The Presumption of Innocence: Not Just for White People Anymore!

To the NYPD and all those who sided with the NYPD to support Stop-n-Frisk:  all Judge Scheindlin is saying is that age bracket, sex, and skin color are NOT a substitute for "reasonable suspicion" or "just cause", which are legal terms that have definitions.  She found that it even violated Terry v. Ohio, which invented the term "reasonable suspicion" in the first place.  To those religious conservatives who complain that "separation of church and state" isn't in the Constitution:  neither is "reasonable suspicion".  But non-whites still had to live with the NYPD literally stretching it to mean "anyone we feel like searching, so go fuck yourself".

Thank you, Your Honor, for reminding us that the Fourth Amendment applies to non-whites too.   I know it's hard for these lock-em-up types to understand, but non-whites (specifically blacks and latinos) don't have to put up with being treated like criminals in order to walk on the street.

My Latest Girl Crush

If Yemmynisting is not on your blog reading list, it needs to be there.  In a place (the US) and time where the LGBT community is on the threshold of freedom and equality, Yemisi Ilesanmi is from a place (Nigeria) that the 20th century seems to have left behind.  (In terms of technology.  Sadly, the 19th century left it behind socially).  Ilesanmi struggles against a culture that opposes LGBT rights violently whenever and however it can.  Nigerians against LGBT rights aren't caught up in Western nonsense of spouting bigoted rants and then whining when they're called bigots.  Nigerians against LGBT rights just spout ignorant nonsense as if it's proven scientific fact.  They don't think they're expressing a conservative, religious point of view; they think they're expressing the only way to think brain fart about the subject.

In steps Ilesanmi.  She takes no prisoners and doesn't care if you don't like it.  Ignorant superstition is just shot down with no mercy.  And her opposition hates her for it.  And, Yoda love her, she refuses to apologize.  What polite way is there to remove someone's foot from your throat? What polite way is there to keep people from lynching you? When her opposition insists on "politeness", what they're really insisting on is that no one call them on their bullshit to their faces.  Her opposition neither knows or cares that those who would restrict the freedom and equality of others must make a justification, not the other way around.  If your own religious freedom depends on discriminating against or oppressing others- guess what- you're in a religion that encourages people to be assholes.  It doesn't make you a man or woman of your god to search your thesaurus for new insults for LGBT people.  It just makes you an asshole.

Reading her blog on a regular basis is a reminder (sometimes embarrassing) of how cowardly and lazy I can be.  What's the point of accepting the equality of others if I'm not willing to make some sacrifices, piss off some assholes, or shoot down some ignorant garbage?  Are the opinions of ignorant douchebags who tell me that their insults and discrimination and oppression of others a sign of their god's love really important?  Isn't it time we started treating their opinions bullshit with the complete lack of respect it deserves?

Goodnight, Sweet Prince - An Ode to Batting Left and Throwing Right

I will be selfish for one paragraph and whine about how the way-too-early death of Doghouse Riley has ruined my reading life.  The only writer who comes close to him is Charlie Pierce, mostly because Pierce is not afraid to lob insults.  Doghouse was (and always will be), my blogging Pole Star.  His is the example I try to attain.  I want my writing to "sound" like his.  I want to be right about everything the way he was.  I want to understand everything about the writing he leaves behind for us, because he nailed the blogging form down.  Whether he had only a quick quip or a rambling, autobiographical revelation, he knew how to write so people would stop clicking.

Doghouse's great talent was in knowing what was so wrong about the right-wing and everything they say and do in the first place.  Whenever Tom Friedman or David Brooks opened their mouths, their euphemisms and half-truths always sounded good, even if in the end I could just feel that their conclusions were dead wrong.  But Doghouse always knew how to cut right through their bullshit.  He knew what they were omitting, wrongly assuming, outright lying about, or reversing their opinions on without admitting they were wrong before.

And he had the moral courage to be pissed at these motherfuckers.  When bullshit (also known as Iraq War Commentary) was broadcasted on international television and got thousands killed, it was Doghouse who held up their hands and said "Can't you motherfuckers see all the motherfucking blood all over these hands??!?!?!?!?"  When the Emperor paraded down the street buck naked, it was Doghouse who howled with laughter at the Emperor's arrogance.  And his subjects' cowardice.

Because Doghouse knew, and pointed out constantly, that these motherfuckers couldn't get anywhere near legislation, or even a podium, without the willing acquiescence of not just right-wingers everywhere, but everyone unwilling or unable to see through the bullshit.  Sure, harping on racist politicians is fun. But someone needs to point out when that racism is by popular demand.  Ripping a new one on a leader helping the rich get richer is easy.  Attacking, brutally, our own smug assumptions of how our good livings indicate that we are better people is thankless.  In right-wing land, even the poor believe in tax cuts for the wealthy because the wealthy have repeatedly told the poor that's the only way they'll get any job. And the poor have been unwilling to even try to contest it, mostly because it melds so well with their fear that somewhere, somehow, a black guy is living off of them.   Someone needs to fucking tell the Emperor's subjects to laugh at the naked guy in the middle of the street.  Because the Emperor only gets away with this bullshit because his subjects let him.

