Category: Uncategorized (Page 4 of 6)

The most compelling topics are those on which many of us disagree. Liberty & security; nuance & fear – we’re not very good at keeping a sober perspective. We’re easily distracted by shiny objects; easily moved by impulse and emotion.

It is the job of our alphabet boys (and girls) to fight for more access and easier access to our personal information, more intrusion on our civil liberties. That is the role they have taken on, that is their raison d’etre – to keep us safe, of course.

It is expected that intelligence agencies would want to lap up every online search, every chat room discussion, every email exchange, every text, every call, every skype/facetime – to keep us safe…

It is expected that the FBI would want access to a cell phone which could provide evidence the investigation of a terrorist attack.

Unfortunately, it is also expected that the corporate media establishment will utterly fail at their raison d’etre – properly informing the American public. That they would instead exploit our fears in a cynical ploy to exploit our fears for increased ratings. For all of our feigned machismo, the American people are easily exploited by fear – which we simply cannot get enough of. We absolutely adore being terrified, so that we can be swept off of our feet by a strapping authoritarian father-figures who assuage our fears by promising to make the bad men go away.

Inevitably, chasing away the bogeymen requires our acquiescing liberty for the promise of security. We were warned against such folly by our founding fathers, and yet, such has played out time and again. We were told to fear “Chinamen” so we outlawed opium and denied citizenship. We were told to fear Mexicans, so we (re-branded cannabis and) banned marijuana (sounds more ethnic). We were told to be terrified of the Japanese, so we locked away Japanese-Americans in internment camps and seized their property. We were terrified of black folks practicing their second amendment rights in California, so Saint Reagan signed an assault weapons ban. We were terrified after 9/11, so we started torturing people; we started locking people away without charge; we started assassinating American citizens without trial for saying “death to America.” We make our grandmas & granddads remove their shoes & belts while our sons & daughters are felt up by TSA agents.

Now the FBI is taking Apple to court, and public opinion seems to be split. Is Apple with ISIS? Or is Apple defending our privacy from an intrusive federal government?

For starters, Apple is defending their bottom line – they have shareholders, after all. That said, Apple – specifically Apple CEO Tim Cook – is correct to deny a court order to comply with the FBI in this case.

The backdrop to all of this, of course, is the fact that the intelligence agencies have done nothing whatsoever to garner any level of trust. Leave aside J. Edgar Hoover, the Red Scare, MLK, the Movement, Watergate… They knew Bin Ladin was preparing to attack us, yet 9/11 still happened. They used falsified & misleading intelligence as evidence to illegally & senselessly invade an uninvolved nation, in Iraq. The Patriot Act immensely expanded their legal authorities (including turning the CIA from a spying agency into a killing agency) with the promise that they would be able to keep us safe. They didn’t see the Boston bombing coming. Didn’t see San Bernardino. (Didn’t see North Korea getting a nuke; didn’t even see the Arab Spring coming.)

While most of us have been unaware, the Crypto Wars have been waged for decades. Stands to reason, since most of us haven’t had personal devices with encryption capabilities for very long. The past few years though, following every “major” terrorist attack, alphabet boys are trotted onto cable news shows to fret about how that darned encryption might have kept them from preventing the latest attack.

When pressed, they are incapable of pointing to a single attack where either a “backdoor” to encryption (or mass surveillance in general, for that matter) has been used to thwart a major terrorist attack. Not. A. Single. One.

This fact does not keep them, however, from insisting. In this specific case, the FBI is in possession of Syed Farook’s work phone. It is inconceivable that a guy with forethought enough to destroy his personal phone would have used his work phone to communicate with terrorists (he wasn’t associated with any terrorists/organizations, he was simply inspired by online anti-American propaganda). Unfortunately for the FBI, said phone is password protected, and if the password is incorrectly guessed ten times, all data on the device is erased. Thus, the FBI wants Apple to create a backdoor/key in the form of malware that can be uploaded via iOS update which would disable said security function, giving investigators unlimited attempts at guessing the password. While the FBI insists that this “key” would only be used once, this is impossible to guarantee. Tellingly, NY District Attorney Cyrus Vance has 175 more iPhones he can’t wait to unlock – including one belonging to a person suspected of possessing meth – if the court order against Apple is successful (along with numerous other prosecutors, police chiefs, and the like across the nation).

This isn’t about San Bernardino at all, this isn’t about ISIS, this isn’t about terrorism or national security. The NSA already has access to all of the suspects’ communications. The DOJ already has its case, and the suspect is already dead. This is about legal precedent. The FBI/DOJ points to a law from the 1700s which compels third parties to hand over evidence. This is a different thing entirely. The US government wants to force a private company to develop technology which does not currently exist. Technology which, if created, would undermine the business model of a very profitable corporation. If the US government can compel Apple to undermine their security functions in order to gain access to a given device, so will China, so will Russia. Any government anywhere in the world could (and would immediately) demand access to anyone’s device they happen to be interested in. There would suddenly be numerous “keys” into everyone’s devices all over the world – easy pickings for hackers. The increased security features of each successive iOS model are a major selling point of the product. Undermining product security features at the behest of the government would inevitably lead to a decrease in sales (and trust).

