@sarahjeong
Between 1950 and 1953, American soldiers fought in the Korean War. Nearly 40,000 Americans died in that war. While exact figures are not readily available, it can be safely assumed that many, if not most, of the American soldiers who died in Korea were white. This is a repost from 2018.
In 1988, Sarah Jeong was born in South Korea. When she was three, she moved to the United States with her parents, who had student visas. Ms. Jeong grew up in the United States, and became a naturalized citizen in 2017. “I’m a very privileged person. And I am, like, completely documented. Everything’s in order, and I’m educated. I speak English. I don’t have that much to be afraid of.”
Sarah Jeong was hired to a prominent position at the New York Times. A collection of tweets came to light, with Ms. Jeong saying hateful things about white people. A controversy ensued, and the NYT issued a statement of support. Sarah Jeong is the internet sensation of the hour.
Andrew Sullivan published a commentary, When Racism Is Fit to Print. It was widely denounced. Many took issue with its thesis that the controversial tweets are racist. @Bro_Pair I wonder if anyone at NY Magazine knows how demoralizing it is to young writers to see Andrew Sullivan, an ardent white supremacist & scientific racist, attain the lifelong perch Sarah Jeong would be denied for 100% inoffensive tweets @KaivanShroff Andrew Sullivan’s piece is problematic in many ways. But the main point of foolishness is YOU CANNOT BE RACIST AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE. You can only be prejudice against a dominant race. Racism is about in-group vs. out-group power. In the American context whites are in-group.
To PG, the racism issue is beside the point. Maybe Ms. Jeong is racist. Maybe she is prejudiced but not racist. Maybe she is bigoted, but not prejudiced or racist. Whatever. To-may-to to-mah-to. Maybe a better comment about her twitter account comes from a colleague.@mslopatto Congrats to my pal and yours @sarahjeong – just a shame for all of us her twitter is about to be a lot less fun.
“I engaged in what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again,” This is the *apology* issued by Sarah Jeong. It is a classic of internet logic. The statement is convincing evidence of one central fact. Sarah Jeong is an asshat.
Twenty five years before Sarah Jeong was born, white American soldiers were fighting in Korea. Many white American soldiers died, to keep South Korea from being conquered by North Korea. When Sarah Jeong was three years old, she came to live in the United States, and did very well. (“I’m a very privileged person.) White American soldiers died so that Sarah Jeong could have this fabulous life. This is how Sarah Jeong says thank you. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
A Sad Event
It is with the saddest heart that I must pass on the following news. Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection, and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.
Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs.Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.
Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he was still a crusty old man and was considered a roll model for millions.
Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough, two children, John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly dad, Pop Tart.
I am not clever enough to compose the above piece. Credit is hereby given to whoever wrote it. This is a repost. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The spell check suggestion for Doughboy is Doughnut.
Conservative Liberal Racist
The management of this blog is not responsible for brain damage incurred while reading this post. Those threatened by this discussion, or not interested, are encouraged to skip over the text, and look at the pictures. These images, are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
There is a meme, with the text a conservative is a liberal who has been labeled a racist. A few comments followed publication. Someone was paying attention. Uhm…WTF?! ~ its a long story ~ All three labels are useless and misleading. I try not to let the labels of others describe me, but sometimes it happens. It is a bit of poetic license.
The words liberal and conservative are useless. When he started to make the comment, PG intended to refer to those two expressions. Then he started to type.The realization hit … the word racist was just as obsolete as liberal and conservative, and probably misused more often.
The next day at work, PG began to think. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Jimmy Carter Boulevard, that is what you saw. Random thoughts began to emerge.
A- The popularity of con, lib, and rac, derive from America’s blind allegiance to the belief paradigm The general thought is that what you believe is more important than what you do. The dominant religion in America is Jesus Worship, which is based on beliefs rather than practices. While America is not officially a Christian country, their thought processes dominate the way things work here.
B- The belief paradigm filters down to the popularity of silly labels.We have people who claim to be small government conservatives, and who support sending 200k troops to a war eight time zone away. You can treat your black neighbors with kindness and grace, but if you say the wrong things on facebook you are considered a racist. It is a funny system.
C- Conservatives use liberal as an insult. Liberals use racist as an insult.
D- No one is certain what the words conservative, liberal, and racist mean. You should beware of anyone who claims to be certain of what these labels represent.
