The Return of the Knapsack

My next post was supposed to be about how I poured a can of Coke in my toilet to get rid of the ring around the bowl. I got the idea from the Onion's special Mother's Day issue:

Household Tips For Women

Between juggling a career and a social life, today's woman has it harder than ever, we are told. As a service to our lady readers, The Onion would like to lighten their burden by sharing some tips to make things easier around the house...

...When you open yourself to the abundance of the universe, anything is possible... even getting a clean toilet with NO SCRUBBING! Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet, let it sit for one hour, and then flush it clean. You can use that extra sixty minutes of free time to believe, breathe, dream, laugh, or CELEBRATE what makes you UNIQUE!

I still had to spray the inside with Scrubbing Bubbles and clean it with the toilet brush to get the dirt above the water/Coke line.

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Today started off pretty ho-hum. Then I read today's Daily Trade Round-Up at Pajiba, entitled "George Lopez is Cordially Invited to Suck My Pajiba," written by The TV Whore. If the title wasn't enough, here is the passage that made me frown, emphasis mine:

And speaking of putting out fires, can I be the first to piss on George Lopez and put him out? Please. See, Lopez is raging after the cancellation of his show. ABC’s position is that the show would’ve been a money pit for the network, had it been renewed, but Lopez says that’s crap. He feels entitled (entitled!) to another season so the show can wrap up loose storylines. Plus, because his show outperforms “Notes from the Underbelly” (which was renewed) he plays — you guesed it — the race card: “TV just became really, really white again.” (No, George, it just became ever-so-funnier again. Because even if everything new is total crap, crap is funnier than you.) And in reference to (mother fucking) “Cavemen,” Lopez said, “so a Chicano can’t be on TV, but a caveman can? And a Chicano with an audience already?” And here’s the kicker … the clincher … Lopez called his show “an important show.” … … Fuck you buddy. Long and hard. You egotistical, bitter, unfunny twit.

Well. You know I had to say something:

I have never watched The George Lopez Show, nor do I ever plan to watch it, for the same reason that I will never voluntarily watch According to Jim or Still Standing. (Yet I do enjoy The King of Queens. Hmm...)

However, the statement, "TV just became really, really white again" is still valid. Every new show next season has a predominantly, if not exclusively, white cast. Besides the Grey's spinoff, I can't think of any new shows with nonwhite people as the leads. And if there are any new shows next season with nonwhite women as the leads--and not as the token ethnic friend--I might pass out from shock.

I'm not saying that George Lopez isn't a little bitter and quite full of himself. I am saying that his show was important in at least one way: it put a Latino family on the TV screen, in broadcast, no less. As far as I know, there won't be any other shows next season that are centered around a Chicano family, or any Latino families in general. That fact might not be important to you, Seth. But it is important to a growing number of Americans, like me, who are underrepresented on the television screen.

You choose do diminish Mr. Lopez's assertion by accusing him of "playing the race card," which is an judgmental statement in any circumstance, especially coming from someone with color and gender privilege in this society. If Mr. Lopez's show does outperform Notes from the Underbelly and the latter show, with an overwhelmingly white cast, is getting renewed, then I'm not seeing the problem with making a racial comparison. It seems disturbingly easy for you to dismiss Mr. Lopez's claims of racial injustice on network television. Fortunately for you, Seth, I doubt the day will ever come when white males will be underrepresented on TV. Therefore, you personally will never have the opportunity to play the "race card" you seem to loathe.

And? I was not a conversation ender. Other people continued to make comments afterward. Pretty cool, huh?

It's both stunning and disturbing to me how certain white males like The TV Whore are so quick to dismiss any accusation of injustice based on skin color or ethnicity, that is made by a nonwhite member, as "playing the race card." Like they would know. How many times have they been discriminated against based on their color or appearance? I don't know. I wish The TV Whore would tell me. I doubt he has any idea what it's like to go about your daily business wondering if someone treated you unfairly because of their preconceived notions about your race, color, ethnicity and/or gender. For further lack of insight into discrimination in the workplace, against women in particular, see Lance Mannion's initial post and subsequent halfway apology regarding hiring more female engineers.

I had a separate personal incident dealing with this concept today. It's still bothering me. I have talked about the incident with five separate people now, and I'm still not completely better. I'm talented and charming and delightful and insightful. I'm a freaking genius with an ambitious streak that is rarely seen outside the worlds of elite academics and career politicians. Yet for almost every day of my life since I graduated from high school, I have been involuntarily reminded of the knapsack and the things I can rarely do:

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

The numbers in bold--1, 2, 6, 24, 28, 32, 36, 42 and 50--all happened today. The rest of those listed above have all happened to me in the past week. This is my life.

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New Presidential candidate video below. I heard about Ron Paul on The Stephanie Miller Show this week, so I had to investigate. The funniest thing about the video? When the camera takes long shots of the stage from the side, I swear the candidates look identical. Not exactly shocking when it comes to the Republican party.

Ron Paul in Debate at Reagan Library (May '07)

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Ooh, one more thing. If you haven't heard the uproar about the latest Mary Jane figurine licensed by Marvel just in time for Spider-Man 3, you can read all about the outrage at When Fangirls Attack: Special "Outrage of the Week!" Edition. Lots of people had lots to say. I stopped counting the blog links at 50.

Conversation Ender: Harry Potter poster edition

As you all may know, I can be very opinionated with people I like and trust. Like with you readers. Oftentimes I get very passionate, and I share what I'm feeling. This is what happened last week when I read Dan Carlson's post, An Ignoble Spirit Embiggens The Smallest Chest, on his blog Slowly Going Bald. From the opening paragraph:

Emma Watson has been given a digital breast job in the Imax ads for this summer's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I was reading along with the examples of other times this has unnecessary practice been done to prominent celebrities, nodding head, saying to myself, "Good job pointing out these things out, Dan." Then he made his fatal mistake:

It's not whether the images were designed to completely deceive the viewing public, but the fact that we as a public ask for and often demand these images...

...We ask for these things. You know? Sure, you and I don't, not an individual level, but we do. We as a people do. So I'm disappointed that it's happened again for Emma Watson, and I'm sure she's somewhere between pissed and mortified, since being a female teen on the world stage has to be a punishing existence. But, really, is anyone surprised?

Oh Dan.

Here's the comment I left in response:

we as a public ask for and often demand these images

Dan,

I , as part of the public, neither asked for nor demanded these images. Who exactly do you think Warner Bros. asked about the decision to give a 17-year-old girl (who is actually playing a 15-year-old) bigger boobs? I know I wasn't consulted. I don't think any other Harry Potter fans were consulted en masse either. Did I miss the big ad placed in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter? "Who wants Hermione to have more boobage? Call us now!" Don't blame the public for poor decision making on the part of a studio marketing team.

Additionally, equating the cover of Maxim or GQ with a poster for a movie based on a children's book is wrong. I don't think anyone in the Harry Potter cast expected to be sexually objectified when they signed up for the movie. The only person involved with this franchise that I remember releasing suggestive photos in the past year was Daniel Radcliffe. And I don't see any major alterations done to his body in any Harry Potter one-sheets.

I guess I'm not "surprised" because Mr. Radcliffe is male, and "we as a people" don't "ask for these things" from boys. " "We" just expect these things to happen to 17-year-old girls, whether they want them to happen or not.

