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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Tag Archives | culture

Bye Dick, America Thanks You

By on 18 April 2012

The New York Times is up with their Dick Clark tribute, here’s what matters:

“I can remember, a vivid recollection, the first time ever in my life I talked to a black teenager on national television; it was in what we called the rate-a-record portion of ‘Bandstand,’ ” Mr. Clark recalled. “It was the first time in a hundred years I got sweaty palms.”

He was fearful, he said, of a backlash from Southern television affiliates, but that didn’t happen. From that day on, he said, more blacks began appearing on the show. And as time went on, the show’s willingness to bridge a racial divide that went almost entirely unacknowledged by network programming was starkly apparent, “providing American television broadcasting with the most visible ongoing image of ethnic diversity until the 1970s,” according to an essay about the program on the Web site of the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications.

“We didn’t do it because we were do-gooders, or liberals,” Mr. Clark said. “It was just a thing we thought we ought to do. It was naïve.”

Naive? Maybe it was a simpler time when the golden rule mattered more than ideology or religiosity.


This post has been updated.

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Tina Brown Goes From Hillary Cover to Fifty Shades of Grey ‘Mommy Porn’

By on 17 April 2012

We may then be especially drawn to this particular romanticized, erotically charged, semipornographic idea of female submission at a moment in history when male dominance is shakier than it has ever been. – Spanking Goes Mainstream, by Katie Roiphe

If women are drawn to “semipornographic idea of female submission,” it has absolutely nothing to do with the shaky nature of male dominance, because as precarious as their position is men still rule.

Happy Equal Pay day, with the Newsweek cover kerfuffle coming on a backdrop of a working girl in Columbia’s legal sex trade taking down the most elite escort of them all, the Secret Service, as well as Special Forces men.

Katie Roiphe, who rose to infamy through blaming women for their own rape, writes a column about the guilty pleasure reading of Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, inciting feminist writers across new media to descend in derision.

Saddled with the dinosaur Newsweek brand, Tina Brown is doing her best to give it a heart beat again, though who knows if it will work. She certainly has hit a nerve with Roiphe’s piece. It’s not sin to get column bombed, as long as people don’t ignore you. Brown’s made a career out of it.

From Roiphe:

It is intriguing that huge numbers of women are eagerly consuming myriad and disparate fantasies of submission at a moment when women are ascendant in the workplace, when they make up almost 60 percent of college students, when they are close to surpassing men as breadwinners, with four in 10 working women now outearning their husbands, when the majority of women under 30 are having and supporting children on their own, a moment when—in hard economic terms—women are less dependent or subjugated than before.

I’ve done some digging around in the sex and relationship genre, including the seamier sides of sexuality in the mainstream adult world. I say “mainstream,” because I never had the stomach for hard core, so the notion of “mommy porn” intrigued me, even though I’ve barely cracked Fifty Shades of Grey.

One of the things that was easily uncovered is the penchant powerful men have to be sexually dominated in their off hours. I talked to dominatrixes whose only clients were big shot lawyers, as well as Hollywood studio moguls, as well as men who freely admitted their proclivities to surrender. In fact, I created and guided the first “alternative” section of personal ads for the LA Weekly, which was filled with dominatrixes advertising for.. ahem.. partners, shall we say. I helped these women craft the language of their sexual art so they could attract men with money who wanted what they delivered. Back in the mid-90s this was big business, because the web hadn’t exploded yet.

The American Prospect gets one thing right, through an “insider source”:

Katie Roiphe—yes, she who believes that date rape is nothing more than rough sex—has bravely decided that we’re so tired of being in charge, of our success, working gals all wanna be whipped. Somebody tell dominatrixes, who are making a mint off the high-powered men who really are in charge and do long to be whipped, or so I’ve been told by insider source…

The UK Guardian comes up with this review of Tina Brown’s efforts:

This is all purely nonsense conjured up by cynical editors to get women readers to argue among themselves and to distract them from the paucity of what else the magazine has to offer.

Jezebel is pissed. Ditto Feministing. Gawker makes Roife choke yet again on her ’93 thesis.

Considering 50% of marriages end in divorce and more single people are preferring to remain that way, I’d say there is a lot of evidence to prove that understanding attraction, sex and relationships in the 21st century is very much on women’s minds, even if men have been left confused about what it all means for a man who wants a wife and family.

Women have changed but men have not. That’s the story at the bottom of the relationship rubble. It’s the updated version of being attracted to a man for what you think you can make him become rather than who he actually is.

Romance novels had to go somewhere beyond the angst and savage dissatisfaction once women started becoming breadwinners. We don’t want what men want when it comes to erotic encounters, but it’s not so odd to think some things in sexuality are the same between us. The more power you get in your work life, the freer you become to own your previously held secret passions, acting on them no matter what stereotype it brings to your feminist mind.

For all the attention, Katie Roiphe, Tina Brown thanks you, even if you don’t quite get the subject you’re writing about.

We’re all suckers for sex, with a purposefully provocative picture of a woman in bondage predictably drawing the attention of feminists, especially when the writer of the piece has a history of pissing off women for not owning their own rape.

It is the passive sexual role that threatens us still, and it is the denial of female sexual agency that threatens to propel us backward. – Katie Roiphe, 1993

Women can’t go back even if some want to and Western women are not threatened in any new way, except through our own disgruntled discontent.

What Roiphe doesn’t know that I bet Tina Brown does is that choosing a submissive role is empowering for women today. We no longer have anything to prove or any inhibitions that threaten our attractiveness to a man, because we don’t need his money anymore.

I can only imagine what Katie Roiphe thought of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

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Bigger Than Ta-Tas, and Did You Hear the One About Mitt’s Friend Barbecuing a Dog?

By on 13 April 2012



Love Sofia Vergara! “Modern Family” is one of the only sitcoms we DVR and never miss.

You cannot talk about Vergara without the picture she cuts in clothes, as well as pop culture. But her talents go well beyond her ta-tas. Her incredible figure is part of her persona and her comedy, so it’s not sexist to say so. It helps, but the woman’s got comedic chops. I’d bet she could do any dramatic role in which she was cast, something I look forward to seeing some day. That is, if the Hollywood weenies will let her break beyond the stereotype that’s making her famous. If nothing else, she’s securing the money to help bankroll any artistic stretch she decides to take on.

The ICYMI story for this Friday night is the heroism of Newark Mayor Cory Booker. His interview on CBS “This Morning” will fill you in if you haven’t heard. Booker ran into a burning building to save a woman. Who doesn’t love a hero? When it’s Mayor Booker, it goes double for me.

