Thursday, October 27, 2011

She Is the Very Model of a Modern Major General


The United States Army promoted its first black female Major General, Marcia Anderson. I don’t care what you think of the military or the current wars we are waging or of US foreign policy in general; this is a big deal, and it is badass that she made it this far, and I hope she keeps striving for higher. If you click on the previous link, you’ll see a lot of criticism of her promotion. Mostly, it’s about her lack of combat experience and, of course, about her being a woman and black, so it HAD to be Affirmative Action that got her job.

For the first nay-saying point, the Army is vast. She worked to keep garrison families together. That is just as important work as that on the front line. I’m a first-hand observer of in-theatre and garrison bases. There are many horror stories of how little it takes for a family whose bonds are stretched thousands of miles can suddenly snap and turn into chaos. It is not pretty, and it hurts the both sides and hinders the performance of our force. The work she does needs to be done even more. As a disenchanted liberal elitist New York Jew, I have many reservations about many of the conflicts we initiated in the name of freedom, but truly in the name of money, but I don’t deny the need for a military force. The world is ugly, people are a**holes, and if you have inadequate defence, those a**holes will kill you. If you don’t believe me, ask any Native American…well, one who hasn’t been slaughtered by settlers…too soon? Anyway, it takes strong people to pledge to lay down their lives in the name of their country, even if its policies are contrary to what they believe, and I have nothing but respect for them and their perseverance, no matter what role they play…except the bigoted ones. F*** those guys.

For the second point, Middle-finger U. I love how people paint Affirmative Action as this devious process where if there’s a position open, a recruiter just goes up to a random minority on the street and says, “Hey there, gimpy chick n***er, you want a job?”, and POOF! We have a new negro woman CEO, with a limp. Affirmative Action is intended to make sure that QUALIFIED minorities get the positions they deserve.

This is the love/hate relationship that every minority has with Affirmative Action: were it not for AA, a minority engineer with more qualifications than a white male engineer would be overlooked for a position. I know this because that is how it was for years, and it still happens now! Minorities have to work twice as hard to get half the credit their white male counterparts get.

However, it feels grotesquely patronising when we DO get into a certain position, because even though we know that we are qualified to do the job, there is this nagging notion in the back of our head: “Did I get this because I’m the best fit, or because they needed to fill a quota?” This notion is emboldened when we interact with our co-workers and we get some of the following exchanges:

HE: Welcome to [COMPANY]. So you got the tech position?
ME: Actually, I got the engineer position.
HE: Oh, congrats…so were you in the military?
ME: No.
HE: Well how did YOU get the job?
ME: I have a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
HE: REALLY????

That happened at my first “career” job, about 3 to 4 times in my first two years, even though I found out I was making more per annum than my white college-hire colleagues, and I worked twice as hard. Then at my second job, this happened:

ME: [In a suit, manager of 15 people, directing two of them to do some work, a manager from another office approaches]
HE: [Talking directly to my employee] Hey, you’re in charge here, right? Can you have some of your employees [motioning toward me] move the workstations around a bit?
MY EMPLOYEE: I’ll have to clear that with my boss. Boss?
ME: I’ll see what I can do. My employees are busy right now, as you can see. By the way, I’m the head of the IT branch. Nice to meet you.
HE: [Blinks, bewildered]

Yes, HE, the massa’ let us read, an’ now we gets ta be duh boss too! My inclination let my id take over was quelled by both my employee’s respect and my own resolve to be a better person
Similarly, this happened to a female colleague:

SHE: …So we need to reconfigure the entire server for a new site.
HE: [EXACT WORDS] So how on earth did you get this job? This isn’t something someone like you [person with a vagina] would do.
SHE: …I applied for it. [Blood boils]
HE: I bet you didn’t know what you got yourself into, huh? [chuckles]
SHE: No, I did…because I applied for it.
HE: What’s your degree in? Biology? English? [She’s an engineer]
SHE: Electrical Engineering. I’m an engineer.

Presumably, SHE could have said/done a lot more, but ripping out a person’s larynx is not good office etiquette, especially since HE was a high-end boss.

