I was wondering how long it would take for something ignorant to happen and ruin my thorough enjoyment of all the Bin Laden coverage.  Not surprisingly the ignorance comes from UVa.  If you haven’t heard a black male student wrote a letter about racial profiling, purposefully distributed it to various media outlets and it turned out to be fabricated.  It was an allegory, a teaching moment, or some such crap.  The idiot needs to take a lesson from this blog and write anonymously while making references to fictional characters that are pop-culture icons.  Speaking of which, I saw Mega Man the other day and punched him in the face.  Well, I thought about punching him in the face.

Now law students are a sorry bunch.  They lie all the time and their “honor codes” are a joke.  Particularly at UVa.  If this kid had lied about a hit and run accident or cheated on an exam I wouldn’t have strong feelings about whether he graduated or not.  Sure, he did something awful but find me a law student who hasn’t.  In Philadelphia law students shoot each other.  It’s no big deal.

But what this fool did was inexcusable.  Not because it soiled the reputation of the Charlottesville police.  I’ve been pulled over in Charlottesville for being black.  Same run of the mill crap, certainly not story worthy.  What this kid did was give the bastards who spend 24/7 trying to convince the world that racism doesn’t exist ammo.  I mean did he learn nothing from the Duke Lacrosse case?

Read the rest of this entry →

Osama Bin Laden is dead.  Yes he deserved to die.  I hope he burns in hell.  I was elated when I heard the news.  However, when I logged onto facebook most of my ultra-liberal brethren were posting shit quoting Dr. King talking about how they personally took no joy in his death and how it was wrong to do so. I, for once, was outside the ultra-liberal mainstream.  SO three questions come to mind.  First, why do I and my liberal friends disagree? Second, who is right? Third, is this even tangentially related to anything having to do with being in debt?

The first thing that struck me about the Dr. King quote was that he was talking about enemies who directly and repeatedly wronged him and his family.  Most of my liberal friends do not have that relationship with Bin Laden.  They hadn’t lost anyone in the attacks and the ten-year war that followed did not affect their lives in any material way.  They’re liberal, but they’re not self-immolating to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

Second, are they right?  Probably.  I am sure I should not be fantasizing about the first lonesome, hideous bottom-feeding sea creature that might stumble upon a delicious, stinking bag of white-wrapped flesh and manage to use some gruesome appendange to wrest it open.  I know that’s not right.  But I know something about having enemies, about waking up everyday knowing the person (people) responsible for your situation are waking up in relative comfort everyday snickering about what they did to you and hoping they can do it to others like you.

Now I am not saying they are DEFINITELY right.  I believe that killing him and recovering his body was the right (and only right) thing to do.  I also believe that the visceral reaction to the death of a monster is inextricably linked to the burning desire to sacrifice everything for one thing that is sacred.  That is why we risk sacrificing many lives to save one life.  Because a life is sacred.  We do not do this for vengeance, justice or to honor the dead.  We do this because it is who we are.

I tried not to write about it.  I didn’t want to be just another liberal blogger uninentionally calling attention to the “birther” movement and thereby adding legitimacy to it in the subconscious minds of many Americans who vote.  When the White House went above and beyond any legal requirement of any American citizen to do anything (not to mention presidential candidate, not to mention sitting president) and released his long-form birth certificate I patted myself on the back for staying out at least one pointless debate.  And now they want his college records.  And of course the birthers are not satisfied with the long-form birth certificate.

So let’s go over what we know.  Birthers are racist, and not the pseudo-intellectual “there exist some gifted negroes but as a race they are intellectually inferior” but the “there are just some things nobody with mongrel blood should ever, ever do and being president is damn sure one of them.” All Republicans, racist or not, know that birthers are racist and deliberately pander to this group for political points by pretending that the birthers really care where Obama was born not as much what he looks like and who he was born to.  Polls indicate that over half of people who identify themselves as Republicans don’t believe Obama is American or aren’t sure.  Believe it or not, I can live with that.  Or rather, I have to – I’m black in America.

But here’s what makes me angry.  It’s the fact that so many people, with nothing to gain to from this slander and libel against the President, don’t get angry and don’t stand up to make any sort of change.  Case in point: If you haven’t struck up a conversation with an acquaintance or stranger about how absurd this birther thing is, then guess what? Black or white, you’ve failed the racism/self-hatred test. 

Ok, let’s back up.  Raise your hand if you’ve overheard a birther talking on the bus or in a bar sounding all authorative like he’s king shit of fuck mountain?  Yeah all right, all of you.  Now, raise your hand if you’ve EVER heard someone DENOUNCING birtherism loudly and in the same manner? Now put your hand down if you’re at a small liberal arts college North of the Mason Dixon line with no division 1 or division 2 athletics.  Yeah, not a single hand raised.

