Personal Musings category archive

In Media World, if it snows in Washington, D. C., and New York, New York, it snows all over the world.

I don’t know enough to comment on it. My knowledge of Egyptian history is probably slightly more than that of the average American, what with being trained as a historian, but that delineates the difference between somewhat ignorant and profoundly ignorant. I do know not to base my opinions on anything in Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Jewel of the Nile.

I do recall that, back in the olden days, when computers had tubes and took up entire buildings, an Egyptian medical doctor gave a talk on Egypt to the older grades at my elementary school (the local hospital welcomed immigrant doctors looking earn licenses in the States). At the time, Nasser had been in power for about a decade.

The doctor told us (I’m paraphrasing),

In Egypt, we have democracy, but it’s not like your democracy.

We do not have candidates running against each other. We hold up a candidate for president and say, ‘Do you want him?”

If the people say “No,” we hold up another candidate.

Even then, that sounded fishy to me, so fishy that I remember it almost five decades later.

I’ve learned not to believe what I hear in the news when events are moving quickly on the other side of the world, or even next door. Remember all the lies about New Orleans during the Katrina Army Corps of Engineer Floods–I fell for those and once bitten etc.

It’s not that I think major news organizations are falsifying stuff, but that, in the rush to fill airtime and column inches, they can fall into the trap of relying on guesswork, rumor, and wishful thinking.

This is certainly the case in the blogosphere, left, right, and middle. Andrew Sullivan’s giddiness over the Green Revolution in Iran, which petered out to nothing, amply illustrates this. (Indeed, a friend of mine with Iranian friends tells me that they have told her that the level of repression in Iran is now far greater than it has been in years.)

Sullivan’s changing his website’s banner to green as a show of solidarity had little effect on guns and beatings half a world away.

In reporting fast-moving events, an unverified twit may be worse than no twit at all.

Nevertheless, I know enough about American history to pretty much agree with the Rude One: our history of supporting dictators in the name of realpolitik has repeatedly come back to bite us in the behind and that laying low and letting events run their course is probably the best policy for the United States (Warning: Rudeness at link).

For an unusual perspective on events in Egypt, see the Linux Outlaws special podcast. It’s weighted towards reviewing the influence of “new media” and the internet in events in Egypt (two Linux geeks podcasting internationally via Skype and an internet connection–what else would you expect?). It also provides some international perspective Americans are unlikely to get first-hand, as one of the podcasters is from the U. K. and the other is from Germany.

The discussion of Egypt starts about 13 minutes into the broadcast.

A couple of evenings ago, I watched Charlie Chan in Egypt, from 1935. A few weeks ago, I watched Charlie Chan in London, from a couple of years earlier. (I’ve been a mystery fan since I bought my first Perry Mason Pocketbook for 35 cents in Thalheimer’s Department Store in Richmond. I understand that Thalheimer’s is long gone.)

There were some interesting contrasts between them. (We shall leave aside any debate over whether the Charlie Chan series was inherently bigoted; I shall observe only that Keye Luke did not think so.)

In Charlie Chan in London, several of the characters display disdain and contempt for (and in the case of one maid, fear of) Chan because he is of Chinese ancestry, though many of them, especially the officials who know that Chan is an Inspector of Police, treat him quite normally. For the time, it was a rather bold statement about bigotry, for the audience’s sympathy was certainly with Chan.

Charlie Chan in Egypt is set against the background of an archaeological expedition exploring an Egyptian tomb, as were many B movie thrillers of the 30s. Remember that the discovery of the tomb of King Tut and the rumors of a curse were recent history; thrillers set against tales of Egyptian exploration and artifacts were all the rage.

The “comic relief” in Charlie Chan in Egypt was provided by Stepin Fetchit, who played a driver for the expedition.

What struck me was not so much the character that Stepin Fetchit portrayed (it was his typical burlesque of white folks’ idea of black folks: dimwitted, fearful, superstitious, and ignorant–see his bio linked above), but how shoddily his character was treated by the other mostly American and British characters.

True, the Egyptian characters fit common stereotypes of the day–inconsequential subservient workers and lackeys for the Brits and the Yanks, but, even in the film, they were treated with at minimum brusque courtesy and, in the case of the police, the druggist, and the doctor, with quite normal courtesy.

Indeed, in the cast of characters, Fetchit’s was the only one without even a name, having just a nickname (“Snowshoes”).

