said was appraised at $800. Customs officials did not disclose the source of the appraisal, or the standards they applied in withholding the painting.

"Where I found this, paintings of this kind had no value," Crittenden said. "They continue to be destroyed by GIs and Iraqis to this day."

Now the question is - will Bob Steele ever apologize for saying this about Crittenden?

He may not have seen a painting and other souvenirs as "riches," but he failed to comprehend the disrespect he was showing to the Iraqi people by taking these "souvenirs."

Journalists must exhibit a strong sense of independence when covering war, and it's inappropriate and ethically wrong to become a participant in the aftermath of the conflict by taking away items of value.

The painting is an "item of value" only in a very loose sense, from what I can see, and I'd say Steele would be hard pressed to find many Iraqis who would say Crittenden's possession of it showed "disrespect". Yet Steele went out of his way to speak harshly about Crittenden without waiting for the results of the Customs investigation. Poynter is considered by some (certainly by Poynter itself) as a major center for teaching in journalistic excellence, and Steele is the head of their ethics unit. His comments could very well have damaged Crittenden's reputation, quite unfairly. So will he do the ethical thing and apologize?

We'll keep you posted.

And I can't resist this last section of Steele's original column:

In a discussion on a Poynter listserv, a former Poynter Ethics Fellow said those journalists who take what belongs to the Iraqi people "show a cavalier view of the world that is part of what many non-news people out there say shows our arrogance."

Amen.

I think it's pretty clear which of these two men showed arrogance.

Texas-sized idiots

They're at it again:

Democratic state lawmakers fled Texas on Monday for the second time in three months to thwart a Republican drive to redraw the state's congressional districts.

Of course it's a noble move:

"We're availing ourselves of a tool given to us by our Texas Constitution to break a quorum," Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (search) said at a hotel in Albuquerque, where the 11 Democrats met with reporters. "It's not about Democrats, it's about democracy."

"This is not an action that we take lightly. There are not many issues that would rise to this kind of action," said Leticia Van de Putte, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Van de Putte said more than 1.4 million minorities in her state would lose effective congressional representation if the Republicans redistrict according to their wishes.

Now, let's see a show of hands of all readers who think that Democrats nationwide would fly into a self-righteous rage if Republican legislators did this over any issue. It's petulance. It's subverting the legislative process. It's grandstanding. It's just... idiocy.

I hope the voters in Texas respond appropriately in the next election. But I fear not.

And just so you know, I'd be trashing Republicans myself if they pulled a stunt like this.

Lynching or suicide?

A case in Florida is proving an interesting intersection of forensic science, police practices and racial distrust. Following is a summary from information in articles in the NY Times and the Miami Herald.

Two months ago, Feraris ''Ray'' Golden was found dead, hanging from a tree in the sideyard of his grandmother's house in Belle Glade, Florida, about 80 miles northwest of Miami on Lake Okeechobee. Police arrived in response to a 911 call, and cut down Golden's body. His death was ruled a suicide.

But rumors soon started that Golden, a black man, had caused trouble by dating the white daughter of a police officer, that he had been gagged with his hands tied behind his back when found. Suspicion grew that he had been murdered, until finally a local judge agreed to hold an inquest - similar to a grand jury proceeding, but held publicly - to query those with information about the case. Audience members were allowed to pass up questions on paper to the judge.

The first day of the inquest was yesterday; the judge is expected to rule on the death today after another day of questioning. Yesterday's proceedings brought out that Golden was hanged with a bedsheet from his grandmother's house; a video from the scene, taken by a camera on a police car, shows clearly that Golden's hands hung at his side, and he was not gagged. And Golden's ex-wife, among others, testified that he was depressed and spoke of committing suicide. Interestingly, Golden's ex-wife, also black, is now remarried - to a white sheriff's deputy. It seems to indicate that interracial romance is not as frowned upon in the general community as the supposed motive for Golden-as-murder-victim would indicate.

From what I read in the two articles, it appears that Golden likely did commit suicide, but the local police should have been more thorough in their initial investigation. It's a delicate situation - families are traumatized enough by the death of someone they love, and frequently balk at intrusive police questioning or autopsies to make sure the death was self-inflicted. On the other hand, accidental deaths can look like murder on first glance (deaths resulting from autoeroticism gone bad, for example) and murder can look like a suicide or an accident. It behooves the police to process a scene carefully, just to avoid precisely this kind of situation. At the very least, take photos and forensic samples at the scene just in case questions arise.