To finish up the Hilary Rosen – Ann Romney war, Rosen took herself off the “Meet the Press” panel this weekend to spend more time with her family. Here’s her statement, via The Hill:

“I thank ["Meet the Press" host] David [Gregory] and the folks at MTP for offering me the chance to participate in the Roundtable. It will be an important political discussion, as it always is on Meet the Press. But I have said enough and while I have unfortunately made the Producer’s job tougher today, I don’t have anything more to say. I apologized to Mrs. Romney and work-in-home moms for mistakenly giving the impression that I do not think their work is valuable. Of course it is. I will instead spend the weekend trying to explain to my kids the value of admitting a mistake and moving on.”

You can bet the Republicans aren’t finished with this one, even if the Democrats are trying mightily to move on.

However, Democrats just might have another dog story to use against Mitt Romney, according to the story from Jezebel, which is backed up by this piece in the Washington Post:

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who once strapped his dog to the roof of the family station wagon before embarking on a road trip, has again chosen to thumb his nose at the all-important dog vote by throwing a fundraising birthday party for his wife Ann at the house of Frederick Malek III. While to most people, Malek is just another rich guy who respects Romney’s Reaganesque hair, to dogs, Malek is a living terror — when he was a youth, he was arrested for animal cruelty after police discovered that he and some friends had killed and barbecued a dog.

Jezebel asks: What the everloving hell is wrong with Mitt Romney? Does anyone have an answer to that one?

Here’s a Friday night open forum. Any topic goes.


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Trayvon Martin’s Mother Retracts ‘Accident’ Statement, Dershowitz Unloads

By on 13 April 2012

“This affidavit does not even make it to probable cause,” Dershowitz concluded. “everything in the affidavit is completely consistent with a defense of self-defense. Everything.” – “Hardball”


“I believe it was an accident. I believe that it just got out of control and he couldn’t turn the clock back.” – Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, on TODAY

Sybrina Fulton retracted the statement she made on TODAY Thursday, but as you’ll see in the video above, it isn’t helpful.

George Zimmerman made his first appearance in court on Thursday. His bond hearing and formal arraignment will be on May 29 at 1:30 p.m. He will remain in jail until that time. Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, requested a “complete sealing” of all records in the case to come, including witness statements, which special prosecutor Angela Corey agreeing.

The affidavit of probable cause was released and is here.

In the affidavit, Zimmerman is believed by investigators not to have used a racial slur, but instead said “these assholes, they always gets away,” followed by “these fucking punks,” the racial slur never used.

From the Miami Herald Thursday:

Prosecutors wrote in the affidavit that Martin “was profiled by George Zimmerman” and that “Zimmerman confronted Martin and a struggle ensued’’, an apparent contradiction of Zimmerman’s account that Martin attacked him from behind.

The affidavit also states that Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, reviewed 911 calls made by neighbors and witnesses that night, and that she identified the screams for help heard in the calls as those of her son.

As for the video above, Eliot Spitzer interviews Former N.J. Attorney General Peter C. Harvey on the case.

As an aside, Spitzer’s show “Viewpoint” on Current TV isn’t entertainment, it’s news. Perhaps that’s his problem. He also doesn’t have a fan base and who knows if he can keep the show alive long enough to get one. His coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting has been exemplary. If you can find Current TV, Spitzer is worth checking out. Current TV has a start on a real news show, though whether Spitzer can keep it afloat in an era of infotainment is unknown.

Another development Thursday happened when famed trial attorney Prof. Alan Dershowitz absolutely blasted Corey, the special prosecutor. He also weighed in on the affidavit of probable cause and didn’t everything but laugh at it on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Michael Smerconish sitting in for Chris Matthews.

Mediate has a partial transcript:

“You’ve seen the affidavit of probable cause. What do you make of it,” Smerconish asked. “It won’t suffice,” Dershowitz replied without hesitation.

“Most affidavits of probable cause are very thin. This is so thin that it won’t make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge,” Dershowitz said. “There’s simply nothing in there that would justify second degree murder.”

Dershowitz said that the elements that would constitute that crime are non-existent in the affidavit. “It’s not only thin, it’s irresponsible,” said Dershowitz.

Dershowitz went on to strongly criticize Corey’s decision to move forward with the case against Zimmerman. “I think what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection when she gave her presentation and overcharged. This case will not – if the evidence is no stronger than what appears in the probable cause affidavit – this case will result in an acquittal.”

The first hearing will be on whether George Zimmerman can get the charges dropped through Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left, a legal blog, points to another case to help understand what the Stand Your Ground allows. Here’s a paragraph from a Miami Herald story she cites.

But in his 16-page order, Hirsch said the law does not apply in Wyche’s case, because there is not sufficient evidence to show that Wyche had “no choice” but to stab Berry during the scuffle. However, Wyche may still argue at trial that he was acting in self-defense.

I remain stuck on the reality that George Zimmerman “profiled” Trayvon Martin, the word used in the affidavit of probable cause, while being told to wait for an officer and not pursue. After seeing the text of what constitutes a second degree murder charge and talking to lawyers about it, “depraved mind” seems to fit, but I’m a layperson.

But where are details of the “struggle” in the affidavit of probable cause? Nowhere to be found.

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A Pox On Apologies

By on 12 April 2012

Oh, sweet Jesus, another apology.

It offends me.

Who’s going to apologize for that?

I’ll probably be asked to apologize for taking Jesus’s name in vain. Don’t bother me, because I won’t.

Rosen felt compelled to “apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended.” Now we have to apologize for saying what we mean if it pisses people off? More likely, it got her into hot water with her Democratic colleagues so she needed to make peace for business sake. Good luck with that.

President Obama strongly disagreed with Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s controversial comment about Ann Romney, saying today that “there’s no tougher job than being a mom. Anybody who would argue otherwise, I think, probably needs to rethink their statement,” the president told Bruce Aune of ABC’s Cedar Rapids affiliate KCRG. – Obama Rejects Rosen’s Comments on Ann Romney

–thump–

–thump–

…and the Obama reelection bus just keeps on rolling… ..right over Hilary Rosen.

When you’re a Democratic insider who’s inadvertently reinforced a decades-old favorite Republican talking point about what liberals and feminists supposedly think about stay at home mothers, the real faux war, there’s nothing left to do but stand and fight, except Democrats don’t do that anymore.

Politico is already up with the headline “Dems on defense in war over women.” It wrote itself.

I can’t abide Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter’s politics, but I’ll give them this, they aren’t bothered by the disapproval of others. It’s the only thing we have in common.