Throughout the file, his character was treated with the harshest discourtesy and abruptness. His employers did not request (and a request from your boss is still an order), they ordered, and in the nastiest tones. The contrast with the treatment of the Egyptian servants (properly, the actors, including a young Rita Hayworth, who played Egyptians; there probably wasn’t an actual Egyptian with 4,000 miles of the sound stage) shocked.

And here’s the point of this rambling post:

“Snowshoes” was irrelevant to the plot. He was the comic relief. His mistreatment did not advance the story.

Rather, the differential treatment given him was likely not even noticed by the white American movie-going audience.

It was considered the normal and proper way to treat black folks.

It still was by many when I was growing up (fortunately not by my parents).

And there are those who want those days to return.

And that stinks.

On the Media takes a look at government use of leaks and the effects of mendacious government leaks on persons’ lives. From the website:

Brooke takes us on a walk down bad memory lane when it comes to the media and inaccurate sources.

Follow the link above to listen or read the transcript or listen here (MP3):

A snippet:

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The stakes can even be higher than that. Yellowcake uranium from Niger, aluminum tubes for centrifuges, hidden biological weapons labs in the Iraqi desert, all sanctioned leaks or official statements, all policy-driven, all wrong, formed the pretext for going to war. And it has been forever thus.

CLIP: PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: My fellow Americans, as President and Commander-in-Chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply.

[END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The Gulf of Tonkin – epically bad official information. It’s exactly like bad food, sometimes deliberately poisoned, sometimes spoiled by accident or happenstance. And it should be treated like food, with some knowledge of its provenance and nutritional value, consumed only after judicious prodding and a good long sniff, because you need it to live but the bad stuff can kill you.

I remember Johnson’s lie statement about the Gulf of Tonkin attack and I remember my teen-aged boy reaction:

The U. S. Marines will show them!

Well, the U. S. Marines and Army and Navy and Air Force did not show them, and in the process of not showing them hundreds of thousands of persons died and were maimed. Friends of mine were scarred irreparably.

I no longer believe that solutions invariably lie with the fist.

Nor do I believe that politicians are necessarily truthful, though some are more truthful than others.

What happened?

I grew up.

On the topic of the military, our national leadership on either side of the aisle still thinks like teen-aged boys.

Case in point.

A couple of season ago, the TV show Bones had a Muslim character as an intern in the lab.

In the story line, he masqueraded as an immigrant, affecting an accent, fearing that to reveal that he in fact was a native-born fully Americanized religiously-observant Muslim would be too difficult in the workplace.

Such a masquerade in the face of the virulent bigotry of some against all Muslims because of the actions of a few Muslims seemed unfortunately most plausible. Indeed, given the implausible plots of the Bones series, it was one of the more plausible narratives of that sequence of shows.

Clarence Page writes in the Chicago Tribune (follow the link for the full column):

“Maybe we need a Muslim version of ‘The Cosby Show,'” she (Katie Couric–ed.) said. “I know that sounds crazy. But ‘The Cosby Show’ did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of things they don’t understand.”

She’s right. A black TV family like Bill Cosby’s Huxtables — or a Hispanic-American family like, say, George Lopez’s show — might not seem like such a big deal anymore, now that a real-life black family occupies the White House. But back in the 1980s, “The Cosby Show” was the decade’s biggest TV hit and is even credited with changing the way a lot of us black Americans viewed ourselves and our perceptions of opportunity in America’s mainstream.

Some critics still complain that “The Cosby Show” was too good, that it’s well-off family headed by a doctor and a lawyer was too far removed from the lives that most black people lived. But, more important in my view was the larger message: The American Dream is not for whites only.

Imagine the exploding wingnut heads if this were actually to take place.

American Idol is the Gong Show with no sense of humor.

I tend to think that compromise is generally a good thing, so long as there are not clear moral issues on one or the other side. Half a loaf and all that.

But exceptions exist.

Here is an example of a case in which failure to compromise will ultimately benefit the common good and, indeed, all of society:

Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, last in the ratings among the big broadcast networks this season, has been unable to renew its most-popular drama “Desperate Housewives” because of pay demands by three of the show’s stars.

I urge both parties to stand firm and resist conciliation.

Clarence Page discusses the recent silly attempt to bowdlerize Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.

