Well I was hoping to post a bit sooner than this, but family obligations prevented me from being as prompt as I would want. I have a big family and most of the holidays were spent traveling around the state of Texas in happy celebration.
As I was checking my page stats, I noticed that someone found this blog by typing the inquiry "How to be a Skeptic". You know, that is an excellent question, so I think I will spend a few days talking about skepticism. Why be skeptical? What does it take? How much do you need to know?
Believe it or not, being a skeptic is a fairly easy thing to do. What is really hard is being a skeptic without being a cynic. I am not sure I have met that goal myself, but a lack in me has never prevented me from telling everyone else how to behave.
Today I am doing a repost of an article titled "How Does Uir Geller Do It". This is as complete an explanation of the methods Uri Geller uses to do such amazing things as bend spoons and keys, and manipulate watches. If you don't know who Uri Geller is, you can find out more on his webpage.
I hope you had a most Merry Christmas. And remember to enjoy your New Years in a safe and sober manner. I don't have enough readers to risk any one of you.
A Description of Metal Bending and Watch Manipulation.
First Posted on Saturday 05/25/02
So you wanna be a Uri Geller. You want to amaze your friends, wow your family and make lots and lots of money. You have the smile. You have the charisma. You have the hair. Now all you need is the super psychic powers that Uri possess. What? You don't have super psychic powers? Don't panic. Neither does Uri. Below is as complete a description of the methods Uri Geller's metal bending and watch manipulation as I can make it. This comes from years of watching the man perform, both live and on TV. Just a few hours practice and you too can prey on your fellow man.
Metal Bending Basics:
Let's start with a simple bend of a key. First off keys are not nearly as hard to bend as people think. Yes they are a short, fairly heavy piece of metal but to the metal bender's advantage they also have deep notches cut in them. You can produce a small bend in a key by simply pressing it against any hard surface. Avoid wood, since the end of the key will gouge it. A flat piece of metal (G) is best. Take the head of the key between your thumb and forefinger. Find a hard surface, I have found the chair your sitting in will present many good surfaces. Put the end of the key against the surface and press. Voile bent key.
Bending a spoon is just as easy. Just take the spoon in both hands and bend it when no one is looking. Keep the bend hidden in your hand till ready to "bend" the spoon with your paranormal powers. Bring the spoon up and hold it so that the bowl looks straight. The point of the bowl should be facing the audience. The bent part of the spoons should rest between your fingers and the shaft should lay along your wrist. Start rubbing the spoon while slowly moving your fingers away from the bend. Allow the shaft to swing away from your wrist till the spoon is facing sideways to the audience. If done right it will look as if a straight spoon just flopped over your fingers.
Metal Bending Advance:
If you have practiced the key bend above you will note that the bend produced is not very pronounced. I found that if you use another key as a lever, you can produce quite dramatic bends. Take a look at your car's ignition key. Most ignition keys have a very large slot cut in the head to attach to your key ring. First you want to ask your audience for all the keys they can spare. Have them place the keys in a pile in the middle of the table. I like to have a key with me, just in case no one throws down an ignition key. I palm the ignition key and while supposedly looking for a key to bend I will simply drop the ignition keys in the pile. At some point I will pick up the ignition key and a regular key. Take the end of the regular key and shove it through the slot on the ignition key. All you have to do now is press down on the head of the regular key and the slot in the ignition key will act as a level and bend the regular key. A bit of practice will help you to hide the moves. I like to take the bent key and place it in an audience members hand. Tell them not to cup their fingers around the key but to hold the fingers flat. That way they can't feel the bend. Hold your hands over their hand and pretend to strain. Throw in a couple of grunts and groans, really make it look as if you are working hard. Then ask the person to open their hand to show them just how strong your mind is.