The sine qua non is that a black woman busted her a** and broke yet another glass ceiling, and that's good for everyone. The reason why this is a big deal is because even now in 2011, our women and girls are bombarded by notions and ideas that they should use their sexuality, not their talent, to get what they want, they should be more expectant that someone will take care of them, and it’s cool to be a shallow, stupid, spoilt whore. Don’t believe me? Turn on “Jersey Shore” or “Real Housewives of [Insert City]”. Open a magazine. Or just go to the store and look at the girl’s toys section. There are lots of Bratz, pretty princess paraphernalia, and pixies and faeries. There was a time in the 80’s/90’s when Barbie was running for president and flying planes and being a paediatrician. Nowadays, she’s reverted back to being a useless princess or faerie unicorn rider. Women’s lives are much less valued in the real world too. How many front-page news stories are there about women? You usually have to go to the entertainment section to catch up on what someone is wearing, unless of course a pretty white girl goes missing or is killed. You never hear about the other 100 or so brown and yellow women who are suffering, though. The sex trafficking in this world is still rampant. They’re sold like property throughout all inhabited continents, including North America (stop denying it. You know it’s true). If they’re raped it’s still THEIR fault somehow.

If women are the n***ers of the world, then black woman are the n***ers of the n***ers of the world. Congratulations to Maj. General Marcia Anderson for breaking through all barriers to inspire us all to not be n***ers anymore.

Friday, October 21, 2011

He Ain't Heavy...


People are up in arms about Rick Perry calling Herman Cain “brother” in the latest episode of “Who Wants to Be a GOP Candidate?” Even I was mildly shocked and agitated. That’s OUR word!...but then I realised, it really isn’t.

I hear some say that Perry belittled Cain by calling him “brother”, but at its base definition, brother is a peer family member. As long as you don’t put the adjective “little” or “big” before it, I can’t see the harm. If he called him “son”, then there would be a point to this argument.

Perry is an evangelical Christian, and Cain is an ordained Baptist minister. Perhaps the “brother” was inferring that relationship. They’re both right-wing nuts who veil their selfish ideas about the world in biblical verse, contradicting the very message of the book they claim they wish to emulate. “Hey ‘brother’, I like the way you pick and choose bible verses and appropriate them for your own political and social agendas.”

Perry is also from the South. Perhaps that is just his way of laid back, friendly speaking. If this is the case, then it’s just an etiquette thing. I doubt that 20 years ago candidates used informal vernacular during a debate, but times have changed greatly. Something happened in the 21st Century that made nearly every social interaction a lot less formal. There was a time when you’d wear a suit to an airport. People would not wear jeans to ANY restaurant. Night clubs would have strict dress codes. Now it’s normal to see a person in sweatpants in all venues. People would not talk back to their elders, but now it happens a lot. Perhaps Perry is just another example of the erosion of 19th and 20th Century etiquette rules. No one is saying that we need to follow Vanderbilt or Emily Post’s guides to proper social interactions, but the world, as we seem to get closer via technology, seems to get more comfortable saying what it wants. This blog is a perfect example.

I have to be honest: I call my friends "brother" and "sister" all the time, regardless of their race. Friends, after all, are my family, so why not call a friend brother or sister? And I pay it no mind when a white person calls me brother. Better "brother" than "boy" or "son". Furthermore, any victims of racial, gender, age, or ANY type of discrimination can tell when someone is using a patronising or condescending tone with them.

People that say Perry is a racist because he “brothered” Herman Cain are flat out wrong. Perry is a racist because he had a giant f***ing rock on his family’s property that had “NIGGERHEAD” painted in block letters and only painted over it when he started getting deeper into politics. Had he not been gunning for money, power, and office, that rock would say “Niggerhead” today. The excuse that it was always called that doesn’t make it right, and if it really bothered him that much, as he so claimed, he would have painted over it the same day he acquired the property, back in the 80’s. He’s a racist, but he’s an "I’m-not-racist-but" racist.

