Missing?

I suppose I'm way late on this subject. Well from the date on the article I'm definitely way late. But here goes: Dictionary.com defines "missing" as:

adjective 1. absent, not found, or lost: a missing person.

With this in mind we can look at the wording of the NYT article:

In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life.

The problem I have with this statement is the use of the term "missing". Certainly one can take it to mean "absent" which I believe to be more appropriate but the NY Times has gone out of it's way to use the term missing rather than absent. I believe that the reason for the use of the term is to once again deny agency to the subject of the article.

If I am absent from work it implies that through my own actions I am not at where I should be. But "missing", as shown above, has other meanings, "not found" or "lost". One can lose your keys. People say "I lost my keys". This is because we recognize that keys are inanimate objects and therefore if we cannot "find" them it is because of something we did with them or due to some fault in our own memory. Imagine saying that the "keys got lost". That would imply that they keys have some kind of agency. We'd look at the person saying this oddly because we know keys cannot "get lost".

Similarly if and when we find our keys we say that "I found my keys". Again this is to show that the agent (the person) acted in such a way to find the inanimate object.

So returning to the quotation. While black men may be "absent" from everyday life in NY. They are certainly not "lost" as in we have no idea where they are. Nor is it the case that wherever they may be the got there through no action of their own. In fact it may be proper to say that the quote should read:

In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 have absented themselves from everyday life.

Now admittedly that would not be entirely correct because there are those missing due to being dead through no fault of their own. But it would humanize and acknowledge agency on the part of said men.

They are missing, largely because of early deaths or because they are behind bars. Remarkably, black women who are 25 to 54 and not in jail outnumber black men in that category by 1.5 million, according to an Upshot analysis. For every 100 black women in this age group living outside of jail, there are only 83 black men. Among whites, the equivalent number is 99, nearly parity. [my underlines]

The 7x rate of murders among African-Americans would explain that.

On a side note, given the exploding rate of interracial marriages by black men and non-black women, this "missing" phenomenon has a, shall we say "genocidal" tone to it. Of course it's not polite to mention the dating behaviors persons as it regards race.

African-American men have long been more likely to be locked up and more likely to die young, but the scale of the combined toll is nonetheless jarring.

Here is a perfect example of denying agency. Black men are just happen to become locked up and die young. They are like cars on the side of the road that happen to be broken into. Police just run up on them and haul them off for no reason whatsoever. The ones who are dead just happened to die for reasons we just cannot explain.

Shit just happens!

If the NY Times was at all serious about addressing the issue they could have written:

African-American men have long been more likely to commit crimes that result in prison time and young deaths than every other American population. The scale of the combined toll is jarring to say the least.

Notice how the revised sentence makes it clear why African-Americans are dying young and going to jail.

Perhaps the starkest description of the situation is this: More than one out of every six black men who today should be between 25 and 54 years old have disappeared from daily life.

You mean they have generally absented themselves or to put it artfully, exited stage left.

And what is the city with at least 10,000 black residents that has the single largest proportion of missing black men? Ferguson, Mo., where a fatal police shooting last year led to nationwide protests and a Justice Department investigation that found widespread discrimination against black residents. Ferguson has 60 men for every 100 black women in the age group, Stephen Bronars, an economist, has noted.

You'd think by reading the article that it is the police that are the cause of this great imbalance rather than the criminal behavior of the population. As to the underlined portion of the quote we should ask how many of the 60 men are actually useful as potential mates and fathers?

You know that graph looks VERY familiar.

Now the meat of the data:

Incarceration and early deaths are the overwhelming drivers of the gap. Of the 1.5 million missing black men from 25 to 54 — which demographers call the prime-age years — higher imprisonment rates account for almost 600,000. Almost 1 in 12 black men in this age group are behind bars, compared with 1 in 60 nonblack men in the age group, 1 in 200 black women and 1 in 500 nonblack women.

Higher mortality is the other main cause. About 900,000 fewer prime-age black men than women live in the United States, according to the census. It’s impossible to know precisely how much of the difference is the result of mortality, but it appears to account for a big part. Homicide, the leading cause of death for young African-American men, plays a large role, and they also die from heart disease, respiratory disease and accidents more often than other demographic groups, including black women.

I was saying....

The gender gap does not exist in childhood: There are roughly as many African-American boys as girls. But an imbalance begins to appear among teenagers, continues to widen through the 20s and peaks in the 30s. It persists through adulthood.

So the problem "begins" just when black boys are turning into men and have no male role models other than those they see on YouTube, the streets and TV (in that order). Of course The Ghost is from the Old School where it is believed that you have from ages 0 to 5 to shape your child's behavior. Messing up then (TV watching, disrespect of elders, lack of anger management, lack of discipline, "adult" language usage, not reading...etc.) will almost certainly lead to problems later.