Twain was a man of his time who rose above his Southern heritage to reject the bigotry and prejudice of his upbringing. And even though the Civil War ended outright slavery when Twain was a young man, explicit and outspoken bigotry, prejudice, and racial oppression were accepted in the public discourse long after Twain’s death.

Page comments:

As a black kid who read “Huck” in a mostly white classroom with a white teacher, I know the unsettling startling pain of seeing the N-word used so casually in print. But I also am eternally grateful to our teacher for helping us to talk about it. She helped us to appreciate the book’s genius of language, vision and, most memorable, its quietly subversive satirical cleverness. It skewers the immorality of white supremacy that it so vividly portrays.

Young Huck’s moral compass is warped by his drunken, brutal father and the culture in which Huck was raised, as his casual use of the N-word illustrates. Escaping his father, he unexpectedly teams up with the slave Jim. He feels guilty at first about helping his neighbor’s “property” escape. Yet as he gets to know Jim and his desire to rescue his wife and children, the slave becomes a better father figure than the one Huck left behind. To me, the book is that rare classic that I not only praise but still enjoy reading.

Huckleberry Finn, despite the burlesque humor, is a novel of transcendence, of Huck’s realizing that the beliefs he was brought up with were evil.

The discomfort that Huck Finn causes today says more about the persistance of those same beliefs in our society than it does about Twain’s honest confronting of them, counched as it was in the common speech of his time, in the pages of a book.

Two examples today:

• Rich folks in Philly are trying to shut down a restaurant that has been in operation years longer than the building they occupy has existed.
• Folks in southside Virginia don’t want the Navy to use its airport (which it admittedly hasn’t been using) because they don’t like the sound of planes. Trainees have been flying to Florida to use an airport there (fuel conservation and costs anyone?).

Regarding the former, well, the arrogance of the well-heeled who are such delicate flowers of privilege that they are willing to destroy a popular business and put persons out of work because they are miffed by the sight and sound of the hoi polloi. Words fail me.

Regarding the latter, even though it is true that the military sometimes uses “military necessity” and “training purposes” to excuse lax and improper and even illegal practices (Google “benzene camp lejeune“), but, in this case, I mean, really. It is an airport, for Pete’s sake. It’s there to port air. Grow up.

Aside:

At dinner last night, some of the young whippersnappers revealed that they had never heard a sonic boom. Apparently, there was one in the area about a year ago caused by a natural phenomenon which resulted in a bit of consternation.

Back in the olden days of men of iron and ships of wood titanium, used to hear them all the time.

David Polk finds cell phones scary:

First, the ability to call mom or dad the instant something occurs retards maturation. There is a reason why the age of adulthood is getting older. We are letting our children remain dependent upon their parents for much longer than previous generations.

Second, this obsession is having negative consequences in the workplace. A member of our advisory board for the Center for Professional Excellence tells of interviewing a candidate for a job in his company. During the interview, the candidate’s cell phone rang, and the candidate answered the phone. Upon the completion of the call, the candidate signaled that the interview can continue. Guess who didn’t get the job? Worse, guess who didn’t understand why they didn’t get the job?

I know that persons use cell phones and other gadgets inappropriately and often stupidly. The local rag had an item in their politeness column about some lady who sent texts throughour the evening Christmas service at her church, giving new meaning to “Let your light so shine” (link not available).

But, ya know, it’s not the phones that are being stupid. Let’s not blame the phones.

What the phones (and other iJunk) do is give humans new and creative opportunities to demonstrate human stupid. And human stupid is always with us.

Afterthought:

If I were a hiring manager (or a prospective suitor or otherwise in the market), I would much rather find out that the applicant was a dolt before making the job offer.

It indicates how ridiculously overstuffed the NCAA college football bowl schedule has become that I could not find any noticeable mention of the whachamaycallit Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl (sheesh! who thinks this stuff up?) in the local rag or any of several newspaper websites I visited.

The local rag’s printed “Bowl Roundup” didn’t even refer to it with a “Too late for press time” note.

I finally found the score at the ESPN (Entirely Superfluous Pontification Network) website.

Read more »

Brad West, writing in the Wilmington News-Journal, rips the NCAA, which he refers to as the National Cash Acquisition Association.

He’s got a point, indeed, several points. A nugget:

The Exalted Keepers of the Cash Register threw the book at five Ohio State football players. Strangely, it’s a book they won’t have to open until next season — if ever.

The NCAA ruled that Terrelle Pryor, Daniel “Boom” Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas did some really bad things. They sold things — that belonged to them.

