The Incomplete Cynic

I'm usually a pessimist, but sometimes I just can't not believe.

[jeremyg36]

How To Be Black In America: A (Relatively) Short List

by Mia McKenzie 1. Don’t sag your pants. Pull them up. Slowly. Don’t make any sudden movements. 2. Stop talking about racism. That’s over. (see: black President) 2.5. Stop asking the black President to do anything to help you. That’s reverse-racism. Or something. 3. Don’t be mad. 4. Don’t reach for your wallet. Or your cell phone. 5. Who told you it was okay to walk down the street?? 6. Don’t assert yourself. You’re scaring people. Don’t scare people so much. 7. Why do you talk like that? 8. Get an education somehow. Speak properly, for Christ’s sake. But don’t be uppity. 9. Why do you talk like that? 10. Don’t wear a weave. 10.5. Don’t wear your hair natural, either, unless you got that good hair. JP Morgan Chase don’t do nappy. 11. Don’t exist. 12. You’re really dark. Can you do something about that? In fact, if you’re going to insist on being black, please be as light-skinned as possible. Have a white parent, if you can manage it. K? 13. Jump. 14. Don’t have kids unless you’re married. And everyone knows Black women can’t find husbands so… just don’t have kids. If you must have them, though, have daughters. 14.5 Don’t have sons. If you do have sons and they end up dead or in a cage, that’s your problem. You should have known better. (continued below) ———————————————————————————————————— BGD is a 100% reader-funded, non-profit project. DONATE <http://blackgirldangerous.org/donate/> today and support marginalized voices. ———————————————————————————————————— 15. Vote Democrat. 16. Don’t talk about liking fried chicken. We are respectable negroes up in here. 17. Separate yourself as much as possible from niggers. Denounce those black people as often as you can. 18. Be nicer. You know people are intimidated by you, right? Why are you making it harder on yourself? 19. Be successful somehow. But do it without any kind of help. I mean, that’s how white people did it, right? No help whatsoever. 20. Jesus, slavery was 150 years ago. Get your shit together. 21. Don’t get nominated for an Ocsar at 9 years old. This makes you a cunt <http://www.racialicious.com/2013/02/25/apparently-people-have-beef-with-quvenzhane-wallis/> . 22. Why is your name so weird? Imma just call you… (see: #21) 23. Let people who don’t experience anti-black racism tell you what it is and what it is not, how it does and does not effect you, and how you should feel and, especially, not feel about it. 24. Tell people what aisle they can find the Ajax in. Because you obviously stock shelves at this Target even though you are wearing a suit. 25. Why is your butt like that? 26. If you’re black and queer, choose which of those communities to align yourself with. I think the choice is obvious. (see: Recent Supreme Court Rulings) 27. Don’t run. Unless you’re on a football field. Black people running = something bad is happening. Unless it’s sports. 28. Can your dick be smaller? I mean, you’re kind of feeding into the stereotype with that thing. 29. Spend 98% of your energy trying to be more respectable/acceptable. Translation: why aren’t you better at being a civilized human being? 30. Play dead. Learn to curl up in a ball as if trying to survive a bear attack. 31. Just get over it. White people with neck tattoos get discriminated against, too. It’s not just you. 32. Don’t defend yourself. Other people get to decide how you die. Accept that. 33. Remember that none of these things will necessarily save you. If you let yourself believe they will, that’s your fault. 34. Hold close to your family and your homies, anyway. Make food with them. Cry. Laugh. Dance. Repeat. It may not save you, but it’ll feel good. 34.5. Make crazy good, life-altering art. 35. Forgive somebody who looks like you. 36. Read a lot of books. Get recommendations from awesome people. 37. Try really hard to get on a jury. 38. Reject ableism and cissexism and heteronormativity and classism and fat-shaming and normative gender roles and misogynoir and everything massa ever told you and is still telling you. 39. Keep going. Or don’t. 39.5. Keep fighting. Or don’t. 40. Look hard at your own individual shit and fix it so you can be better at love. 41. Love. 42. Don’t forget about love. All work published on BGD is the intellectual property of its writers. Please do not republish anything from this site without express written permission from BGD. For more info, go here <http://blackgirldangerous.org/reposting-from-bgd> . [Mia McKenzie <http://miamckenzie.net/the-summer-we-got-free> is an award-winning writer and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous.] Mia McKenzie <http://miamckenzie.net/the-summer-we-got-free> is an award-winning writer and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous. Get Mia McKenzie’s debut literary novel, The Summer We Got Free <http://www.amazon.com/The-Summer-We-Got-Free/dp/0988628600/ref=tmm_pap_title_0> . It just won the Lambda Literary Award. SUPPORT <http://blackgirldangerous.org/donate/> Black Girl Dangerous and help amplify the voices of queer and trans* people of color! Follow us on Twitter: @blackgirldanger <https://twitter.com/blackgirldanger> LIKE <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Girl-Dangerous/184890874945927> us on Facebook

