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White America Has Lost Its Mind

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Hey, you know something people? I’m not black, but there’s a whole lots a times. I wish I could say I’m not white”—Frank Zappa, “Trouble Every Day”

There is a well-written, fascinating—but fucking depressing—cover story (avec an awesome Drew Friedman cover illustration) by Steven Thrasher in the Village Voice today. Not much for me to add to this, I snarked myself into exhaustion yesterday, just read it and weep amongst yourselves:

About 12:01 on the afternoon of January 20, 2009, the white American mind began to unravel.

It had been a pretty good run up to that point. The brains of white folks had been humming along cogently for near on 400 years on this continent, with little sign that any serious trouble was brewing. White people, after all, had managed to invent a spiffy new form of self-government so that all white men (and, eventually, women) could have a say in how white people were taxed and governed. White minds had also nearly universally occupied just about every branch of that government and, for more than two centuries, had kept sole possession of the leadership of its executive branch (whose parsonage, after all, is called the White House).

But when that streak was broken—and, for the first time, a non-white president accepted the oath of office—white America rapidly began to lose its grip.

As with other forms of dementia, the signs weren’t obvious at first. After the 2008 election, when former House majority leader Tom DeLay suggested that instead of a formal inauguration, Barack Obama should “have a nice little chicken dinner, and we’ll save the $125 million,” black folks didn’t miss the implication. References to chicken, particularly of the fried variety, have long served as a kind of code when white folks referred to black people and their gustatory preferences—and weren’t many of us already accustomed to older white politicians making such gaffes? But who among us sensed that it was a harbinger that an entire nation was plunging into madness?

Who didn’t chuckle, after all, the first time they heard that white people had doubts that Barack Obama had even been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president? It sounded like one of those Internet stories in which some (usually white) writer does his best to prove something everyone knows to be true is actually the exact opposite. And you go along with it for a few paragraphs to see how long the writer can convince you that what you know is right is actually wrong.

Seemed like that, didn’t it? After all, what was the beef? Obama’s father was Kenyan, and the kid was born in Hawaii—which is barely a part of the United States to begin with (only a state in 1959!). His mother was white, and after the Kenyan guy left, she married an Indonesian guy, so little Barack lived in Jakarta for a while before coming back to Hawaii to be brought up largely by his white grandparents. . . . And that’s it? Come on, this was after-school-special material, the kind of thing that brings a tear to your eye because little half-Kenyan/half-white Barry made good, not the stuff of conspiracy novels.

But the more you shook your head at it, the more it seemed to have taken root deep in the lizard part of the white nervous system. Obama is not an American. He says he’s Christian, but he has a Muslim-sounding name. He’s not black, he’s not white. . . . Is . . . is he even human?

Today, Newsweek has found, nearly a quarter of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim, with barely 42 percent of the nation accepting his claim that he’s a Christian. CNN finds that a quarter of Americans also believe that Obama was “probably or definitely” born in another country.

Harris found in an online poll that 14 percent of Americans believe in their hearts that President Barack Obama is the antichrist, with nearly a quarter of Republicans saying so.

Read more of White America Has Lost Its Mind (Village Voice)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.29.2010
03:04 pm
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Spitting mad: Angry man rants about the New World Order and Muslims
09.28.2010
03:11 pm
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It took me a while before I could tell—even in a general sense—exactly what the fuck this angry, angry man was going on about and by the end I still wasn’t sure. One thing that’s for certain is he is really, really angry. Spitting mad, you might say. Bring an umbrella.
 
Thank you Redacted!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2010
03:11 pm
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The Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids!
09.28.2010
01:54 pm
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Fuck me:

A wonderful book of The Tea Party for Kids! Teaches children (and parents) about the origins of the Tea Party and what it involves. A very pleasant song, coloring and activity book on Liberty, Faith, Freedom and so much more! Get involved, participate, self reliance, freedom of choice, work, government-of-for-by the people, Leadership, Ingenuity, Jobs and responsibilty!

The Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids!