That effectively ended the conversation on that post. Now, Dan is not a bad person. He seems pretty nice. The same day that I left the above comment, I also left a comment on his post, A Letter From HR, in which I politely asked him to define what the phrase "used a pica pole to scratch your chode" meant. And he replied with an explanation. But that just wasn't enough for me. I have to have it all, all the time. I want my every comment replied to on every blog that I comment on. I have issues, I know.

I will note that I restrained myself from criticizing Dan's finding humor in describing his female coworker as "cute enough to kidnap." I should get some kudos for that.

Sunshine and Overcast Drizzle

The raininess: I took my first practice full-length GMAT in my room today. It was so hard. I kept freezing on the work problems and the reading comprehension. I almost didn't finish the Quantitative section. I think I did okay on the Analytical Writing Assessment, which I only recently discovered doesn't count in your Total GMAT score. I have four weeks until the real exam, so I can do better. I am going to continue studying diligently. I need a hug.

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Sunshine: I was reading The Argonaut last night for the first time in years, and I came across this article, Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is keynote speaker at West L.A. Democratic Club, by Helga Gendell. I should read this free newspaper more often. Here are some choice excerpts:

Kucinich said he wants to be a healing president, end the occupation of Iraq, and restate America's position in the world...

...On nuclear weapons, he said that it's not for the U.S. to pick who should or shouldn't have nuclear power, asking, 'Do we want the threat of extinction for our children and grandchildren?'

Kucinich advocates getting rid of all nuclear weapons, referring to the non-proliferation treaty that provides for all nuclear weapons to be abolished.

On abortion, Kucinich said that the ruling on partial-birth abortion by the Supreme Court 'was very destructive, and that Roe v. Wade has to be protected to protect women's rights to privacy and the right to decide, working with their doctor.'

America needs a culture that affirms life and heals, providing for pre-natal and post-natal care, a living wage, economic opportunities and giving people the right to make choices, he said.

Regarding immigration, Kucinich said, 'It's a great shame that slave labor is allowed to exist and that system needs to be stopped.'

'No fines should be paid (by immigrants), no one should be made to go back, and we should stop scapegoating immigrants,' said Kucinich...

...The education system is becoming dangerous, creating a two-class society, and education has become a privilege rather than a right, said Kucinich.

On the subject of student loans and tuition, the question is always, 'Where will we get the money?' said Kucinich.

No one asked, 'Where will we get the money when we went to war in Iraq and borrowed money from China to fight,' Kucinich said.

And my favorite part:

Another audience member asked if the candidate is still supporting a 'Department of Peace' to look at society's issues ' domestic violence with spousal and child abuse, school violence, gangs, guns, racial violence, anti-gay violence and police clashes with citizens ' and Kucinich said he had proposed a bill and that 62 members of Congress already support the idea.

I don't understand why all the mainstream coverage mocks Dennis Kucinich as a funny-looking kook with crazy ideas. He's no John Edwards, but he does have valid facts and opinions to add to the political discourse. I don't fully understand why NOW is endorsing Senator Clinton when Senator Clinton still hasn't apologized for essentially authorizing the illegal occupation of Iraq. Peace is good for women. War is not. I hate that I had to get informed about a two-time Presidential candidate by accidentally reading an article in the middle of my local newspaper. I should be getting this on my TV, front and center.

Teenybopper a-go-go

It started on Tuesday night when the second-to-last episode ever of Gilmore Girls being pre-empted by the Griffith Park fire. Here is the email I wrote to one of my fellow Gilmore Girls fans right after the "Breaking News" interrupted Lorelai's yammering:

Is it bad that I screamed out loud when KTLA preempted
Gilmore Girls with the Griffith Park brush fire? No, I
think it's even worse that I want them to get back to
the show. Especially since it's THE SECOND TO LAST ONE
EVER.

How about they put a crawl underneath the show saying,
"If you live near Griffith Park, get out now." That
would be more effective, considering they don't have
any crawl right now. It's just incendiary (so
inappropriate) shots of the fire.

Now I'm getting mad for a whole other reason. There is
no actual useful information on the screen. It
literally says, "Brush Fire" on the lower right on
screen. Because I couldn't tell from the giant flames
and smoke encompassing the screen. Why don't they tell
people what to do? Stop speculating about the
nonexistent winds and the other weather you still
don't know about, KTLA news guy whose name I forgot.
Tell people if they should leave and where they should
go. And tell people if they should avoid work in the
area tomorrow.

Now there is a shot of a guy recording this on his
cell phone. Good job, KTLA. Now I know where not to go
for news I can use.

Ooh, I feel a post coming on.

And the post did come on, albeit four days later. And apparently, I wasn't the only angry TV viewer that night. My friend then left the following comment on my MySpace page:

KTLA is stupid! People are really irate on their website in the GG comment area, it is a little scary! It is like a riot online.

She wasn't the only one. The next day Defamer reported on the story. In Gilmore Girls Vs. The Wildfire, the Hollywood gossip blog expressed its deepest, snarkiest sympathy for those who missed out on the departing program. They also included some choice selections from the KTLA Gilmore Girls message board. My favorite was

you know, i cannot believe they are doing this to us.and this ghetto station doesn't even show the episodes online like abc and nbc
Submitted by: very upset

because I didn't even think of that. The CW is supposed to be so cool and hip with their Mark McGrath and their Pussycat Dolls, and it doesn't have its shows online. But the station that caters to the retirement home crowd does. How's that for irony?

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Number two: Reza Aslan. So dreamy. He was supposed to be on The Colbert Report on Tuesday, but it was postponed till July. So he was The Daily Show on Thursday. I had to drop my Daily Show ban for one night. :( I fast-forwarded through the John Oliver "I'm British" crap and got to the interview, which you can watch at the Comedy Central website. Speaking of behind-the-times internet destinations. Could there videos be any choppier?

After pausing, rewinding and playing the tape numerous times, I went to the MySpace page for Reza Aslan's Intellectual Groupies, and left this comment:

Oh my gosh, he was so cute last night on The Daily Show. I loved when he said, "Nobody talks to the administration. It's a closed bubble." And then he moved his hands in a bubble formation. He was looking at Jon, but it felt like he was talking to me.

Supposedly Mr. Aslan is getting married. That's disappointing. Because I'm sure his upcoming nuptials are the only thing that is preventing me from dating him. Not the fact that I don't know him. Or that I've never met him. Or that I wouldn't convert to Islam for him, completely ignoring his passion for his religion, even though he compiled a history of Islam, and has pushed the book on us for two years. No, his marriage is what is stopping us from being together. At least he probably won't get lanced in the future. Which brings me to number three...

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was in Borders today, perusing the latest issue of Ms. Magazine like a good feminist on a budget. Then the shiny black cover of anthem magazine caught my eye with the headline, "Joseph Gordon-Levitt Goes to Iraq, Kisses Men, and Robs a Bank." Ms. went back on the shelf as I got my paws on anthem. You can read part of the interview here and look at a couple poses from the photo shoot, too.

I liked his take on the questions asked about his sexuality:

"This is kind of embarrassing, but I recently put my name into a search engine and someone posted, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt gay? and the answer posted was: Is he an alien? because I played [one on 3rd Rock]. Right now I'm in Toronto playing a psychopathic murderer. And recently I played someone who was in the U.S. army in Iraq. So it's like, what's harder? Kissing a dude or killing people? I would hope that I can feel at least a bit of the horror of what it must be like, when I was playing a soldier, how hard it must be, the hell they go through. So, kissing Topher Grace is like, whatever."

