Category Archives: Racism

07/12/2014
1 Comment
Comiskey Park, Disco Demolition, Homophobia, Racism, Steve Dahl

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Retro-agogo

[Today marks the 35th anniversary of one of Chicago’s great civic embarrassments: Disco Demolition. In honor of the events of July 12th, 1979, I thought I’d reprint a piece I’d written for Open Salon in 2010. Enjoy.]

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Best Of Big Mike: The Right’s Disco Inferno

Nearly 31 years ago, old Comiskey Park was overrun by a bunch of lunkheaded suburban white boys exercising their rights to free speech, vandalism, and general idiocy. On the night of July 12th, 1979, Steve Dahl staged his infamous Disco Demolition between games of a scheduled doubleheader. The second game never happened.

The event is known all over the world. It’s another of those Chicago identifiers that people from Des Moines to New York like to snicker about when the topic of our town arises. Every time I hear a non-Chicagoan bring up corrupt aldermen, Al Capone, or Disco Demolition I cringe a little.

disco

Like It Or Not, This Is Chicago

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Disco Demolition featured unbridled anger, a wild mob, and a bit of violence thrown in for good measure. Pray tell, why were an estimated 90,000 people so enraged?

They hated a genre of music.

Yup.  They felt put upon, abused, repressed, tyrannized, and diminished by, well, the goddamned Bee Gees.

As a result of their righteous ire, police in riot gear had to be called in to clear the field, some 39 people were arrested, and the Comiskey Park turf was wrecked, essentially, for the remainder of the season.

Even as a dopey 23-year-old, I knew that the bile wasn’t all the result of KC and the Sunshine Band records. As I watched the field full of knuckleheads running around like madmen, thrusting their fists into the air, trying to see out of cheap-beer-and-pot-slitted eyes, ecstatic in their triumph over the crushing evil that was Donna Summer, I understood that disco music was only a stand-in for the real object (or objects) of their loathing.

donna-summer-10

Down With That Cruel Despot, Donna Summer!

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The truth of the matter was these people despised spics, niggers, and fags. Oh, they didn’t mind the first two groups living in their holy city — so long as they kept to their own neighborhoods. But with disco having taken over the Billboard charts, the Disco Sucks crowd was petrified that their whole world was next.

Disco was made for and by Puerto Ricans, blacks, and gays. It was an equalizer, maybe the most democratic pop music ever.  White people who jumped on the Hustle bandwagon did so knowing full well that they’d be rubbing sweaty bodies with brown-skinned people and homosexuals on packed dance floors.

12studio54.span_cityroom

Colors And Genders and Races And Orientations — It’s Tyranny

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The very idea turned some people’s stomachs. What could be next? Miscegenation? Or worse — kissing a member of your own sex. Sheesh, no wonder 90,000 went bonkers on that steamy July night.

Does all of this sound familiar?

Really, don’t the Tea Party ragers and all the rest of the sputtering, fuming Obama=Hitler sign-carrying gang have as their forefathers the Disco Sucks kids? Just substitute socialism for disco, Barack Obama for Giorgio Moroder, and Glenn Beck for Steve Dahl.

DISCO DEMOLITION DISC JOCKEY STEVE DAHL IN 1979

Disco Sucks = We Want Our Country Back

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06/13/2014
4 Comments
al Qaeda, Big Oil, Civil Rights Act of 1964, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Halliburton, Iraq War, Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (ISIS), Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Racism, Saddam Hussein

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Crime Of The Century

So, al Qaeda and its brethren are taking over Iraq right before our very eyes.

Nice, huh?

ISIS Commandos

Iraq’s Nightmare (Photo: Reuters)

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Looks like those +125,000 dead Iraqis as well as 4400 dead US soldiers gave their lives for nothing.

Nothing, friends. Not a thing.

Did I mention we’d spent up to $4 trillion USD on that decade-long slaughter?

All because Georgy-Boy Bush and his coatholders and co-conspirators scared the bejesus out of us with talk of mushroom clouds and poison gas attacks — that weren’t going to come because bad old Saddam Hussein was nowhere near possessing such weapons (the nukes) or having the ability to deliver them (the gas) to New York City, Ellettsville, Wrigleyville and points west.

