Sides With
The facebook friend posted a link: “I side 98% with Hillary Clinton.” The link was to a political poll. Not only were there a few dozen statements to consider, but you had to say how important the issue was. On many issues, the options did not fit what PG had to say. You choose the lesser of the various evils, which is the way politics works. (One difference was a state election when PG was in seventh grade. Governor Maddox was the Lester of two evils.)
Most of the questions made a bit of sense. One exception was “Should the federal government allow states to fly the confederate flag?” Exploitation of the St. Andrews cross by race haters is tacky, but is it the federal government’s business? There is a touch of irony here. The issue of states rights versus federalism was one of the causes of the War Between the States.
The poll caused a bit of brain damage. Too much thinking will do it every time. The headache got worse with the results. PG “sides with” Bernie Sanders 94% of the time. This is not surprising. PG may yet vote for BS, despite his hideous appearance, rude personality, and obnoxious supporters. The election will be in the cafetorium of the elementary school PG attended. It will not be the first time PG has held his nose in that room.
The good news is that PG “sides with” Rick Santorum 7% of the time. Ronald Dump Donald Trump gets 44% sideage. The rest of the repubs get mixed results, with Rand Paul doing best at 60%.
The results page has a popup ad. You are encouraged to give BS your email address, to help him fight the Trans Pacific Partnership. “Co-sign Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block the disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, and the environment.” Whatever dude.
A few minutes later, a bizarre exchange took place of twitter.
@RichardDawkins You can’t see air. Air exists. You can’t see God. Therefore God exists. GENIUS!
@SlavojTweezek After heavy après-conférence, I have seen God.Therefore He does not exist. QED.
@chamblee54 why do people talk about seeing g-d? What about hear, taste, smell, and touch?
@SlavojTweezek SEEING is believing. Pay attention.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Great Speckled Bird
One day in the eighth grade, PG had a sore spot in his eye. They called it a stye. One afternoon, he got out of school, walked to Lenox Square, saw a doctor, and got some eye drops.
When he left the doctor’s office, there was a man, standing in front of Rich’s on the sidewalk, selling a newspaper. He had blond hair down past his shoulders. PG asked what the newspaper was. Mostly politics, he said. PG gave him fifteen cents for a copy of “The Great Speckled Bird”.
The Bird was an underground newspaper. It was so bad, it needed to be buried. If you are under fifty, you have probably never seen one. These papers flourished for a while. The Bird was published from 1968 to 1976. The April 26, 1968 edition was volume one, number four. This was what PG bought that day.
The Georgia State University Library has a digital collection. Included in it are copies of The Great Speckled Bird. Included in this collection is edition Number Four. PG went looking for that first copy. He needed to be patient, for the GSU server took it’s time. Finally, the copy he asked for came up. It was mostly politics.
When PG saw page four, he knew it was the edition from forty eight years ago. “Sergeant Pepper’s Vietnam Report” was the story of a young man sent to Nam. It had a paragraph that impressed young PG, and is reproduced here. The rest of the article is not that great, which is typical of most underground newspaper writing.
A couple of years later, PG spent the summer working at the Lenox Square Theater. The number two screen was a long skinny room. If you stood in the right place, you could hear the electric door openers of the Colonial Grocery store upstairs. The Bird salesmen were a feature at the mall that summer, which not everyone appreciated. This was the year of the second, and last, Atlanta Pop Festival. PG was not quite hip enough to make it. He was back in the city, taking tickets for “Fellini Satyricon”. The Bird was printing 26 pages an issue, with lots of ads, pictures, and the distinctive graphics of the era.
Stories about hippies, and the Bird, can be found at The Strip Project. This repost has pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
A Question And A Joke
You can listen to hours of talk, and then hear everything you need to hear in one sentence. This happened to PG twice recently. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Dr. Glenn Loury is a frequent flyer at Bloggingheads.tv. He hosted a recent discussion with the eyeball grabbing headline Are school suspension policies racist? The guest, Robert Cherry, was going-on-and-on about black household percentages, when Dr. Loury asked “What’s the source of those data?” The guest never did answer the question.
