Paging Tippi Hedren

Aggro bird dive bombs pedestrians, smacks 'em in the head.

Overheard in the neighborhood chocolate shop/cafe today:

"I don’t drink because I do terrible things when I’m drunk. Once this guy was hitting on me, and I pushed him through a plate glass window, head first. Nothing happened though. And I say all these racist things! Only when I’m drunk. But when I get drunk I just…say anything. Is that part of me? I don’t want to be a racist, so I don’t drink."

"Lippy"

Via Sylvia. Fifteen year old girl/woman of color gets taken into custody, kicks her shoe off in the general direction of the cops, and gets viciously beaten in response.



Some guy responds by trying to tell YouTubers to have some empathy and -not- automatically go to "she got what she deserved."



Unsurprisingly there are a few of those in the comments.

yep..cops abuse their power for sure.. but ya know what. go anywhere else in the world and call a cop a fat pig and see what you get..criminals got it easy in the US. we are too light on criminals in this country.. not saying the little girl deserved it..she didn't. but if it was a 18 yr old boy..then it would be a-ok with me.

...Police Officer do 1000 good things and none gets mentioned. Only negative events get attention as if that's all they do.

Would you like MS 13 or Aryan Nation to conduct law enforcement in your street instead of local Police?

People who cry about Police, Military have dirt on them and that's why their hate any law or authority.

People like you twist the truth to fit their fantasy world.

I was going to say something snarky about the fail of people in general and youtube commenters in particular, but actually most of the comments on that one are thankfully not along the lines of the above.

Of course you go elsewhere, like "Right Pundits," and get commentary like this:

http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=2970

This video is currently all over the internet and national news. Frankly, I believe the media spends too much time worrying about police brutality, a minor, insignificant issue in American society. For every cop that beats up a little girl, for every cop that accidentally shoots a criminal, there are about 10,000 criminals brutalizing and humiliating law-abiding people on our streets every day. While nothing justifies violence, police brutality is not a major problem in American society. A much bigger, much more dehumanizing, much more embarrassing problem for America is CRIME.

Every time the media reports on police brutality, I feel that as a responsible citizen I need to remind people that the bigger problem in American society is crime, not the police who defend us against it and rarely overstep their bounds. Instead of focusing on a cop who lost his cool, perhaps we should also focus on the fact that this 15-year-old girl is hurling insults at grown men in authority and getting herself arrested. Police officers don’t just randomly beat and shoot people. They are put in extremely tense situations by criminals and forced to make life or death decisions on a moment’s notice. Sometimes they make mistakes. Most of the time, they do not. It’s the criminals that create and force these situations. They are the real problem, not the police.

Perhaps this girl did not deserve what she got in the video. I’m sure a million-dollar civil lawsuit will determine that. Unfortunately, she will be rewarded for her bad behavior, while a police officer will likely lose his job for one mistake.

Oh, per "one mistake," Schene's had a few (but then again, too few to mention):

Schene had previously been in the news in 2006 after he fatally shot Pedro Jo, a mentally ill man, during a struggle after a traffic stop on Interstate 5. It was the second officer-involved shooting of his career.

An inquest jury ruled the shooting was justified. Jo viciously attacked Schene, trying to strangle him with his own radio cord.

Jo then ran back to his car and disobeyed Schene's orders to stop. Schene said he saw Jo reach for something in the seat, so Schene fired 11 times after Jo ran back to his car.

and

Thursday, June 8, 2006


The University of Washington student shot to death in his car by a King County sheriff's deputy was a convicted felon, but friends remembered him Wednesday as a would-be teacher dedicated to social work.

Pedro Jo, 33, was shot multiple times Tuesday morning after a violent scuffle with the deputy, who pulled him over on Interstate 5 in South Seattle for driving erratically.

While all the facts of the shooting -- and the deputy's name -- have not been released, the Seattle P-I has identified the deputy as Paul Schene, who works out of SeaTac. A five-year veteran of the force, Schene, 28, is currently on paid administrative leave -- a standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

It isn't the deputy's first shooting-related leave. It happened in 2002, after Schene shot and wounded a 23-year-old car-thief suspect who had led deputies on a wild chase in Burien, according to court records.

After three women fled the car, deputies approached on foot. The driver rammed one of them in the legs with his vehicle and sped away, records show.

During the pursuit, Schene used his patrol vehicle to bump the thief's car, causing it to jump a curb. The driver, who had a long criminal record, got out and began heading toward Schene, ignoring the deputy's order to stop, according to police. Schene then fired three shots, hitting the man in the chest, arm and leg...

Note to self: do not ever hire Choe, Jackson and Weitz.

should I ever happen to be in L.A. and in need of anti-sexual harassment/workplace discrimination legal representation.
See here for why. And then here, here, and especially here.

Klassy.

ETA: more details, and a guide to reporting to the California Bar Assoc. if you feel so inclined.

ETA again: okay, the skinny if you haven't clicked the links.

Basically, there's this guy called Luke Jackson. See links above. Creepy-as-fuck douche who works as an anti-sexual harassment/work discrimination lawyer by day, appallingly racist/misogynistic/hateful troll calling himself "Igor Sanchez" by...well, day, too, now apparently, as Kynn called him out and he's now posted K's ex-wife's personal information on his blog and engaged in gross transphobia under his own name in retaliation. and posted the contact info of people who wrote letters to his law firm as well. Which, thus far, I was just noting the general WTF?

Looking back now, though, there's increasing layers of creepy, and this was the bit I wanted to note here:

(via Kynn)

At one point, he posted as Luke on the MySpace of Sunny Leone, a desi- Canadian porn star living in Los Angeles, to dedicate one of “Igor’s” racist graphical rape/murder fantasies to her:

This was inspired by YOU:

http://igorsanchezDOTlivejournalDOTcom/552.html [NSFW, possibly triggering]

***

Besides the kind of shit he writes being fucking hateful as hell, if he's writing that kind of mash note to actual porn stars + he's shown himself willing to cross the line wrt peoples' personal info AND he (for FUCK'S SAKE) works as an -anti-discrimination lawyer-, I am thinking: seriously, this guy reads like Kyle Payne on steroids (now with more racism!!) except that he hasn't actually gotten caught committing sexual abuse. "Just" incitement to harassment/outing of personal information. So far.

The nuclear hetero family=endangered wet trees.

(Hey, baby, wanna plow my huge tracts of land?--shit, I don't know...)