HA! You thought I was defending that a**hole, didn’t you! F***'em both! Vote or Die, motherf***er, Vote or Die!

Is Your Cat Bigger than a Bread Box?


Terry Thompson, an exotic animal preserve owner, killed himself on 18th October. Before he killed himself, he released nearly all of the animals in his “collection”, allowing them to roam Zainesville, OH. Most of the animals were shot and killed by local police, because there was no time to acquire tranquiliser weapons, and the danger of wild, carnivorous animals in a residential area was imminent.

There is nothing good about this story. Regardless of the risk to community, I highly doubt anyone wants to see so many endangered animals slaughtered. No one wants a bunch of animal attacks either. This story brings up a lot of points though:

  • Why the hell are private citizens even allowed to have endangered, exotic pets? I don’t care how much you LOVE animals, they belong in the wild. The domestication of dogs and cats took possibly tens of thousands of years. We should stick to what we know. We are in a more enlightened time, where we can actually see and comprehend the effect we have on an ecosystem when we extract an animal and put it in a cage for display or as a “pet”. It’s not good for the animal, and even worse for the habitat from whence it came. Think “Butterfly Effect”, but with elephants and Bengal tigers.
  • Terry Thompson had a history of animal abuse cases and a gun charge. He actually had his licence to exhibit exotic animals revoked, but he still had them. Why the hell did this dude have any animals? I don’t think he’d be fit to own a goldfish!
  • This whole story is proof that a government without regulations on its citizens will lead to chaos…as if the Industrial Revolution didn’t do that already. Ohio’s animal ownership laws are the most lenient in the country, and the few regulations they had were not enforced. That’s why things came to this. These animals could have been put in a proper preserve, or re-introduced back into the wild if they were fit to do so. I would love to like Ron Paul, but his idea that the government should not have any involvement in individuals’ lives is too narrow. I am all for everyone doing everything they want to do so long as they don’t keep another person from doing the same, but there NEEDS to be some governing, because PEOPLE ARE SELFISH AND STUPID! Regulations don’t kill jobs and keep you from doing what you want to do. They are supposed to keep you from doing dumb s*** like OWNING A F***ING MAN-EATING CAT! Honestly, if the guy died at the hand (paw?) of one of his own “pet” lions, then I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him. The fact is, though, the animals were a danger to the surrounding community, even before he let them loose. Here’s a good test: is your cat bigger than a bread box? Yes? Then it’s too f***ing big. Send it to a wildlife preserve and get yourself a nice calico from the local shelter.

Bottom line: lift certain regulations, or just not enforce them to appease a certain voting demographic, and you do more damage to the rest of the world than if you just risked not appeasing a few narrow-minded people. They’re not narrow-minded because they’re a**holes (though I’m sure some of them are); they’re narrow-minded because they’re not seeing the effect one law would have on the rest of their community. We are individuals, but the way the world is now, humans are social animals, and we have a responsibility to do right by our fellow humans. So no more f***ing pet bears and tigers, PLEASE.

Monday, October 17, 2011

AARG!


The realm of Morondor (my workplace, for those of you who have not read the first few articles in the Chronicles) knows no bounds in its ingenious ideas. The latest: a new internal social/community group geared toward a specific group in the company’s population. This is not odd; many firms have special networking organisations focused on specific groups of people. Our realm has a “Grad” group for those who are younger and/or got hired to Morondor directly from university. There is a group for elder employees who have been here for many years and may be near retirement. There is WIN, or Women’s Interactive Network, focusing on women engineers and professionals. These are all well and good; the groups have meet-ups and organise volunteer projects for local charities and have speakers come in to encourage professional development.
Well now there is a group for people of colour, call the African American Resource Group, or for short: AARG!..."AARG". Who the hell is making these names? I thought the acronyms stopped at product, but I now know that the same people who name products apparently name the specialty groups. I can imagine how this is going to go down…

ME: I’ve got to run. I have a meeting to attend.
HE: Oh? What meeting is that?
ME: AARG!
HE: Whoah, you don’t have to yell at me. Just tell me what the meeting is for.
ME: I’m telling you: AARG!
HE: Calm down! No need for screaming.
ME: But I’m not. I’m going to AARG!
HE: Okay, you don’t have to tell me. I’m going to go now. Just don’t hurt me.
ME [still trying to explain where I'm going as HE walks away]: But...AARG!
HE [to himself]: Sheesh, they really ARE more aggressive.
ME [fading in the background]: AARG!