I like to call this method "The Melting Spoon". First get a large table spoon. Make sure that the shaft is not too thick but that he spoon is fairly strong. Now take the bowl and shaft and start bending the spoon back and forth. Keep it up till you feel the shaft "crack". Believe me you will feel it. Now look at the shaft of the spoon. You will see what is called a "stress fracture" in the shaft. VERY CAREFULLY move the shaft till the spoon looks unbent again. The spoon is now "gaffed" or fixed. Place it in a hidden place till show time. Just like in the key bend above ask people to bring their spoons up to the table and introduce the spoon to the pile. Make a big show in finding just the right spoon to be bent. Pick up the gaffed spoon and hide the fracture in your fingers. Now get a person from the audience to hold the spoon at the end of the bowl and the end of the shaft. With your fingers on the fracture shake the spoon. If the spoon is held firmly enough (and if not just ask the volunteer to hold the spoon tighter) you will feel the fracture give way. Once it gets fairly loose ask the person to release the spoon. Still holding the spoon by the fracture start to shake it again. The bowl will fall right off the shaft and onto the table with a most satisfying clang!
The After-Bending Effect:
What seems to impress most people is the fact that the metal seems to continue to bend, even after Uri has stopped playing with it. Since I have already told you the basic key bend all I will do is point out that it is no harder to bend the key more with no one noticing than it was to bend it the first time. What I liked to do is re-bend the key then drop the key onto the table. I will ignore it, but usually someone in the audience will notice the bend and be even more impressed. After all, how could I have bent the key when I never even touched it? (sound familiar?) Even better is to take a key that is already bent. Hold the head in your fingers and bring the end of the key up till it is about eye level. Start stroking it at the same time raise the end of the key. The optical illusion is that the key is bending up even more. It is quite startling if you don't know what you are looking for.
After-bending the spoon is the same as for the key. Just bend it more, drop it to the table and let someone else notice it. When that happens your career as a super psychic is assured.
Bonus Section - Watch Manipulation:
My favorite of all the Uri's stunts was the "advancing the watch" trick. I have not seen him do it in a long long time but back when it was part of his regular show, it never failed to impress. I am going to outline this little goody just as if I were writing instructions for a regular magic trick.
EFFECT: A freely picked member of the audience is asked for their wrist watch. They hold it in their own hand and after a mighty mental effort they turn over the watch and find that the time has advanced!
HOW TO: Ask if someone in the audience has a regular wrist watch, not a digital. Ask them if you can borrow the watch and invite them onto the stage. Ask them if you can see the watch a moment, check the time, show it to them and ask that they also verify the time. As you are moving the watch around use your fingernail to pull the winding stem out. Turn the watch over holding the stem against your finger. You will notice that the stem does not move while the rest of the watch does, effectively moving the hands of the watch. Push the stem back then hold the watch by the band. Ask that they hold their hand open palm up. Place the watch in the palm while calling attention that you are holding the watch by the band only. Have them cover the watch with their other hand. Place your hands above and below theirs and tell them that at the count of three yell "MOVE". Do this twice, both time expressing some doubt as to whether it will work or not. After the second time have them open their hand. Pick up the watch, again by the straps, and glance at the face. IMMEDIATELY put the watch back and have them close their hand again and mutter "Nope not yet". They will take this to mean that the watch has done nothing. Place your hands back and have them yell "Move" again. This time express surprise. Tell them that you think something might have happened and then ask if they "felt" anything. Have them open their palm and turn over the watch. Enjoy the surprised expression on their face when they realize that the time has moved forward.
After Thoughts:
Most of the ways I have described various mental bends is the methods that I have observed Uri use. The only exception to this is the key bend using a car ignition key.
Does this mean that Geller cheats every time he claims he is using psychic powers? In truth I have no idea. I suppose that it is possible that Geller is psychic and I have just never seen him perform a psychic feat. There is little doubt however that Geller does do magic tricks. So I put it to you. If Geller has been caught doing a magic trick when claiming he was performing a psychic feat, can we ever take any claim of power from him seriously?
Well I was going to take a closer look at some of the more *ahem* racist members of the George Bush White House, but then something happened yesterday that made me change my mind. I don't really want to write on this subject, it breaks my heart. But I also think that it is an important subject. In any case...
I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Eschaton, when I ran across this article. It was not so much the content of the post that struck me but the comments that followed.
