Dolly Parton And Paula Deen
Last month, on January 19, Dolly Parton turned 70. The internet was a love fest for her, and deservedly so. Miss Parton has given joy to millions with her singing and acting.
Paula Deen was born on the same day, one year later. While her star did not shine quite as bright as Miss Parton, Mrs. Deen made her contribution to american life. The only problem was a bad boss lawsuit against a company Mrs. Deen invested in. A lawyer got Mrs. Deen to admit, under oath, the she had said the n-word. Paula Deen became a pariah.
Dolly Parton and Paula Deen have a few things in common. Miss Parton is married to Carl Thomas Dean, and her legal name is Mrs. Dean. While both ladies are from the south, the hills of East Tennessee and the flatland of Albany, Georgia. Both grew up in an era where the n-word was what white people called black people.
What if the story had been different. What if it was a restaurant at Dollywood where the manager was not happy? What if this white woman, who was treated better because she was a white woman, decided to claim racial discrimination in her bad boss lawsuit? (Page 153 of deposition.) What if the disgruntled employee’s lawyer was smarter than Dolly Parton’s lawyer. We might have had tabloids screaming nonstop that Dolly Parton said the n-word.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress, taken at “Annual “Bathing Girl Parade”, Balboa Beach, CA, June 20, 1920.” No one asked these ladies if they ever said the n-word.
John S. McCain And Bernie Sanders
The latest podcast addiction is a Slate production called Whistlestop. WS (whistlestop, not water sports) is about presidential elections. On top of the home page is a header ad. At first it had a picture of Hillary, with the message “I’m with her.” Now, it is a prescription medication, side effects scrolling slowly on the right. The side effects of Hillary are more obvious.
Episode 24 is When the Straight Talk Express Rolled Through New Hampshire. In the 2000 election, George W. Bush was the anointed candidate for the Republicans. Challenging him in New Hampshire was John S. McCain. The winner in New Hampshire was Senator McCain. The winner of the nomination, and ultimately the Presidency, was George W. Bush.
The WS story is about how JSM got the New Hampshire voters on his side. The 2008 story will, no doubt, be a future episode of WS. JSM did the whole Straight Talk routine, and won the nomination. JSM chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Whether JSM had a chance, after eight years of W, is a good question. BHO won the 2008 election, and is currently the lame duck POTUS.
In Georgia, the electoral votes are all but conceded to the Republicans. The only time we get to choose is the primary. In 2008, PG saw the two choices were John McCain and Barack Obama. Both had flaws, but both offered alternatives to the nonsense of Mike Huckabee and John Edwards. After thinking about it, PG remembered that John McCain dropped napalm on women and children. So PG voted for Barack Obama. Once elected, BHO would fire hellfire missiles at women and children.
David Foster Wallace covered the McCain campaign for Rolling Stone. He was always good for a few thousand words, often in the first sentence. DFW had a few thoughts about why JSM was so popular.
“Because we’ve been lied to and lied to, and it hurts to be lied to. It’s ultimately just about that complicated: it hurts. We learn this at like age four—it’s grownups’ first explanation to us of why it’s bad to lie (“How would you like it if … ?”). And we keep learning for years, from hard experience, that getting lied to sucks—that it diminishes you, denies you respect for yourself, for the liar, for the world. Especially if the lies are chronic, systemic, if experience seems to teach that everything you’re supposed to believe in’s really just a game based on lies. Young Voters have been taught well and thoroughly. You may not personally remember Vietnam or Watergate, but it’s a good bet you remember “No new taxes” and “Out of the loop” and “No direct knowledge of any impropriety at this time” and “Did not inhale” and “Did not have sex with that Ms. Lewinsky” and etc. etc. It’s painful to believe that the would-be “public servants” you’re forced to choose between are all phonies whose only real concern is their own care and feeding and who will lie so outrageously and with such a straight face that you know they’ve just got to believe you’re an idiot. So who wouldn’t yawn and turn away, trade apathy and cynicism for the hurt of getting treated with contempt?”