The black women left behind find that potential partners of the same race are scarce, while men, who face an abundant supply of potential mates, don’t need to compete as hard to find one. As a result, Mr. Charles said, “men seem less likely to commit to romantic relationships, or to work hard to maintain them.” The imbalance has also forced women to rely on themselves — often alone — to support a household. In those states hit hardest by the high incarceration rates, African-American women have become more likely to work and more likely to pursue their education further than they are elsewhere.

I think the proverbial cart has been put before the horse. The rates of single parenthood started climbing before the mass incarceration push of the 1980s. Furthermore; I'm quite certain the "I don't need a man" attitude prevalent in said community puts off not a few men who would otherwise be good family material. Did I mention the climbing numbers of black men who have voluntarily left black women for women of other races?

Lastly, even though data has suggested that such claims are not quantifiable, the idea that welfare being predicated on the absence of a father (after all it's called Women, Infants and Children, not Parents, Infants and Children), there has been some perverse incentive to remove the father and replace him with a [stable?] government cheque. Anyway, continuing:

Both homicides and H.I.V.-related deaths, which disproportionately afflict black men, have dropped. Yet the prison population has soared since 1980. In many communities, rising numbers of black men spared an early death have been offset by rising numbers behind bars.

"H.I.V.- related deaths..."afflict" black men." again with the agency-less commentary. H.I.V. infections generally occur because of the behavior of the infected. H.I.V is not something like Malaria in which you could be minding your business and have a mosquito take bite of you.

Also the whole "prison population soared". Again no real mention as to why. Why not simply point out that enforcement of drug laws, as asked for, no, pleaded for by black residents of communities afflicted by the violent crime that came along with the crack trade, meant a lot of black men were sent to prison.

It is important that we stop talking about black men, women and people in general as if they were keys, vehicles or other inanimate objects. We need to stop talking about black folks as if they are collectively children with no responsibility for their failures as well as successes. Once we recognize that the men aren't "missing" like a set of keys, so much as they have generally absented themselves via their decisions we can make the great leap forward and change how we socialize our men to not make these debilitating decisions.

Nigeria: Oil Producer Imports Most of Domestic Oil Consumption

From The Guardian:

Many Nigerians believe that already widespread corruption became rampant under Jonathan, further undermining an economic system that sees Africa’s top oil producer import most of the 40 million litres consumed every day at heavily subsidised prices.

How are you the "top oil producer" and importing "most" of the 40 million litres used daily?

Probably Obama's fault.

Who Are You Calling Boy?

When one looks at the literature of the history of Africans in America one theme that is noticed is the phenomenon on calling adult black men “boy”. This bothered adult black men in ways that probably cannot be described. Many black men would discuss how such actions, particularly when done in front of their children caused them to feel a great deal of rage. Hence the phenomenon during the Civil Rights Movement of men holding up signs saying “I Am A Man”.

Why was being called a “boy” by adult and minor white men and women such a problem? Well we understand that the power dynamic between an adult and a child is one where the adult holds the power and the child does not. While children may be free to “play” they are generally not responsible for much of anything. They are generally not responsible for their decision making. That is if they make a bad decision the fault usually goes to the adult who was supposed to be supervising them. Children are not entrusted with “adult” decisions. They do not provide food, clothing or other necessities of life for themselves. Instead some adult is supposed to provide these things for them. In short a child is someone who islooked after and provided for. In contrast adults by definition look after themselves and provide for themselves. When an adult does something wrong that adult is generally held responsible for their own actions and decisions. In a group setting each adult in the group may be held equally responsible for the failures of successes of that group. With this is mind lets look at this piece in Counterpunch.

The Obama regime must be held responsible for a series of failed or nearly failed states on the African continent.

Obama has ben in office since 2009. The "failed states" in Africa have been in their situation from before Obama took office. How then can Obama be responsible for countries who's problems predate his tenure as US President? Furthermore how is it that it is NOT the responsibility of the leadership (and perhaps the general population) of the "failed states" for their status as "failed states"?

Whether the calamities that have befallen these neocolonialist constructions have been intentional or not, the ruination and depredations inflicted on large swaths of Africa amount to what can only be described as a failed state policy.

"Failed state policy" of whom? Notice the passive language here. Africa has had "ruination" and "depredations" inflicted upon it as if Africa was just chilling and minding it's own business when ruination and depredations just snuck up on it.

While Libya, and before that Somalia, are overt examples of the western implementation of the failed state policy in Africa an honest appraisal of what has happened in South Sudan can only add it to this list.

On this I will agree with the author. Libya is a clear example of "failed state" policy. Of course history will show that for his faults, of which there were many, Ghaddafi was actually working to improve his country. Of course THAT was also THE problem.

not one western “expert” has tried to explain where the so called “rebels” led by Reik Machar are getting the funds needed to pay for the salaries of their fighters let alone the fuel, ammunition and other expenses maintaining such a large conflagration requires.