It would have been far more interesting, not to mention useful, especially for her, to hear Hilary Rosen take on the notion that Republicans were starting a “faux war on stay at home moms,” which is what she offered in her apology, taking it to the logical conclusion that they were doing so to cover for the real war on women they’ve waged from state to state. The problem is Rosen doesn’t think there’s a war on women. I have no idea how she missed it. So she can’t launch an offense rather than offering an apology, which is worthless to everyone.

You can retract your statement, but people can’t un-hear it, and if you apologize it should be unqualified.

Telling the truth, being honest, means never having to say your sorry, though you may have to clarify your choice of words. No crime in doing that, people misspeak all the time without anything nefarious meant. But you stand by the substance behind what you said, because you meant it.

Oh, except in politics, of course, because these days nobody ever does.

Hilary Rosen’s full statement, from CNN:

“Let’s put the faux “war against stay at home moms” to rest once and for all. As a mom I know that raising children is the hardest job there is. As a pundit, I know my words on CNN last night were poorly chosen. In response to Mitt Romney on the campaign trail referring to his wife as a better person to answer questions about women than he is, I was discussing his lack of a record on the plight of women’s financial struggles. Here is my more fulsome view of the issues. As a partner in a firm full of women who work outside of the home as well as stay at home mothers, all with plenty of children, gender equality is not a talking point for me. It is an issue I live every day. I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended. Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

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Washington Post Reporting: Zimmerman to be Charged

By on 11 April 2012

**updated**

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN CHARGED

WITH 2ND DEGREE MURDER

 

News breaking in the last hour…

Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey plans to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon that she is charging neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation.

It was not immediately clear what charge Zimmerman will face.

From Frances Robles, Miami Herald writer, via Twitter: Source telling Miami Herald that there will be just one criminal charge filed.

From the New York Times:

Unless her investigation of the fatal shooting of Mr. Martin by a neighborhood watch coordinator, George Zimmerman, uncovers a great deal more solid evidence than has been disclosed, the case will remain a narrative Rorschach that each side will interpret as it wishes. Finding the criminal charges that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, or deciding that Mr. Zimmerman’s account of defending himself in the face of deadly force places him within the protections of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Ms. Corey has undertaken an exercise that is unlikely to satisfy everyone.

“Factually, we know there was a killing,” said David LaBahn, the president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. “Now the question is: Is it a murder, or a manslaughter, or a justifiable homicide? Is it an involuntary manslaughter? Is it an assault?”

Another angle being talked about is Sean Hannity’s involvement and whether he might be required to testify to what he and Zimmerman talked about.

Hannity of Fox News Channel last night, via Media Matters transcript:

HANNITY: I want to set the record straight about a couple of things. Now for a few weeks we have been pursuing an interview with Mr. Zimmerman to give him a chance to tell his side of the story. Now yesterday I was contacted by an individual that we in fact believe was George Zimmerman. He reached out to me, we spoke on the phone about his case, and I agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation. That’s it. I know nothing about his relationship with his now former attorneys.

What an unbelievable mess the Sanford Police Department created by botching this investigation from the beginning. It reminds me of another case cops blew.

I lived through the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles. In fact, I saw Nicole Brown Simpson with her children at a trendy bistro in her neighborhood several times, once when she was wearing dark sunglasses, with her face obviously puffy from crying, though that doesn’t mean this particularly time it was from the obvious assumption. I followed that trial scrupulously, as did many women I knew.

When the verdict was announced, I was at work at the LA Weekly.

Beyond my world, it was absolutely true that opinion broke down along racial lines.

We often speculated what might have happened if there hadn’t been a change of venue and Simpson was tried by his true peers, the glamorous and wealthy set that inhabited Brentwood and the ritzy neighboring.

As the Times mentions, the case could be reduced to a Rorschach.

I still maintain that without George Zimmerman’s pursuit of Trayvon Martin, with Stand Your Ground as a foundation, the young teen might not have died so needlessly.

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Women Get Sick Without 30 Minutes of Exercise Daily

By on 11 April 2012

Looking at more than 1,000 men and women from a nationally represented sample, the researchers found that women were getting only about 18 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise daily, compared to men who, on average, were getting 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise daily. “Those who get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day are less likely to be depressed, less likely to have high cholesterol and less likely to have metabolic syndrome,” Loprinzi said. – Study: Women Lack Exercise at Risk of Developing Metabolic Syndrome (h/t Jezebel)

Gold's Gym in Cityscape is offering free outdoor Zumba classes...to get people walking around CityScape and downtown Phoenix. (Madeline Pado/DD)

Let’s break down the mumbo jumbo.

“Metabolic syndrome” is the collision of coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

People just don’t want to accept, admit and then do something about the fact that most of our health issues are in our own hands. For instance, anyone who’s read Sugar Blues, the first book I read on the road to having more control over my own health, knew a long time ago what “60 Minutes” recently reported. Sugar = poison, it’s not a news flash, because that’s been known for decades.

Whenever I see a woman with a thick middle and no waist I wonder if she was active as a kid.

“Research has shown that around ages 5 or 6 these patterns begin,” Cardinal said. “Parents tend to be more concerned with the safety of girls, and have more restrictive practices around outdoor time and playtime than with boys.” – Study: Women Lack Exercise at Risk of Developing Metabolic Syndrome

As a dancer from the time I could walk, I didn’t have that problem. As I wrote in an article for Zocalo Public Square, I was on the other end of the exercise pendulum.

A new study proves that women need to work at getting exercise more than men. I’m wondering it it’s because of women’s role in the family, coupled with working, but also because it’s not seen as important for women.

The more you travel America, the more you’ll see a lot of overweight people, women and men, especially when it comes to belly fat and middle age. But the epidemic of fat kids is staggering. A man’s round belly sticking out over their belt, with marriage and a partner equally obese, making the partners feel it’s okay. It’s not, but it’s a fight to conquer it, one well worth waging.

The biggest thing about exercise as women get older is the positive impact it has on the relationship we have with our bodies. Once having children is in the rear view mirror, by choice early on (my case) or when you become free from fertility struggles, American society values women less physically. Our wrinkles and lines and aging become the issue, because who cares about the sexuality of women beyond 20-something models?

Ew, gross!

Nothing makes a woman feel better about her body than when she’s fit and at her fighting weight. Now we’re learning it actually makes us live longer. …and it’s absolutely not about being thin, but not working out!

Too many women don’t put vigorous exercise at the top of their daily to dos. I’m too busy, is a constant whine.

This new study offers more evidence that being lazy is also making women sick. The kind of sickness that damages our quality of life.

graphic via…

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For Zocalo Public Square: When My Butt Kicked Me, by Taylor Marsh

By on 10 April 2012

A Former Dancer Learns to Work Out Again After a Puzzling Injury

Beyond politics.