But right before that excerpt in the print version, Mr. G-L talks about creating a website for soldiers in Iraq where they can post their own videos about their experience. Mr. G-L has gotten tired of the "news" people sitting in a studio talking about what is supposedly going on over there, instead of simply asking the people on the ground. A celebrity actually doing something constructive about changing our society, instead of demanding that we do something silly like buy a yellow bumper sticker or use one sheet of toilet paper to wipe? Amazing. Watch your back, Clooney.

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Who else loved The Office on Thursday? It was all about the Pam speech. My favorite part? "Pam, that was amazing. But I'm still looking for someone with a sales background." Oh Michael.

Is Oscar really going to "try girls for a while"? If done right, that would be a funny episode.

Exciting Day for Me!

This afternoon I called into my local "progressive" radio because the Host on the air at the time was bugging me. He and his producer were talking to some guy from The Hollywood Reporter about the Chris Albrecht situation. I got my information on HBO's removing the chairman and CEO via Defamer, so you can, too. The "progressive" talk show Host couldn't understand why HBO would fire Albrecht after 22 years with the company. He didn't think that Albrecht's pattern of alleged assault, both in his personal life and at work, was a valid reason to remove him from his position. Maybe it wasn't valid to the Host because the people Albrecht allegedly had beaten were his girlfriends. And domestic violence isn't a cause for concern in the workplace. Now where have I heard that before...?

After yelling at my car radio, I called in and asked the Host, "Why are you defending an assaulter?" He said he wasn't, because Albrecht was never convicted of anything, so why was HBO firing him? I suggested that after the news of HBO's 1991 payoff came out right after the most recent Las Vegas incident, HBO didn't want anymore drama. The Host asked the Hollywood Reporter guy if that was true. The Hollywood Reporter implied that it was a possibility.

Endeavor's Ari Emanuel weighs in on the situation at The Huffington Post (via Defamer), calling his "friend" Albrecht, "an alcoholic who fell off the wagon and made a terrible mistake."

I've made mistakes, too. But somehow I've made it through life without shoving or choking my associates, regardless of my intoxication level.

So far, the arguments I've heard defending Albrecht go like this: "Who cares if he beats women? He brought us The Sopranos. The Sopranos!"

Yeah, dude also brought us Tourgasm and Lucky Louie. And it's not like Chris Albrecht is helping children with cancer. There is no justification for keeping an obviously disturbed person employed at your company, especially in such a visible position. There are plenty of other television executives in Hollywood who can bring us the next Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

But no more Dane Cook. Please.

Spotlight on: Frangela

If you don't know who Frangela is, you obviously don't watch Best Week Ever. That's understandable if you don't have cable. However, if you do have cable, there is no excuse. It's a funny show! Even better than I Love New York. And Celebrity Fit Club. Who else thinks Dustin Diamond may have "gained weight solely for the purpose of appearing on the show"?

Back to Frangela. They are one of my MySpace friends, and I wrote them a message a couple weeks ago. They were super-duper nice and they wrote me back pretty quickly. Their message totally made my day. Among other things, they said I had "the cutest photo thingy ever!"(Exclamation point theirs.) They also said my email was "mature and respectful." I do try. I was so excited that I told my mother about what they wrote. Mummy was less excited than I was because she doesn't watch the teevee. But she was happy for me anyway.

Frangela was supposed to have a show on Fox last year, but for whatever reason, the pilot didn't make it on the air. I guess Fox had to make room for comedy gold like The Ringer, 'Til Death, American Dad and The War at Home. I would have watched the show. Not just because Frangela makes me laugh, but because I too have trouble finding black friends. I definitely don't have enough of them to invite to a party.

A story that Frangela shared in their email also got me thinking that they should write a book. I've read many articles and seen many television specials concerning the history of American comedy. I saw Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which was a less-than-humorous film about the fact that Indians don't think Albert Brooks is funny. I also watched SNL in the 90s yesterday, which was a 2-hour long circle jerk that would have made the Bush administration blush. The problem with most of these self-congratulatory compilations is that they feature white American males talking about why other white American males are so funny. Sometimes a few black guys (Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby or Chris Rock) or a couple of white women (Lucille Ball, if we're lucky) slip in there. And at one point, I saw about a minute total on Freddie Prinze. But that's it.

There are no mainstream compilations of women's contributions to comedy. Or to entertainment in general. I know that women who work in comedy have some amazing stories to tell. I've heard a few tales from Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho, Judy Gold, Kathleen Madigan and pamie.com. But I'd like to hear more, and read more. I'm sure other women, and men, would like to hear them, too.

I bought I'm the One That I Want. I bought Yeah, I Said It. I'd buy Frangela's book, too.

Watching Tyra's "So What!" Parade

I started laughing to myself this week as I recalled reading this Mondo Extras recap on TWoP during my Winter Break: The Christmas Shoes. It was a made-for-TV movie, based on a schmaltzy Christmas song, starring Rob Lowe and Kimberly Williams. Here's what recapper Mr. Sobell had to say:

...It's a ridiculous anthem, full of mawkish sentiment and shallow acts of semi-kindness heralded as selfless philanthropy, topped with the kind of self-centered smugness normally reserved for Aaron Sorkin homilies. Someone responsible for "The Christmas Shoes" really needs to be punched.

I remember sharing this opinion with my father-in-law between guffaws of derisive laughter. However, my father-in-law -- an otherwise sensible fellow with little patience for the grade-A Velveeta often served up by popular culture -- took umbrage with my disdain for "The Christmas Shoes"; the words "cynical left-coast elitist" may have been tossed around in anger. And I soon learned that the majority of the civilized world seemed to take his side in this clash of cultures -- all throughout the weekend, people were calling into the radio station begging, pleading with the DJs to play this inane treacle. And in fact, the song turned out to be so terrifically popular that a woman named Donna VanLiere would churn out a novella based on this jejune pop song. I don't mean to disparage Ms. VanLiere or her literary efforts, but, several decades from now, don't expect to find The Christmas Shoes on the reading list for that "Great Books of the Early 21st Century" course they're teaching at your grandkid's university -- not if that school hopes to keep its accreditation, at any rate...

I was cracking up. When I shared the recap with my Mummy, she didn't find it as funny, since she's into that cheese. She's the kind of TV viewer who really liked The Ron Clark Story. I'm the kind of TV viewer who rolled my eyes when Matthew Perry had to be carried out on a stretcher by the paramedics after he passed out from pneumonia in his classroom. It only gave me more reason to laugh at the subsequent Nice White Lady sketch from MadTV.

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Via Defamer:

Book Soup Overrun By Blanche Devereaux-Quoting Sodomites.

The deep imprint left upon the television landscape by seminal 1980s osteoporotic sitcom The Golden Girls is indisputable: Swap in some Cosmos for a cheesecake, you're looking at a post-menopausal Sex and the City; add an angry lesbian and some Hot Topics, The View. Not surprisingly, the series carries with it a fanatical following, comprised mainly of gay men of a certain age, and no one else. Many of them showed up at Book Soup last night to hear Rue "Blanche" McClanahan read and sign from her new autobiography.

It's not just for the gays. I love The Golden Girls, too. I have seen every episode at least twice, many a lot more than that. It's on five times a day, every week day. I'm a Dorothy.

And, Defamer Employment: Kids' Show Currently Staffing Up On Craigslist. Oh, the hilarity. My favorite part comes near the bottom.