Well The Ghost has long tackled that question. The better question would be why are so called "freedom fighters" spending so much money on that stuff rather than improving and modernizing their countries? After all no one is forcing any of these folks to kill each other. You can drop a gun in the middle of my family. None of us are going to pick it up and try to kill each other with it. So the better question is why do these folk think that killing and warfare is a better way to spend their time and money?

Of course, the only winner so far has been the USA which has succeed in protecting its national interests by once again having the Chinese expelled from the only African oil fields they control.

Does this mean that China is a neocolonial party too?

Many of the other neocolonialist entities created by the western colonialists upon their retreat from direct rule in Africa have done so little for their people that in reality they could be described as failed states.

And who's fault is that?

What else can you call a country where the population lives in such abject poverty that a major part of the society lacks such basic human rights as clean drinking water, adequate food and shelter let alone education or health care.

Aside from the fact that "clean drinking water" is not a right in any other sense that you have the right to go find some, scoop as much of it up as possible. The DELIVERY of clean water to places where there isn't water isn't a right, it is a blessing of technology that a country earns by being industrious and mindful of it's environment.

But again lets ask the question: Who's at fault?

The entire country of Liberia lacks electricity and running water. Kenya, often touted as one of Africa’s success stories, provides electricity to only 26% of its people and running water to even fewer.

And again, who's fault is it that Liberia lacks electricity and running water? Wasn't Liberia supposed to be the "promised land" for freed Africans? Why didn't they build up that country? Didn't Garvey warn us of what would become of Liberia if it didn't take up Garvey-ism? Didn't the NAACP send it's folks to bad talk Garvey and his proposals? Didn't people make fun of Garvey when he was talking about the Black Star Line and the need for international commerce between Africa and the diaspora? So again WHO exactly is at fault for not doing what should have been done to make Liberia a modern republic?

If one compares the lives of the people of Cuba, who have suffered under onerous sanctions by the USA since their liberation to the lives of almost all Africans the differences are stark, and appalling.

Which I might add has been under the heel of US sanctions from before Obama took office. I agree that the differences are stark and appalling. One might ask what did the Cuban government and people do Differently than the "failed states" of Africa?

“Crisis Management” is what Pax Americana has implemented in Africa for decades past, as in create a crisis and then manage the ensuing chaos to better loot and plunder more of Africa’s wealth.

So African states simply sat around and waited for Pax-Americana to do whatever it was doing and then just went along with it? If that is the case then what we essentially have is a parent child relationship.

The failed state policy comes into play when the pressure the USA applies directly, or through its proxies, can cause prosperous, let alone already failing societies to begin to disintegrate filling our screens with ever more scenes of death and destruction.

First, name me a prosperous African state other that Libya that has been messed up by outside forces. Simply having minerals or oil in the ground does not make a state "prosperous" anymore than me having gasoline in my car makes me an oil producing state. Nigeria for example was prosperous before decolonialism. It promptly had a civl war and a bunch of coups. Liberia was never prosperous. You know who's not in the news? Ghana, Cote D'Ivoir, Cameroon, Tanzania, Botswana...The "failing" states are the ones with piss poor governance or a serious problem with Islamic Jihadi groups.

When it comes to the number and magnitude of the crimes committed in Africa under Obama one looks back on the much less dangerous days of the idiots of the Bush Jr. regime.

We're going to pretend that Charles Taylor simply did not exist. Lets not even discuss RUF. I'm not saying the US has clean hands here but lets keep it real about WHO has been committing crimes in Africa.

And once again lets look at the language used: "Under Obama..." Here again is the parent child relationship. If the author thought of African leaders as equals to Obama (you know since they are heads of state and all) then he would have written something like:

"...When it comes to the number and magnitude of crimes allowed to occur under the leadership of various African countries during Obama's tenure as President..."

Notice how my rewrite puts the direct responsibility on the African leadership and notes that these things happened during Obama's tenure as President of a foreign state.

A nightmare scenario is another Clinton seems next to succeed to the throne and the thought of the rabidly vindictive Hillary wreaking havoc in Africa as Commander in Chief does not make for a pleasant nights sleep.

Because Hillary Clinton is running for President of Liberia. You'll note that Hillary Clinton as would be president of the United States would be Commander and Chief of the US military. There are 53 African states. You'd think the real nightmare is that the so called leadership of these countries are too inept to be effect Commander in Chief's off their own countries.

To the point though. When we look at this piece and just about any piece written by those left of center we find this common thread that Africans are simply children. Whether they be in Baltimore or Kenya. They are acted upon. They are to be provided for and cannot be held responsible for their part in anything bad that happens in their communities and countries. This is not helping anyone. Garvey told us that back in 1920 and it is still true.