Let me preface this by saying that I have been aware of the bigotry of my fellow southerners for a long time. I can barely remember (but will never forget) the day my mother was crying her eyes out. Seems like some man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. I remember her saying "What will we do now". I had to get a bit older to really understand how the death of King effected my mom. At the time she lived in Memphis Tenn. Since she came from Hawaii she was shocked the first time she saw signs that proclaimed a restaurant or water fountain or bathroom as "For Whites Only". In King she saw hope that such practices would end, and his death was a very personal tragedy for her.
My mother raised me to know that people are people. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are lazy. Some are hard working. But none of it is dependant on the color of someone's skin and it is stupid to think different. I thank goodness for my mother. I completely credit her with the way I view race relations.
As most southern liberals, I have fought hard to make my region a better place for all people, not just white Christian heterosexuals. Like most southern liberals (at least of my age) I have been told I am a "nigger lover" (of course I am and damn proud of it). I have been told that I am a traitor to my race. To my "people" (my people are the human race). I have had my life and property threatened. I have been punched in the nose for my views on bigots. In spite of all this I would not change a note. Prejudice and bigotry in all it's forms is unacceptable.
So imagine my sadness at finding comments on Atrios board implying that every person born in the south is a racist. Why, we must be since scumbags like Trent Lott keep getting elected. Right?
Please someone explain to me just what the difference is between saying every black person is a lazy slob and every white southerner is a racist? Personally I can't find one so I would appreciate the help.
Three statements that really leaped out at me follows. The first is a reply to a comment to Chris from Tbogg:
*Good freaking grief. It's nice to see the aphorism the only group left to make fun of are Southerners
Well, they do make it pretty freakin' easy.
*It's nice that the left has finally ginned up an enemy, but picking on Southerners as white supremacist red neck assholes is a sure fire way to egender a tremendous backlash.
Does that mean they won't share their NASCAR with us? Outside of that, what else have they got to offer? That bastard Republican Lincoln should have let them secede.
The reason they stick out is because I greatly admire all three of these people. When I read these comments it was if I had been slapped in the face, as if all that hard work I have done throughout my life to make the south a better place for all people, was for nothing. I am branded a racist for the crime of having been born a southern white male. Oh sure, they were probably just clowning around, but I find such jokes to be no more funny than I found Jim Daly's joke.
Don't get me wrong, the whole thread was not like this, but enough of it was to greatly upset me. Nor do I blame Atrios, he did not take part and I have seen no comment from him to lead me to believe he feels the same way that others in these comments do. Nor have I really lost my admiration for the three people above. I still think they are smarter than hell (much smarter than I) but I can't help but feel they have a monstrous blind spot when it comes to race relations in the South.
The whole subject is much more complicated than "every person in the south is racist". An example if this is my late grandfather. There is no doubt that the man was racist. Lord knows we fought over race relations enough for me to know this. I also know that the blacks in the city he lived in (Marlin Texas) had a great deal of respect for him. He was always giving food to people that could not afford better (he was a butcher) and I can't count the amount of money he expended paying for a child's hospital bill, or going to a home where someone was sick to "help out". Let him see a black child walking down the street, and soon candy would be in their hands, or a small toy. This in no way, shape or form excuses his bigotry. It was a feature of his personality that I absolutely loathed. He hated the race, but not the individual members of that race. And again, this in no way, shape or form excuses his bigotry.
Nor is the south alone in poor race relation. Segregation happened all over this country, not just in the south. Charlestown High in Boston, Massachusetts went through integration no more gracefully than any school in the South.
". . . [Assistant principal] Bob Jarvis [knocked] at the door to report that police had isolated the whites on the staircase, freeing the fire stairs on either side. Buses were drawn up in the adjacent alley, ready to receive the minority students. Detectives would lead them to safety. . . . Just then, the whites got wind of what was happening. 'They're getting away!' they shouted. 'They're going out the side!' Around the corner raced a dozen white boys, heaving stones at the buses as they rumbled down the alleys."
So here we are.
The fact is that there is no area of the United States that should be proud of the way blacks have been treated throughout the years. The south was much more out in the open with their bigotry than the north, but it did not mean that the north was free of the taint of racism!