Irregardless, encryption would still be in demand for those interested in privacy for whatever personal reasons. Foreign companies out of FBI reach would fill the gap in the market. The bad guys would simply buy new devices, rendering Apple’s cooperation moot.

All of our communications, all of our contacts, our pictures, our passwords, our banking information, our health information – all of it is on our personal devices. We must demand a reasonable expectation to privacy. We must demand that code have first amendment protection. All of this little more than a workaround of that pesky 4^thAmendment right to privacy which our alphabet boys so despise.

Ben Carson seems to have lost his mind. It’s no certainly no secret that the man speaks as though he were a lunatic, but the level of scrutiny applied to a leading presidential candidate seems to be breaking him.

He has no voting record in any legislative body to study, and he has little-to-no policy positions or papers to parse. He does, however, have six books. Carson suspended his presidential campaign in favor of his book tour, again, and reporters followed. He was queried regarding numerous questionable tales peppered throughout his biography. As with debate moderators, the questions from campaign correspondents seemed too much for Carson to endure. His default docile demeanor was discarded. He raised his normally dulcet voice to the point of cracking. He interrupted. He pointed and flailed. He paced and nearly mounted his podium. Carson questioned again and again why he was receiving what he described as the most scrutiny of any candidate he had ever witnessed, yet the media cared not one little bit about President Obama’s sealed Columbia University records. Which, it should be noted for the record, are not sealed at all – yet another piece of evidence suggesting that the good doctor inhabits an alternate reality.

Ben Carson doesn’t believe that the pharaohs of ancient Egypt had the pyramids built as tombs (despite all of the hieroglyphics scrawled upon the pyramids). Carson describes the biblical story of Joseph storing large amounts of grain – he sees the pyramids – and voila! He admits that his theory is considered crazy by anyone with any sort of knowledge on the subject, yet he maintains it nonetheless. Why would a man intelligent and driven enough to rise from inner-city poverty to the apex of his profession – and not just any profession, but friggin’ brain surgery – why would that guy spew such nonsensical drivel?

For one thing, it’s working. He’s sold tons of books, Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed him in a film. And for the time being, at least, he is atop the republican polls. He’s the front-runner. So his schtick is definitively attractive to certain segments of American society.

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, I refuse to believe that politicians are just plain stupid. Not even Louie Gohmert or Sarah Palin. They may spew ramblings which are utterly ridiculous and patently false, but there is always a ready audience in the conservative base for even the most outlandish. In that world, any push-back or correction is seen as yet another example of (imaginary) liberal media bias. Politicians use any and all criticism for fundraising emails, and no conservative has ever lost primary votes for going to war with the liberal media.

We already know that Carson thinks Obamacare is a form of slavery, and that the Holocaust happened because Hitler took the guns from the Jews. That he compares women who’ve had abortions to slave owners, and thinks gayness isn’t real because straight people decide to turn gay in prison. So what is he saying now, and why is it crazy enough to get me to write about this guy yet again? Because the nonsensical fables framing his biography speak more to whom exactly he is talking to in this country, than about the man personally.

Though none of his friends or relatives have thus far been willing to back up his statements or characterizations, Carson claims to have been a very violent and scary young black man. He tried to kill people. His own mother, even. Just ask him. Ben Carson claims to have attacked his mother with a hammer. Fortunately, his brother stopped him. Unfortunately, his mother has alzheimer’s and can’t be seen. Also, his brother can’t be bothered to comment, because Ben wouldn’t want the media jackals to have their way with him.

His poor mother was not the only family member to feel the wrath of young, violent and scary Ben. Though he’s changed his story about which relative, the story remains the same; Ben was so enraged that he took up a knife and stabbed his fellow teenage relative in the abdomen. Miraculously, the amorphous relative was wearing a large metal belt-buckle, and since Ben had used such force in his thrusting of the knife, the blade broke clean off the handle and fell to the floor without harm. Ben then ran into the bathroom, where he found a bible. Where he found the Lord. Scary, black teenage Ben emerged from the bathroom a changed man. A docile and dulcet man. Because Jesus.
Then there’s West Point. Carson was in the ROTC, and claims to have had dinner with General William Westmoreland following a parade in 1969, where he was offered a full-ride scholarship to West Point. Thing is, West Point doesn’t offer scholarships, tuition is free to those who are accepted, followed by military service. But Carson didn’t apply because he wasn’t interested. Also, General Westmoreland was likely not there at all when Carson says he was. Carson marched in the 1969 Memorial Day parade in Detroit, while records of Westmoreland’s schedule show that the general was in D.C. in the days both preceding and post-, with no mention of Detroit.