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2010
01:54 pm
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Rock against repression: Gal Costa, “Milho Verde” and the banning of India
09.26.2010
12:42 pm
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Brazilian singer and birthday girl Gal Costa started her career during the Costa e Silva and Médici military juntas in Brazil, and from the top there was no stopping her. Joining up with the renegade Tropicalia movement in 1968, Costa helped make history with a group of musicians led by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

In 1973, in an atmosphere rife with governmental repression, torture and strict press censorship, Costa unleashed the album India, which sported a Sticky Fingers-esque cover that got the album immediately banned from the shelves. Based on a themed live show and arranged and produced by Gil and recently rediscovered funk-meister Arthur Verocai, India comprised a great bunch of post-Tropicalia experimental rock tunes, a version of Tom Jobim’s bossa classic “Desafinado,” and this intense version of the Portugese folk tune “Milho Verde.” 
 

 
Bonus clip after the jump: an Afro’ed Gal tears down the house in 1968 with Veloso & Gil’s “Divinho Marvilhoso” at IV Festival de Música Popular Brasileira!
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
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09.26.2010
12:42 pm
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Christine O’Donnell: Even stupider than you thought!

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A post from Dan Amira on New York magazine’s blog about Delaware’s Republican Senatorial no-hoper, Christine O’Donnell, quotes from a transcript of a, uh, “debate” over evolution between the dotty, anti-masturbation church lady and an evolutionary biologist. The Tea party favorite, who has been accused of living off campaign donations by her former campaign manager, really tells him, doesn’t she?

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: Well, creationism, in essence, is believing that the world began as the Bible in Genesis says, that God created the Earth in six days, six 24-hour periods. And there is just as much, if not more, evidence supporting that.

No evidnece at all, Christine. Those dinosaur fossils were put here by God just to fuck with people, right?

And here’s what she said about not lying to Nazis if they wanted to know where the Jews were hiding on a Politically Incorrect appearance in the late 90s:

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: A lie, whether it be a lie or an exaggeration, is disrespect to whoever you’re exaggerating or lying to, because it’s not respecting reality.

BILL MAHER: Quite the opposite, it can be respect.

EDDIE IZZARD: What if someone comes to you in the middle of the Second World War and says, ‘do you have any Jewish people in your house?’ and you do have them. That would be a lie. That would be disrespectful to Hitler.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: I believe if I were in that situation, God would provide a way to do the right thing righteously. I believe that!

And for a little perspective, here’s Eddie Izzard, her fellow guest on Politically Incorrect, on Creationists, dinosaurs and Jesus:
 

 
O’Donnell So Fervently Pro-Truth That She Wouldn’t Lie To Nazis Asking If She Were Hiding Jews In Her Home (Think Progress)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.15.2010
11:22 pm
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Skateboarder foils Qur’an burning in Amarillo, Texas
09.13.2010
03:01 pm
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Bodacious dude saves the day!  From Staple News:

Enter Jacob Isom, a resident of Amarillo, TX. The 23-year-old skateboarder happend to be nearby when he heard somebody mention burning a copy of the Quran. Apparently that didn’t seem too righteous to Jacob, who snatched away the holy book—already doused in a flammable liquid—and told the agitator, “Dude, you have no Quran!” before running off.

The Amarillo Globe-News reports that Isom was wearing a t-shirt with the words, “I’m in Repent Amarillo No Joke” handwritten on the back and he accused David Grisham, from Christian fundamentalist group Repent Amarillo, of “trying to start Holy Wars.”

Quran Burning FAIL: Skateboarder Foils Extremist

(via TDW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.13.2010
03:01 pm
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Rocker chick preacher dreams of Oral Roberts and dancing elephants, then has freak out onstage
09.11.2010
11:38 pm
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Scam artist/TV evangelist Todd Bentley is baaack, in case you missed him, and he’s got a new, much younger wife!
 

 
Since tattooed Todd has been to Heaven several times and all, why can’t his new wife be a prophet too? Seen here, Jessa Bentley describes a prophetic wacky dream she had starring Oral Roberts, a golden lion and a dancing elephant. Watch in pain as she unconvincingly describes this foolishness to the low IQ mouth-breathers in attendance—she clearly doesn’t even buy her own bullshit—then makes an extremely poor, almost air-guitarish attempt at “speaking in tongues.” This is quite something to see. 

Something depwessing.

Todd Bentley, you have to hand it to him, has really found a niche for himself and his, uh, “ministry”: People stupider than he is!

Take a gander at his Wikipedia page. No really, take a look. Next read this. Then watch this:
 

 
Here’s the caption from YouTube. Fucking hilarious:

Todd Bentley discusses the connection between God’s Glory and a release of wealth and finances in the Scripture. It’s interesting to note that almost every time the Glory of God falls on the God’s people in the Bible, there is a simultaneous release of wealth and finance.