I'm going to blog more often.  You can read or not.

sure, right, okay ....

I'll make John Stossel a deal.  He personally can go without wearing seat belts if he wants to.  However, when he inevitably hits something with his car (speed limits are for people who want to be oppressed), and everything except the mustache goes through the windshield, skipping along the road surface like a well-thrown stone over water, leaving streaks of gooey clumps, no government workers are going to clean that up off the road.  John Stossel's streaks of gooey clumps will be left for all to see and cry "Freedom!"

John Stossel's relatives will have to come out with shovels, brooms and dustpans and clean it up themselves.  In return, John Stossel's relatives will be free to bring John's casket, dump the gooey clumps that were John Stossel in said casket, and then drive to the nearest landfill for John Stossel's funeral.  

Dear Republicans,

This is your party.   Is it too late to nominate Jane Svoboda?  This bat-shit crazy, raving bigot truly represents you better than Mitt Romney ever could.  Mitt was just a sneaky bigot, who couldn't even do his own bullying himself.  He can't even own it later.  The witnesses still feel awful about the incident, but Mitt can't even remember it.  And then he can't help chuckling over it.

This is what your party has sunk to.  At this point, you can't even pass a measure to allow the Catholic Church to keep birth control expensive.  Your personhood amendments fail.   Planned Parenthood is still open.  Scott Walker just monumentally embarrassed himself and is surrounded by corrupt staff.  Laying off thousands of government workers over the past two years has retanked the economy.  The only thing you've won on this year is to keep the homosexuals down, and remind them that only straights' families count.  You go on about our national debt and yearly deficits, but propose cutting taxes anyway.

I will give your party this- you certainly are great at acting as if you know what you're doing.  Your party, since the 1960s, has been founded on satisfying the greed of plutocrats, the ignorance of religious fanatics, and the hate of bigots.  And that's done well among some of the voters.  Turns out that greed, ignorance, and hate do go well together.  At least, they work together well at winning elections and referendums.  But governing requires putting all three aside.

You can't remain an honest politician while bowing to whatever demands the richest place on you.  You can't serve your constituents without a vast body of background knowledge in science, history, and economics.  You can't believe in right-wing economics unless you just totally forget the economic history of the Industrial Revolution and 20th century banking.  You can't guarantee religious freedom for all if one religious group is allowed to write its dogma into civil law.  You can't say you provide economic opportunity when economic outcomes are so skewed for race, sex, and parents' wealth.

So, Republicans, enjoy the mess of embarrassing rants and wealthy ass-kissing caught on video.  This is the party you wanted.  A collection of mostly ignorant haters that don't care how the rich have screwed the rest of us, because somewhere there might be a homo who hasn't been stoned.

I got your Nanny State right here

Usually, I like reading Jack Cafferty, but this post just pisses me off.  I've read this man's life story in It's Getting Ugly Out There, so I know he's not saying this from a position of having anything handed to him in life.  But Jack Cafferty could probably use some reminding of a few things:
1- His job is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.  His freedom, as well as his boss's freedom, to do the stories they want to do the way they want to do them may not be abridged by Congress and can only be removed for inaccuracies or dishonesty.
2- Jack got his start on public airwaves.  They are rented out for free to networks/stations, in exchange for public service announcements and excluding obscenity.
It's almost as if Jack's opportunity to work his way up from a hellish childhood was made possible by someone watching over.... and protecting his chosen industry....  almost... sort of like... a fucking nanny.

They're not pro-life, they're anti-woman

Wow. South Dakota is in some sort of frenzy to earn my contempt.  And earned it the state has.  Apparently, some moron with more Bibles than brain cells has decided that abortion providers have got to go.  But don't worry, ladies.  This bill isn't about killing abortionists, it's about giving you the right to defend your unborn child.  Because the way Phil Jensen describes it, when a man is trying to cut open your abdomen to perform an abortion on you without your consent, you would NOT be legally allowed to defend YOURSELF.   What would we do without that son of a whore defender of women's rights to carry babies? Women apparently had no right to bodily integrity until Phil Jensen came around.   Well, let's be honest.  What women in SD would be allowed to defend is their unborn child, not themselves.  Is THAT legal in South Dakota?  Or is right to self-defense one of those things only men get?

Here's why there's no agreeing with anti-choicers, and I will never call them pro-life.  First of all, most anti-choicers support lots of ways for people to die- as collateral damage, on death row, for example.  So, they're not really pro-life.  But Phil Jensen has revealed to all just how anti-woman they are:  if a pregnant woman already has the right to defend herself from bodily harm, why would we even  need this law?  Because to Phil Jensen, women do not have bodily integrity.  In the anti-choice movement, women's bodies are not their own and Phil and his fellow Bible-beaters will never acknowledge this.

And their is no compromise position with these people.  Because to people who don't believe that my body belongs to me, there is no intrusion on my privacy and dignity these people will not push.  And enforce, through 'justifiable homicide'.  Fuck you, Will Saletan.  Maybe you should have listened to George Carlin more, and Jim Wallis less.