rant alert…

Back story… I wrote a previous post but it was heavily self censored because as I said it was not coming out in print as well as it was intended. It sounded so profound, but I suspect that it was more of a 'laboratory' profundity than a profundity that could hold up under the weight of the real world.

A reader called me on what was clearly a less than authentic or well executed post and this was my response to her in an email. She encouraged me to post it here. I was a bit concerned about that in as much as it was in an email and I don't know all the ethical rules regarding posts and emails and all that. So here it is… Oh and I did include her comment for understanding of some of the references to stew and I did Dr. it up some for spelling and readability and the like.

This is the comment

Big Geek, it seems like you are playing fast and loose with the semantics of wording.

Acceptance; noun: a disposition to tolerate or accept people or situations.

Tolerance; noun: willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others.

I do not believe we are a melting pot at all. If you were to take several different metals and melt them down, the characteristics of those individual metals can no longer be distinguished. They are all blended together.

With people when acceptance and tolerance is used to appreciate the cultural differences between people we are more like a stew. Everyone still seen as individuals appreciating our own cultures and religious beliefs but each new person enhances the flavor and injects all new perspective to the dish.

So pour a glass of white or red wine and enjoy the stew!

This is my response: I have to say I am a little nervous about this... I was informed that she is going to re-comment on it because she love being challenged... I don't know if I should get some Preparation H or Aloe Vera for this.

Quite possibly you are right.

Like I said... it sounded so much better in my head while I was thinking about it than when I got it written out.

I used the Melting pot phrase in as much as it is a phrase that is thrown around all the time. I am not a fan of the phrase myself. It's too "quaint" (I think is the right way to explain how I feel about it.)

I should say that the post was leaning toward what you are about to read, assuming that you choose to read it, but I deleted the bulk of it several times and tried to just state the basic premise with no tonality and color painting. But this is just a whitewashing of the same old problems anyway, so as I said at the very end... never mind.

Now for the RANT

I think that too often cultural differences cause friction and tension that manifests itself in hate crimes and racism and whatever other bad result that comes to mind because so often there is no acceptance of differences. I imagine that religion is a part of it, but anymore everyone seems to be so touchy about their right to Not be offended any more. (See side bar warning) Somehow everone thinks "I have the right to... Insert cause here". There is no responsibility any more to the culture or the society it's all about ME. No one is willing to tolerate anything anymore. Everyone wants their apologies public, meaningless as they are.

The Shiites and the Sunnis and the Kurdish will, in my opinion, never get along with each other and by extension with the rest of the world because they are deeply steeped in their religion. How huge was the up roar over the Danish Comic strip? How often is Jesus slammed, shammed, defiled, mocked,satirized or displayed in an aquarium of urine? Does anyone die over that, did any one burn anything? I don't even think there was a law suit brought by any one. Before you say this about that I know that the wackjob Christian Fundamentalists blow up abortion clinics and that is hate full in the extreme and the Federal building thing in Oklahoma. Fundamentalist religious people are susceptible to that sort of thinking, but somehow I don't recall reading in the bible anywhere, where Jesus says to kill thy neighbor if their theology is mixed up or an irreverent cartoon is drawn by some none believer, and I never read any where Thou shalt blow things up? In general that was supposed to be left to God. "Vengeance is mine sayth the Lord", I think is the line.

This whole diatribe was a result of some news story I heard, about tolerance and quite frankly I have heard enough regarding how we all need to 'tolerate' this or that... shoot now I don't even recall the story. But the world is full of stories where in some "minority" feels slighted, diminished, ridiculed or oppressed somehow and EVERYONE has to accommodate their new "taste contribution" to the stew, especially the Muslims right now. It aggravates me no end that a Muslim family can take a School to court to force a first grade girl to stop using her "Winnie the Poo and Piglet Too" lunch box because there is a Muslim girl in her class who is twisted out of shape about seeing the pig on the lunch box. Unarguably Winnie the Poo and Piglet Too have been a part of American tradition for many decades and is a children's favorite. I still have my daughters Winnie The Poo bed sheets. Sears Makes Plenty of money on that franchise which implies that it is a Huge part of American traditional school age up bringing... but now suddenly Piglet is no longer tolerable because some "new" flavor has been added to the stew, which in my opinion renders the stew bitter and unpalatable, bordering on inedible.