We fought that pointless, bullshit war because the Bush administration — which hadn’t been elected by a majority of American voters, in case you’ve forgotten — believed it was its god-given duty to remake the Middle East so that multinational engineering firms and oil companies could more easily and happily extract dollars therefrom. The fact that Georgy-Boy’s Poppy had not delivered said hegemony to the global plutocracy also was a motivating factor; the Bush family’s Big Dick legacy was preserved, thanks to the rivers of blood Shock and Awe produced.

Bush

Believe Us, America

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Sadly, our holy land must reconcile itself to the reality that we have committed yet another crime against humanity.

Not that terribly many of us care.

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Hide Your Hate, America

And speaking of America’s crimes against humanity, we did our best to rectify a big one 50 years ago this summer. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the comprehensive Civil Rights Act into law.

July 2, 1964

LBJ Gives Martin Luther King The Signing Pen (Photo: AP)

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Throughout the first half of the year, though, the US Senate wrestled over the bill and, quite frankly, its passage was far from assured. Republican senators from southern states filibustered from late March through early June to prevent a vote. Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virgina) alone filibustered for more than fourteen hours on June 10th. Before that, Senator Richard Russell (R-Georgia), told his colleagues, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our states.”

A small group of senators from both parties crafted a compromise bill that eventually passed, leading to the Johnson signing.

The bill, it should be noted, forbids discrimination by federal and state agencies against people on account of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also banned discrimination against those groups by businesses that provide “public accommodation” — hotels, for instance, and restaurants. The bill called for an end to unequal application of laws and eligibility requirements in voter registration as well as in school admissions.

Imagine that respected senators could stand in loud and forceful opposition to those ideals and not be pilloried. Things are different today, of course. People have learned how to hide such bigotry behind code words and misdirection.

At least we don’t tolerate blatant assholery anymore.

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05/20/2014
1 Comment
Charles Barkley, Credit Suisse, Eric Holder, Income Tax Evasion, Indiana University, Michael McRobbie, Racism, Robert Copeland, Rush Limbaugh, South Korea Ferry Sinking, Turkey Mining Disaster, Wolfeboro New Hampshire

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Big Man On Campus

So, Indiana University big boss Michael McRobbie copped himself a cool million bucks-plus in pay last year. Not only that, he got a luxury car and nearly $50k to cover his housing expenses. Oh, and the U. cut him a check to cover the taxes on some of his pay.

Nice deal.

The Herald Times revealed McRobbie’s sweet 2012-2013 deal (paywall) this AM.

McRobbie

Millionaire McRobbie

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McRobbie, acc’d’g to the H-T, ranked sixth among public university presidents in the nation in terms of pay. It’s a one-off deal, though. When McRobbie inked his deal with IU in 2007, he was promised a sugary bonus if he stayed here for five years. He pocketed more the $300,000 last year in exchange for his undying loyalty.

Still, $6-700,000 in slave wages for a year ought to soothe some of the sting of a second potentially harsh winter in a row here in So Cen In.

Is IU getting its money’s worth?

The graduation rate for baccalaureate students entering the U. in 2007 (the last cohort group measured, using a six-year window) was 58.2 percent. That includes students at all seven IU campuses. The grad. rate for Bloomington campus scholars was a more gaudy 77 percent.

Problem is, the U. says students hoping to grow their brains here in the 2014-15 school year should expect to shell out $24,418 if they’re Indiana residents and $47,270 if they’re not. If the U. has any business sense (and, believe me, it does, it does) it’ll hope that scads more kids from New Jersey, Long Island, and Pennsylvania sign up for classes this coming fall semester.

Rich Kid

Image From The Rich Kids Of Instagram

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The re-positioning of IU as a destination school for the spawn of East Coast swells has profoundly changed our town. Walnut Street and College Avenue are becoming soulless mini-canyons of condominium developments. And the City Council has angered the populace by installing parking meters downtown in large part to try to control where the students living in those new buildings park their SUVs.

And B-towners who dreamed that the Square would be quaint collection of locally-owned shops and boutiques have been awakened from their reveries by the sprouting of wine and sports bars and the closing of a number of long-time merchants downtown.

The Indiana University board of trustees may be thrilled to pieces with the performance of Michael McR. since he come aboard seven years ago but townies may not be so full of glee.

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Copeland Cops Out

That small town police chief who was overheard calling Prez Barack H. O. a nigger has been forced out of office.

Miserable old cur Robert Copeland, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire’s police commissioner, was under pressure from all sides to take a powder after he described the Leader of the Free World using the slur at a local diner a couple of weeks ago.