Too Blinded by "White Racism"

So almost a year after Michael Brown received karma for his actions, Counterpunch is still posting articles that are an insult to the intelligence of black folks...well of intelligent black folks.

But riot is partly a misnomer to describe what happened in recent weeks on the streets of Baltimore following Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. In fact, the rage on Baltimore’s streets was essentially an uprising against the deep poverty that afflicts the city.

Really? An uprising that destroys a senior citizen center. Brilliant uprising!

This is not hyperbole. Spoken in the language of rocks and flames and with all the fury to be expected from communities permanently consigned to society’s margins, such violent street protests stand as a blunt rebuke of a socioeconomic system that has failed America’s urban minority communities.

Notice the passive language "permanently consigned"! Clearly then black folks are agent-less non-human entities who have stuff done to and need stuff done for them. The ONLIEST thing black folks can do is "street protest". You know it's almost like the articles I read elsewhere that claim that black folks are just inherently violent. I mean if black folks only agency is to do violent things to get attention, it almost makes it seem that those durn racists are right. They can't be right can they?

Many minority communities in the United States exist in a state of permanent economic depression. With its majority Black population, unemployment in Baltimore in 2013 among Black males in their early 20s was a staggering 37 percent.

And believe me that "uprising" will not be helping much. Trust. And again notice the passive language and the use of minority. I'll have Mark know that there are plenty of "minority communities" that are not in a state of permanent economic depression. Of course by "minority" Mark means "black" (cause they're synonymous you know.) and of course BLACK anything is passive (except street protests) and so "economic depression" simply happens to black folks. It's a state black folks find themselves in rather than a product of (partially or fully) of their own behavior.

Nearly a quarter of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, with median household income half that of white residents.

Actually countrywide black median household income is half that of whites. How many blacks riot...sorry "uprise" in order to do something about it? How many blacks, oh, get skills and education....oh wait, not supposed to ask that question.

For starters, there’s the irrational hatred of many white, right wing Americans for the decidedly moderate Obama’s politics, a disdain fueled by a kind of visceral antipathy for the very notion of a Black person in the White House.

Even if entirely true, what does that have to do with the levels of unemployment in Baltimore? Baltimore has been black and Democrat run for a long time.

But more than this the wave of recent anti-police brutality protests has provoked a backlash in certain quarters, revealing the oozing sludge of bigotry that in more quiescent times simmers just beneath the surface of some segments of “civilized” white society.

He must mean the people pointing out the extremely high levels of crime, specifically murder, in black communities which takes FAR more lives of black men than ANYTHING the police have done in recent years. And not to mention that such high levels of crime do wonders to keep businesses from opening up in those neighborhoods (that find themselves "economically depressed").

Social media is one barometer of this entrenched prejudice. Consider the YouTube video circulating in recent months claiming to show Ferguson, Missouri teenager Michael Brown engaged in an assault on another man. One link to this video (since removed) showed millions of viewers, titled “Michael Brown Criminally Assaults and Robs an Older Man,” and begins by describing what follows as “What Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson Don’t Want You to See.”

The video shows a stocky young Black man physically assaulting an older man outside an apartment complex. It’s ugly to watch, as the older man can’t do much to defend himself. Too bad the video is from 2012, was filmed in Woodland, Texas, and the real Michael Brown is nowhere to be seen, as the Christian Science Monitor reports. This is only one of many slanders against Michael Brown that has gone viral in social media.

I saw that video. Immediately knew it wasn't Mike Brown. However; it should be noted, and should have been noted by Mark that it STILL was a shameful act of beating on an elder by young black men and is STILL indefensible. Furthermore, it went to demonstrate the serious social ills in certain quarters of the Black community that none of these writers want to really address. That's the REAL slander.

Indeed, why would people who did not personally know Michael Brown or his family, whose entire knowledge of his shooting by a Ferguson police officer comes from news and social media, be so quick to believe this young man was a law-breaker who basically got what he deserved?

Really sir? You got your information from where?

Some will say video footage taken shortly before Brown was killed that showed him stealing a box of cigarillos from a convenience store, pushing away a store employee who approached him, is evidence he was just another street thug who really did get what he deserved? In fact, no criminal incident at the convenience store was ever clearly established or proven, nor was Brown’s friend with him in the store that day ever charged with or as an accomplice to a crime.

Let me guess. This guy is PRO police cameras so that we can see the evidence right? But when video that is clear as day shows Mike Brown assaulting the manager. We're not to believe what it shows because the police never pursued charges against the dead Mike Brown.

*Head explodes*

Not only is this guy in DEEEEEEEP denial but he shows his utter contempt for the assaulted shop keeper. I guess to the IDIOT writing this piece for Counterpunch wants us to think the shop keeper just decided to run after Mike because he was compelled to. No particular reason at all. In fact the little shop owner/manager PUSHED HIS OWN SELF. Mike Brown didn't even TOUCH him!