It is my fervent belief that if you decide to move to America you should understand what it is you are signing up for. If you have a belief/idea/thought that is outside the norm it is YOU who has to do the tolerating not the rest of the world around YOU. And if you have a belief that is illegal in this country I feel that if You are moving here and want to BE here You should be resigned to give that up... ritual sacrifice and the like. If you move to any other country in the world, Mexico for example, You have to learn Their language. The Mexican government is not going to have English speaking teachers for your kids so they can understand what is being taught. The Mexican Government is not going to provide you with Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Brazilian, Ecuadorian, Honduran or any other of the two dozen or more languages that our government prints driver's license paperwork. YOU better have your papers on you and in order every minute of every day because if you do not and are picked up for even the slightest infraction, even if the infraction is imagined and NOT real you are... well unpleasantness shall befall you in a great hurry and relief is not coming in great hurry. The same conditions exist in any other nation on the planet. I am DOUBLE sure that is the case for EVERY Muslim country like say Saudi Arabia and I am Triply sure about Iran! I happen to know about Korea and Algeria... do not get sideways with those law enforcement agencies!

In the past when you moved to America you wanted to be an American and all that comes with it. You wanted to embrace the culture the holidays including Christmas, the work ethic, the language and… well all else that comes with being an American. If you were going to add your flavor to the stew you didn't do it by JAMMING it down the throats of your neighbors with legal action at every turn. This very much spoils the stew and leaves a bitter taste on everybody's pallet. If you want your heritage on display or preserved You opend a restaurant or a shop or have a festival celebrating Your cultural heritage by INVITING people to Participate. ***I say all that...about the America typified by the industrial age beginning shortly after we finally did away with the natives that were here LONG before we hit the Rock at Plymouth to make some beer because we ran out of water on the boat. Another rant for another time.***

The whole gay rights thing another area where "Tolerance" is called for/demanded. It is something that I am softening up on rather quickly. I have read the bible and So far as I recall there was only one reference to homosexuality, and it was strictly speaking not a very direct reference. I was anti gay marriage for a long time, hanging my belief on the idea that Marriage is a religious thing and that the bible and by extension God was anti gay-ness... I don't see that so black and white any more. And marriage is principally a government sponsored thing anymore anyway. You just have look at the divorce rate to see that. It's been said that Gay people should be able to share in the heart break and misery of divorce as much as anyone else. In general Marriage has become a meaningless institution anymore any way. Which is a shame because many people take it very seriously but not from a religious point of view… I don't think.

SOOoooo...I was trying to change, somehow, the reference to "Tolerance" because in my mind to "tolerate" something is to put up with no recognition or acceptance of differences or respect of any kind because you are forced to by some outside influence, law or threat of harm or terror, to put up with the situation.

When I look up Tolerate I find words like endure and discomfort and bear all of which imply the idea that you would much rather NOT be tolerating this whatever IT is. Tolerate has a much more of a negative connotation and or distasteful word in my opinion. (color painting)

When I look up accept I find words like willingly, approval, favorable all of which implies that this is a softer more fitting/hopeful word for this situation. Accept has a much more positive connotation, again, just my opinion. (more color painting)

But again in the final analysis it was just a whitewashing of this idea/concept any way. It was my feeble attempt to say that if we explained our differences to, say, Osama B. that he would say "OH now I get it, So you're not the Devil. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, lets have a beer on me... sorry about the whole Trade Towers thing. I had no idea that would happen. I really got my moneys worth out of that little joke didn't I, never mind then." and turn himself in for trial. Aint a gonna happen.

And again like I said at the head of this thing and the post... it sounded so much more profound while I was thinking about it than after I got it written... same with this I guess.

Thank you for calling me on this... It forces me to think through more thoroughly the ideas.

Big Geek.

brace your self this is ugly

I read somewhere a poll where the pollster was asking about the flamboyance of recently more common black names. Shniqua, Lafanda, Laquisha. You know them when you hear them. I don’t recall exactly what the pollster was asking now but it was associated with a blog and the question of the day was the new cultural “Black names”. Ultimately I don’t care one way or another. If I had a company I don’t think I would necessarily object to hiring a person named Lavon or Shniqua. My issue is with Black culture… and I call it Black culture not African American culture. Most of the Black people in America have never been off continent let alone to Africa. Interestingly enough I have. To claim heritage, say African heritage, you should know something about where it is that you are claiming heritage from.

