Trayvon

I offended several people this week on Facebook posting about the shooting of Trayvon Martin. One nutjob on the Norman Goldman page accused me and my "ilk" of "hating whitey," which is funny considering I'm a bald, middle aged, nearsighted white male.

I also offended several progressives by speculating about the missing minute or less when Trayvon was confronted by Zimmerman and shot. From my own experience, I've been hit, kicked and punched by teenagers from tough backgrounds while working in urban schools and walking at night. I speculated that Trayvon could have been instructed, like so many students have told me when defending their actions, that"my mama says if anyone messes with me-hit'em."

When a kid is walking along the street talking on a phone armed with a bag of Skittles and iced tea and ends up dead, clearly something unjust has occured. Was the shooting a hate crime, an accidental blunder, or something in between? Was Trayvon the one "standing his ground?" There is no question that Mr. Zimmerman is guilty of stalking, shooting and killing an innocent teenager, but the exact nature of his guilt and this tragedy is not clear. Unfortunately, as various parties try to influence the media circus covering the story, it won't be clear for months to come-if ever.

Golly!

During my 2 1/2 hour struggle to get my five kids to school on time, I'm usually joined by Justin and Jessica, a brother and sister from next door who go to our neighborhood elementary school. Both their parents work mornings, so they hang out for 20 minutes talking and eating dry breakfast cereal on days when we have something sugary, the we walk to school together. This morning Justin announced, "She thinks you're black."

"What?"

Jessica asked, "Aren't you black? I know your wife is white and I thought you were black."

Now comes the awkward part. I love to joke and tease, and several responses ran through my head. I thought of repeating TV's Gary Coleman's phrase "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" I remembered Dick Gregory referring to white people's "skinny little nostrils" and considered drawing attention to my own. I considered clapping my hands and swaggering like a favorite former student with autism who had a style of walking that my African American assistant referred to as "pimpin'." I even though of saying "why thank you!"

Instead my 5 second delay allowed me to say "Gollly!" in an exaggerated 1950s voice. So what pops up in my head when I think of black people? A combination of stereotypes, physical attributes, and struggle to maintain proper racial etiquette: DON'T SAY ANYTHING STUPID, STUPID!!!

More news from the Irrational Rifle Association...

Gun manufacturer Ruger is a month away from completing its Million Gun Challenge to donate a dollar to the NRA for every firearm they sell. Business is booming and it looks like they'll exceed a million sales!

US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 250,000 for every rebel killed

By Andrew Buncombe

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-forced-to-import-bullets-from-israel-as-troops-use-250000-for-every-rebel-killed-15050027.html#ixzz1mBvUNLQ

NRA's LaPierre: "This Is The Most Dangerous Election Of Our Lifetimes"

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201202100014

February 10, 2012 4:05 pm ET by Matt Gertz

You Auto Know Better

U.S. loses $1.3 billion in exiting Chrysler

By Annalyn Censky July 21, 2011: 5:41 PM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/21/autos/chrysler_government_exit/index.htm

I was listening to Stephanie Miller this morning and heard a right-wing caller criticize the Clint Eastwood ad as a waste of tax payer dollars, since GM and Chrysler owe the government over a billion dollars. Stephanie and the others on air laughed at the caller, imitated his southern accent and claimed the auto industry paid back everything it owes. Unfortunately, the caller was correct that the bailout was over $1 billion in the negative. Where conservatives are wrong-in my opinion- is that the bailout was a waste of money.

If Chrysler and GM had not been rescued, the economic dominoes crashing Detroit and affecting all the employees and businesses connected to them would have been far more costly than a billion dollars. It's similar logic to that of rescuing Wall Street. The real question is what to do to make sure that no bank or car company is too big to fail in the future.

Religion tackles Football

From "The Super Bowl as Religious Festival" by Joseph L. Price

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1375

The specifically American character of the mythology has to do with the violent nature of the game. Not only does it dramatize the myth of creation, it also plays out the myth of American origins with its violent invasion of regions and their settlement. To a certain extent, football is a contemporary enactment of the American frontier spirit.

From "The Superbowl Culture of Male Violence" by Eugene C. Bianchi

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1578

...this great national sport, which claims the devotion of a significant percentage of our population, mirrors in a ritual way some of the worst characteristics of our culture. ... it interlinks four qualities that drive the American violence machine: physical brutality, profit-maximizing commercialism, an authoritarian-military mentality and sexism.

