My Head Rent Free
Get the facebook link. This is the first rule of writing about/deconstructing a meme. If you don’t get the link now, you will never find it later. Today’s toxic meme is “15 Sentences That Live In My Head Rent Free” by @jayyanginspires.
15S is a copied page, with the title and numbers draped in yellow magic marker. The text on the other side of the page bleeds inscrutably through. 15S is what you might call commodity wisdom. These are thoughts that sound good, until you think about them. A few might hold water, and none are out and out nonsense. Mostly, they are just thoughts … none of which will make your cold go away.
These helpful suggestions are courtesy of @Jayyanginspires “writing words, lifting weights, & building an internet business. | prev head of content to @noahkagan.” At least he doesn’t list his pronouns. Jay does provide a link to a website, “The Spark A quick dose of inspiration in your inbox, every Sunday.” When Lover of Books posted the meme, they included a link to Audible. The daisy chain of product promotion never stops.
“14. You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality.” This sentence is a good one to ponder. Authoritarian sophistry IS the old mentality. The rhetoric-based argument culture that gave us Donald J. Trump, the Gaza Genocide, and so much more. Manipulative use of language for competitive motivation. The challenge today is to know the difference between true wisdom, and clever sounding bullshit.
Pointing out hypocrisy is so boring. One response is to create art of this text, aka make lemonade out of lemons. I chose to create a haiku reduction. Highlight the parts that I want to keep, and turn the rest into digital rubble. As Alice Walker might say, “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
The phrase “God is in the details” applies here, much to chagrin of Yahweh worshipers. There are several steps to the process. If you make a mistake in one you will regret it later. Sometimes, you need to enlarge the image 1600%, and take out one pixel at a time. Just remember sentence nine.
9. “You can do anything, but not everything—focus.” The em-dash is so tacky. The secret is to not be distracted by —, or the uberclever phrasing. Just focus on the message. Focus is essential to getting anything done. This can be tough on a computer, with the digital circus a click away.
Getting back to the reduction, I need seventeen beats out of fifteen sentences. One way is to take one out of all fifteen, and find two more. Or I can just leave some of the sentences blank. There is a message in there if you look for it.
expensive advice · anxiety ill focus · understand mental Is advice expensive for the giver, or the taker? The motivation monger would say that advice is only expensive if you do not take it. Or if it causes anxiety, an ill focus of your precious life. Especially when you are careful to understand mental, while ignoring the danger of oversitting physical.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The images were taken July 30, 1966. The featured photograph: “Jimmy Carter with family members in their Plains, Georgia home during Carter’s first campaign for governor.” The kids probably belong to Billy Carter. Billy returned to Plains after serving in the Marine Corps as a private from 1955 to 1959. He married Sybil Spires, also of Plains, in 1955 and became the father of six children: Kim, Jana Kae, William “Buddy,” Marle, Mandy, and Earl.