For his part, Copeland feels he’s well within the bounds of decency and logic to use such terminology. He has written, “I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse [sic].”  “For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

Copeland & Woman

Copeland Takes The Heat (Image/Concord Monitor)

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Far Right Wingers as well as crypto- and unapologetic racists are howling about the First Amendment, natch. Emetic-in-human-form Rush Limbaugh, for instance, likens Copeland to basketball analyst Charles Barkley who, in February and again earlier this month, made some insulting remarks about the collective girth of San Antonio women. Barkley, Limbaugh points out, similarly refuses to apologize.

As if that makes Copeland’s verbal retch acceptable.

The difference? Barkley is a former pro athlete and an idiot. Copeland is civic leader, a law officer with the power to detain, arrest, and interrogate.

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Wrist-Slapping

The banksters who run Crédit Suisse have been caught red-handed setting up schemes for American plutocrats to hide their money in order to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder announced a $2.5 billion fine against the bank yesterday. For it’s part, Crédit Suisse’s capo di tutti capi, Brady Dougan, mewled, “We deeply regret the past misconduct that led to this settlement.”

Presumably, Dougan gathered ’round with the rest of his fellow scam artists to celebrate the fact that none of them — repeat, none — will be indicted on criminal charges. And, again, no one will go to jail for bilking the American public and enriching the oligarchy of this holy land.

Credit Suisse

We’ll Stash Your Dough

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Crédit Suisse, like the Wall Street firms that caused the global financial meltdown of 2007-08, swims in money. The paying of a fine, no matter how eye-popping it appears to the rest of us, is scant penalty for its acts of immorality and outright felony.

Contrast this to the fallout from that ferry sinking in South Korea or the mine disaster in Turkey.

Not only are the rich getting richer in this holy land, they’re becoming more and more immune from the law.

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05/17/2014
1 Comment
Brown vs. Board of Education, Conspiracy Theory, Racism, Veterans Administration Scandal

Hot Air

Quickies

Lots of little bits today, mainly because I’m lazy.

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The Color Of Law

Today’s the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

The unanimous US Supreme Court decision was the atom bomb in the war that would eventually destroy institutionalized segregation in America.

Marshall et al

Thurgood Marshall (c.) Argued Against School Segregation

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Today ought to be a national holiday.

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Doctoring The Books

David Brooks spouted off on All Things Considered yesterday afternoon, the topic being that Veterans Administration hospital scandal the Republicans surely will try to make hay of this election cycle.

In case you’ve been too busy fretting over that elevator fight between Jay-Z and his sister-in-law, Solange, doctors at certain VA hospitals were revealed to have been fudging record books to cover up the fact that sick vets have been waiting weeks and even months to get medical care. Some of the vets have even died while waiting for their appointment days. It’s a lousy situ. especially for people who who’ve been shot up or mentally traumatized by our seemingly endless Iraq/Afghan wars this century.

The scandal already has cost the VA’s undersecretary for health his job. Many Republicans are calling for the head of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

It’s beyond me why docs would lie, officially, about their patients’ wait times. I suppose they’re hoping to show what good little workers they’re being. Apparently, the VA has a standard that demands vets be seen within a specified, short period of time. Unfortunately, the VA has tons more ex-soldiers coming in for help these days, thanks to the Bush wars, and not enough doctors to handle them.

The nation’s most sneered at New York Times columnist, Brooks, yesterday said he understood and sympathized with the doctors. They are under pressure to see more and more patients and still there aren’t enough hours in the day to take care of them all. So, naturally, that would cause them to lie on the record about the wait times.

To which I respond, Huh?

If that’s true, then the docs seem to be nothing more than invertebrates. If the institution isn’t constructed to service the customer, I know I’m not going to lie about it to make things look better. But, of course, that’s me. And I haven’t even taken an Hippocratic oath.

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Intolerance

Gluten, if one pays attention to recent breathless interwebs and TV health reports, is worse than global warming, nuclear annihilation, and twerking all rolled into one.

The truth about gluten as the most deadly poison since arsenic is that less than one percent of the human population suffers from g. intolerance, which can be a very devastating disease. For some reason, though, gluten-phones are sprouting up all over the place. People are starting to self-diagnose what is called gluten sensitivity. Some 18 million people consider themselves thus afflicted.

It has replaced nut allergies as the latest bete noir for the health food crowd.