A very different type of piece I did for Zocalo Public Square.

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Ashley Judd Addresses ‘Puff-maggedon’ Apocalypse

By on 10 April 2012

The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about. [..] The following examples are real, and come from a variety of (so-called!) legitimate news outlets (such as HuffPo, MSNBC, etc.), tabloid press, and social media… – Ashley Judd, The Daily Beast

Huffington Post and MSNBC called out yet again over their coverage of a woman, this time by the raging fabulousness of the grrrl herself.

Imagine my delight.

It reminded me of a recent Candace Bergen interview with New York Magazine on her Broadway breakthrough after a secret stroke she’d kept to herself.

Rounder of face, grayer and wispier of hair, Bergen tells me that in the fall of 2006, she had a minor stroke. She denied it at the time and is reluctant to admit it today, because “I just don’t want it to be a liability.” She says she missed only two weeks of shooting on Boston Legal, the one-hour comedy on which she had a major role opposite John Larroquette (her candidate husband in The Best Man). Still, years later, “my memory is just—” she pauses. “It’s not quite the same.” Just five months ago, she says, she broke her pelvis while on a bike ride. “Wow,” she remembers thinking, “now I can fall and I’ll break.”

Women have two choices when facing middle age: working out with weights, changing your entire lifestyle, and debating the pain and agony of sculpting a tighter you. I don’t begrudge anyone the goal of Cher, nor if a woman opts otherwise, I’m just grateful we have a choice. My mother did not.

In an article recently reported for ABC, other stars came forward on private journeys they kept hidden.

Earlier this month, Kathy Bates told Anderson Cooper that she kept her ovarian cancer diagnosis a secret because she was contracted to do a movie at the time. “Modern Family’s” Sofia Vergara told Health magazine that she hid her 2000 thyroid cancer diagnosis because “you don’t want to deal with anything else while you’re going through it.”

What Ashley Judd is talking about today is something she felt compelled to answer in the media, because she was un-well and the coverage was cruel.

…the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about.

Read her whole piece. If you’re a woman you’ll get it. If you’re a man you’ll be educated. If you’re in the media you’ll be oblivious.

It brings to mind private conversations people have begun with me about Hillary Rodham Clinton. About her long hair today. Common comments from people who know her is “She just doesn’t give a shit anymore.” She’s “tired.” The different look of candidate Clinton and Secy. Clinton is real. Bet that she knows it. But what of it?

After 45 women are faced with challenges that catapult exponentially. Traversing the mine fields in public has got to be a bear. Talking about them changes your image.

One of the first people to dare to shatter the taboo of talking about the thunder road journey of aging (thank you Bruce Springsteen for that apt description) was Suzanne Somers. She was reduced to a punch line in “Sex and the City 2,” but the message was serious.

Ashley Judd and women who talk about their public lives and the cruel misogynistic system that dissects women in a living autopsy have cracked a code and laid a path so the value of women isn’t just beauty of youth.

It’s also a choice to fight the ravages of age and fat and bone strength and fitness and elasticity and athleticism and health. But it’s a bitch. A never ending, relentlessly hungry, voraciously devouring journey that begins with chucking everything and starting from scratch, without the comfort food that’s killing you. Doing with less along the way and feeling fabulous and free, while vulnerable to physical reality.

Feminism grew up a little bit today. But considering most of America fights the word itself, it won’t change a thing.

But Judd did just gavel The Club to order. There’s more of us in it every day.

“Puff-maggeddon” via Jezebel (where else?).

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‘Texts From Hillary’ on Tumblr Frames Iconic Hillary Moment

By on 10 April 2012

It’s so 3:00 a.m. and I’m in charge.

It’s power, baby.

The ultimate Hillary Effect, which has been earned.

That “Texts From Hillary” on Tumblr has gone viral is due to Secy. Clinton’s Madonna meets Gaga pop culture cool aboard a C-17, which was Malta bound for Libya at the height of a crisis, which she managed through getting the Arab League to sign on to NATO bombing.

What it transmits about Hillary to her fans is nothing new. That it’s making a dent among her most strident critics on the left is.

Hillary’s soaring approval rating wasn’t enough. But the new sensation on Tumblr has even gotten the attention of the most anti-Hillary 2008 new media site on the left, TPM. You remember, the boys who thought talking to female voters was a waste of time.

Women are just the majority vote today, with using our power brewing when the Hillary Effect exploded. Her historic campaign caused a shift for women and was the original game changer. Sarah Palin was the proof, ask HBO. The Republican war on women is showing what we can do: turn U.S. politics upside down all the way to Rush.

Now women rule, Hillary’s put them at the front of her diplomacy, with Pres. Obama needing the women’s vote to prevail in November, as does every politician in the country.

Hillary’s the ultimate globe trotting political rock star, who also happens to be everyone’s fantasy president right now.

How could she not be?

Barack Obama is still in search of a slogan for his reelection campaign, with an opponent who looks so bad right now it makes everyone want to hit snooze until November, with swing independents the subject we’ll all choke on until it’s over.

“Texts From Hillary” rescues us all from political boredom, putting the sexy back into service.

“Texts from Hillary” on Tumblr is now so globally popular, credit for pictures and images have now been added to the dueling two-shot message.

Ah, the price of going viral.

The Washington Post didn’t get it and critiqued it as Hillary the “phone addict.” MSNBC went for “Clinton at her coolest,” a far cry from the Keith Olberman – Chris Matthews’ mean boy screeds. Now everyone’s grabbed on.

While Chuck Todd asks GOPers questions about whether team Obama is coasting while laughing at the prospects of running against Mitt Romney, who can’t even close against Rick Santorum, the rest of us are looking for a distraction.

When the Charlotte Observer reported on Monday that Secy. Clinton wouldn’t be at the Democratic convention, following a tradition by other secretaries of state, the manipulated headlines popped. Huffington Post comments exploded, because Amanda Terkel’s piece came with a headline blaring Hillary was “skipping” the Democratic convention, which was also picked up by Slate. The Atlantic preferred “Hillary Has Better Things to Do Than Attend the Democratic Convention.”

Former Pres. Bill Clinton will be attending.

The rest of us will watch “Texts From Hillary,” because while Democrats are converging on a right-to-work state, staying in anti-union hotels, Hillary will be kicking up global dust.

What she won’t be doing is vamping until 2016.

TM Note: Original images by Kevin Lamarque for Reuters, via “Texts From Hillary.”

UPDATE: “Hillz” approves.