The Gift Of Cultural Appropriation
This is a repost from 2015. There is a tasteful video on the innertubes today, WTF is Cultural Appropriation. This is not about WTF Podcast. Hopefully Marc Maron will not wear his hair in dreadlocks. The video shows a black man, jumping around in front of the camera, sharing his ideas about cultural appropriation.
Perhaps we should summarize what @the1janitor has to say. He does not give a shit what people do with their hair. (Does he gift wrap the shit when he does give it?) T1J is not concerned over whether Iggy Azalea sings rap songs. Most culture today is a mix of influences, and T1J is cool with that. This chill does not extend to a pro football team in Hyattsville MD, whose nickname rhymes with munchkins. T1J, aka Kevin Peterson, does not think that is appropriate.
T1J wears dreadlocks. Many Amerikans see this hairstyle as connected to the Rastafarians in Jamaica. T1J is not a rasta, but is not accused of any appropriative wrongdoing by wearing his hair in dreadlocks. It seems the reason for this acceptance is his African American origin.
This is similar to the situation with BHO. The half white POTUS was raised by white people in Hawaii and Indonesia. And yet, because he has dark skin, BHO is unquestioningly accepted as a black man. The POTUS uses the style of black culture that he learned as an adult. When a white fool shoots up a black church, BHO goes to a funeral, sings “Amazing Grace,” and is praised.
Many of these cultural and racial debates are very shallow. Judgements are made on outside appearances, rather than the real person under the skin. The dream of people not “judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” has turned into a nightmare of petty wrangling over white privilege and cultural appropriation.
So much for content. What caught PG’s eye was the background. There is a Crimson Tide poster on the wall, behind the speaker, that seemed familiar. PG has seen T1J before, in a video titled Why I Disagree With Morgan Freeman. T1J says we need to talk about racism, then talk some more, and then talk more after that. The word listen is not used as often.
The University of Alabama football team poster is an ironic touch. NCAA football teams are highly exploitative of young people. The young men who play work long hours for their education. Many of the football players are rushed through school, taking easy classes so they will be eligible to play. Many of these young men will suffer crippling injuries playing a contact sport. Meanwhile, these football programs are hugely profitable for the institution, especially at a football factory like the University of Alabama. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The men in the seven photographs below were members of The Tuskegee Airmen
Cis
The prefix cis- is being used to mean the opposite of trans. This is a gender thing. A cismale is a man who uses the factory equipment. A transman is someone who does things differently. There are various forms of this, which is a bit too complicated for social media discussion. Fecesbook Facebook, famously fallacy friendly, is not a good medium for subtle discussion. This is a repost.
Before we get started, it should be noted that cis- serves a valid purpose. The only objection here is to the word itself. It has a weird sound, and can be confusing. Perhaps an alternative would be to say birth gender. If you are were born male, and live in compliance with the gender assigned at birth, then you are a birth male, as opposed to a trans male.
Today’s drama started out with a post by Kat Blaque. Mx. Blaque is self described as “Illustration, Animator, Youtuber” on twitter, and “Children’s Illustrator, Thrift Store Addict and Opinion Vlogger” on facebook. The comment: “People who don’t like the word “cis” are annoying because they pretend it’s made up when it’s a prefix commonly used in science. but whatever. Ya’ll some children.”
Luther Mckinnon This comment is transplaining. I don’t like cis- because the s sound is tough to make for many people. Also, cis- sounds like cissy. Kat Blaque Butch up mary.
There were comments. Most of them had to do with “sounds like cissy.” The objection is not because of “emasculation.” The simple truth is that a cissy (or sissy) is a man who does not conform to gender standards. In other words, he does not *act like a man.* A cismale is someone who conforms to gender standards. Cissy sounds a lot like cismale. They mean dramatically different things.
The language g-ds have spoken. The opposite of trans- is cis-. Any man who does not conform to this language standard is less of a man than one who does. To have standards of masculinity applied to using a prefix denoting the opposite of trans…this is weird.