…I’m going home.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

It's National Come On Out Day! :-D

It’s National Coming Out Day today (11th October). Since I already came out as a lesbian last year (I LOVE women:-9), I will commemorate this day by calling it National Come On Out Day. Here is a list of a few anti-LGBT activists who were caught doing really gay stuff:


  • Allen, Robert. State House Representative-R, FL
    • Spent his career aligning himself and his voting record with the Christian Coalition, who has a history of backing anti-gay legislature.
    • Offered an undercover vice officer $20 if he could give the officer for fellatio. BONUS: his excuse was racist! He claimed that he was intimidated by the muscular black officer, and thought he was going to rob him. There is no robbery situation where I would offer oral sex to the assailant...unless it was Angela Bassett. Then I would dive in head first.
  • Arango, Roberto. Senator-R, PR
    •  Voted to ban gay marriage in 2009 (the bill failed), opposes civil unions, and used a duck to make fun of a campaign opponent in 2004 (labeling someone a duck is a homophobic slur used in Puerto Rico).
    • Used his smart phone to post naked pictures of himself to post on Grindr, a gay dating site.
  • Ashburn, Roy Arthur. State Senator-R, CA
    • Voted against every gay rights measure that came to the State Senate while in office.
    • Arrested for DUI after having left a gay nightclub with another patron as a passenger. Admitted that he actually is gay.
  • Bachmann, Marcus. Clinical Therapist, head of Bachmann & Associates
    • Uses Michelle Bachmann as a beard. Heads up Bachmann & Associates, where he performs "ex-gay" therapy on homosexuals. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't "pray the gay away" in therapy sessions. He holds the gay close, arms intertwined, bodies pressed together as one...HIS words.
    • It's just a matter of f***ing time…
  • Craig, Larry Edwin. US Senator-R, ID
    • Attempted to push for a sever punishment for openly gay Senator Barney Frank amidst a gay prostitution scandal. Supported the ill-fated Federal Marriage Amendment. Promised to vote "yes" for an Idaho amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Idaho.
    • Alleged to have had cocaine and have seix with male teenage congressional pages in 1982. In 2007, convicted of lewd conduct when he inadvertantly propositioned an undercover officer for gay sex in a men's bathroom at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Later denied being gay, then got voted out of office.
  • Curtis, Richard. State House Representative-R, WA
    • Opposed gay rights bill that banned sexual orientation-based discriminiation. Voted against recognising domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples.
    • Met a gay porn star Cody Castagna at an adult book store and had sex with him in a hotel room.
  • Dreier, David Timothy. US House Representative-R, CA
    • Supported the Defense of Marriage Act, voted against gay adoption, voted against including homosexuals in a protected class in hate crime cases.
    • Had a romantic relationship with his chief of staff, Brad W. Smith. Denied it, though it was a known "open secret".
  • Haggard, Ted Arthur. Evangelical Pastor, Former leader of National Association of Evangelicals
    • Supported Colorado's Amendment 43, which would define marriage in Colorado as only the union of a man and a woman.
    • Maintained a 3-year relationship with a male escort, used methamphetamine with said escort, claimed to have been "cured", finally admitted being bisexual.
  • King, Troy Robin. State Attorney General-R, AL
    • Unsuccessfully attempted to enforce the Anti-Obscenity Enofrcement Act, called homosexuality the downfall of society.
    • Middle name is Robin. Also, caught by his wife having sex with the Tory University homecoming king…Kind of narcissistic.
  • Long, Eddie Lee. Senior Pastor, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
    • Led “homosexual cure” programs to recruit gays and lesbians for “Sexual Reorientation” conferences. Marched with Bernice king to the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr to promote a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
    • Three separate men brought lawsuits against Long alleging he used his position of power to coerce them into sexual relationships, making them participate in "covenant" ceremonies.
  • Murphy, Glenn Jr. National Chair, Young Republican National Federation
    • Head of the f***ing Young Republican National Federation.
    • Pled guilty in a sexual assault case where he performed oral sex on a sleeping colleague.
  • Rekers, George Alan. Southern Baptist Minister, "Psychologist"
    • On founding board of the Family Research Council. Former advisor of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, an association that promotes "aversion therapy".
    • Photographed at Miami International Airport accompanied by a "RentBoy", who he claimed was just helping him with his luggage…even though he was photographed carrying his own luggage.
  • Schrock. Edward Lee. US House Representative-R, VA
    • Aggressiveley opposed any gay rights legislation while in office.
    • Caught on tape having sex with a male prostitute; subsequently voted out of office.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Occupies My Mind


