Is That Like "Legitimate Rape"?

So reading JudgyBitch's blog entry in response to Jezebel I ran across this quote (which I missed when reading the original Jezebel piece):

Feminists do not want women to escape prosecution on legitimate domestic violence charges,...

"Legitimate domestic violence"?

Would these be the same women that had a fit when "that man" said "legitimate rape"?

Oh sure is:

http://jezebel.com/search/?display=all&sorting=date&q=Todd%20Akin&page=4

I could fill the page with the results of "Tods Akin" and "legitimate rape".

You would think an organization that pillored a guy for putting the word "legitimate" before a felony would make sure to not put the word "legitimate" before any other crime.

You'd think.

But you know, when women up and beat on a man It just might not be a case of "legitimate" domestic violence. I mean he must have had it coming or deserved it.

Who You May Give Your Money To

Yesterday I posted on the dumb Change.org petition to get Mattel to produce a black Barbie. Had to break down basic ethno-economics on the matter. Today via a comment on the site Stuff Black People Don't Like We have the following which should give black folks pause when they are deciding on medical care and other activities:

Now, let me tell you something really funny. I am an eye doctor. I am not allowed to put a sign up that says WHITES ONLY, thus every single African that comes to me has NO F'n CLUE that I am a Racist Pig Whiteass Cracker.

When they come to me I raise my prices. My staff knows I do this, but since my entire staff is WHITE, they get a kick out of it. I charge Africans and Aztecs more to get back what they have stolen from me. I get a big kick out of it. I smile (they like a smiling White man) and I act like I care, even though if it was up to me every single one would be deported back to their sewer countries.

Why do the Negroes and Mayans come to me? I once asked a Wetback who worked with me when I worked at someone else's office, why. He said: They want a White Doctor. They don't want an Hispanic doc. They think Whites are better.

And, Boy, we are. (I am assuming you are a boy, boy)

As the boys on record say: For real for real. Now about those reports on racial disparities in healthcare......

Police restrain crowd from taking food after supermarket eviction

In what was the richest country in the world (I believe China has taken over this spot, but unoffialy). A town justifies throwing out food from a closed supermarket.

The Marshal of Richmond County, Steve Smith, says the food wasn't theirs to give away, so they had to trash it. "We don't have authority to take possession of the property; we just have to make sure that it's handled, disposed of by law," Smith, said. SunTrust Bank in Atlanta owns the property and they're sending the merchandise to the landfill after evicting the Chois, the owners of the grocery store.

I've said that banks are greedy but this right here is an example of just how lowdown and dispicable these banks are. So a charity did not pick up the goods. So what?

The better option is to toss it in a landfill?

This is how little those who have care about those who do not. I could understand if there were insurance and liability concerns. Let the bank sign a notarized waiver of all rights and responsibility for the food. Therefore just as when you put your trash to the curb, it is no longer your legal property. If someone takes what you put on the curb, you can't claim that it was stolen nor can the person who took it sue you for damages they may get by taking, using or injesting what they took.

The city could have easily done crowd control, let people take what they wanted and then remove the rest. Perhaps removed goods that could spoil for reasons of public health.

But to toss the food simply on a technicality was callous and cold.

Black Folks Just Don't Get It

African-Americans have the highest levels of unemployment in America. Causally African-Americans have the lowest level of business ownership. Relatedly, Most African-American businesses hire no more than one person. Also relatedly, African-American businesses, in most markets generate 1% or less of the business profits in the markets they are in. Why is this?

The answer is simple. Look at every ethnic conclave in a given city. Go to the Chinatowns of Manhattan and Queens. Go to the Hispanic sections of Paterson and Passaic. Go to the Italian and Russian neighborhoods of Howard and Brighton Beach. Go to the Jewish neighborhoods in Crown Heights and Williamsburg. What do you find there? You find the businesses owned and operated by the ethnic members of the communities. The businesses that cater specifically to the cultural needs of those communities. The foods. The clothes, The entertainment. The religious artifacts, etc.

Who are they employing? People from the neighborhood and/or people who have recently immigrated into the neighborhood from "a foreign" (Jamaican slang for "overseas").

Generally speaking when you go into a heavily black neighborhood you do not find this. What you find are stores owned by various ethnic and racial groups. Retail outlets. Laundromats. "corner stores in the middle of the block" (Yes I know the author. Yes, buy his book.) "Supermarkets" with spoiled and near spoiled products. What businesses do the black people in these places usually own? The barbershop and the hair saloon. And the latter usually depends on "hair care" products purchased from some other ethnic group that I decline to name but everybody in the "hood" knows.