YOU SHOULD *NOT* PURSUE THIS JOB IF:

...You would ever write (or laugh at) any of these 6 lines of dialogue:

(1) "Hey, stop eating my dinner, Eatie McEaterson!"
(2) "These nachos are like a party in my mouth!"
(3) "Whooaaa, too much information."
(4) "And by [that] I mean [this]."
(5) "Whoops, did I say that out loud?"
(6) "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit."

If you enjoy any of the above 6 lines of dialogue, time to move on to the next Craigslist ad! [...]

If you really hate this ad and you want to tell us how awful, unprofessional, and arrogant it is, please send that email to either your mom or your nearest Home Depot.

As is the norm on Defamer, the comments below it are the piece de resistance. The Craig's List ad subsequently "got over 900 responses in less than 48 hours," probably due to their Defamer mention. I bet they received a few mom/Home Depot emails as well.

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from Wired, via Yahoo!News:

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death.

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

So which freedoms are these soldiers fighting for again, even though they obviously can't exercise them themselves?

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via AfterEllen:

My So-Called Box Set: But will Tino ever show? According to dorothy snarker,

My So-Called Life might be coming back. No, sorry, not with new episodes (I know, that was just cruel, teasing you like that), but as a re-released DVD box set of its one and only season.

That would awesome, because I didn't get the first edition of DVDs. By the time I realized they might be good DVDs to invest in (i.e. last year), they were no longer available in stores. Hmph.

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from The New York Times, via Pajiba Love:

Young, Gifted, and Not Getting Into Harvard, by Michael Winerip.

ON a Sunday morning a few months back, I interviewed my final Harvard applicant of the year. After saying goodbye to the girl and watching her and her mother drive off, I headed to the beach at the end of our street for a run.

It was a spectacular winter day, bright, sunny and cold; the tide was out, the waves were high, and I had the beach to myself. As I ran, I thought the same thing I do after all these interviews: Another amazing kid who won’t get into Harvard.

He ends the article with this paragraph, emphasis mine:

That day, running on the beach, I was lost in my thoughts when a voice startled me. “Pops, hey, Pops!” It was Sammy, one of my twins, who’s probably heading for a good state school. He was in his wetsuit, surfing alone in the 30-degree weather, the only other person on the beach. “What a day!” he yelled, and his joy filled my heart.

Gee, thanks, Dad. Way to lowball your kid's abilities in a national newspaper.

By the way, I didn't get into Harvard either. I didn't apply...but that's beside the point. The Pajibans summed it up well:

What's the Times' sudden obsession with high school kids and top colleges? Maybe the paper is trying to solidify its identity as the most respected paper among the white, upper-class mass of Ivy league applicants.

Who cares if some overachieving, overprivileged Northeasterners don't get into Harvard? This is not the education crisis facing the United States. This is a small group of yuppies burdened with one-upping each other on the backs of their unnecessarily stressed-out children.

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If you haven't read Racialicious this week, please do, along with Race in the Workplace. I would link to at least five articles that I liked on the site this week, but it takes me forever to link and quote and comment in my obsessively comprehensive manner. So clickety-click on the underline words above. Incredibly educational and poignant. Carmen really needs her own nightly show. That way, instead of spending two to three hours every time I post trying to convince you to read the articles that she puts on her blog, I could just say, "watch Carmen tonight at 8pm." And you would.

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Why is Maroon 5's new single "Makes Me Wonder" growing on me? Adam Levine cannot sing, and the video isn't that cool. How many times can those guys stand around playing their instruments in random places while emaciated, underdressed, glassy-eyed models wander around them aimlessly? Plus, Adam, you are no George Michael. You're not even Robbie Williams.

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The best for last. From The New York Observer:

Goodbye, Girls. Now I can exhale.

...[Lorelai Gilmore] never apologized. Not for getting pregnant; not for running away; not for over-mothering Rory; and not for being pretty and smart and young. Ms. Sherman-Palladino made her a strong character who overflowed with love and enthusiasm. We responded to her in kind.

Mr. Rosenthal, however, has seemed to want to punish the Gilmore girls for having too much fun -- and too much independence – over the last six years. Not a single character has escaped this season without tragedy or curse. After the collapse of her relationship with Luke, Lorelai made the very unlike Lorelai decision to marry Rory’s dad, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), perhaps the least reliable person she's ever known. The notion that Lorelai would be swept away by a romantic gesture (Christopher proposed in Paris after a shaky and swift post-Luke reunion) is totally ludicrous – this woman never even had a one night stand up to now. (Well, except with Christopher.) Luke, who having gotten to know the teen daughter he's only recently become aware of, became embroiled in a nasty custody battle – this is a man who didn't want a lawyer to help him get divorced a few seasons back. Rory is graduating from Yale (finally!) but has been dragged down by her boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry) who lost all of his family-bestowed millions on an internet merger deal gone bad…. And now, at 23, he's proposing! Mr. Gilmore, Lorelai's dad, had a heart attack; Rory's best friend Lane had sex once – on her honeymoon –hated it, and got pregnant with – wait for it – twins!

And, Who Will Play Obama on SNL?, by Jason Horowitz. The story should be called, "Lorne Michaels doesn't care about black people." Because, really. I could have told you who the 2008 Presidential candidates were going to be in 2005. The most loved sketches in 2000 were the ones with Darrell Hammond and Will Ferrell playing Al Gore and George W. Bush, respectively. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama have been making national headlines every week since the beginning of 2007. And Lorne still hasn't hired someone to play Barack Obama? You might think I'm being hard on Lorne, but consider this: he certainly has enough white guys to play the Republican candidates, even though most Americans can't name any of them besides John McCain. (Kudos to you if you named Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, or Tom Tancredo. Bonus points for Law & Order's Fred Thompson.)

Gilmore Girls: I Shake My Fist at You!

Doesn't Zach have two kids to raise? Why is he going on some drunken tour without his family? Why is Lane raising their children by herself? Has Zach ever met Kwan and Steve? If Lane had to become "so mature" since she became a mother, shouldn't Zach, the twins supposed father, be mature at all? Could this show get any more regressive?

Lauren Graham, I'm glad you're a producer now, but that "I Will Always Love You" was a big honking anvil to my head. We get it. We're not stupid. Respect your audience.

Waah, waah, waah, Rory doesn't have her perfect job yet. Like I care. Join the Overeducated and Underemployed club, kid.

I'm hoping Logan gets on that slow boat to China. Or to San Francisco/Palo Alto. Wherever. I wouldn't mind him pulling a Chad Michael Murray or a Jared Padalecki, as long as Czuchry gets a less loathsome character.

Where was Michel?

R. Kelly's not in jail yet?

I watched my favorite episode of Boondocks, "The Trial of R. Kelly" over a year ago. I watched Dave Chappelle's "Piss on You" parody four years ago. I never watched the actual R. Kelly tapes because that's not how I roll. Besides, other people had watched them, and many Comicview performers had entire acts based on them. So I could cobble together what was going on. R. Kelly performed sexual acts with minors on tape, peed on them, then clearly identified himself for the camera. That was nasty enough for me to imagine.

Then today, I read I thought we learned our lesson with R. Kelly? by Samhita on Feministing. I thought the video was going to be one of those shown on BET Uncut.

No. It was a video of Akon violently assaulting a teenage girl.

Just like when Dick Cheney shot that old man in the face, the victim is apologizing for the "one mistake that [she] made."

So far, Akon, the perpetrator of the crime has made no comment.