The Occupy Wall Street movement has been spreading slowly. This is a growing protest that was partially the brain child of Adbusters, an anti-consumerist, pro-environment non-profit group from Canada that is now a worldwide community. At first, there was hardly any coverage of the protesters, and then the news stories made jokes of them. Now they are somewhat being taking seriously, probably because famous people started showing up. Fortunately, Anthony Bologna did not pepper spray Susan Sarandon while she was there. I hear he likes to spray pretty white women.

As usual, if you tune in to Fox News, you’d think the Occupy Wall Street group are just a bunch of leftist, communist, socialist, anarchists who are complaining about the rich because they are not, and they need to spend their time updating their resumes and getting jobs instead of demanding handouts from people who earned their money the honest way: by sailing through loopholes and storing their money in off-shore tax havens, and good ole’ fashioned money laundering.

Also as usual, if you watch MSNBC, you’d think the OWS’s are a group of disenchanted patriots who want their country back from the corporations who have bought and sold more members of our federal government than they have their own product, and they will not rest until real changes have been made and people will be held accountable. Also, there will be a drum circle in Liberty Plaza at 3:00pm, for those who actually wear watches.

If you watch CNN, then what you know of the OWS is whatever people tweeted and e-mailed to CNN, as it seems that is their primary way to get information for their news shows these days.
My thought: The Occupy Wall Streeters are doing precisely what the Tea Partiers have been doing: rallying against a blanket entity that they view as being the cause of the bulk of the ills of our society. Much like the Tea Partiers, the news outlets have been looking at them as a joke, and when they interview individual members of the protest, the reporters inevitably find the most stoned, ignorant, sign-misspellingest schlubs they can find. Unlike the Tea Partiers, their roots don’t seem to be in established politicians’ pockets, under the veil of being a “grass roots movement”. With the exception of Adbusters planting the seed, this actually seems to grass roots. Unlike the Tea Partiers, I haven’t seen any blatantly racist depictions of anyone in power in their protest signs.

One thing the OWS has NOT done is appropriate what used to be proud symbols and terms from the opposing side of the fence and distort and bastardise them so that now they connote complete opposite. The Tea Partiers took “Boston tea party”, the “Don’t tread on me” snake, and the US Constitution and applied grotesquely distorted history to them to validate their use of them as logos for their movement. What if the OWS’s took icons and symbols of extreme conservatism (or at least what right wingers hold up as icons and symbols of conservatism)? Perhaps the OWS’s should take the Daughters of the American Revolution, Ronald Reagan, the Heritage Foundation, Manifest Destination, and the Confederate Flag and egregiously warp their meanings to reflect their own views…then again…maybe not.