One of the questions remaining now is concern over Golden's blood alcohol, which the Herald gives as .334 - some of his relatives want to know how he could have climbed the tree when he had so much alcohol in his system. This, however, is precisely right:

Asked by skeptical members of the audience if Golden was too drunk to climb a tree, [Palm Beach County Associate Medical Examiner Christopher] Wilson said frequent alcohol users often have a high tolerance.

Since I don't drink alcohol generally, I would be thoroughly sloshed before I even got to the legal limit. But dedicated drinkers - and Golden's ex-wife said his drinking was a problem in their marriage, so he has a history of it - can build up an amazing tolerance. A police officer I knew in Kentucky told me that he once arrested a man for driving under the influence who blew a .40 - that's higher than Golden's level, and this man was driving. Not particularly well, but he hadn't wrecked or hurt someone else. I would be passed out and likely close to death at that same level. Actually, I doubt I could get to that level unless I drank down a bottle of whiskey like it was Gatorade on a hot day.

I hope the law enforcement community in Belle Glade and its environs take heed from this case. I'd say the judge will rule the case a suicide, but obviously there's a lot of distrust on the part of some in the black community for local law enforcement. That could be alleviated to a degree just by meticulously following police procedure and proper forensic evidence gathering.

Bob without the rose colored glasses

In May, Mark Steyn wrote a retrospective on Bob Hope in honor of his 100th birthday. It's an affectionate but clear-eyed look at a man who was as human as he was larger than life.

Shoot that headline writer

The NY Times is at it again - this morning's headline:

U.S. Troops Said to Capture Hussein Bodyguard

You understand that "said" is in "quotes" - they say they've done it, but HA! You know how believable those troops are! Bums! You'd think that the headline writer would at least read the first graph of the article (written by the AP, or it would most likely have had "quotes" too):

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) -- American soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam Hussein's side Tuesday and said they obtained documents and information that could help them close in on the former dictator.

Seems straightforward to me. It happened. So what's the "said" about? There's no question, except apparently in the mind of the headline writer - what mind is left after sitting up all night discussing the perfidy of the Bush administration over lattes in some hip Manhattan pseudodive.

Lance - the best postal delivery in years

Here's an interesting article dissecting the USPO and its best decision in years - sponsoring Team USA cyclists, including Lance Armstrong.

[Thanks to John McCrarey for the link]

UPI: Geez, he said it was true!

Dodd Harris has caught out UPI:

I'm glad I posted a copy of the "dubious" pullquote (see linked post) regarding Czech intelligence, because UPI has removed it from the piece in its entirety. It's also a good thing that I saved a copy of the originally published version because the article has been scrubbed of all references to the Czechs, Mohommed Atta and the "four planks" of the Administration's case for an Iraq-al-Qaeda connection that were supposedly disproven by the report. A quick comparison will demonstrate that the new version is a completely different story from the original.

Note also the glaring lack of an apology for their rather egregious error. I'd say that earns me an "Advantage: Ipse Dixit!"[emphasis in original]

Of course, the content of the article is illuminating as well. Dodd's got all the details. Remember, these are the people all over Bush because, well, you know, why did he trust anyone in the intelligence community? Sure, they didn't send the country into war based on questionable information - which I'm not saying Bush did, but they are saying that - but they're perfectly willing to turn the country's opinion with poorly reported information (let's just call them, well, lies) because it's not their fault if they believed what they wanted to believe! And it's probably true in essence, if not in fact! And if a presidential election is affected by their poor reporting... hey, that's the price of doing business!

Uh huh. Good catch, Dodd.

(I may even forgive you for getting an Instalanche for a cartoon you lifted from my blog. After all, you did give me credit.)

Oh, the places you should go

Chris Muir is back in action!

And this week's Site of the Week is the fine Dancing With Dogs, brought to you by the always insightful and interesting Shanti. Check it out!

Dinner

Mary Beth has the right idea.