Mr. Carson was accepted into Yale. Says that during on-campus riots following the assassination of MLK, he sheltered poor white students from the violent and scary, black Yale students outside. Once again, no witnesses have been willing to back his claims.

Also at Yale, Carson claims to have been given $10 for being “the most honest student” in Perceptions 301. Students had taken an exam, sections of which were lost in a subsequent fire, so they were to retake portions of the exam. When the 150 students arrived, the retake was twice as difficult as the original. One-by-one, student after student rose and exited without completing their exams. The professor finally returned with a photographer from the Yale Daily News, and a $10 reward. However, Perceptions 301 was not an actual class at Yale, so Carson’s account has severe flaws. Odd to have a professor of an imaginary class, who Carson would have known had he been in the class. Also, the Yale Daily News had no pictures at all of Carson, yet alone having to do with him being the most honest student in a nonexistent class. This story is not a complete fabrication, though. It was found the Yale Record, under the heading PARODY.

Then there was the time that lazy and stupid young Ben was failing chemistry. Says that even if he had gotten an A on the final, he still would’ve failed the course. That he intended to learn the entire book the night before. Instead, he prayed. Implored for a miracle, lest he fail out of medical school and become a failure in life. An angel tutored him in his sleep, and when he went to class the next day, he recognized all of the questions on the final from his dream angel tutor. He miraculously “aced” the test and passed the class. Because Jesus!

While blaming the shooting victims at Umpqua for their own untimely deaths, Carson described how he had reacted when a gun was pulled on him in the past. Though he was a vegetarian at the time, Carson claims that he went with friends for fries at a “Popeye’s organization” in Baltimore. While inside, a robber stuck his gun into the ribs of Carson, who calmly suggested that the man instead wanted the guy behind the counter working the register with the loot. Carson says that a police report was filed by the employee. This may have happened. That particular establishment, on 300 N Broadway, had numerous encounters during the time in question (’81-’83). It is odd, though, that a robber would pull his gun on a random student in line, instead of the guy with the cash. If Carson had said that the guy demanded his watch, or wallet, or something at all (along, perhaps, with those of other patrons of the Popeye’s?) then his story would make some semblance of sense. But then he would likely have stayed and filed a police report himself, which of course didn’t happen.

Again, these stories are not random ramblings of a pathological liar, they fit a very specific narrative which feeds into the brand that Carson has been selling for decades. That white Christian conservatives have been right all along. That without Jesus, young blacks are violent and scary, reckless individuals – individuals, though, who could still achieve anything in this world, if they would simply calm down and bow their nappy heads.

Especially informative are Gifted Hands‘ reflections on the biblical character of Joseph. Carson’s pyramid theory is utter madness, yet it works for him because it is based completely in faith, and any attack on his faith equals martyrdom, which he can use to rally Christian conservatives to his cause. Carson also describes the story of Joseph showing off his flashy tunic as a young man, how he was brash and boastful, and was sold into slavery out of jealousy. But, Carson recounts, Joseph determined that if he was going to be a slave, he would be the best slave of all. Joseph was indeed the best slave, and, in Carson’s words, wound up running the place.

Lunatics reside within every culture. While the vast majority are relegated to the fringes of society, occasionally their lunacy is allowed to seep into, and find a foothold within, the political discourse. In such times, we have no choice but to pick up our collective and proverbial pens. Does Ben Carson believe the hate-filled nonsense that he spews for political expediency? Does Ann Coulter? Does candidate Trump? No matter. The matter at hand is not simply that of the lunatic fringe, but of the public embrace of their madness without social reprieve.

Ben Carson is running for president, yet he predicts that Obama will institute Marshall law, and cancel the 2016 elections altogether in order to stay in power.

While it is certainly troubling that Ben Carson doesn’t think Muslims should be allowed to hold public office, more troubling is that the roughly 80% of Iowa Republican primary voters nod in agreement with his most vile and disgusting of public statements.

Ben Carson says that Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery. Yes, slavery. Attempting to provide affordable healthcare to Americans without, is the worst thing since slavery to lunatic Ben Carson. Speaking of slavery, Carson compares the reproductive rights of women to slavery, equating women to plantation owners. Ben Carson wants to use the government to force rape victims to carry to term the seed of their rapists. Carson says that he may generously be willing to hear an argument for killing a baby, but only if the woman is going to die, which he doesn’t believe ever really happens.

He does believe, though, in nonsensical conspiracy theories, with no evidence whatsoever. He believes that the Palestinians, Iranians, and Russians were allied at a university in Russia, when Putin was a high-schooler living hours away, and the other two individuals in question were likely never there at all.