*Head explodes*

It is this kind of deep denials that keeps black folks down. We cannot even admit when a low life is being a low life. We don't even have the decency to say that whatever we may feel about Mike Brown, He was dead wrong to be assaulting that store manager.

And never mind that Dorian, in his sworn testimony ADMITTED that Mike tried to steal. Never mind that at all. And why wasn't Dorian charged? Because in the video we see that he put the tobacco products back. Which means HE committed no crime. If he committed no crime, then there was no point in charging him. I suppose that is toooooooo much for Mark Harris to figure out.

As widespread as petty shoplifting is, certainly the middle class white man or woman who pilfers items from Macy’s or Nordstrom’s or The Dollar Store is generally not labeled a “thug,” called an “animal” or otherwise considered fit to die.

I dunno. Does this mythical shoplifter in Macy's assault the cashier? The manager? Hit's the responding police officer in the face? Grab the responding police officer's gun? Not too long ago a man in Ridgewood NJ robbed a jewelry story and assaulted the owner. He was called all kinds of names in the press. Of course, you'd have to pay attention to notice these things.

“Black Lives Matter,” as if even acknowledging the special persecution of the Black community constitutes some sort of special privilege unfair to whites.

Special what? I want to know where Mark lives. Because Mark CLEARLY doesn't know anything about what is going on in Baltimore. There were 34 murders in Baltimore in the last 30 days

Ponder that for a minute.

Rioting...sorry...uprising over one dead Freddy Gray at the hands of police yet virtual silence, including this Mark mofo, over the 34 dead in just the past month. "special persecution"? by whom? Certainly not BY the police.

This is the pathology of white racism, clueless to the end and teaching universal suspicion of minorities.

There is a clueless person in that piece and it certainly isn't who Mark thinks it is.

Thus, if you’re Black and don’t want to get murdered by police, don’t look them in the eye, don’t tell them you’re not doing anything wrong and have no right to detain you, don’t object to being harassed on the street, and don’t even open your front door to police. All are circumstances that in recent times have caused unarmed, law-abiding Black citizens to be killed by police.

This guy is really clueless.

First of all, looking a police officer in the eye is a good thing. Looking down and around makes you look suspicious. Secondly you can ALWAYS ask why you were detained. Of course if you just committed a crime or were in the process of committing a crime, yelling about how you didn't do anything or why are you being cuffed is just being a dick. Own your crime if you got caught. And if you call the police on some "my boy is in a fit of rage and carrying a weapon and I don't know what he'll do next" and when they come, your boy gets shot because he's in a fit of rage and carrying a weapon. Well guess who's at fault.

It's just sad to see how many faulty arguments the left is not using to infantilize black people and to excuse the criminal class within the black community. They THINK they are helping but they are not. And it's sad that they get a prominent platform for their nonsense.

The Rising Tide of Other Minorities Who DGAF About Slavery and Jim Crow

One of the side effects of the "browning of America" that a lot of so called "black leadership" have not come to terms with is that as the white population shrinks and is replaced by whites of non-"Anglo" ancestry and other assorted non-whites who have zero connections to Jim Crow and slavery, the usefulness of "white supremacy" arguments are going to take a huge nosedive.

While most white Americans have been cowed into silence on the subject of black folks messing up, for example the 30 dead in Baltimore in the past 30 days with nary a single police officer involved. Other groups are not so quick to toe the PC line. Of late the Asian community, though small relative to other "minority" groups (remember that as of 2050 "minority" will HAVE TO include whites. That should be fun) have been very vocal about the effects that Affirmative Action has against them

A coalition of Asian-American groups filed a federal complaint against Harvard University on Friday alleging the school engaged in "systemic and continuous discrimination" against Asian Americans during its admissions process.

More than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani groups came together for the complaint, which was filed with the civil rights offices at the justice and education departments. They are calling for an investigation into Harvard and other Ivy League institutions that they say should stop using racial quotas or racial balancing in admission.

Think of this as the Bakke case (and others) without the whiteface. Here you have a diverse group of students arguing that they are being hurt by the admission of lesser qualified diverse students.

"We want to eliminate discrimination of Asian Americans, and we want procedural justice for all racial groups," Yukong Zhao, one of the chief organizers and a guest columnist with the Orlando Sentinel, told NBC News. "All racial groups should be treated equal." [My underlines]

It will be amusing to watch various parties arguing against equal treatment and equal standards as this case goes forward. That along with a lecture about the history of Jim Crow and slavery to which these groups will respond: "We had nothing to do with that." I will remind the reader that in the hierarchy of test scores Asians decimate the competition. You do not even want to see how poorly African-Americans do, on average, compared to Asians.