(snip)

But wait — it gets worse. A couple of these guys sold … gasp! … jerseys.

This is the most horrendous of crimes. When I Googled “Ohio State jerseys,” 641,000 listings popped up. For $59.99, just about any sports retailer will sell you an Ohio State jersey.

That’s OK. Because when a retailer sells an Ohio State jersey, the retailer, Ohio State and the NCAA make money.

But when an Ohio State player sells you a jersey, the retailer, Ohio State and the NCAA don’t make money.

With all the money floating around big-time college sports, most of it going to everyone except the persons who put their bodies and their brain concussions on the line on the field, the fiction that NCAA competitions are amateur enterprises founded in snowy pure love of competition and immaculate striving for excellence is becoming somewhat tattered.

Two golfers just went by on the course next door.

I could tell that for them golf is a religious experience by the fervor with which they invoked the deity.

J. R. Labbe in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Proclaiming one’s faith through an uttered “Merry Christmas” — or becoming angry at the restaurant manager who doesn’t — isn’t the way to display our humble faithfulness to the mission our Father gave us — to love our neighbors.

Living out that faith — putting our muscle and minds and money into tackling hunger and poverty and homelessness — is what keeps Christ in Christmas.

She goes on to suggest that, once Christmas became a national, that is, secular holiday, secular influences were inevitable, and suggests renaming the national holiday (Festivus, anyone?) and leaving the religious holiday to the religious.

I congratulate her for a rational view, but I suspect that trying to engineer away the phony war on Christmas would be pointless.

Those who promote it care not for facts, only for faction.

‘Twere better to ignore them.

Some years ago, I was making the rounds of my office saying farewell to my coworkers before leaving for vacation over Christmas.

I said to one fellow, who happened to be jealous, “Merry Christmas!”

The Director (who was one of the worst bosses I ever knew–fortunately, he wasn’t my boss) said, “You can’t say that to S.; he’s Jewish!”

S. got a hurt look on his face and said plaintively, “Aren’t I allowed?”

Jamie Katz writes in the Chicago Tribune (I suggest reading the whole column for context):

I happen to be Jewish. And I’ve lived most of my life in New York City, where, on the whole, contrary to rumor, people of every faith, language and hue do a pretty good job of getting along.

Not once, ever, publicly or privately, have I heard anyone — Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Cherokee, atheist or Aqua Buddhist — say he or she was insulted by a sincere holiday greeting that included the word Christmas.

Of course, if you’re aware that someone celebrates a different tradition, it’s nice to acknowledge that too. And if you have no idea whether he or she prefers Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Omisoka, you can always say, “Happy Festivus for the rest of us!” or even “Happy holidays!” It’s not that bad.

But just as Americans of every stripe acknowledge English as the common tongue, we all know that a hefty majority of us profess Christianity in one form or another. As long as we are free to do otherwise, where’s the problem? Sane adults understand that a cheerful greeting is not an intolerant decree.

The phony war on Christmas has nothing to do with Christmas.

It is a strategy to foster hate in the name of the God of love, a strategy embraced by those who fear and loathe anyone who they think is different from them.

I just looked at the college football “Bowl Guide” in the local rag.

Of the 35 bowl games listed, I’ve heard of 12, and several of those are under new names this year, like the perennially rebranded Peach Chick-Fil-A Bowl. (My friend was telling me just this noon that she had a bowl of Chick-Fil-A once and never again.)

Aside: Somehow, “Humanitarian” seems to be an inappropriate name for anything as concussive as football.

I’ve noticed that, when an outfit starts talking about “markets” and “branding,” bullshit goes up and value goes down.

In the immortal words of Yoghurt: “It’s merchandising.”

Another reason I’m losing interest in college football.

Meanwhile, Derrick Jackson covers another bowl, one which gets little coverage:

This year, 53 of the 70 teams, a record 76 percent, scored either a “Touchdown’’ or “First Down’’ in the (Graduation) Gap Bowl. That progress is led by the continued excellence of such schools as Boston College, which tied for the third-best African-American player graduation rate behind Notre Dame and Northwestern at 86 percent. Connecticut was 11th on that list at 74 percent.

It is truly amazing how a few colored lights can brighten up a dwelling.

The Republican Party’s fascination with the sex lives of American military personnel is downright creepy.

A bad movie in 3D is a bad movie times three.