Ben Carson says that Darwin was “encouraged by the adversary.” He says that he doesn’t “have enough faith” to believe in the “fairy tale” of the Big Bang theory. He is not only against LGBTQ rights, he doesn’t really believe in gayness at all, since he thinks that time in prison can cause anyone to engage in same-sex relations.

This from a man of science – scientifically adjacent, at least. Gifted Hands attained his fame via surgical acumen, compounded by his unlikely ascendance from poverty. Now, he wants to eliminate Medicare, and replace it with some sort of private account for Wall Street to nickel & dime into oblivion. He bases his tax policy upon tithes and offerings commanded in the bible. He wants to unleash weaponized drones upon migrants and refugees negotiating our Southern border.

He claims that gun-control led to the Holocaust, when non-loons know that the Treaty of Versailles demanded the disarmament of the German citizenry, long before the rise of the Hitler, who in fact deregulated shotguns and handguns. But what do facts matter, after all?

He’s blamed mass-shooting victims in Oregon for their own untimely deaths, saying that he wouldn’t “just stand there.” He asserted that he would have gained consensus, and convinced other people to attack the shooter, in such an event. (Even though a veteran did try to attack the shooter, and got seven bullets for his efforts, before the shooter eventually killed himself.) This before Carson “admitted” that a guy robbing a “Popeye’s organization” in Baltimore (though no police report exists, and Carson was a vegetarian at the time) inexplicably put his gun into Carson’s ribs (why a customer?), before Carson supposedly and calmly ushered the assailant toward the person manning the cash register.

He’s in first place in Iowa, yet he’s suspended his campaign in favor of his book tour. So why is this man, this blatant lunatic, beloved by the republican base? Because Ben Carson goes on television, and claims that he was a typically violent young black person, until he found Jesus and decided to calm down and become a religious fundamentalist who relentlessly attacks those perceived as the other/lesser than.

While comedians and satirist are undoubtedly giddily chortling away at the prospects, I never thought I would feel compelled to scribble my thoughts on one Donald Trump. To be clear, The Donald is an abhorrent abscess, a bombastic buffoon, a cartoonish clown, who looks about as intelligent when he speaks as are the words spewing from his gullet. But, given recent events, I have little choice but to comment on Mr. Trump and his brand of eff-you populism, in all its glory – and what his meteoric rise says about the republican base.

The Donald’s name has been gracing headlines from coast to coast non-stop since the announcement of his presidential campaign. In his rambling, unscripted screed, he proclaimed that;

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Pressed in later interviews, Trump asserted that Mexican government negotiators were somehow picking and choosing whom crosses the border, given their superior negotiating skills to those of President Obama.

While I won’t waste too much time on these ignorant and xenophobic assertions – why, pray tell, are the cartels still in Mexico, if the Mexican government gets to choose whom to export to the US? Are women and children – families – more of a burden to the Mexican government than are the cartels? More substantively, net migration from Mexico has been less than zero since 2010, the first year that that was the case, given fewer prospective jobs here as result of the Great Recession. Also, natural born citizens are far more likely to go to prison than immigrants, whether documented or otherwise. So The Donald’s entire premise is faulty, aside from ugly.

A few more odd claims from The Donald; he will force Mexico to pay for an impenetrable wall, because of his superior negotiators, of course. That there are up to 31 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, when the broadly accepted number is roughly 11 or 12 million. That he will win the Latino vote, when Mitt Romney managed but 27%, because jobs. Speaking of, Trump proclaimed that “I will be the best jobs president God ever created.”

In response to Trump’s nonsensical, nativist ramblings – ties were cut by NBC, Univision, NASCAR, Macy’s, the PGA, ESPN… Chef Jose Andres backed out of a deal to run a Trump restaurant, Rosalyn Sanchez backed out of co-hosting Miss USA. The cities of Baltimore and New York are reviewing their relationships with Trump.

In the most Donaldest of reactions, #Trumplestiltskin thumped his spray-tanned chest at the prospect of having secured nonrefundable deposits from both ESPN & the PGA, and could thus re-book and turn double profit. Squee! Also declared that it was he who had severed ties with Macy’s and NBC, as opposed to vice versa, because of course he would.

This is the same Donald Trump who still to this very day maintains the notion that Barack Obama’s place of birth is an unsettled issue. Who claims to have a secret and fool-proof plan to defeat ISIS (Daesh), which he refuses to share, because he wants credit when he inevitably defeats them personally (at least recently he has clarified that oil should be targeted, a good start). Who is an anti-vaxxer, and a climate denier. Who believes that Ebola doctors “must suffer the consequences.” Who has said that he has a “great relationship with the blacks.” Mr. Trump posits that if anyone rents or is employed from/by he or one of his business partners, then that person’s entire community must automatically love The Donald by default. Trump has stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, yet with a straight face refuses to admit the cognitive dissonance of espousing traditional marriage, given his being thrice divorced.