Luther Mckinnon So, we make a difference this time. The business of using the cis prefix if fairly new. We can get into ableism issues here if you like. It is interesting that I made the comment about the s sound first. The part about similarity to cissy was second. The first comment was ignored. The incidental second comment was jumped on by the “woke”masses. There is also a bit of confusion here. A cissy is basically a non gender conforming male. Cis- means conforming to the gender assigned at birth. I see a contradiction there. Kat BlaqueI have a lisp and I can say cis just find. Butch up. Samantha Nicholson I like “cis” it sounds very scientific and using it makes me sound smart! “Prefix commonly used in science.” This is news to a lot of people, with the possible exception of the Cisco Kid. Crosswordsolver.org has a list of words starting in cis. One familiar item is cistern, the opposite of a dry garden. Other commonly used words include cisalpine, cislunar, cismontane, Cissoid, Cistothorus, Cistothorus palustris, and Cistus ladanum.
One more person made a comment. Cianán Russell Luther, sit down. Seriously. I know you- SIT DOWN. Luther Mckinnon Who? This post has gone on long enough. It is time for the pictures, from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Rules For Writing
PG was recently reading a list of rules for writing. He began to think of a few. A wordpad was opened, and before long 18 suggestions appeared. When you publish a list like this, you are placing a target on your back, with the word hypocrite written above. PG does not claim to take all these suggestions all the time. What follows is a goal to work for, not a script for a situation comedy.
When in doubt, shut up. … A halo is best worn over one ear.
You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk.
If you want to be forgiven, forgive. If you want to be understood, understand.
There are few situations that cannot be made worse with anger and loud talk.
A douche is a hygiene appliance. The verb form refers to using this device, for cleaning purposes. Neither the noun nor the verb is appropriate for use as an insult.
A sentence has one period, placed at the end. Do not place a period after every word to make a point. You should find another way to show emphasis.
Before you “call out” somebody for “racism”, drape a towel over your mirror.
Not everyone enjoys the sound of your voice as much as you do.
Do not place “ass” between and adjective and the object. “Ass” is a noun that refers to either a donkey or a butt. An adverb is used to modify an adjective, and is placed before the adjective. Using “ass” as a misplaced adverb is improper.
The third commandment says to not use the word G-d “in vain”. The G-word should only be used for worship and respectful discussion. Improper uses include expressing anger, swearing to, selling life insurance, and pledging allegiance to a nationalist symbol.
This is a repost from 2011 and 2020. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library” … PG was reading facebook, minding his own business, when he saw something that made his head explode. It started with a post with the splashy title White Liberals Have White Privilege Too! . There is something about online discussions about white privilege that make well meaning people want to type a lot of words. PG usually avoids such a conversation, as if it were an amway pitch, but made an exception this fateful afternoon.
The seminal article was written in 2007, and mentioned the media controversy of the day. It seemed as though Joe Biden said “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy … I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” 2011 UPDATE: Mr. Biden is currently the Vice President, serving under the FMAA. 2020 UPDATE: Biden the Elder is currently serving as President of the United States.
There was a link to a bit of archaic html called ” Black People Love Us!, which tells the story of Sally and Johnny… “We are well-liked by Black people so we’re psyched (since lots of Black people don’t like lots of White people)!! We thought it’d be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN’ domain name and a killer website!!” The fun starts when a facebook paster quoted a letter to BPLU.
“I swear, if one more white person says that they want to touch my hair, I am gonna puck a f*ckin mousetrap in it so their f*ckin hand gets caught in it. anyways… GET WITH THE PROGRAM! Have any of you ever heard of sarcasm? Irony? Satires? Canterbury Tales? Shakespeare’s “As You Like it” and “Much Ado About Nothing?” If some of you would actually get your heads out of your asses for one second and read a f*cking book or get educated, you will see that this website is NOT trying to break down PEOPLE, but break down BARRIERS and erase STEREOTYPES…With much love for Sally and Johnny… A Black University of Michigan Student with nappy-ass hair”.
The resulting visual ruined the day for PG. BUMS should keep their pants on, and not burden the world with the sight of nappy hair on their posterior. The same thing goes for any asian, latino, caucasian, native american, or zorlack with this problem.
The Nanny State
From patriarchy to snowflake: five keywords you need to know Those naughty naysayers at the BBC had a five part series about trendy words. The fabulous five are Snowflake, The Nanny State, Patriarchy, Safe Space, Sovereignty. We learn that snowflake used to mean someone in Missouri who was opposed to abolition. Words do not always mean the same thing. This is a repost.