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Picture of the Day Comes from Syria

By on 09 April 2012

from Facebook (h/t Andy Carvin, NPR, via Twitter)

“In a desperate attempt to crush the uprising, Syrian forces have executed people in cold blood, civilians and opposition fighters alike,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They are doing it in broad daylight and in front of witnesses, evidently not concerned about any accountability for their crimes.” – Syria: Extrajudicial Executions – Security Council Sanctions, ICC Referral Needed

From March, tweeted just today, “The New Syria” caption on Facebook: “A woman kissing a Free Syrian Army soldier…”

It comes on a day where Human Rights Watch released a 25-page report on extrajudicial executions by Syrian military and pro-government “shabeeha” militias. It’s titled, “In Cold Blood: Summary Executions by Syrian Security Forces and Pro-Government Militias.”

It’s less than 24-hours until the cease fire is to begin, with reports today revealing that the Syrian government shows no signs of beginning the preparation for standing down.

NBC reported this morning that shots were fired across the Turkish border today, when Syrian protesters on the Syrian side were targeted. Cross-border conflict and the wider spread of violence is a worrisome aspect, some see as inevitable if Assad doesn’t end the carnage.

Assad’s government has also demanded that Qatar and Saudi Arabia stop funding the Free Syrian Army, also asking for them to lay down weapons, before any cease fire can occur.

The chances of either being a good idea given the war crimes already committed by Pres. Assad and his government is nil. Anyone trusting Assad at this point is insane.

This post has been updated.

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Listening to Men on Easter

By on 08 April 2012

“The problem is you’re sober.” – The Lives of Cowboys, Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keiller

Venus and the Sisters - Photo by Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)

“I don’t consider Andrew Sullivan to be a religious authority, okay?” – Rick Warren, ABC “This Week”

I love the boys, but I’m tired of hearing them preach.

Why do we care what Rick Warren thinks? Not to pick on him, because it applies to all of organized religion’s men pontificating Sunday across the globe. I’d say the same about women, but there are no equals to consider.

Rick Warren on the economy:

WARREN: And when you ignore these things, then we’re going to get deeper and deeper into debt, and then we can’t blame God for that… The biggest problem for all of our economic problems is our inability to delay gratification. I want it and I want it now, and I’m going to buy it even if I can’t afford it. And not only have people done that, the government’s done it…

I hold the people who got themselves in debt. I hold the government that got themselves in debt. I hold multiple administrations. It’s not the fault of any one person. There’s plenty enough blame to be passed around.

Religious institutions and leaders have become like diets, with the same success rates to match.

Religious, agnostic or atheist, it only matters in your own life and how it helps you connect to what’s larger than religion, beyond Christ, Buddha, or Muhammed. Because there is something larger than us all and it exists with or without your organized faith of choice and even the lack of that faith.

But you may choose to still call it God.

On Easter, I get a kick out of the atheists, who tend to work hardest on holy days. They always amuse me, especially those who are planet-caring, like Bill Maher. He and his athiest allies miss the irony of their surety about there being nothing more, while positing our energies and actions impact the planet, which is nothing less than an affirmation of a galaxy of interconnection and reaction.

This happens on the force of something, but what?

Life is dependent on waves of energy colliding, the biggest bang theory honed to smaller, mini bangs that impact our lives and is irrefutable.

It is not ordained by one gender over another, one religion or another, though human civilization has decided men are allowed the ear of a god, but women are not, without a male conduit.

Jesus crafted as the human form of God, with religious disciples of this story forced to ignore the theory of energy exploding, as man in the form of a god makes him secure in his superiority in a universe of supplication to cosmic combustion.

The very notion of the universe foils the religious, with feminine and male equal to access energy, which knows no bigotry or misogyny and needs no faith, because of its constancy.

“Meet the Press” actually broke with the all-male Tim Russert religious legacy this Sunday, distinguishing itself by having evangelist Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, on for Easter. It’s a media miracle, the association to her faith giant father her entry.

Rick Warren dispensed his version of faith on “This Week,” something Jake Tapper and I got into it over on Twitter yesterday. I saw a “This Week” promo basically asking “are Mormons Christian?” I called them on it. Tapper obviously saw my tweet with the #thisweek hashtag and tweeted me: why should you care about a theological discussion with a major American religious leader? Nice framing, that. Tapper, who’s as good as media offers, missing or ignoring the religious gender bias women are fed every holy day. My reply: Why talk to same male “major Amer. religious leader(s)” excluding women’s voices? Why ask if Mormons Christian? Bigoted question. It went on from there, but Tapper had no answer for why no female religious leader was invited on. Nobody ever does.

Easter Sunday continues to be about listening to men.

Tapper and “This Week” felt it was more important to discuss Andrew Sullivan’s writings and the Newsweek cover.

The Mormon and Catholic churches do not allow women to hold the priesthood, however differently they define it; while Southern Baptists genuflect to sexist traditions, as fundamentalist faiths, including Muslim, favor misogyny.

Never before have we needed a modern religious reformation more, a conversation about women breaking out of the laity and into the priesthood.

Andrew Sullivan is dispensing his two cents about Jesus Christ, getting attention from the media and conservatives for it, because it’s seen as controversial. This from a man who fails continually upward and has never been held accountable for defaming Sarah Palin through his concoction of lies about one of her children not really being her own. Not exactly Christian, honest or ethical on any count, but it matters not. He’s a man of faith, so bring him forth, showing media tolerance because he’s gay, never mind what he spews forth.

Religiosity in America is thriving, while choking us, because what it actually means to be a person of faith in our country is anyone’s guess. We’re so far gone from the golden rule that we’ve lost all sense of grace.

Upon Trayvon Martin’s murder, racism got noticed yesterday. The National Review’s Rich Lowry, after receiving a large ration of grief, canned John Derbyshire.

His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation.

This comes after Patrick J. Buchanan got fired from MSNBC for his book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, which caused a ruckus over the racial theory espoused in its pages. The “Morning Joe” hosts lamented the loss of their friend, as did some of their audience, which tells you all you need to know about the state of race in America.

All of this coming from so-called “Christians.”

Organized religion may be a gateway, but rapture as a goal is a ghastly way to promote enlightenment, though the surety of it is a blockbuster. If you get stuck in church and never go beyond, you’re basically in as rotten a place as atheists who rarely challenge themselves to answer the quandary of connection, which happens beyond religion and is more holy.

To get to the power where connecting to whatever energy that exists as the force that once got it all started, which offers the channel to move it with your mind, you’ve got to find the magnetic stream in whatever atom ignites into an idea in your unlimited imagination and ascertain the path that leads to tapping into the exploding universe to which we are all part, connected and second.

You are the energy that makes the world turn.

Focusing on whether “Mormons are Christian” is idiocy, as atheists will tell you. However, their own myopia revealed is the firmness to which they cling to nothingness, which is belied by the universe, science, and medicine.