Mr. Trump was born into wealth, the heir of a real estate mogul. As a trust-fund baby, Donald used his father’s name and his own shady business practices to amass vast wealth during an era of deregulation and corporate tax largess. Bankrupted more times than divorced, Trump only allowed his private funds to be put in harm’s way until his first bankruptcy. Since then, he rakes in money personally throughout the entire processes of bankrupting a given company – socializing the expenses while privatizing the gains, standard operating procedure in an oligarchic corporatocracy.

Famous for his cotton candy-esque, orangutanean mane, this is not The Donald’s first flirtation with the presidency. He once proclaimed that he and Oprah Winfrey would be an unbeatable ticket (Oprah, of course, threw a tremendous amount of shade on said notion). The past three occurrences were seen as little more than self-promotional flailings of an egomaniacal nincompoop, and this time would likely be no different. After all, Trump is nothing if not a miracle of brashness & branding. In order to really run for president, financial filing are required which could potentially render moot the decades of propaganda equity involving the vast Trump wealth, which is basically his entire brand. Those filings are due mid-July ‘15. (Though there are dual 45-day extensions, which Trump has said he won’t use.)

Yet somehow, Trump has found a loophole of sorts to assist in his journey. His racist and xenophobic slurs keep his name in the national media, and his showing in the national polls assures him a spot in the republican debates, which begin before his financials are due, given extensions. This while other contenders who would at present be left out of the debates, such as John Kasich or Bobby Jindal, are spending their time smooching the hind-quarters of billionaires, in order to pay for local ads to run in New Hampshire and Iowa, early primary states. Similarly, Trump may not need to rely upon any donors at all in order to win the primary, and the party infrastructure would have no choice but to back him if he were to attain the nomination, so no one has any leverage to tell him anything about himself whatsoever, be them party leaders or the donor-class.

Not that they aren’t trying. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus reportedly implored Trump to tone it down. Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will has implied that if Donald Trump were a democratic operative posing as a republican, he would be doing nothing different than he is now.

His presence at the debates will pull the conservative candidates further and further right with every verbal barb, with every “idiot”, every chest-thumping insistence or non-apology, every degredation of immigrants and/or brown people, he will be in essence berating his fellow candidates into making more and more outlandish statements in order to prove their comparative bonifides of right-winginess. It is very hard to imagine a scenario in which Trump would find himself inhabiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January ’17, after all his overall disapproval ratings have polled as high as 55%. Despite the exposure loophole he has unearthed, money still rules the post-Citizen’s United day, and both Scott Walker & Marco Rubio have garnered the support of both the Koch brothers, and Sheldon Adelson, while main stream media pushes Jeb! 2016. Donald Trump will, rather, greatly increase the chances that a handful of progressive justices are appointed to the bench in the coming four-to-eight years. Huzzah and kudos, sir!

No matter, Trump has shot to the top of the charts. Consistently in the top three, he is now finishing as high as first in recent polls for republican nominee. Sure, Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann had runs at the top last time around, but they plummeted with the increased scrutiny associated with residing atop the leader-board. Trump, in contrast, has risen with increased coverage. Insisting repeatedly that his inflammatory remarks are justified, especially since he has personally inserted the supposedly yooge issue of immigration into the headlines -The Donald is as unapologetic as he is offensive.

More importantly, what does the ascendance of a xenophobic, hate-spewing, walking, talking punch-line say about the base of the republican party, regardless of his staying-power? If Donald Trump is truly a reflection of the values and demeanor of conservatives in America, then perhaps a long look in the mirror would be well-served.

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Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was playing in a park across the street from his home in Cleveland. Video shows young Tamir picking up snow with both hands and throwing it in the air. Kicking at piles of snow. Tamir was also playing with a toy gun. A 9-1-1 call was made. Three times the caller suggests that he thinks the gun might be fake. And states that it’s wielder was a juvenile. But that people were concerned. Video shows a patrol car pull up feet from Tamir. Officers exit from each front seat. Tamir was shot and killed within two seconds. His sister was on the scene within moments. She was handcuffed and placed in the rear of the patrol car with her brother laying dead just yards away. Tamir’s mother was warned that she would wind up next to her daughter if she wasn’t calm. By the killers of her child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhVewrqGFRw

Police said that they had instructed Tamir to drop the gun three times, before he reached into his waistband. In two seconds time. And that he looked 20. Tamir Rice was 12. He was a child at a park doing the things that children do at parks. And they said that he looked 20. Twenty? They mentally took his childhood from him, in assuming his adulthood. Before they literally took his childhood, in the taking of his life.

No charges filed.

Look a’here, fellow pasty-Americans. We have a real, substantive and systematic problem with racism in this country. And it’s on us. We literally started it. We’ve perpetuated it. And even now, we either deny it still exists, or simply blame black people for all that ails their community.