Acc’d’ng to researcher and gluten expert Jessica Biesiekierski, a gastroenterologist at Monash University who has done a specific study on self-diagnosed G. intolerants, such folk really don’t have the condition. The vast majority of them simply decided they had it, of course, or listened to some alternative health care joker tell them they had it.

The late Carl Sagan talked about the phenomenon of popular hypochondrias in his book, Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

Life offers plenty enough maladies and ailments to vex me as I get older. I don’t need “alternative health” salesfolk to invent any new ones for me.

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Belief

Speaking of peeps with overactive imaginations, conspiracy theorists have multiplied like the horniest of rabbits since the onset of the interwebs.

These fabulists may only be annoying when sitting next to you at your corner tavern or holding court nearby you at the local coffeehouse, but they carry a lot of weight in the body politic today. Witness the number of people who still believe Barack Obama forged his birth certificate.

Worse, some 49 percent of Murricans believe climatologists and other related scientists either definitely are, or may very well be, involved in a vast conspiracy to convince the rest of us that there’s such a thing as climate change.

These and many other findings about the faux-knowledge possessed by much of the population of this holy land can be found in a piece by Kurt Eichenwald in Vanity Fair online. He cites a series of polls conducted by the Public Policy Polling outfit, a well-respected political temperature-taker.

One of the Qs PPP asked respondents was whether they believed Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ. More than a quarter of your national brothers and sisters believe he may indeed be.

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A Racist Mantra: I’m No Racist!

And, finally, learn all about the police chief of a town in New Hampshire who’s convinced the President of the United States is a nigger. Joan Walsh, the big boss at Salon, tells all about it.

Robert Copeland of Wolfeboro, NH, sez he’s not being a hater when he uses the N-word to describe Barack H.O. See, he has reasons for describing the Leader of the Free World in such an insulting fashion. So, stop calling him racist, wouldja?

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04/30/2014
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Adam Silver, Annie Corrigan, Capital Punishment, Donald Sterling, NBA, NPR, Racism, Sarah Palin, Thomas Piketty, Wealth & Privilege, Will Murphy

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Sterling Trey-dux

Talk about mixed emotions. My immediate reaction to the NBA’s lifetime exile of Donald Sterling was one of elation.

Yesterday, league commissioner Adam Silver symbolically drew his forefinger across his throat and thus the fate of the racist, reptilian owner of the LA Clippers was sealed. Goodbye, Donnie boy. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

Silver/Sterling

Silver To Sterling: Beat It

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Then again, Sterling — although a loathsome warthog — was done in by being secretly tape recorded in his own home (apparently). If so, we’ve got official sanctions coming down now due to the growing culture of surveillance and for the crime of thought. I don’t like any of that one bit.

And, in the end, isn’t that life? Nothing is pure and we take what we can get even if it stinks to high heaven.

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Better Than NPR

Hah! We beat the pants and skirts off the national news gang at NPR.

Yep, only this morning did NPR discover Thomas Piketty. The Pencil, in case you didn’t know, told you about the French economist and latest rage in the bookselling world, Friday.

Hmm. I wonder if NPR reporters and producers are regularly scanning The Pencil for leads. If not, they ought to.

Anyway, I insist WFIU’s Will Murphy and Annie Corrigan begin using the following tagline each morning:

The news every morning on Bloomington’s NPR station, WFIU. Second only to The Electron Pencil.

It’s only fair, no?

Murphy

Murphy: Golly, I wish I Could Work For The Pencil

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Real Death Sentences

We haven’t talked much about capital punishment in recent years. There’ve been far more important issues like Miley Cyrus’s tongue, Barack Obama’s birth certificate, death panels, guns, gays and, natch, god.

But the State of Oklahoma whacked a guy last night. The job was far sloppier than any performed by the dedicated professionals of the Chicago Outfit over the years. Using a new “cocktail” of dope, OK executioners attempted to send one Clayton Lockett to what they considered his just deserts. Rather than play his part according to script, Lockett instead twitched and spasmed and agonized for some three quarters of an hour before, behind a closed curtain, prison officials dispatched him properly.

Lockett, of course, was dark-skinned; as you know, white people rarely commit capital crimes. His icing was so botched that Oklahoma authorities decided to deny themselves the pleasure of another execution, scheduled for this afternoon, to make sure they can do it without forcing innocents to watch a man die while flailing about.