(Sigh) This has not been fun. I would rather spend my time discussing the current problems the Republican party and the institutional racism that the "Party of Lincoln" should be deeply ashamed of. I think it is important, as I said at the beginning racism is not dead, it has just been driven underground.
But to have liberals, liberals, making statements that are every bit as bigoted as what Trent Lott said leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. We all need to get past this North/South bullshit and start attacking those that have a history of bigotry.
Don't blame the region, blame the people. That is where the true fault lies!
With all the controversy swirling around Trent Lott, I was quite surprise to get this in my email.
Written by Jim Daly the Chairman of the Technology Committee of the Seminole County Republicans in that great state of Florida. You can find a picture and contact information here. First column, four rows down.
It comes from the yahoo group screcfl · Seminole Republicans. Header available on request or to prove this is not a joke!
One beautiful December evening Huan Cho and his girlfriend Jung Lee were sitting by the side of the ocean. It was a romantic full moon, when Huan Cho said "Hey baby, let's play Weeweechu."
"Oh no, not now, lets look at the moon" said Jung Lee. "Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I play Weeweechu. I love you and its the perfect time," Huan Cho Begged.
"But I rather just hold your hand and watch the moon." "Please Jung Lee, just once play Weeweechu with me." Jung Lee looked at Huan Chi and said, "OK, we'll play Weeweechu." Huan Cho grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....
Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas Weeweechu a Merry Chrustmas and a Happy New Year.
Unbelievable no? Then they get insulted when we draw the conclusion that Republican are racist.
Well this is a good reason why the feeling exist!
And no, I don't think it is very funny. As most regular readers know my mother is from Hawaii, I am a proud member of the Houston Hawaiian Aikane Club. I have a lot of friends (and some relatives) that are oriental.
How the "Party of Lincoln" became the Party of Jim Crow
At one time the Republican Party was the party of African Americans. Whereas it is true that black voting for Republican lessened after Roosevelt's New Deal, the party still enjoyed a lot of popularity. For example Eisenhower received over 60 percent of the black vote when he ran for President in 1956
So what happened? How did the Republican party become the Pariah Party to Black America?
Well it all starts with Barry Goldwater in 1964. Goldwater knew that a large percentage of black voters would be voting for Lyndon Johnston, who, in spite of being a scumbag in almost every other way, did work very hard to advance the civil rights of black in this country. Lyndon was working very hard on the landmark Civil Rights Bill of 1964, which did not please segregationist in the Democratic party. Barry, realizing he had a vast number of potential voters decided to come out against the Civil Rights Bill and for "state rights" (see Atrios' article on code words). So successfully did this plan work that Barry carried five Deep South states. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, a feat unheard of for a Republican at the time.
Strom Thurmond, who as we all know broke with the Democratic party in 1948 to run for president on the anti-integration Dixiecrat ticket, saw the writing on the wall. Declaring that "The Democrat Party has forsaken the people. It has become the party of minority groups, power-hungry union leaders, political bosses, and big businessmen looking for government contracts and favors." he switched from Democrat to Republican.
Fast forward four years. Richard Nixon (who we thought we would no longer have to kick around anymore) was running for president. He taps a political operative by the name of Kevin Phillips. Phillips, declaring that ""Substantial Negro support is not necessary to national Republican victory, The GOP can build a winning coalition without Negro Votes." develops what becomes Nixon's infamous "Southern Strategy" or as the Nixon White House like to call it "positive polarization" This strategy was aimed at getting support from the traditionally Democratic South by promising not to promote sweeping social or economic changes in race relations. Nixon argued that he supported equality however, he was against big government. Meaning, he was not in favor of enforcing the civil rights or integration laws using the federal government. This time it worked, Nixon was elected president. The time for payback had come so he fought against school integration by forced busing and affirmative action. Once Nixon was elected he eliminated the timeline requirements for compliance with affirmative action and integration laws from the Civil Rights Bill Lyndon had worked so hard on. Nixon, being the type that did not like to get his hands dirty, assigned the task of promoting positive polarization to his vice president Spiro Agnew. This promotion caused great tension against blacks amongst whites (Spiro would send representatives into white communities disguised as minority advocates to inform them of government programs created to help minorities at the tax payer's expense). So happy was Nixon with the success of the Southern Strategy he and Spiro decided to ham it up at the Gridiron Club's annual spring dinner. According to the book "Nixon's Piano: Presidents And Racial Politics From Washington To Clinton" (Kenneth O'Reilly. The Free Press. 525 pp)
The curtain pulled back to reveal the president and Vice President Spiro Agnew seated at two modest black pianos (Dwight Chapin at the White House had requested grand pianos or at least baby grands but the Statler Hilton could only manage uprights). This was the first time a chief executive had appeared on the Gridiron stage, and Nixon opened by asking:"What about this 'southern strategy [of reaching white voters at blacks' expense]' we hear so often?" "Yes suh, Mr. President," Agnew replied, "Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy." The dialect, as Roger Wilkins observed, got the biggest boffo.