In which the Pope is unclear on multiple concepts:

Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Credo, the Church cannot and should not confine itself to passing on the message of salvation alone. It has a responsibility for the created order and ought to make this responsibility prevail, even in public. And in so doing, it ought to safeguard not only the earth, water, and air as gifts of creation, belonging to everyone. It ought also to protect man against the destruction of himself. What is necessary is a kind of ecology of man, understood in the correct sense. When the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman and asks that this order of creation be respected, it is not the result of an outdated metaphysic. It is a question here of faith in the Creator and of listening to the language of creation, the devaluation of which leads to the self-destruction of man and therefore to the destruction of the same work of God. That which is often expressed and understood by the term “gender”, results finally in the self-emancipation of man from creation and from the Creator. Man wishes to act alone and to dispose ever and exclusively of that alone which concerns him. But in this way he is living contrary to the truth, he is living contrary to the Spirit Creator.

The tropical forests are deserving, yes, of our protection, but man merits no less than the creature, in which there is written a message which does not mean a contradiction of our liberty, but its condition. The great Scholastic theologians have characterised matrimony, the life-long bond between man and woman, as a sacrament of creation, instituted by the Creator himself and which Christ – without modifying the message of creation – has incorporated into the history of his covenant with mankind. This forms part of the message that the Church must recover the witness in favour of the Spirit Creator present in nature in its entirety and in a particular way in the nature of man, created in the image of God. Beginning from this perspective, it would be beneficial to read again the Encyclical Humanae Vitae: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against sexuality as a consumer entity, the future as opposed to the exclusive pretext of the present, and the nature of man against its manipulation.

I'll be sure and do that, reread the Encyclical Whosit; I missed a few nuances the first few times around, I'm sure, seeing as how I'm not actually Catholic and there's supposed to be this nifty separation between the Church and State around and all; but thanks so much for looking out for us all, really. Because if there's anyone I look to for the definition of "love," it's Pope Palpatine wielding crucifixes against us as though we were vampires.

"Sure, I-- I mean God-- just compared you to pollution, which if unchecked will lead into ecocide/genocide, but you shouldn't take it -personally- or anything."

Does His Holiness have anything to say about this, I wonder:

A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," he said. "The level of trauma _ physical and emotional _ this victim has suffered is extreme."...

Or this:

Here we go again in Memphis, TN. A transwoman was shot in the face and is in critical condition.

Memphis police say the shooting happened sometime around 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 23, 2008 in the 3100 block of Boxtown Road in south Memphis near T.O. Fuller State Park. Leeneshia Edwards was last seen about an hour earlier at the “C.K.’s Coffee Shop” on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis.

Edwards' cousin reports that Lenneshia was shot in the jaw, side and back and is undergoing multiple surgeries.


...Oliver A. FP said...
Hmm... let me get this straight.

So, mysteriously, a woman who called out the Memphis police on her ill-treatment is dead.

Mysteriously, the police investigations into her murder and the murder of a physically "similar" woman have been incredibly lacklustre.

And MYSTERIOUSLY, another physically "similar" Memphis woman has now been shot.

Gosh, the world is sometimes full of brain-teasers...

Wait, don't tell me, I know: of -course- the Pope and Rick Warren and all their enablers don't support -violence-. Heavens no. They might vote against laws that recognize us as full human beings, whether it's marriage equality or a trans-inclusive ENDA, even put tons of effort and money into making sure we can't actually any of us take a dump without fighting for years for signed permission from Traditional Values, Inc;

But, you know, they -mean so well-, do these great unctuous "spiritual" leaders of ours. Certainly they never EVER meant to endorse -actual concrete results- of their demonizing and scapegoating and politicization of their -beliefs-, especially when those results are a lot of dead or maimed bodies. It would be wrong to suggest that the young men who violently, often fatally, attack people simply for bearing the "wrong" gender markers or sporting a rainbow sticker on their car, are the shock troop enforcers of these -values.- Punishing uppity women, sluts, sodomists, freaks and deviants for their/our transgressions; after all, we're a-threat-, right? And of course these men wouldn't ever be police or (uh oh) priests or ministers or other fine upstanding members of the community; they're probably just "thugs," most of them, right? Suspicious dark poor people leaping out of alleys; just make sure we concentrate on getting -them- off the streets and into the prisons and workhouses, and we'll all be golden. Oh, and pray, of course, I keep forgetting that one. Piety makes all the difference, really.

In fact, now we learn: apparently, what they are, these various angry violent men, are radical environmentalists.

Perhaps Ben and Jerry's will make a new flavor, now that Rainforest Crunch is long out of vogue. "Heavenly Hetero Hash," perhaps. "Family Values Fudge." "Crusader Crunch."

Sleep in heavenly peace to you too, motherfucker.

Swell.

David Neiwert on the racist backlash to Obama's presidency.

I think ultimately this'll get funneled into the immigrant-and/or-Moslem-bashing crap, which is by and large the most "mainstream" acceptable form of racism these days, although fuck knows the kind that supposedly "doesn't exist" since the civil rights movement was/is still quite rampant just under the collective surface; we see it manifested in breakouts like this. I mean, even Obama (along with McCain) supported the huge wall along the border shite.

Since it looks like it's going to be that -and- the RRR's targeting LGBT folk that's going to be primarily fueling the backlash, it'd be good if we could coalition more, I feel.

So, yeah, about that spectre of racism, there...

So one thing that just now happened was this.

(the original post, which has a graphic of Obama next to a picture of a noose with the words: "asphyxiation: The Fucking Solution," has been removed: go here for a screencap of it).

I find the commentary of the website host interesting.

I wasn’t aware of this post until late this evening when another reader emailed me about its existence. The graphic was posted on my site, but I didn’t create it. I didn’t have any knowledge of it until tonight. And I do not condone it. Say Anything, much like Daily Kos and Red States with their reader “diaries,” has an open “Reader Blogs” section where any reader can put up their own posts. That is where this post appeared.

I have removed that post over the protestations of the author who has labeled me a “coward.” Unfortunately I did not take the post down before it was noticed by bloggers at The Daily Kos and MyDD (among other places) who are, humorously enough, now calling on John McCain to apologize for it.

Because apparently John McCain is responsible for what random internet nuts post on open blog forums.

They’re also submitting links to that post to places like Digg and Reddit in a vain attempt to use it as evidence to shore up the “sowing seeds of hatred” narrative they’ve been trying to manufacture these last few days.

