Thursday, September 25, 2008

Fixing the Financial Crisis

Awesome day.  I get to stay home sick today.  And the best part is that I'm not sick.  For all of you that don't have kids but are planning to one day join the ranks of us "breeders" here is a little info.  When you're kids are too sick to go to school, you don't have to work.  You can take sick days for this.  It's true.  Now a friend of mine just sent me an email that her work has informed her that if she takes one more sick day with her kids that she will be fired.  So not everyone gets to work for bosses that are sane human beings or companies that have policies created by sane human beings.  Lucky for me I do.

So let's go ahead and fix this financial crisis:

Well I think we need to stimulate the private sector by injecting the economy with a substantial liquid investment.  Which would result in increased credit flow and mitigate current shortfalls while increasing prospects for future investment opportunities in diversified arenas.

No really.
 
I mean it.

OK so I'm not even sure I know what I just said.  And I'm fairly sure that if I do know what I just said, I don't agree with it. 

Here is the real solution:

Completely disconnect from this corporate economic structure and simultaneously detach from the policital power structure and create reasonable sized autonomous communities that focus on sustainable development in terms of technological and social concerns.  These communities can be organized into larger collectives that can make decisions regarding more broader reaching issues such as trade.  This organizational structure would be committed to consensus based direct democracy.  The end result would be a society that lives on egalitarian principles, applying the  "seven generation" model to create a living system that exists in harmony with the environment.

Wow that wasn't so hard.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Happy to help...

ps.  One thing that might not save the economy but would go along way to restoring my sanity, would be if the United States politicians and media members would immediately cease and desist from using the words Main and Street together.  For example "The Wall St. bailout must protect Main St."  I grew up in Binghamton N.Y.  a half block from Main St.  I'm not sure why these people are so focused on Binghamton.  I mean I've been saying for years that Bingo could use a shot in the arm.  But this is a little much don't you think?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Soul Music

Where on earth would we be without soul music from the seventies? Seriously, I want you to imagine a world where 2% of the worlds population owns over half of the world's wealth. Where the richest 10% of the population owns over 80% of the land. A world where most everyone has to struggle just to survive. A world of inequality...

Now I want you to imagine that same world without the music of Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and Marvin Gaye...

...That's just scary.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Why Reverse-Racism Doesn't Exist

First I recognize it is 9/11 and that I should probably write something about any of the myriad of issues that come up as a result of mentioning this topic. But since I'm not going to write about the topic today you should probably go here: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/silence.html

To check out this amazing poem written by Emmanuel Ortiz, my friend and brother in the struggle.

Anyway, Does Reverse-racism exist?
No.
Ok see you next week...

Fine you win. I guess I’ll say a few words.
But first in keeping with the upcoming election let’s have a quote from Joe Biden:
“In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”

If you can't believe it check it out here:

http://bearingdrift.com/2008/08/23/biden-7-11-video-and-new-mccain-ad/

Well on that note let’s define racism shall we?

rac·ism
–noun
1.
a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

2.
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

3.
hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

That’s according to Dictionary.com. When people are talking about reverse-racism the basic idea is that a white person is applying for a job and a black person gets it instead. The reason the black person gets the job is less about who is more qualified and primarily about "hiring a black person is the right thing to do", because: black people never get good opportunities, or because a black person will understand this job better or because mostly black people work in this office including the boss.

Isn’t this reverse-racism in action?
Well I think it depends on your definition. I think most people define racism consciously as “hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.” Based on this definition anyone can be a racist. However under this definition it is impossible to be a reverse racist because by definition, reverse racism would require a starting point to reverse from. You’ve never heard of the term reverse-hatred. If I hate you first and you hate me second it’s still just plain old vanilla hatred, possibly shared hatred but you wouldn’t say it’s reverse-hatred.
The concept of reverse racism recognizes a primary racism from which one reacts to, with more racism. This primary racism in the United States context would be the racism of white people against various groups including African, Native and Asian people. I think the reason that people believe in the concept of reverse-racism is that consciously or subconsciously most people in the United States recognize that white racism, that is racism historically executed by white people in the history of the US, has been worse than the so-called racism that from time to time is perpetrated on whites. Basically it was really, really bad that people with white skin hung people and enslaved and raped them, but it’s kind of bad when you call me a cracker, and if you continue down that path, you may one day, enslave me, and that would be REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD!(exclaims the white person) Point taken, except for the giant leap that involves white people being enslaved. For the record I’m not saying that white people have never been enslaved or lived in slave like conditions. I’m saying that white people have never been enslaved by people of color in the United States (Or the world for that matter, but let's stick with the US in case someone knows some obscure historical fact that I don't ) And therefore have not had such enslavement, sanctioned and facilitated, by the government. In other words I think racism in the United States has been: plantations, blankets filled with small pox, the burning of churches and the internment of American citizens with brown skin. And continues to be: the insane incarceration rates of Black Americans, the discrimination against immigrant Latinos, and the deplorable education system that disproportionately underserves children of color. White people, as a whole, have never lived in these conditions in this country. I think when defining racism you need to look at “a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.” Or as I chose do define it as: “domination of one race over another”. So if I say “Kill Whitey!” (And for the record, my white mama -RIP- would have laughed at that comment) And I have no governmental apparatus to facilitate my rallying cry or historical precedence of such institutional support, than they are merely words. However if one of our white readers decides to exclaim: “Kill Niggers!” Than they have a Four-Hundred-Year Archive of support. And even though the current laws are much less amicable to such a doctrine, the current social, economic, political and legal system was created by people that either actively or passively supported that very sentiment.

Therefore if your child goes to school and is beat up by some brown kids, you ought to be angry, in fact furious. You should confront the issue and ensure your child’s safety. But you shouldn’t cry reverse-racism because the evidence just isn’t there.

I apologize to those of you that hoped I would write a scathing indictment of the comments of Joe Biden but I think they speak for themselves.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Responses to: Why I'm not voting for Barack Obama 1 & 2

Hey y'all. Here's my response to some of the comments I recieved for my recent blogs. Be sure to check out my next blog: Why Reverse-Racism Doesn't Exist.





First of all we are worldwide. That's right, Eileen in China sent us a response. She thinks the world will like us more if Obama is President. I'm not gonna argue, after all she is in China.





Anonymous: Not so fast. Stay tuned and you'll see who I'm voting for and no I wouldn't vote for Obama if I lived in say, Ohio. But than again I live in New York, so for all you know, I might be lying.





TGT: You said that my "argument traffics in a false dichotomy". Ouch. Next time you should just say that "I'm ugly and my momma dresses me funny." And by the way you said that: "This is 2000 all over again, but with the distinctions much greater and the stakes much higher." If you mean by "2000 all over again" that Joe Biden is the second coming of Joe Lieberman, than I agree.



And by the way Trees, loquacious, Really? Have you read your brother's comments? (Those are the words of your sister) And for the record I prefer the term garrulous.