And why is this predator not in jail?

The End of April

What an entertaining week.

First, my personal business. I am no longer watching The Daily Show. (Yet I am still watching Entourage. Go figure.) No, it was not the John McCain "IED under the desk" interview earlier this week. Nor was it the "look at Senator Harry Reid squeezing Speaker Nancy Pelosi's breasts" PhotoShopped clip that Jon thought was hilarious. It was the Baghdad wall segment on Wednesday, where the show used Aasif Mandvi to assert that if you leave large slab of cement exposed long enough, it will get tagged by Latino heritage graffiti. What a crock.

I am so done with Jon Stewart's hypocrisy, his lecturing others about their intolerance, injustice and discrimination, while he seems unable to hire or invite anyone as a guest on the show who isn't a white male. And if he does encounter someone female or nonwhite--but never both--he goes out of his way to announce how hot they are, or only talk to them about racial issues. Or in the case of Mr. Mandvi, get one brown guy to tell the jokes about the other brown guys. Like Alberto Gonzales.

In happier news, I have found Designing Women again. It's back on Nick at Nite, every other day maybe, at 5:00 am. The other days Murphy Brown is on at 5:00 am. Apparently Nick at Nite has made a pact with Bill Cosby, Will Smith and the rest of the Black Crusaders, along with Roseanne, to play their hit shows ad nauseum. Now I love Fresh Prince as much as the next American. Although I do prefer the episodes before they got rid of Janet Hubert-Whitten. But must it be on all night every night?

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Onto the articles I found this week.

For the love of Stars Hollow, will someone please cancel 'Gilmore Girls'? by Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune. Hear hear! There there! The last episode, "It's Just Like Riding a Bike," was so hetero. Must everything in every character's life revolve around hooking up with a member of the opposite sex? Yes, Seasons 2 and 3 were rooted in the Rory-Dean-Jess love triangle. But there was so much more going on.

Now I actually have to sit and watch Sookie accept that her husband deceitfully impregnated her, and forgive him for it just because he wants her to. Um, no, David Rosenthal. In the real world, if Sookie didn't want to have another baby, she would have explored all of her options. Lane would have, too. Even in Stars Hollow, sex has consequences. And not everyone is ready for a baby. Or two. Or three. If your husband lies to you about getting a vasectomy, and you know that at one point in time he wanted "four in four" i.e. four kids in four years, and you are now pregnant with his unplanned child, you have a right to be angry at him, for as long as you want. If Jackson can't deal with that, he can leave. It's not like he is giving birth to this baby.

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Paparazzi on Camera, by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on CollegeHumor, via Pajiba.


Even those Mr. G-L is not on camera, I still squee when I hear his voice. He's so cute! I hope he isn't a racist puppy-kicker. He probably smokes, though. Boo.

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U.S. gender pay gap emerges early, study finds, by Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters.

A dramatic pay gap emerges between women and men in America the year after they graduate from college and widens over the ensuing decade, according to research released on Monday.

One year out of college, women working full time earn 80 percent of what men earn, according to the study by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, based in Washington D.C.

Ten years later, women earn 69 percent as much as men earn, it said.

Even as the study accounted for such factors as the number of hours worked, occupations or parenthood, the gap persisted, researchers said.

"If a woman and a man make the same choices, will they receive the same pay?" the study asked. "The answer is no.

Well then.

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Oregon Governor Starts Week on Food Stamps, by Julia Silverman, ABC News, via Yahoo! News.

Accompanied by reporters and food stamp recipient Christina Sigman-Davenport, Kulongoski headed straight for a display of organic bananas, only to have Sigman-Davenport steer him toward the cheaper non-organic variety.

The governor pined wistfully for canned Progresso soups, but at $1.53 apiece, they would have blown the [$21 budget]. He settled instead for three packages of Cup O'Noodles for 33 cents apiece. Kulongoski also gave up his usual Adams natural, no-stir peanut butter for a generic store brand, but drew the line at saving money by buying peanut butter and jelly in the same jar.

"I don't much like the looks of that," said Kulongoski, 66, staring at the concoction.

I don't like the looks of that either. Ew. But I wouldn't pass up some food stamps. There are times I'd like some meat and potatoes. Vegetables, too.

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on the record, by pigeon, at Taking Steps, via one of the newest Sites I Like, Feministe.

...i didn’t expect the duke case to shake me so much. i feel like i hear about, talk about, read about, think about rape every day. i like to think i’ve built up some callous at this point, a tough, thick covering to take the edge off...

...now you hear the news, following “three boys innocent” with “she was never raped” and liar and whore. and no one seems to notice that the accused men’s innocence has nothing to do with whether or not she was raped, only that they didn’t do it. she called 911 for a reason, she went to the hospital afterwards, the examination supported her claims of sexual assault. we have no reason to think those results were wrong, no new information to contest it. perhaps she picked the wrong guys from the line-up, but that has little to do with what actually happened to her...

I could quote, quote, quote, but y'all should read the whole thing for yourselves.

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Recycling While Brown, by amardeep, Sepia Mutiny.

The Indian-American poet Kazim Ali teaches at Shippensburg University, which is a little west of Harrisburg, PA (and not too far from where I myself teach).

On his website, he recently described how his “suspicious” behavior led to his entire campus being shut down. The behavior in question? Recycling. He was doing nothing other than dropping off a stack of printouts of poems to be recycled when someone from the campus ROTC called the police...

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Lastly, in Hollywood news that's too vapid for the room, both from the LA Times, via Defamer:

Power plays -- for a food court table, by Nicole LaPorte.

Century City is under attack. In a "300"-like assault, two silk-shirted waves of flashy Hollywood agents have infiltrated the Westside's most famous — and famously nondescript — office-park neighborhood, hitherto best known for a mall (the Westfield) and a hotel (the Century Plaza).

The invaders consist of two rival armies. The Creative Artists Agency minions were the first to land, having moved into their gargantuan new headquarters at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in January. Then, on Feb. 20, International Creative Management staked its claim to the territory, moving into three floors of the MGM Tower...

...But that's small change compared with the tactical maneuvers required for eating lunch. Imagine, if you will, Armani-uniformed agents standing in line with soccer moms at the Westfield mall's food court or balancing plastic trays loaded up with beer-battered chicken or Fuddruckers fries. "With all the suits and sunglasses, it feels like "The Matrix: The Food Court," joked manager-producer J.C. Spink ("A History of Violence").

And with such brazenly public dining come perils. "You can't really talk business because you've got CAA right there. And they've got us," said an ICM agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity (silence is the agency policy when dealing with the press). "I've heard people at CAA having their conversations — you can hear everything."

And,

Revenge of the Hollywood desk slaves, by Nick Confalone.

FOR FOUR weeks in April of 2006, I was an Internet celebrity. In one industry, in one city, I was a star. The blogs went crazy. Defamer was all over me. National Public Radio wanted an interview — but I turned them down. My site got more than a million hits in 24 hours.

It all started one morning the previous December, the same week the Hollywood Reporter listed the 100 most powerful women in Hollywood — the trade's equivalent of a swimsuit issue...

...Over the phone that morning, I gossiped about the list of 100 Powerful Women, women I'd never seen before. I didn't need to see them. The list said that looks don't matter, only power.

But because we have little or no actual power, the opposite must be true for assistants. If an agent gets a new assistant, the first thing my boss always wants to know is, "Is she hot?" I looked around our office and saw not a single unattractive assistant, and that's when it hit me: Don't the assistants deserve a list too?