Connectivity is the power to seek, the journey never ending. Finding the energy where you get outside your mind, beyond the Bible, galaxies away from rapture, there is simply The Source to tap, to mold on the way to manifestation.

The intent to access it can move your life. That can change your present. It manifests uniquely your future.

It’s beyond belief. Energy is.

It requires no organized religion, though it can be a gateway when a mind is laid open. It requires no holy book, though the enlightened can be welcomed guides. It certainly depends on no man or Pope.

We need no conduit. Energy is ours to mold in our own mind at will. Organized religion and its male promoters won’t teach you how.

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Trayvon Martin: Pick Your Side, Justice Denied

By on 03 April 2012

**updated with NBC apology**

“Zimmerman was also bleeding from the nose and the back of his head.” – Police Report, released by the Orlando Sentinel

“You can cancel second rescue. Second patient is not a gunshot.” – From 911 tape, verified through Police Report

Confusion reigns between fact and fiction, truth and emotion in the Trayvon Martin case, with threats launched from all sides.

As a backdrop, something remarkable is being done by Pres. Obama, which caught my eye, due to my lifelong involvement with culture and the arts. Reported by The Hill:

President Obama will record an introduction for the debut of a restored print of the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird” set to air on the USA cable network Saturday night, 50 years after the debut of the classic film. ..

It’s ironic to see Pres. Obama choosing to make a statement through this historic film, letting “To Kill a Mockingbird” do the heavy lifting, but also putting himself squarely in the position of fighting the fights of the 1960s, exactly what he said as a candidate he wanted no part. The change is welcome, however subtle.

At the center of the Trayvon Martin story today is the furor over the description and impact of George Zimmerman’s injuries. The first video showed no visible signs of injury. The above enhanced photo, via ABC, reveals marks on the back of Zimmerman’s head. They did not require serious medical treatment, but were cleaned up in the squad car, according to reporting, when Zimmerman was first picked up.

From the New York Daily News yesterday:

The Daily News obtained EMS documents last week showing that a call from the scene for a second ambulance to treat Zimmerman was canceled.

His injuries were also apparently light enough for cops to take him to the station with his hands cuffed behind him, and allow him to walk unaided to an interview room.

The Miami funeral director who prepared Trayvon’s body for burial said the teenager had no bruising on his knuckles or any other sign that he had been in a brawl.

As for the broken nose claimed by Zimmerman’s attorney, the police report from which I quote at the top is critical evidence and the first that there was someone who saw “bleeding from the nose and back of his head.”

However, there is no evidence Zimmerman was treated for a “broken nose,” specifically, so that burden of proof remains unmet. A punch can produce blood without a broken nose the result. Zimmerman’s attorney may have offered hyperbole on this one.

The police report also states: “While I was in close contact with Zimmerman, I could observe that his back appeared to be wet and was covered in grass, as if he’d been laying on his back on the ground.”

On the media front, it’s been incredibly confusing to get the facts, with critics often ignorant of the difficulty involved when investigating a murder where there is suspicion and accusations that detectives or police didn’t do their job thoroughly. Race and an armed citizen overstepping his bounds, while authorities try to catch up on their own mistakes, makes for a mess.

Sensational stories in the new media era leads in all directions, most of which ends in confusion on all sides.

NBC has been embarrassed by reports a tape was doctored and then released through “The Today Show,” which has spurred an internal investigation at NBC. From USA Today:

NBC is launching an internal investigation into its handling of a news story that ran on the Today show involving the 911 call from George Zimmerman on the night he shot teenager Trayvon Martin, The Washington Post reports.

Late today, NBC finished their investigation and has issued an apology [updated], with a full explanation at the Washington Post:

During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.

As for the federal investigation, this was outlined in the Los Angeles Times last week in an interview with two federal officials.

The Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who took over for Norm Wolfinger on the case, is involved an investigating potential charges that could be filed. The federal investigation is only focused on whether Trayvon Martin’s civil rights were violated, a hate crime charge, which has a much higher burden of proof.

Cable talking heads have been citing an epithet George Zimmerman allegedly said under his breath and was caught on tape, which is close to inauble and hard to discern without a reasonable doubt, if you listen to dueling experts. The slur being alleged is “f—ing coon,” which would add weigh ta the hate crimes charge if it was said.

CNN also reported yesterday that the Martin family is ruffling feathers and making charges that are being vehemently denied by those investigating their son’s murder. From the AP yesterday, reported by ABC:

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton allege in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice that State Attorney Norm Wolfinger met with the Sanford police chief within hours of the teen’s death and that together they overruled a detective’s recommendation that the shooter, George Zimmerman, be charged with manslaughter. The letter claims a lead investigator filed an affidavit stating that he didn’t find Zimmerman’s story credible.

The prosecutor, Norm Wolfinger, called the allegations “lies” and said no meeting took place.

“I’m outraged by the outright lies contained in the letter,” Wolfinger said in a statement. “I encourage the Justice Department to investigate and document that no such meeting or communication occurred.”

It’s why there is such a furor in Florida to get the police held accountable and charges filed against George Zimmerman, which has a completely different standard that federal hate crimes.

Jeralyn Merritt brings up the audio discussion on scream identification in a fascinating legal expert post on a convention convening in New York today. From deep in Jeralyn’s post:

So unlike Mr. Owen, Pimeau thinks a test should compare a scream to a scream. Since he doesn’t have an exemplar of Zimmerman screaming to compare to the 911 call with the scream in the background, he can’t do a test the way he thinks it should be done.

The foundation of the case remains the stalking of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, who pursued the teen after being told not to, while carrying a concealed weapon, with the clear intent to confront Martin.

Zimmerman was not threatened when he began his pursuit. He was curious.

Both go against Stand Your Ground laws, which deserve review and repeal.

Trayvon Martin obviously felt threatened when Zimmerman confronted him.

Zimmerman’s zeal ended with Trayvon Martin being shot dead.

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Hoodie in the House: Bobby Rush Shouted Down and Off the Floor

By on 28 March 2012

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) on Wednesday morning was asked to leave the House floor after removing his suit jacket to reveal a “hoodie,” then putting the hood on his head to protest the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida. – The Hill




Rep. Rush began in a suit and tie, then took off his jacket and raised the hood.

“Just because someone wears a hoodie doesn’t make them a hoodlum..”

He donned dark glasses and quoted the Bible, as the gavel resounded in the chamber.

The hoodie has reduced the participants of this debate to their corners.