Why Policing Is Failing
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Reposted with a crucial spelling error corrected … New Georgia Project had serious problems going back to 2014. When the state investigated, NGB spokesman Raphael Warnock said “I see this … as the latest effort in voter suppression in the state of Georgia.” · Reposted with a crucial spelling error corrected … The recent scandal involving Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock is not surprising. The New Georgia Project had serious problems going back to 2014. When Sec. of State Brian Kemp investigated these problems, NGB spokesman Raphael Warnock said “I see this move by the secretary of state as the latest effort in voter suppression in the state of Georgia.” · Stacey Abrams And Raphael Warnock Got Caught · Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1942. “San Benito County, California. Japanese-Americans at picnic.” · This is what I did online last week. The featured picture was taken in May 1942. “San Benito County, California. Japanese-Americans at picnic.” · AI Overview Brianna Wu’s original name is John Walker Flynt or John Flynt. Wu is a trans woman who has received media attention for her support of Israel during the Israel–Hamas war. · Second in this series, which ran from 1987 until 2001. This volume collects short fiction from 1988. Many reflect the writers’ responses to the emerging issues to which AIDS gave rise. Includes an introduction by the editor and these My Mother’s the School of Beauty and Shame (Richard McCann); The age of Anxiety (David Fienberg); Junge Dove (Joseph Pintauro); In This Corner (James Purdy); Solidarity (Albert Innaurato); Dancing on the Tishe B’av (Lev Raphael); Snapshot (Allen Barnett); Anything You Want (Christopher Coe); Ayor (David Leavitt); I Go Back to the Mais Oui (James McCourt); Why People Get Cancer ( Anderson Ferrell); Nobody’s Child (David Groff); Once in Syracuse (David Brendan Hopes); Life Suck, or Ernest Hemingway Never Slept Here (Tim Barrus); Red Leaves (Melvin Dickson); Magic (Garry Glickman); The Boys in the Bars (Christopher Davis); Adult Art (Allan Gurganus). · “General scene, main street. Greensboro, Greene County GA” Marion Post Wolcott took the photograph in 1939. · at chamblee54, there is no connection between the historic pictures, and the historic fiction text. Today that contrast is more vivid than ever. The text is the wife of a celebrity dermatologist writing about a notorious Hollywood groupie. The picture: “General scene, main street. Greensboro, Greene County GA” · Dorothea Lange took the photograph in May 1939. “FSA camp for migratory agricultural workers. Farmersville CA Meeting of the camp council” · Someone is talking. They are full of confidence. The speech gets faster, and faster. They have lots of data points that support their point of view. You suspect there is something wrong with what they are saying. The logic just follows too quickly. If you stop to think about point one, you will miss points two through eleven. It is persuasion, by intellectual bullying. · Sam Harris is sometimes too clever for his own good. … Dorothea Lange took the photograph in May 1939. “FSA camp for migratory agricultural workers. Farmersville CA Meeting of the camp council” · @afshinrattansi Joe Biden admits he warned Netanyahu to stop carpet bombing communities. Netanyahu replied by comparing Israel’s actions to US carpet bombing of Berlin and dropping nuclear bombs. Biden essentially admits he allowed Netanyahu to carpet bomb Gaza for over 15 months and commit genocide, providing almost $30 billion in military aid and weapons shipments. Genocide Joe is as guilty as Netanyahu for the horrors we have witnessed in Gaza. · Photographs today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. These images were taken July 30, 1966. “Jimmy Carter with family members in their Plains, Georgia home during Carter’s first campaign for governor.” · Photographs today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The featured image is dated 08-03-1966. “Jimmy Carter and family playing miniature golf” · selah
Thou Art That
It started out as a joke comment. Thank God for secular humanism. · You’re welcome. I got to thinking, and wondered what the punch line was. Is there a difference between God and man?
Zen and the art of motorcycle repair says that the division of God and man, subject and object, is the dirty work of Aristotle. I am not philosophically grounded enough to know, but suspect that unity is better than division. Is the earth a unified whole, “thou art that”?
Now, the truth just might be that God is separate from man. While unity may sound appealing, it might not be the way things operate. Just because a belief makes you happy does not mean that it is true. Let no man bring together what God has rent asunder.
If there is a division between God and man, then where does the boundary lie? Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The featured image:The Krystal, Lee Street, SW, 1958. This is a repost. Is it art?
LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse
Today’s feature is a repost from 2014. … Awful library books is one of the actors in this drama. It is a good waste of your time. On top of the shelf today is Lee the Rabbit with Epilepsy. Other uplifting volumes on the front page include Isn’t One Wife Enough?: the Story of Mormon Polygamy and When Cavemen Go Bowling. Awful Library Books retired in 2023.
The book that Awful Library Books chose to “weed” was Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say “No” to Drugs. The links in the original post no longer work, so google was enlisted to find a replacement. Believe it or not, this galloping tale has a wikipedia page.