Bottom line: I tend to agree with what a lot of the non-stoned OWS’s say. The government has been letting big corporations dictate what laws are passed, and all big corporations really want is to get bigger. They do not care about the people, our land, or how they get their money. They have been doing everything they can to buy and sell whoever they can to make the most profit. You can tell that from the Industrial Revolution, a company WILL NOT do what is good for its employees and the public if not told to do so. All for which it cares is its bottom line. This is just as exemplary now. Exxon ALWAYS yields ridiculously high yields every year, but instead of investing that profit into better ways to produce energy than extracting a finite source that potentially poisons millions of ecosystems, they line their executive’s pockets with million-dollar bonuses. Though there is some validity to their claim, if the Occupy Wall Streeters don’t do what the Tea Party did and register to vote when they get home and put their votes where their rhetoric is, then they will have occupied and gotten arrested and brutalised by the NYPD for naught.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Nobel Did Something Special for 3 Ladies in the World

Three women won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize: Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, both of Liberia. People have been saying that the Peace Prize is a joke, mainly because people like Jimmy Carter and Al Gore were getting the award. The only reason naysayers were saying “nay” was because those are two of the most active liberal politicians in America. Say what you want about Carter and Gore; they still did exactly what they planned to do, and after their roles in office, they lived out their views as much as they could in their private lives. Carter has been a diplomat, he helped found Habitat for Humanity, and he never pulled his punches when he wrote or spoke. Gore brought attention to the plight of the planet by getting nearly as big as the world and f***ing up cherished parts of his life, mush like what we are doing to our earth right now…he also made a movie or something. You notice he’s a lot funnier and more charismatic now than he was when he was vice president? Regardless, if you hate liberals, OF COURSE you’re going to hate the Nobel committee’s choices!

The thing is that I almost believed that the Prize was a Joke when Barack Obama got it in 2009. The official reason for the choice in awarding him was, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. Let’s be honest, though: Barack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush. He was in the infancy of his first term! There are people who are standing up to hopelessly oppressive governments, putting their lives on the line non-violently in the face of threats of torture, rape and murder. But you give the prize to Obama??? I haven’t been George Bush for over 30 years. Where the hell is my prize? Obama didn’t even do anything yet. Since he got the prize, Barack Obama has dropped more bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq than the Phantom Sh***er at my job does on 2 for 1 Taco Day. He ordered a hit on a Somali pirate, numerous al-Qaeda targets, and had Osama bin Laden’s head exploded. It’s so funny, because the right keeps trying to paint him as a lefty-pinko p***y (when they’re not comparing him to Hitler), but if you look at the numbers, Obama makes GW Bush look like a flower-powering hippie! It’s like he received the NWA’s famous Aw Hell Piece Prize. If you get that, you have to murk as many mark-a** motherf***ers as you can within a year, but you have to turn your weapon sideways while doing so. Just imagine 30 Predator drones coming at you rotated 90˚. That’s when you know s***’s about to get real.

This year’s awardees are true peace advocates. Tawakkul Karman founded Women Journalists without Chains to fight for political, social, and press freedom in Yemen. Throughout the years, she’s led peaceful sit-ins in Yemen to further her cause. She’s been arrested numerous times for her “crimes” of free thought and expression. This year during the Arab Spring, Karman mobilised students to rally in the ironically-named Freedom Square in Sana’a. The best thing: SHE’S ONLY 32! Yeah…what the hell have YOU been doing with your life, huh?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first and ONLY female elected head of state in Africa! She was born poor, daughter of a miner, but persevered and eventually got her advanced degrees in America, then returned to Liberia to get involved in politics amidst a LOT of turmoil…I wonder if people taunted her with fake American birth certificates? She is so dedicated to getting her country on track that when the presidential house was victim to an accidental fire, she stated that the damage to the house was a low priority compared to the tasks ahead as president.

Leymah Gbowee once quipped, “If any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers”. She stated this after having moved to Monrovia at the age of 17 and trained to be a trauma counsellor in the first civil war and worked with the wounded of Charles Taylor’s child army. She acted on her words and organised a nonviolent peace protest that ended Liberia’s Second Civil War. It also led to the first female African President. How badass is that? Again, I say, “What the hell have YOU been doing with your life?”

I hope that last year’s winner (Liu Xiaobo) and this year’s winners means that the Nobel Committee will stop playing politics with such a prestigious award and award it to people who truly deserve it, not just because they like someone because he/she is not George Bush. Kudos to them on their choices and to the women who helped changed this world…although if they DO start giving out the award for BS reasons, I want one for not being Snookie.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Shuttlesworth Is Getting Hensoned!