LOL @

7. Why do you talk like that? 

9. Why do you talk like that? 

14. Don’t have kids unless you’re married. And everyone knows Black women can’t find husbands so… just don’t have kids.  If you must have them, though, have daughters.

24. Tell people what aisle they can find the Ajax in. Because you obviously stock shelves at this Target even though you are wearing a suit. 

37. Try really hard to get on a jury.

[downthejones]

1-30 are weak. And whiny. But mainly weak. Except for 28...that shit's legit.

The rest are awesome though. Except 38.

Main thing, yeah, it's hard. People are racist dicks with absurd expectations. But stop exuding yourself, because it doesn't make life any better. Suck it up, work with what you've got, and get where you can. And pass that shit in to your kids. We've come a long way in two generations...let's push and shock everybody with what we do over the next two.

[cartoonpolitics]

“You are 9 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist” .. (from this article)

[downthejones]

"He'd created a lot of franchise value, and we were going to pay him for that," Conard said, adding: "We had a very complicated set of negotiations that took us about two years for us to unwind. During that time a management committee ran the firm, and we could hardly get Mitt to come back to negotiate the terms of his departure because he was working so hard on the Olympics."

Conard's comments are the latest in a growing pile of evidence that contradicts Romney's repeated claims that he ended his active role at Bain in 1999. On Sunday, The Huffington Post reported on a corporate document filed in December 2002 that lists Romney as a "managing member" of Bain Capital Investors. Earlier reports show Romney listed as CEO on 2002 Securites and Exchange Commission filings, attending board meetings for Bain-affiliated companies after 1999, and receiving an at least $100,000 salary from Bain in 2001 and 2002.

Yeah, that sounds like he definitely continued his "active role". Active CEOs always let management committees run their companies while they're off at other jobs. The fact that he was on the books and attended some board meetings definitely proves that he was running the show all along.

[downthejones]

It might not quite be "philanthropy" that is coming up trumps, but Inman is certainly raking the donations in. He reached his $20,000 goal in just 64 minutes and had raised a massive $118,000 24 hours after the fundraiser went live. I'm betting, that by the time this article goes live, BearLove Good will have more money in its bank than Greece.

Beautiful.

[downthejones]

For those of us idealistic enough to believe in such a thing as society and that society can progress, public institutions that form our government are required.

Gary Hart: Is Progress Possible?

I totally get it now! Government is required for progress! Quick question though...if government is required for progress, how'd we progress to the point where a government was possible, without a government to help us along?

[downthejones]

It’s piracy’s fault. Don’t pirate. Don’t give Katherine Heigl a Lamborghini.

Movies Are Getting Shittier Because You Keep Stealing Them

[jeffmiller]

Here’s a curious fact about the French economy: The country has 2.4 times as many companies with 49 employees as with 50. What difference does one employee make? Plenty, according to the French labor code. Once a company has at least 50 employees inside France, management must create three worker councils, introduce profit sharing, and submit restructuring plans to the councils if the company decides to fire workers for economic reasons.