We can’t have that.

Weird, isn’t it? Just 20 years or so ago, capital punishment was one of the biggest controversies in this holy land. Now? Hell, we kill guys so routinely that executions only make news when the job is pooched.

Just a little info about the Guv of the great state o’Oklahama. As you know, it’s the governor who’s the final arbiter in the process of any state-sanctioned offing. Yesterday, it was Mary Fallin, the Republican boss of the state, who gave the thumbs down. Republicans traditionally have been gung ho for cap. pun. while Dems most often call for all criminals to be allowed to freely rape and murder your daughters.

At least that’s the way I read many GOP arguments for the ultimate time-out.

Fallin

Fallin

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Fallin is a real piece of work, even more remarkable than, say, Sarah Palin. While Palin generally talks as though she’s under the combined influence of PCP and psychosis, at least she quit her job as Alaska governor years ago. Fallin, meanwhile, still steers the ship of OK.

Gov. F. just this month signed into law a bill she championed, banning OK cities from instituting minimum wage standards higher than the federal gov’t’s. See, she doesn’t want her state’s cities to get all liberal like Barack Osama Stalin Obama. And, besides, minimum wage earners, in her fairy tale world, don’t need raises.

Wait, as they say on TV, there’s more.  Late last year, Fallin issued an order cutting off all spousal benefits for National Guard members, lest those who are gay might insist their sexually sick and criminal partners get same.

Neat, huh?

Happy killing, Mary.

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04/29/2014
1 Comment
A Fighting Chance, Bill Maher, Donald Sterling, Elizabeth Warren, Joy Shayne Laughter, Mike Cagle, NRA, Racism, Sarah Palin, Wealth & Privilege

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Fighter

How excited are you about that new politico-memoir, A Fighting Chance, written by Elizabeth Warren?

Warren’s the coolest human in politics these days. I’d love to live in world wherein she’d be the queen. OTOH: I don’t want to see her get within a mile of the Oval Office. People who have a fighting chance, to borrow a phrase, of becoming president must compromise themselves into a certain near-nothingness, witness one Barack H. O.

Warren

Tough Dame

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The Devil has in his safety deposit box the souls of some 43 presidents as well as all the real challengers they faced before becoming the boss of this holy land. And don’t correct me on the no. of presidents — Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, ergo he’s counted as two of ’em.

Anyway, I want Warren on the outside, fighting the good fight. So far, she’s the best there is at that job.

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Pencil Logrolling

If you don’t read the Comments section of this communications colossus you might have missed this from yesterday:

Shameless Related Promotions Department: I’m working with my dear friend and doc-film collaborator Nadeem Uddin to get his lifelong project finished this year, the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak disaster. If you ever wondered what a major chemical attack would look like in a densely populated civilian area, this is it.

http://vimeo.com/88071322

We’re currently setting up an Indiegogo campaign to fund production of the second segment, which looks at how a child exposed to the gas in 1984 has passed on genetic defects to his children.

PS – Nadeem is coming to town for a visit in late May. Anyone interested in a screening of footage and some Q&A?

The comment is from Penicillista and great friend, Shayne Laughter. If she’s in on a project — or even if she merely gives it her blessing — you know it’s the real deal and worth your while.

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Mid-Life Adventure

One of our town’s most compelling figures, cartoonist Mike Cagle, is shipping off to Oregon this summer. He’ll begin the 2014-15 term as a student at Lewis & Clark Law School. He sez he just may want to practice public interest law.

How can you not love B-town when this burgh is populated by folks like Mike. Our loss is the world’s gain.

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Sterling Redux

I wiped the floor with Donald Sterling yesterday, natch. The only thing right-thinking folk might quibble with was my assertion that Sterling should not be officially punished for utterances in, presumably, his private home where he was being recorded without his knowledge. That, friends, is thought crime.

Now, don’t have a fit; I fully support a boycott of his Los Angeles Clippers games. He’s a bad man in so many ways I’ve run out of fingers and toes and facial hairs to count them. The sooner his evil soul departs his body, the better. But, again, human beings should not be persecuted or prosecuted by any authority for the hate in their hearts.

Or, as Bill Maher says, “Calm down. Being an asshole is still legal.”

Oh, BTW, Sterling is a Republican. Registered. Who’da thunk it?

And, to make this farce even more ridiculous, certain conservative groups and publications are trying to spread the lie that’s he’s a Dem! We live in a weird, weird country, kiddies.