Bush charged with international crimes

Not that we're surprised:

NEWSRu.com reports that US President George W. Bush was charged with violation of 11 laws and agreements at a session of the so-called international tribunal for US crimes committed in Korea. The session was held in Pyongyang.

The Central Telegraph Agency of Korea reported on July 25 that other top officials from the US Administration were on the tribunal's symbolic dock together with Bush.

President George W. Bush is particularly blamed for violation of the US Charter and the Korean War Cease-fire agreement. The information reported by the news agency doesn't specify what sentence can be pronounced on the US president in connection with the charges, Russia-s news agency ITAR-TASS informs.

The tribunal was created in Pyongyang in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Korean War cease-fire; it was set up by several international organizations sympathizing with North Korea and the Korean Committee for Solidarity with World Peoples operating in Pyongyang.

Next up: France charges Lance Armstrong with violations of French law for winning another Tour de France and once again showing that the French are washed up even in their own country.

Oh, No! What's a good liberal to do?!

Fidel Castro is trashing the EU:

Cuban President Fidel Castro has marked the 50th anniversary of the guerrilla battle that launched the Cuban revolution by delivering a withering attack on the EU and individual leaders in Europe...

The background to this tirade is an ongoing diplomatic spat between the EU and Cuba. The EU has been critical of Cuba's human rights record this year, especially after the execution in April of three Cuban men who attempted to hijack a ferry. Cuba has also sentenced 75 political dissidents to long prison sentences.

In return, the EU has been rethinking its Cuba policy, limiting bilateral visits and freezing Cuba's request to join an aid agreement known as the Cotonou Agreement.

The EU is in effect enacting sanctions against Cuba? Expecting them to toe some human rights lines before giving them aid? Oh my goodness! How... how can they do that? I thought Cuba was the golden child of communism, flourishing despite vicious and deliberate efforts by the US to crush it. And now the EU is joining in.

Oh, the humanity.

At least Fidel has kept his sense of humor:

He said that they could not forgive Cuba "for having demonstrated that socialism is capable of achieving a society a thousand times more just and humane than the rotten [capitalist] system they [eastern European countries] were adopting".

A funny guy, our Fidel.

Ack

Definitely TMI.

(but funny)

A reason to be happy I'm not in KY

The new Kentucky license plate unveiled in January is just... tacky. Goofy. Annoying. Even more annoying than the "We Care!" tagline on my NJ cancer specialty plates (I love the violets, but what's up with "we care"? What, people who don't get cancer specialty plates don't care?!). It appears that a lot of Kentuckians agree with me about Mr. Smiley The Tacky License Plate Sun:

Poor Mr. Smiley.

Kentuckians have called him a cartoon, a hick and an embarrassment ever since his sunny face appeared on new license plates in January.

But now, the relentlessly cheery sun has found some unlikely fans — groups benefiting from a Mr. Smiley backlash.

"I love Mr. Smiley," said Anita Magan, president of the Kentucky Horse Council. "He's helped us a lot."

In the first three months after Mr. Smiley graced Kentucky's standard plates, the horse council has seen sales of its specialty plates increase to slightly more than $60,000. Before Mr. Smiley, the council received $1,000 to $2,000 each month in license plate sales.

The council is one of several groups that has seen its specialty plates sell faster than ever, and its earnings rise, with Mr. Smiley's arrival.

Mr. Smiley the Sun has nothing to do with Kentucky. Yes, the sun shines there, but in parts of Kentucky you just about have to ship in the sunshine - it's not precisely Florida, or southern California. And that cheesy grin... it grates on my nerves like that "we told you so!" window manufacturer commercial here in NJ. And that's a lot - I lunge across the room to turn off the radio every time it comes on.

But, of course, you understand why something that is totally asinine was chosen - something that isn't about horses, horse racing or hills, about bluegrass or moonshine or Mammoth Cave or My Old Kentucky Home, barbecue or the Museum of the American Quilter's Society or quilts in general or Muhammad Ali or anything else that Kentucky might legitimately be known for:

The plates were designed by a committee comprised of representatives from the Transportation Cabinet, Tourism Development Cabinet, and Governor's Office.

There you go. Committees lower the collective IQ of its members by at least 50%, and often bottoms it out completely. That's obviously what happened here.