Fred Shuttlesworth, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Committee, died yesterday, 5th October. He was Bull Connors’ nemesis in Alabama and an inspiration for both his contemporaries (Martin Luther King, for one). If you didn’t know this, it’s because Steve Jobs died the same day, and except for NPR, most of the news media have been covering his accomplishments all over the news, as if he were a messiah.

Don’t get me wrong; I have no issues with Steve Jobs. He was a brilliant mind, and his anti-establishment ideas about technology made him a true maverick in the computer world. Not like “gotch’ya, ‘real’ American, ‘lame-stream media, see-Russia-from-my-house” maverick, I mean a true rebel, but with a clue. Jobs was canned by his own company, but he STILL kept going, buying Pixar, re-envisioning media access to the world, and striking fear into the hearts of formulaic, establishment corporations that thought their standard would be the ONLY standard for the world. I’m sure that many Apple products have been used the many revolutions of this year in the Mid East, and probably in Iran, Russia, China and other governments to convey the thoughts of those who still don’t have the luxury of being able to speak their minds without lethal repercussions. He took this itty-bitty world by storm, and he was JUST getting warm…ßYes, I just said that. However, let’s be honest with ourselves, near the end, Jobs, the rebel without a DOS, slowly became against what he rebelled. The once-open source App Store has been getting locked down more and more as time has passed. There is a following that eat up EVERYTHING he said, did, or promoted as if it were gospel, even if they had inherent flaws. Remember the antenna problems with the first iPhone 4? Apple wouldn’t even admit there was a problem, and then put out a laughable video about how others’ phones have a flaw too. Many of the consumers of Apple products nearly worship the man, and are as creepy as every other religious zealot. Should you dare say anything contrary to what is said in the Book of Jobs to a Machead, and you’re bound to get the glare only afforded to a heretic, or a woman who knows math in the 1600’s, or a woman who knows math in Mississippi, for that matter. After a while, people started going to Android as a rebellion against Mac. Steve Jobs became the machine against which he was raging.

Fred Shuttlesworth, on the other hand, needs to get his due credit. He scared the s*** out of Bull Connor, to the point that even MLK, Jr said that Fred was the most dangerous man in the South. If you don’t know who Bull Connor is, then get the f*** off my blog, go back to school, and read a book. If ever there was a personification of bigotry in America, it was Bull Connor. Hank Williams could have compared Connor to Hitler and been on point…of course knowing him, he probably would have sided with him. Shuttlesworth was the heart and soul of the Birmingham Movement. His rhetoric was even more mobilising than Martin Luther King’s, as it appealed the younger generation as they realised that the system needed to change. He stared down Klan members as they were throwing very valid threats at him to leave town. His church was bombed. His house was burned down. He faced mobs that hated everything for which he stood. He and his advocates faced fire hoses, angry dogs, and who-knows-what in jail. Through it all, he stayed resilient. Before Malcom X, Shuttlesworth was the Magneto to MLK’s Professor X. Even after the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Shuttlesworth became a strong advocate for the poor. He didn’t stop going, even in failing health.

As of this post, all the news outlets seemed to have done a Jim Henson on Shuttlesworth though, so you won’t hear too much about his accomplishments. I don’t think this is a “brown people are less important” thing, though. It’s not like it was a pretty white girl that got kidnapped. I’m certain it’s because the “news”, left, right, and center, are really part of Starf***ers, Inc. The popular, not the most important, gets the most airplay. Sure, Steve jobs was an innovator, but Fred Shuttlesworth was a f***ing American hero. I would likely not be here writing this were it not for him. Rest in peace to both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Campaign

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

Apple triggers 'religious' reaction in fans' brains, report says

Religion, evolution and Apple Macheads

Apple’s Response to iPhone 4 Antenna Problem: You’re Holding It Wrong

Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems

Apple fails to fix Iphone 4 antenna for Verizon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Henson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis,_Jr.

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