I pulled out my credit card, registered a domain name, and Hottest Hollywood Assistants.com was born.

Happy reading!

Ooh, one more video. Sen. Mike Gravel at SC Debates 04/26/07, via YouTube. He's telling like it t-i-s.



Put your hand down, Joe Biden. When Senator Gravel said "top tier," he did not mean you.

Reading is Fun...damental.

Nothing Meek In Her Voice, by namrata, at Sepia Mutiny. I would have titled the post, Another Book about Being Brown?

...I frequently bemoan the fact that minority writers feel the need to their minority’s themes while a white man has the freedom to write a Japanese story and gets the whole canvas to play on. I want the New Yorker to write a two-page review of a great American novel that’s deeply, equally relevant to the whole nation and have the desi name be almost an afterthought, as it is with so many of the other categories of accomplishment we celebrate here. I want my white or Asian or black or Hispanic friends to call me up and say, “You have to read this book,” where the book is by a desi author but that commonality between me and the author has nothing to do with their insistence. Why must we always be meekly constrained to the edges?

But who am I kidding? I want to write that book, and I want all my friends to rave to each other about it. But I can’t even write most of a blogpost in two whole weeks. [Rishi Reddi, author of Karma], on the other hand, is an environmental lawyer, is raising a daughter, and serves on the board of SAALT. Yet somehow she found the time to write story after story, one of which was even chosen by the illustrious Michael Chabon for a Best American Short Stories collection, and then get them published as a book...

It reminded me of that MadTV sketch (that I can't find on YouTube) with Debra Wilson and Aries Spears about how the romantic comedies starring black people are all the same. And it's true. I saw Brown Sugar, so I don't need to see Love and Basketball. I've seen Deliver Us from Eva many times--last time was on ABC Family, strangely enough--and I own the similarly themed Two Can Play that Game. I've seen The Best Man, so do I really need to finish watching The Wood? I also own Booty Call. No comparison there. I just wanted to announce that I have no shame.

Not only are the stories in these movies the same, but so are the characters and the actors who play them. Yes, Gabrielle Union is a talent. I didn't understand why she had to star in a DMX movie, but I'll overlook that. However, I don't understand why she, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Meagan Good, Vivica A. Fox, Sanaa Lathan and Duane Martin have to be in every one of these movies. It really doesn't help the theory that all black people look alike.

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As "all-American" as apple pie?, by Carmen Van Kerckhove, at her new site, Race in the Workplace.

Claire sounded like the perfect candidate for the position and I trusted my friend’s judgment, so I immediately passed her resume onto my boss, whom we’ll call Pat.

Then the following conversation happened.

Pat: So is Claire Jones also half Chinese?

Me: What? (Couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing.)

Pat: Is Claire also half Chinese, like you and Tommy?

Me: Um… not that I know of.

Pat: Oh she’s not half Chinese?

Me: Like I said, not that I know of.

Pat: Oh so she’s an all-American girl then?

There were so many things wrong with this exchange I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. Did Pat think we were all in on a secret plot to sneak in as many down-low Asians as possible with European last names? And could she have made it any more obvious that to her, “half Chinese” and “all-American” were mutually exclusive categories?

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This Blog is Not For Bigots [UPDATED], by anna at Sepia Mutiny. It's a response to this very recent Newsweek article, Braced for Backlash, which opened with the following paragraph:

The bodies had barely been removed when the racial epithets started pouring in. Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old identified as the killer of 32 on the Virginia Tech campus, may have lived in the state since his elementary school days, but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that mattered most. "Koreans are the most hotheaded and macho of East Asians," wrote one unnamed commentator on the Sepia Mutiny blog. "They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish."

I always enjoy when irresponsible mainstream media outlets pit one persecuted group against another by using one unrepresentative example, then act like they did nothing wrong.

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I hate Unions (but I’m trying to join one), from irwin's blog, From Studio Twelve A. Fight the power, bro. Yet another in a long line of arguments for universal health care in the U.S.

I know what I'm talking about!

Look at this: Blog Love, by Dan Carlson, on SlowlyGoingBald.com.

How cool am I? Very!

So far that's two unsolicited blog mentions, including one calling me "funny and smart." If I have any more, please someone let me know. I love being appreciated.

His Girl, Freaky, Night Lights, After Next.

Stories I liked today:

From WireTap Magazine, A Big Tent With No One in It, by Ally Klimkoski:

In November of 2004 there was one age group that voted for John Kerry. Only one. One group decided that George Bush was an unequivocal moron and should not return to the White House. Only one. What we've now learned is that it's not only the standard to believe the president is a complete moron, it's actually quite fashionable.

What is surprising is that this same age group is the one age group that is most often ignored by the Democratic Party, Democratic candidates and most political organizations.

That's right -- it's us. It's the 18- to 30-year-olds.

My favorite part of the article, under what the DNC can learn from the Calvin Klein IN2U campaign, targeted at the 18-30 demographic:

5. Listen -- don't lecture...I am holding out for the day I see a candidate begin a college lecture by walking up to the podium, grabbing the mic and saying "You know, I'm not going to sit here and lecture at you. You get that all day long. I'm curious in what you think and what you want out of me. And before I leave this lecture, I want to come out with some reasonable action items that I can work with you on."...

...7. Age doesn't equal issue. 23 isn't 18, and it's not 25, and it's not 28 and it's not 30. There is more diversion between the 18-30 age group than any other group because so many things change between those times. A new college freshman is nothing like a 21-year-old; being 21 is not the same as someone who has just graduated at 23; and someone who graduated at 23 is nothing like someone who's 25 or pushing 30. They each have different issues that concern them. Student loans will appeal more to the 23+ crowd, but kids who aren't paying them off yet aren't thinking about that yet.

8. Students are not the same as nonstudents. Targeting college students who are 18-25 is nowhere close to targeting working 18- to 25-year-olds. The issues are different; a few people target them differently. Similarly, the working college students who attend tech schools, community colleges or night four-year schools are also different than the regular 18- to 25-year-olds at regular four-year schools. Similarly, those who attended colleges are different than those who didn't yet fall in that demographic, and their issues aren't the same.

From WireTap Magazine, via Feministing, U.S., Denial and the Culture of Violence, by Samhita Mukhopadhyay.

What some are calling the worst shooting in United States history, the death of 32 Virginia Tech students was indeed deplorable. The media circus that followed was also deplorable. Shouldn't the families and victims be given some privacy to deal with the tragedy?

But also what is it about these isolated incidents that capture the national imagination? As other bloggers have noted, last weekend 65 Iraqis died and just yesterday another 183 in Baghdad alone. Why the hypocrisy? So far in 2007 there have been 27 deaths in Oakland County alone. Why have none of those deaths made headline news? Why does America only care about certain people's death? Do some people just deserve to die?

I also liked this article linked inside the previous one: "It's like when 9/11 happened", by Joe Eaton, on Salon.com...

Ko, a senior accounting major, said he and other South Korean students are afraid to stay on campus. Ko said many of their friends in a Korean Christian group were also planning to leave Blacksburg for Northern Virginia.

"It's like when 9/11 happened," Ko said. "Arab people are victims even though they didn't do anything wrong. It's just the same to me." Ko said Korean students have been e-mailing and calling each other since the release of Cho's name this morning. He said he wanted to attend today's convocation at 2 p.m., where President Bush was scheduled to speak, but friends warned him against it. "People said don't attend because it could be a bad situation," he said.