That is to say you should know something about the region or in the case of African heritage possibly the tribe you claim to be from. If you are going to Glorify it so and “keep” those traditions alive and wear the dress of “your people” and name your kids in Culturally relevant names it seems that you should have done some background checking so that you could know where you are from before you start insisting that you are African American. White people as a group don’t call themselves British, Scottish, German, or Irish Americans. By and large we are a mixed lot with no specific heritage beyond European. I think its crap to call your selves African American unless you are fresh off the boat/plane and that by definition means you hold citizen ship from that country first. You are carrying a green card or are in the process of changing to American citizenship. Are you a Citizen of this Country… The USA? If yes than you are an AMERICAN, simple as that. On 911 did you step back and say this is not my fight I am not an American I am African American. I imagine you stepped right up and were angry that you had been sucker punched by Osama. That’s because you are American, not African American. Seems to me that you can’t have it both ways… oh but I suppose being that this is America, like Burger King, you CAN have it your way. I think that is crap.

And another thing about the NEW “African American” handle. How long is that going to last? When are you going to get tired of being called African Americans and change it up to something else? It started as Nigger moved to Negro then, we moved to Colored then Black now African American now it seems we are going back to nigger… Oh wait that’s nigga’ can’t be bothered with finishing the word or maybe its because if it’s not nigger it’s ok like shoot is ok for shit. I am sure there has been a couple more in there that I missed. I did almost forget colored somewhere in there. In all that time how many other people have changed their collective Titles? White people are still White. Mexicans are Mexicans as are Cubans and Porto Ricans… No other group makes as much noise about what they will be called. In 5 years I am sure that we will be calling Black people something else collectively at their insistence and woe be unto whitey who doesn’t keep up. I wonder how that crap gets started any way. Who the heck starts that sort of thing anyway? Some Liberal thinking college professor in Berkley??? Probably a white professor at that feeling all guilty about slavery and all.

Country names in Africa change with the seasons, or who is the most ruthless dictator\General to come into a bigger box of guns than his neighbor. Before I start sounding all “racist” and everything lets define racism shall we. The classic definition is

1 : A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority or inferiority of a particular race.

I don’t think that really works any more. I do NOT believe that because a person is Black that they are inferior or superior to any other race at anything intellectual physical or otherwise. I will describe myself as a cultural-ist though. I firmly believe that the Black culture has slid down a long ugly slope of degradation. Dr. Martin Luther King did NOT lose his life so that little black kids could walk into McDonalds and intimidate the workers and patrons there by cursing and swearing at every one. He did not die so that Rappers could say Fuck on the radio. He did not lose his live so that black people could call each other niggers. He had a dream. In the nick of case Black people have forgotten he had a dream. His dream was that every man and woman would have EQUAL rights… And he surely did not die so black people could bring freely use nigger. His dream was that All persons of ALL races would be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. Black people in general (at least most of those that I have seen lately) seem to have forgotten this simple truth. It’s ok for one black guy to walk up and say “Heyyy M-nigga wassup.” I find it interesting that in much of Black-speak Nigger is one of the few words that gets pronounced most nearly correctly… nigga. Simple words like “ask” are seemingly too tough to get their lips around. Black culture has purposefully set its self apart from the rest of society. If a white person calls a black person a nigga… no matter how cool they phrase it or how deeply correct they speak Black-speak that white person will wind up “living” in several different zip codes and mostly in dumpsters by day break, or at the very least die from high velocity lead poisoning. Black culture seems to be more racist than any other culture. Black people are not “inferior” by race/DNA they are “inferior” by acculturation. I say “inferior” because it seems that the Black culture is purposefully becoming more violent and… well… less smart for lack of a better way to say it. I don’t believe that the Chinese and Japanese kids in school are inherently smarter… their culture (parents) pushes them to be smarter. A Chinese kid is likely to get his ass whipped for not coming home with an A+; where as a black kid is likely to get his ass kicked by his “friends” for getting even remotely decent grades… I have heard taunts like “… what …U tryin’ to be like whitey now Bitch?” Being white is the worst thing possible in black culture.