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Large And In Charge

And, speaking of posterior orifices, our gal Sarah Palin bleated this past weekend before the assembled multitudes at the NRA’s annual fapfest, held this year in Indy.

And, again, just like yesterday when I took the bullet for you by listening to the Sterling tape, I did it again by listening to Palin’s speech. Babies, I am your freakin’ he-ro!

The gist of her shrieking could be summarized in the quote, “If I were in charge….”

No word yet if audience members began masturbating furiously in their seats upon hearing this most risible sentiment.

Palin

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We all have heard her marvy quote about waterboarding being the way “we baptize terrorists.” Nuts, right? But did you catch her statement that, again, if she were in charge, she’d be standin’ tall right there in the Ukraine and she’d have stopped Putin from making his land grabs?

Swear to god, this piece of work sees herself as something like that Chinese kid who stood before the line of tanks in Tiananmen Sq. back in 1989.

Okay, that’s my report on Palin. That’s plenty of heroism for this big boy for one weekend. I’ll be going off to check myself in for battle fatigue treatment now.

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04/27/2014
1 Comment
Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling, NBA, Racism, Wealth & Privilege

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Tarnished Sterling

If you haven’t heard the audio of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling berating his trophy girlfriend for associating with dark-skinned people in public yet, don’t. It’s bound to roil your blood and put you in a snappish mood for the rest of the day.

I’ve taken the bullet for you.

Sterling/ Stiviano

Heartless & Mindless

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Apparently, Sterling’s less-than-MENSA-material, living, breathing love doll posted some photos on her Instagram account of her palling around with the likes of basketball legend Magic Johnson, who himself is a sports team owner (the LA Dodgers.)

This so offended Sterling’s sensibilities that he’s considering breaking off their mutually sycophantic relationship (he, the gargoylish, withered old prune, with her, the surgically-enhanced, gold-digging anencephalic.) He lectures the girl (trust me, she’s no woman — either emotionally or intellectually) about how such pix will appear to a public that in his antediluvian mindset still looks agasp at folks of diff. races who rub shoulders. He reminds her that she’s only marginally a fully-approved white person, what with her being part Latina. As such she must be picayunishly circumspect in her actions, lest that general public begin to suspect she may in truth be criminally brown.

She reminds him that there is even black blood “running through her veins,” an argument that seems to deflate him. I suppose he’s been in denial that his dame may be so much as an octoroon. Upon being confronted with this truth, Sterling seems crushed. That’s when he begins suggesting that perhaps their affair must, in accordance with all standards of decency, come to an end.

The girlfriend whines ad nauseam that she doubts she can tolerate such a hater. Her sudden realization that Sterling has less-than fully open arms for those of different races rings false. Sterling is known far and wide as a racist of the first order. If she thinks the world will believe she’s come to realize this character flaw in her beloved only now, well, the world ain’t gonna buy it.

More likely she’s been living in denial about her meal ticket’s extreme prejudices and only confronted them when they were turned upon her.

BTW: Sterling has issued a press statement that he’s not a racist which, in this situ. seems prima facie evidence that he is.

I bring this little soap opera episode to your attention for the express purpose of reminding one and all that racist dickheads still exist in our holy land, and some of them — like Sterling — carry a lot of weight. Sterling made his dough as a divorce and personal injury attorney as well as in large real estate transactions. He’s a pillar of LA society. Acc’d’ng to Forbes, he’s worth nearly $2 billion.

Funny how this contretemps pops up in the wake of the Cliven Bundy revelations. It’s as though there’s a certain segment of our society that is desperately trying to hold on to the nice, neat, orderly racial world that has been disappearing since the end of World War II. Well, nice, neat, and orderly for whites.

I don’t want to see Sterling punished by the National Basketball Association for these comments. They were made in private, among intimates. Someone recorded him without his knowledge. The idea a human being can be penalized by authorities for thought crime is as abhorrent as a bitter old man’s racism.

I do want to see the marketplace punish him, though. Anybody who buys a ticket to a Clippers game after this is merely making the reptilian Sterling richer. Punish him, people.

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04/05/2014
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Bloomington Farmer's Market, Chicago Cubs, Joe Conason, Lake Monroe, Lee Hamilton, Pat Murphy, Racism, Rick Perlstein, William Kristol

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Eamus Catuli

Spring, babies!