In many internet incidents, statistics are accepted without question. Weasel words like average and prove are not challenged. Simple questions, like “who paid for the study” are not asked. Is this an authority issue? Do rhetoric spouting bullies use statistics as weapons, never to be challenged?
The war on drugs is another playground for authoritarianism. A recent episode of radiolab, The Fix, explores developments in chemical solutions to the remorseless desire to get fucked up. Some say we are headed to a “prozac moment,” to a sea change in the way we view addiction. Others hold onto the AA method, and say that it is the only thing that works for some. Since everyone approaches substances in their own unique way, there probably will never be a one-size-fits-all answer.
The radiolab show links to a panel discussion with “top addiction researchers.” Despite the charming European accents, the show is suicidally boring. At the 13:24 mark, Eric Nestler says “Dr. Volkoff gives me a lot of grant money I cannot disagree with her.” It was intended as a joke.
Google It
It was a good try. The grammar mistakes could give an english teacher nightmares. The all caps, hashtag heavy, rhetoric rampage was obnoxious even by Bernie Sanders standards. When you follow the gentle suggestion to “GOOGLE IT” you see some things that make BS look like a loudmouth fool.
For those people who are yet asking how #BernieSanders will pay for all the things he is campaigning for… LISTEN GOOD!!! You maybe heard the things #BernieSanders wants to do. But you didn’t pay attention.. 1) I don’t going to do it easy for you.. if you are really interested in how he going to pay for. .. GOOGLE IT!!! I’M. F*#&@ING TIRED OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU TRYING TO DEMORALIZED PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY ARE DOING SOMETHING TO CHANGE THE WORLD. SO MOVE YOUR FINGERS AND LOOK FOR YOURSELF. 2) OPEN YOUR MIND TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HIS MESSAGE, HE CAN’T DO IT BY HIMSELF. 3) OPEN YOUR HEART IF YOU STILL HAVE ONE.. if you are doing this just to waste our time or our energy…JUST BACK OFF… #BERNIESANDERS #FEELTHEBERN #MYCITYCONNECTED #SEETHEBERN #BreakEmUp #TheRealDeal #LetsGetToWork http://www.berniesanders.com
The lady said to “GOOGLE IT.” PG highlighted how #BernieSanders will pay for all the things he is campaigning for, right click, “Search Google for”…
If you look at the turmoil BHO went through to get badly needed health care reform through congress, you might be wondering how BS is going to get free college tuition approved. The answer is that he will not. BS is making a lot of promises that nobody could come close to fulfilling. Lets put that aside, and consider how these promises will be paid for.
The Huffington Post is the top result, and is fairly sympathetic. Bernie Sanders Explains How Taxing The Rich Will Pay For His Policies “But he admits it could take more than higher contributions from the top 1 percent alone.”
The Free Thought Project notes the cost of the proposals. BS does not plan to cut back on military spending, but will go full spending speed ahead. Drone warfare would continue, although BS says he would be more careful. The unquestioning support of Israel would continue, with Palestinians blamed for the slaughter in Gaza. At no time does anyone say #GazaLivesMatter.
The Wall Street Journal does not #feeltheBern. Price Tag of Bernie Sanders’s Proposals: $18 Trillion claims that the BS proposals could double the national debt. The WSJ article does not say how the proposals would be paid for.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
December Gun Violence
The fun loving Parents Against Gun Violence likes to post a graphic image every month. It is a list of sketchy incidents involving firearms. In addition to the graphic, PAGV posts a list of links. This enables the reader to learn more about the incidents. This custom is rare on facebook. More meme mongers should provide backup for their graphic rhetoric. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The graphic has a brief description of the incident. The text is usually, though not always, accurate. This textbite is written in first person. In the case of Josmel Herrera, this adds a touch of irony. Mr. Herrera was cleaning a gun on a skype chat, and shot himself. The injury was fatal. Maybe he wrote the text on the way to the hospital.
