Archive for April, 2010

On Vacation, will return then

CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (AP) — School officials in Chamberlain are investigating an incident in which six high school students wore homemade T-shirts proclaiming “White Pride World Wide.”
A derogatory slang term for impoverished white people also was on the back of each shirt, along with a symbol often used by white supremacists. On the front of the shirts was the word “Peace” and a peace sign.

Superintendent Tim Mitchell says officials are looking into why the students made the shirts. He says they violated the school’s dress policy. Two of the students changed their shirts and the other four left school.
One of them, 16-year-old Codie Novotny, says the shirts were a response to accusations by some American Indian students that white students and teachers are racist. She also says Indian students are allowed to wear clothing proclaiming “Native Pride.”

I so hope they weren’t asked to remove the shirts b/c of the ‘white pride world wide’ line.  I sure hope it was b/c of the derogatory slang used.  Miss Novotny was correct about the native pride shirts.  I have seen them on several occasions while on my travels.

Apparently Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland thought this was a good question to ask of Dallas Cowboys rookie Dez Bryant during a pre-draft interview.
Ireland has since apologized.

My question is what was Ireland thinking.  He couldn’t have thought this would have been an acceptable question while conducting the interview.  What do these types of questions have to do with what the player is going to do on the field.  If I would have been Bryant, I may have gotten up and sent Ireland into next week.  Despite what is in his mothers past, this totally crossed the line. 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to act.  A fine, suspension, anything.

I was recently called out for losing my mancrush on Jon Stewart. So not true. This video is a pretty solid takedown of the law. It also brings up an interesting question: What exactly do they mean by “suspicious activity” in this bill? Supporters of this bill, let me know what activity is suspicious.

Colbert even had another segment of The Word dealing with it.

Enjoy wondering what constitutes suspicious activity.

Adam Feser

Update: Here are some reactions to the law.  You may be surprised by a few of them.

If you haven’t heard of Arizona SB1070, you probably haven’t been watching much news. I haven’t commented on it because I’m finishing my last semester up and have been using my spare time to watch Glenn Beck (never thought I would write that sentence). Time to at least mention it, because I try and mention every obvious bit of racism that somehow becomes law.

Everyone must be able to prove their lawful residence in the US or face warrant-less arrest, fine of at least $500, and up to 6 months in jail. It allows officers to check anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. In other words, they can just randomly check Mexicans.

I know at least a few people here will argue that it makes sense since they constitute most of the people here illegally. But this also means Mexicans here legally will be frequently harassed in Arizona. I doubt many white people will be stopped, though Canadians and Europeans stay beyond their legal time.

That is why this, in my opinion, is unconstitutional. It will single out one group. Mexicans are not the only illegal immigrants, but they will be the only people affected by the legislation. This isn’t the direction I want America to move in.

Stephen Colbert dedicated The Word to this very subject:

(Side note: McCain’s support of this bill is just proof of how much of a liar he really is. Remember when he was for reasonable immigration reform?).

Enjoy your civil liberties, as long as you don’t look Mexican and live in Arizona, in which case, tough break I guess.

Adam Feser

I didn’t think it would be possible, but this was quite possibly worse than Monday. This entire show, there was one piece of news mentioned, and it’s a stretch to call it news. And the one piece mentioned was from a show he did the day before. Bill Clinton said some stuff about people like Beck or something. Beck misrepresented what he said (lied) and ran with it. That was it. Seriously. There was a point when the show was returning from a commercial break that they cut to a reporter delivering a few stories. She did three in a minute. She gave more information in that minute than Beck did in two full hours. Remember when he talked about giving people the news of the day?

I think I’ve figured out what his show is. It’s a history lesson, only it’s the history Glenn Beck believes to be true. It’s like millions of people tune in to get a history lesson from a Texas history book with Beck spinning it. The Founders were all religious zealots, civil rights protesters were the same as the Tea Party, FDR ruined America, etc. etc. Even when wants to use something that could be considered current, he doesn’t bother proving it or showing evidence, he just assumes the listener won’t question him. So when he rants about the evil media that is making the Tea Party look bad, it’s just a given.

Tonight was especially rough because (more…)

Click here. Read it before you react, because I think it gets at something I’ve thought of before.

Perhaps we’ll address it in the comments. Or perhaps people won’t find it as interesting as I do.

Other fun articles:
Score between Dems and GOP
Biden banned from Dave and Busters
Republicans and Leukemia team up
Prison economy tanks

Enjoy the prison video.

Adam Feser

Welcome to the first installment of my personal hell. I watched the full hour, and it was painful. The way I’m going to do this is that I will provide an overall analysis of the show followed by a full posting of my notes. The notes follow the show chronologically, contain some quotes I either think are funny or ironic, and some thoughts. And the analysis is analysis.  Here is the first analysis and batch of notes.

What torture. Even if I was a conservative, I don’t think I could take this guy. He jabbers for the first ten minutes about why he has chosen this difficult profession that he never wanted, as though it’s not for the tens of millions of dollars and his ego. The opening was cringe-inducing, but it got worse. I’ll tell you why this particular hour of television was so horrible. Beck said:

“I wanna bring you the news of the day, but I don’t wanna bring you the news of the day. And the reason why I don’t is because I’m not the guy to do it. I’m just the guy who happens to be sitting in the chair. And it doesn’t seem to me that anybody else is going to do it.”

The news of the day? I sat through (more…)

A speaker at a tea part rally said, “Barney Frank has been more honest and brave than you. At least we know about Barney Frank, nobody’s going to hold it over his head.” Moving on, he stated, “Look, I’m a tolerant person. I don’t care about your private life, Lindsey. But as our U.S. senator, I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen, I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it.”

He’s obviously a tolerant guy, but he just needs to know if your gayness is ruining the country. Because obviously being gay makes you a horrible person that will sell out your country.

They also put out a press release:

The national border security organization known as Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is officially calling for US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to make his homosexual lifestyle public knowledge in the interest of political integrity and national security…

“US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” said William Gheen President of ALIPAC. “I personally do not care about Graham’s private life, but in this situation his desire to keep this a secret may explain why he is doing a lot of political dirty work for others who have the power to reveal his secrets. Senator Graham needs to come out of the closet inside that log cabin so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.”

So there is some conspiracy to hold Graham’s gayness over his head and make him a liberal traitor? Obviously.

Enjoy the tolerance.

Adam Feser

Tom Coburn, as noted in an earlier post that’s generated a lot of heat for some reason, said fear mongering like saying you’ll go to jail if you don’t have insurance makes for great TV on Fox, but it’s not the point of reform. This seems like an incredibly logical thing to say and it makes a great point. Bill O’Reilly recently took Coburn to task for this statement. O’Reilly’s team apparently researched it, and no one had ever said that on Fox News. I think we all know where this is going.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the people that do the research for the shows on Fox News are really bad at their job.

Enjoy Dennis Miller making a weird reference and passing it off as an original joke (that’s for regular guys, not famous comedians).

Adam Feser