The original book was targeted at African American youth. The author has daughters named Latawnya and Chrystal. The author has sued amazon, wikipedia, and urban dictionary.
A possibly illegal reproduction is found using the link. One of the comments tells a cautionary tale: “It seems that many of these comments are viciously lampooning the work of a genius. I, however, see the visionary work of Mrs. Gibson. This insightful masterpiece presents the very real dangers of horse peer pressure. Just last week my daughter, Amber, was walking to school on a normal, idyllic day in suburbia. Then out of nowhere a Clydesdale galloped brazenly over to my precious princess and offered her a 40 oz bottle of Olde English 800 and a marijuana cigarette.”
Clydesdales have long been used to promote the products of the Anheuser-Busch company. (When you click on that link, a page pops up: WE NEED TO CHECK YOUR ID YOU MUST BE OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO ENTER THIS SITE) When I was younger, I worked on the mall maintenance crew at Northlake Mall. One day, the Budweiser Clydesdales made a visit. I was given a shovel and bucket, and told to walk behind the horses.
Courtesy of Awfullibrarybooks, we can see today “LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse, Learns to say “No” to Drugs“. This uplifting story is about the afternoon when Latawnya goes out to play with her sisters Daisy and LaToya. Suddenly they meet four strange horses, Connie, Chrystal, Jackie, and Angie. They like to drink and smoke drugs.
The author of this tale was born in Mississippi, and lives in California. She says “Thank you, G-d”.
One of the reasons for the drug problem is drug education. Many of these programs, while well intentioned, make the problem worse.
In 1986, there was an oversupply of cocaine coming into America, and new ways of using the product were needed. Someone had the idea of making crack. The media did its part, by running scare stories about the new drug sensation. “One puff makes your head feel like it is exploding”. The stories had the combined effect of scaring parents, and making crack cocaine irresistible to certain people. Crack became a part of the life.
The first time I heard about oxycontin was a drug education flyer at work. It promised an overwhelming rush to the user who injected the substance. I imagined the reaction of some of the druggies he had known to this promise…where can I get some?
I am in the detoxed, old fogey stage of his life. Millions of others are not. When they read stories about horses who drink and smoke drugs, they learn to believe the opposite of what the drug educators tell them. Many will not live to be detoxed old fogeys. The pictures for this tale of drug-free stallions are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
RIP Jimmy
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The motto of the state of Georgia is wisdom, justice, moderation. Some people say this works out as wisdom and justice in moderation. · State moderation should not be confused with online mods. · exp4-leiarcaica.bsky.social · @RichardHanania Getting all kinds of messages from Indians saying they appreciate me standing with them. Also getting many from rightists angry at my position. The ones from the Indians are all written in impeccable English. The ones written from “America First” types have spelling and grammatical mistakes that would embarrass a second grader. · So you’re a poet, hey? Well if you’re a poet Tell me a poem today Come on, let me know it · RIMER, n. A poet regarded with indifference or disesteem. · The rimer quenches his unheeded fires, The sound surceases and the sense expires. Then the domestic dog, to east and west, Expounds the passions burning in his breast. The rising moon o’er that enchanted land Pauses to hear and yearns to understand. Mowbray Myles · R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of requiescat in pace, attesting an indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than reductus in pulvis. · this is my monday morning recap of last week. Pictures today are from a 2019 poem, “The Devil Was Wine” eternal unstirring paralysis, blemish that’s kind to our mortalities, tempestuous times like this analysis, ignominious ecclesiastes. Link in comments · ALEXANDER CHEE: Having written the The Joy of Gay Sex early in your career, would you add anything to it now? And are you aware of having trained any of your lovers who came to you after you wrote that book?WHITE: Well, The Joy of Gay Sex had to be revised. The second version [The New Joy of Gay Sex] was done [in 1993] by Felice Picano and Dr. Charles Silverstein, because of AIDS, to include safe sex and all that. I remember in my book States of Desire, I wrote about a Texas guy who would say, “I’m fixing to come,” when he was about to come. I