Look people.  It’s 2011.  We know that progress isn’t guaranteed with the passing of time.  We’ve seen slavery, holocaust, genocide and the like.  It’s not just that we know what our primal demons are like, we also know, as people how extremely cowardly we are.  I mean, you won’t come to the defense of the President of the United States? Your President? Supposedly the most powerful person in the world?  If not then guess what, you’re not coming to the defense of the gay kid who is being bullied.  You’re not coming to the defense of the Hispanic-American who is having his citizenship questioned by an angry mob.  Come on people, we need to start controlling how the masses think.

Oh, you’re one of those “you can’t control how people think” people are you?  Ever heard of advertising? Your deepest most sacred convictions are bought, sold, bundled, divided and sold again every day on Wall Street.  Your very concept of what it means to be American is 80% commercials you’ve watched during Major League Sports.

So read a book, figure out what your convictions are, and PLEASE don’t just STAND UP for them if they get attacked in front of you.  Convictions aren’t to be used for self-defense only.  ADVOCATE for them.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I hate stupid people as much as the next guy.  But you know what I hate even more?  A coward.

No, and let’s face it – neither do you.  You only care about a) the federal budget and the fate of Medicare, Social Security and other programs or b) the inevitability that a united, educated, empathetic middle class will rise up and raise taxes on the privileged few to pay for what makes America great…just as you finally get yours (aka you’re one of the delusional Americans who thinks that they’ll be millionaires are day even though they’re 35 and have never ground 30k in a year) So that’s you and me.  But someone must care about the actual deficit right? Nope. Anyone who says they do is lying to your face.

If you don’t believe me ask yourself why there are so many social riders attached to the budget bill? Why in the wake of record deficits do the same people who demand massive spending and also demand massive tax cuts? Nobody cares about the deficit.  If they did they could have become accountants or economists.

But enough about what I don’t care about.  Here is something I do care about: Healthcare and discouraging militarism.  Obama gave us sweeping Healthcare reform.  Boehner and company want to respond by killing Medicare, a landmark achievement unfortunately overshadowed by Civil Rights (good) and Vietnam (not so good).  The abomination of a budget that seeks to eliminate funding for this (protecting the Health of our own weakest citizens) ironically ramps up defense spending.  I used to think this was a contradiction until I reveal the Prince.  To paraphrase Machiavelli: a man forgets the killing of his brother before he forgets the taking of his property.  The budget or “cause” as it referred to is simply the voice of our lesser demons echoing the master politician codifying the death of our brother for the protection and expansion of our collective property.

Here at Debtor’s Prison we are familiar with deficits. It’s not about the number it is about the purpose.  Deficit for a world class education and a meaningful career = good.  Deficit for distracted, apathetic faculty and no job prospects = bad.

This topic deserves more than the brief illusion I gave to it in a previous post.  The American Civil War had just one cause: slavery.  States Rights is a myth.  Why does that matter 150 years after Fort Sumter? Because the Civil War made Americans who we are today, and in my opinion was simply the final military battle in what is called the American Revolution.  It created a vast country without borders – states because not a body of people but simply a necessary and subservient level of government.  Then of course we have the shame issue.

The shame associated with such a devasted defeat and a disproportionate share of the blame for the greatest atrocity man ever inflicted upon man.  The Civil War was less a war fought to free slaves as it was a war to pay for them.  Lincoln knew this as he said days before his own blood was placed on the alter of freedom with Brown’s and the 625,000 that died in between.  To understand this I offer an analogy.

Suppose eating meat and cheese (aka) animal slavery is wrong.  Who commits the greatest sin? He who keeps a single cow per year, sells the cheese and then slaughters the cow selling the meat, or the man who dines on steak and brie every night, but had never seen a cow in the flesh? Who refuses to even make the association? After the war each side had its own myth to create – The Lost Cause/States Rights folks of the South and the Freedman’s Army in the North.  Ironically, John Brown Free Soilers and Jayhawks are reviled by both sides …everywhere other than Kansas.

But it was the slaves stupid.  Everyone knew it at the time. The founding fathers knew it would come to this.  And somewhere, in their heart of hearts, every American for the last 150 years have known it.  If every mortal deed echoes through eternity, the cannons of the Civil War and still be heard loudly no matter how tightly we cover our ears and try and sing above the noise.

I am one of the largest critics of academia, along with Benito.  I think it’s a scam, I think it’s overpriced, yada yada yada.  I also am riding this link a little bit

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2011/04/new-scholarship-is-the-law-school-scam-blogging-movement-influencing-the-legal-profession.html

Surprisingly, I read it and learned a lot of things I didn’t know.  There is something to be said for scholarship, even if it does move at the speed of global warming (before 1970). 

