2014 archive
Twits on Twitter 0
Intentions are irrelevant.
If you act like a racist, you are a racist.
If you don’t realize you are acting like a racist, you are stupid or you are lying to yourself. And you are probably not that stupid.
Decoding de Code 0
The societal meanings of words often differ from the dictionary meanings. My South Carolina grandmother used to refer to black folks as “darkies” so as not to remind them that they were “colored.” Never in her life could she bring herself to refer to them as “black.” It was not proper. (Other, less polite words, I never heard from her.)
Leonard Pitts, Jr., explores the imagery around words and their social meanings in the context of the trial of Michael Dunn, a white man who stood his ground against shot an unarmed black kid because he didn’t like the “thug” music the kid was playing. A nugget:
The nugget continues below the fold, but, before you read it, try his little exercise.
News, Ripped from the Ticker 0
Warning: The usual bad taste.
Snow Job 0
The Charlotte Observer’s Mark Washburn tees off on media’s hysterical reaction to the possible appearance of a random snowflake. A nugget:
I can assure you that in anticipation of the catastrophe, we at the newspaper have larded up on typographical bullets
• Like this so
• We can reliably deliver
• All sorts of goofy lists on how to survive.
Follow the link for a battery of survival tips.
Patriot Games 2
Will Bunch asks the question.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Beatle Mania 0
The streams of syrup unleashed in media stories about the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan show have been silly and stultifying. I have relentlessly avoided them.
The times were not so syrupy.
Young men were dying for old men’s lies in Viet Nam, as today different youngsters die for different lies from different old men in a different part of the world; the protest movement was starting to bloom. The Civil Rights struggle (which still is going on, by the way) was nearing its height. The great civil rights and anti-war demonstrations were yet to happen. Acid rock was just on the horizon. A culture war was brewing, one that continues still as the forces of reaction continue to, well, react.
I remember boys getting suspended from school for “Beatles haircuts,” which were quite short in retrospect. One of the students in my high school, directed to cut his hair by the principal, had his head shaved; the principal forced him to wear a toboggan cap until it grew back.
Michael Tomasky tries to bring some reality to the orgy of saccharine nostalgia.
Full Disclosure:
I did not pay much attention to the Beatles until later, after seeing a Leonard Bernstein “Young People Concert” in which Bernstein praised the richness and complexity of their music. I was more into Cannonball Adderley and Rimsky-Korsakov. And I was always more of an Airplane freak.
Why Do Republicans Lie? 0
Dick Polman thinks it’s because they keep getting away with it.
Read the rest.
Down in the Sea in Ships 0
The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released its 16-page report. A separate Coast Guard investigation is ongoing.
This is no surprise. Anyone who knows anything about boats could have predicted this.
When I worked for the railroad, I occasionally got to read NTSB reports on train wrecks. I found them fascinating, but, then, I worked for the railroad. Anyone else might have found the mass of detail boring.
The NTSB takes so long to issue their reports because they don’t miss the teeniest tiniest thing.