"Can't we all just get along?"
- Rodney King
In 1991, a man was pulled over after a high speed car chase and beaten mercilessly by the police. It would have been just another day in Los Angeles, with white racist cops venting their hatred on another black man, had it not been for the person who recorded the beating and made it public. That resulted in the cops going on trial and Rodney King - the aforementioned sap how got his face broken - becoming a public name. It was AFTER the cops' trial where none were convicted that anger, frustration, and justice denied once again resulted in riots in LA and elsewhere in the country. Any white person unlucky enough to be near a black inner city neighborhood when the verdict was announced was in trouble. It was during this mayhem that a bewildered Rodney King uttered his famous phrase. That phrase has been reused often - generally for comic effect - since then to punctuate the naive notion that we could actually all get along. "What? - people not lash out in violence?", implies the quoter. *chortle, chortle*... Charles Darwin theorized that we evolved from a primative ancestor. As mankind and society have moved forward through time, it seems that we have had trouble as a species leaving behind that reactive violence that seems so normal in the animal kingdom and so abhorrent in ours. It seems we still dip our toes into that primordial soup from time to time and lash out in anger, hatred, and fear.
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Victim blaming occurs when the victim(s) of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment are held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against them (regardless of whether the victim actually had any responsibility for the incident). Blaming the victim has traditionally emerged especially in racist, sexist, and classist forms. You can read more here. I've been thinking a lot about this idea of victim blaming lately. I think about the young woman who was raped and abused in Stuebenville. I think about Trayvon Martin. I think about the beautiful young woman, Amanda Todd who committed suicide in Canada after pictures of her bullying, both physical and cyber, were circulated... I think about Audrie Pott -- she committed suicide as well, after being raped and having no justice. All of these victims, every one of them -- were subjected to public judgement. Everyone one of them had their motives questioned, and all but one are dead. Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment are held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against them. These children, young adults -- people, humans were terrorized by their assailants and were made victims again by a court of public opinion. Continue reading...
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Dammit all to Hell!
Author: TriSec
Date: 04/16/2013 10:34:56
Good morning. We interrupt our regularly-scheduled “Ask a Vet” for a rant from Your Loyal TriSec. This is my city.  Yesterday was our day. I mean no insult to New York, or those that were lost, but until September 11, it was just that, September 11, an otherwise ordinary day with no significance to New York. Patriot’s Day is Boston.
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To hear the gun nuts' hysterics, you'd think President Obama had declared himself Supreme Leader and was sending out the troops goosestepping into every community to arrest anyone with a gun. In reality, the Senate has finally agreed to discuss the possibility of expanding background checks. The notion of background checks is apparently forbidden in the Constitution if you believe these people. Their arguments against any sort of common-sense regulation are legion, and spoken with such earnest matter-of-factualness that you have to believe that they believe them. Perhaps it's time (again) to look a little closer at some of those arguments...
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Fake News Roundup
Author: velveeta jones
Date: 04/14/2013 15:04:34
Good morning! Just a few things today, since Velveeta overslept; too much beauty sleep is not a bad thing. Anyone remember this crazy woman? Lisa Biron, a lawyer who worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom which claims to be a Bible thumping, anti-gay, "pro-life", family values organization that "spreads the gospel" according to their website. Ms Biron, who has been expunged from their pages, video-taped her 14-year old daughter having sex with several men. Now that's a strange kind of values for a family. But maybe that's just my opinion. Continue reading...
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Guns. It's all about the guns. Like the saying goes, "God, Guns, and Gays". For whatever reason, the national GOP has cornered the market on these things. Every piece of legislation, every proposal, even the merest thought of anything, needs to be viewed through this odd prism. I could go on about the path towards Christian Sharia we're on, or how soon the gays will be shuffled off to Tule Lake, but that's not what this is about today.
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Earlier in the week, David Corn and Mother Jones magazine published an article revealing a strategy session regarding the possibility of campaigning against Democratic activist Ashley Judd. "They want to fight? We're ready," he declared. McConnell was serious: Later that day, he was huddling with aides in a private meeting to discuss how to attack his possible Democratic foes, including actor/activist Ashley Judd, who was then contemplating challenging the minority leader. During this strategy session—a recording of which was obtained by Mother Jones—McConnell and his aides considered assaulting Judd for her past struggles with depression and for her religious views. Typically, the McConnell campaign cried victim and ran to the FBI "Senator McConnell's campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings. Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell's campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation," said campaign manager Jesse Benton in a statement. "We've always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond."
The FBI field office in Louisville had no comment, and the U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a message. Interesting trivia: Jesse Benton is married to Ron Paul's granddaughter, making her the niece of Sen. Rand Paul and according to Mother Jones, "was hired last year by McConnell to run his reelection effort. Three years ago, Benton worked on Rand Paul's successful tea-party-driven Senate primary campaign against a GOP establishment candidate handpicked by McConnell."Continue reading...
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DBudget Unchained
Author: BobR
Date: 04/11/2013 12:59:00
Yesterday, President Obama released his budget. It seemed to have something for everyone, which means it also had something for everyone to hate. Republicans love the chained CPI for Social Security, but hate the revenue increases and stimulus spending. For liberals and progressives, it's the opposite. It is truly bi-partisan - something everyone gives lip service to - so the reality is that it is dead in the water.
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Irony Alert
Author: Raine
Date: 04/10/2013 12:54:18
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Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec
Date: 04/09/2013 10:35:10
Good Morning. Today is our 4,202nd day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualties from our ongoing war, courtesy of antiwar.com: US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,192 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,081 We find this morning's cost of war passing through: $ 1, 441, 215, 850, 000 .00 Let's talk about honor and dishonor today. These are often curious things. As a society, we've set standards for ourselves surrounding these two things. We tend to think that soldiers are automatically "honorable" simply by virtue of the uniform, but unfortunately this is often not the case.
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