Never mind the thermometer, it is indeed that season of rebirth and all the rest of that rot. For instance, Bloomington’s Farmers Market opens outdoors today. Yay!

Our lawn is turning really, really green. The chives are running at least ten inches tall. And Steve the Dog and I ventured down to Lake Monroe late yesterday afternoon. We listened to the Cubs home opener on WGN as we drove. Well, I listened. Steve prob. heard some kind of shrill buzz coming from the dashboard. Either way, the sound was decidedly unpleasant: the Cubs were whomped 7-2. Sigh.

Anyway, the lake is brimming with runoff from this week’s biblically-proportioned rainfall. I’ve seen it more flooded — much more flooded — but still, I get a kick out of monitoring the pool level (as my pal, water boss Pat Murphy, would put it) from season to season and year to year. It reminds me that a dammed stream, a river, or any body of water more or less breathes — in slow motion, sure — like every other living, aerobic thing.

L.Monroe 20140404 I

The Cutright Ramp Almost Swallowed Up

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L.Monroe 20140404 II

The Footbridge

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L.Monroe 20140404 III

Water Laps At The Roadway

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L.Monroe 20140404 IV

Steve: “Dude, Ixnay With The Pix. Let’s Go!”

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[Wondering about the headline? Consult your Cassell’s Latin-English Dictionary. Once you’ve translated, then you can make fun of me.]

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Pants On Fire

Y’know how the ever-aggrieved Right in this holy land is always complaining about that big old mean liberal media? Well, maybe complaining isn’t quite the right word; how about squalling like rotten little brats?

Bumper Stickers

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W/o their laundry list of imagined slights, insults, and deadly threats, I don’t know how the Right could survive. But they go on, screaming about how the world’s out to crush them. Chief among the crushers, of course, are television stations, newspapers, news magazines, Hollywood, all the interwebs, talk radio, anybody with a pen or a keyboard, and every living being who’s ever listened to, seen, or read anything.

And guess what: It’s all bullshit. William Kristol, one of the Right’s chief theorists and himself a media creature, is quoted by Joe Conason in the book Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth:

I admit it. The liberal media was never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failure.

Thanks for the clarification, Billy-boy.

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Hamilton’s Hoosiers

Staying with book larnin’, let’s look at a Lee Hamilton anecdote from Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland:

Lee Hamilton, an Indiana freshman Democrat, described what it was like to defend his civil rights record at the local taverns:

“Haven’t we done enough for the Negro?” someone will ask…. That’s where they begin calling me names.

Lee H. Hamilton

Freshman Wisdom

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03/07/2014
1 Comment
Al Gore, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Debo Adegbile, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joe Donnelly, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mumia Abu-Jamal, NAACP, Racism, Tea Party, US Department of Justice, Vladimir Putin

Hot Air

Black Bogeymen

No more bullshit about how the most extreme critics of B. Obama aren’t, at heart, racists.

Yes, yes, yes, you can criticize the Prez all you want because that is our nation’s pastime no matter who occupies the Oval Office, be he a dope who lied to get us into a war or a Nazi/commie who just happens to have dark skin.

But criticizing the president does not mean the Congress must obstruct every single thing he wants done. To wit: Wednesday’s Senate rejection of Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. See, Debo Adegbile, in his former position as counsel for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, once wrote a couple of amicus briefs on behalf of convicted Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Adegbile

Adegbile

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Mumia has been a cause-célèbre since his conviction in 1982. He pretty much was railroaded through the PA state courts, although, I must admit, a careful reading of the evidence against him reveals that, sure, he killed that cop. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania prosecutors had such a tumescence to fry him that they neglected a few of the fair trial niceties the US Constitution calls for. Thus, civil liberty advocates cried whoa and called for a new trial. Thusly, Adegbile got involved.

Mumia

Abu-Jamal

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Now, ergo, acc’d’g to the conservative loon-ocracy, Adegbile is four-square in favor of every black man killing a cop just for the hell of it. And remember, he’s black, with a really scary black name, so it has to be true.

Indiana’s very own Senator Joe Donnelly, nominally a Democrat, joined the disloyal opposition in quashing Adegbile’s nomination.

So Adegbile has been denied a Justice Dept. post because he did what lawyers are supposed to do: That is, defend people. Apparently, though, defending a scary black man disqualified him.

Post-racial America my foot.