Oh yes, then there's local drug trade. Possibly the greatest employer of black men without a college or HS education in America...up there with....prison.

ahhh but this is not the WHYYY...

Yes, to quote the Merovingian of Matrix fame. This is not the why. It would be easy to blame the interloping immigrants and other various non-whites for "invading" the hood and "making" black folks buy stuff from them. That would be easy. That's like Black Revolutionary Rhetoric 101. I'm way past that class. If you wanna roll with The Ghost(tm) You have to graduate to the post Bach program of Garveyism.

Way back in the last century Garvey told black folks the world over that if they wanted respect and employment and nationhood that was not dependent upon the whims of other groups of people, you must do business with and for yourself. To that end Garvey launched the Black Star Line and the Black Star Factories. The Black Star Line and Factories were to employ "negroes" in various "negro" communities with the goal of making said communities self-sufficient. The BSL would have acted as a means of distributing black goods (crops, finished goods) around the globe, thereby connecting the Africans of various nations in commerce for their collective benefit.

Every other group of ethnics that come to America understand this basic concept. Black folks STILL don't get it. Today's example from Change.org:

Petitioning Mattel
Mattel: Offer party supplies featuring Barbies of Color

My African American daughter asked me for a Barbie party theme featuring a black Barbie for her birthday this year. I thought surely, with all of the dolls of color Barbie sells, that it would be no problem to find the party supplies with Barbies of color. Little did I know that not only would I find nothing featuring Barbies of color, but that the only line of party supplies Mattel offers features various huge, blown up images of a blonde haired blue-eyed Barbie on literally everything except for some very small images of a brown-skinned Barbie and a brunette (possibly meant to be Hispanic) Barbie on a tablecloth, and a set of a handful of hanging decorations. Even though it seems like a small thing, featuring the white Barbie so prominently on the banners, cups, napkins, plates, party favors, and invitations, while relegating the "ethnic" Barbies to near-invisible cameos sends a clear--and troubling--message to young girls. As parents of children of color, we're basically faced with the choice of either foregoing a Barbie theme altogether, or compensating for Mattel's lack of sensitivity through labor-intensive DIY solutions. Check out this blog of a mother who went so far as to print out labels of Black Barbies at home and stick them to party supplies: http://ebonylove10.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-have-black-barbie-party.html

The above is testament to the utter SAD state of economics among African-Americans.

Mattel's apparent "oversight" is actually a business opportunity for African-Americans. Why the hell would black folks cede a market for African-American dolls to Mattel instead of creating and buying one of their own, created by their own, and employing black men and women to design, build, manage and distribute them?

This is why I didn't spend time in this piece making disparaging remarks about so called "blood sucking Jews" and dumb stuff like that. If black folks are dumb enough to volunteer to hand other people their money and intellectual property, then why should I be mad at them for accepting it?

I don't WANT Mattel to make a black Barbie. I want a collection of black folks to make an "Akua" doll. I want that doll to come in every shade of brown that African-Americans come in. I want the set to have the most "nappiest" headed doll to the Jamaican red, purple, green and whatever color extension that African-American women put in their heads ('cause I'm not here to judge what black women do with their hair. I just prefer how it comes out their head.). I want her wearing all kinds of outfits whether it be Zulu mudcloth, a wrapper, Hijab, Pum-pum shorts or whatever else we see black women wearing.

I could go on and on because I see the huge, global picture. I don't have time or the inclination to do simpleton, dependency bullshit like ask Mattel to do things that black folks should be doing themselves.

If you don't understand what I'm saying or disagree with it because it offends your "liberal sensibilities", I'm sure there is a white college or other institution dependent upon white philanthropy that will be quite willing to employ you to spread the status quo while thinking you're actually doing something "different".

Red Clay Scholar's Lesson To Rick Ross

He can miss me with all that too.

How Often Are Men Victims of Domestic Violence?

Over at my other blog I have a post called the Gender Bullshit Report. One of the things I point out there is the acceptance of female on male violence in the media, which is reflective of the mood in American society at large.

I've often had people disagree with me on this (particularly when I was on FB and Twitter) but often those persons, sorry every time those persons failed to present actual evidence. The above video should serve as proof what what I said then (always with documentation) as truth. I would also implore those men who I know who are unwilling to believe what I've said in the past because it would put them on the "outs" to seriously watch this information (the data of which I have confirmed) and stop making false statements online and elsewhere about how "infrequent" certain things are.

Robert Zimmerman: Idiot (At The Very Least)

Ahhh gotta love it when White Supremacists like Zimmerman here tries to make a point about what they think are "facts".