[Thanks to FARK for the CJ Smiley link]

On illegal immigration and terrorism

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has posted an interview with Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) - if you care about illegal immigration and terrorism, you shouldn't miss it.

Also, don't miss RWN's great new design!

Dumping objectivity

Robert Bartley, editor emeritus of The Wall Street Journal, says today what I've been saying since this blog started:

Let me give you one view of what that is, based on watching my craft evolve over 30 years as a senior editor. I think we're coming to the end of the era of "objectivity" that has dominated journalism over this time. We need to define a new ethic that lends legitimacy to opinion, honestly disclosed and disciplined by some sense of propriety.

Though an opinion journalist myself, I'm certainly not against attempts at objectivity. Indeed I believe the ethic is a more powerful influence than disgruntled readers and viewers often seem to believe; it's simply not true that journalists conspire to slant the news in favor of their friends and causes. Yet it's also true that in claiming "objectivity" the press often sees itself as a perfect arbiter of ultimate truth. This is a pretension beyond human capacity...

...journalists can't have it both ways. Since they're increasingly dealing with subjective opinion, they should stop wearing "objectivity" on their sleeves.

It's an excellent piece, and encouraging to see someone of Bartley's stature in the profession saying a lot of the same things I've thought for years. And he says it with much more grace and gravitas than I.

Thanks for the memories

He was 58 when I was born, and I grew up watching his television shows. I've always thought of him as the gentleman entertainer, one as dedicated to the United States as any patriot.

Goodbye, Bob. Thanks for the memories.

UPDATE: It's difficult to quite grasp what Hope's life span encompassed. I remember clearly being 11 years old, sitting through Ms. Thelma's class, and dreamily watching a local high-school-aged Paul McCartney lookalike go by my classroom window every day on his way to his car. When Hope was 11, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand began what became World War I. I remember being 17, on the cusp of adulthood, thinking of college. When Hope was 17, he became a US citizen; a year later, at the age I packed up for two years in college in Florida, Hope launched his vaudville career. It was 1921, the beginning of the flapper era, when talkies were just a twinkle in a producer's eye. He was 24 when The Jazz Singer premiered, his career as a solo entertainer already established.

Hope was 30 years old in 1933 when his "first major recognition" came for his work in Broadway's "Roberta" - which was also when he met his wife, Dolores. That was the year Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. When I was 30, Bush 41 was president, the Gulf War sent Saddam packing out of Kuwait, and I was living in the New Jersey countryside nominally working on a degree.

Radio found Hope in 1937, four years before Pearl Harbor yanked the US into World War II. Soon Hope was making USO tours to entertain the troops; his first was in 1942, and his last in 1990, at the age of 87. When he was the age I am now - 42 (in a few days) - he was a radio star, a movie star and an international star of USO shows - and it was the year that World War II ended.

My first memories of Bob Hope are from his television specials, interesting especially because Hope didn't have a lot of confidence in the success of that new medium - he was 47, in 1950, when he officially began his television career. He was 58 when I was born, in 1961, and 60 years old - the age many have either retired or are planning to soon - when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. He was almost 61 when his fellow countrymen, the Beatles, showed up in the United States for the first time. He was 72 when the Vietnam War ended in 1975 - a war he made easier for the fighting forces by making USO trips "over there", nine trips in 8 years.

He was 78 when President Reagan took office; 90 when the World Trade Center was first attacked; 98 when the Towers came down, one side of the Pentagon was ripped open, and thousands died from the first major terrorist attack on US soil. And now, at 100, he has left us.

Bob Hope's life spanned one of the most amazing centuries in the annals of humanity and, in my judgment, brightened and improved it through his talent, charm and unflagging spirit. He will be greatly missed; I doubt we'll see another like him.

UPDATE II: Lt. Smash posts his own tribute to Hope - fitting from a fighting man.

UPDATE III: Just came across this graph in a USA tribute to Hope, and it said a great deal:

He and Dolores were Jeopardy! fans, and they also spent time watching American Movie Classics ("to see my friends"), golf, news and football.

"To see my friends". What an amazing truth. The people we watch in old classic movies are the friends he golfed with, had dinner with, worked with. Those who are sepia-toned icons to us are a long life's memories to him.