Is it any wonder then that during the latest Baltimore "unrest" folks were "directed" to target Asian (and Arab) owned businesses?

It's going to get really ugly when these assorted minorities who cannot be induced into "white guilt" because by technicalities they are not "white" become more and more vocal about why they should be subject to certain rules which apparently punishes them for working hard while they see (and are victims of) a relatively large number of black folks who mess about, destroying their future prospects who then demand special attention from various institutions. Post 2050 is going to be interesting.

Machines Rising

Long ago in my first post on the inevitable changes that will come with automation I mentioned the following:

So going back to the Star Trek: Insurrection movie. What was it they found so objectionable that they decided to leave? The removal of the human element. The purpose. The sense of having a place in society. The replacement of human work by machines in the name of efficiency, safety and profit eventually kills what it is to be human.

Also:

Illinois is procuring $42k lawn mowers which are described as huge Roombas. What is it that the state is saying? It "reduces costs" and reduces "safety risks". The machines have performed well and so far have been low maintenance, said Kerry Brown, a tollway maintenance section manager. While the Spider has been cost-effective compared with traditional landscaping, the big advantage has been reducing the risk of accidents and injuries, Brown said [italics to indicate quote in original]

Now we find this:

. But you can see where this is going, namely to the eventual elimination of some police and fireman jobs. Not all, of course, but those jobs (plus pensions) are very expensive for local governments. (The average San Francisco police pension as of 2011 was $95,016.) Police deserve a generous retirement for what they put up with, but governments tend to look at the dollar cost of such services and how to cut it.

20 Minute Kids

So there I was watching one of many “Teacher/Education” messages that have been on the airwaves of late when I saw a face I vaguely recognized. This fellow was discussing how testing is failing children because it's not actually measuring, well no, accurately measuring the intelligence of children. I disagree in principle because testing is proven to show whether a student has gotten a grasp on material. Testing is also a known predictor of future performance. I agree with him and the media campaign in general that too much emphasis on testing can lead to teaching to the test which is detrimental. If children are taught problem solved processes, then they will generally do well on tests, provided they grasp the problem solving process. But that's not really what got me. What bothered me was his discussion of intelligence.

In the video he said, and I'm paraphrasing somewhat: What if a kid needs 20 minutes to solve a problem?

Well to me, the clear answer was that the kid is slow as hell. But the implication of the spot was that the kid that takes 20 minutes to solve a problem that another kid takes 1 minute to solve is somehow just as intelligent. Sorry, but that is dead wrong.

If a kid takes 20 minutes to solve a problem that should take 1 minute, that kid is 20x less able to solve problems of that magnitude. That's a big deal. And lets be clear that as problems increase in difficulty the 20 minute student is going to fall further and further behind.

Now lets give due credit for things like test prep which does help students to do better on tests by getting them familiar with the kinds of questions that they will be faced with. For example, I do a lot of DYI on my car. Since I'm familiar with the kinds of issues that come up in and around an engine, I can step to any car and have an idea about what may be wrong. An engine may have a different configuration but I'll be able to recognize most of the parts. The difference would be that it might take me longer to deal with the 'new” engine than with the one that I'm already very familiar with. Test prep is kind of like that. You get to practice the same kinds of question but when the test comes the exact problem facing you will be unique and that's where the problem solvers (essentially those who are good with abstract thought and can memorize thought processes ) do better than those who hope the numbers involved or the words involved aren't too large or too complex respectively.

Knowing this, and given the 20-1 ratio laid out by the speaker in the video, can you imagine how far apart these two students would be after a year? 4 years? 15? Can you imagine being the 1 minute kid stuck in a school of 20 minute kids?

Other implications are that if you have school districts full of 20 minute kids is it fair to even compare them to school districts with 1 minute kids? Clearly the differences aren't going to be solved with money. The speaker made it clear that it is the child's own ability that makes him take 20 minutes.

Expand this idea to a city. To a state. To a country. The implications are staggering. I think the narrator didn't realize that he had made an argument For educational stratification and possibly for charter schools and the like. If you are a parent of a 1 minute kid and you live in a district full of 20 minute kids, you know that your kid's education is going to be screwed as they have to keep the class at a pace that the 20 minute kids can handle. In essence for every 20 minutes of instruction time, your child has lost 19 minutes of education. In a one hour class that's 57 minutes (1 minutes of education per 20 minutes of "instruction") of his time wasted. Does this happen? Certainly.

Back when I was in JHS I was in an accelerated class. We had a substitute teacher who apparently was used to dealing with 20 minute students. She wasted 2 days of our time going over material we already knew and was upset when we rebelled because we knew our time was being wasted. It got to the point where we complained to the higher ups that we objected to this teacher. I can imagine similar time wasting efforts are going on in schools across the country.