After more banter with the "darky" Agnew, Nixon opened the piano duet with Franklin Roosevelt's favorite song ("Home on the Range"), then Harry Truman's ("Missouri Waltz"), then Lyndon Johnson's ("The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"). Agnew drowned him out a few bars into each with a manic "Dixie" on his piano, and the Gridiron crew got louder and louder. "The crowd ate it up," Wilkins observed. "They roared." Nixon ended with his own favorite songs, "God Bless America" and "Auld Lang Syne," and here Agnew played it straight. The Gridiron dinner faded with five hundred men suddenly solemn and on their feet, many with tears in their eyes, all singing along, all celebrating their nation.
Ronald Reagan learned this lesson well. To kickoff his presidential campaign he declared he "believed in states rights," in, of all places, Philadelphia, Mississippi the site of the deaths of civil rights martyrs of Michael Schwerner, James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. He invented the myth of a Cadillac-driving Welfare Queen and the image of the welfare mother having child after child merely to receive more government money. He refused to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus, attempted to reduce the power of the Civil Rights Commission over employment discrimination cases, and opposed the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Reagan Attorney General, Ed Meese complained that the bill discriminated against the South. (???)
George H. W. Bush continued the tradition by making escaped black convict Willie Horton the poster boy for black crime and violence and turned the presidential campaign against his Democrat opponent, Michael Dukakis into a rout. He branded a bill by Ted Kennedy to make it easier to bring employment discrimination suits a "quotas bill" and vetoed it.
Some might argue that none of this proves racism in the Republican party, but just a good campaigning...I will leave it to the reader to decide which is worse.
Tomorrow we will take a closer look at some of the luminaries of the current Bush administration.
Wow a whole week has past without an update to the blog. All I can say is sorry sorry, but I have been amazingly sick (along with the rest of my family). Which really sucked because of all the interesting things coming out about Republican racism. I realize the below is a day late and a dollar short, so I decided to take the whole week to look at Republican Racism. How did it start? How does it manifest itself. Who are the players. I mean a real in depth look.
I was born in Memphis Tennessee. I moved to Texas when I was six. I am a southern man born and bred. But I am not proud of the south and the way we treat minorities even today (any idiot out there that wants to deny racism, come visit me. I will show you sights that will make you sick). Believe it or not, not every person that was born in the south is racist, though from some of the comments I have read around the net you would think it so.
Thanks to all the well wishers that wrote me last week. It is nice to know that people miss me. But I am better now and ready to go back to doing what I love. Oh and writing my blog too.
I have been reading the reaction to Trent Lott's unfortunate remarks in regards to Strom Thurmond's failed run for the Presidency of the United States as a pro-segregationist Dixecrat. What surprises me most is that people are surprised. Does Trent miss those days where African Americans were cheerfully led to the back of the bus? Where a white man could take a drink of water out of a "whites only" fountain and be assured that no vile black lips had touched it's pure, clean water? Where us white folk thought the height of hilarity was to release a few vicious dogs among those uppity "nigras" to teach them their place in the sun? For the days of the "Necktie Party" where hanging two or three blacks for the crime of being black was an event you took your kids to see?