Because they’d rather talk about that than Obama’s long-standing ties to terrorists and political extremists...

O.K. Spot the cognitive dissonance in those last two paras, shall we?

"sowing seeds of hatred" narrative they've been trying to manufacture these last few days

Obama's long-standing ties to terrorists and political extremists

"Sure, he's scary and dangerous and unAmerican 'pals around with terrorists,' oh and by the way his name sounds a LOT like "Osama" and he WAS a Muslim (although he's -not- an Arab, okay, PHEW) and by the way there's this great video you need to see and terror terror terror terror...but um, we mean it all in the most benign possible way, really. No hate here! Play nice! TRAITOR KILL HIM--no, dammit, I said -play nice.-" (finger wag)

meanwhile, also, too, not very far away, there is the charming Obama Monkey Doll Guy.

All that said, I agree with the author about one thing: graphic of a male arm punching a woman in the mouth, regardless of who the woman is? Also pretty fucked up. M-I-S-O-G-Y-N-Y, yes, duh?



I love my fellow creatures, I do...

Mind you, we -could- just slink back into the comforting miasma of xenophobic hate.

It's not that I don't -get- feelings of pessismism and loathing of one's fellow humans, you understand. Witness for instance this charming and under-reported story of children being gassed at a mosque in Dayton, Ohio., bizarrely entitled "No evidence of hate crime"

A 10-year-old girl sprayed in the face with a chemical Friday, Sept. 26, while at a local Islamic mosque was not the victim of a hate crime, police Chief Richard Biehl said.

The girl was watching children whose parents and relatives had gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, 26 Josie St., to celebrate Ramadan when she noticed two men standing outside a basement window about 9:40 p.m., according to police.

One of the men then sprayed something through the open window and into the girl's face from a white can with a red top, according to a police report. The girl said she immediately felt burning on her face and felt "sick to her stomach," the report stated.

Other children and a woman in the room felt affects from the chemical and the mosque was evacuated.

"The men didn't say anything to her (before she was sprayed)," Biehl said. "There was nothing left at the scene or anything that makes us believe this is a biased crime."

...Mosque board member Tarek Sabagh said many people within the mosque speculated that the incident was the result of a DVD about Islamic radicalism titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" that was mailed to area homes by its producers and circulated as a paid advertisement with more than 70 newspapers, including the Dayton Daily News.

"We are not linking the two at all," Sabagh said.

Oh, yes, "Obsession."

http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/about_synopsis.php

(not hyperlinking)

Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West is a new film that will challenge the way you look at the world.

Almost 70 years ago, Europe found itself at war with one of the most sinister figures in modern history: Adolf Hitler. When the last bullet of World War II was fired, over 50 million people were dead, and countless countries were both physically and economically devastated. Hitler’s bloody struggle sought to forge the world anew, in the crucible of Nazi values. How could such a disaster occur? How could the West have overlooked the evil staring it in the face, for so long, before standing forcefully against it?

Today, we find ourselves confronted by a new enemy, also engaged in a violent struggle to transform our world. As we sleep in the comfort of our homes, a new evil rises against us. A new menace is threatening, with all the means at its disposal, to bow Western Civilization under the yoke of its values. That enemy is Radical Islam.

Using images from Arab TV, rarely seen in the West, Obsession reveals an ‘insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. With the help of experts, including first-hand accounts from a former PLO terrorist, a Nazi youth commander, and the daughter of a martyred guerilla leader, the film shows, clearly, that the threat is real.

A peaceful religion is being hijacked by a dangerous foe, who seeks to destroy the shared values we stand for. The world should be very concerned.

Yeah, probably. Probably so, at that. Although maybe not for exactly the reasons the authors of this...project think. Oh, they've been mailing it to peoples' homes, unsolicited. 28 million copies so far, apparently. (Oh, and only in the "swing states," curiously enough.) Thousands of which landed in Ohio residents' mailboxes the week before the gassing of the Dayton mosque.

I read the story as reported by the Dayton Daily News, but this was after I had received an email written by a friend of some of the victims of these American terrorists. The matter of fact news report in the Dayton paper didn't come close to conveying the horrific impact of this unthinkable act like the email I had just read, so I asked the email's author for permission to share what they had written. The author was with one of the families from the mosque -- a mother and two of the small children who were in the room that was gassed -- the day after the attack occurred.

"She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

"The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn't stop sobbing.

"This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love...

The presidential campaign edition of the Obsession DVD, produced and currently being distributed by the Clarion Fund, carries the endorsement of the chair of the counter-terrorism department of the U.S. Naval War College, using the name and authority of an official U.S. military institution not only to validate an attack the religion of Islam, but to influence a political campaign. For these reasons, this endorsement has been included in MRFF's second lawsuit against the Department of Defense, which was filed on September 25 in the Federal District Court in Kansas.

My opinion as an individual and thoroughly appalled human being:

John McCain has a moral obligation to publicly censure the Clarion Fund; to denounce the inflammatory, anti-Muslim message of Obsession; and to do everything in his power to stop any further campaign activities by his supporters that have the potential to incite violence.

Which I'm sure he will, any day now, 'coz, you know, we're all about taking the elevated, bipartisan, non-hatin' tone these next few weeks.

And, it's perfectly understandable that people are reluctant to classify the mosque attack as a hate crime, or connect it in any way to a boogity-boogity-THE ISLAMOFASCIST HORDES ARE COMING FOR YA movie sent to a tenth of the U.S. population, including right there in the town where it happened. Or that the Islam-baiting is anything other than a perfectly rational response to extremist zealots who've already targeted us once, after all (which, we have none of our own, extremist zealots that is, or anyway those are worser, always), and has nothing to do with good ol'fashioned Fear And Hatred Of The Other, Especially When The Other Is "Swarthy" And Have Funny Names And Are Supposed To Be Doing Menial Tasks For Us Instead Of Being All Uppity And Shit.

Of course.

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963 by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls.

- Wikipedia

I can’t remember a time when I really didn’t know about this story. About four girls whose lives were taken from them because of the color of their skin at a place of community, a place where above all they should have been safe. In short they lost their lives because of hatred a hate so strong that no where and no one is safe.

...Last night as I read the accounts of the gassing at the mosque in Dayton Ohio, last Friday, my mind continued to flash on the pictures of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

It is disturbing to read how Dayton Police could not think this was a hate crime. As if the perpetrators walked up to any random building, lighted, filled with people, with cars in the parking lot, then sprayed something in the windows was a normal occurrence. No, not targeted at a group for their beliefs, they merely mistook the irritant gas sprayed for a can of Glade Air Freshener...

