Stereotype Much ?

This cracked me up. The news media shows us ancient stereotypes of various cultures and if we don't like a country - BAM - get out the black & white pics.
But our knee jerk reactionary disaster relief usually comes late & mostly benefits first world producers. A more long term supportive policy of 3rd world nations can help with things like enforcing building codes, building better infrastructure & such can lessen the impct of disasters, saving lives & money in the long run.
Of course seedy, opportunistic 3rd world governments give all of them a bad reputation sowe can't do that...

Racist Facts

This seriously white dude who works with Alex Jones speaks up about racial issues that have been seriously skewed by blacks, white liberals & the sensationalist media.
He goes on about the 'white liberal media' but I think it's more about incendiary & sensationalist fear mongering.
But make no mistake, right wing white racists thrive on this crap.
If the American police is really all about black genocide, they're doing a piss poor job of doing it. Black folks are doing a way better job of black genocide.
But as the announcer says, saying this kind of shit just gets you labelled a racist. Problem with that is - since the allegation is so freely bandied about, it's meaning les & less as time marches on.
Meanwhile black parents have "the talk" with their children telling them white America is out to get them which cannot have any other effect that paranoia & hatred in the kids' fragile eggshell minds...
We really need to sit down & talk about this shit without the crazy preconceptions.
And just to take some of the pressure off the situation?
My life doesn't matter.

Should Halloween be a National Holiday ?

Well, there's a petition on White House . gov to make the revered holiday a little more official. Some anarchists are afeared of having the gummint in charge but the local police, sheriffs & other officialistic nosferatu are already setting begging hours. Maybe, with some hamfisted over the top legislation we could get holiday displays in stores to not overlap.
As I write this, the petition is about 98,000 short with a deadline of 10/31, so…
no, really, I am guessing the throngs of fans of Blogging Isn't Cool can put this over the 100,000 mark in a few days.
VOTE !

Do You Believe in Magic ?How about Bigfoot? Chem-Trails? How about shape shifting alien lizard men?
I got no answers but if you want to know what kind of company you're keeping if you do, Public Policy Polling has just released their results of a survey on Conspiracy Theory Beliefs.
¾ of Americans believe Obama is not the anti Christ. Twice as many Republicans believe in a secret NWO. More than 1 in 10 people believe or might believe the world is ruled by shape shifting alien lizard men. Black people are pretty darn sure Paul McCartney never died & was subsequently replaced.
Things to think about when riding the bus.

Us and Them
While we all know this was staged, it's been described as "semi-staged" so as not to provoke the SS from turning the restaurant owner into swiss cheese. Still, it shows what America was founded on. No, not pizza, but on a classless society. This seemed pretty loutish to the Brits we severed allegiance with back in the 1700s, tho.
In Frances Trollope's Domestic Manners of the American she describes her observations upon Andrew Jackson's visit to Cincinnati in the 1830s.

~by subsequent letters I learnt that they [Mister T & wife] had conversed a good deal with him [Jackson], and were pleased by his conversation and manners, but deeply disgusted by the brutal familiarity to which they saw him exposed at every place on their progress at which they stopped; I am tempted to quote one passage, as sufficiently descriptive of the manner, which so painfully grated against their European feelings.
There was not a hulking boy from a keel-boat who was not introduced to the President, unless, indeed, as was the case with some, they introduced themselves: for instance, I was at his elbow when a greasy fellow accosted him thus:
"General Jackson, I guess?"
The General bowed assent.
"Why they told me you was dead."
"No! Providence has hitherto preserved my life."
"And is your wife alive too?"
'The General, apparently much hurt, signified the contrary, upon which the courtier concluded his harangue, by saying, "Aye, I thought it was the one or the t'other of ye."'

Apparently Mister T did not pity the poor fools back then.