Why France Has So Many 49-Employee Companies - Businessweek (via jeffmiller)

My favorite part:

Worker groups say the code itself isn’t the issue. “If the code is complicated, it’s because our society is complicated,” says Bernard Vivier, director of the Higher Institute of Labor in Paris, which studies labor relations for unions and companies. “Cars are much more complicated today than they were 40 years ago. Why shouldn’t the labor code be?”

[khoyekhawab]

[satans-advocate-deactivated2013]

not one single mother fucker stood up to help her.

not one. 

[antigovernmentextremist]

More power to her.

[downthejones]

BAD ASS

+5

[wellroaredlion-deactivated20120]

Fact: College graduates of all majors earn more money throughout their lifetimes than those who do not possess a degree.

Fact: There is a correlation between education and happiness.

[downthejones]

Question: Does graduating college make you smarter and better prepared to enter and succeed in the workforce, or are smart and prepared people more likely to graduate college, and therefore more likely to succeed?

It's probably way more likely that because the people entering college are generally smarter and more capable than the general population - and those who graduate smarter and more capable still - that what you see is selection bias. Is it really a useful comparison? Not really. In one group you have 90% of the country's smartest and most able people. In the other is the remaining 10%, plus everyone who wasn't smart enough or a good enough student to get into (or get through) college, and most 1st generation immigrants. You seriously think we should compare the incomes of these two groups and attribute the difference only to a college degree?

[downthejones]

Again, if a male writer had written book after book arguing that women were evil creatures whose sole purpose in life is to sexually manipulate and destroy men, would we spend a lot of time quibbling over whether he actually used the phrase, "All women are whores"?

The Dworkin Whitewash - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

[downthejones]

Italy, 1992. A 45-year-old driving instructor picks up an 18-year-old girl for her first lesson, takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and rapes her. She courageously tells her parents. They help and support her in pressing charges, leading to the perpetrator's arrest and prosecution. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.

He appeals. The case reaches the Italian Supreme Court, which overturns his sentence and releases him. "Because the victim wore very, very tight jeans," the Court notes in their decision, "she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex."

For people around the world appalled by the way criminal justice systems treat survivors of sexual assault, the judges' words became a rallying cry. Within hours, the women in Italy's Parliament organized a protest: they wore jeans to work. Not long after, California's State Legislature wore jeans to their legislative session. And in April of 1999, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Peace Over Violence held the first official Denim Day in Los Angeles. Denim Day now spans the nation and has grown into a powerful national movement about sexual assault prevention and education. A movement committed to empowerment.

But today, on the eve of Denim Day 2012, the same pernicious myths, misconceptions and victim-blaming attitudes that motivated the first Denim Day persist. Experts agree that these myths contribute heavily to the stark realities of sexual violence in the United States: nearly one in five women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime; most rapes are never reported; and only an estimated 6% of perpetrators ever spend a day in jail.

I wear jeans to work almost every day, but if I didn't, I'm pretty sure I'd throw some on to participate in Denim Day. I'm not much of an activist, but I think this is a pretty righteous cause.

[downthejones]

And then the worse imaginable form of mistrust I have read in a while happened…

As soon as I reached the OR, the staff began prepping me for surgery. I stated that I did NOT want a c-section. I demanded to see my husband and stated that IF I was to receive a c-section my DH & I would make that decision together. I was told that my husband was on his way. I was also told that my baby needed more oxygen & I was told to breathe deeply in a new mask because it had a better seal on my face (the oxygen I was breathing before was thru a smaller mask). The new mask wasn't oxygen, I was gassed against my will. I am unaware of what was done to me from the time I was gassed up until I awoke in recovery. I am assuming that I only had a c-section. Any further details have not been shared with me.

Not only was she lied to, but she was put under general anesthesia without consent. Alone, with no support from her husband, not knowing what was going on. One minute thinking she was getting some oxygen, and then the next thing she knows she is waking up in the recovery room after major surgery she never consented to!

The only way to describe this is "fucked up". I have no other words. I'm sure I'd have more if I waited a bit, but this kind of story just speaks for itself, right?

Also fucked up: the first thread of comments is an argument over whether it was ok to use "rape" in the headline.