As one wag said: “The Devil might wear Prada, but he’s definitely driving a Bentley.”

Via Christian Nightmares

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.11.2010
11:38 pm
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Thirty-nine years of Attica: Ali & Lennon speak out
09.09.2010
03:10 pm
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September 9, 1971 saw the population of Attica State prison in western New York state rise up and seize the facility, taking 33 staff hostage. Attica was infamous at the time for both being stuffed at twice its capacity, and for the inhumane living conditions of its majority-black and Puerto Rican community. Prison officials allotted one bar of soap and roll of toilet paper per month and a bucket of water per week as a shower. Inmate mail was regularly censored, visits were highly restricted, and prisoner beatings happened constantly. Responding to news of the imminent torture of one of their fellows who’d assaulted a prison officer, a group of prisoners freed their brother and rose up after guards denied yard-time to the full population.

After four days of negotiation, Governor Nelson Rockefeller—who refused the prisoners’ requests to come to the prison and hear their grievances—blessed Correctional Services Commissioner Russell G. Oswald’s order to retake Attica by force.  This resulted in the death of nine hostages and 28 inmates in an episode that shocked the conscience of a nation wearied by war, assassination and urban unrest. It also saw the birth of modern prison reform.

The episode is chronicled in four feature film adaptations—and famously referenced in Dog Day Afternoon)—alongside numerous documentaries, the best being Cinda Firstone Fox’s recently preserved 1973 piece. That one isn’t up on YouTube, but here’s a short doc from the great grassroots media hub Deep Dish TV.
 

 
After the jump: Muhammad Ali recites and John & Yoko sing out on Attica…
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
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09.09.2010
03:10 pm
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Public Enemy keeps sayin’ it in a brand new video
09.08.2010
07:35 pm
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Public Enemy’s explosion onto the American music scene in the mid-to-late-‘80s transformed the musical views of a lot of people, myself included. These guys were the full package. Sonically they fused hardcore New York rap style with militant black power lyrics and a dense, bombastic sample-heavy rhythm attack. Visually, they had a solidly political graphic style and tough, utilitarian fashion sense that accentuated their revolutionary attitude. PE were a dream come true for dorky college students like me who were in love with both serious anarcho-punk bands like the then-recently defunct Crass and black music in general—especially hip-hop. Their 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is a landmark in American pop music.

PE marks their entrance into collectors’ posterity via a 3-CD/3-DVD-photo-book-and-t-shirt box set with a new video for their summer single, “Say It Like It Really Is,” shot in the surprisingly peaceful surroundings of Niagra Falls. Older, but still dangerous minds.
 

 
After the jump: a 2007 video re-contextualizing of P.E.’s 1999 tune “I”, with Chuck D. surveying New Orleans’ Ninth Ward…
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
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09.08.2010
07:35 pm
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Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem
09.07.2010
11:42 pm
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So much poetic justice in the world of far Right fucktards today, isn’t there? First the good news about anti-Islamic hate blogger Pamela Geller getting served with a well-deserved lawsuit alleging character defamation, then this hilarious news about Republican idiot Rick Santorum’s problem with… his Google ranking.  You see, if you google Santorum’s name (go ahead, try it) you won’t get to his official website, instead you’ll get to SpreadingSantorum.com, which explains, according to Mother Jones magazine, “that Santorum’s last name is a sexual neologism for “the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”

Santorum’s problem got its start back in 2003, when the then-senator from Pennsylvania compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, saying the “definition of marriage” has never included “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.” The ensuing controversy prompted syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who’s gay, to start a contest, soliciting reader suggestions for slang terms to “memorialize the scandal.” The winner came up with the “frothy mixture” idea, Savage launched a website, and a meme was born. Even though mainstream news outlets would never link to it, Savage’s site rose in the Google rankings, thanks in part to bloggers who posted Santorum-related news on the site or linked to it from their blogs. Eventually it eclipsed Santorum’s own campaign site in search results; some observers even suggested it may have contributed to Santorum’s crushing 18-point defeat in his 2006 campaign against Bob Casey

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Bad luck for Santorum, who seems to be making plans to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 (dream on buddy), here’s another link to SpeadingSantorum.com. Please help spread around a lil’ more Santorum yourself, won’t you, by posting this to your Facebook page and Twitter?

Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem (Mother Jones)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.07.2010
11:42 pm
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