And does it ail. Black people die young. Shorter life expectancies than whites by 3.8 years. Now that probably has more to do with socioeconomic status than race. Speaking of, average white household wealth is over 20 times that of blacks. The unemployment rate of blacks is roughly double that of whites. Black people make up just 12% of the population, but comprise 39% of the prison population, including 40% of death row. Less likely to graduate, to own a home, or a business. More teen pregnancy. Less likely to marry. Et cetera.

Some us of look at these things, and it only reinforces stereotypes. That blacks are particularly violent. Inherently dangerous, sometimes with super-human strength. Sexually insatiable. Unusually slothful. And always fucking late (see what I did there?).

But why? What is it about black people that makes them that way? The answer is – nothing. Nothing at all.

We have to talk to each other. When you talk to people who seem totally different from you, you learn that you have a lot of things in common. We all have the same problems and the same joys. We all have families we love and bills to pay. We’re all the same. It has been asserted that we are all within about 50 cousins of one another. All of us. On the planet. Seven billion of us are basically one big family. Race is just a social construct. We are different colors only because our ancestors lived in different climates. There was more or less sun, so we have more or less melanin in our skin. That’s it. We are all homosapiens.

And yet, Tamir Rice was gunned down in two seconds, presumed to be an adult.

There was a study which people were shown pictures of various individuals, and asked to guess their age. Black children were assigned an extra 4-and-a-half years. We as a society take the innocence from black children at a much younger age than white. We assign more culpability to black children. Children.

There was another study, like a video game an individual would appear on the screen, and if they have a gun, you pull a trigger. On-screen black characters were shot in the study both far more often, and much more quickly, than white. Or a similar study in which random faces are shown along with the word good/bad. It takes far longer to press keys associating good with black faces. There have been studies which have shown that black hands holding an item return lower bids on ebay. And shown that otherwise identical resumes with black sounding names are far less likely to receive a response.  And that teachers have lower expectations for black students…

We have to get past the stereotypes. And it’s not easy. It’s everywhere. There are no black imoji (for now, at least). Who cares, right? Until fairly recently, all of the dolls were white, too. Most all of the characters in the movies and on television screens were white. All of the comic books. All of the heroes. White. The hero even wears a white hat. The villain wears the black hat. Has a black heart. White is purity and light. Black is evil and darkness.

Even today, black men are rarely leading men. Often cast as the thug, the gentile giant, or the jester. Black women? Jezebel, Mammy, and the strong black woman.

The media is a big driver of stereotypes. And the music doesn’t help. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tupac. Love Biggie. I even listen to some Brotha Lynch Hung from time to time, which is about the most violent and honestly sadistic music one could possibly produce. Thought Eminem’s most despicable songs were hilarious, too. It’s entertainment. These artists (with rare exception) aren’t actually the kinds of people who do the violent things their songs depict.

As Tupac once said, he was communicating the fables of his community. Telling the stories of people and things he saw. Not what he necessarily did or thought personally. As violent as Hit ‘Em Up, and as sexually explicit as Thug-N-U, Thug-N-Me – juxtapose those with the tenderness and affection of Keep Ya Head Up and Brenda’s Got a Baby.

Maya Angelou’s words continue to inspire generations. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Oprah built an empire. Jordan owns the team now. We celebrate MLK from coast to coast. We even have a black president, Barak Hussein Obama. Hussein! See? Haven’t we come so far? This is America. Anyone can make it. All it takes is hard work and discipline. (Just ask folks like Charles Barkley, Bill Cosby, LL Cool J, Stacy Dash, Ben Carson…)

In fact, these are the exceptions that prove the rule. That our black brothers and sisters are as talented and gifted as any. That given opportunity, they are certainly as capable.

As Chris Rock recently (and brilliantly) put it – it’s not that black people are making progress in America, it’s that white people are making progress in accepting that we are equal.

And this is where we start talking past each other.

Emmett Till

When I say that black kids are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school. That we are arresting kids at school, the school-to-prison pipeline. And as with the criminal justice system writ large, blacks are disproportionally involved. That black kids are far less likely to graduate from high school, or to earn a degree. Which makes it more difficult to get a job. Harder to get a decent-paying job. Without property or much income, you can’t get any credit. Can’t get a loan to start a business. The strains of poverty are difficult on relationships. Especially when suitors are in-and-out of jail and often unemployed. When young men see the stereotypes, and see them played out in real-time. See talent in themselves and in people around them, who couldn’t catch a break. Or made that one mistake and could never recover. Worse, were cut down before their time, and whose efforts could never be realized.