SOPA is Bad

Wittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio, will be hosting a discussion series titled, "Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel".
They will be discussing Will Eisner's A Contract With God, Art Spiegleman's Maus, A Survivor's Tale, Ben Katchor's Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories, Harvey Pekar's The Quitter and Joann Sfar's The Rabbi's Cat.
Graphic novels are, of course, just comic books that intelligent people can read and remain respectable.
They call it literature.
As far as the actual series goes, I think they missed a couple goodies, Joe Sacco's Palestine and Robert Crumb's Kafka.
Palestine is a detailed account of Sacco's visit to his parents homeland to visit friends and relatives. Sacco, an American has neither a great love for Palestine
nor a seething hatred of Israel. A very insightful book -er- graphic novel.
Crumb's biographical Kafka is glaringly missing, however as Crumb's work in underground (independently published) comics took comics out of the realm of the drug store and opened up the comic book world to the diverse publications that resulted in the format we call graphic novels !
The underground comic product helped give rise to a distribution network of head shops, record stores and ultimately specialty comic book stores. In fact it was through this network that Maus first appeared (in serialized format) in Spiegleman's RAW magazine.
Another important Jewish comic book type of guy (though not having a graphic novel to his name) was publisher Bill Gaines. Though not exactly a paragon of Jewish virtue, his no-nonsense approach to freedom of expression and his respect for the creatives who produced it was crucial to the development of the comics environment that spawned the graphic novel. Gaines defended his publications and the work of his artists and writers in the Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the 50s but still wound up having to cease publishing anything but Mad magazine. The hearings resulted in a censorship board, The Comics Code Authority. Gaines fought hard against the board that saw fit to "censor" things like black characters.
Panel from "Judgement Day" by artist Joe orlando.
Anyway, maybe next time around, they can include Howard Chaykin's American Flagg.

Noose Son story and registration info here.

Route 66


The classic television show, Route 66, was re-released on DVD recently. The show ran from 1960 - 1964 starring Martin Milner and George Maharis as Todd and Buzz - two young men traveling the back roads of the US taking odd jobs as they go and meeting the diverse people who make up America.
The show was primarily the work of Stirling Silliphant. He made a name for himself with the show as he delved into the darker side of people's characters showing a world that frequently wasn't what it appeared to be on the surface. He also made a name for himself with his character's dark soliloquies. In about the 4th episode Lew Ayres (playing a Nazi hunter (the show was only about 15 years out of WWII)) delivered this gem:
"I hope you live a long life and never know the blistering forces which sear and destroy, turn men into enemies and sweep past the last frontiers of compassion. Once you've seen that dark, unceasing tide of faces... of the victims...the last spark of dignity so obliterated that not one face is lifted to heaven, not one voice is raised in protest even as they died..."
Of course, it's all pretty fantastic and idyllic. Halfway through the first season they might have intersected with route 66 once.
What I am really loving about watching the show, however, is that it was almost completely shot on location around the country. The backgrounds and sets - the houses, offices, farms and towns offer a very real glimpse of life in America in the early 60s.
And it's all shot in stunning black and white !
The supporting guest stars are a daggone Who's Who.
Lon Chaney Jr, Roger Carmel, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Leslie Nielsen, Bruce Dern, Suzanne Pleshette, Pat Hingle, Inger Stevens, Harvey Korman, DeForrest Kelley, Lee Marvin, Anne Francis, John Astin, Peter Graves, Barbara Eden, Susan Oliver, and a seriously hot Donna Douglas.
All in all, it's a great look back at a time that wasn't in a time that very much was.

The Pew Research Institute just did a survey on religion and practices and beliefs in the US. It had some interesting results.
They cited a group called Historically Black Churches (HBCs) that consisted of Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal churches as well as others. Vodou was not included.
"Pagan" groups got lumped into "Other Faiths" with New Age & Unitarians. Dunno if Vodou would be filed under "Other" or "Other World". Total of "Other" and "Other World" was 1.5 %.
"Other Christian" listed metaphysical & spiritualist. I don't think that is what most people mean when they list themselves as "Christian - other" on social networking websites.
Evangelicals are fairly split between desiring big and small governments leaning towards smaller with 48% vs larger 41%.
HBCs are overwhelmingly in favor of big government with 72% in favor of big spending bureaucracies, a sentiment mirrored by Muslims at 70%.
This nugget should please anti-Obamamaniacs of the reasonable and crazy ilk alike.
Muslims (surprise) believe the government should be involved in "protecting morality" by 59%. Mormons, Evangelicals & the HBCs follow at about 50%.
Mormons and Jews are more in favor of more active foreign policies while the HBCs and Jehovah's Witnesses lead the pack in keeping our meddling here at home. FWIW, 55% of people overall want to reign in foreign policies.
People of most faiths want stricter environmental controls. The HBCs & Evangelicals would be the least aggressive but it is still a minority of these groups.
Jehovah's Witnesses are easily the biggest church goers in the country with "Other Faiths" coming last which makes sense as many of them have nowhere to go and many frequently refer to themselves as solitary practitioners.
Jehovah's Witnesses are by far the most assured they practice the one true faith. I guess that is why they are at church so often - to be reassured.
the faiths with the most singular interpretations are Jehovah's Witnesses followed by Mormons, HBCs and Evangelicals. The majority of other faiths overwhelmingly agree there is more than one way to interpret their religions.
Anyway, these are just a few of the findings. It is worth looking at on your own.
http://religions.pewforum.org/