Diner

"...so he's all like, 'I'm a good person! I run an orphanage for children with AIDS in Africa!' And I'm all, 'that doesn't make you a good person, that makes you--'"

The counter guy glances over at me.

"I'll be with you in a second. I'm in the middle of a heated story."

"I know, I'm listening to the heated story," I smile.

The guy winds up with a flourish, and the three or four people he'd been declaiming to get up from the booth. Laughter and goodbye kisses all around. Counter guy finally comes over to me as they head out. I'm ready to order, but he's still in narrative mode:

"So I'm talking to this guy, right? We're having a normal conversation about politics, stuff like that. And so then I say, blah when I was at the gun show with my boyfriend, and he goes, 'You were at a -gun show-?' '...Yeah?' 'Why? Why?' 'Because we go hunting,' and he goes -nuts.- 'How can you -do- that? You get off on killing!' and I'm like, 'nnnooo, it's just something we do, I grew up in the country, me and my family used to go on hunting trips, we eat what we kill...' And then he's all, 'You're a bad person! I'm a better person than you!' --I think this is where you came in..."

"Where was this?" I interrupt.

"He was sitting literally right where you are. And then so he's all, 'if I had a gun I'd shoot you right now!'"

"...Oh, shit! This just happened?"

"--What? No, Monday night. So then I'm like, okay, you say you're a good person but you just threatened to kill me."

"Yyyyeah, wow, maybe 'do not engage' at that point...craziness."

"I swear, I was going to hit him. I wanted to hit him. I had to walk away at that point. --Are you ready to order?"

I give him what's already become my usual: creature of habit, me. Rare cheeseburger, no mayo, scoop of cottage cheese on the side, coke. As he's going to put in the order, I say, because I'm hooked too at this point:

"So, first of all, he's morally opposed to hunting for food, but he's in a diner..."

"Oh, yeah, he's going on and on about how he's a vegan, and I'm thinking, I didn't say it, those french fries you're eating? Were fried in the -same- oil as the scallops, the chicken...and I was like, haha, I win."

"And then of course there's the whole, 'I'm going to kill you.'"

"I know, right? You hate guns, but if you had a gun you'd shoot me. Okay!"

"Crazy."

Someone else puts the juke on, or perhaps it goes on randomly. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Man.'

I got a man who makes me wanna kill
I got a man who makes me wanna kill
I got a man he makes me wanna UGH
I got a man who makes me wanna kill
There he is. There he is. There he is. There he is....

Simultaneously, a police siren wails in the distance. The synchronicity gods are happy today.

The guy brings me my burger.

"I swear, I'm a little guy? but when I get angry, I get really angry. I will kick your ass. I totally wanted to hit him. He's, like, got no neck, he's got those gym shoulders that go all the way up to his head? I had to walk away."

"Seems smart."

"My friend wrote a letter to the manager saying how well I handled it."

He turns to another counter person, one I haven't met yet, just starting his shift apparently.

"People are getting crazier. Yesterday, this woman says, 'I'm not gonna pay for this. I didn't finish eating it and he took it away.' And we're all, yes, but you said you were done, and when we asked if you wanted it to go, you said no.' 'I didn't eat it, so I'm not gonna pay."

I take a bite of my burger. Nice and red and juicy, just the way I like it.

The troll encapsulated.

Some people go to the Bible for their clever and profound illustrations of Universal Truths; others find Shakespeare more satisfying. Being of more vulgar stuff, I find this suits my current needs, once more, with feeling:

Harmony and understanding, axes in the head abound

My kind of website. thanks for the h/t, Aishwarya.

("oh my God! there's an axe in my hat...")

read it and weep.

scream, vomit, go numb...

megan_julca has the story.

Basically: Sanesha Stewart, a young trans woman of color, was stabbed to death on Saturday. An alleged sex worker, which, if true, would of course would mean she had it coming even more than she already did. And really, what else could she possibly be anyway? Either way: not human, certainly. As m_j puts it:

naturally it's her fault; after all, she was a "man who dressed like a woman" who "was known to wear stylish, provocative outfits with towering high heels," "was a ... flirty presence," and "had surgery to 'give him [sic] larger breasts and other female characteristics'" even though "it was clear Stewart was still a man." I mean she was just asking for it, amirite?

I mean "the suspect was apparently surprised by the victim's true sex" so it's perfectly acceptable to expect that he would respond the appropriate way and stab her to death in a fit of rage.

See, anyone who *wants* (frivolous, sexualized, appearance-oriented) female characteristics like artificially enhanced larger breasts for hirself, or *chooses* to "wear stylish, provocative outfits with towering high heels" is clearly catering to men, who in turn want nothing but sex, whether or not they are, in fact, entitled to it, that's all they WANT, this is axiomatic;

and even (or especially!) a man is entitled to at least not be -surprised- by finding unexpected body parts and/or Secret Pasts on a person he fancies or even shares any sort of public space with, certainly wimmin are so entitled to that much at least, even if they would never go so far as to physically hurt or -kill- a trans person because wimmin don't do such things, ever. As for denying transfolk access to such things as rape crisis centers: that's merely self-defense. Which is totally different from what we're talking about, here. Certainly no such excuse has been or will be employed when it comes to actual -murder- of a trans person, will it? Self defense. Oh, wait.

Because there's nothing worse than finding out you are sexually attracted to, hell, even had fond feelings about, is there? a person whose gender and/or sex is not the gender and/or sex you are SUPPOSED to be attracted to, according to God or your parents or the lads or the Sisterhood or the feverish little rabbit running your brain. Who doesn't understand -that-? the raw revulsion, the terror, the PANIC leading even unto VIOLENCE that such momentary existential cage-rattlings provides. It's only human.

and in fact, it is the very inherent or-might-as-well-be-it's-so-firmly-entrenched-by-now baseness of Man that creates such situations in the first place, is it not? Clearly only some debauched sick sexual desire would lead any -man- to take on the appearance or identity of a woman, much less sell his body to strange men, who in turn are only behaving in the way that is to be expected, animals that they are.

It is up to women to lead men to their better natures; any woman who doesn't do so but instead "chooses" to do sex work for a living, not just because she has to but actually -flaunting- her patent lack of victim status, or even wear towering high heels and stylish, provocative outfits and PLASTIC TITS is clearly a) falling down on the job b) a male-identified Enemy of Women c) a danger to herself, other women, other womens' husbands, and society, not necessarily in that order d) deserves whatever she gets. Not, you understand, that we would ever say such a thing in so many words. Except when we're forced to.