The Nanny State was the segment that sent PG scurrying to google. TNS was coined by Iain Macleod, who seems to have been quite the nuisance. Mr. Macleod wrote an article in The Spectator where he gifted us with the phrase. BBC says the article was about having speed limits on British roadways. Unfortunately, the article is behind a strict paywall, and you cannot tell for yourself. The paywall is a capitalist twist on TNS concept.
BBC also referenced an article by George Orwell. This is a splendid piece, where the former Eric Blair complains about what he calls “Pamphletese.” This is the style of writing used by communists in 1944. What does this have to do with TNS? Maybe the state’s nanny is big brother in drag.
The Orwell column is a splendid bit of writing. There is a list of words he would like to see banned: “Achilles’ heel, jackboot, hydra-headed, ride roughshod over, stab in the back, petty-bourgeois, stinking corpse, liquidate, iron heel, blood-stained oppressor, cynical betrayal, lackey, flunkey, mad dog, jackal, hyena, blood-bath.” Many of these are little used today. English cliches have a Darwinist quality, and only the strong survive. Unfortunately, the language is perpetually littered with questionable phrases. Anybody reading can think of a few dozen. These things too shall pass away.
“Yet they and other equally inappropriate words are dug up for pamphleteering purposes. The result is a style of writing that bears the same relation to writing real English as doing a jigsaw puzzle bears to painting a picture. It is just a question of fitting together a number of ready-made pieces. Just talk about hydra-headed jack-boots riding roughshod over blood-stained hyenas, and you are all right. For confirmation of which, see almost any pamphlet issued by the Communist Party—or by any other political party, for that matter.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Planned Parenthood Video Part Two
This is a repost from 2015. … Last Wednesday, a sensationalized video was released. Planned Parenthood was said to traffic is baby parts obtained through abortion.
On Thursday, Radiolab released a show, Gray’s Donation. Sarah Gray was pregnant with twins. The sonogram said that one baby would probably die, and that the sick baby was endangering the healthy baby. A decision was made to abort the sick baby. On the day of the procedure, something had changed. The abortion could not be safely performed. Both babies would be carried to term.
Thomas, the sick baby, lived for six days. Callum, the healthy baby, is doing fine. A decision was made to donate organs, from Thomas, to researchers. In the radiolab story, the mother goes to some of the labs, and learns what happened to the organs.
These quotes are from a story, Thomas Gray lived six days, but his life has lasting impact. “The next day, Gray met James Zieske, the institute’s senior scientist, who told her “infant eyes are worth their weight in gold,” because, being so young, they have great regenerative properties. Thomas’ corneas were used in a study that could one day help cure corneal blindness. … the Duke Center for Human Genetics in Durham, N.C., where even though the twins were identical, scientists found epigenetic differences in their cord blood, research that could one day help prevent Thomas’ fatal defect, anencephaly. … the researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who used the donation in her efforts to cure retinoblastoma, the most common form of eye cancer in children. … It is almost impossible to obtain normal retina from a child, The sample from Thomas is extremely precious for us.”
This is a unique case, as are almost all life or death situations. Things are seldom black or white, They are, pardon the pun, shades of gray. There are serious moral dilemmas involved in the use of some tissues for research. Nuance is not often communicated in 140 characters.
This does not stop the internet comment moralizers. “she a ghoul and a shyster dealer of death parts… praying on those mourning to accomplish ridiculous research” “Great story, but there is no way one of the priests should have claimed that it was OK to abort the sick baby in order to save the healthy one or the mother. The example used was completely wrong. … In Gray’s Donation there was absolutely an intention to kill the sick fetus. It would not have been an accident or unintended, and therefore there is no double effect, and is morally indefensible.”
In the Planned Parenthood video, much is made about pricing for the infant parts. Prices range from $30 to $100. In this study, we hear a researcher say “infant eyes are worth their weight in gold.” This might not be the best way to phrase this, since the tiny eyes probably don’t weigh that much. In a competitive free market, such an item would have a much, much higher price than $100.
One of the worst players in muddying the waters is the Catholic Church. A website called Life News has a misleading article, He Only Lived Six Days Outside the Womb, But Baby Thomas is Helping Cure Cancer. It ignores the fact that the mother opted for abortion, but was forced by medical circumstances to carry the twins to term. The post linked here has a header ad for Faith Focused Dating at “CatholicMatch.” Another ad promotes Affordable Biblical Healthcare.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Planned Parenthood Video
This is a repost from 2015. … At some point yesterday, a video was released by The Center for Medical Progress. It showed a secretly recorded luncheon with an official with Planned Parenthood. This official seemed to be discussing the sale of fetal body parts.