...as well as this student at Virginia Tech writing in his livejournal in real time about the event. It's a sensitive, human account of the tragedy, more so than the breaking stories from NBC and the other American "news" outlets, who have been plastering the killer's mugshot and gun porn photo on every show and website they own.

All of the above reminded me of this exchange featured in Bowling for Columbine:

Michael Moore: If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?

Marilyn Manson: I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they have to say and that's what no one did.

Here's the article from Reuters that gave me a sardonic giggle: Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries. Sucks to be those people who believed in limbo for hundreds years. I wonder what will happen when the next Popes declare that gays are A-OK, women can join the priesthood, and contraception might be a good idea?

Even though I enjoyed the rerun of The Office last night, I would have appreciated a new episode. I totally related to 30 Rock, though. I don't think Bill Cosby and Oprah are coming after me, but I can understand feeling like a supermodel in Cleveland. "Well played, Garkel."

Though I don't see how Jack Donaghy can talk himself out of this one: Alec Baldwin calls Dora the Explorer.

Hey there, buddy. I love Dora the Explorer! All she said was, "Hola." There was no need to call her a "rude, thoughtless little pig." I guess once Mr. Baldwin's book is published, I will understand "the incredible strains created by parental alienation."

BTW, Jack's assistant Jonathan is my new TV crush. Move over Psych guys.

I liked these, too!

From ColorLines, via Feministing, The Segregated Blogosphere, by Celina De León.

People of color make up 40 percent of bloggers, but only 26 percent of Internet users. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's "Blogger" report, which was based on findings from their February through April 2006 tracking surveys, 11 percent of bloggers are Black, 19 percent are English-speaking Hispanic and 10 percent are some other race or ethnicity.

There are no bloggers of color with the kind of exposure and influence of superstars Matt Stoller of mattstoller.com or Duncan Black of atrios.blogspot. The result, according to [blogger Chris Rabb], has been a typical white liberal/left dialogue in the political blogosphere.

"They won't talk about the racial element of anything that's been deracialized by mainstream media. They're not going to talk about affirmative action, about the racial element of the immigration issue," Rabb said. "Whenever issues of race come up, it's seen as a distraction."

From YouTube, via Feministing, Sexism in Reality TV:


From YouTube, after seeing it on TV last night, the MasterCard paypass Elephant commercial:


I need some elephant care, too. Someone should bring me soup and tuck me in. And was that Ernie Sabella from The Lion King and those beach club episodes of Saved by the Bell? Where has he been?

Insightful Observations

Stories I liked today, via Racialicious:

Let It Be Some 'Other' Asian, by Andrew Lam, New American Media.

All across America, no doubt, non-Korean Asian-Americans are now heaving a sigh of relief. “Asian,” after all, was the four-alarm-fire word we saw throughout the day after the shootings that took the lives of 33 people at Virginia Tech. The shooter was “Asian,” the news reports said. But who was this “Asian” exactly?

Before the news identified the killer as Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old English major from South Korea, all ethnic backgrounds were up for grabs. A Chinese friend from a small college town on the East Coast called to say: “Please, please let it be some other Asian. We’ll be in deep if it’s Chinese.”...

Covering Tragedy: Emerging lessons from the Virginia Tech Killings, by Kim Pearson, blogher.

3. Be careful about the "myths" that can become part of the narrative in a story like this one. Dave Cullen, a Dart Center Fellow, covered the 1999 Columbine shootings, and found that "nearly everything we know about it is wrong."...

...5.Try to stay independent of others' political, and personal agendas. Bernie at PopPolitics worries that the Jack Thompsons in this story will sway the debate away from the issue of guns in favor of scapegoating popular culture....

...7. Watch out for the rumor patrol. Joy Reid says the conspiracy theories are already circulating. Check out Snopes.com or other Urban Legends sites before passing along rumors. We've already seen how quickly speculation and rumor becomes news: remember those initial reports that the shooter was a Chinese graduate student? Don't be surprise if other "facts" from the early reporting in this story also turn out to be wrong.

8. Be thoughtful about stereotypes. When the initial reporting identified the suspect as an "Asian male," the Asian American Journalists Association felt compelled to remind journalists of the rule that race should only be included in a news story when it is clearly relevant...

I Hate Gilmore Girls

This is the worst season ever. I don't know of a show that has fallen so far so fast. I don't think Season 5 of The West Wing, after Sorkin left, was this bad.

These post-Palladino, Season 7 writers do not need the character to repeat every phrase two or three times. David Hasselhoff doesn't deserve to have his name dropped more than once an episode, much less in one scene.

Can Rory deal with an actual disappointment in her life? I mean, when she was actually working for stuff in high school, it was fulfilling when she earned something, like delivering a speech on C-SPAN, or getting into. Now when she gets this job in Providence that she doesn't even want, I feel like smacking her face. I'm sure real journalism majors share my sentiment. Holding out for a real newspaper? Please. As if The New York Times would really hire someone like Rory Gilmore.

I do not need anymore Logan on my screen ever. During Seasons 5 and 6, I was worried that I retroactively liked Jess because of how stupid Logan was. After the "you wrote a book" episode where Jess tangles with "the blond dick at Yale," I am now retroactively in love with Jess. Dean goes without saying. I'm not usually into adulterers, but I'll make an exception for the devoted Mr. Forester.

What is up with the, "Hi. How are you?" "Nice to see you again." and "This is a nice house." Is anyone at the show capable of constructing a meaningful line for a character? And how many times do I have to hear about the hay bale maze? Once! That's it. Everyone in town does not need to tell me about the things that I can see for myself happening on the screen. If I see the gazebo being lifted into the air by a crane at the end of one scene, then in the very next scene, Lorelai does not need to tell Rory that Taylor is "ripping out the gazebo with a crane." Hello, I was just there! I know that already!

I actually liked the April and Luke part. Hmm.

On to general CW issues. There's this new annoying segment called "C what's hip" with Mark McGrath. I think this was "hip" back in the mid-90s when it was called E! News Update with Steve Kmetko. And Mark McGrath, from Extra? The last time you were "hip" was when you were chanting "Fly" with Sugar Ray. If I want to "C what's happening," I'm not going to the lovechild of the WB and UPN--who brought us such gems as Pussycat Dolls: The Search for the Next Doll, and the final season of 7th Heaven--to find out what's going on in the world of celebrity.

Back to Gilmore Girls. Watching Season 7, and then watching Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD? The comparison makes me want to barf. Or maybe I ate too much for breakfast. My tummy is only so big inside.

I hope Jezebel James makes it to air.

End of kvetching.

Tracy Morgan, Uplifting the Race.

From YouTube, via Racialicious, listed under Tracy Morgan Wasted on Live TV.

Welcome to Our World

...Look, if you blog, and blog about controversial shit, you'll get idiotic emails. Most of the time, said "death threats" don't even exist -- evidenced by the fact that the crying bloggers and journalists always fail to produce said "death threats"...

...It's not as if those cowards will actually act on their threats...

...If they can't handle a little heat in their email inbox, then really, they should try another line of work...

- From Death threats and blogging, by Kos at Daily Kos, in response to Blog death threats spark debate, from BBC News.


I found this discussion via Feministing, in the post Kos: Getting harassed? Stop blogging., by Jessica, a valid reaction to uninformed statements quoted above. Read the linked articles--the BBC News one first--so you'll understand the context. Here's what Jessica had to say:

It's always nice to see our "progressive" brothers taking misogyny and violence against women seriously...

