Time to clear out the blog list, lightning round style.
- I found this "debate" (now several weeks old) between Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly interesting. Stewart kinda sorta gets O'Reilly to admit that white privilege is a real thing. Of the all wacko right-wing pundits, I've actually found O'Reilly to be one of the more reasonable. This is a bit like saying, "among the soiled diapers in my son's Diaper Genie, this one smells the freshest" -- but still ... It's something, I guess.
- I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't understand why people deny the existence of white privilege. Black Americans were literally enslaved by whites for the first several hundred years of our country's existence (including its time as a British colony), and then they were legally discriminated against until, like, 60 years ago. Black people weren't even allowed to play baseball until 1947.* (My mom, who is still alive and healthy, was born in 1945.) Brown v. Board of Education happened in 1954. LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Black people weren't accepted in the LDS church until 1978 (a year after I was born). And an African-American was not admitted to Augusta National Golf Course until 1990 (1990!). Given this history, I ask you, how could being white not be a privilege, all other things equal? That last clause is very important -- hence the italics.
- The way I see it, the solution to America's racial problems are remarkably easy. White people need to stop being afraid of black people. That's it. Just stop being afraid. Chances are nobody of any color is going to hurt you.
- Whenever somebody starts a sentence with "The way I see it", expect an oversimplified, useless statement: The way I see it, poor people just need to start making more money.
- I "love" when people defend their prejudices by inventing extremely unlikely hypotheticals: Hey, if you're walking alone through a crime-infested neighborhood at three in the morning, and you see some black kids dressed like extras from "The Wire" on one side, and then you see some white kids dressed like Alex P. Keaton on the other side, which side are you choosing to walk down? If you could guarantee to black people that they would only ever face discrimination in the early hours of the morning, in dark alleys, and that at all other times, in all other places -- on the street in daylight, in the office, at school, at social functions, etc. -- they would be treated exactly equally, I think they would gladly sign off on it.
- Last thing about race. Watch the video below. It's pretty funny. And pretty much nails why race is still a big part of American life.
- Yahoo mail is quite possibly the worst internet platform I've ever had to deal with. I use Yahoo as my "spam account". If I have to register at a commercial site, I use it so that my personal Gmail account doesn't get bombarded with ads and such. I have so many other things linked to Yahoo that getting rid of it would be a HUGE hassle, but I'm contemplating it because it's so incredibly glitchy. Here are some of its myriad problems: Inbox doesn't load, or loads very slowly; individual email doesn't load, or loads very slowly; doesn't mark messages as having been read even after you've clicked on them numerous times (the most frequent problem, by far); marks messages as having being read, but still shows a positive number next to the inbox, even though they have all already been read (e.g., "Inbox (3)", but there are no unread messages); skips messages when using the "View Next Email" feature. It's both the desktop and the mobile app. Here are a few screen shots that illustrate what I'm talking about.
- And here's a screen shot of an advertisement that was in my Yahoo mail account. WTF?! Can you at least give me a NSFW warning? I shouldn't have to worry about getting fired for looking at porn on a company computer, if I check at the office to see if a bill payment went through.
- Question: Do you find articles bemoaning judgmental parents more annoying than parents who are actually judgmental? I think I do. It seems like every other day somebody on Facebook is linking to a HuffPo article by a mom who is tired of other parents judging her because she gives her kid formula or feeds them non-organic strawberries or lets them watch more than ten minutes of TV or some other such offense. (There are dad versions as well.) I just can't related to these types of articles. I never feel like other parents are judging my parenting. I mean, isn't it a bit narcissistic to think everybody is being critical of you? (And, by the way, this is being asked by a narcissist.) This assumes people are thinking about you at all, which, chances are, they aren't. And even if they are, why do you care? I could give a shit if another parent is critical of the way I'm raising Lil' S. But then again, as S is always quick to point out, I'm "a robot".
- Speaking of S, I'm thinking of starting a new regular segment on this blog: "Stupid Argument of the Week". It will run until I get tired of posting stupid arguments or until S finds out I'm doing it, whichever comes first. Here's the first installation:
Me: Hey, have you noticed Lil' S started singing Jingle Bells? It's so cute. He goes, "jingle bells ... jingle bells ... jingle bells all the way."
S: Yeah, I don't even know where he heard that.
Me: I don't know either. It must be daycare.
S: Hmm ... I don't know how I feel about that.
Me: What do you mean?
S: It's a religious song.
Me: [thinking through the lyrics to Jingle Bells] No, it isn't.
S: It's a Christmas song. Christmas is a religious holiday.
Me: No, it's not a Christmas song. It's just a song about the winter.
S: It's a Christmas song. It's only played during Christmas time.
Me: No, it's just about the winter. Snow, sleights, bells on bobtails -- all generic winter stuff.
S: If it's just about the winter, then how come it's never played in January and February? It's still the winter then. It's only played at Christmas time.
Me: OK, in that sense it is a Christmas song because that's when people listen to it. But it's not explicitly about Christmas. It doesn't mention Christmas at all.
S: It's still a Christmas song.
Me: It's a Christmas song, but it's not a "Christmas song". You can't control when other people play a song ... It's like eggnog. Eggnog is a Christmas drink, but there is nothing inherently religious about eggnog. If his daycare was giving out eggnog you wouldn't have a problem with it.
S: Yes, I would. I don't drink eggnog, and we don't give him eggnog at home. I don't want them giving it to him at school.
Me: I've given him eggnog before.
S: Well, I don't given him eggnog.
Me: Right, but there would be nothing wrong with his daycare giving him eggnog.
S: Of course there is. It's super fattening and full of sugar. They are supposed to give them healthy snacks.
Me: No ... I mean ... Uh ... Never mind.
And there you have it: "Stupid Argument of the Week"!
Until next time ...
*Technically, Jackie Robinson was not the first black man to play Major League Baseball. That was probably Bill White who appeared in one game in 1879 before the "gentlemen's agreement" to ban dark-skinned people from baseball wen into effect.
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