Recently, after his initial remark about the dangers of hoodies, Geraldo Rivera was compelled by his friends to “apologize,” though he offered none for the actual remark he made warning minority youth off wearing a hoodie. Rivera apologized because his family and friends said his comment hijacked the debate from where it needed to be focused, for which he said he was sorry, if that’s what had happened.

video via Think Progress

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Mad Men Megan Draper’s Black Pantie Moment

By on 26 March 2012

“You’re too old. I don’t need an old person.” – Megan Draper, “Mad Men”



Megan Draper’s cutting “old person” line to Don lands with the swoosh of a Samurai sword.

The new Mrs. Draper proclaim’s aloud, when she throws a party everyone wants to go home and have sex afterward.

Betty would be appalled. She would also be insanely jealous, but she has no one to blame but herself, because it’s not as if she doesn’t have the same talents and tools.

Can’t wait until the two Mrs. Drapers meet.

Marriages splitting up at mid-life.

Men marrying their secretaries.

Women’s post-fertility battle in an era where women were seen as mother and wife, but never vixen (except in Rome). It’s no wonder Betty saw a shrink.

Then came the Megan Draper generation. She’s at the heart of the sexual revolution around which Hugh Hefner said he built Playboy, because good girls like sex, too.

Way back when I was teaching ladies of Los Angeles the language of love in personal ads, at the height of the very lucrative online dating game in the mid-90s, the hardest thing to get through their heads was that describing themselves as hot, sexual femmes actually attracted the cream of the man crop. No! That can’t be possible, I’ll only get creeps, was the first reaction every time. Until they tried it and found out it was true and rarely failed.

It’s why Joan wears figure-hugging wardrobe that accentuates her curvaceous positives that resound to her benefit, all the while she torments herself over the stereotypical reactions she elicits, because she mistakenly lets it bother her.

Juxtaposed against analysis that utilizes the politics of today and the war on women to explain “Mad Men,” the purity of Megan’s character proves she requires none of that and neither does the show, which stands alone in the time that birthed it and the struggles that will remain with us as long as we live.

Nothing reveals this more clearly than the breakout moment of Megan Draper’s surprise birthday party for Don, then watching what ensues.

The original “Zou Bisou Bisou” is a 1960s French classic. Jessica Pare, who plays the character Megan Draper, makes it her own singing “Zubi Zubi Zu,” which AMC has now released on iTunes.

From the Daily Beast, a translation:

Oh! Kiss kiss
My God, they are sweet!
…Oh! Kiss kiss
the sound of kisses
…Oh! Kiss kiss
…That means, I confess
But yes, I love only you!

But it’s how Megan Draper loves Don that captures the sexual revolution that set women brave enough to embrace it free.

Seeing the new Mrs. Draper’s unabashed boldness in sharing her vulnerability honestly, it’s feminine confidence we haven’t seen.

In the last season, when Megan and Don Draper have their first flirtation, she says to him that kissing him, having sex with him in his office, has nothing to do with work. She just wants him right now.

In the 5th season opener, when Megan Draper undresses to black panties and bra to clean up their wrecked abode after Don’s surprise 40th birthday party, it is perhaps the quintessential modern woman’s sexual emancipation proclamation.

“You don’t get to have this. Go sit over there. All you get to do is watch,” Megan taunts, after all hell breaks loose over reactions to her performance.

Needless to say, no one watches, but instead they devour each other on the destroyed white carpet, which will have to be replaced.

Nothing is recycled in “Mad Men.”

Megan Draper is a grenade thrown into the midst of restless humans whose insatiable appetites are colliding with a collapsing social structure dependent on one gender’s control over the other, especially where sex is concerned. Her entry as Don’s wife feels like that moment when your last cocktail high is at its peak, before dropping you with a thud back into consciousness and you start wondering what it will take to get it back.

The obsession begins.

Even Peggy Olson has succumbed to her sexual hunger, when a renegade writer who unwittingly insults her with a sonnet becomes so entranced with her that she becomes smitten herself. Her inner kitten unleashed, because of his vulnerability that made her swoon.

It’s the sex.

People can attempt to draw correlations to today, but it just sounds silly, because the tale is timeless.

It’s simply the sex, the spark that unleashes us to one another, which in the age of “Mad Men” hadn’t included women… yet.

The Megan Draper character introduces that the more of our sexuality we own the more in control we are. It’s about confidence and knowing the power we have, which is beyond fertility if we understand that sexuality is eternal.

It’s why when Joan is called a “madam from a Shanghai whorehouse” in last season’s “Tomorrowland” it trips up so many feminist analysts, because as usual they think it’s about Joan. When what it’s really about is the man who can’t have her.

Joan and Peggy don’t get that, Megan Draper does.

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Mad Men

By on 25 March 2012



Tonight.

It’s been a long wait for the beautifully photographed, carefully etched characters and gender plot lines to return.

Everyone has a favorite television drama, soap opera or crime drama series.

“Homeland” is my favorite, one thing I have in common with Pres. Obama. When George W. Bush said his favorite book was Lonesome Dove, my antipathy towards his presidency made me rethink my choice that it was also mine.

Culture is personal.

There’s “The Good Wife,” and going back to cable also “Dexter,” and who can leave out “True Blood”?

But there’s no equal to the stylings, sexual angst, and emotionally fraught, gooey nature of “Mad Men.”

If you’ve never imbibed, catch up with the recap below.

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For the Love of Horses, Racing Should Be Investigated

By on 25 March 2012

A 2-year-old quarter horse named Teller All Gone broke a front leg in a race on Sept. 3 at Ruidoso Downs Race Track in New Mexico and was euthanized. His body was then dumped in a junkyard next to an old toilet at Ruidoso, a short walk from where he had been sold at auction the previous year. – Death and Disarray at America’s Racetracks, The New York Times

Once upon a time, I followed horse racing. Research into the industry cured me of it.

But I once loved going to Santa Anita in Pasadena, California when the season opened.

At a posh racing event at Hollywood Park, I met and had a brief flirtation with Robert Wagner while we were in line placing our bets.

That was a long time ago, my disdain for the industry and its practices just one reason I couldn’t watch HBO’s “Luck,” which had Michael Mann, one of my favorite directors, and the incredible David Milch at the helm, starring Dustin Hoffman and a host of tremendous actors. They all should be ashamed for what’s been reported. That it’s been cancelled because of horse deaths during the filming doesn’t surprise me. I’m glad the show is gone.

From TMZ, because few people covered the story:

“While we maintained the highest safety standards possible, accidents unfortunately happen and it is impossible to guarantee they won’t in the future.” The statement goes on … “We maintained the highest safety standards throughout production, higher in fact than any protocols existing in horse racing anywhere with many fewer incidents than occur in racing or than befall horses normally in barns at night or pastures.”