Sean Taylor

The future might not seem like it has much to offer, and playing it straight has no guarantees. Our War on Drugs pushes industry onto an extremely profitable black market. And pushes large sums of money onto the streets (even legal cannabis dispensaries have this problem). We target the black community, who use and deal drugs at roughly the same rate as whites, yet are far more likely to be charged. Black-on-black crime? Everyone is far more likely to be victimized by someone of the same ethnic background (save Native Americans). Blacks are aggressively charged by prosecutors, and given harsher sentences by judges if found guilty, usually by majority-white juries. When they get out, we make felons check a box on job applications in many states. Won’t let felons vote in many states. We only reinforce the stereotypes. That they aren’t fully equal. Aren’t sufficiently American or human. Don’t deserve the benefit of doubt. These are problems we need to address.

The response from a lot of white folks is: Don’t blame me! I have black friends at work. I smile and hold the door open for elderly black people. A lot of that stuff is just things that poor people have to deal with, not just blacks. I’m not rich, either. Life isn’t easy on anybody. I earned everything that I have. I worked for it. I stayed out of trouble. Why are you telling me about black people problems? White privilege? I didn’t do it. I don’t use the n-word. I’m not racist. Are you calling me racist? Are you calling America racist? Racism against blacks is over. Slavery was a long time ago. Blacks have rights, too. Make better decisions. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Oprah and Obama.

Well, here’s the thing. Either black people, by virtue of their skin tone, are simply inferior. Or, we have a system which suppresses their efforts. It has to be one or the other.

Admitting that we systematically oppress the black community does not mean you hate America or think all white people are racist. It’s not blacks v whites. And it’s not blacks v US of A. Admitting that whites are more likely to be given the benefit of doubt, does not mean that white people haven’t earned anything. We just need everyone to be afforded the same privilege. We all have to live together, and we must strive to make things better for all of us. But we have to diagnose what ails us before we can find remedies. We have to face the truth. It cannot be ignored.

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Bob McDonnell, aka Governor Ultrasound

Since 2010, we’ve passed more abortion restrictions in the United States than during the entire previous decade. Some states have banned abortions past a certain number of weeks. Some now require invasive and unnecessary medical procedures (vaginal probes). Or waiting periods. Require women to be counseled by religious organizations. Or require doctors to read scripts with false medical claims. Some states are criminalizing miscarriages. Some of these new laws nothing at all to do with women. Some target family planning clinics. Unnecessarily extravagant building codes. Others target abortion doctors themselves. TRAP laws. Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers. Federal courts have said that shutting down clinics for hundreds of miles is not an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose. The Supreme Court recently decided that private corporations have religious beliefs, and can deny contraception coverage in healthcare plans.

Legislators have attempted to pass personhood bills, which would ban certain forms of contraception (including IUDs). Rape insurance bills, which would require additional insurance coverage for abortion, even for rape victims. Fetal-heartbeat bills. Some states have attempted to jail abortion providers. Some states (GA) have tried to ban clinics from doing abortions, only in hospitals. Other states (PA) have have tried to ban hospitals from doing abortion, only in clinics.

While some claim that these efforts are meant to protect the health of women, others are more truthful. House Speaker John Boehner has said that “one of our most fundamental goals” is to “make abortion a relic of the past.” In fact, the 2012 Republican party platform insisted upon a Constitutional ban on all abortions.

The stance of the Catholic church, and of many Christians, is that the bible instructs believers to be anti-choice. I’m going to explain why this doesn’t have to be the case.

According to Genesis, God created Adam & Eve. When there were only two people on the planet, God instructed them to be fruitful and multiply. Again, after the flood, the planet was inhabited by just Noah and his extended family. As before, God instructed them to be fruitful and multiply, to inhabit the earth. Those were very specific cases. Which made sense. Human existence was in peril. This situation has long since been remedied. There are over 7 billion people on the planet these days. Multiplying humans is exceedingly more a hindrance than a virtue.

Later in Genesis came the story of Onan. His brother, Er, was evil in the sight of the Lord, so God killed him. Onan’s father, Judah, instructed him to marry Er’s widow in order to conceive an heir. Onan knew that an heir would truly be his brother’s, and not his own. Onan married Tamar, but spilled his seed on the ground. So God killed Onan, too.

The story of Onan needn’t be interpreted as anti-contraception. It could just as easily be taught as a story of obeying your parents and respecting elders. Common biblical themes. Better still, the story of Onan was in line the Old Testament law that a man was to take his brother’s widow if they had yet to conceive. Onan was running afoul of this and was punished.

Thou shalt not kill came in Exodus. Seems pretty cut and dried, except that zygotes are not people. How can I say this? Especially when we have sonograms? Well, what does the bible say? Adam was created, but wasn’t alive until he was given the breath of life. Again in Revelations 11:11, breath signifies life.

Exodus also lays out restitution for accidental death. A woman could be killed for half-price. And no payment is necessary unless the deceased is at least one month of age. The bible says that you aren’t alive until you take a breath of life, and you don’t count until one month.