thought that was so funny, I had to put it in. He was a good-looking, tall blonde with a big dick. I met him years later and he teased me about having written that about him. He met some guy I’d also written about in Los Angeles. He said they both were licking their wounds. · Edmund White: “I remember in my book States of Desire, I wrote about a Texas guy who would say, “I’m fixing to come,” when he was about to come. I thought that was so funny, I had to put it in. He was a good-looking, tall blonde with a big dick.” · I have a podcast series about Karen Silkwood on my phone. When I want to remove an episode after listening, the device asks “Are you sure you want to permanently delete “Silkwood05”? · In 2014, pre-x twitter had a #hashtag, #UnwieldyInsults. @MHanson62 “Hey, Excrement for Intelligence…” @steverand616 Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries Pictures from the GSU library Link in comments · The oil in my vehicle is old, and in need of replacement. That will provide plenty of chore for today, and make me forget that chore rhymes with whore …. i am in the middle of writing a fun blog post. I take six haiku reductions, and write something based on those seventeen syllables. The new twist is to make all of these commentaries exactly 100 words. I may have a few marbles left when this is done. · @tao_lin To all the unmerry people out there. The lonely, the disgruntled, the grumpy, the depressed, the spurned, the people in chronic pain, the severely autistic, and so on, I wish you a day—you do not need to be merry, you’ll make it through this Christmas, it’s almost over. · @Drabblecast @tao_lin · the politically incorrect haiku writing prompts continue to devolve. The latest twist is the introduction of the drabble, or a piece that is exactly 100 words. Unfortunately, the final word count today is 654, which is a dozen words short of satanic glory. @Drabblecast @tao_lin · during the fighting at Kennesaw Mountain on June 23, 1864, Bierce suffered a grievous head wound from a Confederate bullet. Hospitalized for months, he was back in action in September during the Franklin-Nashville campaign. Bouts of dizziness and frequent blackouts — the aftershocks of his wound — forced him to resign from the army on January 25, 1865. · ITAMA Institute of Traditional Asian Martial Arts (East Lansing, MI) · Scimitar is a bit of historic fiction from Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. On June 23, 1864, Lt. Bierce “suffered a grievous head wound” while fighting in the Union army at Kennesaw Mountain. If this piece offends you, the blame should go to the ineffecient marksmanship of the Army of Tennessee. · scimitar is a bit of historic fiction from Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. On June 23, 1864, Lt. Bierce “suffered a grievous head wound” while fighting in the Union army at Kennesaw Mountain. Despite having the middle name Gwinnett, Lt. Bierce was wounded in Cobb County. · This is borrowed from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce. John Collier took the picture in August 1941. “FSA supervisor McArthur weighs in the Smart chickens (2 ½ lb.) prior to their shipment to the Craig Field, SE Air Training Center. Selma AL” · (1114) Simon Peter said to him, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.” … The Gospel According to Thomas · The Relive Box By T. Coraghessan Boyle March 10, 2014 · This is a repost from 2015. In the last nine years, Trans Awareness has mushroomed. Maybe the mushroom paradigm is the best way this discussion. The public is kept in the dark, and fed sh**. While Pronoun Consciousness (PC) has grown and festered, Singular They has not caught on as an alternative to the his/her nomenclature. The next nine years will no doubt see many changes in public gender awareness. Unscrupulous influence peddlers can be expected to exploit gender issues, with little regard for the collective mental health of the community. · “Singular They” is a repost of a feature from 2015, when gender discussions were starting to be fun. The picture, from the GSU library, is from 1951. The Big Apple is now the site of Metro PCS and Fader’s Barbershop. · lbse1-002a · pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library · selah
Singular They
This is a repost from 2015. In the last nine years, Trans Awareness has mushroomed. Maybe the mushroom paradigm is the best way to view this discussion. The public is kept in the dark, and fed sh**. While Pronoun Consciousness (PC) has grown and festered, Singular They has not totally caught on as an alternative to the his/her nomenclature. The next nine years will no doubt see many changes in public gender awareness. Unscrupulous influence peddlers can be expected to exploit gender issues, with little regard for the collective mental health of the community.