But moreover academia is necessary because we are a google generation.  I am guilty of this.  I have no idea what the google algorithm is and I assume hits equates directly to truth.  And not only did I go to school when book reports still involved books, I’m an academic myself.  No wonder thousands of Virginian kids were almost taught that blacks fought in droves for the Confederacy.

Now my original rant was based on my gut reaction that the woman responsible for this egregious error was a racist daughter of the Confederacy who masturbated to Gone with the Wind.  Upon further (still extremely limited) review I think she was just stupid.  Based on that, how scary is it that something that is so factually absurd suddenly seems plausible when we type in some keywords and something like that appears?

Michele Bauchmann has stated several times that the Founding Fathers crusaded against slavery.  Now I know she’s racist.  But who knows what motivated this? It could be racism, ignorance and now there is the third option, perhaps she got bored and googled it or more likely one of her interns did. 

The internet makes it harder to completely bury the truth.  It also makes it easier to completely rewrite history.  A degree might not be worth the paper it’s printed on in terms of the market but it does serve a valuable function in society.  History, repeating itself, all that crap.

I’m one of those guys who constantly gets accused of making everything about race.  Everything from healthcare to the judiciary system, employment prospects to school admissions.  I’ve had a lot of discussions over a lot of beers and every now and then I get tired of being the only voice answering the meant-to-be rhetorical question underlying all these conversations “ok, you’ve got a black president, what more could you POSSIBLY want?” I begin to doubt myself, just a little, and then I read about Kyle Bristow’s “White Apocalypse,” a novel which the author insists isn’t a racist fantasy and it renews my resolve to at the very least not give the slight nod white people look for after a borderline statement to see if you’re one of those “reasonable” colored folk.  But here’s what’s interesting.  The racist fantasy is also a revenge fantasy.

The novel supposedly begins with the discovery of a mass grave…filled with white people.  Ancient white people who somehow got to the North American continent before Native Americans presumably by crossing a frozen Atlantic Ocean. Then the Native Americans slaughtered them, millenia pass, and suddenly directors of the Southern Poverty Law Center are being assassinated and self-hating white people are exercising their liberal guilt by dating non-whites.  Ok, so obviously Bristow (who sure as hell is no looker) lost a girlfriend (or more likely crush) to a black guy.  Sexual insecurity has long been a hallmark of racism, particularly American racism.

Read on to find out what makes this book extra special

Read the rest of this entry →

So Benito has been trying to recruit an underemployed blogger to join our motley crew, but is failing because obviously none of the candidates want to lose their job. But one of them did pass on a mandatory assignment a senior manager gave to his underlyings before the monthly meeting when they were to pay homage to his greatness. Read “A Letter to Garcia.” Here is the damn link

http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm

I talked to the guy and he said he was hurt that his manager thought so little of them collectively that he would make them read what amounted a treatise on how they were so worthless as to be morally bankrupt human beings. Or at least that’s what he got out of it. You are probably wondering what this has to with Scalia. Getting to that.

My first reaction was this kid is a major loser if his managers have any ability to affect him emotionally. So I read the article…turns out it’s a turn of the (previous) century essay, penned on a lark, a 100 yr-old blog entry that could have been written by Rush Limbaugh. Then I got angry.
Read the rest of this entry →

Clarence Thomas is only the second African-American ever to sit on the Supreme Court.  He was nominated by the first President Bush when Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American ever to sit on the Supreme Court, retired.  I do not care for Clarence Thomas.  Neither do 98% of African-Americans – ever since he first caught Reagan’s eye for being willing to perpetuate lies about African-Americans and his systematic destruction of the EEOC.  Twenty years later, he sits alienated and alone on the court, under a self-imposed vow of silence.  After his wife accepted over $700,000 to lobby against President Obama’s groundbreaking Healthcare reform, Thomas stands poised to cast the deciding vote rendering a law unconstitutional, purely on political grounds, that will directly cause the death of hundreds of thousands of the poorest Americans.  Ladies and gentleman I give you Clarence Thomas, the first Student Debtor.

Read the rest of this entry →

When your life is in shambles and the road from ruin is uphill and rocky there is a tendency for our brethren to convince themselves that the flatter road with smoother terrain also (might) lead to a safe place.  In other words, once we discover the real villain, we often decide this person is too powerful so we instead decide to pick on the gimpy blind kid who was just minding his own business.  It happens. We’re not perfect. However, sometimes we see two knights in battle, one for us and one against us, and we side with the one against us…not because we are frustrated with our own knight’s performance (which is what we claim) but because we can hurt our own knight more and we yearn to matter, or at least feel like we do. Now THIS is dangerous.

It is becoming somewhat chic for debtors, hipsters and young people to criticize Obama, essentially for not being the biblical messiah.  They use this criticism to justify their lack of participation in the political process and when criticized are quick to tell you how many doors they knocked on in 2008 and what Obama owes them, etc, etc.
Read the rest of this entry →