Oh, yeah!

The fifth one is in the bag - Lance is the man.

Next year - sixth win.

What I'm doing

Yes, I've spent about six hours watching While You Were Out and this show:

Not spending a lot of time sitting... don't think I will, for a couple more days.

But hey, that's okay. I can indulge my infatuation with Andrew Dan-Jumbo, and dream about a vacation in the Orkney Islands. Seriously, I'm thinking I'll go there, sometime in the next year. Very cool.

Found?

Police in Waco, TX, may have found the body of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy. They're not sure yet:

The badly decomposed body was found in the woods outside of Waco near an area previously combed by authorities...

An investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said the agency expects to receive a body Saturday from McLennan County that is "greatly decomposed and missing a lot of parts."

"They said there probably wasn't enough left to tell it was a man," said the investigator, who declined to give his name. "They have been vague and they apparently have not found much.

The condition of the body may indicate the killer did more than just shoot him and leave, but given the heat of the Waco area, the remoteness of the location (so there would be quite a few animals), and the likelihood that it's rained at least once, maybe it was no more than that.

Was it Dotson who killed him? It just seemed unlikely it was anyone else.

Black culture damaged by rap culture

This City Journal article by linguist John McWhorter fits perfectly with my earlier post about the negative influence of some modern black culture:

On a deeper level, there is something truly unsettling and tragic about the fact that blacks have become the main agents in disseminating debilitating—dare I say racist—images of themselves. Rap guru Russell Simmons claims that “the coolest stuff about American culture—be it language, dress, or attitude—comes from the underclass. Always has and always will.” Yet back in the bad old days, blacks often complained—with some justification—that the media too often depicted blacks simply as uncivilized. Today, even as television and films depict blacks at all levels of success, hip-hop sends the message that blacks are . . . uncivilized. I find it striking that the cry-racism crowd doesn’t condemn it.

For those who insist that even the invisible structures of society reinforce racism, the burden of proof should rest with them to explain just why hip-hop’s bloody and sexist lyrics and videos and the criminal behavior of many rappers wouldn’t have a powerfully negative effect upon whites’ conception of black people.

I don't get the impression from McWhorter's article that he's saying hip hop as a music genre should be targeted for eradication - rather, he's calling out those who foster even ugly elements of black culture as wonderful just because they're based in the black community. It's rather like inviting the mafia to your Italian Day Celebration because it must represent some deep cry from the ethnic roots of the Italian population. And you know how that would be received by the Italian community as a whole, given that some have threatened to sue over The Sopranos because of its negative Italian stereotypes. And I actually think a lot of the ones promoting or defending gangsta rap and hip hop as definitive black culture are guilty white liberals, which makes it different from earlier generations' reaction to rock 'n roll, to early country music, to the flapper fad of the 1920s.

While I was reading McWhorter's article, I thought about Elvis's song, "In The Ghetto". I've always seen it depicted as involving a young white man, but really it could involve any race. And the point is that hopelessness is always a breeding ground for crime - regardless of who's in that state. Poverty, vicious violence and disdain for the "mainstream" is not the sole provence of blacks, nor are they anything to be admired in anyone. And the first is difficult to throw off if you're consumed by the latter two.

Since I moved back to the northeast, I've worked with and taught a number of young blacks, men and women, who adopted to some measure the hip hop persona - the dress, the mannerisms - although given that they were in school they apparently didn't have the full disdain for education. And in my experience there was nothing between them and a good education but their attitude - I have never found a systematic difference in ability between the races in my classes, nor have I seen in the university as a whole a tendency to hold anyone down. It's all about who listens and works hard. Want to wear baggy pants and a do-rag? Be my guest, just get your essay in on time. But don't call me bitch and expect me to overlook it as a cultural artifact.

Race is not an issue with me, but rudeness and anger I didn't cause is. If a group of people, regardless of how they are dressed or what their race is, comes up to me and says, "Bitch, get out of my way," I'm going to think that is a group of lowlifes. If a group walks past me, regardless of race, and I hear some form of "f**k" as an adjective to every noun, as an exclamation for every occasion, as a reference to every male relieved only by a switch to "f**king bitch" for every woman - then, yes, I'm not going to think well of them. And there are those who would accuse me of racism if that group was black, while at the same time think I was just having a typical middle-class uptight response to rebellious youth or, even, having a fully justified response to rudeness, if the ones involved were any other race.