A post from “Mental Floss” was making the facebook rounds. The Washington Post Style Guide Now Accepts Singular ‘They.’ The MF post recycles content from The Washington Post, The Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’. WAPO has a way with words. “But there comes a point when atoms of language change start to form molecules.”
With increasing visibility of trans identified people, pronouns are getting attention. Many people do not like being referred to by the gender of their birth. One popular method is to use retrofit the plural “they” for use as a singular pronoun for he and she. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea.
A pronoun refers to a noun. The antecedent issue inspired a delightful comment in the WAPO. The author was an English 101 teacher, Puget Sounder. “While I may be able to catch the gist of the student commentary, the precise meaning is not always so evident, and I usually end up drawing lines from pronoun to preceding pronoun, desperately seeking the antecedent noun. Like Captain Ahab, I find a lot of candidates, but the “white whale” is often deeply submerged under the jetsam and flotsam of garbled verbiage.”
The seminal WAPO article had another noteworthy comment. This is from Doctor Dirt. “The singular “they” is far from a no-brainer. It creates more opportunity for confusion, as described below by Puget Sounder, and in other ways. They takes their chances. Bad grammar, colloquialism, or nongender-specific pronouns for a single person? How about “person” instead? Person takes person’s chances. I could get used to that faster than I could get used to “They is sitting in their chair,” and trying to figure out how many people and how many chairs are involved.”
Singular they can cause verb agreement confusion. ST can make you wonder how many butts are sitting in the chair. ST (already used as an abbreviation for Saint) can suggest that the person involved is schizophrenic, or has multiple personality disorder. Employing ST, a plural pronoun, for singular use, is opening a can of linguistic worms.
A gender neutral pronoun for third person use would be an advancement for the English language. In most cases, there is no need to specify gender. Perhaps a contraction of she and it could be used, especially with a southern accent. The sir/ma’am issue will have to wait for another day. There are other complications. … This exchange was on facebook while this feature was being posted: I’m still waiting for Singular Y’all to be approved. ~ I thought y’all was the plural of you. ~ If They can be singular, then Y’all can be singular. ~ That may be the best argument yet against Singular They.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The image displayed on social media is from November 16, 1951. Sidewalk outside the Piedmont Drive-In Theatre and screen. The Big Apple building is now occupied by Fader’s Barbershop, and others.
#UnwieldyInsults
This is a repost from 2014. … #UnwieldyInsults are from twitter. They might be talking about you. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
@HoorayBacon You look like what would happen if a wookie mated with one of the guys from Duck Dynasty #UnwieldyInsults #YeahNotFunny
@JohnParrish56 There is an odor emitting from your torso that is most egregious. I do say you should stop living. #UnwieldyInsults #YeahNotFunny
@KebabManiac With your wit, you’d make a wonderful dinner guest for Jeffrey Dahmer
@rockskimmer Lawrence Welk wants his Tupperware back, you bubble-hating, enemy of the accordion! #WeCantBreathe #UnwieldyInsults #newsnight #ISIS
@KebabManiac I don’t care what the others say – you wear that hunch well
@facebookie You, sir, are lower than Eubalaena japonica ordure at the nadir of the Mariana
@rockskimmer In the HeeHaw auditions of life, you would be laughed from the room and not allowed any of the craft services cornbread. #UnwieldyInsults #newsnight #ISIS #WeCantBreathe
@KebabManiac You Have The Grace Of A Pygmi Hippo With ‘The Shits’ And The Dancing Prowess Of The Great Proffesor Stephen Hawking
@DaiseyDoesIt Your pompous presence reveals your inherent nature as one best illustrated by a phallically formed cranium
@zolaris64 Your mother wears Bates 30501 Durashock desert foot protection.