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Soul Man

Speaking of hard-core conservatives in this holy land, I’m getting the feeling a lot of them secretly dig Vlad Putin, aren’t you?

Putin

Republican?

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He’s macho. He’s full of strutting braggadocio. He hunts. He hates gays. He’s tough. George W. Bush gazed into his eyes and concluded they were kindred souls. And he does whatever the fk he wants with a gun in his hand (and, by extension, so does his Russian military).

Kiddies, the truth is Putin would be a perfecto Tea Party choice for Prez of these U. States.

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Leaders Of The Pack

Speaking of potential presidential candidates, isn’t NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand looking more and more viable by the day?

And wouldn’t the Dems take a needed first step in repositioning themselves if they selected as a 2016 ticket Hillary Clinton and KG? You might say it’d be suicide to put two women on the same ticket but wags said something similar when Bill Clinton tabbed Al Gore to be his running mate in 1992. No way, they said, can you have two southern boys from smallish states running together. But they won.

Clinton/Gillibrand

That’s The Ticket

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I wonder if the Clinton/Gillibrand pair would win. It’d sure be fun to find out.

[BTW: Google’s Related Searches feature that pops up when one types in the NY Sen.’s name has “Kirsten Gillibrand weight loss” as its number one category. The number two most popular KG search is “Kirsten Gillibrand Vogue.” Apparently, she was profiled in that mag in 2010. “Kirsten Gillibrand on the issues” does not show up until number five. Sigh.]

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02/03/2014
1 Comment
Bloomington City Council, Book Corner, Brynda Forgas, BuzzFeed, David Bowie, Fountain Square Mall, Hidden Closet, Hudsucker Posse, NFL, Parking Meters, Paula Chambers, Racism, Roger Goodell, The Dance Circus, Washington Redskins

Your Daily Hot Air

Silly Stuff

Recently, I took a couple of those silly BuzzFeed quizzes that supposedly tell you all about yourself. One was What Career Should You Actually Have? and the other was How Much of an Asshole Are You?

The conclusions? I should have been a professor and I am not an asshole at all.

From "The Nutty Professor"

Who, Me?

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Jeez, what a load of horseshit!

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Meter Mad

A hot Bloomington tomato named Candy Allday found herself in Oak Park, Illinois, this past week. She stopped at a Mexican restaurant with her ever-lovin’ husband and a couple of friends late-ish one evening.

Candy Allday is used to feeding B-town parking meters until the ungodly hour of 10pm, so she began digging in her purse for quarters before entering said eatery. Lo and behold, she stopped and gasped.

“I’ve gotta take a picture of this,” she blurted. And so she did. And here it is.

Photo by Candy Allday

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Candy Allday wonders if certain Bloomington City Council-folk can read.

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Let’s Dance

Bloomington’s own Brynda Forgas is no longer owned by her business, The Hidden Closet. After a long stay in the Fountain Square Mall, Forgas moved her Closet to Kirkwood Avenue, right behind the Book Corner last year. Biz was no better on Kirkwood than it had been in the relatively quiet mall.

So Brynda decided to call it a retail career a couple of months ago and announced she’d be locking the door one final time as soon as the Christmas season was over. She’s never looked happier.

An old pal of hers, Paula Chambers is set to open her own shop, The Dance Circus, in Brynda’s old space Tuesday, February 4. Paula’s another Bloomington fixture. She’s the boss of the Hudsucker Posse hula hoop girl gang. She, too, is moving her digs out of Fountain Square.

Dance Circus

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The Dance Circus will continue to feature scads of dancewear and shoes, hula hoops (all handmade), and plenty of other fun stuff.

Chambers hopes to get better exposure and foot traffic for her store in the new location. She’s pumped. “I’m gonna make a splash on Kirkwood,” she promises.

Go visit Paula. And spend some cash, wouldja?

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… And The Blacks Were Happy Under Slavery

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave the assembled news media of the world a state of the league address last week in advance of yesterday’s Super Bowl. Then he opened the floor for questions. One intrepid reporter asked him about the Washington club’s nickname, you know the one that’s a racial slur. Goodell pulled a Vinnie Barbarino and said, essentially, Whuh?

Pushed further, he elaborated. Why, he claimed, the folks we’re slurring consider it no slur at all!

Do you believe it?

Screenshot from Bleacher Report

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I sure as hell don’t.

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No, Really, Let’s Dance

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