[downthejones]

What do you politically identify as?

Honestly, I don't. Maybe libertarian, maybe conservative...definitely not liberal. 

I'm too socially conservative to fit in at all with most of the libertarians I know, including those who I follow. But since I'm not interested in seeing the government enforce that conservatism, my conservative friends (mostly Christians) don't like my politics either. 

I guess I'm somewhere in the unnamed overlap in a Venn diagram of conservative and libertarian ideas. In the end, I don't really care what you call it, as long as you don't call it "liberal". Or "progressive". 

[politicalprof]

Silly Libertarians: A Response

So the blogger who (partially) inspired my post yesterday has responded. You can read his piece for yourself here. You, of course, will draw whatever conclusions you will. For my part, his claim that things like clean water, clean air and clean food are only “supposed” goods not necessarily worth making cross-generational commitments to ensure pretty much exposes the uselessness of libertarianism as an actual plan for social action, as opposed to a tool of social and political criticism.

Just fyi—

[downthejones]

I've read this whole thread...starting with the post that inspired your initial response. After taking it all in, it's pretty clear that, in this argument, you're losing badly and know it. I can't think of any other way to explain the blatant misdirection and dishonesty.

From your use of exceptions (infants and psychopaths) to disprove the rule (sound-minded adults) of the inviolability of self-ownership, to your quoting of the word "supposed" above (a word which doesn't even appear in LA Liberty's response), you refused on all counts to engage with his ideas.

You suggest that because he believes no one should be forced into cross-generational commitments, that he is against them in principle; that he believes that "commitment[s] beyond...one-to-one agreement" are unnecessary. You ignored the responses to your argument and decide instead to disparage him for something he didn't even say.

Also, I can't help but point out that shortly after saying that "a blanket statement 'never' is, well, silly," you say that you've "never, ever heard a libertarian even vaguely hint at an" alternative to coerced cross-generational participation. An assertion that is both silly and shocking, since I, in the course of my varied careers in food service, ministry, graphic design, and web development, have encountered a number of specific and general alternatives; how is it that in the course of your study and teaching of Politics and Government you haven't?

[downthejones]

The liberal justices' questioning reveals a desire to let Congress enact laws that "affect" interstate commerce to do good things for the country. But this was not the intent of the Commerce Clause. The Constitution limited the powers of Congress to pass laws to specific subjects it enumerated in Art. I. There is no general power to take care of poor people needing health care. The Constitution leaves that lawmaking up to the states, which have almost unlimited legislative powers. Justice Breyer, for example, lectured his colleagues about the reality that everyone will "get sick" and need health care. That, in his view, justifies the enactment of the law. But missing from that analysis is any support in the Constitution for such legislation.

I'm really confused by this column from Huffington Post. All of their commentary is proudly partisan, but Foster seems genuinely interested in the Constitutional question, and not at all in support of the mandate's constitutionality. Is he the token conservative on the blog?

[downthejones]

And so if we can all be subject to economic mandates merely because everyone is "already in the market," then the Constitution's limits on federal power are meaningless. We're all in the market for transportation, so why not a mandate to buy an American car the next time the automobile industry is in crisis? Diet and exercise have a greater effect on taxpayer spending on health care than rates of ownership of health-insurance policies, so why not a broccoli or gym-membership mandate?

Obamacare Premise Is Just Wrong | Ilya Shapiro | Cato Institute: Commentary

[downthejones]

What college ought to be about

This is what I'm saying...

But what about the [insert field here] mission of [same field here] departments? They're not vocational schools! It shouldn't be their job to train people to work in industry. That's for community colleges and government retraining programs for displaced workers, they will tell you. They're supposed to be giving students the fundamental tools to live their lives, not preparing them for their first weeks on the job. Right?

The Perils of JavaSchools - Joel Spolsky

Universities ought not be concerned with giving students 'real world skills' or 'job competence'...that's someone else's job. They ought to be concerned with identifying bright and capable students, and pushing them to expand their minds, become intellectually flexible, and (God help me for using this phrase...) think outside the box.