It's a dilemma, because quite frankly I don't want to focus this much on race. People are people, they want essentially the same things in life, their background and culture make them unique and everyone has something they can learn from everyone else. The means and desire to repair this society, to truly make it a place where race is not a negative issue, is already here. But now a lot of the resistance is on the side of the minorities (and not just blacks, I think, although since this is about hip hop they are more of a focus in this post). Until that attitude changes, society as a whole will not be repaired.

And in case you forgot it, here's Elvis's song:

In The Ghetto Lyrics
Elvis Presley

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto
People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way
Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto
Then one night in desperation
a young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car,
tries to run, but he don't get far
And his mama cries
As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man
face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto
As her young man dies,
on a cold and gray Chicago mornin',
another little baby child is born
In the ghetto

Irony

Admitted journalist liar Jayson Blair is going to write a movie review for Esquire of a film on admitted journalist liar Stephen Glass, who himself is going to write for Rolling Stone because everyone "deserves a second chance".

Blair has said he will donate his fee for the article to two charities, one for the protection of journalists and one for research into depression.

You know, sometimes truth is stranger than Scrappleface.

Suing states with "lax" gun laws?

You knew this would happen - the shooting in NYC City Hall Wednesday that ended in the deaths of Councilmember James Davis and his assailant and political opponent, Othniel Askew, is being blamed on ... "guns on the street".

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is on John Gambling's WABC radio show every Friday morning. This morning, Bloomberg talked about security issues, which led to a discussion of guns. Apparently Askew bought his gun in North Carolina and brought it into NYC without getting the proper permits. Bloomberg said that we have to "get the guns off the streets", that there are 260 million Americans and "300 million guns", that you think you don't know anyone who carries a gun but "you just don't know". He spoke approvingly of the lawsuits brought by New York and other states against gun manufacturers. Gambling asked what the rationale was for that, and he said, in a "well, doh" voice, "They make the guns. It's like the tobacco companies."

Gambling and Bloomberg groused briefly about states with "lax" gun laws that allowed people to buy guns easily, and how that caused problems for states that wanted tougher limits. Then Gambling asked, "Can you sue the states with the looser gun laws?" ostensibly because they, as well as the gun manufacturers, are putting New Yorkers at risk. Bloomberg said, "I hadn't thought of that. I'll ask counsel about it."

Yes, that's what we need - New York suing North Carolina for allowing Askew to buy a gun there. I don't think that's a permissible lawsuit, but the fact that it came up is scary. Don't these people understand that it's only law-abiding people who would be prevented from getting guns? It's so obvious that it's ridiculous. I guess they figure they'll get all the legal guns out of the way, then crack down harder on the illegally obtained ones. This is one of the issues that makes me nuts - I don't have a gun, but I would feel a lot less safe if I knew only criminals had them. And that's just speaking of crime - there's still the whole problem of the governmental abuses that could be visited on an unarmed populace.

I'm getting more and more into the mode of activism. This has got to stop.

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy"

Just when I thought it was safe to move back down south:

Carrol Eugene Ferdinandsen, 53, and Alice Faye Ferdinandsen, 30, were arrested Thursday and charged with incest and fraud in connection with their May 2 marriage in a civil ceremony in Mobile County...

According to Mobile County court records, Alice was the third child of Carrol and Shirley Faye Ferdinandsen, and her mother filed for divorce when Alice was only 4 months old. Her mother said Thursday that she later met and married Charles Stewart, who Alice listed as her father on her marriage license application...

Family members said they had heard about the marriage and disapproved of the relationship.

"My father is completely convinced that she's not his daughter, no blood relation at all," David Ferdinandsen, who said he is Carrol's son and Alice's older brother. He's tried to discourage his father from the relationship, he said, but his father won't listen.

Alice's mother, whose last name is now Crayne, said Carrol is definitely Alice's father. She didn't meet Charles Stewart until Alice was 3 or 4 years old, she said.

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy," Shirley Crayne said. "I told him he was crazy and stupid. I told her I didn't ever want to hear from her again."