... I have come to the conclusion that the fundamental evil from which the others flow is sexism. The basic way by which the male in our culture establishes his sexual identity is a prime source of exaggerated aggression in the interpersonal, economic and political realms. The problem can be put thus: How are males in our society conditioned to value themselves as persons? What are the criteria of self-worth and social acceptance among American men?

Your History for Yesterday

Corporations are people with Robots

Headline and lede from Fox Business website:

US HUD's Donovan: 'Very Close' To Robo-Signing Settlement

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday that a pending settlement of an investigation into banks' foreclosure-processing problems would benefit about 1 million families with cuts in the amount they owe on their home loans.

Headline and lead from Daily Kos:

Obama to Grant Banks Robosigning Immunity in Showdown With Breakaway AGs

byAmeriGus

Without considering the guilt or innocence of the five major banks involved, the Obama Administration is poised to let Wall Street off the hook for foreclosures where as many as one million borrowers were "harmed" by robo-signing practices.

Whose Facts are Bigger?

Even "fact checkers" can put their own spin on facts, for example:

Obama’s claim of having passed the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history” is ridiculous. He might have been on more solid ground if he had claimed the “broadest” tax cut, but that doesn’t sound very historic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-whopper-of-a-claim-on-tax-cuts/2011/09/06/gIQAmL2h7J_blog.html

received 4 pinocchio rating

A more accurate answers was posted a couple years earlier:

Are the tax cuts in the stimulus bill the largest is U.S. history?

Yes, sort of.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/02/12/is-obama-stimulus-plan-also-the-biggest-tax-cut-ever

Hot Air

I saw kids lining up in the cold for half a block at 7:30 in the morning to get into Foot Locker. I asked another middle aged gawker what inspired the line, and he told me with some disgust that the kids were foolishly wasting money on the new retro Jordans. I shared his sentiment, then remembered that I was wearing shoes that had inserts that cost me $400 (even with BCBS).

Who Do You Trust?

In October the American Spectator asked: Who do you believe: "professional doomsayers" Meredith Whitney and Nouriel Roubini or the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan -- Lloyd Blankfein, Brian Moynihan, Vikram Pandit, and Jamie Dimon.

First is Lloyd Blankfein, who testified before Congress in April 2010 at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Goldman Sachs had "no moral or legal obligation" to inform its clients it was betting against the products which they were buying from Goldman Sachs.

Senator Carl Levin told the veteran banker that he "wouldn't trust" Goldman as he repeatedly asked whether the bank would disclose its position "when they're buying something you solicit them to buy, and then you're taking a position against them?"

"I don't believe there is any obligation" to tell investors, Mr Blankfein responded. "I don't think we'd have to tell them, I don't think we'd even know ourselves."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7642325/Goldman-boss-Lloyd-Blankfein-denies-moral-obligation-towards-clients.html

Next is Brian Moynihan, whose Bank of America was caught in the robo-signing scandal and now wants to charge $5 a month debit card fee. Moynihan is helping inspire Americans to leave BofA and open accounts in credit unions.

Then there is Vikram Pandit, who recently said the sentiments of Occupy Wall Street are "completely understandable and that the "economic recovery is not what we all want it to be, there are a number of people in our country who cant achieve what they are capable of achieving and that's not a good place to be."

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/10/12/n_vikram_pandit_protesters.fortune/

And finally, there is Jamie Dimon, who has been called "Obama's favorite banker" and served as Chairman of the Board of the New York Fed. Matt Taibbi writes:

...in 2008, in that moonlighting capacity, he helped orchestrate a deal in which the Fed provided $29 billion in assistance to help his own bank, Chase, buy up the teetering investment firm Bear Stearns. You read that right: Jamie Dimon helped give himself a bailout. Who needs to worry about good government, when you are the government?

Dimon, incidentally, is another one of those bankers who’s complaining now about the unfair criticism. “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it,” he recently said, at an investor’s conference.

Hmm. Is Dimon right? Do people hate him just because he’s rich and successful? That really would be unfair. Maybe we should ask the people of Jefferson County, Alabama, what they think.

That particular locality is now in bankruptcy proceedings primarily because Dimon’s bank, Chase, used middlemen to bribe local officials – literally bribe, with cash and watches and new suits – to sign on to a series of onerous interest-rate swap deals that vastly expanded the county’s debt burden.

Essentially, Jamie Dimon handed Birmingham, Alabama a Chase credit card and then bribed its local officials to run up a gigantic balance, leaving future residents and those residents’ children with the bill. As a result, the citizens of Jefferson County will now be making payments to Chase until the end of time.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/a-christmas-message-from-americas-rich-20111222#ixzz1oRvO6cP7