In most of the twenty one cases, the ethnic identity of the actor is not indicated in the report. Several of the shooters had Hispanic names. In six cases, the race of the perp was obvious. Out of these six, three were white, and three were black. Another irresponsible gun user was named Si Phu.
In one Missouri incident, a man was hearing music that nobody else heard. “On Saturday afternoon he heard annoying bass noise again, coming from an adjoining apartment in the 12500 block of Ardwick Lane. Police say he put on a bullet-resistant vest, took a handgun and confronted the neighbor, ordering Yi-Ping “Peter” Chang to “turn the bass down.” … He shot and killed Chang during the confrontation about 3:30 p.m., then waited outside for police to arrive, saying the shooting was in self-defense, according to police.”… neighbors said James C. Blanton complained about non existing noise often, and that he is mentally ill. “
Mental illness is possibly involved in an Arizona story. “Police responded to the apartment at 1515 W. Missouri Avenue after receiving reports of a dead African-American woman covered in a towel laying on the sofa. When officers arrived to the apartment, Anitra Braxton told police that no one was inside her apartment and that she lived alone. … However, noticed what appeared to be a body laying on the sofa. Braxton was then arrested and taken to police headquarters. Once police obtained a search warrant for the apartment, they found the body of Crystal Hillman wrapped in a towel and laying on the couch. She had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. … While being questioned, Braxton told police Hillman’s body was a “shrine from God” and was actually her own body. She later told police that the victim had been shot in the eye for not believing in God.”
A Detroit family had a Christmas to forget. “The alleged shooter, Sharonda Benson, left the family outing after a dispute over an ex-boyfriend and came back to the home firing 5-10 shots into the home striking the two girls, aged 7 and 8 were playing on the ground floor of the home with newly received Christmas gifts. … the 7-year-old has died, the 8-year-old is hospitalized in critical condition.”
Several of the shootouts were in Florida. “Officials say “Case Closed” after a woman accidentally shot her fiancé in the wrist … their two Pit Bulls, “Ruby” and “Blueberry” were fighting in master bedroom. Charles Jones says, while he was holding the two dogs apart, he asked Cindy Kittelson to grab their .38 revolver and shoot “Ruby” in the head. Kettelson retrieved the revolver, pointed it at “Ruby’s” head and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, the bullet passed through the dog’s ear and struck Jones in the wrist. … At the conclusion of their investigation, deputies confirmed that the incident was completely accidental and no charges were filed against Cindy Kettelson. Animal Control was called to investigate the animal’s well-being.”
Top Ten List
Facebook and twitter (FAT) are always trying to get you to read something. The other day two links combined to create a “top ten” list. The two stories were Debunking 5 Phony Statistics Liberals Love To Toss Around and 5 Reasons to Suspect Jesus Never Existed. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Townhall five: “1) One in five college-age women have been raped. 2) Spousal abuse skyrockets on Super Bowl Sunday. 3) Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. 4) Ten percent of the population is gay. 5) Ninety seven percent of scientists agree that global warming is manmade and dangerous.”
PG had never heard of number 2. Numbers 1 and 3 sound like something a preacher would say on Sunday morning. Numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 rely of the dodgy use of statistics. And who are these “liberals” that “love to toss around” these factoids?
Alternet seems to be taking marketing tips from conservatives. When you go to their post, you are greeted with a popup ad. “These are dark times. They may get worse. We are up against a dangerous combination of intolerance and a new style of authoritarianism. Many alienated people are susceptible to demagogic appeals.” The popup is next to an ad on the main page for a mail order razor company called “Harry’s,” with a promotion for “Five German Blades Zero Upcharging.”