It's clear from the story that the dad should have been taken out and shot years ago - he's been after that girl since way before she was legal. At best it's a Woody Allen thing. At worst... well, at worst he should be neutered on the public square for this.

Yeesh. It just gives me cold chills.

Update

Just to let you know, the surgery went fine today and the best case scenario is the one that played out. I am, however, in some degree of pain and feeling pretty stiff, so I'm moving around the house like an old lady (what's new about that, you say? just wait 'til I feel better - I am so going to thwap you). I am also having my first meal since last night, which consists of sweet iced tea, saltines and chunky applesauce. The anesthesia tends to make me nauseated, so I'm going as bland as I can get for tonight. Fortunately, I like all three of those things very much even if the saltines aren't Zesta, the pinnacle of saltine excellence.

See ya soon.

For the libertarians

I was delighted to find Chris Muir (on hiatus - cruise his archive, it's all good) and Cox & Forkum, wonderful political cartoonists with a conservative bent - although none of them holds back from slaughtering sacred cows of the right, if that's what needs to happen. Today I found another cartoonist of like mind, except he seems - to me - to be more libertarian than conservative. I give you - Kevin Tuma:

I'd say that Dodd would especially like this one.

It's refreshing to see someone make it clear that both sides screw up, sometimes, and royally at that. Not that I'm convinced the War on Drugs is a complete waste of money, but I do think it's used as leverage to do things not directly a part of the WOD mission.

Isn't Tuma great? He's also published at CNS - his latest is hilarious.

Posting may be sporadic for a few days; I may post every 10 minutes, I may not post until Saturday or Sunday. It depends on how I feel after (minor) surgery tomorrow. So check out Tuma, and browse the blogs listed on the right. Of course.

Inside Saddam's head

Bigwig braves the putrid cesspool of Saddam Hussein's thoughts in the aftermath of the deaths of his sons. It's a speculative thing, but chilling and well done, and -hopefully - true. But I fear that the man is too deeply evil and full of his own importance to have even that level of introspection.

Shooting in Manhattan's City Hall

Someone has opened fire on the second floor of the NYC City Hall in Manhattan; according to one report, two are injured, including the shooter. Another report says the shooter hasn't been apprehended. Just now, someone said the two injured are police officers. Obviously the reports are scattered right now.

Mayor Bloomberg wasn't injured. City Hall has been evacuated and the cops have taken over the scene. The Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges are closed.

It will be interesting to see how this is spun by the gun control folks. NYC has very stringent gun control laws, and the City Hall has metal detectors. What went wrong?

UPDATE: Apparently one of the injured is Councilmember James Davis, with two shots to the chest. That doesn't sound good. I hope it isn't as serious as it seems it could be.

UPDATE: Mayor Bloomberg said that a man stood up in the balcony section of a council meeting room, and shot two people. He's wearing a blue suit - that's the only description they've given. Bloomberg said it is not terrorism, but he got rather overblown in the rhetoric, saying it was a blow against democracy and against the American people as a whole. Um, no.

UPDATE: Hmm. Now it's two police officers shot. How can only two people be shot, and two police officers AND a councilmember be victims?

UPDATE: Just heard that one of the victims may have died, and a confirmation that a councilmember was among the victims. Here's the updated NY Times story (which doesn't have either of the two previous bits of info).

UPDATE: Sean Hannity is interviewing Curtis Sliwa on WABC radio, who is saying that Councilmember James Davis may have died, and that the shooter could have been his opponent in the last election.

Why didn't I think of that?

I have two mangos in my frig that are in the last stages of acceptability (remember the three I bought last week in Manhattan? Yes, those). Trying not to be wasteful, I went searching for a recipe for mango sherbet to make tonight.

I was considering this one until I came across this line:

Turbinate in sherbet machine.

Right. Not only does it sound vaguely illegal (what's a "turbinate"?), who actually owns a sherbet machine? Except for maybe Martha Stewart. And I think hers has been sold in her, "Everything Must Go, I'm Off To Prison!" yard sale.

This is probably more my speed.

Or maybe just this. What's a little waste?