First thing is that the kid that shot the woman and her baby was and is a crook (to be nice) who was in fact out to cause harm and was in fact armed.

Trayvon on the other hand was walking from the store with items he purchased and minding his own business.

Zimmerman was following Trayvon first in his vehicle and then on foot.

Zimmerman was armed (and dangerous).

There is no comparison.

Trust me when I say this: If you follow me in your car and I spot you and then you pop out your car and come at me: I will put you down. Period.

Whether I tell you "tonight you're gonna die motherfucker" or anything else, won't even matter, Why? because by stalking me and menacing me is enough for me to defend myself.

So all Robert Zimmerman did was expose his true identity. We see you. PS: Don't even get me started on the number of white people on Twitter and elsewhere throwing birds to a camera.

Garvey's Ghost on The "Gay Marriage" Question.

I was going to post on the topic...again. but decided that it would be better for the reader to go over what I've been saying since 2008: 1) On The California "Gay Marriage" Ruling

I think the constitutional issues coming out of this will be huge. Utah was admitted into the union on the basis of it banning polygamy. Seeing that the argument about 'state interest' has been shot down in two states, for maintaining marriage as between one man and one woman, I think the LDS church will soon be in a position to sue not only the state of Utah but the Federal Government over this issue. Since "family" is being defined in terms of who loves who and who can raise children (as opposed to producing them), there is no legal standing to ban polygamy.

2) Prop 8 arguments

Oh and the comparisons to Dred Scott are entirely out of order. Dred Scott (and by extension Loving) was about the legal designation of blacks as less than human and therefore not even covered by the laws of the land. There is no argument being put forth that homosexual men and women are not human. Anti-Miscegenation laws were again based on white supremacist science that claimed that not only were blacks sub-human but because of that the offspring of such breeding would be sub-human as well.

3) Follow up on Prop 8 Arguments (response to e-mail)

In my opinion the only equitable means of dealing with this issue that does not run afoul of religious liberties, is to have all levels of government get out of the marriage business. No city hall ceremonies. Marriage remains the social institution it is and would be performed by any religious or social group that the people involved wish to deal with. The states can do what they do when people form legal businesses. The submit an application to form a "domestic partnership" with as many or few people as they want. The state simply certifies the declaration of this domestic entity. That is all. Everybody has a domestic partnership regardless of what genders are involved or how many people are involved. This would legally help hospitals with privacy laws that prevent non-relatives from access to or making decisions for patients. Show your certificate and that's taken care of. I think the above is the best way to address the legal "equal protection" issue, without running into the sociology and cultural issue of what is and who should be recognized as "married".

4) The Problem With The Latest Prop 8 Decision

The California constitution as enacted in 1849 is very clear as to what it considers "marriage". The word "marriage" appears exactly twice in the original California constitution:

Sec. 12. No contract of marriage, if otherwise duly made, shall be invalidated for want of conformity to the requirements of any religious sect.

Sec. 14. All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by marriage, and that acquired afterwards by gift, devise, or descent, shall be her separate property; and laws shall be passed more clearly defining the rights of the wife, in relation as well to her separate property as to that held in common with her husband. Laws shall also be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate property....

Therefore for a justice to claim that prior to November of 2008 that any other marriage arrangement was legal or recognized under the California constitution is factually wrong.

Gang Member Shoots Mexican because he was Mexican

This black gang member shoots a Mexican man in front of his son in retaliation for " for the death of one of their own by a Latino member of the 38th Street Gang."

By the way.What is the name of this gang that this fellow is from?

Pueblo Bishop Bloods

His dumb ass is in a gang with a "latin" name and killing random Latinos.

o_0

On another note, what the hall are 31 and 40 year old black men doing gangbanging?

Gabrourel was convicted after the state unsuccessfully tried him in 2011. Two other men, Gary “Big J-Killa” White, 47, and Jermaine “Lil’ J-Killa” Hardiman, 31, were also convicted in the slaying.

I mean Gary White is damn near 50. 50! Why is ANYONE gang bangin' at damn near 50?

Your life has to be all kinds of fail to wake up at damn near 50 years old on some "I'mma kill me a Mexican" tip.

It's dumb enough to be a gangster as a teen. I can kind of sort of understand that. Young men not thinking about their future. Typical young man "I'mma become a big shot caller...yadda yadda yadda.. But damn! Near 50 and gang bangin?

Look, if you're in the gang life..by the time you're damn near 50 you need to be in upper management handling the retirement fund, the "legit" front businesses and stuff like that. If you ain't doin' that. If your clique ain't got a retirement plan or legit front businesses for "old gangsters" to launder money and stuff like that, you should REALLY REALLY reconsider your affiliation.