This time, the outlaw candidate is Bernie Sanders. He won a big victory in New Hampshire. BS is lying through his teeth. He says he will make college tuition free, and install single payer socialized medicine. Everyone knows these are lies (BS²) and yet the Bernoids play along. Te-Nehisi Coates even denounced BS for not supporting reparations for Black people, even though everyone knows that will never happen. If you are going to lie, you might as well lie for everyone.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Phi Grid Social Life
PG was spending another night on the internet. The primary activity was downloading files from The Library of Congress. Some of these images are posted here. This collection has enormous files, with 200mb not uncommon. When you download these, you request a file, and wait until time to request another one. There is lots of time to be led astray. The internet is full of digital temptation.
“Why is considered hateful or divisive to speak inconvenient truths about Hillary Clinton but okay to paint all Republicans as bigoted idiots? This is the kind of blind partisanship that creates gridlock, not electing a man who is extremely popular with both Democrats and Republicans in the state he has represented for thirty years.”
Holy strawman. Leaping logical fallacy. Who is the person speaking about Hitlery? Who is the person, that considers person A, to be hateful and divisive? Is it person A, or person B, or both, who say Republicans are all poopyheads? The babblemonger battle cry “google it” will not be helpful.
After PG finished shaking his head, a tweet appeared on the horizon. @GimpChat Let’s start a game. Golden ratio/Phi grid. #gimp #gimpchat #art. PG had heard of the rule of thirds before, but never the phi grid. The latter is a chart, used for cropping pictures. It is based on the Fibonacci numbers, aka the golden rectangle. PG uses the golden mean as a default dimension for cropping pictures. Especially in the graphic poems, where all the images are, measured in pixels, 720 x 447.
The next step was to draw a chart of the phi grid. The first example from the internet was useless. GIMP has a “golden sections” option for certain grids, which PG imposed on a template screen. The phi grid is two horizontal lines, and two vertical lines, creating nine rectangles. From the first image, PG got the pixel numbers to use.
After drawing this chart, PG began to notice things. At two spots on the grid, a square should appear. However, on attempt number one, these numbers were always a few pixels off. PG decided to scrap attempt number one, and start from scratch. This is the way PG operates… you have to do it wrong before you can do it right.
The golden rectangle is based on a series of sides that add up. The first rectangle we will use, though not the start of the fibonucci series, is 3×5. If you add 3+5, you get 8. The next rectangle is 5×8. If you add 5+8, you get 13. The next rectangle is 8×13. And so on and so forth. The ratio of the numbers will remain the same. The official phi number, which, like pi, can go on for millions of digits, is 1.618033. When PG edits pictures, the numbers are 1.61:100.
The whole thing is based on adding/subtracting side A from side B. The overall box is 720×447. 720-447=273. 447-273=174. The horizontal lines of the phi grid go at 174 and 273. The vertical lines go at 273 and 447. This is supposed to give you shapes that will be pleasing to the eye. Thinking about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is not pleasing to the eye, or any other sensory organ.
Six Responses To Bernie Skeptics
When you have a political contest based on what people say, it is not surprising that a lot of what they say is nonsense. Yesterday there was an video on facebook, Six responses to Bernie skeptics. Somebody wannabe Robert Reich writes a bunch of stuff on a board. Mr. Reich is on the screen by himself, without any attempt at perspective. Many people do not know that Robert Reich is four foot eleven, just like many people did not know FDR was crippled. The video script is widely available, which will make this counter commentary a bit easier.
The video has comebacks to six things Bernie naysayers might offer. The first is that Bernie cannot beat Donald Trump or Ted Cruz in a general election. Mr. Reich has polls that say BS would beat the Donald, and control Cruz. The election is November 8, two days after the clocks are turned back. This is a long time from now. There will be time for Repub dirty tricksters to come up with dirt on Bernie.
We should also remember that the popular vote is meaningless. The election is decided by the Electoral College. Most states are written off as solid red or true blue. Only “swing state” voters get a vote. A national poll in January cannot predict what Ohio voters will do in November. (BS has been silent on the issue of electoral college reform.)