Well it would not surprise me if he does.
In fact, it did not surprise me at all that Trent decided to praise that which is the least praiseworthy in Strom's long and disgusting career. It is part and parcel of the way that Republicans have decided to conduct business in this country. To those that think racism is dead, well as a southern man born and bred I most respectfully disagree...we have only managed to run it underground. It is not at all unfashionable to be a racist, it is merely unfashionable to express such beliefs. Keep them to yourself while doing everything you can to make sure African Americans in this country remain second class citizens and no one will say a word.
Ya know, I watched Crossfire the on Friday. They had Pat Buchanan's sister on discussing the Trent Lott press conference. I wish I could give more information on this show, but the transcripts are strangely incomplete. But one thing that stands out in my mind is Buchanan asking Paul Begala and the other guest (once again apologies but the transcript is worthless) if they thought that Trent Lott was racist. Begala said that he had no idea, since he did not know that heart of Trent. The other guest mirrored that comment. At this point I was screaming at the T. V. "Of course the idiot is a racist". The evidence is overwhelming and no one has done more to prove it than Atrios over at Eschaton and John Marshall at Talking Points Memo. He made the same remarks about Strom at a 1980 rally after Strom's stirring speech in praise of Ronald Reagan. While in college he fought like a dog to keep his frat from accepting African Americans and not just on his campus.. He belonged and wrote and spoke for the notorious Council of Conservative Citizens, a successor to the notorious White Citizens' Councils. If anyone doubts Trent's "white only" bias they should spend some time checking out their website. It is an eye opener.
Senator Trent Lott posed with a few of his friends on the pro-white Council of Conservative Citizens in 1997. From left, William D. Lord, senior coordinator ( who has twice served as chairman of the Lott Senate campaign in Carroll County, Mississippi) ; Mr. Lott; Tom Dover, president, and Gordon L. Baum, executive officer.
I am also very amused at the reaction to Trent's comments by rank and file republicans (you know, those republicans that are not in political office or running for such). They seem to split up into three opinions. There is a very small minority that agrees that Lott's comments are beyond the pale. I admire them but I have to wonder where have they been all these years, when Lott was getting away with all the other examples of racism that you can find above. Then there is a larger minority that say he is not a racist, but he is incredibly stupid and needs to go. I don't have admiration for these guys, but I do, at least, share their goal. The majority seem to think that Mr. Lott has nothing to apologize for, this is just another example of Democratic Race Bating. These are the ones that are trying to state that it is the Democrats that are the real racist. They like to pull low level Democrats into the mix attempting to compare them with the third most powerful Republican in the party.
I am not proud of the Democratic Party's history of racial decisiveness, I freely admitted it existed for many many years. However there is a huge difference between the Democrats of now and the Democrats of the past. Are there racist Democrats? Without a doubt. The difference is that the Democratic Party does not support racism and it does all it can to fight it. The same can not be said about the Republican party.
One obvious manifestation of racism within the Republican Party is the challenging of those who seek to expose racism and lessen it. This includes attacks on multiculturalism in schools and universities, bilingual education, and affirmative action. Take a look at these planks in the Texas Republican Party's platform:
Equality of All Citizens - Believing all men are created equal, the Party reasserts itself as the party of Lincoln and deplores all forms of preferences and discrimination based upon religion, race, color, national origin, gender, age, or physically disabling condition. We also deplore forced sensitivity training and urge the repeal of laws and mandates requiring such training. We believe that the Hate Crimes Law is unnecessary, and that it unconstitutionally creates a lower class of victims. We urge that it be repealed immediately.
Multiculturalism - The Party supports the voluntary comparative study of all cultures that have created the heritage of the American culture. We oppose ideologically enforced political correctness in the institutions of American society that eliminate the free expression of ideas. We oppose the ideology of multiculturalism that emphasizes differences between racial, ethnic and gender groups leading to a conflict of loyalties and a weakening of a common American identity.
Bilingual Education - The Party supports the termination of bilingual education programs in Texas.