Being White In Philly

The original piece here: http://www.phillymag.com/articles/white-philly/

I'll just say this: If you think that what was written there was 'hateful" let me assure you that whatever negative commentary or quotes contained in the piece is a far cry from what is being said by those with no filter.

Farrrrrrrr cry.

Blindsided: The Exoneration of Brian Banks

I remember when this story broke. Two things to say about this:

1) I recall during my time on Twitter the number of educated African-American women who were of the opinion that any time a woman says she has been raped that she is to be believed. If any of them are viewing this then they should now understand why I called them on it. How any African-American woman, fully cognizant of the history of lynching in America could open her mouth and say that a rape claim should be believed simply because it has been made is a betrayal of their own ancestors.

Now should police take a rape claim seriously? Absolutely. But seriously and true are NOT the same thing.

2) What was with the African-American woman lawyer who after receiving the total net worth of Brian Banks' mother, abdicate her responsibility to vigorously defend her client? I know people who work in the justice [sic] system who say that such plea deals are common. Yes Brian faced an uphill battle for a fair trial. As an African-American woman not only should she know this but given her supposedly uniqueinsight she should have been in a position to know how to get around such biases. I wonder if this woman even bothered to reach out to Brian. I wonder if she refunded some of her "earnings" (I use the term loosely given she convinced her innocent client to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit) to Mr. Banks.

Exporting Censorship

For those who don't know, France has a peculiar law. It is illegal to say "bad" things about Jewish people. It's framed as "anti-semitic speech" but since Arabs are apparently not covered it is clearly about "Jews". Apparently it is the case, like a lot of places in Europe, that the government(s) are of the opinion that the citizenry is so immature and childlike as to not be able to see "bad" speech for what it is and decide for themselves how to deal with it. And so it is illegal to sell Nazi material (because that magically prevents folks from becoming violent White Supremacists (as opposed to the more genteel and acceptable, sofa, governmental and university White Supremacists.

To this end the French government has been coming after Twitter:

In January, a French court ruled that Twitter must hand over the details of people who had tweeted racist and anti-semitic remarks, and set up a system that would alert the police to any further such posts as they happen. Twitter has ignored that ruling, and now the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) is suing it for €38.5m (£32.8m) for its failure.

The French government is of the opinion that a US based company must spend it's time providing the actual identities of persons who make "anti-semetic" remarks on Twitter to the police. This amounts to exporting French law to other countries.

Twitter refused, arguing it was based in the United States and thus protected by the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech guarantees. A Parisian circuit court ruled against the social network, giving it two weeks to comply or face a fine of up to €1,000 (£849) for every day it doesn't. The UEJF want considerably more than that, says its president, Jonathan Hayoun, because "is making itself an accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites".

Even if US law didn't protect such speech it would not be relevant. Twitter is not a French entity. As far as I know Twitter's servers are accessed by french citizens. The actual burden here is on the French authorities to police it's citizenry not overseas entities.

As to the charge of "accomplice", what happens if a media outlet reports on "anti-semetic" speech and provides quotes of said speech? Are they too "accomplices" because they have provided an outlet for such speech?

"Twitter is playing the indifference card in not respecting the decision of 24 January," he added, when speaking to AFP. If the UEFJ wins its case, it plans to donate the money to the Shoah Memorial Fund. Twitter has said it will appeal the decision. It deleted many of the offensive tweets in January after the earlier court ruling, but has so far held back on using its country withheld content feature to pre-filter potentially offensive content, as it does with neo-Nazi posts in Germany.

I think Twitter has made a huge mistake in deleting the offending tweets as well as providing filters in Germany for neo-nazi tweets. Twitter ought to simply block access to it's site from the IP ranges originating from those countries. Trust me, the world is FAR LARGER than France or Germany. Let the citizenship realize that the censorship laws they have are undemocratic and are costing them access to a world of information.

Such a move would also be quite profitable for the web proxy business.

This is the problem with accepting the small censorship. Now you cannot talk "ill" of the Jew. Soon you cannot talk ill of any religion. The men at Pycon and Play Haven have found out just how far the speech suppressors are willing to go.

Today in "Spot The Negro"

Reflecting on my post last week where I highlighted the quote:

If you have no women working for you, you might find it hard to get women to work for you: Does a female engineer really want to go work for a company where she's the only woman in the office?

I pointed out what a double standard that was as it regards race; That is, such an argument wouldn't be presented much less accepted in MSM.