@rockskimmer You have the spelling skills of an umbrella stand and the wry wit of a Bass Pro Shops fish finder. #UnwieldyInsults @TheHashtagGame
@TheBrandonHolly You are a maladroitly uncoordinated ape who is unable to take notice of his own bemusing presence & horrendous malfeasance.
@MullingHagel In the theater of the absurd you were asked to stop acting.
@Bat_Guano_1 Your bad taste is exceeded only by your bad breath.
@MHanson62 “Hey, Excrement for Intelligence…”
@steverand616 Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries
KennyBrendan You’re an objectivist Marxist who fails to appreciate the potential for revolutionary subjectivity. #WeCantBreathe #UnwieldyInsults #newsnight #ISIS
@FateJacketX I would rather read Hawthorne to a bovine in heat than suffer your malodorous company at the debutant ball!
@llamaranch This meal tastes like the regurgitated bile of a pregnant hippopotamus who suffers from leprosy. #UnwieldyInsults @TheHashtagGame #ladygaga
@tlcninjarx Your only value is the plethora of calumnious epithets you have reminded me are in my arsenal of verbal eviscerators
@jpostman You’re about as effective as the 1992 Maastricht Agreement was at unifying EU monetary policy #UnwieldyInsults #YeahNotFunny
@chamblee54 #unwieldyinsults a plethora of pusillanimous pie throwing meta entertainment most never knew who was targeted
United States Of Amnesia
I stumbled onto a podcast of Allan Gurganus speaking at a literary event in Key West. Mr. Gurganus, bless his heart, is a good writer. As a public speaker, the jury is “out.”
This particular literary event concerned historical fiction. Tom Robbins went on a tear once, comparing animal husbandry to history. With one, you combine blood lines to create a superior breed. With the other, you mix “facts” to create an inspiring story. With both animal husbandry and history, you are frequently up to your ankles in shit.
Mr. Gurganus trotted out a bunch of quotable lines. ”Liars like historians and politicians tend to overdocument.” ”Myth is gossip grown old.” ”the term historical fiction sounds as pitifully redundant as, say, creative writing. … It’s like having ‘oxygen breather’ stamped on your driver’s license.” ”History is agreed-upon hearsay granted tenure.”
The first time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the cliche slinging got too thick, and the player triangle was turned into the parallel lines. Or maybe it was the parallel lines turned into the triangle. In any event, the speakers quit making sounds. This option is not available live.
The second time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the line about hearsay granted tenure stuck. Mr. Google was consulted, and found a nice website for the literary event. Another speaker at said event was Gore Vidal. Finally, Mr. Gurganus wore out my patience. It was time to download the appearance by Mr. Vidal.
The emcee said, “I don’t want to steal your jokes, but you said that this is the United States of Amnesia.” Mr. Vidal said, “I don’t remember that.” This is going to be fun. Photographs for this repost are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Mithras
Mithras is a Persian deity, from the Zoroaster tradition.(That is pronounced Zor uh THRUS ta.) Not much is known about Mithras … did he really exist, or was he a legend? There was a cult of Mithras in the first century Roman empire.
There are supposed to be similarities between Mithras and Jesus. These include the virgin birth, the birth on December 25, and rising from the dead after three days. Some spoilsports say the early Christians grafted Jesus onto the legend of Mithras.
One indication that this might be true is The Catholic Encyclopedia. “Some apparent similarities exist; but … it is quite probable that Mithraism was the borrower from Christianity.” This repost has pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. (more…)
Sixty One Years
Sixty one years ago, John Kennedy went to the oval office in the sky. The bullets hit Mr. Kennedy at 12:30 pm, CST. He arrived at the hospital at 12:37. He had a faint heartbeat on arrival, but quickly succumbed to his wounds.
