August, 2009 archive
Disconnected 7
Back after three days and two nights of little or no connectivity. The network connection in the hotel room was broken–it didn’t work with two different computers and two different ethernet cables.
The cellphone also did not connect from the hotel. Service at the same spot has been excellent in the past and there were strong signals a few miles up or down the road, so, on the way back, I called the carrier to notify them that it looked like one of their towers was on strike. They were shocked when I said I didn’t want a refund or something “done for” me.
There was wireless in the lobby. Because of the nature of the business I was conducting, I decided that that would be enough for now.
But now I’m back.
You Won’t See This on “Cops” 0
But you can see a lot of stuff that fits the bill when you look beyond the surface and the dramatic overheated cops-can-do-no-wrong narratives.
A black thing? A racial-profiling thing? A racist thing?
Those are the motivations most often proffered in the saga of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. vs. the Cambridge police. What other possible explanations are there for a white officer stopping a 58-year-old black man with a cane, in the heinous act of trying to open the door of his own house? But it wasn’t a black thing. Or a racial-profiling thing. Or a racist thing.
It was a cop thing.
(snip)
They are cops. And if you have dealt with a cop in your lifetime, you know their propensity, the nervousness you feel in even approaching one for a traffic direction and the look given in return, as if you have just interrupted the study of the Talmud. You know that the interaction has too many times been unpleasant, unless you are some law and order right-wing radio show snake-oil salesman crafting your beliefs to the reactionary masses who would like to change the name of the tooth fairy to the tooth don’t-ask-don’t-tell.
As I’ve told a couple of people, I’ve thought from the start that the Gates thing had more to do with Sgt. Crowley not getting subservience from a citizen than it did with race. It certainly wasn’t “racial profiling,” which refers to stopping someone because of his or her race or ethnicity, though I can understand why an angry man, tired from flying home from China, being harassed in his own home, might say the first fool thing that comes into his mind.
There was a legitimate 911 call, but, as the tapes have shown, race or ethnicity did not figure significantly in the call. Nevertheless, Sgt. Crowley’s report claimed that it did.
Where did it come from, then, if not from the caller and not from the dispatcher? It came from Sgt. Crowley.
This leads me to two related questions:
- How did Sgt. Crowley come to make up the reference to race as being part of the initial call?
- Was Sgt. Crowley even aware he made up the reference to race as being part of the initial 911 call?
Frankly, I think the answer to the second question is “No.” If I’m right, the answer to the first question becomes a subject for a dissertation in sociology.
Takin’ Care of Business 0
Light bloggery.
Twits on Twitter 0
Details here.
Revised Numbers 0
As Atrios pointed out recently, people don’t pay attention to the revisions. Maybe because it’s usually worse than they thought:
The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Gross domestic product has shrunk 3.9 percent in the past year, the report said, indicating the worst slump since the Great Depression.
Follow the link for more revised numbers.
And, remember, this was the logical outcome of Republican economic theory. People who weren’t blinded by the DOW saw it coming.
Orange Suits Suit Him 0
I really don’t know what to say about this.
I know that my pastor would say that medical science is a gift from God. I guess I would add that those who deny science and learning also deny gifts from God.
The stupid gets tiresome.
And the stupid kills.
Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted in the March 23, 2008, death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes. Prosecutors contended he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she couldn’t walk, talk, eat or drink. Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family’s rural Weston home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing.
And there are persons who call themselves religious who encourage this stuff.
Furrfu.
Knickered 0
Shorts short. From El Reg:
A village in Lincolnshire was cut off after a low flying thong wedged itself on power lines.
(snip)
Whilst the barely there undergarment would have caused no problem had it simply been cavorting round a swimming pool in LA, or splashing in the surf in Florida, when combined with the soaking British summer it caused a short circuit, cutting power to 17 homes and businesses in the hamlet.
Follow the link to find out how it got there.
Vicktory Dance 0
I really don’t know what I think of this.
Like most persons I know, I find something inherently repulsive about dogfighting and the persons who enable it and something warped about those who somehow find it entertaining.
At the same time, there are folks out there who harmed far more persons in far deeper ways who not only haven’t served time, but also are still getting umpty-ump million dollar bonuses.
I am positive, though, that the SCLC should have stayed out of this one.
The event is being sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC chapter president in Vick’s hometown of Newport News, Andrew Shannon, said Vick is scheduled to speak at the event intended to promote Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings of nonviolence.
“We believe (Vick) has made atonement and we are hopeful that the public at large gives this young man a chance to move forward with his life,” Shannon said.
Birthers of a Notion 0
Pamela Merritt writes in the Guardian what I’ve been saying. She’s got a good take on Gatesgate too:
Clowns to the Right, Jokers to–er–the Right 0
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