There is also this issue. Black people are so bitchy and angry at whitey because they were brought here against their will. It seems to me that they might be grateful now. Not for the slavery aspects of their trip here but there are Thousands in Africa that would happily sell themselves into slavery to get to America these days just to get away from all the tribal warfare and genocide going on in the “Mother Country” that they are Oh so very proud of. There are more people sneaking into this country than any other anywhere else on the planet. Today’s Black people are in America and didn’t have to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare that it is to become a citizen or get a green card that any other nationality works so hard to get. They have citizenship and they bitch about it, they want to be paid for it. They want reparations for slavery more than TWO centuries ago!!! My taxes would have to pay for that and I did NOT benefit in the least from any amount of slavery. They have not picked one tuft of cotton and most likely haven't even seen a real living cotton plant. I think that idea of paying reparations is CRAP in the extreme. My personal feeling is this If Black people want reparations they should accept the money as a one-way ticket to Africa and move there. Then they can shut up about how fucked up it is that they were removed from their Homeland so long ago while some General is slaughtering their family and raping their sister or daughter infecting them all with AIDS. I would pay taxes for that sort of reparations payment… Happily. Leave the upstanding hard working Black men and women here to contribute positively to the American culture.

I do NOT say that American slavery was anything less that horrendous. Let’s face it slavery by definition is horrendous. But let’s not forget, as so many of Black people seem to have; Black people are NOT the only people on the planet to be enslaved. Slavery exists to this very day. And White people are equally the victims of today’s slave trade. No one talks about today’s slavery though. That is not the sort of thing that happens in a “modern world”. In history Christians (white people) were slaves and Lion food. Somehow Black people have gotten it into their heads that they are the only people (race) ever in the history of ever to have had the yoke of slavery dropped on their neck. They certainly make the more noise about it and use it to gin up ever more guilt to justify their attitude. “My people suffered so badly during slave days… Whitey owes ME.” Who the heck do you think really built the pyramids? Egyptians? Oh No Not Egyptians… Hebrew slaves, Thousands of them. Way more Hebrew slaves and their slavery lasted for hundreds of years longer than black slavery in America. Do you think that the Vietnamese didn’t suffer under Poll Pot and the Comarea Rouge regime? Those that got here to America don’t seem to be sitting around on their collective ass bitching and whining about how the US left their families there to die in 1974… they got their poop in a group and got into business. And before you go screaming about their tax breaks and all the whatnotery surrounding their businesses, let’s not forget about all the anti discrimination and affirmative action programs that have been enacted over the past, coming up on 5 Decades, to help black people get ahead. Did it help? Heck no. Black people are still just too busy being pissed off at “whitey” to do anything for themselves. They still want Whitey to do it for them. White democratic politics is more than happy to oblige. White Guilt, Political correctness. There is more guilt in this country for everything from slavery of 200 years ago (black guilt) to the new environmental stuff (green guilt) Americans are second only to Jewish people in the guilt stakes.

That to me is a Cultural thing. It’s also a Liberal Democrat thing… but that is a rant of a different color, for a different time.

Politics... and the press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortions, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

Some stuff deleted here for readability sake

The Democratic official and senior U.S. official who disclosed the plans did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt Obama's announcement.

...more stuff deleted here for the same reasons as above.

I put this up because of the second paragraph...

"We", our government, cant keep a damn secret.. not even a small one. "Officials" what ever that really means, are shooting their mouths off even though they are expressly NOT authorized to shoot their mouths off. It galls me to read this. Either this un-named official is a right fuckwitt for speaking against a Presidential order or... well I cant think of anything else that you would be... "pre-empting" a Presidential announcement. If an employee did something like this in most any company you could name they would be fired pretty quickly (instantly) and no good recommendation would be forthcoming. How is it that the "press" gets away with this sort of thing. How is it that they can print these stories on the 'word' of a person who clearly has a lack of ethics so profound that they will say things that the President is supposed to be saying. That to me is a LESS than credible source. But the source must at all costs be protected. Its one thing if there is wrong doing going on and there needs to be a whistle blower... but pre-emting a statement as banal as this. What "scoop" is that? I think the 'source' and the writer should be forced to take some "waste of time ethics class" something like an anger management class but for assholes who cant keep their mouths shut, for 1000 hours and have their dirty little family secrets "leaked" to the press. Of course no one would give a crap and you couldn't sell papers that way.
This is not news that needs to be 'scooped' in advance of its time. Most news is not in my opinion. The only time sensitive news that I can think of is the weather and market issues, but I leave room on that list for other potential news worthy issues. Beating the President to the punch on this is just ridiculous. I say ridiculous in the truest sense of the word... not the hip new definition they sling around on 'So You Think You Can Dance'. Those that engage in this sort of soft squishy ethics, for no good reason other than to say that they knew first, are contemptible.
The truly frightening thing to me is this: if they "leaked" this story... what other stories are they "leaking" and to whom are they "leaking" that information to?
I read no less than three stories this week with that disclaimer tag line at the end.