I was nine years old. I was in Miss Mckenzie’s fourth grade class. There was going to be an assembly soon, and the class was going to perform. There was a rehearsal in the cafetorium, and some of the kids were acting up. They went back to the class, and I thought they were going to be chewed out about the misbehavior in the cafetorium. Instead, Miss Mckenzie came into the room, and told the kids that President Kennedy had been shot during a parade in Dallas Texas. She did not say anything about his condition. One kid cheered the news.
School let out at the regular time, and I walked home. My mother and brother were crying. I was told that the president had died. The cub scouts meeting that afternoon was canceled.
Later that night, a plane arrived in Washington. The tv cameras showed a gruesome looking man walk up to a microphone. He was introduced as President Lyndon Johnson. This may have been the worst moment of that day. Photographs for this repost today are from “Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles was born on November 17. He or she? Ally or enemy? Racist or whatever? Labels are part of the packaging, and have little to do with the product inside the box.
A facebook friend put up a link to a RuPaul interview, Real Talk With RuPaul. The FBF is over RuPaul. I read the interview, and found many things that I agreed with. Is it possible to be a conservative because you like RuPaul?
The Vulture feature is similar to the WTF podcast that RuPaul did. Chamblee54 wrote about that interview. The Vulture chat is better for bloggers, since it is a copy friendly text affair. When you see quotes, you can include them verbatim.
RuPaul has a talent for snappy sayings, to be remembered for later use. An example would be “I’d rather have an enema than have an Emmy.” Some unkind people say that if you were to give RuPaul an enema, you could bury him in a shoebox.
A persistent theme of RuPaul’s moving lips is “the matrix.” “Because you get to a point where if you’re smart and you’re sensitive, you see how this all works on this planet. It’s like when Dorothy looks behind the curtain. Like, “Wait a minute. You’re the wizard?” And you figure out the hoax. That this is all an illusion. There’s only a few areas you can go. First, you get angry that you’ve been hoaxed and you get bitter. But then, take more steps beyond the bitterness and you realize, “Oh, I get it. Let’s have fun with it. It’s all a joke.”
The Bosslady of “RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is an African American. Duh. In the Vulture piece, there are 4355 words. Racism/racist is not included. Could it be that America’s obsession with other people’s racial attitudes is part of the illusion? “Derogatory slurs are ALWAYS an outward projection of a person’s own poisonous self-loathing.”
RuPaul is not always politically correct. She supports Shirley Q. Liquor. RPDR was instrumental in the rise to fame/descent into the abyss of Sharon Needles. “But if you are trigger-happy and you’re looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you’ll look for anything that will reinforce that.”
Years ago, I worked with someone who liked to say “and a ru hu hu.” This was shortened to ru, and was usually said very loud. Ru became a greeting.
About this time, RuPaul was living in Atlanta. Many people remember a spectacular self promoter. RuPaul would sit in an apartment balcony, and wave at cars passing by. Posters for his band, Wee Wee Pole, were on telephone poles up and down Ponce de Leon Avenue.
One night, Ru Paul was working as a gogo dancer in a club called Weekends. During a break, I went over to talk to him. The use of ru as a greeting was mentioned. Soon, people came over, and I started to leave. Before I could get away, RuPaul turned to me, lifted an index finger, and said “Keep on saying my name.”
RuPaul went on to become famous. Weekends was torn down, and is the site of the Federal Reserve Bank. I do not watch much TV, and has never seen an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” This is a TV show about a TV.
There is a recent controversy about RPDR. It seems that the phrase shemale has been used. Some people are offended by this. The expression is no longer used on the show. Holly/Diane/Sashia, a transcritter, introduced me to the term “shemale” in 1998.
The use of offensive language is to be avoided. If you know something is going to hurt people, then you should avoid saying it. There is a good possibility that Ru Paul knew what she was doing, and just didn’t care. The problem comes when you haven’t received the latest update from the language authorities. Keeping up with what is cool to say can be a full time job. Is it still ok to say ru?