The Old Testament shows just how pro-life God isn’t. It’s not just Sodom & Gomorrah. Jews were commanded to kill all non-believers. The Canaanites were to be completely destroyed, from women and children to pets and livestock. Everything. The first-born sons of the Egyptians were murdered by God. God once got so mad at humans, that he murdered all but a few of us. Shoot, Revelations says that Jesus will eventually torch our entire planet, including all non-believing inhabitants (for New Jerusalem). Does that sound very pro-life?

In fact, Moses gave a recipe for an infertility potion in Numbers 5. If a man is jealous, a priest mixes holy water in an earthen jar with dirt from the floor of the tabernacle, ashes of paper transcribed with damning statements, and burnt grains of jealousy. If God knows that the wife was faithful all along, she avoids the curse of infertility from the potion, and being cast out. Not very pro-life.

Who are we fooling here? This is not about what the bible teaches. The bible can just as easily be interpreted to require abortion as condemn it.

This is about control over women. Jesus spoke against placing undue burdens upon people. Said that mercy is greater than sacrifice.

Forcing women to carry every pregnancy to term is an undue burden. Contraception means that women control their own lives. That they are free to have an uninterrupted career if they choose. To choose the most appropriate time to start a family. To be able to decide when they’ve had enough kids. Aside from the basic right of autonomy over their own bodies.

This is a problem for some. The bible says that wives should be submissive. The Catholic church refuses to allow female priesthood to this day.

This is where we see the greatest need for the separation of church and state. The Constitution (let alone common sense) mandates that women are equal. Who are we to demand control over women’s lives and bodies? Because someone told you that the bible says so? Read it yourself. And don’t skim over the bad parts. The bible also supports slavery. Instructs slaves to be faithful to their masters. Which we know is also completely and utterly disgusting. Are pro-lifers also pro-slavery? Should we still ban shellfish and mixed fabrics? Should we still have a ban on collecting interest? Are we unclean if we sit where a woman on her menstrual cycle had previously sat? Should sexually-active women be cast out of cities? Should children be murdered for cursing at their parents? That’s what the bible says. And we don’t believe any of that.

Now of course, America is not a theocracy (we were the first secular nation, to intentionally have no official religion). And not all believers are anti-choice. But that doesn’t stop the restrictions from happening from coast to coast. And the fact that six of nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, most of whom seem amenable to overturning Roe.

Sally Ride

Think about how things actually play out in real life. Why would a woman want to get an abortion? Think about it. Being pregnant means taking time off from work. We don’t have guaranteed maternity leave in the US. For a single woman/mother, taking such time off not only greatly diminishes pay, but hinders career advancement. If she is in a low-paying job, or is a student – the cost of having children is impossible to afford without significant assistance. Forcing government-mandated pregnancy-outcomes can represent a severe economic punishment.

Maybe the father went kaput. The family was split before it began. Maybe she’s thirteen and was raped. Maybe she’s sixteen, and doesn’t feel like she’s ready to raise a child. Maybe she’s twenty-four, and her birth control failed. Look, people have sex, it’s only natural. We should not impose punishment upon those who want to share intimacy with another human being. Slut-shaming is wrong. If you believe that God intended for sex to feel good, why would we want to attach punishment to such a gift?

Restrictions on abortion are nonsensical. I challenge anyone to find women who have abortions for fun. Who whimsically and frequently find themselves pregnant, only to abort the proceedings. Like drive-thru abortions. That’s what contraception is for, so you don’t get pregnant in the first place. And that’s what sex-education is for.

Abortions are not gleeful, not celebratory. With heavy hearts and much deliberation are these decisions made. And made for specific and valid reasons.

Access to abortion should not be restricted in any way. (Aside from coercion.) Especially late-term abortions. And these are the most despised. Yet I say again, why would a woman make such a decision? Why would a woman have a late-term abortion? Think about it – she’s already carried the fetus for months on end. Already gained the weight, with possible marks to show. Already dealing with the pains of pregnancy. Sickness, swollenness and tenderness.  Why would she suddenly decide not to follow through?

George Tiller aka Tiller the Baby Killer, late-term abortion provider, assassinated at his church.

She wouldn’t. It would be because doctors have informed her that the fetus is not viable, and/or that her that giving birth would be a significant risk to her health.

You don’t think women should have abortions? Don’t have one. Think that fetuses should have rights over women? Women are not incubators. They are human beings.

Crochet

Not only are abortion restrictions morally reprehensible in their disrespect for women. But they push women in need of care into the hands of despicable individuals like Kermit Gosling. Into back-alley abortions. Bathtub abortions. Kitchen table abortions. Back to hangers. To women dying everyday in failed amateur abortions. We are headed in the wrong direction.