As for -men- who flaunt stylish plastic tits and towering lack-of-victim-status, even for a -second-, well, first of all, men are men and women are women and therefore a man who pretends he (never she; it is a terrible imposition to have to call a person what she wanted to be called, even in death) can be a woman -also- deserves whatever he gets, even more so, whether that's because he's betraying his Sacred Manhood or violating Sacred Wimminz Country or both at once.

Not that we would ever say such a thing. Unless we have to.

Oh, and the fact that Ms. Stewart was a woman of color? Totally irrelevant. Except when it's not. We will be the ones to decide when it is and when it's not, thank you very much. Why can't we all stick together? Why must you constantly derail from the important issues with your own trifling problems? Don't you know that ____ are ____ in ____? Fuck you anyway, you selfish [redacted], for trying to make me feel guilty when clearly I have it worse than ANYONE. There's only so much empathy to go around, you know, and I need all of it. I mean, "we." yes. "We." Whoever "we" is THIS time.

Did I leave anything out?

/rectal divination

phone conversation just now

dude on other end of phone: Hello. May I please speak to the youngest
adult male in the household who's over eighteen and registered to
vote?

me: (pause, ignoring the second clause) You could, but he's busy in
his litter box right now.

dude: (pause, same dull telemarketer drone) Are you referring to the
cat?

me: Yes.

dude: Well, I meant a human.

me: Sorry, can't help you. -click-

I'm such an asshole...

*ahem*

Okay, and -as- long as I'm on a fangirl streak anyway, I feel compelled to share these findings with whomever might also appreciate...such things: David Tennant in drag.

once as a joke



but here (think this must be from some years ago)...well, i think it's meant to be a comedy, probably? (i have no earthly clue what the Scottish men are saying; I think they're orcs) but um. DT's presentation/performance? oh my wordies. i'll be in my bunk...



Yeah, eventually i'll get back to more serious posting...

("bombs are flying...people are dying...the whole world's gone to hell, but how are you?...")

...eventually. Then again, i'm kind of enjoying the shallow end.

Btw, did I ever mention my theory that the Sims holds the secret of life?

No, SRSLY. See, they have these little bars indicating their virtual little needs: hunger, bladder, energy (sleep), social, comfort, fun, and, uh, aesthetic something or other. When all or most of the little bars are comfortably above the halfway point, at least, then they're happy, and you can make them do whatever you want, pretty much. They'll do the tedious shit without complaining much (take out the trash, study, look for a job, exercise), and whatever "fun" stuff they do (throw a party, come onto the cute neighbor) is far more likely to be successful. (Sexytime is part of "social," I guess). They're more likely to get promoted, spontaneously start writing a book or playing the piano, take good care of the kids, and so forth.

When one or more of the various bars is running near empty, they won't be able to do much until that need is taken care of (especially if it's hunger or sleep). And if they're running low overall, they whine and stamp their little feet and burst into tears randomly, sleep through their alarm, start fights, and go "uh uh" when asked to do something taxing, instead wandering off to watch TV.

If the social bar gets too low, they start regressing and eventually end up babbling to an imaginary giant rabbit.

It's great stuff, especially if you feel sadistic. Once I created a "Bush administration" household of eight and tormented them all to death. Well, first I had them fighting over three single beds, one shower, and one toilet; the rest had to take turns, and they were all really cranky so they kept kvetching and getting into fights. Then I removed all that stuff, and had them throw a party. It's not a great way to make friends and influence people, walking around unbathed for weeks, soiling one's virtual self and bursting into tears, picking fights, and of course, fly-encrusted garbage everywhere. Then I got tired of it. I put Rove in the swimming pool and removed the ladder; they swim till they drown. Cheney I locked in the attic with no food. Someone burned to death at the stove...and George was a schoolboy whose grades got so low that he was shipped off to boarding school; this was the old version where they don't age. If I had the capacity for Sims 2, I'd totally have had him get abducted and impregnated by aliens.

No, wait, but I had a point, here, somewhere. Something important. What was it again?...

oh, yeah:

Ole-like mjoel! Robaluki khan. Awasa poa. Uh, licht nar? Uh -uh!- Oo shonga day? Cayoo! Krach! Lamoo! Frabbit! Deepwa spanewash deepla blah!

16 days

'tis the season. A grimmer and longer Festival of Light; you can curse the darkness while lighting these candles. 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

November 25 - December 10, 2007

Demanding Implentation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women

Since 1991, the 16 Days Campaign has helped to raise awareness about gender violence and has highlighted its effects on women globally. Each year, thousands of activists from all over the world utilize the campaign to further their work to end violence against women. The campaign has celebrated victories gained by women’s rights movements, it has challenged policies and practices that allow women to be targeted for acts of violence, it has called for the protection of people who defend women’s human rights and it has demanded accountability from states, including a commitment to recognize and act upon all forms of violence against women as human rights abuses...

Challenges and obstacles have been identified by activists in all regions of the world, and we have chosen to highlight a few of those here. These can be addressed both as demands to be made on the state or other institutions and as actions that we must take in our own work in order to achieve better results. A few suggestions for focusing advocacy in this year’s campaign include:

· Demanding and securing adequate funding for work against VAW;
· Calling for greater accountability and political commitment from states to prevent and punish all forms of violence against women in practice, not just in words;
· Increasing awareness of the impact of violence against women, including engaging in measures to end it by men and boys;
· Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of work to prevent violence against women;
· Securing the space for advocacy and defending the defenders of women’s human rights in their work to end gender based violence.

Blogs/gers who have been participating in this include:

Ann Jones of the International Rescue Committee (photos may be triggering/disturbing)

Sokari and chinwe at Black Looks

bideshi blue

Black Amazon

Shakesville

Feminist Allies

A Closer Look

Ultra Violet

There's a roundup of diverse blog posts at openDemocracy.

Also see the blog Document the Silence for ongoing work on violence against WOC, and take a look at the recent week of Red Essays.

Because the "official" commemorative dates pass, but the violence continues, and so does the work.

Sex work, crime and punishment: a ramble, with links

What is more base, empty of worth, and full of vileness than harlots and other such pests?... Let them be with matrons and you will produce contamination and disgrace.