Five thoughts about Jesus: “1. No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef. 2. The earliest New Testament writers seem ignorant of the details of Jesus’ life, which become more crystalized in later texts. 3. Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be first-hand accounts. 4. The gospels, our only accounts of a historical Jesus, contradict each other. 5. Modern scholars who claim to have uncovered the real historical Jesus depict wildly different persons.” None of these ideas are new. The Jesus worshiper response is out there. These five ideas do not affect the sales plan, for life after death, at the heart of Christianity.
52 Years Of Living Presidents
The United States passed a milestone October 28, 2015. Few people noticed. We now have a new record for US Presidents not dying in office.
George Washington was inaugurated April 30, 1789. All Presidents lived to finish their time in office for 51 years and 339 days. William H. Harrison died April 4, 1841.
Mr. Harrison was the first of the zero factor Presidents. From 1840 until 1960, any man elected President, in a year ending in zero, died in office. In recent times, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush survived the zero factor. Maybe the middle initial made a difference.
John F. Kennedy made an unwise trip to Dallas TX on November 22, 1963. No President has died in office since then. 51 years and 340 days went by on October 28, 2015. Barack H. Obama is assumed to be happy about this.
While no Presidents have died in the last 52 years, there was one that did not finish his term. Richard M. Nixon resigned from office August 9, 1974. He did live another 20 years. Pictures for this feature are from The Library of Congress.
Prayer Shaming
Prayer shaming entered the vocabulary this week. Some moving lips were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the latest commodity shooting. Some pundits thought it odd to offer T&P. Many of the people offering T&P are shameless attention mongers.
Many religions have prayer. The idea is that you talk to G-d. Sometimes it is a public ritual, sometimes it a private conversation. The star of the Christian religion, Jesus, is quoted as favoring private conversations. This does not stop his believers from making a grotesque spectacle of prayer.
The sad truth is that many of the prayer perpetrators talk too much. Telling them to talk is like telling an alcoholic to take a drink. Talking is seen as taking action, while listening is seen as being passive. This is just one of the problems in our culture.
Whenever there is a mass shooting, people say a lot of silly things. They argue the semantics of terrorism. There is two wrongs make a right rhetoric about race. In america, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, you whine about race. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Bernied Out
Bernie Sanders is speaking at the Fox Theater tonight. While PG enjoys a free circus, it is doubtful that he will atttend tonight. There are just too many problems with Bernard no-middle-name Sanders, who will be known as BS in this report.
When watching the Demo debate, PG realized that BS is a jerk. He is loud, abrasive, and ugly. BS is always ready to make an angry, shouting speech. BS is a cranky, ill tempered old fogey, with too many opinions. One Jew, a thousand opinions.
It is not enough that BS is a jerk. There is also his adoring followers, the bernoids. That is a contraction of Bernie and annoyed. Bernoids make evangelical christians look restrained. Bernoids seem to think that the louder they scream, the more memes they post on facebook, the more likely their hero is of being elected. It would be a luxury to consider the candidates on their merits, rather than reacting to the obnoxious behavior of their followers.
So much for style. BS doesn’t do too good on substance either. Does anyone really think that BS will make college tuition free? And pay for it with the revenue from environmentally sensitive unicorn ranching? The Repub dominated congress is not likely to go along with this.
It is ironic that BS is telling the truth on many issues. There is massive income inequality in Amerika. Unfortunately, loudly whining about it is not going to do anything except fire up the bernoids. The one percent is getting a good laugh.
BS said in a debate that Muslims should pitch in to defeat Haesh. (This part will be done from memory. Google should have the exact words.) This is what Israel wants. If Syria’s government is fighting rebels, then nobody is fighting Israel. There is a lot of killing going on in the middle east. BS wants to see more, as long as Israel doesn’t get hurt.