Whoever thought up that particular media campaign might want to reconsider airing it in the future. It doesn't really say what they think it says.

I Thought The "Replenishing Virgins" Was For The Afterlife

From the Irish Mirror:

Children and girls are being stripped naked at slave auctions and raped by ISIS fighters who pass the girls around like cattle.

A UN expert who travelled to the Middle East to meet victims of this vile trade has spoken of the horrors faced by the innocent women and children - including one who had been temporarily married over 20 times, after each occasion forced to undergo surgery to repair her virginity.

Apparently some of these folks can't wait that long.

“Girls are literally being stripped naked and examined in slave bazaars,” she said, describing how they were “categorized and shipped naked off to Dohuk or Mosul or other locations to be distributed among ISIL leadership and fighters.”

Sounds familiar to another well known slave trade.

More Left Crow Nonsense

I've pointed out the rising "Left Crow" phenomenon that is rapidly infecting the US (among other places). Today's example from The DC:

Students at Dartmouth College launched a petition drive demanding the newly-elected student body president resign after they say he was disrespectful to the plight of American blacks and other marginalized groups.

The twist: The president is a gay black man.

Not to say that a black man, homo or heterosexual cannot be "disrespectful to the plight of American blacks..." but there is a pretty high burden of proof needed to make such a claim stick. But you'd think that there is a problem with the entire student body, if this accusation is true, because they voted for this guy in the first place. Also note the immediate demand to resign. This is now hallmark Left Crow behavior. They don't like you or what you say, therefore you must be denied employment. The irony that.

The controversy began last weekend, when a group of demonstrators paraded through Hanover, N.H. on Friday and Saturday in solidarity with those protesting police brutality in Baltimore. At one point during the Saturday protests, the demonstrators assembled outside the sorority Kappa Delta Epsilon, which was hosting an invite-only Kentucky Derby party. The students targeted the party as a bastion of racism, exclusion and oppression.

So the protest is against the police, or nominally police misconduct, yet these fools decided that harassing fraternity members was a good use of their time. Question for these idiots: How many white fraternity members have killed black folks since ohh....1964?

I wont wait.

One of those in attendance at the party was Frank Cunningham, who last month was elected as the college’s Student Assembly president. Cunningham was allegedly insulted by one of the protesters, who supposedly called him a derogatory name along the lines of “Uncle Tom.”

Black person doing something Left Crow doesn't approve of? Hanging around persons Left Crow doesn't approve of? Must be Uncle Tom!!

Not much of the exchange can be made out, other than Cunningham at one point shouting the protesters’ chant “I Can’t Breathe” back at them. Shortly afterwards, bystanders separate Cunningham from the protesters without any further escalation.

Nonetheless, the protesters have launched a petition effort demanding that Cunningham immediately resign for intimidating a smaller woman and for “appropriating” the words “I can’t breathe.”

OMG The big gay black man was intimidating the small woman. Oh wait where have we seen THAT paranoia before? I watched the video. Looked like typical counter protesting to me. If chick is not prepared for counter-protesting, maybe she should have stayed home.

One signatory of the petition, Dartmouth student Joseph Ramsawak, succinctly says “We ain’t here for fuckboys and shoe-shining coonery,” apparently a more vulgar way of calling Cunningham an “Uncle Tom” for serving as student body president at a mostly white, wealthy school like Dartmouth.

I bet Joseph doesn't go to the 'hood with that kind of mouth.

Another signatory, Sadia Hassan, says Cunningham showed an “incredible lack of restraint” through his actions.

“The incredible lack of restraint Frank displays in the face of a woman who is clearly much smaller than him is appalling,” she writes. “Using your body to intimidate and harass a woman is wrong any way you slice it. He is clearly not being threatened in this video and to insinuate that the woman must have incited this violent act is nothing short of victim blaming. It is inexcusable plain and simple.”

That was "lack of restraint"? "Violent"? These Left Crow people are such babies. But you know, it's par for the course. If you disagree with these folks you are supposed to shut up and sit down. Resistance is "lack of restraint". Might even be rape. And now the sad, but expected part:

Cunningham himself made an apology for his actions in an email sent to the student body.

I repeat. If you've done nothing wrong, do not apologize. You are not responsible for the feelings of these over grown babies. They are bullies and bullies are emboldened by apologies. The proper response to these people is: fuck off.

“As a minority queer student myself, I would never want my actions to make an individual feel silenced on this campus,” he said. “It hurts that it’s been perceived that I am not a supporter of the #Blacklivesmatter movement, but I sincerely hope that my imminent plans and initiatives aimed at addressing these nationwide issues and issues at home are indicative of my commitment. Overall, I’m a human being, I made a mistake, and I am deeply sorry. These last few days have been very emotional for me, and I promise it won’t happen again.”