--Augustine

Rid society of prostitutes and licentiousness will run riot throughout. Prostitutes in a city are like a sewer in a palace. If you get rid of the sewer, the whole place becomes filthy and foul.

--Thomas Aquinas


While on the subject of Iran and sex-for-hire: Jill has a link to a sobering-sounding documentary:

And Along Came a Spider

A shocking portrait of the world of a recently captured serial killer, who sees his killing of prostitutes as according with Islamic teaching.

Over the space of a year, 16 women were murdered in the Iranian city of Mashad. Because the victims were lured into the killer's traps, the press soon called these the "spider killings." All but one of the victims had previously been arrested for prostitution and drug-related crimes.

When a 39-year-old contractor is arrested and confesses to the crimes, he claims divine support for the atrocities he has committed. His mother, wife, son, and many neighbors agree.

And Along Came a Spider visits with the families of the victims, with the perpetrator and his family, and with prostitutes in this holy city. This is a chilling film about cycles of moral vengeance.

It's a bit illuminating to place this "divinely supported" dude alongside the fact that his government apparently feels similarly about hoors. It is hard to not think that, in the face of this directive:

A senior Iranian cleric in the city of Qom called for death sentences to be handed down to prostitutes, a semi-official daily reported on Monday.

“Those who try to spread prostitution, corruption, and sins in society must be dealt with”, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, one of the highest-ranking clerics in the holy city, said...

“If everyone feels responsibility for the orders of Islam, no one will dare to spread prostitution”, he said. “Anyone who stays silent in the face of social disorder and centres of corruption and prostitution has actually betrayed Islam”.

...sentiments like this actually, well, make sense:

Bahari finds support for Hanaei's crimes on the streets of the city, where many residents question the man's unlawful methods, but applaud his choice of victim. Hanaei's wife and young son claim to be proud of his deeds.

Oh yeah, they executed the guy. Of course. Killing is the State's prerogative.

Although some of their other proposals for the problem of street prostitution have been...creative. viddy:

Prague, 7 August 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Prostitution is illegal in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the penalties are severe, ranging from flogging to execution.

But for reasons no one entirely understands, the number of prostitutes on the streets of Iranian cities and towns has grown substantially in recent years, particularly in Tehran and the holy city of Qom, which is a center for pilgrims and domestic tourists.

Prostitutes wear their veils loosely over their heads in a style that passes for risque in this strictly regulated society. With their faces heavily made up, they stand at traffic circles where men driving by can inspect them and make a deal. The women are often young, including many teenagers who have run away from abusive homes.

Based on official figures, there are some 300,000 women who work as prostitutes in Iran. And according to newspapers, the number is steadily rising, despite frequent police crackdowns.

Now, some senior religious figures are suggesting the only way to solve the problem is to bring it under state control. In recent weeks, several prominent conservative clerics have proposed that prostitutes be placed in government-run shelters for destitute women to be called "chastity houses," where male customers could briefly marry them under Islamic law.

Proponents of the idea argue that it would "eradicate social corruption" by legitimizing sexual relations between the men and women. Under the plan, the couples would register for a temporary marriage under Iran's Shiite religious law code. The code allows a man to marry a woman for a mutually agreed time as short as a few hours or as long as a lifetime by reciting a verse from the Koran.

The temporary marriage license would protect the couple from harassment by authorities and, according to some proposals, it would be accompanied by free contraceptives and health advice. Under religious law, a temporary marriage imposes no obligations on a man unless the union produces a child, who must be recognized as legitimate and can claim a share of any inheritance.

One cleric backing the plan, Ayatollah Mohammed Mousavi Bojnurdi, recently told a newspaper: "We face a real challenge with all these women on the street. Our society is in an emergency situation, so the formation of the chastity houses can be an immediate solution to the problem." He added that the plan "is both realistic and conforms to Sharia [Islamic] law."...

ironically enough

Iran's strict Islamic rules allow little socializing between the sexes, and young Iranians have been jailed and flogged for dancing together at birthday parties. "Parents who are suspicious of their children, don't give their children any choice or freedom, and always impose their thinking on them, force such children to flee homes," said Hamzeh Ganji. Ganji said young girls who leave home often must become prostitutes to survive.

More than half of Iran's 70 million people are below age 25. The unemployment rate is officially 15 percent, but private experts say it really is about 30 percent....

If anyone happens to speak Farsi, there's another video on poverty and prostitution in Iran available here.

There's also a journalistic piece from the Iranian. The tone is...well, see for yourself. I found it interesting, and not all that unfamiliar tbh.

Truth is, we're all fairly used to, metaphorically at least, the stone-the-sluts/oh, let's-rescue-the-poor-pitiful-broken-things attitude; not to mention the (often sensationalistic) stories of serial killers who target prostitutes.
Capital punishment just takes the message to its logical conclusion: prostitutes= corrupt, dispensable, ruined, something to be cleaned up if it can't be salvaged.

Why, yes, yes it IS ultimately rooted, in good part and in complex ways, in institutionalized misogyny. Duh.

Nonetheless, it's worth noting, once again, that the Madonna/whore split is not, in fact, formulated in such a way that "virgin/mother" and "whore" are of equal (lack of, even) worth.

From the CBC article also linked above:

One study has suggested prostitutes are 40 times more likely than other women to be murdered.

quoth the experts being interviewed,

Why are prostitutes such a target?

S.E. For a variety of reasons. The main one is that they are vulnerable and they are vulnerable because they are available. This provides relative anonymity for the killer because when you pick up a prostitute in an area where they ply their trade, everyone expects to see cars picking them up. No one pays much attention to the so-called Johns.

...The other aspect is: Who is going to report a missing prostitute? If it's another prostitute, she may not have credibility with the police.

...N.B. One of the first points that has to be made is that it is only certain kinds of prostitutes who have become a target. We have massage parlours and escort agencies in virtually every city and the women who work there engage in prostitution but they are protected by credit cards and the like.

Their customers know that if they commit violence, they could easily be tracked down. So the violence that does occur is against the most vulnerable women who are working as street-level prostitutes.

...Psychopaths are people who have no empathy for their victims. They treat their victims as objects, not as human beings.

And that plays directly into the choice of prostitutes as victims: They don't see the prostitute as being a person, as being somebody's daughter, somebody's wife, just as an object for the killer to use and throw away.

From the CBS story on Gary Leon Ridgway (aka the Green River Killer):

"In most cases, when I killed these women, I did not know their names," Ridgway said in a statement read in court. "Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them, and I do not have a good memory of their faces."