...So let me get this straight: blogging about the oh-so-controversial world of software development means you should expect to get death threats. After all, nothing brings out the crazies like tech-talk. And besides, she probably made it all up anyway...

...I mean come on, if you can't handle your address and social security number being published along with threats of rape, hanging, suffocation and death--you're a fucking lightweight...

As I was reading some of the linked response postings at Feministe and Shakesville, I was reminded of something I read last weekend in Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing up Black. It was in an essay by a woman named Chantal, who was a junior in college at the time:

I knew that my view of the world was changing when a statement by a speaker at a conference I attended revived all of the analytical skills that I learned in my best classes at college. The speaker, an African American male, said that the black feminist movement was destructive to the African American struggle for equality and self-improvement. He said that because the black feminist movement is based on the white feminist movement, it is centered in the Eurocentric idea of individualism. In his opinion, black feminists were against the family and were most interested in themselves. I thought to myself, "In many cases, without us, the black family could not have survived!" He continued with the "fact" that the issues facing black women were nothing compared to those faced by black men (incarceration, murder, drug usage, etc.). I tried to argue with him, but I had no knowledge of black feminism, so I floundered in my words.

Progressive Black women, and other progressive non-white women, and progressive non-hetero women, have been struggling with this concept for years, decades, if not centuries. I personally was struck with this last year when I discovered The Michael Baisden Show on V100, after 100.3 The Beat disappeared from the LA radio airwaves. Most of the people who call in to Michael's show now are pretty stable individuals. But last year, when the show was just getting on its feet, there were some nutters (possibly off their meds) who liked to hear themselves on the radio. My point is, at least two black men called in saying that black women were the cause of not only the high incarceration rate of black males, but also the reason for the crack problem in the United States.

Quoi?

Then, less personally, was the "Love Taps" episode of A Different World, directed by Kadeem Hardison, where Gina gets beat up by her boyfriend, Dion. And Freddie, on her radio show, reads a poem that goes something like, "Brother, you always tell me about the man keeping you down. But the man you just hit me with was your fist." Don't quote me on that.

I was also reminded of this article on AfterElton: Crossing the Gay Color Lines, by James Hillis.

Isaiah Washington, an African American actor, uses the word "faggot" during an altercation on the set of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Tim Hardaway, a black former NBA star, hears that another former NBA player is gay and responds: "I hate gay people. … I am homophobic. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

White gay men see these incidents as examples of a homophobic African American culture. Straight African Americans see a cynical media exploiting caricatures of the angry, ignorant black man. Neither appraisal reveals the more complex truths about why GLBT people and African Americans still eye each other suspiciously across the cultural divide.

Are the parallels that gays make between GLBT struggles and the civil-rights movement instructive or offensive? What is the deeper meaning behind the perceived homophobia in the African American community? And what about inclusiveness in the gay community? Do gays of all ethnicities live up to the ideal of the "rainbow" people?

It can be awfully hard identifying with multiple oppressed groups and not being fully understood by any of them.

Anyways. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga does not have the market cornered on being an insensitive, willfully ignorant "progressive." Just today I had to listen to Johnny Wendell on KTLK AM 1150, LA's progressive talk station, ranting about the greatness of this story, featured in this LA Times article: Santa Ana chamber pushing residents to learn English. I think English classes are a great idea, especially for those persons who butcher the language even though it's the only one they speak. However, Mr. Wendell's main argument was that people who come to the United States need to speak the language of the country (English), because he was here first. Unless Mr. Wendell is over 200 years old, I don't think he really was here first. And God forbid he learn another language in order to communicate with anyone else.

The LA Times article states, "More than half the city's employees speak Spanish, most Asian merchants have learned the language, and nearly every retail business has Spanish-speaking employees." The very next sentence is, "Business owners need employees who speak English, chamber officials said." If over half of the people working in Santa Ana are fluent in Spanish, then why don't the chamber officials encourage the rest of the residents, i.e. business owners, to learn Spanish?

Don't even get me started on Al Franken and Marc "Mr. K" Germain empathizing with Michael Richards as a fellow comedian. And Jon Stewart refusing to hire more than three correspondents at a time that aren't white males with short brown hair.

I'm getting off topic here, but what I'm trying to say is, for some self-appointed "progressive" leaders like Kos, special interests like women's rights, queer rights, and non-white people issues just don't register as things that relate to them, or even things they should be concerned about. And why should they worry about them? They are (usually) straight males. It's not like they'll ever interact with any women or gay people or non-white people, who might already have solutions to their true progressive issues.

No, forget about listening to women with demonstrable problems. Instead, these "progressive" leaders should continue to dismiss our concerns, if not ignore us completely. And if we do receive death threats because we've offended someone by simply being female, I guess we really "should try another line of work."

But if the death threats come true, and we women are all gone, I wonder who will be left to speak up for Kos.

This expresses my sentiment.

From Feministing, You will not shame me, by Samhita:

I have gotten email upon threatening email to rescind what I said last year about the Duke Women's Lacrosse Team and their uninformed support for the accused rapists in the Duke rape case. The case that was mishandled, manipulated and finally dropped on Wednesday...

...I just want to say first and foremost, I still stand by what I say and have said. It does look bad for people to support accused rapists, at that point we didn't know the facts either way. Furthermore, women of color are in fact OFTEN sexually assaulted and usually the criminal justice system and/or the media either overlook it or mishandle it. Women of color often have a higher burden of proof that they are not lying about rape. Case in point (as Amanda and others stated ): when the lack of DNA evidence was announced -- before we even knew whether the players were innocent or not -- people were quite quick to accuse the accuser of being guilty of lying...

...And what is the outcome of all of this? The general public now believes that black strippers ARE in fact lying whores and the worst thing that could happen to a strapping Duke lacrosse player is that his lily white reputation is marred by false accusations. Beyond this being a terrible precedent set for women that bring up rape accusations (still something underreported) to never ever report rape again, the racist and sexist reaction from the media and public have been to say the least profound...

I also liked this comment that followed by The Law Fairy, emphases and expletives hers:

...These guys were accused, potentially falsely. They got a lot of publicity for it, and now they're sobbing about their poor tattered reputations.

Um.

These guys all but BEGGED for the publicity they got. They did media interviews OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL. They whined and screamed the whole time that the simple existence of charges against them was itself discriminatory. And because they are rich and white, the [MainStream Media] ate it the fuck UP. Make no mistake: these assholes WANTED the publicity. They MADE the publicity happen. Their LAWYERS made the publicity happen. This was a calculated media attack meant to intimidate the DA into fucking up, and guess what -- he did. Now, instead of taking their victory and going home, they want to re-write history and pretend that the MSM was against them this whole time.

I don't think I've EVER read an MSM story where a stripper was believed over a rich white guy she claims raped her. I read a few blogs supporting the woman in this case. Please, if someone could point me to an MSM article that ACTIVELY SUPPORTED THE NOTION THAT THESE PRICKS WERE GUILTY, I would really appreciate it. I'm not talking balanced articles. I'm not talking articles reporting the facts. I'm talking articles that came out and said "these scumbags did it. Listen to the stripper." I mean, crazy I haven't seen one, I know, Time and Newsweek print stories like that all the time, right?...

Someday I'll write about happy things again, like this week's episodes of The Office and 30 Rock. I need to get my own Floyd, because this VapoRub isn't going get under my nose by itself.