A good example of this is the attempted destruction of Affirmative Action by claiming "reverse discrimination". Listen, there ain't no such creature. In debate after debate after debate I have asked people for examples of reverse discrimination and no one, not one person, has ever been able to show me one case. Of all the non-issues ever to confront this country, this has to be the most pernicious to go around.
The idea that whites are somehow discriminated against because of affirmative action policies are pretty much wishful thinking. For example the idea that if a black enters a college under affirmative action it somehow means that a white was denied entry. This is nonsense. The person that advances this argument shows a total lack of 1) how colleges admit people and 2) just what role affirmative action plays. Everyone can tell a story about some white person that had higher SAT or ACT scores, or a better GPA coming out of high school that failed to get into x school, yet black people got in with lower scores. Bah, this would prove something if the only thing that colleges considered were test scores. It is not. Nor is it that there is some limit to how many students are admitted into a college each year. Look if that college really wanted this particular white person, they would admit them.
More than that, Affirmative Action works. Let us not forget that a current judge that sits on the Supreme Court is a recipient of Affirmative Action. We have a whole lot of white folk working overtime to make sure that Affirmative Action is ended, on the bases that it is racist Bawahahahahahaha. Please give me a break.
Or how about Bilingual Education. For years I have heard people claim that it encourage people that can't speak English not to learn English at all. This is complete nonsense and I am shocked that more people don't call these idiots on this. What bilingual education does is teach people in their native language until their command of English enable them to take part in a regular class. What opponents of Bilingual education really want is to dump non-english speaking students into a class where they will understand nothing. Does anyone really think that this is an efficient way to teach?
Of course, multiculturalism is one of those code words that Atrios was talking about. Here in Texas, most people understand the word to mean "race mixing". Don't ask me why but I know it's true. I have had arguments with people about multiculturalism and it always boils down to this idea that such classes encourage race mixing. At that point I am usually laughing too hard to continue.
Even better is the idea that if one has a class in "Black Studies" or "Women Studies" it is unfair because there is no such thing as White or Men studies. Again amidst the peals of laughter coming out of my mouth I tell such people that of course we have white and men studies....it is called History in most colleges.
So how did it all start? Just how did the Republican party become the Party of Jim Crow? A closer look tomorrow.
You will have to forgive the lack of posting lately. My mother is going through a tough time right now, she is ill, and it has taken up some time on my part. In addition the whole household, including the baby, came down with head colds about the same time. So there is no joy in my house right now.
I hope to pick up the pace later this week so don't go away. While I am fighting a losing fight with germs, feel free to check out the fine blogs on the left side of the page. There's some good stuff out there.
I usually watch Crossfire, in fact, it is pretty much the only cable news show that I watch. Excepting The Daily Show which, in spite of it's excellence, is not really a news show. In any case, imagine my surprise when I heard that one of the guest was that old fraud , Michael Drosnin who popularize the very silly and totally discredited theory of Bible Codes. He had a new book out, called "Bible Code II the Count Down" which is sure to excite those of the faithful that are more end-of-the-world prone.
The first question that crossed my mind is "Why?" Why have this guy on what is supposed to be a serious news show? Do they really think that secrete codes in the bible foretold the end of the world? Naw this is CNN, trying to out fox FoxNews (I have a feeling that the pundits over there will drool over Mr. Drosnin, but credit to Paul Begala and Robert Novak who both seemed pretty skeptical).
Since this is such a trivial subject I won't be surprised of most of my readers don't have a clue about Bible Codes, so a bit of explanation is in order. Lets say we convert the Bible into one long sentence, eliminating all the spaces in the text. Next we feed the result into a computer and we tell the computer (via an easily bought program) to search for hidden words coded at equal skips of letters. For example I might tell my program to search for words from every fourth letter. The gullible call this phenomenon ELS, for "equidistant letter sequence." The one thing that this proves for sure is that some people simply have too much time on their hands. An even better example (from Barry Fagin's excellent "Bible Codes are Complete Nonsense"):
...consider Genesis 31:28: “And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.” If we start with the “r” in daughters and take every 4th letter, we get r-o-s-w-e-l-l. Now start with the “u” in “thou” and take every 12th letter: “u-f-o”. Evidence of aliens among us, perhaps.