Ridgway's statement opened an extraordinary window on the twisted mind of a serial killer.

"I wanted to kill as many women as I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could," he wrote.

More on the general subject from All Women Count: An Open Letter to the Women

As the US and UK governments defy the majority of people in the world and get ready to kill and displace millions in Iraq, mainly women and children, where are feminists on 8 March, International Women’s Day? According to every poll, we women are even more opposed to war than men. We are the backbone of every anti-war movement. Yet we have heard little against the war from those who identify as feminists.

Instead, on IWD Justice for Women, Women's Aid, Eaves Housing for Women, POLLY and Lilith will be picketing Spearmint Rhino, a lap-dancing club. How obscene. When most women, children and men are desperately trying to prevent this war and save the lives of millions, some of those who claim to speak against violence against women prefer to attack a sex industry establishment. Machismo begins with the military, not with lap dancing.

.... Women in the anti-rape movement have long established that we are vulnerable to violence because we have less social power than men and the police and courts refuse to value our lives and protect us. True of every woman, including sex workers.

Sex workers in Soho and elsewhere are facing massive raids, arrests, detention, eviction, deportation, and are being forced out of flats onto the street where it is 10 times more dangerous to work. Three women who were driven from Soho premises by eviction have been tragically murdered in recent years, one of them in late 2002.

No reference is made to the women workers in these clubs -- once again some feminists think they know better what’s good for other women. How sexist and arrogant! Most women in the sex industry are supporting families. Many are single mothers, many are immigrants or asylum seekers denied benefits and other resources after fleeing Western-backed wars or dictatorships. To picket lap dancing clubs is to invite more raids and deportations everywhere, and therefore more rape and murders of women who end up on the streets.

A press release from "Safety First!" (UK) sheds some light on the nuts and bolts of "clean up the streets" initiatives:

The Safety First coalition is appalled at proposals of zero tolerance against clients and removal of street prostitution announced yesterday by Ipswich Local Authorities, police, health and probation services. The proposals replicate almost exactly the policies in place before the murders. Once again no lessons have been learned.

The report proposes:

· Removing street prostitution from all areas in Ipswich. Women may be forced out of Ipswich – what has that got to do with safety? Targeting clients with zero tolerance and police crackdowns, including ASBOs, forces prostitution further underground. Women will have even less time to check out men fearful of arrest. Instead, they will be pushed into more isolated, less well lit areas where they are more vulnerable to attack. Whatever anyone thinks about men paying for sex, safety should be the priority. It is not even mentioned in these proposals.

· Measures to ensure “that women do not become involved in street prostitution in the first place”. They offer no budget or resources to address the poverty, debt, rape and domestic violence, lack of housing, cuts in benefits, and low wages in other occupations which force women into prostitution. 70% of prostitute women are mothers, mostly single mothers, who are working to support themselves and their families.

· The only concrete proposals are for more police patrols, CCTV and the use of anti-social behaviour legislation. Where are the proposals to deal with the appalling 1.6% conviction rate for reported rape in Suffolk?...

Meanwhile, in Brazil:

Gathering in a dilapidated cabaret in the Lapa zone of Rio de Janeiro, a group of transsexual prostitutes came together in October, 1999 to formally sue the Brazilian government for the right to repudiate their own citizenship.1 Since 1987, this group had been demanding that the state protect their rights as laborers in the legal field of sex work. They had pleaded for shielding from discrimination, harassment, police brutality, and hate crime. But in their opinion, the Brazilian state had spurned them2 and in stead rounded them up, identified, and registered them in police files3, and labeled these border-crossing sex workers as perversions of globalization, as sex traffickers, as threats to the nation, as a blight on Rio's touristic image.

But transsexual sex workers who walk the streets, a practice they refer to as ir na batalha [going to battle],4 had been facing even more violent threats than those posed by police and state. Since the 1980s, they had been terrorized by white neo-Nazi gangs who had begun to mobilize in Brazil's cities around masculinist hyper-nationalist ideologies, and performing acts of homophobic and racist ritual violence. Like hundreds of Jack the Rippers, these gang members had taken it upon themselves to promote social purity through the most gruesome murder and mutilation of prostitutes, especially transvestites and transsexuals, called travestis in Brazil.5 Rather than protect the sex workers from this terrorism, Rio's Polícia Militar battalions tended to blame the horror on the victims, increasing harassment and extortion of sex workers, and developing new anti-gang and public-space protection policies that detoured around the fact that prostitution is quite legal in Brazil. As Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro remarked:

What do travestis have in common with gypsies? They embody difference. The dream of various authoritarian groups in society is the construction of homogeneity. The city that was a place where everyone got along is now a mere passageway: all alien obstacles must be removed. The more moderate among them believe segregation will be the solution. Others believe only in physical extermination. The streets of the city should be clean like the corridors of prisons. The attacks that have continued for a few years seek to realize a final solution. How is it that these embodiments of difference can be targets for a hunt (as prostitutes) without any risk of punishment for the aggressors? Criminals that murder transvestites consider that they have the right to clean the streets with their own hands. In a way this is an apprenticeship that follows the same repressive practices of this country's police forces: illegal, shameful brutalization, extortion (regular monetary contribution so that this group can remain on the streets without menace), beatings, dog attacks. What pretends to offer itself as an honest imposition of public order, to restrain those that scandalize the image of good citizens, is nothing but pure terrorism and financial profiteering by the agents of discipline.

That last paragraph in particular...I'm going to be thinking about that for a while.

The dream of various authoritarian groups in society is the construction of homogeneity.

Yeah.

Well, here we go again with Laffs-A-Minute

From the aftermath of the aftermath of a particularly nasty blowup, we learn, once again, that some people are really just fucking stunted. From Chuck in comments at feministe, dredging up some of the choicer remarks, I mean besides the eponymous "What are we going to do with you, kitten?" (no, i'm not gonna lay out the whole original drama just yet, gimme a sec):

Modern feminists poop (I think) but their shit don’t stink. Modern feminists can call other people names (misogynists, MRAs, FRAs, godbags, …) but modern feminists make sure that no one can say anything that would make fun of women or classes that they feel should be protected.

No fat jokes, no ping pong ball jokes, no blonde jokes, no ann coulter jokes, NO JOKES, except for jokes about men, white men.