I’d like to know the caliber of horses the production used, because “highest safety standards possible” doesn’t tell us anything about what type of horse and whether they were using animals that could withstand the violence required to compete .

As the harrowing Times story reports, Ruidoso Down in New Mexico as found to have the worst safety record in the country, but there are others with appalling track records.

At 2:11 p.m., as two ambulances waited with motors running, 10 horses burst from the starting gate at Ruidoso Downs Race Track 6,900 feet up in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains.

Nineteen seconds later, under a brilliant blue sky, a national champion jockey named Jacky Martin lay sprawled in the furrowed dirt just past the finish line, paralyzed, his neck broken in three places. On the ground next to him, his frightened horse, leg broken and chest heaving, was minutes away from being euthanized on the track.

For finishing fourth on this early September day last year, Jacky Martin got about $60 and possibly a lifetime tethered to a respirator.

The next day, it nearly happened again. At virtually the same spot, another horse broke a front leg, pitching his rider headfirst into the ground. The jockey escaped serious injury, but not the 2-year-old horse, Teller All Gone. He was euthanized, and then dumped near an old toilet in a junkyard a short walk from where he had been sold at auction the previous year.

In the next 24 hours, two fearful jockeys refused their assigned mounts. The track honored two other riders who had died racing. As doctors fought to save Mr. Martin’s life, a sign went up next to the track tote board: “Hang in there, Jacky. We love you.”

On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America. Many are inexpensive horses racing with little regulatory protection in pursuit of bigger and bigger prizes. These deaths often go unexamined, the bodies shipped to rendering plants and landfills rather than to pathologists who might have discovered why the horses broke down.

The report today in the New York Times deserves to bring congressional attention to an industry whose moral bankruptcy and criminal cruelty to both beast and human is now worthy of federal investigation.

Horse racing is now an inhumane blood sport.

The grandeur is gone.

All that’s left is a dying sport that kills horses and ruins the lives of jockeys, while the fans in the stands tear up their tickets and begin looking for the next “winner,” which requires a new definition of the word when talking about horse racing today.

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Geraldo Rivera Hits Nerve with Walking While Black In a Hoodie Remark

By on 23 March 2012

My own son just wrote to say he’s ashamed of my position re hoodies-still I feel parents must do whatever they can to keep their kids safe – Geraldo Rivera via Twitter



We live in a country where one 20th century motto was “the clothes make the man.” It’s advertising, but it’s apropos.

See any episode of “Mad Men.”

However, put the hoodie on a white kid and George Zimmerman doesn’t take the shot, because he’s likely not watching him.

But let’s not kid ourselves or be overly pc about this.

Cultural stereotypes pervade our country, with the Young Black Man In A Hoodie Must Be A Thug one of them.

Now widen the lens.

Look at what Pres. Obama has had to endure in a suit and tie, with the trappings of the White House and the voting populace electing him. Yes, America finally has our first African American president, but he’s paying the price for the privilege every day.

Rivera was asked if he’d retract his statement and he said “absolutely not.”

From Politico, who got the quote:

Asked whether he would take back his earlier comments on Fox News in light of the criticism, Rivera told POLITICO in an email, “Absolutely not,” while citing his recently published column on Fox News Latino called, “Geraldo Rivera: Trayvon Martin Would Be Alive but for His Hoodie” that makes the similar arguments that the Fox News host made on the air.

Good for Rivera.

The conversation we’re now having about the hoodie and the prejudice surrounding cultural style versus the stigma attached to it by individuals who don’t understand anything beyond their own world is important.

But let it not divert us from the racism at the heart of this act, made actionable by the N.R.A.’s “stand your ground” campaign.

You’re not going to convince me that George Zimmerman would have stood down if Trayvon Martin hadn’t been wearing a hoodie. It’s just as likely Zimmerman would have interpreted a non-hooded Trayvon as acting strangely as he tried to duck and dodge Zimmerman who was clearly stalking him with felonious intent fueling his vigilance.

But is Geraldo Rivera wrong to warn his son to watch what he wears when he goes out? Love him or hate him, respect him or not, my guess is Rivera knows something about bigotry and racism, so his words are informed.

We don’t have a prison population of non-whites for no reason and it’s not just because of criminals needing to be incarcerated. It’s because our justice system has never been color blind, because it’s fueled by a society founded with slavery.

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Pres. Obama: ‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon’

By on 23 March 2012



During remarks from Pres. Obama on his announcement to nominate Jim Yong Kim to the World Bank, he was asked about the murder of Trayvon Martin.

From the White House::

Question: Mr. President, may I ask you about this current case in Florida, very controversial, allegations of lingering racism within our society — the so-called do not — I’m sorry — Stand Your Ground law and the justice in that? Can you comment on the Trayvon Martin case, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m the head of the executive branch, and the Attorney General reports to me so I’ve got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we’re not impairing any investigation that’s taking place right now.

But obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids. And I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this, and that everybody pulls together — federal, state and local — to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.

So I’m glad that not only is the Justice Department looking into it, I understand now that the governor of the state of Florida has formed a task force to investigate what’s taking place. I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen. And that means that examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.

But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

Thank you.

Conservatives and anti-Obama people will jump on Pres. Obama’s statement, but the problem is that it has the virtue of being true.


Video via Huffington Post

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Another Republican Goes Birther

By on 21 March 2012

This time it’s “a top member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,” Rep. Cliff Stearns, who said Tuesday he’s not convinced the President’s birth certificate “is legitimate.”

Someone should tell Republicans this isn’t going to help Mitt Romney in November. There is nothing less on the minds of voters than questioning Pres. Obama’s Americanism.

From The Hill:

“I am, shall we say, looking at all the evidence,” Stearns told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday, comments that come after he expressed similar doubts at a meeting with constituents in February.

[...] Asked Tuesday if he thinks the birth certificate is legitimate, Stearns cited an inquiry by an Arizona sheriff – an apparent reference to Arpaio – and noted he believed there is “another investigation” as well.

“I think we are just going to hold in abeyance a final decision until we hear, you know, some of these people seem to have legitimate concerns, so I don’t think it is unreasonable just to see what they have to say,” Stearns said.

There’s just nothing that will convince some people on the right that Pres. Obama deserves and has earned a modicum of respect, at least as much as comes with the office of the presidency. Obama doesn’t even get that from the right.

You’d think ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden would be enough, but not even taking out the mastermind of Al Qaeda is enough for the bigots.

Rep. Stearns joins the delusional Sheriff Arpaio, who’s trying to divert attention from his own Federal troubles by seducing yet another Republican into looking like a sucker.

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