Sure people have found word strings that can be pretty startling if you have the mathematical sophistication of a four year old. Anything higher and you realize that when presented with so many letters (the Torah alone has 304,805 letters) you are bound to find such strings and there is nothing surprising about them. Even better, such codes are not restricted to the Bible, they can be found in Moby Dick and War and Peace too!
The only reason that these codes are taken the least bit seriously is because of an article in the journal "Statistical Science" written by three Israelis statisticians: Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg (WRR) in 1994. You can read their paper here. As you can see from the War and Peace article, it was not long before the paper was attacked. You can get all sorts of useful information from "Scientific Refutation of the Bible Codes" by Brendan McKay and Friends.
So as can be seen, Bible codes are a not very surprising statistical anomaly that is hardly news worthy and I am at a loss at why Crossfire thought it important enough to have a so called expert on to predict the end of the world (Yawn). Seems to me that they mostly made fun of him, which is all to the good in my mind.
Still I have to wonder just how many news outlets will hang on Mr. Drosnin every word?
According to George W. Bush, the reason we were attacked on 9/11 was because those terrorist hate the freedom that we enjoy in America. If this is true, then congrats to the terrorist, they won.
In what has to be the scariest move yet, the Bush administration has decided to create a "parallel legal system" that will be totally outside the U. S. Constitution. According to the Washington Post:
The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects -- U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say.
Is this not excellent? It recalls an argument I had a year ago with an uncle of mine. He claimed that all these security measures were aimed at foreigners and not U. S. citizens. Well that dream is definitely over! Once again from The Post:
...under authority it already has or is asserting in court cases, the administration, with approval of the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, could order a clandestine search of a U.S. citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the citizen an enemy combatant, to be held indefinitely at a U.S. military base. Courts would have very limited authority to second-guess the detention, to the extent that they were aware of it.
This is a complete nightmare for anyone that is a civil libertarian (quite different from the Libertarian Party, believe me). Let's say that President Bush gets angry at some website called gwbush.com . We know that Dubya is aware of the site and does not like it, after all he commented "There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of the site, and this guy is just a garbage man." Well what if he said "this guy is just a terrorist". He could have his home searched without a search warrant, be arrested as an "enemy combatant" thrown in jail, and there would be nothing a regular court could do about it. Say goodbye to the not-so-Great Writ, the writ of habeas corpus. Say goodbye to dissent in this country.
But even worse, think about what Dubya is really saying. That our court system, long lauded by the right as the greatest court system in the world, is not good enough to bring terrorist to trial. Why? Because of those very things that make our system so great, a right to public trials, a right to a defense, a right to face your accusers, a right to know the evidence against you. Could someone please explain to me just how this is a bad thing when it comes to trials for terrorist? Be sure to include the reason why John Walker Lindh, and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid are able to be tried in a regular federal court!
This is so horribly scary that I can hardly stand it. It should be scaring the hell out of Republicans too, after all, just think what Bill Clinton could have done with such power had he chosen to use it.
And in fact, there are some Republicans out there that really are scared of the changes Dubya plan for our government. There has been a surge in membership in the A.C.L.U. that most hated of organizations by Bush Inc. (you might remember Dubya's father calling Michael Dukakis a "card-carrying member of the A.C.L.U." as if this is a horrible thing to be).
And so here we stand. We were attacked because Osama bin Laden hated the freedom that we enjoy. Dubya's answer to that is to take away those freedoms. Just who is running scared here? The terrorist...
I certainly hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. As usual, I ate too much, slept a lot, and got very little done! Man I love the holidays!
Once again something else caught my eye and so the music sharing article will have to wait for another day. Hopefully the other day will be tomorrow but I ain't promising nothing!
I have discovered the joys of SWiSH a program that enables you to make flash movies in a snap. I am fast falling in love with the sucker, and I hope to use it in combination with my music. Stay tuned to take a look at the results.
So congrats on getting through yet another Thanksgiving feast without falling into a stupor. Now drag your ass to work!