No fat jokes, no racist/stripper-bashing jokes, no sexist dumb blonde jokes, no misogynist (no, dumbass, "misogynist" is not a -joke-, not an -insult-, that is a -description-. "Dumbass" -is- an insult, yes, genius, very good), transphobic "Mann Coulter" jokes? Butbutbut then -where's the funny in life?-

"Look, I'm gonna fool you. You dunno my act. I've got it -down- now. I work to Jewish people--I've learned how to say 'toe-kiss.' I work to the Italian people--I've got the mamma mia bit---I got it all down. I got a Jolson finish, I'll -murder- them now! You kiddin? I got so many bits now..."

Alright, into the toilet. Nothing. Into the shithouse. People are staring at him, complete blank-out. Now, after fifteen minutes he's starting to sweat...And in his inadequacy he vents his hostility on the audience:

"Ah, squares--bullshit!"

It's embarrassing...

"Folks, um, I tell you what, here's a bit that everyone likes...Folks, I'm gonna do a tune now for Al Jolson. Now you can knock me, but don't knock a guy that's dead, awright? Don't knock a guy that helped a lotta servicemen, awright?..."

...That exploitation of the dead didn't work, and it's verfallen, and he's back to the dressing room, the comedian:

Vomiting sounds, then a knock at the door

"Come in..."

In comes the house booker.

...

"Now just a minute.

"What? Did I hear 'just a minute?' Just a minute for what? To return to the Crusades? Look, Bomb-o, you stunk it up out there, you know that, don't you? Son, you don't use narcotics, do you? Cause that's the only realization I could have-you could be oblivious to the cacophany of sound out there. Son well, why...what are you -looking- at me for, you psychotic bastard, you? You're not funny, you sonovabitch! Get up! When I came out this afternoon I thought that--you're not funny. Everyone in the whole world is funny and you're not funny. That's crude, you see. But, I mean, the world is filled with unfunny people, and you're one of them, you leper! ...Now, you sign this [release] right now."

"Now just a minute."

"Just a minute for what?"

"I didn't do my spicy-blue-riské number yet."

--The Essential Lenny Bruce

So, okay, and what happened was--well, you can get the lowdown at Ilyka's as well as that feministe thread, and the links therein. Big ol' fucking shitstorm, misunderstandings and poor judgment leading to various people being unnecessarily assy to what looks very much like the aftermath of the Donner Party in some places. Yay, Progressives (or whatever the fuck "we" are) Thunderdome!

And, I probably have an opinion as to who's right(er) there, but first, I just want to note: what STARTED all this was a -really- funny bit (yes, Virginia, that is sarcasm) from some -rightwing- fuckstain, who decided that the untimely death of blogger Steve Gilliard was an occasion for his special brand of -satire:-, his -bit-:

Which brings us to today’s marquee morbidity. The tragic, untimely death of Donk House Negro and all around bigot Steve Gilliard. Who knew that boiling bacon grease in a spoon and mainlining it into the neck vein was bad for your health?

When called, rather predictably, on being a worthless paramecium, Prince Charming's responses have included such gems as

What is it about having a vagina that makes someone so stupid?

Over at Pouty Piss Pants, to this very minute they’re still debating what splinter cell of the KKK I belong to.

It’s not fair that their vote counts the same as mine when they so obviously don’t exercise leash laws on their wandering uterii.

Sorry for this outburst. It just upsets me when I see people like that giving pussy a bad name.

More "satire," right, o'butty? You don't really -mean- that, you're just -showing us what it feels like- to be called something -hateful-.

Like so:

Am I taking the wrong lesson from Gilliard’s death, Jon?

Is there some greater message I am supposed to be receiving from the left side of the blogosphere greater than “be as mean and vicious as you can” so that you will be canonized in some leftist pantheon?

The Left’s hagiographs to Gilliard are surely reminiscent of the historical revisionism given to Jerry Falwell.

Maybe by seeing the ugliness of my post, you will think twice about the type of atmosphere you are now praising Gilliard for promoting.

and

Ridiculing people in blackface [as Gilliard once did, which would appear to be his rationale for this charming eulogy] is wrong no matter who is doing it. Ridiculing the dead is wrong - whether I’m doing it to Gilliard or other people are doing it over flag-draped coffins.

Obviously, someone never read ebogjohnson's (yet another example of someone who, unlike this sorry little wet fart, is actually funny) explanation of when and how it is proper to use blackface on one's blog.

"But that's not important right now."

The important part, of course, is:

You too, you too, you too too too too TOO.

Apologies, of course, being for -pussies.-

And, mainly:

You're not funny, you leper.

Know why? Because to be -funny- would require that you had a modicum of empathy as well as the wit of a sparrow.

Chutzpah =! "funny."

Chutzpah - (funny AND clever AND interesting AND observant) = terminal asshole.

But you knew that, right? Hell, "asshole" is the Little Black Dress of today's pundits and other Bright Young Things (self-declared as well as professional). Dredge up creaky bigot chestnuts from grandpop's old tackle box! Fling them about at will! Whine about it when called on it! Attack the vulnerable, and kick 'em when they're on the floor! Convince yourself that people are only calling you an asshole because THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!ELEVEN! Get DOWN with your bad, *bad* self. You prizewinners, you.

And yes, paleobrain whoever-you-are, of whom I'd never before heard and no, I don't want to start a correspondence so you can put your dance card right back again, the "left" does it too. Women do it too. People of color do it too. Not, admittedly, usually quite as egregiously as what you've excreted here, but yep: assholes.

And some of us call them assholes for it, too.

That would be what y'all refer to as "infighting." That is, some people actually calling their own on their shit, in an -attempt- to keep us honest. You may be unfamiliar with the practice. Along with many, many other things. And you know what? That's just fine.

You just keep on with the funny there, it's what you're good at.

And suddenly I'm very tired.

Hey, Lenny, you old momser, lemme know if you need any new bits up there, I gotta few for ya.

rrrrRRRRrrrrr

Okay, blogger users:

do you ever get that thing where you highlight something, click the "link" button and instead of doing what it's supposed to, it 1) deletes the word you've highlighted and 2) makes the bloggergif somethingorother code pop up at some random place in the middle of your text? Because, it happens to me fairly often, i can't figure out why (does it think i'm clicking the right button of the mouse?) and it's REALLY ANNOYING.

in other news, this morning i finally had enough and trundled my piece o'shit computer chair down to the basement, after the 37,898,6534th time i had to get up and replace the screw that kept falling out of the arm and making the whole thing fall apart. i gave it a few good solid -kicks- first, though, and let me tell you, it felt gooooood.