More on cultural damage in race issues

Reader George Junior responded with a story of his own in response to my post yesterday on the controversial Hartford Courant cartoon:

I think "He sucks, but I respect him” is a great post on an important subject but the only short comment I could think of was: Bravo! So, I didn’t leave one, but I did have something I wanted to say that is far too long for a comment.

The piece resonated with me because a friend of mine, Rod, who’s mixed race (as a klutz I have no idea what the modern term for this is) has four children and they all just got their report cards. I’ve got three kids myself and Rod and I talk a lot about how tough it is to raise them right these days.

Anyway, the two youngest ones (boys aged 8 and 11) got fine reports. They’re doing well and Rod’s pleased, but the two girls (13 and 15) got dreadful reports. Not just bad, as in didn’t do well, but dreadful, as in failed most subjects they took. One of their teachers said “It looks to me like they’ve just given up”. It’s a real shame. They’d been doing ok at school up until now; some problems with the eldest girl but Rod just figured it was a phase she was going through. So he’s devastated by the news.

He puts it down to what they see on the streets, the opinions and judgements of their peers and the relentless advertising on TV, and pretty much everywhere else, of a “teenage lifestyle” and then coming on top of this is the race issue.

One of the reasons Rod and I get along so well, I think, is that we both talk to our children. We’re interested in them and naturally want to hear what they’ve got to say. Some of the conversations we’ve had with the girls over the past year have puzzled me, and worried and angered their father. He says it’s a social identity thing, he reckons they’ve “gone Black”. I guess I should make it clear, Rod is the black half of the kids’ mixed race parentage.

Anyway, here are some of the things the girls have said when we’ve talked to them about racism.

“something white people do to black people”,

“a gene that only white people have”

“it’s like an original sin that white people have”

Rod and I looked at each other in disbelief, these views have come from outside the home and seemed (when we talked to them some more about it) to involve a rejection not only of white people, who are “nasty” according to the girls, but of wider “white” society and everything white people value. As if wanting a job, a home and a good education for your kids was something only white folks wanted.

I remember when both the girls were born. I’ve played with them since they were toddlers and we always got along. But I’m white and when they were talking about how “nasty” white people are, I could see the look in their eyes that said “and you’re one of them”.

To be black for these two girls is to be “Black”: proud, separate and exclusive. But they’re not being excluded by society, they’re excluding themselves and by so doing are restricting the range of opportunities and rewards that will be available to them later in life. It’s a tragedy.

Sure they could work hard at school and try to get to college but then they’d be “acting white”.

Sorry for the length. I guess I had more to share than I thought.

It pretty much speaks for itself. I'd just like to add that this phenomenon results at least in part from emphasizing valuing self more than others, and basing that sense of superiority on characteristics the individual had no responsibility for - the same thing happens with a lot of the feminist rhetoric. You are better and laudable because you're black, or a woman, is the mantra, not because you work hard, or help others, or take responsibility for yourself. It's very damaging to both the ones who take that position and society as a whole. Those girls are now much more prejudiced than the average person they're claiming are prejudiced against them. And this is viewed as good in some circles.

I will point out here that a large portion of the black community in the US don't buy into this attitude. But it's a strong element in some areas, and definitely (from what I've seen) amongst so-called "black leaders" and places like African-American Studies programs. They do their race no favor.

Prejudice against someone because of their color is wrong, end of story, regardless of the color of the person holding the prejudice or the color of the person who is the object of the prejudice. It's difficult to tell whites who are prejudiced that they are completely wrong and at the same time defend blacks who are prejudiced against whites - or Asians, or whomever. People deserve to be judged on character, beliefs, choices and actions, and that's it. A virulent black racist is no better than the most spittle-spewing member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Speaking of women bloggers...

Ms. Magazine finally has its list of bloggers posted on its blogsite. I don't know if it's been there a while, but today is the first time I've seen hits from it. Way back (I'll dig in my archives to see when), there was an article saying there weren't many women bloggers, and Ms. started collecting links to said women bloggers to show it ain't so. Naturally I sent my link in, and actually had a couple of email exchanges with the Ms. blogger, Christine Cupaiuolo, who has been unfailingly pleasant to deal with.

I don't know what their criteria is for linking blogs; they do have a "feminist men" catagory that very correctly includes