PG heard about it on twitter. He checked with Mr. Google. The sites reporting on the video included TOWNHALL, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, and the blaze.
@chamblee54 Has anyone checked with snopes? This sounds far fetched and many reporting on it are not dependable @nickmiller Featured in @WORLD_mag Highly reputable news outlet.
Madworld I believe the ONLY reason abortion is legal in the US is because the biotech/medical/scientific community profits from baby parts. Mad scientists get to experiment baby parts and slip them into drugs/vaccines. Also, the CDC recently officially recommended circumcision, because baby foreskin, like aborted baby parts, is a profitable commodity with various uses–including cosmetics (look up foreskin fibroblast cells). Sadistic perverted sickos. Our govt will allow any sickening procedure if corporations will profit from it. (Comment at the blaze.)
As soon as you could say snopes the internet fact checkers were weighing in on the story. Planned Parenthood issued a press release. While the video may have a grain of truth, it sensationalizes a common medical practice. There is an ongoing ethical discussion about these practices. These issues will not be resolved by tabloid videos.
The best observation might be at Little Green Footballs. “The sentence I put in bold explains the section of the video where they do talk about money, specifically “$30 to $100 per specimen.” This is not a “purchase price” for the specimens — it’s for transportation and other incidental fees. Anyone who thinks human body parts would be sold for the ridiculously low price of $30 to $100 is (not to put too fine a point on it) a gullible idiot.“
Yeah, Obama’s a Communist The “doctor” explains that there is a price range of $30-$100 per specimen. Since the abortion is already paid for, that disparity of pricing no doubt covers differences in quality. So yeah, you get what you pay for. (Comment at The Daily Caller.)
The luncheon in the video took place July 25, 2014. Why was this video released nearly a year later? Is it a coincidence that a nuclear deal with Iran was announced on this day? The video was somehow released, and was all over digital dingbat land within minutes. How this happened might be an interesting story. Pictures for this voyage to the underbelly of the internet are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library UPDATE: Part Two.
Miss Beatrice
Miss Beatrice ,the church organist,was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all. One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea…As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut glass bowl sitting on top of it.The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom!
When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. ” Miss Beatrice, I wonder if you would tell me about this?”
“Oh, yes,” she replied, “Isn’t it wonderful? I was walking through the park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground.The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease.. Do you know, I haven’t had the flu all winter.”
Thank you Ed. Joke emails are a thing of the past. This is a repost from 2011. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Call Out Culture
Some people just like to argue. The topic of discussion is irrelevant…they just enjoy the thrill of verbal combat. There is little to be gained by engaging these people. You should never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level, and win by experience. If you wrestle with a hog, you get dirty, and the pig enjoys it. This is a repost
The idea that you should speak up, and call out, is popular these days. A popular quote, credited by some to Thomas Jefferson, says ” “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Unfortunately, many people take sides without understanding the conflict. When you are goaded into foolish action, by irresponsible rhetoric, you choose the side of the oppressor. Often, the one claiming to be the victim is, in fact, the oppressor.
There are a lot of logical fallacies today. Two wrongs making a right. False equivalence. Whining about media coverage. Opinions are like elbows… everyone has two. Don’t talk about religion or politics. Don’t talk with your mouth full. If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all. If everybody shouts, then nobody is heard.
Are you trying to create change, or are you like a dog that wants to bark? If you are going to influence a person, you have to earn that person’s trust. If this person hears you repeating things that are not true, then they are not going to trust you. Once lost, trust is very difficult to regain.
You should think about things like cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and mythos over logos. People are hit over the head with a lot of rhetoric and polemic these days. Sorting out the conflicting claims can be tough. You can get into narcotizing dysfunction. This is where you hear so much about something that you tune out new information. When you call out someone, are you pouring water into a barrel that is already overflowing?
This text between the pictures (“The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”) has focused on foolish talk. The word listen has not been used. We don’t need to talk more. We need to listen more. You have two ears, and one mouth, for a reason.
Chamblee54 
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