RuPaul is no stranger to attention being thought strange. The latest bit of publicity… there is no bad publicity, and they spell the name right … is an article in the eyeball grabbing HuffPo, RuPaul Responds To Controversy Over The Word ‘Tranny’. (Spell check suggestion: Granny) PG gave into temptation, and clicked on the link. It seems as though there was an appearance on the WTF podcast. Why settle for a sensational sample, when you can hear the entire show?
If you have an hour and twenty four minutes to spare, listen to this show. If you like, you can skip the first thirteen minutes, which is host Mark Maron talking about himself. The show is highly entertaining. A theme is that the world is the matrix, a fake construction. Some people look behind the curtain and see the wizard. Some people believe the matrix is reality. You should already know which side RuPaul takes. He was not born blonde.
The quote about the T-word comes toward the end of the show. I have mixed feelings about the whole affair, and does not completely agree with RuPaul. However, this human being is entitled to an opinion. He is going to share it anyway. RuPaul does not suffer from false modesty.
For a show that gets attention about language, it is a bit strange at times. While describing his career trajectory, RuPaul says he went through a phase of “gender f-word.” The show is called WTF. Twice a week, the host says fuck a dozen times in the first sixty seconds. And RuPaul said “gender f-word.”
Even more amazingly, RuPaul said that things were “n-word rigged”. RuPaul did break down and say the ultimate dirty word. When his mother saw his act on television, she said “N****** you crazy.”
RuPaul has had quite a career. He mentions that he has been sober for fifteen years, and had some therapy to get there. This was not the case when he lived in Atlanta. Many stories from those days are in the show. The bs detector went off a couple of times. I saw the Now Explosion, and did not remember seeing a tall black guy.
This is a rich seventy five minutes. Like saying that Madonna is a curator, that most fashion designers don’t know how to sew. The part that is getting the attention is towards the end of the show, and is just a small part. It is all part of the matrix.
This feature is a repost. Some of the pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Other pictures are from The Library of Congress. The images are of women, training to be bus drivers and taxi drivers. This was in Washington DC, November 1942. The photographer was Andreas Feininger, working for the Office of War Information. The picture of a dipstick demonstration is #8d36666.
Your Racism
This is a repost from 2014, and the Mike Brown case. … Last night, in anticipation of the Grand Jury presentation, chamblee54 published Freedom Lies Bleeding. “grand jury renders opinion ~ national hissy fit begin again ~ when justice is popularity contest ~ freedom lies bleeding in street”
There was a comment. Anonymous said, on November 25, 2014 at 2:28 pm (Edit) “Thanks Luthor… you’re racism never disappoints!” The name was misspelled.
There is both style, and substance, to consider here. Is Freedom Lies Bleeding racist? Who knows? The definition of racism is growing, in carcinogenic fashion, as we speak. Some say it is systemic institutions of oppression. Some say it is jokes about toothpaste flavor. Maybe the best definition is that racism is anything that you do not like.
The poem was directed at the concept of mob rule. As President Obama said, “We are a nation built on the rule of law, so we have to accept this decision was the grand jury’s to make.”
A few years ago, O.J. Simpson was accused of murder. Many people thought he was guilty. After a long trial, he was found innocent. Should popular opinion have overruled the jury? No, it should not. The jury saw the evidence, and heard the arguments. The people can protest and debate, but they cannot take the place of a jury.
Is a dependence on a system of law and order racism? Anonymous seems to think so. Is they qualified to make this judgment? If racism is anything that you don’t like, then Anonymous is qualified to make the call. Maybe they knows something we don’t.
There is the style of the comment to consider. While Anonymous did not give their name, there was an I.P. address. The IPA is connected to a .edu server. Apparently, this is a workplace computer. Leaving insulting comments from your employer’s computer does not reflect well on the institution.
Anonymous is entitled to an opinion. However, leaving a name calling comment does not speak well for this individual. The six words say more about Anonymous than they do chamblee54. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Chamblee54 
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