Personally I don't care who this guy has sex with. But whatever his ID is, it is irrelevant. He did nothing wrong and should not have apologized. He didn't silence anyone. THEY are trying to silence HIM. But this guy is so far up the Left Crow's ass that he can't see that.

Also, I don't care much for the so called #BlackLivesMatter movement. If these people were so concerned about black lives, they would have a bounty on the head of every African-American' killer living in our communities. They would give them 24 hours to either turn themselves in or be out of town. In cities all over the US, hundreds of black males (mostly) are killed by other black males every year. I'm not even including the non-fatal shootings, robberies and assaults. You might have a vigil held by the place it happens for a day and then its back to normal. But let a felon who was just busted with drugs a month prior get killed and it's weeks of protests, riots and property destruction.

If they thought black lives matter, they'd have an economic plan that meant getting these millionaire black ball players and the like to invest in plans for businesses run "for us by us". Long term technical training programs to get those who are not college material to get into other fields like plumbing, HVAC, Auto mechanic, etc.

If they were serious about black lives mattering they would be fully against illegal immigration because illegal immigration negatively affects the job prospects for Freddie Gray's and Eric Garner's. But these so called "educated" protestors are too dumb to do that. So they'd rather be babies and cry and throw tantrums when people think differently from them.

And this will get worse and worse as the victims of the Left Crow continue to apologize for their non-offenses and so long as school administrators allow these bullies to operate on campus without consequence.

NSA phone surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden ruled illegal

The US court of appeals has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency.

A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling that the controversial surveillance practice first revealed to the US public by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 could not be subject to judicial review.

I recall a number of people calling Snowden a traitor. Lets' see how they explain this logic. If you blow the whistle on illegal activity, regardless of whether it is classified, and that behavior is reviewed and declared illegal BECAUSE of that whistleblowing, then the whistleblower cannot be a traitor. Guardian.UK

Hebdo Comes To America

From WND:

GARLAND, Texas – An officer who was part of the heavy security for a free-speech event called the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” featuring Dutch politician Geert Wilders was shot 0utside the building shortly after the event ended at approximately 7 p.m. Central Time.

Two suspects were shot and killed by police. The injured officer, with the Garland Independent School District, was shot in the lower leg. Identified as Bruce Joiner, his injuries were not life threatening.

As the Joker in The Dark Knight said:

Here. We. Go.

And for those who don't quite get what is at stake:

But Spencer contends that few people seem to grasp that the “very foundation of what makes for a free society” is at stake.

“Some have said that they cannot support such initiatives because they find the Muhammad cartoons to be in poor taste, and consider them in the same way that Christians regard Piss Christ — it’s legal, but that doesn’t make the people doing it any more admirable than other louts and mockers,” he wrote on his Jihad Watch site.

Spencer says that viewpoint essentially is “bowing to violent intimidation” and giving away the authority to decide what is acceptable speech, which is “the road to tyranny.”

“What is at issue here is not being respectful, or refraining from mockery, or deliberately provoking jihadis – what is at issue here is whether the West will submit to murderous threats, which will only lead to more demands for submission and more murderous threats, and whether it will accept Shariah blasphemy laws or stand for a free and genuinely pluralistic society in which people put up with offense even to their core beliefs without resorting to violence or attempts to gain hegemony over the group doing the offending.” [my underlines]

This is the crux. Simply put, one doesn't have a right to not be offended. Liberals simply do not understand this hence their steadfast efforts to criminalize things that they object to.

Minimum Wage

I wrote about the long term problems with minimum wage before:

There are businesses that run at very high profit margins on their final product. It is completely false to claim that somehow raising the wages of workers who put together say Nike sneakers would push prices of Nike sneakers up. The only reason why Nike sneakers would go up in price would be because Nike was protecting it's profit margins. Smaller mom and pop stores would have larger problems with large increases in wages. [my current underlines]

And now the shoe drops:

On February 1, San Francisco’s renowned science-fiction bookstore Borderlands Books published the following on its website:

Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in princip[le] and we believe that it’s possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco — Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage. Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st.

Oh whoops.

Hibbs says that the $15-an-hour minimum wage will require a staggering $80,000 in extra revenue annually. “I was appalled!” he says. “My jaw dropped. Eighty-thousand a year! I didn’t know that. I thought we were talking a small amount of money, something I could absorb.” He runs a tight operation already, he says. Comix Experience is open ten hours a day, seven days a week, with usually just one employee at each store at a time. It’s not viable to cut hours, he says, because his slowest hours are in the middle of the day. And he can’t raise prices, because comic books and graphic novels have their retail prices printed on the cover.

Oh suck it up you one-percenter evil patriarchal capitalist pig!

Oh how I hate dealing with short sighted people with more power than intelligence.