The Georgia primary is March 1. This is after a few primaries, and the field may start to narrow. Maybe a strategic vote against a Repub is in order. Or, maybe a Demo vote is the way to go. Bernie, with all his faults, is more appealing than Hillary. PG will probably make up his mind while walking to the polling place. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
#Mizzou
@WesleyLowery “Folks unbothered that Darren Wilson never filed a police report on Michael Brown shooting now demanding DNA analysis of campus poop swastika”. In contemporary social discussions, two wrongs equal one right. If you can’t say anything good, you talk about the way your people are treated in the media. The comment by @WesleyLowery is a good place to get started.
About this time a year ago, the grand jury was announcing that they were going to make an announcement on the Darren Wilson/Micheal Brown affair. A lot of people did not know that a police report was not filed. Ferguson police turned the matter over to St. Lous County authorities, and decided not to file a report. There were many reports in the weeks to follow.
It is tough to see a connection between Darren Wilson and a poop swastica. It is tough to see a connection between a Nazi symbol, drawn with (presumably) human waste, and much of anything. The school’s interior design department has some wacky students. How this justifies the football team going on strike, which leads to the President of the school resigning, is a mystery.
The other incidents that led to the football strike involved the n-word. Supposedly, the racial slur was shouted at people on campus. One of the people was student body President Payton Head, who made an incendiary post on facebook. The post had the intended effect of firing up the campus.
After the school President resigned, someone posted on “yik-yak” the following message. “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see.” The digital community spread the message far and wide. Payton Head made a facebook comment:”Students please take precaution. Stay away from the windows in residence halls. The KKK has been confirmed to be sighted on campus,” Mr. Head later admitted that this was not true. Some observers wonder if Payton Head was telling the truth about the earlier n-word incident.
Meanwhile, the ether has been ablaze. The authorities asked people to report incidents of hurtful speech. Twitter is twinkling tweets in a twisted sisterhood of 140 character affirmations. @Charleeea #Mizzou black students need to stop protesting and start killing. The white supremacy made it clear they aint hearing it.” This account is now private. The same user made a comment on another platform. @Charleeea” I may be over my baby dad but I took many lessons with me on the way out. Game good ova here”
This post is not going to try and make sense out of what is happening. If you expect a slack blogger to explain social justice jihad, then you are in worse shape that Melissa Click. The facially challenged professor was at the center of a sideshow controversiy this week. Dr.Click wrote her Phd dissertation, at from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, about the “commodification of femininity, affluence and whiteness in the Martha Stewart phenomenon.” In the meantime, here are a few comments from twitter. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
@moshpitwhoreThis is probably the most important this I’ve ever posted. #Istandwithmizzou #prayformizzou #BlackLivesMatter
@michaeltheglory White people saying this is fake, are y’all too up your asses to face reality?
@stevesalaita One racist administrator down, hundreds to go. #Mizzou
@BlacknRight Student protests in 60s were about being sent overseas to die. Today’s r over feelings being hurt by words. #Mizzou & others = BS! #endpc
@mirahwood Nobody on the planet are bigger babies than butthurt racist white folk #Mizzou
@RickCanton We are raising a nation of pansies. @chamblee54 pansies are rugged flowers that grow in winter you should use another noun to make your point
@BlackAutonomist Twitter racists are so mad and their tears taste like sweet nectar. #Mizzou
@johnupton Sometimes being a journalist is hard. But when the media spins a civil rights story into a media rights story, #whiteprivilege wins. #Mizzou
#OP_KKK Part Two
The “official” data dump on the KKK has hit the ether. Anonymous promised the material at 10 am CST Thursday. It was five and one half hours late, which led to speculation that @Operation_KKK’s #OpKKK Exposed: ‘Anonymous’ was Geraldo the Whole Time!.
In any event, it is here, and less sensational than the widely discredited politician breakdown earlier this week. There are some who still believe that the earlier data dump was real. Some people are very gullible when it comes to fighting racism. Anonymous does not help by including a famous grand dragon, Calvin Craig, who died in 1998. Louisiana celebrity David Duke is also on the list.
