When Bill Gates Became Rich he Eradicated poverty in Appalachia & Other Political Lies

In a recent interview, Oprah was asked if Obama faces racism. She said that she believes “there is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he is African American.” She cited when Republican congressman Joe Wilson shouted, “You’re a liar” at Obama during a speech in 2009 as an example.

“Then how the hell did you become who you were?” Limbaugh said in response on Friday. “Why hasn’t anyone in your audience ever said ‘You lie!’? Because you have.”

He said that people are “ignorant” if they believe critics who say the president is lying are racist. “My God, Oprah, Obama was lying,” Limbaugh said.

He continued, “But Oprah, if black people in this country are so mistreated and so disrespected, how in the name of Sam Hill did you happen?… If there is a level of disrespect simply because he’s black then how, Oprah, have you managed to become the at-one-time most popular and certainly wealthiest television personality?”

Other Lies

Because you don’t agree with me the entirety of my view is rendered Invalid !

Seriously I see this everywhere. I think there is an underlying arrogance that people who act this way have. They must think that they alone see the world as it is and there can be no fault in their perception of reality. Luckily if you have a Facebook account you’ve seen this. What I find odd is  the refusal to think that there might be something outside ones range of thought/experience. What this clearly means to me was that all the A’s we got in grade school for ‘works well with others’ was a lie. We’ve been living a sham, because listening was one of the key skills we were supposed to learn.

If One Person from an ethnic group makes it all the ills plaguing that group no longer exist.

Clearly since some Native Americans have made some  $$$ with their casinos there isn’t mass poverty among native population and or blatant discrimination against them in American Society. All the Native Americans who dare speak up about the poverty, the mass rape of their women, etc are all liars who are looking to cheat the system because they do not want to make an effort.

I’m sure you’ve seen some other lies ? Care to share them below in the comment section.

Related articles

• Rush Limbaugh Attacks Oprah Over Obama, Race Comments (AUDIO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Rush Limbaugh to Oprah: If blacks are ‘so mistreated’ how did you ‘happen’? (thegrio.com)

 

Veterans Day 2013 Reflections: Can we Honor our troops sincerely without questioning ?

Americans and war go together like, well, Americans and war really. There is no greater pairing! We love war so much that when we want to eradicate a social ill or nuisance,we declare war on it: War on Cancer, War on Poverty, War on Immigration, War on Christmas etc. I was inspired being an American to contribute to the effort and declare war on on Intimacy about a year and change ago.

Today I am in a conundrum: I want to support the troops but to which war? I have many too chose from: The Spanish American, The Mexican American, The Apache War, The Civil War  The Phillipine -American War, The Occupation of Haiti, The Occupation of Nicaragua, the Occupation of the Dominican Republic ? There are so many how can an honest American even choose?

I could of course  support some wars and not support others but that smacks of hypocrisy and a lack of nationalistic pride, written in our social contract is our unquestioning loyalty to the policies , ideologies and i would imagine atrocities committed in the same of keep us free?

The Troops

I met many servicemen over the past and they are always great people, because they survive with the suffering from war. Many of them manage to work raise families, and be contributing members of societies. It is estimated in the United States one out of every four homeless persons is a Veterans.  We laud our veterans in our ceremonies and do not help them of course get jobs, we do not help them integrate back into society.

Let me quote from a veteran suicide note (the note can be read in its entirety here):

You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.

To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. 

Should I tell you what happened to Daniel ? 

He had made several attempts to get medical treatment for an array of health problems. Because his National Guard unit was still in ready reserve status, the Veterans Affairs Department medical center in Phoenix refused him treatment because he was not yet officially a veteran. The local Defense Department health care facility denied him services because he was not on active duty. He described his post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury symptoms in these words: “unrelenting depression and a generally joyless existence,” terrifying nightly panic attacks, and “unbearable anxiety and fear in any situation in which I don’t have complete control of the surroundings.” In addition, he wrote, he had a “constant bombardment of violent thoughts and images.” His physical symptoms included acute and chronic pain from fibromyalgia, which was so “grinding” that at times he could barely move; chronic fatigue so severe that “just holding my head upright requires more effort that I can bear”; excruciating headaches that could “easily be enough to strike an entire day from my calendar”; and an extreme case of irritable bowel syndrome that “literally controlled my schedule.”

So What are we Celebrating Really?

Can we honor the sacrifices made by the troops who have been cast aside and ignored by the system after given their best for what seems to be out-right inhuman belligerance  without calling into question the military industrial complex and the lives it has forever shattered?

Debunking Popular Myths: Why Children Aren’t Our ‘Future’? – Mass Media & Segmentation Theory

I believe that children are our future; by that I mean the future inheritors of the Dystopian society we helped create and usher into being. Frankly we use children as excuses, as sacrificial pawns in a dangerous chess game when it is convenient. To advance my point, let me ask you two questions:

1. Who’s children are the Future?
2. If children were really the future, wouldn’t global warming, ocean acidification, affordable healthcare, women’s rights, voting rights be taken seriously?

Who’s Children ?

This is how the phrase “children are our future” has been defined:

…. […] …. what is instilled in the youth today; thoughts, beliefs, and teachings, will greatly affect the way the world turns out. After our generation is gone, the children of our generation will be our successors. Our presidents, company CEO’s, doctors. They will run the world. We need to teach them everything we know that will benefit them in the years to come.

Before I even get into it I must ask, “who’s children?”. Social mobility has become a myth on tends to same in the same socio economic class today that one is born into. I do not see  the children of Native Americans, Muslims, Latino’s, African Americans  being successor, not in this country at least. I mean if this wasn’t the case than the election of Barack Obama wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.

But, let us look at this a little closer. Let us take a look a theory called Segmentation Theory to get a better handle on  what are children are being instilled with.