Reason number two is pure number two. The simple truth is that Republicans control congress, and will defeat the BS agenda. (Those are the initials of Bernard no-middle-name Sanders. Any similarity to bovine excrement is coincidence.) The Republican presence in government is reinforced with gerrymandering, money, lapdog press, money, lawyers, guns, money, Jesus exploiters, and more money. The Reich answer: “But there’s a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie’s “political revolution” continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged.”
Number three is semantic shade. “America would never elect a socialist.” “What we have now is socialism, and people don’t realize it.” Both statements are true. It is just that we don’t call Social Security communism. Just like people say they support small government, while sending half a million boots to a desert eight time zones away. There is a lot of “irony” in today’s political circus. That is how the game is played.
Number four is about the cost of single payer healthcare. The truth is that nobody knows. We have a broken system, and installed a compromise fix. When we finally go to single payer healthcare, there is no way to know how it will play out. Maybe the BS proposal will be cheaper, maybe it will be horribly expensive. The current system is too unfair to live, too profitable to die.
Number five is an argument that few have heard. ““His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.” When you make up an argument, it is easy to make up the reply. In this case, there is more rhetoric and semantics. The federal government has sent money into the education pipeline for years. The money comes with strings attached. This is no surprise to anyone except Sarah Palin.
Number six is a doozy. Yes, BS is in his seventies. No, we don’t see him huffing on an oxygen tank after he gives a speech. We just have to take the word of his supporters that he is the picture of vigorous health. Why would Robert Reich ever want to lie to you?
“In any event, the issue isn’t age; it’s having the right values. FDR was paralyzed, and JFK had both Addison’s and Crohn’s diseases, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice.” FDR and JFK were known by their initials. FDR helped get us involved in World War Two. JFK, who served less than three years, was presented as being full of vi-gah, when in truth he was seriously ill. Both FDR and JFK had extramarital affairs, which only the staunchest BS groupie wants to know about.
Pictures for your politically incorrect entertainment are from The Library of Congress. These pictures are soldiers from the War Between the States. They did not post food pictures on facebook.
Bernienomics
@BernieSanders “I got into politics not to figure out how to become President. I got into politics because I give a damn.” The old tweeter sent this message December 11, 2015, at 4:42 pm Sanders Standard Time. At last glance, it was retweeted 25,901 times, and liked 44,263 times.
What exactly is a damn? When you give one, do you gift wrap it? The dictionary says that damn is a verb, meaning “condemn to a punishment or fate; especially : to condemn to hell.” Giving a verb is not good grammar. Damn is considered a mild profanity, which adds polemic punch.
History gives us a second opinion. “In 1665, Aurangzeb, or Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb. (A real mouthful of a name!) was the emperor of the Mughal empire. He ruled from 1658 until his death in 1707. Aurangzeb had coins minted in precious metals as well as copper. The copper denominations were one Dam and one half Dam.”
At some point after the invention of the copper dam, Great Britain conquered the Mughal empire. By this time, the dam was not worth twice as much as a half dam, but not much otherwise. According to some unverified sources, British soldiers would say that something was not worth a dam. Or maybe, they said they would not give a dam. Somehow, the profaning n was added, and a saying for apathy entered the english language.
How much is a dam/damn worth? To people living downhill from the lake, a dam is valuable. As for the numismatic value of an ancient copper coin:“By looking at both catalog values for copper Dams minted in the Mughal calendar year of 1075 (Western date 1665) … we can provide the following very approximate values for copper half-Dams and Dams minted in the name of Aurangzeb: worn: $4, average circulated: $7, well preserved: $30.”
Getting back to BS, he probably used the conventional meaning of GAD, which is that he cares. Or maybe, he meant that he gives a dollar. If current economic trends hold up, the dollar might not be worth a dam. The welfare state proposals of BS, according to the admittedly biased Wall Street Journal, would cost $18 Trillion. This would effectively double the national debt. If we get mixed up in another war, or if a nuclear power plant blows up, another few trillion might go down the tubes.
Only the most deluded Bernoids expect college tuition to be free in 2018. BS is talking a good game, but most people know his pants are on fire. One person who is offended because BS won’t step up the lies is Ta-Nehisi Coates. If reparations are added onto free college tuition, then the value of the dollar might go below a half dam. Pictures for snowstorm Saturday are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
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.”
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