The information on the list seems to have been collected through common sense browsing. Many of the facebook peeps shown seem to be proud of being idiots. Others outed themselves in chat rooms and forums. As the report says, “You never know who you are talking to on the internet”.
PG has been clicking on some of the facebook pages. Some of them are amusing. Here are a few highlights. This digest will continue until it gets too long, which probably won’t take too long. (One hour later) This is not that much fun. The names are in alphabetical first name order. After going through the J names, these are the only text items. There are dozens of memes, many of which feature stars and bars, Jesus, Obama, expressions of white pride, and paranoia. It can be discouraging. If you want to look for yourself, there is a link above to the report.
woman Baby I love this picture of you you’re so sexy… man Lmwao woman Not funny!! And before you ask… No baby I have not smoked crack today! Lmmfao *wink emoticon* man Crack head. woman I am not!! man Lmwao
Arianna Wolfe I try to give some ppl the benefit of a doubt when I accept friend requests….. but when I look at what your about I see a lot of men are not true aryan but just womanizing druggies or drunks that act so much like our enemy’s that all that separates you from them is skin color
Chase N Graceland (from report) Buford Forest AKA Don Hall AKA Chase N Graceland East Coast Knights Elvis Impersonator (lulz) Says he does not have enough money to pay his klan dues so he is not a member (In the klan, you pay up or youre not a member) However, he may be a member of Confederate White Knights (out of Maryland) Interesting Fact: 3 or 4 different Elvis impersonators have tried to join the klan. Creepy.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
#OPKKK
PG was minding his business when he stumbled onto a tweet. @neonflag This number on Anonymous’ KKK data dump jumped out at me: 770-499-4633. That’s the Cobb County Sheriff. #gapol. While the Cobb County Sheriff is not beyond suspicion, it seemed odd to think of a government office as being a KKK member.
There had been rumors. Anonymous was going to release the names of KKK members. The people wearing Guy Fawkes masks were going to expose the people wearing bedsheet hoods. Twitter nation was abuzz with excitement…lets expose the racists. PG was concerned about collateral damage, about innocent people being dragged into the mess. And now it was happening.
They’re publishing their data there. In addition to the phone numbers, there were email addresses, many with .ru addresses. There was also a list of politicians. There were lurid articles, like Racists Panic As Anonymous Starts Releasing Details Of KKK Members.
Included on this list was Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson. A conservative Republican that many would not want to defend, Sen. Isakson had been in real estate before he ran for election. This is an image conscious business, that would not lend itself to bedsheet wearing. Nonetheless, facebook was soon crowded with people calling for the resignation of Senator Isakson.
Before long, common sense began to creep in. If You Really Think Four Republican Senators Are in the KKK, You’re a Fool. Relax: #OpKKK Did Not Release Info Linking Elected Officials To The KKK. One division of the hydra headed anonymous tried to back away from another. @Operation_KKK
This account has NOT YET released any information. We believe in due diligence and will NOT recklessly involve innocent individuals #OpKKK .
Several questions remain. How will we know who to believe? Was the preliminary *data dump* a false flag operation, designed to damage anonymous credibility? Why are they worried about the KKK? Is genuine evil flourishing while America chases bedsheets?
Despite it’s fierce reputation as a “racist terrorist” organization, the KKK is in bad shape. It has less credibility than the Westboro Baptist Church. The custom of wearing bedsheets makes them the easy target for jokes. The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center say the membership of the KKK is dwindling.
A good argument could be made that anonymous publicity is helping the KKK. It makes bedsheets look dangerous. While the three digital stooges of anonymous/facebook/twitter are focused on bedsheets, more dangerous white (and other color) hate groups are operating in darkness. With people fascinated with who is under the bedsheets, people that can do damage are buying ammunition, and buying elections. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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