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A Debunking Popular Myths Special : Would You Say this to a Native American

The word reservation is a charged word for me.

res·er·va·tion  (rzr-vshn)  n.

1. The act of reserving; a keeping back or withholding.
2. Something that is kept back or withheld.
3. A limiting qualification, condition, or exception: has reservations about the proposal.
4. A tract of land set apart by the federal government for a special purpose, especially one for the use of a Native American people.

When I think of the history of the Native Americans or the First Peoples a lot comes to mind. There is definitely  this idea of keeping back and withholding.  There is also a sense of limiting condition as well. You may not know this but and I quote:

About 40% of our country’s 4.9 million Native Americans live on reservations (2008, Office of Minority Health). Living conditions on the reservations have been cited as “comparable to Third World.” (May 5, 2004, Gallup Independent).

To add insult to injury, as reported 1 out 3 Native Women will be raped in her life of course there is the systematic failures of the judicial system both in and out the reservation. This was taken from the NY Times:

Rape on the Reservation

By LOUISE ERDRICH
Published: February 26, 2013

The Justice Department reports that one in three Native women is raped over her lifetime, while other sources report that many Native women are too demoralized to report rape.  Perhaps this is because federal prosecutors decline to prosecute 67 percent of sexual abuse cases, according to the Government Accountability Office. Further tearing at the social fabric of communities, a Native woman battered by her non-Native husband has no recourse for justice in tribal courts, even if both live on reservation ground. More than 80 percent of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-Indian men, who are immune from prosecution by tribal courts.

Our Native people are in very very bad shape. Some psychologists and historians have said that: “the abuse of Indian women and children can be traced to the introduction of  unnatural life ways into Native culture. Scholars support this idea and suggest that violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women directly relates to historical victimization. According to proponents of this idea, domination and oppression of native peoples increased both economic deprivation and dependency through retracting tribal rights and sovereignty. Consequently, American Indian and Alaska Natives today are believed to suffer from internalized oppression and the normalization of violence.”

Now Then Would You Tell A Native American

1. Would you tell a Native American boy or young girl that doesn’t trust you or interact with you to kindly remove the chip off your shoulder so  that in becoming the change they want to see in the world they will inspire others ?
2. Would you tell a Native American of any age to rise above the hatred, and anti-Native Sentiment?
3. Would you tell a Native America, provided you can find some where you are, that love is the Answer, or that if you can dream it you can do it ?

These phrases to me are worthless, they are of less value than use toilet paper. Think about none of these popular statements put any emphasis on pointing out that there was a Genocide committed against our Native Peoples or the fact that there are still policies in place that allow inhuman treatment and abuse to continue to this day ? One thing I have noticed too that is the most absurd thing I have ever heard, is that it is the responsibility of the victim to inspire those around into action. Imagine for a minute you or someone you love got raped or beaten to death, and you had to then go to the court and convince everyone to do something about the violence out on the streets.  I think it’s bad enough one has to find ways to cope with living with what one goes through, but one has to now find ways to inspire their uneducated neighbors to speak for those who have no voice?

Luckily for our Native neighbors we name out football, assault helicopters and missiles teams after them. Hollywood stars name their kids Dakota which means ‘friend’ I believe in Sioux

That it that’s the post. This was written to share my opinion on how platitudes and soft language is used as a tool too keep certain constituents of our nation down. Check out the resources below. I am preparing a series of posts on our first peoples if you want to be a part of that please contact me or leave a comment below.

Resources

Native American Postc-olonial Psychology by Eduardo adn Bonnie Duran

Paula Gunn Allen. (1985) “Violence and the American Indian Woman: Working to Prevent Sexual and Domestic
Violence, Vol5, No.4 (April).

Seattle: Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.
26 Burbar, R., & Thurman, P.J. (2004) Violence against Native women. Social Justice, 31(4), 70-86.

Related articles

• A Debunking Popular Myths Special : Would You Say this to a Native American (aspoonfulofsuga.wordpress.com)
• Something to Make You Smile|| Columbus Day and Our Native Peoples (aspoonfulofsuga.wordpress.com)
• No country for native Americans (worldbulletin.net)
• Should We Focus On Bigger Issues Facing Native Americans Than The ‘Redskins’ Name? (thinkprogress.org)
• Native American Indian Pow-Wow & Fall Festival (mashedpotatoesblog.com)

 

More Great Satire from Stephen Colbert: The Word – Color-bind

Colbert Report 07/23/13 The Word – Color-bind

I think I would make a good Senator what about you ?

But before I sellmy soul to dive into politics I wants to bring up an interesting article on Color-blindness called: The Case Against Racial Colorblindness:

Research by Harvard Business School‘s Michael I. Norton and colleagues shows that attempting to overcome prejudice by ignoring race is an ineffective strategy that—in many cases—only serves to perpetuate bias. Key concepts include:

• Racial colorblindness is a social convention that many Americans start to internalize by as young as age 10.
• The logic of racial colorblindness policies is that if we don’t even notice race, then we can’t act in a racist manner. However, experimental research indicates that the people who actively avoid the subject of race are actually perceived as the most racially biased.
• Organizations might ease racial tensions among a diverse workforce by stressing multiculturalism over racial colorblindness.

It is a great article check it out

MrMary

 

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• The Colbert Report: Color-Bind (crooksandliars.com)
• Colbert Agrees With Bill O’Reilly: ‘Black People Are Scary’ (mediaite.com)
• How Colorblindness is going to Acquit George Zimmerman (ryanwilliamsvirden.com)
• My Take: Colorblind?!!! I’ll believe it when I see it. Plus my take on this second juror that should have stuck with “guilty.” (smcclintonjr.wordpress.com)
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