I also have pointed out how many tech companies that are going on about what they need to do to attract women may as well have "No Negro" signs on their management office (or even in general).

Yesterday browsing Flipboard I came across a post in Gamespot about game developer Firaxis. What they do is not important. However the picture of what I assume to be the staff at Firaxis is telling:

Now please follow me with today's "Spot the Negro". I spot 1 definite (extreme left) and one possible (extreme right).

Now count the women:5. None Black.

I suppose Firaxis has a problem hiring blacks because well, they don't have blacks working for them.

o_O

Listen to Sarah Gudger: Slave Narrative

Hat tip to Cappuccino Soul

Becky Stone brings the voice of former slave Sarah Gudger to life from the Federal Writers Project Slave Narratives of 1937. Listen as she describes her personal experiences with her family, owners, slave speculators, the Civil War, thoughts on emancipation, and what life was like as a slave in Buncombe County.

R.I.P Chinua Achebe

Dongle-Gate: The sterilization of men in tech culture

I was SOOOOO enraged when I read this that I had to leave my place of employment lest I do something to threaten said employment. I was going to write about it but A Voice For Men has done it already and I'm going to let their piece speak for me (at least for now).

This is completely out of hand now. Completely.

What the now former engineer for Play Haven and his friend didn’t know; Was that the conference they were attending had copy and pasted their code of conduct from the Ada Initiative’s example code of conduct. This code of conduct forbids any sexual discussion. You heard that right, a public convention, with thousands of people, talking, socializing, etc. explicitly forbids any discussion about sex or sexual remarks amongst conference goers.

Some back story here:

The Ada Initiative is a feminist organization aimed at removing male sexuality from tech spaces while allowing feminism approved flavors of female sexuality to remain. I really wish I was being hyperbolic here, but this an exact quote on that topic:

Personally I think men should boycott next year's PyCon. Seriously.

How Greedy Are These Banks?

Take a look at Cyprus:

With anger growing, Cyprus’s president, Nicos Anastasiades, was set to propose a revised plan later Thursday to scrap a controversial tax on bank deposits. But if the government does not raise enough money through other means to satisfy creditors, that plan would need to be revised. And in a rare public mea culpa, the head of the euro zone finance ministers sought to defuse tensions by taking the blame for the proposal to levy a one-time tax on small accountholders as a condition of the bailout. The proposal was roundly rejected by the Cypriot Parliament on Tuesday.

Imagine.

You open an account with your bank. Your [relatively] meager savings stashed away earning a wee bit of interest. The bank had been using your deposits as leverage to make loans to people who should never have seen a cent. It speculated on whatever. It gets into trouble. What does the Big Fed people do? They decide that you should be charged a tax on your little savings. Why? Did YOU fuck up? Nope. You get taxed so the bank that used and leveraged YOUR money in bad (and possibly fraudulent) activities can stay in business.

This is how greedy these people are.

I Have Not Had It All

I have not had it all.

I have had a lot. I feel lucky to have had a successful career as a journalist and author while being the primary caregiver of our four children for a decade.

But I definitely did not have it all.

Well said.

Let's Not Exaggerate

NY Times reporting on the lack of "minorities" enrolling and graduating from teaching colleges has this little gem:

“In their first year as an engineer, they’ll earn more than a teacher will ever earn over a 30-year career,” said Rick Ginsberg, the dean of the School of Education at the University of Kansas.

This from a "dean".

Unless first year engineers are pulling in million dollar salaries AND teachers never make anything above the minimum wage, it is mathematically impossible for the quoted statement to be true.

Mind you, I get the actual point, but I really hate exaggerations. It's just not necessary.

The Onliest Negro

Continuing my watching of the increasing gender discourse in the technology field; here's Jezebel's latest on Etsy

If you have no women working for you, you might find it hard to get women to work for you: Does a female engineer really want to go work for a company where she's the only woman in the office?

Once again highlighting the not so funny double standard in this coverage. Replace "female" and "women" and you get

If you have no Blacks working for you, you might find it hard to get Blacks to work for you: Does a Black engineer really want to go work for a company where she's the only Black in the office?

Lest you think this is hyperbole, please do note that such "spot in the milk" situations are quite common both in education and the workplace. Certainly This Week with George is one such place (That round table has a thin stable of "the usual" black folks" and they are often not there. Women on the other hand appear just about every week.

Of course I could answer the question with the same tripe I get about race: It shouldn't matter, we shouldn't be looking at gender[race] but the quality of the candidate and the work. Right?

Right?

Seriously though. It is not so funny to see the arguments that are being passed around in this gender argument that aren't even allowed to see light of day when the subject is race.